Lake Tahoe WSOP Circuit Championship Won By Matt Keikoan

Matt Keikoan, a 41 year old poker pro from California, has just won the Lake Tahoe WSOPC tournament after he defeated a field of 64 players over two days to take down the title and $110,346 in prize money.
The tournament came to its conclusion shortly before three in the morning and following his victory, Keikoan said: “I’m really excited to win, but I’m also really tired.There were some good players here. But I always feel comfortable playing at Lake Tahoe because I have come here to the Circuit each year it’s been held. It’s kind of a home field advantage for me, I believe.”
Matt Keikoan can now add his latest WSOPC ring to the WSOP bracelet he picked up in 2008 at the $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event, which earned him his biggest pay out to date of $550,601.
Due to the moderate size of this year’s field, only the final table received a pay out, and as the remaining nine players took their seats, it was fellow 2008 bracelet winner David Woo who held the chip lead. However, luck wasn’t on his side this time and he exited the tournament in 7th knocked out by online pro Ari Engel.
Two time WSOPC winner Engel, noted for his loose aggreesive play, then took to re-raising and shoving almost every time Woo raised a pot and when Woo finally called him with QQ, Engel rivered his A9 to double up.
Eventually, Engel ran into trouble though, when he went up against Keikoan’s pocket Q’s this time holding pocket 8’s, and a little later he lost the rest of his stack after his K 8 shove lost to Keikoan’s pocket fives.
“With him you sort of have to have a hand because he was pushing a lot,” said Keikoan. “Queens against him, that’s like having aces. You are never ever folding to him with queens. Even the fives, I’m raising the button, I know he’s shoving a lot of hands so I have to call with fives there.”
It took 8 hours before the final table was reduced to just two players and as heads-up play got underway, it was Keikoan who was the strong favourite, holding as he did a 5 to 1 chip lead over Justin Hallstrom, a 33 year old police officer from Sacramento. An hour into play Hallstrom’s chip count was dwindling when he shoved pre-flop with A5 only to run into Keikoan’s AK. A King on the flop sealed the deal and Hallstrom had to be content with a runners-up spot and $56,886 in prize money.
With his latest victory, Matt Keikoan has added a healthy $110,346 to his bankroll and now has career live tournament winnings of $1,202,715.