WSOPC Harrah's Cherokee Main Event Won By Dylan Wilkerson
April 25, 2018 11:05 amThe WSOP Circuit has just wrapped up its latest stop at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina, with twelve events having been featured at the casino between April 12-23. Tournament buy-ins mostly averaged $365 over its 12 day run, but commanding the highest price was its $1,675 Main Event, which was eventually won by 32-year-old poker pro Dylan Wilkerson for $294,152.
Main Event
The $1,675 Main Event attracted a total of 1,060 players, resulting in a prize pool $590,000 in excess of its original $1 million guarantee. Amongst the recognizable pros cashing in at one of its 108 money places was Aaron Massey in 88th ($3,450), Mukul Pahuja in 38th ($5,486), Josh Arieh in 30th ($8,061), Ben Keeline in 23rd ($11,003), Kyle Cartwright in 16th ($15,693), and Robert Hankins in 12th ($23,373).
Fikret Kovac (A-9) then eliminated Giovanni Marino (A-8) in 11th place, while Jonathan Hilton’s exit in 10th at the hands of Dylan Wilkerson subsequently ushered in the official final table of nine.
Final Table
Wilkerson entered the final table as the chip leader, and despite being a talented pro himself had his work cut out against a line up which included the likes of Gabe Costner, Timothy Miles, Daniel Wagner, and Erick Lindgren.
Nevertheless, Wilkerson (A-5) managed to add further to his stack after sending Christopher Meyers (K-J) to the rail in 9th, before being dealt pocket nines and taking care of a short-stacked Gordon Battle (K-8) in 8th.
Daniel Wagner (K-Q) then knocked out Gabe Costner (A-2) in 7th, after which Wilkerson resumed his wrecking mission by eliminating Fikret Kovac (6th), Timothy Miles (5th), Howard Setzer (4th), and Daniel Wagner (3rd) to force heads-up play against Erick Lindgren for the title.
Heads-Up
Wilkerson’s final opponent was also the most accomplished player at the table, with Lindgren, 41, having amassed more than $10 million, as well as 2 WSOP bracelets and 2 WPT titles over his impressive career. At the start of play, Wilkerson held a sizeable 3:1 chip lead over Lindgren, but the latter managed to battle back and eventually surged ahead to a 6:1 chip advantage, before the tides changed once more.
Wilkerson held a roughly 2-to-1 chip advantage by the time the deciding hand was played, with Lindgren (Q-Q) and Wilkerson (K-K) pushing all their chips to the center preflop. Upon seeing the state of play, Lindgren exclaimed “You’ve got to be kidding me,” with the dealer subsequently producing no more surprises after laying out a 10-8-6-3-6 board.
Still, the $181,864 Lindgren collected for his runner-up finish was his best score since finishing 7th at the 2015 WSOP $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Millionaire Maker for $193,675, after which one would have to search all the way back to 2013 when he took down the WSOP $5,000 NLHE 6 Handed Event for $606,317. As a result of his latest finish, Lindgren now has $10,533,315 in career winnings, placing him at number 7 on Nevada’s ‘All Time Money List’, just below Allen Cunningham ($11,700,931) in 6th, and Scotty Nguyen in 5th ($11,939,878)
Meanwhile, Dylan Wilkerson boosts his earnings to $2,748,683, and also captures a second career WSOP Circuit Main Event title, with his first having been recorded last year after winning the WSOP Circuit Los Angeles $1,675 Main Event for $216,790.
Final Table Results
1: Dylan Wilkerson $294,152
2: Erick Lindgren $181,864
3: Daniel Wagner $135,150
4: Howard Setzer $101,601
5: Timothy Miles $77,258
6: Fikret Kovac $59,434
7: Gabe Costner $46,253
8: Fred Battle $36,411
9: Chris Meyers $29,002
Next Stop: Horseshoe Baltimore
Next stop on the WSOP Circuit is Horseshoe Baltimore in Maryland from April 26th to May 7th, with 12 events featured during its run, including a $1,675 Main Event on May 4th complete with a $500k guaranteed prize pool.
This will then be followed by the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s New Orleans from May 10-21, with its Main Event having been won last year by Jason Baldridge for $227,412 after first besting a field of 758 players. The victory also marked a milestone in the cash game specialist’s career, and as he remarked after the win:
“I play cash games when I go to tournament spots, usually. I travel with Jose (Anaya) and I’ll play some tournaments, but I never really took them seriously.”