Maurice Hawkins Makes WSOP Circuit History

For the first time in its 12-year long history, a player has now won back-to-back World Series of Poker Circuit main events. On April 11th, Maurice Hawkins overcame a field of 321 players to take down the WSOPC Harrah’s Horseshoe Council Bluffs for $113,152, and less than two weeks later the Florida-based pro has done it again, this time at the WSOPC Harrah’s Cherokee main event for $279,722.
Following a remarkable performance which boosts his career earnings to $2,227,559, the 7-times WSOPC gold ring winner said: “I am all about trying to put out my best performance and doing the best I can do.”
The $1,675 main event featured a prize pool worth $1,512,000, and amongst the 108 players subsequently seeing a return on their buy-ins was Kyle Cartwright in 101st ($2,782), Justin Liberto in 69th ($3,886), Aditya Prasetyo in 66th ($3,886), Rex Clinkscales in 57th ($4,249), Ryan Tepen in 50th ($4,687), and Mike Gracz in 21st ($12,429).
Maurice Hawkins then entered the last day of action in 16th place out of the 19 players remaining, and after reaching the final table of nine was still one of the smallest stacks still in contention. As he tweeted at the time:
“I am short stack but back to back WSOP Circuit main Titles would be sick. Time to flip pure.#Hawksview”
After successfully doubling up several times, Hawkins eventually managed to progress all the way through to heads-up play where he faced off against WSOP bracelet winner Leif Force for the title. As the final battle commenced, Hawkins held a 4-1 chip advantage over his remaining opponent, and not long later the deciding hand was played with Hawkins (A-2) moving all-in on a J-4-3-A-2 board. Leif Force decided to make the call holding pocket queens, and after seeing the bad news had to subsequently settle for a runner-up finish worth $172,943, while Maurice Hawkins entered the WSOP Circuit history books.
Final Table Results:
1: Maurice Hawkins $279,722
2: Leif Force $172,943
3: Chip Ervin $128,520
4: Karthik Ramakrishnan $96,617
5: Phillip Lowery $73,468
6: Brannon Cashion $56,519
7: Corey Bierria $43,984
8: Martin Debruhl $34,625
9: Hamid Izadi $27,579