Jesse Jones Wins WSOP Circuit Tulsa Main Event After Marathon Heads-Up Battle
He outlasted Dave Alfa in a long, swingy duel to earn $112,945, his sixth circuit ring and his first Main Event title.
Jesse Jones beat Dave Alfa in the WSOP Circuit Tulsa $1,700 Main Event heads-up at Hard Rock Tulsa in Oklahoma to win $112,945, his sixth WSOP Circuit ring and his first Main Event title. On the last hand, Alfa called with king-six against Jones’ ace-six, both players paired their sixes, and Jones’ ace kicker held up.
Jones started heads-up with about a 5-to-1 chip lead, saw it shrink fast, and then played through a seven-hour duel that ran past midnight Sunday. After about an hour, the players bagged their chips and came back Monday at noon, and the match later tightened to just 40 big blinds in play.
The swings were huge. Jones got in early with pocket fours against Alfa’s pocket sevens, then later flopped a set against Alfa’s pair of aces, pushing Jones up near 90 big blinds while Alfa fell to around 10. Alfa then battled back, at one point holding a 3-to-1 lead and nearly closing the match before a river straight saved Jones and forced another reset.
Spadepoker said the event drew 376 entries and built a $569,640 prize pool, with the top 57 players paid. Alfa took $74,405 for second, and the same report said he had already won Event #11, the $400 Monster Stack for $27,709, and Event #12, the $600 Black Chip Bounty for $6,980, earlier in the festival. That left him as one of the event’s biggest winners despite missing out on the title.
Jones said afterward that he was not too tired and that the match was a fun grind. He also said he takes pride in not showing emotion when things do not go his way, and added that deep-stacked play is familiar to him because he is more of a cash-game player. Earlier this year, he finished third in the WSOP Circuit Cherokee Main Event, which the article said would have been his first-ever title.
