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Preston McEwen won Event #9: $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em at WSOP Circuit Cherokee, banking $130,433 after outlasting a 747-entry field over two starting flights. The event generated a $728,325 prizepool, and the victory gave him his 12th career WSOP Circuit ring plus a ticket to the December finale in the Bahamas.

SpadePoker’s report said the win was his third Circuit ring of 2026. It also put him in rare company as only the ninth player in history to reach 12 or more WSOP Circuit rings, which leaves him tied for sixth overall. Nicholas Nasuti finished second for $85,460, Yi Li took third for $59,024.

The result also fits a career that has been built on the road. A Card Player profile said McEwen moved from touring drummer to full-time poker player in 2018, and said he spends about half the year traveling the southeastern poker circuit and the other half at home with his wife and two daughters. WPT.com described him spending a lot of time traveling the country playing RunGood Poker Series and World Series of Poker Circuit stops. McEwen told PokerNews that the score was a relief for him and his family after what he called one of the lowest stretches of his career.

PokerNews had already chronicled a Cherokee heater in 2023, when McEwen made seven final tables there since February and earned $351,111 from those runs. That stretch included a WSOP Circuit Tunica Main Event win for $183,563, a Cherokee runner-up finish for $29,210, another Cherokee ring for $71,525, and a seventh-place finish in the Monster Stack for $19,002.