Matthew Blagg Wins First WSOP Circuit Ring in Las Vegas
The online specialist topped a 936-entry Horseshoe Main Event and beat Eric Yanovsky heads-up, with reporting split on the exact payday.
Matthew Blagg won the WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Las Vegas $1,700 Main Event for his first live tournament title and his first gold ring. He outlasted a field of 936 entries and beat Eric Yanovsky heads-up to finish the run.
Coverage did not agree on the exact top-end numbers. Card Player listed Blagg’s first prize at $238,470 from a $1,418,040 prize pool, while Poker.org and SSBCrack put the win at $238,870. Spadepoker.tv also differed on the pool, reporting $1,298,780.
Blagg arrived at the final table as an online specialist with no previous live title. Before this result, his top recorded score was a third-place finish in a $333 WSOP Online bracelet event for $47,039, and SSBCrack said his previous live best was $30,100 for 14th in The Colossus earlier this summer.
The win came during a busy stretch at Horseshoe Las Vegas. According to Pokerology, the Circuit stop ran July 14 through 25 and filled the gap after the bracelet series ended, before the Main Event final table airs on ESPN from Aug. 3 to 5.
Blagg said he got going from a rough spot on Day 1B, when he had less than starting stack at dinner break and then “just caught fire from there.” One key hand had him all in pre-flop with ace-king against pocket kings, queens and jacks, and the board came four hearts to give him the nut flush. He later quadrupled his stack to 4.5 million and moved into the final table in fourth place.
The final table swung quickly. Jingyang He doubled early with pocket kings against Philip Lucia’s queens, then sent Lucia out in ninth place for $18,860. Blagg later doubled through He with pocket jacks, and four-handed he picked up a huge pot with pocket aces against Yanovsky to move near the top.
Yanovsky answered right back when Jia Chi Li shoved pocket sixes into his kings, which sent Li out in fourth for $79,920. Blagg then sent Daniel Lei to the rail in third for $111,880 with pocket aces holding against flush and straight draws, setting up heads-up play with Yanovsky.
The match for the title went back and forth for nearly an hour. Blagg said he knew Yanovsky was very good and that he was trying not to make any huge mistakes, and he also explained that he had to adjust to the bigger live ante structure once he realized there was more money in the pot heads-up. In one big hand, he check-raised, then shoved about nine million effective on the river and got a fold to take back the lead.
The last hand finished when Yanovsky moved in with 8♠2♠ on a 7♦5♣4♣9♠ board and Blagg called with 4♠4♥. The J♦ on the river did not change anything, locking up the title for Blagg.
Yanovsky finished second for $159,040, and Card Player said his career earnings were now nearly $2 million. The rest of the final table paid Jack Duong $57,980 for fifth, Jingyang He $42,740 for sixth and Shawn Daniels $32,010 for seventh, while Card Player also noted deep runs from David ODB Baker, Matthew Wantman, Jason Wheeler, Weiran Pu, Justin Lapka, Mike Holtz and Giuseppe Pantaleo.
