Stephen Song is a 28-year-old live poker player from Greenwich, Connecticut. He has won several prestigious awards like the World Poker Tour (WPT) Prime Championship and a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet.
Still, the player competed in this week’s 2023 World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Grand Victoria Casino $1,700 Buy-In No-Limit Hold’em Main Event. He topped its 652-entry field and bagged the $183,508 first-place prize.
Song stated in a media interview after the event that he had aspired to win a WSOPC Main Event for a long period. He took part in many similar events in the past and narrowly missed the title in several tournaments. This was the sixth-largest payout in his poker career.
The player made his largest score in the 2022 WPT Prime Championship when he bagged $712,650. Statistics indicate that his poker career winnings are almost $5.9 million.
Even so, his recent victory earned him 840 Card Player Player of the Year (POY) points. It was his fourth final table finish and first title this year.
The Grand Victoria Casino hosted the tournament between November 16 and 20. It had a $987,780 prize pool that the leading 80 players shared.
What Were the Largest Payouts?
- Stephen Song-$183,508 and 840 POY points
- Lee Rzentkowski-$113,415 and 700 POY points
- Tom Koral-$83,365 and 560 POY points
- Timothy Mulroy-$62,039 and 420 POY points
- Svetlozar Momtchilov-$46,748 and 350 POY points
- Dustin Ethridge-$35,675 and 280 POY points
- Paul Elfelt-$27,576 and 210 POY points
- David Kim-$21,594 and 140 POY points
- Nicholas Tanglis-$17,134 and 70 POY points
How the Final Day Unfolded
Lee Rzentkowski advanced to the tournament’s final day being the stack leader and Song was second on the leaderboard. The latter scored the final day’s first knockout after his pocket queens dominated Svelozar Momtchilov’s J-9 suited, ending his run in fifth place with $46,748.
Yet, Rzentkowski used pocket queens to win a big pot. His overpair dominated Timothy Mulroy’s pocket fives and eliminated him in the fourth position with $62,039.
Tom Koral followed Mulroy in third place shortly after his J-10 lost to Rzentkowski’s pocket kings. The former made an open-ended straight draw flop and the latter won the pot after improving king full by the river. Koral received $83,365 and increased his total poker winnings to almost $2.8 million.
His exit kicked off a fierce battle of the blinds between Song and Rzentkowski, with Song having a 15,180,000:10,900,000 chip advantage. Rzentkowski drastically reduced the chip gap and evened before Song regained the lead.
All chips went in on the 7Club Suit6Club Suit2Club Suit5Spade SuitKDiamond Suit board. Song used 9Heart Suit8Club Suit to seek a nine-high straight that dominated Rzentkowski’s 6Spade Suit2Diamond Suit two pair hence eliminating him in second place with $113,415. It was Rzentkowski’s second-largest payout after the $145,006 he won at the 2022 Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) Riverside tournament in Iowa.
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