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Tae Gon Kim – Photo Credit: WSOP Circuit
Tae Gon Kim was crowned as the winner at the World Series of Poker Circuit main event on Mar. 10 at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California in the Los Angeles area. He is originally from Providence, Rhode Island and took home the top prize worth $111,075 along with his first gold ring. He made his second recorded cash a good one to take his career earnings up to $113,700.
Kim is primarily a cash-game player in LA, but he might consider playing in more tournaments after this score. “Yeah, definitely! How could I not play more tournaments after this one,” said Kim to the WSOP Circuit reporters after the win. He continued with a joke about his winnings, “It’s probably going to be donated back to the cash game pool in Los Angeles. Hopefully not, but yeah that’s where it’s going, cash tables.”
The $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament had a prize pool worth $512,070 thanks to two starting flights that attracted a total of 338 entries. The top 54 players all cashed for at least $2,415 in prize money. Those 54 players returned for Day 2, and the tournament actually played down to a winner a day early after 15 hours of play.
The final table was reached just after 8 pm and there were three eliminations in the first two hours of play, including eight-time ring (as well as a gold bracelet) winner Sean Yu who fell in seventh place. Kim was in control of the chip lead at that time, but Santiago Cortijo overtook him for the lead during four-handed play. Kim then took out Mats Gavatin in fourth place to climb back to the top of the chip counts.
When heads-up play began Kim held 6,145,000 against the 3,995,000 of Cortijo. There was just one all-in hand played between them, and it took place a little before 2 am in the morning. Cortijo moved all in holding 8
4
, and Kim had him covered holding A9. The board ran out 1077
10Q, and that was it for Cortijo who took home $68,655 in prize money thanks to his deep run in the tournament.
A few other notables that cashed in the event included David Rosenbloom (14th), Lika Gerasimova (15th), Robert Nativadad (24th), Benjamin Moom (33rd), Phil Laak (38th), Shane Martin (39th), Michael Wasserman (43rd), and David Uvayadov (54th).
Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Tae Gon Kim | $111,075 | 480 |
| 2 | Santiago Cortijo | $68,655 | 400 |
| 3 | Peter Cross | $49,410 | 320 |
| 4 | Mats Gavatin | $36,115 | 240 |
| 5 | Ari Shin | $26,810 | 200 |
| 6 | Andy Ghebre | $20,220 | 160 |
| 7 | Sean Yu | $15,500 | 120 |
| 8 | Travis Tachibana | $12,075 | 80 |
| 9 | Michael Ung | $9,565 | 40 |
The next WSOP Circuit event is already taking place at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and it runs until Mar. 20. The $1,700 buy-in main event begins on Friday, Mar. 17. You can see the full schedule for the tournament series right here.
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