Ryan Jones Wins Second World Series Of Poker Circuit Cherokee Title

Ryan Jones – Photo Credit: WSOP Circuit

History repeated itself when Ryan Jones won his second title at the World Series of Poker Circuit stop main event at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina that ended on May 15. Jones added $302,131 to his career earnings worth more than $1.9 million. All three of his tournament victories have come at WSOP Circuit stops. In addition to his two wins at Cherokee this year and back in 2015, his third was picked up at the WSOP Circuit stop at The Rio in 2017 in Las Vegas.

“I love Cherokee. This is like my second home. I live in North Carolina, so I drive here, and with four stops a year right here in my backyard, you can’t really beat that.” Jones said afterward to the WSOP Circuit reporters. He continued to say, “I am such a different player than when I won before. And you know, tournaments are hard, man; you can be doing everything right and feel like you aren’t. But you gotta just keep trying and keep grinding, trust your process.”

The $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em event saw a field of 1,205 over three starting flights create a prize pool worth $1,663,301, with the top 121 players taking home at least $3,484 in prize money. All 121 players that made the money returned for Day 2, and after more than 12 hours of play the final 12 players remained.

Dustin Goldklang (12th), Shanmukha Meruga (11th), and Walker Miskelly (10th) were the three players lost along the way to the final table to start the final day of the tournament. Jones struck first blood at the final table, taking out Alex Vasilescu in ninth place. Jones then scored a double knockout when he busted Timothy Brown (6th) and Kenneth Brossoit (5th) in the same hand.

That series of events put Jones in the lead at the start of four-handed play. Jones saw his stack take a dive after that, but he was able to comeback after taking out Michael Monaghan in fourth place, and William Kopp in third place to bring the chip lead into the final match against Jonathan Lewis.

The two remaining players battled back-and-forth for two hours before the final hand transpired the first time they got all of their chips into the middle of the table. Lewis moved all in with Q5, but Jones had him dominated with Q10 in the hole. The final board ran out 1010347, and Lewis was eliminated in second place, good for $186,733. Lewis took his career earnings up near $440,000 thanks to his largest tournament cash.

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:

The next WSOP Circuit event is already underway at the Caesars Southern Indiana, and the full tournament series runs from May 11-22. The $1,700 buy-in main event begins on Friday, May 19. You can see the full schedule for the tournament series right here.