Michael Persky picked up his first gold ring with a victory in the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event hosted at Graton Resort Casino on Monday, August 21. He took home the top prize of $175,595 to take his career earnings close to $260,000. The resident of nearby Novato had a strong run at the tournament series with a runner-up finish in Event 3 to his credit as well.
The final table began at 1 pm this afternoon, and Persky was sixth in chips when cards got into the air. His strategy was to hang back during the early going at the final table and let the bustouts fly all around him. That was the right choice of action as Ben Ludlow fell in ninth early, and he was followed to the rail by Avenes Rastomyan (eighth place), Kurt Watkins (seventh place), Zhengxiong Zouxu (sixth place), and Paul Vlahos (fifth place) all fell during the first few hours of play.
Persky scored his first knockout punch at the final table when he took down Ben Underwood in fourth place. Persky held A-J to dominate the A-2 of Underwood, and the board brought nothing to change the fate of the hand. Persky kept that momentum going when he scored a timely double up during three-handed play.
That double up came at the hands of five-time gold ring winner Jasthi Kumar, and he was on the ropes after the hand. Kumar was forced to shove short a short time later with Q-4, and Persky woke up with A-K against him. The board brought two more kings so Kumar was out in third place.
The final two players were even at the start of heads-up play, and a friendly atmosphere between two players that were having a fun time gambling together developed even as Sarasin pulled ahead to a commanding lead. Persky then scored back-to-back double ups to not only climb back into contention, but eventually take the chip lead as well.
The final hand saw Sarasin get all in preflop with K-9, but Persky was ready and waiting with A-Q. Two aces on the flop sealed the deal, and Sarasin was eliminated in second place, good for $100,528. Sarasin is also from nearby in Petaluma, and he scored the largest cash of his career tonight as well.
Here’s the Official Order of Finish for the tournament – and check out the entire tournament coverage here.
Ryan is one of the original PokerLiveUpdates team members, a veteran poker tournament reporter who provides live updates reporting from the World Poker Tour, along with other tours and locations. He developed the FunTour2.0 concept of providing tremendous tournament coverage while exploring the world's best craft beer venues.
