It was a busy week in the poker world with a number of big poker wins being registered. The most notable one comes to us from Las Vegas where a dealer played in a poker tournament – instead of dealing it – and ended up winning.
Casino Employees Bracket Won By Aria Poker Dealer
Do poker dealers have an inside gambling edge? At least one did as an Aria Casino poker dealer ended up winning a poker tournament at Aria this past week.
Nicholas Haynes scored his first-ever poker tournament victory this past week in an employee-only poker tournament. However, the win was significant as he earned a World Series of Poker bracelet as a result and took home $62,345 in prize money.
There was a total of 686 entries in the field with the buy-in coming in at $500 a head. Haynes conquered all of the casino employees at the $500 no-limit hold’em event, taking down the WSOP’s Manager of Media Relations and Content Isaac Hanson heads up for the title.
It’s an incredible story for a young man that deals year-round in the Aria Casino poker room. Haynes was scheduled to start his summer job at the casino as a dealer before his plans changed following the victory.
Haynes pointed to the sky and credited his old dog as the good luck charm that put him over the top. He had played the entire tournament with a blue dog bone necklace that read “Rudy”. After the win, he spoke about how the dog was so important to him.
After securing the cash prize and WSOP bracelet, it looks like Haynes will be spending a lot more time playing poker rather than dealing at a poker table for the foreseeable future.
Poker Pro Rallies To Win 2019 WPT Choctaw Main Event On 36th Birthday
36 isn’t a birthday of significance for most people but it will be one that poker pro Craig Varnell remembers for a long time.
He happened to be participating in the World Poker Tour Choctaw $3,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event on his 36th birthday and he turned out to be celebrating in style as he won the title. The Colorado native beat out a field of 577 total entries to win the $379,990 prize as well as his first WPT title.
In addition to the title and the money, Varnell took home 1,260 Card Player Player of the Year points with the victory. He climbed in to 90th place in the race standings.
Carroll Takes Home More Than $700K With Second WPT Title
Poker pro James Caroll outlasted a field of 1,360 entries to win the 2019 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown $3,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The 32-year-old took home $715,175 in prize money, which was his second career title on the World Poker Tour. In addition to the title and the cash, Carroll earned 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points for the victory.
The champion overcame plenty of tough competition to get the win, including taking down two-time WPT winner Eric Afriat, Maria Ho and 2016 World Series of Poker main event eighth-place finisher Jerry Wong. The top-six finishers in this event each took home upwards of $148K.
This was his third final-table finish of the year after producing a runner-up in a $1,600 event at the Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza 1 for $184,707 and seventh in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic main event for $155,900. He’s now climbed up to 13th place in the POY race with 2,725 points and $1,055,782 in year-to-date earnings.