Adil Morkos commented on how he was just trying to be a chill guy in a moment holding court with one of his friends who came by to wish him well midway through the final table of the WSOPC Playground Main Event — despite playing for $306,000 and a WSOP Circuit Main Event champion’s ring.
The comment was somewhat ironic because while he indeed was the most comfortable player at the table (a giant chip lead will help with that), his relentless aggression with those chips left his opponents increasingly uncomfortable as the event grew closer to its inevitable conclusion with this chill guy beasting his way to the title.
Morkos was the last player standing from the field of 1,414 on Monday to claim that first prize money for his largest career score and first WSOP Circuit ring.
A chill guy from Vaughn, Ontario
Not bad for a chill guy from Vaughn, Ontario, who discussed why having that mindset while playing for one of the biggest prizes on the WSOP Circuit schedule was important.
“I’ve never really been a fan of all these people that are super serious all the time. Yeah, at the end of the day, there is money on the line, but you need to have fun too, right? Like if you don’t have fun, you’re just going to sit there miserable. You’re not living life properly in my opinion.”
The champion discussed how, as his stack grew and he got closer to the title, he still maintained the same feelings that he had to start the day.
“Once you make Day 3, it’s just surreal from that point on. I guess you just kind of have to control your emotions a little bit and play to the best of your ability, and then you get here (winning) and then you’re like I can’t believe it actually happened.”
A win among friends
Morkos entered the day second in chips of the 14 players returning, trailing only childhood friend Jorge Pacheco. A rough start to the day for Pacheco allowed Morkos to take over the chip lead, and from there he never relinquished it.
Pacheco would ultimately become one of Morkos’ victims on his way to the title, sending his friend to the rail in third place for $150,000. A moment that Morkos joked he was actually fine with.
“Nah, forget about him, it’s free money for him! All jokes aside, he’s one of my closest boys, so it was a little bit bittersweet, but he did good too, so I’m not that upset about it.”
Another elimination on the champion’s road to the title was that of another friend, defending champion James Pillon, who made an incredible repeat run to fourth place in this year’s event.
Down to four-handed play, Pillon jammed into Morkos’ pocket aces, and the last of the defending champion’s chips went to his eventual successor.
“It’s kind of unfortunate, because it’s my boy, right, like I didn’t want to do it to my boy, but what can you do? You look down in the big blind and you see aces, that’s all she wrote.”
'It just feels kind of easy, right?'
While Morkos obviously had to play well throughout the tournament, including bagging the overall chip lead after the trio of opening flights, Morkos wouldn’t deny that he ran well too, which he knows you have to do to win a tournament.
“I mean, when you’re sunrunning, you just feel it from the beginning, like you just know you can’t lose any flip, you can’t lose any all in. It just feels kind of easy, right? It’s kind of the whole point of tournaments, if you sun run you’re just going to win.”
While Morkos did say that he won’t be able to attend the WSOP Tournament of Champions, a prize awarded to each of the Circuit ring winners here at Playground, and all season long on the WSOP Circuit, he did mention that he has a solid plan B instead.
“I don’t know, maybe I ship the next five Main Events here and you'll have a better interview then.”
WSOPC Playground Main Event final table results
| Place | Player | Prize (CAD) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Adil Morkos | $306,000 |
| 2 | Arya Ghai | $201,000 |
| 3 | Jorge Pacheco | $150,000 |
| 4 | James Pillon | $108,000 |
| 5 | Omkar Deshmukh | $80,000 |
| 6 | Danesh Luthra | $61,000 |
| 7 | Ruoxiao Shi | $47,500 |
| 8 | Stephane Roux | $38,000 |
| 9 | William Blais | $30,000 |
| 10 | Joshua Silverman | $23,500 |
