April 10-13
Big blinds held by winner Grant Juric at the beginning of the final day. His nearest competitor had 37.
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1ST
Grant Juric
$167,608
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2ND
Lee Rzentkowski
$111,742
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3RD
Matt Shepsky
$77,013
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4TH
Thomas Koral
$54,091
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5TH
Bohdan Slyvinskyi
$38,731
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6TH
John Kamis
$28,282
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7TH
Leon Kwauk
$21,071
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8TH
Mihai Taizs
$16,023
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9TH
Boshuang Gao
$12,441
It was one year and four months ago when Grant Juric found himself three-handed with Jeremy Eyer and Maurice Hawkins in the Cherokee Monster Stack, playing for his first WSOPC ring. He would end up taking third place in the event for $59,563, which was his career best score coming into today.
Today he tripled that score and finally grabbed that first ring in the WSOPC Grand Victoria Main Event.
“It’s got to be the money,” Juric said after the win. “I mean, the ring is nice, but I unfortunately just heard the Tournament of Champions is cancelled. It feels great. I’ve been playing the WSOP Circuit events for years, and it feels good to finally get a ring.”
Juric does receive a $5,000 package to WSOP Paradise in The Bahamas, which replaced the now-defunct WSOP Tournament of Champions.
Hailing initially from Maryland, Juric now lives in Chicago and he still spends time traveling around on the poker tournament circuit.
“I smashed it,” he said in reference to his prior biggest live score. “I have been chasing a six-figure score for a number of years now and it feels great.”
“I’m a cash game player mainly, shoutout to Poker With Riske coaching, but I have been playing tournaments for years. Most of my studying is in cash games, but how to play against different player types and how to play when you have a lot of chips, helped me out a lot.”
Coming into the final day of play, Juric sat with over half of the remaining chips in play.
“That always feels good. You’re able to take a hit, and are able to take a lot more risks than if you don't have a lot of chips. A lot of good opponents today, so I knew that they would try to respect and try to ladder up, so I was trying to take advantage and put a lot of pressure on everybody. I was able to win a lot of hands at the final table, which is always nice.”
“Playing heads up with the big blind ante is a really interesting format. You have to play almost every single hand. I feel like I had the momentum at the start, he took it back. He had me on the ropes there for a little bit, but I just kept playing my normal strategy. In the biggest hands today, I just had an overpair on a seven-high board and I just didn’t feel like folding.”
Juric talked a little more about his future plans.
“I’ll probably just take my girlfriend to a nice dinner. Other than that, more tournaments to play, bigger tournaments to win, we’ll see.”
Final six become two
It was a fast and furious start to the final table as it took only a few hands to see the first all in. John Kamis defended his big blind holding ace-five. He got his chips in on the seven-high flop, only to see that Matt Shepsky held ace-seven for a better pair. No help materialized for Kamis on the turn or river and the Chicago player took his leave from the tournament in sixth place for $28,282.
Bohdan Slyvinskyi’s second WSOPC Main Event final table appearance at Grand Victoria did not go as intended for him as he found himself in a flip against eventual runner-up Lee Rzentkowski, just as he did with three tables left yesterday. This time it was his pocket eights against Rzentkowski’s king-queen which held up on every street until the river when Rzentkowski made a queen-high flush. Last November's third place finisher completed his final table in a row with a fifth place finish worth $38,731.
After that, the first big clash between Rzentkowski and Grant Juric would take place when Juric would rip 30 big blinds over Rzentkowski’s open holding ace-two. Rzentkowski would call to put himself at risk with ace-queen and the hand holding up signified the first of many major clashes between them. Rzentkowski separated himself from his tablemates with this double up.
Next on the chopping block would be two-time WSOP bracelet winner Thomas Koral, who moved in his last 15 big blinds holding ace-eight suited after Rzentkowski opened. Rzentkowski would snap-call with ace-king to hold up, further narrowing the gap between himself and Juric while Koral finished in fourth place for $54,091.
It would be the last hand before break when Shepsky ripped in his last twelve big blinds holding ace-ten suited and got looked up by Juric holding a suited ace-king. Juric’s flush would be good for the pot and within 75 minutes of play, the original six of the day were down to just two, with Shepsky taking home $77,013 for his third place finish.
Back-and-forth final showdown
At the beginning of the heads-up match, Juric held a 1.3/1 lead over Rzentkowski but a few hands in the wind changed. A massive pot occurred early in the match where Rzentkowski had made twos full of sixes and Juric had put in over a third of his chips in on the river bet, only to fold to Rzentkowski’s raise. What once was a slight lead for Juric, now turned into a 2:1 deficit.
Only a few minutes passed before the pendulum swung the other way as Juric fired three sizable shells with three sixes on an ace-high board. Rzentkowski called down and Juric opened up a 2:1 lead instead.
The blows just kept coming from both opponents as the match continued on. Juric would open up as much as a 3:1 lead before Rzentkowski would take the lead back, eventually seeing himself take back the 2:1 lead he held before.
One of the biggest pots of the whole tournament saw Rzentkowski call, then three-bet huge to see Juric call. On a seven-high flop, Rzentkowski bet the size of the pot to put a third of the chips in play into the center. Juric moved all in for effectively a minimum raise and Rzentkowski folded to see Juric open up a 3:1 chip lead yet again.
Juric continued to pull away after that point, eventually whittling down Rzentkowski to just ten big blinds. Eventually he put in his last chips holding king-eight to see Juric look him up with pocket fours. A four on the flop put Juric in the lead as Rzentkowski was unable to run out a boat to beat the set of fours.
