August 14-17
Hendon Mob entries it took for Curtis King to cross the $1M mark in career earnings.
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1ST
Curtis King
$363,703
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2ND
Toby Boas
$242,423
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3RD
Ryan D'Angelo
$172,763
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4TH
Kataka Eaton
$124,782
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5TH
Donta Moss
$91,361
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6TH
Andrew Kelsall
$67,820
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7TH
Scott Gronroos
$51,053
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8TH
Caio De Lucca Sobral
$38,980
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9TH
David Sathue
$30,194
By his own admission, Curtis King was in the midst of the worst year of his poker career before he jumped into the Main Event at this week's WSOPC Cherokee stop.
But after three grueling days of poker, King now has the largest cash of his career and a WSOP Circuit ring.
“There were a bunch of great players in this field, and I am just very, very thankful,” King told us. “My faith is super important to me. God is real for sure, and I am very blessed to be here. I just feel very, very blessed. It doesn’t feel real right now; maybe it will hit me tomorrow.”
Million Dollar Man
The win was also King's first six-figure score, and it pushed his career tournament earnings over the $1,000,000 mark on HendonMob, but during three-handed play it looked like his deep run was about to fall short of the top prize.
Sitting nearly even in chips with Toby Boas, King was on the button with pocket fours and all in against Ryan D’Angelo, who had snap-called him with pocket kings.
The flop fell ace-high, the turn gave King a wheel draw, leaving him with six outs to stay alive. When the river landed the four of hearts, an audible gasp could be heard from the spectator area as King snatched victory from the jaws of defeat.
“I feel bad actually because I have been in that spot with kings this whole summer. So I feel for him,” King explained. “[D’Angelo] is on the tighter side, but I feel like he’d have some three-bet bluffs there, so I went with it. Got very lucky; it’s maybe a punt vs him and feels a little dirty, but it's part of the game.”
The huge river gave King a nearly 2-to1 chip advantage to start heads-up play, and after throwing a few punches for the remaining 20 minutes of the level, Boas and King headed to break with the former in front. Once the pair returned, it was all King, and the tournament was over in three hands.
The first hand saw King find ace-eight suited, and after a three-bet from Boas, he flopped middle pair. Boas announced king-high at showdown, and King’s eight was best. A hand or so later, King went runner-runner to take out one of Boas' legs, and then he went for gusto the very next hand.
With the board reading and about 6,000,000 in the middle, King moved all in for about 12,000,000 effective and sent Boas deep into the tank. After some friendly banter between the two, Boas initially said he was leaning toward a fold, but after some more thought, he called it off for his tournament life with for a pair and a straight draw.
King tabled , and when the river landed the , King let out a scream that might have been loud enough to wake the dead as his emotions boiled over before walking over to shake Boas’ hand.
“My plan was to call it off on the river,” King said of the ace-eight hand before going into his thought process about the 2x shove on the turn in the final hand. “There were two flush draws; I thought his nines would raise flop, so I thought I had the best hand, and I thought it would look like I had a big draw, jack-ten of spades or queen-jack suited. Lucky to get called by worse and hold.”
For King, who admitted he had less than $5,000 to his name a few years ago, this could just be the start of something special as he plans to make the trip out to The Bahamas in December. Even though the last time he was there, his mom took an unexpected dip in the ocean after taking a tumble off a jet ski.
“Sorry, Mom,” King said before adding, “I love this stop; it is the best stop in the country. Everyone is nice, the poker is great, and I am just grateful to have these opportunities.”
