February 20-23
Months since Maxwell Guo's first tournament cash, a 19th-place finish in a Venetian Deepstack on 7/3/25.
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1ST
Maxwell Guo
$386,231
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2ND
Peter Ng
$257,398
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3RD
Jesse Jones
$184,167
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3RD
Toby Boas
$133,478
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5TH
Andrew Robinson
$98,011
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6TH
Nicholas Rigby
$72,925
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7TH
David Walker
$54,991
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8TH
David Sathue
$42,034
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9TH
Nitis Udornpim
$32,575
The final day of the largest WSOPC Main Event in the history of Harrah’s Cherokee saw 17 players return to the felt from the 1,824 field — the third-largest ever in the history of the Circuit. The remaining field going into Day 3 was stacked with plenty of familiar faces, local crushers, and multi-time ring winners.
And one-by-one they fell until Maxwell Guo, a cash game player from Georgia who had only recently started playing tournaments, held every chip in the room. Guo received $386,231 for the victory in what will be just his third-ever tournament score on The Hendon Mob, alongside the coveted Main Event Circuit Ring.
“I feel pretty good,” the newly crowned champion said following the win. “I’m still kind of processing everything. I still feel a lot of adrenaline from the whole day. I think it’ll kind of hit me later.”
Guo described being interested in poker from a young age before taking it more seriously a few years ago.
“I learned the rules in middle school, but I didn’t have anyone to play with of course. I got really into it in college four years ago.
"I started with cash games, and I’ve played more cash. I started tournaments seriously maybe half a year ago. I’ve done some studying here and there, but recently I decided to commit more to it.”
The Atlanta crew wins again
Interestingly, four out of the last five winners of this event were based out of the Atlanta area and active in the local poker scene. Derek Sein-Lwin, who won the last edition of this event, and Tuyen Dieu, who won the edition before that in May, share strikingly similar poker backgrounds to Guo. All three players had a background in cash games and had only a couple of recorded tournament scores before their breakthrough Main Event wins. Florian Pesce, another recent winner of this event, was also based in Georgia at the time of his win.
Guo spoke about his relationship with Sein-Lwin, Dieu, and Pesce.
“Derek I’ve played with a lot. Florian, I met him like three or four years ago. He was like a tournament player the whole time. We went to school together and played quite a bit. He’s given me a lot of advice. Very seasoned. I’m not sure if I’ve played with Tuyen before. I think I have.”
Guo began the day in the middle of the pack before waking up with pocket queens in the first level to dispatch Edwin Russell in 15th place, putting himself closer to the top of the counts. With eleven players remaining, Guo found himself facing a four-bet shove for his tournament life against fellow big-stack Lee Webb. Guo called with pocket jacks and held against Webb’s jack-ten offsuit to cripple Webb, who was out the next hand, while Guo entered the final table with the second-largest stack, just behind Toby Boas.
Guo steals the Toby Boas Show
It was the Toby Boas Show for a few levels from the start of the final table, with Boas scoring multiple eliminations to extend his lead, while Guo slowly bled chips. Guo recovered most of the chips he had lost after eliminating Nicholas Rigby in sixth place, before playing the most important hand of the tournament against Boas.
Guo held pocket aces and was in position against Boas facing a three-bet, electing just to call. He played his aces deceptively slow, just check-calling on the king-high flop. After the board pairing nine-turn was checked through, Guo put in a massive check-raise when a third nine came on the river. Boas paid him, going from chip lead to short-stack, while Guo suddenly held nearly half the chips in play with five players left.
“So preflop, I was second in chips and Toby was first in chips,” Guo said of his thought process during that hand. “In that kind of spot, I have to be really careful with what I decide to four-bet. I also thought he’d be pretty tight against a four-bet from me.”
“On the flop I’m not really looking to raise,” Guo continued. “I think my hand could, but I think he’s aggressive enough where I want to just flat him. On the turn it’s a bit tricky. He’ll have some nines in his range. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to stack aces off as the second-largest stack. Giving him a free river with aces isn’t too bad.”
Guo quickly extended his lead after eliminating Andy Robinson in fifth. Meanwhile Boas, who came runner-up in this same event this past May, was forced to settle for another close call after losing a flip to start-of-day chip leader Peter Ng.
No player had as much momentum going into the Main Event as Jesse Jones. Earlier in this series he won the $600 Mini Main for $179,665, and then later finished eighth in the $400 Monster Stack for another $12,779. His third final table of the series in the Main Event ultimately ended in third place, after getting his chips in good with pocket eights against Guo’s pocket threes, only for a three on the turn to end Jones’ Main Event run.
Guo held roughly a 4.5:1 advantage going to heads-up play, and looked to end it early after Ng was all-in with ace-deuce against Guo’s ace-jack. A deuce in the window brought Ng back into contention, and soon after Ng was all-in again, this time for the chip lead. Ng held an overpair on an eight-high board, while Guo held the second-nut flush draw. The flush came right in on the turn, and the two players shook hands before Guo was crowned the latest WSOP Circuit Main Event champion.
