January 30-February 2
Previous best finish for winner David Yount. (MSPT Venetian, June 2022)
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1ST
David Yount
$132,570
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2ND
Dustin Murphy
$88,105
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3RD
Donovan Dean
$59,830
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4TH
David Moses
$41,527
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5TH
Danny Griffith
$29,475
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6TH
Marcus Paxton
$21,404
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7TH
Sokchheka Pho
$15,911
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8TH
Jared Ingles
$12,115
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9TH
Jan Martin
$9,454
He began playing in the era of Chris Moneymaker, the most famous online satellite winner of them all, and after playing at the same table as him briefly on Day 1 of the WSOPC Tunica Main Event, David Yount has echoed Moneymaker’s story by spinning a ClubGG satellite into $132,570 and a WSOP Circuit Main Event win.
The recreational player and aerospace employee from Dardenne Prairie, Missouri, who plays primarily on the subscription site for satellite entries, has turned this one into by far the biggest win of his poker career.
Yount says he’s previously won five or six entries into live events via the site, but this one felt different.
“I’ve played some tournaments in the past, but not very often live. This was, for some reason, very comfortable. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because it was my birthday, I don’t know what it was. It was a freeroll; it just felt like it was easy.”
After bagging the fourth-best stack on Day 1A, Yount and his wife Betsy celebrated his birthday, which fell on Day 1B. While the field was grinding for a spot that he had already locked up, they enjoyed a steak dinner and a successful session at the blackjack tables. Then it was back to work for his first day of poker as a 61-year-old.
Birthday rungood kicked in immediately as Yount navigated his stack through a volatile Day 2 to make the final table and then take the chip lead into today’s final six.
Steamrolling the champions
Despite bringing the biggest stack into Day 3, Yount was well aware that he had five tough final opponents to get through, including five-time ring winners David Moses and Donovan Dean, who has a pair of WSOPC Main Event titles himself.
“I didn’t think I had a great chance. I knew everybody was really good, so I knew getting down to six, I needed to start playing more aggressively since I had the chip lead and try to build my stack. I don’t know the terminology, but I’ve watched enough tv about it that I should push.”
And push he did. Yount put his stack to good use, taking advantage of position on Dean to neutralize his threat and surviving a couple of double-ups through him by Moses to his left. Moses couldn’t parlay his doubles into sustained success, and Yount got the ultimate revenge by eliminating him in fourth place.
Yount’s fearlessness was acknowledged while playing four-handed with Moses, Dean, and eventual runner-up Dustin Murphy, in his 17th WSOPC final table appearance, when Dean paid him the compliment of saying, “What’s it like to just steamroll three champions?”
It was a comment that Yount appreciated.
“I heard that (laughs). It’s easier when you have a chip lead. That’s what I was trying to focus on, and I was getting pretty good cards; I had good starting hands. There were very few times that I didn’t have a hand… I was just trying to keep pressure on, and then if they re-raised, I usually folded, but they didn’t re-raise that often.”
In the end, it actually was a case of his opponent re-raising him, but Yount had the goods, as he finished off Murphy in just four hands, holding aces to seal the deal.
Next up, the WSOP Main Event
Yount told us at the end of Day 2 that if he made enough in the tournament to cover it, he’d be using those winnings to enter the WSOP Main Event in the summer. He’s certainly done that, but will be sharing the rest of the six-figure score responsibly with his wife.
“Yes, I had to negotiate with her on what the winnings go to, because I don’t get it all, it’s joint money, and like that, so I carved out a portion of it so I can go and play in the Main Event.”
