After making two final tables in the Harrah’s Cherokee World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Main Event, Erik Gorman finally sealed the win. The 43-year-old player topped a large field of 1000 entries in the 2019 WSOPC Harrah’s Cherokee $1,700 Main Event to claim his first WSOP gold ring and $260,480 in top prizemoney. He also earned a seat into the 2020 Global Casino Championship.
Gorman began the final day as the shortest stack among the 15 returning players. However, he quickly turned that around as he went from 750,000 to 3.2 million in chips in no time. One of the most crucial hands he won was a huge double-up with aces versus pocket nines of Kyle Cartwright.
Gorman defeated a tough heads-up opponent in Hannah Guthrie who entered Day 3 as the chip leader and dominated the final table. The heads-up kicked off with Hannah Guthrie in lead. However, the former was able to chip-up and eventually take the lead from Guthrie. The hand that turned things in Gorman’s favour was when Guthrie (Qd 6d) made a flush on a 4s 9d 4d 3d paired board. The two players got their chips in on the turn. Gorman held pocket sevens but the dealer brought a third four and that gave Gorman a full house to double-up and finally take the chip lead.
On the very next hand, it was all over. Gorman open-raised and Guthrie shoved all-in with ace-three suited. Unfortunately for her, Gorman held ace-queen and flopped a pair of queens to take the lead and eventually win the pot as well as the title. Guthrie settled for $160,978 in the second place prize.
Notable ITM Finishers
Out of the 1,000 entries, the top 150 players made the money in the tournament. Some notables finishing in the money included Ryan Jones (4th), Fikret Kovac (5th), Kyle Cartwright (6th), Marshall White (7th), defending champion Jake Bazeley (14th), Dan Lowery (19th), David Jackson (20th), Maurice Hawkins (42nd), Aaron Massey (77th), Russ Head (98th), Hank Sitton (112th), Ross Ward (134th), Richard Seymour (144th), Mack Ham (146th) and Charles Johnson (148th) to name a few.
Final Table Payouts:
1st: Erik Gorman – $260,480
2nd: Hannah Guthrie – $160,978
3rd: Michael Kassem – $120,700
4th: Ryan Jones – $91,459
5th: Fikret Kovac – $69,920
6th: Kyle Cartwright – $53,968
7th: Marshall White – $42,058
8th: Ken Aldridge – $33,098
9th: Randall Rothwell – $26,304