Christofer Trombley, the recent poker champion at Harrah´s Pomapano Beach in Florida, was awarded $266,186 for his largest tournament score and first tournament victory. His career earnings now stand at $335,656.

The $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament had a prize pool worth $1,537,725 thanks to three starting flights that attracted a total of 1,015 entries. The top 145 players all cashed for at least $2,558 in prize money. There were just 102 that returned for the second day of the tournament, and the final table of nine was set after 12 hours of play.

Tournament professional Ryan Eriquezzo entered the final table with the chip lead, and he was in control for the first half of the final table. Trombley scored his first elimination when he took out Roman Hrabec in fifth place. Eriquezzo fell at the hands of Trombley in third place when his aces and fours couldn’t hold up against the flopped set of kings held by Trombley. That gave Trombley 18.2 million at the start of heads-up play against the 12.6 million of Robert Lupo.

The final match took three-and-a-half hours to decide a winner, with the chip lead changing hands multiple times. The final hand saw the money get all in with the board reading K10395. Lupo shoved all in for 7,000,000 with J8 on a missed straight draw, and Trombley tanked for a few minutes before calling with 92 to win the hand and the tournament. Lupo was awarded $164,511 as the runner-up in the event, and his career earnings stand at $449,796.

Trombley had this to say to the WSOP Circuit reporters just after the final hand played out, “I took a little more volatile route, raising just a pair of nines and getting him to call, and then he ended up stuffing the river when his draw didn’t come in … I was willing to pay off a flush but I just felt like my pair was good there.” He continued, “When I got short, I didn’t panic. I know the game-plan with sub-eight bigs, five bigs … just not getting impatient and try to catch the cards as they come.”

The next WSOP Circuit event is already taking place at the Horseshoe Las Vegas casino in Nevada, and it runs until Feb. 23. The $1,700 buy-in main event begins on Friday, Feb. 17. 

By Ryan Lucchesi