Max Young has a full hand of World Series of Poker Circuit championship rings, after he claimed his fifth career ring earlier this week in the WSOP Circuit Choctaw Durant main event.
The $1,700 main event at the Choctaw had an 893-player field, which led to a $1,352,895 prize pool. For the win, Young cashed $263,815. This was the largest single cash of his poker career to date and bumped his career live-poker earnings up to just over $1.15 million.
This was also the third WSOP Circuit ring Young has won this year. He previously won rings at Harveys Lake Tahoe earlier this month and at the Choctaw back in January. His first two rings came in 2017, at Harveys Laker Tahoe where he won his first main event in November and at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in February.
In this year’s Choctaw main event, Young entered the final day of the tournament sitting third in chips out of 12 remaining players. When only 10 remained and they headed to the final table, he had dropped to fourth in chips.
Young coasted for a bit before doubling up with pocket fours and he followed that up with his first elimination, sending Nivedan Nasina to the rail in sixth place when his ace-king topped Nasina’s king-10. Young also knocked out Jonathan Bloyen in third place with trip nines to reach heads-up.
Young vs Hemingway heads-up
It came down to Young and Jared Hemingway heads-up for the tournament title. Hemingway had won his first WSOP Circuit ring a few days earlier but would come up short in his attempt at a second.
When heads-up began, Hemingway had the chip lead with 15.3 million chips to Young’s 11.4 million. That changed after Young won the first two hands to take over the lead. Hemingway did get back to even with Young, before Young wrestled it back for good.
On the final hand of the tournament, Young pushed all-in pre-flop and Hemingway called. Young had A-9 suited diamonds and Hemingway had pocket twos. It was a relative coin flip when the flop showed 9c-9h-4s. With Young flopping trips, Hemingway would need another two to survive. The Ks on the turn was no good, followed by the 8s on the river to end it.
For second place, Hemingway received $163,024.