A field of fifty four players attended the two day 2013 River Poker Series tournament at the WinStar casino i and outlasting the field was professional poker player Maria Ho. Maria has created a name for herself over the years but this event was the first time she claimed first place in a major tournament.
With the title win, Maria was able to earn just over $100,000 for the finish. Maria was at the event just after attending fellow poker pro Vanessa Selbst’s wedding. Maria mentioned Vanessa in commenting on the win by stating: “I flew directly to WinStar the day after the ceremony, and now here I am. So, I guess it worked! Thanks, Vanessa!”
Maria was proud of her very first win in a major tournament and the win is so much sweeter thanks to the fact that the pro is sponsored by the casino. Maria commented further on the win by stating: “It feels so great to finally close a tournament, and to win it here at WinStar, which is like a home to me, couldn’t be more perfect. I know a lot of players say ‘I felt it,’ which doesn’t always pan out, but going into Day 2, I really did feel it.”
The field of fifty four may have been small but created a prize pool of $300,000. The final table consisted of tough players and only six competitors including Maria Ho. Alan Engel, Jared Jaffee and Kattamuri Sudwakarar all made the final table as well as Clinton Baker and Mario Silvestri. In the end, Maria was able to defeat Sudwakarar to earn the first place finish.
Final Results:
1st Maria Ho $101,220
2nd K Sudwakarar $75,000
3rd Alan Engel $50,250
4th Jared Jaffee $34,260
5th Mario Silvestri $23,550
6th Clinton Baker $15,720