This week’s poker news recaps a trio of winners, who took down big tournaments in various parts of the world. Let’s start off with Edward Muniz, who experienced a stroke of luck that allowed him to enter into a poker tournament, which he eventually won.
Edward Muniz Implausibly Wins WPTDeepStacks Hollywood
This year’s WPTDeepStacks Hollywood at the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood has come to a conclusion and Edward Muniz was the big winner. Muniz outlasted a field of 1,404 entries that bought in at $1,100. The total prize pool for the event ended up reaching $1,361,880. For his part, Muniz took home the $228,717 first-place prize that includes a $3,000 prize package into the Season XVIII WPTDeepStacks Championship at Thunder Valley Casino Resort this upcoming April.
The lawyer gushed about the fortunate turn of events that took place in his life after he was supposed to be in Jacksonville that week for a deposition.
The 38-year-old was supposedly driving from Tampa Bay to Jacksonville on the Interstate when he received a call that the case he was working on had been settled. Since he didn’t need to be at the deposition, he was able to pack and make it down to the Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood the day before the tournament began. It was a fortunate turn of events that came with a massive cash prize, in addition to the opportunity to have some fun while playing poker instead of being stuck in a courtroom.
Jason Block took home $159,206 for his runner-up finish, while Peter Fellows netted $103,316 for his third-place result.
Dustin Schoonover Wins WSOPC Choctaw Durant Main Event
Dustin Schoonover is this year’s big Main Event champion of the World Series of Poker Circuit season. The proud president and CEO of Schoonover Oil topped a field of 1,065 entries at the event to walk away with the Choctaw Durant $1,700 Main Event title, which paid him a ridiculous $272,846. In addition to the impressive top prize, Schoonover earned a seat into the 2020 Global Casino Championship.
Schoonover, who earned his first ring with this victory, didn’t even intend on competing in this poker tournament when he first arrived in town. The father of two went to the casino to play cash games but when he saw the Main Event was going on, he decided to buy in. Consider it another very fortunate twist of fate in the poker world.
John Skrovan was awarded $168,642 for his second-place finish while Brant Jolly claimed the $126,988 prize for placing third.
Jorryt Van Hoof Talks Engagement, Wins at 2020 Aussie Millions
Jorryt Van Hoof wasted little time celebrating his engagement with a major poker tournament victory. Van Hoof, who got engaged to his fiancée Sophie last week, celebrated by winning the 2020 Aussie Millions $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha Challenge.
The husband-to-be took home a whopping $467,280 for his tournament win. Van Hoof, who was overjoyed to an extreme for the second time in a week and for much different reasons, moved to the top of the Netherland’s all-time poker player money list in mid-December.
Meanwhile, it was a clean sweep of the remaining top-four spots in the standings by Australian-born players with Hun Lee, Najeem Ajez and Martin Kozlov finishing second, third and fourth respectively at this event.