VeryMerry Wins Winter WSOP Circuit Crown for over $1.1 million

The World Series of Poker always promised that the Winter Circuit festival would be big, but a $1.18 million top prize? It gave many players chills when they saw who won it this week, with ‘VeryMerry’ proving an apt moniker for the post-Christmas winner. With stars of the felt such as Artem Shaganov and Pavel Plesuv both making the final table, it was an ice-cold set of players who battled to glory.

A Bumper Field Battle to the Money

The $1,700 WSOP Winter Circuit Main Event was always going to create a buzz, with a $10 million guaranteed prizepool and its timing, with the final taking place just over a week into January. Even the wildest expectations of the organizers were exceeded, however, when an incredible 7,039 entries created a prizepool of over $11.3 million.

With a top prize of 1,184,690 now on the line, players of all levels were pressing for the outright win. It’s not often a seven-figure score comes along online, so the superstars and satellite heroes that shared the virtual felt were going all out for victory and the much sought after WSOP Circuit Ring that would come with the win too.

Pushing into the money on the final day, 862 players were already in the money, banking a min-cash of $3,773 just by making it that far, more than double their entry fees. These included some of the first players to bust on Day 2 such as Israel’s Barak Wisbrod, Bulgarian high roller regular Dimitar Danchev, Australia’s finest Michael Addamo, German Super High Roller winner Ole Schemion, and perennial WSOP near-miss Shannon Shorr.

Final Table of Nine Kicks Off

With the money places now rolling through the blind levels in steady fashion, more luminaries missed out on the final table action. Players such as 2022 WSOP bracelet winner Jessica Teusl, online poker legend Linus Loeliger and Swedish live poker legend Simon Mattsson all fell just short of the last table in the tournament.

When ‘Cocooo’ left the action in 10^th place as the final table ‘bubble boy’, everyone was guaranteed a six-figure payout as reward for their efforts. The first player to achieve that was the appropriately named ‘takemeaway’ from Montenegro, whose exit in ninth place for $118,523.

Next to go was the first of several Russian or former Russian Federation country players in the last eight. Cashing in eighth for $158,001 was Artem Shaganov, whose experience also includes playing in WSOP Online bracelet events. His departure was followed by that of Canadian player ‘accurate91’, who won $210,646 in seventh place.

Plesuv Falls Short in Second Place

With six players remaining, Austria’s ‘Touch of Class’ exited, albeit in friendly fashion for $280,847. With the final half a dozen players each representing six different countries, the truly continental flavor to the action saw Singaporean player ‘Doubledeee’ finish in fifth place for $374,464.

Almost half a million dollars went to the player who was eliminated in fourth place, and that was ‘dynastyfuren’ from Japan, who cashed for $499,303 but missed out on the podium places. The first of those final three players to fall was Sergey ‘z1gzag’ Konovalov, as the Russian cashed for $665,778 having got so close to the final duel.

The battle for the title came down to Pavel Plesuv, the most experienced player left in contention for the victory, and ‘VeryMerry’. Plesuv was unable to come back against his Mexico-based opponent as the Moldovan finished as runner-up, earning $887,777 for coming in second. The winner, ‘VeryMerry’, banked an astronomical $1,184,690 and the coveted WSOP Circuit ring in style.