A seventh circuit ring winner has been crowned here at the 2024 World Series of Poker Circuit Playground. After eight hours of play Event #7: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em has come to a close and Kyle Yun-Wing Ho was the last player standing from the 36 players who began Day 2. Ho will take home the top prize of $46,000 and his second WSOP circuit ring.
Ho began the day with the chip lead and put on a dominant performance from the very start. Ho was in complete control throughout the day and claimed six final table knockouts en route to claiming victory. The win comes almost exactly one year after he won his first circuit ring in May 2023 in Calgary, which was also in a $1,000 no-limit hold’em event.
Ho defeated Gil De St Jeor, a young poker content creator known as Gil Jack Poker on social media, in heads-up play.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kyle Yun-Wing Ho | Coquitlam | $46,000 |
| 2 | Gil De St Jeor | Northridge | $32,400 |
| 3 | Andrew Minifie | Moncton | $20,600 |
| 4 | Richard Mullen | White Rock | $13,000 |
| 5 | Renmei Liu | Toronto | $10,000 |
| 6 | Gurpreet Lubana | Martenville | $8,280 |
| 7 | Daniel Le | Montreal | $7,000 |
| 8 | Srinivas Gottiparthi | Mississauga | $5,800 |
| 9 | Vincent Chahley | Calgary | $4,600 |
| 10 | Shane Brotherwood | Calgary | $3,850 |
Final Day Action
The seventh of 15 circuit events attracted a field of 236 entrants, eclipsing the $100,000 guarantee to generate a total prize pool of $207,680. Duff Charette began the day with a top ten stack fresh off of his fourth-place finish in yesterday’s $800 Mystery Bounty event. Charette ran into trouble early on against Srinivas Gottiparthi, who turned the nut-flush and got maximum value. Charette never truly recovered and was out not long after, while Gottiparthi rode the momentum from that hand all the way to the final table, where he finished in eighth for $5,800.
Richard Mullen found himself among the chip leaders midway through the day after being on the right side of a brutal cooler that saw Jovan Santiago hit the rail. Mullen enjoyed being among the chip leaders for most of the evening until finally finding himself short-stacked at the final four and falling to Ho.
Ho, having never fallen below the average stack at any point during the day, entered the final table with the overall chip lead. Shane Brotherwood became the first final table casualty after losing a flip to Jeor and after his elimination the action ground down to a halt. The presence of several short stacks at the final table made for a dynamic where most players were trying to ladder up, and Ho was able to exert a ton of pressure throughout the final table, taking many pots without showdown.
It took over an hour for the next elimination to occur but after Vincent Chahley fell in ninth place to Ho, the next few eliminations came rapid-fire. Gottiparthi (8th – $5,800 CAD), Daniel Le (7th – $7,000 CAD) and Gurpreet Lubana (6th – $8,280 CAD) soon followed Chahley out the door.
Ho truly began to separate himself from the rest of the field after being on the right side of a cooler against Renmei Liu who bowed out in fifth. That hand left Ho with nearly half the total chips in play with four players remaining, and Ho never looked back from that point, next eliminating Mullen and Andrew Minifie to enter heads-up play with close to a 5:1 chip advantage over Jeor.
Jeor began the final table in the middle of the pack and did an excellent job of picking his spots and laddering up. He did pick up a few early pots from Ho at the start of heads-up play, but the latter’s chip advantage proved to be insurmountable. Jeor was whittled down until he had just three big blinds left, and was forced to commit his stack with a weaker holding. Ho rivered a straight to eliminate Jeor and claimed the last pot of the night, the top prize of $46,000 CAD and his second WSOP circuit ring.
