Winner’s Circle: Summer Wrapping Up With Big Wins in Legal US Online Poker Markets
August showcased some standout online winners in the US regulated online poker markets. These include players grabbing World Series of Poker Online Circuit championship rings and topping large Sunday tournament fields.
USPoker takes a look at online poker winners and notable players from the legal online poker states each month. PokerStars, BetMGM/partypoker US, and WSOP.com generally all offer monthly tournament series. Here’s a glance at some players who rose to the top in August.
Current legal online poker states
In the US, online poker is legally up and running in the following states:
♠♠♠ Winner’s Circle offers a recap and highlights some recent action at the online tables. For players winning big online events, please tag @USPoker on Twitter each month to be featured. ♠♠♠
WSOP.com Circuit ring hunt continues
Players came home from the WSOP in July, but the action continued online in legal states. Each month WSOP.com offers an Online Circuit Series in the combined New Jersey and Nevada markets. Pennsylvania and Michigan also host separate monthly Circuit Series.
Three is magic number for Michigan player, others also score titles
Poker “Pimp” Justin Pimpedly made headlines in Michigan when he snagged three circuit rings in August. USPoker recently spoke with him about the feat. Confidence helped lead Pimpedly to multiple victories.
“I have final tabled a lot of these and just have been so close many times already,” he says. “So to bang out three in a week is something I know I was capable of accomplishing.”
Also in Michigan, Jared “Beamdoctor” Halter finished his $100 to $10,000 bankroll challenge by making some deep runs in the WSOP.com Online Championships.
In the Michigan WSOP Online Championships, Dan “DrDadPoker” Schill scored $3,250 when he took down Event 30.
In the New Jersey/Nevada market, online pro Katie Lindsay captured her first ring and also $15,324 when she took down the $50,000 Turbo Deepstack.
Two days later she almost grabbed another piece of hardware, finishing in fourth for over $20,000 in the Online Circuit Main Event.
Poker pro and World Poker Tour commentator Tony Dunst landed his third ring when he won Event 2 for $21,230. Another third timer is New Jersey’s own Drew Oconnell, who won $13,773 after finding the top spot in Event 4.
David Woodley also got his third ring for winning a Pot Limit Omaha event for $19,685. South Korean player Byung Eun Shin also won two rings in the same series for more than $64,000.
Other WSOP.com winners
In Pennsylvania, Andrew Porter found a double victory in the Online Circuit Series. His two rings secured him over $41,000.
Michael Lavin earned his fourth ring in Event 3. The former New Jersey player scored $19,336. Ian Crampton got his second ring after winning Event 1 for $7,836.
Some other Online Circuit winners included:
- Andrew Dean – Event 3, $27,794 (NJ/NV)
- Jeremy Ausmus – Event 4, $53,864 (NJ/NV)
- Tim Zhou – Event 6, $22,419 (NJ/NV)
- Thomas Tracy – Event 2, $7,931 (PA)
- Anthony Potis– Event 4, $6,045 (PA)
- Matt Mcneill – Event 5, $14,281 (PA)
- Ryan Tillman– Event 6, $6,832 (PA)
- Michael Miller– Event 2, $8,307 (PA)
- Nicholas Schuler– Event 1, $8,742 (MI)
- Nicholas Dennis– Event 2, $10,868 (MI)
- Lauren Shipman – Event 3, $16,480 (MI)
- Adam Kittle – Event 4, $6,771 (MI)
- Patrick Mccullough– Event 6, $7,491 (MI)
- Chris Morgan – Event 9, $8,409 (MI)
All bracelet and ring winners through July 2023 earn a seat in the WSOP Tournament of Champions. The $1 million freeroll is expected to be during the WSOP in Las Vegas as it was earlier this year.
PokerStars offers players some preseason play
In August, PokerStars held a Champions Preseason Series to warm up for the Championship of online Poker (COOP) events launching this fall.
Available in New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, PokerStars doesn’t share a combined player pool at this time. Currently each state hosts their own series.
Players saw some nice wins across the board in the Preseason Series, which included low and medium buy-ins.
In New Jersey, online bracelet and ring winner Ryan “hagz2richez” Haggerty took down two events for over $5,600 total. Also in the Garden State, “stonniepokes” shipped three events for over $5,000.
In Michigan Corey “Corgasm231” Paggeot took Event 13 for over $10,000. In Pennsylvania “schwibbs1” took down Event 11 and over $7,700 in winnings.
PokerStars PA ambassador and streamer Mark Foresta was able to capture one of his wins live on Twitch.
Knockout events for BetMGM
Available in New Jersey, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, BetMGM Poker doesn’t share a combined player pool at this time. Currently each state hosts these skins:
- Borgata Poker (New Jersey, Pennsylvania)
- BetMGM (Michigan, Pennsylvania)
- partypoker (New Jersey)
The site ran the popular Summer PKO Fest from Aug. 14-21. Jeremy “PokerJermz” Sissman took down the $2,000 guaranteed event on the site twice in August.