2020 WSOP Circuit – February
Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
Tampa, Florida – Event 6
$400 Monster Stack NLH (Re-Entry)
$200,000 Guaranteed
Entries:  1,371
Prize Pool:  $452,430
February 11-13, 2020

The Monster Stack event attracted a huge field of 1,371 players, and on Thursday night, the last player standing was recreational player Kevin Ho, who earned $70,567 and his first WSOP Circuit Ring.

The field was so large that there were more than 41 million worth of chips in play, and for the first time, Seminole Hard Rock Tampa used the slightly larger pink 500K chips. More importantly, the $200K guarantee was more than doubled, with the total prizepool worth $452,430.

“What’s funny is that I wanted to chop,” said Ho about the prizepool. “I didn’t know we couldn’t chop in the WSOP, so with six or seven players left, I said, ‘Hey, do you guys want to chop?’ I was just chasing the money. The money’s more important to me.”

Ho started Day 2 on a down note after losing a huge pot in the final hand of Day 1 that would have made him the chipleader, but instead left him with less than 20 big blinds.

“If I had won that hand,” said Ho, “I would have had 1.8 million going into Day 2. Instead I started today short, with 231,000. So I lost that big pot, but I came back and just built it up.”

Ho began the final table second in chips, just a single big blind behind Alon Eldar. But once he realized he couldn’t chop, Ho worked his way into a big chip lead, and with four players left he had nearly as many chips as the other three players combined.

“I think I got lucky,” said Ho about the final table. “A lot of the tough players got knocked out early. I was shocked. The ones I was scared of, they just lost with bad luck or whatnot.”

After the elimination of Abdelouahed Bouanani in third place, heads-up play began between Ho and Serge Dergham.

The first hand of heads-up play would also be the last.

Ho and Dergham battled back and forth over a board of . On the river, Ho checked, Dergham shoved with (ace high), and Ho called with for two pair to end the tournament by winning his first WSOP Circuit ring and $70,567.

Final Table Results:

1st:  Kevin Ho  –  $70,567 + WSOP Circuit Ring
2nd:  Serge Dergham  –  $43,614
3rd:  Abdelouahed Bouanani  –  $32,323
4th:  Chastity Fowler-Lee  –  $24,227
5th:  Robert Cheung  –  $18,367
6th:  Alon Eldar  –  $14,086
7th:  Ryan Jones  –  $10,929
8th:  Giedrius Bagdonas  –  $8,581
9th:  Joseph Hebert  –  $6,818
10th:  Carlos Guerrero  –  $5,483