2011-12 World Series of Poker Circuit Event - Harrah's Rincon

Main Event
Day: 3
Event Info

2011-12 World Series of Poker Circuit Event - Harrah's Rincon

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
aa
Prize
$111,104
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,620
Prize Pool
$483,060
Entries
332
Level Info
Level
29
Blinds
25,000 / 50,000
Ante
5,000

Congratulations to Joe Kuether, Winner of the WSOP-C Rincon Main Event ($111,104)

Level 29 : 25,000/50,000, 5,000 ante

The action was jam packed here on Day 3 of the 2012 WSOP-C Rincon Main Event as we whittled our final 11 players down to one in under seven hours of clock time. The man left standing was Joe Kuether, who was playing just his second career Circuit Main Event. The last one he played was at Caesers in Las Vegas when he finished in 7th place. For conquering the field of 332 players, Kuether earned $111,104 and his very first WSOP-C ring.

Kuether’s impressive appearances in these Circuit events are just the beginning of his already stellar 2012 poker resume. He is fresh off not one, but two victories, in the Wynn Classic series that just took place in Las Vegas in addition to four cashes, including one final table, at the L.A. Poker Classic.

Kuether was among the leaders since early in Day 2 through heads up play and was never at serious risk of being eliminated. Arguably his most important hand of the tournament came against none other than Freddy Deeb. Kuether held {9-Spades}{8-Hearts} on a {j-Spades}{7-Spades}{10-Hearts} flop and was able to get paid on all three streets to vault himself into the chip lead mid-way through the final table.

Deeb, who finished fourth, might as well have charged the WSOP an entertainment fee for keeping everyone involved thoroughly amused. Not a hand went by without him joking around with either a player at the table, the dealer, the tournament staff or a PokerNews reporter. Unforunately, he became short stacked when play reached four handed and his {a-Clubs}{j-Clubs} was unable to catch up to the {a-Spades}{k-Clubs} of Kuether.

Chris Cronin headed into heads up play with a lot of momentum. He eliminated our third place finisher, Ryan Gentry, after the two got it all in on a {9-Diamonds}{6-Spades}{8-Hearts} board. Cronin held {k-Clubs}{9-Hearts} against the {9-Clubs}{6-Diamonds} of Gentry but when the turn and river came the {j-Diamonds} and {8-Clubs} respectively, Gentry was eliminated.

That created a fantastic heads up battle between Cronin, who with this result finished second in points during the Rincon circuit tour stop, and the 2012 poker all-star Kuether. The two players exchanged the chip lead multiple times before Kuether knocked him out.

With the blinds at 25,000/50,000, Kuether raised to 100,000 on his button as he had every single hand of heads up play. Cronin made the call to see a {4-Diamonds}{k-Clubs}{2-Hearts} flop. Both players checked and the turn was the {7-Hearts}. Cronin let Kuether fire out 125,000 before check-raising to 300,000 chips. Kuether moved all in and Cronin, who had started the hand with about 2 million, made the call. Kuether held {a-Clubs}{a-Diamonds} and had to dodge the {k-Spades}{9-Spades} of Cronin. The river was an emphatic {a-Spades} and Kuether became our champion.

Here are the full results of our final table.

PlacePlayerPrize
1Joe Kuether$111,104
2Chris Cronin$68,686
3Ryan Gentry$50,108
4Freddy Deeb$37,167
5David Funkhauser$27,998
6Ty Spires$21,414
7Chris Bratene$16,617
8Stephen Plache$13,081
9Ryan Buckholtz$10,444