Ray Henson Defeats TJ Cloutier to Win Largest Event in WSOP Circuit History for $197K

Chad Holloway PR & Media Manager

Jan 13, 2015 3 min read

The World Series of Poker Circuit set a new record this month at the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Oklahoma. Event #3, a $365 No-Limit Hold’em Reentry event, which turned out to be the largest-ever event in circuit history. The tournament featured four starting flights and attracted a massive field of 4,053 entrants, creating a prize pool of $1,215,900.

The turnout easily surpassed a 2011 reentry event at Horseshoe Hammond, which attracted 3,001 entries, and knocked last year's WSOP Circuit Choctaw reentry event, which drew 2,867 entrants, down to third place in the record books.

In the end, the title came down to two accomplished players in three-time ring winner Ray Henson, who you may recall finished 12th in the 2007 WSOP Main Event; and six-time bracelet winner and Poker Hall of Famer TJ Cloutier, who was seeking his first circuit ring.

Interestingly, it wasn’t the first time Henson and Cloutier had played heads up. Back in 2007, both made the final table of the Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge IV $5,000 Main Event at Cherokee Casino Resort in Tulsa. That event, which attracted 105 entrants and created a prize pool of $601,400, saw Cloutier defeat Henson to take home the $240,560 first-place prize.

Eight years later, Henson had his revenge by defeating the poker legend to capture his fourth WSOP Circuit gold ring and a $197,588 first-place prize.

"It’s the first tournament I’ve won all year," Henson joked after the win.

Final Table Results

Place	Player	Hometown	Prize
1st	Ray Henson	Houston, TX	$197,588
2nd	TJ Cloutier	Richardson, TX	$122,040
3rd	Ben Perez	Lubbock, TX	$88,603
4th	Zhengyue Cao	Chicago, IL	$65,136
5th	Matt Lawrence	Tulsa, OK	$48,308
6th	Zachary Hammons	Grand Prairie, TX	$36,137
7th	Robert Martin	Garland, TX	$27,273
8th	Myles Hamm	Euless, TX	$20,775
9th	Taylor Black	Santa Cruz, CA	$15,928
10th	Krissi McFarland	Fort Worth, TX	$12,329

According to the WSOP, Henson began heads-up play holding 24,930,000 in chips to Cloutier’s 15,600,000. With the blinds hovering at a massive 300,000/600,000/100,000, a big hand developed that would end the tournament. On a flop of J♠J♦7♦, Cloutier got his stack all in holding the K♠K♣ only to discover that he had been outdrawn by Henson, who flopped trips with the J♥Q♠. Neither the A♠ turn nor Q♦ river helped Cloutier, and he had to settle for runner-up and a $122,040 consolation prize.