David Tuthill Wins WSOP Circuit Vegas Main Event

In his own words, "A dream came true" for one player at the WSOP Circuit main event. David Tuthill, the 24 year old Florida State University student played a great game and got his hands on his first ever WSOP Circuit gold ring and a first place prize of $223,197. Along with the ring and the cash he also bagged a seat at the National Championship later this year. It was a great fightback as at one stage Tuthill found himself down to just 15 times the big blind. It was an extra special win when you take the quality of the field into consideration with great players such as David Williams, Scotty Nguyen, Andy Bloch and Carlos Mortensen. With a burst of sign ups nearing the registration close the 744 player field contributed to the largest ever Circuit main event at Caesars Palace with a total prize pool of $1,116,000. Day 2 started with 148 players remaining with Ryan Welch with a monumental lead. However late in the day he took a few big hits to be eliminated in 20th place. Other notable eliminations on day 2 included Erick Lindgren, Chad Brown and Todd Perry and at the end of day 2 just the 15 players were left seated with Jeff Fielder leading the way. The final table was set early in day 3 when the last remaining female, Janelle Jacobson went home in 10th place.

The Caesars Palace Final Table

Fielder started at the final table with 3.75 million chips at more than double the average. The in form Fielder won the Choctaw main event just a few months ago and had his sights set on becoming the first player to win two Circuit main events in the same season. However it wasn't to be and he had to settle for 6th place and $43,691. Tuthill started to make his move and doubled up against Brain Kay and shortly after that Kay was knocked out in 5th place. Tuthill then put some distance between himself and the remaining players when he took out Fabio Coppola leaving just 3 players left. Shaun Suller was the man out in 3rd place after losing a huge 9 million chip pot leaving just Tuthill and Phahurat seated. It took just over an hour of heads up play before it came to the crunch. Phahurat was all in looking for a flush but Tuthill's pair of tens held out and he won his first Circuit event. It was a grueling event and one that Tuthill will never forget.