Shahin Edalatdju Wins Harrah’s Rincon WSOP Circuit Main Event

Shahin Edalatdju won the Main Event at Harrah’s Rincon stop of the WSOP Circuit and took home a first-place prize of $116,325, as well as the gold ring and a seat in the National Championships. The poker stars came out to play in this one and the event saw WSOP bracelet holders, ring winners, a November Niner and plenty of Circuit regulars take to the felt in Rincon. It was however a local gas station owner Shahin Edalatdju who cleaned up on everyone’s chips and took the money.

Shahin Edalatdju arrived from Iran back in 1984 and started his new life in the US with just $20 to his name. He is now a small business owner, and this is by far his biggest ever cash in poker tournaments with his previous best standing at just $5,300. The field at Rincon of 330 players generated a prize pool of $495,000 and players in the mix included Eric Baldwin, Sam Stein, Soi Nguyen and the 1983 WSOP Main Event Champion and Poker Hall of Fame member Tom McEvoy.

Final Table

The final table started with Edalatdju sitting in fifth place, and play got off to a fast start with Sean Burson heading home early, leaving just eight players remaining. Play slowed down somewhat until a three-way pot saw two players eliminated, then Craig Francis also went soon after.

Heads-Up Battle

When we eventually hit heads-up play it was Shahin Edalatdju and Steve Firestone who remained and they battled it out for a whole five hours. Firestone began the battle with a 6-to-1 chip lead however Shahin Edalatdju cut that down eventually taking the lead. Chips went back and forth between players for some time however when Edalatdju went all-in with pocket eights and Firestone called with his A-4 it was all over as nothing on the board could come to the rescue of Firestone.

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Shahin Edalatdju now heads to Atlantic City in May for the National Championships and he’ll no doubt be feeling very confident after beating such a star-studded field.