Alexandr Lipkin Wins First WSOP Circuit Ring, $163k at Graton Casino
Table Of Contents
The WSOP Circuit Graton Casino came to a close over the weekend with Alexandr Lipkin taking down the Main Event.
The World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) arrived at the Graton Casino on the same day that the much larger WSOP Circuit Harrah's Cherokee kicked off.
The two events ran in parallel, but do not seem to have hurt each other's turnout. Despite the competition, the Graton Casino festival drew a good crowd and created its own headlines.
Main Event Action
When late registration closed on Day 1B of the WSOP Circuit Graton $1,700 Main Event, Alexandr Lipkin was one of 558 entries. Two days later he was flashing two queens and a WSOPC ring at the camera for his winner's portrait.
This was the first WSOPC ring for the self-professed amateur, but he has hopes of following up his victory with more gold prizes in the same vein.
“One time doesn’t prove anything," he told the WSOP. "I’m going to feel more confident going into tournaments knowing that I’ve done this before. Before this, I only had two deep runs in the WSOP and didn’t play many tournaments."
This win came at the expense of Michael Lin, for whom this was the third WSOP Circuit final table in the last two months (and his fifth cash in the same period).
The heads up chip lead went back and forth between Lin and Lipkin but eventually, the latter drew ahead and Lin drew dead with pocket eights against Lipkin's queens.
Lin won $108,149 for second place and Lipkin won $162,520 from a total prize pool of $845,370.
WSOP Circuit Graton Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alexandr Lipkin | Brisbane, CA | $162,520 |
| 2 | Michael Lin | San Ramon, CA | $108,149 |
| 3 | Marco Johnson | Walnut Creek, CA | $74,400 |
| 4 | Brett Murray | Santa Rosa, CA | $52,156 |
| 5 | Brendan Buckner | Salt Lake City, UT | $37,227 |
| 6 | Antonio Ma | Calgary, AB | $27,116 |
| 7 | Yoh Han Lee | Los Angeles, CA | $20,157 |
| 8 | Allan Capurro | Santa Rosa, CA | $15,303 |
| 9 | Saad Aljoher | Sacramento, CA | $12,076 |
Action/Other events
Adam Nattress won an unusual and uncommon Big O ring event ring and local hero John Koo won his first two WSOPC rings during this festival. Koo took down both Event #6: $400 No-Limit Hold'em - President's Day Special and Event #18: $400 No-Limit Hold'em - The Bay Area Closer.
This is Koo's second twofer on the Graton property. Back in September 2023, he also took down a pair of RunGood Poker Series events during the RGPS Road Trip California.
The WSOP Circuit action even spilled over into some exciting side events. Raymond Chiu — the first person to win the PokerNews Deepstack leaderboard — took down a tag team side event with a player he met for the first time while at the festival.
The PokerNews Deepstack leaderboard is returning for the 2025 World Series of Poker.
You can check out the full results from the WSOP Circuit Graton Casino below.
WSOP Circuit Graton Casino Full Series Results
