John Dollinger broke a multi-year schneid in Tulsa and all he had to do was win his second World Series of Poker circuit ring to do it.
“It does feel really good” Dollinger told the WSOP following the victory. “I haven’t won an event in nine years. It’s my first time in Tulsa. I flew in Friday and came just to play one tournament, and I already booked my flight going back tonight. So I kind of just planned on winning, and came out here and won it. It feels good.”
Even though he was called a math whiz in a 2016 Tallahassee Magazine article featuring local poker players, his math is slightly off. His last major win came in a $1,125 WSOPC event at Harrah’s Cherokee in 2018. That was good for $59,536.
The $147,178 he won for coming out on top of the field of 487 entries pushed his lifetime tourney earnings over the $1.2 million mark. A nice chunk of that — $311,751 — came for finishing second in the World Poker Tour Lucky Hearts Poker Open in 2020. It is his best lifetime cash.
The win came after not posting any results since 2022 and Dollinger gave a glimpse into maybe what accounted for the gap on his results page in the post-match interview.
“I’d like the world to know that I’m sober. And I’m staying sober. This is the new version of me. I’m very excited about the future, honestly,” he said.
It seems like he’s ready to began the next phase of his life and plans to use poker to satisfy his competitive nature.
“I’m very competitive. A few times I’ve got second place and I’m not even happy. I love winning, I love competing and there’s nothing more competitive than poker,” he said. “Everyone has the same deck and we all start with the same stack. Doesn’t matter where you’re from, a check is a check, a bet is a bet. It’s kind of a universal game.”
There were two players at the final table who won rings during this series. Andy Robinson was going for his ninth WSOPC ring after winning number eight in Event #11, a $400 affair that was good for $8,602. He stalled in seventh in the Main. Russell Brooks was trying for his third ring after he won number two in Event #9, a $400 Double Stack contest that paid $31,916.
As for Dollinger, the win is extra-satisfying after the way he went out in the last WSOPC event he played in Grafton. He used a mistake he made as motivation, and rode it to the championship.
“When there were 50 players left in Graton I was chip leader, and then I went out around 40th place,” he said. “And the reason I busted was sort of my fault, because I talked someone into calling me. The guy who knocked me out went on to win the tournament and I told him I would win the next one.”
And he did.
WSOP Circuit Tulsa Main Event top 10 results
- John Dollinger – $147,178
- Russell Brooks – $98,109
- Iman Alsaden – $67,346
- James Jewell – $47,149
- Yordanos Mebrahtu – $33,679
- Kiran Suresh – $24,555
- Andy Robinson – $18,282
- Marvin Donaldson – $13,906
- Matt Riffel – $10,811
- Eric Bunch – $8,594
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