Maurice Hawkins headed to Harrah’s Pompano Beach for the World Series of Poker Circuit series, and he came out of it with his 17th Ring by winning the $400 “Grand Master” event.
The only player with more rings is Ari Engel, who has 18.
In order to win this one, Hawkins had to come back from four blinds for six orbits with four players left. He won a couple flips, found some good spots and battled back into contention. While he stalled in third-place in the first event of the series, he was able seal the deal in this one.
How does he keep doing it?
“I’m a mixture of everything,” he told the WSOP after his win. “I pretty much study every type of style there is. From solvers and GTO, to exploitative, and a mixture just being a feel player. But at the end of the day, it is about understanding your opponent, dominating your opponent, and taking the right style against the opponent you’re up against. One style won’t work for every opponent. There was a mixture of all of those things in late game. Knowing how to switch the gears of them all.”
The Grand Master was a sort of pseudo-seniors event that required entrants to be 40 years-old or older. Players started the tournament with 40,000 chips with the blinds at 40/40/40, and each level was 40 minutes. The event attracted 208. Hawkins, 45, called himself “The Grand Master,” something he truly believes.
Again, from the WSOP:
“I mean I am the GOAT, and not just the circuit GOAT. People don’t want to see me at the table, they don’t want to see me at all and it doesn’t matter what level they are on. I’m just happy to be able to wake up every day, feed my family, and play poker.
It’s not broke, so I don’t fix it. But each one of my years I am improving and getting better and better. I’ve given up some leaks in life to just focus on my game because it’s time to take this to the moon.”
You better believe he has Engel and his 18 Circuit rings on his mind, and he plans on entering as many Circuit events as he could this year in order to reclaim his spot on the top of the Circuit ring list.
“We’re going to Cherokee next. Usually I only go there for the later events, but since I win an event every time I go to Cherokee, I decided that I would go the entire week, so I’ll be there on Wednesday. They got me for the whole 10, 11 days.”
If he continues to dominate at Harrah’s Cherokee, he may win enough to crest the $4 million in WSOP cash mark. He currently has a little more than $6 million total.
His first Circuit ring came in a $560 event at Harrah’s Atlantic City in 2008. He won two more in 2009 and then didn’t win another until 2014.
Hawkins’ win released him from a second-place tie with Daniel Lowery. Sitting in fourth on the all-time Circuit ring list is Josh Reichard with 15. Rounding out the top five is Valentin Vornicu with 13.
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