Valentin Vornicu Extends WSOP Circuit Title Lead With 12th Gold Ring

Valentin Vornicu and Maurice Hawkins spent over sixth months tied atop the World Series of Poker Circuit titles leaderboard with ten gold rings. On May 13th, 2018 Vornicu won his record-setting 11th ring by taking down the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s New Orleans $365 re-entry event. In the early morning hours of May 15th, just over a day later, he extended his lead by winning his 12th WSOPC title. For the second of his back-to-back wins, the 34-year-old poker pro topped a field of 349 entries in another $365 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, earning $24,084 in addition to his latest gold ring.

“What is there to say? Right now, I’m just super tired and super happy. Also, is this real? Is this real?” Vornicu said to WSOP reporters after coming out on top. “I’ve never won back-to-back tournaments,” said Vornicu. “Definitely not live. Maybe online, but usually after I win a tournament live, the next one I play I just bust before the first break.”

Vornicu essentially played tournament poker for three straight days without busting to win these two events. In this event he took advantage of late registration to catch up on rest, and the just got right back to work. By the time the final table was set he was the chip leader. He lost his momentum a bit early on the final table, but made flush-over-flush against eventual runner-up Joshua Lowing to regain the lead. From there he never looked back until the ring was in his hands.

This was Vornicu’s fourth final table finish of 2018. He earned 192 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win and now sits in 341st place in the overall rankings.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

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