Jacob Hamed Wins World Series Of Poker Circuit Main Event At Harrah's Cherokee

Jacob Hamed finished his strong run at the World Series of Poker Circuit stop at the Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina with a win in the main event on Dec. 9, capturing his second gold ring and $299,010 in prize money. The Dublin, Ohio resident now holds over $460,000 in career earnings thanks to his largest cash ever.

Hamed had quite the successful series, with a runner-up finish in a $600 pot-limit Omaha event and a victory in the $800 pot-limit Omaha event for his first career WSOPC ring. He didn’t have much to say after the win, but he was busy celebrating with his rail filled with friends.

The $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament with a $1.5 million guarantee saw 1,288 entries come through the admission gates to put the final prize pool at $1,951,320. The top 190 players all took home at least $3,427 in prize money.

There were 152 players that returned for Day 2. From that sea of players, just the final seven players advanced to the final day. Notables that made a deep run in the tournament included Kevin Henderson (14th), John Fagg (15th), Jarod Minghini (16th), Jeremy Eyer (17th), David Lieberman (20th), William Looper (22nd), Faysal Smile (24th), Robert Hankins (26th), Kenneth Brosnahan (27th), and Cody Grovijohn (29th).

Hamed was second in chips to start the final day. Dale Roesel was the first bustout in seventh place after a couple of double-ups started play, and there were a couple doubles again before Hamed took out Eric Snyder in sixth place to pull comfortably into the chip lead.

Hamed was at it again when he took out Gunner Stever in fifth place, and then Kyle Cartwright was fighting for his tournament life and survived with a pair of double ups. The nine-time WSOP Circuit gold ring winner couldn’t avoid elimination in fourth place, however, and once again it was Hamed who dealt out the final blow.

Vaughen Steeves then scored a big-time double to cling right on the heels of Hamed for the chip lead. Steeves continued to run hot when he took out Johnny Price in third place. That put the chip counts nearly even at the start of heads-up play between the final two players with the slightest advantage in Steeves’ favor.

Hamed won the first two big hands between the final two, which took his advantage to 2:1, and then 3:1 over Steeves before the final hand transpired. That last hand saw the chips get all in preflop with Steeves holding K5 against the J10 in the hole of Hamed.

The final board of tournament ran out A92103, and Hamed was crowned the tournament champion. Steeves grabbed a nice score worth $199,338 to put the Boston-based player close to $250,000 in career earnings.

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

This was the last WSOP Circuit stop of 2024, with the tour picking up action again in 2025 with a $1,700 main event at Choctaw in Oklahoma from Jan. 17-20.

Photo Credit: World Series of Poker.

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