Greg Hartwick Photo/ Darryl Wettlaufer Bolton resident and member of the Orangeville Poker Tour Greg Hartwick took home over $20,000 in a World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) event earlier this week at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

Mr. Hartwick has been playing poker for the past eight years and while he has played in several WSOP events over the past few years, this was the first time he has captured the prestige of bringing home a ring as well as the top prize. The ring is one of twelve that will be given out following twelve Circuit events taking place from January 19th to 30th.

The event was a $560 buy-in-No-Limit Hold’em tournament that took place over two days, starting Sunday at noon. The first day finished at 2 a.m. on Monday morning leaving just 11 players from the 207 that had started. According to the WSOPC official final results, Mr. Hartwick came out on top Monday evening with a $26,106 win.

“Anything connected to the World Series is very prestigious and they’re better quality tournaments,” says Mr. Hartwick. “They attract some of the biggest name players in the world.”

He is also a member of the Orangeville Poker Tour, along with Kirk Caldwell who won a coveted first place gold bracelet and over $668,000 this past summer in a WSOP event.

“When we were down to the final table of players I was basically able to run away with it,” says Mr. Hartwick.

According to Mr. Hartwick, over the two days the last had was by far the most exciting. It was down to two players, Mr. Hartwick with a dominating amount of chips in front of him, and a solid player who was all in before the flop.

“He had shoved all in with ace-two off suit and I called him with queen and king off,” he says. “Pre-flop he had a small advantage on me with ace high.”

The thirty seconds of waiting for game officials to arrive before the flop, to make sure of a clean game, were full of anticipation.

“In my mind I’m thinking if I can hit, that’s it, I win my ring, and if I don’t hit it, he’s going to double up and then I’m in a position where I’ve got to start playing with him having more chips,” Mr. Hartwick said. “He was a very solid player so I didn’t want to be doing anything where I give him an advantage.”

As the cards turned, anticipation turned to elation as Mr. Hartwick saw the cards on the table.

King.

Seven.

“It’s just knowing at that point that he’s virtually drawing dead, he literally has to go ace ace to win the hand himself because I couldn’t get any better card for myself,” he says. “And then the turn was the Queen that gave me a full house, which just literally sealed it.”

He says that the excitement of the moment was watching the cards turn, and “knowing that you won it, you won the whole thing.”

“Cashing at the tournament itself wasn’t the exciting part, it was the prestige of winning a ring, that in itself is it’s own bragging right,” he says. “The joy in the whole thing is being able to say that you’re a WSOP circuit ring holder, I’m still kind of walking around with a smile on my face.”

Mr. Hartwick, a customs broker, and married father of two will go back to Bolton after this win with a smile, and a gold ring, to a wife who has always been supportive of his poker hobby.

“The person who put the love for the game with me would be my father, he’s always been a poker player himself and I remember being a little kid sitting on his lap watching him play when he would have a game with his friends and that piqued my curiosity,” he says.

It was a mixture of his fathers’ love of the game, and taking the time to learn and educate himself on the skill behind the game that really brought out his appreciation for poker.

“There is an absolute skill in the game, there is no question about that but there is also an absolute luck in the game,” said Mr. Hartwick. “Sometimes you can’t beat cards when they come down, but there is definitely the skill, there is a reason why you see the same big names winning all the time because there is a skill set behind it.”

The WSOP is an annual event held in Las Vegas. The World Series has circuit events every year that take place in different casinos all over the U.S.

The total prize pool of this event came to $100,395. The top 21 players were paid as they were eliminated from the tournament as well as WSOP Circuit National Championship ranking points, which can be used for a seat in the season ending championship to be held in Las Vegas.