2023 WSOP Circuit Harvey's Lake Tahoe Main Event Champion Bradley Ritschel
Bradley Ritschel came into the day with a huge chip lead, never lost it, and eliminated all five opponents left in his way in a dominant performance to win the WSOP Circuit Main Event here at Harvey's Lake Tahoe.
With half the chips in play to start the day, Ritschel needed just over two hours to complete his run to the title, defeating James Chavanarojrit in a short heads-up match when he rivered a gutshot straight holding four-three off-suit.
Ritschel earned $115,740 for the win along with his first WSOP Circuit ring and entry into the 2024 WSOP Tournament of Champions.
“It’s awesome, it’s a dream come true, I never would have imagined first.”
Ritschel’s run to the title really began on Day 1B as with five levels still to play, he had already accumulated more chips at that point than Day 1A chip leader, and eventual fourth-place finisher, Jed Hoffman. Ritschel said he started having eyes on the title at that point.
“I’m thinking I have a real shot at making a run. When you have a chip lead that big early, especially before the money bubble you can really bully and fight for pots.”
Ritschel did just that, but he also ended up in a huge spot on Day 2 when he needed to win a massive flip against Shawn Daniels after calling a four-bet jam for most of his stack with ace-king versus Daniels’ queens.
Ritschel paired his ace to win the pot and eliminate Daniels in the biggest pot of the tournament at that point.
“I was pretty sure he would never jam so massive with aces, but one of the main reasons I called was that (Daniels) was one of the best players left at the table, so I thought okay, if I call and bust him that’s really, really good for me and I also have a massive chip lead, so yah I decided to gamble and it worked out.”
Ritschel then took that massive chip lead and never looked back, continuing the recent tradition started by last year’s champion Jarod Minghini, of an overwhelming chip leader on Day 3 wiping out his competition before the first scheduled break of the day.
“It’s awesome, I’m just glad it was smooth sailing. My stack never dropped below what I came into the day with, and the heads-up didn’t last very long either, it was a massive cooler, so yah, I’m super happy with the result.”
For complete results from Main Event, check out the ‘Results’ tab above.
This concludes our Poker.org coverage of the Main Event, as well as what’s been a thrilling WSOP Circuit series here at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe. Keep us bookmarked at instant.poker.org for continuing coverage of the WSOP Circuit all season long.
