It is always something special when someone wins two gold bracelets at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). We don’t often hear about poker players’ exploits on the WSOP Circuit, though. Last week, something quite newsworthy happened at the WSOP Circuit Ameristar St. Charles stop when not one, but two players won gold rings. That’s a heck of an accomplishment when there are only thirteen events on the schedule.
Cory Bogert was the first to do it, winning Event #2: $400 No-Limit Hold’em Multi-Flight. He finished atop a field of 1,093 players to win $50,034. He followed that up with a victory in Event #5: $400 Pot-Limit Omaha, good for $10,674.
That second tournament was right in his wheelhouse. Afterward, he told WSOP.com reporters, “I mostly play PLO cash. I mean, I grind tournaments, so like I know some things in tournaments, but PLO is my number one game, by far.”
Bogert entered the final day of the Pot-Limit Omaha tournament third in chips out of five remaining players. He said his strategy was to play “small ball” because he felt his opponents were getting a bit too active in pots. Rather than mixing it up and risk tossing chips away, he wanted to wait for bigger hands to pick people off who were getting out of line.
He said he was very aware of the Casino Championship points that were at stake, another reason to try to not do anything that would get him eliminated. His two victories also made him decide to play every tournament to try to maximize his points.
“Before the first one I was only going to grind like three events, and now I’m grinding everything,” Bogert said. “I’m going to take the rest of the day off and then grind the rest of the tournaments.”
Bogert wasn’t able to win any more events at Ameristar St. Charles, thanks largely in part to Rob Keeling, who also won two tournaments. Keeling nabbed his back-to-back, winning Event #7: $400 No-Limit Hold’em and Event #8: $400 No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack within 48 hours of each other.
Keeling dedicated his victories to his mother, who recently passed away.
As it turned out, neither Bogert nor Keeling, for as amazing as their accomplishments were, were crowned Casino Champion. That honor went to Jerod Smith, who amassed 147.5 points. Smith cashed five times, all final tables.
Neither Bogert nor Keeling came in second, either. Second place at Ameristar St. Charles was Jeffrey Trudeau, Jr., who cashed five times and won a ring, earning him 137.5 points.
Keeling was just behind Trudeau with 135 points; he cashed two other times apart from his two victories. Bogert ended up in fourth place with 102.5 points. He had a 30th place finish for his only other cash at the Circuit stop.
The Casino Champion at each WSOP Circuit stop wins a free entry into the season-ending Global Casino Championship, which is why the points were of such importance. It is still very early in the season, but Bogert and Keeling are currently in position to also earn a free seat based on the season point totals.
