Ari Engel Wins WSOP Circuit Ring #4, 1 Shy of Record
Longtime PocketFives member Ari Engel(pictured) is now one World Series of Poker Circuit gold ring away from tying the all-time record of five. Engel’s fourth and most recent ring came on Thursday at Horseshoe Hammond in Northwest Indiana, where he took down a $1,125 No Limit Hold’em event and collected $55,000. There were 222 entrants and the top 43 finished in the money.
The final table also featured fellow PocketFiver Corey comandr_cool Burbick, who landed in third place and earned $24,000.
What was the difference-maker this time around for Engel? Was it stellar reads on his opponents? Did he hit the deck hard? According to WSOP officials, a non-poker influence was at work: “During a break in the action, Engel called his sister Naama, who lives in New York. She was celebrating her birthday. Engel came back a changed player after that phone call. Perhaps it was the mental break or just the ability to take inspiration from a beloved family member that seemed to re-energize his game and refocus his commitment to victory. Engel ended up winning the tournament within the next hour.”
Two players hold five WSOP Circuit rings each: Mark “Pegusus” Smith and Kyle da_kyky Cartwright (pictured). Engel would join that group with one more Circuit Event victory. His first ring came in 2007 in a $300 No Limit Hold’em tournament at Caesars Atlantic City and was good for $63,000. Ring number two came two years later in a $1,060 Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas for $22,000.
In May, Engel collected his third gold ring at a WSOP Circuit stop in Philadelphia in a $345 Mixed Pot Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha tournament and pocketed nearly $9,000. All told, he has just shy of $340,000 in career WSOP and Circuit earnings generated in part from four gold rings and 11 final tables. Three of those 11 final tables have come in the last three weeks.
Engel has over $2.7 million in tracked online MTT cashes in his PocketFives profile (pictured), over half of which has come on PokerStars, where he can be found under the pseudonym BodogAri. He is a three-time PocketFives Triple Crownwinner, a former #1 playerin the PocketFives Online Poker Rankings, and is currently at #367 worldwide.
This year, his signature scores have included a win in the PokerStars Big $109 for $24,000 in September, a victory in the site’s Big $162 for $23,000 in February, and a runner-up finish in a $100 tournament on Ongame for $17,000 in the first month of 2012.
Engel was born in Canada and now calls Las Vegas home. His largest live cash was worth $167,000 and occurred thousands of miles away in Prague, where he final tabled an EPT Main Event.
