![\"Maxwell](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/b4fe9e351b63-wsopc-cherokee-pic-95-maxwell-guo.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\nWSOPC Cherokee Main Event<\/p>\n
February 20-23<\/p>\n
\n ENTRIES ($1700)
\n IN THE MONEY\n <\/p>\n
\n PRIZE POOL
\n $2,763,360\n <\/p>\n
\n 2ND PRIZE
\n $257K\n <\/p>\n
\n FIRST PRIZE
\n $386K\n <\/p>\n
6<\/p>\n
Months since Maxwell Guo’s first tournament cash, a 19th-place finish in a Venetian Deepstack on 7\/3\/25.\u00a0<\/p>\n
VS<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1st<\/p>\n
Maxwell Guo<\/p>\n
![\"US\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/us.png\")
<\/p>\n
Career Earnings: $391,849\n <\/p>\n
![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/a7ef56833678-wsopc-cherokee-pic-94-peter-ng.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n
2nd<\/p>\n
Peter Ng<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Career Earnings: $689,394\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1st<\/p>\n
Maxwell Guo<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
2nd<\/p>\n
Peter Ng<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Final Hand<\/p>\n
Career Earnings: $391,849\n <\/p>\n
Career Earnings: $689,394\n <\/p>\n
1ST
\n
\n Maxwell Guo
\n $386,231<\/p>\n
2ND
\n
\n Peter Ng
\n $257,398<\/p>\n
3RD
\n
\n Jesse Jones
\n $184,167<\/p>\n
3RD
\n
\n Toby Boas
\n $133,478<\/p>\n
5TH
\n
\n Andrew Robinson
\n $98,011<\/p>\n
6TH
\n
\n Nicholas Rigby
\n $72,925<\/p>\n
7TH
\n
\n David Walker
\n $54,991<\/p>\n
8TH
\n
\n David Sathue
\n $42,034<\/p>\n
9TH
\n
\n Nitis Udornpim
\n $32,575<\/p>\n
Final Hand<\/p>\n
\n EXPAND GRAPHIC\n <\/p>\n
The final day of the largest WSOPC Main Event in the history of Harrah\u2019s Cherokee saw 17 players return to the felt from the 1,824 field \u2014 the third-largest ever in the history of the Circuit. The remaining field going into Day 3 was stacked with plenty of familiar faces, local crushers, and multi-time ring winners.\u00a0<\/p>\n
And one-by-one they fell until Maxwell Guo, a cash game player from Georgia who had only recently started playing tournaments, held every chip in the room. Guo received $386,231 for the victory in what will be just his third-ever tournament score on The Hendon Mob, alongside the coveted Main Event Circuit Ring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel pretty good,\u201d the newly crowned champion said following the win. \u201cI\u2019m still kind of processing everything. I still feel a lot of adrenaline from the whole day. I think it\u2019ll kind of hit me later.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guo described being interested in poker from a young age before taking it more seriously a few years ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned the rules in middle school, but I didn\u2019t have anyone to play with of course. I got really into it in college four years ago.<\/p>\n
“I started with cash games, and I\u2019ve played more cash. I started tournaments seriously maybe half a year ago. I\u2019ve done some studying here and there, but recently I decided to commit more to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Maxwell](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/51c29d5f0328-wsopc-cherokee-pic-90-maxwell-guo.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n
Maxwell Guo is relatively new to the tournament scene. <\/p>\n
The Atlanta crew wins again<\/p>\n
Interestingly, four out of the last five winners of this event were based out of the Atlanta area and active in the local poker scene. Derek Sein-Lwin, who won the last edition of this event, and Tuyen Dieu, who won the edition before that in May, share strikingly similar poker backgrounds to Guo. All three players had a background in cash games and had only a couple of recorded tournament scores before their breakthrough Main Event wins. Florian Pesce, another recent winner of this event, was also based in Georgia at the time of his win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Guo spoke about his relationship with Sein-Lwin, Dieu, and Pesce.<\/p>\n
\u201cDerek I\u2019ve played with a lot. Florian, I met him like three or four years ago. He was like a tournament player the whole time. We went to school together and played quite a bit. He\u2019s given me a lot of advice. Very seasoned. I\u2019m not sure if I\u2019ve played with Tuyen before. I think I have.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guo began the day in the middle of the pack before waking up with pocket queens in the first level to dispatch Edwin Russell in 15th place, putting himself closer to the top of the counts. With eleven players remaining, Guo found himself facing a four-bet shove for his tournament life against fellow big-stack Lee Webb. Guo called with pocket jacks and held against Webb\u2019s jack-ten offsuit to cripple Webb, who was out the next hand, while Guo entered the final table with the second-largest stack, just behind Toby Boas.<\/p>\n
\n ![\"It](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/6feb02452e68-wsopc-cherokee-pic-92-toby-boas.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n
It was the Toby Boas Show, not the Boas Toby Show. <\/p>\n
Guo steals the Toby Boas Show<\/p>\n
It was the Toby Boas Show for a few levels from the start of the final table, with Boas scoring multiple eliminations to extend his lead, while Guo slowly bled chips. Guo recovered most of the chips he had lost after eliminating Nicholas Rigby in sixth place, before playing the most important hand of the tournament against Boas.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Guo held pocket aces and was in position against Boas facing a three-bet, electing just to call. He played his aces deceptively slow, just check-calling on the king-high flop. After the board pairing nine-turn was checked through, Guo put in a massive check-raise when a third nine came on the river. Boas paid him, going from chip lead to short-stack, while Guo suddenly held nearly half the chips in play with five players left.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSo preflop, I was second in chips and Toby was first in chips,\u201d Guo said of his thought process during that hand. \u201cIn that kind of spot, I have to be really careful with what I decide to four-bet. I also thought he\u2019d be pretty tight against a four-bet from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn the flop I\u2019m not really looking to raise,\u201d Guo continued. \u201cI think my hand could, but I think he\u2019s aggressive enough where I want to just flat him. On the turn it\u2019s a bit tricky. He\u2019ll have some nines in his range. I wasn\u2019t sure if I wanted to stack aces off as the second-largest stack. Giving him a free river with aces isn\u2019t too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n ![\"Peter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1771918392_350_a7ef56833678-wsopc-cherokee-pic-94-peter-ng.webp.webp\")
<\/p>\n
Peter Ng was the last line of defense against Guo. <\/p>\n
Guo quickly extended his lead after eliminating Andy Robinson in fifth. Meanwhile Boas, who came runner-up in this same event this past May, was forced to settle for another close call after losing a flip to start-of-day chip leader Peter Ng.<\/p>\n
No player had as much momentum going into the Main Event as Jesse Jones. Earlier in this series he won the $600 Mini Main for $179,665, and then later finished eighth in the $400 Monster Stack for another $12,779. His third final table of the series in the Main Event ultimately ended in third place, after getting his chips in good with pocket eights against Guo\u2019s pocket threes, only for a three on the turn to end Jones\u2019 Main Event run.<\/p>\n
Guo held roughly a 4.5:1 advantage going to heads-up play, and looked to end it early after Ng was all-in with ace-deuce against Guo\u2019s ace-jack. A deuce in the window brought Ng back into contention, and soon after Ng was all-in again, this time for the chip lead. Ng held an overpair on an eight-high board, while Guo held the second-nut flush draw. The flush came right in on the turn, and the two players shook hands before Guo was crowned the latest WSOP Circuit Main Event champion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WSOPC Cherokee Main Event February 20-23 ENTRIES ($1700) IN THE MONEY PRIZE POOL $2,763,360 2ND PRIZE $257K FIRST…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":487209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-487208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=487208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/487208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/487209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=487208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=487208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=487208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}