Ari Engel won his 18th WSOPC gold ring last year to take the top spot in the ring count. In second place was Maurice Hawkins with 16 rings, and it was clear to everyone that this was not the final number.
It was only a matter of time before Maurice would try to match Ari's record number. He came close back in February when he won a $400 NLH tournament during the WSOPC Pompano Beach, taking home $16,137.
He matched Ari's
It didn't even take a full month and Maurice Hawkins was all smiles last night in a new victory photo. He was, in fact, the winner of the WSOPC Baltimore Main Event. The tournament had a buy-in of $1,700, brought in 468 entries and a prizepool worth $709,020. Maurice took home $140,752 for first place, plus his 18th WSOPC gold ring. If you think his latest win came easy, you're wrong. The final heads-up lasted over 5 hours.
Hawkins currently shares the top spot with Ari Engel, but he holds the top spot for the amount of money he was able to earn at the WSOPC. He is the only player whose WSOPC series winnings are worth more than $3 million, and no player has even surpassed $2 million. The closest to him is Daniel Lowery, who is currently in second place with 16 rings and also in second place with nearly $1.9 million in winnings.
Ari Engel also reacted to winning the 18th ring, congratulating Maurice and adding, " It's really great to be in the chase with you - even though I'm winning my rings in 60-man mixed and small online tournaments and you're playing the big Main Events. It's hard to argue that you're not the WSOPC GOAT - Congratulations, sir!"
Not everyone is happy about Hawkins' success
Whenever news of Hawkins' win appears on social media, there are also a number of negative comments from the poker community below the post. Many people have stated that Maurice has owed them money for years, and despite winning hundreds of thousands of dollars, he hasn't repaid those debts.
Someone put in the effort to count the amounts that commenters have posted on the X network that Maurice owes them. Those posted debts alone should amount to over $113,000. Negative comments also appeared again under Ari Engel's post, where discussants commented that Maurice doesn't deserve any credit from Ari at all.
Source - WSOP, Cardplayer, Twitter/X, Pokernews
