Dan Lowery Wins 2017 WSOP Circuit Choctaw Main Event For $258,784

It was seventh time lucky for Dan Lowery this week as he finally ticked a WSOP Circuit Main Event title off his to-do list, having previously finished second on three occasions, this time taking down the Choctaw Main Event for $258,784 and landing his sixth circuit ring in the process.

The 43-year old Arkansas man has made a fine living off the WSOP Circuit over the years, just short of $1 million in earnings there and topping the table of his home state’s highest winners in tournament earnings with over $1.7million, but the pressure to finally close out a Main Event run was always at the front of his mind in Durant, Oklahoma this week.

“I’ve been in so many big spots and come up second three times,” explained Lowery. “I felt pressure today that I’ve never felt. There’s been so many people saying ‘Oh, you’re going to get second again?’ and it just rings in my head. After a while it does get to you, I guess,” he told the WSOP reporters afterwards.

There were a massive 908 entries to the $1675 event and Lowery had to face down some incredibly tough and seasoned pros along the way – WSOP updates adding that ‘the final two tables alone saw players like bracelet winner and two-time ring winner Mike Cordell, five-time ring winner Kurt Jewell, and Aaron Massey still in the hunt with two tables remaining’.

The final table also saw previous bracelet winners aplenty with two-time ring winner Kevin Eyster there, as well as Nick Schwarmann, runner-up Walter Rodriguez drawing ‘high praise from all the players at the table’.

Surpsrisingly for a man who plays so much poker - and winning poker to boot – the game isn’t his main source of income, Lowery running a logging and saw mill business in Arkansas that he ‘started with his dad over two decades ago’.

“My dad and I started it together and I’ve been doing it since I was a kid,” Lowery revealed, adding: “It was easy for me to make my own money and never answer to anybody.”

Lowery explained that he plays poker not only because he loves the game, but because “I’m getting the results and as long as I’m feeding these babies [his family and kids] that’s all that matters to me,” adding that he ‘hopes to become more of a family man and less of a poker player in the long run’.

Final Table Results: