Justin Boggs Wins WSOP Circuit Southern Indiana Main Event For $139,920

Justin Boggs emerged as the WSOP Circuit champion in Horseshoe Southern Indiana on Monday, taking home almost six times his previous career tournament earnings in one fell swoop, as well as a coveted Circuit ring.

The 30-year old New Paris, Ohio man was up against a field of 423 other entries in the $1675 buy-in Main Event, including Canadian Scott Montgomery, Florida’s Maurice Hawkins and California’s Wendy Freedman, all of whom have stellar CV’s, Montgomery in particular boasting over $4million in cashes and a WSOP Main Event 5th place finish.

With a prizepool of $635,978 up for grabs, the health and fitness instructor would likely not have expected to come out on top, although he told reporters that he played a lot online and at one point considered a career in the game.

“It’s nice to be able to play and finally get a monkey off my back, one I have had for quite a bit. I respect the game so much and I respect the players. I am just grateful to be in this position."

Montgomery was the real class act at the final table, but he simply couldn’t avoid Boggs whenever the Ohio player hit a huge hand – losing massive pots with a rivered straight only to find Biggs with a rivered boat, and later even a flopped boat causing him serious chip pain. The Canadian star’s coolers continued to the very end, hitting the rail when his AQ was outflopped by Freedman’s KQ.

When Alexander Hencheck and Irishman Michael Foley followed the Canadian to the exit, it left Boggs to face Wendy Freedman heads-up, the San Francisco woman boasting a Hendon Mob list of cashes as long as your arm.

It was exactly the ending which Boggs had predicted, the WSOP blog relating his story:

“Wendy and I went back and forth. There was a huge hand on Day 2. It was just a sicko hand,” stated Boggs. “From that point on, I really just kind of told myself ‘this is going to be a heads-up battle between us.’ I don’t know why, it just kind of seemed like that.”

When it came to reality, however, she couldn’t make up the 3:1 chip deficit, and when they eventually all went in it saw Boggs A♣9♣ outgunning Freedman’s A♠2♠, the kicker sealing the deal after the board ran out dry.

After his victory Boggs told reporters:

“I lost my dad two years ago… My dad taught me everything. This is kind of for him.”