Luis Yepez is the latest main event champion to be crowned on the World Series of Poker Circuit. The California resident overcame a field of 338 entries in the 2024 WSOP Circuit Southern Indiana $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event, earning $111,979 and his first gold ring for the win.
This was the second-largest score yet for the Venezuelan-born player. Back in 2015 he took down a Caribbean Poker Tour main event in Punta Cana for $185,615. Yepez has now surpassed $1 million in career tournament earnings after his most recent triumph in the circuit.
In addition to the money and hardware, the victory also came with 480 Card Player Player of the Year points. Yepez now has 1,570 total POY points, enough to place him inside the top 500 in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker.
Yepez was one of the 52 players to cash in this event, with other notables that ran deep including bracelet winner Alan Percal (41st), bracelet winner Jeremy Eyer (31st), bracelet winner Ronnie Day (27th), 2015 Seminole Hard Rock Rock’n’Roll Poker Open main event winner Jacob Bazeley (22nd), two-time ring winner Trace Henderson (15th), five-time ring winner Kurt Jewell (12th), ten-time ring winner Robert Hankins (11th), and two-time ring winner Bradley Butcher (6th).
Yepez battled for several hours against his heads-up opponent, Niles Lawless, but was eventually able to close out the win. Lawless earned a career-high score of $74,244 for his second-place finish.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:
Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
1 | Luis Yepez | $111,979 | 480 |
2 | Niles Lawless | $74,244 | 400 |
3 | Abdul Amer | $50,323 | 320 |
4 | Daniel Hummer | $34,891 | 240 |
5 | Bradley Butcher | $24,759 | 200 |
6 | Derek Nold | $17,990 | 160 |
7 | Jason Blodgett | $13,394 | 120 |
8 | John Mcmurry | $10,223 | 80 |
9 | Gabi Habash | $8,005 | 40 |
Photo credit: WSOP.