Michael Binger takes down WSOP Circuit event

Amidst the snow topped mountains of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, the sound of stacking chips and shouts of “all-in” could be heard at Harvey's Lake Tahoe this past weekend. It was there that the final event of the 2008 World Series of Poker Circuit event wound down with the $5K buy-in Main Event. After running through a smallish field of 125 players, Michael Binger would come away the victor taking home the WSOP Circuit gold ring, entry into the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, and $181,379 in cash.

Binger was one of Jamie Gold’s victims as he ran over the table at the 2006 WSOP Main Event, at that tournament Binger took down 3rd place and over $4 million dollars. This most recent win brings his total to over $5.7 million in career winnings. You see, Binger is not your average PhD toting Stanford graduate; he’s a damn good poker player to boot. Easily earning far more to date than his PhD in Physics degree would have given him; it would appear that Binger made the right career choice to chase WSOP Bracelets versus particle physics.

For a moment, it appeared that Binger would get some heavyweight competition from last years champ, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson. That would not be the case however, as Ferguson went out in 11th place, just shy of making a run at a repeat victory at the final table. After taking the win and the gold ring, Binger was asked what his next goal may be, without hesitation he replied, “A gold bracelet ". We’ll have to wait until 2009 to see if that goal becomes a reality but he’s definitely the caliber player that could add to his list of “gold” hardware from the WSOP.