Daniel Buzgon is a poker player enjoying a rich vein of form. The man from Marlton, New Jersey, won the opening event of the 2021 WSOP Online Circuit Series and locked in a WSOPC ring. It is his fourth such ring in as many months and his eighth overall.
Buzgon came out on top of Event #1: $50,000 Gtd PLO Big $500 on May 14. The tournament is part of the Caesars Atlantic City Online Circuit Event. Sixty-seven players bought in and purchased 47 re-entries between them. Only the top 15 finishers won a slice of the $53,238 prize pool.
YK “luckyspewey1” Kwon, the 2020 WSOP.com Player of the Year, finished 14th for $851.80. Jared “darrensrabbi” Jaffee went four places deeper, his 10th place exit securing a $1,043.46 payout.
Heads-up pitted Buzgon against Hung “nowitsover” Truong, another New Jersey resident. Buzgon defeated his final opponent to bank the $12,936.83 top prize; Truong netted $9,795.79.
Buzgon Wins the $50,000 PLO Big $500
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daniel “juice” Buzgon | $12,936.83 |
| 2 | Hung “nowitsover” Truong | $9,795.79 |
| 3 | Michael “RUA11” Michnik | $7,320.22 |
| 4 | Dave “crispr” Alfa | $5,483.51 |
| 5 | Eric “powwow” Ethans | $4,030.11 |
| 6 | Andrew “PintoPedro” Donabedian | $2,960.03 |
| 7 | Troy “troylee” Lee | $2,193.40 |
| 8 | William “swaggyb” Corvino | $1,597.14 |
| 9 | Joseph “Mr_Foodles” Brown | $1,235.12 |
Poker players enjoy every victory, but Buzgon is particularly fond of this one. He spoke to PokerNews shortly after defeating Truong and explained why the win means so much.
“Obviously, it feels amazing to win four rings in as many months, but this one feels a little extra special because it came in PLO, a game which I just don’t play often. The structure was pretty quick with two tables to go, and everyone was really short aside from the chip leader. I ran really well at the final table and was able to come back from a decent chip disadvantage heads up to snag the ring.”
Winning a WSOPC ring is an incredible achievement in its own right, so to win four in four months is nothing short of jaw-dropping.
Buzgon started his epic run with victory in the WSOP Online Planet Hollywood Circuit Event #8: $50,000 NLH Knockout Freezeout on February 24. That result saw his bankroll swell by $14,896.92.
Ring number two followed only two days later when Buzgon won the tenth event on the schedule, a $75,000 Gtd NLH Big $500. Victory came with a $24,840.57 prize.
On March 27, Buzgon won a $125,000 GTD event, outlasting 476 entrants to secure another $24,418.80 payday. Buzgon completed the quadruple with his latest outright victory.
More Than $6.5 Million in Winnings
Buzgon has more than $6.5 million in poker tournament earnings and shows no signs of slowing down $2,316,000 of that total stems from live poker events. $335,433 is his largest live score. This was Buzgon’s reward for finishing third in the $3,500 Borgata Poker Open in September 2011.
The remaining $4,280,492 of his winnings tally comes from his online poker exploits.
Again, 2011 was the year of the eight-time WSOPC ring winner’s largest score. He finished fifth in the Full Tilt Poker FTOPS Main Event for $321,434.
Buzgon was a regular at the Full Tilt and PokerStars tables until Black Friday. Everyone knows him as “WiLDmAn75,” an alias he used to win $2,107,459. He spends most of his time playing on the WSOP’s poker site in New Jersey in addition to the Borgata Poker site and PokerStars’ New Jersey operations. Buzgon has accumulated $1,985,478 from that trio of poker sites alone.
The talented grinder is one of the players to watch in this year’s WSOP online and live festivals. The 2021 WSOP Online for the domestic US runs from July 1 through August 1 and features 33 bracelet-awarding events.
September 30 through November 3 are the tentative dates for the 2021 WSOP proper. There is no doubt Buzgon will compete across both series. We fully expect him to bring home the bacon in at least one event.
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Matthew Pitt
If it’s something you can play online for real money, chances are Matthew knows a bit about it. He’s been writing about slots, craps and poker for the better part of the last decade. He’s written for PokerNews, PartyPoker and many other respected online gambling websites during the last nine years.