24-year-old Christopher Rivers from Atlanta won the first event at the World Series of Poker Circuit stop at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City. The network engineer and enthusiastic poker player beat a field of 1,250 entrants that each put up $350 for a buy-in in the No Limit Hold ‘Em event. The huge field made it the largest in Harrah’s Atlantic City history, trouncing the previous record of 1,181 players set at the 2008 WSOP Circuit opener.

Rivers came into the nine-seat final table in eighth place, but the limitation of other key chopstick holders along with some savvy play quickly moved him to the middle of the pack and then to a showdown with Matthew Diggs that kicked off just after 3:00am with both players holding about the same number of chips. Some jabs back and forth were exchanged until a decisive hand where a 6s5c4s flop led Diggs down a path where he only had 700,000 in chips afterward, leaving him to be easily dispatched by Rivers.

For his win, Rivers collected $64,565, the coveted WSOP Circuit Gold Ring and 50 points toward the Circuit National Championship to be held at Caesars Palace Las Vegas in May. Diggs, a 27-year-old from Edgewood, MD earned $23,654.