Joe Serock Wins Players Poker Championship Main Event Aruba

Only 31 players registered for the Players Poker Championship Main Event in Aruba, making first place a mere $40,594. But the small victory marked a big milestone for poker professional Joe Serock. He was all smiles as he received the check and hoisted the trpphy overhead, celebrating his first-ever live tournament victory.

Serock has enjoyed a lot of successes in live tournament poker, but always as a bridesmaid, never the bride. He final tabled the 2012 World Poker Tour Seminole Hard Rock Showdown, where he took third place for $306,240. That finish wasn’t his first WPT final table of 2012, he also took 3rd in the Bay 101 Shooting Stars for another $320,400.

Serock’s biggest cash came three years ago when he finished runner-up, losing to Brock Parker, in the WSOP $2,500 no limit hold’em six-handed event for $341,783. In 2010, he had another runner-up performance in the WSOPE £5,000 pot-limit Omaha event, this time losing to Jeffrey Lisandro. Serock’s lifetime live tournament earnings are a little over $1.6 million to date.