Cody Stanford came to the World Series of Poker Circuit Series at Horseshoe Tunica and walked away with a trip, trip, triple.
The man from Tupelo, Miss., won three Circuit rings in a five day span starting in Event #9 on Jan 29, a $400 buy-in that attracted 160 entries. Stanford won $13,075 and his fifth lifetime ring. Two players joined Stanford at the final table with WSOP Circuit rings — Russell Sullivan with five (sixth for $2,063) and Joshua ‘Plinko’ Clanton with three (eight for $1,293).
He registered for the event with only 40 minutes left, and immediately gained momentum the first few hands he played.
“I late registered with 40 minutes left and jammed the first hand winning a 40-60 flip. I broke to a new table where I then dark jammed with 10-7. I was against pocket nines and ace-king and got a ten that held,” he told the WSOP after.
That’s quite an achievement in itself, but Stanford was just getting started.
Only a day later, he won $36,423 in Event $10, a $1,100 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha affair that attracted 149. He had to roll through some former WSOPC champs at the final table: Matthew Higgins has five rings (third for $15,926), Daniel Calway-Fagen has one (fourth for $11,065), Trace Henderson with two (fifth for $7,957), Robert Hankins and his box of 10 rings (seventh for $4,585), Sokchheka ‘Chico’ Pho and his pair of rings (eight for $3,685), and Kyle Cartwright and his nine rings (ninth for $3,082).
And then, three days after that, he took down another $400 event for $17,262 (228 entries). Again, several players were going for more rings: Jordan Russell has one (second for $11,242), Trace Henderson again (third for $7,533), Tomas Teran has one (fifth for $3,703), Donnie Phan has two (sixth for $2,721), Charles Adkins has one (seventh for $2,066), Hamid Izadi has eight (eight for $1,623), and Chanda Davis has one (ninth for $1,321).
Goodness gracious, what a run. But in reality, this all started in early January in a $500 event at the The Beau Rivage Heater that brought in a whopping 2,525 entries who built a price pool of $1,034,550. Stanford came a cat’s whisker away from doubling his best cash with the $181,487 that came with first on Jan. 5.
Four days later, he won another $168,923 for a third-place finish in a $1,200 buy-in event in the same series. That event brought in 1,755 entries who built a prize pool of $1,842,750.
Something must be clicking for Stanford in the last several years. He’s been winning and cashing Hendon Mob tracked tournaments since 2013, but all but one of his top nine cashes came since 2022. That’s $628,344 of his $1,894,201 he collected playing tournament poker.
Of that, $837,443 came playing in WSOP events, where he cashed 109 times. He doesn’t have a bracelet yet, but the way the year started, he just might get one in 2025.
