Posts Tagged ‘wsop circuit’
Chris Bell Wins WSOP Circuit East Regional Championship
December 23rd, 2010
Chris Bell ended a career year in style in Atlantic City.
Chris Klodnicki walked into the final table of the WSOP Circuit East Regional Championship with the chip lead, and he eliminated three players from contention to find himself heads-up for a major tournament title in Atlantic City for the second year running. But in the end he had to settle for second place as one of the year’s great comeback stories continued for Chris Bell.
Bell entered the day just behind Klodnicki in chips and played a tight game for most of the final table, as evidenced by his knockouts of two different players while holding pocket queens. The key knockout was that of third-place finisher Ketan Pandya ($159,851), putting Bell slightly behind Klodnicki heading into the final matchup. After nearly an hour of back-and-forth over small pots, the two finally clashed on a 6-5-3 flop, with Klodnicki leading out with 6-4 for top pair and an open-ended straight draw and Bell moving all-in with 3-3 for a flopped set. Klodnicki eventually called, and the board failed to produce any of his outs, sending him home in second place ($221,452).
It’s been quite a year for Chris Bell, whose win in A.C. moves him over the $1 million mark in earnings for the year, a first in his eight-year poker career. He also moved over the $1 million mark for earnings in WSOP-related events with the win, as well as the $2.5 million mark for career earnings – not bad for a guy who admitted after his first bracelet win this summer that he nearly went broke from a bad run before this year began.
The WSOP Circuit Regional Championship final table was filmed and will air on the VERSUS network sometime in mid-2011.
Chris Klodnicki Leads WSOP Circuit Regional Championship
December 22nd, 2010
Philadelphia’s Chris Klodnicki seeks his second WSOPC title in Atlantic City later today.
The World Series of Poker Circuit Eastern Regional Championship being held at Harrah’s in Atlantic City has seen its field whittled down from a starting tally of 136 players to just nine. Now it’s time for the players to take their game in front of the cameras for everyone to see just what they’re really made of.
Leading the way when play resumes later today will be Chris Klodnicki, who holds 759,000 in chips and has had an incredible year on the WSOP Circuit. Klodnicki won the WSOPC Main Event in A.C. last December, took fourth place in the WSOPC Main Event at Caesars Atlantic City earlier this year, and finished 15th in this year’s Midwest Regional Championship at Horseshoe Hammond.
Right behind Klodnicki is Chris Bell with 706,000 in chips. Bell won his first WSOP bracelet this summer, and he is enjoying the single best year of his eight-year poker career with more than $650,000 in earnings so far. Other notables at the final table include two-time WPT final tablist Todd Terry (307,000) and reigning WPT Legends of Poker champ Andy Frankenberger (230,000). Just missing out on the final table was 10th-place finisher Matthew Waxman, who last week won the $1,600 WSOPC Main Event in Atlantic City for $117,797. The others who cashed but missed the final table were Beth Shak, Victor Ramdin, Brett Richey, Frank Calo and Eugene Katchalov, all of whom earned at least $21,600 for their efforts.
With the final table lineup now officially set, nine more players have booked their trips to Las Vegas in May for the WSOP Circuit National Championship. Regardless of where they finish, each of them is guaranteed $32,362 for this Regional Championship and a shot at the largest share of a $1 million prize pool at Caesars Palace next spring. In the meantime, though, they’ll all have their eyes on the $358,295 top prize that goes to the winner in A.C. later today.
WSOP Circuit Crowns Another Champion in Biloxi
November 10th, 2010
Travis Lutes: not bad for a second career cash. (Photo: PokerNews)
While the WSOP Main Event was finishing up in Las Vegas, the main event of the latest WSOP Circuit stop was just getting started in Biloxi, Miss. Now, after three days of play, it has its champion.
Travis Lutes became the latest player to earn an automatic bid to the WSOP Circuit National Championship by outlasting the competition at the final table of the WSOP Circuit stop at the Imperial Palace in Biloxi. The finale was very much a regional affair, with seven of the nine players coming from Georgia, Mississippi, Florida and Alabama. The only players who weren’t from the American South were Jerry Monroe of Columbus, Ohio, who finished in seventh place, and champion Lutes, who lives in Crawfordville, Ind.
The $1,600 main event at the IP drew a total field of 270 players, building a prize pool worth $392,850. The size of the field was pretty close to the other non-Regional-Championship main events on the WSOPC this year – smaller than the 289 at Horseshoe Southern Indiana, but larger than the 251 at Horseshoe Council Bluffs. Lutes’ take for winning the tournament – just his second live tournament cash after a sixth-place finish in a $100 tournament at the Pot of Gold festival in Reno last month – was $95,253. He also earned his first gold WSOP Circuit champion’s ring.
The next stop for the WSOP Circuit is Harvey’s Lake Tahoe in northern Nevada, where the tournament action gets started tomorrow with a mega-satellite to the $1,600 Main Event. The first of nine gold ring events there, a two-day $345 no-limit hold’em tournament, gets started on Friday.
Ohio Poker Player Wins WSOP Circuit Regional Championship
October 29th, 2010
From a freeroll to a major poker tournament win: not a bad day at the tables. (Photo: WSOP)
Jim Anderson, a poker player from Wooster, Ohio, is the champion of the first WSOP Circuit Regional Championship.
Anderson, a 24-year-old former bartender, was overshadowed by his tablemates when the final table began. With just $54,040 in live tournament cashes to his credit, his accomplishments paled next to the tens of millions of dollars won both live and online by his more experienced competition. But the bulk of Anderson’s career earnings had come from a run in this year’s WSOP Main Event, where he finished 242nd, and the experience he gained there helped him make his way to the top at Horseshoe Hammond.
After the departures of Chicago options trader Mark Owens (9th place, $48,615) and Minneapolis poker pro Tony Hartmann (8th, $60,952), poker pro Brandon Adams hit the rail in 7th place ($77,556) after moving his short stack in with A-5 and running into A-Q. Shannon Shorr, who came in third in chips but never got any traction at the final table, was next out (6th, $100,151) when he ran his pocket jacks into the pocket aces of Gabe Patgorski. Online poker star Dave “Doc” Sands met a similar fate in 5th place ($131,299) when he moved his relatively short stack all-in with Q-T, only to meet Curt Kohlberg’s pocket aces. Kohlberg wouldn’t last much longer, though, falling 4th place ($174,807) when his A-T couldn’t crack Jim Anderson’s pocket jacks despite picking up flush and straight draws on the flop.
That left just Anderson, Patgorski, and ESPN poker analyst Bernard Lee in the running. Lee had entered the day with one of the shortest stacks and never really picked up any steam, but he managed to double up into second place when his pocket queens held up in a pot against Anderson. Just when things were looking good, though, he lost a critical race for all his chips with T-T against Patgorski’s A-K. That sent Lee home in 3rd place ($236,368) and set up the heads-up match for the WSOP Circuit Regional Championship.
Anderson came in with roughly a 5-to-2 chip lead, thanks to a double-up at Patgorski’s expense during three-handed play, and it didn’t take long for him to lock up the title. The final hand saw him and Patgorski get five bets in before the flop – perfectly reasonable, considering they were heads-up holding A-J (Patgorski) and A-A (Anderson). The board never came close to giving Patgorski any help, and he was eliminated in 2nd place ($324,770).
Anderson walked away with $525,449 and his second gold WSOP Circuit winner’s ring. Amazingly enough, the Ohio poker player had never intended to play in the Regional Championship – he only entered because he won his seat along with his first gold ring the previous week. With that kind of parlay under his belt, Anderson will likely be playing a lot more poker in the years to come.
Australian Poker Robber Loses Appeal
October 28th, 2010
Jason Potter’s a survivor. He’s gonna work harder.
An Australian man who attacked and robbed an American poker player at the Crown Casino in Melbourne in 2008 has lost his appeal and will have to serve a four-year sentence in prison.
Dwayne Johnstone’s target was American poker player Jason Potter of Tulsa, Okla. Already a WSOP Circuit gold ring winner by that point, Potter had just finished in 31st place at the 2008 Aussie Millions Main Event. After collecting A$30,000 (US $26,371) in cash and heading back to his hotel room, Potter was struck from behind by Johnstone, who produced a knife and demanded Potter’s wallet. Potter complied, giving up his Aussie Millions score plus another A$1,075 in cash, and Johnstone and his associate, Vhyharn Arumughasamy, fled the scene.
The two criminals were later apprehended by authorities and subsequently convicted. Jonhstone’s defense team argued during his appeal that he could not be held responsible for his actions because of a brain injury received during an earlier assault, and because he suffers from depression. There might actually be something to the defense’s claims – Johnstone has 69 prior convictions for a variety of offenses – but the Court of Appeal declined to shorten his sentence, noting that the robbery was well-planned and coordinated rather than impulsive. Johnstone will have to serve a minimum of two years in jail before having any possibility of parole.
The attack doesn’t appear to have had any lasting negative impact on Jason Potter’s poker game – if anything, it appears to have motivated him to play even better. Since the attack in Australia, Potter has made one WPT final table, finished 11th in another WPT event, made two WSOP final tables and won two more poker tournaments, including the $5,100 No-Limit Hold’em event at this year’s L.A. Poker Classic.
Final Table Set at WSOP Circuit Regional Championship
October 27th, 2010
Foxwoods ambassador and ESPN poker analyst Bernard Lee will play at today’s big WSOPC final table.
There are times when a major poker tournament will have a slew of well-known players left as play approaches the final table, getting everyone’s hopes up for a big showdown only to see the big names fall by the wayside as a crew of unknowns makes it way to the televised finale. The first WSOP Circuit Regional Championship looked like it might succumb to that fate on Day 3, but instead a number of accomplished players advanced to the final nine at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind.
Gabe Patgorski, who was originally listed by tournament officials under his first name, John, will take 2,263,000 chips into the final table, giving him a healthy lead on the rest of the field. Patgorski led the tournament at the conclusion of Day 2 as well. Behind him is online star David “Doc” Sands with 1,360,000 chips, the only other player over the one-million-chip mark. Sands will be hoping to bring his $186,417 in live tournament cashes a little more in line with the $2.26 million he’s won online.
Third in chips with 905,000 is Shannon Shorr, who cashed five times at this year’s WSOP to bring his total career live tournament earnings up to about $3.3 million. Right behind Shorr with 863,000 chips is Curt Kohlberg, who would boost his career earnings by about 50 percent if he were to win this tournament’s $525,449 top prize. From there the chip counts drop off a bit, but ESPN poker analyst Bernard Lee (401,000 chips) and Harvard instructor/poker pro Brandon Adams (155,000), who missed out on his first WSOP bracelet this summer by finishing second to Men Nguyen in the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud World Championship, will make up for their lack of ammunition with drive and desire once the final table begins.
As stacked as today’s lineup is, it could have been even more impressive. But 2010 WSOP Main Event 12th-place man Adam “Roothlus” Levy (20th place), WPT London High Roller winner Justin “Boosted J” Smith (19th), online star Kevin “Stamdogg” Stammen (18th), 2009 WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Atlantic City winner Chris Klodnicki (15th), 2010 WSOP Deuce-to-Seven World Championship winner David “Bakes” Baker (14th), and veteran poker pro Steve Zolotow (10th) all came up a bit short of the final table in Hammond.
The final table of this first WSOP Circuit Regional Championship will be filmed tomorrow for broadcast on the Versus network next year. While the identity of the eventual champion is yet unknown, all nine players – including shorter stacks James Anderson, Mark Owens and Anthony Hartmann – have earned themselves seats in next spring’s WSOPC National Championship. Play gets underway at 2:00 p.m. CT.
WSOP Circuit Regional Championship In The Money
October 27th, 2010
John Patgorski leads the charge to the final table. (Photo: WSOP)
Another long day of poker wrapped up at the Horseshoe Hammond casino in the early morning hours today, and every one of the players who bagged up chips will be walking away with a solid return on his investment.
Play was originally scheduled to conclude around 1 a.m., but instead it continued through to the bursting of the money bubble. That didn’t happen until nearly 2:45 a.m., when Justin “Boosted J” Smith’s A-4 caught a four to outrun Cero Zuccarello’s A-Q and send Zuccarello home. The sole bright spot for Zuccarello is that he earned 50 points toward his standing on this season’s WSOPC National Leaderboard – that’s as much as he would earn for winning a preliminary gold ring event, or for finishing in fifth place at a Main Event, so he has plenty to build on as this season progresses should he choose to keep entering Circuit events.
As for those who will return to play at 1:00 p.m. today, they’ll be chasing John Patgorski, who ended the day with a field-leading 729,000 in chips. That puts him about four big blinds ahead of two-time WPT final tablist Curt Kohlberg, who ended the day with 704,000. Further down the counts, but most definitely still in the hunt, are accomplished poker pros Justin Smith, Steve Zolotow, David “Bakes” Baker, Shannon Shorr, Brandon Adams, Chris Klodnicki and Adam “Roothlus” Levy, as well as ESPN poker analyst Bernard Lee.
The plan for today is to play down to the final table of nine, which will play out tomorrow in front of a full television crew. With seats in the $1,000,000 WSOP Circuit National Championship going to everyone at the final table, there’s a lot more than just the $525,449 top prize on the line at this Regional Championship.
WSOP Circuit Travels to South Africa Today
October 26th, 2010
The WSOP’s first visit to the African continent begins today.
While the first WSOP Circuit Regional Championship plays out in Hammond, Ind., the revitalized tour is experiencing another first on the other side of the globe. Today marks the start of the first WSOP Circuit stop in Africa as the first of two tournaments gets going at the Emerald Casino in South Africa.
Today is the first day of three scheduled for the $1,100 Pot-Limit Omaha event at the Emerald Casino. In contrast to the WSOP in Las Vegas, which has done away with rebuys completely in recent years, the PLO event at the Emerald will feature $300 rebuys for the first three hours and a $400 add-on after the rebuy period is complete. As the PLO event reaches its final table on Thursday, the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event will get going. That tournament is a freezeout, so there won’t be any rebuys.
Unlike WSOP Europe, which awards bracelets that the WSOP considers to be on par with bracelets won in Las Vegas, the WSOP Circuit stop in South Africa will not be awarding gold rings to its winners. The events do not count toward the Circuits new cumulative point system, so we won’t be seeing any of the South African champions playing at next spring’s WSOP Circuit National Championship unless they travel stateside and qualify there. There also doesn’t appear to be any live coverage of this historic pair of tournaments anywhere on the internet, so we’ll have to keep our fingers crossed that Harrah’s will release details on their progress at the official WSOP website.
Ryan Julius Leads Day 1 of WSOP Circuit Regional Championship
October 26th, 2010
TV coverage helped drive solid turnout at the first WSOPC Regional Championship.
As expected, a $10,000 buy-in and the promise of television coverage were enough to draw a significant number of recognizable pro poker players. A total of 226 players, many of them familiar from previous televised poker tournament appearances, turned up to build a $2.1 million prize pool. That’s the largest prize pool the WSOPC has seen since Daniel Negreanu won the Tunica main event way back in January 2006, suggesting that the new Circuit format is on its way to a successful season. Top prize for this event will be $525,449.
Ryan Julius was the overnight leader among the 114 survivors with a stack worth 265,000 chips thanks to picking up a pair of aces against another player’s pair of kings late in the day and getting all the money in before the flop. The next largest stack (186,300) belonged to Jonathan Tamayo, who also picked up a pair of aces late; Tamayo’s opponent also had a pair of aces, but Tamayo’s ace of clubs matched up with four more clubs on the board to make a flush and propel him near the top of the leaderboard.
Others with at least 100,000 chips at the end of the day included ESPN poker analyst Bernard Lee (137,400), Shannon Shorr (131,500), Vanessa Selbst (130,000), Dave Sands (113,700), Chad Brown (110,100) and WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Hammond Main Event winner Kurt Jewell (100,000). When play resumes they’ll be joined at the tables by a number of other notable players, including Justin “Boosted J” Smith, Jason Mercier, Matt Stout, Faraz Jaka, Nenad Medic, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Barry Greenstein and Allen Kessler.
The WSOP Circuit Regional Championship will get back underway today at noon CT with the second of four scheduled days. All levels today will be 75 minutes long, as opposed to the 60-minute levels that were in play yesterday. The plan is to play nine levels and stop for the night. You can follow the tournament’s progress live via either the WSOP or PokerNews.
Kurt Jewell Wins Horseshoe Hammond WSOP Circuit Main Event
October 25th, 2010
Kentucky poker pro Kurt Jewell is the big winner in Hammond. (Photo: WSOP)
Kurt Jewell has been playing poker competitively for several years, compiling two tournament wins and a string of cashes worth more than $100,000 in limited action. Now he has the bankroll to play bigger and more often, thanks to a win at the WSOP Circuit Main Event at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Ind.
The tournament more than doubled the previous record for the most entrants in a WSOP Circuit main event, drawing 872 players. That built a prize pool just shy of $1.25 million, one of the largest the Circuit has seen in years. Jewell entered the final table with 6.8 million chips, nearly three times as much as his nearest competitor, and held the lead nearly the entire time. The lineup he faced was mostly inexperienced, though it did feature two poker pros with long records and another with more than $1 million in tournament earnings. Former WSOP Circuit ring winner Bryan Devonshire was the first of the three to go, taking a brutal beat to exit in seventh place ($37,047) when his K-K was cracked by Edwin Choi’s 8-2 of clubs in a blind-versus-blind confrontation. Will “Monkey” Souther left next, his A-J falling to Choi’s pocket kings to send him home in sixth place ($47,772).
PCA High Roller champion William Reynolds managed to survive all the way to three-handed play despite entering the final table near the back of the pack. But he fell short when his A-4 couldn’t beat Jewell’s A-6, sending him home in third place ($110,657). That set up an hour-long heads-up battle with Jared Kenworthy which finally ended when Jewell’s Q-J cracked Kenworthy’s A-Q on the river. That gave Kenworthy the $150,104 runner-up prize, while Jewell took home $242,909 and a gold WSOP Circuit champion’s ring. He also earned a seat at the WSOP Circuit National Championship, which will be played at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas next spring.
Normally the Main Event is the end of any WSOP Circuit stop, but the Horseshoe Hammond installment is a special one. The first-ever WSOP Circuit $10,000 Regional Championship, which begins today at noon CT, will wrap things up at the Horseshoe. Kurt Jewell and the rest of the ring winners from the last week and a half will all be playing in the tournament, and with the higher buy-in there may be also be a healthy contingent of big-name poker pros in attendance.
