The halfway point of the 2010-2011 World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) season has arrived and poker players from around the United States have converged on Tunica, Mississippi for a three-week stop at Harrah’s Tunica. Running from January 27th to February 14th, WSOPC Tunica will feature 54 events, including 10 ring events.
Last weekend saw the first ring event of the Tunica stop played, an event that attracted the second largest field in the casino’s history at 1,032 players. The record was set back in January 2006 when 1,345 poker players participated in a $500 No Limit Hold’em tournament when Harrah’s Tunica was still the Grand Casino. The buy-ins have been reduced since then – this one was only $345 – but the total prize pool for the WSOP Tunica event was still an impressive $295,866.
Fitted for his first gold ring in this historic event was Bethalto, Illinois’ Bill Wellman, Jr. The 46 year old father of three was emotional after the win, telling WSOPC officials, “This is the greatest accomplishment that I’ve had. For years I’ve wanted to take down the ring and then go on and win the bracelet; this is step one.”
“Now it’s on to bigger and better things,” he added.
Wellman began final table third in chips with 1,465,000, just ahead of the lone female, Linda Creasey, who had 1,414,000. The overwhelming chip leader at the time was Ben McDaniel, who had 3,643,000 chips. Wellman was in a good seat, having the two short stacks in front of him and the three middle stacks behind him.
En route to victory, Wellman eliminated three of his final table opponents. The first one he sent to the rail was Creasey, whom he knocked out in eighth place when he hit running eights on the turn and river to beat her pocket tens with Q-8. Wellman’s next victim was Sam Devers, who pushed pre-flop with J-10. Wellman called with Q-J and hit a queen on the flop to all but put the hand away. And, of course, he knocked out the second place finisher, fellow Illinois resident Don Johnson.
What made the final elimination amazing was that Wellman was staring down the barrel of a 9:1 chip deficit heading into heads-up play. Incredibly, despite the ground he had to cover, Wellman won the competition in just eight hands.
First, he doubled up with pocket kings. Then he doubled up with K-J against A-3 when he hit a king on the river. He then doubled up for a third time, again hitting his card on the river, to completely turn the tables and take a 9:1 chip lead of his own. On the next hand, Johnson shoved pre-flop with 6-4 of spades and was called by Wellman, who held A-K. The J-9-A no-spade flop sealed Johnson’s fate and give Wellman the title.
For the victory, Wellman won $54,747. He was also awarded 50 points for the WSOPC National Leaderboard. Modeled after the WSOP Las Vegas Player of the Year format, the point system was implemented in 2010 to determine many of the qualifiers for the season-end WSOPC National Championship.
The base points for a ring event winner is 100; Wellman won 50 because tournaments with buy-ins of $300 to $1,000 award half of the standard points. The $1,600 Main Event at each tour stop awards the standard number of points, while the $10,000 buy-in Regional Championships award five times the points amount.
The WSOPC National Championship will be held at the end of May at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. There are four ways to win a seat in the event. The first is to win the Main Event of any WSOPC stop. The second is to be crowned “Casino Champion” by earning the most points at any individual tour stop. The third method is to make the final table of one of the four Regional Championships. The fourth way to get to the National Championship is to finish the season in the top 34 of the points leaderboard.
The 50 points Wellman won are his only points so far this season, putting him in a tie for 75th in the standings.
