The very first World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Regional Championship kicked off on Monday from the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana, just outside of Chicago. The $10,000 buy-in tournament, whose price tag is equal to that of the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, drew 226 players for a total prize pool of $2.1 million, creating the largest Circuit prize pool in three years.
The winner of the tournament will bank $525,000, which is also the largest Circuit payout awarded in three years. The last nine players standing earn spots in the Circuit National Championship, which will emanate from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas next May just before the start of the 2011 WSOP. The 100-player tournament awards a coveted gold bracelet to its winner and boasts a prize pool of $1 million.
The WSOP Circuit stop in Chicago has, by all accounts, been one for the ages. The first event was the largest Circuit tournament ever held at 1,611 players. Then, the Main Event, which sported a $1,600 buy-in, became the largest Championship tournament ever with 872 entrants.
Ryan Julius, an online poker pro, leads the pack of the Regional Championship at the end of Day 1 with a chip stack of 265,000. Among those making waves toward the end of the day was Mike Mustafa, who tripled up after cracking not one, but two players’ pocket kings with pocket queens. Mustafa flopped a queen and ducked a straight draw on the river to move to 53,600 in chips at the end of the day.
David Paredes sent Full Tilt Poker pro Gavin Smith to the rail on Monday. Smith called all-in with 9-4 of spades for a flush on a flop of J-10-7, all spades. Paredes was behind with pocket jacks and needed the board to pair on the turn or river to send the newly minted bracelet winner home. The drama was short-lived, as a seven on the turn gave Paredes a full house. Paredes shot up to eighth place on the leaderboard with a stack of 120,000 entering Day 2. You’ll recall that Paredes was interviewed on the “60 Minutes” piece profiling the scandals on Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker. Click here for more information.
PokerStars pro Vanessa Selbst tabled pocket rockets on a board of K-K-3-7-5 for aces-up. She moved to over 75,000 in chips after that hand and ended strong, skyrocketing to sixth place on the leaderboard with 130,000. Selbst and Paredes will be seated together at Table 9, whose roster will also include PokerStars pro Jason Mercier and poker icon Steve Zolotow.
Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Bernard Lee 4bet all-in on a flop of A-10-5 with two hearts and showed 6-3 of hearts for a flush draw. Kyle “kwob20” Bowker tabled K-10 of hearts for middle pair and a king-high flush draw, but a running 6-3 awarded the pot to Lee. The Foxwoods pro made it to third on the chip counts by the time all was said and done at 137,000. His competition at Table 12 today will include Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer and Chris Bell.
Here are the top 10 chip stacks after one day of play in the WSOP Regional Championship in Hammond:
1. Ryan Julius – 265,000
2. Jonathan “driverseati” Tamayo – 186,300
3. Bernard Lee – 137,400
4. Gordon Vayo – 137,400
5. Shannon Shorr – 131,500
6. Vanessa Selbst – 130,000
7. Timothy Morgan – 127,600
8. David Paredes – 120,300
9. David “Doc Sands” Sands – 113,700
10. Chad Brown – 110,100
Play resumes today at 1:00pm CT and 114 players remain. Keep it tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the WSOP Circuit Regional Championship.
