After a highly successful tournament schedule in Hammond, Indiana at the end of October, the World Series of Poker Circuit moved across the U. S. to land at Harvey’s in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The run of tournaments since the start of the tournament schedule last Thursday have proven to be popular quite lucrative for those that have taken down championships.
The averages for the $300 and $500 No Limit Hold‘Em events that have run have been around 250 people, but the folks at Harvey’s have also thrown some other disciplines of poker into the mix. The $200 Ladies’ Event drew a respectable 145 players and two other non-Texas Hold‘Em events were sizeable for the difficulty of the field.
The $300 HORSE tournament had a smaller field of 88 players, but its eventual winner is a name that many will recognize. Tim Vance, whose 2008 tournament resume features a championship on the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Copenhagen back in February, fought off 2008 Nevada State HORSE Champion Zak Gilbert and Chris Dombrowski to win his second WSOPC championship ring. He will have to be considered a contender in the $5,000 Championship Event.
In the $300 Omaha High-Low tournament, Alec Martin took a day off from his job as a dealer in a California card room to play in what he considers to be his best game. The other 114 competitors would make his work difficult, but he made the final table. Martin was able to work his way from a less than average stack and, once play was down to three players, he had taken over the chip lead. Once he knocked out two time WSOPC ring bearer Jason Stern – who has over $1 million in tournament earnings in his career – Martin held a 2:1 edge over Woody Malin and went on to take the Omaha High-Low championship.
The history of the WSOPC stops at Harvey’s has drawn some big names to the tournament and also has brought some history to the WSOPC as well. In the inaugural year of the WSOPC (2005), top poker pro Jeffrey Lisandro had to battle through a final table that included Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey and James Van Alstyne to capture the title over 173 other competitors.
With the expansion of the WSOPC schedule after its successful debut season, Harvey’s actually saw two events play on its tables in 2006. Previously unknown player Clint Baskin won the Harvey’s WSOPC tournament in June of that year and, in September, Michael “Scott” Arents overcame WSOP bracelet holder Burt Boutin and Omaha expert Scott “BigRiskky” Clements to earn the championship.
2007 would be the year that many would remember as the best year ever, though. At last year’s event, Full Tilt Poker’s Chris Ferguson defeated local player Dustin Fox for the championship of the 142 player field. The championship was a memorable one for “Jesus,” as it etched his name into the WSOPC record books as the only player ever to have won three WSOPC Championship Events. It is expected that Ferguson will be back to defend his title and the field will be comparable to the size of last year’s event.
Action is set to start at 12:00 Noon Pacific Time on Friday. Poker News Daily will have a full recap of the action as Harvey’s Lake Tahoe will look to add another champion to the World Series of Poker Circuit’s pantheon.