January 27 2012, Chad Holloway

For the last week, the World Series of Poker Circuit has been taking place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The 12-event stop kicked off on Thursday, Jan. 19, and will be headlined by the $1,600 Main Event beginning on Friday, Jan. 27.

“Caesars Palace has always carried with it a special aura – whether we’re talking about gambling, entertainment, or poker,” said Andy Rich, Director of Poker Operations for Caesars Palace. “We’ve always been the ‘where it’s at’ in Las Vegas. Over the next 12 days, we’re rolling out the red carpet for thousands of poker players who are expected enter our events and play for a gold ring. As the saying goes, ‘you can’t get a hit if you don’t stand up to the plate and take swing.’”

While the stop has played host to the normal variety of tournaments – such as the popular no-limit hold’em re-entry, pot-limit Omaha, and six-handed variants – a new event premiered on the Las Vegas strip this week. Event #5, the $350 Ante-Only No-Limit Hold’em tournament, attracted 203 entrants to create a prize pool of nearly $60,000.

So, what is an ante-only event? Here’s how the WSOP explains it:

“The game is relatively easy to both understand and play. Instead of two players always posting orbits of forced bets (the small blind and big blind), all players are required to post an ante on every single hand. Then, prior to the flop, the first player to the left of the button is required to bet what usually amounts to the smallest denomination chip in play. Action then flows around the table and players may fold, call, or raise. Thereafter, the game proceeds as usual, with the usual rounds of betting after the flop, turn, and river.”

The winner of the first-ever WSOPC Ante-Only tournament was Jeff “Dobie” Dobrin, who captured a gold ring in addition to the $15,357 first-place prize. Dobrin, 40, lives in Portland, Oregon, and plays poker full time. He defeated well-known poker personality Bryan Micon in heads-up play to capture the title.

This week, the PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be providing coverage of the Main Event. Here’s a look at the WSOP Circuit Caesars Palace events completed thus far:

WSOP Circuit Caesar Palace Ring Event #1 No-Limit Hold’em

Buy-inEntrantsPrize Pool

$300+$50	482	$140,262

PlacePlayerHometownPrize

1	Daniel Dizenzo	Sussex, NJ	$30,151
2	Andrew Youngblood	Las Vegas, NV	$18,645
3	Benjamin Palmer	Las Vegas, NV	$13,621
4	Robert Whalen	Cudahy, WI	$10,097
5	John Carreno	Los Angeles, CA	$7,594
6	Steven Morgan	Somerdale, NJ	$5,793
7	Jonathan Gerrick	Las Vegas, NV	$4,481
8	Matthew Peters	Lake Stevens, WA	$3,516
9	Kenika Terlep	Honolulu, HI	$2,798

WSOP Circuit Caesar Palace Ring Event #2 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry

Buy-inEntrantsPrize Pool

$300+$50	887	$258,117

PlacePlayerHometownPrize

1	Aaron Klausman	Birmingham, AL	$50,329
2	Paul Gibbons	Middleton, WI	$31,103
3	Richard Dugger	Coronado, CA	$22,910
4	Doug Lee	Calgary, AB, Canada	$17,098
5	Robert Mercer	Las Vegas, NV	$12,926
6	Edilberto Pina	La Quinta, CA	$9,899
7	Larry Wright	McQueeney, TX	$7,676
8	Daniel Wojcik	Newark, NJ	$6,027
9	Richard Jackson	Key West, FL	$4,791

WSOP Circuit Caesar Palace Event #3 No-Limit Hold’em

Buy-inEntrantsPrize Pool

$500+$60	207	$100,395

PlacePlayerHometownPrize

1	Gregory Hartwick	Bolton, ON	$26,106
2	Kevin Calenzo	New Hartford, NY	$16,124
3	Grantland Hillman	Oakland, CA	$11,643
4	Andrew Rudnik	Johnstown, PA	$8,551
5	Jason Kinder	Carrollton, TX	$6,388
6	Ricky Crandell	Overland Park, KS	$4,854
7	Daniel Savas	Temecula, CA	$3,750
8	Adel Parvanehgohar	Chandler, AZ	$2,945
9	Stuart Pfeifer	Los Angeles, CA	$2,349

WSOP Circuit Caesar Palace Ring Event #4 Pot Limit Omaha

Buy-inEntrantsPrize Pool

$300+$350	120	$34,920

PlacePlayerHometownPrize

1	Gary Bolden	Las Vergas, NV	$10,477
2	Tom Christopher	Rocheport, MO	$6,475
3	Jonathan Tamayo	Humble, TX	$4,610
4	Chris Back	Vancouver, BC	$3,349
5	Scott Davies	Las Vegas, NV	$2,481
6	Scott Silverman	Lone Pine, CA	$1,873
7	Brian Swinford	Hoopeston, IL	$1,440
8	Brent Carter	Oak Park, IL	$1,128

WSOP Circuit Caesar Palace Event #5 Ante Only No-Limit Hold’em

Buy-inEntrantsPrize Pool

$300+$50	203	$59,073

PlacePlayerHometownPrize

1	Jeffrey Dobrin	Portland, OR	$15,357
2	Bryan Micon	Las Vegas, NV	$9,488
3	David Delaney	Long Lake, MN	$6,851
4	David Neal	Maple Valley, WA	$5,031
5	Jackson Kimball	Clarkston, MI	$3,759
6	Carlos Herrejon	Mexico	$2,856
7	Conrad Monica	Hemet, CA	$2,206
8	Ferdinand Quelle	Brandon, MB, Canada	$1,733
9	Scott Permann	Tampa, FL	$1,383

WSOP Circuit Caesar Palace Ring Event #6 No-Limit Hold’em Six Handed

Buy-inEntrantsPrize Pool

$300+$50	349	$101,559

PlacePlayerHometownPrize

1	Blake Kelso	Las Vegas, NV	$23,583
2	Ho Suk Lee	Honolulu, HI	$14,567
3	Sam Barnhart	Little Rock, AR	$10,518
4	David Curre	Fairport, NY	$7,724
5	Oliver Feldmann	Frankfurt, Germany	$4,385
6	Brian Bumpas	Long Beach, CA	$4,385
7	George Saca	Sacramento, CA	$3,387
8	Jeremy Burleson	Stanley, NC	$2,660
9	Barry Washington	Corvallis, OR	$2,122

With several events yet to be determined, the race for the WSOP Caesars Palace Casino Champion is still up for grabs. Whoever captures that title, along with the eventual winner of the Main Event, will automatically qualify for the Second Annual $1 Million National Championship. That event is limited to 100 players, and so far only the following players have qualified:

National Championship Qualifiers

Abraham Araya

Choctaw Main Event Champion

In addition to the qualifiers, players who earn enough points on the National Leaderboard will be able to buy in to the National Championship:

WSOPC National Leaderboard Top Ten*

PlayerPointsRingsCashedEarnings

David Clark	137.5	1	6	$47,015
Daniel Lowery	120	0	5	$238,921
Alexandru Masek	117.5	1	5	$125,015
Robert Newman	115	1	4	$45,619
Matthew Chang	112.5	1	6	$23,149
Orna Haynes	110	0	4	$53,349
Felicia Johnico	110	1	5	$22,620
Justin Gardenhire	107.5	1	3	$120,243
Russell Ivy	107.5	0	5	$68,208

*Leading up to the WSOP Circuit Caesars Palace stop.

Don’t miss your chance to qualify for the National Championship. There are still plenty of opportunities to play, including any of the remaining stops on the WSOP Circuit schedule.

Remaining 2011-2012 WSOPC Schedule

EventLocationDates

Circuit Event	Harrah’s Tunica	Feb. 2 – 13, 2012
Circuit Event	Palm Beach Kennel Club	Feb. 16 – 27, 2012
Circuit Event	Caesars Atlantic City	March 1 – 12, 2012
Circuit Event	Harrah’s Rincon	March 15 – 26, 2012
Circuit Event	Horseshoe Council Bluffs	March 29 – April 9, 2012
Circuit Event	Harrah’s St. Louis	April 12 – 23, 2012
Circuit Event	Harrah’s Chester	April 26 – May 7, 2012
Circuit Event	Harrah’s New Orleans	May 10 – 21, 2012

*Photo courtesy of Eric Harkins and ImageMasters.

Get all the latest PokerNews updates on your social media outlets. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook today! In the meantime, see who qualifies for the National Championship this week by following our Live Reporting Team’s coverage from Caesars Palace.

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August 02 2011, Chad Holloway

Every year, poker players flock to Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker. With so much money flooding the poker economy, it seems that every card room wants a piece of the pie. In recent years, various Vegas properties have begun to offer their own tournaments series, either complementing the WSOP or directly competing with it, depending on your point of view. Two of these series are the Golden Nugget’s Grand Poker Series and the Caesars Palace 2011 Mega Stack Series.

Although bracelet winners tend to dominate the headlines during the WSOP, they’re not the only poker champions in Sin City. So we thought we’d recognize some of the winners from these smaller events and examine how they left their mark on poker history. While there are too many events and winners to list individually, we thought it would be best to give you the highlights, including some of the notable events, results, and winners.

The Grand Poker Series

The Grand, which has become synonymous with the film bearing the same name, has proven to be one of the more popular side series as an affordable alternative to the WSOP. With buy-ins ranging from $100-$1,080, the Grand tournaments have a tendency to draw an eclectic mix of both amateurs and pros. Between June 4 – July 4, 2011, the Golden Nugget held its latest incarnation with 67 events, varying from traditional no-limit tournaments to more flavorful ones like Guys ‘n’ Dolls, Young Guns (30 & under), and Tag Team events.

While not saturated with as many big names as the WSOP, the Grand has been known to pull in some notable players. Throughout this year’s series, a number of pros journeyed downtown including Susie Isaacs, Steve Wong, Faraz Jaka, Kenna James, Donald Webb, Ben Tang, Jeff Hwang, Esther Rossi, “Captain” Tom Franklin, and Will “Monkey” Souther. However, although all of these pros found mediocre success, they were all no doubt looking up to poker professional Chip Jett, who managed to win two events.

Here is a look at some of the Grand’s notable events and winners, including a look at the Grand Finale Championship final table.

The Grand Poker Series 2011

PlacePlayerPrize

1	Marvin Rettenmaier	$54,713
2	Jorg Peisert	$33,737
3	Kenna James	$22,795
4	Thomas Jones	$15,957
5	David Wain	$12,537
6	James Wadzinski	$10,258
7	Faraz Jaka	$8,206
8	Dmitriy Kanevtsev	$7,294
9	Dianna Russo	$5,699

Caesars Palace 2011 Mega Stack Series

In May, the WSOP unofficially kicked off with the WSOP-Circuit National Championship at Caesars Palace. While the WSOP festivities relocated to the Rio shortly thereafter, not all of the poker action did. Caesars Palace played host to the popular Mega Stack Series, a string of 91 tournaments held between May 30-July 15, 2011.

Aside from the Main Event, which we’ll talk about below, the big story from the 2011 Mega Stack Series was Leif Force’s win in Event #50 $340 Pot-Limit Big Omaha 8 or Better Six-Handed for $14,007. If you recall, Force barely missed out on the WSOP Main Event final table in 2006, ultimately finishing in 11th place for $1,154,527. He also finished second in the World Poker Tour Southern Poker Championship Main Event in January for $315,790.

While the 2011 Mega Stack Series was a tremendous success all around, the folks at Caesars saved the best for last. The $1,060 Main Event drew an astounding 1,610 entries spread across two starting days. The turnout demolished even the most optimistic projections, forcing the tournament staff to call an audible on Day 1B. With not enough room to accommodate everyone, a temporary cap was placed on the field before tournament officials began accepting alternates and seating them accordingly. It was a madhouse, but the subsequent $1,561,700 prize pool help soothe any frustrations.

With huge money on the line, dozens of poker pros turned out to attempt to claim their share. While not all managed to make the money, a few did including Antoine Saout (122nd – $2,186), Drazen Ilich (100th – $2,499), Zachary Clark (95th – $2,499), Tomer Berda (78th – $2,967), Vitaly Lunkin (67th – $3,436), Isaac Baron (65th – $3,436), David Steicke (63rd – $3,904), Justin Young (61st – $3,904), Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi (45th – $5,154), Roland Isra (43rd – $5,154), and Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin (17th – $10,463).

Poker Phenoms’ Jake “PSUTennis” Toole went on to finish in third place for $143,052. In the end, Frenchman Adrien Braesco outlasted all others to claim the $269,382 first-place prize and the 2011 Mega Stack Series Main Event Title.

2011 Mega Stack Series Main Event Final Table

PlacePlayerPrize

1	Adrien Braesco	$269,382
2	Tyler Vinyard	$199,898
3	Jacob Toole	$143,052
4	William Mietz	$115,566
5	Benjamin Le Few	$89,329
6	Robert Georuto	$64,030
7	Mauri Dorbek	$46,851
8	Marlon Delosantos	$31,234
9	Daniel Papki	$21,864

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