January 30 2012, Cory Dowd

It was an action-packed Day 2 of the World Series of Poker Circuit $1,600 Main Event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. The day began with 133 players competing for a prize pool of $963,210, and more than half got paid when the money bubble burst at 72 on Sunday. The field was then trimmed down to 15 players after ten levels of play, with chip leader Nicholas Wilbur pacing the field with 1,541,000 chips.

Wilbur earned most of those chips when he got his all in preflop against the of Brandon Riha. In a pot worth more than 1.4 million chips, Wilbur managed to catch up on the river as the board ran out . After that, Wilbur used his big stack to chip up for the better part of a level and a half.

Wilbur’s run is especially impressive when you consider who is chasing him. Jeff Madsen, Dutch Boyd, Sean Getzwiller and Kevin Calenzo are still in contention with very healthy stacks. Madsen was one of the chip leaders throughout Day 2. However, he took a tough hit late when his was unable to catch up to the of Rellie Sigua. Madsen will return with 917,000 chips on Monday.

Boyd was also consistently chipping up throughout the day and then hit a one-outer on the river against Sam McGrath. Boyd’s luck didn’t last, though, as he was unable to fade the flush draw of Joe Kuether on the very last hand of play to finish with 726,000. Kuether, the Day 1a chip leader, is just shy of the chip lead entering the final day, holding 1,519,000.

Getzwiller bagged up 989,000 in large part due to his pocket jacks holding against the of Brandon Riha and the of short stack Mark Kroon late in the night. Calenzo, meanwhile, got most of his 695,000 chips toward the end of the day when he was dealt pocket aces against the pocket queens of Joshua Pollock.

Scott Clements, William Reynolds, Dan O’Brien and James Carroll were some of the unfortunate players who fell short of the money on Sunday. Andreas Hoivold, Kathy Liebert and Gavin Griffin all made the money, but all were eliminated before play ended.

Monday will bring the final day of the WSOPC Main Event at Caesars Palace. The final 15 will play down to a champion, and our Live Reporting Team will be providing updates all day long. Be sure to check in to find out who wins the WSOPC gold ring and the $197,451 top prize.

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January 28 2012, Kevin Taylor

The World Series of Poker Circuit kicked off its third Main Event of 2012 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on Friday. The first of two Day 1s had exceptional turnout as 308 players bought into the $1,600 event. Only 58 players survived after 15 levels of play, with Joe Kuether ending the day as the chip leader with 380,500. Jonas Mackoff was close behind with 355,000.

Kuether amassed his lead in a massive pot against Giorgio Medici. Each held about 190,000 in chips when Kuether got his all in preflop against the of Medici. The board gave Kuether a sweat, but his pair held on to move him to the top of the leaderboard. Medici was crippled and busted a short while later.

There is something to be said for the less fortunate because many of the players that hit the rail Friday are considered among the best in the world. Eric Baldwin, Steve Gross, David Williams, Justin Smith, Sam Barnhart, Tom Marchese, Scott Clements, Joe Tehan, David “Bakes” Baker and Ted Lawson all went down before the day ended. However, it is worth noting that we may see one or all of the aforementioned players on Saturday for Day 1b as the Main Event is a one-time re-entry tournament.

Two well-known pros were fortunate to survive on Day 1a. Gavin Griffin lost about half his stack early on but rebounded nicely to finish with 133,500. James Carroll, meanwhile, had his misfortune come later in the day. He started out extremely well and was the chip leader for the early part of the afternoon, but he nearly got stacked when he flopped top two pair against middle set. With some luck and patience, he was able to bag up 56,500.

Other notables that we will see on Sunday include Chip Jett, William Reynolds, Dan O’Brien, Sean Getzwiller and Allen Carter. Each of them held a steady pace throughout the day and will have healthy stacks when the fields combine on Sunday.

We’ll do it all again from the beginning on Saturday. Day 1b will start with a brand new field and play another 15 levels to complete our Day 2 flight. If the action is as faced paced Saturday as it was on Friday, you won’t want to miss anything. The cards are back in the air at 12 p.m. PST so check back in to the PokerNews Live Reporting page for all the updates you can handle.

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