The $5,000 championship event at Caesars Indiana, the final stop on the 2006-2007 WSOP Circuit tour, got underway today aboard "The Glory of Rome," the world's largest riverboat casino. It drew 154 players who generated a prize pool of $736,900. Because it coincided with the final day of the championship event at Foxwoods, the number of entrants was slightly down from the 169 players who showed up for last October's finale here. Nonetheless, it capped a highly successful 10-event tournament that drew a grand total of 2,966 entrants along with a total prize pool of $1,916,630. First place will play $238,656 plus an entry into the $10,000 WSOP championship event.
Caesars Indiana is located in the town of Elizabeth, on the Ohio River, surrounded by lovely rolling countryside and just a short drive from the famed tourist center of Louisville, Kentucky, home of the Louisville Slugger and Muhammad Ali museums.
This event drew a large contingent of top pros from California that included "the Robin Hood of Poker," Barry Greenstein, along with his friend and protégée Mimi Tran; Men "The Master" Nguyen, Chris "Armenian Express" Grigorian, and Young Phan. Also on deck were Scott Fischman and horse breeder Mark Smith, winner of the Circuit championship at Grand Casino Tunica last year. Smith, incidentally, did very well in the Ladies Only event here. No, he didn't play in it, but he did sponsor two ladies with whom he plays in a home game in Lexington, Kentucky, and the two finished second and fourth.
Each player today started with 10,000 in chips. As happened last year, action was very fast at the outset, then slowed considerably as players dropped quickly. As the next-to-last round ended, Greenstein pulled in a large pot when an opponent folded, giving him about 57,000 and in a rough tie with Fischman for third place. Two other players had about 90,000 and 70,000 respectively.
The day ended with 33 players remaining and Adam Friedman holding the chip lead with 126,100. They will return at noon tomorrow to play down to the final nine
--Max Shapiro
| End of Day One Seats and Chip Counts: |
| Table 19 |
|
|
| Ynes Guerra |
39,900 |
1 |
|
|
2 |
| Larry Bueter |
10,700 |
3 |
|
|
4 |
| Craig Sorrell |
26,800 |
5 |
| Steve Boyle |
89,400 |
6 |
| Willard Cupp |
29,000 |
7 |
| Tim McCarthy |
65,300 |
8 |
| Derek Demolet |
28,600 |
9 |
|
|
|
| Table 20 |
|
|
| Neal Harding |
48,100 |
1 |
|
|
2 |
| Young Phan |
73,800 |
3 |
| Dean Schultz |
28,000 |
4 |
| Gabe Cook |
14,800 |
5 |
| Barry Greenstein |
69,000 |
6 |
| Frank Gary |
13,400 |
7 |
| Bryan Sapp |
29,200 |
8 |
|
|
9 |
| Dennis Anness |
115,000 |
10 |
|
|
|
| Table 26 |
|
|
|
|
1 |
| Troy Sutton |
92,500 |
2 |
| Hilbert Shirey - D |
32,200 |
3 |
| Gilbert Lusby |
36,000 |
4 |
| Joel Casper |
47,100 |
5 |
| Rod Derrow |
11,400 |
6 |
| Scott Fischman |
75,400 |
7 |
| Ed Corrado |
30,400 |
8 |
| John Hayes Jr. |
21,600 |
9 |
| Ronnie Nichols |
8,100 |
10 |
|
|
|
| Table 34 |
|
|
| Shawn Quillin |
71,000 |
1 |
| Armando Pagliari |
23,700 |
2 |
| Jamie Eisenhut |
50,100 |
3 |
|
|
4 |
| Tommy Mayes |
24,900 |
5 |
| Men "The Master" |
64,300 |
6 |
| William Billot |
23,100 |
7 |
| Adam Friedman |
126,100 |
8 |
| John Hegele |
27,000 |
9 |
| Kevin Marcotte |
17,800 |
10 |
|
|
|
| Payout Schedule: |
|
|
| 1. $238,756 |
|
|
| 2. $125,273 |
|
|
| 3. $73,690 |
|
|
| 4. $58,952 |
|
|
| 5. $44,214 |
|
|
| 6. $36,845 |
|
|
| 7. $29,476 |
|
|
| 8. $22,107 |
|
|
| 9. $14,738 |
|
|
| 10.$11,790 |
|
|
| 11.$11,790 |
|
|
| 12.$11,790 |
|
|
| 13.$10,317 |
|
|
| 14.$10,317 |
|
|
| 15.$10,317 |
|
|
| 16.$8,843 |
|
|
| 17.$8,843 |
|
|
| 18.$8,843 |
|
|