HARRAH
New Orleans, LA (May 14, 2011) – The biggest poker turnout in six years jammed into Harrah’s New Orleans for the most recent World Series of Poker Circuit tournament.

The seventh (of 11) gold ring events on the schedule attracted a whopping 646 players.  This was the biggest turnout for any poker tournament held in New Orleans since May 20, 2005.  The previous record was set during the heart of the poker boom, when Harrah’s New Orleans offered its inaugural series of WSOP Circuit tournaments.  In fact, no tournament in New Orleans had attracted more than 600 players since that time.  Last year’s biggest number was 547 players, so this year’s attendance smashed the previous mark by a wide margin.

Now six years later, it’s clearly understood why The Big Easy has been the final WSOP Circuit stop for poker players during each of its seven seasons.  Aside from world-class restaurants, great music, and a unique culture that can only been found in the Crescent City, the last week has shown that the poker action in New Orleans is pretty spectacular, too.

Harrah’s New Orleans is the fifteenth and final WSOP Circuit stop of that season, which began nearly nine months ago.  With little one week remaining, players from all over the country continue to scramble to get to New Orleans in order to qualify for one of the much-coveted seats in the WSOP Circuit National Championship, which is set to begin in Las Vegas on May 27th. 

Event #7 -- a $300 (+55) buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament -- generated a prize pool totaling $186,048.  The top 72 finishers collected prize money – which was more than any other tournament played so far.  A complete list of all players that cashed in EVENT #7 can be found here.

The latest WSOP Circuit champion is “Captain Tom” Franklin, from Gulfport, MS.  He collected $38,139 for first place.  Franklin was also presented with his very first gold ring, the ultimate symbol of achievement awarded for winning a WSOP Circuit event.  Franklin also earned 50 points towards qualifying for the WSOP Circuit National Championship.  He is a lock to qualify, based on his results this season.

Franklin has a stellar tournament resume.  He won a WSOP gold bracelet in 1999, playing Omaha High-Low Split.  Franklin has accumulated nearly $3 million in career tournament earnings.  More than $1 million of that has been won in WSOP events.

This has been an incredible season for Franklin on the WSOP Circuit.  This marks his eighth time to cash.  Prior to this victory, Franklin had a fifth, a third, and two second place finishes.  Remarkably, Franklin had never actually won a gold ring until this event.  In a sense, he picked the right event for his first victory – given the huge field size and added prestige of competing against many tough players here in New Orleans who are scrambling to earn player-points. 

The tournament was played over two consecutive days.  After most of the starting field was eliminated on Day One, 45 survivors returned for Day Two action.

Final table play began with ten players on a busy Saturday night in the main stage of the special events center at Harrah’s New Orleans.  Every table was filled to capacity with tournaments, satellites, and cash games.  

When play began, the finalists and their starting chip counts were as follows:

Seat 1:  Abel Hinojosa (Houston, TX) – 41,000 in chips 
Seat 2:  John M. Cressend (Destrahan, LA) – 181,000 in chips 
Seat 3:  Mark Lindley (Katy, TX) – 321,000 in chips
Seat 4:  Larry “Big LL” Wayne (Houston, YX) – 300,000 in chips
Seat 5:  “Captain” Tom Franklin (Gulfport, MS) – 500,000 in chips  
Seat 6:  Joel Merwick (Omaha, NE) – 545,000 in chips
Seat 7:  Trent Temples (Bogalusa, LA) – 653,000 in chips 
Seat 8:  George Menia (Baton Rouge, LA) – 1,085,000 in chips
Seat 9:  Ryan Bradley Freeman (Katy, TX) – 1,450,000 in chips
Seat 10:  Johnathan Westra (Gainesville, FL) – 760,000 in chips 

Final table play began at 8 pm.  Play ended at about 1 am – making the total duration about five hours.  The official order of finish was as follows:

Tenth Place:  John M. Destrahan was eliminated first and ended up as the tenth-place finisher.  He is a certified public accountant from Destrahan, LA. 

Ninth Place:  Abel Hinojosa was low on chips and desperately needed to win a race to double up and stay in the tournament.  Unfortunately, on his final hand Hinojosa’s A-Q lost to Captain Tom Franklin’s pocket jacks, resulting in a ninth-place finish.  Hinojosa is a machinist from Houston.  This was only his second WSOP Circuit tournament.

Eighth Place:  Mark Lindley lost a few early pots and found himself short-stack about an hour into the action.  He was in the big blind and shoved his entire stack holding A-2, following a middle-position raise.  Too bad, his opponent had a real hand – pocket jacks and made a snap call.  Lindley failed to connect with the board and went out in eighth place.  Nonetheless, he could take great pride in chasing and making the final table of his first-ever WSOP Circuit event.  Lindley is a real estate developer from suburban Houston.

Seventh Place:  Trent Temples, an attorney from Bogalusa, LA had his motion to stay at the final table denied by the cards.  However, he did receive a nice cash settlement for seventh place.  This marked only his second occasion to play in the WSOP Circuit tournament.

Sixth Place:  George Menia was one of the biggest stacks when final table play began.  He went card dead about midway through the finale and had to gamble to say in the tournament.  He pushed pre-flop with A-Q on what turned out to be his last hand.  Sadly, he ran into a monster – pocket kings.  Menia had a few outs but failed to improve, which meant the kings scooped the pot. Menia is an engineer from Louisiana’s capital city, Baton Rouge.    

Fifth Place:  Ryan (Bradley) Freeman took a tough beat and busted out in fifth place.  He was dealt pocket aces on his final hand.  After the flop came J-9-2, hips opponent (Tom Franklin) moved all-in with top pair (J-T).  Freeman called instantly and tabled the best hand.  Franklin picked up a straight draw when the turn brought a queen.  Then, horror struck for Freeman when a king hit the river, giving the evil adversary his straight.  Freeman, a 22-year-old student from Katy, TX settled for a payout totaling $9,702.

The final four players agreed to a deal.  However, they agreed to play the tournament out for the gold ring, rating points, and some extra cash.

Fourth Place:  Jonathan Westra has enjoyed a storied career on the WSOP Circuit.  He’s won two gold rings – the first at Harrah’s Tunica and the second at Harrah’s New Orleans (both in 2008).  Westra has earned nearly $500,000 in career tournament winnings, which includes 23 major cashes and four overall victories.  He is a 25-year-old poker pro from Gainesville, FL.
 
Third Place:  Joel Merwick took third place.  He is a 30-year-old poker pro from Omaha, NE.  Merwick has now cashed seven times on the WSOP Circuit this season.  He enjoyed four of his cashes at the first Circuit stop of the season, which was Council Bluffs last August.

Second Place:  The runner up was Larry Wayne, a.k.a. “Big LL.”  He is a 39-year-old poker dealer from Houston.  Wayne earned most of his tournament money by playing online.  In fact, he has accumulated nearly $750,000 in online tournaments.  He won a world championship at the 2008 “World Championship of Online Poker” in Seven-Card Stud High-Low.  Big LL was officially paid $23,600 in prize money.

First Place:  “Captain Tom” Franklin is the latest WSOP Circuit champion.  He earned his first WSOP Circuit gold ring at Harrah’s New Orleans.  First place officially paid $38,139.

Franklin, now in the twilight of his years, is a proud Vietnam veteran.  He served in the U.S. Marines.  He also claimed he “kicked ass” when he was in the military.

Franklin was overjoyed after winning his first tournament victory in more than a year.  He seized the microphone from the tournament director and announced to a full house (of mostly hecklers) that he was “buying drinks for everyone” on Bourbon Street, which brought a slew of hollers and catcalls from the audience.  There was no report on whether or not anyone actually took up the Captain on his generous offer.  At press time, no one had yet witnessed Franklin buying anyone a drink.

The new champion joins previous winners who are jockeying for position in the point race for Best All-Around Player for the Harrah’s New Orleans series.  Even though Franklin will earn a spot into the finals, he also has a shot to be the event champion.  Here is the list of winners so far in New Orleans:

Event #1:  John Christian (Baton Rouge, LA) defeated 473 players and won $28,288 in $355 NLHE 
Event #2:  John Holley (Destin, FL) defeated 96 players and won $8,380 in $355 MIX POT-LIMIT 
Event #3:  Danny Doucet (Lafayette, LA) defeated 312 players and won $21,116 in $355 NLHE
Event #4:  Brian Walsingham (Atlanta, GA) defeated 423 players and won $26,801 in $355 NLHE
Event #5:  Zhen Cai (Daytona Beach, FL) defeated 293 players and won $33,753 in $355 NLHE
Event #6:  Walter B. Wright (Las Vegas, NV) defeated 101 players and won $14,544 in $565 PLO
Event #7:  Tom Franklin (Gulfport, MS) defeated 646 players and won $38,139 in $355 NLHE

The player who accumulates the most overall points in the ten gold ring tournaments receives a pre-paid entry into the $1 million 2010-2011 WSOP Circuit National Championship, to be held at Caesars Palace Las Vegas, next month.  At least 11 players from Harrah’s New Orleans will qualify for the nationally-televised WSOP gold bracelet event.

The current leader is Daniel Galindo, who currently has two final table finishes.

A FULL SCHEDULE of remaining events at Harrah’s New Orleans can be found here.
  
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A Short History of the WSOP Circuit at Harrah’s New Orleans

The first major poker tournament held at Harrah’s New Orleans was called the “Cajun Poker Classic,” which took place in early 2004.  The three-day tournament attracted 536 players and inspired the casino to host more poker events in the future.  Later that year, the first Bayou Poker Challenge was held, which consisted of six tournaments. 

Next, Harrah’s New Orleans became a charter member of the World Series of Poker Circuits, which officially started play in 2005.  Since then, New Orleans has hosted the final stop on the circuit each year, which takes place in mid-May just prior to the start of the WSOP at the Rio in Las Vegas.  The first two WSOP Circuit championships held at Harrah’s New Orleans were televised by ESPN and were among the most exciting tournaments broadcast at the time.  They still occasionally appear in re-runs to this day.

WSOP Circuit events in New Orleans proved to be so successful that a second tournament series was created, starting in 2007.  This became known as the “Bayou Poker Challenge” (a.k.a. the Winter Bayou Poker Challenge), which has since become a December attraction.  This tournament series is categorized as a World Series of Poker Satellite, since its Main Event winner earns an entry valued at $10,000 seat (plus expense money) into the WSOP championship, held the following year.