A THUNDERING VICTORY
A Thundering Victory

Oklahoma City’s David Chishko Slam Dunks a Gold Ring at Horseshoe Bossier City

Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Event Draws Strong Midweek Crowd

Horseshoe Bossier City Area Hosting First-Ever WSOP Circuit Events through September 19th


Bossier City, LA (September 14, 2011) – The inaugural WSOP Circuit at Horseshoe Bossier City has now crossed the midway point.  The seventh of 12 gold ring events was played and completed today, as another sizeable turnout showed up for the poker festival happening on the Red River.

Event #7 was a $345 buy-in Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em event.  There were 265 entries, which was more than was expected for the Tuesday-Wednesday midweek competition.  The total prize pool came to $77,115.  The top 27 players were paid.  All players who cashed received WSOP Circuit National Championship ranking points.

The newest poker champion is David Chishko, from Oklahoma City, OK.  He is a full-time skycap at the Oklahoma City Airport.  Chishko may be accustomed to carrying suitcases and helping air travelers.  But he may need a bit of assistance himself with his bags when he heads back home.  The winner collected $18,563 in prize money, which was his best career poker payout, to date.

Chishko is a huge fan of the NBA’s Oklahoma City Thunder.  In fact, he often wears the team’s jersey and warm ups.  Chisko created his own bit of thunder in this tournament, staging a late comeback and achieving his first major tournament win.  Chishko says he enjoys tournament poker more than cash games.  He learned how to play mostly from the Internet.  He’s played many hours of micro-stakes tournaments and certainly used this knowledge to win a much bigger prize here in Bossier City.

For his victory, Chishko was presented with the coveted gold ring, which is the ultimate token of achievement for winning a WSOP Circuit tournament.   

A full list of all players that cashed in Event #7 can be seen at WSOP.COM

After most of the starting field was eliminated on Day One, only 12 survivors from the starting field of 265 returned for Day Two action.  

When final table play began on Wednesday afternoon, the parity of chip stacks meant any of the six finalists could win the victory.  The six finalists and their starting chip counts were as follows:

Seat 1:  Kevin Kaylor (Houston, TX) – 464,000 in chips
Seat 2:  Zack Evans (Olathe, KS) – 566,000 in chips
Seat 3:  Scott Williams (Memphis, TN) – 349,000 in chips
Seat 4:  Eric Dethlefsen (Shreveport, LA) – 286,000 in chips
Seat 5:  Dennis Crowley (Pearland, TX) – 590,000 in chips
Seat 6:  David Chishko (Oklahoma City, OK) – 385,000 in chips

Final table play began at 4 pm and ended at 12:30 am – making the total duration about 8.5 hours.  Surprisingly, this was the longest finale so far at this series, despite it being a six-handed table.  The official order of finish was as follows:

Sixth Place:  Zack Evans was the first player to bust out.  He is a 24-year-old semi-pro poker player from Olathe, KS.  Evans has previously cashed in a number of major tournaments throughout the South.  This was his second time in the money at this year’s Bossier City series.  $3,481 was the payout.

Fifth Place:  Kevin Kaylor, from Houston, TX took fifth place.  He has seven major tournament cashes on his resume, including a seventh place showing a few years ago at a WSOP Circuit event at Harrah’s New Orleans.  This time, he earned $4,569.

Fourth Place:  Dennis Crowley, from Pearland, TX finished in fourth place.  He began play as chip leader but went card dead at the worst possible moment.  He failed to pick up a playable hand during his final few hours at the table.  “Timing is everything,” Crowley said as he was paid $6,098 in prize money.

Third Place:  Scott Williams ended up as the third-place finisher.  He is from Memphis, TN.  Williams owns and operates a horse-drawn carriage company.  This was his second time to make a WSOP Circuit final table.  He took seventh place at an event in Biloxi, MS held last year.  Third place paid $8,286.

Second Place:  Eric Dethlefsen finished as runner up.  He is a 27-year-old steel worker from Shreveport.  This marked his second time to cash on the Circuit this season.    

The final duel of the tournament began with Chishko holding nearly a 2 to 1 chip advantage over Dethlefsen.  Heads-up play lasted only about 30 minutes, during which the two players were cautious.  Then, the final hand came and abruptly ended the tournament.  Here’s how the last hand played out:

Chishko –    
Dethlefsen –    
Flop –      
Turn –  
River –  

All the chips went in after the flop.  Dethlefsen shoved, and Chishko called.  Dethlefsen didn’t know it, but he was in big trouble with a dominated hand.  Hoping to hit a flush draw initially, a club was the last thing he wanted, since Chishko had a higher club draw.  Down basically to six outs, Dethlefsen missed and the tournament was over.  Dethlefsen finished as runner up and Chishko was declared the winner.

First Place:  David Chishko became the sixth WSOP Circuit champion of the new season.  He earned his first major tournament victory and first WSOP Circuit gold ring with an impressive win at Horseshoe Bossier City.  First place paid $18,563.

With his victory, Chishko moved into the top ten players as the chip leaders on the WSOP Circuit leader board.  The race to win the best all-around title here at the Horseshoe Bossier City series is heating up.  At present, Felicia Johnico holds the top spot.  She has a first- and fourth-place showing thus far, making her the player to beat.  Johnico is also the national point leader – at least until someone posts multiple high finishes here at Bossier City and beyond.  

The player who accumulates the most overall points in the twelve gold ring tournaments receives a pre-paid entry into the $1 million 2011-2012 WSOP Circuit National Championship, to be held in Las Vegas, next May.  At least two players from this tournament series will qualify for the WSOP Circuit National Championship, which is classified as a WSOP gold bracelet event.

There are six more gold ring events remaining in what is being billed as a “12 rings in 12 days” poker series.  The WSOP Circuit at Horseshoe Bossier City continues through September 19th.  This year’s schedule includes not only the gold ring events, but multiple second-chance tournaments (at 5 pm and 7 pm most days), single table and mega satellites, plus cash games going around the clock inside the Horseshoe Poker Room.

For further information about the NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS RACE, see here.