Cherokee, North Carolina (21 February 2023) - The World Series of Poker Circuit is back at Harrah's Cherokee for the third time this Circuit season, with 18 gold rings awarded between February 16 - 27th.
Always among the top two largest circuit stops of the WSOPC calendar, Cherokee has again attracted a plethora of players from the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee and more around the south.
Thus far, five circuit ring winners have been confirmed through the early events of the series with the results of the 6th event pending and the 7th ring set to be won later today.
Regular WSOP circuit grinder, Timothy Little kicked off the series by winning his third ring in Event #1: $400 No-Limit Hold-em - Big 30K stack. The event drew 545 entries, significantly up from the 326 in December, which created a prizepool of $179,850. Little took down the top prize of $33,946. This is the second consecutive year that Little has won a ring in Cherokee as he won his most recent one last February right here in the mountains of North Carolina.
Event #2: $400 No-Limit Hold'em was a multi-flight that spanned several days and drew a humongous field of 3,120 which was a 18% increase in field size from the same event during the recent Cherokee stop in December and created a prizepool of $816,755. The winner of this event was a new face on the scene as James McCormack of W. Hempstead, NY gathered not only his first ring but also his first circuit cash as he conquered the field and spun the $400 buy-in into gold with a $134,410 grand prize.
Over the years in Cherokee, one of the most consistent local NC based players has been Marshall White of Boone. Despite being a very successful player on the WSOP circuit with five rings to his name, he had never been able to clear the ring-winning hurdle at his home event in Cherokee. That all changed in the wee hours of Sunday Morning as he was able to capture his first ring in Cherokee and his sixth overall as he conquered the field of 818 in Event #3: $400 No-Limit Hold-em for $47,242. White defeated Preston McEwan heads-up, who has had a very stellar series of his own thus far with a 10th place finish in addition to this runner-up finish, as well as being in contention in the final two tables on Day 2 of the high roller today.
The ever-popular Seniors event was again a big hit as it attracted 940 entries, slightly more than the 918 entries from December. Russell Werkheiser of Snellville, GA took down the ring and the $52,407 winner's haul.
The most recent w\ring was won by Marvin Tackett of Ohio who won Event #5: $600 No-Limit Hold'em for $45,645 out of the $229,175 prizepool and captured his first circuit ring. He denied Hamid Izadi his fourth ring after defeating the Cherokee regular in heads-up play.
Here is a look at the results of the events thus far:
Event #1: $400 No-Limit Hold'em - Big 30k Stack - Timothy Little ($33,946)
Event #2: $400 No-Limit Hold'em - James McCormack ($134,410)
Event #3: $400 No-Limit Hold'em - Marshall White ($47,242)
Event #4: $400 Seniors - Russel Werkheiser - ($52,407)
Event #5: $600 No-Limit Hold-em - Marvin Tackett ($45,645)
The $1,700 buy-in Main Event is the premier event of the series and will be made up of three starting days beginning on Thursday February 23. Day 2 will be Sunday Feb. 26 and will be made up of the survivors from Days 1a, 1b and 1c.
December's Cherokee Main Event drew 1,502 entries to make a huge $2,275,530 prizepool. Donovan Dean of Alabama won his second ring and the $356,963 grand prize.
With the numbers up so far in this series from December, the main event is likely to collect even more entries and create and even larger prizepool to fight for.
WSOP.com will be on hand starting tomorrow for result updates of the remaining preliminary events of the series and provide full live reporting coverage of the Main Event starting on Thursday.