The Turning Stone Casino has attracted massive fields throughout the first half of the Circuit stop.
Verona, New York (22 March, 2023) - Smashed. Crushed. Destroyed. Annihilated. Obliterated.
Pick your favorite adjective to describe how a prize pool is surpassed, then add all the others too because that’s what’s happening to them so far as the WSOP Circuit series has returned to Turning Stone Resort Casino in Verona, New York.
Some of the largest fields of the WSOP Circuit season have turned out at New York’s premier poker venue with anywhere from four to eight times the guarantee being reached in each of the side events leading up to the $1,700 Main Event which begins Thursday.
That comes with a $500,000 guarantee, but if the week’s trend continues, some new adjectives may need to be created.
For example, the series’ opening event, the $400 Double Stack, came with a $25,000 guarantee, but when the smoke cleared, champion Stephen Goodemote had taken home $39,688 alone. A total of 647 players turned out for that event, creating a $213,510 prize pool.
Next up was the massive $400 multi-flight event (which came with a $200,000 guarantee). An incredible 2,616 entries came out for that one, building a prize pool of $863,280, with Timothy Russ earning a huge six-figure score of $116,971.
The next player to turn $400 into a huge payout was the winner of Event #3, Alden Palmer. He bested a field of 573 players to earn $35,250 of the $189,090 prize pool. Another $25,000 guarantee absolutely blown away.
An amazing field of 871 entries came out for Event #4: $300 Seniors No-Limit Hold ‘em, where John Bieber claimed the top prize of $36,024 for the price of a buy-in to a small-stakes cash game.
Event #5: $600 Black Chip Bounty saw the latest huge field, with 461 entries being topped by the series’ first two-time ring winner, Jeffrey Kurtz, who earned $37,653 to go along with the $16,536 he won in March 2020 when he won his first ring at Harrah’s Atlantic City.
Finally, another $25,000 guarantee was left in the dust as 526 entries came out for Event #6: $400 6-Max No-Limit Hold ‘em. Once that event’s $173,580 prize pool was distributed, it was Tyler Dietz taking home the winner’s share of $34,085.
Each of these winners is now entered into the WSOP Tournament of Champions, a $1,000,000 freeroll at this summer’s World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.
For the details and full results of those early events, click here.
But yes, it’s now time for the Main Event here at Turning Stone. The first of three opening flights gets underway Thursday at 11 a.m. local time.
Survivors from each of those flights advance to Sunday’s Day 2, and with enough skill and fortune, Day 3 on Monday when a champion will be crowned, earning a huge payday for their efforts.
The WSOP.com live reporting team is on-site and will provide updates of all the action until the Main Event ring has been awarded, along with results of all the other side events along the way, so keep your browsers locked here for all the action.