Matt Waxman wins WSOP Circuit main event

The World Series of Poker Circuit main event wrapped up at Harrah's on Tuesday.

Florida's Matt Waxman won the event taking home almost $118K.

Here's more from Poker News.


Matthew ‘Poligraph’ Waxman has won the WSOP Circuit main event championship at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City. The 25-year-old Florida poker pro has found plenty of success online, including winning the FTOPS XIII Main Event in 2009 for $453,663, but Tuesday’s WSOP Circuit finish marked his first win in a major live tournament. The $117,797 first-place prize pushes his career winnings over the $1 million mark.


A total of 352 players entered the $1,650 buy-in main event. On the third and final day of play Waxman arrived at the final table with 1,334,000 in chips, narrowly trailing chip leader Brandon Croft’s 1,397,000. Croft never got anything going and ended up falling in 8th place.


When play reached heads up, it was Waxman against Jesus Cabrera. Waxman had the early chip lead, but Cabrera doubled up a couple of times, including one hand in which his A-9 outdrew Waxman’s A-K. But Waxman kept chipping away to reestablish his chip lead. On the final hand it appeared Cabrera would double up again when he got all in with pocket 6s against Waxman’s pocket 3s. However, a 3 on he flop changed things, and Waxman held on to win the hand and the tournament.


Waxman earned $117,797, a WSOP Circuit championship ring, and a seat into the WSOPC Circuit $1,000,000 freeroll national championship event that will take place at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in May of 2011.


Poker action will continue at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City this week with the nationally televised $10,000 Northeast Regional Championship beginning Sunday, Dec. 19, at 11 a.m.


Here’s a look at the main event final table results


1. Matthew Waxman – $117,797
2. Jesus Cabrera – $72,824
3. Mark Sykes – $53,126
4. Chris Bonita – $39,406
5. Dave Cubeta – $29,685
6. Mike Summers – $22,704
7. Tam Ly – $17,618
8. Brandon Croft – $13,869
9. Manish Patel – $11,073


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Did Harrah's mess up the WSOPC schedule?

ESPN's Andrew Feldman posted recently about the World Series of Poker Circuit event in Atlantic City.

Feldman had high hopes for the event - and for the record, haw drawn very well - especially after seeing how the WSOPC did in Hammond.

But Feldman thinks there was screw up in the scheduling and Harrah's could have done a better job.

Before the second of four $10,000 Regional Championships on the 2010-2011 WSOPC season, Harrah's Atlantic City $1,650 buy-in main event attracted 352 players to become the second-largest WSOP Circuit main event this year. Sounds great, right? Well, maybe. The WSOPC Hammond main event recruited 872 players before the first Regional Championship and in turn, created a field of 226 for the $10,000 event.


Hopes were high after Hammond that we'd see a great turnout in Atlantic City and in attendance, yes, they've got it compared with 2009 for the "main event." When the highlighted tournament was a $5,150 event last year, 195 players bought in and created a prize pool of $926,835. We'll have to wait to see where the $10,000 event falls as the main event reached only $561,776. Numbers aside, I have one major issue with this stop of the WSOPC: The $10,000 event in Hammond began three days after the $1,600 event; in Atlantic City, the $10,000 event begins a week after the $1,650 event.


Talk about killing all momentum.


It's possible that the staff in Atlantic City wanted to allow players the chance to come back from APPT Sydney or EPT Prague, but let's be serious, that's only an excuse I'm going to throw in their direction. This is a big mistake on their part. Traveling to tournaments isn't cheap and if you can convince players to go for two tournaments instead of one, they'll be more likely to see that the trip is worthwhile. In this case, players either had to decide to fly out for the $1,650 and stay in A.C. for a week or fly in next weekend for the higher buy-in tournament. There are some who definitely stayed for both, but you'll see an influx of different players in town next weekend ready to play in a nationally televised event. There was the opportunity to capitalize on the added excitement a televised tournament brings and this schedule just didn't do the trick. Make the $1,650 a couple days before the $10,000 and see numbers rise in both tournaments. I don't doubt that we're going to see a bigger turnout in this $10,000 compared with the Hammond $10,000, but I think that the WSOPC could've made more out of one of the bigger poker locations in the world.


As for the tournament, just over three dozen remain looking for the $117,797 top prize and notables among them include Matt Glantz, Josh Brikis, Ari Engel, Mike Leah and Chris Tryba. Thirty-six players will make the money.

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WSOP Circuit stop sets tournament record at Harrah's

Even while headlines of Atlantic City's doom hang over the city, poker tournament continue to do well in the resort.

It was proven again on Saturday when Harrah's Resort set a new attendance record for the casino in the World Series of Poker circuit event. Saturday's $300 buy-in saw 1,250 participants, breaking the 2008 mark of 1,181.

A $363,750 prize pool was raised for the event.

“We’re really excited for having set this record,” said Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City Poker Director John Arthur. “We got it right this year with the structures and everything else we have put into place for the Circuit and hope to continue having great numbers through the rest of the series.”

Christopher Rivers of Atlanta won the event and he took home $64,565.

Annie Duke will be at Harrah's for WSOP

Annie Duke will be coming back to Harrah's Resort to support the World Series of Poker Circuit event, according to poker blog The Real Deal.

Duke will make an appearance at the tournament at 6 p.m. and then follow with a Q&A on Dec. 10.

On Saturday, Dec. 11, Duke will play cash games in the poker room starting at 11 a.m.

The last time she played at Harrah's, Duke played in a $2/$4 and it's likely she will play there again. Harrah's brass probably don't want to rile up the no-limit players who may get cranky if she wins a big pot off of them. This way, she entertains the low-limit players and everyone walks away happy.

WSOP Circuit event at Harrah's in December

Harrah's resort will host the World Series of Poker circuit event December 4-22 as it has for the several years, the Real Deal blog had on its website last week.

The super regional event is a $10,000 by-in ($9,700+$300).

I question the timing and the buy-in of the event. With the event being held right before Christmas and the amount of money it would cost to participate in this event, Harrah's is alienating many of its local players. I expect a small turnout for the super regional.

There could be some big name players, but the winter on the East Coast isn't really a favorite place to be especially considering how terrible the winter was last season.