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Almost-Final Numbers for 2009/10 WSOP-Circuit

Minor-league poker season comes to a close

Comments (4)
by , May 18, 2010 | 7:29 pm

Might not be fair to our pals at Heartland Poker Tour — or even the people we don’t know running low buy-in events across multiple US states — to allow WSOP schedules to determine when the sun does not rise on the Gregorian poker calendar as if all players were Chinese Hebrews … but hey, that’s how it works in poker. As much as the nation of Pokerstarzistan might want to go to war to establish their EPT/UKIPT-APPT/ANZPT-NAPT/LAPT(?) clock as the new global standard … the World Series of Poker still sets the international norm for how poker people are supposed to plan/keep track of our lives.

With that said, there are two more events at WSOP-NOLA this week … the ladies event and a seniors event … but leading up to those, WSOP clerics have released official “semi-final” statistics for the 2009-2010 WSOP-Circuit season … which awarded more than $20 million in prize money and 150 gold rings across 11 stops held in Hammond, Indiana (Chicago), Southern Indiana, Lake Tahoe, Atlantic City, Tunica, Council Bluffs, Caesars Atlantic City, San Diego (Rincon), St. Louis, Las Vegas, and New Orleans.

For those interested, that accounts for about 1/10 of overall WSOP prize money and more than 2/3 of annual WSOP hardware awarded. Seems Mark “Pegasus” from Georgetown, KY, took down the lion’s share for an unofficial title as Minor League Player of the Year.

Click below for rankings for the 2009-2010 season that came from all that:

MOST GOLD RING WINS:

2 – Mark “Pegasus” Smith (Georgetown, KY)
2 – John ‘Cowboy” Land (Dallas, TX)
1 – (146 players)

MOST FINAL TABLE APPEARANCES:

5 – Mark “Pegasus” Smith (Georgetown, KY)
5 – Christopher Cardenas (Woodridge, IL)
5 – Michael Ashar (Vermilion, OH)
4 – Dwyte Pilgrim (Brooklyn, NY)
3 – (13 players)

MOST CASHES:

8 – Mark “Pegasus” Smith (Georgetown, KY)
8 – Michael Ashar (Vermilion, OH)
6 – Dwyte Pilgrim (Brooklyn, NY)
5 – (10 players)

It should also be noted that “Chicago Johnny” Nowak (Fairview, TX) set a record for most cashes at one WSOP Circuit stop. He recently cashed five times alone at Harrah’s New Orleans.

The top money winner of the season was Dan Livingston (Oak Forest, IL), with $291,749 in earnings. Livingston won the Main Event championship held in Chicago in October 2009. Runner up was Chris Klodnicki (Vorhees, NJ), who accumulated $281,277. Klodnicki won the Harrah’s Atlantic City championship in December 2009.

Next season’s WSOP Circuit schedule will be released sometime during the WSOP in Las Vegas. More locations and events are planned for 2010-2011 than ever before.


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  • http://twitter.com/BJNemeth BJ Nemeth

    This post simply lists the end-of-season stats for the WSOP Circuit. How does that affect any of the other tours? When the Heartland Poker Tour finishes their season, they’ll have their own end-of-season stats, just as the World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour did when their seasons ended last month. Even at the “minor league” level, the WSOP Circuit hardly has a monopoly — just better media coverage from its ties to the biggest brand in poker.

    And to say that 2/3 of the WSOP hardware has already been awarded is a *huge* over-simplification. There is a night-and-day difference between a WSOP bracelet won in Vegas or WSOP Europe and a WSOP Circuit ring. None of the WSOP hardware that really matters has been awarded yet in 2010.

  • traction

    BJ,
    Are you having a bad 2010? You have seemed angry the last few months. In your posts, in your podcasts,. What’s going on?

  • DanM

    BJ, indeed, are you just extra-feisty because we have no episode of The Poker Beat this week?

    Let me address:

    >>This post simply lists the end-of-season stats for the WSOP Circuit. How does that affect any of the other tours?< <

    It does not. That's the point of my first graf, claiming that the WSOP dictates the beginning and end of a poker year. Honestly, though there are other tours out there, I couldn't begin to tell you when theirs begin or end.

    >>When the Heartland Poker Tour finishes their season, they’ll have their own end-of-season stats, just as the World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour did when their seasons ended last month. < <

    Again, I'm on board with you. I look forward to seeing the HPT's end-of-year results. Though I have no idea when their "year" begins or ends ... I think they will have the biggest argument for their MVPs to be considered "minor league" players of the year. (Dude, don't give all my plans away ... but I'd like to someday name a Pokerati Minor League Player of the Year ... will need someone to track and compare hard stats to do that. Are you the guy?!?)

    As to the WPT and EPT, they get a bit more confusing, because their buy-ins are more "major league".

    >>Even at the “minor league” level, the WSOP Circuit hardly has a monopoly — just better media coverage from its ties to the biggest brand in poker.< <

    Agreed. Look forward to the day when one of the other tours reaches a level that challenges a WSOP circuit riding on the coattails of the Vegas summer events. I think Heartland stands the best shot at that ... but let's see their year-end stats -- particularly with total prize money awarded ... though I don't think they'll come close because they have far fewer events being a long-weekend kinda tour, as opposed to a two-week shindig.

    Likewise, from what I understand, we'll be seeing more "smaller" events from the WPT throughout Europe.

    >>And to say that 2/3 of the WSOP hardware has already been awarded is a *huge* over-simplification. There is a night-and-day difference between a WSOP bracelet won in Vegas or WSOP Europe and a WSOP Circuit ring. None of the WSOP hardware that really matters has been awarded yet in 2010.<<

    Dude, hardware is hardware (regardless of how much you can pawn it for on Ebay). What do you propose — calling rings “software” and low-buyin bracelets “malleable wear”?

    Got my math from taking 150 circuit rings … and then we’ll add 57 bracelets. 150 out of 207 pieces of metal prizes awarded. I had to kinda ballpark it, because it’s less than 3/4, so I just said more than 2/3. (especially because of the not-yet awarded NOLA seniors and ladies event prizes.) However, upon closer look, you are right, I probably shoulda treated the 72.464 percent as “nearly 3/4″.

    P.S. I do consider May 26th — cards in the air for WSOP (Las Vegas) event #1 — poker new-years day. that, however, is of course debatable. Maybe the new year begins on July 5,

  • Kevin Mathers

    The HPT season is January-December. Adding up their prize pools from 2009, there was just over $6,000,000 from their 17 tournaments.