With Christmas less than a week away, you might expect poker players to take some time off to spend with their families, but of course you\’d be wrong because there is no stopping poker. Just check out your local poker room on Christmas, and I\’m sure you\’ll find people who aren\’t Jewish, Muslim, or atheist. To be fair, what would be a better Christmas present than a bad beat jackpot?
Anyway, the poker scene around the US is currently focused in Atlantic City, where one of four Regional Championships on the World Series of Poker Circuit is now well underway. There were surprisingly few other stops, as even poker players have a tough time creating the right excuse to get away from their families during the holidays.
WSOP Circuit Regional Championship – Harrah\’s Atlantic City (Atlantic City, NJ)
136 players came out to play this $10,000 event, which will be nationally televised. The number is quite a bit smaller than the 226 players who showed up for the previous Regional Championship, which, in addition to the prize money included, has nine seats that will be awarded to the $1 million freeroll that will take place at the end of the season, which will have a field even smaller than this tournament and a bracelet to be awarded to its champion. 6.6% of this field will find their way in to the 2010 Circuit National Championship, which will take place May 27th at Caesers Las Vegas.
As of this post, 55 of the 136 are still in on Day 2. Among those with some serious chips are Eugene Katchalov, Bryn Kenney, Vanessa Selbst, Sorel Mizzi and Dan Kelly. Matthew Waxman is currently in the top 10, as he attempts to top his $1,600 Main Event victory from less than a week ago in this series with a high profile $10K victory. Waxman won $117,797, which will certainly help cushion the blow if he fails to make the money in this tournament. [WSOP]
EPT Prague (Prague, Czech Republic)
The other big stop this past week was in Prague, as the Europeans and under-aged Americans ponied up €5,300 each to take their last shot at making 2010 a good year for themselves. An impressive 563 players turned out for this tournament to create a prize pool worth over $3 million.
It was an all European final table, with 3 Italians, a Russian, a Slovak, a Frenchman (no this, isn\’t the start of a joke) a Polish player and one from Wales. Roberto Romanello got very close to an EPT title in February of this year, finishing 6th in Copenhagen. He received his closure this week, running over the final table on his way to the title and €640,000. The UK native broke down in tears after the final hand, in a display that could be described as the \”anti-Affleck\” on the emotional scale. [PokerStars Blog]
Borgata December Mini Series (Atlantic City, NJ)
David Inselberg won $61,000 in the $1,500 Main Event, which had an impressive turnout of 141 players without much hype or advertisement. Josh Brikis took 9th in this tournament.
Minnesota State Poker Tour (Canterbury, MN)
Apparently not ok with sitting on his laurels following his 2010 WSOP Main Event final table appearance, Jason Senti wanted to win something a little closer to home, taking down an event on the Minnesota State Poker Tour in Canterbury, an $1,100 tournament that drew 137 runners. Senti took home $38,540 for his win.