The WSOP-Circuit has been good to many a Pokeratier and Pokeratizen alike. It’s a place where minor-league heroes are born … and some build the bankroll to live life as a real pro. With the Global poker year coming to a close this week, for so many serious players it’s time to think about starting all over and hitting the grind again.

(Only this go-round will be completely without Sunday Millions or Rush Poker bankroll supplements.)

Players get a month-and-a-half break … and then it’s off to Bossier City — “Shreveport,” we used to call it  — for the beginning of the 8th incarnation of the WSOP-Circuit season. (Texas politicians take note: the Dallas market alone is so juicy that the WSOP added a second stop to serve it.)

TOURNAMENT DATES	LOCATION
Sep 8-19, 2011	Horseshoe Bossier City (Louisiana)
Sep 29 – Oct 10, 2011	Horseshoe Southern Indiana
Oct 13-24, 2011	Horseshoe Hammond (Chicago)
Oct 27 – Nov 7, 2011	IP Casino Resort & Spa (Biloxi, MS)
Nov 10-21, 2011	Harveys Lake Tahoe
Dece 1-12, 2011	Harrah’s Atlantic City
Jan 12-23, 2012	Choctaw Durant (Dallas/Oklahoma)
Jan 19-30, 2012	Caesars Palace (Las Vegas)
Feb 2-13, 2012	Harrah’s Tunica (Mississippi)
Feb 16-27, 2012	Palm Beach Kennel Club (Florida)
Mar 1-12, 2012	Caesars Atlantic City
Mar 15-26, 2012	Harrah’s Rincon (San Diego area)
Mar 29 – Apr 9, 2012	Horseshoe Council Bluffs (Iowa)
Apr 12-23, 2012	Harrah’s St. Louis
Apr 26 – May 7, 2012	Harrah’s Chester (Philadelphia)
May 10 – May 21, 2012	Harrah’s New Orleans

Below the jump for the details on what’s different this year. New point system, adios $10ks, “12 rings in 12 days.” New stop, obv. It’s Rounders & Road Gamblers — hey, that sounds like “social gaming” — brought to you by the World Series of Poker!

[Beow-neow-neow beow-neow neow … ]

The WPT has its own version of a lower-stakes Circuit tour, of course — in similar locations — and now Epic/Heartland seems to be stepping in to make something more of the recreational-to-semi-pro players who swarm from up to 250 miles away to compete in mini-poker festivals wrapped around a $1,500-ish main event.

It’s arguably the most competitive part of the live poker landscape in the US these days. Wonder if all WSOP Circuit events will offer free Wi-Fi.

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Haven’t been this interested in actual tournament results since ’06 … but if the run-up to the 2011 WSOP is any indication … everybody’s gonna win! No? Well there were a some notable finishes for a few people starting their summers off right:

Friendly Faces at WSOPC National Championship
Caesars Palace, LAS VEGAS
As far as Pokerati’s concerned, La Sengphet is the player who made the WSOP-Circuit most fun to follow. Whether it be strong-playing “the Hammer” or testing the limits of “the Harris” … not since Dwyte Pilgrim has there been such an engaging minor-league pro story. La criss-crossed the country for months to earn her seat, where she finished 4th for $100k this weekend — staking her claim as the #1 most successful female on the 2010-11 WSOP Circuit. Also notable at the final table was Josh Evans, longtime friend of Pokerati and frequent opponent of La’s back in the Dallas Jackie’s days. He won $135k, finishing 3rd. Television coverage of the WSOP-Circuit leading up to this event event airs on Thursdays on Versus, starting June 2. NOTE: La kept her winning ways alive, chopping an Aria nightly four ways for $1,600 the following day.

Orleans Open Raising
The Orleans, LAS VEGAS
Another strong Pokerati lady player proving she can compete against fields with or without penises, Stacey Nutini had been moneying often in recent months in various small tourneys around town, and even tore up events online post-April 15 to pad her theoretical play-money bankroll. But yesterday, the defending LIPS Grand Champion — who’s probably taken more Maven Training than anyone else — showed she could turn it on with real money on the line. @LasVegasPokers destroyed a 166-player field in the $550 main event at the Orleans Open this weekend for a solid, WSOP-warming $24k score.

Poker Pro Wannabe FTW!
Caesars Palace/the Rio, LAS VEGAS
When not working undercover to confirm the whereabouts of Howard Lederer, new Pokerati on-and-off-the-felter Marie-Lizette admits she still has “the dream” … and to that effort took down an $85 nooner at Caesars for a $1,440 bankroll boost, and then binked a single-table-satellite for a seat in today’s WSOP Event #1, the casino employees event. (Added props to Pokerati alum Kevmath, who won the same Caesars daily the night before.) @MarieLizette to see her excitable tweets from the WSOP.

Elsewhere …

PokerStars, Made in China
Grand Lisboa Casino, MACAU
With the Macau Poker Classic underway this week, PokerStars is essentially saying if they can’t have America, they’ll be in China before Caesars … establishing a foothold where the WSOP can’t by staging their second MPC in three months — complete with three events determining the APPT “Official” Asian Player of the Year. Click here for the latest standings, and remember to divide by 8 for a rough conversion from HK to US dollars.

High Schooler Wins WPT Spanish Championship
Grand Casino, BARCELONA
18-year-old Lukas Berglund from Uppsala, Sweden is the youngest champion in the history of the World Poker Tour after winning the Season X WPT Spanish Championship. Berglund, who graduates from high school this week, scooped €206,000 after crushing the field and knocking out every single player on the final table en route to victory.

Someone will win the first bracelet of the 2011 WSOP today, before registration opens for event #1. We listed about 13 percent of the field as people who might be worth watching, just because, and three of them made it to the final table and ITM of the WSOP-freeroll championship … which I’m not sure whether or not qualifies for POY points but obviously should. You’ll have to just believe us that the guy who woulda been my 14th pick on that list was Huy Nguyen, who ended Day 2 yesterday by banking $27,500 for 10th place.

So cards just got in the air for the first televised event of the 2011 WSOP, and of the 10s of thousands of players who had a chance to be here, three of them are from Dallas (though one has since moved to Las Vegas), and one has been part of Team Pokerati since she got a lotta chips in the 2010 WSOP ladies event.

LIVE UPDATES here.

Go La Sengphet! Also go Josh Evans! And though for a while I wasn’t sure if I had first seen him at Jackie’s in Dallas or maybe was just confusing him with a guy seen once at the Venetian, go Charles “Woody” Moore! All three of these players and the others are anything but luckboxes in a sit-n-go … they are real grinders and rounders with skill … and a win here, my contention, is a ticket to the real big leagues … as the winner of today’s event will be known all around as a real real player, and will have the bankroll — $300k for first — to prove it for as long as they can hold as a true and successful pro.

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Don’t wanna say too much because, you know, don’t want any cooler-jinx factor in play … but La Sengphet is the chip leader going into today’s action for the WSOP-C National Championship. 97 players started … (three no-shows) … 35 remain. Top 10 ITM, $300k FTW.

We’ll save for later discussion of there being more Pokerati patches in the field than Full Tilt wearers … as well as jokes about Allen Kessler and the EV of a 97-way chop. For now, the story putting at least a few butterflies in stomachs in and around Caesars Palace … from WSOP.com powered by PokerNews:

Headlining today’s field is La Sengphet with an amassed 165,000 mainly courtesy of a huge call with second pair on a four-club board on one of the final hands of the day. Only two other players sit in the six-figure club with Huy Nguyen (122,700) and Jonathon Poche (121,400) snapping at Sengphet’s heels.

Charles ‘Woody” Moore (95,100), Curt Kohlberg (94,600), Doug ‘Rico’ Carli (72,800), Bernard Lee (70,900), Dwyte Pilgrim (36,300) and Allen Kessler (23,100) are just a handful of notables still in contention for capturing the $300,000 first prize and coveted gold bracelet.

Traci Brown (the only other woman to qualify for this event) and Pokerati pal Josh Evans are also still alive — though both small-stacked with about 33,000 chips and a chair.

Blinds are 600/1,200 + 200 as play gets underway right about now 20 minutes ago!

They play down today to a final table of 9. Follow along here.

I have a feeling the inaugural WSOP million-dollar freeroll might feature some of the best poker we’ll see throughout the WSOP. The unofficial kick-off for the 2011 WSOP activities — and perhaps opening testament to the dramatically reduced relevance of typical patch players this year — gets underway this Friday.

Below is the official list of who gets to play — final save for point and money totals on the nine players who locked up seats yesterday and played (or are still playing) the Southern regional championship at Harrah’s New Orleans today.

NOTABLE:

98/100 qualifiers are men; the two women are both from Texas.

99/100 qualifiers are American; the other is from Canada.

Plenty of interesting names qualified for 1 of 100 seats over the course of the ever-expansive WSOP-circuit 2010/11 season. And I’m sure some of the best stories come from winners we’ve never heard of … but regardless, several well-known players and a few special-to-Pokerati players will be fighting for 10 payouts ranging from $27,500 to $300,000, including …

La Sengphet (one of only two women who qualified)
David Clark
Josh Evans
Charles “Woody” Moore
Dwight Pilgrim
Allie Prescott
Allen Kessler
Tim West
Bernard Lee
Ali Eslami
Traci Brown (the other female qualifier, also from Texas)
Brandon Adams
Shannon Shorr
Andy Frankenberger

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UPDATE: It’s official, both La n DC qualified! For the inaugural minor-league Champions League NIT 2011 WSOP-Freeroll World Championship. Whatever it turns out that people end up calling it … we can only hope here at Pokerati for a high-stakes poker lovers’ quarrel at the final table.

La N Dc
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!! Finally heading HOME! After 3wks of grinding I am happy and proud to say my Baby has successfully crawled his way into the 10k seat freeroll. Great job Baby, so proud of you!! 😀 We now have 2shots at 300k 🙂

For at least a few players, today is a day kinda like when high-school kids wait to get their college acceptance/rejection letters … waiting to see the final points tally to be official, so they know whether or not they qualified for the WSOP-Circuit National Championship — the $1 million freeroll that will kick off the 2011 WSOP.

Click here for the national leaderboard to see who’s got a seat for sure, and who looks likely as we wait for WSOP officials to turn orange squares into red

Team Pokerati’s La Sengphet is a lock (8th among non automatic qualifiers with 155 points, 2 rings, 7 cashes, $67k) … yay La! You go girl! … and, of course, she also won a non-points pendant for her 1st place finish in the WSOP-Caesars ladies event. And it looks like her other half, David Clark, also will make the cut but just barely (112.5 pts – 1 ring, 9 cashes, $59.5k) … DC made a final table in a non-ring PLO/8 event at WSOP-NOLA for good measure without the points … and he finishes just ahead of Steve Zolotow, who qualifies with the same point total, no rings, just 3 cashes, and $43k in earnings to give you an idea who got in at the bottom of the field.

At the very bottom, interestingly enough, with 100 points, is John Riordan, who won a ring and $210k in Florida. But he will not get a seat this year because he is not yet 21. Will be curious to see how the WSOP handles this case … will he simply get a rain check for when he comes of age? Because if so, when will we see bona fide WSOP-Teen events?!? You know, of course, that I am in the minority willing to admit that I think poker is good for kids.

Another late qualifier is longtime friend of Pokerati’s Josh Evans … who finished 3rd in the WSOP Southern Regional championship last week at Harrah’s New Orleans. Thrilled about that, as it gives us another excuse to re-run that highly acclaimed but not quite award-winning film we created about Josh as he got 6-figure deep in the ’07 main event:

[CORRECTION: Josh got 3rd in the WSOP-NOLA $1,600 main event … which still gives him enough to qualify (140ish pts, 7 cashes $81k) but did not give him the guaranteed seat as just making a Regional Championship final table does.]

Move over Tom and Julie Schneider … you two were like so ’07-’09. The new, reigning king-and-queen power couple of Team Pokerati are DC n La. Sure, DC wasn’t wearing a Pokerati patch when he took down the first ring event of the inaugural WSOP-Choctaw … but hey, that’s never stopped us before from taking claim to a player with lots of chips after putting up a big win. (And of the 8 patches we have left, only three of those still have glue!)

Two days after David Clark‘s win in Durant, Oklahoma (the closest thing to the Dallas market the WSOP could find), his girlfriend, La Sengphet, got 2nd place in the $235 Ladies Event for a $5k payday. La, of course, was Team Pokerati’s 2010 WSOP MVP — making the final table of the ladies event (7th place, $22k) to add to her previous big scores in an ’09 Venetian Deep Stack (2nd, $31k) and Caesars Mega Stack (1st, $12k). (She’s Asian, too, btw.)

Check it out here, for how DC took down the $345 NLH event, with 935 players, for a first-place payout of $50,921 and proof to his girlfriend that he has indeed been paying attention during pillow talk.

Also at the final table in Oklahoma with DC was friend o’ Pokerati Josh Evans, who finished 6th for $10k. You may remember Josh for tearing up a second-chance tourney at the ’07 WSOP before making a deep run in the main event where he made his video debut in this fine poker film, which has since become an “underground” cult classic:

Wish I coulda been there. Great to see players I grew up with (poker-wise) in the Dallas boomtime poker rooms represent! Also it’s kinda a reminder why these sorts of “small” events matter to skillful grinders, even without online sponsorship in play. (After all, where else can you expect to find the next Dwyte Pilgrim?) Also cool to see Choctaw, with its brand spankin’ new casino-resort built by Dallas poker money, able to ship some cash back to Texas.

Click below to see more of DC n La in recent Pokerati-branded action:

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Yet we still don’t know how many runners are coming. We can tell you that players are showing up an hour early to take their seats — a sign they won’t win — but the actual number … well that’s a complicated algorithm. It has something to do with numbers of tables available based on other events … and then of course, like all things Vegas, they have to save a few seats for those extra-special VIPs.

(Not sure what they do with those seats when they aren’t taken and there are no alternates … but bottom line is that if Barack Obama or Bono or plausibly even Jeffrey Pollack’s brother showed up to play, they’d find them a seat … even if it meant finding a farmboy from Iowa and tying him up in the back room until dinner break.)

The $1,500 NLH that sold out a few days ago had 2,790 players. And the Seniors Event had 2,707. So there’s your ballpark.

[Fact-check props to the Tao.]

UPDATE: 2,818

And to show the love because Vinny B. has us feeling snippy under his claims that we don’t give proper props to the no-names, click below for a complete list of every single person who showed up today with $1,500 and a dream, but not necessarily a plan on how to really achieve it

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Two others who made it through include SodaSara and Josh Evans. Don’t know what their starting chip counts are or if they are still alive. But happy to see both of them at least cashed in El Norte, the land of poker opportunity (for Texas players).

UPDATE: SodaSara finished 10th place … $60k or 2 percent (depending on which column(s) of the promised prize distributions WinStar stays true to).

Sara (right) is pretty bummed right now about just missing the final table. But soon she’ll realize she just booked her biggest poker score to date — finishing in the top 1 percent of a tough field — and presumably be feeling much better.

LAS VEGAS–Kinda interesting … I don’t know where this video shot from the rails came from … either I pressed a wrong button on my iPhone (in theory) or an anonymous person emailed it into me/YouTube or it was magic. But still, couldn’t wait for ESPN to get and produce the same, er, footage — though they are absolutely welcome to it if they would like.

Anyhow, legal disclaimers aside … Watch a couple of small stacks well into the money but needing to make moves (including Josh Evans, right, shortly before he goes out) with about 80 players left. I wonder how Joe Navarro would interpret this intense, athletic under-the-table action.

LAS VEGAS–Oops, we had our number in the hedline wrong. Turns out poker peeps from Texas were even more dominating than we thought — with nine Here are the Texans who made it to Day 5, with either their current chip count or their cash prize already collected:

Ray Henson — Houston — 6,200,000 (chip leader)
Ayaz Mahmood — Houston — 1,600,000
John Armbrust — Austin — 780,000
Senovio Ramirez III — Mercedes — 770,000

Leonard Pruzansky — Richmond — 75th — $106,382
Josh Evans — Plano — 76th — $106,382
Mark Ellerbe — Richmond — 84th — $82,476
Jared Hamby — Waco — 88th — $82,476
Michael Zinna — San Antonio — 93rd –$67,535

Go Ray Henson! You’re the best! Woooo!

UPDATE: As of dinner break, Henson has dropped to 6th chip position, with 4 million.

LAS VEGAS–The Pokerati dream of following a local boy all the way to the final table has come to an end. Clonie David Williams Tex Barch Chris Como The Big Randy Jerry Randack Josh Evans has been eliminated. After taking a rough hit by a cowboy who doubled through him, he was in a position where he needed a little luck … needed to win all races and maybe hit a river here or there to get back in the action. Still, he finished high enough that — according to his friends who drove into town overnight — he could start doing what he needed to make it to the final table.

That entailed pushing with A-6 … and getting called, unfortunately, by A-10.

Josh Evans Eliminated By Jason Welch

Josh Evans pushed all-in preflop with {A-Clubs}{6-Hearts} and was called by Jason Welch holding {A-Diamonds}{10-Diamonds}.

Board: {K-Diamonds}{J-Spades}{8-Spades}{J-Diamonds}{9-Diamonds}

Welch had the nut flush by the river and Josh Evans was eliminated.

Still, 76th place, for $106,382 … not bad for a guy who was playing $60 tourneys every Tuesday not that long ago. (By the way, Josh is running pretty dern good. He won $49,505 less than a month ago by finishing 2nd in a Venetian Deep Stacks tourney.)

Congratulations, Josh! And thanks for making our main event a little more exciting.

As for Pokerati, we’re off to find another bandwagon to jump on. Remaining Texans, of course, will take priority … as will players with healthy chip stacks.

LAS VEGAS–Throughout history, the WSOP has been dominated by Texans and Jews. At least one side is doing its part to keep that up this year, as eight Texans made it through to Day 5. One guy who probably didn’t get the coverage he deserved is Jared Hamby, known both live and online as “The Waco Kid.” Like Josh Evans, he too happens to be a Jackie’s alum. (Funny to me how reminisces of Jackie’s sound the same as non-Texan reminisces of PartyPoker. Ahh, yes, the good-old-days [of 2006] … )

Anyhow, mad props to Hamby, who finished in 88th place, winning $82,476.

LAS VEGAS–As play gets underway today in Day 5 — the battle for the deep money — there are more people from Texas than any other state … any other nation for that matter.

Click below to read the official recap/preview to learn more.

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LAS VEGAS–It’s gettin’ kinda funky in here. As the intensity of the on-the-table action ramps up, everything else is dying down. They’re tearing down the tables in the tent and throughout the Amazon rooms, the cash games hearken back to a low-rent poker room (with just a few smallish stakes games going), the Lewis family is headed back to Houston … just a couple hours ago a guy from Pokerwire was being staked 60-40 for some online play by some online pro — I have no idea who, but he reportedly has had as much as 141k in his Full Tilt account.

“Don’t worry if you lose the first thousand,” he said. “I can keep giving it to you $1,000 at a time.”

Meanwhile, at “the crossroads” right outside the Amazon Room, Max Pescatori was talking to Jason from Full Tilt about a potential endorsement deal for an online phenom named Dario. (He’s the kid who bought a Porsche with his PokerStars points.) And we have new security guards on duty. One of them was advising (in a whisper) some Germans to go to “The Green Door” — a Las Vegas swingers club — and his replacement is talking WWII history to anyone who will listen.

Should be even more different as Day 5 moves on. Speaking of … with 112 players remaining, Josh Evans enters Day 5 with exactly 1,792,000 chips — enough to put him in the top 20. Everyone redrew for tables, and an exact map of who’s sitting where is forthcoming. But I looked at the bagged chips on his table, and while he’s not the chip leader, he should be relatively comfortable, with only three others in his chip vicinity.