WSOP Circuit

For the fourth straight year, the World Series of Poker Circuit has returned to Southern California. The Harrah’s Rincon Casino-Resort, nestled in the cool mountains 45-miles away from sunny San Diego, is currently hosting the eighth of 12 WSOP Circuit stops on this year’s tour.

The $5,000 buy-in championship event began today, which coincidently is “Super Tuesday” for California and voters scattered all across the country.

Just as “Super Tuesday” is likely to go a long way towards nominating the next American president, today’s tournament results at Harrah’s Rincon are certain to weigh heavily on the latest WSOP Circuit championship.

At the end of Day One, Kenny Bedoya from San Francisco stands at the top of the leaderboard with a whopping 438,400 in chips. He holds a nearly 190,000 advantage over Peter Neff who is currently in second place. Michael Pickett ranks third with 215,200. Incredibly, no other player of the remaining 24 has greater than 174,000 in chips.

This year’s championship attracted 148 entries creating a total prize pool of $706,800. Several notable poker pros and celebrities entered the prestigious event including former WSOP gold bracelet winners Lee Watkinson, Tom Schneider, Layne Flack, Brandon Cantu, Bill Edler, and Jeff Madsen.

Celebrities included Dr. Jerry Buss and Frank Mariani, part-owners of the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers. Former WSOP Circuit event winners included Evan Schwartz, Matthew Glantz, and the defending Harrah’s Rincon champion from 2007, Peter Feldman.

Other poker notables who entered included Erick Lindgren, Gavin Smith, Nick DiLeo, Michael Banducci, Allen Kessler, Alex Jacob, Vanessa Rousso, Travis Erdman, and Chad Brown. Day One of the main event was rounded out by the reigning world poker champion Jerry Yang, who made history by winning $8.5 million at last year’s WSOP. Yang is from nearby Temecula, CA, which is about 25 miles away from Harrah’s Rincon.

“This is like home to me….this is my turf,” said Yang during a break in the tournament. “I have seen a lot of my friends here and some of them have even come to watch me play. It’s really a great feeling to come back to Rincon as the world poker champion. I am so overwhelmed with how nice people have been to me and am so pleased to see Harrah’s Rincon host another World Series Circuit tournament.”

Despite Yang’s enthusiasm, he did not survive past the first day. In fact, 121 players were eliminated – leaving just 27 players still alive to compete for the championship. The tournament’s top 18 finishers will collect prize money.

The 2008 Harrah’s Rincon champion will receive $229,002 plus an $11,000 bonus prize – good for a guaranteed seat in the 2008 WSOP championship event to be held later this year in Las Vegas. The winner also receives a commemorative gold and diamond ring, presented to each and every WSOP Circuit champion.

Play on Day Two continues on Wednesday, February 6th starting at 2 pm. Day Three starts on Thursday as the tournament’s nine survivors will take their places at the final table.