2007 Caesar's Palace Las Vegas WSOP Circuit Event

April 23
Event #1 -- No Limit Hold'Em $500
The kickoff event at Caesar's Palace attracted 601 entries to the tables. A prize pool of $300,500 was created, of which Jason Adler got the lion's share.

1. Jason Adler -- $81,616
2. Thomas Kirkpatrick -- $42,265
3. Marc Durand -- $23,319
4. Maria Stern -- $20,404
5. Barry Clancy -- $17,489
6. Ronald Bell -- $14,574
7. Dave Stann -- $11,659
8. Victor Nguyen -- $8,745
9. Theo Tran -- $5,830
10. Kevin Payton -- $3,206

April 24
Event #2 -- No Limit Hold'Em $1000
We have David Wilkinson as the winner of the second event at the Caesar's Palace Circuit Tournament in Las Vegas. 338 players entered the tournament with cash money going to the top 10 who made the final table.

1. David Wilkinson -- $101,637
2. Gerald Rhoades -- $52,458
3. Joshua Ramsey -- $26,229
4. Johnathan Westra -- $22,950
5. Surinder Sunar -- $19,672
6. William Beasley -- $16,393
7. Mike Yoshihara -- $13,114
8. Shawn Rice -- $9,836
9. William Wagner -- $6,557
10. Lester Houma -- $3,934

April 25
Event #3 -- No Limit Hold'Em $500
Event number three had 522 players pony up $500 each, creating a $261,000 cash pool for the winners.

1. Allen Kessler -- $73,419
2. Jason Becher -- $38,735
3. Berwin Howard -- $20,254
4. Steve Karp -- $17,722
5. Andrew Cohen -- $15,190
6. Doug Haag -- $12,659
7. Brandon Meyers -- $10,127
8. Shane Nelson -- $7,595
9. Tomas Umali -- $5,063

April 26
Event #4 -- No Limit Hold'Em $1500
276 poker amateurs and professionals paid $1500 for this tournament. Size of the prize pool reached $414,000.

1. Erik Riise -- $128,506
2. Benjamin Kang -- $70,678
3. Guy Cicconi -- $36,142
4. John Spadavecchia -- $28,111
5. Thomas Schreiber -- $24,095
6. Peter Horenstein -- $20,079
7. Dennis Petronack -- $16,063
8. J.P. Kelly -- $12,047
9. Andrew Johnes -- $8,032
10. Steve Cowley -- $4,819

April 27
Event #5 -- No Limit Hold'Em $2000
211 players paying $2,000 each created a prize pool of $422,000.

1. Lance Oliver -- $130,989
2. Richard Vallandigham -- $72,044
3. David Moskowitz -- $36,841
4. Hooman Mikzad -- $28,654
5. Blake Buffington -- $24,560
6. Jason Mann -- $20,467
7. Alfredo "Toto" Leonidas -- $16,374
8. Christopher O'Brien -- $12,280
9. Donato Donati -- $8,187
10. Dan Alspach -- $4,912

April 28
Event #6 -- No Limit Hold'Em $500
616 players came to the tables for this event. Prize pool size rose to $308,000.

1. Noam Freedman -- $83,653
2. George Lusby -- $43,320
3. Corey Koll -- $23,901
4. Ross Valentine -- $20,913
5. Ted Lawson -- $17,926
6. Randy Rogers -- $14,938
7. Greg Encinas -- $11,950
8. Keiko Tawarazako -- $8,963
9. David Kelbel -- $5,975
10. James Reason -- $3,286

April 28
Event #7 -- H.O.R.S.E Limit $3000
Only 64 players were in this event. But that did not mean it was short on talent! Hae Cheong came out on top of a final table with Kenna James, O'Neil Longson and Rafael Perry which was no easy feat. The 8 who comprised the final table split a prize pool of $192,000.

1. Hae Cheong -- $67,978
2. Justin Bonomo -- $40,973
3. Joe Simmons -- $24,211
4. Rob Amereno -- $17,693
5. Kenna James -- $13,037
6. O'Neil Longson -- $9,312
7. Michael Puskarich -- $7,450
8. Rafael Perry -- $5,587

April 29
Event #8 -- Ladies Only No-Limit Hold'em $300
198 ladies came to the table to battle it out for the title of champion and the biggest slice of the $59,400 prize pool they could get.

1. Anna Wroblewski -- $18,668
2. Sonya Foote -- $9,795
3. Jing Yia -- $5,762
4. Anh Nguyen -- $4,609
5. Rong Li -- $3,457
6. Deborah Woit -- $2,881
7. Lanie Celeste -- $2,305
8. Jean Harlan -- $1,729
9. Lorinda "Ellie" Ahlgren -- $1,152
10. Marlene Stein -- $922

April 30
Event #9 -- No-Limit Hold'em Championship Event $5000 Day 1
There were 336 players who entered the Main Event at Caesar's. Of the 336, payouts would go to the top 36 finishers. Seeing that the World Series of Poker will start June 1 and the World Poker Tour championship tournament had just finished, there were plenty of top names in the field. Some faces seen include Miami John Cernuto, Erica Schoenberg, Rhett Butler, Erick Lindgren, Layne Flack, David Plastik, David Sklansky, J.J. Liu, Shannon Shorr, Nick Shulman of Card Player, Arnold Spee, Toto Leonidas, Joe Bartholdi, Gavin Smith, Steve Dannenmann, Chris Ferguson, Doug Carli and Peter "Nordberg" Feldman.

By the time Day 1 was over around 12:45 a.m. almost 13 hours after it began at 12 noon, only 75 were left in the field. Come back tomorrow to see who makes the final table. Here are the top 9 players with chip counts:

1. David "The Dragon" Pham -- 143,800 chips
2. Steve Wong -- 125,000 chips
3. Vasile Buboi -- 117,400 chips
4. Justin Pechie -- 113,100 chips
5. Brock Parker -- 100,000 chips
6. Fred Berger -- 99,100 chips
7. Layne Flack -- 97,900 chips
8. Nick Schulman -- 96,800 chips
9. Justin Bonomo -- 88,800 chips

May 1
Event #9 -- No-Limit Hold'em Championship Event $5000 Day 2
75 players returned to the tables at 12 noon to see who would be among the 9 fortunate to see the final table. Day 2 Chip leader Cory Carroll hit a huge hand against another player Mikael Thuritz to win 540,000 chips which allowed him to pole vault to the top. What happened is that after the flop which produced Ad 6d 5h, Carrol bet and Thuritz moved all in. Carrol immediately called, and showed pocket 5's after Thuritz showed his Ac 6c. Remaining cards did not improve either player, so Carroll raked in a huge pile of chips. Payout schedule for the final table will be:

1. $505,176
2. $260,736
3. $130,368
4. $114,072
5. $97,776
6. $81,840
7. $65,184
8. $48,888
9. $32,592

1. Cory Carroll -- 713,000 chips
2. Steve Wong -- 573,000 chips
3. David "The Dragon" Pham -- 491,000 chips
4. Vasile Buboi -- 349,000 chips
5. Paul Kitsos -- 327,000 chips
6. Justin Pechie -- 307,000 chips
7. Eric Davis -- 272,000 chips
8. Michelle Law -- 192,000 chips
9. Chad Brown -- 136,000 chips

May 2
Event #9 -- No-Limit Hold'em Championship Event $5000 Final Table
Final table play began at 2:15 p.m. with blinds at $4,000/$8,000 with a $1,000 ante. The first bust occurred 45 min into play when Chad Brown with pocket 8's was all-in against Vasile Buboi with pocket 9's. Flop showed Kc 8c 5c, turn card was 9s and the river was As resulting in Chad Brown leaving in 9th place. Michelle Law left in 8th when her Ad 10h lost out to Cory Carroll's pocket 9's. Steve Wong went out in 7th place courtesy of Vasile Buboi, David Pham walked away in 6th after losing to Justin Pechie's set of Kings and Paul Kitsos was busted in 5th when his Qs Jc failed to improve against Carroll's Ad 4h. Vasile Buboi claimed 4th and the cash that goes with it after losing to Carroll who made a 9 high straight. Carroll also sent Eric Davis home in 3rd after he lost to Carroll's Ace high flush.

Now it is time for the heads up between Cory Carroll (2,167,000 chips) and Justin Pechie (1,193,000 chips). The battle lasted 36 minutes and the final hand went like this. Carroll went all in holding Ah Jc and was called by Pechie holding 7h 5c, (Pechie had a HUGE loss in the prior hand), with the board showing Qs 10d 3h 9c Qh which did nothing to improve the hand of either player. So that is how Cory Carroll not only won the ring and the cash, but also the freeroll seat to the WSOP Main Event to be held in July.

1. Cory Carroll -- $506,176
2. Justin Pechie -- $260,736
3. Eric Davis -- $130,368
4. Vasile Buboi -- $114,720
5. Paul Kitsos -- $97,776
6. David "The Dragon" Pham -- $81,481
7. Steve Wong -- $65,184
8. Michelle Law -- $48,888
9. Chad Brown -- $32,592