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2008 Grand Casino Tunica II WSOP Circuit Event

The 2008 Grand Casino Tunica Circuit Event marks the second return for the WSOP Circuit Tournament series. All tournaments will be 2 days in length unless noted on this page. And this tournament series will have 22 events in it! A big change from the average 8 to 11 events. Take note of who wins the events as you will more than likely hear about them when the BIG one begins in May at the RIO Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

1. Howard Reid -- $58,500
2. William Graveline -- $30,668
3. Todd Cashion -- $17,343
4. Bobby Byram -- $15,177
5. James Rapp -- $13,010
6. Randy Rothwell -- $10,843
7. Carroll Dye -- $8,677
8. John Andrus -- $6,510
9. David Rylander -- $4,467

1. Carlos Cuentas -- $55,302
2. Corey Sanders -- $28,548
3. Jerry Barlow -- $14,282
4. Adam Ross -- $12,499
5. Gebrehiwet Goitom -- $10,716
6. Tim Laws -- $8,933
7. David Garrison -- $7,150
8. Tony Boles -- $5,515
9. Michael Hanelin -- $3,677

1. Kerry Rowden -- $57,974
2. Matthew Botzer -- $31,896
3. Kyle Strader -- $16,322
4. Khalid Dghaim -- $12,700
5. Ross Rehrig -- $10,889
6. Renea Mahaffey -- $9,078
7. Grant Hubert Phillips -- $7,267
8. Steven Hipes -- $5,601
9. Michael Ciaravino -- $3,734

Event #4 -- Ladies No Limit Hold'Em
With a buy in of $200, 277 women graced the tables at Grand Casino Tunica. After 2 days of tournament play the top 27 received part of a $55,678 prize pool as their reward. Here are the final table finishers:

1. Jennifer Golin -- $17,291
2. Shelia Carwile -- $9,512
3. Jo Cain -- $5,011
4. Peggy Ledman -- $3,897
5. Darlene De Jesus -- $3,341
6. Sherry Hollis -- $2,784
7. Connie Rice -- $2,227
8. Ellen Van Buren -- $1,670
9. Nancy Manley -- $1,114

Event #5 - Omaha High/Low Split
This tournament had a number of well known names in the poker world within the 207 player field. Besides the winner Chris Reslock, seen at the tables were Roland Israelashvili, Frankie Odell, Mike Schneider and Russ (Dutch) Boyd. Entry fee was $500 with the top 27 getting paid for their efforts. Prize pool reached $99,360 for the 2 day event.

1. Chris Reslock -- $30,860
2. Martin Berchenko -- $16,979
3. Greg Giannokostas -- $8,690
4. Douglas Lorgesee -- $6,763
5. Tom Chambers -- $5,800
6. Randall Witt -- $4,968
7. Brooke Stephens -- $3,974
8. Peter Dawson -- $2,981
9. Roland Israelashvili -- $1,987

Event #6 -- Short Handed No Limit
A prize pool of $98,400 was split up between the top 24 finishers that had a field of heavy players like Glyn Banks, Jason Newberger, Norman Contreras who has cashed in 3 circuit events in the past and others. There were 205 players in this tournament, each paying $500 for the privilige.

1. Johnathan Westra -- $17,291
2. Jim Sears -- $14,334
3. Matt Brady -- $8,130
4. Doug Taylor -- $6,459
5. Ron Picou -- $5,412
6. Nick Woolworth -- $4,428
7. Steven Graham -- $3,444
8. William Ross -- $3,198
9. Jim Shipley -- $2,952

Event #7 -- Pot Limit Hold'Em
For 74 entrants, this two day tourney went very quickly. The prize pool of $35,520 went to the final table players only.

1. Howard Andrews -- $13,799
2. Richard Fero -- $7,941
3. Todd Bernstein -- $4,262
4. Clyde Bass -- $2,486
5. Jim McBride -- $1,954
6. Chad Smithson -- $1,598
7. Vince Burgio -- $1,213
8. Kyle Caslin -- $888
9. Bob Redman -- $710

Event #8 -- Omaha High/Low Split
All 240 players who paid $300 each to get into this event fought for a share of the $68,640 prize pool. Cash went to the top 27 finishers.

1. Richard Pilchman -- $21,314
2. Eric Mink -- $11,729
3. Randall Witt -- $6,003
4. Albert Suarez -- $4,805
5. Leonard St. Germain -- $4,118
6. David Segal -- $3,432
7. Larry Dingler Sycamore -- $2,746
8. Robert Brouemann -- $2,059
9. Scott Baker -- $1,373

Event #9 -- Seniors No Limit Hold'Em
The $114,654 prize pool was divided between the top 37 finishers. Originally, there were 394 in the field who paid $300 each to play.

1. Mark Garner -- $34,481
2. William Peoples -- $17,805
3. Bob Haughton -- $8,907
4. Robert Hoffman -- $7,795
5. Andy Clements -- $6,683
6. James Garrett -- $5,571
7. Bruce Davie -- $4,586
8. Larry Siler -- $3,440
9. Martin Berchenko -- $2,293

Event #10 -- 7 Card Stud High/Low
This could be described as an small card game with the 75 players who were at the tables for this tourney. The $36,000 prize pool was split up between the top 8 finishers at the final table. Buy in was $500 per player.

1. Jason Stern -- $12,762
2. Charles Williams -- $7,699
3. Tom Chambers -- $4,680
4. Michael Woods -- $3,420
5. Ron Ware -- $2,520
6. Doug Saab -- $1,800
7. Morgan Stringham -- $1,440
8. Gary Settlemoir -- $1,080

Event #11 -- No Limit Hold'Em
The tempo picked up quite a bit as 1,000 players hit the tables for Event 11. Each player paid $300 to get in, resulting in a prize pool of $286,000 for the top players.

1. Rami Jradeh -- $74,914
2. Robert Castoire -- $39,265
3. Mark Ellis -- $22,204
4. Brian Wolfe -- $19,420
5. Gregory Stallsmith -- $16,655
6. Ben Mintz -- $13,881
7. Michael McKuin -- $11,107
8. Terrence Ferentinos -- $8,333
9. Rory Monahan -- $5,559

Event #12 -- No Limit Hold'Em
There were 380 in the player field for this tournament. By each paying $700 for a seat, a cash pool of $256,120 was the result that was divided between the top 36 finishers.

1. Wade Townsend -- $77,042
2. Gene Frank -- $39,772
3. Rex Rigdon -- $19,898
4. Justin Cometti -- $17,413
5. Scott Sitron -- $14,929
6. Mcdonald Ledbetter -- $12,445
7. Jimmy Tidwell -- $9,960
8. Wayne Harvey -- $7,476
9. Chance Steed -- $5,122

Event #13 -- No Limit Hold'Em
A total of 461 players were at the tables for this tournament that was played from Sunday to Monday. With each entrant paying $500, the prize pool grew to $221,280 and was split amongst the top 36 finishers.

1. Lynn Achey -- $64,411
2. Allan Monterroza -- $34,574
3. Kirby Brewer -- $17,187
4. Charles Williams -- $15,042
5. Fabien Bourdon -- $12,895
6. Bruce MacGregor -- $10,749
7. Chris Blaich -- $8,602
8. James Davis -- $6,455
9. David Gutfreund -- $4,426

Event #14 -- No Limit Hold'Em
There were 131 players paying $1,000 each at the tables for this tourney. In the end, 19 finalists split a $126,415 prize pool with the winner's share going to Robert Castorire as its champion.

1. Robert Castoire -- $40,497
2. Ronald Sewell -- $22,350
3. Kenneth Blanton -- $12,295
4. Allen Kessler -- $9,842
5. Dina Rylander -- $7,390
6. David Rylander -- $6,163
7. Bret Atiyeh -- $5,057
8. Jerry Van Strydneck -- $3,792
9. Wade Woefel -- $2,528

Event #15 -- No Limit Hold'Em
This event had 303 players in it, each paying an entry fee of $300. The final 36 players split a prize pool of $145,440.

1. Charles Williams -- $43,746
2. David Dao -- $22,588
3. Patrick Fagen -- $11,302
4. Khalid Dghaim -- $9,892
5. W.D. Morgan -- $8,481
6. Darrell Hoipkins -- $7,070
7. Wayne DePalma -- $5,660
8. Jozef Pikula -- $4,363
9. Jack Christian -- $2,909

Event #16 -- Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys
This was another quick 2 day tournament with 51 players signing up to play. Buy in was $1,000 for each player and there were 88 rebuys that took place. Resulting prize pool reached $134,575 which went to the top 5 finishers.

1. Leif Force -- $58,773
2. Jeremy Tinsley -- $32,667
3. Frank Kassela -- $19,613
4. Gary Clark -- $13,086
5. Bruce Borders -- $6,559

Event #17 -- Limit Hold'em
There were 120 players for this Limit Hold'Em tournament. Each paid $500 to get in, but the total prize pool of $57,600 was split between the final table finishers.

1. Leo Whitt -- $22,365
2. Clifford Matthews -- $12,867
3. Chris Province -- $6,721
4. Neil Camponovo -- $4,032
5. Rick Glaser -- $3,168
6. Bill Eichel -- $2,592
7. Russ Bozeman -- $2,016
8. David White -- $1,440
9. David Whalen -- $1,152

Event #18 -- No Limit Hold'Em
This tournament had 215 players with a buy in of $1,500 for all entrants. A prize pool of $311,750 went to the top 28 finishers.

1. Jae Chang -- $96,807
2. John Racener -- $53,269
3. Jack Ward -- $27,264
4. Dale Gesner -- $21,216
5. Jeff Gibralter -- $18,191
6. Donald Barton -- $15,168
7. Michael Baas -- $12,143
8. Stuart Fox III -- $9,120
9. Rob Harris -- $6,235

Main Event -- Day 1
This was one of the larger events of the WSOP tournament series so far. With 21 events leading up to the Main Event AND the increase in the buy in from $5,000 to $7,500, lots of big names are showing up at the tables. Seen so far are Bill Edler, Chris Reslock, Tom Schneider, Tony Cousineau, Allen Kessler, Ted Lawson, Vanessa Rousso, Josh Arieh, Gavin Smith, Chad Brown, Darrell Dicken, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and John Phan. All players are starting with 20,000 in chips.

Once registration was closed, the stats showed that there were 180 players who entered. The winner will receive $431,840 from a $1,350,000 prize pool along with a WSOP Main Event Package, plus a Gold Diamond WSOP Circuit Championship Ring.

Some unfortunate exits on Day 1 were Kathy Liebert, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Gavin Smith, Allen Kessler, Ted Lawson, Tony Cousineau, Bill Edler, Chad Brown and David "Devilfish" Ulliott. By the end of the day there were 29 players left to move on to round 2.

1. Mark Garner 263,500 chips
2. John Devia 250,500 chips
3. Dale Morrow 240,500 chips
4. Jesse Dean 220,500 chips
5. Charles Horvath 205,000 chips
6. Vanessa Rousso 180,500 chips
7. Spencer Hudson 177,500 chips
8. Giovanni Maracci 166,500 chips
9. Dustin Bailey 165,000 chips

Main Event -- Day 2
The second day of the Main Event began at noon and went pretty fast according to tournament standards. With action underway, Lee Markholt went to the rail a little upset after his set of Jacks were beaten by another player's broadway straight. Vanessa Rousso followed Markholt after Tom Schenider pointed the way with a full house. Josh Arieh claimed a 17th place finish ($12,976) after his pocket K's were beaten by another player who made a set of 10's on the river card. Captain Tom Franklin lost to another players kicker to collect $18,166 for an 11th place finish. By 4:30 p.m. the final table had been established and the remaining 9 bagged their chips for tomorrow.

1. John Devia -- 929,500 chips
2. Ryan Young --- 521,000 chips
3. Giovanni Marcacci -- 465,000 chips
4. Tom Schneider -- 422,000 chips
5. Ben Sabrin -- 417,000 chips
6. Donald Nickelson -- 325,000 chips
7. Mark Garner -- 213,000 chips
8. Bart Tichelman -- 164,000 chips
9. Jordan Rich -- 147,000 chips

Main Event -- Final Table
Final table play began at noon, continuing at level 16 with $4,000/$8,000 blinds and $1,000 ante. Thirty five minutes into play Jordan Rich busted in 9th place after his J 10 suited was crushed by the pocket A's of Donald Nicholson. Tom Schneider went out in 8th after losing to the straight of Ryan Young. But Ryan ended up collecting the prize money for 7th after his K Q lost to Giovanni Marcacci's A K when all table cards bricked. Mark Garner claimed the 6th position after losing to the pocket A's of John Devia. Benjamin Sabrin's bid for becoming champion was cut short with a 5th place finish as Giovanni Marcacci produced a set of Aces during that hand. John Devia ended up $100,925 richer in 4th place after losing to the two pair of Bart Tichelman. Tichelman then sent Giovanni Marcacci to the rail in 3rd after the river card gave him the winning straight.

Well, heads up only lasted two hands between these players. Tichelman went all-in with Ks 4h and Nicholson called with Qs 8s. A King on the turn sealed the championship for Tichelman as all other cards were meaningless. Tichelman will receive $431,840 from a $1,350,000 prize pool along with a WSOP Main Event Package, plus a Gold Diamond WSOP Circuit Championship Ring for his efforts.

1. Bart Tichelman -- $415,595
2. Donald Nicholson -- $229,309
3. Giovanni Marcacci -- $126,000
4. John Devia -- $100,925
5. Benjamin Sabrin -- $75,751
6. Mark Garner -- $63,165
7. Ryan Young -- $50,578
8. Tom Schneider -- $37,991
9. Jordan Rich -- $25,404