Here are a couple of quick items that need finishing up.

Our Goodbye Girl

The World Series of Poker Circuit Events at Harrah’s Resort championship event, a $1,500 + $100 No Limit tournament played Dec. 10, drew 618 entries, the most ever for Harrah’s for the circuit championship in the eight years the casino has been holding the event.

That’s up 75 percent over last year’s main event, which drew 352 players.

The 2011 winner was amateur Taun Phan, of Vienna, Va., who takes home $188,830.

The Borgata’s Saturday series, a $350 + $50 No Limit game with a $100,000 prize-pool guarantee, that was also played Dec. 10, actually outdrew the circuit championship with 656 players and a total buy-in of $229,600.

The winner was another amateur, Lok Chhantyal, of Harrisburg, Pa., who wins $53,472.

And that’s about it for The Real Deal.

It’s been fun while it lasted (and a little frustrating dealing with tight-lipped casino public relations people), but I hope I helped some grinders enjoy their A.C. experience a little more.

I know it’s a game of skill, but I wish you all good luck. It never hurts.

The Poker Atlas will probably keep functioning, but as for The Real Deal, well, this is the end.

Here’s a quick hit that should bring some players up from the D.C. area tomorrow (Dec. 8). It’s called the Junkies Poker Open; a biannual tournament put on by radio station 106.7 The Fan in the Washington D.C. area.

There’s a bunch of sports jocks on the station that call themselves the sports junkies, so apparently smoking rock isn’t involved.

Anyway, the Borgata says the tournament is open to anyone, though there are invited guests. It’s a $260 + $40 No Limit tournament. The starting stack is 10K with 25-minute levels and antes kicking in at level 4. It doesn’t look like there are re-buys.

You can actually register tonight starting at 8pm or tomorrow morning.

Starting time is 10am.

The WSOP Circuit events at Harrah’s Resort have been putting up some pretty good numbers for the early tournaments in a kind of sneaky fashion.

The opening event of the circuit seemed to be off by a lot from a record 1,250 players in 2010’s opener, but as we cover in Poker Lowdown this week, the attendance for the circuit’s second event was up by the same amount.

So that kind of squares things.

The next three events that followed drew big, if not spectacular, fields and some decent prize pools.

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The World Series of Poker circuit events at Harrah’s Resorts this weekend didn’t set any records for attendance, but still had some pretty strong turnouts and some decent prize pools.

And maybe that’s good enough. Or at least, it will have to be.

As much as we’d like to see Atlantic City as a premiere stop on the WSOP circuit as The Borgata Open is on the World Poker Tour, at least the Harrah’s event is still putting up pretty solid numbers and respectable prize pools.

The opening event of the Circuit tournament was a $300 + $45 No Limit tournament that pulled in 704 players on a Thursday in December. But as we’ve noted before, last year’s opener (on a Saturday) drew 1,250.

The winner was Richard Smith of Warrenton Va., who has apparently taken down his first major cash. The 22-year-old wins $41,995.

And he got a little lucky in defeating runner up John Johnston in heads-up play when his A-6 topped Johnston’s opponent’s A-J on the final hand.  A six on the turn gave Smith a pair of sixes and the title. Johnston wins $25,987.

The second event of the circuit was another $300 + $45 No Limit Tournament that had a double play re-entry on Friday and Saturday. This event brought in 888 players with rebuys and a $258,408 prize pool.

The winner was Jeffrey Gurfinkel of Hallendale Beach Fla., who takes homes $50,446.  Gurfinkel is originally from Brooklyn and has only ever cashed at Borgata events in the past.

His biggest cash, however, comes at Harrah’s, where he reportedly had a major chip lead throughout the final table and was never seriously challenged for the win.

So while this event isn’t coming close to challenging The Horseshoe Hammond (near Chicago) for the top circuit stop on the tour, at least there’s some pretty good action going on.

The World Series of Poker circuit events continue through the weekend, including a second opening day for today’s $300 + $45 tournament, which is a double play buy-in. Anyone busting out today can re-buy Saturday.

Event 3 starts Sunday and is a $500 + $55 event.

Satellites for the championship event ($1,500 + $100 on Dec. 10) also continue and there are secondary tournaments ($175 + $25) held each night at 7pm.  Once again, you can get the full schedule here.

As for the bad beat jackpots, the Borgata’s bad beat is still the highest in the city despite a small bad beat hit this week. It’s at $433,528, which is still a nice chunk of change.

The Harrah’s combined jackpot is getting up there at $251, 329, but the Tropicana’s run at the top of the bad beat heap took a shot with a $300K hit last week. The jackpot is now at $120,113. And the Taj Mahal’s jackpot is at about $86K.

Why not give yourself a holiday treat this weekend grinders and take a shot at a WSOP ring?

A midweek start for the World Series of Poker circuit event at Harrah’s Resort seems to have tripped up the numbers some as the field for the opening tournament Thursday comes in at just 704.

That’s a nice field to be sure (prize pool $204,864), but almost 550 off last year’s opening tournament field, which started on a Saturday with 1,250 entries

The event is a $300 + $45 No Limit game which continues today. That’s about all we know about first day action so far, but WSOP.com is promising live streaming coverage of the final tables of all ring events. Today’s stream is scheduled to start at 4pm.

Today’s second “ring” event (in which WSOP circuit rings are awarded to the winners), is another $300 + $45 event that could have a much better shot at challenging that 1,250 number.

The event is a three-day tournament with two day ones Friday and Saturday (what The Borgata calls a Double Play). Those who bust out Friday can re-enter Saturday.

There’s also a championship event satellite ($165 + $25) event at 5pm today and a $175 + $25 event at 7pm tonight.

You can get the full schedule here.

The Borgata’s small bad beat jackpot hit for $50K Wednesday night, bringing the total jackpot down to $428,310.

That’s still the highest jackpot in the city, but does show that the drain of the small jackpot hits will probably keep the casino from ever setting a bad beat record in the city (about $670K).

Still, the full jackpot has a minimum of quad 10s, which would be annoyingly high if there wasn’t the small bad beat (quad deuces to nines minimum).

The small jackpot was reset right back to $50,000.

Anyhow, according to the Borgata, “Michael Hanlon (North East, Md.) had his quad 2’s beaten by a 5-high straight flush held by John Latorre (Galoway, NJ).

Even though Hanlon lost the hand, he took home $20,000, while Latorre added $10,000 to the winning pot. The eight remaining players at the table each won $2,500.”

It’s too bad we don’t have a better hand breakdown like we just got from the Trop (hint, hint), because you have to wonder what these two guys were even doing in the hand?

Pocket deuces I can see in position, maybe, but really, a five high straight flush?

I’m guessing Latorre had the ace and low kicker suited and hit a great flop.

Just a reminder that the WSOP circuit event at Harrah’s Resort gets underway today with it’s opening event at noon.

You can get the full schedule here.

Good luck grinders.

News from over a holiday weekend moves at its own pace and we’ve finally gotten word of a major bad beat jackpot hit at The Tropicana on Friday, Nov. 25, shortly after noon, we think.

Anyway, the jackpot hit for $309,387.96.

Here’s the very precise rundown from The Trop.

“Domingo Feliz was dealt pocket queens while Pablo Zabala received a 10 and nine of spades. The flop revealed a jack of spades, deuce of hearts and queen of spades, leaving Zabala with an open-ended straight Flush draw and Feliz with three queens.

The turn produced an eight of spades giving Zabala his straight flush …The magic occurred on the river when Domingo Feliz received his 4th queen; the queen of Hearts” paying the group $309,387.96

Domingo Feliz won $123,755.19
Pablo Zabala won $61,877.59
The other 8 players at the table received $15,469.40 each.”

No word on where these guys were from, but at least we got a hand rundown. And even better, we have a big check picture with Feliz. We love big check shots.

While the hit is great for the players involved, it actually wipes out the large bad beat jackpot reserve the Trop has been building since late last summer when they saw the jackpot climb to $540K before it hit last month.

Their jackpot is now down to $113,315.

Still, with a $542,000 cash last month and a $309,000 hit this month, why that’s $850,000 in jackpot money given away at the Trop in two months.

Pretty cool.

Here’s that big check shot.

The  Caesars Entertainment three card poker 6 bonus promotion hit again, though not for the $1 Million grand prize which hit last month.

This time the hit was good for $100,000.

The game is played at Caesars properties’ three card poker tables. If you make the bonus bet, you get a shot at six card bonuses, counting your three cards and the dealer’s three cards.

Yeah, it’s a little confusing, but if you hit a six card super diamond flush (to the nine) you get $1 million.

On Friday, Nov. 25, (which apparently was some kind of big shopping day), Richard N. Wood of Newport News Va, hit a super royal flush in hearts at Harrah’s Resort, which under the bonuses is good for $100,000.

“I didn’t actually realize what I had won till after a few minutes,” Wood, 72, told the casino. “When they told me I almost had a heart attack.  It’s a day I’ll never forget.”

Then they asked him something about shopping because of this Black Friday thing. Wisely, Wood said “I think I’ll leave the shopping to my wife.”

To be eligible to make the 6 Card Bonus $1 million wager a player must place an ante wager and a Pair Plus wager based on the posted table minimums.  The 6 Card Bonus wager is offered at $5-$100 with odds paid on all hands of 3-of-a-kind or better, except for the $100,000 and $1 million Super Royal hands, which are fixed payouts.

Wood’s total bet was $20.