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.

Caesars Entertainment has released the schedule for the World Series of Poker Circuit event to be held Dec. 1-12 at Harrah’s Resort.

Missing from the schedule is the high stakes, $9,700 buy-in regional championship held at last year’s event (won by Chris Bell). That high buy-in led to low turnouts at the four regionals held last year (only 136 at the Harrah’s event), so the WSOP discontinued them.

There are 12 “main” events on the schedule, which award WSOP circuit rings, and plenty of satellites and secondary “non-ring” events.

The three-day championship event will be held starting Dec. 10. It carries a $1,500 + $100 buy-in.

Satellites for the championship event start immediately on Dec. 1.

Here’s the schedule:

Harrah’s Resort will introduce a new daily tournament structure starting Sunday May 1. The casino is adding Stud, Omaha and Limit Hold’em games to the schedule, as well as revamping blinds structures.

Most of the new games will be offered at 10:15am.

The schedule reflects a bump in buy-ins for the casino on weekdays. Harrah’s had been offering daily $40 + $10 games at 10:15 am, for example.

As one of the city’s bigger rooms with 40 tables, it could signal that the casino is trying to tap into the higher-end tournament market usually dominated by The Borgata.

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We’ve speculated that the demise of online poker would provide a bump at live poker rooms as players come out of their dank and dusty bedrooms to play against actual live people.

Well, Cardplayer.com decided to look for early signs and made some calls to poker rooms around the country.

That included this check-in with Harrah’s Resort poker manager John Arthur.

“Perhaps hit the hardest by the recession, Atlantic City card rooms are hoping to see a nice spike in room traffic following the DOJ’s indictments. At Harrah’s, the 40-table poker room has experienced a small bump, but Director of Poker John Arthur has noticed more online players comparing each room’s player loyalty programs.

“’I’ve seen a number of players stop by and ask about our various promotions,” said Arthur. “These guys are used to being rewarded for their online play and now they are looking for whatever edge they can find in the live setting. Whatever they decide, we are more than ready for their business.’”

Cardplayer called rooms in California, Las Vegas and several other parts of the country. Nearly all the poker managers reported a slight increase in players, some saying as much as a 20 percent bump. Read the story here.

One week out from Black Friday, it looks like poker is going live around the country.

Harrah’s Resort has started a daily satellite schedule for The World Series of Poker.

The schedule includes daily, $120 + $20 satellites at 4:15 pm for a monthly major satellite through June. The daily satellites have 15K starting chips and 20 minute levels

The major satellites are $1035 + $65 tournaments on April 26, May 29 and June 26.

For every $10,000 in the prize pool, one seat to the WSOP Main event will
be awarded. The amount of winners is based on the amount of entries: 10
entries 1 seat, 200 entries 20 seats, and so on …

The WSOP starts May 31 at the Rio in Las Vegas with the main event starting July 7.

Here’s the daily satellite structure:

The poker gods giveth and they taketh away. Chris Bell stayed around long enough to catch them in a giving mood again as he takes top spot in the regional championship at the World Series of Poker circuit events at Harrah’s Resort.

The win nets him $358,295.

The Champ

The win comes just months after another win at the WSOP in June, which led to Bell disclosing that after an extended bad run that had exhausted his bankroll, he was considering quitting the game. As the father of two daughters, the former Real Estate agent from Raliegh N.C. couldn’t see continuing.

But as outlined in a WSOP press release, Bell got a sponsorship from poker pro and good friend, Erick Lindgren, who also gave him the moral support to continue.

First came a win at the WSOP in a $5,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Event, good for $327,000 and now this win. He also squeezed in a $3,745 cash at The Borgata Open in September, which he probably uses to hit the buffets or something.

Now, Bell is officially the comeback kid.

According to the WSOP: “Bell played one of the best games of his career, slowly climbing up the leader board to end day two as the chip leader. He stayed near the top of the chip counts the rest of the way, and ultimately defeated 2009 WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Atlantic City Main Event champion, Chris Klodnicki heads up to earn the title of WSOP Circuit Eastern Regional Champion.”

No. 2 again

For Klodnicki, it’s another big number two finish in an A.C. event this year for the Voorhees resident. He had a $92,000 cash at The Borgata Spring Open’s East Coast Championship earlier this year. He takes home $221,452 for this finish.

Here’s a rundown of the final hands:

With the two remaining players about even in chips, heads up play was expected to go on for at least a couple of hours, especially as evidenced by the two’s thoughtful play in the early stages of the final table. However, Klodnicki turned up the aggression a bit, which pushed a number of pots his way, but ultimately got the best of him on a flop of [5d][3h[6c] after which Klodnicki fired out 225,000 holding [4d][6h].

After a few minutes, Bell announced that he was all-in. With top pair and an open straight draw, Klodnicki made the call. Bell tabled pocket threes for the flopped set, which held through the [9d] turn and [Qc] river. At first, it was unclear whether Bell had Klodnicki covered, but after doing some chip inventory, it was determined that Bell did indeed have more chips and was declared the champion.”

Here’s the final results:

Looking for some A.C. poker results? Man, we got results.

Starting with the WSOP Circuits events.

Event 8 of the circuit events was a $500 buy-in No Limit event held Dec. 16-17 that attracted  271 entrants and a prize pool of $131,435.

Dever

The winner was John Dever of Ephrata Pa, who takes home $31,544.

Dever, an amateur, is getting a lot of headlines for a come from behind win which saw him overcome a nine to one disadvantage in the chip count to make the final table and then win the tournament.

A key double up, when his K-J beat pocket aces as running jacks came on the turn and the river, allowed him to make the final table with only about 247K in chips, the lowest count. The chip leader had more than 1 million.

Dever kept chipping up, but was still out-chipped 3 to 1 when heads-up play started. He faced off against Michael McGuinness of Toms River.

The two seemed inclined to bet out before the flops and Dever doubled up twice on pre-flop all ins before taking the final hand with pocket threes that held up through the river.

“I’m pretty much shocked, but happy,” said Dever.

Ya think?

Event 9 of the WSOP circuit was a seven card stud event held Dec. 17-18, and, as is usual with stud events, the turnout was a light 79 entrants for the $300 buy-in event. The prize pool was $22,989 with first place going to Chris Reslock of A.C. He wins $7,816.

Reslock

Oh, one other thing. Reslock, who has more than $1,7 Million in tournament wins, tied a record with his fourth circuit ring victory, tying him with Men “The Master” Nguyen and Mark “Pegasus” Smith.

The former cab driver is also famous for beating Phil Ivey heads-up in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship.

This just in — Reslock is good at stud games.

We’ve also have some results from the Borgata’s December mini-series, which provided a little competition in the marina for the WSOP circuit.

The casino’s $1,500 buy in Deepstack event Dec. 17-18 attracted 140 entries for a $210,00 prize pool. The math is a lot easier without the extra 3 percent vig for staff the WSOP charges.

The event was won by David Inselberg of New York who wins $61,110. Inselberg also got an about $2,000 cash last weekend at the Borgata events and this win should put him over $500,000 in lifetime tournament winnings.

Saturday, The Borgata held a $300 buy-in event that drew 171 players and a $51,300 prize pool. The winner was Laurence Goldstein of Medford N.Y. who wins $14,928.

The Regional Championship at the Harrah’s Resort World Series of Poker Circuit events drew in a field of 136, well off the mark of 226 players that played in the first WSOP regional championship in October near Chicago.

Chip leader Selbst

So the quick question is, has the event drawn a disappointing turnout?

Realistically, it depends on how you look at it. First off, the event is a $10,000 buy-in ($9,700 + $300), which isn’t exactly chump change. Not many truly “regional” players can afford that kind of scratch.

Especially considering point two, which is that the event started Sunday, six days before Christmas. The holidays are notoriously slow for all casinos and let’s face it, people simply have other things to do.

So considering all that, you could argue that it’s actually a pretty strong field.

Still, even the WSOP admitted the turnout did not “exceed expectations.”

The 136 entrants did create a prize pool of $1,279,624 (remember, there is an extra 3 percent vig for staff). The winner will take home $358,295.

The event has drawn several big time pros including 2010 WSOP Main Event runner-up John Racener, Andy Bloch, Barry Shulman, Amnon Filippi, Chad Brown, Kathy Liebert, TJ Cloutier, Dwyte Pilgrim and David Baker.

At the end of day one, WSOP bracelet winner Vanessa Selbst (who is having a great year at the tables) had a commanding chip lead over the remaining 92 day one survivors. With 126,375 chips, the Yale Law student will begin day-two play with over 37,000 chips distancing her from her nearest opponent, Isaac Baron. Andy Frankenberger returns to an 84,850 chip stack while Kenny Hicks and Nick Mitchell round off the top five at around 80k each.

Other notables who survived day one include Sorrel Mizzi, Nick Schulman, Pilgrim, Ted Lawson, Cloutier, Filippi, Bernard Lee, and Shannon Shorr.

Play resumes today at noon.

The crowds at the World Series of Poker circuit events at Harrah’s Resort have calmed down since Event 1, which set a record for the casino when 1,250 players turned out, but the events are still attracting respectable, if not huge fields.

Event 4 of the circuit events was a $1,000 buy-in No Limit game that attracted 292 entries and a $283,240 prize pool. The event was won by Daniel Fischer of Brigantine who wins $67,978.

Fischer, 25 and originally from Glassboro, won the final hand with two pair over Alek Givotovsky of New York. Givotovsky gets about 42K.

Goedert

Event 5 was the first ever Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better game for the circuit. The $300 buy-in tournment drew 143 players for a $41,613 prize pool.

The winner was Nicholas Goedert, a 31-year-old graduate student studying congressional politics and game theory at Princeton University. He wins $11,652, and we figure an “A” in game theory.