The United State Poker Championship crowned its first event champ Tuesday as Wooyang Lin of Morristown NJ took home an $18,879 cash in a $360 Buy-in No limit Hold’em event.

Lin’s record was a little hard to find, but he appears to have close to $300,000 in tournament winnings and has been a regular at Atlantic City tournaments since at least 2004.

Second place goes to Albert Roh, ($9,440) another guy who has popped up occasionally at A.C. tournaments.

Here’s a rundown from the Taj of the final hand:

Lin

Lin raises pre-flop from the button.  Roh calls.  Flop comes 8♥K♦8♣.  Both players check.  Turn is the J♣.  Roh bets out around $200k.  Lin just smooth calls.  The 4♠ comes on the river.  Roh checks.  Lin then bets approximately 400k.  Roh then raises all-in and Lin excitedly calls and turns over the A♠K♣ for top pair, top kicker.  Roh throws his cards into the muck, and after 2 long days of play, Woo Yang Lin becomes champion of the first event of the 2010 United States Poker Championship.

The event drew 159 entries and a prize pool of $55,523.

Event two of the championship, a $300 + $40 No Limit game, went to Dennis Zannoni of Bordentown NJ. Zannoni is another amateur who plays A.C. He wins $10,057.

So far the championship events have drawn low turnouts — about 69 players for today’s $360 + $40 Deepstack No Limit game, for example — but we say again that for early November, with the championship’s big buy-in events not scheduled to begin until next week, the turnout is to be expected.

Still, we bet the Taj was wishing for a little more action early on. Hopefully, the weekend events will turn things around.

The U.S. Poker Championship got underway Monday with a $360 + $40 two-day Deepstack No Limit event which attracted 159 players. That’s good for an about $57,000 prize pool and a first place cash of $18,879.

That’s not a bad start for a Monday in November, considering that the event has drawn mostly amateurs and regional pros. Play starts on a final table today at 2:15pm.

Also on tap for today is a $300 +$40 No Limit event starting at 11:15am.

Meanwhile, The Harrah’s combined bad beat survived another day and is sitting at $520,325 going into today’s play. The jackpot pays all players in Harrah’s rooms — Harrah’s Resort, Caesars, Bally’s and Showboat.

The jackpot continues to pick up about $5K a day.

Fave Halloween costume No. 1

Harrah’s combined bad beat is getting scary big and has topped $490,000 as of about 1:30pm Friday. The last couple of weekends, the jackpot — which draws from all four Harrah’s Entertainment poker rooms in the city — has been picking up more than $20K  and will easily pass $500,000 if its still in play by Monday Morning.

The minimum bad beat hand is at quad threes, so it could go at any moment.

The Harrah’s jackpot pays 30 percent to the bad-beat loser, 20 percent to the hand winner and splits 50 percent among all players in cash games at all Harrah’s rooms – Showboat, Harrah’s, Caesars and Bally’s.

Meanwhile, the Taj Mahal’s bad beat, which had climbed close to $250K, has hit and the jackpot was reset to about $61,000. We’re trying to track down the info on the winners.

The Borgata’s bad beat has topped $202,000. The Borgata splits its bad beat high and low. A bad beat of quad 10s or better splits the entire jackpot. A bad beat of quad deuces to quad nines gets about 25 percent, or about $50,000.

Also, The Phish Phamily Poker Classic will be held at the Trop Saturday and Sunday (Oct. 30-31). Proceeds benefit The Mockingbird Foundation, formed by Phish fans in 1996 to support music education for children.

The tournament is already sold out at 108 players playing for a modest prize pool of $6,000 (this is for charity remember) and raffled prizes.

And of course, all eyes will turn to the Taj Mahal on Monday when the United States Poker Championship gets under way.

Here’s a reprint of the schedule. Oh and Happy Halloween.

Brindise

The Taj Mahal, through its Internet partner ptseats.com, has posted nine episodes of TV coverage of last year’s United States Poker Championship, which is airing on Spike TV and in other syndicated slots.

The return to TV for the city’s oldest poker tournament was considered a must for the independently run USPC, which doesn’t enjoy a partnership with the World Poker Tour or the World Series of Poker. This year’s tournament starts Nov. 1 and will be filmed for broadcast next year.

To get yourself in the mood, you can check out the videos here, including coverage of last year’s championship event, which was one by Rumson N.J. player and A.C. regular William Brindise. Brindise cashed for $261,800.

As the Trump Taj Mahal prepares to host the U.S. Poker Championship, we had some time to talk with Taj poker manager Tom Gitto about the Nov. 1-22 event.

The Championship remains solely the product of the Taj Mahal rather than a World Poker Tour or World Series of Poker Circuit event, which rooms at The Borgata and Harrah’s Entertainment casinos bring to the city respectively.

But that really isn’t a stumbling block for he casino, which has presented the championship since 1996.

“The only real difficulty is in accommodating the TV crews,” Gitto says. “It can be like 100 people. And of course we have to do all our own marketing and attract players ourselves. But we’re hoping for a good year.”

Still, the championship got a real shot in the arm last year when it returned to television through a deal with Compass Entertainment which airs the event on Spike TV. The Championship had been a staple on ESPN for years, but was off the air for a couple of years.

“You could just see how big televised poker had become and it hurt us a little to be off,” Gitto says. “I knew we had to get back on TV.”

One of the most interesting things about the championship is the variety of games that will be offered. The USPC is still predominately Hold’em dominated, but has left room for some seven-card stud tournaments, several Omaha tournaments and a two-day H.O.R.S.E. 8 tournament.

“That’s and extension of our room,” Gitto says. “Most poker rooms these days are entirely Hold’em, but we still offer a lot of stud and Omaha games. And we wanted to extend that into the championship. It’s something our players expect.”

The championship event itself is a $5,000 + $250 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament beginning Nov. 19.

Daily satellites awarding vouchers for the USPC have started and weekend $525 + $25 satellites for the main event are held at 8:15pm Friday and 4:15 and 8:15pm Sat. and Sun.

For more info on the championship schedule, go here.