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.

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.

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.

It’s kind of a slow week for poker news in A.C., so we thought we’d take a look at how the currently underway WSOP Circuit event at Harrah’s Chester compares to circuit events here.

Harrah's Chester

And it looks like A.C. has it all over the Pennsylvania competitor.

For example, the opening event at Harrah’s Chester, a $345 buy-in, (with vig) drew only 244 players and had a total prize pool of $71,004.

Compare that to the opening event of the WSOP circuit event at Caesars Atlantic City in March. That $300 + $50 tournament drew 742 players and paid $43,184 to the winner. Harrah’s Chester paid $16,888.

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It was another Brooklynite win in A.C. at The World Series of Poker circuit main event at Caesars this weekend as player Brian Ali took the tournament and a $139,284 cash.

Brian Ali

As you might expect, the boxing metaphors are running hot and heavy with Ali “knocking out” his “heavyweight” competition and so on. Fortunately, we aren’t above that sort of thing.

So Ali KO’d a field of 442 entries in the event with a prize pool of $633,110.

Those numbers are actually pretty good, up substantially over the 174 players that played last year’s Caesars circuit main event. Of course, The WSOP reorganized this year setting all circuit main events at a $1,500 buy-in. Last year’s Caesars main event was a $4,900 buy-in played during lousy weather.

More applicable was the $1,500 main event at Harrah’s Resort in December (as opposed to the event’s $10K regional championship), which attracted only 352 players.

Ali earned the “knockout” references precisely because that’s what he did in a dominant performance that sent several opponents to the canvas, er rail.

“This is so exciting for me to win this,” Ali told the WSOP in a post-tournament interview.  “I was just thinking about this last night that I could win the same amount of money buying a lottery ticket or something like that.  But it would not mean the same at all.  This victory is something I really had to earn. I had to beat some really, really tough poker players, not just here but over the past three days.  So, I’m flying high right now.”

It’s been a good week for Ali who had a third place finish in event 1 of the circuit events, good for $19,627 and also a 15^th place at The Borgata $500,000 Deepstack event held March 5, good for a $4,861.

Ok, that’s a pretty good run.

Second place went to John Andress of Doylestown Pa., who wins $86,071.

Here’s the final hand recap from the WSOP:

When heads-up play began, Ali enjoyed about a 5 to 2 chip lead over Andress.  The challenger Andress managed to double up once, which brought him very near to Ali in chips.  But that was as close as Andress would get to what turned out to be an elusive tournament victory.

The final hand was played out as follows:

Ali – 7h, 4c
Andress – Kh, 6d
Flop – Kc, 6h, 5h
Turn – 8s
River – 3s

All the chips went into the pot on the turn.  Ali modestly bet out 200,000, with a completed straight.  Andress shoved all-in with two pair.  Ali immediately called.  A brick on the river ended the tournament.  Ali ended up winning with an eight-high straight.  Andress had two pair – kings over sixes.  Ali was declared the champion.

Ali, 51, was awarded an automatic seat valued at $10,000 into the season-ending National Championship finale, which is to be televised from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in May.

Two more events are in the books at the World Series of Poker circuit events and we have the results.

Fishberg (on left)

Event 8 of the circuit was a $1,000 buy-in that attracted 185 players and a prize pool of $179,450 (after the 3 percent dealer fee).

The winner was Gregg “Fish” Fishberg of Willow Grove Pa., who takes home $46,657. The 35-year-old pro has been seen before in A.C., having taken a first place in a Deepstack No Limit Tournament at the Borgata Summer Open last year, good for about $84K, and an about $116,000 cash at the 2008 summer open. He also made the bubble at the WSOP championship last year with a 392^nd place finish.

As we got closer to today’s main event, some bigger names were also in the mix. This tournament included former WSOP gold bracelet winner Michael “Little Man” Sica (2003) and WSOP Circuit gold ring winners Alex Rocha, Mike Summers, and Roland Israelashvili – who is the defending champion from the 2010 Main Event at Caesars Atlantic City.

The final hand of the tournament, heads up against Jeff Manning of Chesapeake Va., went totally Fishberg’s way.

Here’s the rundown from the WSOP:

When heads-up play began, chip counts were close to even.  The two finalists battled back and forth for about 20 minutes when the last hand came suddenly.  The final hand was played as follows:

Manning – Qc Jh
Fishberg – Th 4h
Flop – Ts 4d 4s
Turn – 7c
River – 8d

All the chips went in on after the flop.  Fishberg flopped an absolute dream – a full house.  Manning held two overcards.  Fishberg lead out with a small bet.  Manning decided to make a very bold move by raising all in with this two overcards.  Naturally, Fishberg called instantly.

Event 9 of the circuit events was another $300 + $50 No Limit event that drew 288 players and a prize pool of $83,808.

The win went to Vincent Basilicata of Queens, who takes home $20,133.

The World Series of Poker Circuit events offered up a Limit Omaha High event Tuesday, and as you might expect in this No Limit Hold’em world, it wasn’t exactly a barnburner. Still, the WSOP deserves props for offering an event for purists.

The tournament, a $300 buy-in, attracted 90 players and a prize pool of  $26,190. But despite what the WSOP describes as a graying field, the winner was a 27-year-old player from Pittsburgh, Mun Nguyen who wins $8,380. It’s Nguyen’s second cash at the circuit events as he had a second place finish in Event 4, a $500 + $70 No Limit tournament, good for a $25,451 cash.

More importantly, it gives him valuable points in the WSOP’s point system and leaves him in a good spot to nab a seat at the circuit championship in Las Vegas in May.

Some previous results include a win for Travel “T” Thomas, a Buffalo NY business owner who took Event 6, a $750 No Limit buy-in that paid him $30,455. The event drew 155 players and a prize pool of $112,762.

While it was a Monday event with a high buy-in, you have to think Caesars is getting a little disappointed with the turnouts for the circuit events. Hopefully Friday’s main event will break up the funk.

The World Series of Poker circuit events took on a “frat house” air Monday as Event 5, a $300 buy-in No Limit tournament played down to a final table.

Cho

According to the WSOP, “Players screamed for cards. Winners pumped fists. Losers slammed cards on the table. And then there were the railbirds, a goofy gander of deadbeats who picked their favorite player-finalists and turned the competition into a circus.”

And yet, a winner merged. An unknown player, Jaeik Cho, won $29,843.

Cho is a 21-year-old college student from Tokyo, Japan. Although he is Korean by decent, Cho grew up in Japan and only speaks Japanese and English. He is currently visiting the U.S. as an undergraduate student attending William and Mary University in Virginia.

Cho’s previous success has mostly been online.

“Poker is not really that big in Japan right now,” Cho said afterward. “But it’s doing well in Macau and is going to eventually be very big. I think poker is going to be huge in Asia someday.”

We didn’t get a player count of the tournament, but with a prize pool of 138,807, we think that’s about 465 players, which is pretty solid turnout for a circuit event.

Cho went into the final heads up showdown with Oliver Entine of Philly, another unkown, who won $18,451 for second place. Cho enjoyed about a 5 to 1 chip advantage over Entine and put him away by hitting two pair after Entine went all in with ace, king, but saw no help on the board.

Today’s ring event is a $300 + $50 Limit Omaha tournament starting at noon.

There’s a lot to catch up on after a busy poker weekend in Atlantic City including results from the World Series of Poker circuit events at Caesars. But maybe the biggest news from the weekend is that the Tump Taj Mahal bad beat jackpot survived and now sits at $541,000.

The jackpot picked up more than $30K from Friday Morning through Sunday, a pretty good indication that bad beat mania has hit the casino and the poker room is packed.

It also appears to be the second highest bad beat jackpot recorded in the city, though it’s still far behind the $670,000 record set at the Taj last June.

Despite the Taj excitement, the WSOP circuit continued full speed through the weekend, picking up some pretty good action.

Ippolito

Event 2, which was played Thursday and Friday, went to Peter Ippolito of East Meadow NY, who wins $30,181.

The $500 + 70 No Limit tournament attracted 274 players with a prize pool of 123,190.

The WSOP describes Ippolito, who had about $70K in tournament cashes before the tournament, as being on an unstoppable roll, easily outdistancing the field. Sometimes the cards just fall right. For example, shortly before the final table, Ippolito was looking at a probable split as he and opponent both had ace, king suited. But Ippolito got the club run and won with a flush.

Strangely, Ippolito finally put away second place finisher Brian Adragna ($18,648) only to find out that he too is from East Meadow. The two even graduated from the same high school in different years, (Ippolito is 25, Adragna 35), but had never met.

Event 3 of the circuit event, a $300 + $50 Limit hold’em event, went to Dennis “Mike” Summers of Charlottesvill Va. who wins $12,414. The Friday two-day event drew only 158 players and a $45,978 prize pool, showing that No Limit still rules.

Still, Summers outlasted, Michael Walls of Newark Del., when his pocket sevens filled out a boat over Wall’s trip nines (two nines and a seven on the board).  Walls wins $7,671.

Lambrakis

Event 4, played Sat. and Sun, was back to No Limit with another $500 + $70 tournament. The tournament drew a healthy 368 players and a prize pool of $187,210.

The winner was Paul Lambrakis of  Brooklyn, who takes home $41,186.

Lambrakis won despite being at a huge chip disadvantage to second place finisher Mun Nguyen. Lambrakis told the WSOP that he whittled down that lead, and eventually faced and defeated Nguyen heads up, by only playing strong hands and folding “borderline” hands such as ace, nine, which most short-stacked players would play.

The strategy worked and Lambrakis won.

OK, so that’s it on the results so far.

Today’s ring event at Caesars is a $750 + $80 No Limit tournament, the highest buy-in yet. The tournament begins at Noon.