The 2009 World Series of Poker Circuit Championship Main Event concluded today at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

The winner was Jeremiah DeGreef, from Salt Lake City, UT. He earned his first WSOP Circuit gold ring ever plus a whopping cash prize of $69,890, one of the biggest payouts so far at this year’s tournament series.

DeGreef is a 27-year-old disabled veteran. He served three years in the U.S. Army. DeGreef, who has a prodigal talent for learning new languages, served as an Arabic translator. Despite his disability and departure from the armed forced in 2007, DeGreef discovered a passion for poker, which has begun paying big rewards. Indeed, poker talent seems to run in the DeGreef family. Earlier this week, Jeremiah’s brother Anthony finished second in a Caesars Circuit event. Not content with just making it to the final table, Jeremiah DeGreef outlasted a formable lineup which included four-time gold ring, and five-time gold bracelet winner Men ‘the Master” Nguyen. He also beat the star of the Caesars’ series thus far, James Lopushinsky, who has won two events within the past two weeks. DeGreef also vanquished another tough competitor, Vinny Pahuja, who has been one of the most highly-ranked tournament players in the last 18 months.

The $2,000 buy-in two-day tournament attracted 134 entries, which generated $259,960 in prize money. The top 18 finishers collected payouts. All the action took place inside Caesars Palace Las Vegas poker tournament room.


The 2009 Cleopatra Open concluded today at Caesars Palace Las Vegas with Courtney Wulfe as a Champion

The $300 buy-in ladies-only poker tournament attracted 115 entries. It has become a custom for all WSOP Circuit events to hold a special tournament for ladies-only who prefer playing in their own event.

The winner was Courtney Wulfe, from Houston, TX. She was one of the lower stacks when final table play began on the second of the two-day event. But Wulfe ended up defeating Kathryn Meeks in heads-up play, who finished second. Wulfe earned $8,868 in prize money.

____________________

by Nolan Dalla

Many of the world’s top poker superstars as well as hundreds of amateur poker players from all over the nation and abroad are expected to participate in the fourth annual World Series of Poker Circuit championship being held Monday, April 27 through Thursday, April 30, 2009. In previous years, the Caesars Palace Las Vegas championship has attracted former world poker champions including -- Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Carlos Mortensen, Chris Moneymaker, Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, Jamie Gold, and Jerry Yang. In addition, many other poker celebrities have played in the competition, including Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Allen Cunningham, and many others. Most players are very media friendly and will be eager to give interviews.

The World Series of Poker is the richest sporting event in the world. In 2005, the WSOP, which has been a proud Las Vegas tradition dating back to 1970, went on the road for the first time. Each year since, the WSOP Circuit has made up to 12 stops at casinos around the country. Caesars Palace is the only stop of the current Circuit season in Las Vegas, making this championship tournament truly special for everyone. In what promises to be one of the most media friendly events of the year in Las Vegas, television, print, and Internet media are invited to attend any of the four days and get close to the high-stakes action. Last year’s championship was won by five-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Allen Cunningham, who collected half-a-million dollars for first place, plus the coveted WSOP Circuit gold ring (his career first). The 2008 tournament attracted 334 entries.

The four-day competition will be open to media from start to finish. Tournament play begins at noon daily and lasts until around midnight. The championship final table will be played on Thursday and will begin at 2 pm.

For press information or to learn more about featuring the poker tournament, please contact Nolan Dalla (WSOP Media Director) at: nolandalla@aol.com or telephone (702) 358-4642

For information about Caesars Palace Las Vegas and the poker room, please contact Jim Pedulla (Poker Room Manager) at: jpedulla@caesarspalace.com or telephone (702) 731-7349

____________________

by Nolan Dalla

Perhaps no nation has experienced the poker boom more recently or in a bigger way than Russia. The big bear is one of poker’s fastest-growing markets. Millions of Russians from St. Petersburg to Vladivostok are now playing poker, both online and in live casinos. A new Russian Poker Tour is scheduled to begin play later this year.

It’s no surprise then that many Russian poker players are enjoying great tournament success in the West. Notable poker champions are Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Alex Kravchenko, Kirill Gerasimov, and Ralph Perry (who now lives in the U.S.). Last year’s WSOP Main Event runner up was Ivan Demidov, another very talented Russian player. Now, add the name “Max Katz” to the list.

Katz, a 24-year-old poker professional from Moscow won the latest World Series of Poker Circuit event held at Caesars Palace Las Vegas. He topped a highly-competitive field of 227 players who entered the $500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament. For his victory, Katz won $26,699. He was also presented with his first gold ring, the top prize for winning on the WSOP Circuit. In fact, Katz is the first Russian citizen to win a gold ring in the five-year history of the Circuit.

Katz put on a dominant performance. He began final table play on day two second in chips but seized the advantage about mid-way through the finale en route to a most convincing victory. Katz spoiled what would have otherwise been a reunion of Chicago poker players. Three finalists were from Chicago, and a fourth was born in the windy city. In the end, the Russian blew everyone away with his first American win, after previous victories in his native country.

____________________

by Nolan Dalla

Kentucky is known for many things – horseracing, bourbon, bluegrass music, rolling green pastures – and now, the most recent World Series of Poker Circuit champion. The latest player to be presented with the covered gold ring is George Lusby.

The 42-year-old firefighter from Georgetown, KY scorched the competition in what was unquestionably one of the longest and toughest battles of any final table held at this year’s Caesars Palace series thus far. Lusby topped a highly-competitive field of 116 entries, each who anted up $1,500 in the two-day No-Limit Hold’em competition. All the action took place inside the special tournament arena at Caesars.

Lusby survived the first day but was clearly an underdog once the final table began. In fact, he started off in eighth place out of nine players. But Lusby patiently waited for the right moments to be aggressive and gradually increased his stack size to the point where he was in a position to win. Lusby seized the chip lead when play became three-handed and went on to win the top cash prize amounting to $44,724.

The tournament generated $168,780 in prize money. The top 18 finishers collected payouts. When final table play began on day two, Brad Hood and Kyle Bowker started as the two biggest stacks. Bowker would end up in fifth place. Hood finished as the runner up to Lusby.

____________________

by Nolan Dalla

Saturday afternoon at Caesars Palace spawned a jam-packed poker room. The World Series of Poker Circuit included the ninth, tenth, and eleventh of 22 gold ring events on this year’s schedule. The $500 buy-in two-day tournament (Event #9) attracted 225 entries, generating $109,125 in prize money. The top 27 finishers collected payouts. Event #10 also began and will conclude on Sunday. Event #11, a “Double Stack Turbo No-Limit Hold’em” tournament, also played to conclusion on this day. The newly-conceived “Double-Stack” event was so popular with players that an alternates list had to be taken. Every poker table at Caesars was filled.

The newest poker tournament champion is Suzanne Carrillo. She is a professional poker player from El Paso, Texas. This marked Carrillo’s second tournament victory. She won an event at the Bellagio recently. She also cashed in two of the first three WSOP events she ever played back in 2005. Carrillo came to the final table as the chip leader.

She lost her advantage late in the tournament but managed to come back and win in an exciting finish. Carrillo became the first female champion to win an open event in the four-year WSOP Circuit series at Caesars Palace. The previous three years, all of the winners were males, except for the special ladies-only tournament.

____________________

by Nolan Dalla

SunPoker.com is giving away guaranteed seats to the Casinos Austria Poker Tour (CAPT) in Innsbruck, Austria. The CAPT tournaments have proven time and again to be some of the best run tournaments in the world and are starting to see the huge prize pools of the larger European Poker Events, while still remaining hidden gems from the sharks. SunPoker players have crushed the cash games and tournaments winning over $500,000 during the CAPT tournaments over the last 2 seasons, while enjoying the Austrian lifestyle in some of the most beautiful, cultural cities in the world!

CAPT Innsbruck Satellites at SunPoker:

The qualifier tournaments to get on to the Fearsome Foursome team are affordable to everyone and are quite small with sometimes some big overlays. There are 3 steps available, the Satellites that are $3+$.3 daily. The satellites lead into the $30+$3 Semi-Finals, which are held every day at 20:00 GMT. The Semi-finals then lead into the weekly Sunday finals at 20:00 GMT, where there is a guaranteed prize of at least 1 package worth $3300, which includes the buy in for the main CAPT event in Innsbruck and money for flight and accommodations. Finals are being played on April 19th, and 26th. More details are located at http://www.sunpoker.com/tournaments/tourn_capt.asp

Free Poker Seminars for your Players!

When it comes to poker, SunPoker's Fearsome Foursome players are treated to professional poker coaching which is focused on the Innsbruck tournament's structure and players. From the past 2 CAPT tournaments, the coaching has been a huge factor in having more than 8 cashes in the main event and the side events. In addition, the SunPoker Mobile University is coming to the Innsbruck Hilton on Friday May 8, 2009 at 19:00 to provide a FREE poker seminar presented by professional poker coach Sven Lucha from the Gambling Institute in Germany.

Players can register FREE starting for the poker coaching seminar by visiting this link: http://www.sunpoker.com/innsbruck/.

____________________

The third annual World Series of Poker Europesm presented by Betfair has solidified its tournament schedule, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc., owner and operator of the world’s most prestigious poker tournaments announced today.

The 2009 World Series of Poker Europe Presented by Betfair (the WSOPE) will feature four bracelet tournaments, including a new addition, the £2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha mixed event that begins on September 21st.

“The World Series of Poker Europe has quickly established itself as the most prestigious tournament outside the United States,” said World Series of Poker Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. “Winning a gold bracelet is recognized globally as the top prize in the sport and we look forward to awarding four more bracelets in 2009 at the Casino at the Empire in London.”

The WSOPE will be held from September 17th to October 1st, 2009 in the heart of Leicester Square at the Casino at the Empire in London, England. The Casino at the Empire has been a hotbed of poker activity since hosting the WSOPE, with regular cash games and tournaments running around the clock. The casino now stays open 24-hours a day and has begun offering satellite tournaments for the WSOPE. Visit http://www.thecasinolsq.com/pages/casino-events.php for more details.

"The Casino at the Empire has quickly become the destination for poker in the UK, “said Michael Silberling, COO, London Clubs International. ““We look forward to hosting the best players in the game for the WSOPE this fall and will continue to offer the finest poker action daily for those in Leicester Square.”

Players can pre-register for the WSOPE at any London Clubs International (LCI) venue in the UK or at the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. Alternatively they can try and qualify online exclusively at Betfair Poker via http://www.betfairpoker.com/.

“We are delighted to be working alongside Harrah’s again for a successful third year of our sponsorship of the World Series of Poker Europe,” said Betfair CEO David Yu. “We will remain the only place to qualify online for the WSOPE tournament and we are also very excited about the new $1 million promotion which with free entry will give the WSOPE a wider appeal and add more value than ever before.”

The complete bracelet event schedule is as follows:

Friday, Sept. 18, 2009
Event #1 - £1,000 + £60 – No-Limit Hold’em Day 1A (3-day event/2 start days)

Saturday, Sept. 19, 2009
Event #1 - £1,000 + £60 – No-Limit Hold’em Day 1B

Monday, Sept. 21, 2009
Event #2 - £2,500 + £150 – Pot Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha (3-day event)

Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2009
Event #3 - £5,000 + £250 – Pot Limit Omaha (3-day event)

Saturday, Sept. 26, 2009
Event #4 - £10,000 + £350 – World Championship No-Limit Hold’em Day 1A
(5-day event/2 start days) “Main Event”

Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009
Event #4 - £10,000 + £350 – World Championship No-Limit Hold’em Day 1B “Main Event”

All the above tournaments will be sanctioned gold bracelet events. Non-stop cash games will also be scheduled during the tournament, as well as a bevy of satellite tournaments in the weeks leading up to each event. The Casino at the Empire does not require membership for admission.

Betfair Poker is also proud to present a brand new WSOPE event exclusively free for Betfair poker players to enter. The FREE MILLION DOLLAR GAME is only available at http://www.betfairpoker.com/. Qualification begins 13th April with the top 18 players traveling to London to play live at WSOPE for a first place prize of U.S. $1 million. The event will kick off the WSOPE on Thursday, September 17.

ESPN, the exclusive World Series of Poker telecaster, is scheduled to air ten original hours of coverage of the World Series of Poker Europe in the United States and distribute the tournament globally. ESPN360.com, ESPN’s signature broadband sports network, is scheduled to provide live coverage in the U.S., Europe, Mexico and Brazil.

Harrah’s Entertainment will distribute World Series of Poker Europe programming in non-ESPN markets, which totaled 170 million households in 2008 including U.K. host broadcaster Channel 4.

During the WSOP in Las Vegas (May 26-July 15), players can pre-register for WSOP Europe at the tournament cage as well as lock in poker player hotel rates via http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/. In addition, $1,570 Mega Satellites for the WSOP Europe Main Event will be held July 9th, 10th and 11th at 5:00 PM at the Rio® All-Suite Hotel and Casino.
WSOPE in London complements the WSOP held annually in Las Vegas. During the first two years of the WSOPE, seven gold bracelets have been awarded along with £9,997,500 in prize money.

The biggest names in poker have participated in WSOPE including: Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Annie Duke, Phil Hellmuth, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Gus Hansen, Eric Seidel, Mike Matusow, Joe Hachem, Vanessa Rousso, Andy Bloch, David Benefield, Ivan Demidov, Sorel Mizzi, Jennifer Tilly, Layne Flack, Andrew Black, Barry Greenstein, Tom Dwan, Chris Ferguson, Scotty Nguyen, Max Pescatori, Chris Bjorin, Allen Cunningham, Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Patrik Antonius, John Phan and Annette Obrestad.

Obrestad won the largest amount ever for a female, £1 million – or U.S. $2,013,102 when she won the inaugural WSOPE Main Event in 2007. John Juanda, the winner of the 2008 event, won in an epic battle. The final table lasted 21 hours and Juanda took home a cool £868,800 in prize money and a coveted WSOP bracelet for his remarkable efforts.

The host country is still looking to win its first bracelet on home soil, while six different nations have captured a WSOPE bracelet: Denmark (2), Afghanistan, Germany, Italy, Norway and USA.

____________________

Seth G. Palansky
Sports & Entertainment Director,
Communications Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.
One Caesars Palace Drive, Las Vegas, NV. 89109-8969
(O) 702-407-6344 (F) 702-880-6802
spalansky@harrahs.com

When Dwyte Pilgrim makes a promise, he delivers. Just three weeks after winning his first-ever WSOP Circuit gold ring at Caesars Atlantic City, Pilgrim put on yet another astounding display of poker acumen by triumphing in a Circuit championship. This time, history was made on the other coast, at the Harrah’s Rincon Casino and Resort, near San Diego.

Pilgrim’s latest “gold ring” championship came in the $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament which attracted 106 entries, generating $503,100 in prize money. The winner’s share amounted to $125,775, plus a $10,000 seat into the 2009 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas coming up in July. Pilgrim was also presented with his second gold ring, the ultimate token of achievement on the WSOP Circuit. The official ring presentation was made by Tournament Director Jimmy Sommerfeld.

Pilgrim’s victory was hardly a surprise considering what was written about him immediately following his previous WSOP Circuit victory in Atlantic City back on March 7th:

Dwyte Pilgrim’s previous successes came in the form of six previous cashes, five of which took place at the December 2008 WSOP Circuit event at Harrah’s Atlantic City. Indeed, Pilgrim had five cashes during that ten day tournament series – which is a stunning accomplishment given the sizes of many tournament fields in Atlantic City. It appears Dwyte Pilgrim is a player to keep a close eye on in the months and years ahead. A not-too-bold prediction: Burgeoning with self-confidence, a blossoming bankroll, and obvious natural talent, tournament poker has not seen the last of Dwyte Pilgrim.

Sure enough, 26-year-old Dwyte Pilgrim – burgeoning with self-confidence, a blossoming bankroll, and obvious natural talent – claimed another victory. With each and every accomplishment, Pilgrim is growing a little taller in stature in the highly-competitive jungle of high-stakes tournament poker. His first big step was cashing five times last December in his initial series of poker events. Then, it was winning a gold ring in a WSOP Circuit preliminary event. Now, it is winning a WSOP Circuit championship. For Pilgrim, the next step is as obvious as it is daunting – winning a WSOP gold bracelet.

It’s been an astonishing four-month rush for the former loan officer from Brooklyn, NY. He only started playing live tournaments last December. The Guyana-born poker pro is very quickly becoming the next possible poker star, blessed with everything anyone would want in a celebrity – personality, likability, and great poker talent.

The Main Event at Rincon attracted a wide-diversity of poker talent comprised of both professionals and amateurs. At least a quarter of the field won their way into the championship as satellite qualifiers. The Main Event attracted five former WSOP gold bracelet winners -- including Bob Slezak (2001), Steve Billirakis (2006), Robert Cheung (2007), Jason Young (2008), and David Daneshgar (2008). In addition, several former WSOP Circuit gold ring winners participated -- including Michael Binger (2008 Harvey’s Lake Tahoe champion), Matthew Stout (2008, Harrah’s Atlantic City), Dwyte Pilgrim (2009, Caesars Atlantic City), and Christopher Tryba (2009, Harrah’s Rincon). Other notable players entering -- included Eric Lynch (poker author and nine-time WSOP in-the-money finisher) and Paul Smith (poker coach and radio talk show host).

The top nine finishers collected payouts. All the action took place over two very long days inside the Rincon Pavilion Showroom. At the end of day one, only 16 of the original 106 players survived. Esther “E-Tay” Taylor was the chip leader. The Las Vegas poker pro was competing to become the first WSOP Circuit Main Event winner in history. The previous highest finish by a female player was by Jennifer Harman, way back in the Circuit’s inaugural season of 2005 at the Rio in Las Vegas. Kathy Liebert was the highest previous female finisher at Rincon, finishing third here in 2007.

Players battled down to the final nine survivors on day two. Those players took seats at the final table which began at 3:30 pm. When final table play commenced, Christopher Tryba began as the chip leader. Like Pilgrim, he too was competing to become a two-ring winner. Tryba won an event here at Rincon a few days earlier. Ranked eighth in chips was Pilgrim, never once deterred from what would become a resounding victory.

____________________

by Nolan Dalla