The World Series of Poker Circuit Event Series at Choctaw-Durant got under way Jan. 3 with Event #1, a $365 buy-in multi-day tournament with three Day 1 flights. Players who busted out on Day 1 were able to re-enter on subsequent flights for another shot at poker glory. Event #1 is the first of the three major tournaments in the series and had a guaranteed prize pool of $300,000. A $500K Guaranteed and $1M Guaranteed tournament are also scheduled. With 1,448 total entries into the tournament, the prize pool for Event #1 soared well above the advertised guarantee to $431,700.
Day 2 of Event #1 started at noon Sunday (1/6) and will play down to the end. 193 players returned to compete for a top prize of $74,479. Tulsa-area players who returned for Day 2 included:
- Debbie Inman of Bixby with 20,300 chips
- Richard Robbins of Tulsa with 60,300 chips
- John "Cracker" Reynolds of Tulsa with 107,300 chips
- Justin Gardenhire of Wagoner with 118,400 chips
- Stewart Fleming of Jenks with 114,500 chips
- Charlie Olneah of Catoosa with 24,700 chips
- Chris Hooper of Tulsa with 66,800 chips
- Damon Parks of Owasso with 54,600 chips
- Walter Luse of Muskogee with 94,800 chips
- Eric Thompson of Tulsa with 36,600 chips
According to tournament manager Poker Executives, Day 2 started with seven minutes left in Level 16 of the tournament structure, with blinds of 1,000/2,000 with a 300 ante. As of the dinner break at 6:40pm, 35 players remained in the tournament. When play resumed at 7:40pm, Level 25 commenced with blinds of 7,000/14,000 with a 2,000 ante. Among the above players remaining at the dinner break were John 'Cracker' Reynolds with just under 300,000 chips and Justin Gardenhire with just under 900,000.
After the dinner break, Justin Gardenhire busted out in 19th place, collecting $3,337; and John 'Cracker' Reynolds busted in 16th place for $4,002.
Play continued for the remaining players until after midnight and play was paused with nine players remaining. The final nine returned to complete the tournament at 1pm Monday.
The top 150 players made the money, with payouts starting at $578. Results for the top 36 players are shown below:
- 1st: Chad Eveslage of Ramsey, IN - $74,479
- 2nd: Barry Barron of Ponder, TX - $46,192
- 3rd: Alexander Altaffer of Richardson, TX - $33,850
- 4th: Cong Tran of Garland, TX - $25,734
- 5th: David Tandukar of Irving, TX - $19,591
- 6th: Brian Surber of Longview, TX - $15,088
- 7th: Clinton Jnop-Phillip of Houston, TX - $11,755
- 8th: Nathanael Kogel of Pflugerville, TX - $9,264
- 9th: Clifford Fisher of Carrollton, TX - $7,386
- 10th: Joel Midler of Maxwell, TX - $5,957
- 11th: Michael Manis of Austin, TX - $5,957
- 12th: Reu Carson of Dallas, TX - $5,957
- 13th: Bryan Campanello of Southlake, TX - $4,857
- 14th: Steven Bates of Sherman, TX - $4,857
- 15th: Mark Dunavin of Grand Prairie, TX - $4,857
- 16th: John Reynolds of Tulsa, OK - $4,002
- 17th: David Lorton of Fate, TX - $4,002
- 18th: Craig Savage of Plano, TX - $4,002
- 19th: Justin Gardenhire of Wagoner, OK - $3,337
- 20th: Matthew Casperite of Howe, TX - $3,337
- 21st: Zelong Dong of Plano, TX - $3,337
- 22nd: Raul Barajas of Dallas, TX - $2,810
- 23rd: Justin Morgan of Roanoke, TX - $2,810
- 24th: John Benanzer of St. Marys, OH - $2,810
- 25th: Jimmy Bunch of Bokoshe, OK - $2,392
- 26th: Patrick Kinney of Mustang, OK - $2,392
- 27th: Michael Leanos of Parker, AZ - $2,392
- 28th: Raphael Ishida of Frisco, TX - $2,059
- 29th: Robert Dobbs of Forney, TX - $2,059
- 30th: Cristobal Romano of Irving, TX - $2,059
- 31st: Clark Rowe of Irving, TX - $1,792
- 32nd: John Hill of Watauga, TX - $1,792
- 33rd: David Hendrickson of Grand Prairie, TX - $1,792
- 34th: William Hesser of Allen, TX - $1,576
- 35th: Brandon Rhodes of Dallas, TX - $1,576
- 36th: Anthony Huynh of Little Elm, TX - $1,576
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