PokerStars.net Empire State Hold'em Championships Wrap Up at Turning Stone

August 29 2010, Donnie Peters

The PokerStars.net Empire State Hold’em Championships wrapped up a few days ago after several successful events at Turning Stone Resort and Casino in Verona, New York. After 1,966 entrants took to action over the course of the series, a whopping prize pool of $941,985 was created! That’s not bad considering the buy-ins were smaller, ranging from $180 up to the $2,500 Main Event.

One of the unique things that Turning Stone offers to its players is the ability to play at the casino at age 18. Back before they were well known players in the poker community, some of the best young grinders of today cut their teeth at Turning Stone, and more specifically at the Empire State Hold’em Championships, which have been yearly since 2003. It has been one of the best smaller-stakes tournament series since its inception, and now with PokerStars.net having sponsored the event, things are really looking even better.

"The PokerStars.net Empire State Hold’em Championships was a great series for us," said Jason DiBenedetto, director of poker operations for Turning Stone. "We were very pleased with the overall turnout for the event. PokerStars.net was a great sponsor for the event and it was a pleasure working with their team. From the PokerStars.net players’ party in our Lava Nightclub through the Main Event, I think players enjoy having a sponsor like PokerStars.net that brings any regular event up to the next level."

Among some of the names to make the trip to the middle of New York this year were Christian Harder, Shawn Busse (defending champion ESHC Main Event), Tom Marchese, Andrew Chen and Matt Vance. Harder took second ($69,222) in the $2,500 Main Event, Marchese took fourth ($31,117), Chen got seventh ($13,860) and Vance placed tenth ($8,004). Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso was also on hand to play and ran her Bigslick Boot Camp course prior to the Main Event. She was joined by fellow team member and husband Chad Brown along with Kevin Saul and Olivier Busquet on the felt, although none of them could post any big results. Let’s take a look at the results.

Event No. 1: $240 NLHE Deepstack Turbo

Entrants	Prizepool
163	$34,230

Place	Player	Prize
*1	Tim Pink	$5,114
*2	Eric Beck	$4,363
*3	Shawn Johnson	$4,363
*4	Stan Sadinsky	$4,363
*5	Shaun Hartlin	$4,363
6	Carl Pion	$1,388
7	Jim DeRue	$1,123
8	Dennis Durkin	$964
9	Andy Cohen	$806
10	Joe Nertney	$648

Event No. 3: $240 NLHE

Entrants	Prizepool
122	$25,620

Place	Player	Prize
*1	Joshua Giller	$4,964
*2	Robert Miller	$4,964
*3	Jeffrey Harter	$4,964
4	Nicholas Thuell	$1,953
5	James Kellish	$1,396
6	Daniel Dizenzo	$$1,060
7	Kyle Caminiti	$840
8	Robert Szweczyk	$722
9	James Sansone	$604
10	Timothy Coady	$485

Event No. 5: $1,085 NLHE

Entrants	Prizepool
39	$39,000

Place	Player	Prize
*1	Leslie Hardy	$11,728
*2	Duncan Jones	$11,727
3	Shawn Busse	$5,296
4	Kyle Smallgange	$3,783
5	David Kent	$3,026
6	David Fischer	$2,270

Event No. 7: $240 + $100 NLHE Bounty

Entrants	Prizepool
147	$29,400

Place	Player	Prize
1	Stephen Caruso	$9,060
2	James Poper	$5,504
3	Silvio Deubeis	$3,379
4	Andrew Zeeman	$2,353
5	Jason Taylor	$1,683
6	David Harris	$1,278
7	Curtis Bailey	$1,012
8	David Hollenberg	$870
9	Eric Beck	$727
10	William George	$585

Notable Finishes: Rich Ryan (12th - $442)

Event No. 10: $350 NLHE

Entrants	Prizepool
612	$183,600

Place	Player	Prize
*1	Matthew Smith	$20,003
*2	Douglas Conant	$13,807
*3	Jeremy Kozub	$13,807
*4	Darrin Bracken	$13,807
*5	David Harris	$13,807
*6	James Willey, Jr.	$13,807
*7	David Battaglia	$13,807
*8	Jeffrey Kocz	$13,807
9	James Sansone	$2,850
10	Brian Jhohnson	$2,138

Event No. 12: $2,500 PokerStars Main Event

Entrants	Prizepool
175	$402,500

Place	Player	Prize
1	Adam Hui	$115,722
2	Christian Harder	$69,222
3	Jonathan Dimmij	$44,196
4	Thomas Marchese	$31,117
5	Philip Gisiano	$22,449
6	Michael Liscio	$17,139
7	Andrew Chen	$13,860
8	Wendall Barnes	$11,908
9	Joshua Giller	$9,956
10	Matthew Vance	$8,004

Notable Finishes: Jared Vengrin (20th - $4,100)

Event No. 14: $340 Suvivor NLHE

Entrants	Prizepool
72	$21,600

Place	Player	Prize
1	Nicholas Banker	$2,860
2	Jeanne Nelson	$2,860
3	David Grana	$2,860
4	Carl Dettelis	$2,502
5	Sean Hegarty	$2,380
6	Michael Bailey	$2,380
7	Barney Trembetzky	$2,380
8	Ron Miller	$2,380
9	Shaun Hartlin	$350

Event No. 15: $550 Deepstack NLHE

Entrants	Prizepool
79	$39,500

Place	Player	Prize
1	Travell Thomas	$13,027
2	Cherish Andrews	$7,280
3	Albert Smith	$4,406
4	Daniel Demeo	$3,640
5	Marcus Gray	$2,682
6	Calvin Cruz Ventura	$2,107
7	Steven Stahursky	$1,724
8	Howard Kass	$1,341
9	Carl Dettlis	$1,150
10	Ryan Kass	$958

Event No. 16: $255 NLHE Bounty

Entrants	Prizepool
117	$20,475

Place	Player	Prize
*1	Andrew Priore	$4,335
*2	Brandon Spicer	$3,200
*3	Raymond D’Argenio	$3,200
*4	Michael Emmert	$3,200
5	Charles Thomas	$1,172
6	Sean Wallace	$890
7	John Shultz	$705
8	John Dunn	$606
9	James Kellish	$506
10	Marylynn Giacobbe	$407

Event No. 17: $240 Suvivor NLHE

Entrants	Prizepool
36	$7,560

Place	Player	Prize
1	William Patterson	$1,700
2	Pete Cardarelli	$1,200
3	Timothy Brit	$1,095
4	Terry Evans	$1,095
5	Thomas Trusilo	$1,094
6	Justin Rebollo	$800

Event No. 19: $340 NLHE

Entrants	Prizepool
63	$18,900

Place	Player	Prize
*1	Gary Capoccia	$6,233
*2	David Wallace	$2,796
*3	Jeffrey Black	$2,795
4	Matthew Gordon	$1,742
5	John Shultz	$1,283
6	Lucio Procopio	$1,008
7	Kirk Fisher	$825
8	Jeffrey Emmert	$642
9	Donald Spicer	$550
10	Roland Hayes	$459

Event No. 121: $550 NLHE

Entrants	Prizepool
179	$89,500

Place	Player	Prize
1	Brian Zimcosky	$24,731
2	Jason Kufs	$16,392
3	Andrew Bechtold	$9,827
4	Greg Pogarsky	$6,919
5	Travell Thomas	$4,992
6	Sean Wallace	$3,811
7	Jarrod Tavares	$3,082
8	Michael Pisani	$2,648
9	Victoria Larkin	$2,214
10	Melissa McGinnis	$1,780

Event No. 23: $180 NLHE High Heel Poker Tour

Entrants	Prizepool
46	$6,900

Place	Player	Prize
1	Tracy Rouse	$2,310
2	Christine Hirsch	$1,440
3	Kathy Lamandia	$937
4	Kim Perrella	$669
5	Lisa Gauthier	$535
6	Marcia Roddell	$402
7	Barbara Wampole	$200
8	Raman Brar	$200

Event No. 24: $240 NLHE Deepstack Turbo

Entrants	Prizepool
116	$23,200

Place	Player	Prize
*1	Matthew Testa	$1,501
*2	Peter Cardarelli	$1,501
*3	Joseph Siracusa	$1,501
*4	Justin Howland	$1,501
*5	Marcia Riddell	$1,250
*6	Christopher Nicolo	$1,250
*7	Sophear Ung	$1,000
*8	John Ostwald	$1,000
*9	Bruce Bardin	$1,000
*10	Dan Fignar	$1,000

* - Denotes a chop

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