2010-11 World Series of Poker Circuit - Horseshoe Southern Indiana

Main Event
Day: 3
123
Event Info
2010-11 World Series of Poker Circuit - Horseshoe Southern Indiana
Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
j♥j♦
Prize
$99,878
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,500
Prize Pool
$416,160
Entries
289
Level Info
Level
25
Blinds
10,000 / 20,000
Ante
3,000
Players Left 1 / 289

Final Table Bios

Donnie Peters
Donnie Peters
Charles Moore - chip leader
Charles Moore - chip leader

Seat 1: John Holder (825,000)

John Holder is from Scottsville, Kentucky. Looking up Holder’s tournament record, we can only find two cashes, one in 2003 and one in 2007. His first-ever cash came in August of 2003 when he took 14th in a $300 No-Limit Hold’em event at the Third Jack Binion Mid-America Poker Classic in Tunica. His finish was good for $1,875. The second cash came from another $300 No-Limit Hold’em event, but this time at the 2007 Midwest Regional Poker Championships. Holder final tabled that event and took eighth place for $2,174.

Holder will enter this final table today with 825,000 chips. That’s good enough for third place on the leader board, setting him up to go even deeper. This is already the largest cash of his career and first major final table, but it can only get better from here.

Seat 2: Kevin Calenzo (288,000)

Kevin Calenzo hails from New Hartford, New York and has just under $200,000 in live career tournament earnings.

Calenzo’s results date back to 2003. In August of 2004, he took second in an event at the Second Annual Empire State Hold’em Championships at Turning Stone for $7,560. After that, Calenzo doesn’t have another cash until 2008. In 2009, Calenzo has his best year yet, taking home over $70,000 in total winnings throughout the year. The big score that year came in the Deep Stack Extravaganza II Main Event in Las Vegas at The Venetian. The buy-in was $2,500 and Calenzo finished third for over $64,000, by far his largest cash to date.

A little over a year later, Calenzo was able to set another career high for his largest cash and this time it came with a victory. Calenzo won the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2010 Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City during the month of September. He was awarded with $79,307.

What may be the biggest story with Calenzo is that he final tabled the WSOP Circuit event held in Council Bluffs in August this year. That was the first stop on the Circuit’s new tour and Calenzo finished in ninth place for $8,114. Making it to the final nine here in Indiana marks back-to-back Circuit Main Event final tables for Calenzo. He also finished in the money in a prelim event earlier here in Indiana and has earned a total of 40 National Championship leader board points. Making this final table has added 30 more points for Calenzo and he’ll be looking to improve upon that from here.

Calenzo comes into the final table with some work to be done. He sits in eighth place with 288,000 chips.

Seat 3: John Alfera (636,000)

John Alfera from Arnold, Pennsylvania will enter the final table right in the middle of the pack with 636,000 in chips.

On Alfera’s tournament record are four cashes for over $13,000 in career earnings. The largest cash he has on record if a fifth-place finish at a Circuit prelim event at Caesars Atlantic City in March of 2009. That finish was good for $9,870 and that means this final table isn’t his largest cash yet, unless he can money up at least one spot.

All four of Alfera’s cashes come in Atlantic City, meaning he’s broadening his poker horizons here in Indiana and doing so with a major final table. Prior to this event, Alfera finished in the money in two other Circuit events, with one being the aforementioned final table.

Seat 4: Joel Merwick (516,000)

Before the tournament even began, we ran into Joel Merwick in the fitness room of the hotel. He let us know he was playing the event and not look, he’s found himself at the final table. They say hard work translates into success and that’s what it looks like is happening here.

Merwick has over $100,000 in career earnings, much of which comes from WSOP-branded events. The first cash on his record is an in-the-money finish in the WSOP Main Event back in 2005. He finished in 189th place for $39,075. Although that’s his only WSOP cash, Merwick has 10 WSOP Circuit cashes. Out of those 10, five are final tables. Most of those final tables came in prelim events, but last season on the Circuit, Merwick final tabled the $5,000 WSOP Circuit Championship Event at Harrah’s New Orleans. He went on to finish in sixth place there for $37,280.

In the first stop on this season’s tour in Council Bluffs, Merwick cashed three times including a 24th-place finish in the Main Event. Merwick has 72.5 points on the National Championship leader board and sits in sixth place for players who have yet to automatically qualify. Adding at least another 30 points here for this final table, that moves Merwick up to second place behind Shiva Dudani. That should give Merwick an excellent chance at making the National Championship in Las Vegas at the end of the season.

Merwick comes into the final table with 516,000 in chips and sits in sixth place out of the final nine remaining. He is from Lincoln, Nebraska.

Seat 5: Charles “Woody” Moore (1,233,000)

Charles “Woody” Moore has over $800,000 in career tournament earnings and plenty of on-the-felt experience. He’s done well to turn that experience into chips here in Indiana, entering the final table as a big chip leader with 1,233,000 in chips.

It’s a little confusing when trying to track down Moore’s records, as numerous databases have him listed under ‘Charles Moore’ and ‘Woody Moore’ and then under duplicates of that name as well from different hometowns. It happens, but here are some of his career highlights.

In 1995, Moore final table the $1,500 Limit Hold’em event at the WSOP, placing third for $79,800. In February of 2008, Moore raked in over $625,000 for placing third in the LA Poker Classic WPT event. That final table included Phil Ivey, Quinn Do, Nam Le, Scott Montgomery and Phil Hellmuth – quite the colossal lineup. That same year, Moore took ninth in a $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event at the WSOP for over $11,000.

On the first stop in this season on the WSOP Circuit, Moore made the final table and went on to finish in fifth place for $21,795. He joins Kevin Calenzo from that final table on this one as well.

Moore has 52.5 National Championship points. He’s almost surely to jump at least a couple of spots given his big lead on the rest of the players, but anything can happen in tournament poker. One thing that’s for certain is Moore knows how to play the big stack. Throughout the day yesterday and into the night, he constantly applied big, big pressure to his opponents with power poker. Many times, he made the players at his table play for every single one of their chips and that made the players uneasy. We’ll see if it’s more of the same today for this final table.

Seat 6: Jorge Solorzano (506,000)

Jorge Solorzano doesn’t have much information on record for his poker career. In fact, we can’t find anything on him. We do know that Solorzano comes from Louisville, Kentucky. After Day 1 of the Main Event here in Indiana, Solorzano emerged as the chip leader. He’s been able to ride that big stack all the way to the final table and will enter the last day of play with 506,000 in chips. That’s good enough for seventh on the leader board.

Seat 7: Kris Bradshaw (251,000)

The smallest stack at the final table belongs to Kris Bradshaw. Bradshaw is one of the younger guys at the final table and comes from Scottsville, Michigan.

The only cash we can find on record from Bradshaw came here in Indiana at this WSOP Circuit event. In the seventh event, a $350 No-Limit Hold'em event, Bradshaw took 16th place. He won $1,264 and is doing much better than that in this event. He's already made the final table and is guaranteed over $9,000. Although he may not have any records just yet, this could be the start of something if Bradshaw can overcome the short stack and run it up to a victory. Even without doing so, he's already earned some much needed points towards the National Championship.

Bradshaw comes into the day with 251,000 chips, 37,000 less than Kevin Calenzo.

Seat 8: Mike Foster (850,000)

Mike Foster from Chicago, Illinois is another young gun at the final table. Even though he’s very young, Foster has two scores over $40,000 on his record and a WSOP Circuit gold ring to his name.

With over $95,000 in career tournament winnings, Foster won $45,580 after taking down a side event at the Bellagio Cup in 2006. His Circuit win came in 2008 at the Horseshoe Hammond where Foster won the $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em event. That win was worth $40,275.

In this season’s Circuit tour, Foster already has two cashes and that’s got him a total of 20 National Championship points. Both those cashes were here in Indiana in prelim events. Foster cashed in the $350 No-Limit Hold’em event and then final tabled another $350 No-Limit Hold’em event, finishing in sixth place for $4,423.

Foster comes into the final table second in chips behind Charles “Woody” Moore. The youngster is looking up at his elder and is about 400,000 chips behind with 850,000 in his stack.

Seat 9: Brian McKain (677,000)

Brian McKain is from Scottsburg, Indiana and has a good amount of cashes on record dating back to September of 2004. McKain has over $240,000 in career winnings and has cashed in 13 WSOP-branded events.

Back in 2004, McKain won a $300 No-Limit Hold’em event at the Fall Poker Classic in Shakopee for over $25,000. He followed that up with an 11th-place finish at the Jack Binion World Poker Open WPT event in Tunica, winning over $52,000. In 2007, McKain won his first WSOP Circuit gold ring at Caesars Indiana. He took down the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em event for over $70,0000, his largest score on record.

McKain’s only WSOP cash was in 2009 in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. He took 20th in that event for $8,782. McKain has 10 cashes in events other than Hold’em, proving he isn’t just a two-card specialist.

He’ll enter the day fourth in chips with 677,000.