Main Event
Day 3 Started
2010-11 World Series of Poker Circuit Event - Rincon
Main Event
Day: 3
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2010-11 World Series of Poker Circuit Event - Rincon
Prize Pool
$270,720
Entries
188
Level
30
Blinds
30,000 / 60,000
Ante
10,000
The Last and Final Table
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From our starting field of 188, just nine players remain in the hunt for this WSOP-C Main Event title and the gold Circuit ring that comes along with it.
It's been three days since the starting field streamed in through the double doors, and we've seen plenty of notables come and go. In fact, our final table is full of relative unknowns. That doesn't mean we're dealing with amateurs here, though.
We'll confess we didn't remember the name Michael Simon, but a quick check finds that he's a WPT champion from 2006 with more than $1 million in his tournament cash column. We've also got Alexandru Masek, a part-time player, with a chance to collect his fourth gold ring, tying him with Chris Reslock, Men Nguyen, and Mark "Pegasus" Smith for most ever. Quick bios for the rest of the field will follow, but suffice it to say we've got a table full of players who are poised to become much more notable over the course of the coming months and years.
Starting with today. The lucky man or woman who escapes this table with all the chips will earn their first WSOP-C Main Event title, a shiny gold-and-diamond-encrusted ring, and an entry into the $1 million National Championship freeroll in May.
Here's how the field stacks up for this final day:
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Patrick Karschamroon | 585,000 |
| 2 | Michael Simon | 172,000 |
| 3 | Seneca Easley | 856,000 |
| 4 | Lori Nunes | 236,000 |
| 5 | Alex Masek | 246,000 |
| 6 | Paul Hails | 164,000 |
| 7 | Hayden Fortini | 640,000 |
| 8 | Shaun Walker | 233,000 |
| 9 | Narinder Khasria | 628,000 |
Our final table is set to begin in about 45 minutes, at noon local time, so don't wander off. We've got a champion to crown here at Harrah's Rincon.
Seat 9: Narinder Khasria (628,000)
Hailing from Milton, Ontario, Narinder Khasria comes into the final table third in chips with 628,000. He is 39 years old, married and boasts a record with $332,535 total career winnings in poker tournaments. Khasria's best result came in January 2010 when he placed second in the C$2,500 No-Limit Hold'em event at the Canadian Poker Tour in Fallsview, Ontario. That finish netted him C$94,371, or just over $91,000.
On top of that great run Khasria made, he has five World Series of Poker cashes on his record, including a finish in the money in last year's Main Event for $24,079. A few years back in 2007, Khasria placed 18th in the WSOP Circuit $5,000 Championship Event in Tunica for $18,175.
Seat 8: Shaun Walker (233,000)
Shaun Walker is making his first World Series of Poker Circuit final table in this event and enters third from the bottom in chips with 233,000. He's 29 years old from Huntington Beach, California and has three cashes on record. Out of those three, his largest score was in February 2008 at the L.A. Poker Classic where he won $2,220 in a $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em event. That said, this final table is Walker's largest score yet as he's earned a minimum of $6,335 by making it this far.
Seat 7: Hayden Fortini (640,000)
Coming into the final table second in chips with 640,000 is Hayden Fortini from Vero Beach, Florida. He is a 21-year-old student, but also has students of his own as Fortini's a poker instructor at Deep Stacks University. He knows a thing or two about the game having already amassed over $163,000 in career earnings at such a young age.
Back in March 2009, Fortini had a great month at the Battles at the Beach in Pompano. He won the $900 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em for $50,000 and also the $900 Championship Event for $59,044. His third largest score came in November 2010 when he placed second in the $1,100 No-Limit Hold'em event at the 2010 Isle Open Poker Championship for $40,527.
Fortini was able to play those events listed above prior to turning 21 as the legal age to play poker in Florida is 18 for most casinos. He's now legal to play anywhere and this final table could be the first of many we start seeing him at.
Seat 6: Paul Hails (164,000)
Paul Hails is the shortest stack to make the final with 164,000, but that doesn't mean he can't run it up and take this thing down. He's a 55-year-old compliance analyst from Gig Harbor, Washington and is married with four children.
Those children were surely on his mind as Hails wrote on his bio sheet that his goal in poker is to make a televised table so both his children and grandchildren can see him play. This final table is not televised, but he'll be getting plenty of coverage right here on PokerNews for making this final table.
Hails served proudly in the U.S. Navy, which he is now a veteran of. We were unable to find any results for Hails on record, but you have to start somewhere, right? What better than making a World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event final table!
Seat 5: Alex Masek (246,000)
A 26-year-old law school student, Alex Masek attends the University of San Diego. He also collects World Series of Poker Circuit gold rings, as evidence by the three that he's previously won. Those three wins came from two in Rincon and one in Atlantic City.
In May 2009, Masek won his first ring in the $200 No-Limit Hold'em event at Harrah's Rincon and $9,654. Fast forward one year later in the same month, Masek scored his second ring and $39,372 in Atlantic City for winning the $300 No-Limit Hold'em event. His third ring was won right here at this series in the $345 No-Limit Hold'em event. That win earned him another $22,794.
Not only did Masek's most recent win net him some nice pocket change and a third piece of jewelry, but he earned him some important leader board points in the race for becoming Casino Champion. Right now, Mstr Lynch sits on top of that leader board with 100 points while Masek holds 50. If Masek can land himself in fifth place at this final table, he'll tie Lynch. The tiebreaker is most money won at a specific stop. Lynch won two rings at this stop for a total of $46,133. Masek won one ring for $22,794 and fifth place is worth $17,226, which would put him at $40,020. That's not enough to overtake Lynch.
That means Masek needs to earn fourth or better to win the Casino Champion race and earn himself a seat in the $1,000,000 National Championship Freeroll. Lynch will be rooting for Masek to bust out prior to fourth place, but if he makes it that far, he'll be looking for Masek to win as he'll win a seat to the National Championship that way and Lynch will still earn Casino Champion honors. This creates an interesting dynamic and one that will surely heat up if there are five or six players left and Masek is put to some big decisions for all of his chips.
In total, Masek has over $228,000 in live career tournament earnings. If he can come out on top of this final table, one where he starts fifth in chips with 246,000, he'll become tied with a couple others players for the most WSOP Circuit gold rings at four.
Seat 4: Lori Nunes (236,000)
Lori Nunes from Crowley, Texas is 25 years old and a medical professional, but now spends most of her time playing poker. The mother of four boys, this finish will be the best of Nunes' young poker career by far. The only record we can dig up from her is a 10th-place finish in a $120 No-Limit Hold'em Evening Event back in February at the World Series of Poker Circuit in Tunica where Nunes earned $432. Here, she's locked up a minimum of $6,335 with a chance to win a lot more.
Nunes enters the final table sixth in chips out of the final nine players with 236,000. Her favorite poker player is Scotty Nguyen. "You call and it's all over, baby!"
Seat 3: Seneca Easley (856,000)
Here is your chip leader for the final table, Seneca Easley from Fort Worth, Texas. He comes into the final table with 856,000, which is over 200,000 more than his closest competitor.
Easley holds $18,251 in live tournament earnings on his record, spread across eight cashes. This cash is already the largest of Easley's career and he has plenty of potential to make it even bigger with the chips he holds coming into the final table. Previously, Easley's best result was a seventh-place finish in an event at the World Series of Poker Circuit stop in New Orleans in May 2010.
Seat 2: Michael "Doughboy" Simon (172,000)
This final table contains just one poker millionaire, and it's Seat 2, Michael Simon.
Simon comes to California from his home in Champlin, Minnesota (a suburb of Minneapolis), and he knows a thing or two about dough; Simon is a baker back home. He's 54 years old, married with two children.
Simon's big tournament score came in 2006 when he outlasted a field of 592 players to win the 2006 WPT World Poker Challenge in Reno, Nevada. From a final table that included Barry Greenstein, Greg Mueller, Tom Schneider, and Jason Stern, Simon emerged victorious to add his name to the list of WPT champions and more than a million dollars to his bank account.
Since then, Simon has added a few small cashes to his résumé, but nothing of real significance. He does have one tiny cash ($479) in a Circuit event in Indiana in 2008, but this finish will far and away surpass that previous best WSOP-C result.
Simon is looking to add a WSOP-C title to his list of accomplishments, but it'll be a long uphill climb. Simon comes into the day on the second shortest stack of 172,000 chips.