Regional Goodness

Welcome back to the World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah's Rincon.

Today is Sunday, a day most poker players reserve for multi-site, multi-table grinding on the virtual felt at home. But there's a $10,000 WSOP-C West Regional Championship today in Southern California, a televised event that figures to steal at least a few of the grinders away from their computers for a little live poker.

There's some amazing value to be had here this week. With the $1,600 Main Event drawing a slender 188 runners, this third Regional Championship figures to smaller than the previous two. The Midwest Regional Championship in Hammond, Indiana drew 226 runners last October, and 136 players turned up for the Eastern Regional Championship in Atlantic City two months later. With about 45 minutes to go before our starting time today, there are just about 50 players registered. We expect that number to grow a bit as people continue to trickle into town this morning, but +/- 100 players looks like a decent line for today's field.

So why play this event? For starters, the satellite action has been particularly robust at this stop. There were three $1,080 satellites yesterday alone, and we know one of them paid out 17 seats. There's television, too -- major television, in fact. Versus will be here this week shooting tape for broadcast later this spring. Even better, the nine players who make it to the TV final table all get their prize money plus an entry into the 100-player, $1 million National Championship freeroll in May too. That's another $10,000 in equity, and that should more than make up for the few extra empty seats in the room.

Overall, we expect to see a pretty homogenous mix of the familiar sharks, up-and-coming grinders, and amateurs looking to kickstart their poker careers in a big way.

We've got a bit of a venue change in store for today, too. The Main Event that finished up yesterday was held downstairs in the Pavilion, but this big-ticket event has moved upstairs to the smaller, cozier, prettier, and much-more-regal-sounding Bordeaux room. The dealers are just sitting down behind their decks and the staff is scurrying around the room tying up all the last-minute loose ends. The cards go in the air at noon local time, just about a half hour from now.

Don't wander off!