2011-12 World Series of Poker Circuit Event - Palm Beach Kennel Club

Main Event
Day: 3
Event Info

2011-12 World Series of Poker Circuit Event - Palm Beach Kennel Club

Final Results
Winner
Winning Hand
kq
Prize
$226,395
Event Info
Buy-in
$1,500
Prize Pool
$1,131,990
Entries
778
Level Info
Level
30
Blinds
30,000 / 60,000
Ante
10,000

Racing For the Ring

Roman Valerstein
Roman Valerstein

Good morning once again, and welcome back to the Palm Beach Kennel Club for the final day of the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event.

Two days ago, 778 hopefuls filed into the dog track with an extra $1,600 in their pockets and a dream of capturing WSOPC gold. Now, that number has been reduced to just 21, and one of them is just a few levels away from achieving that goal and taking home the top prize of nearly a quarter-million dollars.

Returning today with the big stack is Roman Valerstein, a mid-stakes grinder from Pennsylvania. He managed to work his stack up to 2.155 million by night's end, and that gives him about 15% of the chips in play and a lead of more than a half-million chips over his nearest challenger. Young Dave Stefanski starts the day in the Top 5 with 1.216 million, and he may well be the favorite if they opened up a betting window for this event. Also still in the hunt are Circuit regulars Drazen Ilich and Bruce Yamron, as well as online stud Brian "Stinger 88" Hastings, who's played one less day than everyone else left. Hastings registered for the event at the beginning of Day 2, and his short stack of 246,000 is the only thing keeping us from laying our money down on him.

Here's how the final 21 players will be set up for the run to the ring:

TableSeatPlayerChips
411Matthew Smith899,000
412--empty----
413Rob Williamson728,000
414--empty----
415Max Itkin291,000
416David Stefanski1,216,000
417Bruce Yamron164,000
418Brian Hastings246,000
419Jerry Payne281,000
    
661--empty--
662Sterling Savill622,000
663Chris Parsons1,400,000
664Nabih Zaczac878,000
665Chet Farrell1,512,999
666Matthew O'Brien866,000
667Jeremy McLaughlin587,000
668Roman Valerstein2,155,000
669--empty----
    
671--empty--
672Jeff Silverstein520,000
673Jim Harnden989,000
674Robert LeBeau203,000
675--empty----
676Jamil Wakil816,000
677Carlos Auralos154,000
678Drazen Ilich958,000
679Walid Maddah87,000

The cards go flying in just about a half hour, at noon local time, and we'll be here until we're done. Sometime hopefully this evening, one of these players will etch their name into WSOPC lore and have the pleasure of posing for photos with a greyhound and a big stack of cash.

We'll be back with the shuffle-up-and-deal shortly.