Thanks to his win lat night in Event #10 $365 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo for $24,569, and a sixth-place finish in Event #6 $365 No-Limit Hold'em Six Handed, Austin Apicella of Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas currently leads the Choctaw Casino Championship race with 77.5 points.
If the 29-year-old school principal can hold on, he will earn a seat in the WSOP Circuit National Championship Presented by Southern Comfort 100 Proof this May in New Orleans.
It's hard to find a more stacked lineup than the one over at Table 37. There are only three players there that we recognize, but each is a superstar on the World Series of Poker bracelet.
First, in Seat 3, is Doug "Rico" Carli, who recently took 161st in Choctaw Durant Ring Event #2 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry and 33rd in Event #10 $365 NLHE Turbo. That extended his record of WSOP Circuit cashes to 70, well ahead of Mark “Pegasus” Smith’s 32. You may recall Carli as the 2011/2012 WSOP Circuit National Championship bubble boy.
Speaking of that National Championship, Matthew Lawrence, who won a ring in the 2009/2010 WSOP Circuit Harrah's St. Louis Event #8: $560 No Limit Hold'em, took ninth in that year's National Championship for $30,000. Interestingly, Lawrence is seated two to Rico's left.
In between the two is another fierce competitor, Abraham Araya. That name should be very familiar to you as he is the defending champion of the WSOP Circuit, Last year Araya navigated a field of 978 players to win the $270,380 first-place prize and a seat in the National Championship. What's more, Araya won his second gold ring less than two months later in Caesars Atlantic City Event #7: $555 No-Limit Hold'em for $33,290.
Andy Philachack has been a busy guy. The family man from Dallas, Texas was recently in the Bahamas for a poker tournament, and now he's made the trek to Choctaw for some WSOP Circuit action.
In a recent hand, Philachack raised to 300 from early position and cleared the field all the way around to the player in the big blind, who made the call. The latter proceeded to check call bets of 600 and 1,200 on the 
flop and 
turn respectively, and then led out for 1,075 on the river when the 
peeled off. Philachack thought long and hard before calling, but he could only muck when the big blind rolled over 
.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
18,500
1,500
|
1,500 |
Jeff Fielder, who won his first and only ring in April of 2012 at Council Bluffs, has already lost half of his stack today.
He and two opponents were heads up on a board of 
, and Fielder led out for 1,800. Both players called.
"Be good to me!" one of the players pleaded with the dealer.
The 
completed the board, and Fielder slowed down, checking to his two opponents. They both checked as well. One player tabled 
for a pair of kings with a queen kicker, the player who was pleading with the dealer flashed 
before mucking, and Fielder threw his cards away without exposing them.
He's down to around 10,000 chips.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
10,000
10,000
|
10,000 |
Registration is open until Level 13, so we expect to see familiar faces take their seats throughout the day. Here are a few of the new faces we just spotted at the start of Level 2.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
20,000 | |
|
|
20,000 | |
|
20,000 | |
|
|
20,000 |
Level: 2
Blinds: 50/100
Ante: 0
We caught the action with four players in the hands, 1,000 in the pot, and a flop reading 
. Luke Powers had checked from the small blind, and a player in early position bet 325. Poker Hall of Famer T.J. Cloutier then called from the cutoff, the button did the same, and Powers woke up with a check-raise to 1,600.
One by one his opponents folded, prompting the original bettor to say, "You've got to show it."
"I got lucky. I followed his lead," Powers said pointing to a play across the table without showing his hand.
"
?" the original bettor asked. Powers responded in the affirmative.
"I folded 
," Cloutier volunteered.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
13,200
6,800
|
6,800 |
|
||
|
|
13,000 | |
If we told you to name the top 20 all-time money winners in tournament poker, you could probably name the majority of the players. There are the obvious names like Antonio Esfandiari and Sam Trickett, who finished first and second respectively in the $1 Million Big One for One Drop, but there are a few players that would inevitably slip through the cracks like Men Nguyen, Carlos Mortsensen, and a player in the field today; 2006 Poker Hall of Fame inductee T.J. Cloutier.
Cloutier - a Texas native - ranks 19th on the all-time money list, and if you exclude buy-ins of $50,000 or more and invitational events, then he creeps up to 16th. Ironically, despite earning over $9.9 million in live tournaments, Cloutier has never recorded a seven-figure score. His largest score came in 2000, when he took second in the World Series of Poker Main Event, earning $896,500. It was the second time he finished runner-up in the Main Event, and the fourth time he made the final table.
While he doesn't own a Main Event bracelet, Cloutier has won six WSOP gold bracelets dating back to 1987 where he won a $1,000 Limit Omaha event. He bested Robert "The Chip Burner" Turner heads up to earn $72,000 and the hardware.
We will keep our eyes on the poker legend today and see if he can inch up the all-time money list just a little more.
Ten of the stops twelve ring events are already in the books, and we thought it'd be fun to take a look back at the completed events throughout the day. While the PokerNews Live Reporting Team hasn't been in Choctaw all week long, the WSOP's Media Coordinator Lukas Willems has, and he's been doing a great job recapping the preliminary events.
Here's a snippet of his recap from Event #1 $365 No-Limit Hold’em:
The 2012-2013 WSOP Circuit Presented by Southern Comfort 100 Proof began Thursday at Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, OK. Event 1, a $365 No-Limit Hold’em tournament and the first of 12 gold ring events, drew 481 entrants, making it the third largest non-re-entry $365 event of the season. James Henson from Lake Jackson, Tex. outlasted the sizable field to record his second WSOP Circuit championship. Henson won $31,021, a WSOP Circuit gold ring and took the early lead in the Casino Champion’s race.
“It feels good. It was fun and I had a great time. The first [ring] was special but this is good,” Henson said of his second victory. Henson began Day 2 toward the bottom of the chip counts and said his past experiences helped keep him in the tournament. Closing the deal was no easy task, as Henson faced two fellow Circuit champions three-handed — Joshua Pender (3rd) and Royce Prude (2nd). Pender earned his first ring this year at IP Biloxi, while Prude earned his at Choctaw two years ago. Henson’s first championship came almost one year ago at Palm Beach Kennel Club when he bested 290 in a $555 No-Limit Hold’em tournament to earn $33,749.
“The guys that I was playing against, they were both good there was no question about it,” Henson said. “I was not looking forward to going up against either one of them. They very much knew what they were doing.”
Henson’s most recent victory pushed him over the $200,000 mark in career WSOP earnings. Married with four children, he insists poker takes a back seat to his professional life. “I go to about four Circuits a year. That’s how much I can make time for. It’s completely a hobby,” Henson said.
| Buy-in | Entrants | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $300+$65 | 481 | $144,300 |
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Henson | Lake Jackson, TX | $31,021 |
| 2 | Royce Prude Jr. | Dallas, TX | $19,182 |
| 3 | Josh Pender | Rockhill, SC | $14,013 |
| 4 | Jacob McFarland | San Antonio, TX | $10,388 |
| 5 | Theresa Hoffman | Pflugerville, TX | $7,812 |
| 6 | Vivian Belcher | Rowlett, TX | $5,960 |
| 7 | Michael Hope | Dallas, TX | $4,610 |
| 8 | Andrew Chubick | Dallas, TX | $3,618 |
| 9 | Michael Hopkins | Elkland, MO | $2,879 |
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
20,000 | |
|
20,000 | |
|
|
20,000 | |
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|
20,000 | |
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20,000 | |
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20,000 | |
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20,000 | |
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20,000 | |
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20,000 | |
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20,000 | |
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20,000 | |
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20,000 | |
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20,000 | |
|
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20,000 | |
|
20,000 | |
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