WPT North American Poker Championships Underway

A total of 454 people began the quest for the World Poker Tour North American Poker Championships title at the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls. That makes for a prize pool of almost $4 million dollars with the winner taking home just over $1 million dollars.

A number of top pros are still in the running of the the World Poker Tour North American Poker Championships including chip leader Gavin Smith. Other top pros in the running include J.C. Tran, Kathy Liebert, Vivek Rajkumar, Sorel Mizzi and Erik Seidel.

Some pros like Daniel Negreanu and John Phan have already been eliminated. A total of 45 players will make the the North American Poker Championships prize money.

In other poker tournament news, Daniel Craker took down a field of 306 players to win New Zealand’s biggest poker tournament ever. It was the Pacific Poker Tour Main Event in New Zealand that paid out just over $155,800 U.S. dollars for first place. Craker also gets an entry into the Pacific Poker Tour Grand Final in Sydney.

Finishing in second was Matthew Konnecke followed by Wang Jung in third, Dan Sing in fourth, Luke Stanford in 5th, Nathanael Seet in 6th, Jani Karke in 7th, Michael Mariakis in 8th and Wai Juen in 9th.

Elsewhere, the World Series of Poker Circuit Event in Indiana is down to the final table. Samuel Oberlin has the chip lead entering final table play. Here are the chip counts for the final nine players.

Samuel Oberlin - 229,500
Jamin Stokes - 189,500
Len Ashby - 177,000
David Kopacz - 151,000
Jerry Martin - 139,500
Joey Couden - 128,000
Derek Whelan - 117,500
Dean Schultz - 114,000
Ray Lynn - 17,500

First place in this WSOP circuit event plays $143,064 while second place pays just over $79,000. The drop off in money is large at this final table with ninth place getting just over $11,000. The tournament is being held at the Horseshoe Casino Hotel Southern Indiana.

The entry fee for the main event was $5,000. Last year’s winner was Carlos Uz who won more than $200,000 which shows just how many fewer entries there are in this year’s tournament.

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