US poker pro Joe Ambrogi secured his first World Series of Poker Circuit ring, winning the $250 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry against 267 competitors. The tournament on Thursday was the opening event of 2018/2019 WSOP Circuit at Harveys Lake Tahoe Hotel and Casino in Nevada.
The series continues with thirteen more tournaments, which will run through Sunday, November 5, with buy-ins ranging between $250 and $1,700. The venue is Harveys Lake Tahoe, one of the oldest in most iconic casinos in US history. For more than a week, it will attract hundreds of poker players from all across the country who have a chance to take a share of attractive guarantees or win one of the prestigious WSOP Circuit gold rings.
The festival opened with $250 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry on Thursday, a single-day event which drew in a field of 268 entries. The tournament came with the smallest buy-in for WSOP Circuit events and still, it managed to gather a fantastic total prize pool of $53,600. There were a few notables who entered the tournament – Bernard Lee, Robert Cheung, Adam Owen, Janet Fitzgerald, and Valentin Vornicu. Only 27 players, however, finished in the money and took home a minimum cash of $433.
After approximately 12 hours of poker play, the final table was reached late in the evening and the ten survivors had to play until the winner is determined. After the break, the big stack was David Felger, a retired attorney from Lantana, Florida, who had 950,000 in chips. He soon lost his lead, however, and finished 6th for $2,463 in prize money. Mitch Adams (10th, $976) left the final table first, followed by Jose Esparza (9th, $1,202), Val Ahmadi (8th, $1,502), and Dan Turner (7th, $1,908).
David Avina from Murrieta, California, was eliminated in the 5th position and received a cash prize of $3,232. Sean Barker (4th, $4,314) was the next to bust, followed by Canadian player Robert Cheung who won $5,862. In the final heads-up, Joe Ambrogi defeated Peter Schulz and received the top prize of $13,132. For his runner-up position, Schulz took $8,114. This is the seventh cash from a WSOP event for Ambrogi who is 35-years-old and admits he did not even plan to take part in the tournament. Luckily, he did, because along with the cash prize, he also took the first ever WSOP Circuit ring in his career.
WSOP Circuit Harveys Lake Tahoe Schedule
The current poker festival at Harveys Lake Tahoe is the latest stop of the 2018/2019 World Series of Poker Circuit. It kicked off Thursday and runs until November 5 with a total of 13 tournaments on its schedule. Most of the events will be giving winners WSOPC gold rings and most of them feature an entry fee of $400. However, there is no High-Roller event, so those who look for some high-stakes action would be disappointed.
The Main Event kicks off on November 2 with two starting flights and a $1,700 buy-in ($1,515 prize pool + $185 administrative fee). Players will start with 30,000 in tournament chips and will be allowed one re-entry per flight. Day 2 will resume on November 4 with survivors from both flights, while the final Day 3 starts on November 5 and the remaining finalists will compete until the winner is determined.
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