Valley Center, CA (February 20, 2007) - For the third consecutive year, the World Series of Poker Circuit was hosted by the Harrah's Rincon Casino-Resort. Harrah's Rincon is located about 40 miles north of San Diego, nestled in a lush mountain valley. Jointly managed by the Rincon Tribal Council and Harrah's Entertainment, the 16-story luxury hotel and casino is one of southern California's most peaceful getaway destinations.

But the Rincon Poker Room has been far from peaceful this month. After ten days of preliminary events which awarded over a million dollars in prize money to more than 200 poker players from several states and five different countries, the $5,000 buy-in championship event began today with 181 entries. The size of the field created a total prize pool of $877,850. Eighteen players will receive prize money.

Former world poker champions Scotty "the Prince" Nguyen (1998), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (2000) and Carlos "the Matador" Mortensen (2001) entered the main event. The tournament also attracted former WSOP gold bracelet winners Annie Duke, Layne Flack, Barry Greenstein, Gavin Griffin, Kathy Liebert, Max "the Italian Pirate" Pescatori, Robert Williamson III and Todd Witteles. Other notables in the field included Phil Gordon, Erik Lindgren, Gavin Smith, and James Van Alstyne. Several players qualified to play via satellite tournaments that were held the last two weeks at Harrah's Rincon.

World Series of Poker Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack was on hand to welcome players and start the tournament. In his opening remarks, he noted that the WSOP is special because it attracts both professional and amateur players - and allows new stars to shine on poker's brightest stage. He also thanked several people at Harrah's Rincon for putting on yet another WSOP Circuit. Finally, Mr. Pollack encouraged players to attend other Circuit events and the World Series of Poker, which will take place in Las Vegas in June and July.

The Harrah's Rincon championship event will take place over three days. One-hundred forty-eight players busted out on day one, leaving 43 survivors to return to play on day two. The final nine will appear at the final table, to be played Thursday, February 22nd.
Day one ended with Peter Feldman as the chip leader. He currently has 128,700 in his stack and is trailed closely Joe Sebok (119,100) and Steve Diano (114,900). Mr. Feldman won last year's WSOP Circuit championship at Harrah's New Orleans. Should he hold on and win first place in this event, he would become the first player ever to win two WSOP Circuit championship events.

Payouts are as follows:

1. $280,859
2. 147,364
3. 86,685
4. 69,348
5. 52,011
6. 43,343
7. 34,674
8. 26,005
9. 17,337
10. 13,870
11. 13,870
12. 13,870
13. 12,136
14. 12,136
15. 12,136
16. 10,402
17. 10,402
18. 10,402

by Nolan Dalla

Note: All content in this report may be re-printed by media.

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Tournament Director - Janis Sexton

Harrah's Rincon Poker Room Manager - Mike Adams