CHEECH BARBARO MAKES CHALLENGERS
Hammond, IN – The World Series of Poker Circuit continued at the Horseshoe Casino near Chicago, with the conclusion of Event #4.

The $350 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament attracted 225 players.  This came on the heels of the previous day’s record-breaking opener, which drew an all-time high, 1,611 players -- making it the largest poker tournament ever in WSOP Circuit history.  

The fourth event of this year’s Chicago series was won by Cheech Barbaro, from Chicago, IL.  He is a 36-year-old bartender who also plays poker semi-professionally.  Barbaro is a regular player inside the Horseshoe Casino Poker Room.  He has previously won an event held at the Windy City Classic, held at a nearby casino.  Barbaro also previously finished high in various tournaments around the country, including a WPT preliminary in Los Angeles several years ago.

Barbaro struck a deal with his final adversary after a long, 12-hour second day of competition.  He officially collected $16,431 and his first WSOP Circuit Gold Ring.

Final table play began with Alyn Dagher as the player to beat.  He ultimately finished as the runner up.  The final nine players were as follows:

SEAT 1:  Timothy Finne (Fanwood, NJ) – 88,000
SEAT 2:  Michael Schneider (Covington, GA) – 79,000
SEAT 3:  Cheech Barbaro (Chicago, IL) – 357,000
SEAT 4:  Brian Zimcosky (Bay City, MI) – 229,000
SEAT 5:  Kevin Calenzo (New Hartford, NY) – 182,000
SEAT 6:  Kyle “K.C.” Carlston (Las Vegas, NV) – 448,000
SEAT 7:  Alyn Dagher (Chicago, IL) – 570,000
SEAT 8:  Derek Boundy (Grayslake, IL) – 101,000
SEAT 9:  John Klawitter (Chicago, IL) – 199,000

The final table began at 7 pm on a Monday night.  Play concluded past midnight.  Players were officially paid and finished as follows:

9th Place – Michael Zimcosky was the first player to be eliminated.  He is a college student.  Zimcosky has cashed in several online tournaments, including a high finish recently in a million-dollar event at one of the major poker sites.

8th Place – John Klawitter was the eighth-place finisher.  He is a 43-year-old dentist from Chicago, IL.  Klawitter was drilled off the final table fairly early, but could take pride in this being his first WSOP Circuit final table appearance in his hometown.

7th Place – Timothy Finne, a 30-year-old pro poker player from Fanwood, NJ, ended up as the seventh-place finisher.  He has numerous tournament accomplishments, including third place in this same event last year.  He also took second place at the recent EPT preliminary event in London.

6th Place – Michael Schneider, a 43-year-old self-employed part-time poker player finished in sixth place.  

5th Place – Derek “Yeshva_Won” Boundy was the fifth-place finisher.  He is a 39-year-old poker coach from Grayslake, IL.  This was his first time to appear at a final table in a live tournament.  Boundy finished 11th in this event last year.  He also cashed two times in nine tries in various WSOP tournaments in Las Vegas.

4th Place – Kyle “K.C.” Carlston, a 33-year-old poker player and gambler from Las Vegas, NV ended up in fourth place.  He holds a Masters Degree from UC-Berkley.  Carlston has five WSOP cashes, including two final table appearances.  He finished 154th place in the 2008 WSOP Main Event.

3rd Place – Kevin Calenzo was the third-place finisher.  He is a 27-year-old poker pro from New Hartford, NY.  This is Calenzo's third final table of the 2010/2011 Circuit season. He final tabled the WSOP Circuit Championship at Horseshoe Council Bluffs and was the runner up in the Championship event at Southern Indiana. He also recently won an event held at the Borgata in Atlantic City. 

2nd Place – The runner up was Alyn Dagher, an engineer from Chicago, IL.  He is a world traveler.  This was his best WSOP-related finisher ever.  Dagher agreed to a deal with his final challenger.  The terms of the deal were not disclosed.  But Dagher could be proud of his second-place showing.

1st Place –Cheech Barbaro, a 36-year-old bartender and semi-pro poker player earned his first major tournament victory.  First place officially paid $16,431 plus the Gold Ring.  Graves also wins paid seats into the $1,600 buy-in Main Event and the $10,000 buy-in Regional Championship, coming up next week at the Horseshoe Casino.
 
With this victory, Barbaro joins champions John Nguyen, Chad Graves, and Brett Schwertley, all previous event winners in Chicago.  They are the early leaders in the points race to determine qualifiers for the WSOP Circuit National Championship.  There will be 11 players from this Chicago series who will advance to the $1 million freeroll national championship, to be played at season’s end in Las Vegas.  

This is the third consecutive year that Horseshoe Hammond has hosted a WSOP Circuit stop.  All tournament events take place inside the special events arena called “The Venue.”  Horseshoe Hammond is conveniently located just a short distance from the Illinois-Indiana border, just 20 minutes away from Downtown Chicago.  

This is the third WSOP Circuit stop of the 2010-2011 season.  Click here for the schedule of events taking place at Horseshoe Hammond from October 15-28.  Here is the complete WSOP Circuit schedule, including all upcoming stops and dates.

Horseshoe Casino (Hammond)
777 Casino Center Drive
Hammond, IN  46312
Telephone:  (219) 473-6065  
Toll-Free: 1 (866) 711-SHOE
www.chicagohorseshoe.com