CASINO CHAMPION PROFILE: RYAN RINKER
The Harveys Lake Tahoe Casino Champion Race came down to the final day. Shawn Daniels had taken an early lead in the points race with two second place finishes in Events 1 and 6, for a total of 75 points. Despite his best efforts, he was unable to add more points after that.

Several players were in contention on the final day of action:

Victor Paredes came into Event 11 with 35 points thanks to his two prior cashes in this series, including one final table. He needed a win and 50 points to take the lead. He came up short, but picked up another 37.5 points for a total of 72.5 on the National Leaderboard.

Austin Apicella had 50 points for his win in Event 7 and made a valiant effort to gain more points in the final event. He needed to finish at least 4th (27.5 points) to overtake Daniels. Apicella ended up bubbling in Event 12, finishing 10th when only nine were paid, so he got zero points.

It all came down to the Main Event. Ryan Rinker went in with 27.5 points thanks to his 4th place finish in Event 9 (PLO) and needed to finish second to garner enough points to beat Shawn Daniels. Once Kevin Fleming was eliminated in 3rd place, Rinker yelled "Freeroll!" along with his railbirds. He would either finish second and win the Casino Champion title with an entry into the National Championship, or win the event and get an automatic entry into the National Championship.

Ryan Rinker ended up finishing in second place for a total of 77.5 points, putting him just ahead of Shawn Daniels (second with 75 points) and Victor Paredes (third with 72.5 points). He earned the title of Casino Champion and a freeroll into the National Championship to be held at Caesars Atlantic City in Spring of 2014.

Rinker recently became unemployed. He found out he had been fired from his job as sales manager at a car dealership (because he came here to play poker) at 2:00 am on the morning the Main Event began. Now he plans on using the $79,531 in earnings from his second place finish to travel and play poker.