EISENBERG AHEAD! JARED EISENBERG SINKS ALL COMERS AT HARRAH'S RESORT

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ – Jared Eisenberg of Long Island, NY came away with the decisive victory Wednesday night in Ring Event #7 at the World Series of Poker Circuit Events at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City.

Eisenberg held a commanding chip lead through much of the final table, which coupled with his aggressive style of play, rendered him nearly unstoppable.

The WSOP Circuit Events at Harrah’s AC continued to draw strong numbers midweek in the Tuesday-start, $350 buy-in tournament, drawing field of 482 players, generating a total prize pool of $140,262.

For his win, Eisenberg pocketed $30,156, the WSOP Circuit Gold Ring and 50 valuable points toward qualification for the WSOP Circuit National Championship to be held in May at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.

Weather conditions around the eastern corridor almost kept Eisenberg from making the trek from Long Island to Atlantic City to play in the WSOP Circuit, a dilemma likely faced by many players thinking about driving or flying to AC this time of the year.

“Me and my buddy Mike came out from Long Island and we almost went back. It was icy and snowy, I mean, I’ve never seen weather on the LIE [Long Island Expressway] like that before.

“But man, I am so happy we decided to go ahead and make the drive.”

34 players survived day one and returned at 1 pm to play down to nine. It would take six hours of play to get there, with two hours between the 11^th and 10^th place eliminations. The elimination of Harry Candelaria just before dinner break set the stage for the final table.  

9^th Place – Blinds and antes were at 10,000/20,000/3,000 when final table play began at 8 pm. Just before the end of the level, the short stack, Keith Crowder shipped his last few chips to Alli Schultz to become the first elimination of the night. Crowder is a real estate investor who over the last year has made the push to play poker professionally. He has enjoyed modest success in the past year with 14 major cashes in 2010 including two final tables at WSOP Circuit Events. In this, his third WSOPC final table, Crowder picked up $2,798 for ninth.

8^th Place – Shortly after the start of the 12,000/24,000 level, Zach Hall moved all-in for 444,000 and got a call from Joe Caffrey in the button. Unfortunately for Caffrey, Josh Brikis in the small blind was sitting on a monster hand,    and moved all-in over the top for 890,000 total. After much deliberation, Caffery made the huge lay down, folding pocket queens. Hall was left needing a lot of help after tabling   , but the board played out       and Hall’s run was finished. The 21-year old from Germantown, MD earned $3,516 for eighth. Brikis now sat in a dominating position with 1.7 million in chips.

7^th Place – The very next hand, Brikis was dealt pocket queens, with which he attempted to isolate Schultz with an all-in reraise, who had all her chips in the middle with   . Jeffrey Cole however, was sitting on    and with a bit of gamble in him, made the call. Cole spiked the king on the flop, and stayed ahead through the   turn and   river to nearly triple up. Brikis was forced to relinquish over 300,000 of his freshly won chips while Schultz was sent to the payout table to collect seventh place prize money, worth $4,481.

6^th Place – Jahson “Class” Spence had a small following at the final table that consisted of Dwyte Pilgrim and Mike Beasley. After returning to the table from a quick discussion with the two railbirds, Spence quipped, “If I know I’m doing something wrong, doesn’t that mean that I know how to do it right?” which drew a roar of laughter from the table and spectators.

Whatever advice Spence took or didn’t take boded well for him, as he finished in sixth place despit coming in with the 2^nd shortest stack of the final table. In his final hand, he moved his remaining chips into the middle from the button with    and got a call from Cole, who turned over   . The     put Spence in the lead, but the turn was disastrous,  . The river came   to end Spence’s tournament run. Spence is a 32-year-old poker pro from New York City. He collected $5,793 for sixth.

5^th Place – Brikis got involved in a monster hand with Eisenberg in which Brikis fired out a pot-sized bet of 320,000 after the river on a       board. Eisenberg reraised Brikis all-in for another 400k on top. After about five minutes of deliberation, Brikis made the call, but mucked after his opponent tabled pocket threes for quads. Down to 250k, Brikis was able to double up the following hand through Eisenberg, but was eliminated by Cole the following level. Brikis, the 30-year-old tournament pro from Pittsburgh, PA pocketed $7,594 for fifth.

4^th Place – With blinds at 20,000/40,000 play slowed a bit with Paul Avilla hanging on for his tournament life. Down to about 350,000, he was able to double through Caffery before taking another sizable pot from him to build his stack up to over 800,000. After dropping back down some, he made a huge double up through Eisenberg to get to the 1.5 million chip mark. Just before the end of the next level, Avilla got it all-in with    against Coffrey who had   . The board played out 2-9-9-5-10 to eliminate Coffrey in 4^th and loft Avilla to the chip lead.

3^rd Place – Avilla took critical damage from Eisenberg on an all-in with    vs. Eisenberg’s   . Down nearly a million in chips after the hand, Avilla began to steam, bleeding down to around 700k. With blinds at the 50,000/75,000 level, Cole opened for 190,000 and Avilla moved all-in. Cole made the call with pocket queens and was far ahead of Avilla’s pocket deuces. Avilla was practically drawing dead after a queen spiked on the flop and was eliminated after blanks hit the turn and river. Avilla is a 40-year-old father of three from Westport, MA. For his third place finish, he earned $13,621.  

2^nd Place – Heads up play began at 1:20 am with Cole holding a slight chip lead over Eisenberg. Eisenberg, however, was relentless, applying full on pressure on his opponent with numerous pre-flop all-in raises and aggressive play after the flop. Down to just over a million in chips, Cole moved all-in with    and Eisenberg called, tabling   . For Cole, the flop was a benign    , but the turn was vicious –  .

“Bang Baby!” yelled out Eisenberg as the   fell on the river, giving him his highly sought, first major tournament victory. Cole is a 22-year-old poker player from Manahawkin, NJ. He took home $18,645 as the runner-up.

“I feel like a million bucks, I’ve had a bunch of online wins, but this is my first major live tournament win, so I’m ecstatic,” said Eisenberg after the win.

Still to come are four more official WSOP Circuit Events, including the Regional Championship which begins Sunday, December 19^th.

See the complete Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City Circuit schedule and previous results here.  The WSOP Circuit at Harrah’s runs through December 22nd. You can find the complete 2010/2011WSOP CIRCUIT SCHEDULE here.

Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City
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