ITALY DEFEATS UKRAINE IN CAESARS PALACE OPENER
Las Vegas (April 16, 2011) – It’s a small world.  Who would have thought that two non-English speaking Europeans who each traveled thousands of miles and came all the way to Las Vegas would end up at the final table together playing heads-up for a World Series of Poker Circuit gold ring?

That’s precisely what happened in the opening WSOP Circuit tournament held at famed Caesars Palace, located on the fabulous Las Vegas Strip. 

It didn’t matter that more than 400 players, perhaps 95 percent of them Americans, constituted the field.  In the end, the two poker players who had very likely traveled the greatest distances reaped the biggest rewards from the sacrificial journey. 

The tournament winner was Guiseppe Biancoviso, from Florence, Italy.  He is originally from Catania, located on the island of Sicily.  Biancoviso is a 28-year-old electrician.  He plays poker part-time.  Biancoviso’s prior tournament experience is limited to a few events held last year at San Remo, which is part of the European Poker Tour (EPT).

Biancoviso dominated final table play in what was his first opportunity to make it big on American soil.  He made the of the situation and busted out seven of the final nine opponents.  First place paid $28,398 in prize money.  Biancoviso was also presented with the coveted gold ring, the token prize awarded to all champions who win WSOP Circuit events.

All in all, for Biancoviso -- it wasn’t a bad way to spend a holiday vacation.  He came to Las Vegas for nine days, mostly to play poker with his friends.  Following his WSOP Circuit victory, Biancoviso admitted that he had not won much money while visiting.  So, this victory was particularly sweet for both financial reasons and as a personal triumph.

Finishing in second place was Leonid Ryadynskyy, from Kharkov, Ukraine.  This marked his second time to cash in a Las Vegas poker tournament.  Unfortunately, Ryadynskyy didn’t have quite enough momentum to achieve victory in this event.  He nursed a healthy chip stack during much of the later stages of the tournament.  However, the Ukrainian was not able to seriously threaten the cheap leaders, but did come away with a very respectable consolation prize amounting to $17,546.  

Perhaps next time when an Italian and a Ukrainian want to compete for a WSOP title, they should save on the airfare.  Maybe some neutral middle ground in Eastern Europe can be found to host poker’s battle of nations.

Then again, both players said afterward the experience was particularly memorable for one reason.  It happened in Las Vegas.  In this case, “what happens in Vegas” is certainly not going to stay in Vegas. 

…………….

Biancoviso’s triumph came in a $300 (+50) buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament, classified at Event #1.   This was the first of ten official gold ring events at Caesars Palace Las Vegas.  The total prize pool amounted to $129,065.  The top 45 finishers collected prize money.  A complete list of all in-the-money finishers can be found here for EVENT #1.

Attendance in the opener increased substantially from last year.  The field size of 448 players surpassed last year’s attendance (384 players) by 16 percent, even though this buy-in was higher.  Last year’s opener had a $200 buy-in.

The tournament was played over two days.  After most of the starting field was eliminated on Day One, 28 survivors returned for Day Two action.  It took a few hours to play down to the final ten.

Final table play began on a Saturday afternoon in the top section of the Caesars Palace Poker Room.  The finalists and their starting chip counts were as follows:

Seat 1:  Michael Bernal (Tucson, AZ) – 208,000 in chips       
Seat 2:  Dmitry Shamilov (Brooklyn, NY) – 400,000 in chips      
Seat 3:  Blake Kelso (Las Vegas, NV) – 841,000 in chips      
Seat 4:  George Ash (Carmel, CA) – 361,000 in chips
Seat 5:  Phil Dagger (Sidney, BC Canada) – 584,000 in chips    
Seat 6:  Josh Evans (Plano, TX) – 525,000 in chips      
Seat 7:  Giuseppe Biancoviso (Catania, Italy) – 533,000 in chips    
Seat 8:  Leonid Ryadynskyy (Kharkov, Ukraine) – 396,000 in chips     
Seat 9:  Scott Davies (Las Vegas, NV) – 341,000 in chips     
Seat 10: Sheila Olsen (Jacksonville, NC) – 211,000 in chips    

Final table action began at 5 pm and ended at 9:30 pm.  Players were eliminated in the following order.

Tenth Place:  The first player eliminated was Michael Bernal, from Tucson, AZ.  He arrived at the final table as the short stack and lasted about a half hour.  Bernal, who works as a fireman on the Tucson Fire Department was extinguished in tenth place.  Last year, he cashed twice at the WSOP in Las Vegas.  This was his highest major tournament finish, to date.

Ninth Place:  Sheila Olsen was the top female finisher in this event.  The Indian-born part-time poker player from North Carolina went out with A-K which lost to A-Q (a queen flopped).  She ended up in ninth place.  This marked her first time to cash in a major poker tournament.

Eighth Place:  Phil Dagger, who is originally from the UK and now resides in British Columbia (Canada), finished in eighth place.  Dagger was stabbed through the heart when he took a bad beat on his final hand.  This was his second time to cash in a WSOP Circuit event at Caesars Palace.  Dagger took ninth place in an event played last year.

Seventh Place: Blake Kelso arrived at the final table as chip leader.  In fact, he enjoyed a big lead over his closest rival when play began.  But Kelso suffered a brutal cold deck late during his stay and ended up in seventh place.  Kelso, a 28-year-old poker pro, has previously cashed in numerous tournaments around Las Vegas.  This was his 13th time to cash in just the last six months.  Kelso also took fifth place in last year’s Caesars Poker Classic Main Event.

Sixth Place:  Dmitry Shamilov, a currency trader from Brooklyn, NY ended up as the sixth-place finisher.  Shamilov is originally from Russia.  Shamilov won an event previously held at the Trump Taj Mahal, in Atlantic City.  He is engaged to be married soon to his fiancé “Inna,” who he wished to credit for providing the inspiration to play well in the tournament and succeed away from the game, as well.

Fifth Place:  Scott Davies, a 30-year-old poker pro from Las Vegas.  He earned a law degree a few years back, but soon discovered that he had no interest in being an attorney, even though he had passed the Florida Bar Exam and worked for a firm specializing in aviation law.  Davies took a gamble instead and decided to play poker.  So far, his investment has paid off.  Davies has now been playing poker full time for about three years.  He ended up finishing in fifth place in this tournament.  Davies has numerous other cashes in tournaments, mostly in Nevada and California.

Fourth Place:  George Ash was the fourth-place finisher.  He enjoyed a few nice cashes last year, including cashing in the 2010 Shooting Star Main Event.  But this was his first occasion to cash in a WSOP-related tournament.  Ash is an architect from Carmel, CA. 

Third Place:  Josh Evans ended up in third place.  He is a 26-year-old part-time poker player from Plano, TX which is in the Dallas area.  Evans’ biggest career cash was a 76th-place finish in the 2007 WSOP Main Event, where he earned more than $100,000.  Evans now has more than $200,000 in live tournament winnings.  He cashed in two WSOP Circuit events held earlier this year, at Choctaw (in Oklahoma).

Second Place:  Leonid Ryadynskyy finished as the runner up.  He is a 34-year-old part-time poker player from Kharkov, Ukraine.  This marked his first time to cash in a WSOP-related tournament.  His only other previous recorded tournament finish took place in a tournament held last year at the Venetian.

When heads-up play began, Biancoviso enjoyed nearly a 3 to 1 chip advantage.  The two finalists battled for only a short time when the final hand was dealt.  The card were played as follows:

Biancoviso –    
Ryadynskyy  –    
Flop –      
Turn –  
River –  

All the chips went in on after the flop.  Biancoviso had his opponent covered by more than a 2 to 1 margin.  Biancoviso flopped a monster draw – which was an open-ended straight flush.  However, Ryadynskyy had the lead with his ace high and was actually a slight favorite on the hand.  Then, it all ended.  The turn brought another heart, giving Biancoviso a flush.  Since he did not have a heart, Ryadnyskyy was drawing completely dead.  Biancoviso won the hand and the tournament with his king-high flush.

First Place:  Giuseppe Biancoviso became the latest WSOP Circuit champion.  He received $28,398 for first place.  Biancoviso earned his first WSOP-related victory and first gold ring.  This was the first time Biancoviso has cashed in a WSOP tournament. 
 
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Biancoviso rocketed to the top of the leaderboard as the early point leader in the Best-All Around race for the Caesars Palace series.  The player who accumulates the most overall points in the ten gold ring tournaments receives a pre-paid entry into the $1 million 2010-2011 WSOP Circuit National Championship, to be held at Caesars Palace Las Vegas, next month.  At least two players from Caesars Palace will qualify for the WSOP gold bracelet event.  Additional information about the WSOP CIRCUIT can be found here.

There are nine more gold ring events remaining.  The WSOP Circuit at Caesars Palace continues through April 30th.  This year’s schedule includes ten gold ring events, along with multiple second-chance tournaments, single table and mega satellites, plus cash games going around the clock inside the Caesars Poker Room.  A FULL SCHEDULE can be found here.
 
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