DAVID TUTHILL WINS CAESARS PALACE WSOP CIRCUIT MAIN EVENT

LAS VEGAS, NV – David Tuthill, a 24-year-old Florida State University college student, won the WSOP Circuit Main Event late Monday night at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. For the win, Tuthill was awarded $223,197, his first-ever WSOP Circuit Gold Ring and a seat to the WSOP National Championship presented by Southern Comfort 100 proof.

“It’s literally a dream come true” said Tuthill of his breakout victory.

The win was a hard earned one for Tuthill, who was down to 15 big blinds with ten players remaining.

“It was one of the most exhausting of my career,” said Tuthill of the final stage of the Main Event.

Indeed, Tuthill had his work cut out for him. With the 44th annual World Series of Poker less than 100 days away, the Caesars Palace WSOP Circuit Main Event served as a glimpse of what’s to come this summer as a mix of the world’s top pros, hopeful amateurs and the Circuit’s toughest grinders played it out Saturday in the second of two starting flights.

Bracelet champions such as David Williams, Scotty Nguyen, Andy Bloch and Carlos Mortensen decorated the stacked field of players and were joined by some of the WSOP Circuit’s top grinders such as Kurt Jewell, Ari Engel and Jeff Fielder.

The $1,675 buy-in event began with two starting flights on Friday and Saturday. A rush of entrants at the close of registration Saturday night, which included 2-time WSOP bracelet champion, Steve Zolotow, put the final tally at 744 players. The number represented the largest Main Event field in the seven-year history of the WSOP Circuit Events at Caesars Palace.  The total prize pool amounted to $1,116,000.

The two starting flights yielded 148 survivors who returned Sunday afternoon for day two. Bracelet champion, Ryan Welch lead the remaining field of players with 424,900 in chips, more than four times the chip average.

Welch’s colossal chip stack saw him deep through the day two field, but he ran into a number of coolers during the last few levels of play that did damage to his stack. Welch was left crippled after losing a 1.7 million chip pot to Steven Goldberg after a hand post flop where Goldberg was drawing to the nut flush while Welch had both flush and straight draws. Welch made his straight on the turn, but Goldberg completed the flush on the river, leaving Welch with less than one big blind. Welch was eliminated in 20th place ($9,453) shortly after.

Other Day 2 eliminations included those of Erick Lindgren (49th - $3,616), Will Failla (51st - $3,616), Chad Brown (53rd - $3,616) Todd Terry (57th - $3,292) and Scott Clements (61st - $3,292).

At the end of day 2 play, 15 players remained with Jeff Fielder leading the way into day three.

A few hours into play on day three, the last woman standing, Janelle Jacobson, an internet marketing consultant from Las Vegas was eliminated on the Final Table bubble (10th - $16,941).

Fielder was the chip leader to start Final Table play with 3.75 million in chips, which was more than double the average. Having won the Choctaw WSOP Circuit Main Event just a month earlier, Fielder was poised to be the first player ever to win two WSOP Circuit Main Events in a single season. The Des Moines, IA-based construction company owner fell short of the historic benchmark, however, after he was eliminated in 6th place ($43,691).

Tuthill found a critical double up through Brian Kay with five players remaining, shortly after which Kay was eliminated in 5th place ($57,106). Tuthill put even more distance between himself and his remaining opponents after taking just over a million chips from Fabio Coppola’s and eliminating him in 4th place ($75,609).

Three-handed, AP Phahurat was able to double through Shaun Suller in a 9 million chip pot. After Suller’s elimination in 3rd place ($101,444) it was down to Tuthill and Phahurat with Tuthill holding a modest lead over his final opponent. After just over an hour into heads up play, Phaurat got all his chips in the middle with    after a     flop. Tuthill made the quick call with    and after the   and   fell on the turn and river, it was over.

The WSOP Circuit Main Event Final Table at Caesars Palace streamed on ESPN3 with analysis by WSOP Circuit host Bernard Lee and guest host Karina Jett.

Two events are still to come. See the complete Caesars Palace Circuit schedule and event results here. The WSOP Circuit Events at Caesars Palace runs through February 18th. You can find the complete 2012-2013 WSOP Circuit schedule here.

Final table results:

PLACE

PLAYER

CITY / STATE / COUNTRY

CASH EARNED

1

David Tuthill

ST PETERSBURG, FL, US

$223,197

2

AP Phahurat

ROGERS, AR, US

$137,603

3

Bradley Zusman

GRESHAM, OR, US

$101,444

4

Fabio Coppola

LAS VEGAS, US

$75,609

5

Brian Kay

LAS VEGAS, NV, US

$57,106

6

Jeffrey Fielder

DES MOINES, IA, US

$43,691

7

Ping Liu

CHICAGO, IL, US

$33,848

8

Steven Goldberg

LAS VEGAS, NV, US

$26,550

9

Salvatore Dicarlo

LAS VEGAS, NV, US

$21,018