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2008 Caesar's Palace WSOP Circuit Tournament

Event #1 -- No Limit Hold'Em
For the kick off event, there were 508 players that paid $550 each to sit at the tables. This created a prize pool of $246,380 that went to the top 54 finishers.

1. Brandon Blake -- $71,454
2. Anthony Romanelli -- $37,696
3. Mike Sica -- $19,710
4. James Cox -- $17,247
5. Michael Best -- $14,783
6. Lorrie Bodfield -- $12,319
7. Tim Fredrickson -- $9,855
8. Jon Stanfield -- $7,391
9. Cristian Avendano-Barrera -- $4,928

Event #2 -- No Limit Hold'Em
There were 237 players that paid $1,030 to help build a $229,890 prize pool. Cash went to the top 27 in the field.

1. Benjamin Fineman -- $73,566
2. Michael Peters -- $40,461
3. Adam Murphy -- $20,690
4. Panayote Vilandos -- $16,092
5. Charles Thorneycraft -- $13,793
6. Rajendra (Raj) Patel -- $11,495
7. Josh Ewing -- $9,196
8. Artuyun Nalbadyan -- $6,897
9. Yong Harrison -- $4,598

Event #3 -- Limit Hold'Em
The third tournament had 81 players at the tables after paying a $550 entry fee. But it was only the 9 at the final table who saw a piece of the $39,285 prize pool. Here are the list of final table players and their winnings:

1. Dan Kaesser -- $14,143
2. Ronie Nesheiwat -- $7,857
3. Carey Edelman -- $4,312
4. Scott Silverman -- $3,143
5. Jimmy Fricke -- $2,750
6. Chris Winchester -- $2,357
7. Erhart Edquist -- $1,964
8. Michael Lena -- $1,571
9. Theodore McCollom -- $1,179

Event #4 -- No Limit Hold'Em
There were 392 players that paid $550 each to form a cash pool of $190,120. Money went to the top 36 finishers in the event.

1. Anthony Tran -- $58,941
2. Sales Dominique -- $30,419
3. Gregory Harris -- $15,210
4. Joseph Pallito -- $13,308
5. Michael Caruso -- $11,407
6. Doug Carli -- $9,506
7. Craig Varnell -- $7,605
8. Robert Robbins -- $5,704
9. Matthew Rosen -- $3,802

Event #5 -- No Limit Hold'Em
This one day event brought out some big names in the game of poker. Seen in the field were WPT champion Surindar Sunar, Alexander Kravchenko, Sorel Mizzi, Adam Levy and Michael Binger. Buyin for the event was $1,570 for each of the 211 players, creating a pool of $307,055 that was divided between the top 27.

1. Nick Brancato -- $98,244
2. Durwood Murray -- $54,033
3. Surindar Sunar -- $27,630
4. Dorothy von Sachser -- $21,490
5. Brendan Lynch -- $18,420
6. Mark Kroon -- $15,530
7. Carl Restifo -- $12,280
8. Francisco Navarro -- $9,210
9. Doug Skoczek -- $6,140

Event #6 -- Omaha 8 or Better
A entry fee of $550 per player was paid by 154 players that entered the tournament. It was the last 18 finishers.

1. Gebrehiwet Goitom -- $24,199
2. Kevin Petersen -- 12,697
3. Wayne La Monica -- 7,469
4. John Reiss -- $5,975
5. Tu-Trung Quach -- $4,481
6. Brent Carter -- $3,735
7. Ryan Carey -- $2,988
8. Soo Young (Lisa) Lee -- $2,241
9. Tony Townsend -- $1,494

Event #7 -- No Limit Hold'Em
There were 418 players who paid $550 each to get in on this tournament. The $202,730 prize pool was divided up between the last remaining 45 players.

1. Gholam Fakhimi -- $60,815
2. Tim Vance -- $32,640
3. Allie Prescott -- $16,218
4. Robert Lee -- $14,191
5. Jorge Valdez -- 12,164
6. Karl Melin -- $10,137
7. John Alm -- $8,109
8. Eric Conte -- $6,082
9. Bugan Selcuk -- $4,055

Event #8 -- No Limit Hold'Em
As we come closer to the big WSOP that will begin later in May, more big players are getting into the smaller tourneys. John Cernuto, Theo Tran, Doug (Rico) Carli and Danny Smith were among those at the tables, each paying$1,060 to get in. Prize pool of $271,000 was split between the top 27 in the event.

1. David Peters -- $86,908
2. Francisco Navarro -- $47,802
3. Leonel Guerra -- $24,444
4. Robert Robbins -- $19,012
5. JR Reiss -- $16,296
6. Lionel Tan -- $13,580
7. John Cernuto -- $10,864
8. Richard Slocum -- $8,148
9. Theo Tran -- $5,432

Event #9 -- No Limit Hold'Em
As the money goes up, the big names come out. Seen in the field were Ted Lawson, Brendan Lynch, Richard Weisman, Eugene Todd, Dan Alspatch and Benjamin Hock. All 191 players paid $2,080, helping to build a $370,540 prize pool that went to the top 18 finishers.

1. Ted Lawson -- $120,054
2. Jack Schanbacher -- $62,992
3. Patrick Fagan -- $37,054
4. Brendan Lynch -- $29,643
5. Richare Geyer -- $22,232
6. James Crow -- $18,527
7. Steven Hipes -- $14,822
8. Todd Terry -- $11,116
9. Eric Baldwin -- $7,411

Event #10
This tournament had 126 entries which paid $550 per player. A prize pool of $61,110 was the result and was divided between the final 18 finishers.

1. Kim Frederiksen -- $19,798
2. Ross Ruby -- $10,389
3. Quentin Kruger -- $6,111
4. Joshua Crawford -- $4,889
5. Shawn Silber -- $3,667
6. Curtis Walker -- $3,056
7. Robert Clark -- $2,444
8. Andrea LeBail -- $1,833
9. Aaron Duczak -- $1,222

Event #11 -- No Limit Hold'Em w/ Rebuys
Okay this one was pretty big, with the Main Event just a couple of days away. There were 491 players at the table with names like Men "The Master" Nguyen, Reza Payvar and Sam Skolnik. The prize pool added up to a whopping 238,135 which was split with the top 45 fininshers.

1. Jason "J.D." Newitt -- $71,439
2. Louis Lee -- $38,340
3. John Curtis -- $19,051
4. Men Nguyen -- $16,669
5. Trevor Thomas -- $14,288
6. Sam Petetti -- $11,907
7. Allan Booth -- $9,525
8. Reza Payvar -- $7,144
9. David Fox -- $4,763

Ladies No Limit Hold'Em Cleopatra Open
There were 165 ladies for this event, paying an entry fee of $340 per player. Prize pool rose to $48,015 and was handed over to the top 18 at the tables.

1. Barbera Enright -- $15,558
2. Linh Vuong -- $8,163
3. Bea Hinton -- $4,802
4. Donna Doughtery -- $3,841
5. Garilyn Nelson -- $2,881
6. Anie Lepaye -- $2,401
7. Barbara Payne -- $1,941
8. Sheila Raines -- $1,440
9. Michelle Richey -- $960

Main Event
This three day event brought a large number of players to this WSOPC tournament. 334 players payed $5,150 to create a prize pool of $1,670,000. Money went to the top 36 finishers. With the names in the field, this tournament was going to be one of the toughest seen this year. Seen were Chris Ferguson, David Benyamine, Layne Flack, Doug Lee, Allen Cunningham, David Singer, Alan Smurfit, Bill Edler, Men "The Master" Nguyen and Kathy Liebert. The fast and furious action saw only 54 survivors make it to Day 2.

Within the first 2 hours of Day 2, the field had narrowed to 36 who were happy to know they were in the money. David Levi was the bubble boy after his pocket K's were crushed by Clint Roberts whos A Q turned into a set of Q's by the flop and then two more 6's, giving Roberts a full house. Justin Bonomo busted both Nenad Medic and Clint Roberts on the same hand. He turned a pair of pocket 6's into a full house that had another 6 on the flop with two 10's on the turn and river. By 11:30 p.m., the final table was set and would resume at 1:30p.m. on Thursday.

The final table had plenty of pocket pairs behind all-ins, and disappointments turned into victories. By the time the heads up came between Benjamin Fineman and Allen Cunningham, no one knew it but another upset was in the making. Fineman had 2,630,000 chips verses Cunningham with 710,000. Ten minutes in to play, Cunningham doubled up to 1,660,000 chips which put them at even. Cunningham won a few more pots to build his stack to 1,730,000 and then the victory hand came. After a flop of Qc Kc Qd, both check the turn to see a 10c. Fineman raised by 400,000 and received an all-in from Cunningham after a few minutes of thought. Fineman called and turned over A J for the straight. Cunningham showed 4c 5c for the flush hand and after the 4s hit the table, Allen Cunningham was named champion of the Main Event here at Caesar's Palace Las Vegas!

1. Allen Cunningham -- $499,162
2. Benjamin Fineman -- $257,637
3. Kelly Sampson -- $128,816
4. Motoyuki Mabushi -- $112,714
5. Justin Bonomo -- $96,612
6. Blair Hinkle -- $80,150
7. Thomas Hover -- $64,408
8. Ralph Perry -- $48,306
9. Doug Lee -- $32,204