Racing For the Ring
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Good morning once again, and welcome back to the Palm Beach Kennel Club for the final day of the World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event.
Two days ago, 778 hopefuls filed into the dog track with an extra $1,600 in their pockets and a dream of capturing WSOPC gold. Now, that number has been reduced to just 21, and one of them is just a few levels away from achieving that goal and taking home the top prize of nearly a quarter-million dollars.
Returning today with the big stack is Roman Valerstein, a mid-stakes grinder from Pennsylvania. He managed to work his stack up to 2.155 million by night's end, and that gives him about 15% of the chips in play and a lead of more than a half-million chips over his nearest challenger. Young Dave Stefanski starts the day in the Top 5 with 1.216 million, and he may well be the favorite if they opened up a betting window for this event. Also still in the hunt are Circuit regulars Drazen Ilich and Bruce Yamron, as well as online stud Brian "Stinger 88" Hastings, who's played one less day than everyone else left. Hastings registered for the event at the beginning of Day 2, and his short stack of 246,000 is the only thing keeping us from laying our money down on him.
Here's how the final 21 players will be set up for the run to the ring:
| Table | Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 41 | 1 | Matthew Smith | 899,000 |
| 41 | 2 | --empty-- | -- |
| 41 | 3 | Rob Williamson | 728,000 |
| 41 | 4 | --empty-- | -- |
| 41 | 5 | Max Itkin | 291,000 |
| 41 | 6 | David Stefanski | 1,216,000 |
| 41 | 7 | Bruce Yamron | 164,000 |
| 41 | 8 | Brian Hastings | 246,000 |
| 41 | 9 | Jerry Payne | 281,000 |
| 66 | 1 | --empty-- | — |
| 66 | 2 | Sterling Savill | 622,000 |
| 66 | 3 | Chris Parsons | 1,400,000 |
| 66 | 4 | Nabih Zaczac | 878,000 |
| 66 | 5 | Chet Farrell | 1,512,999 |
| 66 | 6 | Matthew O'Brien | 866,000 |
| 66 | 7 | Jeremy McLaughlin | 587,000 |
| 66 | 8 | Roman Valerstein | 2,155,000 |
| 66 | 9 | --empty-- | -- |
| 67 | 1 | --empty-- | — |
| 67 | 2 | Jeff Silverstein | 520,000 |
| 67 | 3 | Jim Harnden | 989,000 |
| 67 | 4 | Robert LeBeau | 203,000 |
| 67 | 5 | --empty-- | -- |
| 67 | 6 | Jamil Wakil | 816,000 |
| 67 | 7 | Carlos Auralos | 154,000 |
| 67 | 8 | Drazen Ilich | 958,000 |
| 67 | 9 | Walid Maddah | 87,000 |
The cards go flying in just about a half hour, at noon local time, and we'll be here until we're done. Sometime hopefully this evening, one of these players will etch their name into WSOPC lore and have the pleasure of posing for photos with a greyhound and a big stack of cash.
We'll be back with the shuffle-up-and-deal shortly.
