The seventh of ten World Series of Poker Circuit tournaments on the 2008-2009 season schedule has just ended. The $5,000 buy-in championship event at Caesars Atlantic City was won by Samuel Chartier. He is a 23-year-old professional poker player from Montreal, Quebec (Canada). As a reward for his first major tournament victory ever, Chartier collected $322,944 in prize money.

The tournament attracted 208 entrants. The total prize pool amounted to $1,009,200. The top 27 finishers collected prize money. All of the action took place inside the Palladium Ballroom, steps away from the famous Atlantic City boardwalk.

The tournament began with honorary emcee Dennis Phillips announcing “Shuffle Up and Deal.” Phillips, from St. Louis, is best-known as the third-place finisher in last year’s WSOP Main Event. Other poker notables who played in the championship event included 2008 Ladies World Poker Champion Svetlana Gromenkova. Other former WSOP gold bracelet winners included Jason Young, Chris Reslock, and Cliff “Johnny Bax” Josephy. The defending Caesars champion was Eric “Sheets” Haber, who also participated. But only Jason Young survived past the first day, who ended up making it all the way to the final table.

Day two played from 52 players down to the final nine. The final table was played on Saturday, March 14th in front of a packed ballroom full of spectators. The battle lasted eight hours. In addition to the mix of poker locals mostly from New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, the finale included two Canadians. In fact, four Canadians took the top 11 payout spots. No one could have guessed that Canadians would also end up finishing first and second, and taking what amounted to nearly half of the total prize pool.

When action resumed on day three, Alex “Diesel” Bolotin had a sizable chip lead over his opponents, with Frank Vizza in second place. No player was severely short-stacked, which meant the WSOP Circuit championship and gold ring was within the grasp of every player at the table. Sitting quietly among several prior tournament winners in seat nine was Samuel Chartier. He started ranked eighth in chips.

Additional information is available at http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/.
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by Nolan Dalla