2012-13 WSOP Circuit Draws to Close; Saul, Bowman, Hinkle Latest ME Winners

The 2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit has entered its final push with multiple stops overlapping during the month of April. Three have completed, with accomplished pro and online phenom Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul taking the Main Event title in Foxwoods, amateur John Bowman winning at Harrah's Cherokee in North Carolina, and Blair Hinkle winning for the second time in three years at Horseshoe Council Bluffs in Iowa.

I had the opportunity to help cover the WSOP-C Main Events at both Foxwoods and Cherokee this month for PokerNews, and can thus attest first-hand the excitement starting to build regarding the 2012-13 season and in particular the points race that will help determine who will play in the season-ending WSOP National Championship at Harrah's New Orleans at the end of May.

Here's a quick overview of how the last three WSOP-C Main Events played out -- the 16th, 17th, and 18th on the 20-stop 2012-13 schedule -- as well as information regarding the current WSOP Circuit Leaderboard.

Saul soars at Foxwoods 

The WSOP-C recently made its debut at the sprawling Foxwoods Resort Casino located in Mashantucket, Connecticut. The site of several World Poker Tour events in the past saw a big field of 615 entrants (including re-entries) come out for the $1,675 buy-in Main Event earlier this month, with Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul ultimately triumphing to take away a handsome $194,178 first prize.

Saul emerged as a favorite during the second half of play on Day 2 of the event, and even enjoyed a significant chip lead once they had played down to the last two tables. He'd suffer a setback near the end of play that night, however, after losing a big preflop all-in confrontation with Ben Reason.  

In that hand, Reason had Jd-Jc and Saul Ah-Kh, and while a king came on the turn one of the two remaining jacks fell on the river, thus catapulting Reason to the top of the counts with 18 players left.

From those 16 would make it to the third and final day of play, with Reason on top and Saul sitting in the middle of the pack. But Reason would come up short to finish in fifth while Saul chipped back into the lead, then eventually finished off Lall Bharat heads-up to win.

Other notables at the final table included sixth-place finisher Bobby Corcione who took 21st at last summer's WSOP Main Event and fourth-place finisher Paul Snead who coincidentally also finished 21st at the 2006 WSOP ME.

Meanwhile, Saul's victory represented a kind of return to prominence for the 32-year-old Illinois resident, despite the fact that he's been steadily collecting cashes over the last several years. The win marked the first major live victory for Saul since 2007 when he won the WPT Bellagio Cup for a whopping $1,342,320.

2012-13 WSOP-C Foxwoods final table results:
1st:  Kevin Saul -- $194,178
2nd:  Lall Bharat -- $119,742
3rd:  Cory Waaland -- $87,842
4th:  Paul Snead -- $65,096
5th:  Ben Reason -- $49,007
6th:  Bobby Corcione -- $37,356
7th:  Ethan Foulkes -- $28,664
8th:  Pete Campo -- $22,654
9th:  Stephen Dare -- $18,031

Bowman brings it at Cherokee

The following weekend saw another WSOP-C debut take place at the Harrah's Cherokee resort located in the mountains of North Carolina. There were big turnouts throughout the series, which like at other WSOP-C stops featured 12 ring events plus numerous non-ring tourneys including ladies and seniors events.

The Main Event ended up attracting 856 entries, making the Cherokee stop the fourth-largest on the WSOP-C this season. In the end it was the 30-year-old amateur John Bowman earning the title and $250,380 first prize after making the short trip from nearby Hickory, NC. We heard at the time that Bowman had only played his first big live tournament a few days before the Main Event, making his victory all the more remarkable.

Bowman survived a tough and entertaining final table that was fairly dominated much of the way by 69-year-old Raymond Weaver. Weaver enjoyed the chip lead for much of that final day, and with three players left had a large advantage.
 
But after remaining quiet for much of that Day 3, Bowman soon doubled through Weaver then eventually knocked him out to set up heads-up play between himself and Daniel Weinman.  

Weinman had shown himself to be a formidable player, knocking out Greg Raymer in 29th on Day 2 and looking like one of the late favorites along with Hugh Henderson who led everyone going into the last day. However, Bowman had a better than 3-to-1 chip lead on Weinman to start heads-up play that the latter ultimately couldn't overcome.

As mentioned, the tourney was one of the first Bowman had ever played and thus he starts his career tourney résumé with a nifty quarter-million dollar score. Bowman also won himself a seat in the WSOP Main Event this summer, a special prize awarded at Cherokee.

2012-13 WSOP-C Harrah's Cherokee final table results:
1st:  John Bowman -- $250,380
2nd:  Daniel Weinman -- $154,722
3rd:  Raymond Weaver -- $113,968
4th:  Kory Kilpatrick -- $85,052
5th:  George Zinaty -- $64,303
6th:  James Kinney -- $49,241
7th:  Hugh Henderson -- $38,186
8th:  Jonathan Moseley -- $29,981
9th:  Jerry Monroe -- $23,831

Hinkle beats brother, others at Council Bluffs

Finally on Monday of this week another WSOP-C Main Event finished at Horseshoe Council Bluffs in Iowa. Unlike at Cherokee, this one saw another well known player earn an ME title as WSOP bracelet holder Blair Hinkle triumphed over a smaller field made up of 367 entries to win a $121,177 first prize.

The victory marked Hinkle's second WSOP-C Main Event title, the other having also come at Horseshoe Council Bluffs back at the start of the 2010-11 WSOP-C season. Also of note from the event was the fact that Hinkle's brother, Grant Hinkle, who also owns a WSOP bracelet, made a deep run as well to finish just shy of the final table in 11th place.

Blair had an above-average stack to start the final table, in third position behind leader Sean Small and Brendan Waite. Those three would be the last players standing a few hours later, then Waite knocked Small in third to set up heads-up play.

Waite had 4.35 million to Hinkle's 2.95 million to begin their battle, but Hinkle quickly took the advantage when a hand arose in which both players flopped trip sevens, but Hinkle's kicker was best. It wasn't an all-in hand, but Hinkle did get a couple of post-flop streets of value on it to push his stack up over 5 million.

Waite would eventually retake the lead, then Hinkle wrestled it back as heads-up play lasted over three hours. Finally a final hand arose in which the pair bet back and forth as the board came Ks-5c-3d, then Kd, then 6s.  All in following fifth street, Waite showed 7c-6h for sixes, but Hinkle had 4h-2d for a straight to win.

A Missouri native, Hinkle earned over half a million dollars back in 2008 when he won his WSOP bracelet in a $2,000 NLHE event. And while the field was relatively small at Horseshoe Council Bluffs this week, it was larger than the 251 entry-field Hinkle topped when he won his earlier WSOP-C ME ring in Iowa.

2012-13 WSOP-C Horseshoe Council Bluffs final table results:
1st:  Blair Hinkle -- $121,177
2nd:  Brendan Waite -- $74,881
3rd:  Sean Small -- $54,716
4th:  Mark Bonsack -- $40,627
5th:  Cord Garcia -- $30,635
6th:  Trevor Deeter -- $23,448
7th:  Sterling Savill -- $18,209
8th:  Ben Smith -- $14,343
9th:  Tim Hughes -- $11,457

2012-13 WSOP National Championship drawing near

Saul, Bowman, and Hinkle -- like everyone who wins a WSOP-C Main Event -- earned automatic entries into the WSOP National Championship that will take place at Harrah's New Orleans from May 22-24, just before the 2013 World Series of Poker kicks off in Las Vegas. The WSOP National Championship features $1 million donated to the prize pool, with the winner also earning a WSOP gold bracelet.

They are three of the 100 players who will earn seats into the event. All 20 of the WSOP-C Main Event champs get seats, as do the 20 "Casino Champions" at each stop -- that is, the players who earn the most points among the 12 ring events played at each WSOP-C series.

The other 60 seats will then go to the players who accumulate the most points over the course of the entire 2012-13 schedule. No one can win two seats, so the ME winners or Casino Champions are taken out of the mix with the other top 60 performers on the WSOP-C leaderboard winning the entries.

In addition to those 100 players, the top 100 players from the 2011 and 2012 WSOP and WSOPE will also be eligible to buy their way into the National Championship for $10,000. Thus it is possible for as many as 200 players to play in the event, with a potential for the total prize pool to add up to $2 million.

Here's a look at the top of the WSOP-C National Leaderboard through the conclusion of the events at Horseshoe Council Bluffs and only the series at Harrah's Philadelphia and Harrah's New Orleans left to play out.

2012-13 WSOP-C National Leaderboard:
1.  Rex Clinkscales -- 287.5 pts.
2.  Ari Engel -- 235 pts.
3.  Pedro "Pete" Rios -- 217.5 pts.
4.  Aaron Massey -- 215 pts.
5-tie.  Yossi Azulay -- 192.5 pts.
5-tie.  Trevor Deeter -- 192.5 pts.
7.  Carter Myers -- 182.5 pts.
8.  David Nicholson -- 177.5 pts.
9.  Michael Sanders -- 172.5 pts.
10.  Ting Ho -- 170 pts.

Read more about the World Series of Poker Circuit and how the National Championship works over at the WSOP site.  

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