The Horseshoe Hammond riverboat casino on Lake Michigan was the second stop in the 2009 World Series of Poker Circuit Tournament series. Recently renovated, it now features the largest poker room in the Midwest with 34 tables and 2 pokertek machine tables. There were 13 events in all with a total of 4204 players competiting for a piece of the prize pool that collectively totaled $2,564,097. Also, there were a number of outstanding performances, with one being the winner of Event #4 No Limit Hold'Em Ladies Only who was Linda Tucker. By winning that event, she received a $10,000 seat to the Main Event in Las Vegas.
Another hot event was number 11, the Circuit Championship Event at Horseshoe Hammond. The winner received a $10,000 seat to the 2009 WSOP Main Event at the RIO in Las Vegas, a beautiful gold and diamond ring along with $208,885 in prize money. On Day 1, at total of 164 players paid the entry fee of $5,150, which helped to create a cash pool of $820,250. Some of the talent in the field included Young Phan, Alan Cutler, Dean Hambrick who finished 10th at the WSOP Main Event, Brett Richey, Steve Billirakis, Dean Schultz and Kevin Saul. Even former NBA player Ken Norman was seen at the tables. Action began a little after 1:00 PM with all players having 20,000 in chips. A big hand came during play for Brett Richey where he ended up on the bigger full house (7's/2's) than his eliminated opponent (2's/4's), which allowed him to triple his stack in the first two hours of play. Kevin Saul who rode a roller coaster on Day 1, went to the down side and busted out when his all-in move with A J lost to the pocket K's of another player. But Steve Billirakis ended up the chip leader when he won a huge pot with a pair of 10's, giving him 295,600 chips to move on to the next round.
Day 2 started at 3:00 PM with the 40 remaining players battling it out to see who would make the final table. NBA player Ken Norman finished 14th after his full house (J's/Q's) was edged out by another player making a better full (J's/K's), sending Norman to the rail. And in another crazy hand, Ravi Raghavan won a huge pile of chips after beating three Queens with three Aces with the final Ace coming on the river. But the title of chip leader went to Steve "Mr. Smokey" Billirakis who busted many a player to make the final table with 754,000 in chips. Looking at the facts, Steve ended Day 1 and Day 2 as the chip leader. A Main Event win would be a true wire-to-wire victory for him. And after 11 hours of play, the nine players for the final table became established.
When the final table began at 4:00 PM, early on Steve Billirakis got an incredible number of pocket pairs ranging from 2's to back to back pocket A's. His stack began to increase like the poker gods sprinkled Miracle Gro on it. Others weren't so lucky. First to go in 9th place was Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf after losing to the King high straight of Thomas Koral. Jason DeWitt walked away in 8th place courtesy of Billirakis who held pocket Queens for the victory. Ravi Raghavan earned the cash for a 7th place finish when his pocket Jacks lost to the paired Aces of Thomas Koral. Sameer Al-Dbhany finished 6th after meeting the top pair of Kyle Schertz (A's and K's). George Dietz could not overcome the set of 9's belonging to Kyle Schertz and ended up 5th. Kyle Schertz ended his quest to become champion in 4th when his hand could not beat the pocket 9's of Tommy Koral. Gary Leibovitz was stopped in 3rd by the Ace high flush belonging to Steve Billirakis.
Chip counts for both players had Steve Billirakis at 2,085,000 and Tommy Koral at 1,215,000. But in less than 5 hands the heads up was over between them. On the winning hand Tommy raised preflop and Steve moved all-in and Tommy called, turning over pocket 9's while Steve showed Ad 8s. The flop and turn cards were all diamonds, giving Steve the victory with an Ace high diamond flush and bestowing upon him the title of champion.
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