Atlantic City Weekly

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The World Series of Poker Circuit Events return to Caesars starting today (March 1) and brings some welcome poker action to the city’s central Boardwalk.

The two WSOP Circuit events offered yearly — at Harrah’s Resort in December and Caesars in March — are really the only two major tournament events left in the city that aren’t played at the Borgata,

So that also makes the Caesars circuit event the only major poker event at a Boardwalk casino for the moment, unless the Taj Mahal ever revives the U.S. Poker Championships.

The circuit events don’t usually draw huge fields, but they do offer a nice set of tournaments from now through March 12 and provide some respectable fields and prize pools.

The circuit events start with a $300 + $45, No Limit event at noon today. Last year’s opening event drew 742 players and offered up a prize pool of $215,922.

As with all WSOP Circuit events, event champions receive a ring (rather than the more famous WSOP bracelet) and all players earn points on the WSOP Circuit leader board for play in the circuit’s National Championship, a $1 Million free-roll in July.

Main Event tournaments are offered daily at noon through the 12 days.

A couple of the events have two starting sessions: Event 2, a $300 + $45 No Limit event that starts March 2 and 3, both at noon, and, of course, the championship event, a $1,500 + $100 that offers starting sessions at 11am and again at 7pm March 10.

The championship event is a re-buy, where players busting out in the early session can re-buy in the evening session.

Last year’s championship event attracted 442 entries and was won by Brian Ali of Brooklyn. He took home about $140,000 of the $633,000 prize pool.

Satellites for the championship event start today at 5pm with a $165 + $25 No Limit tournament. There’s a satellite at 5pm everyday until the championship (except for March 8) and one extra satellite at 7pm March 9.

There’s also a $175 + $25 non-ring tournament most nights at 7pm.

Some other highlights include a senior’s event, March 11 at 5pm, ($200 + $30) and ladies event March 10 at 5pm ($200 + $30).

Go to WSOP.com for a full schedule, but structures haven’t been announced.

Attendance at WSOP circuit events varies greatly around the country and unfortunately Atlantic City is not one of the more dominant stops on the calendar.

For example, the last WSOP circuit event, held earlier this month at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in Florida, attracted more than 2,600 players for its opening event.

No Atlantic City tournament, at any casino, has ever come close to that number of players. On the other hand, a circuit event in January at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas attracted only 482 players to its opening event.

Atlantic City can kind of relate to the Vegas numbers. The circuit schedule runs from September to May, as the WSOP itself occupies the summer months. It leaves the city shut out during the busy summer season.

Still, it’s nice to see some action going on at this time of year. Maybe Caesars will luck out with some early spring weather.