WSOP Circuit Lake Tahoe - Event #7 - 1st place - $11,916

I'm feeling on top of the world right now. My first major tournament victory! I arrived in Lake Tahoe, Nevada a couple of days ago for their annual WSOP Circuit. Last week, while checking the CardPlayer rankings, I saw that I was ranked #42 in the world and #3 in Canada. The 2 Canadians ahead of me are Cory Carrol and Tuan Lam, but I'm not behind by much! I would really like to be the Canadian player of the year, so I checked the tournament schedule. I saw that there was a WSOP Circuit in Lake Tahoe, and that it was awarding Player Of the Year points. So I decided to come down and take a shot.

The day I arrived, I played in Event #5 - $300 NL. I went pretty deep, then got it all in with KJ against AQ after a K65 flop and lost. Yesterday, I entered Event #7 - $500 H.O.R.S.E. We started with 91 players, and we were supposed to play down to 8 players, and then come back today for the final table. After 13 hours, there were still over 30 players and it was 3:00 AM, so they decided to just call it a night and come back and play it out the next day. We started with $5000 in chips, and I ended Day 1 with only $4300! Thanks to the great structure in this tournament, I was able to wait around for some cards on Day 2 and went on a nice run to build up a decent stack.

Usually I like to recap some of the big hands, but there aren't really any big hands in limit poker, and I'm too tired to remember the significant ones! Its just slow and boring, thank God for the iPod! I'll make another post with some hands in the next post. When we got to final table, the only player I recognized was Paul "Eskimo" Clark, who has 3 WSOP braclets. There were a few short stacks, and I picked up some key pots early on. When we were down to 4, I had a pretty big chip lead. We played until almost 2 AM, and in the end I took out Jeff Welch for the championship! Here is the official WSOP release:

2007-2008 World Series of Poker Circuit
Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Casino-Resort
Official Report

Event #7
H.O.R.S.E.
Buy-In: $500 (+50)
Number of Entries: 91
Total Prize Money: $44,135
November 14, 2007

Final Results:

1 – Marc “Myst” Karam Ottawa, ON (Canada) $11,916
2 -- Jeff Welch Greenfield, IN 6,804
3 -- Heath Powers Stockton, CA 4,413
4 -- Paul “Eskimo” Clark New Orleans, LA 3,641
5 -- David Bockhold Cameron Park, CA 2,979
6 -- David Hurley Sacramento, CA 2,427
7 -- Travis Atkins Apple Hill, CA 1,986
8 -- Mary Melton Elk Grove, CA 1,545
9 -- Doug Englekirk Zephyr Cove, NV 1,214
10 -- Michael Banducci NA 1,214
11 -- Paul Evans Mount Shasta, CA 1,104
12 -- Tom Christopher Las Vegas, NV 1,104
13 -- Joe Bellegarde Reno, NV 994
14 -- Cole Miller Auburn, CA 994
15 -- Dale Friend Zephyr Cove, NV 882
16 -- Johnny Knight Crystal Bay, NV 882


Canadian Marc “Myst” Karam Wins Harvey’s Lake Tahoe’s H.O.R.S.E. Championship

Strong turnout forces tournament to be extended to a second day


Stateline, NV – Ever since the World Series of Poker instituted a $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event two years ago, player interest in multi-game tournaments has increased dramatically. Many players recognize that the supreme test of all-around poker skill is perhaps best demonstrated in a mixture of games. Indeed, H.O.R.S.E. is an acronym for the five most popular casino poker games played in rotation – hold’em, Omaha, razz, seven-card stud, and eight-or-better.

For the first time, this year’s World Series of Poker Circuit at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe featured a H.O.R.S.E. competition. The turnout was even stronger than anticipated. Despite a mid-week start following Veterans Day, 91 players each paid a $500 entry fee to compete for the H.O.R.S.E. championship. In fact, an event that was expected to last a single day was played instead over two days, lasting a total of nearly 22 hours.

The winner of Lake Tahoe’s 2007 H.O.R.S.E. championship was Marc “Myst” Karam. He is 27-yeard-old and lives in Canada’s capital city of Ottawa, Ontario. Mr. Karam was a college student up until a few years ago, when he decided to play poker for a living. He also does freelance web design part-time.

Winning on the WSOP Circuit marked Mr. Karam’s first major tournament victory. However, he was the runner up at the European Poker Tour’s championship event held in Monte Carlo in 2007. He also took fourth place in that same event a year earlier. First place in this event paid $11,916.

The runner up was Jeff Welch, from Greenfield, IN. Second place paid $6,804. Also of note, three-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Paul “Eskimo” Clark finished in fourth place.

Since this year’s tournament series began a week ago, the poker room and tournament area has been standing-room only. What tables were not used in tournament play have been filled to capacity with cash games. So, in response to player demand, an 11th event has been added to the WSOP Circuit schedule at Harvey’s. This Sunday, on November 18th, starting at 1 pm a $200 buy-in no-limit hold’em event will be offered.

The WSOP Circuit championship will also conclude on the same day. Seating is free and open to the public. Coverage of the championship final table provided by Bluff Media will carried over the Internet at the official WSOP website: www.worldseriesofpoker.com



For more information, please contact:
Nolan Dalla -- WSOP Media Director at (702) 358-4642
Or visit our official website: www.worldseriesofpoker.com

World Series of Poker Commissioner – Jeffrey Pollack
Tournament Director – Janis Sexton
Harrah’s Lake Tahoe Race and Sportsbook Manager – Steve Schorr
Harvey’s Lake Tahoe Poker Room Manager – Vince Contaxis

I think there is only 1 more event, which is the $5000 Main Event on Friday. I will be playing in it, and then I will most likely be heading to Vancouver for the B.C. Poker Championship. I hope my success continues in the Main Event!