Everything You Need to Know About the 2014 WSOP National Championship
This weekend, Season 10 of the World Series of Poker Circuit will culminate with the National Championship at the newly WSOP-branded Bally’s Atlantic City poker room. The fourth-annual National Championship will be recorded for future broadcast on ESPN, and will also award the year's first WSOP gold bracelet.
“We look forward to welcoming the best poker players in the world to Atlantic City and our brand new poker room at Bally’s,” said Kevin Ortzman, general manager of the property. “We are dedicated to making our new room the best in New Jersey, and are excited for players to see all the great things happening in Atlantic City with the convergence of online and land-based gaming.”
Throughout the season, players have been qualifying for the National Championship by either winning the Main Event or Casino Championship at each stop, seeing 44 total qualifiers advance. In addition, 50 players qualified via at-large bids, which come from accumulating points on the National Leaderboard. Additionally, the 100 players atop the WSOP World Rankings are eligible to buy into this event for $10,000, which will then be added to the prize pool. That means the final field will be between 100-200 players and generate a prize pool somewhere between $1-2 million.
“The WSOP National Championship is really about toasting the most consistent and dedicated players of the World Series of Poker brand,” said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “They have shown strong performance across our events and we’re delighted to provide a platform in Atlantic City for the first time to showcase and award these championship caliber players.”
The Main Event/Casino Champ qualifiers are:
| Player | Route | City | Rings | Cashed | Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Jed Hoffman | Council Bluffs Casino Champ | Reno, NV | 2 | 9 | $54,142 |
 Aaron Frei | Harrah's Tunica Casino Champ | Longmont, CO | 0 | 13 | $36,988 |
 Mike Leah | Bicycle Casino Champ | Toronto, ON | 2 | 7 | $68,488 |
 Patricia Till | Horseshoe Southern Indiana Casino Champ | Avon, IN | 1 | 7 | $37,776 |
 Samuel Panzica | Horseshoe Cincinnati Casino Champ | Saline, MI | 2 | 9 | $58,626 |
 Craig Varnell | Lodge Casino Champ | Ft Collins, CO | 1 | 6 | $82,743 |
 Andrew Merrick | Harrah's Rincon Casino Champ | San Diego, CA | 2 | 3 | $37,039 |
 Daniel Heredi | Cesars Palace Las Vegas Casino Champ | N/A | 2 | 4 | $50,435 |
 Ryan Rinker | Harveys Lake Tahoe Casino Champ | Vacaville, CA | 0 | 4 | $90,744 |
 Ylon Schwartz | IP Biloxi Casino Champ | Austin, TX | 1 | 3 | $29,532 |
 Marc Carpentier-Perrault | Lac Leamy Casino Champ | Blainville, QC | 1 | 5 | $28,643 |
 Peter Nigh | Lumiere Place Casino Champ | St. Louis, MO | 0 | 3 | $76,981 |
 Richard Block | Harrah's Atlantic City Casino Champ | Alden, NY | 1 | 4 | $48,215 |
 Robert Panitch | Lumiere Place Main Event | Northbrook, IL | 1 | 9 | $160,521 |
 Eric Suarez | Harrah's Philadelphia Casino Champ | Glen Mills, PA | 1 | 3 | $26,288 |
 Sukhpaul Dhaliwal | River Rock Casino Champ | Langley, BC | 1 | 2 | $41,845 |
 Juan Mendoza | Harrah's Cherokee Casino Champ | Wilmington, NC | 0 | 5 | $26,023 |
 Johnny Donnelly | Bossier City Casino Champ | Carrollton, TX | 1 | 2 | $18,548 |
 Jeffrey Gunnip | Palm Beach Kennel Club Casino Champ | Berkley, MI | 1 | 2 | $18,143 |
 Jonthan Gaviao | Harrah's Tunica Main Event | Gainesville, TX | 1 | 5 | $340,598 |
 Michael Oshana | Horseshoe Hammond Casino Champ | Hanover Park, IL | 1 | 2 | $73,071 |
 Ryan Methia | Foxwoods Casino Champ | Acushnet, MA | 1 | 3 | $23,617 |
 Tyler Morris | Choctaw Resort Main Event | Tyler, TX | 1 | 5 | $392,458 |
 Zal Irani | Horseshoe Southern Indiana Main Event | Chicago, IL | 1 | 7 | $120,231 |
 Eric Blair | The Lodge Main Event | Las Vegas, NV | 1 | 2 | $160,632 |
 James Dorrance | Horseshoe Hammond Main Event | Hershey, PA | 1 | 2 | $439,785 |
 Shahin Edalatdju | Harrah's Rincon Main Event | San Diego, CA | 1 | 2 | $120,405 |
 Lincoln Milne | River Rock Main Event | Chilliwack, BC | 1 | 1 | $253,015 |
 Nipun Java | Bicycle Casino Main Event | Northridge, CA | 1 | 1 | $226,785 |
 Bradford Albrinck | Horseshoe Cincinnati Main Event | Cincinnati, OH | 1 | 1 | $221,994 |
 Christian Pham | Caesars Palace Main Event | St. Paul, MN | 1 | 1 | $214,332 |
 Jason Sandling | Harrah's Cherokee Main Event | Clayton, NC | 1 | 1 | $204,487 |
 Ruslan Dykshtein | Palm Beach Kennel Club Main Event | Brooklyn, NY | 1 | 1 | $202,335 |
 Jason Strasser | Foxwoods Main Event | New York, NY | 1 | 1 | $186,600 |
 Joseph Lapinta | Harrah's Atlantic City Main Event | Toms River, NJ | 1 | 1 | $182,070 |
 Thomas Creel | Bossier City Main Event | Monroe, LA | 1 | 1 | $144,537 |
 Daniel Harmetz | Harveys Lake Tahoe Main Event | Sacramento, CA | 1 | 1 | $128,699 |
 Charles Sylvestre | Lac Leamy Main Event | Saint-Bruno, QC | 1 | 1 | $122,435 |
 Kyle Bowker | Harrah's Philadelphia Main Event | Walton, NY | 1 | 1 | $115,920 |
 Martin Zenter | IP Biloxi Main Event | New Orleans, LA | 1 | 1 | $106,455 |
 Blair Hinkle | Council Bluffs Main Event | Weatherby Lake, MO | 1 | 1 | $90,770 |
| Chris Bowen | Choctaw Casino Champ | 1 | 2 | $131,224 | |
| Tim West | Harrah's New Orleans Casino Champ | 1 | 9 | $75,815 | |
| Bryan Campanello | Harrah's New Orleans Main Event | 2 | 5 | $190,358 |
Here's a look at the 50 players that qualified by amassing enough points on the National Leaderboard:
| Yossi Azulay | Austin Buchanan | Josh Evans | Robert Georato | Darren Rabinowitz |
| Ari Engel | Ben Keeline | Joseph Morneau | Robert Edelstein | BJ McBrayer |
| Kevin McColgan | Daniel Lowery | Aditya Prasetyo | Nolan Burton | Alex Masek |
| Charles "Woody" Moore | Phillip Hui | Mark Fink | Valentin Vornicu | Chris Conrad |
| Ralph Massey | Bernard Lee | Timothy Campbell | Ryan Tepen | DJ MacKinnon |
| Pavlin Karakikov | Warren Sheaves | Paul Cookson | Chris Bibb | Andrew Robinson |
| Brian O'Donaghue | Andrew Spears | Eric Fields | Jessie Bryant | Jonathan Gray |
| John Holley | Jamie Kerstetter | Joseph Hebda | Justin Bond | David Nicholson |
| Caufman Talley | Frederic Roetker | Robert Irby | Cory Waaland | Robert Hankins |
| Sean Lippel | Arkadiy Tsinis | Sean Stevens | Jesse Capps | Jason Mayfield |
| Sean Small |
Also, here is a look at the 100 players atop the WSOP World Rankings that are eligible to buy into the National Championship for $10,000. Of course, not all of these players will do so. It's estimated around 30 will participate, while former WSOP champs Ryan Riess and Greg Merson have already confirmed their participation.
| Daniel Negreanu | Phil Hellmuth | Greg Merson | Antonio Esfandiari | David Baker |
| Jeremy Ausmus | John Monnette | Michael Mizrachi | Matthew Ashton | Phil Ivey |
| Chris Klodnicki | Dominik Nitsche | Max Steinberg | Stephen Chidwick | Timothy Adams |
| Konstantin Puchkov | David "ODB" Baker | Ryan Riess | Marco Johnson | Shannon Shorr |
| Roland Israelashvili | Tom Schneider | Joseph Cheong | Mark Radoja | Jesse Martin |
| Andrew Lichtenberger | Jason Mercier | Greg Mueller | Anthony Gregg | Andrew Frankenberger |
| Michael Gathy | Jason Koon | Vanessa Selbst | Jonathan Aguiar | Jared Hamby |
| Brandon Cantu | Loni Harwood | George Danzer | Scott Seiver | David "dpeters" Peters |
| Don Nguyen | Erik Seidel | Andy Bloch | Roger Hairabedian | David Chiu |
| Nick Schulman | Jesse Sylvia | Scott Clements | Matt Stout | Noah Schwartz |
| Mike Wattel | Charles Nelson Robinson | Kyle Julius | Brent Hanks | Brent Wheeler |
| Dan Kelly | Joe Kuether | Keith Lehr | Eric Baldwin | Bryan Piccioli |
| Jeff Madsen | Daniel Idema | Mike Watson | Amir Lehavot | Brian Hastings |
| David Vamplew | Steve Sung | Erick Lindgren | Manig Loeser | Marvin Rettenmaier |
| Joe Cada | Jacob Bazeley | Yuval Bronshtein | Eddy Sabat | Mike Matusow |
| Jan-Peter Jachtmann | Athanasios Polychronopoulos | Matt Berkey | Layne Flack | Daniel Alaei |
| Matthew Waxman | Russell Thomas | Ronnie Bardah | Adam Friedman | Jeffrey Lisandro |
| Davidi Kitai | Chris Dombrowski | Simeon Naydenov | Randy Ohel | Jacob Balsiger |
| Taylor Paur | Dan O'Brien | Niall Farrell | Brock Parker | Jay Farber |
| John Hennigan | Cliff Goldkind | Jonathan Duhamel | Salman Behbehani | Viacheslav Zhukov |
In addition, the Bally’s Atlantic City Freeroll was held on Monday to showcase their brand new tournament room. The live tournament awarded one seat into the National Championship, which ended up going to Carl Javier. Meanwhile, Michael Wang won a $1,125 satellite into the National Championship.
Big congrats to Carl Javier, who won his seat into the National Championship in last night's @BallysAC freeroll sponsored by @WSOPcom!
— WSOP (@wsop)
Congrats to Michael Wang, winner of the @BallysAC Last Shot tournament. He earned over $21K and the last seat into the National Championship
— WSOP (@wsop)
Finally, the following players won their way in via WSOP.com freerolls:
| Freeroll | Winner |
|---|---|
| WSOP NV KO Freeroll | Tracy Doss |
| WSOP NJ KO Freeroll | Stacey Kilcullen |
| WSOP NV Deposit Freeroll | Dustin Restcuh |
| WSOP NJ Deposit Freeroll | Edward Bass |
PokerNews will be providing daily updates on the National Championship from May 22-24, so be sure to check back then to see who will win the first gold bracelet of the summer.
*Photos courtesy of WSOP.com.
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