We're not talking about the season, because that is here; instead, we're referring to Dennis Summers, who qualified for the National Championship with an "At-large bid." We were just informed that Summers contacted the tournament staff and informed them that he is unable to attend the tournament. Good news to the other players as it's one less player in contention.
Allen Kessler and Michael Traylor limped in before Robert Georato raised to 650 from the hijack seat. Shannon Shorr flatted from the cutoff position and then Chris Klodnicki reraised from the button to 2,500. Action folded all the way back over to Georato and he reraised to 5,300. That knocked Shorr out of the way before Klodnicki began to tank. Eventually, he gave it up and Georato won the pot.
Over at Table 26, five players limped to see a flop of 
. Not only did everyone check, they did so on the 
turn and 
river as well. When it came time to show, no one was in a hurry to turn over their cards. Finally, "Captain" Tom Franklin flipped 
from middle position. One by one his opponents mucked and Franklin took down the limped pot.
"So that is how you guys play," Andy Frankenberger commented after letting out a laugh.
From early position, Allen Kessler limped in. Michael Traylor raised from the next seat to 575 and Kessler made the call when action got back to him and the two took the flop of 
. Kessler checked, Traylor bet 625 and Kessler called.
The turn brought the 
and both players checked before the 
came in on the river. Kessler fired out 1,500 and Traylor called. Kessler tabled the 
for a diamond flush and Traylor mucked his hand. Ship this one to Chainsaw.
![[user80015]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
On a board of 
we found James Anderson checking from the small blind to his lone opponent in the big blind Nadir Babck.
Babck pushed out a bet of 3,600 only to have Anderson play a sneaky river check-raise to 8,100.
Banck eyed Anderson's chip stack before pushing all of his chips into the pot; roughly a further 12,400 for Anderson to call.
Having only 3,150 behind, Anderson made the call tabling his 
to force a muck from Banck as he moved up the leaderboard with roughly 42,000 in chips.
On the flop of 
, Joshua Evans and Joel Merwick checked to Allie Prescott. Prescott bet 600 and only Merwick made the call to see the peel off on the turn. Both players checked and the river landed with the . After Merwick checked, Prescott bet 1,500. Merwick folded and Prescott won the pot.
As we all know, the National Championship is a $1,000,000 freeroll. OF the 100-player field, only ten will be paid with $300,000 going to the victor. Here is a look at the payouts for this tournament:
1st- $300,000
2nd- $200,000
3rd- $135,000
4th- $100,000
5th- $75,000
6th- $55,000
7th- $42,500
8th- $35,000
9th- $30,000
10th- $27,500
Level: 2
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0
Not since Dwyte Pilgrim has a player found such success on the WSOP Circuit as 23-year-old Kyle Cartwright. It all began in February when Cartwright, who had only $2,000 to his name, decided to play his first major live tournament at the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Tunica. Amazingly, he played four events at that stop and took home gold rings in two of them: Event #20 $345 No Limit Hold’em ($25,678) and Event #44 $345 No Limit Hold’em ($31,111). His performance earned him enough points to make him the Harrah’s Tunica “Casino Champion”, for which he was awarded a spot in the National Championship.
Two months later in St. Louis, Cartwright added another pair of cashes to his résumé. One was a minor 42nd-place finish in Event #5 $345 No Limit Hold’em for $751, but the other was a $142,290 score for a victory in Event #30 $1,600 Main Event. The latter win also came with a spot in the National Championship; however, since Cartwright had secured his seat in Tunica, the second spot will be awarded to another points-competitor from the National Leaderboard.
Cartwright, a graduate from the University of Memphis, only has four WSOP Circuit cashes, all within nine weeks of each other and three of them victories in ring events. Quite the impressive feat considering the record for most rings is only four -- a tie between Mark “Pegasus” Smith and Men “The Master” Nguyen, both of whom have been traveling the circuit for years. An even better comparison would be to Pilgrim, who also made his name on the WSOP Circuit.
Pilgrim’s rise to fame came during the 2007-2008 season when he scored his first WSOP-Circuit cash at the Caesars Atlantic City stop. It was a modest $2,877 win for a 17th-place finish in Event #4 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em. Almost a year later, 364 days to be exact, Pilgrim won his first ring in the WSOP-C Caesars Atlantic City Event #4 $560 No Limit Hold’em, good for $83,955. Three weeks later, Pilgrim won the $5,150 Circuit Championship Main Event at Harrah’s Rincon for his second ring and $125,775. His third and final ring came a year later in Event #8 $340 No Limit Hold’em at Harrah’s Rincon during the 2009-2010 season. Although Cartwright hasn’t been on the circuit nearly as long as Pilgrim, their victories in two smaller buy-in events, as well as a Main Event Championship, are eerily similar.
| Player | Rings | WSOP-C Cashes | Earnings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dwyte Pilgrim | 3 | 23 | $506,238 |
| Kyle Cartwright | 3 | 4 | $199,830 |
Perhaps the most interesting similarity between these two is that they are currently seat at the same table, side-by-side; however, while Cartwright is often considered the next Pilgrim, the latter has position on the former.
As the first level winds down with the tournament having lost only one player, there aren't too many notable stacks that have developed as yet.
Sitting atop at the moment are the following players:
Charles Moore - 40,200
Kenny Nguyen - 32,700
Bernard Lee - 32,300
