World Series of Poker Circuit -- Jonathan Poche Wins New Orleans Main Event

The final $1,500 World Series of Poker Circuit no-limit hold’em main event of the 2010-11 season attracted 382 players at the Harrah’s in New Orleans and that tournament crowned a champion this evening. The eventual winner was Jonathan Poche and he took home the top prize worth $121,017, a gold ring, and a seat in the upcoming WSOP Circuit National Championship at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.

The tournament attracted a number of top professionals with the WSOP Circuit $10,000 Southern Regional Championship set to begin on Thursday, May 19. A few of them cashed in the main event and those players included Mike Beasley (28th place), Dwyte Pilgrim (24th place), and Allie Prescott (18th place). Professional Matthew Waxman advanced to the final table, but it was Poche who held the title when the dust settled. Read on below to see how he claimed the title.

Here is a look at the chip counts when cards got into the air earlier today:

Seat 1: Lance Craig — 694,000
Seat 2: Josh Evans — 1,159,000
Seat 3: Matt Waxman — 460,000
Seat 4: Bobby Toye — 882,000
Seat 5: Jonathan Poche — 656,000
Seat 6: Jake Bazeley — 983,000
Seat 7: Todd Wood — 1,619,000
Seat 8: Billie Payne — 307,000
Seat 9: Scott Zakheim — 491,000
Seat 10: James McBride — 395,000

Lance Craig was the first player to fall in 10th place when his pocket kings ran into the pocket aces of chip leader Todd Wood. Jim McBride was the next player to fall with a pocket pair when his eights lost a race to the A-Q of Wood. After McBride fell in ninth the biggest name left in the field made his exit in eighth place. Matt Waxman was all in preflop with K-Q and he was dominated by the pocket kings of Bobby Toye, which held to win the pot.

There was a bit of a hesitation in the parade to the rail after that, but then Billie Payne (seventh place), Jake Bazeley (sixth place), and Scott Zakheim (fifth place) fell in the course of 20 minutes. The schizophrenic nature of play continued with another hour-long hiatus for player eliminations after that.

When that spell was broken it was Wood who busted in fourth place when his K-7 was dominated by the K-Q of Josh Evans. Third place went to Evans after a series of unfortunate events saw him first lose a coin flip with pocket jacks, and then meet his end with 9-8 on a crippled shove. Jonathan Poche had him covered with A-2 in the hole and then the board rolled out A-K-8-6-J. Poche began heads-up play with a nice advantage over his adversary Toye and Poche quickly built that lead up to a 2-1 chip advantage.

The match remained one sided throughout and it took a half hour for the final hand to transpire. On that hand Toye moved all in preflop on the button and Poche made the call. Their cards:

Poche: 8 8
Toye: J 8

Board: 5 3 2 6 5

Toye was eliminated in second place and he took home $74,783 in prize money. Poche was crowned the champion of the event and he took home the top prize worth $121,017.

This was the final regular WSOP Circuit main event of the current season, although you can tune back in starting tomorrow evening for nightly recaps from the WSOP Circuit $10,000 Southern Regional Championship.

Final-Table Results:

1: Jonathan Poche — $121,017
2: Bobby Toye — $74,783
3: Josh Evans — $54,644
4: Todd Wood — $40,573
5: Scott Zakheim — $30,595
6: Jake Bazeley — $23,416
7: Billie Payne — $18,185
8: Matt Waxman — $14,324
9: James McBride — $11,441
10: Lance Craig — $9,263

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