WSOP Circuit Underway in Atlantic City

Cash game player Tony Cheng earned a WSOPC win in Atlantic City

The World Series of Poker Circuit has returned to Atlantic City, the site of its first event back in January 2005, for another two weeks of tournament poker at Caesars Atlantic City.

The first event is already in the books and the winner is Yat “Tony” Cheng of Atlanta, Ga. The 32-year-old poker pro was the last man standing out of 682 players in Event #1, $340 No Limit Hold’em. The end of a grueling 17-hour Day 2 finally came at 7:05 a.m. ET, at which point Cheng went to bed with $55,569 and a gold WSOP Circuit winner’s ring that he didn’t have when he woke up that morning. Another 11 events remain on the schedule, which runs through March 14th.

In the last few years the WSOP Circuit has begun to become a tour of opposites. Host properties in areas like Atlantic City, Las Vegas, and Chicago continue to see record turnout for each new tournament series even though there is no longer TV coverage of the main event the way there used to be. Meanwhile other stops on the circuit like Tunica and especially Council Bluffs appear to be caught in an attendance black hole with the numbers just getting closer to zero every year. 

It would be easy to just blame the economy if attendance were down across the board, but the problems with turnout in Mississippi and Iowa show that other factors are working in tandem with the recession. Both Tunica and Council Bluffs have to compete with early-year tournaments in other more exotic locations, events that in many cases didn’t even exist a few years ago, and the turnout tells the tale: Paul Wasicka’s win in Tunica came against a field of 95 players, while the Iowa championship event drew just 46 players.

In Iowa there’s also the matter of a gaming law that effectively restricts the size of the fields in the WSOPC events held there by not allowing them to use convention center space to house more tables. The state legislature is working on that law right now, but you have to wonder if that’s going to be enough to make Iowa in February attractive to outside poker players who have other options like sunny southern California or fishy Atlantic City.