February 21 2014, by Jennifer Newell

WSOPC Caesars Begins, Events Announced, MSPT Players Deny Cheating

WSOP Circuit Kicks off at Caesars Las Vegas

The World Series of Poker Circuit just finished up in Florida and came to its home base of Las Vegas for the next tour stop. Caesars Palace hosts 12 ring events from February 20 to March 3, culminating in the $1,675 NLHE Main Event.

Action began today with Event 1, a $365 NLHE event that brought in approximately 432 players. The count is not yet final, but the prize pool so far stands at $129,600.

Newly Announced Tournaments

CardPlayer announced the sixth annual Deep Stack Charity Classic, a tournament that will return to the Daytona Beach Kennel Club and Poker Room in Florida on April 27.

The last four years’ events have sold out, and this year’s tournament will award more than $70K in prizes. Players like Phil Hellmuth, Greg Merson, Norman Chad, Barry Shulman, and Allyn Jaffrey Shulman have already committed to attend.

Profits from the event will benefit Congregation B’nai Torah, which focuses its efforts on volunteerism and humanitarian works.

PokerNews reported that it will cover the upcoming 2014 Western New York Poker Challenge in Niagara Falls, New York. The Seneca Niagara Poker Room will host the 16 events.

The feature of the series will be the $1,100 two-day NLHE Main Event with a $100K guarantee from April 5-6. The entire series begins on March 28 and features all Hold’em tournaments with one $100 Crazy Pineapple in the mix.

MSPT Top Finishers Deny Cheating Allegations

As reported yesterday, Mark Sandness and Blake Bohn finished first and second, respectively, at the recent Mid-Stakes Poker Tour Running Aces Harness Park event in Minnesota. Allegations were posted on forums and social media that the two friends may have soft-played each other during the Main Event.

PokerNews interviewed the two players about the allegations, which they vehemently denied.

Sandness was frustrated by the allegations but said “it kind of makes you happy in a way because it lets me know there’s still money to be made in poker (that people would think that).” He continued, “I don’t thinkt here is any play I made that is remotely akin to collusion.”

Bohn added, “People don’t have to like me, but calling me a cheat is just flat out wrong.”

 

Related articles

About the author

Jennifer Newell fell in love with poker while working for the World Poker Tour in Los Angeles. She left the company to live as a freelance writer with a heavy concentration on the poker world. It is not often that she travels to poker tournaments and less often that she plays the game, but she can always be found reading and writing about poker. You can find her on her FreelanceWriterJen Facebook page or @WriterJen on Twitter.