Day 1A

By BJ Nemeth

Season VI of the World Poker Tour concludes the international leg of the tour this week in an eight-day event held on the Canadian-U.S. border at the beautiful Fallsview Casino Resort in Niagara Falls, Ontario. After stops in the Caribbean (Turks & Caicos) and Europe (Barcelona, Spain), the WPT North American Poker Championship kicked off on Friday just a stone's throw away from the legendary falls themselves.

The tournament room is about a two-minute walk to the casino's balcony, which offers a fantastic view of the Falls. While the Bellagio allows players to enjoy their breaks overlooking their water fountains, for the next week they'll be able to relax between levels watching Mother Nature's take on a water show -- and it's a spectacle that not even Las Vegas can compete with.

Players were able to choose from three starting days (Friday, Saturday, and Sunday), and, true to form, most of the big-name professional players chose the later days. There were 174 players who paid $10,300 each to play at noon on Friday, and in 12 1/2 hours exactly 100 of them were eliminated. The surviving 74 players will get the weekend off before returning on Monday for Day 2.

Tournament Director Jason March is expecting larger fields on Saturday and Sunday, which would create a much larger field than last year's 497 entrants, and the total prizepool is expected to approach $6 million CAD. This year's winner should also be taking home more than the $1.2 million CAD that Soren Turkewitsch picked up for first place last year.

Though most of the pros will be showing up over the weekend, Friday featured players like Barry Greenstein, Kenna James, Peter "Nordberg" Feldman, Gavin Griffin, Roy Winston, Steve Paul-Ambrose, Cory Carroll, Tuan Lam (runner-up from this year's WSOP Main Event) and last year's second-place finisher, Jason Sagle. The biggest draw for spectators on Day 1 was Gavin Smith, who grew up in nearby Guelph, Ontario.

The player of the day had to be end-of-day chipleader Jonathan Little, who currently leads the WPT's Player of the Year race this season by winning the WPT Mirage Poker Classic and finishing in seventh at the WPT Gulf Coast Poker Championship down in Biloxi, MS.

In the first level of the day, Little was part of a three-way all-in situation after a flop of J-9-8. One player had pocket aces for an overpair, Little had pocket eights for bottom set, and Rhynie Campbell (recent winner of WPT Turks & Caicos) had pocket jacks for top set. There were only three cards in the deck that Campbell needed to avoid (two aces and an eight), but the turn card was the eight -- and Jonathan Little won the pot with four of a kind to become the early chipleader.

Little had some ups and downs during the day, but took command late, finishing with a dominating stack of 164,200 -- about 3.5 times the average of 47,000. Here are the top five chipleaders:

1.  Jonathan Little - 164,200
2.  Dario D'Agostino  -  136,000
3.  Ilsoo Baek  -  125,100
4.  John Mars, Jr.  -  102,800
5.  Matt "Ch0ppy" Kay  -  88,700

Another field of players will start with 20,000 in chips each on Saturday at 12:00 noon Eastern, and it'll be interesting to see if anyone can catch Little before Day 2.

Day 1B

By Ryan Lucchesi

Niagara Falls is a breath-taking display of power. The water of the Niagara River rushes from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario and inescapably speeds up as it approaches the chaotic plunge. Niagara Falls is a force of Mother Nature. There was also another force of nature on display at day 1b of the World Poker Tour North American Poker Championship. His name is Steve Buckner, and he is a force of human nature. His penchant for one-liners and gift for gab rumbled along as consistently as the falls rumbled close by throughout the day. "Buckle your buckets because it is time for a ride," said Buckner at one point of the day. While nothing is able to quiet the falls, Buckner was quiet for one period of the day (more on that later), and he was ultimately silent by the end of the play.

Play started at noon and 169 players took their seats for the second day one of the tournament. Although there were a fair amount of professionals, most of them seem to be waiting for tomorrow to ante up their $10,000. There was one table at the start of play that did act as a professional-poker-player-magnet:

Table 7:
Seat 6 - Shane Schleger
Seat 7 - Thayer Rasmussen
Seat 8 - Vanessa Rousso
Seat 9 - Sorel Mizzi

This was the highest concentration of professional players on day 1b, although one of them would soon make an exit. Rousso was the first player of the day to be eliminated, and it was Schleger who dropped the hammer. Other players to make early exits and join her on the rail included: Alan Gohering, Haralabos Voulgaris, David “The Dragon” Pham, Tom Schneider, Freddy Deeb, and Chad Brown.

Strict Canadian gaming regulations also created an interesting predicament for one player early on day 1b. After the first break, Mario "pwnasaurus" Silvestri attempted to rejoin the rest of the field and continue with level two. Unfortunately for the young online player, he wasn't allowed to play because he had misplaced his casino identification badge. Every player in the NAPC was given a lanyard and badge with an identification number. Without the badge, players could not enter the tournament floor, and Silversti did not have his badge. He was blinded off for nearly 35 minutes before he returned with it in tow.
Apparently, Silvestri left the badge in his room and had to walk all the way back to his hotel to retrieve the I.D. Silvestri only needed the badge for a little while longer, he was eliminated from the tournament about two hours later.

As the dinner break approached Jeremiah Smith emerged as the chip leader. He consistently won small pots throughout the day and his chip stack confirmed as much by the large number of small denomination chips he possessed. A chip stack can often be representative of a player’s strategy, and while Smith’s stack had a lot of small chips, it was in sharp contrast to the chip stack of Marc Karam. Karam plays large pots, and he possessed many large denomination chips when he took the chip lead over from Smith after the dinner break (they were seated at the same table at the time): On a board of [Ac10c4s] with 40,000 in the pot, Karam was all in for 21,050. His opponent thought for a few minutes and then called with [AsKh]. Karam turned over [6c4c] and the turn and river came [KcQh] to double him up to 83,000. Big pot poker is volatile poker though, and Karam quickly lost the chip lead. Another player seated at the table with Smith and Karam during this stretch was none other than Steve Buckner.

Buckner was also near the top of the leader board at this point in the tournament and his mouth was moving as fast as his chips. This got him into a little bit of trouble when he was hit with a one-rotation penalty for using profanity by Tournament Director Jason March. The ghost of Buckner hovered in the room while he sat it out at the rail and game three of the World Series played on every monitor in the room. March, who is a lifelong fan of the Boston Red Sox, may have regretted his decision to give a penalty to a man named "Buckner" while the Sox were in the World Series though. Everything was going great for the Red Sox; they led the Series 2-0, and were up 6-0 against the Colorado Rockies at the time. But ...the Red Sox were also on the verge of winning the World Series in 1986, before a wild pitch and a ball between the legs of another man named Buckner capped a New York Mets rally to force a seventh game - which the Red Sox lost, exactly 21 years ago today. Could the curse of Buckner rise again?

As far as the World Series went…not so much, the Sox won game three by a score of 10-5 and the only person who came out of the predicament with any signs of a curse was Buckner. He sat out the remainder of the penalty and was quiet when he returned, both verbally and with his chips. "I haven't played a hand since I got back," said Buckner. His stack began to dwindle and Buckner was knocked down to 23,500 after an opponent doubled up through him. The end was near. “I can’t win a hand, Cuz,” said Buckner repeatedly, to no one in particular. The final blow was dealt by Allen Kessler (who finished the day with 69,700). Kessler had Buckner dominated with A-K against A-5, and he made his exit from the tournament when no help came on the board. Other players that were sent to the rail during the late part of day 1b included: John Juanda, Theo Tran, Sorel Mizzi, Jim “Krazy Kanuck” Worth, Nenad Medic, and Justin Bonomo.

Shortly after midnight the tournament clock reached 30 minutes remaining in the seventh level, and play was stopped to match exactly the amount of time played on day 1a. The 78 players who remained bagged up their chips and they will return for day two, on Monday, October 29. Karam continued to play big-pot poker and the roller coaster ride left him at the top of the leader board by the end of the day. Here is a look at the top five at the end of the night, as well as a number of the notables remaining:

Marc Karam – 126,600
Jeff Kostrnuik – 125,900
Jordan Morgan – 124,500
Jeff Garza – 111,300
Aran Jamasi – 102,200

Lee Markholt – 71,100
Jeremiah Smith – 71,000
Allen Kessler – 69,700
Kathy Liebert – 58,000
Daniel Shak – 50,500
Marcello Del Grosso – 38,300
Shane Schleger – 35,500
Jeff Madsen – 21,500
Soren Turkewitsch – 20,500 (2006 NAPC Champion)

Day 1c will begin tomorrow at noon and the final set of players will start their quest to win the 2007 NAPC title. Many professionals have been spotted along the rail during the first two days of play, including Daniel Negreanu, J.C. Tran, and Nam Le.

Day 1C

The remaining players from days 1a, 1b, and 1c will combine tomorrow. This will mark the first time that every player remaining in the tournament will be in the same room at the same time.

Jean-Robert Bellande will enter the ring as chipleader with 200,100.

Day 2

The WPT North American Poker Championship continued Monday at the Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Canada with 234 players returning in their first full flight of the tournament. Official prizepool numbers were also released, as those players learned what they'd be playing for. There were 504 entrants (slightly more than 2006), creating a total prizepool worth more than $4.86 million CAD. The top 45 players will finish in the money, and first place is worth more than $1.36 million CAD. The field should reach the money on Tuesday (Day 3), but to make it that far, the players would need to navigate the waters of Day 2.

Yesterday (Day 1c), the dull roar of Niagara Falls was overshadowed by the sound of Jean-Robert Bellande amassing chips and talking his way up the leaderboard. The sounds of the Falls returned today as Bellande spent much of the day trying to stop the flow of his chips into other stacks.

|:img:4186,L:|Bellande started the day as the chip leader with just over 200,000, but by the dinner break he held his head in his hands as his chip stack dwindled to less than 90,000. It wasn’t the first time this season that Bellande has struggled after amassing a huge stack. In the WPT Mandalay Championship back in May, Bellande reached 140,000 by the second level, and then proceeded to blow up, barely making it through the day. Bellande reversed his initial freefall today, finishing the day with 214,000 in chips. When the last hand was finished, he raised his arms and said, "Yeah! I survived day two!"

|:img:4201,R:|Marc Karam, who made the WPT Final Table in this event last year, has positioned himself to make a deep run again, increasing his stack to 181,400 by the end of the day.

Jonathan Little leads the WPT Player of the Year race for Season VI, and started the day second in chips with 164,200. When Bellande faltered in the middle of the day, Little cruised into the chip lead. But Little hit a bad stretch of cards after dinner, starting with a double up against Adam "Roothlus" Levy in a 100,000 pot. Little would finish the day with a barely-above-average count of 132,000.

Official chip counts will be released and posted Tuesday morning, but here is an early look at the top ten heading into Day 3:

1.  Kofi Farkye  -  404,900
2.  Joe Cassidy  -  330,500
3.  Giuseppe Galluzzo  -  321,700
4.  Aran Jamasi  -  306,800
5.  Harry Tsoukalos  -  302,200
6.  Dale Pinchot  -  256,000
7.  Lee Markholt  -  239,100
8.  Weikai Chan  -  217,300
9.  Blake Moore  -  217,100
10.  Scott Freeman  -  215,000

The remaining 79 players will meet tomorrow at noon EST and play five full levels.

Day 3

Tomorrow (Wednesday) will be a day off for both the players and the media, and it also happens to be October 31st -- Halloween. Based on the video interviews with the WPT's Kimberly Lansing, most of these poker players will be dressing up as poker players.

Jonathan Little, who currently leads the Season VI WPT Player of the Year race, leads the pack with a little more than 1.5 million in chips. The most notable player left in the field is two-time WPT champion Barry Greenstein, who is sixth in chips with a better-than-average 612,000.

Action resumes on Thursday with the final 18 players battling it out for six seats at the WPT Final Table, which will be taped Friday evening at 4:00 pm Eastern.

WPT Photographer BJ Nemeth has uploaded 68 pictures into the photo gallery today, including the 18 players still in the hunt for the $1.3 million first prize.

There are a total of 289 photos in the gallery from the first three days of this tournament, so you can browse through photos of your favorite players even if they didn't make it this far.

Here are the official chip counts and seating assignments:

<b>TABLE #1</b>
Seat 1  -  Harry Tsoukalos  -  1,079,000
Seat 2  -  Ryan Aiken  -  129,000
Seat 3  -  Wei Kai Chang  -  485,000
Seat 4  -  Kofi Farkye  -  1,212,000
Seat 5  -  Cheryl Lynn Deleon  -  486,000
Seat 6  -  Jeff Garza  -  225,000
Seat 7  -  William Hames  -  351,000
Seat 8  -  Dan Shak  -  261,000
Seat 9  -  Barry Greenstein  -  612,000

<b>TABLE #2</b>
Seat 1  -  Giuseppe Galluzzo  -  239,000
Seat 2  -  Scott Clements  -  190,000
Seat 3  -  David Cloutier  -  1,340,000
Seat 4  -  Arun Jamasi  -  98,000
Seat 5  -  Steven Silverman  -  857,000
Seat 6  -  Dale Pinchot  -  263,000
Seat 7  -  Narinder Khasria  -  124,000
Seat 8  -  Adam Levy  -  557,000
Seat 9  -  Jonathan Little  -  1,576,000

Day 4

After an off day on Halloween the remaining 18 players in the 2007 World Poker Tour North American Poker Championship took their seats at noon today and they were all business. Gone was the overwhelming sound of hundreds of chips riffling and players chatting away amongst a large field. The final two tables of the tournament were islands unto themselves, and the silent focus at the tables spread across the room. The players said little and focused on their cards, the final prize was close and each and every player in the room could feel its presence.

Narinder Khasria and Ryan Aiken were the first two to exit when they fell to pocket pairs held by two of the most well-known players remaining in the field. Khasria was eliminated in 18th place when he ran into the pocket queens of Scott Clements. While the pocket eights held by Barry Greenstein were too much for Ryan Aiken to overcome, and he made his exit in 17th place.

Timing is everything in poker tournaments, aces become a wasted opportunity if everyone at the table folds, but they are golden when players behind you wake up with a hand. That was what happened early in the day here in Niagara, when two players were eliminated by the aces of Cheryl Deleon: Weikai Chang moved all in preflop and Cheryl Deleon moved all in over the top of him. Dan Shak moved all in as well and the three players turned up their cards: Chang had pocket queens, and Shak had [AdKh], but Deleon had them both beat when she turned up aces. The board rolled out [Jc7c6h9sJd] Chang was eliminated in 16th place and Shak busted in 15th place because he had more chips. This hand also put Deleon close to the 1-million-chip benchmark with 920,000.

Arun Jamasi was the next to hit the rail in 14th place when his pocket queens ran into the pocket kings held by Jonathan Little. In addition to these large pots, where player’s lives hung on the balance of a coin flip, a lot of pots were raised and reraised between players to gain information and feel each other out. One such hand occurred when Adam Levy raised 27,000 from the button and Little reraised to 105,000 from the small blind. Levy reraised all in for 449,000 and Little mucked his hand.

The steady stream of eliminations continued as the field approached the final table, and the unlucky 13th-place finisher made his exit in the biggest hand of the tournament thus far:

Harry Tsoukalos raised to 45,000 and Kofi Farkye announced a raise to 160,000 behind him. Tsoukalos made the call and the flop came [Qd8h2h]. Farkye bet 180,000 and Tsoukalos wasted no time raising it to 650,000. Farkye asked how much Tsoukalos had left and the answer was roughly 250,000 more. Farkye decided to just call, and the turn was the [10c]. Farkye led out for 100,000 and Tsoukalos quickly called. The river was the [10s] and Farkye moved Tsoukalos all in for his last 125,000. Tsoukalos made the call and Farkye turned over two black queens. Tsoukalos slowly got up and walked away from the table. Farkye was now the chip leader with 2,210,000.

Little continued to be a force at his table and he sent another opponent to the rail when he rivered a flush against Giuseppe Galluzzo. Galluzzo finished in 12th place. It was then Greenstein’s turn to send another to the rail and he did so by dominating the A-2 of Williams Hames with A-Q. Greenstein made two pair on the board and that sent Hames home in 11th place. Play continued on a hand-for-hand basis at the two final tables at this point and the action was fivehanded. One more player had to be eliminated before things would combine at a final table of nine. Scott Clements found an opportune time to hold aces when Steve Silverman shoved all in after he smooth called a preflop raise from Little. Little got out of the way and Silverman discovered the bad news of Clement’s pocket rockets after he flipped up A-10. No help came on the board and the final table was set. Silverman was eliminated in 10th place and he took home $63,233 CAD (This is the same amount that every player who busted out on the play-down day had received up to this point).

There was a short break and players drew for new seats at the final table. Here is how things looked when they got started:

Seat 1: Kofi Farkye - 1,421,000
Seat 2: Jonathan Little - 2,149,000
Seat 3: Cheryl Lynn Deleon - 1,321,000
Seat 4: "Action Jeff" Garza - 469,000
Seat 5: Adam Levy - 379,000
Seat 6: David Cloutier - 1,563,000
Seat 7: Barry Greenstein - 1,226,000
Seat 8: Dale Pinchot - 374,000
Seat 9: Scott Clements - 1,095,000

When the final table began three of the players sat on short stacks, while the other six had the good fortune to be above 1 million in chips. The short stacks now had to bide their time and wait to get all their money in the middle with the best hand, in hopes that they could become a contender for the title after doubling up. Jeff Garza was the first to accomplish this feat when he raised to 40,000, Greenstein called and Kofi Farkye raised to 110,000. Jeff Garza moved all in for an additional 525,000. Greenstein folded and Farkye went into the tank. He finally elected to call with [AsJd], but he was dominated by Garza's [AhKd]. The board ran out [10d8d7d6h2c], doubling up Garza. The all-in move did not go as well for Levy, when he moved all in from the small blind 40 hands into the final table. David Cloutier called in the big blind and he showed down [Ac10s]. Levy was dominated with [Jd10d]. The board ran out [Ah10h5s9c3c] and Levy was eliminated in ninth place. He took home $77,813 CAD.

Eight remained at this point and it was Dale Pinchot who was the low man on the totem pole. On his final hand of the evening (hand 53 of the final table) action was folded to Pinchot (during which Garza exposed Ah8d when he mucked). Pinchot raised to 48,000, Deleon moved all in from the big blind, and Pinchot made the call for his last 140,000. Deleon tabled [AdQd] and Pinchot showed pocket eights. The board rolled out [KsQc9h7s4s] and Pinchot was eliminated in 8th place for a $97,266 CAD payday.

It was at this point of the tournament that Clements pulled off the best bluff of the tournament. Deleon raised to 45,000 and Clements made the call from the small blind. The flop came [Qh9d4s], Deleon bet 80,000, and Clements raised to 175,000. Deleon called and the turn fell [9c], Clements bet 300,000, and Deleon thought for about a minute before calling. The river was the [Kc] and Clements immediately announced all in. Deleon asked if he had her covered and got her answer. Clements had 1,200,000 left and she had fewer than 1 million. She went into the tank for five minutes, repeatedly going over every hand that could beat her. She finally mucked and Clements turned over a heartbreaking [8c6c]. She angrily slammed the table and shouted an expletive. As Deleon went on tilt Clements collected the huge pot and increased his stack to more than 2.2 million. After this hand Clements jumped into the chip lead and play continued a little bit longer until a one-hour dinner break was taken at 5:35 p.m.

After the dinner break, on hand 75 of the final table, things only got worse for Deleon: Farkye raised to 60,000 and Deleon reraised to 100,000. Farkye said, "I guess this is where I go home," and then he moved all in for his last 650,000. Deleon took a couple of minutes and made the call with [AdQh]. Farkye turned up pocket nines and they were racing. The board came [9h8c6cJsKs] and Farkye doubled up to 1,650,000, while Deleon was down to 310,000. The end was near for Deleon and she moved all in from the small blind 29 hands later. Garza immediately called and showed down pocket jacks. Deleon sheepishly turned over [10h5c] and the board fell [Kd7c2d8c9s] to eliminate her in seventh place. She was the unfortunate television bubble girl, but she did take home $121,583 CAD in prize money. After Deleon busted play ended for the night and the players bagged up their chips. Here is how things will look when they return for the final table tomorrow:

Seat 1 - Kofi Farkye - 1,504,000
Seat 2 - Jonathan Little - 2,716,000
Seat 3 - Jeff "ActionJeff" Garza - 1,320,000
Seat 4 - David Cloutier - 1,614,000
Seat 5 - Barry Greenstein - 447,000
Seat 6 - Scott "BigRiskky" Clements - 2,483,000