Bart Tichelman(credit: World Series of Poker - Official Web Site)
180 players paid their $7,500 to play at the World Series of Poker Circuit Event in Tunica, Mississippi beginning on Saturday, January 19, 2008. Included in that number was Bodog’s own Josh Arieh. The Atlanta resident with two World Series of Poker bracelets and millions of dollars in tournament earnings alone took the seventeenth slot in this event. Also finishing strong was Captain Tom Franklin, who makes his home in Gulfport, Mississippi. Franklin received over $17,000 for eleventh place.
The biggest name sitting at the final table was none other than the 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider. Schneider won two bracelets at the World Series this summer and finished fourth in third. Since then, he’s made final tables at the WSOPC Caesar’s Championship, Vegas Open and the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic.
Schneider, who began the final table with 422,000 chips, tussled with Ryan Young, a 23 year old pro who won his first and only WSOP bracelet to date in 2007, on his final hand, going all in with trip nines. Unfortunately, Young made a queen-high straight, sending the big guy to the rail in eighth place. Ouch!
However, as poker often shows us, fate can be a cruel mistress. One minute you’re up and the next you’re out. Young was eliminated soon after, earning $51,904 for seventh. At this point, Day 1’s chip leader, Mark Garner, a resident of Little Rock, Arkansas, said adios to his compañeros. His sixth place finish netted him more than $64,000. In fourth place, the Day 2 chip leader, John Devia, a self-employed bloke from West Palm Beach, Florida, fell to Bart Tichelman, a married father of two who was born in British Columbia and makes his home in Atlanta, GA these days, and his pocket queens.
Tichelman, who began the day with one of the shortest stacks at the table, then took out Gino Marcacci, a 35 year old contractor living in Florida, in third place. This gave the 51 year old business manager a substantial lead as heads-up play began. Donald Nicholson, a local pro poker player who returned to law school just this year, didn’t last more than two hands against Tichelman. In the end, the bespectacled Bart-man won his entry to the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event, a cool WSOPC championship ring and $415,595 in cash.
Here are the final results:
1) Bart Tichelman - $415,595
2) Donald Nicholson - $229,309
3) Giovanni Marcacci - $126,000
4) John Devia - $100,925
5) Ben Sabrin - $75,751
6) Mark Garner - $63,165
7) Ryan Young - $50,578
8) Tom Schneider - $37,991
9) Jordan Rich - $25,404