So with all of these changes in place, the administrators for the World Series of Poker Circuit play were hoping for a much bigger turnout than what has happened in previous years. Unfortunately, they didn’t get it as only 84 players showed up to the Elizabeth, Indiana area – almost 100 less than they were expecting! And with the small field came a small prize pool of only $397,400.

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But despite the circumstances, the kick-off event of the WSOP Circuit still raged on with everybody who paid the $5,000 buy-in hoping to coral the $137,914 first place prize. There weren’t a whole lot of big names in Indiana this time but defending champion Carlos Uz and the champ from the spring Indiana event, Wilbur Futhey, both made the trip back. But neither was successful at defending their championship status and both hit the rail on the first day.

David Kopacz took the chip lead on day 1 with just over 100,000 while his wife, Stacey Kopacz, was in third place. The two are an interesting story since David was addicted to slot machines before his wife signed both of them up for Phil Hellmuth’s poker boot camp. It was here where Kopacz was able to kick his slot machine habit and both Kopacz’s learned how to play poker.

The second day of the Horseshoe Southern Indiana event saw 27 players return to play for the final nine spots at the last table. The day went rather quickly since it only took about five hours to whittle the field down to the final table. Samuel Oberlin would knock Stacey Kopacz out of the tournament and eventually assume the chip lead with 229,000 while Jamin Stokes sat in second with 189,500 at the day’s end. David Kopacz looked to avenge his wife as he sat in fourth with 151,000 chips. Here’s how the rest of the final table looked going in:

1: Samuel Oberlin — 229,500
2: Jamin Stokes — 189,500
3: Len Ashby — 177,000
4: David Kopacz — 151,000
5:Jerry Martin — 139,500
6: Joey Couden — 128,000
7: Derek Whelan — 117,500
8: Dean Schultz — 114,000
9: Ray Lynn — 17,500

Ray Lynn was in trouble right from the beginning but did manage to hang on for a little while before being bounced out. Dean Schultz got short-stacked pretty quick and one of his all-in calls was met by Jerry Martin who knocked Shultz out in 8th place. Derek Whelan was also betting very aggressively and this got him into trouble when Oberlin called one of his big raises. Oberlin’s flopped a set and crippled Whelan’s stack forcing him to go out just a few hands later.

Jamin Stokes came into the final table in second place and was looking like the man early on with his growing chip stack. However, Kopacz struck Stokes in two separate hands sending Jamin out in 6th place. Joey Couden’s up and down day would end next when Len Ashby flopped a set of fives against Couden’s pocket aces.

Now down to four-handed play, David Kopacz made a bad decision in calling Jerry Marin’s all-in move with K-6. Martin was able to hit a flush with his suited As-Ks combo and Kopacz was down to barely anything chips-wise. He would catch a little break though when Ashby went all-in against Martin with a drawing hand that never materialized. Ashby went out in fourth and Kopacz followed just a few hands later in third.

Thus began the heads-up battle between Jerry Martin and Samuel Oberlin where Martin led Oberlin 1,000,000 chips to just 230,000. It wasn’t long before Oberlin was chipping away at this lead though and evened up the score with pocket queens against Oberlin’s K-J combo that netted nothing. Oberlin continued the momentum until the final hand where he once again held pocket queens to Martin’s pocket jacks. Both players went all-in and the board provided nothing meaning Oberlin was victorious and $139,400 richer. Here’s how all of the players at the final table finished up:

1: Samuel Oberlin — $143,064
2: Jerry Martin — $79,480
3: David Kopacz — $43,714
4: Len Ashby — $31,792
5: Joey Couden — $27,818
6: Jamin Stokes — $23,844
7: Derek Whelan — $19,870
8: Dean Schultz — $15,896
9: Ray Lynn — $11,922