Dan Livingston Wins Chicago`s WSOP Circuit Championship

Main Event Champion (Dan Livingston)

CHICAGO IL - The 2009 World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event champion at the Horseshoe Casino (Chicagoland) is Dan Livingston, from Oak Forest, IL.

Livingston is a 22-year-old part-time poker player who is currently between jobs. He recently left his job working at an auto-detailing shop.

Livingston mostly plays low- to middle-limit buy-in tournaments, usually at the Horseshoe Casino. His typical tournament is a weekly $100 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event. Livingston’s best run took place recently when he played three consecutive $100 buy-in tournaments and finished 3rd, 3rd, and 1st respectively. This victory, worth far more in prestige and prize money, validate that the victories in smaller buy-in tournaments were no fluke.

Livingston won first prize totalling $291,749. He was also presented with his first ever gold ring, the ultimate token of achievement for winning a WSOP Circuit event.

Incredibly, Livingston was on a complete freeroll for this tournament. He gained his entry, which was valued at $5,200, by playing one afternoon inside the Horseshoe Casino Poker Room. As part of a special promotion, the Horseshoe gave away as many as four Main Event seats daily – which is probably one of the very best freeroll opportunities to play in a major tournament anywhere in the world. Each day, on four different occasions for two full weeks prior to the start of this year’s Chicago series, one poker table was randomly selected. Then, one player at the table was high carded and received an entry into the Main Event championship. Livingston was high carded about two weeks ago, and was pleasantly surprised to play in his biggest poker tournament ever. He then managed to defeat a large field of 248 players and win over a quarter of a million dollars. Amazing story.

Livingston has not played in any WSOP events (in Las Vegas). But he plans to attend in 2010.

Winner Quotes (Dan Livingston)

• On his feelings immediately after the victory: “I feel really good. What was it? Forty hours of work for nearly $300,000? I’ll take it.”
• On how he thinks he played in the Main Event: “I think my game worked fine.”
• On his plans for the future: “It’s going to make me consider giving poker a shot. I am going to see if I can play for a living.”
• On how this victory compares to some other tournament successes: “My biggest cash playing online was for $4,000. So, this was a big jump.”
• On when he began thinking about the possibility of victory: “When we got to the final table, I had about 900,000 in chips. Then, I won a few early pots and I was up to 2,000,000. Then I said to myself, ‘wow, I might win this – I have about a fourth of the chips in play. I have a really good chance. And, I did it.”
• On taking a massive chip lead late when play became four-handed: “Everybody else as the table was around a million and I was up to four-million at that point. So, I could pretty much do what I wanted.”
• On his poker goals: “I have always wanted to really win a gold bracelet. But I must say that the gold ring will really do for now. This win was a big confidence booster.”

The Tournament

This was the eleventh tournament of the new WSOP Circuit season, and the 11th of 13 events held at this Circuit series in Chicago. The Main Event attracted 248 entries making it one of the larger championship events on the Circuit.

The buy-in was $5,000 (+200). This is the standard buy-in for all WSOP Circuit championship events. During the first two seasons (2005-2007), the championship buy-in was $10,000. The buy-in was reduced in Season Three in order to allow greater player participation.

Attendance for this event increased by a whopping 54 percent over last year. In the 2008 championship held in Chicago, there were 164 entrants.

With all events at the 2009 WSOP Circuit series at the Horseshoe Casino now complete, combined total attendance increased by 12 percent over last year:

• 2008 – 4,298 total entrants
• 2009 – 4,747 total entrants

With all events at the 2009 WSOP Circuit series at the Horseshoe Casino now complete, total prize money awarded increased by 20 percent over last year:

• 2008 – $2,564,097 in total prize money
• 2009 – $3,080,056 in total prize money

The tournament began at noon on October 23rd and was played over three days. Play lasted 14 hours on Day One – ending up with 84 survivors. The following day, play lasted 12 hours – ending up with 17 survivors. Day Three play lasted 13 hours. The entire duration of the tournament lasted about 40 hours.

Last year’s champion was the former WSOP gold bracelet winner Steve Billirakis. He did not enter this year’s event and failed to defend his title.

Livingston and Billirakis are now the two lone WSOP Circuit winners from Chicago. They were 22 and 23 years old respectively at the time of their victories.