Poker Tournament Results

Harrah’s Atlantic City Poker Tournament - WSOP Circuit Event

Joe Garcia

Tournament Report

Joe Garcia, Corrections Officer, Locks Up First Place in Ceasars Atlantic City Inaugural Mammoth-Sized Tournament Attracts Second-Largest Field in World Series of Poker Circuit History New York State prison guard tops field of 1,106 players and wins first major poker tournament Atlantic City, NJ (March 6, 2007) - Winning a poker tournament is never easy. The task is even more challenging when there are over a thousand competitors, all with the same desire to win. Then, there are the emotional challenges - such as losing big pots, taking bad beats, and otherwise trying to remain focused no matter which cards are dealt out and what flops come. Joe Garcia, from Highland, NY overcame all of this and more when he reigned triumphant in his first major tournament victory. The 36-year-old corrections officer locked up a top cash prize of $86,268 in the inaugural poker tournament of this year's World Series of Poker Circuit series at Caesars Atlantic City. A whopping 1,106 players entered the $300 buy-in no-limit hold'em tournament - officially listed as Event #1. The thousand-plus field ranked as the second-largest tournament in the three-year history of the WSOP Circuit. Only the recent Circuit event held at the Grand Tunica Casino-Resort in Mississippi in January 2007 attracted more entries (with 1,345). The tournament was played over two grueling days. After 1,077 players had been eliminated during 15 hours of play on Day One, the 29 survivors returned for Day Two. Then, twenty more fell by the wayside, leaving the nine finalists sitting at the final table. Pete Mavro started with the chip lead. Joe Garcia ranked third. Seating positions and chip counts began as follows: Seat 1: George Bronstein 282,000 Seat 2: Chris Steedle 182,000 Seat 3: Pete Mavro 939,000 Seat 4: Justin Wong 324,000 Seat 5: Joe Garcia 627,000 Seat 6: Clark Embrey 155,000 Seat 7: Craig Wallace 851,000 Seat 8: Aaron Belardo 490,000 Seat 9: Johnny "All-In" Blinn 582,000 Blinds started off at 15,000-30,000 with a 3,000 ante. Clark Embrey was the shortest-stack. He doubled up on the second hand of play - a sign of things to come during the duration of the six-hour finale. That left Chris Steedle in lowest chip position. On his final hand, Mr. Steedle looked down and saw an ace. He quickly moved all-in. Unfortunately, Mr. Steedle might as well have been sprawled across the railroad tracks awaiting an oncoming freight train. Three players to his left, Joey Garcia was dealt pocket aces, which held up and decapitated Mr. Steedle's A-8. The 22-year-old New Jersey local collected $6,636 for ninth place. Joe Garcia seized the chip lead a short time later, at the expense of Pete Mavro. On a non-showdown hand, Mr. Garcia took down a 700,000 pot. Down to just 320,000, Mr. Mavro then doubled up against Craig Wallace. Two hours into play, Joe Garcia held a substantial chip lead with nearly 1,500,000 in his stack. Justin Wong was not so fortunate. Getting low on chips, Mr. Wong tried to make a move with K-9, which was called and covered by Craig Wallace -- holding A-K. An ace flopped, putting Mr. Wong out of the tournament. The pro poker player and former musician, who has finished high in previous Atlantic City poker tournaments, was serenaded to the tune of $9,954 for eighth place. Down to seven players, George Bronstein saw his hopes of victory vanish when he went out in a three-way pot. Mr. Bronstein failed to win a hand of any significance at the final table -- not what one might have expected from the most experienced tournament player of the final nine. Mr. Bronstein, who won a WSOP Circuit event at the Grand Tunica earlier this year and took fourth place in the annual WSOP event in Las Vegas in a pot-limit event in 2006, went bust on an unseen hand. The popular Floridian who plays regularly in Atlantic City collected $13,272 for seventh place. Meanwhile, Clark Embrey (who had started off the day in ninth place), pulled another rabbit out of his hat when he was all-in with the worst hand and flopped a straight with A-5 versus Johnny Blinn's A-10. That magic act gave the chip dog some extra bite which would prove useful as more players continued to bite the dust. In fact, losing that critical hand foreshadowed the doom and gloom that was to befall Johnny Blinn. A few hands later, true to his name, Johnny "All In" Blinn ran out of chips with pocket fours, which lost to Craig Wallace's pocket eights. "All In" Blinn, a swimming pool mechanic (yes, there is such a thing) from New York backstroked away from the table in sixth place, good for $16,590 in prize money. Mr. Wallace's roll continued when he busted out another player. In fact, Wallace would play the role of grim reaper to the next four victims of elimination. He was dealt K-K against Aaron Belardo's J-J. The higher pair held up which meant a fifth place finish for the poker pro from Rocky Point, NY. Mr. Belardo, who has already made it to four final tables at major tournaments since the start of the year, added $19,908 to his blossoming poker bankroll - just in time for the spring season. There was no stopping Craig Wallace. He had become an immovable force. The previous hand had given Mr. Wallace the chip lead for the first time. He added to his stack again when he flopped top pair and knocked out the early chip leader, Pete Mavro. New Yorker Mavro was severely short-stacked and moved all-in on a semi-bluff - his 6-5 connecting with a flop of J-7-4. He had eight outs drawing to the straight, but missed, and Mr. Wallace's pair of jacks dragged what remained of Mr. Mavro's chips. Pete Mavro, primarily a cash-game player who lives in Queens, NY, stated afterward that he played in this tournament because he had a miserable week in the side games. That proved to be a wise decision, as he pocketed $23,226 for fourth place. Three players remained and the money ladder jumps were severe. With nearly $20,000 at stake (the difference between second and third place money), play tightened up for a period. Clark Embrey, who might have been a favorite on the television show "Survivor" based on his highs and lows at this final table, doubled through two more times - both at the expense of Craig Wallace. Although Mr. Wallace had about 2,700,000 in chips, Mr. Embry was still in contention with about 700,000. Meanwhile, Joe Garcia had slightly over 1,000,000. Blinds were at 40,000-80,000 with a 5,000 ante. However, all good things eventually come to an end in the poker world and when that happens, the ordeal means an open seat at the table and a long unwelcome walk to the cashier. Clark Embrey found this out the hard way as blinds and antes rapidly ate away at his dwindling stack. On his final hand, he moved all-in with Q-10 and was a slight dog to Craig Wallace's 2-2. Mr. Embrey failed to improve. He was out. It was a remarkable tournament and phenomenal day for Mr. Embrey, a 38-year-old firefighter from Washington, DC. His flame was finally extinguished, but the end result was a payoff of $26,544. He had started at the final table ninth in chips, and rocketed all the way up to a third-place finish. When heads-up play began, Craig Wallace enjoyed a 3 to 1 chip lead over Joe Garcia. Then, things got really interesting. About 20 hands into play, Mr. Garcia doubled through with pocket kings against Mr. Wallace who called the all-in raise holding second pair. That put the two finalists into a virtual dead heat. Then, Mr. Wallace sadly found out what it was like to be on the other end of a bust out. The final hand of the tournament was dealt when Mr. Wallace had J-4 and flopped top pair. The flop showed J-8-3. Mr. Garcia had 8-5, good for second pair. He called a large bet made by Mr. Wallace. The most important card of the tournament was dealt out at precisely 10 pm on a cold winter night on the Atlantic City shore when an innocent-looking five was peeled from the deck. Unbeknownst to Mr. Wallace, that gave his adversary two pair. Mr. Garcia moved all-in, Mr. Wallace called, and he was left drawing to eight outs. The river card did not help Mr. Wallace, and the tournament was over. The runner up was Craig Wallace, a dispatcher from Newark, NJ. The 36-year-old family man was proud of his accomplishment and could return to his wife and two children in northern New Jersey with the knowledge he had played outstanding poker for two days. Second place paid $45,788. The winner was Joe Garcia. He was cheered on by his wife, Danielle. She was part of a huge crowd packed inside the Palladium Ballroom at Ceasars who came to watch the final table. Mr. Garcia works as a prison guard at the Shawangunk Federal Correctional Facility in Wallkill, NY. Mr. Garcia's everyday workplace is a maximum security prison, which certainly makes the challenges of playing in a poker tournament seem trivial by comparison. But there was nothing trivial about the $86,268 in cash he was paid for first place or the gold ring he received which commemorated his first major victory. Showing a much softer side than what one might expect either at the prison or inside a poker room, Mr. Garcia was ecstatic in the aftermath of tournament triumph. "I played this for my two girls," he said. "I played this for my wife Danielle, and Alexis and Madison. They made me play my best."