*U.S.** Army Veteran Earns His Stripes*
Jeremiah DeGreef Wins $69,890 and Gold Ring at Caesars Palace Las Vegas
Las Vegas, NV (April 26, 2009) - *The last tournament before the start of
the 2009 World Series of Poker Circuit Championship Main Event concluded
today at Caesars Palace Las Vegas. The winner was Jeremiah DeGreef, from
Salt Lake City, UT. He earned his first WSOP Circuit gold ring ever plus a
whopping cash prize of $69,890, one of the biggest payouts so far at this
year's tournament series.
DeGreef is a 27-year-old disabled veteran. He served three years
in the U.S. Army. DeGreef, who has a prodigal talent for learning new
languages, served as an Arabic translator. Despite his disability and
departure from the armed forced in 2007, DeGreef discovered a passion for
poker, which has begun paying big rewards. Indeed, poker talent seems to
run in the DeGreef family. Earlier this week, Jeremiah's brother Anthony
finished second in a Caesars Circuit event. Not content with just making it
to the final table, Jeremiah DeGreef outlasted a formable lineup which
included four-time gold ring, and five-time gold bracelet winner Men ‘the
Master' Nguyen. He also beat the star of the Caesars' series thus far,
James Lopushinsky, who has won two events within the past two weeks. DeGreef
also vanquished another tough competitor, Vinny Pahuja, who has been one of
the most highly-ranked tournament players in the last 18 months. **
The $2,000 buy-in two-day tournament attracted 134 entries, which generated
$259,960 in prize money. The top 18 finishers collected payouts. All the
action took place inside Caesars Palace Las Vegas poker tournament room.
After Mike Beasley from Hollywood, FL busted out in tenth place, the top
nine finishers were as follows:
*9th Place - *A few minutes into the final table, Brian Taylor lost a race
and was eliminated. His A-Q lost to pocket tens, which led to a ninth-place
finish. Taylor, from Macon, GA pocketed $7,149.
*8th Place - *Wayne Boich went out next. The 70-year-old retiree from Las
Vegas was low on chips and ended up with $8,449 for two-days of poker
playing.
*7th Place - *The next big hand knocked out two players. Vinny Pahuja had
A-K and had both of his opponents covered - including Bernie Lubitz's A-J
and Soheil Shamseddin's A-9 the flop came A-9 temporarily putting
Shamseddin in the lead. But a king on the turn gave Pahuja top two pair and
ended the tournament for Shamseddin and Lubitz. Bernie Lubitz, an IT
director from Florida received $10,398 for seventh place.
*6th Place - *Soheil Shamseddin is often one of the animated players at any
final table. He was the early chip leader but ended up going out in sixth
place. Shamseddin, who has made numerous WSOP and WPT final tables in the
past, collected $12,998 for sixth place.
*5th Place -* Jon 'Sketchy1' Eaton went out next. It was a disappointing
finish for the Henderson, NV poker pro, who had arrived at the final table
ranked second in chips. Eaton received $12,998.
*4th Place** -* James Lopushinsky came close to becoming the first player to
ever win three gold rings at any Circuit event. The Canadian poker player
who won events #2 and #7 cashed for the fourth time, and ended up taking
fourth place. Lopushinsky collected $20,797. With his four cashes, he
earned more than $80,000 the past two weeks.
*3rd Place** -* Men 'the Master' Nguyen was making his third WSOP Circuit
final table at Caesars. The all-time gold ring winner (with four career
victories) came up just short of number five when he lost a late race with
pocket queens against Jeremiah DeGreef's A-K. Nguyen's payout amounted to
$26,646 for third place.
*2nd Place** -* When heads-up play began, Jeremiah DeGreef enjoyed about a 4
to 1 chip lead over Vinny Pahuja. The matchup promised to be an interesting
face off given the impressive backgrounds of both players. Pahuja won
$700,000 last year playing in major tournaments. He made ten final tables
at major events. By contrast, DeGreef enjoyed virtually all of his
tournament success online.
This was his first time to appear at the final
table in a live event as the chip leader. Pahuja ended up finishing as the
runner up. The investor and poker player from New York City collected
$41,594.
*1st Place** - *This victory marked Jeremiah DeGreef's first recorded
tournament win ever in a live event. Previously, DeGreef has enjoyed much
success playing online. In fact, he has made it to more than 100 final
tables in various online tournaments in the past two years and has close to
$1 million in earnings. The poker world has likely not seen the last of
Jeremiah DeGreef.
With 21 of 22 events now completed at Caesars Palace Las Vegas, the
tournament has attracted more than 3,000 total entries and has awarded over
$3 million in total prize money. The WSOP Circuit continues this week and
concludes on April 30th.
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