Tahoe turns to poker for WSOPC events

It's once again time to shuffle up and deal at Harvey's Lake Tahoe for the World Series of Poker Circuit. After several days of poker preliminary events, the $5,000 main event begins today.

Last year the WSOPC Harvey's Lake Tahoe main event drew 142 players to create a $677,700 prize pool. There were more than a few familiar faces in the playing field - Scott Clements, Tom Schneider, Jonathan Little, Kirk Morrison, Ciaran O'Leary, Bill Edler, J.C. Tran, Michael Binger, Aaron Kanter, Kathy Liebert and more took to the felt.

Little is coming off a World Poker Tour win in Foxwoods this week, so it remains to be seen if he'll make another try at the WSOPC Lake Tahoe event.

Most people, however, will be on the lookout to see if Chris "Jesus" Ferguson makes a return trip to Lake Tahoe to defend his main event champion title.

The Harvey's Lake Tahoe win gave Ferguson $203,751 and his third WSOPC title.

When asked if he thought he'd ever find a way to win three WSOPC events, Ferguson said in an interview, "It's unbelievable. I mean I never would have believed it. These things are tough to win."

The following preliminary event winners from this year's WSOPC events in Lake Tahoe probably feel similarly:

• Event 1: Freddy Podesta, $36,290
• Event 2: Shoaib Makani, $39,677
• Event 3: Jonathan Schwartz, $21,277
• Event 4: Michelle Murillo, $8,453
• Event 5: David Costain, $15,448
• Event 6: Alec Martin, $9,966
• Event 7: Aaron Kanter, $15,594
• Event 8: Tim Vance, $9,348

If you'd like to read about Ferguson's win last season, check it out in the 2007 WSOPC Live Tournament coverage. For those who would like to see the action unfold in this year's main event, visit the 2008 Live Tournament coverage.