Main event looms as WSOPC finds four more winners

The gods at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas were kind to at least a handful of poker players at the casino this past weekend as four more winners were declared in the World Series of Poker Circuit stop.

On Friday, Event 7 finished up with the last of its 418 runners fighting for a $60,815 top prize. Events 8, 9 and 10 played out over Saturday and Sunday, turning what are normally days off for people into time spent working hard to earn a piece of hundreds of thousands of dollars in prize-pool cash.

Event 7 - $550 No-Limit Hold'em

Gholam "Shawn" Fakhimi was the first to get his hands on a win going into the weekend's action. He took down Event 7 after outlasting more than 400 other players to earn the $60,815 top prize.

The Iranian-born player first came to the United States as a college student, attending the University of Arkansas. He now owns and operates a successful luxury car dealership in Arkansas, but his love for poker has started taking him around the country to attend various poker events.

Despite the large playing field, Fakhimi seemed to pull off his first major win with ease. When final-table play began on Friday, it only took two hours for Fakhimi to finish off the other eight players.

Heads-up came down to Fakhimi and Tim Vance, and it only lasted nine hands. On the final hand, Fakhimi moved in with A-9, and Vance called with A-J.

The board came K-9-3-8-5 to give Fakhimi a pair and Vance nothing. Vance had also done well at the WSOPC Caesars Indiana events, and earns himself another $32,640 for his second-place finish.

The final-table results were:

Event 8 - $1,060 No-Limit Hold'em

Event 8 saw its prize pool top $270,000 as 280 players anted up to play. The largest chunk of that went to aspiring poker pro David Peters.

The 21-year-old defeated a final table that looked like a meeting of North American poker minds, with players from the United States, Canada and Mexico all present. Making the field even tougher was the presence of pro "Miami" John Cernuto.

Peters seemed destined to win, however, as he came into the final table with the chip lead and managed to hang onto it for most of play.

It came down to the Ohio native versus Mexico's Francisco Navarro to determine the winner of the event. When heads-up play began, Peters had a 2-1 chip advantage over Navarro, and Peters played aggressively to add to that almost immediately.

Navarro needed to step up his own aggression to stem the tide, but chose the wrong time to do it. On hand 80 of the final table, he raised the blind while holding K-3 suited. Peters went all-in over the top of Navarro, and Navarro made the call.

Peters turned over pocket aces, and a flop of 8-8-8 gave him an instant full house. The only thing that could save Navarro were running kings.

Instead the river brought a fourth eight, giving both players quad eights, but Peters had the kicker ace for the win.

The final-table results were:

Event 9 - $2,080 No-Limit Hold'em

Over the weekend Ted Lawson became one of only eight players who have won both a WSOP bracelet and a WSOP Circuit ring.

With more than $1.8 million in tournament winnings, Lawson earned his WSOP bracelet in 2004 during a Pot-Limit Hold'em event and has cashes in several major events, including ones on the European Poker Tour and the World Poker Tour.

On Sunday, Lawson added a WSOPC win to that resume, taking down a field of 191 players for a $120,054 payday.

Lawson started out third-lowest in the chip counts when the final table began play on Sunday, but he began to turn things around when he took out the chip leader in fifth place on his journey to a win. In the end it came down to him versus Jack Schanbacher, who'd also started out low in the stacks at the final table.

Only one of them could make the miraculous comeback for the win, though, and this was Lawson's turn. The final hand came on hand 191 when Lawson was dealt pocket eights and Schanbacher had K-7.

The flop came K-8-8, and both players were all-in. Schanbacher may have liked flopping two pair, but it wasn't enough to beat the quad eights from Lawson.

The final-table results were:

Event 10 - $550 Pot-Limit Omaha

Kim Fredericksen switched to Pot-Limit Omaha after Hold'em seemed to just become too hard, and it paid off for him on Friday as he pulled down a win in the event during the WSOPC at Caesars Palace.

Fredericksen, the Danish-born CEO of an online advertising company, topped a field of 126 players to win $19,798.

To earn his win, Fredericksen conquered a final table that included Aaron Duczak, Andrea Le Bail Curis Walker, Shawn Silber, Joshua Crawford, Ross Ruby, Quentin Krueger and Eskimo Clark.

In the end it came down to Ruby versus Frederiksen, and Ruby had a 2-1 chip lead. The two battled back and forth, and about a dozen hands in, the momentum swung in Frederiksen's favor. After a monster hand, he found himself with a 5-1 chip lead and then on hand 115, the final hand was dealt.

Down to about $180,000, Ruby was holding Q-Q-7-7 and went all-in after a flop of J-7-2. Holding A-J-4-3, Fredriksen made the call and watched as two running cards, a four and five, came off the deck to complete his straight.

The final-table results were:

Stay tuned to the PokerListings Live Tournament section as play begins on Tuesday in the WSOPC Caesars Palace main event. There are sure to be plenty of live updates, photos, interviews and more that you're not going to want to miss.