Kai Landry WSOP Tunica Circuit Champion

The $5,000 no limit hold’em championship event of the World Series of Poker Circuit stop held at Harrah’s Tunica brought in a 154 player field which created a prize pool worth $735,900.  After two days of play the field was narrowed down to nine finalists and the chip leader amongst them was Matt Stout, one of the few notable professionals left in the field.  Stout’s closest competitor didn’t hold even half as much chips.  Below are the chip counts when the final table got under way:

Matt Stout: 1,000,500
Jeremy Byrum: 404,500
Kai Landry: 375,000
Leonard Eidson: 375,000
Mike Leah: 335,000
Glenn Hyde: 155,000
Brian McCoy: 150,200
David Dao: 150,000
Frank Wyville: 138,500

The first to make their way to the door was Frank Wyville who was short stacked from the beginning and was eliminated in ninth place ($22,077).  Next up to be eliminated was Brian McCoy in eighth place ($29,436).  Glenn Hyde fell victim to Mike Leah and was sent home in seventh place ($36,795).  All three eliminations came within the first hour of play but action slowed up after that and it was nearly two hours until another player was ousted.  Mike Leah was that unfortunate player who went out in sixth place ($44,154).  Leonard Eidson took Jeremy Byrum down in fifth place ($51,513).

Kai Landry made his move and was on the receiving end of multiple double ups including eliminating Leonard Eidson in fourth place ($61,816) and taking the chip lead with 1.45 million.  After suffering a few setbacks, Landry then eliminated Matt Stout in third place ($73,590) and moving to heads up play against David Dao. Their chip stacks were nearly even as play began.  The final hand came within 30 minutes of heads up play beginning.  The board came Kd-10d-4s-Ad with Landry placing a bet of 50,000.  Dao then raised to 150,000, prompting Landry to reraise all in.  Dao made the call and showed Jd-7c giving him a royal flush draw.  Landry held the lead though when he flipped up his Qh-Js though Dao had outs left.  The river came a 6c, eliminating Dao in second place ($117,744).  Landry was the champion and took home $183,974 for his efforts along with a WSOP Circuit championship ring and a seat in the 2009 World Series of Poker main event.  The next stop on the WSOP Circuit is at the Horseshoe in Council Bluffs, Iowa on February 12-25.