The 2005 version of the World Series of Poker Circuit Tournament kicked off today at Harrah's Las Vegas in the center of the Strip. Event #1 was an added LIPS No-limit Hold'em tournament limited to ladies only. The buy-in was $200 + $30 for this event which attracted 126 players ponying up enough to fill a prize pool with $22,944. The final table quickly eliminated most of the players until Dorothy Canada and Kim Austin were heads up for the title, money and trophy. Dorothy had made a miraculous comeback after going all in with a stack so short she couldn't pay two revs of blinds, and very early on when the table was six handed.

The event paid nine places with the winner receiving $8,260. Dorothy continued her comeback right into the heads up play with Kim, then patiently played a blinds trading game. She went all in and hit giving her the chip lead for the first time. Soon after returning from a short break the now short stacked Kim went all in with her pocket 7's and Dorothy called with her Kh,Qs. The flop came 8,4,10 all spades, then the turn brought the King of spades giving Dorothy the nut flush and the win. The river was a meaningless Ten. Dorothy raised her arms in triumph. Kim Austin of Beaufort, South Carolina received $4,589 for her second place finish. Tricia Tequide from Sacramento, California completed the top three and goes away with $2,524. Complete results for this tournamnet can be found at Poker Player Newspaper.

Tomorrow's event #2 will be a $500 + $50 No-limit Hold'em tournament that should attract a good crowd. I am curious about the number of entrants in the events since this tournament received very little in the way of promotion and advertising. The only real crowd I saw today in the tournament area was a long line of people waiting to register in a promotional slot tournament. The registration for the tournament appeared to be very slow with few players pre-registering. I'm sure that the registration people will be doing a brisk business in the morning before the event begins. I didn't see any professional players today, but that's not really a surprise. The low $500 buy-in makes the tournament easy to by-pass. The professional players will drift into Harrah's as the buy-ins for the events increase.