This year’s World Series saw three Chicagoland players win bracelets and a guy from the Indianapolis suburbs who just missed making the November Nine.
Christopher Greaves’ first WSOP cash is one he’ll always remember, winning $565K for finishing 12th in the main event. Greaves, from Zionsville, Ind., plays poker locally, attended Purdue University, works as a software developer and has played in every main event since 2012.
Chicago native Matthew Haugen with 2.8 million chips, led the way on Day 5 of the main event, but finished 28th for $230K. Haugen made a WPT final table at the Borgata last year.
Brandon Shack-Harris picked up a bracelet in a $1K PLO event, the largest WSOP non-hold’em event in history, with 1,138 entries. Steve Billirakis, who won the inaugural WSOPC main event at Hammond in 2008, finished fourth.
Shack-Harris, a 33-year-old pro who honed his skills online, also had a pair of nice runner-up finishes in razz and the Poker Players Championship. He returned to Chicago with six WSOP cashes for almost $1.5 million.
Nick Kost won $283K in the $1,500 Omaha/8 event. The 28-year-old engineer and pipeline worker had defending champ Calen McNeil and Greg Raymer at his final table.
Matt Grapenthien defeated Todd Brunson after a back-and-forth heads-up battle for the $10K stud championship. Hall of Famers Phil Hellmuth and Henry Orenstein made the final table, with Doyle Brunson on the rail watching his son. Barry Greenstein just missed making the final table.
Grapenthien, known as Grapes, won his first bracelet and $258K. He started playing professionally in his early 20s and has 11 WSOP cashes. The Chicago native, known as an Internet grinder, spends most of his time in Canada.
WSOPC: Horseshoe Southern Indiana is Oct. 2-13 and Horseshoe Hammond is Oct. 17-28.
AMERISTAR: The property opened its remodeled 12-table room on the third floor with an experienced staff. For player convenience, the room has a self-service beverage station,Wi-Fi and USB charging ports at every table. Bravo Poker Live will have all of the latest game information.
There’s a bad-beat jackpot and many great promotions while weekly tournaments start in September.
This East Chicago boat is where the state’s first poker room opened, than called the Showboat in 1996. It was Indiana’s busiest room until 2008.
WCPC: The next Windy City Poker Championship charity event will be Aug. 23 at Orland (Park, Ill.) Bowl, featuring a 30K chip $70 deepstack tournament at noon, followed by the $70 Windy City Poker League event at 6. WCPC is adding to the league prize pool for the winner a $1,070 main-event seat for the Hollywood Poker Challenge at Hollywood Casino in Toledo. Email kirk@windycitypokerchampionshi p.com.
— Email “Chicago” Joe at chicago.joe@comcast.net.
