A report by 
David Sasseman & Claire ‚Anne‘ McDonald
Dan Clemente Hernado (Photo by impdi.com)
Biloxi, Mississippi (January 5, 2009) – Event #2 (of 15 Events) had a buy in of USD 500 + USD 50 and 566 entries. After two days and almost 23 hours Dan Clemente of Hernando, Mississippi won USD 65,468. Living in the Tunica Mississippi area, Dan has cashed in some of the other MGM World Poker Open (WPO) events at the Gold Strike Tunica and is a successful internet tournament player. He is so successful that, as he plays, he is annoyed at some of the crazy players whom keep chatting that he is a cheat. I guess they think just because I won two of Cake Poker’s big Sunday tournaments on the same day (the USD 100,000 and USD 50,000 guarantied events) I cheat. Well, Dan, that is an unbelievable feat to be proud about!
As the crowd continued to gathered around this event’s final table we could see Dan get more and more confident. He said, he was scared of Dave Terry (who finished 4th) and Brian Anderson (who finished 3rd) but then, after beating Dave in a couple of hands, and watching Brian’s stack dwindled, his confidence grew until he took home the money, the diamond studded solid white gold bracelet, and a seat to the USD 10,000 WPT Event (which will be played January 14-17 and will be televised on Fox Sports Net).
On the final hand Dan had a pocket pair of fives (55) and Justin Wilkerson (who finished 2nd) had A4. The flop came 433. Giving both players two pair! Dan bet a little, Justin came over the top and Dan pushed all-in hoping Justin did not have a 3 or an overpair. Justin called. Two blanks came on the turn and river giving Dan the win.
The turn out to these first three events has been great. Event #1 had over 1000 players- wow. Event #3 is a USD 1,000 buy in with 409 entries and a total prize pool of USD 204,500. The 2009 Southern Poker Championship continues through January 17th.
Over the next several days, tournament will include seven-card stud, pot-limit Omaha, limit hold’em, and Omaha high-low.
Photo of the champion by Digital Masters (http://www.impdi.com).
Final Results Event #2
Event #2
January 4-5
Buy In USD 500
No-Limit Hold’em
Number of Entries 566
Net Prize Pool USD 264,510
First Place Prize USD 65,468
Places Paid 63
1st Dan Clemente Hernado, MS USD 64,468
2nd Justin Wilkerson Albany, GA USD 33,386
3rd Brian Anderson Gainsville, FL USD 19,838
4th Dave Terry Alpharetta, GA USD 17,458
5th Eskimo Clark New Orleans, LA USD 14,813
6th Chuck Norris Fayetteville, NC USD 12,167
7th Brian Lendecky Austin, TX USD 9,522
8th Jacob Tyler Birmingham, AL USD 6,877
9th David E. Robbins Jr. Fortsom, GA USD 4,232