United States Poker Championship Underway

The U.S. Poker Championship began on Tuesday at the Trump Taj Mahal in Atlantic City. Last year, Alex Jacob defeated a field of 261 players to take home the first-place prize of $878,500. The event will not have as many players this year and will not be televised by ESPN as in past years. The United States Poker Championship has been held since 1996 and has some big name pros as title holders including Men Nguyen, Daniel Negreanu and Toto Leonidas.

Defending champion Alex Jacob is part of the 164 players that put up the $10,000 entry fee.  The United States Poker Championship will have a total prize pool of just over $1.5 million with first place paying just over $606,000. The top 18 finishers will make the money. Other pros in the tournament include Gavin Smith, Cyndy Violette, Bill Edler, Victor Ramdin and Bill Gazes.

The tournament this year is suffering because it is not being televised by ESPN and because a major tournament in Aruba is going on.  The Aruba tournament is a $5,500 championship event that used to be part of the World Poker Tour but that is not the case this year.

In other poker news, Poker After Dark has a few new players at the table this week as David Williams, Annie Duke and Clowie Gowen join Phil Laak, John Juanda and Andy Bloch.  Poker After Dark has a different format as it is invitation only and the play is not like the cash game on High Stakes Poker.

Luck plays a much bigger part in who comes away with the titles as Howard Lederer has actually won two titles.  Gowen, Laak and Juanda will look to win their second titles.  Poker After Dark is shown on NBC every morning with a special Director’s Cut airing on Sunday morning that recaps the week.