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The World Poker Tour has expanded in recent years to include stops like the Hollywood Casino in Indiana, but it has not garnered the kind of broad Midwest crowd they hoped, especially for its 2011 return. There were 144 players in 2010 but only 97 this year, and the prize pool only peaked at $911,800 with which to pay the top 12 finishers. It was the smallest number of players in a WPT Main Event since Season 1.

Nevertheless, the show went on, and Day 1 saw the field diminish to 57 players. Day 2 reduced that number even further, as players like Jonathan Little, Mike Sexton, Kyle Knecht, and Luke Staudenmaier exited. Action was stopped when only 27 players remained, and it was Andy Whetstone as the chip leader with 334,400 chips, followed by Shannon Shorr with 250,900.

Day 3 played all the way down to the final nine players, and it was toward the end of the night that the money bubble burst, courtesy of Ben Tollerene out in 13th place. In the money, Chris Bell went out in 12th, Amanda Musumeci left in 11th, and Steven Kelly bubbled the last table of the tournament in 10th place. That left only 9 players, with Steve Barshak in the lead with 601K but players like Erik Seidel, Allen Kessler, Ali Eslami, and Tom Marchese still in action.

Day 4 saw Terry Jacobs out in ninth, Kessler out in eighth, and Steve Barshak in seventh. That left six for the televised final table, with William Reynolds as the far-and-away chip leader with 1,169,000 chips, and qualifier Andy Whetstone as the short stack with 80,500.

Action resumed on April 13 for the final table, and it only took three hands to find Ali Eslami ousted by Reynolds, and four hands later, Mike Scarborough busted Whetstone. Reynolds took out Marchese in fourth place, and it was well over 100 more hands before Scarborough took out Reynolds. Heads-up began with Scarborough holding almost three times more chips than Seidel, and it only took 12 hands to get to the last one. Scarborough raised, Seidel moved all-in with Ad-9d, Scarborough called with Jh-10h. The board came 10c-9s-7h-8s-10d, and that left Seidel with second place.

Mike Scarborough won his first WPT title and $273,664 in cash.

1st place: Mike Scarborough ($273,664)
2nd place: Erik Seidel ($155,103)
3rd place: William Reynolds ($110,788)
4th place: Tom Marchese ($77,551)
5th place: Andy Whetstone ($62,041)
6th place: Ali Eslami ($50,962)

All information and photos courtesy of the World Poker Tour Live Updates team.