blonde poker forum

The WSOP begins this week and on this thread we'll post the Press releases, results and news and views about the WSOP 2010. I will be in statistical heaven. 

Please add to it, as I know many of you will be playing events and are still qualifying for the amin like Rupinder Bedi last night and Curtis Ledger on Friday

Good luck to you all

the 57 event schedule can be seen here

http://www.wsop.com/tourney/tourneydetails.asp?groupID=764

Please let us know on here if you are going, what events you are playing, how you do/trip reports please for those of us left in the UK. Let us vicariously live the dream!

I'm pretty much done with poker to have a much needed break, but I'm going to do it Girgy style and still play. If anyone knows some good value WSOP Main event sats please could they post them in this thread?

Not keen on paying $600 a time to enter them but anything $200 and below would be maaaaaaaarvellous. Thx

Only ones $200 and below I can think of are the double shootouts on Tilt.

Try full tilt super turbo steps starting at step 3 for $26

are there no mtt $100f's where you get like 1k players and 10 seats / similar?

I got my seat the cheap-ass way, initially via the Fult Tilt Steps, then into a double shootout.  Started at level 1 ($3.30 buy-in), got this upto a Step 5 ticket.  I used this to buy into a $216 double shootout, which I won on the first go.

Not quite as cheap as it sounds, as I'd played a few of the $8.70 and $26 super sats to the double shootout, but total outlay still less than $200.

You could always start at a higher level Step to save some effort.  Personally I think the 18man Steps in particular are good value at level 2 and 3 as they give tickets to the top 5 players (and 6-8 get a ticket to retry the same level) so the odds are pretty good on these.  Most of the others are top 1-2 places only.  Once you're at level 4 then the 6 and 9 man ones are the only ones which seem to run fairly regularly.

Bit of a grind for some perhaps, but it proves that it's possible to qualify, even if you don't want to chuck huge amounts of money at it.  I'd planned to spend maybe $750 total giving it a go this year so super-sats and steps were the best way for me to spin this out as much as possible.

Thanks mate.

I'm gonna have a bash.

Good luck in the event!

full tilt are gonna have a tourney guarenteeing 150 seats i think its either 500 or 600$ to enter tho

Arrive 9th
10th   12:00   $350   Venetian
11th   12:00   $560   Venetian
12th   12:00   $1000   Event #24   (2 day 1s)
13th
14th   12:00   $350   Venetian   
15th   12:00   $350   Venetian
16th   12:00   $1500   Event #30   
17th
18th   12:00   $560   Venetian
19th   12:00   $1000   Event #36   (2 day 1s)
20th
21st   12:00   $1500   Event #39   Shootout
22nd   12:00   $350   Venetian   
23rd   12:00   $1500   Event #42   
24th   12:00   $560   Venetian   
25th   12:00   $1500   Event #45   
26th   12:00   $1000   Event #47   (2 day 1s)
27th
28th   12:00   $1500   Event #49   
29th   12:00   $560   Venetian   
30th
1st   12:00   $1000   Event #54   (2 day 1s)
2nd   12:00   $560   Venetian   
3rd
4th
Depart 5th

very organized of me! might play the main as well, don't know what sort of exorbitant markup i could get away with charging though

odds on you halving that when u get out there? thats a lot of poker.

Ah yeah is just list of everything that if I feel like playing i'll play.  Will probs miss good deal of them

I fly Saturday - BA from Heathrow.  Looking forward to my 11 days - loose plan is a mad weekend for Memorial Day catching up with a load of old friends only in town for the weekends.  Looking forwad to this year - recent win in 100k on Laddies (blatant brag) means despite my shocking play and variance of a man with a job - I am playing pressure free this year.  Schedule, not as planned as Rupert - however loosly

WSOP = Event #5 31/5 , and #8, 2/6 or #11, 5/6

Venetian = remianing days of no action

Caesars = when i donk out at Venetian pre 4pm

If anyone is flying solo and wants a beer drop me a message here or facebook Shaun Conning .....my predictions for my trip.  Staying at Aria and looking forward to the poker room and City Center

[  x ]  Will spunk bankroll of $7.5k
[  x ]  Will end up doing sack in Spearmint Rhino / Saphirres at least once and new Mrs find pictures / credit card bill
[   ]  Will sure need ITIN number for trip

Mis-use of check boxes??

This lol - changed

Arrive 4th June for two weeks. No schedule planned but I have a new ipod with oversized headphones so I think that makes me a pro.

Do you like the Venetian cardroom by any chance?

I'm there 14th - 23rd June... playing Event #30, $1500 NLHE (Jun 16) and depending on results possibly event #36, $1000 NLHE (Jun 19/20).

There'll be updates of sorts via what is loosely termed a blog, at http://riorodent.blogspot.com.

we are there 28th june - 12th july, some of the boys are playing ME, sadly i wont be. will just see wot happens when i get there!!

flying out monday morning with cottonbud for 6 weeks and playing ridic amounts of pokers

weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Will be there tomorrow for 8 days sure do have a plan, probs will play one of NLHE WSOP donkaments.

Yeaaaaaah Buddy! Nuttin but a peanut!

So Event 2 gets the series underway properly today

Event 2 - $50,000 The Player's Championship
May 28, 10 - Jun 01, 10
Buy-in: $50,000

Bet365, has opened a betting market on the $50,000 buy-in Players Championship, event 2 at the World Series of Poker, which starts today Friday 28 May.

Unsurprisingly Phil Ivey heads the market at 22/1 to win.

He’s followed by Allen Cunningham and Gus Hansen at 28/1, Patrik Antonius, Tom Dwan, Daniel Negreanu and Peter Eastgate all at 35/1 and Phil Hellmuth and Dario Minieri at 40/1.

Among the outsiders are Phil Laak, Jennifer Harman, John Juanda, and TJ Cloutier at 60/1.

Punters can bet on players making the final six at 1/5 the odds.

Is Moorman/any blondes playing this ?

Would think Moorman is, but not 100%.

Moorman playing mixed games?

oh, thought this was 50k NLHE.

doubtful then, lol.

LOL,thought the same.

This is the equivalent of ScottishDave flipping for Spain & South Korea on the sweepstake thread for the same price!!

Yeah, this is the value, there is no one better than Juanda over all the games. If this event isn't hitting very many runners, could be some serious value here.

Binked upgrade to Club on BA today, good start to trip. Anyone flying today?

Why are poker players degens...or rather just me?  I landed at 7pm yesterday - great flight, club ftw abd felt tired yet relaxed.  After 2 hrs trying get a safe that worked in my room (note to all - beware of dodgy techology at Aria, it was a 'mare and wasn't leaving lappy and bankroll in safe less room) I headed out and met some friends who are here for Memorial Weekend - it is rammed everywhere.

Anyway, few beers - they have a cabanna at Wet Republic today, a $4k touch and lots of very fit, 20 something blondes and an invite for me - and these types of invites will likely dry up as I am now 2 years from 40.  Anyway, what do I do - get a few hours sleep, wake at 6.30am and decide to get a cab to the Rio as I can't sleep, there won't be a queue to reg for day 1b of the $1000 and I can't resist the lure of a 6000 runner crapshoot.  GG WP me, lets hope if I get busyed its very very early. 

lol. How stupid is this guy?

http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/poker-blog/2010/05/1023-2010-wsop-4-seen-and-heard-at-the-series-4-banned-forever.php

The first gold bracelet of the 2010 World Series of Poker was won by Hoai D. Pham.  He is a 43-year-old poker dealer who lives in San Diego, CA.  Pham was born in Vietnam and is one of many WSOP gold bracelet winners from Southeast Asia.  Pham currently works at the Village Club Casino, in Chula Vista, CA. 

“I feel very good, said Pham.  I am very, very happy.”
 
Pham won the 2010 Casino Employees Championship, officially designated as Event #1.  This competition has traditionally been the first event to be played at the WSOP since its inception in 2000.  The top ten finishers included several poker dealers, who reside mostly in the western U.S.  Jonathan Kotula, who was the winner of this event in 2008, posted an impressive showing as the tenth-place finisher.
 
“I can’t wait to tell everybody.  I told my boss I would take vacation to (play in this tournament).  So now, I get to go back to them and show them what I won.”

Pham’s name is pronounced as follows:  “Hah-Why Fam.” Pham first started playing poker in 1995. Pham plays poker mostly online.  His favorite poker games are Seven-Card Stud and Pot-Limit Omaha.  Pham also plays in several tournaments each year, mostly in the Los Angeles area. Pham is the father of one child. This was Pham’s biggest cash, to date.  This was also his first major tournament victory.

Pham previously lived in Europe before arriving to live in the United States.  While in Europe, he previously cashed once at a major tournament held in Vienna, Austria back in 2002.  Pham has lived in the United States since 2003.

Pham collected $71,424 for first place.  He was also awarded his first WSOP gold bracelet. Pham expects to play in more WSOP events this year, primarily focusing on the upcoming $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournaments.

According to official records, Pham now has 1 win, 1 final table appearance, and 1 in-the-money finish at the WSOP. Pham currently has $71,424 in WSOP winnings.
At the poker table, he wore a 1920’s style drivers cap, a vest with a colorful necktie, and a pair of sunglasses. Pham’s favorite poker player is Barry Greenstein.
To claim victory, Pham had to play until 5:00 am local time after a long 15-hour session on Day Two.  "I feel very, very tired right now."

The Final Table:

The final table contained no former WSOP gold bracelet winners.
The final table was comprised of nine players, which included the following occupations:

Poker Dealer -- 4
Casino Games Dealer (Non-Poker) – 1
Floorman/Supervisor -- 2
Administrative/Finance – 1
Bartender – 1

All final table players were from the United States.  However, two of the players were born abroad.  Four different states were represented at the final table – including California, Nevada, Washington, and Georgia.  Players from Washington State took three of the top five spots.

Final table participants ranged in age from 26 (youngest) to 48 (oldest).  Six of the nine players were aged in their 20s.

The runner up was A.J. Vea (a.k.a. Arthur Vea).  He is a 27-year-old poker dealer from Union City, CA.

The third-place finisher was Chris Reider.  He is a table games dealer from Everett, WA.  Reider had previously cashed in several smaller events and won a few local events.  However, this marked his biggest payout ever.  He is a former U.S. Navy veteran who someday hopes to make it as a poker professional.

The fourth-place finisher was Matt Hollinger, from Vancouver, WA.  He works as a casino table games manager.

The fifth-place finisher was Patrick Silvey, from Spokane, WA.  He is a poker dealer at the Northern Quest Casino.

The sixth-place finisher was Kent Washington, from Oakland, CA.  He is a poker dealer at Lucky Chances Casino.  Washington has serious aspirations about playing poker professionally.  He currently has five cashes at the WSOP, including his best finish – a third-place showing at the 2004 WSOP.  Washington has 40 major cashes overall and nearly $400,000 in live tournament winnings, to date.

The seventh-place finisher was D.J. Villegas, from Valinda Heights, CA.  He works as a floorman at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.

The eighth-place finisher was Jeffrey Bennett, from Atlanta, GA.  He is a bartender.  This was Bennett’s first time to attend the WSOP.

The ninth-place finisher was Yuta Motsyama, from Las Vegas, NV.  He is a financial analyst who is originally from Japan.  Prior to working in the casino industry, Motsyama was a former racecar driving instructor for the Mario Andretti Racing School.

Other In-the-Money Finisher:

Other former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Jonathan Kotula.  He won the Casino Employees Championship in 2008.  Kotula finished in tenth place, one position off the official final table.

Former WSOP Tournament Director Jack McClelland, who oversaw operations during 1984 through 1998 at Binion’s Horseshoe, finished in 19th place.  This marked his fifth time to cash in a WSOP event.

David Patent, who formally worked as a Harrah’s executive at the Rio and Flamingo, finished in 11th place.

Ty Stewart, Vice President of the World Series of Poker for Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment, cashed in 62nd place.

Odds and Ends:

The defending champion from 2009 was Andrew Cohen, from Las Vegas, NV.   He entered this year’s tournament, but did not cash.  Cohen went out on a horrible beat on Day One.  He moved all-in holding AK and was called by a player with AQ.  The flop was a nightmare for Cohen – three queens!  Cohen was paralyzed and drawing dead after the flop and ended up losing to four-of-a-kind.

Attendance for this tournament declined from last year’s number, when there were 866 entries.  This year’s event attracted 721 entries.

The tournament began in grand fashion with WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel standing tall and proud on the Pavilion Stage welcoming players to the first event on this year’s schedule.  In his opening remarks, Effel said, “All of you are special to us.  Without casino employees, there is no live poker.  Without casino employees, there is no Las Vegas.  Without casino employees, there is no WSOP.”  The last comment evoked loud cheers from the gallery of players and spectators. 

The tournament was played over two consecutive days – which extended by default into a third day when the final table stretched into Sunday morning.  The final table was played inside the Amazon Room, on an ESPN designated feature table.  Despite the late hour, a large crowd of spectators watched most of the action.

The Casino Employees Championship is not considered an “open” event, since entry is restricted to workers in the gaming industry.  This is one of three non-open events on the 2010 WSOP schedule.  The other non-open events are the Ladies World Championship and the Seniors World Championship.  All the other 54 tournaments are open events, since anyone over the age of 21 is eligible to enter.

The official WSOP gold bracelet ceremony takes place on the day following the winner’s victory (or some hours later when the tournament runs past midnight).  The ceremony takes place inside The Pavilion, which is the expansive main tournament room host all noon starts this year.  The ceremony begins at the conclusion of the first break of the noon tournament.  The ceremony usually starts around 2:20 pm.  The national anthem of the winner’s nation is played.  The entire presentation is open to public and media.  Video and photography is permitted by both public and members of the media.

The winner Hoai D. Pham requested that the national anthem of Vietnam be played at his WSOP gold bracelet ceremony.

Event History:

The first Casino Employees Championship was held at the 2000 WSOP.  It was then called the “Dealers World Poker Championship.”  At the time, the tournament was only open to casino dealers.  The following year, all casino employees became eligible.  The inaugural event attracted only 109 entries.  It doubled in size the next year due to the expanded eligibility.

The Casino Employees Championship was initially added to the WSOP schedule to recognize the considerable contributions of many dedicated professionals in the gaming industry.  It has been an official gold bracelet event during all 11 years it’s been held.

From 2000 to 2003, the Casino Employees Championship was played as a Limit Hold’em tournament.  Since 2004, the event has been a No-Limit Hold’em tournament.

The largest turnout in history for this event took place at the 2006 WSOP when 1,232 players entered.

This event has traditionally been held either at the very start of the WSOP, or the very end.  It has been the first event of the WSOP during the last two years.

The previous list of previous winners of the Casino Employees Championship includes:

Andrew Cohen (2009)
Jonathan Kotula (2008)
Eric Narciso (2007)
Chris Gros (2006)
Andy Nguyen (2005)
Carl “Coach” Nessel (2004)
David Lukaszweski (2003)
David Warga (2002)
Travis Jonas (2001)
Dave Alizadeh (2000)

No event champion has ever repeated, nor won any other WSOP gold bracelet.

Tournament Play:

The $500 buy-in Casino Employees Championship was a No-Limit Hold’em competition.  The tournament attracted 721 entries.  The total prize pool amounted to $324,450.  The top 72 finishers collected prize money.

The chip leader at the end of Day One was Kent Washington, from Oakland, CA.  He ended up finishing in sixth place.

The chip leader coming into the final table was Hoai D. Pham.  He ended up winning the tournament.

Pham was never in serious danger at the final table.  However, Pham was very fortunate early in the tournament when on Day One he committed much of his stack with QJ after flopping a jack.  His opponent had pocket aces.  Pham caught a queen on the turn to make two pair and ended up winning the hand.  He was in comfortable chip position from that point forward.

Pham later stated he was fortunate to be dealt several big hands.  He stated he was dealt pocket aces about 12 times and was dealt pocket kings 8 times during the duration of the tournament.

When heads-up play began, Pham enjoyed a sizable chip lead over A.J. Vea.  The heads-up match lasted only about 15 minutes.

The final hand of the tournament came when Pham was dealt playing card: Ac playing card: Ad.  Vea was dealt playing card: 4s playing card: 4c.  After the flop came playing card: Qhplaying card: 7d playing card: 2c, Pham moved all-in and Vea made a crying call after deliberating for a few minutes.  The board ran out playing card: 5d and playing card: 6c, giving Pham the victory with pocket aces.

The tournament ended at Level 22.

The final table officially lasted 4 hours and 50 minutes.

The tournament officially began on Friday, May 28th at noon.  The tournament officially ended on Sunday, May 30th, at 4:50 am.

In event 2 the $50,000 Poker Players Championship 21 are left as follows

CHIP COUNTS

 1 Michael Mizrachi 1,483,000 United States
 2 Vladimir Schmelev 1,432,000 Russia
 3 David Oppenheim 1,340,000 United States
 4 Abe Mosseri 1,338,000 United States
 5 Daniel Alaei 1,257,000 United States
 6 Robert Mizrachi 1,032,000 United States
 7 Mikael Thuritz  952,000 Sweden
 8 Allen Bari  940,000 United States
 9 James Van Alstyne 845,000 United States
 10 John Juanda 788,000 United States
 11 Brett Richey 754,000 United States
 12 David Baker 713,000 United States
 13 Lyle Berman 696,000 United States
 14 Alexander Kostritsyn 638,000  Russia
 15 Nick Schulman 611,000 United States
 16 Ilya Bulychev 602,000 Germany
 17 Kirk Morrison 518,000 United States
 18 Andy Bloch 418,000 United States
 19 Erik Seidel 373,000 United States
 20 David Singer 364,000 United States
 21 Eli Elezra 336,000 United States 

I would love to see the grinder ship this after hearing about his recent problems

gogogogogogogo

ha yeah that guy was on karl's table, he earlier called Karl's raise with TT, bet when checked too on T8x turn Q he checks back, river x he checks out of turn so Karl bets 1k with his AA, the guy just calls, lol

Let him cheat imo

don't think you can raise after checking out of turn.







I obv know this because I once checked out of turn with a set.......................

Karl might have had J9 or QQ.

Can't bve too careful, this is the WORLD SERIES OF POKER after all.

According to Greenstein

 
Sick hand at my table in wsop5. All-in and call, third hand dealt. AQ vs. KK tabled. Dealer didn't hear the call and mucks the Kings.

Meanwhile he reports


 
Muck and stub are jumbled. Floor called over. Players expect a misdeal. Floor rules: find hands in the deck and reshuffle and deal.


Twitter could be good fun during the WSOP!

This is a joke, right?

No joke

Wow.

Just wow.

Event 2 final table

Seat 1: David Baker - 3,095,000
Seat 2: Mikael Thuritz - 2,300,000
Seat 3: Vladimir Schmelev - 1,925,000
Seat 4: John Juanda - 2,620,000
Seat 5: Daniel Alaei - 1,705,000
Seat 6: Michael Mizrachi - 2,620,000
Seat 7: David Oppenheim - 460,000
Seat 8: Robert Mizrachi - 3,125,000

Cashers so far

9     Nick Schulman           152,739
10    Alexander Kostritsyn    152,739
11    Abe Mosseri       129,957
12    Lyle Berman       129,957
13    Brett Richey       113,030
14    Allen Bari               113,030
15    Ilya Bulychev       98,330
16    Andy Bloch       98,330

Looking good for The Grinder with a NLHE only final table

Christ have they done that again? I wondered how they would play triple draw at a full table.

Oh well, swallow my disgust, good for TV etc

Press release


2010 represents the seventh year for the WSOP Player of the Year, and bets are already being taken on who will win the coveted title. Many consider it the most prestigious tournament award of all because it rewards consistency and a player’s ability to do well in all types of events. The prize is tailor-made to the individual winner. The first year, when Toyota was the sponsor, that car was the prize. In succeeding years, Erik Lindgren got a custom Harley-Davidson motorcycle, Jeffrey Lisandro received three WSOP Main Event buy-ins.

With the bracelet events just underway – it is wide open. But within the next week, the stalking horses will emerge and the rest of the pack will do their best to maneuver themselves into contention. Let the games begin.

Here is how the POY is decided. Points are awarded to everyone who cashes in a WSOP open tournament (except for the Employees, Ladies and Seniors), with the number of points based on the type of event and how high a player finishes. At the end of the WSOP, the player with the most points is crowned Player of the Year. There are four different points models. Normal events, called the Standard Points Model, award 100 points for first place, 75 for second, 60 for third, etc., down to five points for anyone who cashes 28th or lower. The limit and no-limit shootout events and the heads-up tournament have somewhat different structures, though all start with 100 points for the winner.

The first winner was Daniel Negreanu, followed by Allen Cunningham, Jeff Madsen, Tom Schneider, Eric Lindgren and Jeffrey Lisandro. Here is a rundown of the achievements and background of each year’s winners.

Daniel “The Kid” Negreanu is one of the most recognizable, popular and successful superstars in the world of poker. In taking down the first POY award in 2004, he won a bracelet in $2,000 Limit Hold’em, made five final tables and had a total of six cashes. Negreanu, born in Toronto, Canada, started playing when he was 15, and was so confident of his ability that at age 21 he dropped out of college, just one credit shy of graduation, moving to Las Vegas to become a full-time poker player. To date, his total tournament cashes worldwide exceed $12 million. He has a total of four WSOP bracelets. He won his first in 1998 for Pot Limit Hold’em, becoming at that time the youngest bracelet winner in WSOP history. Negreanu has his own online poker school, has written numerous articles on poker, contributed to Doyle Brunson’s “Super System II,” and has appeared on various poker game shows.

In 2005, Allen Cunningham’s five cashes included a win in $1,500 No Limit Hold’em, and his four others were all at final tables. Cunningham, 33, is married to another well-known poker pro, Melissa Hayden. He was a civil engineering student at UCLA before dropping out to pursue a career in poker, and his polite and unassuming demeanor at the table has earned him the respect of his peers. His more than $10 million in total cashes include five bracelets, and he demonstrated his versatility by winning all of them in different events. His other four were for $5,000 Seven Card Stud in 2001; $5,000 Deuce to Seven Lowball in 2002; $1,000 No Limit Hold’em with re-buys in 2006; and $5,000 Pot Limit Hold’em in 2007. His biggest cash was $3,628,513 when he finished fourth in the Main Event in 2006. Other notable cash-outs include a $300,000 “Mega Match” victory on “Poker. After Dark” and a $499,162 win in the championship event of the WSOP Circuit at Caesars Palace in 2008.

Jeff Madsen earned his POY title in 2006 by winning two bracelets. One was a $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event that paid $660,948, the other a $5,000 short-handed No Limit Hold’em tourney that paid $643,381. He also made two additional final tables, including a third in $2,000 Omaha Hi-Lo. At the time he won his first bracelet, a month past his 21st birthday, he was the youngest ever to do so, and is still the youngest to win two in one year. A resident of Los Angeles, Madsen gained fame in baseball before doing so in poker. He was a member of the Pacific Palisades High Dolphins team that won the City Invitational Baseball Championship at Dodgers Stadium. (That was also the same school that Chris Ferguson had attended.) The 25-year-old pro earlier this year won the championship event of the Borgata Winter Open, and his prize of $625,006 pushed his career earnings past the $3 million mark.

The next POY winner, in 2007, was Tom Schneider. He racked up two wins, in a $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha and Seven Card Stud Hi Lo event, and a $1,000 Seven Card Stud Hi Lo tournament, along with a fourth in $2,500 H.O.R.S.E. Schneider, 50, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, where he learned poker at age 10, playing with his mother and friends. He now lives in Phoenix, Arizona, where he was a certified public accountant and also chief financial officer and president of three Arizona companies before turning to poker in 2002. Schneider’s total cashes to date are more $1.6 million. He is the author of a book called “Oops! I won Too Much Money: Winning Wisdom from the Boardroom to the Poker Room” which combines both business and poker advice. He is also co-host of a poker podcast and a contributing columnist at Pokerati.

Erik Lindgren, 33, earned his POY title in 2008 by winning one bracelet in Limit/No Limit Hold’em, along with a third in a $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event paying $781,440, a fourth in $5,000 No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball, a 10th in $1,500 Limit Hold’em and 18th in the $10,000 championship No Limit Heads Up event. Lindgren, originally from Burnley, California, where he was a football and basketball star in high school, now lives in Las Vegas. He began playing poker in his spare time while working as a blackjack dealer in an Indian casino in northern California, eventually becoming a full-time pro playing in tournaments worldwide. Lindgren is the author of “World Poker Tour: Making the Final Table.” His total tournament cashes now exceed $7 million.

And last year, Jeffrey Lisandro ran off with the POY award by winning three bracelets, in $1,500 Seven Card Stud, $10,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi Lo, and $2,500 Seven Card Razz. He also had a ninth in the $10,000 world championship Seven Card Stud event, along with cashes in $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi Lo and $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha. Lisandro is something of a world traveler. He was born in Perth, Australia, later lived in Salerno, Italy, now owns a home in Santa Barbara, California, but still calls Salerno his home. Lisandro, whose nickname is “The Iceman” for his calculating demeanor while playing, was a real estate investor before turning to poker full time. He learned poker from his mother at age five and is considered one of the world’s best cash game players. His tournament wins now exceed $4 million. He also won a bracelet in $2,000 Seven Card Stud in 2007.

Press release

The $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship played down to eight finalists late Monday night. The chip leader entering the final table is former WSOP gold bracelet winner Robert Mizrachi, from Miramar, FL. He won the $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha Championship in 2007. The finale will be played starting on Tuesday afternoon.
When players take the ESPN Main Stage most of the attention will undoubtedly focus on mega-stacked Mizrachi and his younger brother Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi, who made it to the final table of a WSOP event together for the first time.

Robert, age 31, is nearly three years older than his brother Michael. Both players are well-respected and highly-accomplished poker pros who have been playing on the tournament circuit for several years. For the Mizrachi family, this is certainly a fairy-tale, with a potential storybook finish.

In the 41-year history of the WSOP, siblings have only made it to a final table together on two previous occasions. In 1995, Annie Duke finished sixth in the Pot-Limit Hold'em championship. Brother Howard Lederer finished in ninth place in that same event. Seven years later in 2002, Ross Boatman and Barney Boatman finished seventh and ninth respectively in the Pot-Limit Omaha event.

Currently in second place is David Baker, a 25-year-old poker pro from Rochester Hills, MI. This marks Baker's fifth time to cash in a WSOP event. His best previous showing was a 15th-place finish in last year's $40,000 buy-in 40th Anniversary Championship. He has accumulated in excess of $500,000 winnings overall in poker tournaments. This marks his first time in the WSOP spotlight.

This final table includes an interesting mix of nationalities and different playing styles. There will be six Americans, one Swede, and one Russian. The eight finalists and their current chip counts are as follows:
Seat 1: David Baker (Rochester Hills, MI) -- 3,095,000
Seat 2: Mikael Thuritz (Stockholm, Sweden) -- 2,300,000
Seat 3: Vladimir Schmelev (St. Petersburg, Russia) -- 1,925,000
Seat 4: John Juanda (Las Vegas, NV) -- 2,620,000
Seat 5: Daniel Alaei (Los Angeles, CA) -- 1,705,000
Seat 6: Michael Mizrachi (Miramar, FL) -- 2,175,000
Seat 7: David Oppenheim (Los Angeles, CA) -- 460,000
Seat 8: Robert Mizrachi (Miramar, FL) -- 3,125,000

Final table action can followed at the official WSOP website, at the following link:

http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/updat...23&dayof=1362

The inaugural Poker Players Championship is the successor to the $50,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. World Championship, which began in 2006. That first tournament was won by poker legend David "Chip" Reese. Following his death, the tournament was played in his honor. The official "Chip Reese Memorial Trophy," presented to the winner, is inscribed with each champion's name.

Eight different games are played in the Poker Players Championship, making it the ultimate test of all-around poker skill. The games played in rotation are: Triple-Draw Deuce-to-Seven Lowball, Limit Hold'em, Omaha High-Low Split/Eight-or-Better, Razz, Seven-Card Stud, Seven Card Stud Split/Eight-or-Better, Pot-Limit Omaha, and No-Limit Hold'em.

This year's tournament began with 116 entries, up from last year's number which attracted 95 participants. Among them were 54 former WSOP gold bracelet winners. Eight different nations were also represented, including the United States, Russia, Canada, Italy, Sweden, Germany, Lithuania, and the Netherlands. The prize pool this year exploded by more than $1 million over last year's figure. The top 16 tournament finishers will split up $5,568,000 in prize money. The winner receives $1,559,046, the coveted gold bracelet encrusted with diamonds, plus poker immortality.

The defending champion was David Bach, who was eliminated on the second of five playing days. Other former champions Freddy Deeb (2007) and Scotty Nguyen (2008) also failed to make the money. However, among those who did cash were former WSOP gold bracelet winners Abe Mosseri who finished 11th and Lyle Berman who finished 12th. The unfortunate "bubble" finisher was former gold bracelet winner Kirk Morrison, who was stung by ending up one spot away from a $98,330 payout (for 16th place).

All players who survived to this point are guaranteed at least $182,463. ESPN will film the final table for broadcast on July 27th, from 5-7 pm PST.
Final table play begins Tuesday at 3 pm PST and will be played on the ESPN main stage, which is located inside the Amazon Room at the Rio. Seating is open to spectators over the age of 21.

The whole field was distracted for a few minutes by a bizarre scene on the rail. One of the players wives was sitting behind the ropes watching her husband play. All of a sudden the husband jumped out of his seat and started shouting at a man on the rail. It turns out he hit the woman in the head, she said intentionally, he said otherwise. All of the spectators jumped in with their opinions, the woman burst into tears, and the volume of the kerfuffle kept climbing. It took multiple security guards and floor managers staff to calm down the player and his wife, lead away the accused hitter, and diffuse the situation.

http://uk.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2010-wsop/event-4/post.54445.htm?page=4

Omaha hi/lo event, reckon this could be the drama year of the WSOP after that fella that got banned for life, how long till we see a Hellmuth or Fullflush acts like a twat story I wonder?

Moorman is 3rd in the $1500, still just over 200 runners left so a long way to go but a great start - him and Prash in the the top 10....

Meanwhile I am off to play ,my first final table of the 10 day trip - sods law it's the smallest buy in and field to date!  After getting my KK busted in the $100 at Ri on Sunday, I played the $340 at Venetian, 750 runners and crashed out just in time to get into the $340 at Caesars as an alternate.  $340, 159 runners $12k ish up top.  I am short but back at 2pm....gll me

moorman in CL now

Interview with Chris here:

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid24178865001?bclid=24196480001&bctid=89405581001

iwwil, but gl moom.

praz is chippy, moorman third, 90 left

http://uk.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2010-wsop/event-5/#post-54988

Moorman out I'm afraid

While watching John "Tex" Barch double up, Allen Kessler came darting over to make sure we got what was going on at Table 334. There was a dispute betweel Raphael Zimmerman and the other players at the table on whether or not there was another round of draws left. Zimmerman was heads up with an opponent and believed that he still had one draw. Zimmerman's opponent thought the hand was over and had tabled the . Zimmerman made a solid case to the floor staff and his argument was granted a look on the surveillance tape to get the correct ruling.

Knowing that this could take a while, the players at the table began to complain and wanted the clock paused because they would lose some very valuable time and hands due to the process involved. At the current time, Zimmerman couldn't beat his opponent's hand so the staff and players decided to give Zimmerman his next draw. If he failed to beat his opponent's hand, it wouldn't matter whether there was no draws left or one and they could move on. Instead, Zimmerman pulled a  to make the  and now was ahead. Therefore, going to the cameras was a must. After arguing about that for a little bit, David Baker suggested that the pot at hand be put to the side and the next hand continued on. Zimmerman and his opponent had enough chips that it was suggested they may not go broke in the next few hands so they could continue to play without the controversial pot awarded yet. Zimmerman objected to this and the wait for the ruling was on.

After several minutes of standing around and talking about what all the commotion was about, the ruling finally came back. It was ruled that Zimmerman was indeed correct that there was one more draw to be had and his wound up winning the pot with his seventy-six. The other player let Zimmerman have it a bit after the hand, claiming that he cried and complained and should just keep quiet.

Zimmerman won the pot and now has 25,000 chips as action resumed back to normal.

http://uk.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2010-wsop/event-7/post.55052.htm




This could be a pointless question given that live triple draw doesnt happen much at all anywhere, but does the dealer do anything to remind themselves how many draws have been made? Like a burn card for each draw or something? I'd assume so because the above seems like a daft mistake to make.

I see Stu, James Akenhead and Neil Channing all won their first table in the 5k shootout.

GOGOGO!

if they're burning then they should be doing it before each draw so unless they've been heads up all the way that may not help. also depending on the number of discards the burns may well have been shuffled back into the deck

Michael Mizrachi wins Event 2 the Players Championship

the final hand

Michael Mizrachi moves all in from the button and this time Vladimir Schmelev makes the call.

Mizrachi: Q-5

Schmelev: Q-8

The crowd is chanting for a five, but there is nothing on 9-6-4 the flop.

However their faith is rewarded on the turn and a huge roar erupts as the 5 falls! Schmelev is left needing a seven or eight to survive but it isn't to be as a 4 hits the river and Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi is our champion!

Congratulations to Vladimir Schmelev who put in a tremendous tournament and solid final table to just fall short at the final hurdle. He'll take home $963,375 for an amazing tournament.

Event 2


1 Michael Mizrachi, $1,559,046 US

2 Vladimir Schmelev $963,365 Russia

3 David Oppenheim $603,348 United States

4 John Juanda $436,865 United States

5 Robert Mizrachi $341,429 United States

6 David Baker $272,275  United States

7 Daniel Alaei $221,105  United States

8 Mikael Thuritz $182,463 United States

9 Nick Schulman $152,730 United States

10 Alexander Kostritsyn $152,730 Russia

Ship it to the Grinder!

Thats one way to pay a tax bill

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Event 3 ($1,000 NLH, 4345 runners) has hit the final table

Don't know any of these, but good luck to them all

1st prize is $625,000


Dash Dudley -- 1,355,000


Bart Davis -- 1,355,000


Nicholas Mitchell -- 1,280,000


Deepak Bhatti -- 400,000


Gabe Costner -- 1,830,000


Richard Rice -- 700,000


Aadam Daya -- 2,855,000


Isaac Settle -- 970,000


Cory Brown -- 2,315,000


No British cashers in this one

 

Just 23 players remain in event number #5,

$1500 No Limit Hold’em

Praz Bansi  was in the top ten chip counts after day 1 and is now in 5th with 616,000.

blinds are 6k-12k.


David Sands is in 4th behind big chip leader Vincent Jacques of Canada

$500,000+ for 1st


Moorman 46th for $8,500

Meanwhile in Event 6 the $5K nlhe Shootout 36 players made it through from 358 strarters and are each now guaranteed $15k

4 Brits in the list

Heather Mercer          
Eugene Katchalov       
Brent Wheeler       
David Rheem       
Josef Monro       
Joseph Mcgowan       
Joshua Tieman       
Justin Smith       
Keven Stammen       
Max Pescatori       
Tommy Vedes       
Brent Hanks       
Christian Harder       
Blair Hinkle    
Aaron Gustavson       
William Molson       
James Akenhead       
Stuart Rutter       
Dario Minieri    
Julien Nuijten       
Pablo Fernandez       
Maxim Lykov       
Neil Channing       
John Duthie       
Nicolas Levi       
Aaron Been       
Chris Bell       
Tom Dwan       
Joseph Elpayaa       
Danny Estes       
Chris Ferguson       
Benjamin May       
Faraz Jaka       
Chad Brown       
Chris Moore           
Cary Katz       

pretty f sick overall group!

Michael Mizrachi Grinds Out Victory in 2010 Poker Players Championship

by: Nolan Dalla

Tournament Headlines:

Michael Mizrachi Grinds Out Victory in 2010 Poker Players Championship

Famed “Grinder” Collects First WSOP Gold Bracelet, Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, plus $1,559,046 Cash Prize

Russian Banker Vladimir Schemelev Finishes as Runner Up

David Oppenheim Comes Close to Incredible Comeback – Finishes Third

Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi Eliminates Brother Robert Mizrachi at Final Table


Overview

The inaugural Poker Players Championship was won by Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi. He has been on of the most successful tournament pros over the last six years, now with nearly $9 million in accumulated tournament winnings. Mizrachi had previously won just about every major title in poker except a WSOP gold bracelet, until this day when he pulled off a masterful victory in the biggest buy-in tournament of the year. The final table included Mizrachi playing against his brother Robert Mizrachi, who ended up finishing fifth. This marked the highest finish by two family members in WSOP history. Three different nations were represented at the final table, including the United States, Sweden, and Russia. “The Grinder,” cheered on by much of the Mizrachi family, won $1,559,046. In addition to the coveted WSOP gold bracelet, Mizrachi was also presented with Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.

A Chow Down in Omaha! Michael Chow Wins First Gold Bracelet!

by: Nolan Dalla

Tournament Headlines:

A Chow Down in Omaha! Michael Chow Wins First Gold Bracelet!

Hawaiian Poker Pro Collects $237,463 in Omaha High-Low Split Battle

Former WSOP Gold Bracelet Winner Dan Heimiller Takes Second Place

Third-Largest Omaha High-Low Tournament in History Attracts 818 Players


Overview

Michael Chow, a 33-year-old poker pro from Honolulu, HI won his first WSOP gold bracelet in the $1,500 buy-in Omaha High-Low Split event. The tournament ended about 4:30 am, with a large cheering section celebrating Chow’s personal and professional triumph. Chow, who previously worked in real estate before playing poker full-time, now concentrates mostly on high-stakes cash games in his native Hawaii and in casinos in both Las Vegas and Los Angeles, earned a cool payout totaling $237,463. Chow defeated longtime tournament veteran Dan Heimiller in heads-up play. Chow dominated most of play on Day Three, but lost his chip lead late against Heimiller. In fact, it appeared the Las Vegas pro would defeat Chow at one point. But Chow made a strong comeback and earned a well-deserved victory. This was the third-biggest field in the history if WSOP Omaha High-Low events, with 818 players.

http://uk.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2010-wsop/event-6/

Rutter and Channing make the shootout 6 handed final

http://uk.pokernews.com/live-reporting/2010-wsop/event-5/

Bansi with more than half the chips in play 3 handed

How sweet would back to back brit bracelets be?

Heads Up for Praz

Praz Bansi: 5,140,000
Vincent Jacques: 4,280,000

Ian Frazier is out for the series, just seen his facebook page and he has trapped nerve in his leg, is doped up on pain killers and it cost him 10 grand in hospital fees. Nice

Has his opponent crushed now heads up!

COME ON STUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

A six handed SNG  away from the bracelet! - 1 time buddy 1 time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

VBOL Stu win it all

nice  bok

had him all in
praz   4c 4s
Villian  Ad Qd

flop   Ahrt Qs 4d
turn  5d
river  2d

praz 6m
villian 3m

Nice one Praz. Hope you finish him off. :)

Right then daily wrap up time

In event 5 Praz Bansi just came v close to scooping the bracelet

4-4 v K-Q all in versus a short-stacked Jacques. Jacques hit the Queen, Praz turned the 4 but Jacques flushed on the end


In event 6 Rutter and Chnning have made the shootout final

1      Joshua Tieman     900,000
2    Brent Hanks    900,000
3    Stuart Rutter    900,000
4    Neil Channing    900,000
5    Nicolas Levi    900,000

One of Joseph Elpayaa and Cary Katz will join them

Payouts

1 441,692
2 273,153
3 179,617
4 125,387
5 92,543
6 71,998

Duthie, Akenhead, Ferguson, Dwan and Minieri were amongst the cashers


In event 7 the 2-7 triple draw lowball, at $2,500 an entry 15 are left led by

1      David Chiu     256,000
2    Raphael Zimmerman 245,000
3    Peter Gelencser    223,000
4    Ted Forrest    203,000
5    Don Mcnamara    185,000
6    Leonard Martin    185,000
7    Shunjiro Uchida    173,000
8    Jameson Painter    150,000
9    Pat Poels    129,000
10    Tad Jurgens    106,000




In event 8 $1500 NLH 360 remain at the end of Day 1, from 2,314 that began

Chip leaders

1      Josh Schlein     127,300
2    Hugo Perez    109,300
3    Timothy Milliron    106,900
4    Trickett Samuel    102,800
5    Scott Vener    101,000
6    Davin Costa    97,600
7    Jean-Robert Bellande 89,200
8    Phil Hellmuth    84,700
9    Yannick Tessier    83,000
10    Cherie Beasley    80,500

Jack Powell still in it for the Brits

im assuming the chap in 4th isnt "our" sam trickett?

Good spot. Assuming it is, best of luck to Sam!

Banzi 7m to 2m chip lead for a second bracelet

Look at that nice DaveShoelace's link above for more

Think Praz has won, the Pokernews chip counts tab only show him remaining

Yep, bracelet number 2 for Praz, Brit bracelet number 1 for 2010, come on Stu and Channing later tonight.

shippppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp

Back to back bracelets FTW
Praz today Channing will do it tomorrow

http://blondepoker.com/?q=node/27347

A brief report

Well done Praz!

 .

Sick result for Praz!

GL to Stu later on, really hope he wins it!!

^^ THIS ^^

quality pic!

updated

Place Name Location Chips
1 Joshua Tieman Chicago, IL 900000
2 Stuart Rutter Moseley, United Kingdom 900000
3 Nicolas Levi Paris, United Kingdom 900000
4 Neil Channing London, United Kingdom 900000
5 Brent Hanks Fillmore, NY 900000
6 Joseph Elpayaa Forest Park, IL 900000

Finish Name Location Prize
7 Cary Katz Poway, CA $16,607
8 Danny Estes Sumner, TX $16,607
9 Julien Nuijten Amsterdam, Netherlands $16,607
10 Benjamin May Portland, OR $16,607
11 Blair Hinkle Weatherby Lake, MO $16,607
12 Eugene Katchalov New York, NY $16,607
13 David Rheem Sunny Isles Beach, FL $16,607
14 Heather Mercer New York, NY $16,607
15 Keven Stammen Celina, OH $16,607
16 John Duthie London, United Kingdom $16,607
17 Josef Monro Beverly Hills, MI $16,607
18 Chris Moore Countryside, IL $16,607
19 Chris Bell Raleigh, NC $16,607
20 Aaron Been Tallahassee, FL $16,607
21 Maxim Lykov , $16,607
22 Dario Minieri Roma, Italy $16,607
23 Pablo Fernandez Asuncion, Paraguay $16,607
24 William Molson Westmount, QC $16,607
25 Chad Brown New Rochelle, NY $16,607
26 Aaron Gustavson Las Vegas, NV $16,607
27 Joseph Mcgowan Las Vegas, NV $16,607
28 Faraz Jaka Chicago, IL $16,607
29 Justin Smith Kissimmee, FL $16,607
30 Brent Wheeler St Charles, IL $16,607
31 Chris Ferguson Pacific Palisades, CA $16,607
32 Tommy Vedes Fort Mohave, AZ $16,607
33 Christian Harder Annapolis, MD $16,607
34 Max Pescatori Milan, Italy $16,607
35 Tom Dwan Edison, NJ $16,607
36 James Akenhead London, United Kingdom $16,607

Remaining Payouts:

1st $441,692
2nd $273,153
3rd $179,617
4th $125,387
5th $92,543
6th $71,998

$2500 2-7 TD Lowball Event 7

Place Name Location Chips
1 David Chiu Las Vegas, NV 436000
2 Peter Gelencser Budapest, Hungary 400000
3 Don Mcnamara San Jose, CA 370000
4 Raphael Zimmerman Missdula, MT 262000
5 Tad Jurgens Tempe, AZ 223000
6 Leonard Martin Las Vegas, NV 195000
7 Shunjiro Uchida 173000
8 Jameson Painter 127000


Finish Name Location Prize
9 Farzad Bonyadi Beverly Hills, CA $13,232
10 Pat Poels Mesa, AZ $13,232
11 David Baker Katy, TX $9,972
12 Ted Forrest Las Vegas, NV $9,972
13 Steven Mcloughlin Las Vegas, NV $7,663
14 Christopher Fargis Brooklyn, NY $7,663
15 Eli Elezra Henderson, NV $7,663
16 Jordan Siegel Irvine, CA $7,663
17 Allen Kessler Las Vegas, NV $7,663
18 Alex Balandin Brooklyn, NY $7,663
19 Christopher Mchugh Las Vegas, NV $6,063
20 Greg Mueller Bramberger, GE $6,063
21 Alicia Spencer Las Vegas, NV $6,063
22 Hoyt Corkins Las Vegas, NV $6,063
23 Jesse Garfinkel Westfield, NJ $6,063
24 Andrew Black Moscow, RS $6,063
25 Daniel Fuhs Long Beach, CA $4,798
26 Raymond Davis Bell, CA $4,798
27 Jon Turner Henderson, NV $4,798
28 Clayton Newman San Diego, CA $4,798
29 Dallas Flowers Glasgow, KY $4,798
30 David Singer Las Vegas, NV $4,798

Remaining Payouts:
1st $180,730
2nd $111,686
3rd $73,803
4th $50,157
5th $34,843
6th $24,723
Prize Pool: $669,300

Please please please Stu rutter one time.

Taken from PokerNews..

I dont get it? how and why does bigegypt just check/call river?


Set Over Set Win For Elpayaa

Posted 12 minutes ago by thkcduckworth

Stuart Rutter opened to 45,000 from under the gun and Brent Hanks bumped it 120,000 next to speak.

With the action on Joseph Elpayaa in the small blind he four-bet to 294,000 to force a quick fold from Rutter. Hanks took his time before making the call to see a {A-Spades}{3-Spades}{4-Clubs} flop fall.

Both players checked, and when the turn landed the {Q-Diamonds} they again both checked it through to see the {9-Diamonds} land on the river.

Elpayaa checked for a third time before Hanks cut down a bet amounting to 430,000. Elpayaa quickly made the call and Hanks tabled his {9-Spades}{9-Hearts} for a rivered set.

However it would be Elpayaa's {Q-Clubs}{Q-Spades} for a turned set that would take the pot down and take him to over 2,280,000 in chips as Hanks slips to below half his starting stack.

4 handed, rutter and channing still in. channing's twitter is about 10 minutes ahead of the 'live' updates

Flushy is chip leader in event 9, 1.5k PLH. 65 left.  ;goodluck;

Earlier today, Neil Channing finished second in Event #6's $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Shootout at the 2010 World Series of Poker. On the final table, he was joined by fellow Brit Stuart Rutter and London based Frenchman Nicolas Levi, as well as online pro Joseph 'BigEgypt' Elpayaa.

However, it was lesser known Joshua Tieman who prevailed over the 358 thick field, the 27-year old Omaha specialist picking up bracelet gold and a cheque for $441,692 for his first place finish. The final hand saw Channing all in with As-7h versus Ah-Jc, the Ks-Tc-4c-Td-Qh board providing no assistance and knocking him out in second place for $273,153.

Channing earned his seat through two tough heats, the first of which he defeated Kirk Morrison heads-up to advance to an equally competitive table that included Christian Harder, Max Pescatori and Chad Brown. In the end, they proved no match for the 2008 Irish Open Champion as Channing toppled unknown Chris Moore to reach his first Vegas WSOP final table to date.

As with the previous day, the final table was six-handed with players starting equal in chips, but it wasn't long before players started to fall. First to hit the deck was Brent Hanks, whose A-Q suited failed to improve against Levi's pocket sevens. Next out was Nicolas Levi, his jacks cruelly outdrawn by Tieman's eights when a third snowman hit the flop.

Despite lying second in chips, Elpayaa took fourth when his A-J off-suit ran into Tieman's pocket tens. Then, when Tieman eliminated Rutter in with A-Q suited versus A-T off-suit, we were heads-up for the bracelet. Unfortunately, Channing was facing a chip deficit of 8:1, and it would be a mountain he'd fail to climb as Tieman secured victory within just several hands.

This performance marked Channing's 22nd WSOP cash and his second final after he finished fourth in the £1,500 No Limit Hold'em event at the 2008 WSOPE for £44,588. This cash means he has now broken into the top 10 UK all-time money list, sitting just behind James Akenhead in eighth with $2,684,401.

"Joshua played really well in the end and was a deserving winner," commented Channing just moments after the final hand was dealt. "Unfortunately, I saw very few hands on the final table, but  felt I did the best with what I had. It was also great to see fellow Brit Stuart Rutter make the final table too. I'm sure it won't be his last."

"Of course, it was disappointing to come so close to winning a bracelet," he continued with a disappointed smile, "but I'm sure there will be other opportunities in the future. Having finished second in the London GUKPT, second in the iPoker Monthly Million, and now second here, I think I should definitely give the heads-up event a miss."

1st  Joshua Tieman -- $441,692
2nd  Neil Channing -- $273,153
3rd  Stuart Rutter -- $179,617
4th  Joseph Elpayaa -- $125,387
5th  Nicolas Levi -- $92,543
6th  Brent Hanks -- $71,998

In Event 8 cashes for James Keys, Sam Trickett, Andrew Teng and Roberto Romenello

With 36 left currently Hellmuth is 10th and $568,000 is up top


In Event 9 the Pot Limit well see for yourself: http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/chipcounts.asp?grid=764&tid=10830


65 remain, 63 are paid

Niceeeeeeeeeeee

GLGL Flushy

^^ THIS ^^

Very subtle Flushy bok there Rich

sick, go on boss!

epic bubble potential here

gl flushy

(wowzers thats some CL - how do you get from 4500 to 200k in 1 day)

LOL - from the wsop web site

thats right - its really difficult to work out a pot sized raise eh! These guys are buying in for 1500 and cant do simple maths

GL with the 3 bets!

LEVEL       BLINDS                         CALL OR MAKE IT
1               25-50                          50 100 to 175
2               50-100                        100 200 to 350
3               75-150                        150 300 to 525
4               100-200                      200 400 to 700

evnet 8 overnight

Place Name Location Chips
1 Saar Wilf Israel 1207000
2 Andrew Cohen Las Vegas, NV 1025000
3 Charles Lehr Shreveport, LA 653000
4 Scott Vener Los Angeles, CA 576000
5 Phil Hellmuth Palo Alto, CA 567000
6 Joshua Brikis Murrysville, PA 547000
7 Daniel Wjuniski , 490000
8 David Aue Houston, TX 479000
9 Jared Michelizzi Blaine, MN 479000
10 Pascal Lefrancois Rosemere, QC 478000
11 Max Steinberg Fairfield, IA 478000
12 Devin Looney , 447000
13 Kevin Howe , 405000
14 Jose Gatmaitan Philadelphia, PA 392000
15 Darin Utley Cedar Rapids, IA 351000
16 James Andersen West Pennant Hill, Australia 324000
17 Raymond Geary Hoboken, NJ 310000
18 David Frazier Homestead, FL 298000
19 Matthew Ezrol Coconut Creek, FL 266000
20 Ronald Eberhard York, PA 255000
21 Paul Fehlig Saint Louis, MO 180000
22 Kurt Disessa Oakland, CA 176000
23 Erich Kollmann St. Valentin, Austria 148000
24 Vineet Pahuja New York, NY 111000
25 Adam Geyer , 94000
Finish Name Location Prize
30 Richard Savage , $13,241.00
31 Samuel Dickson Oxbow S K, Canada $13,241.00
32 Michael Stroh , $13,241.00
33 Danny Wong Las Vegas, NV $13,241.00
34 Agop Rustemoglu Ft Lauderdale, FL $13,241.00
35 Yannick Tessier Plantation, FL $13,241.00
36 Jason Sackler Orlando, FL $13,241.00
37 William Daymon , $10,903.00
38 Spencer Hudson Austin, TX $10,903.00
39 Tam Ly Lansdale, PA $10,903.00
40 Ross Myers Cuy Falls, OH $10,903.00
41 Nicholas Heather Dublin, Ireland $10,903.00
42 Johnny Kitchens Mount Dora, FL $10,903.00
43 Steven Warwick San Ysidro, CA $10,903.00
44 Orlando Maldonado Miami, FL $10,903.00
45 Alon Shahar Fresh Meadows, NY $10,903.00
46 John McKinney Fayetteville, NC $9,070.00
47 Eric Lee Surrey, BC $9,070.00
48 Josh Schlein Owings Mills, MD $9,070.00
49 X Anderson Poughkeepsie, NY $9,070.00
50 Todd Lepow Buffalo Grove, IL $9,070.00
51 David Daneshgar Westlake Vlg, CA $9,070.00
52 Timothy Milliron Oakland, CA $9,070.00
53 Matt Stout Las Vegas, NV $9,070.00
54 Suk Min Sung Torrance, CA $9,070.00
55 Thomas Taylor Innifil, ON $7,648.00
56 Jeremy Dresch Fridley, MN $7,648.00
57 Bobby Shasta Wantagh, NY $7,648.00
58 Pavel Myndrov Brooklyn, NY $7,648.00
59 Richard Talerico Brookshire, TX $7,648.00
60 Khoa Nguyen Calgary, AB $7,648.00
61 Joseph Parrish Riverview, FL $7,648.00
62 Scott Oleary Lawrence, MA $7,648.00
63 John Conaway Williamsville, NY $7,648.00
64 Adam Kotler Bellmore, NY $6,510.00
65 Frank Bonacci Pittsburg, PA $6,510.00
66 Daniel Sosa Los Angeles, CA $6,510.00
67 Renato Maciariello St Gallen, Switzerland $6,510.00
68 Ryan Sidor Las Vegas, NV $6,510.00
70 Habib Khanis San Diego, CA $6,510.00
71 Kyle Winter Carson City, NV $6,510.00
72 Louis Crispino Amityville, NY $6,510.00
73 Davin Costa Wailuku, HI $5,593.00
74 Daniel Quinn Madison, WI $5,593.00
75 Cameron New The Woodlands, TX $5,593.00
76 Glen Mitchell , $5,593.00
77 John Esposito Las Vegas, NV $5,593.00
78 James Hannah Tamarac, FL $5,593.00
79 Todd Lundwall Scottsdale, AZ $5,593.00
80 Brian Haveson Garnet Valley, PA $5,593.00
81 Ditmar Winkelmolen Heerlen, Netherlands $5,593.00
82 Matthew Stern Rock Island, IL $4,866.00
83 Michael Mihelich Clinton Township, MI $4,866.00
84 James Buckley Los Angeles, CA $4,866.00
85 Cliff Josephy Syosset, NY $4,866.00
86 Enrico Difranco Hollywood, CA $4,866.00
87 Jason Brice Sugar Land, TX $4,866.00
88 Stacey Nutini Las Vegas, NV $4,866.00
89 Trevor Pope Gainsville, FL $4,866.00
90 Tyler Patterson Everett, WA $4,866.00
91 Blake E Kelso Las Vegas, NV $4,266.00
92 Kevin Boudreau Colorado Springs, CO $4,266.00
93 George Karatzas Wasilla, AL $4,266.00
94 Bill Jesernig Kennewick, WA $4,266.00
95 Roberto Romanello Gorseinon, United Kingdom $4,266.00
96 Tye Babb , $4,266.00
97 Jean-Robert Bellande Las Vegas, NV $4,266.00
98 Alan Neubauer Charlotte, NC $4,266.00
99 Robbie Verspui Gibraltar, Gibraltar $4,266.00
100 Trickett Samuel , $3,792.00
101 Mike Ngo Los Angeles, CA $3,792.00
102 Jordan Rich Portland, OR $3,792.00
103 James Petzing Chicago, IL $3,792.00
104 Chadwick Livingston Sedalia, CO $3,792.00
105 Vittario Iemolo Sarasota, FL $3,792.00
106 Ludovic Agier Le Lamentin, France $3,792.00
107 Anton Nikaj Putnam Valley, NY $3,792.00
108 Jay Goldstein Colleyville, TX $3,792.00
109 Michael Meredith Westfield, NJ $3,792.00
110 Steven Fager Sequim, WA $3,792.00
111 Aaron Kanter Lodi, CA $3,792.00
112 Pat Pezzin Bari, Italy $3,792.00
113 Nicholas Binger Las Vegas, NV $3,792.00
114 Melik Bagdasaryan Tujunca, CA $3,792.00
115 Sean Getzwiller Cardiff, CA $3,792.00
116 James Keys Bury St Edmunds Suffolk, United Kingdom $3,792.00
117 Carl Johnson Liberty, MO $3,792.00
118 Chance Steed College Station, TX $3,792.00
119 Jon Brenneman Overland Park, KS $3,792.00
120 Michael Monter Fredericksburg, VA $3,792.00
121 Fabrice Halleux Brussels, Ganshoren, Belgium $3,792.00
122 Steven Dunkelberg Grand Rapids, MI $3,792.00
123 George Lusby Georgetown, KY $3,792.00
124 John Dull Fresno, CA $3,792.00
125 Sean Mcelroy Leesville, LA $3,792.00
126 Michael Chill New York, NY $3,792.00
127 Vinicius Leal Rio De Janeiro, Brasil $3,792.00
128 Cory Parent Richmond, BC $3,792.00
129 Donald Yaughn Fort Valley, GA $3,792.00
130 Anthony Gargiulo Laona, WI $3,792.00
131 Timothy West Los Altos, CA $3,792.00
132 Daniel Reisman , $3,792.00
133 Albert Winchester Falls Church, VA $3,792.00
134 Clifford Miller Visaia, CA $3,792.00
135 Justin Kuzmicki Montreal, QC $3,792.00
136 Marc Aubin Terrebonne, QC $3,413.00
137 Ryan Schmidt Anchorage, AK $3,413.00
138 Richard Hoffmaster Sommers, MT $3,413.00
139 William Childs Pinehurst, NC $3,413.00
140 Patrick O'connor Dromahair, Ireland $3,413.00
141 Marc Mclaughlin St. Jean, QC $3,413.00
142 Calvin Anderson Yukon, OK $3,413.00
143 Andrew Teng London, United Kingdom $3,413.00
144 Vagan Sudzhyan Los Angeles, CA $3,413.00
145 Brent Sheirbon The Dalles, OR $3,413.00
146 Timothy Woolston Anchorage, AK $3,413.00
147 Keith Olsen Gilbert, AZ $3,413.00
148 John Simunich Galt, CA $3,413.00
149 Ian Wiley Las Vegas, NV $3,413.00
150 Cristopher Lasco Atlanta, GA $3,413.00
151 Annand Ramdin Bronx, NY $3,413.00
152 Markus Gonsalves San Diego, CA $3,413.00
153 Detlef Pashaus Kassel, Germany $3,413.00
154 Champie Douglas Austin, NV $3,413.00
155 Corey Burbick Davie, FL $3,413.00
156 Eric Schwartz Boulder, CO $3,413.00
157 Aaron Thomas Fort Mitchell, AL $3,413.00
158 Aaron Orourke Chandler, AR $3,413.00
159 Gareth Teatum , $3,413.00
160 Peter Chun Lihue, HI $3,413.00
161 Michael Flores Dallas, TX $3,413.00
162 Hugo Perez Plano, TX $3,413.00
163 William Massad Eastpointe, MI $3,413.00
164 Walter Buss Rhode St. Genese, Belgium $3,413.00
165 Anthony Gargano Sterling Heights, MI $3,413.00
166 Robert Harcarik Las Vegas, NV $3,413.00
167 Harvey Larocque Alberta, CA $3,413.00
168 James Anderson Wooster, OH $3,413.00
169 Joseph Ward Revere, MA $3,413.00
170 Joel Bullock Calgary, AB $3,413.00
171 Michael Jensen Gardnerville, NV $3,413.00
172 Steven Morra New Fairfield, CT $3,128.00
173 Robert Flowers Macomb Township, MI $3,128.00
174 Amnon Filippi New York, NY $3,128.00
175 Vincent Graziano New Port Richey, FL $3,128.00
176 Shawn Meyer Davenport, NE $3,128.00
177 Edward Pellegrini Las Vegas, NV $3,128.00
178 Alllen Gillain Brussels, Belgium $3,128.00
179 David Whalen Whitman, MA $3,128.00
180 Daniel Adams Kingston, ON $3,128.00
181 Yonghui Jiang Greenville, KY $3,128.00
182 Raymond Amoroso Stamford, CT $3,128.00
183 Gerard Zeitoun Paris, France $3,128.00
184 Marc Davis Orlando, FL $3,128.00
185 Martin Hruby Celakvice, Czechoslovakia $3,128.00
186 Simon Lam Brooklyn, NY $3,128.00
187 Reagan Leman San Diego, CA $3,128.00
188 Jason Helder Lancaster, PA $3,128.00
189 Omar Mehmood Foster, CA $3,128.00
190 James Keating Frederick, MD $3,128.00
191 Douglas Bruce Lawrenceville, GA $3,128.00
192 Michael Frandsen Aalborg, Denmark $3,128.00
193 Grondin Laurence Montreal, QC $3,128.00
194 Jason Elzinga Holland, MI $3,128.00
195 Christopher Tennapel Flower Mound, TX $3,128.00
196 Joshua Hillock Palm City, FL $3,128.00
197 Matthew Vance Lowville, NY $3,128.00
198 John O'shea , $3,128.00
199 Steven Kreinik New Rochelle, NY $3,128.00
200 Walter Weiss Deerfield, IL $3,128.00
201 Matthew Livingston North Las Vegas, NV $3,128.00
202 Joel Erikson Ham Lake, MN $3,128.00
203 Finley Rodgers Zephyr, TX $3,128.00
204 Maxim Sorokin Novgorod, Russia $3,128.00
205 Maciek Gracz Raleigh, NC $3,128.00
206 Wartan Jalnakrian Burbank, CA $3,128.00
208 Eugene Yanayt Santa Monica, CA $2,844.00
209 Jordan Smith Tool, TX $2,844.00
210 Roberto Betbese Terredmbarro, Spain $2,844.00
211 Eric Von Guttenberg Sarasota, FL $2,844.00
212 Craig Restifo Belleville, NY $2,844.00
213 Michael Bisutti Bigfork, MT $2,844.00
214 Anders Taylor Las Vegas, NV $2,844.00
215 Noam Freedman Cambridge, MA $2,844.00
216 Richard Spirra San Diego, CA $2,844.00
217 Alexander Kim Hatboro, PA $2,844.00
218 David Stefanski East Lyme, CT $2,844.00
219 Ryan Snickles Chandler, AZ $2,844.00
220 Jason Cluxton Kennesaw, GA $2,844.00
221 Francisco Hernandez Boca Raton, FL $2,844.00
222 Zachary Hirst Marina, CA $2,844.00
223 Jose Pimentel Espinho, Portugal $2,844.00
224 Christopher Paasch Gold Beach, OR $2,844.00
225 Tommy Le Tustin, CA $2,844.00
226 Kenneth Terrell Sharpsburg, GA $2,844.00
227 Gregory Mathias Martinez, CA $2,844.00
228 Bernie Yang Alpharetta, GA $2,844.00
229 Andrew Aguilar Aiea, HI $2,844.00
230 Mark Smith Georgetown, KY $2,844.00
231 Tyler Netter-Wainwright , $2,844.00
232 Jason Darow Canton, MI $2,844.00
233 Brian Benhamou Paris, France $2,844.00
234 Ryan Allen Tempe, AZ $2,844.00
235 Stephane Croes Bondues, France $2,844.00
236 Jesse Cohen Ardmore, PA $2,844.00
237 Yi Cheng Las Vegas, NV $2,844.00
238 Sean Lenning Tuscon, AZ $2,844.00
239 Vince Burgio West Hills, CA $2,844.00
240 Joseph Just Crozet, VA $2,844.00
241 Craig Rudolph Phoenix, AZ $2,844.00
242 Clayton Mozdzen Winnipeg, MB $2,844.00
243 Yisidro Bustillos Lansing, MI $2,844.00

Remaining Payouts:
1st $568,974
2nd $352,916
3rd $249,351
4th $179,286
5th $130,617
6th $96,422
7th $72,087
8th $54,579
9th $41,843
10th-12th $32,456
13th-15th $25,472
16th-18th $20,257
19th-27th $16,275

Source: wsop.com

event 10 overnight

Place Name Chip Counts
1 Michael Mizrachi 191900
2 Vladimir Schmelev 180000
3 John DAgostino 140000
4 Yuval Bronshtein 103000
5 Doyle Brunson 100000
6 Alexander Kostritsyn 96000
7 Men Nguyen 94000
8 Freddie Ellis 89000
9 Daniel Negreanu 88000
10 Scott Seiver 88000
11 Daniel Kelly 79000
12 Jennifer Harman 76000
13 Chris Ferguson 76000
14 Eli Elezra 73000
15 David Grey 72000
16 Joe Cassidy 70000
17 Brett Richey 69400
18 Justin Smith 64000
19 Nick Schulman 64000
20 Greg Mueller 63000
21 Brandon Adams 60000
22 Eric Drache 57000
23 Max Pescatori 56700
24 Chau Giang 56200
25 Gus Hansen 53600
26 Jean Gaspard 53000
27 Ylon Schwartz 53000
28 Sorel Mizzi 52500
29 Bill Chen 51500
30 Alan Boston 49000
31 Scott Clements 49000
32 Shawn Buchanan 48000
33 Barry Greenstein 47000
34 Dan Heimiller 47000
35 Allen Kessler 45000
36 David Bach 45000
37 Bill Henley 45000
38 Dan Shak 43500
39 George Lind 42000
40 David Singer 42000
41 Nick Frangos 42000
42 Todd Brunson 42000
43 Chad Brown 41400
44 Scotty Nguyen 41000
45 Josh Arieh 38000
46 Tony G 37000
47 Steve Billirakis 36500
48 Nikolay Evdakov 36000
49 Jeffrey Lisandro 35000
50 Matt Glantz 35000
51 Hasan Habib 33400
52 John Cernuto 33000
53 Keith Sexton 32000
54 Ashton Griffin 31000
55 Eric Buchman 30000
56 Chris Amaral 30000
57 Robert Mizrachi 30000
58 Rodeen Talebi 30000
59 Mikael Thuritz 30000
60 Pat Pezzin 30000
61 John Monnette 30000
62 John Racener 30000
63 Sirous Jamshidi 30000
64 Todd Barlow 30000
65 Mel Judah 30000
66 Tim Phan 28100
67 Abe Mosseri 28000
68 Andrew Black 23000
69 Perry Friedman 21000
70 Phil Ivey 20100
71 David Benyamine 20000
72 David Oppenheim 15500
73 Alexander Kravchenko 13800
74 David Ulliott 12300
75 Kirk Morrison 11000
76 Dario Minieri 10000
77 Ted Forrest 3500

Buy-in: $10,000
Prizepool: $1,410,000
Entries: 150
Remaining: 88

Payouts:
1st $394,807
2nd $243,958
3rd $152,787
4th $110,628
5th $86,461
6th $68,949
7th $55,991
8th $46,205
9th-10th $38,676
11th-12th $32,909
13th-14th $28,622
15th-16th $24,900

Is he a blonde?

I know he's usually weaing a hat but ff ur editor of UK pokernews, you should know what colour his hair is.

oneeeeee time hellmuth scoop me teh props.

one time the Parker!

Gl mate win it for the blondes

not just the website. they put it on the screens displaying the clock, always have done

Lol even worse

I remember being astounded when phil lakk was hu against chan asking the dealer how much it was everytime

sigh

James in front, well done Flushy

a real wtf moment courtesy of pokernews. 2 exits from the money in flushy's event

Fireworks Set Kwaysser Alight

Posted 1 minute ago by FerricRamsium

Under the gun, Valdemar Kwaysser made it 3,300 to play, and Joe Serock three-bet to 7,900 from the button. Kwaysser four-bet, Serock five-bet shoved for about 68,000 total, and Kwaysser called all in for 65,700 total to put a pot of more than 130,000 up for grabs.

Showdown
Kwaysser: {10-Hearts} {8-Hearts}
Serock: {K-Spades} {K-Diamonds}

There were a few surprised looks around the table, including Serock's nervous, wide-eyed gaze. The board ran out clean for him though: {A-Spades} {7-Spades} {3-Hearts} {10-Spades} {J-Clubs}.

That's going to spell the end of Kwaysser in 65th place, and Serock's near-double pushes him all the way up over 140,000 in chips.

can't believe these final tables not streamed live, they wud make a fortune,

sounds as though he got coolered

30 left in the PLHE and Flushy is still chip leader

Go on James, you can do it!

Come on flushy

No spazzing in plhe!

Googogogogogogogo

brits are redic good at plhe

get it won!!!!!!!!

Best of luck to flushy, the brits are having a great wsop so far.............lets hope us late starters can follow suit....

From pokernews....

Demps CL with 10 left.

Seat 1: Armen Kara (299,000)
Seat 2: Gregg Wilkerson (340,000)
Seat 3: Mark Babekov (216,000)
Seat 4: JJ Liu (441,000)
Seat 5: Edward Brogdon (74,000)
Seat 6: Scott Haraden (214,000)
Seat 7: Steve Chanthabouasy (300,000)
Seat 8: Joseph Williams (335,000)
Seat 9: James Dempsey (625,000)
Seat 10: Julie Farkas (158,000)

Edit: Down to 500k.

gl tid please

This please

final as CL, no bloe up please. Ks

down to 9, go Flushy!

GLGLGLGLGL in the final

Nine Remain in Event #9
 

Day 2 of the $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em event is all over but the shouting, and we've managed to beat the odds and set the final table long before the ten-level cutoff. In fact, it took just a smidge more than eight levels to reduce our starting field of 65 to the final nine.

James Dempsey came into the day with a big chip lead, and he held that position nearly wire to wire. He was occasionally overtaken by a player here and there, but each time he slipped, Dempsey promptly won a big pot to once again regain the top position on the chip counts page. He was just narrowly pipped on the last hand of the night, though, and he'll have to settle for returning to the final table in second place by a single orange T5,000 chip.

We had a pretty stacked field when play began this afternoon, but it was not a good session for most of the notables. Eric "Rizen" Lynch was one of the first players out, and he was followed shortly thereafter by Jason Potter, Tom Schneider, Jonathan Little, and Todd Terry. Tom McEvoy lasted a big longer (but not much), and we also lost the likes of Jason Lavallee, Christian Harder, and Scott Montgomery along the way, the latter coming into the day second in chips.

On the flip side of things, JJ Liu had herself a fine day, and she'll be in third place when the cards go into the air tomorrow. Dempsey is just above her, but Steve Chanthabouasy is atop them all after knocking out Julie Farkas to bring the chip bags out and conclude the day.

Here's how tomorrow's final table will set up:


Armen Kara (220,000)


Gregg Wilkerson (230,000)


Mark Babekov (246,000)


JJ Liu (479,000)


Edward Brogdon (89,000)


Scott Haraden (224,000)


Steve Chanthabouasy (533,000)


Joseph Williams (385,000)


James Dempsey (528,000)

The final nine for #9 will be back in their chairs at 2:30 p.m. sharp tomorrow afternoon, and they'll play until one of them is wearing a brand new gold bracelet. We'll be back here to bring you all of the action as it unfolds, and we sincerely hope you'll join us.

Event 8 result

2010 World Series of Poker
Event #8: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em


Place Winner        Prize (USD)
1    Pascal LeFrancois      568,974
2    Max Steinberg       352,916
3    Kevin Howe       249,351
4    Daniel Wjuniski       179,286
5    David Aue               130,617
6    James Andersen       96,422
7    Kurt Disessa       72,087
8    Joshua Brikis       54,579
9    Saar Wilf               41,843
10    Jose Gatmaitan       32,456
11    Matthew Ezrol       32,456
12    Darin Utley               32,456
13    Scott Vener       25,472
14    Charles Lehr       25,472
15    Phil Hellmuth       25,472
16    Looney Devin       20,257
17    Jared Michelizzi       20,257
18    David Frazier       20,257
19    Raymond Geary       16,275
20    Andrew Cohen       16,275
21    Vinny Pahuja       16,275
22    Richard Geyer       16,275
23    Erich Kollmann       16,275
24    Paul Fehlig               16,275
25    Ronald Eberhard       16,275
26    Ray Foley               16,275
27    Frank Weigel       16,275
28    Jesse Yaginuma       13,241
29    Cherie Beasley       13,241
30    Richard Savage       13,241
31    Samuel Dickson       13,241
32    Michael Stroh       13,241
33    Danny Wong       13,241
34    Agop Rustemoglu    13,241
35    Yannick Tessier       13,241
36    Jason Sackler       13,241
37    William Daymon       10,903
38    Spencer Hudson       10,903
39    Tam Ly               10,903
40    Ross Myers               10,903
41    Nicholas Heather       10,903
42    Johnny Kitchens       10,903
43    Steven Warwick       10,903
44    Orlando Maldonado    10,903
45    Alon Shahar       10,903
46    John McKinney       9,070
47    Eric Lee               9,070
48    Josh Schlein       9,070
49    Francis Anderson    9,070
50    Todd Lepow       9,070
51    David Daneshgar       9,070
52    Timothy Milliron       9,070
53    Matt Stout       9,070
54    Steve Sung       9,070
55    Thomas Taylor       7,648
56    Jeremy Dresch       7,648
57    Bobby Shasta       7,648
58    Pavel Myndrov       7,648
59    Richard Talerico       7,648
60    Khoa Nguyen       7,648
61    Joseph Parrish       7,648
62    Scott O'Leary       7,648
63    John Conaway       7,648
64    Adam Kotler       6,510
65    Frank Bonacci       6,510
66    Daniel Sosa       6,510
67    Renato Maciariello    6,510
68    Ryan Sidor               6,510
69    Kristina Tokeshi       6,510
70    Habib Khanis       6,510
71    Kyle Winter       6,510
72    Louis Crispino       6,510
73    Davin Costa       5,593
74    Daniel Quinn       5,593
75    Cameron New       5,593
76    Bruce Stern       5,593
77    John Esposito       5,593
78    James Hannah       5,593
79    Todd Lundwall       5,593
80    Brian Haveson       5,593
81    Ditmar Winkelmolen    5,593
82    Matthew Stern       4,866
83    Michael Mihelich       4,866
84    James Buckley       4,866
85    Cliff Josephy       4,866
86    Enrico Difranco       4,866
87    Jason Brice       4,866
88    Stacey Nutini       4,866
89    Trevor Pope       4,866
90    Tyler Patterson       4,866
91    Blake E Kelso       4,266
92    Kevin Boudreau       4,266
93    George Karatzas       4,266
94    Bill Jesernig       4,266
95    Roberto Romanello    4,266
96    Tye Babb               4,266
97    Jean-Robert Bellande    4,266
98    Alan Neubauer       4,266
99    Robbie Verspui       4,266
100    Samuel Trickett       3,792
101    Mike Ngo               3,792
102    Jordan Rich       3,792
103    James Petzing       3,792
104    Chadwick Livingston    3,792
105    Vittario Iemolo       3,792
106    Ludovic Agier       3,792
107    Anton Nikaj       3,792
108    Jay Goldstein       3,792
109    Michael Meredith       3,792
110    Steven Fager       3,792
111    Aaron Kanter       3,792
112    Pat Pezzin               3,792
113    Nicholas Binger       3,792
114    Melik Bagdasaryan    3,792
115    Sean Getzwiller       3,792
116    James Keys       3,792
117    Carl Johnson       3,792
118    Chance Steed       3,792
119    Jon Brenneman       3,792
120    Michael Monter       3,792
121    Fabrice Halleux       3,792
122    Steven Dunkelberg    3,792
123    George Lusby       3,792
124    Jonathan Dull       3,792
125    Sean McElroy       3,792
126    Michael Chill       3,792
127    Vinicius Leal       3,792
128    Cory Parent       3,792
129    Donald Yaughn       3,792
130    Anthony Gargiulo    3,792
131    Timothy West       3,792
132    Daniel Reisman       3,792
133    Albert Winchester    3,792
134    Clifford Miller       3,792
135    Justin Kuzmicki       3,792
136    Marc Aubin       3,413
137    Ryan Schmidt       3,413
138    Richard Hoffmaster    3,413
139    William Childs       3,413
140    Patrick O'connor       3,413
141    Marc Mclaughlin       3,413
142    Calvin Anderson       3,413
143    Andrew Teng       3,413
144    Vagan Sudzhyan       3,413
145    Brent Sheirbon       3,413
146    Timothy Woolston    3,413
147    Keith Olsen       3,413
148    John Simunich       3,413
149    Ian Wiley               3,413
150    Cristopher Lasco       3,413
151    Victor Ramdin        3,413
152    Markus Gonsalves    3,413
153    Detlef Pashaus       3,413
154    Champie Douglas    3,413
155    Corey Burbick       3,413
156    Eric Schwartz       3,413
157    Aaron Thomas       3,413
158    Aaron Orourke       3,413
159    Gareth Teatum       3,413
160    Peter Chun       3,413
161    Michael Flores       3,413
162    Hugo Perez       3,413
163    William Massad       3,413
164    Walter Buss       3,413
165    Anthony Gargano    3,413
166    Robert Harcarik       3,413
167    Harvey Larocque       3,413
168    James Anderson       3,413
169    Joseph Ward       3,413
170    Joel Bullock       3,413
171    Michael Jensen       3,413
172    Steven Morra       3,128
173    Robert Flowers       3,128
174    Amnon Filippi       3,128
175    Vincent Graziano       3,128
176    Shawn Meyer       3,128
177    Edward Pellegrini    3,128
178    Allen Gillain               3,128
179    David Whalen       3,128
180    Daniel Adams       3,128
181    Yonghui Jiang       3,128
182    Raymond Amoroso    3,128
183    Gerard Zeitoun       3,128
184    Marc Davis       3,128
185    Martin Hruby    PokerStars Team Pro    3,128
186    Simon Lam       3,128
187    Reagan Leman       3,128
188    Jason Helder       3,128
189    Omar Mehmood       3,128
190    James Keating       3,128
191    Douglas Bruce       3,128
192    Michael Frandsen       3,128
193    Laurence Grodin       3,128
194    Jason Elzinga       3,128
195    Christopher Tennapel       3,128
196    Joshua Hillock       3,128
197    Matthew Vance       3,128
198    John Oshea       3,128
199    Steven Kreinik       3,128
200    Walter Weiss       3,128
201    Matthew Livingston       3,128
202    Joel Erikson       3,128
203    Finley Rodgers       3,128
204    Maxim Sorokin       3,128
205    Maciek Gracz       3,128
206    Wartan Jalnakrian       3,128
207    Mark Newhouse       3,128
208    Eugene Yanayt       2,844
209    Jordan Smith       2,844
210    Roberto Betbese       2,844
211    Eric Von Guttenberg       2,844
212    Craig Restifo       2,844
213    Michael Bisutti       2,844
214    Anders Taylor       2,844
215    Noam Freedman       2,844
216    Richard Spirra       2,844
217    Alexander Kim       2,844
218    David Stefanski       2,844
219    Ryan Snickles       2,844
220    Jason Cluxton       2,844
221    Francisco Hernandez       2,844
222    Zachary Hirst       2,844
223    Jose Pimentel       2,844
224    Christopher Paasch       2,844
225    Tommy Le       2,844
226    Kenneth Terrell       2,844
227    Gregory Mathias       2,844
228    Bernie Yang       2,844
229    Andrew Aguilar       2,844
230    Mark Smith       2,844
231    Tyler Netter-Wainwright       2,844
232    Jason Darow       2,844
233    Brian Benhamou       2,844
234    Ryan Allen       2,844
235    Stephane Croes       2,844
236    Jesse Cohen       2,844
237    Yi Cheng       2,844
238    Sean Lenning       2,844
239    Vince Burgio       2,844
240    Joseph Just       2,844
241    Craig Rudolph       2,844
242    Clayton Mozdzen       2,844
243    Yisidro Bustillos       2,844

Event 9 payouts to date, the Flushy final table event

2010 World Series of Poker
Event #9: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em

10    Julie Farkas       11,468
11    James Lewis       11,468
12    Joe Serock       11,468
13    Melissa Hayden       9,117
14    Chan Pelton       9,117
15    Joe Gotlieb       9,117
16    Stephen Simm       7,248
17    Kenneth Krouner    7,248
18    Jason Alvarez       7,248
19    Daniel Burke       5,870
20    Christian Harder       5,870
21    Steve O'Dwyer       5,870
22    Brandon Holmes       5,870
23    John Kranyak       5,870
24    Clark Hamagami       5,870
25    Steve Yea       5,870
26    Bryan Pardoe       5,870
27    Frank Rusnak       5,870
28    Scott Montgomery    4,808
29    Luke Tavis       4,808
30    Raymond Coburn    4,808
31    Aaron Raap       4,808
32    Chris Moore       4,808
33    Bob Oxenberg       4,808
34    James Coca       4,808
35    Bob Slezak       4,808
36    Iain Paterson       4,808
37    Alexander Dovzhenko    3,992
38    Michael Fong       3,992
39    Justin Young       3,992
40    Michael Parizon       3,992
41    Tom McEvoy    PokerStars Team USA    3,992
42    Cornel Andrew Cimpan 3,992
43    Joshua Cooper       3,992
44    Todd Terry       3,992
45    Adam Sherman       3,992
46    Jonathan Little       3,352
47    Brian Miller       3,352
48    John Corr       3,352
49    Mark Defaria       3,352
50    David Cairns       3,352
51    Davis Aalvik       3,352
52    Tom Schneider       3,352
53    Paul Parker       3,352
54    Tim Kahlmeyer       3,352
55    Jason Lavallee       2,851
56    Jared Jaffee       2,851
57    Steven Hustoft       2,851
58    Stefan Rapp       2,851
59    Dan Sindelar       2,851
60    Jason Potter       2,851
61    Archibald Vanhorn    2,851
62    Michael Maher       2,851
63    Eric Lynch               2,851

Event #10: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship



1          394,800
2          243,958
3          152,788
4          110,629
5          86,461
6          68,949
7          55,991
8          46,206
9          38,676
10          38,676
11          32,909
12          32,909
13    Shane Douglas       28,623
14    Pat Pezzin    PokerStars Team Pro    28,623
15    Yuval Bronstein       24,901
16    Edouard Mignot Bonnefous       24,901


chip counts of the top 10 remaining

1      Vladimir Schmelev 921,000
2    Sirious Jamshidi    638,000
3    Michael Mizrachi    544,000
4    Nikolay Evdakov    543,000
5    Steve Billirakis    448,000
6    Joe Cassidy    410,000
7    Men Nguyen    302,000
8    Dan Heimiller    222,000
9    Eric Buchman    142,000
10    Ray Dehkharghani  132,000

Barry Greenstein, Tony G, Daniel Negreanu, Todd Brunson, and Phil Ivey went deep but didn't cash

Is the chip leader the guy who called the all in with 8h 10h in the PLHE that Flushy is deep in?

In event 11 $1500 NLH

At the end of day one 297 remain from 2,563 starters. 270 paid over $600,000 for first

Top Chip Counts
1    Casey Jarzabek    105,200
2    James Lee    101,900
3    Neil Tyler    97,100
4    Jason Young    90,000
5    Eric Ladny    88,000
6    Blair Hinkle    75,000
7    Minh Nguyen    65,000
8    Jessica Dawley    63,000
9    Neil Channing    50,000
10    Tom Dwan    47,000

In Event 12 $1500 Limit

612 began

189 remain

Top Chip Counts
1    Jameson Painter    47,600
2    David Williams    41,800
3    Kengo Ito    40,400
4    Eric Rivkin    37,100
5    David Gee    36,600
6    Ryan Bambrick    35,000
7    Shawn Buchanan    32,000
8    Stephen Murphy    32,000
9    Sorel Mizzi    27,000
10    Jeff Madsen    25,000


63 paid, $190,000 up top

From around the presses:

It was less than three hours into day eight of the World Series of Poker, but that didn’t stop the drama.  Tournament directors had a tough decision regarding the $1,500 Pot Limit Holdem event.  Ten levels had just completed, which is generally when tournaments wrap-up and continue the next day, except during the final table.  However, they were down to just 65 players, which was just two before the remaining players made the money.
 
When it was announced they would be ending the tournament for the evening, many of the players disagreed, wondering why they couldn’t just finish knowing if they are going back for the next day and are officially in the money.  Additionally, many questioned how angry the two short stacks, William Smith and Davis Aalvik, would be considering they would most likely have to wait all night just to bust out early the next day. 

However, it wasn’t one of the short stacks that appeared most angry with the ruling.  Professional Todd Terry showed the most anger with the decision.  Terry seemed upset that tournament director Jack Effel made the decision to end the tournament for the night from the telephone in his home.  Terry felt that a majority of the table would have played a few hands to get into the money, but because of “someone sitting at home,” they won’t be doing that.

Luckily, Terry is a regular contributor to the poker forum at TwoPlusTwo.com, and sure enough just before 4:00 am he made a post regarding the situation.  He titled the thread, “Disgraceful Decision by Jack Effel to Stop Play 2 From Money.”  Steaming from the situation he wrote, “This decision shows a blatant disregard for the paying customers of the WSOP. First of all, people want to play tomorrow's event. Additionally, making shortstacks come back to play another day to bubble immediately is just cruel.”

Responses were mixed.  One poster pointed out that “rules are rules” and it doesn’t matter if they are that close to the bubble if it’s agreed upon ahead of time when the tournament will end for the night.  However, rule 101 in the WSOP rulebook reads: Play will end after 10 levels of play for all events that begin at 12 noon. Play will resume the following day at 2:30 p.m. The Tournament Director may modify this schedule for any reason. 

Barry Greenstein posted his response at 2:41 pm today stating that while he would have wanted to play it down if he was in that position, he does understand that the WSOP is trying hard to adhere to a new rule where the WSOP wants to have a 12 hour gap between play, giving players adequate rest. 
Greenstein added, “Jack tried to take the path with the least repercussions, knowing that in some sense only two people would be affected. He didn't bargain that one person left in the field was our very vocal friend Todd Terry!” 

Terry says he still would have liked to see the tournament played down, but that hasn’t affected his play for day two in the tournament.  Terry is in the middle of the pack with just 46 players remaining.  Smith and Aalvik have both been eliminated, but they both did manage to mini-cash.

 Phil Hellmuth Jr. started the day with a healthy chip stack in the $1,500 No Limit Holdem Event #8.  With 18 left to go, Hellmuth had both an impressive chip stack and an impressive amount of people railing him in the Amazon room.  Hellmuth, already the all-time leader with 11 WSOP bracelets, would have taken a two bracelet lead over Johnny Chan with a win, but alas, it wasn’t to be.

Hellmuth began ranting in his usual manner not too long after the final two tables began when Max Steinberg won a hand with A♠-7♠, against Hellmuth.  The Hellmuth volcanic eruption began with Hellmuth telling Max how bad he played the hand and how it was stupid for him to be playing it at this point in the tournament as Max stacked a lot of Phil’s chips. Phil eventually said something to the effect that he was still lucky to be in the tournament.  After the hand Hellmuth was well below chip average, so not long after that he pushed all in with Q♦-9♦ only to be called by Scott Vener’s dominating A♣-6♣.  The board was no help to Hellmuth and he was eliminated in 15th place.

PokerNews

The first week of the 2010 World Series of Poker is in the books, eight bracelets have been awarded, and the 58,000 square feet of additional playing space in the Rio Convention Center’s Pavillion Room isn’t the only reason the WSOP feels a little emptier this year.

Numbers are down nearly across the board, and although the $50,000 Players’ Championship saw a 22% uptick in entries, it was quite a different event than the one held a year ago. Not only was the format changed from H.O.R.S.E. to an 8-game mix, but the tournament was scheduled at the beginning of the WSOP rather than midway through. Additionally, this year’s Players Championship was one of only three events ESPN is taping for broadcast. Pundits and players alike thought the return of the TV cameras could perhaps draw the 140-150 players the event saw between 2006 and 2008, or perhaps even a number closer to the 201 who bought in to last year’s $40,000 NLHE event. However, even the conservative line set by the media on Day 1 of the $50K came in at 125.

As we took a closer look at the 116 players who entered the $50K in 2010, several themes began to emerge. Here are some of the trends we noticed as we broke down the field.

Young players make a strong showing

Turning the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event into an 8-Game championship brought out a powerful contingent of young players, many of whom play in the highest-stakes NLHE and PLO cash games online. Tom Dwan, Phil Galfond, Cole South, Brian Townsend, David “WhooooKid” Baker, Nick Schulman, Isaac Haxton, Mikael Thuritz, David Benefield, Ashton Griffin, Justin Bonomo, Alexander Kostritsyn and Brian Hastings certainly all fall into this category, and a few of them (Dwan, Galfond, Townsend, Kostritsyn and Bonomo) have played in this event for several years now. A number of players better known for their NLHE and PLO tournament results also turned out, including Jason Mercier, Joe Serock, Scott Seiver, Dario Minieri, Tuan Le, Sorel Mizzi, Daniel “djk123” Kelly, Shawn Buchanan, Marco Johnson, and Mike “SirWatts” Watson. This year, the young cash gamers fared better than the young tourney pros. Baker (6th), Thuritz (8th), Schulman (9th) and Kostritsyn (10th) all made the money.

Some younger players who previously gave the $50K a shot and were missing this year? Matt Hawrilenko, Jon “Pearljammer” Turner, James “mig.com” Mackey, David Williams, Joe “Joe Tall” Bunevith, Brian “tsarrast” Rast and Kirill Gerasimov.

Dude, where’s my patch?

Pros sponsored by or affiliated with a major online poker site comprised 46% of the $50K field this year (53 of 116), a slight uptick from 43% of the field (41 of 95) in 2009. Here’s how they break down by site:

Full Tilt Poker– 36 (up from 30)
PokerStars – 11 (up from 6)
Ultimate Bet - 2
Doyles Room – 2
Titan Poker – 1
Party Poker – 1

Notable $50K no-shows

Ville Wahlbeck, Mike Wattel, Ray Dehkharghani, and John Kabbaj all cashed in this event in 2009 but did not play in 2010. Other notable absences included Johnny Chan, Allen Cunningham, Annie Duke, Mike Sexton, David Grey, John Hennigan, Gabe Kaplan, Jason Gray, Ali Eslami, Frank Kassela, Jani Sointula, Jery Buss, Cory Zeidman, Bruno Fitoussi, Max Pescatori, Andy Black, Fabrice Soulier, Rob Hollink, Jim Bechtel, Rafi Amit, and Brandon Adams.

One woman, 115 men

The number of female players in the $50,000 Players Championship reached a high watermark in 2007 when seven women (Jennifer Harman, Annie Duke, Cyndy Violette, Kristy Gazes, Isabelle Mercier, Jerri Thomas, and Maureen Feduniak) bought in. This year, however, only one woman played — Harman.

It's the Economy, Stupid

The $50,000 Players Championship isn’t the only event that drew a lower-than-anticipated number of entrants. Thus far, the fields in the lower buy-in NLHE events are anywhere from 7 to 27 percent smaller than they were in 2009. There are numerous factors at work here that are contributing to the lower numbers. For one, the U.S. economy is still seriously shaky and recreational players have less disposable income to spend on travel and tournament buy-ins. European pros are feeling the crunch, as well. Across the pond, the Euro is tanking, and the Players Championship probably had a lot more appeal when the Euro was trading at $1.58 than the $1.20 it is today — it’s lowest level in more than four years. There's also the simple fact that many international players are just not here yet, choosing to depart for Las Vegas a bit closer to the Main Event. Finally, there are far more $1,000 and $1,500 buy-in events on the docket this year. While there was only one $1K “Stimulus Special” in 2009, there will be six this summer.

Aside from the $50K, the only events that saw a significant increase in field size were two of the higher buy-in tournaments offered this week — the $5,000 NLHE Shootout and the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw. For all you stats lovers, here’s a more detailed look at the tournament entry numbers through the first ten events:

2010 World Series of Poker tournament entries, Events #1-10

Event #1 – $500 Casino Employees NLHE, 721 players, down 16.7% from 2009 (866 players)

Event #2 - $50,000 Players’ Championship, 116 players, up 22% from 2009 (95 players), down 22% from 2008 **

Event #3 - $1,000 NLHE, 4,345 players, down 27.7% from 2009 (6,012 players)***

Event #4 - $1,500 Omaha 8 or better, 818 players, down 11% from 2009 (918 players)

Event #5 - $1,500 NLHE, 2,092 players, down 25% from 2009 (2,791 players)

Event #6 - $5,000 NLHE Shootout, 358 players, up 27.8% from 2009 (280 players)

Event #7 - $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw, 291 players, up 13.2% from 2009 (257 players)

Event #8 - $1,500 NLHE, 2,341 entries, down 7% from 2009 (2,506 entries)

Event #9 - $1,500 PLHE, 650 entries, up 2.6% from 2009 (633 players)

Event #10 - $10,000 Seven-Card Stud, 150 players, up 5.6% from 2009 (142 players)

no, that was kwaysser

Negraneau's view on the live updates

I mean if next year someone wants to send us me over, we'll do our best. k? thx



PokerNews normally does a really good job with everything they do, but what in the world is up with the chip count coverage at the WSOP this year? They have a page for it, but clicking on it would be a complete waste of your time because not only is it rarely updated, it's also nowhere near accurate.
I had friends sweating me in the 10k Stud event, and for most of day 1 they had me listed at 88k... problem is, at no point did I ever have even close to that many chips. My peak was 70k and I ended with about 50k. It's so random that they'd just throw out the number 88k and leave it there all day.
At every break I tweet my chip count as do many of the pros playing in the events. Why don't they have someone following the tweets and updating the chip counts that come directly from the players?

PokerNews has exclusive rights to covering the chip counts this year, and I don't know who's in charge, but if they don't actually cover the events, I don't see how they expect to retain the rights to cover the events next year.

I have heard tons of people complain about this. They have all kinds of live update posts with hands etc, but the majority of people really want to know how their favorites are doing chip wise. They'd be much better off focusing less on covering random hands and spending more time actually tracking chip counts.

The WPT updates are way better and it's not even close. They do live updates too, but they also cover the top 30-40 players that the public likes to follow and update their chip counts regularly.

It's frustrating when I'm at home to try and follow along with what's going on in the tournaments, only to realize that the chip counts posted are beyond unreliable.

Either PokerNews has to go back to the format they used in previous years and actually do their best to give accurate reports on chip counts, or the WSOP will have to go with a new team to cover the chip counts.

It's still early in the WSOP so I don't think it's too late to make some changes, and I really hope they listen. Seriously if ALL they had were just chip counts with zero hand updates, but the chip counts were on point, it would be better than the current coverage by a mile.

I've heard a few murmurs about the misreporting of hands too. I know Sam Trickett wasn't happy with PN

Part of DN's idea is good - the followint twitter for chip counts - but even if you had someone just there for chip counts (or as their primary role) I don't think it'd be possible to keep on top of it until a tournament gets down to say the last 50 players as chip counts fluctuate so quickly. Taking a chip count with the naked eye, as you have to, obviously leads to human error, miscounting that a player has two large deominatiion chips instead of three can skew a chipcount, I imagine people like Snoopy and Dana are pretty good at this having done so many but it takes a few updates to be able to do this proficently and quickly, it also doesn't help that the chip coulurs can be hard to distinguish in some cases. Most tours like the GUKPT and UKIPT are great at getting staff to do chipcounts on breaks and this helps the updates amazingly.

Also the amount of posts on forums you see that are something like, 'PokerNews lists Hellmith as having gained 100,000 chips but no info on the hand,' suggests that many followers also want the details, updates would be pretty bland if it were just a list of numbers.

I like Negreanu and definitely think he's is 'good for poker' it just seems that recently a lot of his ideas - wanting to ban sunglasses for example - are more about what is good for Negreanu not what is good for poker.

I can't think why anyone would give a toss tbh, just focus on the game imo and worry about the important things...........

Flushy M.I.A at that start of the final!!!!

pretty short sighted statement.

For players like Sam, who are potentially attractive to sites it's pretty important that hands are being reported correctly.

Well quite - this was the telling quote.


ie 'The updaters should just stand and watch the name players (like me) and basically ignore the other 1000 people playing.'

Daniel Negreanu has today overtaken Hellmuth as the most self obsessed and self righteous twat in poker.

Congrats Daniel  ;hattip;

Just win the thing and they won't give a monkeys imo..........

The only time updates matter are at the final table.

What effing difference does it make if Danny Boy has 70k or 80k with 100 left of a seven card stud tournament?

And as for reporting hands correctly, I know plenty of players who report hands they actually played incorrectly so it's hardly surprsing someone watching away from the table, who can't ask for counts sometimes makes mistakes.

People whp worry about such things need to get a grip and start worrying about important stuff.

From WSOP update, made me LOL:

James Dempsey has a crew of British poker players supporting him on the rail, including Chris Moorman and Nicky Evans. This hasn't been the most action-filled final table yet, so they're keeping themselves entertained by betting on the color of the flops. There haven't been so many of those, either, but when they do come out, the announcer is getting into the spirit of the game. He's been calling out the red/black tally along with the poker action. The case of Milwaukee's Best that just showed up ought to help keep the rail entertained as well.

Interesting, but ignorant post by Daniel imo. Glad I wasn't covering the Stud though.

Event Nine wrap up

The first Pot-Limit Hold'em bracelet of 2010 goes to James "Flushy" Dempsey. Just before the final table began, we heard the British national anthem played as Praz Bansi was awarded his second career bracelet. To the delight of Dempsey's vocal British rail, he has ensured we'll get to hear "God Save the Queen" at least once more. The $197,470 he earned for this win doubles Dempsey's lifetime live tournament cashes, but it is less than he earned for his largest online cash. He picked up $211,000 for second place in the 2009 SCOOP $320 No-Limit Hold'em event.

Dempsey defeated Steve Chanthabouasy heads up in a tough battle that took more than two hours. Both outlasted a stacked field of 650 that began the tournament three days ago. Dempsey ended Day 1 as chip leader and maintained his position through most of Day 2, only relinquishing it at the end to Chanthabouasy, who began the final table as chip leader with only 5,000 more than Dempsy. Flushy quickly retook the lead and bullied the table for the rest of the evening before finally eliminating Chanthabouasy and securing the title.

Dempsey eliminated JJ Liu in third place. She earned the honor of being the first woman to make a final table at the 2010 World Series. She began the day with her eyes on the bracelet, but could never accumulate enough chips to make a run at the top spot. Liu lost a flip to Dempsey to end her fight and had to settle for $86,512.


                                            $
1     James Dempsey          197,470
2    Steve Chanthabouasy    121,963
3    JJ Liu                86,512
4    Mark Babekov       62,232
5    Scott Haraden       45,393
6    Armen Kara       33,573
7    Joseph Williams       25,166
8    Edward Brogdon       19,120
9    Gregg Wilkerson       14,715

Event 10 the $10,000 Stud is heads up between Men Nguyen and Brandon Adams

Other cashers

3     Steve Billirakis           152,788
4    Nikolay Evdakov       110,629
5    Joe Cassidy       86,461
6    Michael Mizrachi       68,949
7    Vladimir Schmelev    55,991
8    Sirious Jamshidi       46,206
9    Dan Heimiller       38,676
10    Todd Barlow       38,676
11    Ray Dehkharghani    32,909
12    Eric Buchman       32,909
13    Shane Douglas       28,623
14    Pat Pezzin    PokerStars Team Pro    28,623
15    Yuval Bronstein       24,901
16    Edouard Mignot Bonnefous    24,901

Event 11 $1500 NLH has 43 of 2563 left


Chip leaders include Tom Dwan

1      Kyle Julius     1,100,000
2    Tom Dwan    840,000
3    Christopher Giddings 550,000
4    Simon Watt    450,000
5    David Randall    443,000
6    Nicholas Phillips    432,000
7    Austin Mccormick 427,000
8    Jeff Hakim     380,000
9    Jacobo Fernandez    362,000
10    Harsukhpaul Sangha    335,000


Javed Abrahams the only British casher I could see

Event 12 $1500 Limit has 21 of 625 left


chip leaders

1      Jameson Painter  306,000
2    Kirk Banks       230,000
3    Ahmad Abghari    203,000
4    Ilya Sheyn    180,000
5    Terrence Chan    178,000
6    Georgios Kapalas    176,000
7    Jason Potter    175,000
8    Adrian Dresel-velasquez 170,000
9    Ben Lamb    170,000
10    Hope Williams    160,000

Event 13 $1,000 NLH at the end of 1a 1925 began 304 left and Andy Black is chip leader

1      Andy Black     92,000
2    Marcello Delgrosso 68,300
3    Andrew Youngblood    54,300
4    Dylan Linde    53,200
5    Mikhail Tulchinskiy 50,500
6    George "Riley" Panagakis 50,000
7    Dylan Lynde    46,000
8    Mike Atkinson    46,000
9    Clark Hamagami    45,650
10    Jared Hamby    44,500

The field was smaller than expected for the first day one flight of Event #13, the second $1,000 no-limit hold'em event of the 2010 World Series of Poker thus far. Just 1,922 players entered the day with the hopes of bagging chips at the end of the night and making it to Day 2.

Justin Bonomo, Katja Thater, Gavin Smith, Joe Sebok, JP Kelly, James Akenhead, Eli Elezra, Chris Ferguson, Tom McEvoy, Gavin Griffin, and Kara Scott were among the bracelet hopefuls that would not be back on Monday.

Players bagging and tagging their chips tonight include, Shaun Deeb, Phil Gordon, Phil "USCPhildo" Collins, Paul Wasicka, Vitaly Lunkin, Bill Chen, and "Miami" John Cernuto. It appears that Andy Black is our overnight chip leader with 92,000.

Tomorrow at noon local time, another round of hopefuls will make their way into the Pavilion Room here at the Rio with the same dream as the 1,922 that entered today. The remaining players from tomorrow night will meet the remaining players from tonight on Monday at 2:30 local time.

Event 14 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball $1500


250 began, 97 remain

Led by

1      Brandon Cantu     49,700
2    Scott Seiver    45,500
3    Alex Kravchenko    28,900
4    Josh Arieh    27,000
5    Keith Lehr    22,500
6    JC Tran    21,000
7    David 'Chino' Rheem 21,000
8    Chris Viox    21,000
9    Peter Gelencser    20,500
10    Yan Chen    16,000

Dino was spot on about Negreanu wanting what is good for himself, not the game. Every year he lobbies for something to be changed at the WSOP - he has asked for pro only events, more mixed games and make the main event a shootout = essentially all things that would give him a better chance of winning while at the same time isolating the masses upon masses of players and fans who have made him the star he is.

Here he basically logged on to his PC, didn't see chip counts for two friends he was sweating and decided the whole system is wrong. Live updating is the most thankless job in the world, when people do it right nobody notices and when someone makes the tiniest of errors everyone is calling for blood. Usually there are only one or two people covering a field between 300-2000 players and the live pros are often just as bad as the internet players at stacking their chips in such a way that someone can get an accurate count from 6 yards away. The one exception to this is the Blonde updates, where there is a real community spirit of appreciation between players, bloggers and the audience.

Camel is right, only thing that matters is the final/final twoish tables and everything else till that point is colour.

I love Negreanu as a player, I always stop everything to watch him play, but he always always talks about the game in terms of what benefits him right now and is very short sighted about the things that have made him what he is.

Sorry Greeky old chum but this is a short sighted statement. Well, not short sighted, overly long sighted, if thats an actual thing.

First of all the numbers of people that actually look at the live updates is probably a lot less than you and most people think. In particular all the decision makers in potentially interested sponsors probably dont have much of a clue about hand reporting, nor do they read the updates. The only sponsors who will be perusing these updates will be doing so to see if the people they have already sponsored are getting coverage (Often we will get them dropping us a line saying 'can you edit that last update to say he is an XXX sponsored player'). The only people who will get noticed and sponsored as a result of a deep WSOP run will be getting signed up in person because there was an agent hanging around the Rio like a vulture.

What the potential sponsors care about are final tables and TV coverage in these events. It doesn't matter if they misplayed every hand in the world to get to a final or a feature table, as long as they are there.

Just to add to this Neil Channing, Sam Trickett and Karl "discomonkey" Fenton were also British cashers

and Men the Master Nguygen has just won Event 10 for just shy of $400,000

Men “the Master” Nguyen was the winner of the 2010 Seven-Card Stud World Championship.  It marked his seventh career WSOP gold bracelet victory.
 
The native of Vietnam who now resides in Bell Gardens, California was one of poker’s most dominant players during the 1990s.  He has cashed in more than 100 major tournaments and won several distinguished titles, establishing a well-deserved reputation as one of the game’s most flamboyant and accomplished superstars.  But until tonight, Nguyen had not won a WSOP victory in seven seemingly endless years.

Nguyen added to his legacy by winning a $10,000 buy-in stud competition played over three long days and nights.  Nguyen topped a field which included 150 of the world’s best Seven-Card Stud players and ultimately won the game’s most coveted prize – adding yet another treasured memento to his jewelry collection.

The runner up was Brandon Adams, a Harvard PhD who has emerged as one of poker’s top players, although he has yet to have won a WSOP gold bracelet.  Adams battled Nguyen tough and managed to take a brief chip lead over his rival when playing heads-up, even though “the Master” was clearly an intimidating force during most of the finale, which was played in front of a huge gallery of spectators on the ESPN Main Stage at the Rio in Las Vegas.  

The final table also included Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi and Vladimir Schmelev.  They became the first two players at this year’s WSOP to make multiple final table appearances.  Both final tabled the $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship, which ended five days earlier – finishing 1-2 respectively.

With his seventh victory, Nguyen joins Poker Hall of Fame inductee Billy Baxter and living legend Phil Ivey in a sixth-place tie for most WSOP career wins.

Andy Ward has begun to track the fortunes of three groups of players on his blog (google secrets of the amateurs, highly recommended), in an aim to cut through the media spin and see who is doing what

These groups were

TV Pros : Benyamine, Bloch, Corkins, Cunningham, Ferguson, Greenstein, Hachem, Hansen, Hellmuth, Ivey, Lederer, Liebert, Lindgren, Matusow, Mortensen, Negreanu, Men Nyugen, Scotty Nguyen, Raymer, David Williams

Euro Pros : Akenhead, Bansi, Black, Channing, De Wolfe, Dempsey, Duthie, Eastgate, Grospellier, Jorgensen, JP Kelly, Kravchenko, Luske, Mahrenholz, Minieri, Moorman, Obrestad, Pescatori, Marty Smyth, Ulliott

2+2 + co : Aaron Gustavson, Andrew Lichtenberger, Christian Harder, Clayton Newman, Cliff Josephy, Eric Baldwin, Gavin Griffin, Jason Mercier, Jason Potter, Jeff Williams, Jon Aguiar, Justin Bonomo, Mike Watson, Phil Galfond, Randall Flowers, Shannon Shorr, Steve Gross, Steve O'Dwyer, Terrence Chan, Thayer Rasmusson.


After a week he reports

"WSOP Tracking Update : The Euro pros have flown out of the blocks with Praz ($500K) and Neil ($270K) picking up huge lumps and Flushy chip leader in the PL (1st is $190K) at time of writing. Massive congrats to all of them of course, three of the UK's very best tournament players. 2+2ers are only slightly down in buyins (normalising the effect of the $50K event somewhat) but $250k down in money terms, and TV donks, sorry pros, are $850k in the hole, muhahahaha. Guarantee you when one of them binks $300k it'll be "Year of the Pros !". GTFO. Biggest bracelet chasing hoes so far are Ivey, Raymer and Bonomo with 9 events each, closely followed by Lindgren and Negreanu with 8. Those 5 players have no cashes yet, that's right, 0/43. Yes, Hellmuth is only on 7 but he is slightly hampered by lacking that "get chips or get gone" mindset. And overall, the whole 60 players are about $400k down, that's including binks for $500k and $270k ! More description of random noise masquerading as analysis next weekend.

Update Sunday AM : I'm not going to do this every day, but as some events were ongoing when I wrote that ^^^, Flushy shipped it for $196k, congrats to a top player and top man ! Men the Master won the Stud for $390k (no editorial comment). Ivey and Lindgren cashed for $3K each. 2+2ers Terrence Chan and Jason Potter are in the last 20 of the Limit, gl to them. Pros now only $500k down and over all 60 players now $150k up.

Love Andy's blog. This has probably just whoosed me but I don't get the above sentence in his round up, surely if 2+2ers are slightly down in buy-ins they can't be $250k down in money terms? In short what's the difference between buy-ins and money terms in this context?

edit: also strange that Dwan isn't included in tv pros or 2+2 etc as he could arguably fit into either, perhaps that's why he wasn't included?

i think he standardise the buy ins for 1 part so if all the buy ins where same cost

Im assuming he means they are $250k down, which in reality is only 5 buy ins as most played the $50k event

Yeah -5 BI could mean -$250k or -$5k.  So the buyin number is much more useful IMO.  OPR does ROI by $ where as sharkscope does it by buyins which is a much better way of doing it (esp for checking players who are staked for bigger buyin events and ran bad at them who end up having -VE ROI on OPR despite being v good players)

Durrrr is in the last 3 now and Chris Matasow has said if Durrrr wins this the poker community wont have any money left,

I know he has some kind of sick prop bet on him winning one but does anyone have any links so how much money is on this??

Not sure he has said the figure but he said it would be his biggest winning day ever, so if anyone knows what that was, its more than that

Not sure if the figures are accurate, but the Durrr bet information was written as follows



Tom Dwan stands to make over $2 million in bracelet bets if he takes down a WSOP event this summer, the young pro has told Card Player. Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu are amongst the high stakes pros getting in on the action.

“Phil (Ivey) and Daniel (Negreanu) obviously bet against me, along with a bunch of other high stakes live pros,” said Dwan, who is taking minimum bets of $5,000.

The New Jersey pro is taking 3.25:1 odds from anybody that wants to bet against him on winning a bracelet this year. If the WSOPE counts, then he would only get 3:1. He also is taking 2:1 on winning two bracelets in three years with any bracelets won in London counting toward a chop

Not only is Dwan willing to bet on himself, but he is also giving others the option to bet on the likes of Ivey and Daniel Negreanu at 2:1 odds to outperform him at this year’s WSOP. If both Negreanu and Ivey win a bracelet and Dwan doesn’t, then Dwan would lose, and vice versa. If both parties take home some gold hardware, then the bet is a push and no money changes hands, regardless of multiple bracelet scenarios.

Dwan’s doubters also have the opportunity to bet against him by choosing any player in the field and Dwan will take 1.3:1 that he will have more cashes than that player.

Dwan is most widely known for his cash game prowess, but this bet has given him incentive to play a ton of events that he wouldn’t have competed in otherwise.

“I wouldn’t normally be playing the $1,500 events and stuff, but this year I’ll play some of them at least,” said Dwan. “Well, I’m probably going to play all of them and see what happens.”

Dwan has garnered a significant amount of action and could stand to win a decent chunk of change if he does take down an event.

“It would be worth at least $2 million this year to win a bracelet, maybe more,” said Dwan.

With all of the money he has riding on this year’s WSOP, Dwan’s cash game schedule will take a little bit of hiatus. He admits that he doesn’t think he will be able to put much of a dent in the “Durrrr Challenge” and will be putting in less volume than normal during the next few months.

Dwan may be showing his confidence by continuing to take bets, but he’s not publicly boasting about his chances just yet.

“Once I put that little gold thing on my wrist, I’ll be real confident,” said Dwan.

Event 12 $1,500 Limit Hold Em Result

1     Matt Matros     189,870
2    Ahmad Abghari    117,272
3    Terrence Chan    83,185
4    Georgios Kapalas    59,838
5    Adrian Dresel-Velasquez 43,647
6    Jason Potter    32,281
7    Jameson Painter    24,198
8    Roberto Truijers    18,385
9    Mark Burford    14,149
10    Frank Kassela    11,027
11    Ben Lamb       11,027
12    Kirk Banks       11,027
13    Dean Tran       8,766
14    Amnuey Sri    8,766
15    Ilya Sheyn       8,766
16    Patti Gallagher    6,969
17    Jeff Neeman    6,969
18    Robert Stevanovski 6,969
19    David Chang    5,644
20    Hope Williams    5,644
21    Kurt Maier       5,644
22    Marco Traniello    5,644
23    David Cairns    5,644
24    Avi Mukherjee    5,644
25    Jim Geary       5,644
26    Andrew Kerstine    5,644
27    David Plastik    5,644
28    Malissia Zapata    4,623
29    Michael Ma       4,623
30    Matthew Keikoan 4,623
31    Joshua Cooper    4,623
32    Kiarash Hamadani 4,623
33    John McQuinn    4,623
34    Craig Repoz    4,623
35    Colin Maneval    4,623
36    Michael Miccio    4,623
37    Matthew Grapenthein    3,839
38    Jimmie Julion    3,839
39    James Meek    3,839
40    Ugur Marangoz    3,839
41    Ryan Bambrick    3,839
42    James Metcalf    3,839
43    Anthony Rivera    3,839
44    Darren Shebell    3,839
45    Serena Liu       3,839
46    Timothy Ebenhoeh 3,223
47    Andre Boyer    3,223
48    Jefferey Mervis    3,223
49    Tom McCormick    3,223
50    Ylon Schwartz    3,223
51    Gavin Sun       3,223
52    Jason Tam       3,223
53    Phil Ivey       3,223
54    Shawn Buchanan 3,223
55    Lennart Konst    2,742
56    Kenny Hsiung    2,742
57    David Gee       2,742
58    Eric Rivkin       2,742
59    Donald Sokol    2,742
60    Beau Yeoman    2,742
61    Erik Lopez       2,742
62    Curtis Green    2,742
63    Paul Evans       2,742

Event 13 Day1b $1,500 NLHE

566 of 3042 Remain

Top Chip Counts
1    Jack Schanbacher 64,700
2    David Baker    60,950
3    Matt Vance    60,475
4    John Tare       57,000
5    Robert Bryan    55,100
6    Jason Jochem    46,075
7    Vincent Jacques    44,675
8    Burt Boutin    43,000
9    Sandro Giambouiui 41,450
10    Kevin Dwyer    39,375

Out includes  Phil Hellmuth, Chris Moorman, Michael Mizrachi, Jason Mercier, Bertrand Grospellier, Joe Cada, Annette Obrestad, Neil Channing          

Event 14 $1,500 2-7 Lowball

12 of 250 remain


Nicholas Binger    212,000    
Mike Wattel    160,000    
Chino Rheem    155,500    
James Bord    141,500    
Yan Chen       110,000    
Todd Bui       92,900    
Alexander Kravchenko 67,000    
Derric Haynie    53,600    
Daniel Nicewander 52,100    
Scott Seiver    50,700    
Bryan Micon    35,800    
Sean Snyder    35,000

Event 15 $10,000 7CS Hi Lo

136 of 170 remain

Top Chip Counts
1    Sirous Jamshidi    85,000
2    Alessio Isaia    82,000
3    Marco Johnson    76,000
4    Barry Greenstein    74,000
5    Phil Ivey    74,000
6    Max Pescatori    67,000
7    Eli Elezra    62,000
8    David Bach    60,000
9    Dan Kelly    58,000
10    Jennifer Harman    57,000

Event 11 finished as follows

1     Simon Watt           614,248
2    Tom Dwan       381,885
3    David Randall       270,299
4    Austin McCormick    194,939
5    Jason Young       142,346
6    Michael Smith       105,185
7    Marvin Rettenmaier    78,681
8    Kyle Winter       59,547
9    Eric Ladny               45,603


Close then for Dwan, but no high stakes prop bet cigar. Yet.

Poker News

For many of the 170 players who entered tonight's $10,000 Stud Hi-Lo event, the cards in front of them were little more than an afterthought. A distraction. The best they could do to keep their minds off the tens or even hundreds of thousands in prop bets they stood to lose should Tom Dwan win his first WSOP bracelet tonight.

As our Stud-8 players completed their last hand of the night, Dwan was all-in for the last of his chips and as he lost the final hand with Q-6 against Simon Watt's pocket nines, about half a dozen players from this tournament sprinted across the room to watch the board run out. When Watt's nines held, Negreanu and Matusow came running back to bag their chips flailing their arms and squealing like little kids as they narrowly avoided financial ruin.

Oh, as for the tournament we're supposed to be covering here? Approximately 112 of our 170 starters are bagging and tagging their chips and will return for Day 2 tomorrow at 3 p.m. Although bracelet winners Greg Raymer, Matt Hawrilenko, Annie Duke, Ted Forrest, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and Todd Brunson found themselves on the rail during the early levels, the field is still chock-full of poker luminaries, two of whom are sitting pretty near the top of the leaderboard. Phil Ivey ended the evening with about 109,800 in chips and right behind him is the tiny but mighty Jennifer Harman, who ended the night with 93,500. Also still in contention is defending champion Jeffrey Lisandro who has 40,500 in chips.

$10k 7cs Hi Lo

Position Name Chips

1 Phil Ivey 109800
2 Sirous Jamshidi 106500
3 Christopher George 105000
4 Jennifer Harman 93500
5 Eli Elezra 90000
6 Barry Greenstein 88000
7 Alessio Isaia 82000
8 Marco Johnson 76000
9 Gus Hansen 68000
10 Max Pescatori 67000
11 Allen Kessler 61000
12 Hasan Habib 57000
13 Josh Arieh 57000
14 David Singer 52000
15 Mickey Seagle 52000
16 Chip Jett 51000
17 Mike Matusow 50000
18 Ralph Perry 50000
19 Bruce Yamron 49000
20 Phil Hellmuth 48000
21 Scotty Nguyen 48000
22 Bob Lauria 48000
23 Dan Heimiller 48000
24 George Lind III 48000
25 Dan Shak 47000
26 Robert Mizrachi 47000
27 Pat Poels 46000
28 Eugene Katchalov 45000
29 Mike Sexton 44000
30 Cyndy Violette 43000
31 Nick Schulman 43000
32 Stuart Rutter 42500
33 Mel Judah 42000
34 John Juanda 42000
35 Toto Leonidas 41000
36 Jeffrey Lisandro 40500
37 Dario Alioto 40000
38 Ozzy Sheikh 40000
39 Erik Seidel 40000
40 Chad Brown 40000
41 Scott Clements 38000
42 Sorel MIzzi 38000
43 Steve Zolotow 38000
44 David Chiu 38000
45 Daniel Negreanu 37700
46 David Benyamine 37000
47 Alexander Kostritsyn 37000
48 Sabyl Landrum 36400
49 Jason Mercier 36000
50 David Grey 35000
51 Shannon Shorr 33500
52 Brian Townsend 33000
53 Mickey Sehela 32000
54 Tom Koral 32000
55 Stephen Su 31500
56 Brandon Adams 31000
57 Blair Rodman 29000
58 Barry Shulman 28000
59 Keith Sexton 28000
60 Nikolay Losev 28000
61 Yuval Bronshtein 26700
62 Huck Seed 26000
63 Eric Buchman 25500
64 Gary Benson 25000
65 Thor Hansen 25000
66 Doyle Brunson 25000
67 Tom Schneider 24800
68 David Sklansky 24200
69 Farzad Bonyadi 22600
70 Tom Dwan 22000
71 Doug Raney 21600
72 Howard Lederer 21000
73 John D'Agostino 21000
74 Cory Zeidman 20500
75 Tommy Vedes 20000
76 Abe Mosseri 20000
77 Norman Chad 20000
78 Chau Giang 20000
79 James Van Alstyne 20000
80 Tom Chambers 20000
81 David Bach 19000
82 Jim Collopy 18600
83 David Benefield 18500
84 Dan Kelly 18000
85 Dario Minieri 18000
86 Joe Cassidy 17500
87 Claudio Rinaldi 16500
88 Andy Bloch 16000
89 Vladimir Schmelev 15800
90 Kristy Gazes 15200
91 Chris Ferguson 15200
92 Jean-Robert Bellande 14000
93 Men Nguyen 14000
94 Justin Bonomo 14000
95 Nikolay Evdakov 14000
96 George Trigeorgis 13200
97 BIll Chen 13000
98 Artie Cobb 11500
99 Mike Watson 11200
100 Steve Sung 11000
101 Steve Billirakis 10000
102 Allie Prescott 8000
103 John Monnette 6200
104 Allen Bari 5500

Payouts:
1st $447,446
2nd $276,485
3rd $173,159
4th $125,379
5th $97,989
6th $78,142
7th $63,456
8th $52,366
9th-10th $43,833
11th-12th $37,297
13th-14th $32,439
15th-16th $28,220

1500 2-7 TD Lowball - Nick Binger Leads Final Table
    

1 Nicholas Binger Las Vegas, NV 330000
2 Yan Chen , 165000
3 Mike Wattel Mesa, AZ 160000
4 James Bord Stanmore, United Kingdom 141500
5 Alexander Kravchenko Moscow, Russia 96000
6 Daniel Nicewander Bluefield, WV 69000
7 Chino Rheem , 64000
8 Todd Bui , 55000
9 Derric Haynie , 53600

4 James Bord Stanmore, United Kingdom 141500


anyone?

Utterly sick scenes tonight. Durrrr came second in a donkament, but if he'd won he would have apparently taken Ivey, Lederer et al for around $10 million.

For those people on twitter, follow @taopauly @benjodimeo @change100 and @bjnemeth as they tweet the best stuff.

Here's his HMDB, maybe soimeone on here recognises the face?

http://pokerdb.thehendonmob.com/player.php?a=r&n=104576

Event #13 $1k NLHE

Top 10 Leaderboard - 56 players remain

Here are the top 10 chip counts to finish the day:

Matthew Vance - 547,000
Christopher Brammer - 518,000
Mats Gavatin - 450,000
Daniel Carter - 417,000
Carl Olson - 325,000
Philip Sparta - 280,000
Kyung Han - 259,000
Jeremy Defrande - 240,000
Dennis Jeffrey - 236,000
Jasper Wetemans - 228,000

Event 13

56 left in the $1,000 NLHE at the end of Day 2, and look who we have in the top 10

Top Chip Counts
1    Matthew Vance    547,000
2    Christopher Brammer    518,000
3    Mats Gavatin    450,000
4    Daniel Carter    417,000
5    Carl Olson    325,000
6    Philip Sparta    280,000
7    Kyung Han    259,000
8    Jeremy Defrande 240,000
9    Dennis Jeffrey    236,000
10    Jasper Wetemans 228,000

$472,000 up top

Jack Powell still in for the Brits too

Liv Boeree, Garry Bush and Keith Miller cashed

 COME ON MY SON !!!!!
ship bracelet no 3 for the brits ! GO GOGGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGOGO

In Event 15 the $10,000 7CS Hi-Lo 23 remain currently, 16 are paid

Top Chip Counts
1    Vladimir Schmelev 500,000
2    Alessio Isaia    390,000
3    John Juanda    330,000
4    Dario Minieri    320,000
5    Christopher George 270,000
6    Allen Kessler    255,000
7    Chip Jett        253,000
8    Frank Kassela    245,000
9    Blair Rodman    240,000
10    Kirill Rabtsov    240,000


Richard Ashby is just outside the top 10

In Event 16 $1,500 NLH 6-Max

146 of 1663 remain and the chip leaders are

1      Roger Teska     221,000
2    Kevin Iacofano    165,000
3    Dorlan Schick    139,000
4    Tim Adams    138,900
5    Joseph Cheong    135,000
6    Dave Sands    118,000
7    Hugo Perez    117,500
8    Michael Kucinski    116,000
9    Tony Licasto    109,000
10    Francois Billarp    108,000

Ben Roberts, JP Kelly, James Dempsey still in, and have cashed

 

I leave on Wednesday night after 11 days here....have just returned from 14 hours play at the Venetian - and have made last 28 tommorow with $50,000 up top.  I am short, but had 4 bbs at one stage in last level after a brutal  Aspades Kh v  Qc Td went against me.  One time - go back with 155,000 and ave is 230,000, last level was 3k/6k with 500 ante so a little biyt of play left in it, but not much.

Had a great time - highlight being on the rail (albeit not as drunk and feeling old compared with the shrewdies) - and cashing at Caesars, and hopefully tomorrow.  I've cashed for $7k total, before tomorrow - twice and Caesars and twice in donkaments at the Aria where I am staying (note to all mid range, non pros coming out - play the $150 at 1pm here, it is so soft).  So, still got the $6.5k I came with in the safe somehow, despite playing both $1000 and a $1500 at the Rio with no cash - and a Comedy Sunday where I managed to play the Rio, Venetian and Ceasars (all start at 12pm) and bust all three by 5 pm....and a fortune in taxis and food.

So - one time tomorrow.  If I don't post until home, good luck to all of you staying for the summer.  After 10 days of play,I have loads of admiration, I am shattered and need to go back to work for a break.

ESPN.com has hit the ground running with seven weeks of intense coverage of the 41st annual World Series of Poker (WSOP). ESPN.com’s WSOP Preview package features articles on the storylines we’ll be following, the players we’ll be watching and who pros like Daniel Negreanu, Howard Lederer and Dennis Phillips drafted on their fantasy poker teams. The ESPN Poker team made predictions on what to expect from the event and on ESPN Radio’s Poker Edge podcast, ESPN’s TV broadcast team of Norman Chad and Lon McEachern share their excitement and offer some thoughts on the event.

The next seven weeks will feature recaps of all bracelet events, daily blogs and columns highlighting the action in Las Vegas, as well as daily SportsNation chats with a variety of players and ESPN.com’s poker team. Fans can also check out The Nuts -- ESPN.com’s poker rankings -- exclusive footage from the World Series of Poker broadcasts and sign up for ESPN.com’s bi-weekly poker newsletter.

For the third straight year, poker player extraordinaire Phil Gordon and ESPN.com’s Andrew Feldman will offer weekly poker edge podcasts during the events and daily coverage right from the floor at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas beginning with the start of the WSOP Main Event. Additionally, ESPN Inside Deal presented by PokerStars.net also kicked off their second season on May 25. Fans can try to win seats into the Main Event by playing at the ESPN Poker Club (http://games.espn.go.com/poker/index).

Beginning on June 8, ESPN.com’s poker news, entertainment and strategy show will return to a weekly schedule and will run continuingly through November when a champion is crowned. Laura Lane, Bernard Lee and Feldman will bring the biggest names in poker straight to fans where they’ll answer questions, analyze the industry and provide an inside look at their lifestyles away from the table.

ESPN3.com’s live poker coverage includes:

Date Event
June 26, 2010 $2500 No-Limit Hold’em
June 27, 2010 $1500 No-Limit Hold’em
June 30, 2010 $1500 No-Limit Hold’em
July 1, 2010 $3000 Triple Chance No-Limit Hold’em
July 3, 2010 $25K No-Limit Hold’em / Six Handed

gogogogo Bram

Another interesting blog post from Dr Pauly

http://taopoker.blogspot.com/2010/06/2010-wsop-day-10-most-likely-you-go.html

Glasgow lad Kevin Howe 3rd for a lovely score of $249,351.....don't know him personally,but well done and worthy of  a mention

Well done, didn't realise he was from Glasgow

Me neither, he is Kasabian online, won the party million a few months ago.

pocket 5s results for Kevin Howe

http://www.pocketfives.com/poker-scores/scarface2911/

where are all the dazzling facts from this thread last year, how many bracelets are won by pros, facts about the winners, the numbers etc, I read the stuff about flushy on another site but sure it was on here last year.

And surely when one of the guys who's posted here the longest and now owns part of the site ships a bracelet it should be top of the news on the front page for the whole series, never mind a week later....it's even below who was chip leader after day one in the latest dtd tournament....fair enough u need to make the page look fresh but rotate the news under flushy's thing, nothing wrong with blowing your own trumpet, as it were

The thought of blowing Flushy's trumpet has put a horrible mental picture in my head.

The facts and figures were sent out every day by the WSOP on a press release, some of the feedback was that they sent out too much info and clogged up a lot of inboxes, so they decided not to do it as much this year. I actually thought they were really useful and fun, I presume it was thicko  Americans who complained.

I'm not receiving the fact based press releases this year, in fact this was a conscious decision by the wsop not to send them this year. As to flushy, I am delighted as anyone. Did a sweat thread, have asked to interview him, have offered to write up a tournament report for him etc. And news reports on the main site latest news can't be stickied. He will just have to win another one

I read all the facts n figures stuff somewhere this year tho, is it just on the WSOP site? I read the one on Flushy, it was good, saying how many tournies he'd won (cough cough), how much he'd cash etc etc, shame it missed out his WCOOP victory tho, sure whoever uses those facts woulda liked that. Maybe u could take it from there if u wanted? It's still just as long and random.

Shame those things can't be stickied, just have to get the lazy fker to write up that report or do an interview and that can be up there a while. Meanwhile on your sayso Tighty I've booked my flights to go next week and go one better than last year, just to get some more good news on the site :) Hopefully the Scrote n the BrammDogg can give us something to cheer in the meantime.

Good luck with the trip jeff. I'll try and do your bracelet in event 34 justice.   
:_)

(don't think u need to credit this, it's a press release on the WSOP official site)

DEMPSEY KNOCKS OUT COMPETITION TO WIN EVENT 9

by: Nolan Dalla 
 


Three Ladies Finish in Top 13 Spots – a WSOP First
 
James Dempsey Wins First WSOP Gold Bracelet

English Online Poker Pro Collects $197,470 in Prize Money

Rowdy English Crowd Cheers Dempsey to Saturday Night Victory

OVERVIEW
James Dempsey was the winner of the $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold’em championship (Event #9).  He is one of England’s top online poker pros.  Dempsey lives in Brighton, UK.  He collected $197,470 for the victory plus his first WSOP gold bracelet.

Dempsey topped a field of 650 players and won the game’s most coveted prize.  The tournament began on Thursday June 3rd and ended at 10:40 pm on June 5th.

Dempsey’s win at the Rio in Las Vegas was amplified by the roars of several English supporters.  The cheering section, numbering perhaps 15 to 20 slurring and stammering fans, chanted constantly for eight full hours, making the final table scene resemble a third-world soccer match rather than a poker event.  Things got so loud at one point, Mike “the Mouth” Matusow who was sitting nearby, complained the boisterous fans were too noisy.

English poker players are enjoying quite a strong WSOP through the first nine events.  Dempsey became the second Englishman to win a gold bracelet this week, following Londoner Praz Bansi’s win in an earlier No-Limit Hold’em competition. 

Dempsey also became the second consecutive Brit to win this event, following John-Paul Kelly’s victory in this same competition last year.  Indeed, British players are acknowledged to be strong Pot-Limit players since many of the poker games played in England going back for more than 20 years are played using the Pot-Limit format.

The runner up was Steve Chanthabouasy (Portland, OR), a 36-year-old poker pro who cashed at the WSOP for the first time.  Among those who also cashed were former gold bracelet winners Bob Slezak, Tom McEvoy, and Tom Schneider. 


There were also three female finishers in the top 13 spots.  J.J. Liu (Las Vegas, NV) finished third.  Julie Farkas (Albuquerque, NM) finished tenth.  Longtime poker player Melissa Hayden (Las Vegas, NV) took 13th place.  This is believed to be the first time three female players have ever finished in the top 13 places at the WSOP in any open event.
 
For the official results and Event#9 tournament portal page, click here.


THE CHAMPION – James Dempsey
The $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold’em champion (Event #9) is James Dempsey, from Brighton, UK.

Dempsey is 27-years-old.   He has been playing poker seriously since 2003.

Dempsey holds a commercial pilot’s license.

Dempsey concentrates mostly on online poker.  However, he had amassed about $200,000 in live tournament cashes prior to this victory.

Dempsey’s favorite poker game is Pot-Limit Omaha.

Dempsey’s first recorded tournament cash was in 2005.

Several fellow British poker players who know Dempsey well remarked that he has had a reputation for playing exceptional tournament poker during the early to middle rounds of tournaments, but then sometimes gets bored and becomes disinterested.  However, his record to this point does not appear to reflect this pattern.  Out of 27 major cashes over the past five years, he now has six wins.

Dempsey has only cashed one time at the WSOP prior to this win.

Dempsey collected $197,470 for first place.  He was presented with his first WSOP gold bracelet.

According to official records, Dempsey now has one win, one final table appearances, and two cashes at the WSOP.   His career WSOP earnings now total $210,137.

WINNER QUOTES
On what winning his first WSOP gold bracelet means:  “It’s great to win a tournament.  But there’s no reason why this should hold any edge over another tournament.  You play for money.  Like someone can come in third in a tournament and make like $300,000 but if you win another event (with a smaller field or lower buy in) you might get first and its $200,000 – that to me does not make any sense at all.  Poker players play for money.  It’s great to win a major tournament.  But I just think there’s too much put onto winning a World Series of Poker gold bracelet.  You want to try and win one, of course.  You win more money.  But you see people playing three events at the same time.  It’s just stupid.”

On allegedly being his own worst enemy at the poker table, sometimes blowing off big chip leads purely out of boredom:  “It’s something I used to do.  But I think I matured a bit.  Like today, I lost two big pots and then I was the short stack.  But I really focused and tried to maintain my head.  It’s definitely something in the past I used to do.  I used to rush some of my decisions.  But today, I gave myself some extra seconds to think it through and it worked out.”

THE FINAL TABLE
The final table consisted of no former WSOP gold bracelet winners, which guaranteed a first-time champion.

Three different nations were represented at the final table -- Canada, Great Britain, and the United States.  One of the Americans (Mark Babekov) was born in Uzbekistan.

The final table began nine-handed.

Final table participants ranged in age from 27 to 52.

In general, many younger players grew up playing No-Limit Hold’em, whereas many older veteran poker players are more conditioned to playing Limit and Pot-Limit games.  The age of players at this final table was arguably a reflection of the existing gap between young players and their older counterparts.  Many No-Limit Hold’em final tables in recent years are dominated by players in their 20s.  However, the youngest player in this finale was 27.  Lowball and Omaha High-Low games also tend to attract a more veteran poker crowd.

This final table featured the first female top-nine finisher at the 2010 WSOP.  J.J. Liu broke up the week-long stag party by becoming the first lady to take her seat in the finale.


The runner up was Steve Chanthabouasy, from Portland, OR.  This was his first time to cash at the WSOP.  He collected $121,963 in prize money.  The heads-up match between Dempsey and Chanthabouasy lasted about two hours.
 
Chanthabouasy is a 36-year-old business manager.  He was born in the Southeast Asian nation of Laos.  His wife is from Cambodia.  Chanthabouasy sat tableside draped in the pre-1975 Cambodian flag.  He was also flanked by two smaller flags hoisted at tableside – representing Laos and Cambodia.   

The third-place finisher was Joanne “J.J.” Liu, from Las Vegas, NV.  She is a tournament regular who was born in Taiwan.  Liu has 95 major cashes dating back to 1994 – 14 of which have taken place at the World Series of Poker.  With her $86,512 cash in this event, she now has nearly $300,000 in career tournament winnings at the WSOP.

The fourth-place finisher was Mark Babekov, from Fairlawn, NJ.  He is a real estate relocation specialist, originally from Uzbekistan.  Babekov cashed for the first time at the WSOP in this event, worth $62,232 in prize money.

The fifth-place finisher was Scott Haraden.  He is a painting contractor from San Diego, CA.  Haraden earned $45,393.

The sixth-place finisher was Armen Kara, from Brea, CA.  Kara now has four cashes at the WSOP.  He earned $33,573 in prize money.

The seventh-place finisher was Joseph Williams, from Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada).  He is primarily a Pot-Limit Omaha cash player.  This marked his first time to cash at the WSOP.  Seventh place paid $25,166.

The eighth-place finisher was Edward Brogdon, from Thorndale, AZ.  This marked his eighth time to cash in a WSOP event.  The farmer and rancher collected $19,120 in prize money.  This was his highest career finish at the WSOP, to date.

The ninth-place finisher was Gregg Wilkerson, from Denver, CO.  He is a 36-year-old businessman.  This marked Wilkerson’s best tournament performance ever.  He earned $14,715.

The final table officially began at 2:30 pm and ended at 10:40 pm.  The final table clocked in at 8 hours and 10 minutes – minus a one-hour dinner break.

OTHER IN-THE-MONEY FINISHERS 
The top 63 finishers collected prize money.  Aside from those who made the final table, former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Bob Slezak (35th), Tom McEvoy (41st), and Tom Schneider (52nd).

With this finish, 1983 WSOP Main Event champion Tom McEvoy now has 43 career cashes, which is 17th on the all-time list.  He is currently tied with Daniel Negreanu and Howard Lederer.

There were three female finishers in the top 13 spots.  J.J. Liu (Las Vegas, NV) finished third.  Julie Farkas (Albuquerque, NM) finished 10th.  Longtime poker player Melissa Hayden (Las Vegas, NV) took 13th place.  This is believed to be the first time three female players have ever finished in the top 13 places at the WSOP in any open event.

Last year’s winner was John-Paul Kelley, from Aylesbury, UK.  The victory marked his first of two gold bracelet wins in 2009.  Kelly also won an event at last year’s 2009 WSOP Europe.  Kelly entered this year’s tournament, but did not cash.


ODDS & ENDS
 
This is the 839th gold bracelet event in World Series of Poker history.  Note:  This figure includes every official WSOP event played, including tournaments during the early years when there were no actual gold bracelets awarded.  It also includes the 11 gold bracelets awarded at WSOP Europe (to date).

Some poker purists consider Pot-Limit to be a greater test of skill than No-Limit.  This is due to Pot-Limit’s emphasis on post-flop play.  Since pots gradually escalate in size in Pot-Limit, the magnitude of every decision is amplified as the hand progresses.  Contrast this with No-Limit, in which players can push “all in” at any time, which tends to create more coin-flip and races, which (some claim) reduces the element of skill.

Pot-Limit means a player can wager only up to the exact amount of what is contained in the pot at any time. By contrast, No-Limit means a player can wager any or all of his/her chips at any time.

The final table was played on ESPN’secondary stage.  This is located near the ESPN Main Stage, which is the site where most of the biggest WSOP events are filmed.  Many spectators prefer the secondary stage, since the setting is more intimate.

The official WSOP gold bracelet ceremony takes place on the day following the winner’s victory (or some hours later when the tournament runs past midnight).  The ceremony takes place inside The Pavilion, which is the expansive main tournament room hosting all noon starts this year.  The ceremony begins at the conclusion of the first break of the noon tournament, usually around 2:20 pm.  The national anthem of the winner’s nation is usually played.  The entire presentation is open to public and media.  Video and photography are permitted by both public and members of the media.

Dempsey indicated he plans to attend the WSOP gold bracelet ceremony.  He requested his national anthem not be played during the presentation.  The WSOP plans to comply with the request.

EVENT HISTORY

Pot-Limit poker made its WSOP debut in 1984, when two Pot-Limit Omaha tournaments were offered.  There were no Pot-Limit tournaments of any kind at the WSOP from 1970 through 1983.

The only Pot-Limit game played at the WSOP between 1984 and 1991 was Pot-Limit Omaha.  Pot-Limit Hold’em action at the WSOP during this period was restricted to cash games.

The first Pot-Limit Hold’em tournament at the WSOP took place in 1992. The game has been a fixture on the WSOP schedule ever since.  During many years, it was one of the first tournaments on the annual schedule.

This event’s inaugural champion was three-time WSOP gold bracelet winner John Bonetti.  The always colorful ex-champ passed away during the 2007 WSOP.

Previous WSOP $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold’em event winners include:

John-Paul Kelly (2009)
David Singer (2008)   
Michael Spiegel (2007)
Rafe Furst (2006)
Thomas Werthmann 2005)
Minh Nguyen (2004)
Prahlad Friedman (2003)
John McIntosh (2002)
No Event (2001)
No Event (2000)
No Event (1999)
No Event (1998)
No Event (1997)
Al Krux (1996)
Peter Vilandos (1995)
Jay Heimowitz (1994)
No Event (1993)
John Bonetti (1992)

Note about “No Event” years -- Several years (above) included Pot-Limit Hold’em on the schedule, but event buy-ins were higher than $1,500.

The largest live Pot-Limit Hold’em tournament in poker history took place at the 2006 WSOP when there were 1,101 entries.

Last year's event attracted 633 entries. Entries increased by about 2 percent over last year as this tournament attracted 650 players.  This was the fifth of nine WSOP events completed so far which has seen an increase over last year’s numbers.

TOURNAMENT PLAY
The $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold’em championship attracted 650 entries.  The total prize pool amounted to $877,500. The top 63 finishers collected prize money.

Dempsey’s win was amplified by the roars of several English supporters.  The cheering section, numbering perhaps 15 to 20 slurring and stammering supporters, chanted constantly for eight full hours, making the final table scene resemble a third-world soccer match rather than a poker event.  Things got so loud at one point, Mike “the Mouth” Matusow who was sitting nearby, complained the boisterous fans were too noisy.

When heads-up play began, Dempsey enjoyed better than a 2 to 1 chip advantage.  But he lost a big hand and the lead swung in Chanthabouasy’s favor.  Dempsey regained the edge and closed out the victory   

The final hand of the tournament came when Dempsey was dealt  .  Chanthabouasy was dealt  .  Dempsey pre-flop raised, Chanthabouasy moved all-in and Dempsey called.  The board ran out    which presented some interesting possibilities for the dog hand.  The  fell on the turn and the  came on the river, which snapped off Chanthabouasy’s straight draw.  Dempsey won the tournament and a long night of celebration instantly began. 

2010 WSOP STATISTICS
Through the conclusion of Event #9, the 2010 WSOP has attracted 11,732 total entries.  $20,221,200 in prize money has been awarded to winners.

Through the conclusion of Event #9, the nationalities of winners have been:

United States (4)
Canada (2)
England (2)
Hungary (1)

Through the conclusion of Event #9, the national origin (birthplace) of winners has been:

United States (3)
Vietnam (1)
Canada (2)
England (2)
Hungary (1)

Through the conclusion of Event #9, the ratio of professional poker players to semi-pros and amateurs who won gold bracelets is as follows:

Professional Players (6):  Michael Chow, Michael Mizrachi, Praz Bansi, Josh Tieman, Peter Gelencser, James Dempsey

Semi-Pros (0):  None

Amateurs (3):  Duc Pham, Aadam Daya, Pascal LeFrancois

this ok for you Jeff? If I get it, I post it

love it, feeding my wild side...

The 27th and final seat in the WSOP $1,000,000 Tournament Of Champions will be decided by a one table sit-n-go.

Voting for the WSOP Tournament of Champions closes on June 15th 2010, and the final seat in the 27-player field will be determined in a nine-person tournament on June 10th. The nine players taking part in the tournament June 10th 2010, with the winner playing the $1,000,000 TOC June 27th 2010 are:

Andy Bloch
Liv Boeree
Don Cheadle
Tom Dwan
Elky Grospellier
Gus Hansen
Michael Mizrachi
Sorel Mizzi
Paul Wasicka

Loving the 'third world soccer match' line that's up there with Dalla's infamous 'literally all hell broke loose' line.

Middy has chips in event 17   22/250  with $818k ftw

wiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

but how was that quote worthy of the above?

Catch up time


Cup of Tea - check

Six tabs open - check

Stats antenna sharpened for Jaffa Cake - check

Event 13

Here is the unofficial final table in the Brammer/Carter event.

Seat 1: Jared Hamby (526,000 in chips)
Seat 2: Daniel Thomas (700,000)
Seat 3: Matthew Vance (1,800,000)
Seat 4: Jeffrey Gross (399,000)
Seat 5: Daniel Duong (300,000)
Seat 6: Mats Gavatin (330,000)
Seat 7: Nicholas Heather (950,000)
Seat 8: David Baker (1,900,000)
Seat 9: Kyung Han (650,000)
Seat 10: Steven Gee (1,580,000)

Chris Brammer 14th $21,000

Dan Carter 20th $13,000

Jack Powell 31st $11,000

Well done  great stuff

Event 15 the $10,000 7cs Hi Lo is 5 handed, as follows

Top Chip Counts
1    Frank Kassela    1,880,000
2    Allen Kessler    920,000
3    Jennifer Harman  910,000
4    Steve Zolotow    895,000
5    John Juanda    495,000


cashers so far

1               447,446
2          276,486
3          173,159
4          125,379
5          97,989
6    Kirill Rabtsov       78,142
7    Vladimir Schmelev   63,457
8    Dario Minieri        52,366
9    Gary Benson       43,833
10    George Lind       43,833
11    Sergey Altbregin       37,297
12    Alessio Isaia       37,297
13    Marco Johnson       32,439
14    Christopher George    32,439
15    Blair Rodman       28,221
16    Toto Leonidas       28,221

Event 16 $1,500 NLHE 6 Max

18 left from 1663 starters

Top Chip Counts
1    Carter Phillips    820,000
2    Mikhail Lakhitov    820,000
3    Kevin Iacofano    730,000
4    Michael Meyers    640,000
5    Mark Flowers    525,000
6    David Diaz            465,000
7    Matthew Ezrol    465,000
8    Russell Thomas    460,000
9    Conrad Monica    420,000
10    Hugo Perez    310,000


JP Kelly finished 40th for $7,000+

Event 17 $5,000 NLH

225 left 792 began

and look...

Top Chip Counts
1    Chino Rheem    185,000
2    Jeff Williams    172,400
3    David Miscikowski 165,100
4    Sam Trickett    159,000
5    Mike Gracz    131,800
6    Dan Martin    129,000
7    Antonio Esfandiari 128,000
8    Mohsin Charania    125,100
9    Jason DeWitt    121,000
10    James Weekes    116,000

Tom Middleton is also in the hunt with 75,000 and a position in the 20s

Barney Boatman and James Akenhead also through

Eye watering payouts for this

1               818,959
2          505,725
3          328,762
4          241,472
5          179,866
6          135,718
7          103,594
8          79,957
9          62,350


Lets hope we have another Brit sweat coming in this

Yan R. Chen Wins First WSOP Gold Bracelet

High Stakes Lowball Specialist Chen Collects $92,817 in Prize Money

California Poker Pro Has the Lowdown on Lowball

New Deuce Lowball Tournament Draws Strong Crowd -- 250 Entrants

OVERVIEW

Yan R.Chen was the winner of the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball event at the 2010 World Series of Poker.  It marked his first career WSOP gold bracelet victory.  The poker pro from Irvine, CA, collected $92,817 for first place.  This was Chen’s third WSOP final table appearance within the past two years.  He had a third-place finish in a similar Lowball event held last year, and a fifth-place showing in the Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split World Championship.  In fact, he cashed four times last year.

Chen was born in China.  He came to the United States to attend college, and after graduation continued his education at Columbia Law School.  He is a 45-year-old married father of two boys.  He started playing poker seriously about 12 years ago.  Chen, who specializes in high-stakes lowball cash games in and around Los Angeles, has several high finishes at various tournaments in California and Nevada.  But this was his first major tournament victory.

This was the first $1,500 buy-in Lowball tournament with the Deuce-to-Seven Draw variant held at the WSOP.  Turnout proved to be a success as there were 250 entries – a relatively large field given that this form of poker is rarely played inside most card rooms.  Aside from the WSOP, there are virtually no Deuce-to-Seven Lowball events played anywhere – except a few of the mega-casinos in the Los Angeles area.  Those games tend to be played for very high stakes – with Chen usually sitting in as one of the players.

The top 28 finishers collected prize money.  The runner up was former WSOP gold bracelet winner Mike Wattel (1999 Omaha High-Low Split), from Mesa, AZ.  Several former WSOP gold bracelet finishers cashed in this event, including Alexander Kravchenko (7th), Chris Bjorin (13th), Erik Seidel (14th), Keith Lehr (16th), and Jose-Luis Velador (24th).

It’s also noteworthy that Peter Gelencser, from Budapest, Hungary, cashed in this tournament.  He finished in 23rd place.  Gelenscer is fast establishing himself as a top Lowball player.  He won the No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball “Triple” Draw gold bracelet four days ago.

THE CHAMPION– Yan R. Chen

The $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball champion (Event #14) is Yan R. Chen, from Irvine, CA.

Chen is 45-years-old.   He was born in Xi’an, China.

Chen first came to the United States to finish college, after spending his first three years at a university in China.  He graduated from the University of Missouri at Kansas City, earning a degree in political science.  Chen went on to attend law school at Columbia University in New York City.  He dropped out.

Chen went through a self-described transitional phase during his 20's in which he said he was “trying to find (himself).”  One afternoon about 13 years ago, Chen was playing low-stakes poker in a casino in Los Angeles.  He was playing $10-20 Limit Hold’em.  In a wild game, Chen got caught up in the action when he called multiple raises sitting in late position with 5-3 off-suit.  He ended up flopping trip-fives and won the hand against two big pocket pairs.  When the cards were shown, Chen became the target of instant ridicule and was subject to a slew of profanities.  Chen was so humiliated that he decided to spend a considerable amount of time studying poker and trying to improve as a player.  Chen spent the next six months playing and learning.  Over that period of time, Chen says he “found himself,” and has been making it as a poker pro ever since.

Chen, who is married and is the proud father of two boys, specializes in high-stakes Lowball cash games.

On his third day of playing Lowball Deuce, Chen lost $70,000.  He again refocused his energy on trying to improve as a player and gradually became not only a winning player, but one of the best Lowball cash-game players in the world.

Chen’s most common cash game today is No-Limit Lowball Deuce, with $200-400 blinds and a $100 ante.

Chen credited Lowball legend Billy Baxter with brining No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven to the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.  He reveres Baxter and considers him to be the best Lowball player of all-time. 

Chen cashed four times at last year’s WSOP.  This marked his first cash in 2010.

Chen made it to the final table of this event (at the $2,500 buy-in level) last year, finishing in third place.  That event was won by Phil Ivey.

After Ivey’s victory last year, he was quoted as saying Yan Chen was his toughest opponent.

Chen’s first time to cash at the WSOP was in 2006.

Chen collected $92,817 for his first-place finish.  He was presented with his first WSOP gold bracelet.

According to official records, Chen now has one win, three final table appearances, and seven cashes at the WSOP.

Despite making two final table appearances in Deuce Lowball tournaments the past two years, Chen also confided he was the first player knocked out of last year’s $10,000 buy-in Deuce-to-Seven Lowball World Championship.

The game Deuce-to-Seven is sometimes called “Kansas City Lowball.”  In an interesting coincidence, the champion of this event received his degree from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.

WINNER QUOTES

On why Lowball games appeal to him more than other forms of poker:  “A good poker game requires a balance.  For example – I’m not putting down other games – but No-Limit Hold’em, especially tournaments, rewards aggression.  But aggression is only one component of the full set of skills that are required for a balanced game.  Lowball requires a very balanced set of skills.  You can’t just try to run over the game.  You cannot.  You can do that less in this game than in any other game.  But you also can’t just sit around and wait for a hand.  So, you have to be creative.  Lowball allows a certain amount of creativity.  It allows a certain amount of aggression.  It rewards patience.  This is a game of nuances.  It is not a game of raw power.  Once people are exposed to poker and achieve a certain skill level, I believe people will like this game.”

On what winning his first WSOP gold bracelet means:  “This feels special.  The gold bracelet is the most coveted hardware in poker.  It’s special to finally win one.”

On why he decided to leave law school, abandon a conventional career, and instead focus on poker:  “I was trying to find my own direction in life.  I never did, until I found poker.”

On why he’s done quite well in recent Lowball tournaments at the WSOP:  “Not all poker games come to me naturally.  Somehow Lowball seems to come to me naturally.  Lowball just comes to me more naturally than other forms of poker.”

On what was different last year when he finished fifth, versus this year which resulted in a victory:  “Cash games play different than tournaments.  Last year, I played at the final table (of this event) like it was a cash game.  I tried to make some adjustments. But I did not know how.  It was a learning experience.  I feel that I made some adjustments, and it worked out.”

On major influences in his poker career:  “I want to mention Billy Baxter.  He brought the game to the Commerce (Casino).  Before that, I had been playing Limit Triple Draw.  When people mention Lowball, they have to think of Billy Baxter.  He’s the consummate champion.  He’s my idol.”

THE FINAL TABLE

The final table consisted of two former WSOP gold bracelet winners – Mike Wattel and Alexander Kravchenko.

Three different nations were represented at the final table -- England, Russia, and the United States.

The final table began seven-handed.

Final table participants ranged in age from 24 to 45.

The runner up was Mike Wattel.  He just missed what would have been a second WSOP gold bracelet victory.  Wattel’s first WSOP cash took place 11 years ago, when he won the Limit Omaha High-Low event in 1999, which was played at Binion’s Horseshoe.  Wattel, who lives in Mesa, AZ, collected the consolation prize of $57,375 for second place.  This was his 24th time to cash at the WSOP.  This finish catapulted Wattel over the million-dollar mark in WSOP winnings.  He also has 14 final table appearances.

The third-place finisher was Nicholas Binger, from Las Vegas, NV.  It was his 12th time to cash at the WSOP.  He now has nearly a quarter-million in winnings at the Rio, after collecting $37,857 for this performance.  Binger also has accrued some 40 cashes overall in major tournaments.  His favorite game is Deuce-to-Seven Lowball.

The fourth-place finisher was Derric Haynie, from Lincoln, CA.  This was his second time to cash at the WSOP, after finishing in-the-money in the No-Limit Hold’em Shootout last year; $25,389 was paid to Haynie, who was recently married.  Haynie has numerous big finishes in online poker tournaments.

The fifth-place finisher was Todd Thuan Bui, from Sacramento, CA.  He cashed for the fifth time at the WSOP.  This was his highest finish yet.  Fifth place paid $18,096.

The sixth-place finisher was James Bord, from London, England.  This was his fourth time to cash at the WSOP and marked his highest Las Vegas finish ever.  Sixth place paid $12,997.

The seventh-place finisher was Alexander Kravchenko, from Tver, Russia.  He is one of Russia’s top players.  Kravchenko won an Omaha High-Low Split gold bracelet in 2007.  He also final tabled the Main Event championship that year, finishing fourth.  Kravchenko collected $9,568.

The final table officially began at 3:00 pm and ended at 10:15 pm.  The final table clocked in at 7 hours, 15 minutes.

OTHER IN-THE-MONEY FINISHERS

The top 28 finishers collected prize money.  Aside from those who made the final table, former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Chris Bjorin (13th), Erik Seidel (14th), Keith Lehr (16th), and Jose-Luis Velador (24th).

Erik Seidel now has 59 career WSOP cashes.  He moved back into a fourth-place tie with Berry Johnston on the all-time cashes list.

Chris Bjorin now has 52 career WSOP cashes.  He moved one spot ahead of John Juanda into a tie with Chau Giang for eighth place on the all time cashes list.

ODDS & ENDS

This is the 843rd gold bracelet event in World Series of Poker history.  Note:  This figure includes every official WSOP event played, including tournaments during the early years when there were no actual gold bracelets awarded.  It also includes the 11 gold bracelets awarded at WSOP Europe (to date).

The final table was played on the ESPN Main Stage.  Despite plenty of open seating, spectator interest in the event was scarce, due largely to the Draw Lowball format being relatively difficult for spectators to follow from their seats.

The official WSOP gold bracelet ceremony takes place on the day following the winner’s victory (or some hours later when the tournament runs past midnight).  The ceremony takes place inside The Pavilion, which is the expansive main tournament room hosting all noon starts this year.  The ceremony begins at the conclusion of the first break of the noon tournament, usually around 2:20 pm.  The national anthem of the winner’s nation is played.  The entire presentation is open to public and media.  Video and photography are permitted by both public and members of the media.

Chen requested that the national anthem of the United States be played at his WSOP gold bracelet ceremony.

WSOP LOWBALL RECORDS

Poker Hall of Fame inductee Billy Baxter holds every conceivable record in the Lowball category.  He has dominated this form of poker in a manner that is unprecedented for any player in any game in history.  Perhaps only the late poker legend Bill Boyd, who enjoyed similar domination in Five-Card Draw poker (which is no longer spread at the WSOP), can rival Baxter’s mastery of a single game.

All of Billy Baxter’s seven WSOP gold bracelets were won playing various forms of Lowball.

Billy Baxter holds 16 WSOP cashes in Lowball events, the most of any player in this form of poker.  To give some perspective of Baxter’s excellence, the current second-place leaders in Lowball career cashes are Bobby Baldwin and “Oklahoma Johnny” Hale, each with 9.
 
EVENT HISTORY

Deuce-to-Seven Lowball made its tournament debut at the 1973 WSOP.  The game is rarely played anywhere except at the very highest levels.  It’s rarely spread inside public card rooms -- either as cash games or tournaments.  In fact, the WSOP is one of the few places where this poker variant is offered.  The game was tacked onto the WSOP schedule because it was the preferred game of many high-stakes cash game players.

The very first Deuce-to-Seven Lowball champion was Aubrey Day.  Since then, the Deuce-to-Seven gold bracelet has been won by a royal court of poker champions, including Jack Straus, Sailor Roberts, Billy Baxter, Doyle Brunson, Bobby Baldwin, Sarge Ferris, Stu Ungar, Dewey Tomko, Seymour Lebowitz, Bob Stupak, John Bonetti, Freddy Deeb, Johnny Chan, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer, O’Neil Longsen, Barry Greenstein and others.

Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball means the worst, or lowest-ranked, hand wins the pot.  The very best possible 2-7 lowball hand is 2-3-4-5-7 of mixed suits.  An ace counts as a high card.  Flushes and straights count against the player.  While a wheel (A-2-3-4-5) is the perfect hand in standard lowball, in Deuce-to-Seven it is usually a losing hand since the straight counts against the player. 

In the “Triple-Draw” variant of this game, players may draw up to three times to make their hand.  This tournament employed a “Single-Draw” format.

This same game was played at last year’s WSOP, but the buy-in was $2,500 (instead of $1,500 this year).  The lower buy-in boosted attendance from 147 last year to 250 at this year’s event.

There is some difference of opinion as to where and when this game originated. Since the 1930s, variations of Lowball have been spread throughout California and Nevada.  According to poker theorist David Sklansky, Limit 'Double-Draw' Lowball was first spread at the (now defunct) Vegas World during the early 1980s.  Others cited a game called “Ten-Handed Triple-Draw Lowball” as the forbearer of Triple Draw, which was played at 'Amarillo Slim's' Super Bowl of Poker tournaments in Reno and Lake Tahoe during the period 1979 through 1984.  Since 10-handed poker could only accommodate perhaps three or four players at most due to the number of cards needed to complete a hand, reducing the number of cards (to five) enabled more players to sit in the game.

TOURNAMENT PLAY

The tournament was played over three consecutive days, from June 5-7, 2010.

The final hand of the tournament came when Yan Chen’s playing card: Th playing card: 8d playing card: 7c playing card: 6h playing card: 2h crushed Mike Wattel’s playing card: Qs playing card: Jc playing card: Tc playing card: 9h playing card: 4c. 

2010 WSOP STATISTICS
 
(Note: Event #13 is not included because it has not completed)

Through the conclusion of Event #14, the 2010 WSOP has attracted 15,320 total entries.  $26,272,500 in prize money has been awarded to winners.

Through the conclusion of Event #14, the nationalities of winners have been:

United States (7)
Canada (2)
England (2)
Hungary (1)
New Zealand (1)

Through the conclusion of Event #14, the national origin (birthplace) of winners has been:

United States (4)
Vietnam (2)
Canada (2)
England (2)
Hungary (1)
New Zealand (1)
China (1)

Through the conclusion of Event #14, the ratio of professional poker players to semi-pros and amateurs who won gold bracelets is as follows:

Professional Players (9):  Michael Chow, Michael Mizrachi, Praz Bansi, Josh Tieman, Peter Gelencser, James Dempsey, Men “the Master” Nguyen, Matt Matros, Yan R. Chen

Semi-Pros (0):  None

Amateurs (3):  Duc Pham, Aadam Daya, Pascal Lefrancois 

Note:  A “pro” is defined as a player who makes the majority of his/her income from playing poker.  However, there is some debate as to whether players who have lucrative industry deals and backing should really be termed as professionals.  A “semi-pro” is defined as a player who derives some measure of income from playing poker over a reasonable period of time.  However, many semi-pros have non-poker related business interests which provide a majority of earnings.  “Amateurs” are players who have other means of support and do not play poker for income -- either part-time or full-time.  Each winner is judged on a by case basis.

Matros the Magnificent!

New York Poker Pro Matt Matros Wins First WSOP Gold Bracelet

Dedicated Poker Pro and Teacher Collects $189,870 in Prize Money

Matros Earns a Career Breakthrough Victory in Limit Hold’em Battle

Matros Overcomes Huge Chip Disadvantage at Final Table – Goes from Eighth to First
 
For the tournament portal page including all official results for this event, click HERE.

OVERVIEW

Matthew Matros was the winner of the $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em event at the 2010 World Series of Poker.  It marked his first career WSOP gold bracelet victory.  The Brooklyn-based poker pro collected $189,870 for first place, and earned the self-satisfaction of finally triumphing at the world’s most prestigious tournament series, following a decade-long commitment to poker and the study of game theory.

Matros grew up on Long Island, New York.  He earned a degree in mathematics at Yale University.  He also received a Masters degree in fine arts from Sarah Lawrence University.  Over the years, he has applied his considerable talents to computer science, writing, and teaching.  Matros is the author of “The Making of a Poker Player,” which chronicles his early years transitioning from student/employee into a full-time poker pro.  Matros previously cashed in several major tournaments, including the New England Poker Classic (NEPC), World Poker Tour (WPT), and the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).  He also final tabled the second year of the Tournament of Champions (TOC) back in 2001.

Matros has also done quite well at the WSOP, finishing in-the-money 15 times.  In 2008, Matros cashed in the WSOP Main Event championship, finishing 78th out of 6,844 players.
 
This year's Limit Hold'em competition drew 625 players.  The top 63 finishers collected prize money. 
 
The runner up was Ahmad Abghari, a real estate investor from Los Angeles.  Former WSOP gold bracelet winners who cashed in this event included – Matt Keikoan (30th), Anthony Rivera (43rd), Andre Boyer (47th), and Phil Ivey (53rd).

THE CHAMPION  – Matt Matros

The $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em champion (Event #12) is Matt Matros, from Brooklyn, NY.

Matros is 33-years-old.   He was born in West Hampton, NY, which is located on Long Island.

Matros is married.

Matros graduated from Yale University with a degree in mathematics.  He later received an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence University.

Matros is a true renaissance man.  He is a writer, teacher, and poker player – with numerous interests and ambitions.  Matros wrote a revealing biography called “The Making of a Poker Player” (published in 2005), which chronicles his early years transitioning from student/employee into a full-time poker pro.

Matros is currently working on a novel.  It is not about poker.  He says he hopes to finish the book within the next year.

Matros worked as a software engineer before deciding to pursue a poker career.

Matros was a dedicated poker player long before the poker boom.  He final tabled the second year of the Tournament of Champions (2001).  He later cashed in several other major tournaments, including the New England Poker Classic (NEPC), World Poker Tour (WPT), and the World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP).   

Matros has been playing poker seriously since 1999 and has relied on poker for the majority of his income since 2002.

Matros has accumulated nearly $1.5 million in overall career tournament winnings.

Matros collected $189,870 for first place.  He was presented with his first WSOP gold bracelet.

According to official records, Matros now has one win, three final table appearances, and 15 cashes at the WSOP.   His career WSOP earnings now total $528,525.

Matros has many close supporters who are well-known poker pros.  The list includes Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, Andy Bloch, Jerrod Ankenman, Bill Chen, Robert “Action Bob” Hwang, Spencer Sun, Matt Hawrilenko, and Terrance Chan (who finished third in this event).

Matros has regularly attended poker community events including BARGE (Las Vegas), FARGO (Foxwoods), and ATLARGE (Atlantic City).  The annual gathering attracts a few hundred of poker’s brightest and most dedicated pros, semi-pros, and aspirants.  The BARGE community includes notable poker players such as Andy Bloch, Greg Raymer, Terrance Chan, Bill Chen, Jerrod Ankenman, Steve Brecher, Gavin Smith, and several others.

Matros was a regular player in a private poker tournament played at the home of 2004 WSOP Champion Greg Raymer when he lived in Connecticut.  The tournament was known as the Fossilman Invitational Heads-Up Poker Tournament (FIHUPT).  Matros boasted that he once finished second in Raymer’s tournament.

WINNER QUOTES

On how the tournament played out:  “I feel great.  I caught great cards today.  Actually, I lost a lot of big pots.  So, I was very happy I was able to come back a few times from being short on chips.  At one point, I was eighth in chips.  So, it was a combination of good cards, and minimizing losses and maximizing wins and basically running good and having the cards fall my way.”

On playing against his friend, Terrance Chan (who finished third):  “Having Terrance lose some big pots helped also.  He is an extraordinarily-gifted Limit Hold’em player.”

On his 10-year pursuit of a WSOP gold bracelet:  “I’ve really wanted to try and keep playing to try and win a bracelet.  It’s been my goal for a long time, which would put the cap on some accomplishments.  I made a lot of final tables at the WSOP and WPT and had some deep cashes in the Main Event.  What I had been lacking was the victory, so to come in first place here is really gratifying.”

On the preparation for becoming a winning poker player:  “I started studying the game in 1998.  I really focused and studied Limit Hold’em.  So, this is really the culmination of eleven and a half years of work.”

On what his first tournament victory means:  “It’s definitely a monkey off my back.  But I do not know if this is going to motivate me to play more poker or spend more time writing now, or maybe split my time.  But I think I can look at my resume now and say I’ve got all the pieces checked off.  I really had not had the signature victory, until now.”

On what poker means to his life:  “Poker is one of my two passions, writing being the other one.  I’ve been splitting my time between working on a novel which might not ever get published.  The writing world is much tougher than the poker world.  The poker world is tough – so that is really saying something.”

On how he expects his closest family members to react to his victory:  “My dad will be the most excited person on the planet tonight.  My wife is going to say, ‘It’s nice that you won; now when are you coming home?  She has her priorities right.  She will be happy that I won.  But she will be more happy when I get back home.”

THE FINAL TABLE

The final table consisted of no former WSOP gold bracelet winners, which guaranteed a first-time champion.

Four different nations were represented at the final table – Canada, Greece, the Netherlands, and the United States.

The final table began nine-handed.

Final table participants ranged in age from 23 to 54.

The runner up was Ahmad Abghari, from Los Angeles, CA.  He is originally from Iran.  Abghari made his second WSOP career cash in this event, worth $117,272.

The third-place finisher was Terrance Chan, from Vancouver, BC.  He is a former high-tech consultant who formerly worked for a major online poker site.  He now plays poker professionally.  Chan finished second to Hoyt Corkins in a 2007 WSOP finale.  He is widely-acknowledged as one of poker’s top Limit-game specialists – both live and online.  Chan now has 13 WSOP cashes and nearly half-a-million dollars in earnings following his $83,185 payout in this tournament for third place.

The fourth-place finisher was Georgios Kapalas, from Athens, Greece.  He cashed for the second time this year and earned $59,838.  Kapalas has previously cashed in a number of European poker tournaments, most notably three tour stops on the European Poker Tour (EPT).

The fifth-place finisher was Adrian Dresel-Velasquez, from Sacramento, CA.  He is originally from Nigeria.  Dresel-Velasquez is an ex-Peace Corps volunteer who worked in Guatemala.  He formerly served as the Assistant Attorney General for the State of Wisconsin.  Fifth place paid $43,647.

The sixth-place finisher was Jason Potter, from Tulsa, OK.  He is a poker pro who recently won an event at the Los Angeles Poker Classic.  His goal was to win a WSOP gold bracelet, but he had to settle for $24,198 for sixth place instead.

The seventh-place finisher was Jameson Painter, from Goodfield, IL.  This marked his third time to cash at the WSOP and was his third final table appearance.  He now has an 8th, a 7th, and a 5th-place showing over the past two years.  Seventh place paid $24,198.

The eighth-place finisher was Roberto Truijers, from Oostvoorne, Holland.  He was born in Spain.  Truijers works in real estate.  He made his third WSOP cash spread over the last three years and collected $18,385 in prize money.

The ninth-place finisher was Mark “Milkman” Burford, from Gloster, LA.  He earned his nickname by working as a dairy farmer prior to taking up poker as a profession.  This was Burford’s first time to cash at the WSOP.  He collected $14,149.
 
The final table officially began at 5:05 pm and ended at 12:30 am.  The final table clocked in at 7 hours, 25 minutes.

OTHER IN-THE-MONEY FINISHERS
 
The top 63 finishers collected prize money.  Former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Matt Keikoan (30th), Anthony Rivera (43rd), Andre Boyer (47th), and Phil Ivey (53rd).

Last year’s winner was Thomas Alenius, from Stockholm, Sweden.  He did not enter this event.

ODDS & ENDS

This is the 842nd gold bracelet event in World Series of Poker history.  Note:  This figure includes every official WSOP event played, including tournaments during the early years when there were no actual gold bracelets awarded.  It also includes the 11 gold bracelets awarded at WSOP Europe (to date).

The final table was played on the ESPN secondary stage.  The Main Stage hosted the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em finale, which went on simultaneously.

The official WSOP gold bracelet ceremony takes place on the day following the winner’s victory (or some hours later when the tournament runs past midnight).  The ceremony takes place inside The Pavilion, which is the expansive main tournament room hosting all noon starts this year.  The ceremony begins at the conclusion of the first break of the noon tournament, usually around 2:20 pm.  The national anthem of the winner’s nation is played.  The entire presentation is open to public and media.  Video and photography are permitted by both public and members of the media.

Matros requested that the national anthem of the United States be played at his WSOP gold bracelet ceremony.

EVENT HISTORY

During the 1990s, WSOP Limit Hold’em tournaments routinely attracted the largest fields of any tournament anywhere in the world.  Several years, this tournament had twice number of entrants as the Main Event.  It was traditionally offered as the kick-off event over the first weekend of the WSOP.

Limit Hold’em made its debut at the 1983 WSOP.  The first Limit Hold’em world champion was Tom McEvoy. He went on to win the Main Event that same year.

The start of Limit Hold’em’s popularity can be traced back to California’s legalization of flop games (including Texas Hold’em) in 1988.  Prior to the late 1980s, Limit Hold’em was spread in only a few small Las Vegas casinos and underground games, located mostly in the American South.

Limit Hold’em was the king of all games during most of the 1990s, except in the Northeastern United States, where Seven-Card Stud was the dominant form of poker.  In fact, finding a No-Limit Hold'em game was next to impossible anywhere – except at the most prestigious events such as the WSOP and the Hall of Fame (now defunct).  In 2003, things started to change. No-Limit Hold'em quickly became the most popular form of poker played -- not only in the United States but worldwide.  Today, Limit Hold'em tournaments are relatively uncommon except in the biggest poker markets.  Confirming fears that Limit Hold'em’s popularity remains stagnant, turnout for this year's $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold'em championship declined for the fifth consecutive year (albeit very slightly).  The 2006 tournament attracted 1,069 entries. In 2007, the number declined to 910 players.  In 2008, the tally was 883.  There were 643 entries last year.  This year, the final number was 625.

The list of former Limit Hold’em champions at this level is quite an illustrious group.  Former Limit Hold’em champions include – Tom McEvoy, Berry Johnston, Humberto Brenes, Johnny Chan, Mickey Appleman, David Chiu, Jay Heimowitz, and Farzad Bonyadi.

TOURNAMENT PLAY

The tournament was played over three consecutive days, from June 5-7, 2010.

Matt Matros arrived at the final table eighth in chips out of nine players.

Matros seized the chip lead when play became three-handed.  He never lost his lead once he gained the chip advantage.

The final hand of the tournament came after Matros had used his big stack to grind down his final opponent, Ahmas Abghari to a small stack.  Matros was dealt playing card: Qh playing card: 8d versus Abghari’s playing card: Ac playing card: Tc.  After making an initial pre-flop raise with the suited big cards, Abghari found himself pot committed, even after missing the flop.  He was all in and watched helplessly as Matros won the tournament with a final board showing playing card: Qs playing card: 4s playing card: 4d playing card: 3c playing card: 8s.  The winning hand was two pair – queens and eights.   

2010 WSOP STATISTICS

Through the conclusion of Event #12, the 2010 WSOP has attracted 15,070 total entries; $25,935,000 in prize money has been awarded to winners.

Through the conclusion of Event #12, the nationalities of winners have been:

United States (7)
Canada (2)
England (2)
Hungary (1)

Through the conclusion of Event #12, the national origin (birthplace) of winners has been:
United States (5)
Vietnam (2)
Canada (2)
England (2)
Hungary (1)

Through the conclusion of Event #12, the ratio of professional poker players to semi-pros and amateurs who won gold bracelets is as follows:

Professional Players (8):  Michael Chow, Michael Mizrachi, Praz Bansi, Josh Tieman, Peter Gelencser, James Dempsey, Men “the Master” Nguyen, Matt Matros

Semi-Pros (0):  None

Amateurs (4):  Duc Pham, Aadam Daya, Pascal Lefrancois, Simon Watt 

Note:  A “pro” is defined as a player who makes the majority of his/her income from playing poker.  However, there is some debate as to whether players who have lucrative industry deals and backing should really be termed as professionals.  A “semi-pro” is defined as a player who derives some measure of income from playing poker over a reasonable period of time.  However, many semi-pros have non-poker related business interests which provide a majority of earnings.  “Amateurs” are players who have other means of support and do not play poker for income -- either part-time or full-time.  Each winner is judged on a by case basis.

Simon Says, “I Won a Gold Bracelet!”

Simon Watt Wins First WSOP Gold Bracelet

Watt Collects $614,248 in Prize Money

Add New Zealand to the List of WSOP Gold Bracelet-Winning Nations

Giant-Killer Simon Watt Slays Star Tom Dwan in Thrilling Heads-Up Match

For the official event portal page, including official results, click HERE
 
OVERVIEW

Simon Watt was the winner of the third $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em championship at this year’s World Series of Poker.  Watt is a 27-year-old software developer from Auckland, New Zealand.  With his thrilling victory in the 11th gold bracelet event on this year’s schedule, Watt became the first New Zealander in history to win a WSOP title.

Watt is an accomplished part-time player who previously won the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) championship in his hometown of Auckland in 2009.  But this WSOP win was a huge personal triumph, both in terms of prestige and prize money.  Watt collected $614,248 in prize money – not bad for three days of poker playing.

The runner up was Tom Dwan, who has soared in recent years to become one of poker’s most mythological figures.  There was considerable public interest in the outcome of this finale, since many top poker pros are reported to have six-and seven-figure side bets against Dwan winning a gold bracelet at this year’s WSOP. 

The final table was a wild and festive affair.  All gallery seats were filled to capacity, while hundreds more stood and watched the action.  Except for the “November Nine” finale, this was one of the largest crowds ever to watch a WSOP final table; all this, despite an ending time which stretched out to 3:00 am on an early Monday morning following a Sunday afternoon start.
 
The tournament was played from June 4-6 and attracted a huge field totaling 2,563 players.  The top 270 finishers collected prize money.  Former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Blair Hinkle (96th), Robert Cheung (142nd), Ted Lawson (180th), Brett Jungblut (186th), Erick Lindgren (191st), Jerry Yang (195th), Minh Nguyen (204th), and Steve Zolotow (237th).

THE CHAMPION – Simon Watt

The $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em champion (Event #11) is Simon Watt, from Auckland, New Zealand.

Watt is 27-years-old.   He was born in New Zealand.

Watt works as a software developer.

Watt has been concentrating more on poker since winning a major tournament in Auckland last year.

Watt has only one other recorded major tournament cash -- which was a win at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) championship in Auckland.  That victory took place last year.

Watt collected $614,248 for first place.  He was presented with his first WSOP gold bracelet.

According to official records, Watt now has one win, one final table appearance, and one cash at the WSOP.   His career WSOP earnings now total $614,248.

Watt was cheered by just one player in the audience, his friend from New Zealand – named Joe Ellis.

Watt usually plays poker at the Sky City Casino in Auckland, New Zealand.

Watt becomes the first WSOP gold bracelet winner in history from the nation of New Zealand.

WINNER QUOTES

On what winning his first WSOP gold bracelet means:  “I’m not sure yet.  It’s very special, obviously.”

On playing in a carnival-like atmosphere at the final table:  “It was amazing.  It was strange.  It would have been crazy enough to just make the final table.  But to play against Durrrr (Tom Dwan) heads-up made it much better.”

On the reaction he expects to his win back in his home country of New Zealand:  “My parents were initially not too keen on my playing poker, especially my mother.  This should help.”

On being the dragon slayer in the match against Tom Dwan and the large crowd’s intense interest in Dwan’s performance:  “It did not bother me at all.”

On when he realized he might win the gold bracelet, while playing:  “It crosses your mind a little bit.  But you just have to concentrate on the hands and try and forget how much money you are playing for.”

On his plans the remainder of this year’s WSOP:  “I plan on playing in the event tomorrow.”

THE FINAL TABLE

The final table consisted of only one former WSOP gold bracelet winner – Jason Young.

Three different nations were represented at the final table -- Germany, New Zealand, and the United States.

The final table began nine-handed.

This was one of the youngest final tables in WSOP history.  The senior player was age 31.  The remaining players were 22, 23, 23, 23, 23, 23, 27, and 28.

The runner up was Tom “Durrrrr” Dwan, from Edison, NJ.  He is one of the world’s top poker pros -- in both online and live action.  He frequently plays for what has been described as “nosebleed” stakes.  Dwan has encountered both sides of million dollar swings on multiple occasions in online matches and big cash games.  This was his fifth time to cash at the WSOP and was his highest finish to date.  Dwan collected $381,885.

The third-place finisher was David Randall, from Westerville, OH.  This was his first WSOP in-the-money finish.  Randall earned $270,299.

The fourth-place finisher was Austin McCormick, from Chesterfield, MO.  He has cashed seven times on the WSOP Circuit.  But this marked his first time to cash at the WSOP.  McCormick received $194,939.

The fifth-place finisher was poker pro Jason Young, from Suffern, NY.  He won the Shootout event at the WSOP in 2008.  Young added $142,346 in prize money to his bankroll and now has more than $600,000 in career WSOP earnings.

The sixth-place finisher was Shane Smith, from Hiram, GA.  This was his first time to cash at the WSOP.

The seventh-place finisher was Marvin Rettenmaier, from Stuttgart, Germany.  He is a college student.  This was Rettenmaier’s first WSOP in-the-money finish, which paid $78,681.

The eighth-place finisher was Kyle Winter, from Carson City, NV.  Winter will begin law school next year at Gonzaga.  He picked up some extra tuition money in this tournament, worth $59,547.

The ninth-place finisher was Eric Ladny, from Trenton, NJ.  He received $45,603.

The final table officially began at 6 pm and ended at 3 am.  The final table clocked in at nine hours.

OTHER IN-THE-MONEY FINISHERS

The top 270 finishers collected prize money.  Aside from those who made the final table, former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Blair Hinkle (96th), Robert Cheung (142nd), Ted Lawson (180th), Brett Jungblut (186th), Erick Lindgren (191st), Jerry Yang (195th), Minh Nguyen (204th), and Steve Zolotow (237th).

This was Jerry Yang’s first time to cash in a WSOP event since winning the 2007 WSOP Main Event championship.

The defending champion was Mike Eise, from Troy, MO.  He did not enter this event.

ODDS & ENDS

This is the 841st gold bracelet event in World Series of Poker history.  Note:  This figure includes every official WSOP event played, including tournaments during the early years when there were no actual gold bracelets awarded.  It also includes the 11 gold bracelets awarded at WSOP Europe (to date).

The final table was played on the ESPN Main Stage.

Poker has reached the stage where a 2,000-player field no longer causes much of a stir.  Consider that the first live poker tournament to ever break the 2,000-player barrier was the 2004 WSOP Main Event.  Since then, 19 WSOP events have been played with 2,000+ player fields.  This is the fourth 2,000+ player field, so far in 2010.  At least seven tournaments this year are expected to crack that figure -- which would be the most ever in WSOP history. 

Last year's same event – which was the third $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event on the 2009 WSOP schedule – attracted 2,638 entries. Entries were very close to the same this year, with 2,563 entrants.  Six of 11 WSOP events completed so far have increased participation over last year’s numbers.

The official WSOP gold bracelet ceremony takes place on the day following the winner’s victory (or some hours later when the tournament runs past midnight).  The ceremony takes place inside The Pavilion, which is the expansive main tournament room hosting all noon starts this year.  The ceremony begins at the conclusion of the first break of the noon tournament, usually around 2:20 pm.  The national anthem of the winner’s nation is played.  The entire presentation is open to public and media.  Video and photography are permitted by both public and members of the media.

Watt requested that the national anthem of New Zealand be played at his WSOP gold bracelet ceremony.

EVENT HISTORY

An alternative lower buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournament (less than $10,000) has been included as part of the WSOP schedule every year since 1973.  Over the years, these buy-in amounts have ranged from $1,000 up to $5,000.  However, more $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournaments have now taken place at the WSOP over the past 40-years than any other event.

Last year there were seven $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em tournaments on the 2009 WSOP schedule.  This game and buy-in level has consistently proven to be the most popular draw on the schedule in recent years, aside from the Main Event.  However, with the expansion of $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournaments, attendance for the $1,500's is expected to drop slightly from last year, since many players chose to play in the lower buy-in events.

The 2010 WSOP is hosting huge No-Limit Hold’em events every weekend.  Most Fridays include a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament.  Then, a $1,000 buy-in event takes place on Saturday and Sunday (two flights/starting days).  Each Monday includes another $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event.  All Day One starting times are noon.

TOURNAMENT PLAY

The tournament was played over three consecutive days, from June 5-7, 2010.

The final hand of the tournament came when Simon Watt held about a 5 to 1 chip lead over Tom Dwan.  Watt had playing card: 9d playing card: 9c versus Dwan’s playing card: Qd playing card: 6c.  The board came playing card: Ac playing card: As playing card: 8c playing card: Ad playing card: Kh.  Watt’s aces-full-of-nines ended up as the winning hand.

While perhaps 500-600 spectators ringed the final table as the final hand was dealt out, Watt had only one close friend in the audience.  The room fell deathly silent the instant Watt won, and was an eerie pall to what was otherwise a long finale filled with huge emotional and financial swings.

Immediately following his runner-up finish, Tom Dwan departed the final table area and did not speak to media.

Given intense interest in the outcome of this finale, Watt became a champion who not only collected $614,248 for himself, but may have been the catalyst in what some estimate to be an eight-figure financial swing between several top poker pros.

2010 WSOP STATISTICS

Through the conclusion of Event #11, the 2010 WSOP has attracted 14,445 total entries; $25,091,250 in prize money has been awarded to winners.

Through the conclusion of Event #11, the nationalities of winners have been:

United States (5)
Canada (2)
England (2)
Hungary (1)
New Zealand (1)

Through the conclusion of Event #11, the national origin (birthplace) of winners has been:

United States (3)
Vietnam (2)
Canada (2)
England (2)
Hungary (1)
New Zealand (1)

Through the conclusion of Event #11, the ratio of professional poker players to semi-pros and amateurs who won gold bracelets is as follows:

Professional Players (7):  Michael Chow, Michael Mizrachi, Praz Bansi, Josh Tieman, Peter Gelencser, James Dempsey, Men “the Master” Nguyen

Semi-Pros (0):  None

Amateurs (4):  Duc Pham, Aadam Daya, Pascal Lefrancois, Simon Watt 

Note:  A “pro” is defined as a player who makes the majority of his/her income from playing poker.  However, there is some debate as to whether players who have lucrative industry deals and backing should really be termed as professionals.  A “semi-pro” is defined as a player who derives some measure of income from playing poker over a reasonable period of time.  However, many semi-pros have non-poker related business interests which provide a majority of earnings.  “Amateurs” are players who have other means of support and do not play poker for income -- either part-time or full-time.  Each winner is judged on a by case basis.

Is there no way of preventing  Ac coming up in the text every time California is abbreviated ?

 ;technophobe;

Yes, manual editing.

Give me a spare 30 minutes and I will, later

i have this for event 17

1      Steven Goosen     229,000
2    Brian Smith    208,400
3    Chino Rheem    185,800
4    Jeff Williams    172,400
5    Nico Behling    168,100
6    James Dempsey    165,800
7    David Miscikowski Greg    165,100
8    Trickett Samuel    159,000
9    Thorsten Schafer    146,200
10    Paul Foltyn    133,000

Tighty mentioned in one of his posts about the statistics Andy Ward is compiling on three seperate tiers of players at this year's WSOP: TV Pros, Euro Pros & 2+2 and co.

Randomly whilst looking on sharkscope today I noticed they're now tracking live events including the WSOP 2010. So anyone who wants to see how much Negreanu and Ivey are currently down or see just how much Dr Dempsey, Rutter, Channing etc are up by can have a look. It obviously isn't going to be as accurate as Andy's research - for example Praz is listed both as Praz Bansi and Pramesh Bansi - but nonetheless might be a uiseful resource.

Haven't been on sharkscope for ages so this may have been covered elsewhere already. For anyone wondering you hit the dropdown menu which usually contains the name of the poker site & the live events are at the top of that little drop down menu.

thanks Dewi, your chip counts were obv published after I looked this morning

Your list is better, gl to Pab and Flushy too......

Gl all, Middy 82k and Rutter 62k still well in it as well.

Ivey unlucky with today's seat draw.


He gets Dempsey on his table.

Celtic has Ivey txt u yet?

Amazing scenes.

5 minutes ago the top 6 of the $5k no limit included Pab, Trickett and Dr Dempsey.

GOGOGOGO Middy,get the lot

GL lads!

just saw ronaldinho in encore lobby.  i'm telling everyone

Event 16 6 Max $1500 NLH

What can we say about Carter Phillips? He's barely old enough to legally consume alcohol in the United States, but he already has two major wins under his belt -- an EPT title and now a WSOP gold bracelet. Phillips used a combination of good cards, excellent timing and power poker to bulldoze his way through the last 16 players in this field enroute to victory.

It's true that Phillips had to get lucky to win. If his all-in confrontation with Craig Bergeron towards the end of the tournament had gone the other way, Phillips would have become the short stack with about 1.2 million chips and Bergeron would have been the one able to swing the bully stick.

But nobody should take anything away from Phillips. He put himself in a position to get lucky with strong play. Phillip' most impressive hand today may have been his absolutely sick call with just a pair of treys on the turn after Mikhail Lakhitov check-raised all in. Phillips never hesitated when he called. It turned out his hand was in the lead and faded 15 outs on the river to send Lakhitov to the rail.

In what was arguably the youngest final table in WSOP history, it was only fitting that the 21-year-old Phillips should be the player to capture the bracelet. When asked how it felt to be the one to win, Phillips said, "It's more amazing than I ever could have imagined."

For all of his skill, stamina, luck and heart, Phillips banks the champion's share of the prize pool -- $482,774.

1     Carter Phillips           482,774
2    Samuel Gerber       298,726
3    Craig Bergeron       189,661
4    Hugo Perez       124,690
5    Russell Thomas       84,256
6    David Diaz               58,483
7    Thong Tran       41,645
8    Mikhail Lakhitov       41,645
9    Alexander Wilson    30,420
10    Mark Flowers       30,420
11    Matthew Ezrol       22,787
12    Kevin Iacofano       22,787
13    Matt Zoorob       17,488
14    Conrad Monica       17,488
15    Michael Meyers       17,488
16    Jesse Martin       17,488
17    Ryan Snickles       17,488
18    Steven Tabb       17,488
19    Daniel Johnson       13,739
20    Steven Fenic       13,739
21    Feming Chan       13,739
22    Matthew Schulte    13,739
23    Eric Bolinder       13,739
24    Sanghyon Cheong    13,739
25    Dennis Wong       11,045
26    Ray Henson       11,045
27    Milad Jorshari       11,045
28    Nicholas Davies       11,045
29    Bryan Micon       11,045
30    Jordan Morgan       11,045
31    Blake Slade       9,070
32    Vladimir Kochelaevskiy    9,070
33    Lee Childs               9,070
34    Dorlan Schick       9,070
35    Mark Seif               9,070
36    Stuart Barclay       9,070
37    Roger Teska       7,610
38    Chris Viox               7,610
39    Wesley Clark       7,610
40    JP Kelly               7,610
41    Michael Downey       7,610
42    Dash Dudley       7,610
43    Robert Williamson    6,533
44    Chris Bjorin               6,533
45    Jorge Arias               6,533
46    David Sands       6,533
47    Matthew Mercurio    6,533
48    Simon Nguyen       6,533
49    Timothy Adams       5,724
50    Jonathan Duhamel    5,724
51    Darren Elias       5,724
52    Kevin Boudreau       5,724
53    David Olson       5,724
54    Steven Kelly       5,724
55    Jeffrey Chu       5,118
56    William Lin               5,118
57    Anthony Lessel       5,118
58    Cort Kibler-Melby       5,118
59    Kenneth Terrell       5,118
60    Chad Layne       5,118
61    Joseph Stefan       4,669
62    Anthony Licastro    4,669
63    Rui Cao               4,669
64    Rio Gralnick       4,669
65    Matthew Waxman    4,669
66    Tyler Netter       4,669
67    Gabriels Lepore       4,288
68    Angus Lynn       4,288
69    Steven Rice       4,288
70    Vincent Vanderfluit    4,288
71    Dustin Bailey       4,288
72    Scott Barrows       4,288
73    Daniel Quinn       4,288
74    Per Alexander Hildebrand 4,288
75    Ralph Ratchford       4,288
76    Simon Charette       4,288
77    Julien Nuijten       4,288
78    Allan Silberstang       4,288
79    Marc-Pierre Chadi    3,951
80    Steven McNally       3,951
81    Michael Kucinski       3,951
82    Tristan Wade       3,951
83    Christopher Lindh    3,951
84    Evgeniy Zaytsev       3,951
85    Stefan Rapp       3,951
86    Tyler Witteman       3,951
87    Arun Chugani       3,951
88    Stephen Moss       3,951
89    Nathan Huvelle       3,951
90    Lance Harris       3,951
91    James Guinther       3,636
92    Neil Tyler               3,636
93    Eric Buchman       3,636
94    Eduard Scharf       3,636
95    Ronald Grauer       3,636
96    Jerry Yang               3,636
97    Aaron Mermelstein    3,636
98    Tyler Chung       3,636
99    Derek Christensen    3,636
100    Chris Wafula       3,636
101    Samuel Bernstein    3,636
102    Francois Billard       3,636
103    Benjamin Roberts    3,636
104    Andre Akkari       3,636
105    Jamie McCarrel       3,636
106    James Herndon       3,636
107    Jamal Clark               3,636
108    Ronald Lee       3,636
109    Robert Lipkin       3,345
110    David Pederson       3,345
111    Kevin Haw               3,345
112    Al Barbieri               3,345
113    Aaron Steury       3,345
114    Bruce Seaquist       3,345
115    Manish Patel       3,345
116    Judson Dymond       3,345
117    Donald Rubinstein    3,345
118    Francois Balmigere    3,345
119    Justin Filtz               3,345
120    Carl Johnson       3,345
121    Jan Skampa       3,345
122    Jeffrey Palarino       3,345
123    Michael Darling       3,345
124    Steve Yea               3,345
125    Paul Whiting       3,345
126    Basile Blancpain       3,345
127    Brook Whisenant    3,075
128    Richard Robinson    3,075
129    Matthew Hawrilenko    3,075
130    Jeffrey Levine       3,075
131    Hoyt Corkins       3,075
132    James Goldstein       3,075
133    Andrew Dyonisio       3,075
134    Nicholas Petrangelo    3,075
135    Anthony Spinella       3,075
136    Brian Kennish       3,075
137    Ryan Thurlow       3,075
138    Ted Lawson       3,075
139    Andrew Mullens       3,075
140    Joeph Kustosz       3,075
141    Mikhael Saakian       3,075
142    Dominik Kulicki       3,075
143    Steven Dibari       3,075
144    Chad Thomsen       3,075
145    Steven Schartner    2,828
146    Dennis Marinack       2,828
147    Felipa Ramos       2,828
148    Antonio Girardi       2,828
149    Ryhan Hughes       2,828
150    Kevin Kansler       2,828
151    Cyril Jassinowsky       2,828
152    William Mikolay       2,828
153    Rodrigo Sirichuk       2,828
154    Lance Schuchard    2,828
155    Elizabeth Indig       2,828
156    Nabih Zaczac       2,828
157    Christopher Kassela    2,828
158    Thomas Manzella       2,828
159    Marc Davis               2,828
160    Michael Glasser       2,828
161    James St Hilaire       2,828
162    Mark Kohner       2,828

Event 17 $5000 NLHE

James Dempsey cashed in 69th

Stuart Rutter cashed 51st

34 remain

$818,000 up top

Top Chip Counts
1    Jeff Williams    960,000
2    Samuel Trickett    810,000
3    Antonio Esfandiari 750,000
4    Amit Makhija    700,000
5    Jason DeWitt    665,000
6    Lennart Holz    579,000
7    David Benefield    565,000
8    Steven Goosen    500,000
9    Anton Nikaj    420,000
10    James Carroll    355,000

Good luck to Sam

Also good luck to Pab, with 320,000

Event 18 $2,000 LHE

The day began ten levels ago with 476 players, and limit or not, we're already down to 109. Josh Honegger sits atop the overnight chip counts with 87,000, followed by Daniel "amichaiKK" Makowsky with 74,600. Matt Matros won the first limit hold'em event of the series a few days ago, and with 53,700 in chips, he could make a serious run at number two.

Joe Serock, Bob Lauria, and Matt Glantz also bagged substantial stacks. Joining them for Day 2 will be Maria Ho, Jennifer Tilly, Rob Hollink, Shannon Shorr, and Lex Veldhuis. Daniel Negreanu made a good effort but ultimately busted in time to tend to his stack in the $10k 2-7 Championship. Tom Dwan was here a much shorter amount of time, and Phil Ivey's stack blinded away without a single appearance from the big man.

The 476 players, 30 more than turned out for the same event last year, built a prize pool of $866,322. The last 45 players standing tomorrow will get at least a piece of that, but they'd all love to pick up the $203,000 check that goes with the WSOP gold bracelet.

Top Chip Counts
1    Josh Honegger    87,000
2    Daniel Makowsky    74,600
3    Matt Matros    53,700
4    Matt Glantz    50,700
5    Matt Grapenthien 49,000
6    Andrew Brussard 43,000
7    Joe Serock    42,000
8    Maria Ho    40,000
9    Bob Lauria    40,000
10    Rep Porter    33,800

2010 World Series of Poker

Event #19: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship



    Players Left
        86

    Entries
        101

Top Chip Counts
1    Tommy Vedes    92,000
2    David Baker    80,000
3    Stephen Chidwick 71,500
4    Dario Alioto    63,400
5    Dee Tiller       60,000
6    Greg Mueller    55,000
7    Vladimir Schmelev 53,000
8    Tom Dwan    50,000
9    Erick Lindgren    48,000
10    Daniel Negreanu    48,000

Steve Gee was the winner of the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2010 World Series of Poker.  It marked his first career WSOP gold bracelet victory.  Gee is a 54-year-old poker pro who now lives in Sacramento, CA.  He has been playing poker for more than three decades and was one of California’s top cash game Lowball players, long before flop games such as Hold’em became popular.

Gee collected $472,479 for first place.  The nearly half-a-million dollar payout was fitting given the heavy odds stacked against him when he began play three days earlier.  Gee conquered a massive field size of 3,042 players en route to his biggest poker win ever.

This was the second $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event held at this year’s WSOP.  Every weekend three huge No-Limit Hold’em events are played.  Most Fridays include a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament.  A $1,000 buy-in event takes place on Saturday and Sunday (two flights/starting days).  Each Monday includes another $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event.  All Day One starting times are noon.

The top 324 finishers collected prize money.  The runner up was Matthew Vance, from Lowville, NY.

THINKING LIKE A WSOP CHAMPION

by: Nolan Dalla

THINKING LIKE A WSOP CHAMPION

Poker tournaments are won and lost at crucial moments which cannot be foretold.  A big hand can come at any moment.  They just happen.  Some of the most important moments come early in a tournament, allowing a player to double-up or survive.  Other important moments take place during the middle of an event, and serve as a major turning point.  Then, there are crucial moments late in the tournament, often at the final table, which ultimately determine winners and losers.

Good poker players see these crucial moments as opportunities.  Strategic decisions are not merely responses to routine situations but are, in the best scenarios, bold initiatives.  Then, there are really great poker players who not only see opportunities, but create their own turning points out of situations that would otherwise be missed by average poker players.

An excellent example of this concept is the thought process of a 27-year-old professional poker player from Chicago, named Josh Tieman.  He recently won the $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Shootout.  The victory gave Tieman his first WSOP gold bracelet.  It was also his tenth time to cash at the WSOP.

Tieman is not a household name (yet), but he has a unique talent that goes above and beyond the poker table, which is the ability to analyze complex situations and craft out-of-the-ordinary courses of action.  Tieman was interviewed shortly after winning his first WSOP gold bracelet, which took place on June 3rd.  What was otherwise a routine post-tournament question and answer session evolved into one of the deeper strategic revelations any WSOP event winner has conveyed in recent memory.

Tieman was asked about some of the key hands that propelled him to victory.  His comments reveal a great deal about how a champion poker player thinks and how he breaks down a hand.  The hand was not particularly memorable for any other reason than Tieman decided to seize an opportunity and make it momentous.  Virtually all other players would have mucked their cards instantly when facing an identical situation, instead preparing for the next hand to be dealt.  But Tieman -- demonstrating a thought process that is was exceptional as it was clever -- maneuvered this one hand to his benefit.  Was it the most important hand of the tournament?  No.  Did it generate Tieman’s biggest pot?  No.  But it was one of several steps on the path that eventually led to his winning a WSOP gold bracelet.

The hand took place on Day Two of the three-day tournament.  He was playing in the second of three rounds of the No-Limit Hold’em Shootout – which meant only the table winner would advance to the next round.  Play was at three handed.  Tieman is quoted verbatim for the remainder of this article:

I think I made my biggest bluff ever in this tournament….In all three rounds (of the Shootout), I basically lost a third of my stack, before even winning a single hand.  The second round was definitely the longest and most grueling.  It started out six-handed and got down to three-handed really quickly.  It was just kind of a weird situation.  I couldn’t get a strong read on one of the players, and I just wasn’t picking up too many hands.

In round two when we were three-handed, it seemed like I couldn’t get anything going.  It felt like I was getting pushed around a little bit.  I wasn’t picking up hands to fight back with.  One player raised me on the button.  He had been playing pretty aggressively.  The player in the small blind flat called, and I decided I was just going to three-bet with whatever I had. 

I had been playing sort of tight, because one player had been calling all of my three-bets.  So, I wasn’t getting any real cards to three-bet with.  So, I just three-bet anyway hoping to take down 20,000 in chips.  The first player folded, and I just thought the second player would fold for sure, because she had been three-betting a ton of hands.  She had been playing well and tight.  But she had been-three betting pretty light and when she didn’t three-bet I figured she’d fold for sure.  But she ended up calling.

I think the flop ended up being playing card: Ad playing card: 3d playing card: 6c, with two diamonds.  She checked.  I bet out small -- maybe a third to half the pot expecting her to fold to that.  But she raised me a little bit more than a mini-raise.

I had playing card: 7h playing card: 2c off-suit.  I had nothing. 

I just sat there thinking for about five minutes thinking what hand she would actually make this play with.  I figured if she had a flush draw she would make a bigger raise, and just re-shove.  I really didn’t think she had anything bigger like A-9 or A,-10 or A-J because I thought she would three-bet those hands before the flop.  You know, I kind of thought maybe she had (pocket) 8s, or 9s, or 10s -- but I didn’t really know why she would mini-raise there.  I was running through all the possible hands she could possibly have, and nothing made sense to me.  So, I was just kind of debating because I didn’t think she had anything.  But I had absolutely nothing.  Before I even really thought it through, I just found myself pushing (all of my stack) in…and was kind of, you know, talking to myself, like…what the bleep are you doing here?  Going all-in with 7 high?
 
She pretty much instantly folded, and that was like a really big pot.  That turned the momentum, because I was just folding, folding, folding three-handed and just getting knocked down and, you know, the other two players had all the momentum.

That really got me some momentum and crippled the other player.  She pushed a few times and was knocked out by the other player.  Then, we went heads up.  I’m really comfortable playing heads up, but it was a really, really long match.  It went a couple hours.  There were some big pots back and forth, but eventually I took it down....There were some huge hands in there.  But I think that was the hand I’m most proud of in the tournament -- moving all in with 7-2 offsuit.

rank Kassela Wins First WSOP Gold Bracelet

Las Vegas Businessman Wins Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split World Championship

Defeats Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler Heads-Up and Collects $447,446

Final Table Includes Four Former WSOP Gold Bracelet Winners – Harman, Zolotow, Juanda, Minieri

Russian Vladimir Shchmelev Becomes First Player to Make Three Final Tables

WSOP Hosts Richest Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split Tournament in Poker History
 
For the tournament portal page for this event, including official results, click HERE.

OVERVIEW

Frank Kassela was the winner of the $10,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split World Championship at the 2010 World Series of Poker.  It marked his first career WSOP gold bracelet victory.  The successful businessman and serious part-time poker player who recently moved to Las Vegas from Memphis, TN collected $472,479 for first place.  He defeated an all-star final table lineup that included four former WSOP gold bracelet winners – including John Juanda, Steve Zolotow, Jennifer Harman, and Dario Minieri. 

This was Kassela’s second WSOP final table appearance.  His most notable previous accomplishment had been a cash in last year’s $40,000 buy-in 40th Anniversary No Limit Hold'em Tournament.   

Kassela is a 42-year-old married father of five children.  He started playing poker seriously about 10 years ago.  Kassela has cashed in several tournaments around the country and has now accumulated more than $1.5 million in overall tournament winnings.  However, his lone victory was a win last year at the LA Poker Classic.  Kassela can now proudly claim the title of "2010 Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split World Champion."

All $10,000 buy-in events on this year's WSOP schedule are officially designed as “Championship” events, since these are the highest buy-in tournaments in each respective form of poker.  Championship events include Seven-Card Stud, Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split, Deuce-to-Seven Lowball, Omaha High-Low Split, Limit Hold’em, Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Hold’em, H.O.R.S.E., Pot-Limit Omaha, and the No-Limit Hold’em Main Event Championship. 

Only the top 16 tournament finishers collected prize money.  The runner up was Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler, the unrelentingly crabby touring pro and combative tournament demagogue, who came as close as ever to winning his first WSOP gold bracelet.  Several former WSOP gold bracelet finishers cashed in this event – aside from Harman (3rd), Zolotow (4th), Juanda (5th), and Minieri (8th).  Other champions included Gary Benson (9th), Blair Rodman (15th), and Toto Leonidas (16th).

This was the richest Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split prize pool in poker history – at $1,598,000.  It eclipsed last year’s previous record by $56,400.  This was only the third million-dollar prize pool ever for any Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split tournament.

THE CHAMPION -- Frank Kassela

The $10,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split (Event #15) winner is Frank Kassela, from Las Vegas, NV.  He previously lived in Memphis, TN.

Kassela is 42-years-old.   He was born in Chicago, IL.  His family relocated and he grew up in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite.

At age 25, Kassela moved to Memphis, TN -- were he started a successful business.

Kassela is the owner of Mid-American Specialties, which sells promotional  and specialty products, primarily to government offices.  His company has one office in Dallas and three offices in Memphis.

Kassela says he sleeps very little.  He usually gets about three to four hours of sleep per night.

Kassela began playing poker seriously about 10 years ago.

Kassela moved to Las Vegas recently so he could concentrate more on poker playing.  He could be classified either as a pro or semi-pro, depending on the time of year.  Kassela is playing poker full-time now; however, during other months he spends much of his time concentrating on his business.

Kassela’s favorite poker game is Pot-Limit Omaha.  He is trying to start up a regular mid-to-high stakes Pot-Limit game at various Las Vegas casinos.  Since he has not been successful, he often plays PLO with $2-5 blinds, which is the largest game found on a regular basis.
 
Kassela has already accumulated more than $1.5 million in career tournament winnings.  He has 36 major cashes.  His only tournament victory prior to this win was in a Pot-Limit tournament at the 2009 LA Poker Classic.

Kassela’s first tournament cash was at the 2003 Jack Binion World Poker Open.

Kassela collected $447,446 for first place.  He was presented with his first WSOP gold bracelet.

According to official records, Kassela now has one win, two final table appearances, and five cashes at the WSOP.   His career WSOP earnings now total $550,059.

Following his victory, Kassela joked that he would give his gold bracelet to his 14-year-old daughter.  This brought mock protest from Kassela’s son who sat in the audience and watched his father win his first WSOP title.  After contemplating who would get the bracelet, Kassela agreed that it would be best to win at least one more so each member of the family would receive the prized jewelry.

WINNER QUOTES

On what winning his first WSOP gold bracelet means:  “This feels good!  I feel terrific!  I couldn’t feel better!”

On the meaning of his victory:  “Once you start playing poker, you definitely want to win a World Series gold bracelet.  That’s why you play tournament poker.”

On poker games he likes to play:  “I’m trying really hard to get a regular PLO game going in Las Vegas.  That’s the game I like to play.”

On his self-assessment as a Stud High-Low player:  “I think I play it well.  But it’s not a game I play tons of.  I first started playing it at the Horseshoe in Tunica.”

On tournament strategy:  “Stud High-Low is about the slow accumulation of chips.  You’re not going to get as many chips quickly as you are in Pot-Limit Omaha (and other games).  It’s a building process.  It requires patience.”

On playing heads-up against his friend, poker pro Allen Kessler:  “He was in a really bad spot, chip count-wise, when we got heads up.  He was down about 4 to 1.  In Stud High-Low, that’s just insurmountable, unless you run into some perfect hands.”

On his reputation as a table talker:  “I just like to talk.  I wish I could say it was a strategy.  I just like to run my mouth.”

THE FINAL TABLE

The final table consisted four former WSOP gold bracelet winners – John Juanda (4 wins), Steve Zolotow (2 wins), Jennifer Harman (2 wins), and Dario Minieri (1 win).

This was the most gold-bracelet heavy finale of any final table played so far at this year’s WSOP.  Half of the finalists were former title winners, with a combined total of nine wins between them

Three different nations were represented at the final table: Italy, Russia, and the United States.  There were four Las Vegas residents at this final table – the most of any table so far.

The final table began eight-handed.  This is standard practice in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split.

Final table participants ranged in age from 25 to 65.

The runner up was Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler.  The former owner of a marketing firm from Philadelphia, PA, who now resides in Las Vegas, scored his biggest payout yet in a WSOP event with this finish – worth $276,485.  Kessler finished second in an Omaha High-Low Split event in 2005.  He battled Kassela tough late but could not overcome his serious chip disadvantage in the final stages of the tournament.  This marked his 14th WSOP cash.

The third-place finisher was Jennifer Harman, from Las Vegas, NV.  She is a two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner (2000 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball and 2002 Limit Hold’em).  Harman ran out of momentum later and busted out in the tenth hour of play.  With her $173,159 payout, she now has more than $1.6 million in career WSOP earnings.

The fourth-place finisher was Steve Zolotow, from Las Vegas, NV.  Zolotow is a two-time former gold bracelet winner (1995 Chinese Poker and 2001 Pot-Limit Hold’em).  He is affectionately known as the “Bald Eagle,” due to his uncanny resemblance to the menacing feathered species.  Zolotow is originally from New York City, where he once owned a bar and was a fixture on the underground poker scene during the 1960s and 1970s.  At age 65, Zolotow is one of poker’s most eclectic personalities.  He once met Marilyn Monroe.  He (claims to have) fallen asleep in the same bed with Elizabeth Taylor.  With this cash – worth $125,379 – Zolotow crossed the million-dollar threshold in WSOP career winnings.

The fifth-place finisher was John Juanda, from Las Vegas, NV.  Juanda lasted nearly nine hours before busting out when he went card dead late.  Juanda, a four-time WSOP gold bracelet winner and the 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event champion, collected $97,989.

The sixth-place finisher was Kirill Rabcov, from Moscow, Russia.  He won the 2008 Russian Poker Championship.  This was his fourth time to cash at the WSOP and was his highest finish to date.  Sixth place paid $78,142.

The seventh-place finisher was Vladimir Shchmelev, from St. Petersburg, Russia.  With his third final table appearance through only 15 events, Shchmelev has rocketed out to an early lead in the 2010 WSOP “Player of the Year” race.  He was the runner up in the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship.  Shchmelev also finished seventh in the $10,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud Championship.  With this final table appearance, he becomes the first player to accomplish three-final tables at this year’s series.  He is also the first player in history to make it to three final tables in three designated “Championship” events in a single year.  Seventh place paid $63,456.

Note:  In various media reports, Vladimir Shchmelev has multiple spellings for his last name.  He has been commonly reported as “Schmelev.”  The correct spelling is “SHCHEMELEV.”

The eighth-place finisher was Dario Minieri, from Rome, Italy.  He won the $2.500 buy-in Six-Handed No-Limit event in 2008.  Minieri has also made three final tables on the European Poker Tour (EPT).  Eighth place paid $52,366.

Gary Benson finished ninth.  He was the first Australian to win a WSOP gold bracelet, a feat he accomplished in 1996.

Jennifer Harman became the second woman to make it to a final table this year.  The first was J.J. Liu, who had a third-place finish.

The final table officially began at 5:30 pm and ended at 4:30 am.  The final table clocked in at exactly 11 hours.

OTHER IN-THE-MONEY FINISHERS

The top 16 finishers collected prize money.  Aside from those who made the final table, former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Gary Benson (9th), Blair Rodman (15th), and Toto Leonidas (16th).

With his in-the-money finish in this tournament, John Juanda now has 52 career cashes.  This puts him in a tie with Chau Giang for eighth place on the all-time WSOP cashes list.

With his in-the-money finish in this tournament, Steve Zolotow now has 39 career cashes.  This puts him in a tie with Mickey Appleman for 24th place on the all time WSOP cashes list.

The defending champion was Jeffrey Lisandro.  He played in this event and lasted through the second day, but he did not cash.

ODDS & ENDS

This was the richest Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split prize pool in poker history.  It eclipsed last year’s previous record by $56,400.  This was only the third million-dollar prize pool ever for any Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split tournament.

This is the 845th gold bracelet event in World Series of Poker history.  Note:  This figure includes every official WSOP event played, including tournaments during the early years when there were no actual gold bracelets awarded.  It also includes the 11 gold bracelets awarded at WSOP Europe (to date).

Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split is a game in which the highest and lowest hands split the pot equally.  However, the lowest hand must first qualify to be eligible for half the pot.  The qualifying low hand must be an "eight-low" or better.  For this reason, the game is sometimes called Seven-Card Stud Eight-or-Better.

The final table was played on the ESPN Main Stage.  Despite plenty of open seating, spectator interest in the event was scarce, due largely to the Draw Lowball format being relatively difficult to follow, if sitting in the audience.

The official WSOP gold bracelet ceremony takes place on the day following the winner’s victory (or some hours later when the tournament runs past midnight).  The ceremony takes place inside The Pavilion, which is the expansive main tournament room hosting all noon starts this year.  The ceremony begins at the conclusion of the first break of the noon tournament, usually around 2:20 pm.  The national anthem of the winner’s nation is played.  The entire presentation is open to public and media.  Video and photography are permitted by both public and members of the media.

Kassela requested that the national anthem of United States be played at his WSOP gold bracelet ceremony.

EVENT HISTORY

Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split was the first "split" game ever to be played at the WSOP, when it was first introduced 32 years ago.  In 1976, Doc Green became the first Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split World Champion.  Interestingly, he won $12,750 for first place that year, which is less than half what the bottom of the payout scale (16th place) earned in this year's event.

Since 1976, the list of event winners reads like a "Who's Who" of poker.  Past winners include Johnny Moss, Doyle Brunson, Chip Reese, Mickey Appleman, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Max Stern, Men "the Master" Nguyen, Mike Sexton, Artie Cobb, Vince Burgio, Cyndy Violette, Rich Korbin, Eli Elezra, and Jeffrey Lisandro.

In 1986, this game was inexplicably omitted from the WSOP schedule.  After some protest by Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split enthusiasts, it was re-instituted and has been included on the poker menu every year.  Since 1995, every WSOP has included at least two Eight-or-Better events. This year's WSOP schedule includes two Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split tournaments – this $10,000 buy-in Championship and a $1,500 buy-in event to be played June 14-16.

No player in WSOP history has ever won more than one gold bracelet in this game.

Last year's event attracted 164 entries. Entries increased slightly to 170 players this year.

TOURNAMENT PLAY

The tournament was played over four consecutive days, from June 6-9, 2010.  The tournament was officially listed as a three-day competition, but the final table ran longer than usual and played well into a fourth day.

Here were the starting chip counts when final table play began:

Seat 1 -- Harman:  817,000
Seat 2 -- Zolotow:  560,000
Seat 3 -- Kassela:  372,000
Seat 4 -- Juanda:  644,000
Seat 5 – Shchemelev:  398,000
Seat 6 – Rabcov:  949,000
Seat 7 -- Kessler:  390,000
Seat 8 – Minieri:  652,000

Kassela seized the chip lead about midway through the finale.  He held the chip lead until the final hand was dealt.  That came when Kassela was dealt (playing card: 7c playing card: 7d) playing card: Qd playing card: 2h playing card: Qh playing card: 3s (playing card: Jh) which made two pair – with no low.  Kessler had (playing card: Th playing card: 8d) playing card: 9c playing card: 8d playing card: Kc playing card: Ts (playing card: Qc) which was good for two pair -- tens and eights (no low).  Kassela scooped and was the winner, which evoked cheers from one lone supporter in the audience, which was Kassela’s son.  Meanwhile, “Chainsaw” Kessler’s merry band of followers shuffled away in despair and disappointment.

Kassela officially becomes the 2010 “Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split World Champion,” replacing last year’s winner Jeffrey Lisandro.

2010 WSOP STATISTICS
 
(Note:  Event #15 concluded before Event #13)

Through the conclusion of Event #15, the 2010 WSOP has attracted 18,532 total entries; $30,608,300 in prize money has been awarded to winners.

Tournament attendance is up from this same point last year.  Through 15 events, there were 17,195 entries last year.  There have been 18,532 total entries in the same span this year.

Through the conclusion of Event #15 (excluding #13), the nationalities of winners have been:

United States (8)
Canada (2)
England (2)
Hungary (1)
New Zealand (1)

Through the conclusion of Event #15 (excluding #13), the national origin (birthplace) of winners has been:

United States (5)
Vietnam (2)
Canada (2)
England (2)
Hungary (1)
China (1)
New Zealand (1)

Through the conclusion of Event #15 (excluding #13) the ratio of professional poker players to semi-pros and amateurs who won gold bracelets is as follows:

Professional Players (10):  Michael Chow, Michael Mizrachi, Praz Bansi, Josh Tieman, Peter Gelencser, James Dempsey, Men “the Master” Nguyen, Matt Matros, Simon Watt, Yan R. Chen

Semi-Pros (1):  Frank Kassela

Amateurs (3):  Duc Pham, Aadam Daya, Pascal Lefrancois 

Note:  A “pro” is defined as a player who makes the majority of his/her income from playing poker.  However, there is some debate as to whether players who have lucrative industry deals and backing should really be termed as professionals.  A “semi-pro” is defined as a player who derives some measure of income from playing poker over a reasonable period of time.  However, many semi-pros have non-poker related business interests which provide a majority of earnings.  “Amateurs” are players who have other means of support and do not play poker for income -- either part-time or full-time.  Each winner is judged on a by case basis.

Will leave Event 17 for the conclusion shortly

Meanwhile.....

Event 18 $2,000 NLH has reached the final 10


CP instructor Matt matros stands a chance of winning a second bracelet in Limit this WSOP

Top Chip Counts
1    Eric Buchman    390,000
2    Matt Grapenthien 356,000
3    Matthew Matros    325,000
4    Hansu Chu     325,000
5    Brent Courson    325,000
6    Steven Hustoft    293,000
7    Flavio Ferrari    145,000
8    Gary Bogdanski    135,000
9    Daniel Quach    68,000
10    William Jensen    55,000

Event 19 $10,000 2-7 Lowball has reached the final two tables


Some big guns fighting over this one


Table #313
Seat 1: George Danzer - 268,500
Seat 2: John Monnette - 142,000
Seat 3: Doug Booth - 241,000
Seat 4: John Juanda - 191,000
Seat 5: Daniel Negreanu - 139,000
Seat 6: Vincent Musso - 315,000
Seat 7: Yan Chen - 104,500

Table #316
Seat 1: Eric Cloutier - 151,500
Seat 2: Eric Kesselman - 313,000
Seat 3: Chad Brown - 81,500
Seat 4: Andy Bloch - 181,500
Seat 5: David Baker - 636,000
Seat 6: Erik Seidel - 220,000
Seat 7: Peter Gould - 31,500

In Event 20 $1500 PLO 95 remain

885 began, $256,000 up top


Tom Rutter currently 10th in chips, Peter Costa 9th

Top Chip Counts
1    Jonathan Little    129,600
2    Christian Harder    116,000
3    Tex Barch             115,400
4    Matt Zoorob    106,000
5    Nenad Medic    104,400
6    Bryce Yockey    91,900
7    Mike Shklover    88,100
8    Sergey Altbregin    83,000
9    Peter Costa    73,000
10    Tom Rutter    62,000

Also in Akenhead, Tim Flanders, Jeff Duvall

In Event 21 $1500 Seven Card Stud

136 of 408 remain with $140,000 up top


Richard Ashby going well

Top Chip Counts
1    Scott Seiver    42,000
2    Jean Gaspard    36,000
3    Christin Pietsch    32,000
4    Jon Turner    25,000
5    Carlos Mortensen 23,300
6    Erich Kollmann    22,500
7    Chip Jett            22,000
8    Richard Ashby    20,000
9    Greg Raymer    19,000
10    Dan Heimiller    17,000

Also check out this must read blog

http://www.blackbeltpoker.com/blogs/read/27527/snoopy/Alphabetti-Spaghetti---Giant-Meatballs/

It's from someone we know well on here, and he links to this thread which makes him, still, a good guy. Despite his trainers. and his hair.

The 2010 WSOP Ladies Event begins Friday, June 11 at 12 noon and will guarantee our first ladies bracelet winner of the 2010 WSOP.
 
   Two women have come close thus far, with JJ Liu finishing 3rd in Event 9, and Jennifer Harman taking 3rd place in Event 15.
 
   Leading into the 2010 WSOP, there was a lot of buzz about 2010 being the Year of the Woman.  And with less than a third of the bracelet events in the books, there is still plenty of time for that to occur.
 
   Perhaps it was Mike Matusow's claim of running down the Las Vegas Strip with no clothes on if the ladies captured 3 bracelets this summer, that has turned the tide.  As much as we want to see the ladies do well, let's just say an in the buff Mike Matusow is not something most will want to stomach.
 
   It still could turn out to be the Year of the Woman in 2010. The ladies are certainly off to an auspicious start this year, as Annie Duke won the NBC National Heads-up Poker Championship; Vanessa Selbst took down the NAPT Mohegan Sun championship event, and Liv Boeree was victorious on the European Poker Tour.
 
   First of the trio to strike gold was Annie Duke. On March 15, after three long days of play in a 64-player field, she collected $500,000 for finishing first in the sixth annual NBC event. She became the first woman to win this coveted title, and in doing so, at the final table  beat out the likes of Erik Seidel, Scotty Nguyen, Dennis Phillips, Jerry Yang, Doyle Brunson, Jason Mercier, Peter Eastgate, Paul Wasicka and Eli Elezra (who finished behind her in that order).
 
   The victory pushed Duke’s total wins past the $4 million mark. Her numerous prior highlights include a win in the WSOP’s Tournament of Champions inaugural event in 2004, the same year she won a bracelet in Omaha High-Low.
 
   Prior champions for the $20,000 buy-in NBC invitational event are Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest, Jamie Gold, Paul Wasicka, Chris Ferguson and Huck Seed.
 
   It was no easy win, as Duke found herself in some of the longest and memorable matches in the tournament. She beat her friend Andy Bloch in the first round of play, next overcame Darvin Moon, and then found herself in a dramatic and marathon match against Wasicka. She did get lucky in that match. At one point she was all in with A-10 against Wasicka’s pocket aces but made a straight on the river. After beating Yang and Phillips, she played three long matches against another good friend, Seidel, holder of eight bracelets. Duke won the first match, Seidel the second, and then Duke claimed victory in the deciding match when she started with pocket nines on the final hand and ended up with a straight. 
 
   The next woman to score a stunning victory was Vanessa Selbst in the inaugural North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun championship, as she beat 715 other players in the $5,000 event to pocket $750,000. Selbst a Brooklyn-born Yale graduate and Fulbright Scholar turned pro, had six-figure cashes in WSOP events in 2006 and 2007, and in 2008 won her first bracelet in a pot-limit Omaha event paying $227,923. Three days later she had another WSOP cash of $108,288 for finishing third in a $10,000 heads-up no-limit event.
 
   Then, saying she missed intellectual community life, she largely abandoned poker to return to Yale to study human rights law. Even so, in her spare time she managed to pick up a few nice cashes, including $28,642 for third at the World Poker Finals in Mashantucket. Near the end of her second year at law school, she decided to play the NAPT main event, since it wasn’t far from Yale. She finished day one near the top of the pack, and went on to destroy the field. Her $750,000 easy win made her rethink her poker career, and she decided to take a year off from law school and return to the tournament circuit. However, she’ll only be able to play for two weeks in this year’s WSOP, since she has a summer internship commitment. Her eventual plan is to play tournaments six or seven months a year, spending the rest of her time on pro bono cases.
 
   Just a week after Selbst’s big win, Liv Boeree, a poker player, TV presenter and model from the United Kingdom, became the third member of the triumphant trio by winning the biggest-everEuropean Poker Tour event in San Remo, Italy. She bested a field of 1,240 players and won €1,250,000 ($1,698,300) after gaining entry to the event via a €500 satellite. Two years earlier, she had won the Ladbrokes European Ladies Championship.
 
   Boeree, an astrophysics grad from the University of Manchester as well as an accomplished rock guitarist, was introduced to poker in 2005 as a contestant on the reality TV show where she was coached by Hellmuth and Duke.
 
   When Boeree made the final table at San Remo, she was fifth in chips, trailing Jakob Carlsson of Sweden, who seemed to have an insurmountable lead. She was in front when she got heads-up with Carlsson, lost it to him, then regained it by making a wheel on the turn before coasting to victory.
 
   Another lady to watch this year is Annette Obrestad, who collected $2 million for winning the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe a day before her 19th birthday. Now 21 and able to play in the U.S., all eyes will be on her during the WSOP. The Norwegian wunderkind started her remarkable poker career at age 15, winning close to $1 million in online play in just a few months.
 
   Adding momentum to the emergence of women in poker are two ladies tours: LIPS (Ladies International Poker Series) and the High Heels Poker Tour.
 
   LIPS, started by Lupe Soto and now in its sixth year, is a collaborative effort with casinos, offering middle ($100-$500) buy-in events designed for women who have played for a while and want a bigger challenge. So far more than 8,000 women have participated.
 
   This year it will hold the first-ever U.S. Ladies Poker Championship September 4th and 5th at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas. It will be a $500 buy-in and be broadcast live on the internet’s Poker Netcast.
 
   Two years ago, Soto also launched the Women in Poker Hall of Fame. The four inaugural inductees were Linda Johnson, Susie Isaacs, Marsha Waggoner and Barbara Enright, who is also the only woman in the Poker Hall of Fame. Last year’s WIPHOF inductees were Cyndy Violette, Jan Fisher and June Field, who founded Card Player magazine.
 
   The other ladies tournament series is the High Heels Poker Tour, whose motto is “Poker is in our sole.” It was launched in 2007 by Lauren Failla in its home state of Florida, but has grown to cover all of the U.S. and abroad.  Its mission, stated when it was launched, “is to empower women who want to become champions in the growing world of poker and to provide the best competitive environment where women can explore, develop, continue growing and learning top strategies”     
 
   HHPT now has relationships with GO Girl Energy, Copag Cards, PMS Poker Wear and others. It has staged events in collaboration with the WSOP Circuit, Beau Rivage, Gold Strike, Harrah’s New Orleans, Hard Rock Hotels, Turning Stone and more. HHPT also hopes to expand to several different locations this year, and has been in discussion with such casinos as the Horseshoe in Hammond, Indiana, Harvey’s Lake Tahoe in Nevada, the Canadian Poker Expo in Toronto, Canada and others.
 
   High Heels also holds its own Academy with such pros as Enright, Isaacs, Waggoner, Kristy Gazes, Karina Jett and J.J. Liu as instructors. It will also have its own hospitality suite at the Rio June 9-11 featuring live streaming and interviews with players. 

LAS VEGAS – June 10, 2010 – There can be only one, and today, Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, bested eight top poker players to win the final seat into the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions.
 
   The World Series of Poker Academy, the exclusive educational provider for the World Series of Poker, played host to the single table “sudden-death playoff” tournament for nine players who were not eligible for the public voting to fill the final seat.
 
   Andy Bloch, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Gus Hansen, Don Cheadle, Sorel Mizzi, Michael Mizrachi, Liv Boeree, Gavin Smith and Paul Wasicka fought an epic battle, but in the end only Grospellier was left standing.
 
   He beat Michael ‘Grinder’ Mizrachi after the players went all-in pre-flop. ElkY had playing card: Ks [10c], and the Grinder had playing card: Ah playing card: 6h. The board ran playing card: 4c playing card: 5c playing card: Qd playing card: Kc playing card: Jc and ElkY took the win with a flush. Grospellier won the Golden Ticket and entry into the coveted WSOP Tournament of Champions All-Star event and a chance at the $1 million prize pool.

   “I want to thank the WSOP Academy for giving me the chance to win my way into the TOC,” said ElkY after winning the WSOP Tournament of Champions playoff. “I feel like I am a deserving champion based on my record around the world, and I look forward to getting my WSOP bracelet soon.”
 
   Living in Korea since 2001, Frenchman Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier is still one of the top ranking players of the game ‘Starcraft’. After a friend introduced Bertrand to poker, he earned a name as a prolific online player but moved on to live play taking home $6,065,016 in lifetime earnings. He holds notable winning titles from the 2008 European Poker Tour and the 2008 World Poker Tour, and the 2008 PCA main event where he racked in a cool $2 million.
 
   The WSOP Tournament of Champions is the premier All-Star Event in all of poker. The freeroll poker invitational features 27 players; 20 selected by public voting, 5 automatic entries and 2 sponsor-exemption entries.  Entering the 2010 WSOP, there were 521 WSOP bracelet holders eligible for the vote, which began March 15 on www.WSOP.com/TOC and will remain open through June 15, 2010 at midnight ET.
 
   The five automatic entries into the tournament are the three previous WSOP TOC winners [Annie Duke, Mike Matusow & Mike Sexton], the reigning WSOP champion [Joe Cada] and the reigning WSOP Europe champion [Barry Shulman].
 
   “The public and player response to the WSOP Academy tournament was far greater than we originally expected and certainly shows that the Tournament of Champions is the All-Star Game of poker,” said Jeff Goldenberg, CEO of the WSOP Academy. “We saw some incredible poker which is going to produce amazing training experiences for our online students.”

   The sponsor’s exemption tournament was filmed for exclusive use by the WSOP Academy. Ali Nejad and Phil Hellmuth will provide hand-by-hand analysis and expert commentary of the tournament. The content will be available to WSOP Academy customers through its website and live events.

   As the exclusive education partner to the WSOP, the WSOP Academy is dedicated to bringing entertaining, dynamic and engaging learning experiences to poker players at the WSOP. The WSOP Academy will host the new Mind & Body Academy on July 4th with Mindset Guru Sam Chauhan and FBI Expert Joe Navarro. The 2-day Advanced Main Event Primer on July 2nd - 3rd has been revamped for 2010. Players will learn to think and analyze tournament situations like the pros, techniques to manage difficult situations and how to fine tune their poker game and fix their leaks.

   Every Saturday and Sunday at 11am and 4pm in the Bad Beat Bar and Lounge in the Brasilia Room at the Rio in Las Vegas, the WSOP Academy will host free seminars, poker IQ clinics, book signings and autograph sessions. Scheduled to appear this year are Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Doyle Brunson, Greg Raymer, Mark Seif, Joe Navarro, Sam Chauhan, Bernard Lee, Ali Nejad and more. Visit www.wsopacademy.com for more information.

10 left at the end of the night in the Lowball

It's a 7 handed final table


Top Chip Counts
1    David Baker    500,000
2    George Danzer    400,000
3    Doug Booth    385,000
4    Eric Cloutier    350,000
5    Erik Seidel            295,000
6    John Monnette    240,000
7    John Juanda    216,000
8    Eric Kesselman    190,000
9    Daniel Negreanu    170,000
10    Andy Bloch    165,000

Event 17 wrap up

1     Jason DeWitt          818,959
2    Sam Trickett       505,725
3    Jeff Williams       328,762
4    Peter Gilmore       241,472
5    Amit Makhija       179,866
6    David Benefield       135,718
7    James Carroll       103,594
8    Paul Foltyn               79,957
9    Manny Minaya       62,350
10    Perry Friedman       49,024
11    Jesse Chinni       49,024
12    Antonio Esfandiari    49,024
13    Nico Behling       39,159
14    Anthony Gargano    39,159
15    Joshua Cooper       39,159
16    Dragan Galic       31,305
17    Veronica Dunn       31,305
18    Joshua Macciello       31,305
19    Matthew Schwarmann   25,386
20    Eugene Todd       25,386
21    Matt Iles                25,386
22    Alexia Portal       25,386
23    David Miscikowski    25,386
24    Vivek Rajkumar       25,386
25    Kristof Harris       25,386
26    Josh Arieh               25,386
27    Lawrence Barbetta    25,386
28    Anton Nikaj       20,845
29    Amnon Filippi       20,845
30    Lennart Holz       20,845
31    Isaac Baron       20,845
32    Steven Goosen       20,845
33    Mohsin Charania       20,845
34    Andrew Frankenberger   20,845
35    Alex Bolotin       20,845
36    Steven Burkholder    20,845
37    Peter Jetten       17,309
38    Melvin Faw               17,309
39    Ted Lawson       17,309
40    Ryan Schmidt       17,309
41    Chau Giang       17,309
42    Bryn Kenney       17,309
43    Hieu Luu               17,309
44    Robert Hwang       17,309
45    Samuel Iola       17,309
46    Lisa Hamilton       14,517
47    Michael Leah       14,517
48    Frank Calo               14,517
49    Shawn Buchanan    14,517
50    Phil Hellmuth       14,517
51    Owen Crowe       14,517
52    Brian Smith       14,517
53    Magide Kerzazi       14,517
54    David Robinson       14,517
55    Alex Santiago       12,283
56    Thang Pham       12,283
57    David Machowsky    12,283
58    Marco Liesy       12,283
59    Takashi Ogura       12,283
60    John Racener       12,283
61    Stuart Rutter       12,283
62    Allen Bari               12,283
63    Jeffrey Forrest       12,283
64    Tom McCormick       10,497
65    Vitaly Lunkin       10,497
66    John Patgorski       10,497
67    Thorsten Schafer    10,497
68    Chino Rheem       10,497
69    James Dempsey       10,497
70    Sean Nolan       10,497
71    Craig Boyd                10,497
72    Annette Obrestad    10,497

Jason DeWitt was the winner of the $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2010 World Series of Poker.  This marked his first career WSOP gold bracelet victory.

DeWitt is from Granger, IN.  He is a poker pro with seven WSOP in-the-money finishes on his blossoming resume, including at least one cash in each of the last five years at the WSOP.
 
DeWitt, who came in second-place in the WSOP No-Limit Hold’em Triple Chance event last year, collected a whopping $818,959 for first place.  The huge payout was fitting given the heavy odds stacked against DeWitt when play began three days earlier.  DeWitt conquered a massive field size of 792 players en route to his biggest poker win ever.

The runner up was Samuel Trickett, from Great Britain.  Trickett barely missed becoming the third WSOP gold bracelet winner from the U.K. this year.

This was the largest $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament in WSOP history. Tournament attendance increased by 21 percent over last year.  In 2009, there were 655 entries.

The top 72 finishers collected prize money.  Former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Perry Friedman (10th), Antonio “the Magician” Esfandiari (12th), Josh Arieh (26th, Ted Lawson (39th), Chau Giang (41st), Lisa Hamilton (46th), Phil Hellmuth (50th), Vitaly Lunkin (65th), and Annette Obrestad ((72nd).

A few other notables:

With his 41st-place finish in this tournament, Chau Giang cashed for the second time this year and moved one spot ahead of John Juanda into sole possession of eighth place on the all-time WSOP cashes list.

With his 50th-place finish in this tournament, Phil Hellmuth cashed for the second time this year and remains in first place as the all-time WSOP cashes leader – with 77.  He is currently ten cashes ahead of Men ‘the Master” Nguyen, who ranks second.

Annette Obrestad, who is the youngest WSOP gold bracelet winner in history, cashed for the first time on U.S. soil, finishing 72nd. Obrestad turned 21 (legal age to play) this year. Obrestad was 18-years-old when she won the inaugural championship at WSOP Europe in 2007.

At a guess, I'm guessing this person will win Event 22 - the $1k Ladies Event:

(http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/6140/img39291.jpg)

Oh hai der, Shaun Deeb.

hilar

Mike Matusow  has come out and said that if durrrr wins a bracelet the prop bet will win him $12.5  million 

http://www.pokernews.com/news/2010/06/2010-world-series-of-poker-bets-bigger-than-bracelets-8420.htm

nice boobs ;)

peter costa  2/23 in event 20  with $250k up top

Event 18 $2,000 Limit result

1     Eric Buchman           203,607
2    Brent Courson       125,737
3    Steven Hustoft       90,928
4    Flavio Ferrari       66,446
5    Hansu Chu               49,068
6    William Jensen       36,619
7    Matt Grapenthien    27,609
8    Gary Bogdanski       21,025
9    Matthew Matros       16,174

Event 19 $10,000 Lowball result

1     David Baker          294,314
2    Eric Cloutier       181,886
3    George Danzer        115,295
4    John Juanda       78,088
5    Doug Booth       55,483
6    Erik Seidel               41,270
7    Eric Kesselman       32,080
8    Daniel Negreanu      26,004
9    Andy Bloch       22,387
10    John Monnette       22,387
11    Vincent Musso       22,387
12    Yan Chen               19,273
13    Chad Brown        19,273
14    Peter Gould       19,273


Bakes wins, Juanda's third final of this series, Negraneau bubbles the final, Brit Peter Gould cashes

Event 20 British funk alert

$1,500 PLO

12 LEFT

Nenad Medic       600,000    
Peter Costa       487,000    
Ashkan Razavi       460,000    
John Barch       450,000    
Klinghammer Thibaut    365,000    
Trai Dang               360,000    
Chris Hyong Chang    333,000    
Tyler Patterson       255,000    
Blair Rodman       205,000    
Thomas Redfern       152,000    
Denton Pfister       114,000

$256,000 UP TOP

Tim Flanders cashed 15th, Tom Rutter 79th   

Event 22 $1,000 Ladies NLH

We saw 1,054 women hit the felt today. It was six fewer than we had last year, but it was an excited and fun bunch. When the clock finally stopped after ten levels of play we were down to just 138 of our original group.

A number of today's participants are well known inside poker and elsewhere. Vanessa Selbst, Vanessa Rousso, Lauren Kling, Erica Schoenberg, Jennifer Tilly, Leo Margets, Veronica Dabul, JJ Liu, Nichoel Peppe, Amanda Thomas, Kristy Arnett, Lynn Gilmartin, Elaine Chaivarlis, Fatima de Melo, Kathy Liebert, Thuy Doan, Tiffany Michelle, Maridu Mayrinck, Cheryl Hines and Shannon Elizabeth all showed up, but none of them would live to see day two.

La Sengphet took the chip lead after about eight levels of play and held onto it through the rest of the night, finishing with around 148,500. However, she has her work cut out for her as 2008 champ Svetlana Gromenkova (70,000) is sitting with 88,000. Evelyn Ng (55,200), Liv Boeree (57,700), Jessica Welman (24,500) and Lacey Jones (17,500) are also in the hunt.

It's a tough field, and they're all going to be gunning for the top prize of $192,232

Top Chip Counts
1    La Sengphet 148,500
2    Svetlana Gromenkova    70,100
3    Linda Johnson    64,400
4    Liv Boeree    57,700
5    Evelyn Ng    55,200
6    Mimi Tran    33,000
7    Wooka Kim 33,000
8    Jessica Welman    24,500
9    Yu Kurita    21,000
10    Maria Ho    20,500

Shaun Deeb busted

Event 21 $1,500 Seven Card Stud

Top Chip Counts
1    Darren Shebell    230,000
2    Sorel Mizzi    210,000
3    Pat Pezzin    195,000
4    Dan Heimiller    195,000
5    Jon Turner    190,000
6    Richard Ashby    155,000
7    Christine Pietsch    123,000
8    Vorakboth Eam    120,000
9    Raymond Walter    110,000
10    Eric Friedman    92,000


Good luck to Chufty. $140,000 up top

In Event 23 $2,500 Limit 6 Max

384 legan, 120 odd remain


A high powered top 10

Top Chip Counts
1    JC Tran    55,000
2    Martin Kabrhel    52,000
3    David Baker    40,000 (him again?!)
4    George Lind    38,000
5    David Plastik    37,000
6    Justin Bonomo    36,000
7    Greg Debora    33,000
8    Phil Gordon    32,000
9    Bertrand Grospellier    32,000
10    Tommy Hang    32,000

Eric Buchman was the winner of the $2,000 buy-in Limit Hold’em tournament at the 2010 World Series of Poker.  It marked his first gold bracelet victory following 13 previous WSOP cashes and three final table appearances dating back to 2006.  Buchman is perhaps best known for finishing fourth in last year’s WSOP Main Event championship.  His “November Nine” feat netted a cool $2.5 million and immortality as a permanent fixture on ESPN’s reel of poker broadcasts.
 
Buchman is 30-years-old.  He lives in Hewlett, NY.  He started out playing poker in underground games and has been a poker pro for several years.

The turnout attracted 476 entries, which was a slight increase in attendance over last year.  The top 45 finishers collected prize money.  The runner up was Brent Courson, from Coopersville, MI.  Several former WSOP gold bracelet finishers cashed in this event, most notably Matt Matros who won his first gold bracelet just four days ago in the $1,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em competition (Event #12).  Matros made a serious run in this event, as well.  He finished ninth.

Another notable name who finished high was Jeff Shulman.  He is the editor of Card Player magazine.  Like Buchman, Shulman final tabled the WSOP Main Event last year, finishing fifth.

It’s also noteworthy that this was the second-youngest final table in WSOP history.  The average age of players was 22.8 years.  Only last year’s No-Limit Hold’em Shootout, with an average age of 22.2 years, was comprised of ayounger group of finalists.

Event 20 the Omaha

And then there were nine.

Coming into the day it was fair to say that all eyes were on a pair of young guns; Jason Mercier and Steven "pikappraider" Burkholder. Those two final tabled this event last year, but were both eliminated during the day today unable to make a repeat performance.

Experience is still key however as four of our nine remaining players have made deep runs at the World Series. Nenad Medic (1), Blair Rodman (9), Trai Dang (1) and John "Tex" Barch (2) have all made final tables, but Medic and Rodman are the only bracelet owners.

Medic is our chip leader entering Day 3 with 1,504,000 chips and the closest player, Tex Barch, is nearly a million chips behind with 546,000.

Ashkan Razavi, Tyler Patterson, Chris Hyong Chang, Denton Pfister and Klinghammer Thibaut round out our final nine.

Event 21 Stud

We're Done; Sorel Mizzi Out In Front!
 

That brings an end to a long day of Seven Card Stud action as our field has been whittled down to just eight. For one of the more affordable buy-in tournaments on the schedule, it has certainly produced a world-class final table lineup.

They will be led by online sensation Sorel Mizzi, who despite having limited Stud experience, has proven that he has the instincts to match it with anyone in the world at any poker discipline.

Interestingly, Dan Heimiller and Sorel Mizzi started this tournament two days ago on the very same table, and now, they're going to finish it right where they started.

Here's how they will lineup tomorrow:


Christine Pietsch - 194,000


Richard Ashby - 276,000


Pat Pezzen - 211,000


Dan Heimiller - 241,000


Jon Turner - 83,000


Sorel Mizzi - 435,000


Darren Shebell - 320,000


Owais Ahmed - 78,000

Event 23 6 Max Limit

One and Done
 

Day 1 of Event #23 is in the books after 384 runners turned up for the $2,500 Limit Hold'em event. After eight surprisingly entertaining levels of poker, we're left with somewhere around 100 of them at night's end.

That's pretty good work for a limit event, and the list of those eliminated reads like a who's-who of the poker world. Through the course of the day, we said goodbye to Vanessa Selbst, Phil Hellmuth (very quickly), Tom Schneider, Carlos Mortensen, Eli Elezra, Marcel Luske, Barry Greenstein, Chris Ferguson, David Sklansky, and Howard Lederer, among more than 200 others.

That leaves us with a handful of relative unknowns atop our leader board heading into tomorrow's moving day. We'll have to wait for the full official chip counts, but we've got David Webb, Richard Li, and Zach Fahmie all up around the 75,000-chip mark. Dave Baker (not to be confused with David "bakes" Baker who won a bracelet tonight) is in the mix as well, and so are the familiar faces of Justin Bonomo, JJ Liu and a few others.

WTF thibaut used to work with me in ey luxembourg and quit for poker

NICE FUCKIN LIFE

CHUFTY NOW HU FOR A BRACELET.

glglglgl

Negraneau blogs about Men and the Ladies event


Men Playing in Ladies Events
13 Jun 2010


Poker has come along way from the days it was played in the back of smoke filled pool rooms where the only women you'd see were the cocktail waitress, wives, girlfriends, or even mistresses hanging out.

More and more women have shown an interest in poker, and for many women, the most special day of the year for them has always been playing in the ladies event at the WSOP.

My personal assistant is a perfect example of that. She works hard for me during the WSOP, but her one off day is the ladies event and she looks forward to playing in it every year. She's been able to satellite her way in every year, and I'm always proud of her when she wins her seat! It's pretty cool since she is new to poker.
Patty would never dare play in an open event for that kind of money. No chance. That holds true for many of the women, mostly beginners, who all use that event as a learning experience. Some women may start out playing in the ladies event, and then eventually play in the open events, but a large percentage of them would never have had an opportunity to experience the WSOP had it not been for this very special and historic event.

I mean, you have over 1000 women in that event who love it! Why in the world would we want to spoil their fun in the name of sexual equality? I mean really. Really????? Men have had it pretty good, so whining about sexual equality as a man is a pretty lame excuse to take part in a ladies event. It's beyond lame, it's just plain foolish. You aren't fighting for men's rights, or women's right for that matter, you are just being an ass.

I think there were at least 6 men who played in the event this year, and I'd be willing to bet a pretty penny that their primary motivation was NOT sexual equality, it was equity. It's a juicy, large field event with loads of beginners. I'm not saying that all of them were playing for that specific reason, but I'd bet a lot of money it wasn't a concerted effort to "right the wrong of women having fun at the WSOP in a segregated event."

Women still represent a minuscule percentage of open events. Outside of the ladies event, which has a 1000 player field, there is no way in hell that a total of 1000 women would play in the open events.

I'm not a woman, so I couldn't fully understand the level of intimidation a woman would face when she sits down at a poker table full of men. For some, it's no big deal, but for a large majority, I imagine they are a bit worried about "looking stupid" or being judged. It's human nature.

This event helps put many of the women at ease. They all can learn together and enjoy the experience of playing in the world's most prestigious series, the WSOP. Why do we want to take that away from them? Why do we want to destroy such a unique and special event that is so popular among most women?

Well, Shaun Deeb and Annie Duke think the event should be destroyed. Shaun Deeb and Annie Duke think that Patty should forget about looking forward to the ladies event, because they don't like it. Well screw you!!! Don't play in it if you don't like it, but don't ruin the fun for the 1000 women who do love the event so much.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get it, women and men shouldn't be separated in a game that isn't physical, but that's not the case in poker either. Every single bracelet event is an open event. The casino employee's event, ladies event, and seniors event, are all special events catering to a special demographic... and they are popular. None of those bracelets "count" in the totals or stats. If Jennifer Harman wins the ladies event, she'd still have two bracelets... And one ladies event bracelet. Her bracelet count would be 2, not 3.

The WSOP is considering repercussions for men who entered the ladies event. I hope a precedent is set so that we can protect this event and let the ladies have some fun man, seriously... Why be a party pooper? Are there not more important causes to fight than this one? Leave the ladies event be. It DOES bring more women into poker, and the absurd notion that if it didn't exist more women would play in open events is a bunch of bologna.

Why should 1000 women be deprived of having a good experience at the WSOP because Shaun Deeb and Annie Duke don't like it?

Sometimes law gets in the way of logic and that's the case with this event. Legally, you can't shut out the men, because it discriminates based on gender, but if you think about it in terms of history, let's look at who would be discriminated against: MEN. Men have had it pretty damn good. They could always work, vote, or pretty much do whatever they please, while women had to struggle and fight for their rights. Men aren't being deprived here, and the only area you could argue that men get the short end of the stick is in custody battles in divorce court. Let the freaking ladies have a special event for them!

If you are offended by a special event created for women to play poker without having to deal with testosterone at the table, then you need to loosen up a bit and stop being so anal. Go fight a real battle and let the ladies play!

Tex Barch Wins WSOP Gold Bracelet in Event 20

Texas Poker Pro Wins WSOP Title in Record-Setting Pot-Limit Omaha Battle


John “Tex” Barch was the winner of the $1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha event at the 2010 World Series of Poker.  This marked his first career WSOP gold bracelet victory.  Barch is perhaps best known for his appearance at the 2005 WSOP Main Event championship final table, where he finished third.  Joe Hachem won the Main Event that year.

Barch lives in McKinney, TX.  This was his sixth time to cash at the WSOP and marked his third final table appearance.  With this victory, his career WSOP earnings crossed the $2.8 million mark. 

Despite Pot-Limit Omaha being one of the most popular forms of poker in Europe, this finale was pretty much an all North American contest – with four Americans versus four Canadians.  The lone European stag was Klinghammer Thibaut, from France.  This was the first time in WSOP history that four Canadians made it to the same final table.  The Canadian players were Nenad Medic, Trai Dang, Ashkan Razavi, and Chris Hyong.

This was the largest Pot-Limit Omaha tournament in WSOP history, with 885 entrants.  The turnout eclipsed last year’s record numbers by almost ten percent.  The top 81 finishers collected prize money.  Former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included – Nenad Medic (2nd), Blair Rodman (7th), Ted Lawson (37th), Jay Heimowitz (44th), Michael Keiner (47th); Jason Mercier (64th), and Robert Williamson III (77th).  The runner up was Nenad Medic, from Niagara Falls, Ontario who barely missed winning his second WSOP gold bracelet.

Robert Williamson’s cash in this event means he now has ten Pot-Limit Omaha cashes within the past ten years, the most of any player.

Ted Lawson finished in-the-money, which makes him four-for-four in cashes so far this year.  Lawson became the first player at this year’s WSOP to reach four cashes.  There are currently 23 players with three cashes this year.

Richard Ashby Wins WSOP Gold Bracelet in Event 21

Ashby Becomes Third Englishman to Win Victory at 2010 WSOP


Richard Ashby was the winner of the $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud tournament at the 2010 World Series of Poker.  It marked his first ever gold bracelet victory.  By conquering a tough late-stage lineup which included former WSOP event winners Dan Heimiller and Alexander Kravchenko, Ashby pocketed the top cash prize amounting to $140,467.  More meaningful perhaps, was adding his name to the history books.

Ashby, age 38, is primarily an online cash game specialist.  He lives in Vatford, England.  Ashby has now cashed nine times at the WSOP, dating back to 2003.

Ashby also became the third Englishman to win a gold bracelet at this year’s WSOP.  He followed in the footsteps of previous UK champions, Praz Bansi and James Dempsey.

The second-place finisher was Christine Pietsch who barely missed becoming the 16th woman in history to win an open WSOP event.  She had a big chip lead late when heads up play began, but Ashby proved to be a formidable opponent in the duel, leaving the lady from Orange County, CA in second palce.  Pietsch would have joined an illustrious group of female champions, including Jennifer Harman, Annette Obrestad, Annue Duke, Kathy Liebert, Cyndy Violette, Nani Dollison, Kayja Thater, Linda Johnson, Jerri Thomas, Maria Stern, Starla Brodie, Vera Richmond, Donna Doman, Barbara Enright, and Vanessa Selbst – which constitutes the grand circle of female gold bracelet winners.  Selbst was the last woman to win the most coveted of all poker jewelry, which took place in Event #19 at the 2008 WSOP.

This year’s Seven-Card Stud tournament attracted 408 entries, a slight increase in attendance over last year.  The top 40 finishers collected prize money.  Four former WSOP gold bracelet finishers cashed in this event, including Dan Heimiller (4th), Alexander Kravchenko (9th), Scott Seiver (19th), and Rod Pardey, Jr. (37th).

Dan Heimiller’s high finish meant becoming only the third player at this year’s WSOP to reach three final tables, to date.  He finished 2nd in Omaha High-Low Split, 9th in the $10,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud championship, and came in 4th in this event.  The other two players with three final table appearances so far are John Juanda and Vladimir Shchemelev.

The defending champion was Jeffrey Lisandro, from Salerno, Italy.  He entered this year’s tournament, but did not cash.

 Event #20: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha

Final result 


1    John Barch       256,919
2    Klinghammer Thibaut    158,698
3    Trai Dang               102,306
4    Nenad Medic       74,946
5    Ashkan Razavi       55,711
6    Chris Hyong Chang    41,971
7    Blair Rodman       32,007
8    Tyler Patterson       24,695
9    Denton Pfister       19,259

2010 World Series of Poker
Event #21: $1,500 Seven Card Stud

Final result

1    Richard Ashby       140,467
2    Christine Pietsch       86,756
3    Darren Shebell       55,955
4    Dan Heimiller       40,544
5    Owais Ahmed       29,809
6    Sorel Mizzi               22,235
7    Pat Pezzin               16,826
8    Jon Turner       12,916
9    Alex Kravchenko      10,057

In the Ladies, Event 22

Liv Boeree cashed


13 are left led by

Top Chip Counts
1    Kami Chisholm    905,000
2    Sidsel Boesen    575,000
3    La Sengphet    385,000
4    Holly Hodge    320,000
5    Bonnie Overfield    210,000
6    Fatima Gaonach    190,000
7    Allison Whalen    152,000
8    Loren Watterworth 122,000
9    Timmi Derosa    117,000
10    Vanessa Hellebuyck 110,000

In Event #23: $2,500 Limit Hold'em / Six Handed


Brit Javed Abrahams finished 14th for $9,600

13 remain as follows

Brian Meinders          455,000 
Christopher Vitch    360,000    
Al Barbieri               340,000    
Anh Le               255,000
Domenico Denotaristefani 200,000    
Albert Minnullin       190,000    
Dutch Boyd       190,000    
JJ Liu               182,000    
Julian Parmann       165,000    
Dana Kellstrom       160,000    
Jeff Norman       154,000    
Eduardo Miranda       135,000    
Chuck Danielsson      35,000    

Event 24 is a $1,000 NLH

Day 1a had 1931 runners of which 290 made it through


Leaders

1      Leon Yanovski     58,275
2    Valdemar Kwayser 49,600
3    Arnaud Mattern    39,950
4    Jason Wheeler    33,650
5    Veronica Dabul    33,400

These players will join the survivors of tomorrow's Day 1B tournament on Monday for Day 2 of the third $1,000 no limit event of the series.

The day started with a number of notables including Kathy Liebert, Hevad Khan, Shannon Elizabeth, Eric Baldwin, Jeff Madsen, Dennis Phillips and Antonio Esfandiairi, just to name a few. Unfortunately, none of these players managed to make it to the end of Day 1A. However, a number of pros navigated the field and will return for Day 2. They include Arnaud Mattern, Veronica Dabul, Alex Jacob, and the author of Positively Fifth Street, Jim McManus.


Sadly the live updates of this are pretty slim, no Brits news but lets hope there are plenty left in. Or maybe they were watching the football and are playing 1b

Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship attracted 212 runners. In the early stages 177 are left

All the big boys in it


leaders currently

Top Chip Counts
1    Sammy Farha    93,000
2    David Benyamine 86,000
3    Alex Kravchenko    76,000
4    Eli Elezra            76,000
5    Jennifer Harman    75,000
6    Jeffrey Lisandro    72,000
7    Perry Friedman    71,000
8    Vladimir Schmelev 68,000
9    George Danzer    66,000
10    Mike Sexton    65,000

Flushy is 2/44 in this now

lets gogogogogogogogogo

Event 22

The 2010 World Series of Poker Ladies Championship has come to an end with Vanessa Hellebuyck emerging victorious over a field of 1,054. What started three days ago among controversy between the genders has come to a joyous end after an exciting final table.

La Sengphet, who was the chip leader during the early stages of the tournament, was eliminated in seventh place. Meanwhile, Timmi Derosa patiently made her way to the final three where she made a big all in that put Hellebuyck in the tank for several minutes. Derosa's tournament came to an end when Hellebuyck made the correct call and took down the massive pot.

Sidsel Boesen entered the final table as the chip leader but stumbled early. She was able to rebuild and managed to make it heads up against Hellebuyck, although at a 5-1 chip disadvantage.

It took only seven hands for Hellebuyck to eliminate Boesen when her pocket fives faded the ten and nine of diamonds. The Amazon Room echoed with the cheers of Hellebuyck's supporters as the final card came down.

Congratulations to Vanessa Hellebuyck, Event #22 Champion!

1     Vanessa Hellebuyck        192,132
2    Sidsel Boesen       118,897
3    Timmi Derosa       74,389
4    Allison Whalen       53,994
5    Kami Chisholm       39,860
6    Holly Hodge       29,880
7    La Sengphet       22,728
8    Bonnie Overfield       17,520
9    Loren Watterworth      13,688

2010 World Series of Poker
Event #23: $2,500 Limit Hold'em / Six Handed

is currently heads up between Dutch Boyd and Brian Meinders, Boyd has a 4-1 chip lead

3     Albert Minnullin          93,892
4    Art Parmann       62,769
5    Domenico Denotaristefani 43,117
6    Al Barbieri               30,399
7    JJ Liu               21,991
8    Anh Le               21,991
9    Jeff Norman       16,303
10    Christopher Vitch    16,303
11    Dana Kellstrom       12,382
12    Eduardo Miranda       12,382
13    Chuck Danielsson    9,635
14    Javed Abrahams       9,635
15    Alexander Borteh    9,635
16    Rafe Furst               9,635
17    Steve Chanthabouasy    9,635
18    Tad Jurgens       9,635
19    Casey McCarrel       7,675
20    Andrew Rennhack    7,675
21    Jerid Zewin       7,675
22    Michael Binger       7,675
23    Brian Horton       7,675
24    Shawn Buchanan    7,675
25    Richard Li               6,314
26    David Webb       6,314
27    Phil Gordon       6,314
28    Tommy Hang       6,314
29    Roland Isra               6,314
30    Dominik Kulicki       6,314
31    Evan Shapiro       5,202
32    Justin Bonomo       5,202
33    Martin Kabrhel       5,202
34    David Baker       5,202
35    Alex Melnikow       5,202
36    Jeffrey Mervis       5,202

Event 24 $1,000 NLHE

With eight and a half levels in the books, Day 1b has come to a close.

Today the Pavilion Room welcomed 1,358 players to add to yesterday's field of 1,931 and we played all the way down to 222. Add yesterday's 290 survivors and we will return tomorrow for Day 2 with 512 players, just 70 spots away from the money.

We saw many players come and go today. Some went quick like Phil Ivey who shoved his very first hand with pocket kings only to run into an opponent's pocket aces. Others lasted the entire day only to bust in the final minutes like Paul Wasicka and Brandon Cantu. Still there were some who not only survived Day 1b, but steamrolled it acquiring heaps of chips.

David Wilkerson is one of those individuals who finished today as our unofficial chip leader of Day 1b with 66,400 chips. Following him were Chris Adams (56,325), Adam Reynolds (54,400) and Laura Cantero (52,850).

There are still many familiar faces in the field including Eric "EFro" Froehlich (47,325), Tom "durrrr" Dwan (37,525), Liv Boeree (22,400), Tony Dunst (36,250), Chad Batista (34,000) and Isaac Haxton (15,325).

Craig Marquis may still play the $2,500 six-max at noon tomorrow, but he did survive to tomorrow with 9,025 chips.

Event #24 will resume tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. PST where we are scheduled to play ten levels

Event 25 $10,000 Omaha Hi Low


It couldn't be, could it?

Top Chip Counts

1    James Dempsey    370,000
2    Jean-Robert Bellande 352,000
3    John Cernuto    347,000
4    Tony Merksick    334,000
5    Sergey Altbregin    300,000
6    Mike Sexton    296,000
7    Michael Chow    295,000
8    Jose De Paz    274,000
9    Sammy Farha    270,000
10    David Baker    254,000

29 left, 27 paid

1               488,237
2          301,790
3          225,326
4          169,368
5          128,097
6          97,508
7          74,670
8          57,552
9          44,619
10          34,814
11          34,814
12          34,814
13          27,401
14          27,401
15          27,401
16          21,582
17          21,582
18          21,582
19          17,138
20          17,138
21          17,138
22          17,138
23          17,138
24          17,138
25          17,138
26          17,138
27          17,138

Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship

It's official, Day 2 has come and gone. When the day began, 145 players returned from the 212 that entered this $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship. All were vying for the $488,237 first-place prize, but only 27 of them wound up leaving the building with their pockets more full than when they came in.

Barry Greenstein, Chad Brown, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Nick Schulman and Chris Ferguson and Carlos Mortensen were some of the big names that returned to the felt for play today, but none of them reached the money. All of them may have fallen short, but their pain wasn't as great as Dale Phillips, who finished as the bubble boy of the tournament after Jean-Robert Bellande did him in with jacks full.

Finishing in the money, but not finishing the day, were Dan Heimiller (27th), Pat Pezzin (26th), Huck Seed (25th) and Jeffrey Lisandro (24th). All earned a payday of $17,138 and got to go to sleep a little bit earlier than the rest of the crew tonight.

Moving on to Day 3 are plenty of big names and big players inlcuding Eric Baldwin, Chino Rheem, "Miami" John Cernuto and John D'Agostino. Michael Chow also still remains as he continues his quest for another Omaha Hi-Low bracelet. Chow won Event No. 4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better at the beginning of the Series. This could be a start of something big for Chow if he can final table this event and ultimately win it. It'd be very reminiscent of Lisandro's three bracelets last year in Stud variants.

You can't forget about David "Bakes" Baker either. Baker final tabled the $50,000 Player's Championship and then won a bracelet in the $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship. He's having an amazing WSOP thus far and is alive again in this one moving to the final day.

Eugene Katchalov may be building a story of his own on top of everything that's going on as well. Katchalov was down to just one chip, one yellow T,1000 chip in the small blind when the blinds were 4,000-8,000. He's since stormed back and closed out the day with 463,000 chips. It'd be a remarkable story if he could come back from one chip to take home the title.

Your chip leader going into Day 3 will be Chow with 600,000 chips and he'll return to head the final pack of 23 later on today at 3:00 p.m. local time here in Las Vega

Michael Chow           600,000 
Abe Mosseri       531,000    
Sammy Farha       512,000    
Eugene Katchalov    463,000    
Sergey Altbregin    444,000    
Mike Sexton       386,000    
Steve Wong       363,000
Tai Nguyen       325,000    
Jean-Robert Bellande    314,000    
Tony Merksick       312,000    
David Baker       283,000    
John Cernuto       269,000    
Oleg Shamardin       266,000    
James Dempsey       218,000    
Mikael Thuritz       208,000    
Mike Watson       170,000    
Steve Zolotow       146,000
Barry Hartheimer    131,000
Yueqi Zhu               127,000    
Chino Rheem       120,000    
Eric Baldwin       47,000    
John D'Agostino       47,000    
Jose De Paz       44,000    

Sigh at the last level, fml

just stay patient like you did in the other comp and yousa be fine!

gogogo

Event 24 $1,000 NLHE

44 left from a massive 3296 starters  $503,000 up top


the current top 10

1      Jaymes Rosenthal     686,000
2    Greg Pohler    650,000
3    John Tolbert    440,000
4    Yordan Mitrentsov    400,000
5    Joseph Grenon    395,000
6    Scott Pfeffer    370,000
7    Jeffrey Tebben    330,000
8    Kiet Tran    330,000
9    Denis Murphy    314,000
10    Edgar de la Torre    305,000

Flushy did not cash in this event