This weeks prizepool
Runners 139
re-buys 167
Addons 95
Total Prizepool $10,025
1st - $2,506.25 - 25.00%
2nd - $1,253.13 - 12.50%
3rd - $927.31 - 9.25%
4th - $817.04 - 8.15%
5th - $716.79 - 7.15%
6th - $616.54 - 6.15%
7th - $516.29 - 5.15%
8th - $416.04 - 4.15%
9th - $315.79 - 3.15%
10th to 18th - $215.54 - 2.15%
WOW WOW WOW, its 7pm the night after and still buzzing at my result last night-finishing 4th and scooping $90,000 in the process in the $1000 buy in ECOOP event. Definitely my biggest tournament result so far in my career. Would have loved to have gone on and won it but am very pleased at this result, haven beaten over 1270 players on the way quite an achievement as I don't rate my tournament game very highly, think I'm a good cash game player and have results to prove that, but I know have serious weaknesses in tournament department.
Poker is a really funny game, I came onto Badbeat to improve my game and I have certainly done that, this time last year was considering quitting the game, I have played for 4/5 years now full time and have done well, winning a lot of money, but last year my game got "stuck" and wasn't going anywhere and wasn't losing money but at the same time wasn't winning anything either. And I was getting seriously frustrated, hence I joined Badbeat in December to see if this can kick start my career again, and even without this result it certainly is...I am flying!
A special thanks has to go to my mentor Manuel, this guy is class! - I don't rate many players but if you want to learn I tell you, learn from Manuel!!...Also thanks to John Conroy who gave me the opportunity to join Badbeat and fast tracked me and believed in me, Thanks John! Also EVERYONE who supports me day to day and who was watching last night - really do appreciate it, THANKS.
Funny funny game poker...I not had a tournament success for as long as I can remember, I remember going to Newcastle gupt last month and driving up there telling the people who were with me in car - I said to them there and then I'm going to do something big soon, I can feel it...that week I won the £200 event (biggest live win). Last week I was chatting to sandy, I told her I got a big feeling about this event and getting this result is kind of crazy but it just proves hard work can pay, however frustrating poker can be, keep plugging away and it'll happen.
Anyway again thanks again to everybody involved, behind scenes and who support me...oh and thanks to my girlfriend who puts up with me especially when I have bad days and she has to put up with my winging,:). lol xx
Glenn
Well Done Glenn! from all at Badbeat.
BadBeat's very own Gary 'bassman' Avery (aka nincompoop) is running a $20 Rebuy Charity Tournament in aid of Cancer Research with the help of player bannock (a Ladbrokes player).
The tournament is planned to take place at 7:30 p.m. at STEPNEYS BARS (full address below) half of the rebuy money will be going to charity, the £20 entry and the other half of the rebuy money will be going to the prize pool that will be paid out on the night. So it's going to be well worth winning and should make a nice amount for charity, the tournament will have a good blind structure as we have till 2 a.m. to finish.
"Most importantly I have 2 waitresses on too so there's no excuse to be sober!
I also own the poker shop in Newcastle which is closing down on Saturday for good, so I will be selling all table tops used on the night cheap and putting a closing down shop up on the night which will include some good poker books, please call me on 07952 244 404 if you would like details of what I have or if you would like to donate a prize for the raffle that would be great.
I hope to see some of you there."
Gary 'nincompoop' Avery
STEPNEYS BARS
3 Bridge View
Stepney Lane
Newcastle
NE1 6PN
With another amazing performance by Clinton0 and whitedog, taking 1st and 2nd in Monday's rebuy, The Poccer Players managed to secure the 3rd quarter added prize and extend their lead at the top of the leaderboard. They now have a massive 115,295 points and already have over 21,000 chips for the live final!
Click here for the leaderboard
There are just 3 more games left before we take a break for The WSOP 2008, including a double points and a $10,000 freeroll.
We wish The Poccer Players the best of luck on Friday, when they play in Annette's $20k GTD $200 tournament.
In event 2, $1,500 NLHE, with a massive 3,929 runners, James Akenhead, who came 3rd at GUKPT Newcastle, is battling it out in a 3 way battle for the bracelet and 1st prize of $831,000.
He is facing a monster battle though to take the win, with around 1,500,000 chips and the legendary Jesus Ferguson on 2,300,000 it's Grant Hinkle on over 7,500,000 that is looking the hot favourite
More news as it develops.
Badbeat would like to wish Marc Goodwin the very Best of Luck in the WSOP Event 4.
Day 1 write up...
Event #4 of the 2008 World Series of Poker drew a star-studded field of 332 players, including Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Greg Raymer and Event #1 winner Nenad Medic, trying to become the first double bracelet winner of 2008. The field of 332 was down slightly from 2007, but still created an impressive $1,560,400 prize pool. Jon "Pearljammer" Turner finished Day 1 atop the field, with Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo, David Williams and Gavin Griffin among those in close pursuit.
The mixed hold'em event combines limit and no-limit hold'em into alternating half-rounds of play, with the first 30 minutes of each level being played in a limit format. Players then switch to no-limit for the second half of the level, with the blinds dropping to half of the limit structure to compensate for the increased volatility of the no-limit format.
The star-heavy field created some brutal table draws, including one with Gavin Smith and Phil Ivey seated, but none were as brutal as the starting lineup that included Vanessa Rousso, Nick Schulman, Tex Barch, Dario Minieri and Bill Chen all at the same table! These tough table draws landed some big names among the early eliminations, as Daniel Negreanu, Rousso and Doyle Brunson all headed to the rail early in the event. Brunson got all his chips in with pocket jacks against Eric "E-Fro" Froelich's A-K, but an ace on the turn ended Brunson's quest for his eleventh bracelet early on Day 1.
Jennifer Tilly was on the other end of that coin flip in the hand that crippled her. Tilly was left with just a few chips after her A-K did not improve against her opponent's pocket jacks on a board of 3d d 4c Js 8c. Ted Lawson busted Tilly a few hands later when his 10-8 outran Tilly's pocket threes on a board of 7-3-7-7-8.
Joe Sebok and Barry Greenstein made Event #4 a family affair, but both father and son busted on Day 1. Chau Giang knocked out Isabelle Mercier with Q-J to Mercier's J-9 as the board came down J-5-7-10-K. After she busted out, Mercier gave Giang her plate of sushi. "I gave him all my chips," she said, "I might as well give him all my food." Other notable eliminations on Day 1 included Erik Seidel, Dario Minieri, Max Pescatori, Greg Raymer and Phil Ivey.
In 2007 Steve Billirakis became the youngest player ever to win a WSOP bracelet when he took down the $5,000 Mixed Hold'em Event. That record was later shattered for non-US WSOP venues by 19-year-old WSOP Europe Main Event Champion Annette Obrestad, but Billirakis took to the felt at the Rio in Event #4 to defend his title in this event. He ran into trouble at the hands of Roland de Wolfe and busted on Day 1, ensuring that there will be a new champion for 2008. Billirakis re-raised de Wolfe preflop with A-K and de Wolfe three-bet with Kc 10h. The Qh Jh 2d flop missed both players, and they checked around. The Kh came on the turn and Billirakis led out. De Wolfe raised, and Billirakis called all in. De Wolfe was behind Billirakis' top pair, top kicker, but the 9d on the river hit his open-ender to send Billirakis to the rail.
A flurry of action as play drew to a close on Day 1 saw some big names hit the rail, including Dave "Devilfish" Ulliott, Rolf Slotboom, Nenad Medic and Phil Hellmuth. Hellmuth got the last of his chips in preflop with Ac Qc , and found one caller in big stack Ariel Schneller, who made the call for not much more than his preflop raise with 9s 5s. Schneller hit a nine on the river as the board ran out 10d 6d 3h Kh 9h, and Hellmuth made a restrained exit from the Amazon Room.
That hand put Schneller near the top of the leader board as Day 1 ended, with Jon "Pearljammer" Turner in pole position. Other notable survivors from Day 1 included Jimmy "gobboboy" Fricke, Howard Lederer, Patrik Antonius, Anna Wroblewski and Ted Forrest. The top ten chip stacks looked like this as players bagged their chips at the end of the night:
Jon Turner 100,200
Ariel Schneller 99,500
Ron Kevin Haeri 92,300
Adam Westell 82,800
Justin Bonomo 73,900
Jay Rosenkrantz 72,500
Jason Dewitt 70,100
David Williams 67,000
Gavin Griffin 65,800
Thomas Keller 63,500
Thanks to Pokernews.com.
Reigning World Champion of Rock, Paper, Scissor!
Thanks to www.pokernews.com for this video.
Many congratulations to James Akenhead from London who was very unfortunate to run his AK into 10 4 which hit quads... to take first prize of the WSOP Event 2 and James just missed out on the bracelet. Still a fantastic result for James, very well played!
Watch the video of the lucky winner below.
Many Thanks to www.pokernews.com for this video.
OK so the hunt the pros master/pupil (greekfish and jon lundy) was a great tournament. It didn't have as big as a turnout as I hoped but it was still full of good poker, questionable plays and fantastic table banter!
Everyone who signed up for this tournament was definitely in it for the £100 bounty on my head! Every hand had an all in decision so I had to go with the flow!
first hand I had JJ on a 224 flop with a Q turn and was put to the decision for all my chips.....although I thought I was probably good it was the first hand and thought I could find a better spot to get all the chips in.......and that I did!
I was lucky enough to hit a sets of 4s VS an over pair and took down my first big pot. From there on I was pretty lucky and received lots of good cards and never lost a race (well maybe one but this was when I was on 8k and the average was about 3k so that didn't affect me!
In between all this there was great banter with littlemiss and kaibobble being the most chatty along with my student and fellow bounty Jon Lundy. This tournament always seems to have a great atmosphere and lots of chat.
OK on with the game...
When we got down to about 15 players I noticed that I was still chip leader and Jon Lundy was second! We had chatted about getting heads up and had our own personal rivalry (and side bets) so it was looking promising for a heads up bounty match!
So down to about 6 players I raise in the cut off with AJ to 1200, (blinds 200-400) the small blind calls (can't remember their name but earlier they flat called in the SB with KK, this player was also 3rd in chips behind me and Jon at about 9k in chips) and then in the big blind Jon Lundy goes all in for 9.5k, looked like a total squeeze with a big ace AK probably so I mucked and the player in the small blind goes into the tank for the full amount and then calls....the small blind has 10 10 and the Jon Lundy has AA. This in my eyes was fantastic play; he couldn't have hidden the fact of having aces any better and did look 100% like a squeeze with AK.
A player called andii finished in 5th...this guy knows how to change gears! He was very solid and played premium hands only, then when the blinds went up and the antes kicked in he really opened up his play, shoving all in a lot pre flop and raising most hands! Then Jon Lundy raises with 77, andii goes all in with a3 hearts, then cgull shove all in with 88. jonlundy gets out the way and folds and the 8s hold.
The unlucky bubbler was Stefan as this player was pretty loose and made some skeptical weak calls and got a bit unlucky in some spots!
So now were in the MONEY!!! I managed to bully a bit when in position and jonlundy was always raising! Hes a very aggressive player and it really showed here! So after Jon Lundy raising cgulls blind every time he finally calls a small raise and they see a flop, the flops Q107 and Jon Lundy bets and cgull shoves all in (not for much more) and Jon calls. jonlundy has KK and cgull has Q10 which holds! Pretty unlucky for jonlundy but not a lot he could do!
I then get involved in a big pot with cgull. I have AQ and the flop is 6710, I bet, he calls, the turn is a 10, I bet big he calls, the river is a Jack, this also brought the flush, cgull checks and I shove all in, after thinking for a while cgull calls with K6! A pair of 6s!!! A pretty sick call (terrible in the long run but guess he was just after my bounty) this left me at about 3k chips!
So I chip away and get an odd double up winning a race and then Jon takes the chip lead! cgull then was short stacked and pushed all in for about double what the big blind was, I call and Jon calls the remainder as he's in the big blind. The flop came 974, turns 6, rivers a 2 I had 8 10 for the nut straight, Jon mucks and cgull shows K9.
The blinds are 600-1200 now and I have 35k and Jon only has 9k so it's pretty uneven but 1 double up off Jon and we would be evens. but I was a bit card crazy and won the first 3 pots, then Jon shoved in the SB with Q9 and I called with KJ and the KJ high stood up and I won!
I would have loved it if me and my student could have been more even heads up with smaller blinds so we could play a bit but that's poker.
Anyways what a tournament and because no one got either of our bounties well both be playing this Monday again also so make sure you play and try your best to beat us out of our £100 bounties! GOOD LUCK
See you at the tables soon.
Andy Greekfish
Thu, 29th May 2008
Thanks to DTDPoker.com for this article.
This week's edition of UK Legends of poker has a distinctly World Series feel to it, as it features a man who really should have won the big one. Julian Gardner from Manchester came 2nd in the 2002 Main Event and nearly became the youngest ever main event champion ever at the age of 24, had Robert Varkonyi not stood in his way.
Gardner's story resembled that of many old school pros like Phil Ivey, sneaking into casinos at the age of 15, by the time he was 20 he had won 10 tournaments and by the time he was 21 he had made 25 final tables. He was one of the youngest players ever to appear on the early seasons of Late Night Poker and it is hard to believe he has only just started his 30s, he has been on the scene for so long.
Prior to his big finish in the WSOP, Gardner had been tearing up the European circuit, with some major cashes in Ireland, Germany, Austria, France and Russia. He has also won events in the Masters Classic in Amsterdam, Slovenia, Germany and France, as well is an in the UK. His results come in a variety of disciplines, including limit games, stud and PLO.
Since his final table appearance at the World Series Main Event, Julian remains a dominating presence in Vegas. He is well respected amongst his peers for always making a really good account of himself and going deep in World Series events. He has not only cashed three more times in the main event, he has cashed every year at the series since and made one other final table.
Gardner also has some pedigree in the television tournament format. He was part of the Great Britain team that won the Poker Nations Cup in 2006 and came third in the Poker Million last year, which was won by Joe Beevers. He also proved what a consummate professional he was by knocking his girlfriend Kerry Clarke out of the 2005 UK Open.
More recently Julian has signed with Full Tilt Poker in a bid to add to his $2.4 million in tournament winnings and co-authored the book The Secrets of Online Power Poker. He is always a dark horse to bet on in the WSOP and maybe this year could be another big one for Julian Gardner.
Thanks to PokerNews.com
Harrington on Cash Games Volumes 1 and 2 is a book that is Highly Reccomended by Badbeats John 'punkfloyd' Conroy. and Orders are now accepted at the Two Plus Two Store. Visit The Store..
A Bit about the Book...
The first years of the poker boom were fueled by the interest in no-limit hold em tournaments. Recently, however, players have been gravitating to another, even more complex form of hold em no-limit cash games. In Harrington on Cash Games: Volume I, Dan Harrington teaches you the key concepts that drive deep-stack cash game play.
You ll learn how to tailor your selection of starting hands to your stack size, how to recognize the increasing deception value of supposedly weaker hands as the stack sizes increase, and how to use the concept of pot commitment to your advantage as the size of the pot grows. After laying out the general concepts behind deep-stack cash game play, Harrington shows you a complete strategy for post-flop play, and then teaches you the difference between post-flop play against a single opponent and post-flop play against multiple opponents. If you play no-limit hold em cash games, you need to read this book.
Harrington on Cash Games: Volume II continues where Volume I left off. In sections on turn and river play, Harrington explains why these are the most important streets in no-limit hold em, and shows how to decide when to bet or check, when to call or fold, and when to commit all your chips. In later sections, Harrington shows how to play a looser and more aggressive style, how to make the transition from online to live games, and how to extract the maximum profit from very low-stakes games. Volume II concludes with an interview with Bobby Hoff, considered by many the best no-limit cash game player of all times, who shares some of his secrets and insights.
Dan Harrington won the gold bracelet and the World Champion title at the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold em Championship at the 1995 World Series of Poker. And he was the only player to make the final table in 2003 (field of 839) and 2004 (field of 2,576) considered by cognoscenti to be the greatest accomplishment in WSOP history. In Harrington on Cash Games, Harrington and two-time World Backgammon Champion Bill Robertie have written the definitive books on no-limit cash games. These books will teach you what you need to know to be a winner in the cash game world.
Badbeats John 'punkfloyd' Conroy says...
"I have to tell you I believe his tournament books to be by a country mile, the best books on serious Hold Em tournament play - so good in fact I can't believe he gave so many secrets away. So I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy the books - he writes so well. What I didn't expect was to be totally blown away by one particularly simply concept. The books have transformed my attitude and play."
John talks more about the book in his blog. Click Here
Thanks to TwoPlusTwo.com
Nigel is one of our leading online tournament players on DTD Poker and managed to win last weeks Hunt the Pros challenge.
Raj on the other hand is one of our leading live tournament players, and is the recent winner of the first DTD tournament leaderboard at Dusk Till Dawn live club.
If you think you can battle against these two poker champs join us on DTDPoker at 8:30pm Monday.
Thanks to www.dtdpoker.com
Have you got what it takes to win the most prized MTT competition in online poker?
POKERFECTA is the biggest new promotion on the block at Betfair Poker and will offer up a huge progressive jackpot for any player who can pull off the admirable feat of winning three MTTs in a week on the Betfair tables*!
The progressive jackpot starts at a massive $5,000 and GROWS by $1,000 per week until we have a winner, at which point the jackpot will move back to $5,000 and will start all over again!
How hard is it to become a POKERFECTA champion?
Well, it's not easy, that's for sure, we've waited seven weeks for a winner and then to our surprise two came along at once.
CONGRATULATIONS TO hedger43 and JONBUCHAN WHO BECAME THE FIRST EVER POKERFECTA WINNERS!
Hedger43 and JONBUCHAN share the $11,000 progressive Pokerfecta jackpot. Each winner walks away with $5,500.
Hedger43 - w/c 31/03/2008 - $1,000 GTD Super Turbo x 2 $600 GTD Turbo - $5,500
JONBUCHAN - w/c 31/03/2008 - $1000 GTD Super Turbo x 3 - $5,500
Take on this challenge!
If like us you love a good challenge, then get to the tables and raise, re-raise, push, check, fold or anything else you can think of to win those MTTs and join the POKERFECTA elite!
Good luck and we'll see you at the tables!
Thanks to BetfairPoker.com
iPoker $22,500,000 Guaranteed
♠ iPoker will run a tournament with a mega $2,500,000 guaranteed prize pool!
♠ Buy-In - $1500+$80
♠ Main event will run on September 7th
♠ Satellites will commence on June 11th
Stage 1
♠ Stage 1 Satellite $100 + $9 R/A, Monday, Thursday & Sunday at 19:35, 1 Seat for every $1,580 collected, Sunday - 2 seats guaranteed!
o Ongoing Sit'N'Go stage 2 satellites, 10.9+1 (10 players), 1st place wins a seat in the next available $100+9 Stage 1
o Stage 2 satellites, $12+1 R/A, Monday, Thursday & Sunday at 16:25 (Turbo), 1
seat for every $109 collected, to the next available $100+9 stage 1
o Stage 2 satellites, $12+1 R/A, Daily at 18:50, 1 seat for every $109 collected, to
the next available $100+9 stage 1
o Stage 2 satellites, $5+0.5 R/A daily at 20:30, 1 seat for every $109 collected, to
the next available $100+9 stage 1
♠ Stage 1 Satellite $160+12 Freeze out, Wednesday at 19:35, 1 seat for every $1,580
collected
o Stage 2 satellites, $18+1.5 R/A, daily at 22:00, 1 seat for every $172 collected,
to the next available $160+12 stage 1
o Stage 1 satellites, $8+0.8 R/A, daily at 13:50, 1 seat for every $172 collected, to
the next available $160+12 stage 1
o Stage 2 satellites,$18+1.5 R/A, Wednesday at 16:25 (Turbo), 1 seat for every
$172 collected, to the next available $160+12 stage 1
♠ Stage 1 satellite $25+2.5 R/A, Tuesday, Friday & Saturday at 19:35, 1 seat for every $1,580 collected, Min 20 players
o Ongoing Sit'N'Go - "1 hand only" stage 2 satellites $2.75+0.2 to the next available
$25+2.5 stage 1
o Stage 2 satellites, $3+0.3 R/A, Tuesday, Friday & Saturday at 16:25 (Turbo), to
the next available $25+2.5 Stage 1
o Stage 2 satellites, $3+0.3 R/A, daily at 18:05 & 21:10, to thee next available
$25+2.5 Stage 1
Starting Chips - 5000
Level Duration - 30 Minutes
| Level | Small Blind | Big Blind | Ante | |
| 1 | 10 | 20 | - | |
| 2 | 20 | 40 | - | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 3 | 30 | 60 | - | |
| 4 | 50 | 100 | - | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 5 | 100 | 200 | - | |
| 6 | 100 | 200 | 20 | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 7 | 150 | 300 | 30 | |
| 8 | 200 | 400 | 40 | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 9 | 300 | 600 | 60 | |
| 10 | 400 | 800 | 80 | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 11 | 500 | 1,000 | 100 | |
| 12 | 750 | 1,500 | 150 | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 13 | 1,000 | 2,000 | 200 | |
| 14 | 1,250 | 2,500 | 250 | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 15 | 1,500 | 3,000 | 300 | |
| 16 | 2,000 | 4,000 | 400 | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 17 | 2,500 | 5,000 | 500 | |
| 18 | 3,000 | 6,000 | 600 | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 19 | 4,000 | 8,000 | 800 | |
| 20 | 5,000 | 10,000 | 1000 | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 21 | 7,500 | 15,000 | 1500 | |
| 22 | 10,000 | 20,000 | 2000 | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 23 | 12,500 | 25,000 | 2500 | |
| 24 | 15,000 | 30,000 | 3000 | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 25 | 20,000 | 40,000 | 4000 | |
| 26 | 25,000 | 50,000 | 5000 | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 27 | 30,000 | 60,000 | 6000 | |
| 28 | 40,000 | 80,000 | 8000 | |
| - | Break | - | - | |
| 29 | 50,000 | 100,000 | 10000 | |
| 30 | 60,000 | 120,000 | 12000 | |
Mihai Manole, a professional poker player from Romania and member of the current Dream Team leaders, The Poccer Players, has made the final table of Event 7 of the WSOP ($2,000 No-Limit Hold'em).
Mihai starts the final table later today lying second in chips to Theo Tran. First place pays $550,000. Other notables at the final table are JC Tran and double bracelet winner Chris Bjorin.
The chip counts, courtesy of www.worldseriesofpoker.com and Pokernews are as follows:
Theo Tran - 1,884,000
Mihai Manole - 1,020,000
Matt Keikoan - 1,011,000
Carter Gill - 652,000
Shannon Shorr - 627,000
Mike Lisanti - 358,000
Alex Bolotin - 345,000
JC Tran - 273,000
Chris Bjorin - 205,000
Following another crushing performance from The Poccer Players on Monday night, I mentioned in the office on Tuesday that I thought Mihai (who plays as M.M. on Betfair) had an outstanding MTT game. Given that Mihai had a second place finish at the $6,000 Caribbean Poker Classic in St. Kitts last year and, as I have just been made aware, had a somewhat fantastic series of results at a recent festival in Innsbruck (10th in the €200 side event; 1st in the €300 side event (€15,820); followed by 1st in the Main Event (€55,650) all within a week), my statement now seems far from controversial!
Badbeat and The Poccer Players wish Mihai all the best for his final table later today. Here's hoping he joins Praz Bansi as a second bracelet winner at the Dream Team live final.
Thanks to worldseriesofpoker.com and Pokernews.com
The Dream Team Live final takes place this weekend (as if you didn't already know that!?) in the Great and Central Halls at the Loose Cannon Club in London and it will be directed by Loose Cannon's Club Director - Roy Houghton!
Day 1: Saturday 6th September
Day 2: Sunday 7th September
Loose Cannon Club
13-16 Allhallows Lane
London
EC4R 3UL
Tel: 0207 283 1505 / 1335
www.loosecannonec4.co.uk
There will be a fee of £25 per player (playing) for the Live Final which you will be expected to pay to your dealer once seated, guests will be able to attend free of charge.
If you have not already confirmed you are attending then please do so before Friday by sending an e-mail to dreamteam@badbeat.com with your name, team name and Betfair poker alias, if you plan to bring any guests we will also require the number and names of guests.
The Loose Cannon Club will be open from 14:30 (2:30 p.m.) for a welcome drink, the tournament will commence at 16:00 (4 p.m.) all players taking part in the tournament must arrive no later than 30 minutes prior to the start of the tournament as seating will take place earlier to ensure the tournament starts on time!
A cold buffet will be available from 18:00 (6 p.m.) to 20:00 (8 p.m.) a hot and cold food cash menu will be available until 23:00 (11 p.m.) and sandwiches will be available till close.
A Cash bar will be available till 02:00 (2 a.m.) and soft drinks and tea and coffee will be available till close.
Cash Games will be available till 02:00 (2 a.m.).
For details such as the tournament structure, seating draw, prize payout please visit the Dream Team section of the BadBeat Forum or click here.
Directions to the club
By Rail:
Three minutes walk from Cannon Street Station which is on the district and circle line
Five minute walk from Monument Station on the Northern Line (Bank Branch)
Ten minutes walk from London Bridge (Jubilee Line, and Northern Line (Bank Branch)
Upon exiting the station onto Cannon Street, turn left and take the first left down Dowgate Hill. At the bottom of Dowgate Hill, cross the road (Upper Thames Street) at the pedestrian crossing and turn left under the bridge taking the first right immediately after the bridge into All Hallows Lane. The club can be found 20 meters down on the right.
By Road:
24 hour car parking is available only 100 meters west of the club at the NCP car park on Upper Thames Street.
Local Hotels
The Tower
Prices from £120 a night based on 2 sharing (as of September 1st)
20 Minute walk from Loose Cannon
http://www.guoman.com/the-tower/
St Katherine's Way
E1W 1LD
0870 333 9106
Travelodge
Prices from £49 a night based on 2 sharing (as of June 4th)
15 - 20 minute walk from LooseCannon
www.travelodge.co.uk
London City Road
London
EC1Y 1AE
Tel: 0871 984 6333
Express by Holiday Inn London Southwark
Prices from £107 a night based on 2 sharing (as of June 4th)
10 - 15 minute walk to Loose Cannon
www.ichotelsgroup.com
103-109 Southwalk Street
London
SE1
Hilton London Tower Bridge
Prices from £109 a night based on 2 sharing (as of June 4th)
20 minute walk from Loose Cannon
www.hilton.co.uk/towerbridge
5 More London Place
Tooley Street
SE1 2BY
+44 (0) 20 3002 4300
Apex City of London
Prices from £165 a night based on 2 sharing (as of June 4th)
10 minute walk from Loose Cannon
www.apexhotels.co.uk/hotels/city-of-london/
1 Seething Lane
London
EC3N 4AX
Saturday at the WSOP was business or rather busy as usual. Another six-pack of events saw action in the Amazon Room - two events found their champions, a final table was set and another event neared the same stage, while two more tourneys leaped from the gates.
Event #9 brought a much-deserved gold bracelet for circuit veteran Rep Porter, who emerged from a tightly bunched field to take the $372,979 in this $1,500 no-limit hold'em short-handed event. Porter started the day in third behind chip leaded John Corkright (who eventually finished fourth), and held off Nathan Templeton for the win. Templeton cashed for $231,981 in his runner-up run.
Farzad Rouhani claimed Saturday's other bracelet, starting with the lead and finishing the same way in Event #10, the mixed-format $2,500 Omaha/Stud Hi-Low tourney. Rouhani held off a strong push one of the biggest names at this final, "Miami John" Cernuto, before wrapping up his $232,911 payday. Cernuto's second-place showing was good for $142,784
Many of poker's biggest names were busy in events on their second day. The weekend's showcase event, #10, $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout, saw a powerful field of 36 winnowed to six as stars such as John Juanda and Tony G couldn't negotiate through the second round. Today's final will consist of Sirous Jamshidi, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Thomas Roupe, Phil Tom, Tim West and Leo Wolpert. Elsewhere, the traditional Event #12, $1,500 Limit Hold'em, played well into the night before play was halted with 18 players still alive. The top two, though are familiar throughout poker, being Vinny Vinh and Erick Lindgren, who will try today for his second bracelet of this series.
Event #13, $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em began at noon on Saturday, and moved to within sight of the money bubble after ten levels of play. The field is currently topped by Eli Elezra, with Theo Tran, making his third deep run of the series, in second spot. The evening start went to Event #14, the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud World Championship, which eliminated just over half its field in an opening day's play. Alexander Kostritsyn leads here but it's anyone's event, and dozens of poker's most famous pros remain in the hunt.
Sunday's action at the WSOP also includes the kickoff of another pair of tourneys. The noon start time is reserved for one of the WSOP's oldest traditions, Event #15, $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em World Championship, which began with 1,192 entrants, slightly down from last year. At 5:00 pm, Event #16, Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better begins. Both are three-day events and will conclude in Tuesday's events.
Thanks to PokerNews.com and Haley Hintze for this article
Play Concludes
Play began today with 553 players, and we have eliminated all but 178 of them as play comes to a halt for the night. Today began quite slow, with the players seemingly measuring their tables and the action, not willing to get entangled in any large pots. The pace picked up a bit as play went on tonight, but has still been relatively steady and tranquil for the most part. As far as we can tell, the overnight chip leader is Marc Goodwin with about 33,500. The top of the leader board is stacked with pros though, and Barry Greenstein, Jimmy Fricke, and Men Nguyen are all close to the lead.
Thanks to WSOP.com
Dusk Till Dawn is delighted to announce that we will be holding a live satellite to this year's Ladbrokespoker.com Poker Million VII where the winner will be guaranteed a seat!!
The satellite will take place at DTD in Nottingham at 8pm on Sunday 20th July and will be a £100 unlimited rebuy with two 40 minute levels for rebuys. This is the final event of our DTD Mini Festival
Regardless of entries into this satellite, the winner will receive a Ladbrokes Poker Million package worth £10,500. Any remaining prizepool will be paid out using our standard structure.
Don't miss your chance of winning the $1,000,000 first prize and being part of Europe's richest and most prestigious televised poker tournament!
The winner will have to be available to play their heat between the 22nd and 29th July.
Thanks to DTDPoker.com
The online Team Challenge tournaments have drawn to an end leaving the final live team event at 2pm on 14th June at Dusk Till Dawn.
The team prize (divided equally among the winning teams regardless of team members) will be £3267 plus any additional entries between now and the last date of entry (June 9th) and will 1st place 60% 2nd place 30% 3rd place 10%.
Any new teams must pay £40 per team member to participate in the team prize pool (as well as the £30 + £5 for the individual tournament) and all team members will start with a chip stack of 2500. There will be an individual prize for all players paying £30 + £5 on the day.
Thanks to DTDPoker.com for this article
Duncan "Pumper" Bell started the day with a massive chip lead and by the end he was still on top, winning the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Event #13 in only 73 hands spread out over just three and a half hours. The win gives Bell his first WSOP bracelet and a big payday of $666,777. In only his second time in the money at a WSOP event, Bell bested a field of 1,397 players and overcame his own late dip to come back and take it all.
The seating assignments and chip stacks going into the final were as follows:
Seat 1: Brent Hanks (Las Vegas, Nevada) 755,000
Seat 2: Steve Merrifield (Fairmont, West Virginia) 1,109,000
Seat 3: Shawn Buchanan (Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada) 1,133,000
Seat 4: Duncan Bell (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) 1,966,000
Seat 5: Jason Sanders (Simi Valley, California) 1,099,000
Seat 6: Nathan Doudney (Bend , Oregon) 113,000
Seat 7: Brent Ditzik (Phoenix, Arizona) 384,000
Seat 8: Nicolas Levi (London, United Kingdom) 233,000
Seat 9: Ariel Soffer (Hollywood , Florida) 191,000
This final table got off to a fast start, and never slowed down. It was Brent "Bhanks11" Hanks who drew first blood, taking almost half a million off of Jason Sanders in the first hand. The very next hand brought our first elimination. Nicolas Levi, a French poker pro living in London, moved all in for his last 227,000 and Steve Merrifield made the call. Levi turned over pocket sevens to Merrifield's A-10. The 10-Hearts, 6-Spades 6-Diamonds on the flop gave Merrifield the lead, and when the board ran out 8-Hearts 10-Clubs Merrifield took the pot and Nicolas Levi was eliminated in ninth place, taking home $59,442.
Just two hands later another player was sent packing. Bell raised to 90,000 and Brent Ditzik announced he was all in. Bell made the call and turned over J-Hearts J-Clubs to Ditzik's A-Spades Q-Clubs. The flop was a brutal one for Ditzik: Q-Diamonds 8-Spades J-Clubs, the door card giving him top pair but the jack giving Bell a set. The 7-Diamonds on the turn ended the hand and eliminated Ditzik, who, in his first major cash, received $83,540 for his eighth-place finish. Bell bounced the next player as well. Bell had raised to 110,000 and Ariel Soffer moved all in for his last 74,000. Bell called and showed J-Diamonds 10-Spades to Soffer's 6-Hearts 6-Spades. The Q-Diamonds 2-Hearts 9-Spades flop gave Bell a straight draw and he hit it when the K-Clubs came on the turn. Soffer who, like Ditzik, had no prior cashes, earned $107,638 for seventh place.
No sooner did Bell dispatch of Soffer, then there was another elimination in his sights. Bell raised to 100,000 and Jason Sanders called for the last of his chips. Bell's 2-Spades 2-Diamonds was pitted against Sanders' 10-Diamonds 7-Hearts. The 6-Spades 6-Clubs 9-Clubs gave Sanders hope that Bell's pair would be counterfeited, until the 2-Hearts hit on the turn giving Bell a boat. Sanders was out as our sixth-place finisher, taking home $139,769. With this elimination, there were four out in the first 16 hands.
Hand 28 saw the end of another player's tournament run, when Brent Hanks moved all in and Steve Merrifield called. Hanks' A-Diamonds 2-Spades was dominated by Merrifield's A-Hearts 10-Clubs. When the board ran out J-Spades 7-Diamonds J-Hearts K-Clubs 4-Hearts Hanks, a Bluff magazine blog contributor, finished in fifth place with by far his biggest cash, $178,327.
Shawn Buchanan came into the final day second in chips, but left in fourth place. In his last hand, Steve Merrifield had raised to 100,000 and Buchanan moved all in. It was a typical race situation with Merrifield holding pocket nines to the suited A-K of Buchanan. Buchanan failed to connect on the board, and Merrifield actually improved from a pair to a straight after the board ran out 7-8-6-2-5. Buchanan was out in fourth place, $218,491 the richer.
Steve Merrifield was responsible for the next elimination as well. He had raised on the button to 105,000 and Nathan Doudney moved all in. Merrifield called with A-Spades 9-Spades to Doudney's K-Hearts 8-Hearts. The flop came K-Diamonds A-Clubs J-Clubs, giving Merrifield top pair to Doudney's middle pair. The 8-Clubs turned, and Doudney moved ahead with two pair, but the 9-Spades spiked on the river, giving Merrifield a better two pair and the rest of Doudney's chips. Doudney, who has four prior cashes in major events, including one in this year's WSOP, went out in third place, with his biggest payday to date, $260,261.
It looked for awhile as if Bell was not going to go wire-to-wire for the win, having ceded the chip lead to Steve Merrifield. In hand 62, Bell raised to 175,000 and Merrifield called. The flop came 5-Hearts 8-Hearts 2-Spades; Merrifield bet 270,000 and Bell called. The turn was the 4-Diamonds; Merrifield bet 475,000 and Bell again called. The river was the 9-Diamonds. Merrifield pushed in one million in chips and Bell made the call. Merrifield showed the K-Diamonds 9-Hearts for the pair on the river and Bell mucked. Merrifield raked in a huge pot and took a commanding - nearly 5-to-1 - chip lead over Bell.
But salvation came Bell's way five hands later. Merrifield raised to 175,000 and Bell called. The flop came 9-Hearts 4-Diamonds 7-Spades and Bell bet 200,000. Merrifield called and the turn was the 4-Clubs. Bell bet 525,000 and Merrifield asked how much Bell had left. He thought it over a bit before announcing all in. Bell made the call and showed for top pair and Merrifield showed 5-Spades 5-Clubs. The 10-Diamonds hit on the river and Bell had a timely, and much-needed, double-up.
In the next six hands, Bell had chipped away at Merrififeld's lead until he pulled ahead. On the last hand, Merrifield raised to 155,000 and Bell called. The flop came 6-Clubs 8-Spades 2-Spades. Bell led out with 150,000 and Merrifield raised to 500,000. Bell pushed all in and Merrifield made the call, only to find that his pocket tens were crushed by Bell's pocket rockets. The turn was the 4-Clubs. Surrounded by his large and rather rowdy group of friends, Bell couldn't bear to watch as the final card was shown, but when the dealer turned over the J-Hearts he shook hands with Merrifield and circled back to the table to pose for photographs.
As our runner-up Merrifield wins $428,949, while Duncan "Pumper" Bell wins $666,697 - and the gold WSOP bracelet. Congratulations to Duncan Bell on his first WSOP win!
Thanks to pokernews.com and Shari Geller for this article
With yet another 1st place finish for onny87, The Poccer Players extend their lead at the top of the leaderboard to over 20,000 points! They now have 22,500 chips each at the live final and counting!
It's a double points week next week, which gives the rest of us mere mortals a chance to catch up so don't miss next week! The final week before we take a break for WSOP is the 23rd June, which is a $10,000 freeroll!
The Live Final Venue has now been finalised at The Loose Cannon in London.
Click here for details
Another pair of bracelets found worthy homes in Monday's action at the 208 World Series of Poker, concluding a run of several two-bracelet days in a row. But don't think the pace is easing up - in today's action, three bracelets will be awarded.
The first award ceremony on Monday revolved around Duncan "Pumper" Bell, who arried at the final table of Event #13, $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em, with a big lead,and rode that chip stack to the bracelet ceremony. Bell vanquished several of the final-table challengers, and finally put away Steve Merrifield for the win. Bell collected $666,697 to go along with his new jewelry, while Merrifield settled for $428,949 as the runner-up.
The other bracelet awarded on the day came in Event #14, $10,000 Seven-Card Stud World Championship, where David Oppenheim came to the final with a narrow lead. It wasn't Oppenheim who claimed the gold, however, nor was it Minh Ly or Erik Seidel, two other feare names present at this final. Instead, the relatively unknown Eric Brooks emerged to take the title, then announed he was donating the entire $415,856 winer's check to Decision Education Foundation, a cause dear to Brooks' heart.
A handful of famous women poker players made it into Day 2 of Event #15, $1,000 Ladies No-Limit World Championship, but the biggest remaining names, including Kathy Liebert and Linda Johnson, were banished to the rail during the day's play. Anh Le, the runner-up in this event in '05 to Jennifer Tilly, is the most well-known player at the final. Le and the others, however, will be chasing Svetlana Gromenkova in this final, after Gromenkova surged to the top during Day 2 play.
While the structure in the women's event has translated to relatively few hours at the felt for its final-table participants, the same can't be said for players running deep in Event #16, $2,000 Omaha Hi/Lo Split (8 or Better). Play was adjourned late in the evening with 18 players still alive, guaranteeing another marathon session on Tuesday. The leader atop a tight field here is Soheil Shamseddin, with Ted Forrest, Scott Clements and Ralph Perry all lurking not far behind.
The longest opening day of any event so far this year was turned in by participants in Event #17, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout. Two full ten-handed rounds were played on Monday after the filed reached its 1,000-player cap. This event's final consists of players not as well known on the live scene, though the last of ten spots was wrapped up at roughly 7am Tuesday morning by Canadian online force Kyle "kwob20" Bowker. He'll be joined by nine others in today's battle for the $335,565 first-place payday.
Many of poker's biggest names showed up for the 5pm Monday start of Event #18, the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/ Rebuys event. The action was crazed during the initial rebuy period, as the players chipped in for an average of roughly 3.5 rebuys per, creating a $1,735,020 prize purse from just 85 entrants. Of those, 39 suvrvived into Day 2 play, with Tom 'durrrr' Dwan at the top of the pack. But the rest of the board is star-stuffed, with the top ten alone including Mike Matusow, Chis Ferguson, Phil Ivey and Doyle Brunson, who is looking here for a record-tying 11th bracelet.
Tuesday's new events are Event #19, $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, which gets underway at noon, and Event #20, $2,000 Limit Hold'em, which occupies the 5pm start slot.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Haley Hintze for this article
The 5th annual Caribbean Poker Classic hits the high seas on a Caribbean cruise from 16th to 23rd November, 2008 and you could get onboard with DTDPoker.
Below is a summary of upcoming promotions on how to win your way to the CPC:
$30K Monthly Leaderboards
From the March final on Saturday, 5th April through to the September final on 4th October, each final awards six $5K CPC Lite packages.
Total number of packages GTD: 42 x $5K CPC Lite
CPC Lite Satellites
Satellites to the $5K CPC Lite package started in May with the first final on Sunday, 18th May and the last final on Sunday, 19th October.
Estimated number of packages: 46 x $5K CPC Lite
CPC Summer Special
Your sun-filled days have been extended with a CPC Summer Special series where a total of 15 $5K CPC Lite packages are GUARANTEED!
Dates are: Saturdays, 28th June, 26th July and 23rd August.
Total number of packages GTD: 15 x $5K CPC Lite
With so many satellites and CPC packages up for grabs, one could easily be yours!
Thanks to DTD
It was a long one, over 30 hours of play in just two days, with a lengthy heads-up battle at the end. But when the final card was dealt, Jason Young emerged the winner of Event #21, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout. After winning three ten-handed tables, Young walked away with the top prize, $335,565, and the gold bracelet.
Going into the final table, here were the seat assignments and home towns (each player started with 1,000,000 in chips) of the finalists:
Seat 1: Casey Coleman (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
Seat 2: Matthew Giannetti (Las Vegas, Nevada)
Seat 3: Thomas West (Los Altos, California)
Seat 4: Rory Monahan (Carbondale, Illinois)
Seat 5: Kyle Bowker (Walton, New York)
Seat 6: John Strzemp III (Las Vegas, Nevada)
Seat 7: Mike Schwartz (Encino, California)
Seat 8: Sergey Rybachenko (Moscow, Russian Federation)
Seat 9: Jason Young (Suffern, New York)
Seat 10: Alexander Triner (Rockville, Maryland)
After what was in the truest sense a marathon battle that took two rounds of single elimination-play over 19 hours, it was not surprising that the players might look a bit bedraggled as they headed into the Green Section of the Amazon Room and gathered around Table 15. But there was a lot at stake as play got underway as the prize money chasm between first and last at this table was huge - the winner taking home a whopping $335,565 to the modest $7,507 for the tenth-place finisher.
Casey Coleman, who plays online at FullTiltPoker as "Cosey" and PokerStars as "CCmuney," was a victim of some ill-timed early aggression, losing half his chip stack early on to Matthew Giannetti when he tried to make a move on the river only to be called by Giannetti, who held the winning top pair. Coleman scraped back a few of those chips the next hand against Giannetti, but just as soon as he was starting to crawl back up, he hit the wall in the form of Sergey Rybachenko, who had rivered a straight against Coleman's flopped top pair putting Coleman was down to 115,000.
Short-stacked, Coleman called the preflop raise of Mike Schwartz, putting himself virtually all in, and Giannetti came along to see the 7-Clubs 3-Spades 7-Diamonds flop. With Schwartz betting out, Coleman calling all in and Giannetti folding, the two tabled their hands, with Schwartz in the lead with pocket eights against the A-Q for Coleman. The board ran out J -10 and Coleman was out in tenth place, taking $7,507.
Alex Triner was already down below the starting stack when he was re-reraised all in by Jason Young. Triner seemed resigned to making the call with so much already in the pot. Resignation likely turned to jubilation when he saw that he had his man dominated, Young's A-Hearts J-Spades in need of a lot of help against Triner's A-Diamonds K-Spades. But that feeling was short-lived as the J-Hearts on the turn sent Young into a bit of a frenzy, celebrating with his friends on the rail, and the J-Diamonds on the river left Triner with a severely diminished stack. Triner may have thought there would be cosmic retribution when he looked down to find jacks in the hole and he was up against John Strzemp's pocket queens for his tournament life. The 4-Clubs 3-Clubs 4-Hearts K-Spades board was unhelpful, and the resigned cry of "Where's the jack this time?" before the dealer dealt out the 5-Diamonds river spoke volumes. Triner was out in ninth to collect his $9,828.
Thomas West, an experienced player with 11 prior cashes in major tournaments, including a second at last year's LA Poker Classic, had already been crippled earlier in the match against the hyper-aggressive Rybachenko. After a few more hits to his stack, and with the rising blinds, West decided to make a stand for the rest of his chips when he saw A-Q. Unfortunately, he was dominated by the A-K of now-big-stacked Jason Young. The board ran out uneventfully, 3-4-3-8-6, and West was out as the eighth-place finisher, heading to the cashier to pick up his $12,421.
Sergey Rybachenko had gone out to an early lead, doubling his stack after the first hour of play. But within a very short time, Rybachenko has gone from chip leader to short stack with just 380,000 left, the biggest hit courtesy of Jason Young. With a board reading 8-Clubs 7-Diamonds A-Clubs, Rybachenko check-raised Young's 55,000 bet to a total of 125,000. Young smooth-called. On the turn, Rybachenko bet out 250,000 and Young quickly called. Then, on the river, Rybachenko blasted out a 700,000 bet which, again, Young snap-called. Rybachenko mucked before even looking at Young's A-Hearts Q-Diamonds.
Several hands later and it got even worse for the Russian when his top pair came up against the pocket rockets of Rory Monahan, which also made a set on the flop. Rybachenko saw his stack slip even further. In his final hand, Rybachenko pushed all in from the small blind for around 300,000. Kyle Bowker, who had made the first raise to 100,000, announced he was all in as well, sliding 673,000 into the pot. The third player in the hand, Mike Schwartz, called all in as well, having both players covered, and we went to the flop with the hands as follows:
Rybachenko K-Spades K-Diamonds
Bowker Q-Diamonds 9-Diamonds
Schwartz A-Diamonds Q-Spades
The 2-J-4 flop helped no one and, while the turn paired Bowker's nine, Rybachenko was still ahead. But the river was a heartbreaker for the two all ins, A-Hearts, and Schwartz eliminated two players in one fell swoop. Rybachenko, the shorter of the two stacks, left in seventh, taking home $15,697. Kyle Bowker, who had been the last person to win a seat into this final and had 12 previous cashes including one already in this WSOP, went out in sixth place, receiving $23,887.
Matthew Giannetti bested his previous top tournament finish by finishing fifth in this event. In the early going, Giannetti's chips hovered right about the starting stack, but the rising blinds and a few hits had diminished his stack to just 300,000. He got a temporary reprieve courtesy of a double up from Mike Schwartz who, having just knocked two players out, decided to go after the next shortest stack. He raised Giannetti preflop and may have been surprised when Giannetti pushed back all in, but he made the call. Schwartz was behind A-7 to pocket eights and stayed behind through the 6-Q-K-9-3 board. Even with the double up, Giannetti was still the short stack and he stayed aggressive. Finally, one of his raises was called and he and Mike Schwartz saw a 9-Clubs K-Hearts A-Hearts flop. Schwartz announced all in and Giannetti called, but was behind with against Mike Schwartz' Q-Hearts 9-Hearts. The turn brought another queen; the river was another nine, giving Schwartz a full house and the hand. Giannetti took home $40,267 for fifth place.
Down to four-handed play, Jason Young had half the chips in play, five million; Schwartz had 2.4 million to the 1.4 and 1.2 of Monahan and Strzemp, respectively. Strzemp took a few quick pots that propelled him quickly to 2 million, mostly at the expense of Young. Monahan, a poker pro and writer, lost two hands to Schwartz and about half of his chips. Nursing a short stack, Rory Monahan moved all in and was looked up by John Strzemp, holding A-Spades Q-Clubs to Monahan's 6-Clubs 5-Clubs. The board ran out J-Hearts A-Clubs 10-Diamonds 3-Clubs 7-Spades and Monahan was out in fourth place, with a $82,582 payday.
After the late dinner break, John Strzemp's aggression sent him to the rail. First, he took a huge hit to his chip stack after betting over half a million chips only to find that Jason Young had connected with the board, his pocket ace pairing the turn. Then, Strzemp and Schwartz both saw a flop of K-Clubs 7-Clubs 2-Diamonds. Strzemp bet 175,000 on the flop and 500,000 on the 5-Hearts turn, both times called by Schwartz. The river was the K-Spades and Strzemp moved all in for his remaining 1.3 million. Schwartz took no time calling and turned over the K-8 for trip kings. Strzemp tried to muck, but the tournament director revealed his hole cards: Q-Diamonds 9-Diamonds. Strzemp was out, taking $129,675 for third place.
The final two went into heads-up action with nearly identical chip stacks. It looked like the match would be over after the two went in for all their chips and Jason Young's pair of jacks prevailed. Schwartz seemed finished, but "seemed" turned out to be the operative word, as Schwartz still had the proverbial chip and a chair ? actually, 150,000 in chips, enough to put him all in on the next blind. Three hands later, Schwartz had turned his micro-stack into over a million and, while dominated, he wasn't dead yet. On the next hand, Young saw a pocket pair of sixes and pushed all in only to be called instantly by Schwartz, who turned over kings. After the board ran a blank, Schwartz was up to 3.5 million.
Perhaps fittingly, the match was decided by a coin flip. Schwartz went in with 4-Hearts 4-Spades and Young A-Clubs J-Diamonds. And the board ran out 6-Diamonds 8-Diamonds 2-Hearts....A-Hearts Q-Clubs. Young had his victory at last. Schwartz finished in second, for $209,527. Jason Young collected both the bracelet and a cool $335,565 for his win.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Shari Geller for this article
Svetlana Gromenkova won the bracelet, a Corum watch, and $244,702 in the $1,000 Ladies World Championship, wearing the same pair of sunglasses Anthony Rivera wore for his bracelet-winning performance in the $10,000 Mixed event days earlier. Lucky shades or not, Gromenkova played a relentless tournament, topping the leaderboard for most of Day Two and the final table. And it was déjà vu all over again for Anh Le, 2006 second-place finisher behind Jennifer Tilly, taking the second spot once again for $144,567.
The players started the final table action with the following chip counts:
Seat 4: Svetlana Gromenkova (New York , New York) 553,000
Seat 7: Christine Priday (Denver, Colorado) 448,000
Seat 1: Patty Till (Avon, Indiana) 312,000
Seat 6: Debbie Mitchell (Miramar, Florida) 224,000
Seat 5: Sue Porter (Houston, Texas) 211,000
Seat 8: Yesenia Garcia (Modesto, California) 210,000
Seat 9: Anh Le (San Jose, California) 191,000
Seat 3: Marla Crumpler (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) 163,000
Seat 2: Roslyn Quarto (Edison, New Jersey) 73,000
Within the first hour of play the two shortest stacks, Roz Quarto and Marla Crumpler, were able to hit key double-ups. It wasn't until the 26th hand of play that the first elimination occurred. Sue Porter called for all her money on the turn with the board reading A-K-5-7. Porter had A-7 for two pair, only to discover Roz Quarto had A-K for a better two pair. Sue Porter was eliminated in ninth place, taking home $20,034.
Eight hands later, Yesenia Garcia pushed all in with A-Clubs 10-Clubs and got a call from Marla Crumpler with A-Diamonds J-Diamonds. The flop of J-Clubs 9-Spades 8-Clubs gave Crumpler a pair of jacks, but Garcia had picked up both a flush and open-ended stratight draw. By the end of the hand, neither completed and Carcia was out in eight place for 28,155.
After Garcia's elimination, the pace of the tournament took a decidedly tight turn. In the next 50 hands, few made it past a flop. But on hand #84, Roz Quarto and Chris Priday found one they both liked. It was a classic race with Quarto's pocket queens facing Priday's A-K. An ace fell on the flop, and it never got better for Quarto. Roslyn Quarto finished in seventh place for $36,277. At that point, Priday picked up the chip lead:
Chris Priday - 574,000
Svetlana Gromenkova - 500,000
Anh Le - 425,000
Debbie Mitchell - 411,000
Patty Till - 380,000
Marla Crumpler - 146,000
Gromenkova wrested the chip lead back on hand #111, when her J-8 went up against an all-in Debbie Mitchell with A-9. Two jacks fell on the flop and Mitchell was drawing dead on the turn; Mitchell finished in sixth place for $47,106. Marla Crumpler was able to hold on to her short stack until hand #134. She got the rest of her chips in with pocket kings, only to see the flop deliver an ace to pair Anh Le's A-9. Crumpler finished in fifth place for $60,101.
Priday would pull ahead once again, doubling in a big hand when her A-Q took down Anh Le's A-10. Priday's lead was short-lived, however, and she lost the majority of her stack back to Gromenkova. Holding the Q-10, Priday moved all-in on a Q-7-3 flop, only to realize she was up against Gromenkova's pocket aces. Six hands later, Priday would be eliminated when her A-7 failed against Anh Le's A-J. Priday finished in fourth place for $73,637. The final three players' chip counts at that point:
Svetlana Gromenkova 1,132,000
Anh Le 902,000
Patty Till 345,000
Patty Till was up against two monster stacks and pushed everything she had, holding K-6. Gromenkova called with pocket nines and hit a set on the flop. While Till had outs, they were few and never materialized and she finished in third for $87,715.
When heads-up play began, Gromenkova had the chip advantage, 1,477,000 to 890,000, In the early going, Gromenkova continued to widen the advantage until Le caught a key double-up. Le pushed in with A-5 and Gromenkova called witn A-K. A five fell on the board, temporarily reversing the player's fortunes. But Gromenkova was relentless, pressuring, and taking, the majority of the hands to follow. Gromenkova had regained the chip lead by the time hand #151 played out.
It was Gromenkova's pocket kings vs. Le's A-6, and Gromenkova never trailed in the hand. While an ace fell on the river, it was the set-delivering king on the turn that had already sealed the win for Gromenkova.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Amy Calistri for this article
And then there were three....three bracelets awarded in a single day's play at the Rio.
The 2008 World Series of Poker on Tuesday showcased the final tables of three different events, spanning the spectrum of the game, while the one event that played down toward a final table to be held today will offer perhaps the most star-packed finale of this year's Series to date.
First up was Event #15, the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit World Championship, where Svetlana Gromenkova came to the final table with the lead and made that lead stand up, winning the specially-designed Ladies Corum bracelet and $244,702. Gromenkova' final opponent was Anh Le, who finished second in this same event to Jennifer Tilly three years ago. Le's repeat runner-up showing was worth $144,567.
Event #17, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout, had pared a capped field of 1,000 entrants down to ten in two marathon rounds on Monday, then saw those ten finalists return on Tuesday to do battle again. The winner here was Jason Young, whose trifecta of wins in the shootout's three rounds brought bracelet gold and $335,565. Mike Schwartz finished in second for $209,527, while John Strzemp III (son of John Strzemp Jr., who finished as the runner-up to Stuey Ungar in Ungar's celebrated third and final Main Event win) finished third for $129,675.
Event #16's bracelet was the last of the day's three to be determined. The final in the $2,000 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tourney was destined to take a while to resolve, since 18 players needed to be whittled down to one. Around 3am this morning that one was finally determined and it was 25-year-old Andrew Brown, who finished off one of poker's giants, Ted Forrest, for the win. Brown collected $226,483 and his first bracelet gold, while Forrest settled for a second-place payday of $143,420.
The big audience for today's action will certainly be attentive to the final in Event #18, $5,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw w/ Rebuys, which boasts an outstanding seven-player final. Top spot (and a sizable lead) is held here by Erick Lindgren, the star whose impressive poker resume finally saw its first WSOP bracelet added; he now has the inside track on collecting his second within a span of days. Still, despite his early run at this year's WSOP, it'll be no easy task, as the other six finalists are Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Jeffrey Lisandro, David Benyamine, Tony G and Tom Schneider. This one gets underway as this story goes live on the Internet.
Two more events began action on Tuesday and in one of them, it was clear that Ladies Day covered more than just the glittery Event #15. Event #19, $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, saw a 758-player chopped all the way down to 46 players, well inside the money bubble, with the top position overnight held by Vanessa Selbst. Selbst's 203,600 in chips was more than 70,000 ahead of second place Anthony Phillips, with Carter Gill and Eugene Todd in the next closest spots. A short Day 2 session for this event is likely, with the field likely to be reduced to its final nine within a few hours.
The other event beginning play on Tuesday was Event #20, $2,000 Limit Hold'em, which saw its field thinned from 480 to 125 in the first eight levels of play. The overnight leader here is Daniel Makowski, though another, somewhat more famous Daniel -- Negreanu -- finished the event's opening session in fourth. Phil Hellmuth escaped short-stack status in this one as well, with a decent chance of extending his all-time career mark for WSOP cashes tomorrow as this one plays all the way down to its final nine.
Wednesday starts at the WSOP include Event #21, $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em, which began at noon with a slew of big names taking seats. 731 of poker's best began play. At 5pm this afternoon Event #22, $3,000 H.O.R.S.E., begins, which is sure to draw many late entries from stars bounced early from Event #21 proceedings.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Haley Hintze for this article
Online satellites have been announced for what might be one the best post-WSOP tournaments in Europe this summer. The sixth annual Irish Poker Classic Festival in Cork is running in August between the 11th and 17th. The weeklong event has a 150,000 euros guaranteed three day main event, as well as a juicy looking side event schedule. This is another deep stack extravaganza that you would expect from Irish poker, with a 15,000 starting stack and 75 minute blinds.
The events sponsors, Betfair Poker, are running satellites to the main event with additional bonuses for the winners. A Betfair spokesman said "We are pleased to announce that once again Betfair Poker will be running a series of satellites starting in July. There will be min of 10 seats up for grabs into this year's main event and anybody who qualifies through Betfair and reaches the final table will gain entry for the next three years".
As Betfair Poker are once again the sponsors of the World Series of Poker Europe, they'll be holding a special WSOPE satellite during the event too, along with the rest of the schedule which looks like this:
Aug. 11 Mega super satellite no-limit hold'em one rebuy or add-on 100 + 10
Aug. 12 Short-handed no-l imit hold'em freezeout &! nbsp; &n bsp; 200 + 20
Aug. 13 Ladies event no-limit hold'em freezeout 150 + 15
Aug. 13 Pot-limit Omaha - 1 rebuy or add-on during levels 1/2/3 300 + 30
Aug. 14 Mega bonus super satellite Irish Poker Classic freezeout 200 + 20
Aug. 15 150,000 guaranteed main event freezeout (three days) 1500 + 100
Aug. 16 WSOP Europe satellite -1 rebuy/add-on 1 seat guaranteed 500 + 50
Aug. 17 No-limit hold'em scalp freezeout - 1 rebuy or 1 add-on 270 + 30 + 30
The Macau Sporting Club will be holding weekly satellites for 75 + 5 entry with one reb uy or add-on with one seat guaranteed and the bubble given a ticket for 75 euros on weekly events. 200 euros freezeout satellites start in May and continue through June and July after the Friday monthly 250 game. Already confirmed for the event are Annette Obrestad, Rumit Somaiya, Dara Kearney, Roy "The Boy" Brindley, Mick McCloskey, Marty Smyth, Fintan Gavin, Paul Lecky, Nicky Power, Kevin O'Leary, Michael Dolan, and John Keown.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Barry Carter for this article
Our next HTP Bounties are John 'robinhood' Perrin and our very own Paul 'actionjack' Jackson.
Paul is not only one of the world's greatest online tournament players but also, lucky for us, our Online Poker Director and Poker Academy teacher. And if that's not enough to challenge you, he was also victorious in last week's Hunt The Pro's so is a force to be reckoned with.
John is a regular player both in the Hunt The Pro's tournament and also live at Dusk Till Dawn. A very aggressive player, he played extremely well in last weeks Hunt The Pros and was ultimately unlucky to only finish second. He often receives adverse banter from "Mongoose1" in the Hunt the Pro's tournament but is highly likely to outlast "Mongoose1" in this week's tournament.
So if you fancy winning the £100 bounties on each of their heads, join us in the DTDLobby on Monday at 8.30pm.
Thanks to DTDPoker.com
John Duthie, chief executive of the European Poker Tour (EPT), sponsored by PokerStars.com, today announced the schedule for EPT Season 5.
"The new EPT season includes all the events which have made the past four seasons such a triumph with record fields across Europe and record prize pools", said Duthie. "We have set very high standards and aim to improve on this still further in Season 5."
"This year's EPT kicks off in the magnificent city of Barcelona at the beginning of September. The tour will take in nine countries including the return of the ever popular Deauville event in France and we are expecting to add new venues to the tour. Last year's EPT proved a massive success, generating a total prize pool of almost 40,000,000 euros ($62,000,000), 5,902 players (including 1,682 PokerStars qualifiers) and the biggest single prize pool ever generated outside Las Vegas at the Monte Carlo Grand Final. Winner Glen Chorny, a 22-year-old business student from Ontario, Canada, bested a record 842 players to take the first prize of over 2 million euros ($3 million) after winning his seat online with PokerStars. We anticipate the EPT making an even bigger impact in Season 5, attracting more players from all around the world and even larger prize pools."
Online satellites for Season 5 start on PokerStars on July 7th for the first event in Barcelona, with buy-ins from as little as $2.20. Players who qualify on PokerStars don't just win their seat - subject to availability, they also win hotel accommodation and spending money as part of their prize package.
| Venue/ City/Country | Tournament | Dates | Buy-In | Cap |
| Casino Barcelona/ Barcelona-Spain | EPT Barcelona Open | September 10 - 14, 2008 | ?8,000 + 250 | 700 |
| Victoria Casino/ London-England | EPT London | October 1 - 5, 2008 | £5,200 + 200 | 500 |
| Hyatt Regency, Warsaw/ Warsaw-Poland | EPT Polish Open | November 15 - 19, 2008 | ZI 20,000 + 1000 | TBC |
| Hilton Hotel/ Prague-Czech Republic | EPT Prague | December 9 ? 13, 2008 | ?5,000 + 250 | 600 |
| Casino Barriere/ Deauville-France | EPT French Open | January 20-24, 2009 | ?5,000 + 300 | 700 |
| Casino Copenhagen/ Copenhagen-Denmark | EPT Scandinavian Open | February 17 - 21, 2009 | 50,000 + 2,250 DKR | 500 |
| Casino Hohensyburg/ Dortmund-Germany | EPT German Open | March 10 ? 14, 2009 | ?5,000 + 250 | 500 |
| Casino San Remo/ San Remo-Italy | EPT San Remo | April 18 - 23, 2009 | ?5,000 + 250 | 800 |
| Monte Carlo Bay Hotel&Resort/ Monte Carlo-Monaco | EPT Grand Final | April 28 ? May 3, 2009 | ?10,000 + ?600 | 1000 |
We previously announced that guests at The Dream Team Live Final would have to pay £25, this was a mistake and is not the case, guests are welcome to attend free of charge. However we must limit the number of guests attending in order to ensure plenty of table space for the players in what will an over $200,000 tournament! Please ensure that any guests are pre-registered by emailing your details and those of your guest to DreamTeam@BadBeat.com.
There has been a few outcries regarding the fact that The Live Final is now a 2 day event. We apologise for changing this at this late stage but after taking into consideration the size of the field, number of chips and huge prizes at stake we felt that a 1 day event would be a crapshoot and felt that 2 day event, with a good structure would be far better and enjoyable for all involved.
Last year, the $5,000 NLHE event drew 640 players with James"mig.com" Mackey claiming top honors. This year's event drew 731 players with a winner yet to be determined. When the bracelet is ultimately awarded, however, it will be accompanied by $755,891. Alex Melnikow ended Day 1 as chip leader. Melnikow cashed four times in last year's WSOP, including a money finish in the Main Event.
The top ten end of day chip counts follow:
Alex Melnikow - 248,800
Sam El Sayed - 215,800
Jared Okun - 170,000
Thanhdat Tran - 164,700
Hasan Habib - 140,200
Keith Tilston - 135,400
David Seidman - 119,800
Rajesh Vohra - 117,700
Mark Radoja - 117,700
Scott Freeman - 115,800
The large Day 1 field didn't stay that way long. The aggressive and talented field fed on itself at an almost alarming rate, losing over 110 players within the first two levels of play. David Pham, Thierry van den Berg, Evan McNiff, and Bill Gazes were among the early eliminations. 2005 WSOP Champion Joe Hachem also exited early when his pocket jacks lost a race with an opponent's A-K.
Nenad Medic's departing hand was of the more painful variety. Medic had flopped a set of jacks, only to discover that his opponent had also flopped a set. Unfortunately for Medic, his opponent had flopped a set of queens. Isaac Haxton's overpair was ultimately no match for his opponent's flopped set. And Jamie Gold apparently picked the wrong time to push with K-10, running it up against an opponent's pocket aces.
Eli Elezra managed to eliminate Andy Black and Hevad Kahn in the same hand. Black was short-stacked and pushed all in pre-flop, getting called by Elezra and Kahn. Kahn moved all in on a 10-6-5 flop and was called by Elezra. Elezra had 8-5 for a pair, to Kahn's A-9 and Black's K-10. The turn and river brought a six and deuce, and Elezra took it down.
Mark Newhouse eliminated Liz Lieu when his pocket queens held up against her flopped top pair of tens. Both Eric Froehlich and Steve Billirakis were eliminated in identical, but separate hands; both rammed their pocket queens into pocket aces. Vanessa Rousso went out much the same way, just on a smaller scale. Rousso's pocket fours failed in an attempt to overtake Mark Segal's pocket nines.
Erica Schoenberg, Erik Seidel, Antonio Esfandiari, Ryan Daut, Bill Edler, Justin Bonomo, Sorel Mizzi, Jennifer Tilly, Kenna James, Roland de Wolfe, Chris Ferguson, and Sammy Farha would also all fail to navigate their way to Day 2.
While Day 1 played fast, the field was still out of the money when play ended. 121 players remain, while only 72 players will make the cash spots. And while the field lost many notable players, Day 2 will still host a world class field. Among those returning are Jerrod Ankenman, Michael Mizrachi, Humberto Brenes, Anna Wroblewski, Luca Pagano, Noah Boeken, Howard Lederer, Alex Jacob, Eli Elezra, Kathy Liebert, Eric Lynch, Layne Flack, Ben Grundy,John Tabatabai, Sarah Bilney, Gavin Smith, Huck Seed - and so many more.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Amy Calistri for this article
414 players took to the felt at the Amazon Room for Event #22 of the 2008 World Series of Poker, $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. The field was slightly larger than the 2007 event, which drew 382 players for a $2,500 entry fee and was won by James Richberg. There were plenty of familiar faces in the field, including several from other tournaments going on, meaning those players attempted to rush back and forth between their tables. Daniel Negreanu let his chair play for him most of the day as he went deep in the $2,000 Limit Hold'em event, while David Benyamine walked over to the table with bricks of cash from his final-table appearance in Event #18 to take his seat for H.O.R.S.E. Neither Benyamine nor Negreanu's chair made it through Day 1.
H.O.R.S.E is made up of five games, limit hold'em, Omaha hi/lo, razz, seven-card stud, and stud hi/lo. In previous years, an entire round of each game was played before the game was changed, but for 2008 the change was made to switch games after each orbit (eight hands).
Many of the toughest table draws were created by pros that registered late, ending up in a clump with their peers instead of at potentially softer tables. One such table included Nenad Medic, Annie Duke, Jennifer Harman and Robert Mizrachi, while Hoyt Corkins, Todd Brunson and Tom Schneider all clustered around another "table of death." Other notable players in the field included Greg Raymer, Chad Brown, Jim McManus, Nick Schulman and Justin Bonomo.
Thanks to the limit format of the games, play was deliberate early on, with very few bustouts before the dinner break. Robert Williamson III, David Williams, Katja Thater and Dario Alioto were among the early bustouts. Williamson took a nasty beat that sent him to the rail when he got all his money in on fifth street in stud with aces up against an opponent with jacks up. Unfortunately for Williamson, the jack on seventh gave his opponent a full house and sent him packing.
The pace picked up after dinner, with John Juanda, Chad Brown and Daniel Negreanu's chair all eliminated shortly after the dinner break. Negreanu did play his stack for a short while during a break from the other tournament, sitting down for a few minutes and raising four hands in a row! Negreanu's chair, however, lacking Negreanu in it, did not have the skill to accumulate chips.
Other notable eliminations on Day 1 included Robert "Chip Burner" Turner, who is frequently credited with inventing the game Omaha, Phil Gordon, Andy Bloch and Victor Ramdin. Ramdin got the last of his chips in the middle with K-Spades Q-Spades, but rain into pocket aces preflop. Nothing unusual occurred on the 5-Hearts 9-Spades Q-Clubs 3-Clubs 2-Hearts board, and Ramdin was eliminated.
Shannon Elizabeth made a strong showing on Day 1, finishing up with one of the top chip stacks after busting several opponents late in Day 1. She took out her last victim in Omaha hi/lo with Q-Diamonds Q-Hearts K-Hearts 3-Diamonds on a board of J-Spades 4-Diamonds 10-Diamonds 3-Spades Q-Spades for a rivered set. Her opponent mucked, and Elizabeth added to her stacks. Other notable survivors of Day 2 included Phil Ivey, Mike Sexton, Greg Raymer, Billy "The Croc" Argyros and Mike Gracz. The top ten chip stacks looked like as play ended on Day 1:
Alexander Jung 54,300
Chris Gentile 50,300
Shannon Elizabeth 44,200
James Mackey 42,900
Todd Brunson 41,700
Marc Goodwin 41,500
Kevin Saul 36,800
Rostislav Tsodikov 36,000
James van Alstyne 36,000
Linda Drucker 36,000
Thanks to pokernews.com and John 'Falstaff' Hartness for this article
Daniel Negreanu went into the final table of this event the most experienced player in the field by far. For six of the other players, this was their first time at a WSOP final table. Negreanu not only had three prior WSOP wins, but had won this event before, back in 2004. So, despite not starting the day in the chip leader, it was not a surprise when Negreanu emerged as the winner of the 2008 WSOP $2,000 Limit Hold'em event. Negreanu won every hand in heads up play to earn the victory, his fourth WSOP bracelet and the first-place prize money of $204,874.
The seating assignments, hometowns and chip stacks of the final nine going into today were:
Seat 1: David Baker (Katy, Texas) -- 409,000
Seat 2: Jeremy Kottler (Cleveland , Ohio) -- 47,000
Seat 3: Hien Tran (Sacramento, California) -- 58,000
Seat 4: Ugur Marangoz (Las Vegas, Nevada) -- 402,000
Seat 5: Fu Wong (Chandler, Arizona) -- 67,000
Seat 6: Greg Wohletz (Henderson, Nevada) -- 301,000
Seat 7: Daniel Negreanu (Las Vegas, Nevada) -- 308,000
Seat 8: Derek Lerner (Montreal, Quebec, Canada) -- 133,000
Seat 9: Richard Li (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) -- 195,00
Hien Tran, a former poker dealer, was out early - just four hands in. Tran had called the preflop raise of Fu Wong and they both saw a flop of Q-Clubs 10-Clubs 7-Diamonds. Tran checked, Wong bet and Tran called. The turn was the 9-Clubs. This time Tran led out and Wong called. The river was the 9-Diamonds. Tran pushed in for his last 8,000 and Wong called, showing pocket jacks for jacks and nines. Tran mucked. Hien Tran was our ninth-place finisher, earning his fourth WSOP cash, this time for $18,782.
Derek Lerner was eliminated by fellow Canadian Daniel Negreanu, after taking an earlier hit at the hands of David Baker. Negreanu raised from the small blind and Lerner three-bet from the big blind. Negreanu called and the dealer spread out the flop of J-Hearts 6-Diamonds 3-Spades. Negreanu bet, Lerner raised all in and Negreanu called. That's when Lerner discovered his countryman had raised and called a preflop reraise with Q-6. Lerner tabled his A-Q and he was behind to Negreanu's pair of sixes. The turn and the river missed him and Lerner was out in eighth place, with $25,334 for his first WSOP final table appearance.
Greg Wohletz lost a chance to quadruple up and instead was knocked out after he went all in against Richard Li, Ugur Marangoz and Fu Wong. Li had opened for a raise, Marangoz called from the button, Wong called from the small blind and Wohletz called all in for 23,000 from the big blind. Four went to the flop which came 7-Spades 4-Clubs 2-Clubs. The action was checked to Li who bet. Marangoz called, Wong raised and the other two called, three heading to the turn with Wohletz all in. The turn was the 8-Hearts. This time, Wong led out and the other two folded, giving him the side pot. The cards were turned up for the main pot. Wohletz had K-Clubs 3-Spades to Wong's J-Spades J-Diamonds. The river was the 6-Hearts and Wohletz was eliminated in seventh place, collecting $ 31,886 for his efforts.
Jeremy Kottler had started the day short-stacked and had managed to hang tough, watching three others eliminated before him. But, down to just 19,000 in chips, he called the preflop raise of David Baker and his tournament life was on the line. When each player tabled his cards, Kottler had the better of it, K-Clubs 4-Clubs to Baker's Q-Spades 9-Spades. He stayed ahead through the A-Spades 7-Clubs 2-Hearts flop and the 2-Clubs turn, but the river was the 9-Spades and Jeremy Kottler was eliminated in sixth place, taking home $40,622.
Fu Wong, second in this year's WSOP $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship, had lost two-thirds of his chips in a previous hand against Richard Li, when Li hit runner-runner fours for trip fours, and was down to 100,000 when Negreanu raised preflop and Wong called from the big blind. The flop was J-Hearts 7-Diamonds 4-Spades and it went to a three-bet by Negreanu which Wong Called. After the 10-Hearts fell on the turn, Wong checked, Negreanu bet, and Wong called all in for 25,000. Wong showed 5-Clubs 6-Spades for the open-ended straight draw; Negreanu showed Q-Diamonds J-Clubs for top pair. The river was a deuce and Fu Wong was eliminated in fifth place, collecting $51,542.
Richard Li, also at his first WSOP final table, three-bet preflop against Ugur Marangoz. The flop came 7-Spades Q-Clubs 2-Diamonds and Marangoz led out; Li called. On the 8-Clubs turn, Li moved in for the last of his chips and Marangoz called. Marangoz showed 9-Clubs 9-Spades; Li was behind with K-Clubs 5-Clubs. The river was the 5-Spades and Richard Li was eliminated in 4th place, earning $63,335.
This was David Baker's second WSOP final table and his highest WSOP finish at third. In his final hand, Baker had called a raise from Negreanu preflop. Negreanu bet the 2-Spades 8-Hearts 10-Hearts flop and Baker called. Negreanu bet after the A-Hearts came on the turn, Baker raised and Negreanu called. The river was the 9-Spades and Negreanu bet to put Baker all in; Baker called. Negreanu announced, "Straight!" as he turned over Q-J and Baker was heading out the door in third place, with $78,624.
Heads up with Negreanu, and down to 160,000 after losing every one of their previous hands, Ugur Marangoz, the poker room manager at the Mirage, saw a cheap flop of 5-Diamonds K-Hearts 5-Spades. Both players checked the flop and Q-Hearts turn. When the river came a 3-Hearts, Marangoz bet out. Negreanu raised to put Marangoz all in and Marangoz called. Negreanu turned over 9-Spades 5-Hearts for trip fives and Marangoz was out in second place with $126,671. And with that, Daniel Negreanu was the winner of the 2008 WSOP $2,000 Limit Hold'em event, his fourth WSOP bracelet and the top prize money.
Negreanu may parlay this win into even more money. He and fellow poker legend Phil Ivey reportedly have a standing bet during this year's WSOP in which one pays the other $200,000 for each bracelet won. Not surprisingly, as Negreanu sat down to have his picture taken with the winning 9-Spades 5-Hearts, he paused for a moment and took out his cell phone. "Hang on, I've got to text Ivey!"
Thanks to pokernews.com and Shari Geller for this article
As the WSOP approaches, there are still some chances to qualify via the satellite tournaments of our affiliate sites.
Betfair
THE MAIN EVENT - WSOP $120,000 SUPER SUNDAY QUALIFIER
WHEN: 15th June at 18:00 (BST)
BUY-IN: $525+$25
PRIZES: 1st place wins a $40,000 Dream package consisting of a $16,000 WSOP and $24,000 WSOP EUROPE package. Places 2nd to 6th each win a full WSOP package worth $16,000!
See website for more details
http://poker.betfair.com/promotions/overview/index.html
Grandslam Poker
WHEN: 15th June at 20:00 (BST)
BUY-IN: $500+$35
PRIZES: Buy-in to the WSOP 2008 main event (qualifier will begin on Day 1c) $10,000. 14 nights in the Palazzo Suites at the Venetian (for two) $3,200, along with traveling money.
See the website for more details
http://www.grandslampoker.com/Ease/servlet/ContentServer?siteID=1963&categoryID=159
Mansion
The MANSION WSOP MANIA Super Satellite!
WHEN: Sunday June 15 2008 at 19:00 BST.
WHAT: $300 + $20 Freezeout tournament with 5000 starting chips and 20 minute blinds
HOW: Freerolls and Cash Games
PRIZES: $10,000 buy-in to World Series of Poker Main Event, July 3-16 2008.
12 Days stay at the Luxurious Venetian Hotel & Casino Resort
$2,500 in traveling and spending cash
See website for more details
http://www.mansionpoker.com/promotions/mansion-wsop-mania/index.html
Good luck!
Blair Joins his Brother as a 2008 Bracelet Winner and Makes History
Tonight was truly a historic night at the 2008 World Series of Poker. Poker Professional Blair Hinkle won his first gold bracelet and $507,563 in prize money in impressive fashion. He won a third of the pots at the final table en route to victory. He came into the table second in chips, but once things got started he took things over and never took his foot of the gas pedal. Blair eliminated his last six opponents at the final table, and left no questions about his claim to the prize.
The win was impressive, but even more impressvie was the piece of history it made. Grant Hinkle, Blair's older brother won Event No. 2 this summer to win his first gold bracelet as well. This makes the Hinkle brothers the first brothers in the history of the WSOP to ever win a bracelet in the same year. It was Grant that originally introduced poker to his brother Blair, but Blair went on to become a full-time poker professional, while Grant kept his day job as a markeritng manager in Knasas City, Missouri. Now, they both have bracelets and their mother (who attended both final tables) is hands-down the most proud parent in the world of poker.
Here were the chip counts at the start of the final table:
Andrew Jeffreys: 1,051,000
Blair Hinkle: 1,030,000
Dustin Dirksen: 867,000
David Steicke: 611,000
Mark Brockington: 552,000
Daniel O'Brien: 465,000
Stepane Tayar: 323,000
Chris Bjorin: 247,000
Dominik Kulicki: 241,000
Thanks to cardplayer.com and Ryan Lucchesi for this article
Allen Cunningham Falls Just Short as Pescatori Earns His Second Bracelet
When Max Pescatori won his first bracelet two years ago, the stars truly aligned for the Italian poker professional. His first bracelet took place at the featured final table stage, and coincided with Italy's World Cup victory, sending "the Italian Pirate" into national pride overdrive. For his second bracelet, a secluded corner of the Amazon room would have to do. Still, a bracelet is a bracelet, no matter what the circumstances.
Here were the chip counts heading into the final table:
Kyle Kloeckner: 494,000
Allen Cunningham: 484,000
Lennart Holtkamp: 253,000
Max Pescatori: 212,000
Kyle Hegeman: 198,000
Greg Hurst: 197,000
Jonathan Depa: 185,000
Minh Ly: 177,400
John-Paul Kelly: 79,000
Heads Up Play Begins
Kyle Kloeckner - 1.3 million
Max Pescatori - 1.0 million
Max Pescatori Takes Commanding Chip Lead
Starting heads-up play virtually even in chips, Max Pescatori took a big chip lead over Kyle Kloeckner. Pescatori raised to 65,000 from the button and Kyle Kloeckner called from the big blind. The flop came Q-Clubs 10-Spades 5-Hearts, and Pescatori bet 100,000. Kloeckner raised to 350,000 and after a few minutes in the tank, Pescatori moved all in. Kloeckner folded and Pescatori took a commanding chip lead of 1.5 million to just under 700,000.
Max Pescatori Wins Event No. 24 ($246,471)
On the final hand of the night, Max Pescatori raised to 72,000 and Kyle Kloekner made the call. The flop came K-Diamonds J-Diamonds 3-Hearts, and Pescatori bet 110,000, Kloeckner called. the turn was the 2-Hearts, and Pescatori bet the pot (364,000). Kloeckner tanked for a few minutes before moving all in. Pescatori called and had him covered. When they revealed their hands, Kloeckner showed jacks and threes for two pair, but he was drawing dead to one card when Pescatori showed kings and jacks with a flush draw. Kloeckner needed the last black three in the deck, but the river was the 2-Diamonds, giving Pescatori his second bracelet and the victory.
Thanks to cardplayer.com and Julio Rodriguez for this article
Another pair of WSOP winner's bracelets found loving homes in Saturday's action at the Rio, including one that will likely have visits from close kin. History was made when Blair Hinkle captured Event #23, $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em, joining his brother Grant (Event #2) as event winners this year.
It's the first time ever that brothers have won bracelets in a single World Series, and only the second time ever that brothers have won bracelets, regardless of year. Only Puggy and J.C. Pearson prior to yesterday had accomplished the brotherly feat, and Puggy's three bracelets predated J.C.'s single title by roughly two decades.
It wasn't an easy road for Hinkle, though he started the day in second spot and stayed at or near the top throughout the final. His last two foes were Daniel O'Brien and Mark Brockington - who finished third and second, respectively - and it took an unlikely flopped set of sixes to clear Hinkle's path to the win. When Hinkle won his last race, again by flopping a set of sixes, the $507,563 winner's prize and a spot in WSOP lore was his.
The day's other bracelet went to a seasoned pro. Max "The Italian Pirate" Pescatori captured his second career bracelet by coming from well back in Event #24, the mixed-format $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em/Omaha tournament. Kyle Kloeckner and Allen Cunningham were the early leaders, but while Cunningham, favored by many to take this one down, suffered early hits, Kloeckner hung tough before losing the title to Pescatori after 30 minutes of heads-up play. Pescatori collected $246,471 for the win while Kloeckner pocketed $152,410 as the runner-up.
Speaking of heads-up play, action in Event #25, $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em World Championship, continued. Three more rounds on Saturday trimmed the field from 32 to four semifinalists, Vanessa Selbst, Alec Torelli, Kenny Tran and Jonathan Jaffe; it's the second straight semifinal appearance for Selbst in this event. Tran and Jaffe will square off in one semifinal today while Selbst and Torelli clash in the other. Torelli was the last of the the four to secure a spot in the semis after pulling out a marathon match against Lyle Berman, who had already survived another marathon against David Williams in the preceding round. The other odd note was that in reaching the semis, Selbs managed to knock out brothers Michael and Robert Mizrachi in consecutive rounds.
Event #26, $1,500 Razz, also saw its final table set when Frank Kassela bricked out in multiple late hands to bubble the final. Kassela's last chips went to leader Chris Viox, who will have to contend with Barry Greenstein, Archie "The Greek" Karas, Mark Tenner and others in today's final.
Saturday is also the day when the biggest turnout of the week is expected for the noon starting slot. Event #27, $1,500, drew 2,706 entrants, technically slipping past its 2,700 player cap. The overflow expanded from packed Amazon, Brasilia and Tropical Rooms to spare tables outside Buzio' Restaurant and the Rio's own poker room in the casino proper. Despite the scattered action, the huge field was able to play all the way inside the money bubble in the day's play, with 224 players returning today to guaranteed paychecks. 2005 Main Event final-table player Bernard Lee held the overnight lead.
The late Saturday start went to Event #28, $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys, which drew the very biggest of names (and deepest of bankrolls). Daniel Negreanu was one such example, re-buying in a reported 16 times, but at last those rebuys began to reap rewards, as Negreanu finished among the top ten on the day. 44 of 152 players survived into Day 2, but only 18 of those will cash. Emmanuel Sebag leads all players after Day 1 action, with a leaderboard stuffed with poker's finest.
Another pair of events kick off on a busy Father's Day today. The noon start is Event #29, $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em, with nine players per table instead of the more WSOP-normal ten. At 5pm, the $10,000 World Championship Limit Hold'em event begins, with another huge cast of poker's finest again expected to play.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Haley Hintze for this article
Tran Captures the $10K Heads Up Championship
A final table appearance at last year's $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament got him noticed. A deep finish in the WSOP main event made him feared, and a final table showdown at the WPT championship made him one of poker's best. But after coming so close to a major title for over a year, L.A. cash game pro Kenny Tran finally sealed the deal and in the process picked up his first WSOP bracelet.
It was truly the best father's day gift the father of three could ask for.
Here were the final four competitors who entered the semi-finals to begin the day.
Vanessa Selbst
Alec Torelli
Kenny Tran
Jonathan Jaffe
Here are highlights from all of the action:
Kenny Tran vs. Jonathan Jaffe
Jonathan Jaffe Strikes First
Kenny Tran raised to 36,000 and Jonathan Jaffe reraised to 125,000. Tran called and the flop came down J-Diamonds 7-Diamonds 6-Diamonds. Both players checked and the turn was the 8-Hearts. Jaffe checked and Tran bet 150,000. Jaffe called and the river was the A-Hearts. Jaffe bet 275,000 and Tran folded. As he took the pot, Jaffe flashed the 3-Diamonds.
Kenny Tran Takes the Chip Lead
Jonathan Jaffe raised to 36,000 and Kenny Tran called. The flop came K-Hearts 10-Clubs 3-Diamonds and Tran checked. Jaffe bet 52,000 and was called. The turn was the 8-Spades and Tran checked raised a bet of 92,000 from Jaffe to 242,000. Jaffe thought for a bit before calling. The river was the 2-Clubs and Tran bet 500,000. Jaffe folded, and Tran took the chip lead for the first time in the match.
Jonathan Jaffe Takes the Lead Back
Jaffe raised to 48,000 and Tran reraised to 143,000. Jaffe called and the flop came K-Spades 10-Spades 4-Clubs. Tran bet 175,000 and Jaffe called. The turn was the Q-Spades and Tran checked. Jaffe bet 175,000 and Tran decided to call. The river was the 10-Hearts and both players checked. Tran revealed A-Q, but it wasn't enough to best Jaffe's K-J. After the hand, Jaffe too a 3-2 chip lead in the match.
Kenny Tran Claws Back
Jaffe raised to 48,000 and Tran reraised to 168,000. Jaffe called and the flop came K-Clubs 8-Spades 5-Hearts. Tran continued with a bet of 150,000 and Jaffe called. The turn was the 3-Clubs and Tran didn't let up with a bet of 250,000. Jaffe folded and Tran evened the playing field.
Kenny Tran Makes a Big Bluff
Tran raised to 48,000 and Jaffe reraised to 150,000. Tran made the call and the flop came A-Clubs Q-Diamonds Q-Spades. Jaffe thought for a bit before betting 125,000. Tran tanked and then reraised to 450,000. Jaffe mucked his hand and Tran revealed his 7-5 offsuit bluff.
Kenny Tran Advances, Jonathan Jaffe Eliminated ($108,288)
Jaffe raised to 60,000 and Tran reraised to 210,000. Jaffe suddenly moved all in and Tran went into the tank. After a few minutes, Tran made the call and showed pocket jacks. Jaffe showed one over with K-Hearts 8-Clubs. The board ran out 10-Hearts 4-Hearts 4- Spades A-Diamonds 8-Diamonds and Tran advanced to the finals.
Vanessa Selbst vs. Alec "traheho" Torelli
Alec Torelli Takes an Early Pot
Selbst raised to 30,000 and Torelli made the call. The flop came down 4-Hearts 2-Hearts 2-Diamonds and Torelli checked. Selbst bet 35,000 and Torelli called. The turn was the 3-Spades and both players checked. The river was the 10-Clubs and Torelli bet 80,000. Selbst made the call and Torelli showed A-10 to take the pot.
Vanessa Selbst Takes a 3-2 Chip Lead
Alec Torelli raised to 30,000 and Selbst reraised to 100,000. Torelli called and both players saw a flop of K-Hearts 6-Diamonds 5-Clubs. Selbst bet 128,000 and Torelli raised to 260,000. Selbst thought it over before calling. Both players then checked it down when the turn and river came 4-Diamonds 9-Spades. Selbst showed 9-8 for a rivered pair of nines and Torelli mucked his hand.
Alec Torelli Makes Big Calls To Take Back the Chip Lead
Selbst limped on the button and Torelli raised to 47,000. Selbst then reraised to 122,000 and Torelli made the call. The flop came J-Diamonds J-Hearts 6-Diamonds and Torelli checked to Selbst who bet 150,000. Torelli took a long time before calling and the turn was the A-Spades. Torelli checked again and Selbst fired in 275,000. After Torelli made the call, both players checked the K-Hearts on the river. Torelli showed pocket nines and Selbst couldn't beat it. After the hand Torelli took slightly more than a 3-2 chip lead.
Alec Torelli Advances, Vanessa Selbst Eliminated ($108,288)
Selbst raised to 40,000 and Torelli reraised to 130,000. Selbst made the call and the flop came J-Spades 5-Clubs 4-Diamonds. Torelli bet 150,000 and Selbst made the call. The turn was the 10-Diamonds and Torelli thought for a long while before betting 350,000. Selbst tanked for a minute before moving all in and Torelli reluctantly made the call. Selbst was ahead with K-Spades 10-Spades against Torelli's Clubs Q-Spades, but the river was the 9-Hearts giving him a straight and sending him to the finals against Kenny Tran. Selbst finishes in the semi-finals for the second consecutive year, earning $108,288 and adding to her already impressive WSOP.
Finals - Kenny Tran vs. Alec Torelli
Kenny Tran Wins the Small ones and the Big One
Both players have been ultra conservative throughout the match, opting to take their time and favoring checks over bets. But one decent sized hand did go down when Torelli limped the button and Tran checked his option. The flop came 7-6-2 and both players checked. The turn was another 6 and again they checked. The river was an 8 and Torelli fired in 300,000 after Tran checked. Tran made the call and Torelli showed his pair of sevens with K-7, but Tran rivered a better two pair with 8-7. This hand caused more than a few eyebrows to raise, as both players passively played their hands.
After the hand, Tran held a clear 2-1 chip lead over Torelli.
Kenny Tran Wins Match One
Tran raised to 110,000 and Alec Torelli reraised to 350,000. Tran took some time and then made the call. The flop came 8-Diamonds 4-Clubs 2-Hearts and Torelli moved in for about 1 million. Tran instantly called and turned over A-Hearts 4-Diamonds. Torelli was reverse dominated with A-Spades J-Hearts. The turn and river came 7-Spades A-Diamonds and Tran won the first match.
Kenny Tran Retakes The Chip Lead
Alec Torelli raised to 80,000 and Kenny Tran made the call. The flop came 6-Spades 3-Clubs 2-Spades and Tran bet 125,000. Torelli called and the turn was the 9-Diamonds. Tran fired in 300,000 and got another call. The river was the A-Hearts and both players checked. All Tran could show was 4-3 for fourth pair, but Torelli mucked. After the hand, Tran had regained a very slight chip lead.
Kenny Tran Wins Event No. 25 ($539,040)
After increasing his lead with numerous small pots and blind steals, the big one finally came down. Tran raised to 110,000 and Torelli made the call. The flop came Q-Clubs 7-Clubs 4-Spades and Tran bet 150,000. Torelli raised to 430,000 and Tran reraised to 1,030,000. Torelli moved all in and Tran made the call showing A-Clubs 8-Clubs for the nut flush draw. Torelli was ahead with Q-10, but the turn and river came 8-Hearts J-Clubs to give the victory to Tran. Torelli finishes runner up and earns $336,896.
Thanks to cardplayer.com and Julio Rodriguez for this article
Greenstein Wins Marathon Razz Final Table
Following in much the same tradition of events prior, another pro gets another bracelet in 2008, and this time it's Barry Greenstein. Joining the likes of Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu and Max Pescatori, Barry Greenstein is the newest multi-bracelet winner of the year, and now all Greenstein needs is a third wrist to wear it on. Greenstein regularly plays in the biggest games on the planet and often times with great success. He considers himself a multi-game specialist and has once again proved it to the world here tonight.
Greenstein came to this final table second in chips and remained pretty low on the radar until play got down to the final three. Greenstein took the chip lead from Christopher Viox (3rd) for the first time and never gave it up, slowly putting more and more distance between himself and his opponents until the betting limits and his suffocating chip lead ultimately proved too great to overcome.
Here are the chip counts heading into the final table:
Seat 1: Christopher Viox: 350,000
Seat 2: Joseph Michael: 155,000
Seat 3: Archie Karas: 113,000
Seat 4: Brandon Leeds: 206,500
Seat 5: Chris Klodnicki: 105,000
Seat 6: Mike Wattel: 74,000
Seat 7: Mark Tenner: 108,500
Seat 8: Barry Greenstein: 243,000
Here are highlights from all of the action:
Mike Wattel Eliminated in 8th Place ($16,386)
Mike Wattel was all in in a three-way pot with Barry Greenstein and Chris Viox.
Wattel: 4-6-A-4 - X-X-X
Greenstein: 6-7-9-8 - X-X-X
Viox: 10-4-3-K - A-2-5
Apparently there was some controversy over Wattel closing his cards on seventh street, signifying that his hand was weak. This upset Greenstein, giving Viox information as to the relative strength of his hand, and eventually Greenstein made the call. Viox turned over the wheel and raked the pot, eliminating Mike Wattel in 8th place ($16,386).
Archie Karas Eliminated in 7th Place ($19,607)
Barry Greenstein brought it in with the high card for 2,000 and Archie Karas completed the bet to 8,000. Brandon Leeds reraised to 16,000 and Karas called all in for 3,000 more. "The Greek" ended up making an eight-low on seventh street while Leeds went on to make a six-low. Leeds raked the pot and Archie Karas was eliminated in 7th place ($19,607).
Chris Klodnicki Doubles Through Joseph Michael
Short stack Chris Klodnicki got the rest of his chips in the pot on fifth street against Joseph Michael.
Klodnicki: K-3-2-4 - A-9-4
Michael: 2-J-4-Q - 10-7-X
Klodnicki made a nine-low on the river while Michael bricked. Klodnicki went from the short stack to over 150,000 chips that hand.
Joseph Michael Eliminated in 6th place ($25,831)
Mark Tenner completed the bet with a 4 and Chris Viox called the raise with a 7. Joseph Michael reraised with a 7, Tenner folded and Viox made it three bets to go. Michael came back over the top and reraised all in for a total of 35,000. Michael went on to make a 9-7-6-4-3 low while Viox made an 8-7-6-4-A on seventh street. Chris Viox raked the pot, regaining the chip lead once again while Joseph Michael was eliminated in 6th place ($25,831).
Brandon Leeds Eliminated in 5th place ($33,301)
The now short stacked Brandon Leeds moved all in on fourth street with an A-2 on board against the chip leader, Chris Viox who was showing A-6. Viox went on to make a 6-5-4-2-A on the river while the best Leeds could do was make an 8-6-4-3-A low. Chris Viox adds even more chips to his growing stack while Brandon Leeds has to settle for 5th place and $33,301.
Mark Tenner Eliminated in 4th place ($43,571)
With Chris Viox crippling Mark Tenner a few hands prior, it was Chris Klodnicki that delivered the final death blow when Mark Tenner got it all in on fifth street. This one came down to the river, Tenner hitting a jack to compliment his 7-6-2-A low. Klodnicki finished the hand with 7-6-4-3-2 low, good enough to rake the pot and send Mark Tenner home in 4th place ($43,571).
Barry Greenstein Takes the Chip Lead
Barry Greenstein won two key pots uncontested this round, one off of Chris Viox and the other off of Chris Klodnicki. Never missing a bet, Greenstein just kept firing at the pot, getting each opponent to close their cards on the river. A few hands later and Greenstein officially took control of the chip lead after trumping Viox's 9-4-3-2-A with an 8-7-5-4-3 low. This hand put Greenstein over 650,000 in chips.
Christopher Viox Eliminated in 3rd Place ($59,132)
Christopher Viox was all in on fifth street against Christopher Klodnikci and the players turned up their cards.
Viox: 7-4-6-K-2-A-X
Klodnicki: 9-4-2-Q-3-5
Viox had formidable lead heading to sixth street where Viox hit an ace against Klodnicki's 5. With a 5 on sixth street, Klodnicki needed an ace or a 6 to win. Klodnikci hit his ace, trumping Viox's 7-6 with the wheel. Klodnicki finally eliminated Chris Viox in 3rd place ($59,132).
And Then There Were Two...
With Chris Viox finally out of their way, Barry Greenstein (985,000) and Chris Klodnicki (380,000) begin heads-up play.
Barry Greenstein Wins Third Bracelet in Event No. 26 ($158,659)
After a grueling battle of heads-up play between Barry Greenstein and Chris Klodnicki, Greenstein eventually emerged victorious. Terminally short stacked, Chris Klodnicki raised all in on third street with a 3 in the door. Greenstein called with an ace and they both turned over their cards.
Klodnicki: A-K-3-K-8-6-3
Greenstein: 4-9-A-J-4-9-7
Barry Greenstein made a J-9-4-7-A on seventh street while Chris Klodnicki ended up with two pair making K-8-6-3-A. Barry Greenstein wins his third WSOP bracelet and the $158,569 grand prize while Chris Klodnicki has to settle for second place and $98,034.
As soon as Greenstein pocketed his bracelet, he double-timed it over to the $10,000 Limit Hold'em World Championship event where he had a stack waiting for him. Greenstein barely pocketed his third WSOP bracelet before he was off trying to win his fourth.
Thanks to cardplayer.com and Andy Liakos for this article
Just to spice things up a bit we have added a "Last Longest Bet" for all you that fancy a little punt on the side. We have set up a tournament buy-in of $25+$0 called "The Dream Last Longest Bet #150771", in the tournament lobby, and the player that lasts the longest from those registered takes the whole pot!
Summer Weekly Cash Dash
♠ Grandslam will give out a total of $240,000 to our cash table players - $30,000 per week
♠ Players will be ranked by the number of raked hands they participate in.
♠ The counting periods will be of 7 full days, starting Mondays at 00:00 and ending
on Sunday at 23:59
♠ The leaderboards are per stake level ? spanning all game and bet types
♠ Counting Periods are:
o July 7th - July 13th
o July 14th - July 20th
o July 21st - July 27th
o July 28th - August 3rd
o August 4th - August 10th
o August 11th - August 17th
o August 18th - August 24th
o August 25th - August 31st
Terms & Conditions:
o A raked hand is counted for each player who was dealt cards in which rake was
taken from that hand. Players who were seated out of a raked hand will not have
that hand counted towards this promotion.
o In case there is a tie between players raked hands in paid places, all players with
that number of raked hands will be issued an average amount of their prize (as per
their positions).
o Grandslam reserves the right to refuse payment to any player which is found
colluding/slow playing
o Players will be paid for reaching the money on a weekly leaderboard within a
week of that leaderboard end
o The leaderboards are segmented per stake level, as they appear in the poker client.
All raked hands in each stake level will be counted, regardless of game type or bet
type
o All decisions as made by iPoker are final.
Cash tables $25/$50 and up
o 10 Players with the most raked hands during the counting period in cash tables
with blinds $25/$50 and up will receive money into their poker account by this
structure:
Place Weekly Prize
1st $1,725.00
2nd $1,425.00
3rd $1,200.00
4th $975.00
5th $750.00
6th $600.00
7th $450.00
8th $390.00
9th $330.00
10th $255.00
Cash tables $5/$10-$10/$20
o 20 Players with the most raked hands during the counting period in cash tables
with blinds $5/$10-$10/$20 will receive money into their poker account by this
structure:
Place Weekly Prize
1st $1,350.00
2nd $1,110.00
3rd $870.00
4th $720.00
5th $600.00
6th $510.00
7th $405.00
8th $330.00
9th $240.00
10th $165.00
11th - 20th $150.00
Cash Tables $2/$4-$3/$6
o 30 Players with the most raked hands during the counting period in cash tables
with blinds $2/$-$3/$6 will receive money into their poker account by this
structure:
Place Weekly Prize
1st $1,200.00
2nd $900.00
3rd $675.00
4th $540.00
5th $480.00
6th $390.00
7th $330.00
8th $270.00
9th $210.00
10th $165.00
11th - 20th $120.00
21st - 30th $120.00
Cash Tables $0.5/$1-$1/$2
o 40 Players with the most raked hands during the counting period in cash tables
with blinds $0.5/$1-$1/$2 will receive money into their poker account by this
structure:
Place Weekly Prize
1st $900.00
2nd $750.00
3rd $570.00
4th $450.00
5th $375.00
6th $300.00
7th $255.00
8th $180.00
9th $150.00
10th $120.00
11th - 20th $105.00
21st - 30th $82.50
31st - 40th $82.50
It's double points this week, a chance for the rest of us mere mortals to pull some points back at The Poccer Players, who are continuing to pull away from the field with players making, and winning, the final table week after week.
There are just 2 more games left before we take a break for The WSOP 2008, including a $10,000 freeroll next week.
Registration is open in the Betfair Lobby Now!
The Dream Team Last Longest Bet
We have now added a little "side bet" for all you that want to take a punt on lasting the longest. We have set up a tournament buy-in of $25+$0 called "The Dream Team Last Longest Bet #150771" in the lobby, whoever registers and lasts the longest in tonight's event will take the whole pot!"
Dream Team III Live Final
BadBeat and Betfair Poker are very pleased to announce that the Dream Team III Live Final will be a 2 day Event (Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th September) to ensure a great tournament structure, it will be taking place in the Great and Central Halls at the Loose Cannon Club in London and it will be directed by Loose Cannons Club Director - Roy Houghton!
Last Saturday saw the DTD Team Challenge 2 event which was another roaring success! 12 teams battled it out for the individual and team glory.
The individual winner, pocketing a devilish £666, was Richard King and his 1st place secured the EMS 2 (Eat My Stack) the team prize of £1900 along with their name on the Team Challenge shield and individual trophies.
TEAM - POINTS
EMS2 - 5595
The Moseley Mob - 4565
EMS4 - 3920
The jacks - 3385
HawkHill Select - 3335
Mexboro Massive - 2495
MC Jnr Shark - 1785
DTD Pros - 1575
EMS3 - 1520
oldham - 1510
All in Yorkshire - 1450
EMS1 - 1345
Thanks to DTDPoker.com for this article
Big names and bigger stories were Sunday's highlights from the WSOP. Established pros Barry Greenstein and Kenny Tran claimed the day' bracelets, while Phil Hellmuth extended his own WSOP final-table and cashes records in a third event. Overall, six events saw action on a busy Sunday at the Rio.
Kenny Tran's first-ever bracelet brings significant bragging rights, since it came in the $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em World Championship, Event #25. Tran survived eight different matchup before toppling Alex Torelli 2-0 in a best-of-three final, while Jonathan Jaffe and Vanessa Selbst settled for semifinal showings, the second straight for Selbst in the event. Tran's first career bracelet brought with it a $539,056 payday, while runner-up Torelli collected $336,896.
Barry Greenstein collected career bracelet #3 in Event #26, $1,500 Razz. Greenstein was at or near the top of the board through much of the event, and closed out a win worth $157,619 during the evening's play. This final included Mark Tenner and Vegas gambing legend Archie "The Greek" Karas, though the second spot went to Chris Klodnicki, who walked away with $97,389 for his efforts.
A final table full of big names and side stories developed in a wee-hours wrapup to second-day play in Event #28, $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys, where Chris "Jesus" Ferguson bubbled in tenth to conclude the session's play. A short-stacked Phil Hellmuth squeezed his way into the final, thereby making his 40th career WSOP final table and breaking the tie he was in with TJ Cloutier. Hours before, Hellmuth had secured his 64th career WSOP cash, extending his own record there as well. Hellmuth has a thin chance to win bracelet #12, but Johnny Chan brings five times as many chips to the final in his own bid for career bracelet #11, which would tie Hellmuth's bracelet mark. Chan sits mid-pack starting the final, while Internet stars Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond and Brian "tsarrast" Rast hold the biggest stacks. The final also includes Daniel Negreanu, Kirill Gerasimov, David Benyamine, John Juanda and Adam Hourani.
Another final-table lineup was almost determined in Event #27, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em, but the massive field and deep stacks meant that 17 players still remained when play was halted for the night. Vitaly Lunkin and Kenneth Terrell occupy the top two spots heading into today's play.
Many of poker's biggest names turned out for one of two attractive tourneys with Sunday starts. Getting underway at noon was Event #29, $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em, which featured nine players per table instead of ten, as found in most other WSOP full-table hold'em events. 716 players started and 81 still remained ten levels later, with the money bubble to burst at 72 players early today. This one will play down to a final nine in today's session. Alex Zaslavsky was the Day 1 leader, with Matt Vengrin and John "The Razor" Phan also in the top ten.
Fans of limit hold'em saw the 5pm kickoff of Event #30, the $10,000 Limit Hold'em World Championship. This one drew 218 entrants, 92 of whom survived into Day 2 play. The leaders here are JC Tran and Terrence Chan, with Justin Bonomo, David Oppenheim and Alex Kravchenko also among the top ten. Both the money bubble and the final-table lineup will be determined today.
Only one new event gets underway today at the WSOP, the first single-event starting day in nearly two weeks. It's a popular event, the $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed tourney, Event #31, which overflowed the Amazon Room and occupied much of the nearby Brasilia Room with its noon start.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Haley Hintze for this article
Galfond Wins Marathon Heads Up Match For His First Bracelet
In what has been regarded by some as the best final table ever formed at the World Series of Poker, two online players took out some of the game's best to match up in an epic battle. In the end, after nearly 120 grueling heads up hands, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond finally got the better of his fierce opponent Adam Hourani.
Here were the chip counts heading into the start studded final table:
Phil Galfond - 1,393,000
Brian Rast - 1,176,000
David Benyamine - 1,041,000
John Juanda - 694,000
Johnny Chan - 624,000
Kirill Gerasimov - 558,000
Daniel Negreanu - 460,000
Adam Hourani - 300,000
Phil Hellmuth - 119,000
Phil Hellmuth Doubles Up Through David Benyamine
Action was folded around to Hellmuth in the small blind and he completed. Benyamine checked his option and the flop came K-Spades 6-Hearts 4-Diamonds. Hellmuth checked and Benyamine bet 25,000. Hellmuth made the call and the turn was the Q-Diamonds. Hellmuth moved all in and Benyamine made the call. Hellmuth revealed K-Q-9-7 for top two pair and Benyamine was behind with K-6-4-3 for a small kings up. The river was the Q-Clubs and Hellmuth doubled up to around 240,000.
Johnny Chan Doubles Up Through Brian Rast
Rast raised to 48,000 under the gun and Johnny Chan reraised the pot to 168,000. Rast moved him all in and Chan called. Rast showed down A-Spades A-Clubs 5-Spades 4-Spades and Chan showed....A-Diamonds A-Hearts 9-Spades 2-Hearts. The flop came down Q-Hearts 10-Spades 2-Spades and what looked like a chop turned into nearly a freeroll for Rast. The turn was the 4-Diamonds but the river was the 2-Clubs giving Chan trip twos and the entire pot to double up to 1.2 million.
We can't tell with all that black on, but it looks like Hellmuth is starting to sweat just a little bit.
Phil Hellmuth Doubles Through Brian Rast
Brian Rast just can't catch a break. He raised to 34,000 and Hellmuth moved all in for 66,000. Rast called and showed down the best hand once again with ASpades A-Diamonds 2-Spades 2-Diamonds. Hellmuth needed a little help with K-Diamonds K-Clubs 5-Clubs 4-Clubs. The board ran out J-Spades 8-Clubs 8-Diamonds K-Spades J-Diamonds and Hellmuth caught a king on the turn to stay alive and keep his 12th bracelet hopes alive.
Rast, who has been berated by Hellmuth for his "awful" play thus far, is doing his best to not get frustrated.
Brian Rast Eliminated in 9th Place ($84,863)
Coming in as one of the chip leader didn't mean much as Brian Rast was the first to go. Rast had terrible luck at the final table, and it continued at the hands of Johnny Chan. Negreanu limped, Rast raised to 70,000 on the button and Chan called in the big blind. The flop came J-Clubs 4-Diamonds 3-Diamonds and Chan checked. Rast bet 126,000 and Chan moved in. Rast made the call for his tournament life and revealed J-Diamonds 10-Diamonds 7-Clubs 6-Clubs for top pair, a flush draw, a back door flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. Chan showed A-Diamonds 9-Spades 7-Spades 9-Diamonds for a lower pair, a better flush draw and not much else. Of course, against Rast the turn and river came Q-Spades A-Hearts to give Chan the pot with a lowly pair of aces. Rast was eliminated in ninth place.
Adam Hourani Doubles Through Daniel Negreanu
Negreanu limped and Hourani raised to 80,000. Negreanu called and the flop came Q-Spades 8-Spades 3-Hearts. Negreanu checked and Hourani moved all in for 110,000. Negreanu made the call. The suits weren't shown, but Negreanu had 8-7-6-5 and Hourani revealed A-A-4-5. The turn and river came 10-Clubs 3-Clubs and Hourani doubled up to nearly 400,000. Negreanu was left with just over 115,000.
Daniel Negreanu Doubles Through Phil Galfond
On a flop of 10-Spades 8-Diamonds 5-Spades Negreanu got it all in against Galfond. Negreanu had 10-9-7-6 for the wrap draw and top pair and he was up against Galfond's K-J-10-9, top and an open-ended straight draw. The turn was the K-Hearts and Negreanu needed help and he got it when the river was the 4-Spades and he made his straight. He doubled up to 200,000.
Phil Hellmuth Eliminated in 8th Place ($100,292)
Hellmuth got his last 200,000 in against David Benyamine preflop. Hellmuth held A-Spades K-Clubs 10-Clubs 4-Clubs but was in terrible shape against Benyamine's A-Hearts A-Clubs K-Diamonds 4-Hearts. The board offered no help and Hellmuth was eliminated in eighth place.
Daniel Negreanu Eliminated in 7th Place ($123,437)
Negreanu found himself all in against Galfond on the short stack. Negreanu held K-Hearts K-Diamonds J-Diamonds 5-Clubs, but he was up against A-Hearts A-Clubs 2-Hearts 2-Diamonds. The flop came 9-Hearts 7-Hearts 5-Hearts giving Galfond the nut flush, but the turn was the K-Spades giving Negreanu outs to a boat. The river was the 2-Clubs and Negreanu was eliminated in seventh place.
John Juanda Eliminated in 6th Place ($154,296)
Chan completed from the small blind and Juanda checked his option. The flop came 9Spades 8-Spades 2-Clubs and Chan bet 48,000. Juanda reraised to 196,000 and Chan put him all in. Juanda called showing K-Diamonds 10-Spades 9-Clubs 7-Spades but was behind to Chan's 10-Hearts 9-Hearts 8-Diamonds 2-Spades. The turn and river came 7-Clubs 2-Diamonds and Juanda was eliminated in sixth place.
David Benyamine Doubles Through Johnny Chan
Benyamine limped under the gun, Hourani completed from the small blind and Chan checked his option. The flop came 6-Spades 5-Diamonds 3-Spades and Benyamine bet 65,000. Hourani folded and Chan check raised to 265,000. Benyamine called and the turn was the 4-Diamonds. Chan moved Benyamine all in and Benyamine called. Chan showed 7-5-4-4 for the straight and a set of fours, and Benyamine was slightly behind with A-6-6-3 and a set of sixes. The river was the 5-Spades pairing the board and giving Benyamine the best full house. Benyamine stacks to 1.5 million and Chan takes a major hit dropping to 1.1 million.
Phil Galfond Cripples Johnny Chan
Galfond raised to 80,000 and Chan made the call. The flop came 10-Spades 9-Hearts 7-Diamonds and both players checked. The turn was the J-Clubs and Chan bet 175,000. Galfond called and the river was the 5-Spades. Chan bet 525,000 and Galfond put him all in. Chan mucked and Galfond chipped up to over 3 million. Chan was left with 330,000.
Kirill Gerasimov Eliminated in 5th Place ($192,870)
Gerasimov shoved from the small blind and was instantly called by Galfond in the big blind. Gerasimov showed A-Hearts 10-Diamonds 8-Spades 7-Clubs and Galfond produced A-Clubs J-Clubs 8-Clubs 5-Clubs. The board ran out J-Spades 9-Spades 6-Spades 6-Hearts 6-Diamonds and Gerasimov was eliminated in fifth place.
Johnny Chan Eliminated in 4th Place ($246,874)
Chan raised to 120,000 and got called by both David Benyamine and Phil Galfond in the blinds. The flop came J-Diamonds 10-Diamonds 3-Clubs and Benyamine bet 55,000. Galfond called and Chan called all in. Benyamine and Galfond then checked down the 8-Hearts A-Hearts turn and river and Benyamine revealed aces up to take the pot and eliminate Chan in fourth place.
David Benyamine Feeling The Pressure
After taking a big hit with a smaller two pair, David Benyamine has been chipped down by Adam Hourani. A few hands later, Benyamine lost 600,000 after calling a preflop raise and folding on the flop.
David Benyamine Eliminated in 3rd Place ($316,307)
Benyamine raised to 175,000 on the button and Adam Hourani made the call. The flop came down Q-Diamonds J-Clubs 9-Hearts and Hourani checked. Benyamine moved all in and Hourani instantly called, showing A-Q-Q-10. Benyamine sheepishly turned over A-A-10-9 and needed some help. The turn and river came 3-Clubs 8-Clubs and Benyamine was eliminated in third place.
Heads Up Play Begins
Phil Galfond - 4.1 million
Adam Hourani - 2.1 million
Phil Galfond Wins Event No. 28 ($817,781)
After over 100 hands of grueling heads up play, Adam Hourani was finally chipped down to his last 480,000. Both players got it all in on a flop of A-Diamond Q-Spades 8-Clubs. Hourani had Galfond's pair of aces outkicked, but the turn was a 6-Hearts giving Galfond two pair. The river was a brick in the form of the 2-Clubs and Galfond emerged victorious.
Hourani finished runner up, earning $493,748.
Thanks to cardplayer.com and Julio Rodriguez for this article
Time is ever so slightly starting to run out for the hopes of a Brit bracelet at the WSOP this year. We still have some 20 events left to go but things seem to be going from bad to worse for the UK contingent after what looked a really promising start.
The very talented Tony Philips looked in good shape to make it onto the $1500 PLO final table with a big stack, but his aces were cracked on the final table bubble by Vanessa Selbst in a much debated pot which effectively won her the tournament, her lead was so dominant. Paul Zimbler impressively made the $3000 HORSE final to prove that UK players know their stuff in mixed limit games too. JP Kelly and Dave Penly came 9th and 10th respectively in the Hold'em/Omaha mixed game - which would have been a fantastic first Brit bracelet for 2008.
But other than that, it's looking pretty bleak right now for UK players. In fact, the best boast we have right now is that Swedish Chris Bjorin has cashed four times and made two final tables this year. The poker pro now lives in London and for the purposes of this feature we are making him an honorary Brit.
So with 20 or so events still to come, what is our next avenue of hope? There are plenty of Omaha and Hold'em events you would fancy a UK player to do well in still to come, but a few stud and mixed limit events that you wouldn't. If one thing is for sure this year, is that is currently the year of the pro with the likes of Negreanu, Greenstein, Matusow and Lindgren all taking gold as well as one of the most mouth watering final tables ever in the $5000 PLO rebuy event, which has just been confirmed.
This success can be attributed to a much slower structure this year in most of the events which the pros have been enjoying. With this in mind, maybe we should now be looking at some of our biggest hitters - the De Wolfe's, the Devilfish's and the Vaswani's to bring home gold. One glimmer of hope right now is that fast talking Welshman Roberto Romanello is amongst the chip leaders in the $3000 hold'em event, which would make for one of the most fun final tables ever should he make it.
Whatever the result, there is no doubt that the pro heavy fields have made this one of the sickest World Series in years.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Barry Carter for this article
Lunkin Overcomes a Flush Board Setback to Win One for Russia
Another large field at the 2008 World Series of Poker was unable to play down to just one final table on the final day of play in Event No. 27, and when day 3 began 17 of them still remained in the hunt. The $1,500 attracted 2,706 players and eliminating 2,697 proved to be too much to fit into two days of play. There was neither a big-name professional nor a runaway chip leader when the day began, so the tournament and its $628,417 first-place prize were anyone's for the taking.
In the end it was the player who held the slight chip lead to start the day that emerged with the gold bracelet. Russian player Vitaly Lunkin held 912,000 when the day began, and 12 hours later he held every chip in the tournament. He remained solid all day long, despite some frustrating setbacks dealt to him by lady luck.
Thanks to cardplayer.com and Ryan Lucchesi for this article
It was a frontrunner's day at the WSOP on Monday, as both events that saw bracelets awarded wound up having those bracelets awarded to the players leading those events at the start of the day.
Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond and Vitaly Lunkin claimed gold in the day's action, while play continued in three more events with two more finals set for Tuesday.
Galfond, a well-known Internet force, is now likely Madison, WI's second-most famous poker son named Phil, which is an oddity since the most famous Phil from the Midwest's Mad City, Phil Hellmuth Jr., was also at the final of Event #28, $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys. Hellmuth departed early, however, while Johnny Chan exited halfway through in his bid to tie Hellmuth for most career WSOP bracelets at 11. In the end only David Benyamine and Adam "the_houdini" Hourani stood in Galfond's way; Hourani surged from well back to dispatch Benyamine in third but could not overcome Galfond's sizable lead when all was done. Galfond collected $817,781 with the win, while Hourani's surge to second brought him $493,748.
Russian pro Vitaly Lunkin led a pack of 17 players into the last day of action in Event #27, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. Lunkin had dropped from the lead when the official final table was set, with Brett Kimes and Philip Yeh leading the way, but stormed back to take the title after a series of final-able knockouts. This was by far Lunkin's largest career cash and was worth $628,417, while Kimes, the second-place finisher, pocketed $387,837.
Two more events settled on their final-table lineups. 81 players from an initial field over 700 returned for Day 2 battle in Event #29, $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em. The first order of business was cracking the 72-player money bubble, which happened early in the day, and after a full day's action the final table was reached. Matt Vengrin edged above the million-chip mark to lead the way, with Johnny Neckar in second at 796,000, and all the others between 300,000 and 540,000. Among them is Tony "Bond18" Dunst, an occasional columnist here at PokerNews.
A lineup heavier on name recognition will compise the final of Event #30, the $10,000 Limit Hold'em World Championship. Aaron Katz overtook Euro star Rob Hollink late in the session to lead the way to this event's last day, with Andy Bloch, Jerrod Ankenman and Brock "t soprano" Parker also among the finalists.
The day's only new event was the popular (and resource-intensive) Event #31, $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed. Aron Shahar grabbed the Day 1 lead as a 1,102-player field was trimmed all the way down to 73. Shahar can't rest easy, however, with the uber-aggressive Dario Minieri in second place, vacuuming up chips. Others still alive here include Scotty Nguyen, Bill Chen and Max Pescatori.
Two more events will start up on another busy Tuesday at the Rio. The noon starter was Event #32, another of the popular $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em events, which, as always, consumed all available space. At 5pm enough space will have cleared for Event #33, $5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low World Championship, to begin.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Haley Hintze for this article
Aaron Katz, who at times plays in the legendary "Big Game," is the only player going into the final table of the $10,000 limit world championship Event #30 with over a million in chips. But that doesn't mean he will have a walk in the park. The final table is packed with talent and should provide its share of fireworks. Start of Day 2 chip leader J.C. Tran has also made the final, along with WSOP Main Event finalist Andy Block and Dutch powerhouse Rob Hollink. The winner of this illustrious group will win $496,931 and the bracelet along with the title, as this year's WSOP Limit Hold'em World Champion.
The seating assignments, hometowns, and chips stacks for Tuesday's final nine are:
Seat 1: Andy Bloch (Las Vegas, Nevada) -- 370,000
Seat 2: Rob Hollink (Groningen, Netherlands) -- 893,000
Seat 3: Tommy Hang (Seattle, Washington) -- 578,000
Seat 4: Cy Jassinowsky (Johannesburg, South Africa) -- 231,000
Seat 5: Jerrod Ankenman (Avon, Connecticut) -- 441,000
Seat 6: Chris Vitch (San Diego, California) -- 201,000
Seat 7: Brock Parker (Silver Spring, Maryland) -- 166,000
Seat 8: J.C. Tran (Sacramento, California) -- 247,000
Seat 9: Aaron Katz (Seattle, Washington) -- 1,232,000
Day 2 began with 97 players, fewer than half the starting field, and would play down to the final nine. Along the way 70 players finished out of the money, including Huck Seed, Howard Lederer, Todd Brunson, John Hennigan, Erick Lindgren and Greg Mueller. A surprising elimination, just short of cashing, was Day 1 fourth-place finisher Justin Bonomo.
Sometimes it's good to be lucky, but for J.C. Tran, sometimes it's good to be oblivious. J.C. Tran was involved in a three-way hand which had been bet and called down all the way to the turn. When the fourth spade spiked on the river, Tran called an all-in bet and took down the hand with a set of sevens since his opponent had no spade. When some at the table asked Tran why he wasn't worried about the fourth spade he said, it was easy - he didn't realize the river had made a four-flush!
It's a distinction no one wants, and in Event #30, it fell to Tim Kasparoff - bubble boy. Kasparoff had gone all in after Tommy Hang had called from middle position and the two went heads up. This was a classic race situation with Kasparoff holding the under pair, eights, to the overcards of Hang, A-10. The ten on the turn put Hang squarely ahead and left Kasparoff dead to an eight. Sadly for him, no eight on the river meant no cash, and Kasparoff was out in 28th place. Alex Kravchenko was the immediate beneficiary, able to say he cashed in this event, if only in 27th place, for $20,492.
In one of many battles of the heavyweights, a short-stacked Dewey Tomko went all in against Hoyt Corkins. Corkins tabled Q-Hearts 10-Hearts while Tomko showed the powerhouse 8-Spades 5-Diamonds. The flop was decisive,Q-Diamonds 10-Clubs A-Spades, but Tomko had a glimmer of hope after an eight came on the turn. The seven on the river, though, sent Tomko to the rail in 23rd place.
Corkins' surge was short-lived as he went all in against Aaron Katz with Q-Spades Q-Hearts against Katz' 6-Diamonds 5-Hearts. Katz found a dream board of four diamonds to eliminate Corkins in 21st place. Todd Witteles was out soon after. His stack depleted at the hands of Michael Mizrachi, he went in against Chris Vitch for his remaining chips. After an A-J-8 flop, Vitch four-bet to put Witteles all in. Vitch was ahead with A-K to Witteles' J-6. Witteles never improved and departed in 19th place. Tompkins, Corkins and Witteles each took home $20,492.
Michael Mizrachi had more than his fair share of bad luck in back-to-back-to back hands. First, his flopped set was toppled by the turned straight of Jerrod Ankenman. Then his A-K went up against the pocket kings of Cy Jassinowsky and lost. In this final hand, he and Chris Vitch had three-bet before the Q-5-2 flop, then checked. When the four turned, Mizrachi check-raised and Vitch re-reraised. Mizrachi moved all in and was quickly called. Mizrachi knew he was in trouble, "You have a set of queens, right?" Vitch nodded, showing the ladies, and Mizrachi just shook his head as he turned over pocket fours for the lower set. No four on the river and he was out in 15th place with $30,738.
Eric Buchman started the day third in chips but was out just before the final table. After reraising Adam Katz preflop, Buchman got what he thought was a great flop - 10-Clubs 8-Spades 9-Clubs which gave him a set of tens. After a series of bets, raises, and reraises - and some brief confusion about the size of Katz' last bet - Katz announced he was betting blind on the turn to put Buchanan all in. Buchanan called and they turned over their hands, and Buchman saw that Katz was on the flush draw, which hit with the 3-Clubs. Buchanan needed the board to pair on the river, but it blanked and he was out in tenth place with $35,861.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Shari Geller for this article
Hollink Captures the World Championship of Limit Hold'em with a Consistent Final-Table Performance
Rob Hollink came into the final table of the $10,000 limit hold'em world championship second in chips. He rarely dipped below the top three on the leader board during the entire day, and he emerged with his first bracelet thanks to solid, consistent play against some of the best players in the game. Hollink had a large contingent of Dutch supporters who rallied around him during the entire final table, and he rewarded them as well as all of his countrymen by winning the first gold bracelet for the Netherlands.
Here were the chip stacks at the start of play:
Seat 1: Andy Bloch -- 370,000
Seat 2: Rob Hollink -- 893,000
Seat 3: Tommy Hang -- 578,000
Seat 4: Cy Jassinowsky -- 231,000
Seat 5: Jerrod Ankenman -- 441,000
Seat 6: Chris Vitch -- 201,000
Seat 7: Brock Parker -- 166,000
Seat 8: J.C. Tran -- 247,000
Seat 9: Aaron Katz -- 1,232,000
Here are highlights from all of the action:
Chris Vitch Eliminated in Ninth Place ($51,230)
A short-stacked Chris Vitch moved all in for 22,000 and Aaron Katz made the call.
Vitch: Q-Clubs 9-Hearts
Katz: 8-Diamonds 3-Hearts
Board: K-Clubs 7-Clubs 4-Hearts 2-Hearts 8-Spades
Vitch got it in with the best hand and held the lead going to the river, but Katz spiked an eight, closing the lights for Vitch who was eliminated in ninth place ($51,230).
Jerrod Ankenman Triples Up
Rob Hollink raised and Cy Jassinowsky reraised. Jerrod Ankenman reraised all in, and Hollink tanked for a few minutes before completing Ankenman's all in and then capping the bet. Jassinowsky went into the tank himself, he eventually called. The flop came A-Diamonds K-Spades 3-Hearts, and Hollink bet, Jassinowsky folded.
Ankenman: Q-Spades Q-Diamonds
Hollink: 10-Spades 10-Diamonds
Ankenman was in a good spot with queens against tens and the turn and river brought the 9-Diamonds and the 8-Diamonds, giving Ankenman the check mark and allowing him to triple up.
Cy Jassinowsky Eliminated in Eighth Place ($66,599)
Andy Bloch raised from the button and Rob Hollink reraised from the small blind. Tommy Hang made it four bets and Cy Jassinowsky called all in. Bloch folded while Hollink made the call. The flop came K-Clubs 9-Clubs 6-Diamonds, and Hang bet. Hollink folded. Hang and Jassinowsky turned over their cards.
Jassinowsky: A-2
Hollink: Q-Q
The turn and river brought the 5-Spades and the 7-Clubs, no help to Jassinowsky who was eliminated in eighth place ($66,599).
Andy Bloch Eliminated in Seventh Place ($81,968)
Andy Bloch raised all in for 50,000 before the flop and Rob Hollink called.
Bloch: J-Diamonds 3-Hearts
Hollink: 9-Diamonds 8-Diamonds
Board: A-Diamonds 10-Spades 2-Spades 7-Spades 8-Clubs
Bloch led the hand going to the river, where Hollink spiked an eight and paired up. Bloch was eliminated in seventh place ($81,968)
Brock Parker Eliminated in Sixth Place ($102,460)
Brock Parker moved all in preflop for three bets when action got to him and Jerrod Ankenman made the call. Their cards:
Parker: Q-Clubs 8-Clubs
Ankenman: A-Hearts 9-Spades
Board: 10-Spades 5-Hearts 5-Clubs 7-Hearts 4-Spades
Parker was eliminated in sixth place, and he took home $102,460 in prize money.
J.C. Tran Eliminated in Fifth Place ($128,075)
On a flop of Q-Spades 7-Spades 3-Spades Rob Hollink bet and J.C. Tran made the call. The K-Spades fell on the turn and Hollink opened the action for a bet. Tran raised all in and Hollink called him down. The K-Diamonds fell on the river and Hollink flipped over the J-Spades for a flush. Tran mucked his cards and he was eliminated in fifth place, taking home $128,075 in prize money.
Aaron Katz Eliminated in Fourth Place ($158,813)
Jerrod Ankenman raised preflop and Aaron Katz made an all-in call. Hollink also made the call and the two live players checked down a board of A-Diamonds 10-Hearts 4-Clubs 5-Hearts J-Spades. Ankenman flipped over a queen on the end, which was enough to take down the pot against his opponents' meager holdings. Katz was eliminated in fourth place, and he took home $158,813 in prize money.
Tommy Hang Doubles Up
Ankenman raised preflop and Tommy Hang reraised. Ankenman made the call and the flop was dealt A-Diamonds 9-Hearts 3-Spades. Hang bet and Ankenman called. The turn brought the 6-Hearts and Hang check-raised Ankenman's bet. Ankenman reraised and Hang made the all-in call. Hang held A-9 to dominate Ankenman's A-3 and the river brought the 4-Spades. Hang doubled up to survive the hand.
Tommy Hang Doubles Up Again
Tommy Hang and Rob Hollink capped the preflop betting round before the first three cards were dealt J-Clubs 10-Hearts 5-Diamonds. Hang raised Hollink's initial bet on the flop to move all in and Hollink made the call. Hollink held pocket twos, while Hang held A-Clubs K-Spades. The turn was the Q-Clubs, which gave Hang a straight to survive.
Tommy Hang Eliminated in Third Place ($194,674)
Rob Hollink raised preflop and Tommy Hang made the all-in call. Their cards:
Hang: 9-Diamonds 8-Clubs
Hollink: K-Clubs Q-Spades
Board: 8-Spades 7-Spades 3-Diamonds Q-Hearts J-Diamonds
Hang was eliminated in third place, and he took home $194,674 in prize money.
Rob Hollink Wins Event No. 30 ($496,931)
Jerrod Ankenman raised and Rob Hollink reraised preflop. Ankenman made the all-in call and they turned up their hands:
Hollink: A-Clubs 5-Diamonds
Ankenman: 10-Spades 7-Spades
Board: A-Spades 5-Hearts 4-Clubs 3-Hearts Q-Diamonds
Hollink won the hand with aces up and he is the champion of the $10,000 limit hold'em world championship. He was awarded $496,931 and his first gold bracelet. Ankenman was awarded $307,380 for the runner-up finish.
Thanks to cardplayer.com and Ryan Lucchesi for this article
The Razor Takes Down His First Bracelet
After years of coming close and finishing just short, John Phan finally got his gold bracelet. Phan had previously finished runner-up twice before at the World Series of Poker, along with numerous other final table appearances. This time around, he finished the job. But as you will see, Phan didn't have it easy at the final table. With just one card to come and three outs left in the deck, Phan hit his miracle to stay in contention and take the title.
Here were the chip counts heading into the final table:
Seat 1: Sebastian Segovia - 128,500
Seat 2: Alex Bolotin - 534,000
Seat 3: David Singer - 334,000
Seat 4: Thuy Doan - 369,500
Seat 5: John Phan - 396,500
Seat 6: Matt Vengrin - 1,007,500
Seat 7: Stewart Newman - 398,000
Seat 8: Johnny Neckar - 796,000
Seat 9: Tony Dunst - 333,000
Here are highlights from all of the action:
Sebastian Segovia Eliminated in Ninth Place ($39,523)
Sebastian Segovia raised to 49,000 in middle position and John Phan reraised to 150,000 to isolate. All of a sudden, Matt Vengrin reraised to 500,000, and Segovia called. The raise induced a fold from Phan. Segovia showed down A-Spades K-Hearts and Vengrin was slightly ahead with Q-Diamonds Q-Clubs. The board ran out 7-Clubs 6-Diamonds 4-Diamonds 4-Clubs Q-Hearts and Segovia was eliminated in ninth place. Vengrin adds a nice pot to his chip lead.
Tony "MuckTheNuts" Dunst Eliminated in Eighth Place ($54,344)
Tony Dunst moved all in for his last 133,000 and Matt Vengrin made the call in the big blind. Dunst showed K-Hearts K-Diamonds and was up against 9-Clubs 8-Clubs. Dunst held a big lead, but the board came 10-Diamonds 8-Diamonds 7-Diamonds J-Hearts 10-Spades to send him to the rail in eighth place. After the hand, Vengrin was up to 1.5 million in chips.
John Phan Bleeding Chips
Meanwhile, John Phan has been forced to lay down big hands a few times now. The end result is a stack about half as large as he held coming in.
John Phan Doubles Through Johnny Neckar
John Phan was all in with A-Q against Johnny Neckar's pocket sevens. The flop gave Phan a broadway straight and he doubled up to 800,000.
Thuyen Doan Eliminated in Seventh Place ($69,165)
A short stacked Thuyen Doan was all in with pocket sixes against the A-Hearts J-Clubs of John Phan. The board rolled out J-Spades 5-Hearts 3-Clubs A-Spades 4-Diamonds and Doan was eliminated in seventh place.
Johnny Neckar Doubles Through Matt Vengrin
Johnny Neckar was all in with pocket eights against the A-9 of Matt Vengrin. The board bricked out and Neckar doubled up to nearly 700,000.
Stewart Newman Eliminated in Sixth Place ($88,927)
Stewart Newman was all in holding a dominating K-Q to John Phan's K-J, but a jack on the flop reversed the situation. The turn and river were bricks and Newman was eliminated in sixth place.
David Singer Eliminated in Fifth Place ($112,641)
John Phan raised under the gun and David Singer made the call in the big blind. The flop came A-Clubs K-Spades 3-Spades and Phan bet 54,000. Singer moved all in and Phan instantly called, turning over K-Clubs 3-Clubs. Singer was in trouble Q-Hearts J-Diamonds and his miracle ten failed to come on either the turn or river. Singer was eliminated in fifth place.
Alex Bolotin Eliminated in Fourth Place ($137,343)
Alex Bolotin moved all in from under the gun and John Phan instantly made the call. Bolotin revealed pocket nines and Phan had A-Diamonds K-Spades. Phan flopped not just the ace, but also the king and Bolotin was eliminated in fourth place.
Matt Vengrin Eliminated in Third Place ($167,973)
Matt Vengrin's run as the chip leader came to an end when he moved in with A-9 against Johnny Neckar's A-Q. The board improved neither player and Vengrin was sent home in third place.
Heads Up Play Begins
John Phan: 2,271,000
Johnny Neckar: 2,025,000
John Phan Doubles Up With Miracle River Card
After getting chipped down and facing a 2-1 chip deficit, John Phan got it all in against Johnny Neckar. Neckar held K-Diamonds J-Spades, but was dominated preflop by Phan's A-Hearts J-Spades. Unfortunately for Phan, the flop came with a king, and he was now looking for one of the three remaining aces to stay alive. The turn was a brick and the river was the....A-Diamonds! Phan doubled up to 2.7 million and has a 2-1 chip lead.
John Phan Wins Event No. 29 ($434,789)
John Phan raised to 200,000 and Johnny Neckar announces all in. Phan calls and Neckar shows Q-Diamonds J-Diamonds. Phan has A-Hearts 9-Spades and the board brings an ace to end the tournament and give him his first career bracelet. Neckar finished in second place and earned $277,452.
Thanks to cardplayer.com and Julio Rodriguez for this article
Is there any stopping this team? Once again they powered their way to the final table, with M.M. and Clinton0 taking 2nd and 3rd respectively, taking their team to a massive 141,395 points and 25,500 chips already at the live final, nearly double the average....
Next week is a $10,000 freeroll, a gesture by Betfair for previous problems in Dream Team 3. Then it's a 3 week break for WSOP and were back 21st August for the final 6 weeks......
Click here for the leaderboard and schedule
A couple of well-known poker pros added missing pieces to their respective poker résumés on Tuesday at the 2008 World Series of Poker. Both John "The Razor" Phan and Dutch star Rob Hollink claimed their first gold bracelets during the day.
Phan's first bracelet came in Event #29, $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em, where he came from behind to take down the win after negotiating a large starting field. Phan pulled past Day 2 leader Matt Vengrin and survived a lengthy heads-up duel against Johnny Neckar to secure the victory, finally taking down the $434,789 winner's share. Neckar's second-place finish brought him $277,452.
Hollink, meanwhile, claimed the title in Event #30, $10,000 Limit Hold'em, after starting the final day's play in a strong second spot. Hollink overtook early leader Aaron Katz on his way to the win (Katz finished fourth), for a well-earned $496,931 payday. Second place here went to Jerrod Ankenman for $307,380. This event's powerful final also included Andy Bloch, J.C. Tran and Brock Parker.
Only one final table will be contested today, with the lineup for that set during Monday's play. That's Event #31, 2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed, where online star Dario Minieri has made the first WSOP final table of his career. He's done so in fine form, too, amassing 1.72 million in chips, far ahead of second-place Kevin Song's 1.17 million. The other four finalists here are Justin Filtz, John O'Shea, Seth Fischer and Stuart Marshak.
Tuesday also brought the kickoffs to two more events. Event #32, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em, played all the way down from a starting field of 2,304 players to just 166 survivors, including one Phil Hellmuth, Jr., who thereby extended his mark for career WSOP cashes to 65. Up at the top of the pack rests veteran Andy Garza, who finished Day 1 with 169,200 in chips. Behind Garza in the overnight counts are Donny Carlton and Jonathan Jaffe, the latter fresh off his semifinal showing in the $10,000 World Championship Heads-Up event.
Starting later on Tuesday and trimming its field by more than half was Event #33, the $5,000 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo World Championship. Chicagoan Matt Grapenthien finished the day with the lead, but the real work comes today as the tightly bunched field works toward the money bubble and the final eight. In the overnight top ten in chips were Robert Mizrachi, Shawn Sheikhan, Thang Nguyen and Steve Sung, with even bigger names lurking just a bit lower down the board.
Wednesday has two more events scheduled to begin. Starting up at noon was Event #34, the predictably wild $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys. No word yet on the number of entrants? or rebuys? though if history is any indicator this one began with a crazed rebuy period and will offer a well-inflated prize purse once everything is tabulated. Getting underway at 5pm is Event #35, $1,500 Seven Card Stud.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Haley Hintze for this article
WTO Case Has Been Going on Since 2003
Friday is the new deadline for the United States and the island nation of Antigua and Barbuda to come to terms with a World Trade Organization ruling that found the U.S. liable for compensation because of its anti-online-gambling stance.
A WTO panel ruled that Antigua and Barbuda is owed $21 million that will be collected through sanctions against the U.S., most likely by allowing the island nation to produce its own versions of copyrighted goods that are made in the U.S.
The panel found that the U.S. is violating portions of the GATS agreement it signed in 1995 by both trying to stop its citizens from accessing online gambling companies located in Antigua and Barbuda and by prosecuting employees of online gambling companies located there. Lawyers representing Antigua and Barbuda asked the panel to award it $3.4 billion in sanctions.
The two countries were supposed to come to an agreement on exactly what the sanctions would be by June 6, but that date came and went without an agreement. It wouldn't be shocking if Friday's deadline also is missed, since this case has been filled with missed and extended deadlines and stalling tactics by both sides.
The U.S. has faced challenges from several countries that headed Antigua and Barbuda's call to seek sanctions from the U.S. because of its continual attempts at trying to stop its citizens from placing bets through the Internet. These countries, which included Canada, the United Kingdom, and Japan, were allowed to seek damages from the U.S. because U.S. officials decided to amend the portion of the GATS Article XXI that protects online gambling as commerce instead of allowing online gambling within its borders.
By WTO rule, if a country amends articles of the GATS - something that has never been done before but that the U.S. did in this case - member countries not involved in the dispute are entitled to go after the money or services that would be lost as a result of the amendment.
To compensate for the loss, the U.S. came to agreement with every country except Antigua and Barbuda by the end of last year by agreeing to place segments of both the postal and the delivery and warehousing and storage services under the WTO rules umbrella.
Antigua and Barbuda filed this case with the WTO in 2003, three years before the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed. A WTO arbitrary panel sided with Antigua and Barbuda, the smallest member of the WTO, in 2006 after the U.S. exhausted all of its appeals.
Thanks to cardplayer.com and Bob Pajich for this article
Super Dario Dominates Early and then Triumphs over Adversity in Exciting Fashion
Dario Minieri has been close to winning a major tournament title before. He was down to the final three players in the European Poker Tour championhip event in San Remo, Italy back in April, but third place is where he fell. Tonight, Minieri simply dominated the final table of the $2,500 no-limit hold'em six-handed event until things got down to three handed. Both of Minieri's opponents doubled up through him, and it looked like he might fall in third place again. In an exciting turn of events though, Minieri doubled up twice himself as an enthusiastic group of Italians supporters cheered him to victory. Minieri added $528,418 in prize money to his career live tournament winnings - giving him over $1.2 million at a young age. This amount probably pales in comparison to the money Minieri has made online, so it is safe to say that the gold bracelet meant the most of any prize Minieri was awarded this evening.
Here were the chip counts heading into the final table:
Seat 1: Kevin Song -- 1,173,000
Seat 2: Justin Filtz -- 891,000
Seat 3: Dario Minieri -- 1,721,000
Seat 4: Stuart Marshak -- 183,000
Seat 5: John O'Shea -- 589,000
Seat 6: Seth Fischer -- 508,000
Thanks to cardplayer.com and Ryan Lucchesi for this article
$2,500,000 Guaranteed
♠ Grandslam will run a tournament with a mega $2,500,000 guaranteed prize pool!
♠ Buy-In - $1500+$80
♠ Main event will run on September 7th
♠ Satellites will commence on June 11th
Stage 1
♠ Stage 1 Satellite $100 + $9 R/A, Monday, Thursday & Sunday at 19:35, 1 Seat for every $1,580collected, Monday & Thursday - 3 seats guaranteed. Sunday - 6 seats guaranteed!
♠ Ongoing Sit'N'Go stage 2 satellites, 10.9+1 (10 players), 1st place wins a seat in the next available $100+9 Stage 1
♠ Stage 2 satellites, $12+1 R/A, Monday, Thursday & Sunday at 16:25 (Turbo), 1 seat for every $109 collected, to the next available $100+9 stage 1
♠ Stage 2 satellites, $12+1 R/A, Daily at 18:50, 1 seat for every $109 collected, to the next available $100+9 stage 1
♠ Stage 2 satellites, $5+0.5 R/A daily at 20:30, 1 seat for every $109 collected, to the next available $100+9 stage 1
♠ Stage 1 Satellite $160+12 Freezeout, Wednesday at 19:35, 1 seat for every $1,580 collected - 8 seats guaranteed!
♠ Stage 2 satellites, $18+1.5 R/A, daily at 22:00, 1 seat for every $172 collected, to the next available $160+12 stage 1 - 4 seats guaranteed
♠ Stage 1 satellites, $8+0.8 R/A, daily at 13:50, 1 seat for every $172 collected, to the next available $160+12 stage 1 - 3 seats guaranteed
♠ Stage 2 satellites,$18+1.5 R/A, Wednesday at 16:25 (Turbo), 1 seat for every $172
collected, to the next available $160+12 stage 1 - 10 seats guaranteed
♠ Stage 1 satellite $25+2.5 R/A, Tuesday, Friday & Saturday at 19:35, 1 seat for every $1,580 collected, Min 20 players
♠ Ongoing Sit'N'Go '1 hand only' stage 2 satellites $2.75+0.2 to the next available $25+2.5 stage 1
♠ Stage 2 satellites, $3+0.3 R/A, Tuesday, Friday & Saturday at 16:25 (Turbo), to the next available $25+2.5 Stage 1
♠ Stage 2 satellites, $3+0.3 R/A, daily at 18:05 & 21:10, to the next available $25+2.5 Stage 1
Asian Poker Tour Macau
♠ Grandslam will run a super satellite promotion to the APT at the Galaxy StarWorld Casino in Macau, Which runs
on August 26th - August 31st, 2008.
♠ Satellites will start on May 25th
♠ Package Dates - August 26th - September 1st, 2008
♠ Total Package Value - $9,000
♠ The package includes:
- $5,000 + $300 buy-in to the Main Event
- $1,000 for 6 nights' accommodation (Aug 26th - Sep 1st) for qualifiers and their guests at the StarWorld Hotel in Macau.
- Up to $2,700 for flights & spending.
♠ The first prizes are non-refundable, non-transferable and cannot be converted to cash. You must play or forfeit the seat.
Structure A:
♠ Weekly Super Satellites, $300 + $20 Freezeout, Sundays at 20:00 - 2 packages guaranteed!
♠ Minimum number of players in the super satellites is 25.
♠ Ongoing Sit'N'Go satellites to the Super Satellite, $64 + $6, 1 seat for every 5 players.
♠ Stage 1 Satellite $50 + $5 Freezeout, 1 Seat for every $320 collected, Daily except Sunday at 16:50 - 2 seats guaranteed
♠ Stage 2 Satellite $6 + $0.6 R/A, Daily at 12:45 & 20:20, 1 seat for every $55 collected to the next day's 16:50 Stage 1
♠ Stage 1 Satellite $40 +$4 R/A, 1 Seat for every $320 collected, Daily Except Sundays at 18:55 - 3 seats guaranteed
♠ Ongoing Sit'N'Go stage 2 satellites, $4.4 + $0.4, 1 seat for every 10 players, to the 18:55 stage 1
♠ Stage 2 Satellite $5 + $0.5 R/A, Daily at 13:55 & 21:40, 1 Seat for every $44 collected, to the 18:55 Stage 1
♠ Stage 1 Satellite $30+3 Turbo R/A, Sunday at 16:30, 10 seats guaranteed
♠ Stage 2 satellites $4+0.4 Turbo R/A, Sunday at 12:40 (5 seats guaranteed) & 13:30 (10 seats guaranteed), 1 seat for every $33 collected, to the Sunday 16:30 stage 1
Structure B:
♠ Weekly Super Satellites, $50 + $5 R/A, Wednesdays at 20:05 - 2 packages guaranteed!
♠ Minimum number of players in the super satellite is 40.
♠ First Super Satellite on June 4th.
♠ Last Super Satellite on Aug 6th.
♠ Ongoing Sit'N'Go satellites to the super satellite, $5.5 + $0.5, 1 seat for every 10 players
♠ Stage 1 Satellite $6 + $0.6 R/A, 1 Seat for every $55 collected, Daily at 14:35 (Turbo - 8 seats guaranteed), 17:35 (Turbo - 6 seats guaranteed) & 22:40 (Turbo - 6 seats guaranteed)
♠ Ongoing S'N'G stage 2 '1 hand', $1.1 + $0.1, 1 seat for every 6 players, to the same day's 22:40 stage 1
♠ Stage 1 Satellite $6 + $0.6 R/A, 1 Seat for every $55 collected, Wednesday at 16:05 (10 seats guaranteed) & 17:05 (15 seats guaranteed)
Weekly $3,000 GP 3,000 points buy in tournament
♠ Sundays at 16:30
♠ 3,000 points 'buy-in'
♠ Freezeout
♠ Ongoing Turbo Sit 'n' Go satellites, 300 Points 'buy-in' (1 seat for every 10 players)
♠ Ongoing Turbo Sit 'n' Go satellites, 600 Points 'buy-in' (1 seat for every 5 players)
Weekly $2,000 GP 2,000 Points buy in tournament
♠ Saturdays at 20:00 (GMT).
♠ 2000 Points 'buy-in'
♠ Freezeout
♠ Ongoing Turbo Sit 'n' Go satellites, 200 Points 'buy-in' (1 seat for every 10 players)
♠ Ongoing Turbo Sit 'n' Go satellites, 400 Points 'buy-in' (1 seat for every 5 players)
Point tournaments
♠ Daily at 20:30 (Except Saturdays) - $300 Special for a 'buy-in' of 300 Points
♠ Weekly on Saturday at 22:00 - $500 Omaha
Special for a buy-in' of 300 Points
:: Beginner freeroll tournaments
♠ This daily freeroll will help beginners practice and improve their game.
♠ Daily at 11:00 ($50), 16:50 ($100), 22:20 ($50)
♠ Any player who signed up in the last 90 days will automatically be allowed to register to these freerolls.
♠ Min players 50
♠ Max players 1000
:: Fort Knox - Jackpot Sit 'N' Go
The Fort Knox Jackpot Sit 'N' Go is progressive:
The Fort Knox Progressive Jackpot starts at $50,000 and accumulates $10,000 every week until we have a winner. The winner of six consecutive first or second places will receive $750.
If no claim is received Fort Knox Jackpot for next week: $130,000
:: Dirty Dozen - Jackpot Sit 'N' Go
The Dirty Dozen's are two tables - 6 players per table tournaments, with a buy-in of $2 + $0.40. The winner of 4 consecutive DD?s wins a jackpot prize of $2,000.
Rio - Jackpot Sit 'N' Go
The Rio Jackpot Sit 'N' Go is progressive:
The Rio Progressive Jackpot starts at $25,000 and accumulates $10,000 every week until we have a winner. The winner of six consecutive first or second places will receive $300.
If no claim is received Rio Jackpot for next week: $55,000
Maui - Jackpot Sit 'N' Go
The Maui Jackpot Sit 'N' Go is progressive:
The Maui Progressive Jackpot starts at $15,000 and accumulates $3,500 every week until we have a winner. The winner of five consecutive first or second places will receive $200.
If no claim is received Maui Jackpot for next week: $22,000
Monster Tournaments
♠ High Roller Monday Freezeout ($500+$30) at 19:45 - $50,000 GP, 60 players min
o Ongoing SNG feeders - $53+5 (10 players)
o Stage 1 satellites, Mondays at 16:35 ($50+5) R/A, 1 seat for every $530 collected
♠ Wednesday & Thursday at 19:45 - $30,000 GP R/A ($200+$15) - 40 players min
♠ Friday - $300+20 - $30,000 GP Double Stack, Freezeout, at 19:45 (GMT)
o Ongoing SNG feeders - $64+6 - 1 seat for every 5 players
♠ Super Tuesday - $100+9 R/A, $50,000 GP, Tuesdays at 19:45, 100 players min
o Ongoing SNG feeders - $12+1 (10 players), 2nd place wins $11
o Stage 1 satellites, Tuesday at 16:35 (Turbo - $11+1) R/A, 1 seat for every $109 collected
$50,000 Guaranteed Prize tournament
♠ Every Saturday 18:30
♠ $100 + $9 buy-in
♠ Freezeout
♠ Ongoing Sit 'N' Go satellites $10.90 + $1 (10 players) and $21.80 + $2 (5 players)
♠ Ongoing Sit 'N' Go '1 hand', $10.90+$1 (10 players), 1st place wins a seat
♠ Daily Except Sat MTQ at 22:15, $11 + $1, 1 seat for every $109 collected R/A
♠ Daily Except Say MTQ at 16:20, $8 + $0.8, 1 seat for every $109 collected R/A, Min Players 10
♠ $11+1 R/A, Saturday at 14:20 (Turbo) & 15:30 (Speed), 1 seat for every $109 collected.
♠ $22+2 Freezeout, Saturday at 15:55 (Turbo), 1 seat for every $109 collected
♠ Min players 40
Friday $150,000 Guaranteed Prize tournament
♠ $150,000 GP ($50+$5), Unlimited Rebuys and Add-on, Fridays at 19:00
♠ Min Players: 25
Stage 1
♠ Stage 1 Satellite ($5+$0.5) R/A, Monday-Friday at 15:35, 1 Seat for every $55 collected
♠ Stage 1 Satellite ($7+$0.7) R/A, Monday-Thursday at 17:55, 1 Seat for every $55 collected - 12 seats guaranteed
♠ Stage 1 Satellite ($7+$0.7) R/A, Friday at 14:00 (Normal - 75 seats guaranteed), 16:00 (Speed - 60 seats guaranteed), 1 seat for every $55 collected
♠ Ongoing Sit'N' Go Stage 1 Satellites, $11+1 (5 players) & $5.5+0.5 (10 players), 1st place wins a seat
♠ Ongoing '1 hand' Sit'N'Go satellites, $5.5+0.5 (10 players)
Daily 50 Grand - $50 Rebuy
♠ Monday - Thursday at 18:45
♠ $50 + $5 Buy-in R/A
♠ Daily Stage 1 satellites, $5.5+0.5 Turbo R/A at 15:20. 1 seat into same day's main event for every $55 in the prize pool
♠ Ongoing Sit'N'Go satellites, $5.5+0.5 (1 seat for every 10 players)
Sunday's Weekly Freezeout Guaranteed Prize Tournament - $250,000 GP!
Monday-Saturday
Stage 1
♠ Ongoing Sit'N'Go Stage 1 Satellites, ($21.5 + $2), 10 players, 1st place wins a seat
♠ Ongoing Sit'N'Go Stage 1 Satellites, ($43+4) 5 players, 1st place wins a seat
♠ Stage 1 Satellite ($32 + $3) Freezeout, Daily Except Sunday at 21:30, 1 Seat for every $215 collected, 5 seats guaranteed, 15 on Saturday
♠ Stage 1 Satellite ($22 + $2) R/A, Daily Except Sunday at 18:20, 1 Seat for every $215 collected. 3 seats guaranteed, 7 on Saturday
♠ Stage 1 Satellite ($22 + $2) R/A, Daily Except Sunday at 17:00, 1 Seat for every $215 collected.
♠ Stage 1 Satellite ($32 + $3) Freezeout, Daily Except Sunday at 19:20, 1 Seat for every $215 collected, 5 seats guaranteed, 10 on Saturday
♠ Stage 1 Satellite ($21.5+2) Freezeout, Daily Except Sunday at 12:30, 1 Seat for every $215 collected
♠ Stage 1 Satellite ($22 + $2) R/A, Daily at 20:15 (Except Sundays), 1 Seat for every $215 collected, 10 seats guaranteed, 30 on Saturday
Stage 2
♠ Stage 2 Satellite ($5+0.5) Turbo Freezeout, Daily at 16:05, 1 seat for every $35 collected, to the 19:20 stage 1
♠ Ongoing Sit'N'Go Stage 2 Satellite ($7 + $0.7), 5 players, 1st place wins a seat in the 21:30 stage 1
♠ Ongoing Sit'N'Go Stage 2 Satellite ($2.4 + $0.2), 10 players, 1st place wins a seat in the 20:15 Stage 1, 2nd place wins
Sunday - Stage 1
♠ Ongoing Sit'N'Go Stage 1 '1 hand' Satellites, ($21.5 + $2), 10 players, 1st place wins a seat
♠ Stage 1 satellite, $15+1.5 Turbo R/A, 23:10, 00:15, 01:30, 07:00, 08:05, 11:30, 12:30, 13:30 (15 seats guaranteed), 14:25 (15 seats guaranteed) 1 seat for every $215 collected
♠ Stage 1 satellite, $22+2 R/A, 09:00 (5 seats guaranteed), 10:00 (10 seats guaranteed - Turbo), 11:00 (30 seats guaranteed), 13:00 (100 seats guaranteed), 15:00 (50 seats guaranteed - Speed)
♠ Stage 1 satellite, $32+3, 12:00 (15 seats guaranteed) & 14:00 (15 seats guaranteed - Turbo)
Stage 2
♠ Ongoing Sit?N?Go Stage 2 Satellite ($3.5 + $0.3), 10 players, 1st place wins a seat in the 12:00 &
14:00 stage 1
♠ Ongoing Sit?N?Go ?1 hand? stage 2 satellite ($2.4+0.2) 10 players, to the 11:00, 13:00 & 15:00 stage
1
♠ Stage 2 satellite, $3+0.3 Speed R/A, Sunday at 09:45, 1 seat for every $24 collected, to the 13:00
stage 1 (10 seats guaranteed)
If you need any help with creating your own promotions don?t hesitate to cont
The tournament started with 32 players and the bounties were the last week's first and second placed players myself, "pjackson" and John "robinhood" Perrin
It had been suggested in the lead up to the tournament that "Mongoose1" was very unlikely to outlast "robinhood" and he even offered me a £1000 bet on this event. Fortunately for him I am not one to take advantage of someone's delusional beliefs and I declined the offer out of compassion.
As it turned out "Mongoose1" finished 25th, well behind "robinhood", which confirmed his suspected stamina limitations, well known to several females in the Nottingham area.
One interesting pot I limped with KJ and the flop was a rather tasty looking KKJ I wondered how I might get paid and decided a weak looking bet might work so I made a small bet called by "safenath". The turn was a Q so I checked, he bet 100 and I re-raised to 300, hoping to both increase the pot size and appear potentially weak, or at least not as strong as I was. The river was another K to give me quads and so it seemed that if he had a Q or even a J he may well call most bets and anything else would fold to any bet so I thought I may as well bet big so I bet double the pot and after some deliberation he called, apparently with JQ. I do not think you can really knock the call as I had tried to play the hand as if I was making a move and he could very reasonably believe that he was only really losing to the fourth King, which would probably not have been played the way I played the hand.
"Dewicool" seemed particularly attracted to playing with Queens and with blinds at 75/150 managed to find himself involved in a 7500 pot with Q10 on a flop of 568Q against the flopped two pair (85) of "Instigate" he rivered another Q to take the pot. I am not sure how such a big pot can arise with those hands on the turn but I am sure it involved a lot of flair on his part.
The final started at 10pm with "Dewicool" the chip leader (11860) "cgull" the short stack (2541) and average stack of 6400 and blinds at just 100/200.
The two bounties, pjackson" (8731) and "robinhood" (4703) were alive and kicking.
"Dewicool" confirmed his liking for queens when after limping (blinds150/300) he called my raise (A7) to 900 from the big blind obviously feeling that Q2 off suit out of position is a decent spot from which to call a pre-flop raise.
The flop came 772 and he called my small bet of 300. The turn was 4 and he again check called a 600 bet. The river was 2 at which point he bet 3000, I flat raised him to 6000 and he moved all-in for a little extra to set me in.
He failed to appreciate that if the flop is 772 rainbow and an opponent is betting twice and you are calling, it is unthinkable that they could over commit without a 7 or 2 if nothing else because they should, if they have a modicum of intelligence, be concerned, if not convinced that you must have either a 7 or 2. So in this case, assuming he gives me credit for at least a modicum of intelligence, when another 2 hits the river I can only continue and flat raise his large bet if either I have a 2 have a 7 or am a mindless maniac that yuks chips into the pot crosses his fingers and hopes. As it turned out it was the second possibility.
Shortly afterwards, with blinds at 200/400 "Dewicool" raised to 1200 from the small blind and I moved all-in from the big blind. He folded with just 2800 chips left, so presumably he did not have a Queen in his hand and he went out shortly afterwards , somewhat ironically to an opponent holding AQ.
With 5 players left "robinhood" was leading the way (20759) followed by "pjackson" (15740), "CatD10" (13574), "littlemiss" (7186) and "squashrob" (6741). From this point on it was the "robinhood" show as he first knocked out the unlucky "CatD10" hitting a flush with AQ versus the KK of "CatD10" in a 26K pot. He then knocked out "squashrob" in 4th with QQ on a flop of 79J versus the 79 of "squashrob" after a 10 turn and K river for a straight.
I followed (the only one of the last five to take "robinhood" on with the worst hand) with 810 on a flop of Q97 losing to the 10J of "robinhood" that hit a straight on the river. This left "robinhood" with a huge chip lead against "littlemiss" and it was over almost immediately as "littlemiss" was all-in with K9 against the speculative 34 off suit of "robinhood" which hit three of a kind to win the tournament.
Being a good friend of "Mogoose1" it is entirely possible that "littlemiss" is familiar with coming second and for "robinhood" it was a remarkable performance of initial great patience when card dead in the early stages following his second place last week.
This weeks champion is "robinhood"
Thanks to Paul "actionjack" Jackson and DTD Poker for this report
The theme for this week's Hunt The Pro's is 'Beat The Students'.
The bounties are two regular and well known visitors to Dusk Till Dawn, Sam Savile-Barton and Nicholas Marshall. Both students at Nottingham university, they have been making the most of 'end of term' spending every single evening at the club, perfecting their skills.
So if you think you can give these students a run for their money, join us in the DTDPoker lobby on Monday at 8.30pm.
Thanks to DTD Poker
Velador Leads Wire to Wire For His First Bracelet
L.A. cash game pro Jose-Luis Velador came into the final table with a massive chip lead and with relatively ease took out most of his opponents to claim his first WSOP bracelet. Velador had a bit of trouble putting away second place finisher Anthony Signore, but ultimately his big stack prevailed as he took home the nearly $600,000 first place prize.
Here were the chip counts heading into the final table:
Jose Velador - 1,898,000
Dany Georges - 1,202,000
Utsab Saha - 964,000
Jae Chung - 720,000
Anthony Signore - 701,000
Shane Stacey - 653,000
Osmin Dardon - 487,000
Dean Bui - 217,000
Justin Huffman - 150,000
Heads Up Play Begins
Jose Velador - 5.8 million
Anthony Signore - 1.1 million
Anthony Signore Doubles Up
On the short stack Anthony Signore gets it all in with A-Hearts 9-Diamonds against Jose Velador's pocket sevens. The board comes K-Hearts K-Diamonds K-Clubs A-Spades Q-Hearts and Signore doubled to 2.5 million. Velador still holds a 2-1 chip lead with 4.5 million.
Jose Velador Takes It Back
After getting almost even, Anthony Signore made a mistep to give Jose Velador back his monster chip lead. Velador raised to 125,000 and Signore called. The flop came A-Spades J-Clubs 9-Spades and Singore bet 200,000. Velador called and the turn was the 7-Diamonds. This time, Velador bet 400,000 and Signore thought for a bit before calling. The river was the Q-Clubs and Signore bet 600,000. Velador quickly announced all in to take the pot. Signore lost almost 1.4 million on the hand.
Jose Velador Wins Event No. 32 ($573,734)
Anthony Signore moved all in and Jose Velador made the call. Signore showed A-Clubs 6-Clubs but was behind to Velador's A-Diamonds 7-Hearts. The board ran out A-Hearts 10-Diamonds 7-Diamonds 3-Diamonds 6-Hearts and Velador is a new WSOP champion. Anthony Signore finished in second place, earning $366,387.
Thanks to Cardplayer.com and Julio Rodriguez
Although 99.99% of the poker world has migrated over to the City of Sin this month, it doesn't mean that UK poker has gone into hibernation. The second biggest poker tour in the UK anchors down this weekend in Bristol in what could be the best value tournament of the summer. The Great British Poker Tour returns today to the Harbourside Casino in Bristol for its third leg of the £500 deep stack event.
Once again it is two day ones for this main event freeze out that was won last time out by Rupinder 'George' Bedi. £5000 has been added to the prize pool and in addition to that, there are extra prizes for the final table, including:
1st - VIP Package to 2008 GCBPT Grand Final (expenses to cover travel & accommodation)
2nd/3rd - Liverpool GCBPT Festival Main Event Seat (£500+£50)
4th/5th - Free Entry into $150,000 guaranteed 'Big Deal' tournament on galapoker
Last year the Harbourside was the venue for the Grand Final which was won by the in-form Joe Beevers. This time it is a really mouth watering prospect because all the sharks will be in Vegas and this is a really good chance for an unknown player to launch themselves onto the UK stage. Lots of the locals wont know what to do with a 10,000 starting stack and this will be of huge benefit for the winner.
If you are stuck in the UK this summer then it could be the perfect antidote to the WSOP blues. The tour then takes a brief holiday before returning to Liverpool in September.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Barry Carter for this article
Sebastian Ruthenberg came into the final table of Event #33, $5,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low World Championship, as the chip leader after taking down a huge pot at the end of Day 2. He ended the day the same way he began it, atop the field, this time clutching his first World Series of Poker bracelet after beating one of the best players in the world heads-up for the title.
Another star-studded final table greeted spectators at the 2008 WSOP, in what is quickly becoming known as the "Year of the Pro." The eight final-table competitors had six bracelets between them, most of them on the wrists of Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. Ferguson and Marcel Luske were at their second final tables of 2008, while Steve Sung and Ruthenberg had also cashed already in the series. The chip stacks and seating assignments looked like this when play reconvened after the grueling 16-hour Day 2:
Seat 1: Bob Lauria (West Haven, Connecticut) -- 44,000
Seat 2: Marcel Luske (Amsterdam, Holland) -- 308,000
Seat 3: Steve Sung (Torrance, California) -- 207,000
Seat 4: Annie Duke (Los Angeles, California) -- 277,000
Seat 5: Alessio Isaia (Cuneo, Italy) -- 398,000
Seat 6: Sebastian Ruthenberg (Hamburg, Germany) -- 663,000
Seat 7: Chris Ferguson (Pacific Palisades, California) -- 434,000
Seat 8: Bob Beveridge (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) -- 280,000
After taking a few hits early, Bob Beveridge got the last of his chips in the middle in a bit pot with Marcel Luske. When the dust settled, Beveridge held [A-Diamonds K-Spades]6-Hearts 9-Spades 4-Spades 8-Hearts [5-Diamonds] for an 8-6 low, while Luske tabled [2-Hearts A-Hearts] 5-Hearts 5-Spades 7-Hearts 6-Diamonds [8-Diamonds] for a pair of fives and a 7-6 low. Luske scooped the pot while Beveridge headed to the payout line to collect his eighth-place payday of $36,801.
Next, Steve Sung and Annie Duke fired on every street, and Sung got all in on seventh street for what would be his seventh-place exit ($46,001). Duke tabled [A-Diamonds K-Spades] 6-Spades K-Clubs 2-Clubs 2-Clubs 4-Diamonds [3-Clubs] for a pair of kings and a 6-4 low. Sung had a pair of sevens up and mucked his hand when Duke caught her low on seventh to send him to the rail.
Alessio Isaia was all in on fifth street against Sebastian Ruthenberg with a made 8-7 low against Ruthenberg's big draw. Ruthenberg tabled [4-A]-7-5-2, and picked up an ace on sixth street for a better low and a pair of aces. Isaia bricked out and was eliminated in sixth place for $58,268.
Annie Duke got all her chips in the middle with buried tens on third street against Chris Ferguson and Sebastian Ruthenberg. Ruthenberg folded to Ferguson's bet on fourth street, and Ferguson tabled [K-Spades K-Diamonds] J-Spades 7-Spades for buried kings. Duke was in trouble with her [10-Spades 10-Hearts] 5-Hearts 2-Spades, and her hand never improved. Ferguson caught another jack on seventh street to finish with jacks up, and Duke was eliminated in fifth place ($73,602).
The dapper Marcel Luske certainly put on an entertaining show before his exit in fourth place ($95,069). All in for the seventh time, he finally met his demise at the hands of Bob Lauria. All the money went in on sixth street, and Luske showed [A-Clubs 5-Clubs] 10-Spades J-Spades 5-Spades 9-Clubs for a pair of fives with no low draw. Lauria had a made low with [A-Hearts 2-Clubs] 3-Diamonds 8-Clubs 7-Clubs Q-Spades and caught the 7-Hearts on seventh street for the high hand. Luske's 8-Diamonds was no help, and he shook hands around the table on his way to the rail.
Bob Lauria started the final table with the smallest stack by a huge margin, but threaded the needle multiple times to work his way up the ladder to a third-place finish. It seemed as though he would work his all-in magic once again when he and Chris Ferguson got all the chips in the middle with Lauria holding trip eights to Ferguson's pair of kings. Ferguson made two pair, kings and tens on fifth street, and then caught a ten on seventh to fill up and end Lauria's impressive run at third place ($125,737).
With Lauria's elimination, Ferguson took the lead into heads-up play with Sebastian Ruthenberg, as the chip counts looked like this:
Ferguson - 1,600,000
Ruthenberg - 1,150,000
With the split-pot format and the deliberate style of Chris Ferguson, it was no surprise that heads-up play took over three hours to complete. Both players were content to wait for big hands, and the chip lead changed frequently as the players waited for their knockout punch. Finally, Sebastian Ruthenberg strung together three big hands in a row to take the chip lead, and then the title.
With all his chips in the middle for the second time in a short span of hands, Ruthenberg tabled [10-Clubs 6-Clubs] 6-Diamonds 10-Hearts 2-Hearts for two pair. Ferguson was behind with [A-Hearts J-Hearts] 7-Hearts A-Spades 2-Diamonds 5-Hearts, but had nearly two dozen outs to win the title with his aces and a flush draw. Ruthenberg caught one of Ferguson's out on seventh, the A-Diamonds , and Ferguson drew the 9-Diamonds for a brick to double Ruthenberg up. Ruthenberg took the chip lead a few minutes later, and then it was nearly over.
After dwindling down to just a few bets, Chris Ferguson got his last chips in the middle on fifth street with [A-9] 5-Spades A-Diamonds 4-Hearts for a pair of aces. Sebastian Ruthenberg called with [6-2] 7-Clubs 4-Spades Q-Spades, and picked up a pair of fours on sixth street. Ferguson caught a jack, which brought him no help. Ruthenberg caught a seven on seventh street to make two pair, while Ferguson picked up a meaningless 3-Spades to send him home just shy of his sixth bracelet, in second place ($202,406).
Sebastian Ruthenberg picked up his first WSOP bracelet, his biggest career cash (the previous being a third-place finish at EPT Dortmund) for $328,756 and the knowledge that he took down a field of some of the toughest poker players in the world on the way to the bracelet.
Thanks to pokernews.com and John 'Falstaff' Hartness for this article
Saturday at the World Series of Poker continued the trend of the "Year of the Pro" that has marked the 2008 WSOP to date. Except this time it was "Euro Pro" Day amid the greater theme. The day's action began with Event #37, $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low World Championship, which went to David Benyamine, who is generally recognized to be one of the best Omaha players on the planet.
Benyamine's breakthrough first bracelet came in a finale loaded with provable talent, including no less than five former WSOP bracelet winners (Mike Matusow, Tony Ma, David Chiu, Toto Leonidas and Ram Vaswani). Nonetheless, by the time heads-up play was reached it was Benyamine against Greg Jamison, an Iowan looking to put his own mark on WSOP history. Benyamine held a 3:1 margin in chips, then moved onward from there. Benyamine eventually collected the bracelet and the $535,678 in winnings, while Jamison settled for $331,350 in second-place money.
The day's other bracelet went to another European pro, Denmark's Jesper Hougaard, who began the day leading the final table of Event #36, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em, and finished it by striking gold. Hougaard's large-field triumph - this one started with 2,447 players - is the largest title to date for another of Europe's rising stars. For the most part, Hougaard rolled over a final that also included former Main Event final-table player Aaron Kanter, veteran pro John Shipley and Canadian online star Owen "ocrowe" Crowe. Only during heads-up play was Hougaard temporarily reeled in, by eventual runner-up Cody Slaubaugh, before Hougaard reestablished command. Hougaard's win was worth $610,276, while Slaubaugh collected $389,128.
In Event #38, $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em, yet another recognized Euro pro garnered headlines. Veteran German player Jan Von Halle, husband of Team PokerStars player Katja Thater, surged on the day's second event to take the lead into today's final. Stiff competition awaits in what must be considered a packed final table for a $2,000-buyin event; also present here are Full Tilt players Lee Watkinson and Ben Roberts, plus highly regarded pros Chris Bell and Michael Greco. Michael Binger, the Day 1 leader, crashed out just short of the event's finale.
Another huge turnout was on hand for the noon kickoff of Event #39, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. 2,720 players occupied every available seat in the Rio complex, including overflow areas in the Rio's main-casino poker room and a spot near Buzio's Restaurant only a short bit closer. By night's end the need for the tables had dissipated; the 2,720 had become just 218, all of whom will return for Day 2 play, safely int the money. Michael Polcari holds the overnight lead in a field that still contains many big names, including Barry Greenstein, Kenna James and Humberto Brenes.
Two new events begin today at the Rio. Kicking off promptly at noon was Event #40, $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball, while, the 5pm starter is Event #41, $1,500 Mixed Hold'em, which features alternating 30-minute stretches of fixed-limit and no-limit hold'em play.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Haley Hintze for this article
Ram Vaswani led 18 remaining players into Day 2 of the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low World Championship. In this star-studded field, it was not surprising that this event's eventual final table played host to five former WSOP bracelet winners. What may have been surprising to some, however, is that up until now, David Benyamine was not among them. A fixture in high-stakes games with two prior WSOP final-table appearances just this year, Benyamine battled against savvy veterans and Omaha hi/lo specialists to finally claim his first WSOP bracelet and $535,678 in prize money.
Day 3 Starting Chip Counts:
Table 14
1 Danny Dang 257,000
2 Stuart Paterson 96,000
3 Eugene Katchalov 252,000
4 Chau Giang 384,000
5 Shun Uchida 134,000
6 Pat Pezzin 65,000
7 David Benyamine 378,000
8 Ram Vaswani 569,000
9 Toto Leonidas 269,000
Table 15
1 Brent Carter 114,000
2 Jason Gray 347,000
3 Berry Johnston 338,000
4 Mike Matusow 396,000
5 David Chiu 372,000
6 Greg Jamison 208,000
7 Hieu "Tony" Ma 319,000
8 Ray Dehkharghani 149,000
9 William McMahan 76,000
It would only take 20 minutes before the 18-player field suffered its first elimination of the day. All of Ray Dehkharghani's money went in on a 10-6-5 flop in a confrontation with Tony Ma. It looked like we were headed for a chopped pot with Dehkharghani potentially taking the high with A-A-7-5 and Ma having the best low draw with A-K-8-4. But Ma ended up scooping the pot when a seven on the river filled his gutshot draw. Dehkharghani finished in 18th place. Only moments later, Ma would claim another victim when a 2-Hearts on the river bumped William McMahon's nut low draw to a second best and simultaneously delivered a flush to Ma. William McMahon finished in 17th place.
Brent Carter got all his chips in on an A-9-3 flop with the best of it; Carter had A-Q-8-8 to Jason Gray's 9-7-7-2. But the board followed with another three and another nine to give Gray trips and give Carter a 16th-place finish. Stuart Paterson started the day as the third lowest chip stack. Paterson put all his chips in play in a four-way pot only to come up empty, finishing in 15th place. And it was a cruel river that ended the day for Pat Pezzin. Pezzin, who started as the day's short stack, got all his chips in with K-K-10-2 against Shun Uchida's A-Q-8-2. Through the turn, the board cooperated with 4-4-J-J, but an ace on the river sent Pat Pezzin home in 14th place.
David Benyamine took the lead for the first time in the day after lifting two large pots off Ram Vaswani. But as Benyamine's fortunes were rising, Danny Dang was heading for the door. All the money was in on the turn with the board showing 2-K-3-4. Mike Matusow flipped over A-3-5-5 for the wheel and Dang was on his way to collect his 13th-place payout before the final four hit on the river.
Chau Giang had a tortuous day, getting chopped and quartered at every turn. Giang got all his money in on a turn with a low draw and a made flush. Unfortunately the low never got there, and Toto Leonidas had a higher flush. Giang finished in 12th place. A high-only board was good for David Benyamine's K-K-x-x, but it ended Shun Uchida's day when his A-Q-7-2 couldn't connect. Uchida finished in 11th place.
1986 WSOP Champion Berry Johnston fought off the final table bubble for as long as he could, but finally succumbed soon after a stack-crippling hand against David Benyamine. Johnston put his remaining stack on A-K-Q-8 to Ram Vaswani's 2-3-4-4. Vaswani caught a six-high straight and the wheel on the board of 6-6-5-A-3 to eliminate Johnston in 10th place.
With Johnston's elimination, the final table was set:
Seat 1: Hieu 'Tony' Ma (South El Monte, CA) - 310,000
Seat 2: Jason Gray (Sydney, Austrailia) - 590,000
Seat 3: Ram Vaswani (London, England) - 175,000
Seat 4: Toto Leonidas (Glendale, CA) 720,000
Seat 5: David Chiu (Roland Heights, CA) - 730,000
Seat 6: Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow (Las Vegas, NV) - 195,000
Seat 7: David Benyamine (Paris, NV) - 1,200,000
Seat 8: Greg Jamison (Cedar Falls, IA) - 450,000
Seat 9: Eugene Katchalov (Brooklyn, NY) - 300,000
Mike Matusow took a hit right before Johnston's elimination, but entering the final table as one of the short stacks didn't seen to interfere with Matusow's trademark bravado. "I'm right in the spot I wanna be. Whatever you do, don't let me get chips!" The table must not have been listening, because Matusow was able to more than triple up in one of the first hands of the final table.
Tony Ma was not as fortunate in the early going, however, losing by just pips for both the high and low. Ma got all his money in on the 10-Hearts 7-Hearts 4-Hearts 3-Hearts turn holding the 8-Hearts 5-Hearts 4-Clubs 3-Diamonds for the flush. But Toto Leonidas had the A-Spades 9-Hearts 8-Diamonds 2-Hearts to outflush him by a nose. Ma thought the A-Clubs on the river might have saved him for the low, but his 7-5 low just missed against Leonidas' 7-4. Hieu 'Tony' Ma finished in ninth place for $55,225.
After the dinner break, David Chiu got all his chips in with 3-4-5-5 against Greg Jamison's K-K-A-10, but the board broke high. Jamison ended up with a Broadway straight and David Chiu ended up in eighth place for $71,792. Ram Vaswani started the day as chip leader, but taking two big hits early in the day, was never able to find much traction. Vaswani eventually entered the final table as the shortest stack. Vaswani pushed his last chips in with Q-Q-6-6 against Greg Jamison's A-2-7-8. The board ran out A-8-7-4-2 and Ram Vaswani finished in seventh place for $88,360.
Although Eugene Katchalov has won a WPT title, taking down the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Classic late last year, this was his first WSOP final-table appearance. After getting quartered in a hand against Greg Jamison, Katchalov put his last chips up against Jason Gray. But Gray hit two pair and the nut low, which was good enough for the scoop, and Eugene Katchalov finished in sixth place for $110,450.
If there had been a constant in this event, it was the sound of Mike Matusow's voice. Matusow's stack, however, was almost never a constant, vacillating wildly throughout the event. Matusow's wild ride finally ended when he pushed his short stack in on a A-K-8 flop against Toto Leonidas. Leonidas had the advantage with top two pair holding A-K-7-6, but Matusow had a better low draw with A-Q-6-3. The jack on the turn gave Matusow a few more outs to a gutshot, but the board paired an eight on the river. The final table got measurably quieter after Matusow finished in fifth place for $138,062.
In a huge hand, Jason Gray doubled through Toto Leonidas. Leonidas had the edge through the turn with top pair and nut low, but Gray rivered a wheel and Leonidas was left with only enough chips to pay for his next big blind. Leonidas hit a Broadway straight with his A-2-5-J, but it wasn't good enough to beat David Benyamine's flush. Toto Leonidas finished in fourth place for $171,197.
Jason Gray was unable to hold onto his stack, however, as David Benyamine would take most of it with a rivered full house in a hand bet all the way down. Benyamine would subsequently come back and finish the job. All the chips went in on the K-Diamonds J-Diamonds 8-Hearts flop with Gray holding A-Diamonds 2-Diamonds 3-Hearts Q-Hearts for the nut flush draw and a Broadway gutshot. Benyamine was in the lead, however, with J-Spades 10-Hearts 10-Diamonds 9-Clubs. The 2-Spades turn gave Gray a low draw, but the J-Clubs sealed the hand for Benyamine. Jason Gray finished in third place for $209,855.
David Benyamine had a 3-to-1 chip advantage over Greg Jamison when heads-up play began and quickly widened the margin. Down to his last 180,000, Jamison survived by hitting two hands back-to-back, hitting sets on the flop in both hands. But in the final hand, it would be Benyamine's turn to flop a set. All the money went in pre-flop
Jamison: K-Hearts Q-Hearts 6-Diamonds 2-Spades
Benyamine: Q-Clubs 10-CLubs 10-Hearts 3-Hearts
The flop came J-Spades 10-Diamonds 9-Spades giving Jamison the lead with the nut straight to Benyamine's set. But the J-Hearts on the turn gave Benyamine the full house, and Greg Jamison was drawing dead. This was Jamison's second final table at this year's WSOP and third career WSOP cash, all in Omaha hi/lo. Jamison received $331,350 for his second-place finish.
Benyamine was obviously overjoyed at winning his first WSOP bracelet. But when he was asked whether he felt vindicated after finally scoring a bracelet win, Benyamine replied, "Winning is always important to me. But I never thought I had anything to prove."
Thanks to pokernews.com and Amy Calistri for this article
The final table of Event #38, $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em, served up a lineup of solid pros, even if it lacked the presence of any of the game's very biggest stars. Nonetheless, this final offered plenty of skill, and Belgian Davidi Kitai ended up claiming the bracelet. Previously, Kitai had only two prior WSOP cashes, a 147th-place finish in a $1,500 NLHE event this year, and a 404th-place finish in the Main Event last year. He can now add WSOP bracelet winner to his list of poker accomplishments, and it was a hard-fought win. During heads-up play Kitai faced North Carolina's own Chris Bell, who had seven prior WSOP cashes and nine WPT cashes to his name. They dueled for more than five hours before Kitai secured his victory. For winning, he takes home $244,546 and the gold bracelet.
Going into the final table, here were the chip counts:
Seat 1: Davidi Kitai (Belgium) -- 274,000
Seat 2: Ben Roberts (London, England) -- 82,000
Seat 3: Ayaz Mahmood (Houston, Texas) -- 314,000
Seat 4: Michael Greco (London, England) -- 120,000
Seat 5: Chris Bell (Raleigh, North Carolina) -- 260,000
Seat 6: Jan Von Halle (Hamburg, Germany) -- 485,000
Seat 7: Robert Cheung (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) -- 352,000
Seat 8: Keith Greer (Fort Worth, Texas) -- 238,000
Seat 9: Lee Watkinson (Cheney, Washington) - 357,000
Michael Greco was out first when he had the bad luck of picking up the second best starting hand. With action folding around to him, Greco made it 40,000 to play; when it reached Chris Bell, he reraised 100,000 more. Greco pushed all in and tabled K-Hearts K-Diamonds. To his dismay, he saw Bell turn over A-Clubs A-Diamonds and he was on the ropes. The board ran out 10-Spades 7-Clubs 5-Diamonds 10-Clubs 8-Spades, leaving Bell's aces ahead. Greco was out in ninth place with $22,573.
Fellow Brit "Gentleman" Ben Roberts was next out. Despite starting the day with the fewest chips, Roberts, who came in sixth in the 1998 WSOP Main Event, was always a threat. He had in fact doubled up early, at the expense of his countryman, aces up over Greco's no pair (Greco's cards were so bad, he actually ended up playing the board). But that was to be Roberts' last winning hand. Just five hands after Greco was eliminated, Roberts was all in against Robert Cheung. Roberts had a coin flip with 7-Hearts 7-Spades against K-Diamonds J-Diamonds of Cheung, and avoided trouble on the 5-Spades 8-Clubs 5-Hearts flop, but the turn came a disastrous J-Clubs. No seven on the river and Roberts was eliminated in eighth place with $30,831.
Ayaz Mahmood came into the final having cashed at the WSOP every year since 2004, for a total of 15 cashes in all. His hopes of adding his first bracelet to that record were dashed shortly after he lost a big pot to Chris Bell, ace-high against a pair of sixes. Mahmood had only won one small pot to that point, plus taking a few blinds uncontested, but he was down from his starting stack of 314,000 to under 100,000 chips when he put it all in against Chris Bell after a 3-Clubs J-Hearts Q-Diamonds flop. Each had a piece of the flop; Mahmood showed J-Clubs 9-Hearts for middle pair, but Bell revealed Q-Clubs 4-Spades for top pair. The turn and river changed nothing and Mahmood was out in seventh place, taking home $39,089.
WSOP bracelet winner Robert Cheung would not win a second bracelet this day. Cheung had knocked out Roberts but had also been pushed out of large pots by Lee Watkinson and Kitai - and low on chips, he went all in against Bell preflop, with 9-Spades 9-Diamonds to Bell's A-Clubs K-Diamonds. Cheung stayed ahead on the 5-Diamonds Q-Hearts 7-Diamonds flop but the turn and river came 10-Hearts J-Spades to give Bell a runner-runner Broadway straight. Cheung departed in sixth, cashing $50,100, his second cash of this Series.
Lee Watkinson dominated most of Day 1 and had come on strong by the end of Day 2 to be a serious contender for his second WSOP bracelet. But after a damaging battle against Kitai, and a coup de gras from Bell, he was out. First, Kitai had led out for 60,000 from the big blind and Watkinson called. The flop brought 4-Hearts 7-Spades 3-Diamonds; then the fireworks started. Watkinson bet pot, Kitai shoved all in, and Watkinson called. Watkinson tabled K-Diamonds 6-Clubs for a gutshot straight draw and an overcard. Kitai showed 7-Diamonds 5-Clubs for his own inside straight draw and top pair. The turn was the 6-Spades, making Kitai's straight. Watkinson needed a five for a chop, but the river was an ace. Severely short-stacked, Watkinson pushed when he found an ace, and Bell called. Watkinson trailed with A-Diamonds 4-Spades to Bell's A-Hearts 6-Hearts. The 8-Hearts J-Clubs Q-Clubs flop offered chances of a chop, but the 2-Hearts turn and 9-Hearts river gave Bell his fourth final-table knockout. Watkinson left in fifth place, with $63,313.
In two monster pots against Davidi Kitai, Jan Von Halle went from first place going into the final table to out in fourth place. In their first tussle, Kitai raised to 70,000 preflop and Von Halle called, and they then checked a flop of 10-Diamonds 3-Hearts K-Clubs. On the 4-Diamonds turn, Von Halle led out for 60,000 and Kitai called. After the K-Diamonds river, Von Halle checked and Kitai bet 100,000. Von Halle paused, then called and Kitai flipped over A-Diamonds J-Diamonds for a rivered flush. In their next hand, it was again raised preflop by Kitai and Von Halle called, with both checking the flop. After the turn the board showed 6-Spades A-Hearts 7-Diamonds Q-Diamonds. Von Halle bet the pot, 162,000 and Kitai called all in. Kitai had A-Diamonds 4-Hearts for top pair, and Von Halle showed Q-Spades 10-Diamonds for a lesser pair. The river, 8-Diamonds, blanked and Von Halle was out with his best WSOP finish - fourth place - but not the win he desired. He took home $77,077.
The very next hand, #100, saw another departure, as Bell dispatched another opponent, Keith Greer. Bell raised preflop and Greer came over the top. Bell re-reraised and Greer called all-in, and saw that his pocket jacks were dominated by Bell's two queens. The board was no help, 8-Spades 9-Diamonds K-Spades 3-Diamonds 3-Hearts, and Greer was out in third place, with his second WSOP cash and $94,695.
Bell started heads-up play with 1,425,000 chips to Davidi Kitai's 997,000. But what could have been a quick knockout instead turned into a marathon slugfest. Finally, in Hand #240, the tug-of-war shifted. After a preflop raise, the flop came 2-Diamonds 3-Spades Q-Clubs. Kitai bet 125,000, Bell raised to 350,000 and Kitai called. The turn was the 4-Diamonds, Kitai checked, Bell bet and Kitai immediately moved all in. Bell called. Kitai turned over Q-Q for the set; Bell tried to muck his K-8 but was forced to show. The river was irrelevant and Bell was down to just 250,000, almost a 10:1 chip disadvantage.
Still, Bell held on for another 50 hands before succumbing. Down to 220,000, he called Kitai's all-in raise, but trailed with A-Spades J-Diamonds to Kitai's A-Diamonds Q-Spades. The board ran out with blanks and left Kitai's A-Q good. Bell, as the runner-up, went home with $155,806, and Davidi Kitai, the Belgian pro, claimed his first bracelet and $244,546.
Thanks to pokernews.com and Shari Geller for this article