Pius Heinz is WSOP Champion!

Congratulations to Pius Heinz on becoming WSOP Main Event champion.

You can read the PokerNews interview with him here.

Pius picked up $8,715,638 for his win.

2011 WSOP Main Event November Nine Profiles

Quick profiles on this years November Nine:

Seat 1: Matt Giannetti

From: Las Vegas, NV
Chips: 24,750,000
Pro?: Yes
WSOP Cashes: 11
WSOP Final Tables: 1
WSOP Bracelets: 0

Seat 2: Badih Bou-Nahra

From: Belize
Chips: 19,700,000
Pro?: No
WSOP Cashes: 1
WSOP Final Tables: 0
WSOP Bracelets: 0

Seat 3: Eoghan O’Dea

From: Dublin, Ireland
Chips: 33,925,000
Pro?: Yes
WSOP Cashes: 5
WSOP Final Tables: 0
WSOP Bracelets: 0

Seat 4: Phil Collins

From: Las Vegas, NV
Chips: 23,875,000
Pro?: Yes
WSOP Cashes: 8
WSOP Final Tables: 0
WSOP Bracelets: 0

Seat 5: Anton Makiievskyi

From: Ukraine
Chips: 13,825,000
Pro?: No
WSOP Cashes: 0
WSOP Final Tables: 0
WSOP Bracelets: 0

Seat 6: Sam Holden

From: UK
Chips: 12,375,000
Pro?: Yes
WSOP Cashes: 0
WSOP Final Tables: 0
WSOP Bracelets: 0

Seat 7: Pius Heinz

From: Cologne, Germany
Chips: 16,425,000
Pro?: Yes/Student
WSOP Cashes: 1
WSOP Final Tables: 1
WSOP Bracelets: 0

Seat 8: Ben Lamb

From: Tulsa, OK
Chips: 20,875,000
Pro?: Yes
WSOP Cashes: 12
WSOP Final Tables: 3
WSOP Bracelets: 1

Seat 9: Martin Staszko

From: Czech Republic
Chips: 40,175,000
Pro?: Yes
WSOP Cashes: 4
WSOP Final Tables: 0
WSOP Bracelets: 0

WSOP Main Event Day 8 - The November Nine

6,865 men and women entered the 2011 WSOP Main Event over four starting days with just $10,000 and a dream. That dream was to make the November Nine and come back to the Rio in a few months to play for the bracelet.

Nine men (and sadly no women) have now made that dream a reality:

Seat 1: Matt Giannetti (24,750,000)

Seat 2: Badih Bounahra (19,700,000)

Seat 3: Eoghan O'Dea (33,925,000)

Seat 4: Phil Collins (23,875,000)
Seat 5: Anton Makiievskyi (13,825,000)

Seat 6: Samuel Holden (12,375,000)
Seat 7: Pius Heinz (16,425,000)

Seat 8: Ben Lamb (20,875,000)

Seat 9: Martin Staszko (40,175,000)

Blinds start at 250,000-500,000, 50,000 ante when players return.

Photo from wsop.com
Eliminations were at a fast pace in the early going on day 8 as we lost Chris Moore, Aleksandr Mozhnyakov and Gionni Demers to get down to two tables. 29 year old professional and well known online player Bryan Devonshire busted in 12th, much to the dismay of the forums.

John Hewitt was the player with the unwanted achievement of making the final table but not the November Nine, as he busted in 10th after shoving 33 into the KJ of O'Dea, who promptly turned a straight to end play and set the November Nine.

Each of the remaining players are now guaranteed at least the $782,115 for ninth place. Everyone who makes it past that point will make at least a million dollars with $8.7m up top for the winner:

1st: $8,711,956
2nd: $5,430,928
3rd: $4,019,635
4th: $3,011,661
5th: $2,268,909
6th: $1,720,396
7th: $1,313,851
8th: $1,009,910
9th: $782,115

Sam Holden is our last remaining Brit at a very international final table. When you consider the percentage of players who play in the WSOP that are American, only three have managed to make the November Nine. There is one player from the Czech Republic, one Irishman, one player from Belize, one from the Ukraine, one from the UK and one from Germany.

The average age at the final table is just 28, and that's bumped up significantly by 49 year old Badih Bounahra who is, not surprisingly, the first player from Belize to make a Main Event final table.

It's the toughest final table lineup for a few years. Even though we have no Ivey or Grinder, there isn't really any weak spots, everyone seems at least somewhat competent and while there will clearly be favourites, I'd be interested to see the lines set, I think it could be quite close to chip counts.

That's nealry it from me this WSOP until November, but I'll probably do a November Nine profile at some point over the next couple of days.

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WSOP Main Event Day 7

Day 7 didn't play down to 27 as I'd previously thought as just 22 remained when play stopped. The top 5 going into day 8 line up as follows:

Anton Makievskyi - 21m
Eoghan O'Dea - 19m
Khoa Nguyen - 16.4m
Andrey Pateychuk - 16.2m
Ben Lamb - 14.7m

There is now only one Brit left in the field, Sam Holden is left flying the flag for our humble nation and is currently nursing a short stack of 6m.

Ukranian Makievskyi, who really isn't helping the announcers with his name, is sitting on top of the chip counts due in large part to the 20m chip pot he played after flopping a full house against Chris Moore's trips. The money went in on the flop and Makievskyi took down the huge pot, eliminating Moore in the process.

WSOP Main Event golden couple David "Doc" Sands and Erika Moutinho busted within a few hands of eachother. It's always good to be around people who know how it feels to bust the main event when you get knocked out yourself, but that must be one sad hotel room right now.

Also hitting the rail on day 7 were JP Kelly, Erick Lindgren, David Bach and the remarkable Andrew Brokos (known as Foucault online) who busted in 53rd this year, 87th in 2010 and 35th in 2008. That's a truly impressive run from someone who clearly has playing against the type of players in the WSOP Main Event nailed.

Day 8 is underway and it won't be long now until we know who our November Nine are as we're playing down to the final table today. There have been some early eliminations and Makievskyi has now amassed a huge stack of 33m, 10m more than current second place in chips, Irishman Eoghan O'Dea.

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WSOP Main Event Day 6

Chips flew, shorties doubled, big stacks blew up and players hit the rail at an alarming pace. When it was all said and done, day 6 of the 2011 WSOP Main Event had 85 casualties, 85 ruined dreams and 85 long, long walks down the corridors of the Rio.

Our top 5 chip leaders at the end of day 6 look like this:

Ryan Lenaghan 12.8m
Ben Lamb 9.98m
Matt Giannetti - 8m
Andrey Pateychuk - 7.2m
Phil Collins - 7.2m

The chip lead changed hands throughout the day but Lenaghan amassed a huge stack of nearly 13 million to take the biggest stack into day 7.

The field will play down to the final 3 tables today to give us our final 27.

2010 November Niner Joseph Cheong is gone, as are the popular Jean-Robert Bellande, Eli Elezra and all but one of the remaining women. There are some notable names among the remaining players though as Erick Lindgren, Sebastian Ruthenberg and Bryan Devonshire all made day 7.

The last woman standing is always the focus of some attention and there is usually a boyfriend or husband looking out for her on the rail. Erika Moutinho however has boyfriend David Sands on her table for company. Both players are alive going into day 7 and spent the last level of day at the feature table together.

Day 7 is now underway and the 57 remaining players are all now guaranteed $130,000 for their efforts. PokerStars players Andrew Brokos and Sebastian Ruthenberg have both busted in early play but you can see live updates at Pokernews and follow live coverage over at ESPN.

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WSOP Main Event Day 5

Day 5 of the 2011 WSOP Main Event is in the books and it was a lively one with just over 140 players remaining from the 378 that started.

David Bach currently tops the leaderboard with over 4.7m in chips, closely followed by Pius Heinz and Kyle Johnson. Ben Lamb looks almost certain to wrestle the WSOP POY title from Phil Helmuth as he sits 5th in chips with over 4m. WSOPE counts towards POY so there is still a way to go, but I doubt anyone will be forgetting Lamb's name in a hurry regardless.

Three women managed to last the day and hopefully we'll see at least one go on a deep run. Of the three Bodog pro Amanda Musumeci is the most experianced with some solid online results and three cashes this WSOP.

Our day 4 chip leader Viswanathan failed to last the day after losing his 2m chip stack some time in the third level. Max Heinzelmann also busted after getting it in preflop with AA and losing, one would imagine much to the delight of one Shaun Deeb...

There are a host of big names still alive:

Sebastian Ruthenberg - 3.3m
Joseph Cheong - 2m
Jean-Robert Bellande - 1.2m (starting to wonder how long the line at the cage will be if he goes much deeper)
JP Kelly - 2.6m

Day 6 begins with 142 players set on lasting another day. Five levels are scheduled but there are rumours that number could be reduced to four





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WSOP Main Event Day 4

Manoj Viswanathan ended day 4 above the 2 million chip barrier and was the only one to do so as the main event field burst the bubble to get to the money.

Our top 5 chip stacks line up as follows:

Manoj Viswanathan - 2.12m
Sam Barnhart - 1.93m
Pius Heinz - 1.89
Stephane Albertini - 1.87m
Daryl Jace 1.85m

378 players lasted the day and will be back for day 5. Among them are a host of notable pros including Kevin Saul, Eli Elezra, Jean-Robert Bellande, JP Kelly, and Erick Lindgren.

The 2011 WSOP Main Event bubble boy was Reza Kashani. After less than an hour of hand-for-hand play 2010 November Niner Joseph Cheong busted Kashani to send him to the rail empty handed. The actual bubble boy is never the one who misses out these days however, as Kashani was given a 2012 Main Event seat, so Dylan Linde is the poor guy who really goes away empty handed.

The remaining 693 players were all now guaranteed the $19,359 min-cash and the chips started to fly. Huge pots appeared all across the Rio and when the dust settled 378 players were able to last the day and maybe, just maybe, start to dream about coming back in November.

Day 5 is now underway and anyone looking at the biggest stacks will reconise a player who's managed to amass a huge stack of over 2 million: Max Heinzelmann - I can only assume he's using his image from what has to be one of the moet talked about hands of the WSOP Main Event so far.


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WSOP Main Event Day 3 - Heinzelmann 6-bets Deeb

1,864 players made their way back to the felt for day 3 of the WSOP main event looking to build their stacks and last the day. The field was combined from day 2a and 2b so everyone was playing together for the first time.

Patrick Poirier emerged as the chip leader for the day with a hefty 1.3 million in chips. There were some other notables making in to day 4 with a big stack, including Peter Jetten (650k) and Sebastian Ruthenberg (890k).

The hand discussed in everyones wrap up of the day involved Shaun Deeb and Max Heinzelmann. Deeb is well known for his online results and 21 year old German pro Heinzelmann (also known by online name HotKarlMC) shot to poker fame after back to back second place finishes in the EPT earlier this year in Berlin and San Remo.

It's fitting then that the hand should be 6-bet preflop and the only real surprise is that somebody actually had AA. Deeb tabled the nuts and Heinzelmann rolled over the powerhouse that is A6. With the ESPN cameras rolling the flop was T6K giving Heinzelmann a little hope, the Q on the turn produced more outs to the chop and the 6 on the river game him the pot and all but busted Deeb.

I'll leave the commentary to others, but that is a truly fearless move. Playing that style and with that mindset only really comes to young guys with recent success who are on the top of their game.

Overall reports suggest that pokers big day on the small screen was well received. Lots of people on Twitter were positive about the action and what was covered by ESPN. It's a big year for poker and we could all do with a big story this summer.

The remaining 850 or so players return for day 4 with one thing on their mind: the bubble. Some will be pushing the smaller stacks hard, some will be holding on for the min cash - lets hope for another fast paced and entertaining day!

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WSOP Main Event Day 2

2,031 players started day 2a and 2,490 started day 2b. Around 1,900 players made it to day 3 where the two remaining flights will combine and everyone in the main event will be playing at the same time for the fist time.

Aleksandr Mozhnyakov was the day 2a chipleader with a little under 480k and who else but Ben Lamb is heading up the remainder of the field from 2b with over 550k in chips. Usually there is some over the top guy with a huge stack in the early days who ends up donking it off it day 4 or 5, but this is Ben Lamb - you have to think he's going to know how to put that stacks to good use, especially when things get tighter towards the money. Kevin Saul (BelowAbove, can't be bothered with all the zero's and stuff) also finished day 2b with a huge stack of just over 540k, and again, he's a force when he has an average stack let alone several times the average. Patrik Antonius is another notable who made day 3 with a healthy stack, he has over 360k.

As always there are stacks of amateur players left in the field and while deep runs for well known pros certainly look hopeful, I'm sure we can expect another Darvin Moon to take the chip lead at some point.

Wednesday is a break for the WSOP so the action continues on Thursday with day 3.


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Subject: Poker

I just thought I'd take the time to bring a great site to people's attention. Subject: Poker is a poker news site I heard about a while back on the 2 + 2 pokercast and hadn't got around to exploring until now.

I won't take too much away from their about page but basically the concept is “Poker news done right.”. No adverts, no sponsorship, no agenda.

They strive to bring you news from the poker world independent of an outside interests, advertisements or other influences. Unfortunately most poker news sites are dependant on advertising revenue which generally comes from online poker sites or other organisations with an interest in what's being reported. This obviously has an impact on the viewpoint of that site and the way the report news. It would be difficult to report on the UB scandal if they were paying the bills that allow you to run your site and pay your staff.

The project is run by Noah Stephens-Davidowitz who is thankfully known by the easier to pronounce NoahSD on 2 + 2 along with a team of writers including Isaac Haxton and Aaron Wilt.

I'll leave it up to you to decide of it's a good idea (finances might be an issue, I have noticed a 'donate' button appear on the site already) but I honestly think it's a fair crack at bringing some objective and unbiased news into the poker world.

The have some great stuff on what's happening over at FTP at the moment and that's exactly the type of thing you'll be able to trust them on. Go check it out.

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WSOP Day 2a - Helmuth Nearly Blinds Down in WSOP Main Event

Not content with narrowly missing out on three bracelets in this years WSOP, Phil Helmuth tried to miss a whole day of a tournament. It looks like Hellmuth simply didn't realise that he was playing day 2a of the WSOP Main Event and was blinding down.

Twitter is great for the 'live as it happens, from the people who are doing it' approach to news, and this is a great example:

Mike Matusow

'@phil_hellmuth is such a idiot hes getting blinded off has 5k left has his phoneoff and a do not disturb on his phone at hotel'

'sorry @phil_hellmuth that you4 wsop comes to a nd this way i even got them to ring inside your room wtih a do not disturb on it'

Phil Hellmuth

'Security broke into my room, I'm like, "What's going on?!?" SGuard says, "You're playing in the World Series of Poker today."'

Mike Matusow

'@phil_hellmuth yea i had them break in you idiot least you know who your friends are'

Phil Hellmuth

'I jump out of bed, dress, and run down to my car. Didn't know you could drive 75 on side roads!! I Thought I played Day 2 Tuesday...'

'Never crossed my mind that I played today!! Started $11,800: 1 hr 40 min late + had $6,975, OUCH!! Changed Sunday to Sat to do charity eventNever crossed my mind that I played today!! Started $11,800: 1 hr 40 min late + had $6,975, OUCH!! Changed Sunday to Sat to do charity event'

'WOW!! So happy, not chip leader, BUT ended Day Two w $64,900!! Had 7k when I sat down and ran it up without ever being all in and called!!'


Quite the story. Helmuth made an impressive comeback in typical style with reports of 3x BB opens with a 12 BB stack. Still, I'd like to think that if I was still in bed while my day 2 was running that someone would notice and that security would dramatically break into my room instead of using the keycard. I think it's safe to say that if Helmuth goes deep in this he'll have his buddy Mike Matusow to thank for it.

I hate to admit it but I'm warming to the guy - you can't argue with the entertainment he brings to the game, intentional or otherwise.

More on the other action from day 2a of the WSOP Main Event later today.

Twitter updates from Helmuth and Matusow can be found at: @themouthmatusow and @phil_hellmuth

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WSOP 2011 Main Event Day 1 (A-D)

Although the first days of the main event are a wonderful and exciting affair for the thousands of players who cram into the Rio to play them, it's nothing that can't be handled in a single blog post, so here's a recap of the four day 1's:

Day 1 A

Players: 897
Remaining at end of day: 560
Biggest stack: Fred Berger - 210k
Notable eliminations: Doyle Brunson, Greg Raymer
Other notables: Matt Affleck (made deep runs last two years, cried, poor guy)

Day 1 B

Players: 985
Remaining at end of day: 600
Biggest stack: Ben Lamb (who else, hope he binks and takes POY) - 190k
Notable eliminations: Michael Mizrachi, Noah Schwartz
Other notables: None? Boring day...

Day 1 C

Players: 2,181 (!!)
Remaining at end of day: around 1,300
Biggest stack: Kevin Song - 163k (interesting that the biggest field has the smallest chip leader)
Notable eliminations: Ms. Ellen Deeb (91 year old grandmother of Shaun Deeb)
Other notables: Helmuth finishes on 12k

Day 1 C

Players: 2,802
Remaining at end of day: around 1,800
Biggest stack: Maynard Little - 180k
Notable eliminations: Tom Dwan, Antonio Esfandiari, David Williams
Other notables: Jamie 'best bluffer in the world' Gold (82k) Darvin Moon (48k)

WSOP 2011 Main Event Totals

Field: 6,865
First prize: $8,700,000
Total prize pool: $64,531,000
Places paid: 693
Min cash: $20k

We have our final numbers as the player tally reaches a line busting 6,865. Many people's predictions for the first post Black Friday WSOP Main Event were in the mid 5k's, so congratulations if you took the over. I thought they'd struggle to make it to 6k with the absence of the usual online qualifiers, but if would appear, for this year at least, that the WSOP will go on regardless.

There are other factors of course - that 'one final shot at a big score before I have to go get a job' outlook many have spoken of, the 'I have my $100k PokerStars bankroll sitting in my current account' crew and the 'Online whatdidyousay?' crowd.

That wraps up the day ones in a quick and easy format. Around 4,500 players remain and Day 2a starts today with around 2,000 players back at the felt to try to last another day with something resembling a stack.

Next update after the completion of Day 2b.

Links from day 1:

Wicked Chops Girls of the Main Event

Tao of Poker - Nice stats and general awesomeness, found this after my roundup above

Pokerati - DonkeyBomber's 2011 WSOP Wrap-Up

Pokernews - Live reporting

Bluff Magazine - Ongoing coverage

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WSOP Day 39 - Royal Flush

Day 39 of the 2011 WSOP saw the continuation of day 1 of the Main Event and the completion of the last two prelims.

Nick Binger and David Bach got back to it in Event #57: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split. Binger started with a slight chip lead but Bach was able to wrestle that from him in the early stages of the heads up match, only for Binger to pull away to nearly a 2:1 chip lead. The pair got it in preflop as the blinds got high and left Bach needing a two outer on the river for a chop to save his tournament life. The card didn't come and Binger took down his second career bracelet and just under $400k.

The last NLHE preliminary every saw Hassan Anter start with a commanding chip lead over Nemer Haddad and Andy Philachack after the hard stop rule ended play the night before. Anter put his chip lead to good use by pressurising the smaller stacks until Haddad doubled up by eliminating Philachack after winning a coinflip.

Anter took a 3:1 chip lead into heads up play and continued to use it to devastating effect. He eventually busted Haddad after getting it in preflop with As4d against Haddad's Ad2c. The KQT all spades board brought a royal flush draw, part of which was completed on the 4s which fell on the turn sending Haddad to the rail. It is of course customary to deal the river card, and the Js fell on the river, completing the royal flush. That has to be the first time in history someone has won a bracelet with a royal flush? There's one to tell the grandkids...


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WSOP Day 38 - WSOP Main Event Arrives

WSOP Day 38 is the one that has been marked on the calender by most as the first day of the WSOP Main Event. Four starting days will see thousands of players descend on the Rio with dreams of playing well, running good and returning in November to play it out for the bracelet like 2010 winner Jonathan Duhamel.


Meanwhile however, there are still prelims to finish up as the hard stop rule forced the end of play in two remaining events.

The last big field NL event was paused three handed as Event #56: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em saw Hasan Anter finish the day with a large chip lead over fellow survivors Andy Philachack and Nemer Haddad.


Event #57: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo Split also fell victim to the hard stop rule as David Bach and Nick Binger failed to decide a winner. They will return on day 38 to play it out for the bracelet and the $400k first prize.


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WSOP Day 37 - Brian Rast Ruins Helmuths Dreams

Well, you have to feel sorry for the guy. Phil helmuh fell just short of his 12 WSOP bracelet (and his first non Holdem bracelet) again in Event #55: $50,000 Poker Player's Championship.

Brian Rast was the man who was there to stop him after a truly exceptional comeback heads up. Helmuth appeared to dominate the early stages of the heads up battle taking pot after pot and really impressing some of the spectators by switching gears and putting the pressure on Rast.

At one point Helmuth held 17m chips to Rast's 3m and the result looked inevitable. Luck was not on Helmuths side however as he got it in 3 times, each of them with a flush draw on the flop, and lost all three. Just like that, Rast was the proud owner of a new WSOP bracelet and $1.7m.

WSOP Player of the Year leader Ben Lamb continued his great run at the WSOP by making the final table. but has now been pushed off the top spot by Helmuth. What odds would you have gotten on him taking that title this year?

I think we have reached the stage where even I have to admit that Helmuth clearly has some skill to silence many of his doubters. If anyone else has finished second in three separate events this year we'd be praising them, so my hat goes off to Phil.

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WSOP Day 36 - Helmuth Makes Another WSOP Final Table

I guess it was somewhat inevitable that if Phil Helmuth made yet another final table that it would be the biggest news of the day.

Event #55: $50,000 Poker Player's Championship saw the day start with 29 players in the field which was played down to a final table of nine:

Brian Rast
George Lind
Phil Hellmuth
Owais Ahmed
Scott Seiver
Minh Ly
Ben Lamb
Jason Lester
Matt Glantz

A great field left for a great tournament. This is one of the most highly regarded bracelets at the WSOP, and you can bet all of these players will be hungry to take it down.

Barry Greenstein and Jeffrey Lisandro both fell short of the final table on a long day that continued past 5am. The players will be back tomorrow to battle it out for the bracelet and the not-insignificant first prize of $1.7m...

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WSOP Day 35

No bracelets were awarded on day 35 of the WSOP as the events wind down and the Main Event draws ever closer.

Event #54: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em has 45 players remaining heading into what should be the final day of play. Anibal Andres leads the field with 800k in chips, closely followed by Stanislav Alekhin and Terrance Eischens. Team PokerStars pro Maxim Lykov is still in the field with a healthy 340k in chips.

Event #55: $50,000 Poker Player's Championship played down to it's final 29, with the expected notables still alive including Scott Seiver, Josh Arieh, Brian Rast and that man again, Phil Helmuth.


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WSOP Day 34 - Man Makes ladies Event Final Table

There have been some funny appearances and lost prop bets resulting in men playing in the Ladies event at the WSOP in recent years but it's now really beyond a joke or any kind of interesting political statement for men to play in the Ladies event.

Unfortunately Event #53 $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship will be remembered for having the first man make a final table in a WSOP ladies event. On the bright side Jonathan Epstein's showing at the final table (after a decent amount of stick from the announcer) was short lived as he was dispatched in 9th place.

At least now when anyone Googles Epstein they'll see what he's really about. I don't feel as strongly about this as some do, but I really think we should just leave the ladies event to the ladies at this point and let everyone sit back an enjoy the event they way it's supposed to be. We don't see this kind of statement being made in the seniors event.

Karina Jett made a deep run in the event, finishing second to eventual winner Marsha Wolak who took down the bracelet and $192k.

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WSOP Day 33

Three bracelets were awarded on day 33 of the 2011 WSOP and there was plenty of action in other tournaments, as the Ladies event, the $50k players championship and the last $1k NLHE event were all in full swing.

Antonin Teisseire took down another event for the Euros as he won his first bracelet in Event #50: $5,000 Triple Chance No-Limit Hold'em for $825k. Another huge prizepool in a $5k so late in the WSOP is a great sign as the Main Event approaches. Frenchman Teisseire brings the French bracelet total this year to three.

Every 21 year old turning up at the Rio for the first time dreams of winning the first WSOP event they play. Unfortunately for me it was the Main Event, and it ended after 12 hours in a 4 bet shove with a draw getting snapped off by middle pair and the longest walk back to the bar in the Rio where I proceeded to drop at least another 20% of the value of the buy-in. David Singontiko however made the dream come true, as the 21 year old won the first ever WSOP he played, which just so happened to be Event #51: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo. Singontiko made his way through the 946 player field to take down the event and the WSOP bracelet some people play a lifetime to win.

Event #52: $2,500 Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit) saw Matt Matros win his second bracelet in two years. The professional from New York won just over $300k for his first place finish.


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The Micros - LOL Cartoonaments

Another great episode from 'The Micros'. Lots of guest appearances and some genuinely funny and original stuff.

Check out the video below:



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WSOP Day 32 - Polychronopoulos Has a Long Name

Sometimes names seem entirely unpronounceable when you first hear them, but as they become more popular and familiar, they become easier to say. Yevgeniy Timoshenko is a good example - when he first came on the scene it was hard to work out how on earth his name was pronounced. However, if you keep winning things ($25k WPT events, Irish Open, Asian Poker Tour) then eventually people learn the name and can (mostly) pronounce it correctly.

I wonder if we'll ever be saying that about Athanasios Polychronopoulos? My guess is no. However, if 'Tony' Polychronopoulos continues on the run of form that lead to him winning Event #48: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em then perhaps we'll have no choice. Tony took down the event at a tough final table (which included the aforementioned Timoshenko, also in my bracelet pool) to win the bracelet and the $650k first prize.

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WSOP Day 31 - Moorman Misses Out

All eyes were on Event #46: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed Championship as Joe Ebanks and Chris Moorman came back to continue their heads up match and battle it our for the bracelet. Unfortunately for Moorman the battle didn't last long, after running a straight draw into top pair and a flush draw a couple of hands in.

Joe Ebanks took down the event, it's gold bracelet and the first prize over $1m so far this WSOP, $1.158m.

Another redemption story (there's been a lot of those this year) in Event #49: $2,500 Limit 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball as Leonard Martin who has finished second and sixth in this very event in the last few years finally made his way to that coveted WSOP bracelet. A pro heavy final table featured Justin Bonomo and Jason Mercier, neither of who were able to stop Leonard Martin from taking down the event and $190k.

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WSOP Day 30 - Ahmed Takes Down Event #47

In a battle of the split games Event #47: $2,500 Omaha 8 / Stud 8 was the only tournament to award a WSOP bracelet on day 30.

Another big name made a final table but fell short of a bracelet - this time Michael Mizrachi was in the mix, dominating the play on the final day and getting heads up with eventual winner Owais Ahmed with a big chip lead. Unfortunately for Mizrachi it wasn't to be, and Owais Ahmed won the tournament after a swingy heads up match to take down the bracelet and $255k.

The 'who can 5 or 6 bet the lightest' tournament, otherwise known as Event #46: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed Championship was well underway on day 30, with just 22 players remaining. Well known British online player Chris Moorman made it to heads up against Joe Ebanks after Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier made another deep run, finishing in fourth. The hard stop rule halted play, so the heads up battle will continue on day 31.

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WSOP Day 29 - Akkari, Porter and Griffin Strike Gold

Day 29 saw three WSOP bracelets awarded, two in low buy-in NLHE events and one in Razz.

Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari won his first WSOP gold bracelet in Event #43: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. Brazilian Akkari has some impressive online results, including a second place finish in the $10k WCOOP HORSE event back in 2008. Akkari bested a field of 2,857 players to take down the $675k first prize. Poker is a growing game in Brazil and this win should help motivate a new wave of online and live players.

Another one for the bankers as another former Wall Street employee Rep Porter won his second WSOP bracelet with his victory in Event #44: $2,500 Razz. Porter is a regular on the tournament circuit with a number of previous WSOP cashes and 3 final tables in addition to his first bracelet. Porter takes home $210k for his win, adding to his already impressive $1.5m in live tournament earnings.

Event #45: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em had the spotlight cast on it's final table due to the appearance of Antonio Esfandiari. The Magician could only manage 7th place though and eventual victor Kenneth Griffin made his way through another huge field of 2,890 to take down the WSOP bracelet and $455k. There is a touching story behind the win though, and this Bluff article from Jess Welman tells not only that, but the story of the final table action too.

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Epic Poker League - Epic Fail?

Perhaps I didn't look into this as much as I should have, but I though that the Federated Sports + Gaming League started by Jeffrey Pollack and Annie Duke would be called something like, you know, 'The Federated Sports and Gaming League'.

Alas I was incorrect, and it would appear to have been named Epic Poker League. I'm not sure who was in charge of the naming, but I really think they have got this one wrong.

As far as branding goes, the word is overused these days, especially by the type of people this league is really there to attract. The logo is also a little puzzling:


What were they thinking? If they wanted to be taken more seriously they should have gone with something more official sounding, like 'The Federated Poker League' or similar. The logo looks childish and tacky, and not official at all.

Consider the following:

World Series of Poker Champion

European Poker Tour Champion

Epic Poker League Champion

Which one would you rather be, in order? I thought part of the idea of this league was for the best players, defined by a selection criteria, would play against eachother to determine the true greats of the game. The notion is somewhat questionable of course, but the name now sounds like some small online poker site is running it's own WCOOP-style mini series.

My interest in this organisation is rapidly declining - the idea was that you had to meet the selection criteria in order to play, that was it. Now it seems like you can qualify though a series of mega satellites to earn your place in the $20,000 buy-in tournaments.

The logo is off-brand for this type of event and takes away from the prestige and premium feeling they could have represented with a classier logo and a more official sounding name.

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WSOP Day 28

Ben Lamb is a player who knows heartbreak. In 2009 he made a very deep run in in the WSOP Main Event only to finish just short of the final table and the November Nine, finishing in 14th place.

Just over a week ago that heartbreak must have been repeated as Lamb finished second to Sam Stein in the $3k PLO even, narrowly missing out on a bracelet again.

But Event #42: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship has played down to a winner, and that winner is Ben Lamb. We've seen a few stories of players with close finishes coming back and winning bracelets this year and we can add Ben Lamb to the list.

Lamb took down the championship event in a field of 361 of the worlds best PLO players to earn himself his first bracelet and the $814k first place prize money, one of the biggest in the WSOP this year. Lamb now has over 3.1m in career tournament earnings.

He also picks up a hefty number of WSOP POY points to add to the ones he got for finishing second in the $3k PLO and now tops the leaderboard, one place above Phil Helmuth.


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WSOP Day 27 - Katchalov Falls Short of #2

Well, anyone who read the blog yesterday already knows that Matt Jarvis took down his first bracelet after coming 8th in the Main Event last year. However, there was other news at the WSOP:

The Rio was on second bracelet of 2011 watch as Eugene Katchalov made the final table of Event #41: $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout after winning a bracelet earlier in the WSOP. Justin Pechie was there to spoil the party though after Katchalov only managed 4th place. $167k is a relatively small amount for first place in a WSOP event these days, but I'm sure the bracelet will mean everything to the 26 year old professional poker player.

Like many US online pros, Pechie was considering his future after Black Friday. It looks like he was even considering a move to Canada to continue to play and make his living online. The likelihood of this win effecting that decision is probably slim, but I'm sure the money and a WSOP bracelet on the poker resume might help sway him towards continuing that career path.

In other news, the frequently outspoken Daniel Negreanu got into it at the table with Michael Binger after accusing him of cheating in the $10k H.O.R.S.E. I have no strong opinion on the way the hand played out, but I agree with the people saying that Daniel should stay out of the hand if he's not active in it. It's up to the players to take responsibility for the action in any hand they are in, even when the dealer doesn't do his do properly. The dealers at the WSOP typically aren't the best just based on the sheer number of them needed. With that in mind, you need to be even more careful at the tables.

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2010 November Niner Matt Jarvis Wins Bracelet

2010 will always be a memorable year for Matt Jarvis. He made the final table of the WSOP Main Event and got all the media attention the poker industry has to offer during the break until the November Nine returns to Vegas to play it out for the bracelet.

Unfortunately someone has to depart in 8th place, and last year it was Matt Jarvis, who busted at the hands of Michael Mizrachi. Many of the November Niners, including the winners, don't earn much respect for thier main even runs but I think we'll see a newfound appreciation for Jarvis today as he took down Event #40: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed for his first WSOP bracelet.

The $808k from this event is a huge score for the WSOP outside of the Main Event and when added to the $1,045,743 he took down for his 8th place finish in 2010 other cashes he's up over $2m in live tournament earnings. Canada also notches up another bracelet, bringing the 2011 WSOP total to 5...

It's no Main Event win, but it must be nice to come back the year after such a deep run and win a bracelet.

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WSOP Days 24, 25 and 26

A few days off for me so a catch up:

Day 24 was a barren day for bracelets as none were awarded due to the $2.5k NL and $10k H.O.R.S.E running longer than scheduled.

However day 25 was a bumper day with three bracelets awarded. The first was to Mikhail Lakhitov who won Event #36: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em for a hefty $750k score.

Fabrice Soulier was a popular winner of Event #37: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship and the second bracelet winner of the day for $610k. Frenchman Soulier has been on the tournament circuit for over 10 years and has over $3.2m in live cashes. Tom “durrrr” Dwan also made the final table which interested many of the well known pros as they have bracelet bets (although clearly a lot of the FTP guys aren't around) but eventually busted in 5th place.

Mitch Schock took down the 3rd bracelet of the day in Event #39: $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em/Omaha. Huge early chip leader Tyler Patterson didn't last the day and Schock took the 2011 WSOP's only HA bracelet down along with $310k for his efforts.

On day 26 Arkadiy Tsinis took down Event #38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em for his first bracelet and $540k. Tsinis adds to the growing list of first time bracelet winners this year.

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WSOP Day 23 - Mercier Wins Second Bracelet

In 2009 Jason Mercier won his first WSOP bracelet in a $1,500 PLO event for $237k. This year Mercier took that a step further by winning Event #35: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Six-Handed for $620k and his second WSOP bracelet.

Mercier was quickly becoming regarded as one of the best tournament poker players in the world and this win will help support that argument. In under 4 years Mercier has taken down an EPT, an NAPT high roller event, a $25k bounty shootout, a £20k high roller event in the UK, the EPT Champion of Champions event and a host of smaller wins and deep finishes for a total of $6.3m.


Mercier after his win. Photo credit: Pokernews

That's an absolutely phenomenal run from a player who is just 24 years old. His place on the all time money list is starting to approach, and in some cases has surpassed some of the well known tournament grinders who have been playing for the last 20 years.

That's not all - Mercier is also a force to be feared in online cash games, as well as in the high stakes live games including TV shows like High Stakes Poker. He also took down an event in the 2010 WCOOP on PokerStars.

And we're still not done - Mercier is also an active backer and was featured in an ESPN article on poker staking. He's had a good WSOP so far as he was backing Allen Bari in event 4, which he took down for $874k

Mercier is certainly one to look out for in the rest of the WSOP and beyond. A real presence in cash games both live an online, staking and the tournament circit mean that we can expect to see much more from him in the future.

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WSOP Day 22 - Schmid wins Event #34

Mark Schmid was the sole bracelet winner on day 22 after beating over 3,100 players in Event #34: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em for $488k. Schmid plays online under the name PimpinDonks and is a well known SNG player. Another former banker (JP Morgan Chase) Schmid started playing poker online in 2005 and now makes videos at Sharkscopers, or did at least....

Schmid adds to the growing list of first time bracelet winners this year, and as we're yet to see a double bracelet winner in 2011, could this be the first year in over a decade that it doesn't happen?

Event #37: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship drew a field of 239 players including Mori Eskandani, the producer of poker TV shows such as Poker After Dark, High Stakes Poker and the NBC National Heads-Up Championship. Eskandani's Poker PROductions is also producing the WSOP shows for ESPN for the first time this year (they're responsible for the 'mothership' final table set) after a successful WSOPE series. Final tables are being broadcast on ESPN3.com and the main shows for the $50k player championship and the main event will be airing on ESPN and ESPN 2.

From Day 3 of the Main Event ESPN will be showing a live stream with hole cards on a slight delay. That should make for some great viewing and some interesting scenarios.

Let's hope Mori and his team can re-ignite some of that WSOP magic and bring poker closer to the world of sport where TV coverage is concerned.

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WSOP Day 21 - Helmuth Denied

The final day of Event #33: $10,000 Stud 8 or Better Championship had a star studded final day with David Benyamine, Ted Forrest and Phil Helmuth all making the final table.

All eyes were on Helmuth as he battled his way through the final table to get heads up with eventual champion Eric Rodawig. Rodawig went into heads-up with a large chip lead and managed to deny Helmuth his 12th WSOP bracelet in the process of winning his first and $442k.

There is some good news for Helmuth as he now tops the WSOP Player of the Year standings, just edging out Sam Stein and John Juanda. He'll need to work hard to stay up near the top but he definitely has a shot, and he'll almost certainly care about this.

Event #32: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em also awarded a bracelet on day 21 and Kirk Caldwell was the man to take it down. Caldwell brings the tally of Canadian players to win a WSOP bracelet to four.

31 year old Caldwell won his entry to the $1,500 event by winning a local satellite tournament and this win is not only his first cash at the WSOP, but his first ever event. This is the stuff dreams are made of for amateur players and Caldwell seems deserving of the win - he's even offered to back the player he beat heads up for the seat into the WSOP Main Event. Some of the $668k prize money will be split between Caldwell's friends back home in Ontario as part of a deal they made for the tournament.

Let's hope some of the bigger media and reporting sites run with the story a little, as this is the kind of thing the WSOP needs!

It looks like the cash game action is picking up as a few high stakes regulars (Daniel Cates and Brian Hastings, among others) have Tweeted recently about the games. It looks like at least a 500/1k is running at the Rio. Check out WSOP Live Action to keep an eye on what's running.

The WSOP numbers in general continue to look healthy according to wsop.com. Total participation is up over 10% and prize money up over 8% compared to 2010. It's hard to compare turnouts and prizepools on a like-for-like basis as the schedules are a little different, but things certainly aren't as bad as some feared post Black Friday. It'll be worth checking back in a week or so to see if the numbers hold up, and we still have that mega barometer of poker economy health yet to come.

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Helmuth Goes For #12 (again)

Interesting line up in the remaining field of Event #33: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship:

Eric Rodawig
David Benyamine
Mikhail Savinov
Ali Eslami
Antony Lellouche
Joe Tehan
Phil Hellmuth
Felipe Ramos
John Racener
Ted Forrest
Phil Laak
Erik Seidel
Bill Chen
Christopher George
Justin Smith
Chris Tryba
Cyndy Violette
Jon Turner

Turner, Forrest, Laak, Benyamine, Chen - the remaining field is like some kind of poker dream team. Well, almost - Helmuth in the mix again, in a non-holdem event. 168 players turned out for the $10k championship event and just 18 remain after day 2.

If he keeps playing these small field, large buy-in events I'm scared he's going to take one down eventually and we'll never hear the end of it.

The rail should get big today as people start to sweat and anti-sweat the players left in the tournament.

My money is on Erik Seidel, and it's not even close...

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WSOP Days 19 & 20

Duke graduate Andy Frankenberger took down Event #28: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em and added $600k and a WSOP bracelet to his already impressive poker resume which includes a win in the WPT Legends of Poker Main Event in addition to a $2k Venetian Deepstack event. Frankenberger gave up a Wall Street career as a equity derivatives trader and eventually started playing poker professionally. As if to prove the win means something (from wsop.com):

For me, it’s so important for me to get this win. When I won the Legends and I won the Venetian, poker was very new to me. I had not invested that much into it in terms of time or energy. At this point, I have been playing all year. I have been traveling all over the world. This is my first big win of 2011, so I can’t even begin to tell you how much this win means to me right now.

Another large field for the WSOP as Event #28 attracted over 2,500 players. The fields definitely have been healthy overall and from what I hear the action at the cash tables and in satellites has been good too.

Event #29: $2,500 10-Game Mix was scheduled to play down to a winner, but as the 10th level ended 3 players still remained. Well known 2+2'er Shaun Deeb narrowly missed out on his first bracelet after busting in 4th place. Chris Lee lead the remaining three players into (what should be) the last day.

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WSOP Day 18

A busy day for bracelets at the WSOP on Day 18 as 3 events reached their conclusion. The seniors event also go off to a start today and a whopping 3,752 players turned out to play the $1k NLHE tournament.

Chris Viox won Event #25: $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo after defeating Mike Sexton heads up for the bracelet and $200k.

Event #26: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed saw another Brit come close as Chris Moorman made a deep run, eventually busting in 3rd place. The event was won by the highly pronounceable Oleksil Kovalchuk who took home $689k and a WSOP bracelet for his efforts.

I'm a huge fan of the 2+2 pokercast so I was pleased to see Adam's brother Daniel Idema take down Event #27: $10,000 Limit Hold'em Championship after coming second in the same event last year. I think we can safely add this to the 'poker is a game of skill' argument after Mark Radoja completed a similar feat just a day before in the $5k NLHE shootout.

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WSOP Day 17

Just the one bracelet awarded on day 17 of the WSOP as Mark Radoja took down Event #24: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout. Radoja made the final table in the same $5k NLHE event last year and came 3rd. One of the worst feelings resulting from a finish like that is that you might never get another opportunity. It must feel pretty good to come back the very next year and win the same event. Radoja took down his first WSOP and bracelet and a healthy $436k for the win.

Popular TV personality Norman Chad made a deep run in Event #25: $1,500 Stud 8 or Better, but fell just short of the final table, busting in 12th place. Mike Sexton did make the final table along with Chris Viox.


Event #29: $2,500 10-Game Mix made it's debut, as did badugi, making it's first appearance as part of the games. 431 players turned out for the event demonstrating a good apatite for the mixed games at the WSOP. Just over 160 players made day 2 and I think we can expect some big names to make a deep run. This is definitely an event which favours the cash game players who play the higher stakes mixed games, as tournament practice is hard to come by.

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WSOP Day 16

France take down thier second bracelet of the WSOP as Elie Payan wins Event #22: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha for $292k and the coveted gold bracelet. European players are doing well overall this year and are giving the home players a run for their money. David "Doc" Sands made the final table but could only manage a third place finish after mounting a comeback from a short stack early on. Payan takes another one for the amateur players although that's probably to be expected when the event is a) PLO and b) has over 1,000 players.

Event #23: $2,500 Eight-Game Mix was taken down by John Monnette after a six hour final table defeating Eric Buchman heads up for the bracelet and $278k. John Racener was among those at the final table but fell short of the win in 8th place.

Jess Welman over at Bluff has done a great piece on the WSOP by the numbers and Pokernews also have a piece on prizepools and field sizes.

It looks like only a handful of the events have seen a decrease in numbers from last year and numbers were pretty good last year too. There is a feeling that this is, in the wake of Black Friday, a last stab at WSOP glory for some. While many still have money locked up in Full Tilt accounts, some will also have money burning a hole in their bank accounts as they were forced to cash out from PokerStars. I think the WSOP in 2012 will be the real test, and who knows what might happen between now and next summer.

The line for the WSOP Main Event seems to be around the 5,200 mark and I think a big part of how accurate that is depends on the sattalites PokerStars offers. Stars typically contributes a large number of players to the field (how many is hard to say as players are able to simply cash out the money or play with it online) and the less WSOP centric Main Event Passport now offers a single tournament entry that can be used for not just the WSOP, but also for EPT events, AAPT events and events like the PCA.

That has to have a significant impact on numbers, as does all of the people who'll be busto by the time the Main Event rolls around and can't simply withdraw more money from their online roll.

It's the Main Event of the World Series of Poker though, so you never know!

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WSOP Day 14 & 15

More news from Vegas as the bracelets are coming thick and fast. Two of the smaller buy in events awarded bracelets as well as the $10k stud championship.

Foster Hays takes down Event #18: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em and a whoping $735k in prize money for making his way through the 3,157 strong field. Hays is a medical researcher and was evedently back at work the day after his win.

Jason Somerville took down Event #20: $1,000 No-Limit Holdem winning $493k and his first WSOP bracelet. Another huge field in this one as 3,175 turned out to play. Jason is a well known and liked pro and the win adds to his already impressive $2.7m in tournament earnings.

...and I'm absolutely cleaning up in my 'pick a player to win his first WSOP bracelets' pool as Bertrand Grospellier, more easily pronounced as ElkY, takes down Event #21: $10,000 Seven-Card Stud, his fist bracelet and just over $330k. Grospellier also becomes only the fourth player in history to complete the triple crown of winning a WPT, WSOP and EPT event after Jake Cody completed the feat earlier this WSOP. PokerStars blog entry on the achievement.

In other news Darren Woods won Event #19: $2,500 Limit Hold'em Six Handed and $213k to spend after he's finished looking at his shiney new bracelet. Kim Nguyen came close to becoming the WSOP's latest female bracelet winner but came just short, busting in second place.

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WSOP Day 13

It's day 13 already and the latest bracelet has been awarded in Event #17: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E to a man by the name of Aaron Steury. The 24 year old poker pro dropped out of university to play poker. Hopefully the bracelet and the $289,283 that go with it help justify that decision (plus he can always go back to school).

Event #21: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship had a starting field of just 126 with 91 of the players returning for day 2. Alexander Kostritsyn and Mike Sexton are among the early chip leaders in what promises to be another pro heavy final few tables.

Two more bracelets are due to be awarded tomorrow, one in Event #18: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em which, rather unsurprisingly, doesn't have any big name pros among the chip leaders at the end of day 2. The second will be awarded to the winner of
Event #19: $2,500 Limit Hold'em (6 handed). All eyes will be on Stephanie Nguyen who could become the first woman to win a WSOP bracelet in an open event for a few years. Sam Grizzle made a deep run in the event, proving that not only is he alive, but he's still able to find backers into $2.5k buy-in tournaments.


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WSOP Day 11 & 12

The poker world has been spared what would have been an intolerable 10 or 15 years of bragging rights Phil Helmuth would have earned by winning Event #16: $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Championship. He came alarmingly close, going into heads up with a 3-1 chip lead against eventual champion John Juanda. Fortunately the legendary Juanda was there to stop him in his tracks and win his fifth WSOP bracelet.


Junda and Helmuth Heads-Up - Photo from Pokernews

Helmuth earned the majority of his bracelet haul in the earlier days of the WSOP, when field sizes were not much different from the 126 who turned out for the 2-7 Lowball event. If he's going to start playing these types of events each year then may he does have a chance at another bracelet - lets hope there is always a John Juanda standing in his way.

There are some great write ups from the event, including the one and only Tao of Poker and the Pokernews writeup.

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WSOP Day 10

Event #11: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Split Championship saw PokerStars pro and online multi tabling beast George Lind miss out on his first WSOP bracelet. Lind is a really nice guy and has had a bad run of it at the WSOP until now. Hopefully he gets to finish one place higher later this summer. The difference between first and second at the WSOP is vast, almost like winning a silver medal at the Olympics, you're never going to be quite happy. Viacheslav Zhukov was the man that took the bracelet and all the glory.


Event #12: $1,500 Triple Chance No-Limit Hold'em also awarded a bracelet on Day 10 and David Diaz was the man on the receiving end with a cool $352,808 to go with it.


Event #16: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship was always going to be a stacked field but the final 9 has a scary name among it:


Richard Ashby
Steve Sung
Hasan Habib
Greg Raymer
Phil Hellmuth
Nick Schulman
John Juanda
David Baker
Joe Cassidy

That's right, Helmulth as a really good shot at his 12th bracelet in what would be, without question, one of the biggest stories of the WSOP. I'm not sure what his 2-7 Draw Lowball game is like (all of Helmuth's 11 bracelets are in Hold'em) but it's good enough to make his way through a field stacked with pros, even if they weren't necessarily that familiar with the game.

Play restarts tomorrow and I think any of the field winning make a nice story. Bakes won the event last year, Helmuth and Raymer don't need any explanation and Ashby has already made a final table this WSOP.

I'm devastated that Johnny Chan busted late in day 2 as I'd love nothing more than to see him beat Helmuth heads up for a bracelet. That would make my WSOP for sure.

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WSOP Day 9

I think I'll start with a great blog post from Jesse May on the Brits in Vegas this summer. Great blog overall actually, reccomended by tons of people on Twitter today, well worth a read.

On the subject of Brits (it's going to be a theme as long as we keep winning/going deep) Richard Ashby managed a 4th place finish in Event #11: $10,000 Omaha High-Low Championship - read about his finish over at Black Belt.

Just when I was starting to feel bad about not playing the WSOP this year I saw this:

'0-10 at Wsop so far. Played 60k in tournaments!' (@TheGrinder44 - Michael Mizrachi)

When you're not playing it's a horrible feeling, but ever so slightly worse is being 60k down after 10 tournies. You start off by planning two or three braceletts, then maybe just the one would do, then you think getting even would actaully be pretty cool, then just a cash before you go home is all you're asking for...

Two PokerStars Pro's are in the hunt for a bracelet today. I can't help but feel sorry for Terrence Chan if his WSOP house secures another bracelet that doesn't belong to him.

Struggling to keep up with the action this year - might be more to come later!

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WSOP Day 7 & 8 - The Brits Are Here

As a fellow Brit I was pleased to see Matt Perrins take down Event #9: $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball after Jake Cody won the $25k HU event a few days ago.

Much has been made of the fact that he didn't know how to play the game until watching a few clips on YouTube a couple of days before the event. But here's the thing, Matt is clealry a good poker player. The rules of the game in nealry all forms are fairly easy to pick up. It's the aggression, reads, the thinking part of poker that takes time to learn and if you can do that for Hold'em, PLO or any other game there's a good chance you can adapt those skills to another game. Not everyone can do it of course and the better you are at adapting and poker in general the better you'll be at making the transition to another game.

There would have been some mistakes along the way, and almost certainly some run good involved, but it's still a remarkable achievement. The Brits have already made a mark on the WSOP this year after a great WSOP in 2010, let's hope we can take a few more bracelets down by the time the main event rolls around in July...

We're down to 3 in Event #8: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em with another well known online pro Jon Turner up against two more Brits: Sadan Turker and Sean Getzwiller for the bracelet. Turker carries a strong chip lead into the final day with nealry 8m against Getzwiller on 3m and Turner on 1.7m. Still plenty to play for as Turner has just over 20 BB's.

The next of the 'rebuy chip' events started yesterday with Event #12: $1,500 Triple Chance No-Limit Hold’em underway with 1,340 players starting. 165 made day two as the chips flew after most players decided to use all three bullets from the start. The chip leader finished the day on 124k - in the space of 10 levels that's some serious run hot. Randy 'Nanonoko' Lew posted a good blog on his thoughts on the event here.

Event #11: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship is in the money with 22 players remaining. Jason Mercier went deep but only managed a min-cash after making the money with less than 2 BB's. Notables returning tomorrow to battle it out for the bracelet and $465k include Shaun Deeb, Mike Sexton and the short stacked Josh Arieh.

David Vamplew continues his great run going into day 3 of Event #10: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed - 15 players return today to play for the bracelet.

Event #13: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout and Event #14: $3,000 Limit Hold'em get uderway later today.

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WSOP Day 6 & More Black Friday Stuff

The 2011 WSOP has 3 new bracelet winners:

Allen Bari somewhat inevitably took down Event #4: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em with his epic chip lead going into the final day with 4 left. Maria Ho put up a valiant fight heads up but Bari emerged the victor, earning $874k in addiiton to the coveted bracelet. Nice round up of the event from Jess Welman over at Bluff.

Event #7: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship concluded with Amir Lehavot taking down a bracelet and $563k for his efforts. Nicolas Levi also made the final table adding a 6th place finish to his 5th place in the WSOPE main event in London last year. If anything players in these event deserve at least a medal for playing 10 handed PLHE for as long as they did...

...but not as much as those making the final table of the even more painful Event #6: $1,500 Limit Hold'em - Harrison Wilder took down the bracelet and just over $200k for first. Scott Clements was among those that made the final table, eventually busting in a tilt-worthy 9th place.

The WSOP isn't all serious business of course, Wicked Chops have a superb 'Girls on the rail' post that is well worth a look. Great work!

Aaron Wilt (DC Coach WiltOnTilt) has posted a great blog about some of the conversations he's had with senior officials. He's also mentioned that he intends to contribute to the Quad Jacks radio show which contunues to be a great source of information (and entertainment) for online poker players.


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WSOP Day 5, Black Friday in Mainstream Media (again)

Many a 'player to win their first bracelet in 2011' bet was off to a quick start with Eugene Katchalov winning Event #5: $1,500 Seven Card Stud and a not insignificant $122,909. I'm sure Katchalov would have been a popular pick (he went early in both of the drafts I participated in) so a few people will be paying up already. Katchalov is a NLHE specialist by trade, making the win that much more impressive. I might have to put him on my multiple bracelet in 2011 list...

The hugely popular Maria Ho made her first WSOP final table in Event #4: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em which is now down to 3 now after 4 started the final day. Allen Bari has a huge chip lead with over 9m chips to Ho and Sean LeFort's 2m each. It would be nice to see a woman take down a bracelet this earlier, especially if it's Maria!


Event #9: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball, a triple chance (players get two add on chips) event gets underway with a half decent 275 players in the field. Jimmy 'Gobboboy' Fricke and George Lind have enough chips to make the biggest stacks to end day one. Hopefully Jimmy can make a deep run, I'm a big fan of his work on Pokerroad and behind the scenes on the Pokerstars Big Game.

Interesting article on the Fox News website about the effect Black Friday has had on families who rely on online poker as the main source of household income. It;'s great to see a few more 'real' stories come out of Black Friday instead of the 'oh no, I can't buy another $2m apartment/Bentley/$50k watch' type stories. The stories in the upcoming BOOM documentary seem to focus on the same issues, which should get people thinking about some of the more heartwarming stories.

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WSOP Days 3 & 4 + Other Stuff

The WSOP is really in full swing with events 4,5,6,7 and 8 all in progress currently.

Day 3 is underway in Event #4: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em with 42 players back to fight it out for the bracelet. The 2009 winner of the equivalent event Brian Lemke has 1m chips, almost 300k more than second in chips. Still a long way to go in that event though.

Jake Cody wins Event #2: $25,000 Heads-Up Championship for $851,192 and becomes only the third person to achieve a triple crown. Cody has now won an EPT (Deuville), WPT (London) and a WSOP bracelet. He took his time though, 15 months to win all three, and, oh yeah, he's 22 years old...

The first $1k mega donkaments of this years Wold Series, Event #8 starts today and so fare there are over 2,700 players in the field (including those registered for day 1b, which starts tomorrow). I guess poker isn't dead just yet - that's going to be an epic field. I have seen some crazy things playing poker but never anything quite like this.

Bluff Magazine will be taking care of the WSOP player of the year system for this WSOP.

I don't mind a bit of light entertainment and I think the WSOP rematches were just that. Chan and Moneymaker were victorious over Helmuth and Farha with the Chan v Seidel matchup postponed as Seidel was probably winning a few million dollars elsewhere and was unable to play.

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WSOP Day 2 Round-Up

It would be hard to follow the drama of the first day of the WSOP this year but here's a round up of the various goings on at the WSOP and the wider poker world:

The WSOP has announced a $1 Million buy-in tournament in aid of One Drop, an charity started by Guy Laliberte of Cirque du Soleil fame.

It looks like a few well known businessmen/poker players are on board:

Bobby Baldwin
Phil Ruffin
Andy Beal

In addition to the professionals everyone would expect:

Doyle Brunson
Patrik Antonius
Gus Hansen
Tony G

I think we can add Ivey to that list depending on how things go over the next year (the event will be in 2012). There is some serious value in there from the businessmen so I'd be surprised if we don't see a few lesser known pros selling action and getting involved - even if there is a big rake for the charity.

3 million chip starting stack, not entirely sure that is needed, although it is in line with the chip value of other WSOP tournies. There is a 48 player cap and if reached it would create a $40m prizepool and somewhere in the region of $17m for 1st..

Cue arguements about buying a bracelet (assuming there is one) and the all time money list which currently only requires $16m to take the top spot, although one would guess Seidel will just win it anyway.

2+2 poster ncpokeresq offers a half decent legal analysis of Ivey v. Tiltware which can be read here. It's posted in NVG so take it for what it's worth...

Titlware's response was clearly written by an angry hormonal teenager:

“Contrary to his sanctimonious public statements, Phil Ivey’s meritless lawsuit is about helping just one player – himself. In an effort to further enrich himself at the expense of others, Mr. Ivey appears to have timed his lawsuit to thwart pending deals with several parties that would put money back in players’ pockets. In fact, Mr. Ivey has been invited -- and has declined -- to take actions that could assist the company in these efforts, including paying back a large sum of money he owes the site. Tiltware doubts Mr. Ivey’s frivolous and self-serving lawsuit will ever get to court. But if it does, the company looks forward to presenting facts demonstrating that Mr. Ivey is putting his own narrow financial interests ahead of the players he professes to help.”

Rapidly losing respect for the team over at Full Tilt, the knives have come our from some of the better known pro's - looks like that story has a long way to go.

Event #2: $25,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Holdem Championship is about to kick off with day 3. The final 8:

Matt Marafioti vs Gus Hansen
Jake Cody vs Anthony Guetti
David Paredes vs Yevgeniy Timoshenko
Nikolay Evdakov v Eric Froehlich

Some interesting match ups there. Hansen sent Dwan packing in the last round and Timoshenko is just a monster. The structre is interesting too, players get an inital stack, then two 'rebuy' options which they can use at any time.

We'll probably start to see some players multi tabling as Event #4: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em kicks off today with what looks like a huge field for a $5k - Negreanu, Binger, Shulman and Liv Boeree are among the early chip leaders. Live updates can be found on Pokernews.

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WSOP Day 1 - Phil Ivey not playing WSOP, Bord and Juanda have a scrap

Well, the first 24 hours or so of the WSOP haven’t been without event, that much is for sure.

One thing I forgot to mention in my opening post yesterday was the stick that Full Tilt and other pros who represent sites who are yet to return player money would get from other players.

It was a pretty big oversight, because clearly those who have significant amounts of money tied up in these sites are going to be emotionally charged and in an environment where they are able to confront well known associates of the sites face to face.

It looks like first to create a scene was James Bord, who politely waited around for Jon Juanda to finish his match in the $25k HU event before launching into what appears to be a tirade of abuse at the Full Tilt pro.

Rio security were seen in the lobby giving Bord a hard time about his actions afterwards. Let’s hope there isn’t a hard penalty for his actions despite the fact that they were clearly not the best way to approach any situation that may have occurred.

After the words ‘thieving’ and ‘disgrace’ were heard it sounds like he made a physical threat which I’m sure the Rio security team will have to take seriously. It’s worth noting that Bord is British, so while it’s unlikely any of his own money is held up it’s possible he does have a significant interest in any horses he may have or money owed he’s not getting. There is some speculation that it may not have anything to do with Full Tilt paying out US players.

If Bord and Juanda’s tiff at the Rio was a warm up, then clearly Phil Ivey’s announcement on Facebook was the main event…

To cut a fairly long story short: Phil Ivey isn’t playing in the WSOP this year, and he’s files a law suit against Tiltware, the company that operates Full Tilt Poker.



Phil's statement from Facebook (page can be found here):

For many years, I have been proud to call myself a poker player. This great sport has taken me to places I only imagined going and I have been blessed with much success. It is therefore with deep regret that I believe I am compelled to release the following statement.

I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed. I am equally embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in tournaments and have suffered economic harm.
I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible.

My name and reputation have been dragged through the mud, through the inactivity and indecision of others and on behalf of all poker players I refuse to remain silent any longer. I have electronically filed a lawsuit against Tiltware related to the unsettled player accounts. As I am sure the public can imagine, this was not an easy decision for me.

I sincerely hope this statement will ignite those capable of resolving the problems into immediate action and would like to clarify that until a solution is reached that cements the security of all players, both US and International, I will, as I have for the last six weeks, dedicate the entirety of my time and efforts to finding a solution for those who have been wronged by the painfully slow process of repayment.

The news came by way of Facebook with conformation seemingly from Wicked Chops Poker first after speaking to Phil's agent.

Without the slick PR machine of Full Tilt behind Phil I guess we can forgive the strange medium and approach of the announcement, including the 'PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIAYE RELEASE' on his website.



While some people are complaining about Phil's own self interest or some other agenda he might have I personally have a lot of respect for Phil and this really only cements his reputation as a stand up guy in my opinion.

Tom Dwan has publicly stated (by way of his Twitter account) that he will return all of the money he's made from Full Tilt in the event that players don't get their money back and that he'll be playing the WSOP.

In other news, Joe Sebok arrives tomorrow, that should be interesting...

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...and so it begins

With the Casino Employees event already underway and the $25k HU NLHE starting in a few hours the 2011 WSOP is underway.

Who will win their first bracelet? Who will win more than one bracelet this year? What prop bets will be won and lost over the coming weeks? Will Black Friday have a significant impact on prelim event field sizes? How about the main event? Will a well known pro make the final table in the main event?

All this and more to be answered in the next six weeks...

I'll be updating at various points on interesting events, prop bets, results and anything else I find interesting. It's unlikely I'll be in Vegas this year due to work commitments so I'll be updating the blog to help me cope.

BOOM - Poker Documentry Trailer

More great work from Ryan Firpo, Jay Rosenkrantz and Taylor Caby.

From what I understand there are a number of high stakes cash game players involved in the project, both in content and in financing.

You can see the trailer here:

They started producing/filming this before Black Friday, so my hat goes off to them for adjusting the content and coninuing with the project.

AP/UB File For Bankruptcy

Well, I can't say I'm surprised.

I never really played at either site, mostly because when I first tried back in 2007 I didn't really like the software and beyond that everything that was widely reported on various news sites and forums put me off for good. Other sites had great software, great games and great support, so there was no reason to play at either.

I really don't think people should have been playing there. I understand that many of the players may not have known, and not everyone reads ITH/2+2 or other sites they would have seen the news and details on but many people played there simply because it was soft and the games were better than they were elsewhere.

I don't believe that these people deserve to lose thier money in any way, because nobody does, but if you were educated on the matter (and you have to assume that most people with big balances were) then you really should have known better.

Sadly, for those with large balances trying to sell at ~15c on the dollar: I don't even think your funds there are worth that.

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'Federated Sports' Poker League Season 1

The roster for the first season of the Annie Duke/Jeffrey Pollack has been announced and it's actually better than I expected.

While I still don't agree that someone can just decide to set this up and call it what they have, it's clear they have put a significant amount of effort into the writing the criteria to get the players they want.

Criteria as follows:

The 5 Year Card was awarded to 27 players who met the following criteria:
- At least $4.0 million in adjusted lifetime earnings, with the single largest win capped at $2.0 million
- At least 3 major lifetime titles
- At least 9 cashes since January 1, 2008, for a total of at least $600,000 won

The 3 Year Card was awarded to 55 players who met the following criteria:
- At least $2.5 million in adjusted lifetime earnings, with the single largest win capped at $1.5 million
- At least 1 major lifetime title
- At least 9 cashes since January 1, 2008, for a total of at least $500,000 won

The 2 Year Category A Card was awarded to 36 players who met the following criteria:
- At least $2 million in adjusted lifetime earnings, with the single largest win capped at $1 million
- At least 1 major lifetime title
- At least 6 cashes since January 1, 2008, for a total of at least $300,000 won

The 2 Year Category B Card was awarded to XX players who met the following criteria:
- At least $1.25 million in adjusted lifetime earnings, with the single largest win capped at $750,000
- At least 9 cashes since January 1, 2008, for a total of $600,000 won

It is of course a shame to see no consideration of cash game play or online tournament results but adding either of those means a lot more work (if it's even possible in the case of cash game play) so I can see why they have restricted it to live tournament results.

From the Bluff article:

'For a tournament to qualify it must have been an open tournament with a buy-in of at least $1,500 and the field had to be a minimum of 21 players. The event must also have been publicly announced for at least 30 days prior to starting.'

So none of those 18 man SNG's with $100k buy-ins that get announced a day before are going to count, which is definitely a good thing.

It will be interesting to see how many players will actually turn out to play in these tournaments. I think we can assume that a field of some of the best players in the world with none of the casual and non-professional players that make live tournaments actually worth playing might put some players off.

We may end up with fairly small field tournaments with someone like Mike Matusow or Men Nguyen able to claim to be the 'best in the world' after beating a field of 50 players, which would be a shame.

Personally I think the best talent sits in the '2 Year Category B Card' list which contains people like Christian Harder, Jimmy Fricke, Andrew Robl and Peter Jetten. I'll take them over the Phil Hellmuth/Howard Lederer type players any day.

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Seiborg (feat. Erik Seidel)

Just in case anyone hasn't seen this yet, excelent work from SrslySirius, DRybes and the team behind The Micros:

Seiborg

Looks like Erik Seidel has been a great sport in helping create this. I'm not sure if this is the only/main video but I'm surprised it's only been viewed 25,000 times since April 29th.

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US Players Starting To Get Money Back

Great news that PokerStars has started to pay out to US players who are no longer able to play on the site.

Reports are that withdrawals are processing with little or no problems.

This should ease some of the concern around smaller numbers at the WSOP this year and give lots of players hope that funds from other sites will be recovered.

I wonder what all the players with huge balances will do with the money? I'm sure we'll hear some great tales of degeneracy in the coming months.

Fingers crossed for those with money in Full Tilt and AP/UB.

This is a great boost to me personally as the majority of the players I back play on Stars (In addition to non-US facing sites) so while I still face some interesting transfer issues now that 'ship it to me online' is no longer an option I'm glad the money is back in safe hands.

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Online Poker Advertising

It's really weird seeing adverts from poker rooms like Sky Poker, Betfair and some other smaller sites on forums and other poker related sites. They were so much a part of the furniture that they really jump out at me, I'm so used to seeing the same banners and logos everywhere.

I guess if you remove the two biggest sites everyone else can afford to enter the market where advertising is concerned.

I wonder if we'll see a bunch more sites putting patches on players at the WSOP this year? Could be a nice opportunity for a site with a decent marketing budget to get some great exposure.

US Facing Poker Sites

I have received a number of emails in the last couple of days offering great deposit bonuses and other deals to encourage people to play at the poker sites still able to accept US players.

I'm not American so it makes no difference to me, but for anyone who is I'd strongly advise that you don't deposit on these sites. While some of the bigger sites have been able to cut deals to potentially release funds, I can't see the smaller sites negotiating the return of players money.

The sites emailing these offers really don't have your best interests at heart, as they'll get a percentage of your rake or a one off sign up bonus when you sign up and deposit through them.

They have nothing to lose, you do.

DOJ Gives Domain Names Back

Good news from the DOJ press release, looks like FTP and Stars are getting domain names back to facilitate the return of funds to US players.

The document suggests there was an agreement, looking forward to hearing what that was.

UB and AP not named, as much as I dislike the sites I'd prefer for people who have money there, however silly that might have been, to get it back.

Info from Kevmath on Twitter.

The Fallout and the Future

Over the last could of days I’ve read various blogs and forum posts about the ‘Poker Apocalypse’ and I agree with most of what’s being said. I think that in some cases people may be over reacting a bit (on Friday people were suggesting a worldwide shutdown was coming within 48 hours) but overall players and the poker media have been fairly objective and relatively calm given the situation.

However, the one thing I have to disagree with that I’ve seen written in a number of places is that the removal of PokerStars and Full Tilt from the market (temporary or otherwise) could be a good thing. I understand the angle people are coming from, if you remove the two biggest sites you remove the fact that they have somewhat of a monopoly on the market.

The problem is that these sites are where they are because they are good at what they do. I’m sure everyone has had their problems with support at these sites over the years, but they are generally very quick to respond and helpful when they do. These two sites have set the bar in almost every respect, from tournaments and cash games to new concepts like rush poker, multi entry tournaments and double or nothings. Their size, profitability and volume of players allows them to try new things, develop new concepts and invest in the software, support teams and players.

Also, it’s not like there is the pool of players knocking around online and they just so happen to pick FTP or Stars. In most cases it’s one of these two sites that actually got people online to play poker on the internet in the first place. They run TV shows as headline sponsors, they run adverts in traditional media, magazines, websites and they have done a great job of adopting social media.

They also do a great job of retaining players with their frequent player programmes and rakeback. While I’m still bitter at the fact that I don’t get rakeback at FTP, Stars has kept me playing there with frequent deposit bonuses, VIP instant rewards and FPP bonuses.

Let’s not forget that they have had competition in the US (and continue to do so in Europe and the rest of the world) and Doyles Room, Cake Poker and the like have failed to capture enough of the market to make them anywhere near as competitive.
It’s also important to note that they have always had major competition, each other. When FTP decided to try to break the world record for the number of entrants in a tournament, Stars decided to beat them the week after. When you’re lucky enough to make a feature or final table in a big live tournament you do have at least two options most of the time on who to represent.

I have no affiliation with these sites, don’t have an advertising interests and the reason I’m not talking about UB/AP is because I don’t play there, and haven’t since all the original superuser details came out.
I’m all for competition and healthy competition clearly has its advantages for players and the poker media, but let’s not get carried away with what we want to see in the future.

After all, nobody was complaining when they were still around.

PokerStars Big Game Canceled

I'm sure there will be more shows and other media axed as I said in my post a few days ago, but I've just read that the PokerStars Big Game might not be back and that makes me sad.

It's a real shame because it was a fantastic concept and I liked the range of players they had on. I really enjoy High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark but they do feature a lot of the same players. It was great to see some decent online high stakes pros mix it up with the old guard and the loose cannon.

I'm a huge Huff & Stapes fan and I have to admit I actually quite like Gobboboy too, so I'm gutted to see such talent come off TV so soon after it got going. Hopefully they'll land on their feet and find something else soon.

It's a sign of things to come unfortunately.

Severity of DOJ Online Poker Charges

There seems to be growing speculation that the charges brought against the individuals involved in Stars. Full Tilt and UB/AP could have wider reaching consequences for the sites than initially thought, namely that they may actually end in the shutdown of all three major online poker sites.

It seems like a genuine threat, which is very concerning. The speculation is being lead by the money laundering charges. These are the most serious because regardless of your stance on online poker or gambling in general money laundering is a very serious crime. It’s unlikely that the DOJ would even have pursued the case if it were not for the money laundering part from what I’ve read.

So while we’re (and I’m referring to non-US players) all breathing a sigh of relief that we can still play poker and the games haven’t been effected in a devastating way, we could be in for a shock some time soon if this is pursued.

As I said in my previous post, sites like Party are in great shape at the moment, and even more so if the DOJ is planning to bring the hammer down. Only time will tell if their patience, and money, will pay off.