Poker News

JP Kelly in control…

JP Kelly, baseball cap and oversized headphones, continues to find chips gravitating his way and his stack has increased 70,000 during today’s play. Hunched over his palatial stack he looks like a man who means business. He leads the pack with a monstrous 170,000 chips, picking off short stacks left, right and centre.

Schedule Announced for WSOP Atlantic City Circuit Event

Most poker enthusiasts are currently thinking about their plans for World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) or the World Poker Tour (WPT) event currently running at the Borgata in Atlantic City.  However, those who like to plan ahead are already setting their sights on another upcoming Atlantic City tournament series, the World Series of Poker Circuit Event (WSOPC) at Harrah’s in December.

This week, WSOPC staff released the official schedule of events and the series will offer 17 different tournaments during its run from December 4th through 20th.  The tournaments will range in length from one to three days and feature buy-ins from $230 to $5,150.  That largest buy-in is for the WSOPC Atlantic City’s Three-Day Deep Stack Main Event taking place from the 13th to the 15th.

Those participating in the Main Event will receive 30,000 chips with the blinds beginning at 25/50.  Each level will last 60 minutes with a 15-minute break after every two levels and play extending to 90 minutes per level once the final table is reached.  The Main Event is not the only tournament featuring the deep-stacked structure, though.  There will also be $1,600 and $2,150 tournaments taking place after the start of the Main Event.  They will retain the same hour-long levels and blind structure of the Main Event with 20,000 and 25,000 chip starting stacks, respectively.

Whoever takes down the Main Event will join an impressive list of previous WSOPC winners who have found success in Atlantic City.  The WSOPC swings through Atlantic City twice every year with stops at Harrah’s and Caesars Palace.  Some of the former winners at both locations include John Racener, Eric “sheets” Haber, and Brent “Astrolux85″ Roberts.  Roberts is the defending Harrah’s Atlantic City WSOPC Main Event Champion and recently made online poker news when he took down PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Event #36, a $530 buy-in No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys event.

The Harrah’s Atlantic City event will be the fourth stop on the WSOPC.  The latest season kicks off next month with a newly introduced series at the Horseshoe in Hammond, Indiana.  That series will run from October 16th to 25th. Then, the WSOPC will host events at Horseshoe Southern Indiana and Harveys Lake Tahoe before settling in for the December events at Harrah’s Atlantic City.

Here is the complete schedule of events for the upcoming WSOPC Harrah’s Atlantic City series (all events start at 11:00am local time unless stated otherwise):

Fri 12/4 – Event #1: $300 + $40 No Limit Hold’em (2 day event)
Sat 12/5 – Event #2: $500 + $60 No Limit Hold’em (2 day event)

Sun 12/6 – Event #3: $300 + $40 No Limit Hold’em (2 day event)
Mon 12/7 – Event #4: $200 + $30 No Limit Hold’em (1 day event)
Tue 12/8 – Event #5: $500 + $60 No Limit Hold’em (2 day event)
Wed 12/9 - Event #6: $200 + $30 No Limit Hold’em (1 day event)
Thu 12/10 – Event #7: $300 + $40 No Limit Hold’em (2 day event)
Fri 12/11 – Event #8: $1,000 + $80 No Limit Hold’em (2 day event)
Sat 12/12 – Event #9: $300 + $40 Ladies No Limit Hold’em (1 day event)
Sun 12/13 – Event #10 Main Event: $4,900 + $250 No Limit Hold’em (3 day event)
Mon 12/14 – Event #11: $200 + $30 No Limit Hold’em (1 day event)
Tue 12/15 – Event #12: $1,500 + $100 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (3 day event)
Wed 12/16 – Event #13: $200 + $30 No Limit Hold’em (1 day event)
Thu 12/17 – Event #14: $300 + $40 No Limit Hold’em (2 day event)
Fri 12/18 – Event #15: $2,000 + $150 Deep Stack No Limit Hold’em (3 day event)
Sat 12/19 – Event #16: $300 + $40 No Limit Hold’em (2 day event)
Sun 12/20 – Event #17: $1035 + $65 2010 WSOP Satellite (1 day event)

WPT Borgata Poker Open Attracts Over 1,000 Players

A $3,500 buy-in attracted over 1,000 players to the Borgata Poker Open, a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT) circuit. As of Noon ET on Sunday, 1,003 players had entered, which included the 326 player field from Day 1A.

Over 675 players had thrown their hats into the ring on Day 1B. The tournament coincides with World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe festivities in London, but still attracted a bevy of poker superstars to the East Coast casino. At the end of Day 1A, Frank Molinari stood tall over the rest of the field with 169,000 chips. Hot on his heels was Jeremy Brown, who will come armed to Day 2 on Monday with 156,425. One of the top pros to survive Day 1A was Steve Brecher, the champion of the Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament during Season VII of the WPT. Brecher also made a final table during Season II of the WPT, taking sixth in the end-of-season Championship event for $232,000.

Among those making waves on Day 1A was 2008 WSOP November Nine member David “Chino” Rheem. A former WPT Champion, Rheem ascended to the top of the chip counts during play on Saturday, but found himself out of the tournament following the dinner break. Rheem ran a rivered flush into quad deuces after an error by Sonny Waila on the turn resulted in a string bet. Rheem bet the river after making a flush, but his opponent’s pocket twos had him dominated. Rheem pushed with a flush draw on the very next hand, but it failed to materialize against an opponent’s pocket aces.

Others who took to the felts on Day 1A were Ultimate Bet pro Michael Binger, Matt Matros, Kathy Liebert, and Nancy Todd Tyner. Holding one of the largest chip stacks after the first of two starting days is Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, a two-time WPT event winner. Little took down the Season VI Mirage Poker Showdown for $1.1 million and promptly emerged victorious from the field in the Foxwoods World Poker Finals last season for another $1.1 million. He is fresh off an eighth place showing in the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic for nearly $40,000.

Action has already kicked off on Day 1B, with WPT officials proudly promoting the presence of several pros at the Borgata. Among them are Bill Gazes, Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Bernard Lee, Allen Kessler, Bluff Online Poker Challenge winner Brian “SN8WMAN” Hawkins, and noted poker coach David “The Maven” Chicotsky. Also in the house are Season IV WPT Player of the Year Gavin Smith, Roy Winston, and bracelet winner Brian Lemke.

Players at the Borgata Poker Open start with 30,000 chips and blinds begin at 25-50, meaning each player starts with 600 big blinds. Levels last 75 minutes each, with a dinner break taking place after Level 6. Antes kick in during Level 5, when blinds are 100-200. First place will likely come with a $1 million payday despite the shrunken buy-in of just $3,500. Typical buy-ins for WPT tournaments are at least $10,000.

The four-figure turnout is a welcome sight for WPT officials, who have watched attendance drop steadily at recent tournaments. Attendance for last month’s Legends of Poker stop in Los Angeles was down 25% year over year to just 279 runners. The Bellagio Cup featured 268 players in attendance, down a staggering 40% from the field that took to the felts in 2008. The WPT was recently sold to a subsidiary of Party Gaming, potentially leading to a greater presence of the brand in the online marketplace. WPT Host Mike Sexton serves as the ambassador of PartyPoker, Party Gaming’s online poker arm.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the WPT Borgata Poker Open.

We have a definitive chip leader

Having won a large pot not too long ago when his pair of tens held against AK to take him up to 30,000 chips, Richard Kellett has just won the largest pot of the tournament thus far.

We have a definitive chip leader

Having won a large pot not too long ago when his pair of tens held against AK to take him up to 30,000 chips, Richard Kellett has just won the largest pot of the tournament thus far.

Early Birds hit the rail on Day 1a of Event #1

After losing a third of his stack very early on - when his pocket sevens ran into pocket aces on a flop showing three kings - Phil ‘the Poker Brat’ Hellmuth sat patiently, cross-armed, and in his usual stiff upright position, waiting for his moment to offload his remaining 1,000 chips.

Michael Tureniec Leads English Poker Open Final

The English Poker Open final table was set at Nottingham’s premier poker venue, Dusk Til Dawn, last night. Leading the nine is Swedish pro Michael Tureniec, sitting atop a gargantuan stack of 405,000 chips.

Thomas Bichon Wins WPT Cyprus

French pro Thomas Bichon outlasted a field of 181 players to win the inaugural World Poker Tour (WPT) Merit Cypus Classic on Sunday. Bichon collected his first WPT title and a prize of $579,165 after six days of grueling play.

The event, held at the luxurious travel destination in the Mediterranean, attracted many of the game’s most familiar names, including Patrik Antonius, Allen Cunningham, John Juanda, Mike Matusow, Eli Elezra, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Annette Obrestad, Jeffrey Lisandro, Dan Harrington, Huck Seed, Antonio Esfandiari, Layne Flack, and November Nine member James Akenhead.

Day 1A of the event brought together 91 players and John Tabatabai ended play with the lead, bagging up 178,275 chips. Ludovic Lacay (140,780) and Tommy Vedes (122,125) trailed Tabatabai on the leaderboard. Day 1B drew another 90 entrants, generating a total prize pool of $1,755,700. Phil Gordon led the way as play ended with 157,000 chips. Jan Skampa (156,000) and Andreas Haden (138,000) finished close on his heels.

The 125 survivors from Day 1 joined together on Day 2 and more than half the field perished, including Tabatabai and Gordon. Leading the 55 players that survived the day was Nenad Medic with 277,000. Medic made a strong push at the end of the night to pass Rony Jazzar and Antony Lellouche for the chip lead. Other survivors in good shape were Vedes, Huck Seed, and Flack.

Day 3 played down to the final 21 before play concluded and, this time, it was Flack who soared to the chip lead, holding 915,000. Rep Porter was second going into Day 4 with 812,000, while Seed, Flack, Jazzar, Medic, and Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little were among the top 10.

With the top 18 players making money, it took just two levels to burst the bubble on Day 5. The unfortunate player left out was Anthony Aboukhalil, who moved all-in for his last 20,000 chips with Kc-6c and was called by Antony Lellouche’s As-Qh. The board was no help to Aboukhalil and he was eliminated in 19th place on the money bubble.

Day 5 wasn’t kind to the big names left in the field. Flack was the first to go in 10th place ($20,760); he was followed by Medic (ninth for $27,680) and Little (eighth for ($38,940). With the final table just one spot away, Huck Seed pushed the last of his stack in with Ad-Jd and Thomas Bichon called with Ks-Qd. Seed was left drawing thin after a Queen hit the flop and he was unable to improve, leaving the tournament in seventh place for $56,240.

The final six were in place for Sunday’s final table. Here’s how it looked going into the day:

Seat1: Thomas Bichon - 1.08 million
Seat 2: Steve Fung - 732,000
Seat 3: Uri Keidar - 1.75 million
Seat 4: Rony Jazzar - 1.80 million
Seat 5: Janar Kiivramees - 727,000
Seat 6: Rep Porter - 1.12 million

Jazar was the first casualty of the final table. On a board of Qs-7s-2h-5d, Jazzar pushed all-in with Kc-Qd for top pair and Keidar called with 8s-6s for flush and straight draws. The 10s river gave Keidar his flush and Jazzar was sent to the rail with $73,535.

Play slowed down quite a bit after Jazzar’s elimination, but Kiivramees (fifth place, $90,835) and Porter (fourth, $121,115) were the next to exit. Porter doubled his short stack several times, but eventually Keidar finished him off when Uri’s Ah-9h held up against Porter’s Kh-Jh. Keidar increased his stack to 1.6 million, but was well behind Bichon, the leader with more than five million. Meanwhile, Fung was nursing a 500,000 chip stack.

With the blinds eating away at his stack, Fung was forced to call an all-in bet out of the big blind with 9d-5d and found himself in bad shape against the Jd-5c of Bichon. Fung’s hand failed to get better and he exited with $216,275 for his third place finish.

Heads-up play between Bichon and Keidar lasted just two hands. First, Bichon limped on the button and Keidar pushed, inducing a fold from Bichon. On the second hand, with Bichon holding more than a 3-1 edge, Keidar raised to 350,000 and Bichon moved all-in. Keidar took some time before calling off his remaining 1.4 million with Jh-10d and was in a coin flip situation against Bichon’s pocket sevens.

Bichon took control when the flop brought As-Ks-7c, giving him a set and leaving Keidar needing a queen to stay alive. The 10h turn and 3s river were no help to Keidar and Bichon was crowned the champion of the inaugural WPT Merit Cyprus Classic. Here were the final results:

1st Place: Thomas Bichon - $579,165
2nd Place: Uri Keidar - $380,645
3rd Place: Steven Fung - $216,275
4th Place: Rep Porter - $121,115
5th Place: Janar Kiivramees - $90,835
6th Place: Rony Jazzar - $73,535

Poker News in Brief: Sept. 7-13, 2009

EPT Barcelona wrapped up with Carter Phillips winning over $1.2 million for taking down first place while the WCOOP continued to bring some impressive numbers to the virtual felt.

There are always stories that don't make the front page of PokerListings.com, however, and as part of an ongoing feature we've compiled a list of them for you to peruse below.

This week we'll be taking a look at the other major online poker series going on this week, the WPT in Cyprus, a unique tournament at the Commerce Casino, four floor managers who proved crime doesn't pay and a well-known Team PokerStars Pro taking down a WCOOP event.

Frenchman wins in Cyprus

The World Poker Tour's first trip to Cyprus wrapped up this weekend with French pro Thomas Bichon taking the title and $579,165 first place prize.

The $10,300 tournament drew 181 players to the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino in Cyprus and some rather big names made the final ten.

However, Huck Seed, Jonathan Little, Nenad Medic and Layne Flack all busted on the tournament's second to last day before the final table was set.

David and Goliath: MiniFTOPS vs. WCOOP

Not to be outdone by PokerStars' WCOOP event, Full Tilt Poker has gone in a decidedly different direction this September.

Instead of offering a complete Full Tilt Online Poker Series, FTP started running MiniFTOPS XIII on Sept. 9 and it will run to Sept. 20.

MiniFTOPS are almost identical to FTOPS events except for the buy-ins.

Every MiniFTOPS event carries a buy-in that is exactly 1/10 the size of a regular FTOPS event.

Buy-ins for the 25 events range from $11 to $250. Some of the events have some respectable prize pools with the main event weighing in at an impressive $500,000 guaranteed.

Check out the complete schedule over at Full Tilt Poker.

Four Planet ((Hollywood poker)) managers arrested

Four Las Vegas casino floor managers were arrested this week in a scam that saw them take $2,201 in fake jackpots.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, Jonathan Sanner, Jason Peterson, Thomas Kordick and Scott Marshall worked in the poker room at Planet Hollywood and are accused of creating fake identities to award jackpots to themselves.

Surveillance staff at Planet Hollywood noticed that none of the fictitious players had ever played in the poker room.

All four managers were arrested by the Gaming Control Board officers and Las Vegas Police.

Commerce Casino holding Iron Man tournament

The Commerce Hold'em Series, which runs Sept. 10-27, is underway in L.A and there are some very unique events on the schedule.

On Sept. 23 the Commerce will be hosting an "Ironman" tournament, which will give players 10,000 chips, one hour levels and blinds moving at a snail's pace.

The catch? Absolutely no breaks.

The entire tournament will play from start to finish with no interruptions. The casino will provide three meals at the tables, but other than that players are on their own.

The tournament will only be paying the final table and 50% of the prizepool will be going to first place.

For more information check the Commerce website here.

George Danzer wins WCOOP event

The pros continue to perform well at the 2009 WCOOP. Just days after Raymond Davis took down his first WCOOP title in Badugi, Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer accomplished a similar feat by winning the WCOOP Short-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha event.

The German outlasted 975 players and a tough final table that included WPT winner Shawn "buck21" Buchanan to take down a first-place prize of $109,545.

It was Danzer's first WCOOP win and also the biggest score of his career.

The 2009 WCOOP runs all the way until Sept. 20 when PokerStars will host the two-day No-Limit Hold'em main event with $10 million guaranteed.

Visit PokerListings.com

Final Table looms at WPT Cyprus

Day Four at WPT Cyprus was a very short affair with play for the day wrapped up after just two levels. At the end of play the 21 starters had been whittled down to ten with American Rep Porter holding the big stack with almost 1.8m chips, a lead of 800,000 chips over closest rival Jonathan Little.

High Heels Poker Tour Signs Sponsorship Deal With PokerStars

Poker has traditionally been a masculine pursuit, but women have been making inroads into the game since the boom earlier this century. One only has to look at Annie Duke’s performance in the first WSOP Tournament of Champions or Vanessa Rousso’s runner-up finish at this year’s National Heads Up Poker Championship to realize that women are a formidable part of today’s poker world. A tournament schedule to promote female participation in the game, the High Heels Poker Tour, recently signed on PokerStars as a sponsor to further the number of women who participate in poker.

In an announcement late last week, PokerStars will help to support the tournaments that make up the HHPT schedule from this point on. “PokerStars has all of the attributes in a online partner that female players crave…an incredible variety of quick, entertaining games that range from low buy in sit and goes and cash games to serious tournament play, all in an environment where women can learn the game, develop their skills, and truly become champions”, Lauren Failla, founder of the High Heels Poker Tour, stated during the announcement. “With champions like Vanessa Rousso, Katja Thater, and Vicky Coren, our players have a whole new set of role models to emulate and challenge, online and at the tables.” As a part of the new sponsorship with PokerStars, the High Heels Poker Tour will be conducting their Grand Final as a part of the festivities of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure at the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas this January.

The first HHPT event, which was held on August 22nd at the Turning Stone Resort Casino, was won by Texas’ Kathy Talerico and leads into what will be a hectic two months of action on the HHPT schedule. After New York, the tour heads south to Florida, where four tournaments are set to take place across the state.

First up for the players on the HHPT is Dania, FL, and a $125 buy in tournament at Dania Jai-Alai. Set to begin at 4PM on September 12th, players will start out with 6000 chips and play down to a champion that evening. After the Dania tournament, players on the HPPT will have the opportunity to relax before heading into a three tournament run in the month of October.

On October 2nd, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino will play host to the High Heels Poker Tour in Hollywood, FL. The tournament is scheduled to start at 6:30PM and, as of yet, the starting chip stacks haven’t been determined. The Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is demonstrating its support of the HHPT by making their tournament a prominent part of its “Main Event Tournament Week” schedule. The month of October finishes off with a couple of charitable outreaches by the HHPT with a trip to Tampa Bay Downs on October 10th for the “Battle of the Sexes To Battle Breast Cancer” and the organization will be in charge of the poker activities at the Trump International Beach Resort on October 17th for a benefit for the Friends of the Israel Defense Fund Casino Night.

The High Heels Poker Tour will be looking to expand to several different locations in 2010. While dates are not yet locked in for the tournaments, the HHPT is in discussion with such casinos as the Horseshoe in Hammond, Indiana, Harvey’s Lake Tahoe in Nevada, the Canadian Poker Expo in Toronto, Canada and others to hold HHPT events.

The High Heels Poker Tour also holds their very own Academy, with 2010 dates to be announced soon, that assists in teaching the game to more women. Such popular female players as Women In Poker Hall of Fame members Barbara Enright, Susie Issacs and Marsha Waggoner, along with current pros Kristy Gazes, Karina Jett and Joanne “J. J.” Liu, offer the wealth of their experience for other female players to learn from. For more information on the organization, visit the High Heels Poker Tour website to learn more.

Sumpas Claims WCOOP High Roller Title; ternoplayer Wins Event #9

It was a busier Sunday than normal on the virtual poker felts as the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) recommenced with three events, two of which played down to a champion early Monday morning. The $215 No Limit Hold ‘em (Event #9) drew a field of 11,131 players, while the $10,300 No Limit Hold ‘em High Roller (Event #10) attracted nearly 300 of the wealthiest and most respected poker players in the world.

The $10,300 High Roller Event easily surpassed its $2 million guarantee as 299 entrants produced a prize pool of $2,990,000. A first-place prize of $611,455 of was on the line as well as the coveted WCOOP gold bracelet, which was won by Scott “dorinvandy” Dorin in the High Rollers event in 2008.

Several Team PokerStars Pro members participated in the tournament, including Chris Moneymaker, Joe Hachem, Peter Eastgate, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso, Ylon Schwartz, Steve Paul-Ambrose, J.C. Alvarado, Katja Thater, William Thorson, Dennis Phillips, Alexandre Gomes, and Hevad Khan. Fellow team member John Duthie made the final table, taking eighth place for $74,750.

The final table was loaded with big names as it formed late into the night. Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul entered with the chip lead, while Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman, Peter “Belabacsi” Traply, Mike “Sowerss” Sowers and Dustin “DDBeast” Dorrance-Bowman were among the others vying for the title.

Sumpas, hailing from Sweden, took the chip lead into three-handed play and eliminated Saul shortly after Saul declined a three-way chip chop of the remaining prize money. With the blinds at 5,000/10,000 and a 1,250 ante, Sumpas raised to 21,400 on the button and Saul re-raised to 56,530 from the small blind. Sowers folded his big blind and Sumpas called to see a flop of Ad-Qs-3h. Saul checked, Sumpas fired 46,500 into the pot and Saul called. The 3d fell on the turn and Saul check-called again, this time a bet of 125,000. The river brought the 10h and Saul checked to Sumpas for a third time. The Swede moved all in, putting Saul to a decision for his remaining 453,000 chips. Saul took some time before deciding to call with Ac-8s for aces up, but Sumpas tabled Kd-Jd for a rivered straight to scoop the pot and send Saul on his way with $337,870.

Sumpas had a 5-1 chip lead over Sowers going into heads up play but the short stack battled for nearly an hour before ending his tournament on a bluff. On a board of Ks-4s-4d Sumpas bet 30,000 and Sowers check-raised to 90,000. Sumpas re-raised to 165,000 and Sowers moved all in for 748,250. Sumpas called with Kd-Tc, which had the Jh-10d of Sowers drawing nearly dead. The 7s turn and 3d river sealed the deal for Sumpas, who earned a WCOOP bracelet and $611,455 for his victory. Sowers walked away with $448,500.

The massive score was the biggest ever online for Sumpas, who also made the final table of last year’s WCOOP Main Event, taking sixth place for $415,150. Here’s a look at the final results of WCOOP Event #10:

1. Sumpas - $611,455
2. Mike “Sowerss” Sowers - $448,500
3. Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul - $337,870
4. Scott “SCTrojans” Freeman - $254,150
5. Peter “Belabacsi” Trapley - $173,420
6. Kevin “KevBoyStar” Stani - $134,550
7. Matias “Festivuss” Gabrenja - $104,650
8. John Duthie - $74,750
9. Dustin “DDBeast” Dorrance-Bowman - $56,810

Event #9 more than doubled its guarantee as an astounding number of players took part in the $215 No Limit Hold ‘em tournament on Sunday. The 11,131 generated a prize pool of $2,260,200, with the winner collecting $303,876.

It was a long, protracted day for the nine players that reached the final table. The tournament began at 1:00 ET Sunday afternoon and play didn’t conclude until after 8:00 a.m. The final table lacked the power punch of the High Rollers Event but high-stakes tournament specialist Grayson “graybone” Nichols managed to take fifth place for $89,048.

When heads-up play began Slovakia’s ternoplayer was at a considerable chip disadvantage to France’s maxisou, but the tables turned quickly. Ternoplayer doubled up holding As-Qc against maxisou’s Ah-3s and then gained the chip lead by winning a few small pots. On the final hand, maxisou raised in position preflop and ternoplayer called. The two saw a flop of Qs-Js-5h and ternoplayer checked to maxisou, who led out for 1.6 million. Ternoplayer raised to 4 million and maxisou moved all in for around 18 million. Ternoplayer called with Kc-Qd and had his opponent’s Jc-8h in bad shape. The 8d landed on to turn to give maxisou the lead but the river brought the Kd, giving ternoplayer the pot, the WCOOP title and the first-place payday of $303,876.

WCOOP Event #9 Results:

1. ternoplayer - $303,876
2. maxisou - $214,828
3. micha88 - $155,834
4. r&g2007 - $111,310
5. Grayson “graybone” Nichols - $89,048
6. akilam77 - $66,786
7. PanjoDeLuxe - $44,524
8. masterpice - $22,262
9. SoulMaster7 - $13,913

Richard Toth Triumphs in Inaugural WPT Slovakia Event

When the World Poker Tour ( WPT ) first announced it would be adding a stop in Slovakia for its eighth season, it was unclear how many big name pros would be willing to travel to Bratislava to participate in the event.  The final numbers for last week’s Main Event were at a modest 100, but there were still some recognizable faces in the field and at the final table.

The €4,400 buy-in event was held at the Golden Vegas Casino in Bratislava in tandem with the Slovak Poker Sport Federation.  The event will not be televised in the United States, but the WPT did add a little taste of the States to the event by flying in noted tournament director Steve Frezer and his crew to oversee all the tournament action.

Some of the other imports who came in for the event were American PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso, Full Tilt Pro Gus “The Great Dane” Hansen, DoylesRoom pro Alec “traheho” Torelli and 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Peter “Belabacsi” Traply of Hungary.

Both Torelli and Traply found themselves at the final table of the event, which is familiar territory for the two pros.  Torelli finished in 4th place at the WPT season-opening Bellagio Cup V, earning $271,165 and made an appearance at the televised final table of the $40,000 buy-in anniversary event of the WSOP back in May.  He finished in 6th place in that event for $329,730.  So far this year, Torelli has won $695,291.

Traply has had an equally successful run.  In April of this year he made the final table of the European Poker Tour’s Grand Finale at Monte Carlo, finishing in 8th place for $241,238.  Then, in June, the young Hungarian took down the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout Event at the WSOP for $348,755.  The achievement was a benchmark not just for Traply, but for his country as it was Hungary’s first-ever WSOP title.

Hungary had a strong showing in Slovakia as well.  Traply was joined at the final table by fellow Hungarian Richard Toth.  According to Czech poker site Pokerzive.cz, Traply was the extreme short stack heading into final table play while Torelli came in with the chip lead.  Here are the complete chip counts from the start of the final table:

Seat 1: Alec Torelli (1,064,000 chips)
Seat 2: Richard Toth (781,000 chips)
Seat 3: Boris Zelený (469,000 chips)
Seat 4: Sa?a Sten?i? (439,000 chips)
Seat 5: Marec Tatar (160,000 chips)
Seat 6: Peter Traply (63,000 chips)

An early double up by Traply kept him alive long enough to avoid going out in 6th place.  Marec Tatar, the other short stack at the table, was less fortunate and was the first to fall in 6th place.  Traply’s comeback would be short-lived and he would be the next player eliminated.  Despite beginning the day with the chip lead, Torelli made his exit in 4th, matching his previous WPT final table performance at the Bellagio. In the end it was the other Hungarian, Toth, who would emerge victorious at his first WPT final table.  He earned €104,000 for the win and added a WPT victory to the rapidly growing list of Hungarian poker achievements.

The complete results from the final table are as follows:

1st: Richard Toth - €104,000
2nd: Boris Zelený - €66,000
3rd: Sa?a Sten?i? - €42,000
4th: Alec Torelli - €31,000
5th: Peter Traply - €25,000
6th: Marec Tatar - €20,000

The next WPT international stop in Cyprus is already underway and after only one of two starting days, it appears as if it will draw a substantially larger crowd than its Slovakian counterpart.

Kevin Schaffel Leads WPT Legends of Poker Final Table

The six-handed final table of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Legends of Poker will play out today, with World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine member Kevin Schaffel leading the way. Schaffel owns 2.23 million chips.

Schaffel will have his work cut out for him on Wednesday, as Prahlad Friedman and Toto Leonidas will join him at the feature table. Friedman is a WSOP bracelet holder whose piece of hardware came by virtue of taking down a $1,500 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em event in 2003 for $109,000. Friedman finished 20th in the 2006 WSOP Main Event, a run that was highlighted by being a part of “Antegate” with Jeffrey Lisandro. The Legends of Poker event marks his first WPT final table and he’ll come armed to play with the third largest chip stack.

Leonidas is also making his debut at a televised WPT table and, like Friedman, owns one WSOP bracelet that came in 2003. Leonidas won a $1,500 buy-in Limit Seven Card Stud event that year for $98,000, defeating a stacked final 10 that included two-time bracelet winner Rod Pardey, Jennifer Harman, former WSOP Main Event Champion Scotty Nguyen, and reigning National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Huck Seed. Leonidas has eight WSOP final tables under his belt and is the short-stack entering Wednesday’s play at the Bicycle Casino for the Legends of Poker.

Here is how the final six will look when the cards hit the air at 4:00pm PT:

1. Kevin Schaffel - 2,234,000
2. Todd Terry - 2,219,000
3. Prahlad Friedman - 1,476,000
4. Mike Krescanko - 1,209,000
5. Sam Stein - 743,000
6. Toto Leonidas - 580,000

A total of 24 players took to the felts on Tuesday in the Legends of Poker. The unfortunate title of “Final Table Bubble Boy” went to Vigen Manukyan, who was sent to the rails courtesy of Friedman. Manukyan pushed pre-flop with ducks, but ran into Friedman’s pocket queens. The board ran out K-3-3-8-10 and Manukyan earned $64,000 for his seventh place showing. When the field combined into one table, Manukyan was down to a single big blind and proved that, in poker, all you need is a chip and a chair.

Todd Terry sent Matt Marafioti packing in eighth place, earning $52,000. Marafioti shoved with J-10 pre-flop and Terry made the call, flipping up Q-J. The flop of A-K-2 gave both players straight draws, but a seven and five on the turn and river, respectively, preserved the win for Terry. Manukyan crippled Marafioti on the previous hand after Marafioti’s A-10 fell short of pocket jacks on a 10-high board.

WSOP November Nine member Steven Begleiter made waves in the Legends of Poker, but his run abruptly ended in ninth place. The Full Tilt Poker pro earned $39,000 for his efforts. Begleiter pushed pre-flop holding just K-3 with 25 big blinds remaining, but ran into Terry’s A-Q. The board bricked out for Begleiter, who pointed out at the beginning of play that tournament officials had awarded him an extra 90,000 chips during the color up on Monday night. Begleiter sunk from third place to sixth on the leaderboard as a result of the error, but posters on various poker forums have commended his honesty.

The list of players who fell by the wayside on Tuesday is as follows:

7. Vigen Manukyan - $64,400
8. Matt Marafioti - $52,320
9. Steven Begleiter - $39,240
10. Sergei Veytser - $32,700
11. James Mackey - $32,700
12. Eric Hershler - $32,700
13. Eugene Katchalov - $26,160
14. Thu Nguyen - $26,160
15. Stan Jablonski - $26,160
16. Matt Widdoes - $22,240
17. David Demanski - $22,240
18. Steven Chao - $22,240
19. Carter King - $18,285
20. Bob Lauria - $18,285
21. Tony Gargano - $18,285
22. Kia Mohajeri - $18,285
23. Peter Rho- $18,285
24. Richard Sciuto - $18,285

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for full WPT Legends of Poker results.

Hand Dissection - Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong

Not convinced poker is a game of skill? This article might alter your opinion of No Limit Hold’em as we delve into the mind of one of the top tournament poker players in the world.

Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong took some time with Poker News Daily to discuss a remarkable hand he played against Full Tilt Pro Scott Montgomery during a $5,000 Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) event in January of 2009. Armstrong is a regular in the high-stakes tournament scene, both live and online, and is ranked 31st on the PocketFives.com Worldwide Rankings as of August 20th. He has several massive scores under his belt, including a three-way chop of the first-ever $3,150 buy-in PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) event in April. He collected $380,000 for his work in that two-day tournament. Armstrong also has a victory in the Full Tilt Poker $1K Monday for $105,000 and took 16th in the inaugural $1,000 Stimulus Event at the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $44,801.

His exceptional analysis of this particular hand against Montgomery speaks for itself. Sit back and enjoy:

Hand Setup

Seat 1: Jamie “pokerjamers” Armstrong (28,354)
Seat 2: ScottMontgomery (22,789)
Seat 3: bballer88 (11,547)
Seat 4: BickleAce (21,201)
Seat 5: cliftong (30,922)
Seat 7: SmackGirl (12,958)
Seat 8: WinnerFish (10,508)
Seat 9: kenny05 (13,590)

Blinds are 100/200

Poker News Daily: You’re perceived as a very loose-aggressive player by a lot of your peers. Is that an accurate assessment or is your style dependent on who you’re seated at a table with?

Armstrong: For the most part, I play a loose-aggressive style, but it definitely changes depending on who is seated to my left and right and their stacks, my stack, etc. At the time the hand was played, I don’t think people viewed me as aggressive as they view me now, although I’ve actually tightened up in different situations greatly due to my “crazy” image.

PND: Talk about this table a little bit. Were there any players you were looking to play pots with? Was there anyone you were avoiding?

Armstrong: I may be mistaken, but I would consider this table draw very favorable for a $5K (event). I recognize most of the players to some extent, although over a small sample size, none strike me as very tricky or difficult to play against. The only person I really wanted to avoid playing pots with was Yevgeniy Timoshenko (bballer88). He’s an amazing player, definitely levels above me, and it wouldn’t be very smart to go out of my way to play pots with him out of position. Scott Montgomery also had position on me and I didn’t know much about him besides he’s crazy and not afraid to put a lot of chips in the pot in very weird spots by playing very tricky post-flop. So, I wouldn’t say I was going out of my way to play pots with Scott, but I definitely was ready to get involved with him and take advantage of his spewy nature.

Cards are Dealt

The action folds around to Armstrong on the button and he raises to 550 with 8h-7c. Montgomery calls from the small blind and Timoshenko folds.

PND: With stacks this deep, how often are you raising from the button and with what range of cards?

Armstrong: My button was the best place for me to be opening a wide range of hands; not only because it’s my button, but because it was one of two times an orbit that I had position on the best player at the table as well as the most spewy. I’m not sure what my exact opening range is here, but it’s very wide, even pre-ante. I’m definitely opening any pair, any two broadways, any suited ace, most suited kings, suited connectors, connectors, etc. 8h-7c is pretty close to the bottom of my opening range, though.

PND: What are your thoughts about Scott Montgomery’s game and how wide do you think he’s calling your raise out of the big blind?

Armstrong: I had no prior history with Scott and I am not sure he knows who I am at all. I really don’t know too much about his game, but based primarily on the A-4o hand he played in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, I can tell he likes to make strange plays and put a lot of chips in the pot with no fold equity and very little pot equity. I assume he’s calling a lot of suited connectors, pairs, broadways, suited aces, kings, etc. He’s probably calling even wider than I’m opening the button just because he loves playing pots.

Flop : Kh-Kc-5d

Montgomery checks and Armstrong leads out for 800. Montgomery check-raises to 2,200 and, after some consideration, Armstrong calls.

PND: You fire a continuation bet and Scott thinks for a few moments before putting in a check-raise. Explain your thought process here. You’re not calling because you think your 8-high is ahead, so why do you decide on a call?

Armstrong: When the flop comes K-K-5 rainbow, I immediately decide that I’m just going to shut down at first. The flop is extremely dry, so very few hands hit it. I know Scott realizes this as well so, he expects to take the pot down with a check-raise a high percentage of the time. I was being optimistic and hoped he viewed me as a complete random who wouldn’t play back at him on this flop without a hand. I made a continuation bet clearly hoping to take the pot down there, but also with the plan to flat call a check-raise from Scott. I obviously don’t think my 8-high is good at this point, but felt this would be the best way to represent a King. I could make a 3-bet on the flop, but it really doesn’t seem believable and Scott is going to throw in another raise far too often.

Turn: 2s

Montgomery bets 4,000. Armstrong min-raises to 8,000.

PND: He maintains control by leading out at the turn. You stick with your read and put in a min-raise. Did you initially feel like this would win you the pot?

Armstrong: I know this may seem crazy, but everything stems from the original continuation bet on the flop, which I made with the intention of flatting a check-raise and making a tiny raise if he bet into me on the turn. There are very few turn cards I think he’d check, but most will improve his hand to the point where he’ll now believe he has some showdown value. Hands that won’t beat any hand, I’d call a bet with on the turn, so value betting would be out of the question. Scott would bet any hand he hit on the flop like K-x and 5-5. He made a bet of 4,000 on a complete blank offsuit two, which made no sense to me. There was like 5,500 in the pot and a bet this size is not going to be called by much, so he’s representing basically only 5-5 and I still think he’d make a smaller bet with 5-5 and any King. I decided to min-raise to 8,000, expecting to win the pot a lot of the time. I felt this was my best option on the turn, as flatting creates way too many poor river situations since he could easily fire a third barrel on the river. Folding the turn would make the flop call terrible.

Montgomery min-raises to 12,000, leaving about 8,000 chips left in his stack.

PND: Does the min re-raise startle you at all?

Armstrong: I didn’t expect the min re-raise, but it really only furthered my read that he was completely full of it.

PND: What is it about his line that you aren’t buying at this point?

Armstrong: Everything he did on the turn; the size of his lead and min-reraising made no sense for an actual hand. I was pretty confident he would fold to a shove, which I only had to be a right a decent percentage of the time to make it profitable since there is so much in the pot already. I really thought he was calling me close to zero percent of the time.

Armstrong moves all-in, having Montgomery’s remaining stack covered.

PND: Describe your reasoning behind the shove a bit more. Are you putting him on rags or does your raise look so strong that you feel like you can take him off most of his hands?

Armstrong: The fact that he left a decent amount of chips behind was enough information for me to shove here. I am basically putting him on a complete bluff.

Montgomery goes into the tank and eventually folds. Armstrong shows 8h-7c.

PND: This might be the best bluff I’ve ever seen, made even better by the fact that you show it for the world to see. Is this a once-in-a-lifetime thing or do you have these kinds of plays in your regular arsenal?

Armstrong: I was thrilled that he didn’t call my shove instantly because his range was so extremely polarized that it’s either a snap-call or a snap-fold, so he was just saving face here by timebanking. In the meantime, I rushed to the options tab on Full Tilt to turn off the auto-muck option and was happy to show a pretty absurd bluff. This is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime type of bluff. While I do still make spazzy bluffs that work sometimes, nothing compares to this.

Annie Duke on Memorable WSOP Main Event Moments

Poker News Daily: The 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) will begin airing this week on ESPN. You’ve had a lot of success in the $10,000 buy-in tournament. What are some of your favorite moments?

Duke: I have probably three favorite WSOP Main Event moments. The first one was the very first Main Event I played in, where I got down to three tables. It was incredible. People come in, play for the first time, and they’re nervous. Most poker fans think that the pros have never felt the same way, but we do.

I had been playing for a year at that point, came to WSOP, and did well. I won two seats into the Main Event from satellites. I knocked my brother out on the first day with A-A versus A-K. This was in 1994 and the WSOP Main Event took exactly four days. I was pretty high in chips and was in the top 30 going into Day 2. I woke up and was dry heaving in the sink because of nerves; I was freaking out. ESPN did coverage of the Main Event and they took me aside for an interview, which really freaked me out because I was a little girl.

One of my favorite moments on Day 2 was bluffing a big-name player and being in the top three on the leaderboard. I also took one of the worst beats ever. Getting that deep was awesome, especially without any No Limit Hold’em experience. No Limit Hold’em wasn’t a cash game back then. It wasn’t a game that people played.

PND: Besides your brother, Howard Lederer, do you remember who else you played with in 1994?

Duke: On Day 1, it was the first time I met Humberto Brenes. When I came in for Day 2, John Spadavecchia was at my table. There was a hand where Spadavecchia opened in first position. I had A-Q offsuit and open-fold it. He was a good player and I didn’t want to get involved with A-Q. Another player moved in for a big amount. Then, Spadavecchia called with A-10, which was funny because the other player was tight and turned over kings. I said, “I folded A-Q” and another player said they folded A-4. A ten came on the flop, but the case ace hit on the river. It was a huge reason that Spadavecchia made the final table and finished fourth.

I was moved late in the day to a table with Blair Rodman. There, a guy called “The Pilot” gave me the bad beat. I opened for 5,000 on the button and had 95,000 in chips. He had 65,000 and I was the only player at the table who had him covered. He pushed for 65,000, I snap-called with kings, and he had A-3. He raised to 65,000, his entire stack, with A-3! The ace was the door card, which crippled me.

In 1998, four years later, I was playing a single-table satellite and the same guy was sitting with me. I didn’t say anything about the hand in 1994. This time, I opened for two-fifths of the pot and he moved in on me. I was priced in to call with fives, he had an overpair, and I hit a five. This guy started yelling at me. I screamed, “I’ve been waiting four years to say this to you. You’re yelling at me in a $225 single-table satellite when I was priced in to call! You raised to 65,000 four years ago with A-3!”

PND: That’s quite a story. After 1994, what’s the next Main Event that sticks out in your mind?

Duke: The next Main Event that was memorable for me was in 1997. I actually got knocked out quickly because I flopped set under set. 1997 was the year that Matt Damon and Edward Norton played because they were studying for “Rounders.” The other significant thing about it was that I felt like crap. It was because, unknown to me at the time, I was pregnant with my son. I played fine, but flopped a set of sevens against a set of nines.

At Binion’s, they had a row of tournament tables by the cash game section. It was next to one of the side entry doors. I was playing heads-up with this guy and the tournament officials went on break. Some guy comes off the street, runs into the door, grabs a pile of tournament chips, and runs back outside. He thinks he’s stealing actual chips with cash value, but they were really just tournament chips. There was a huge commotion and the security guards tackled him down the street.

PND: Did you know why Matt Damon and Edward Norton were there?

Duke: I think we knew it had to do with a movie, but we didn’t know what “Rounders” was. If I’m not mistaken, Doyle Brunson knocked out Matt. I met Matt in 2003. I would have never imagined I’d ever meet him for any purpose.

PND: You finished 10th in the 2000 WSOP Main Event. Can you tell us about that tournament?

Duke: In 2000, I was due in two weeks with my third child from when the Main Event began. The very first day, I had a great table. Back then, it was hard to have a great table in the Main Event. They call last hand of the night and I look down to see aces. I’m only at 11,000 chips to start the hand. I thought I’d get knocked out on the last hand of the night with aces. Luckily, I had a guy double me up with K-J. The flop came jack-high and we got our money in. I was one of the chip leaders by Day 3. When it got down to two tables, Chris Ferguson, Hasan Habib, and I all traded 5%. With the 5%, I won another $75,000.

PND: You had another deep run in the 2006 WSOP Main Event and finished 88th out of 8,773 players. Can you tell us about it?

Duke: In 2003, I came in 43rd. That was the year ESPN started filming the WSOP for real. I was the last woman standing, which was a big life-changer for me. I was knocked out with jacks against Jason Lester’s kings and got a lot of coverage on ESPN. That was good timing.

In 2006, the big moment for me was being at the feature table having not slept. We were renting a house and the people next to us were building a pool. At 6:00am, the jackhammers started going, so I came to the feature table on three hours of sleep.

PND: Jamie Gold steamrolled through the 2006 Main Event down the stretch. Did you hear about his run while you were playing?

Duke: On Day 4, I was playing next to Thomas Wahlroos. All I keep hearing is, “All in and a call” over and over again, which wasn’t happening that much at my table. Every time I stand up, it’s Jamie Gold with quads against someone with a full house. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Jamie kept making big hands against someone else with a big hand.

PND: With so many deep runs, it’s no wonder why you love the Main Event.

Duke: The Main Event is a great tournament. I love it. I haven’t made it past Day 1 in three years. This year, I lost two hands to K-6 and didn’t navigate the first day minefield very well. Either you can get a lot of chips or have a disaster happen to you.

PND: What was your take on the triple starting stacks in the 2009 WSOP Main Event?

Duke: I don’t think that changes anything. People play up to the size of their stacks, not down to the size of the blinds. People are willing to make bigger bets after the flop.

PND: Last year’s WSOP festivities aired on ESPN while you were filming “Celebrity Apprentice” in New York. Now that you’ve had a chance to catch up, what stands out the most?

Duke: When the player pushed out his whole stack and then drew it back against Brandon Cantu. Two separate tournament officials ruled that it was OK. It’s one of my favorite WSOP moments. On the East Coast, they have forward motion rules. When someone pulls their stack so far forward and completely across an imaginary betting line - you just can’t do that. If you have chips in your hand, it’s different.

I will bet you that the ruling will never occur again. Tournament Directors need to understand what the possible outcome of a ruling is in the sense of abuse. That’s what Michael Carroll kept pointing out. The Bellagio has a rule that only chips over the betting line count. The issue is that someone can push their stack out, leave a few chips behind, and get that fear factor to see if they can get the person to react.

PND: Liv Boeree moved from Absolute Poker to Ultimate Bet. Can you tell us about the change?

Duke: When Liv signed with Absolute Poker, she was just starting out and didn’t have much poker experience or many notches in her belt. She’s very beautiful and had been a presenter in England. Absolute Poker was looking for a spokeswoman with poker credentials. The site doesn’t have a lot of pros in its marketing campaign. It’s more for recreational players who want to have fun.

Then, Liv started getting serious about poker. She is very smart, has a lot of talent, and had some deep runs in major tournaments. She started to fit the profile of an Ultimate Bet pro. It was a logical thing for the brand to move her to Ultimate Bet. To characterize Liv as a pretty girl who happens to play poker is insulting to what she is a player. Ultimate Bet is trying to build a pro team that deserves it from a poker standpoint. They have the respect of the online poker community, are upstanding, and have good relationships. It’s a lot of people who have built their careers out of online poker.

Devilfish Poker launches weekly live tournament

Ireland’s newest poker venue, the Voodoo Card Club in Arran Quay, Dublin will be the venue for a weekly event hosted by Devilfish Poker. The so-called Devilfish Night takes place every Thursday at 8.30pm and will feature a €25+5 buy-in Second Life tournament with starting stacks of 3,000 chips, a 3,000 chip re-buy and a 20 minute clock.

Justin Bonomo Takes Down Stars Super Tuesday Event!

The Super Tuesday event at PokerStars saw 389 players this week and it was Justin Bonomo who earned the first place win. When final table play began Bonomo held the chip lead by almost 100,000 chips to second place Joe Patrick and would continue to play well to earn the ...

Hand Dissection - Jordan “scarface_79” Smith

Jordan “scarface_79” Smith won his first World Series of Poker bracelet on June 20, 2009. He bested a field of 1,659 players to capture the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em Event (#36), collecting $586,212 in the process. It was the biggest career cash for 27-year old online poker pro from Texas, who went on to finish 10th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $896,730, just missing an opportunity to become a member of the November Nine. Smith also has multiple major online wins, including the PokerStars  Sunday Million and Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan. His lifetime poker winnings (both online and live) are well over $3 million.

Smith took some time with Poker News Daily to analyze a hand he played during his WSOP victory against eventual runner-up Ken Lennaard. This particular hand was the biggest pot of the entire tournament and gave Smith the commanding chip lead.

Poker News Daily: First off Jordan, how do you think your style of play is perceived by opponents? Did you switch your game up at all during the final table?

Jordan Smith: Well, I’m not sure how online players perceive me, some think I’m a total nit, and some think I’m a maniac. But, as far as this tournament, I think I had a fairly tight image, because I was at tough tables the whole tourney and never got a chance to open up much, so I just played fairly solid. But I am still somewhat young, and I had a big stack most of the tourney, so that’s two bad stereotypes going against me for possibly being labeled loose and aggressive. So, perception probably varied for my opponents. I was second in chips coming in to the final table and lost a big flip right off the bat, so I got put back with the pack and sort of chilled after that for awhile and played solid for various reasons.

PND: What are your thoughts on Ken Lennaard?

JS: He plays different than your typical Swede. He is more old school, and more of a flop taker than a 3-bettor. I think he played pretty well for the most part. I played with him on Day 2 and obviously assumed he was your usual over-aggro Scandi, but I gradually realized the longer we played on Day 3 that he was reasonably straightforward.

PND: Did you feel like you had an edge against him heads-up?

JS: I feel like I’m a favorite versus anyone if I’m playing well, but I’m not sure what percentage of that is confidence and what percent is me being delusional (laughs). Whatever edge I felt I had, was probably erased by the fact I was so exhausted and mentally drained by the time we reached heads up. I definitely don’t want to shortchange Ken, he played well. But we were probably flipping on the heads up match on that particular day.

PND: You’ve been heads-up in several online tournaments in the past. What sort of strategy do you normally use? Do you like to influence the action or is it dependent on your opponent’s style?

JS: I really never go in with a certain strategy heads-up – or at any point during a tourney for that matter. I just try to adapt according to stack sizes, blinds size, opponents, the flow of the table, and each individual situation or hand as it comes up. As far as the action goes, it really all depends on the things I’ve just mentioned and mainly my opponent and how deep the stacks are. I just try to find out what the best way to counter his style of play is.

Hand Setup:
Ken Lenaard – 5.8 million chips
Jordan Smith – 4.3 million chips

Blinds are 40,000/80,000 with a 10,000 ante

Cards are dealt:
Ken Lennaard raises to 240,000 from the button and Jordan Smith calls with

PND: Do you always defend your big blind? With what range do you think he’s opening with position?

JS: No, I don’t. But, I’m certainly not going to let someone run me over either. We have sort of awkward stacks, they are quasi-deep, but shallow enough to where pots develop quickly and you can easily get all the chips in. Position is so huge and underrated heads up, and I try to avoid playing many hands out of position. It’s kind of funny that this hand played out the way it did or even took place to begin with, but there were a few factors that made me take a flop in this spot. First, and most importantly, I was kind of on tilt from a hand not long before where I didn’t follow my instincts and paid him off on a big pot which let him catch up to me on chips, and then he proceeded to win most of the handful of pots leading up to this hand taking the chip lead.

Flop:
Smith checks to Lennaard, who fires out 150,000. Smith calls.

PND: Is this a spot where you might lead with a bet? Check-raise? What made you decide on a check-call here?

JS: Sometimes I do (bet), and looking back based on the stack sizes etc., leading out with the intention of shoving if he raised might’ve been the best option here. But I decided to check, and he only bet 150K which was considerably lower than his opening raise which was sort of confusing because he hadn’t really been doing things like this. If he had bet like 350-400K, I probably would’ve just raised to 1.1-1.3 million and called if he shoved (even though it wouldn’t have been fun) because there would’ve been enough in the pot to merit that based on the percentage of times I get him to fold and the equity I have versus his shoving range. But with his super small bet after my check, calling was the easy clear cut option. It seemed he either had a really strong hand or a fairly weak one and was just getting goofy. So I was content to keep the pot small and see what happened on the turn because I truly had no idea what he had.

Turn:
Smith checks. Lennaard bets 300,000. Smith calls.

PND: Does his bet sizing indicate strength?

JS: At this point, I’m thoroughly confused by his small bet sizing, and I’m just calling pretty much drawing at decent pot odds with the possibility of implied odds.

PND: What range of hands are you putting him on now and what is your plan on the river?

JS: I really don’t think he has a monster at this point, but I can’t really put him on a specific range of hands. I really, really hate just check-calling on draws with no other chance to win a pot, especially heads up. I like to be aggressive with draws a lot of times to give myself two chances to win, but in this spot his small bet sizing and our stack sizes really made it hard for me to do that, so I was sort of forced to play passive and draw for cheap. So yeah, sadly my only plan for the river is just for my hand to get there. And I hadn’t shown any strength in the hand, so not many lead bluffs on the river would be believable.

River:
Smith takes the lead by betting out 900,000.

PND: You hit one of your eight outs and make the nuts on the river. Talk a little bit about your thought process here. Why did you feel that leading out would be the best way to get action?

JS: Well, there was a four card straight on the board so I’m guessing he’s not betting very many hands if I check to him, and hopefully he either happened to have a big hand or he tries to make a hero call with whatever. With that scare card, it’s also entirely possible that I am bluffing here, and he also knew I was starting to get frustrated in the match. So I just stuck out a big bet and hoped I could get action.

River:
Smith takes the lead by betting out 900,000. Lennaard moves all in. Smith snap-calls.

Hands Revealed:
BOARD:
Lennard shows (Nine-high straight)
Smith shows (Ten-high straight)

PND: He moves all in and leaves you with an easy call. You now have 8,670,000 chips while he slips to 1,500,000. How much confidence did this pot give you the rest of the way?

JS : Well, I’m not sure if it gave me extra confidence except just for the significant chip lead it gave me, but it sure perked my energy level up and got me off tilt because I was extremely fortunate to not only hit, but for it to be one of the three gin cards that gave him a lower straight and also the fact he decided to shove. He had picked up a diamond draw on the turn, so my eight outs had turned to six, and he had me in fairly bad shape heading to the river. But, yeah, it definitely got my blood pumping to try and finish him off.

PND: Is there anything you’d do differently in this hand now looking back on it?

JS: I definitely could’ve folded preflop, but like I said, I was tired and tilted and felt comfortable playing postflop with his quasi-passive style. But he definitely could’ve made my decisions tougher in this hand after the flop. And I guess I possibly could’ve led the flop and shoved if he raised, but in hindsight that wouldn’t have been good, because he would’ve certainly called my shove with two overs and a double gutter if the hand played out that way. It would’ve been a really interesting postflop all-in showdown if we had played it like that, jack-high versus ten-high in true Potripper form (laughs).

EPT Moscow Canceled, Replaced by EPT Kiev

In breaking news from PokerStars, the inaugural European Poker Tour (EPT) event in Moscow, Russia has been canceled. In its place, the EPT will travel to Kiev, Ukraine for a €5,000 buy-in tournament on August 18th, the beginning of EPT Season 6.

EPT Kiev marks the first stop of Season 6 of the roving tournament series. In a statement released by PokerStars on Friday, the world’s most popular online poker site revealed why Moscow will no longer serve as the kickoff city: “That event has been canceled because our ability to run the event was placed in doubt due to the recent closure of all casinos in Russia.” The Moscow festivities were scheduled to take place at the Radisson SAS Slavyanskaya. The statement continues, “Euro Poker Tour Ltd. sincerely apologizes to all players who were intending to attend the Moscow event, but unfortunately these circumstances were beyond our control.”

Players who qualified for an EPT Moscow travel package from PokerStars will be able to exchange it for buy-in and hotel for the Kiev event. Alternately, players may receive a credit for a future EPT event or elect to collect cash. While visiting Russia required visas for PokerStars players from around the world, heading to the Ukraine for fewer than 90 days does not require documents for Americans, Canadians, and Europeans. The Sports Palace Kiev will serve as the host venue in the Ukrainian city and the €5,000 buy-in Main Event will be preceded by a welcome party.

All EPT Season 6 events employ the same tournament structure. Players begin with a stack of 30,000 chips and blinds start at 50-100. On Day 1, the price of poker increases every 60 minutes. On Day 2 and beyond, blinds go up every 75 minutes. Antes kick in at Level 5, when blinds are 150-300.

Here is the revised schedule for EPT Season 6 reflecting the cancellation of the Moscow event:

EPT Kiev (Ukraine): August 18th to 23rd
Buy-In: €5,000
Capacity: 600
Venue: Sports Palace Kiev

EPT Barcelona (Spain): September 4th to 9th
Buy-In: €8,300
Capacity: 700
Venue: Casino Barcelona

EPT London (United Kingdom): October 2nd to 7th
Buy-In: ?5,250
Capacity: 800
Venue: Hilton London Metropole

EPT Warsaw (Poland): October 20th to 25th
Buy-In: 25,000K PLN
Capacity: 400
Venue: Casinos Poland

EPT Vilamoura (Portugal): November 17th to 22nd
Buy-In: €5,300
Capacity: 600
Venue: Vilamoura Casino

EPT Prague (Czech Republic): December 1st to 6th
Buy-In: €5,250
Capacity: 600
Venue: Golden Prague Poker

PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (Bahamas): January 4th to 14th
Buy-In: $10,600
Capacity: 1,600
Venue: Atlantis Hotel and Casino

PokerStars officials are expecting that the new Kiev event will be the “largest poker tournament ever held in the Ukraine.” The event will mark the first time the EPT has traveled to Ukrainian soil. Similarly, EPT Vilamoura will be the first EPT event held in Portugal. PokerStars has not yet released the second half of the EPT Season 6 schedule, which is expected to culminate once again in the Monte Carlo Grand Final, held annually in April in Monaco.

Other changes to the EPT schedule for Season 6 include the London festivities moving from the Grosvenor Victoria Casino to the Hilton London Metropole. The new digs will provide more space for the annual gala in the historic European city. Players gravitated to EPT events in large numbers last season. A total prize pool of €55 million was up for grabs during Season 5, battled for by 7,980 players from a whopping 97 countries. According to PokerStars, the four richest tournaments outside of the United States last year were EPT events: the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure ($12.7 million), Monte Carlo Grand Final ($12.3 million), EPT San Remo ($7.5 million), and EPT Barcelona ($7 million).

Stay tuned for more EPT news right here on Poker News Daily.

PokerStars And Full Tilt Poker Battle For Guinness Record

Over the past weekend, poker players had a difficult decision to make, with the ability to say that they were a part of a Guinness World Record on the line.

Both Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars ran tournaments on Sunday in an attempt to set the record for the largest online poker tournament ever. At stake was the opportunity to submit their claim to the official statistician of world records, Guinness World Records (formerly known as the Guinness Book of World Records) for the largest online poker tournament ever. Unofficially that claim was already held by PokerStars with a tournament from December 2008 that drew in 35,000 players.

Each tournament featured extra money added to the prize pool by each respective site. PokerStars doubled the prize pool from whatever amount of players signed up to take part of the $1 buy in tournament. Full Tilt Poker, on the other hand, put a guaranteed $500,000 on the line for its $5 buy in tournament. With each tournament starting at nearly the same time, players had some difficult decisions to make as to whether to multi-event or to take a shot at one or the other.

PokerStars was the first to take their shot and they set a high bar for Full Tilt Poker to overcome. By Saturday, pre-registrations passed the 35K mark that would be required to set the new record and the numbers continued to climb as the tournament drew near. By the time the tournament started slightly past 2PM (Eastern Time), 65,000 players were on the virtual felt for the event and PokerStars doubled the prize pool to offer $130,000 to the 16,250 players who could survive to cash out of the tournament.

Surprisingly, the tournament only lasted ten hours as PokerStars preferred to stick with its traditional ten minute levels and starting stacks of 2000 chips. In the end, it was “004 license” who was able to outlast “I_SCORPIO_I” to take the championship of the Guinness World Record Attempt Tournament. For his efforts, “004 license” took home $13,000 and “I_SCORPIO_I” had to settle for $11K.

Although the bar was set pretty high by PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker proved to be up to the task of challenging for the Guinness record. Players turned out in force for “The Record Breaker” – which was featured as a part of Full Tilt Poker’s fifth anniversary celebration “FIVE” – and either put up the $5 buy in or were able to satellite in for less. With the guaranteed prize pool of $500,000, it made the ROI on that entry fee more than tempting for many on the site.

The stable of Full Tilt professionals left the tournament alone, preferring to see one of the site’s dedicated amateurs take the title. By the time the tournament started at a little past 3:30PM (Eastern Time) on Sunday, 50,000 players took part in “The Record Breaker,” not quite beating PokerStars’ field but still a tremendous achievement. Overall, players may have liked this tournament better when it comes to that all important issue:  payouts. 7500 took some money away from this event, with “breo40” taking home $45,000 after defeating “gustavincho2,” who earned $31,450.

Now the debate can begin as to who truly took down the title of “Largest Online Poker Tournament” for Guinness World Records. The two tournaments featured different buy ins, different prize pools and different payout structures. It is unknown if this will play into the decision of the personnel of Guinness World Records, but congratulations to both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker on their successful attempts at shattering the old record.

Main Event Day 8 begins with Ivey in the hunt

Only three tables remain as the final 27 survivors play down to nine and set the Main Event final table by the end of the day.

The 2009 WSOP Player of the Year award went to Jeff Lisandro, but it's easy to argue that Ivey's year has been just has good.

The Full Tilt pro and seven-time bracelet winner made another big move up the chip leaderboard on Day 7 and came into Wednesday's action with the fourth-largest stack in the field at 11,350,000.

Ivey got as high as second in chips Tuesday when he was right around the 15-million chip mark before simmering a bit to end the night.

Nonetheless, Ivey is no doubt the most feared player remaining in the field, but it won't be an easy road for anyone remaining in the nearly-empty Amazon Room.

Darvin Moon ended the night with the chip lead for the second day in a row, winding up Day 7 with an impressive 20,160,000 in chips.

Billy Kopp ended up with the other super stack in the room, finishing up with 15,970,000 chips, ahead of Steven Begleiter with 11,850,000 in third.

Moon and Ivey are seated together at the ESPN feature table to begin Day 8, with Jeff Shulman also at the table and in contention with more than 10 million chips.

Kopp and Begleiter are seated together at another table, along with Antonio Esfandiari, who is still lurking in the field with 4,470,000 chips to begin the day.

Last woman standing Leo Margets was also still alive heading into Wednesday, though short-stacked with just more than 1.5 million chips.

Play began with the last minutes of Level 29 before starting Level 30. Check the live updates to find out who ends up in the November Nine.

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Alec Torelli Leads WPT Bellagio Cup After Day 1A

A cozy field of 79 players turned out for Day 1A of the World Poker Tour (WPT) Bellagio Cup V. In the end, 61 reached Day 2 on Wednesday, led by Alec “traheho” Torelli. WPT officials are expecting 175 players to compete on Day 1B.

In 2008, the Bellagio Cup IV Main Event, a $15,000 buy-in tournament, boasted a field of 446 players. If 175 players were to turn out for Day 1B, it would translate into a total attendance of 254, representing a drop of over 40%. The Foxwoods Poker Classic boasted the smallest field during Season VII at 259 runners. The event has since been stricken from the WPT schedule.

Torelli’s aggression and willingness to gamble earned him the top spot on Day 1A. After a flop of K-J-7 with two hearts, Torelli moved all-in over the top of a check-raise by poker pro Dan Shak, who called and flipped up pocket jacks for a set. Torelli showed 8-9 of hearts for straight and flush draws. The turn and river were both hearts, filling Torelli’s flush and vaulting him up the leaderboard.

A few hands after battling with Shak, Torelli picked up pocket aces. On a board of J-J-10-6, Torelli check-raised his opponent all-in. The other player called and showed pocket kings, drawing to two outs. The river came the queen of hearts and Torelli scooped another sizable pot.

Torelli amassed a stack of 308,000 chips at the end of Day 1A, well ahead of the second place stack of 256,000 held by Andrew Cimpan, the winner of the Season VII L.A. Poker Classic. Cimpan eliminated Steve O’Dwyer late in the day. After a flop of 8-7-5, O’Dwyer pushed over the top of a raise by Cimpan holding 7-5 for two pair. Cimpan promptly called and showed 6-3 of diamonds. The turn and river both came diamonds, giving Cimpan a runner-runner flush and sending O’Dwyer home.

Defending Bellagio Cup champion Mike “SirWatts” Watson also remains in contention after Day 1A. He holds the 54th largest stack out of 61 players left in the hunt at 36,000, well below the average of 77,000. Watson won $1.6 million for his efforts last year and defeated World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner David Benyamine heads-up. The 2008 final table also featured Luke “IWEARGOGGLES” Staudenmaier and John “The Razor” Phan, who won last year’s Legends of Poker event.

On the second to last hand of the evening, poker pro Mike Matusow hit the exits at the Bellagio. Matusow moved all-in after a flop of J-J-7 holding pocket twos. However, his opponent held pocket kings, leaving Matusow barely breathing in the hand. The turn and river came a 10 and nine, respectively, eliminating Matusow from the 2009 Bellagio Cup. Matusow has recorded nine career in the money finishes in WPT events; four have been for final tables. He was the runner-up to Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul in the Bellagio Cup III.

The honor of first player eliminated from the WPT tournament went to Allen Hickman, who held pocket tens, but ran into the A-5 of Zach Hyman. When the smoke cleared, the board read 5-5-2-8-6, giving Hyman trips.

Here were the Top 10 stacks from Day 1A of the Bellagio Cup V:

1. Alec Torelli - 308,675
2. Andrew Cimpan - 256,375
3. Ray Taylor - 181,800
4. Jeremiah Vinsant - 179,450
5. Adam Geyer - 157,600
6. Eugene Juergens - 147,500
7. Musa Mustafa - 144,200
8. Hoyt Corkins - 132,900
9. Isaac Haxton - 122,525
10. Justin Smith - 114,100

Other pros who appear in the Top 30 include Todd Brunson (20th place with 81,225), Vadim Trincher (23rd with 78,670), and Erik Seidel (28th with 76,275). The action on Day 1B of the Bellagio Cup V will kick off at Noon Pacific Time. The tournament will air as part of Season VIII on Fox Sports Net.

Players Reach the Money on Day 4 of the WSOP Main Event

Day 4 of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event came to an early close Saturday evening, as it took just three levels to eliminate 382 players and break the money bubble. The top 648 players received a minimum of $21,365 and, after some fast play, the tournament staff halted the event with 407 runners left in the field.

The money bubble broke after nearly two hours of hand-for-hand play and Kia Hamadami, a 26-year old financial analyst from Los Angeles, was the odd man out. Hamadami was all-in for his last 500 chips with on the final hand and couldn’t improve against an opponent’s . Hamadami wasn’t left completely empty-handed, however, as he received an entry into next year’s WSOP Main Event paid for by sponsor Jack Link’s Beef Jerky.

“I started the day with 280,000 in chips. I had some really tough hands,” Hamadami said after his elimination. “We went like six hands during hand-for-hand and I thought I could make it through, but it didn’t happen. That’s how it goes.

Ultimate Bet pro Phil Hellmuth was among the players eliminated after the bubble broke. Hellmuth’s pocket aces were cracked when a player made a straight on the river, forcing him out of the tournament in 436th place. It was his second consecutive cash in the Main Event after taking 45th last year. Others eliminated on Day 4 included Greg “FBT” Mueller, Hevad Khan, Jesper Hougaard, Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, Paul Wasicka, Alexander Kostritsyn, and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson.

Matt “mcmatto” Affleck emerged as the chip leader at the end of the night, bagging up more than 1.8 million after being seated at a table with Mike Sexton and entertainer Lou Diamond Phillips for much of the day. Affleck, a professional poker player from Seattle, bested Phillips in several pots, but the comedian managed to advance to Day 5 with 607,000 chips, well above the tournament average. Sexton was sent home during the last level when his Ace-King was outdrawn by another player’s Ace-Queen. Sexton finished in 420th place, giving him his seventh career cash in the WSOP Main Event.

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier was the chip leader going into Day 4 and built his stack up as high as 1.8 million before losing a good portion of it before the end of the day; he’ll return for Day 5 with 1.25 million. Meanwhile, Phil Ivey continues to wreak havoc on this year’s WSOP, as the seven-time bracelet winner will take his seat with 1.28 million on Sunday. Ivey was at the ESPN featured table for all of Day 4.

Others advancing to Day 5 were Joe Hachem, Dennis Phillips, Theo Tran, Joe Sebok, Kenny Tran, David Benyamine, Kara Scott, Vitaly Lunkin, J.C.  Tran, Antonio Esfandiari, and defending champion Peter Eastgate, who ended Day 4 with 397,000 in chips.

Here’s a look at the top 25 stacks going into Day 5, which gets underway at Noon Pacific Time on Sunday:

1. Matt Affleck - 1,819,000
2. Ludovic Lacay - 1,608,000
3. Tom Lutz - 1,600,000
4. James Akenhead - 1,572,000
5. Charlie Elias - 1,540,000
6. Miika Puumalainen - 1,492,000
7. Jordan Morgan - 1,489,000
8. Bernhard Perner - 1,426,000
9. Blair Hinkle - 1,399,000
10. Benjamin Jensen - 1,394,000
11. Billy Kopp - 1,385,000
12. Eracles Panayiotou - 1,299,000
13. Chuck Clark - 1,295,000
14. Abraham Mourshaki - 1,294,000
15. Phil Ivey - 1,276,000
16. Bertrand Grospelier - 1,253,000
17. Kevin Schaffel - 1,206,000
18. Keith Lehr - 1,190,000
19. Ben Lamb - 1,183,000
20. Patterson Tyler - 1,168,000
21. Rifat Palevic - 1,152,000
22. Joe Ward - 1,129,000
23. Nick Maimone - 1,104,000
24. Kasper Cordes - 1,095,000
25. Manuel Labandeira - 1,087,000

Brits Battle For Main Event Glory

It's already been a great World Series for the Brits with a haul of three bracelets and myriad other final table spots, totalling close to $4 million in winnings.

Roland de Wolfe hinted that he saw some of these successes as potentially significant for British poker.

"Anyone who takes a bracelet home is going to help with the growth of the game in the UK," de Wolfe said, and it appears this growth may be happening faster than expected.

The Brits are riding this wave of euphoria with plenty of British talent packed into the latter stages of the Main Event following Day 4, the Brit charge being headed by James Akenhead and BlackBeltPoker's Adam Latimer.

"There's a long way to go," said Latimer. "But it would be a dream come true to reach the November Nine."

James Akenhead, a member of the well-respected Hit Squad team, sits near the top of the chip counts with 1,140,000 chips and is hunting down his first WSOP title.

Fellow Hit Squad member Praz Bansi set the bar for his teammates by picking up a bracelet in 2006, and Akenhead himself came agonisingly close to replicating this feat last year, finishing runner-up in one of the early 2008 WSOP events.

He'll be looking to banish any ghosts that may haunt him from that occasion, and he is joined in the last 400 or so by another Hit-Squadder, Karl Mahrenholz, himself in great form having already won a $500 Deep Stack tournament here in Vegas this summer.

Former World Heads-Up Champion, Jeff Kimber can relate to Akenhead's woes in narrowly missing on a bracelet as he was pipped to the post by J.C. Tran in this year's $2.5k Omaha bracelet.

Kimber has shown no signs of a hangover from that near-miss though, negotiating his stack through to the latter stages here.

Kara Scott thrilled her hordes of British fans by blazing through to the last one hundred of the Main Event last year, and built on that success with an incredible run in this year's Irish Open that almost saw her to the title.

Once again, she narrowly missed out there, finishing in second place for $413,612 but her star is burning brightly right now and she will return for Day 5 with a workable stack and a great shot at adding to her poker riches with another Main Event deep run.

Finally Neil Channing's BlackBeltPoker group have built on their earlier results in the series - three of them making it into Day 5.

Of these, Adam Latimer is the man in prime position, having maintained a big stack all through the day and his one million plus in chips sees him close to the top of the leaderboard.

The two other BlackBelts in contention are James Keys and Jamie Roberts.

"It's great having the whole team behind you," Latimer said. "We can bounce ideas off each other and their support really helps out there at the tables."

 

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Money talks on Day 4 of 2009 WSOP Main Event

789 players returned to the Main Event Saturday as the money spots get that much closer. With 648 places paid the money bubble is virtually guaranteed to burst today.

Bertrand 'ElkY" Grospellier took a commanding chip lead on Day 3 and entered Friday's play with 1.6 million chips, with fellow Frenchman Ludovic Lacay second in the chip count at 925k.

Day 4 will play out until four levels are played or 400 players are eliminated.

While Day 3 might indicate a French takeover in the Main Event, lots of big-name players still lurk in the field.

Phil Hellmuth is still in play with a shot at his 12th WSOP bracelet, beginning the day with 485k in chips.

Phil Ivey, Joe Sebok, Justin Bonomo and Paul Wasicka all began the day amongst the top 100 chip stacks, with Hevad Khan and Vitaly Lunkin also still right in the mix.

Ivey and Grospellier were seated at the same table for a time yesterday but managed to avoid each other for the most part and are now seated at different tables.

Some weren't so lucky Friday, as Day 4 starts without Jason Alexander, Carlos Mortensen and John Juanda.

Two members of the 2008 WSOP November Nine are stacked with chips as third place finisher Dennis Phillips has 460,000 while reigning World Champion Peter Eastgate has nearly 300,000 chips.

Keep checking PokerListings.com for live updates throughout the day as players attempt to go deep into the money on Day 4 of the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

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Main Event Day 3 begins for Ivey, Tran, Benyamine

Play began at 12 p.m. in the Rio with five levels of play scheduled for the day.

There is a slim chance that the money bubble, which starts at 648 players remaining, will burst today but in all likelihood players will return tomorrow to make it into the coveted money spots.

Numerous pro poker players are still in the hunt with Kenny Tran, Bertrand Grospellier, Kevin Saul, Paul Wasicka, Dan Harrington, J.C. Alverado, Marc Karam, Joe Hachem, Noah Boeken, Nick Binger and Eugene Katchalov all looking to become the first pro to win the Main Event since Carlos Mortensen did in 2001.

Full Tilt Pro Phil Ivey might have the best chance to perform that feat as of Day 3 because he led his fellow pros with 346,000 chips.

Joining the pros will be a group of celebrity players including actors Jason Alexander, Lou Diamond Phillips, Patrick Bruel in addition to athletes like the NBA's Jordan Farmar and international cricket star Shane Warne.

The chip lead to start the day belongs to the relatively unknown Amir Lehavot who somehow amassed 610,000 on Day 2b thanks to a last minute monster pot.

There are several intriguing table matchups with Joe Hachem and Jeffrey Lisandro forced to face each other at the TV feature table while Finnish poker superstar Ville Wahlbeck will have to contend with Kenny Tran at the secondary feature table.

PokerListings.com will be live updating the event throughout the day with all the biggest hands, bustouts and breaking news. Check out the updates here.

Here are the top 10 chip leaders to start the day:

Amir Lehavot	610,500
Peter DeBaene	465,000
Troy Weber	453,000
Dan Bilzerian	439,000
Franklin Grigsby	424,000
Gabe Walls	417,000
Mikael Thuritz	395,000
Jason Brice	376,000
John Hammer	359,400
Phil Ivey	346,200

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607 Players Survive WSOP Main Event Day 2A

Day 2A of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event began with 1,478 players, compared with the 2,922 prepared to play on Day 2B. However, it ended with only 607 survivors.

Andrew Gaw, from the Philippines, was the overall chip leader at the end of the night with 386,000, while Eric Cloutier is right on his heels with 383,000. Amazingly, Cloutier began play with only 15,000 chips after a clerical error that reported him as being the chip leader after Day 1A. It has been confirmed this time that the former professional hockey player is near the top of the leaderboard after going on an unimaginable rush on Day 2A.

Several big names advanced to Day 3, including former world champions Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, and Carlos Mortensen. Other bracelet winners moving on were Greg “FBT” Mueller, Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Mike Sexton, Thor Hansen, Vitaly Lunkin, Burt Boutin, Tom Schneider, Sam Farha, Farzad Rouhani, Erik Seidel, Bill Edler, Ted Lawson, and Roland de Wolfe.

Mueller has the most chips of any former bracelet winner heading into Day 3. He won two bracelets at this year’s WSOP and finished the day with a stack of 287,000. Both of his wins came in Limit Hold’em and combined for more than $650,000. Poker pro Kyle Wilson, a good friend of Mueller’s, ended the day with 306,000.

Notable celebrities who resumed play on Day 2A included actor and comedian Jason Alexander, world famous cricket player Shane Warne, actor and comedian Brad Garrett, and music manager Rene Angelil. Alexander, seated with Greg Raymer on the ESPN featured table for all of Tuesday, joins Warne as the only survivors of that group heading into Day 3.

With more than half of the field disappearing on Tuesday, there were several prominent names sent home. One of the first was Gus Hansen, who was unable to repeat his deep run in the Main Event last year. Hansen got his entire stack in on the turn with the nut straight against an opponent’s set of threes, but the board paired on the river to give the other player a full house and eliminate Hansen.

Others sent home early on Day 1A were former two-time Main Event champion Johnny Chan, Tony G, Barry Greenstein, Todd Brunson, John “World” Hennigan, Mike Matusow, and Amarillo Slim.

A horde of cameras and media members made their way over to Phil Laak’s table when his tournament was on the line during the second level of the day. A short-stacked Laak moved all-in with Q-9 and was called by a player with pocket eights. After Laak spiked a Queen on the flop, his opponent made a flush on the river to send him to the rail. Laak’s girlfriend, actress Jennifer Tilly, also made her exit on Day 1A.

Here’s a look at some notables who advanced to Day 3 of the 2009 WSOP Main Event:

Greg ‘FBT’ Mueller - 287,300
Andy Black - 215,700
Mike Sexton - 169,000
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi - 166,400
Vitaly Lunkin - 135,900
Tom Schneider - 123,700
Joe Sebok - 122,800
Greg Raymer - 95,900
Jason Alexander - 73,700
Farzad Rouhani - 70,000
Sam Farha - 67,500
Carlos Mortensen - 57,900
Bill Edler - 57,300
Erik Seidel - 55,600
Roland de Wolfe - 21,200

Day 2B will get underway at Noon Pacific Time on Wednesday. Troy Weber holds an overwhelming lead over the rest of the field with 353,000 chips; no other player has hit the 200,000 mark. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for updates on all of today’s happenings at the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

Final Day One in 2009 WSOP Main Event to Occur Monday

After an eventful Day 1C that saw everything from politicians to Caesar, World Series of Poker (WSOP) officials are expecting the final field size for the 2009 Main Event to crack the 6,000 player mark with the last of four Day Ones to be played this afternoon.

The droves that entered into the Rio on Sunday constituted the largest Day One starting field yet. 1,697 players wedged their way into the Amazon Room and other gaming areas to surpass the fields that had been seen on Days 1A and 1B. All told, there are 3,686 players who laid $10,000 to attempt to win the 40th anniversary WSOP Main Event.

With the larger field that came into the event and the expected massive field for today, there were some changes to the play schedule that were put into effect. Instead of playing only four two hour levels - as Days 1A and 1B had - tournament officials determined that Days 1C and 1D would play the previously scheduled five levels. The difference will be corrected with Day Two play, which is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. Day 2A (the combination of Days 1A and 1B) will play five levels and Day 2B (the survivors of Days 1C and 1D) will play four levels.

Although there were some muted rumblings from the players gathered, Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) - whose attempts to overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) are currently proceeding through the halls of Congress - gave the traditional call to “shuffle up and deal” and play was underway.

It seemed that Sunday was the day of choice for many of the top professionals in the game. Five of the original “November Nine” chose to start their assault on the WSOP Main Event championship, with Kelly Kim, Darus Suharto, Ylon Schwartz, and Dennis Phillips surviving the day; David “Chino” Rheem was ousted during play on Sunday. Several former World Champions were on-hand for play, including Tom McEvoy, Dan Harrington, Scotty Nguyen, Joe Hachem, and Jamie Gold, with McEvoy and Gold not able to survive the day.

In what is quickly becoming a WSOP tradition, Phil Hellmuth made a flamboyant entry. With 11 body painted women trailing him (representing his record bracelet total) and led by muses in tunics tossing rose petals, the 1989 champion donned Roman emperor regalia as he was carried into the Amazon Room by four “slaves” at the time the first level of play was scheduled to end. Amid the jeers and cheers, Hellmuth came to the tables and was just under the starting stack when play ended for the day.

The grand entrance of Hellmuth to the Main Event has become somewhat of a tradition over the past few years. In 2007, he entered the Rio with a phalanx of models representing his bracelets and dressed in an auto racing fire suit the day after crashing his Ultimate Bet stock car into a pole on the grounds of the Rio. Last year, Hellmuth made his entrance leading a camouflage-clad contingent of models as General George Patton. When asked if this was going to continue at future WSOPs, “The Poker Brat” commented, “Absolutely! Next year, my plan is to be Gambit (a fictional character from the latest X-Men movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”). If not Gambit, we will come up with something else. Maybe it will be Uncle Sam. We’ll see.”

Leading the day and claiming the overall chip lead was Michigan’s Joseph Cada, who garnered 187,000 chips. For the record, no Day One leader has ever held on to win the WSOP Main Event. With an anticipated 2,500 players expected for Day 1D, the 2009 Main Event will eclipse the 6,000 mark and have a run at hitting 6,500. Ideas for accommodating the field have ranged from running ten-handed tables (not yet seen at this year’s Main Event) to using restaurant space around the Rio.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the 2009 WSOP.

Final Day One in 2009 WSOP Main Event to Occur Monday

After an eventful Day 1C that saw everything from politicians to Caesar, World Series of Poker (WSOP) officials are expecting the final field size for the 2009 Main Event to crack the 6,000 player mark with the last of four Day Ones to be played this afternoon.

The droves that entered into the Rio on Sunday constituted the largest Day One starting field yet. 1,697 players wedged their way into the Amazon Room and other gaming areas to surpass the fields that had been seen on Days 1A and 1B. All told, there are 3,686 players who laid $10,000 to attempt to win the 40th anniversary WSOP Main Event.

With the larger field that came into the event and the expected massive field for today, there were some changes to the play schedule that were put into effect. Instead of playing only four two hour levels - as Days 1A and 1B had - tournament officials determined that Days 1C and 1D would play the previously scheduled five levels. The difference will be corrected with Day Two play, which is scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday. Day 2A (the combination of Days 1A and 1B) will play five levels and Day 2B (the survivors of Days 1C and 1D) will play four levels.

Although there were some muted rumblings from the players gathered, Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) - whose attempts to overturn the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) are currently proceeding through the halls of Congress - gave the traditional call to “shuffle up and deal” and play was underway.

It seemed that Sunday was the day of choice for many of the top professionals in the game. Five of the original “November Nine” chose to start their assault on the WSOP Main Event championship, with Kelly Kim, Darus Suharto, Ylon Schwartz, and Dennis Phillips surviving the day; David “Chino” Rheem was ousted during play on Sunday. Several former World Champions were on-hand for play, including Tom McEvoy, Dan Harrington, Scotty Nguyen, Joe Hachem, and Jamie Gold, with McEvoy and Gold not able to survive the day.

In what is quickly becoming a WSOP tradition, Phil Hellmuth made a flamboyant entry. With 11 body painted women trailing him (representing his record bracelet total) and led by muses in tunics tossing rose petals, the 1989 champion donned Roman emperor regalia as he was carried into the Amazon Room by four “slaves” at the time the first level of play was scheduled to end. Amid the jeers and cheers, Hellmuth came to the tables and was just under the starting stack when play ended for the day.

The grand entrance of Hellmuth to the Main Event has become somewhat of a tradition over the past few years. In 2007, he entered the Rio with a phalanx of models representing his bracelets and dressed in an auto racing fire suit the day after crashing his Ultimate Bet stock car into a pole on the grounds of the Rio. Last year, Hellmuth made his entrance leading a camouflage-clad contingent of models as General George Patton. When asked if this was going to continue at future WSOPs, “The Poker Brat” commented, “Absolutely! Next year, my plan is to be Gambit (a fictional character from the latest X-Men movie “X-Men Origins: Wolverine”). If not Gambit, we will come up with something else. Maybe it will be Uncle Sam. We’ll see.”

Leading the day and claiming the overall chip lead was Michigan’s Joseph Cada, who garnered 187,000 chips. For the record, no Day One leader has ever held on to win the WSOP Main Event. With an anticipated 2,500 players expected for Day 1D, the 2009 Main Event will eclipse the 6,000 mark and have a run at hitting 6,500. Ideas for accommodating the field have ranged from running ten-handed tables (not yet seen at this year’s Main Event) to using restaurant space around the Rio.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the 2009 WSOP.