Poker News

WPT, Party Gaming Officials Discuss Acquisition

Recently, PartyGaming, the parent company of PartyPoker, completed the acquisition of the World Poker Tour (WPT). Despite a last-minute proposal from Mandalay Media, a mobile gaming company, WPT shareholders rubber-stamped the sale for $12.3 million plus a percentage of future gaming revenues.

Poker News Daily sat down with WPT General Counsel Adam Pliska, WPT Host and Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton, WPT Founder Steve Lipscomb, and PartyGaming Chief Marketing Officer Chris Welch to break down the sale.

Poker News Daily: Talk about why the WPT is a good fit for PartyGaming.

Pliska: Party Gaming was an initial tour stop sponsor of the WPT. We’ve had a long relationship starting from the beginning that was mutually beneficial.

Welch: PartyPoker wouldn’t have been the success it is today without the WPT. The fact that Mike Sexton was a PartyPoker ambassador and WPT host shows you the depth of the relationship.

PND: A last-minute proposal submitted by Mandalay Media was dismissed. Talk about the offer.

Pliska: As defined in our proxy statement, I can attest that there was an analysis of the offers. I can tell you that the company was pleased with the offer on the table from PartyGaming. When you look at the up front parts of it and the future revenue part parts of it, it made it very attractive. Throughout this process, I have come to never be surprised and I’m pleased with the results.

Lipscomb: The process was driven by our Board of Directors. They carefully did what they needed to do based on their duties to shareholders. It was an honor to have multiple parties that were interested. The final result, which was being with PartyGaming, really was the best for us.

PND: Will WPT regulars see any changes when Season 9 begins filming next year?

Pliska: What you’re going to see in Season 9 is business as usual. We’ll continue to be creative and innovate. I think, for the most part, you’re not going to see any interruptions.

PND: PartyPoker does not accept customers from the United States. Talk about being able to expose the WPT brand to the site’s customer base.

Sexton: One of the primary advantages of this whole situation is that we can expand the WPT brand worldwide. It’ll be in many more countries than it is now.

Welch: We are very excited by the partnership with the WPT. We are predominantly a European business, but we view this as one of the steps to coming back into the U.S. PartyPoker has 12 million members in the U.S. that we can cross-sell Club WPT to.

PND: Why is it important to be able to cross-sell to U.S. players?

Welch: We’re set up to take advantage of any U.S. developments. You can bet that when the market opens up, we’ll be at the forefront of it. The acquisition of the WPT will give us a substantial asset that we can leverage in the U.S.

Club WPT is a very successful subscription service and PartyPoker gets 2,000 to 3,000 downloads a day from the U.S. even though we don’t market there. As you would expect, we have a powerful marketing scheme that we will use to leverage the WPT brand across Europe.

PND: Will it be tough to bring more land-based tournaments to Europe, where you can already find series like the European Poker Tour (EPT)?

Lipscomb: We’re far from a new tour. There was no such thing as a poker tour since we launched the first once. We’ve been global since Season 1. If you are trying to launch one of the many additional tours starting to spring up in the marketplace, I wouldn’t want to be in that position, but I wouldn’t lump us in with that crowd.

Sexton: Recognize that the WPT is on television worldwide. People know who we are and what we do.

PND: Talk about the ongoing eighth season of the WPT.

Lipscomb: Seldom in the world of television do you have an eighth season of anything. It’s uncommon to have an eighth season when you’re working with the same people and they all still like each other. I truly believe that the joining of the WPT and PartyGaming is pretty exciting. Mike is the voice of poker and to have him in this great new synergy is an opportunity we’ve dreamed of.

PND: What does the future hold for WPT Enterprises, now Ante4?

Lipscomb: What we’ve announced is that we’re going to be looking for an opportunity as a publicly traded company to find businesses to join, acquire, or merge with to maximize shareholder value.

Face the Ace: Andrew Weinstein, Adam Drescher Leave Empty-Handed

The challengers continued to struggle on the NBC poker franchise “Face the Ace.” On Saturday, tax attorney Andrew Weinstein and poker novice Adam Drescher each left the show’s Las Vegas set with nothing to show for their efforts except some network television face time.

Weinstein, a 40 year-old from Washington State, selected the ace of clubs for his $40,000 match. Out strolled Erick Lindgren, a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner whom Weinstein has played with before. Each player received 20,000 chips in the opening round and blinds escalated quickly, beginning at 200-400.

Weinstein came out firing, raising pre-flop with gems like 5-10, 7-3, and 2-6 before getting his chips in with A-7 against Lindgren’s A-4. However, the two chopped the pot when the first four cards came 8-A-10-8, giving both players the Dead Man’s Hand with a 10 kicker.

Weinstein doubled after calling all-in with A-10 against Lindgren’s K-Q of diamonds. The ace was the door card, keeping Weinstein in the lead in the hand for good, and the challenger built his stack to over 31,000. Then, Lindgren doubled with pocket sixes against Weinstein’s J-5 of hearts. On the match’s final hand, Lindgren shoved with Q-7, including the seven of clubs, but ran into Weinstein’s A-6, including the ace of the suit. Four clubs came and Weinstein earned the nut flush and a win in the $40,000 match.

The Full Tilt Poker qualifier could play on for $200,000 or take his money and run. He chose the former option after very little debate, selecting the ace of diamonds. Jennifer Harman emerged from the smoky “Face the Ace” façade and, in a hand that had the audience buzzing, Harman was dealt 10-8 and raised to 3,000 pre-flop with a starting stack of 100,000 and blinds at 500-1,000. Weinstein peeked down at Q-9 and made the call. The flop came J-Q-5, giving Weinstein top pair, and he check-called a 4,000 bet from Harman. The turn was a three and Weinstein once-again check-called a bet from the pro, this time totaling 13,000. The river was a nine, giving Harman a miracle straight, and Weinstein check-called a small bet of 12,000. Harman sheepishly scooped the pot and the mood of the match changed dramatically.

Weinstein avoided disaster in a hand with A-7 against Harman’s pocket kings. Harman raised pre-flop to 3,000, Weinstein made it 11,000, Harman bumped the action to 22,000, and Weinstein called to see the flop come 10-6-Q. Harman led out for another 30,000 and Weinstein quickly released his hand.

Harman’s A-K of hearts withstood Weinstein’s A-9 offsuit on the match’s final hand after the pro made a flush, sending Weinstein home from Sin City with nothing. Harman, a 73% favorite pre-flop, called feverishly for a nine to hit, but the board of 5-2-Q-6-8 with three hearts ensured that no upset would occur.

Drescher then took to the stage. The poker player from Bethesda, Maryland had only been playing the game for six months and his inexperience proved fatal. He selected the ace of diamonds, Huck Seed, who won the 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship over Vanessa Rousso. Only a few hands into play, Drescher open-shoved with 10-9 for 19,400 chips into a pot of only 600 and Seed picked up pocket kings. Seed was an 83% favorite to send Drescher packing and the board ran out 3-7-2-9-3. Drescher made top pair, but it wasn’t enough, as the qualifiers were blanked on the November 14th episode of “Face the Ace.”

The show, which is sponsored by Full Tilt Poker, aired preceding golf coverage on NBC and went head-to-head with multiple college football games. “Face the Ace,” hosted by Steve Schirripa, will return on December 12th. Check local listings for more information.

Cornel Andrew Cimpan Wins WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals

Taking place concurrently with the conclusion of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in Las Vegas was the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Foxwoods World Poker Finals. There, Cornel Andrew Cimpan took down his second WPT title.

Play began last week with 353 runners and as the cards flew at the final table, Cimpan held the chip lead. It took all of two hands for an elimination to occur, as Lee Markholt hit the skids after getting his money in ahead with A-K pre-flop against Matt “All In At 420” Stout’s A-6 of spades. Stout hit a flush on the river to secure Markholt’s exit and the pro banked $166,000 for his final table appearance in the $10,000 buy-in tournament.

Curt Kohlberg followed 20 hands later with A-Q. Soheil Shamseddin called the all-in pre-flop with pocket twos, setting up a race situation. Kohlberg flopped top two pair on an A-Q-5 board and a jack on the turn kept him ahead. However, Shamseddin hit lightning in a bottle on the river, when one of the two remaining deuces in the deck peeled off, eliminating Kohlberg in fifth place for $199,000. Then, it was Eric “EFro” Froehlich’s turn to depart after coming out on the short end of a race with A-K against Shamseddin’s pocket fours. The board came 10-5-2-9-8 and Froehlich, a dual WSOP bracelet winner, earned $232,000 at Foxwoods.

Three-handed, Stout doubled up both Shamseddin and Cimpan to give each new life with the $910,000 first place prize in the offing. On the 145th hand of final table play, Stout was bounced from the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals in third place, earning $265,000. He was all-in pre-flop with 3-2 and all three players saw the first three cards come 9-6-6. Shamseddin bet, Cimpan folded, and Stout saw that he was up against A-6. Stout jokingly commented, “I have the nut low,” when flipping up his hand and he banked $265,000 for his third place effort.

Entering heads-up play, Shamseddin held a 3:1 (8.0 million to 2.5 million) chip lead over Cimpan, who promptly doubled up when his pocket queens withstood Shamseddin’s A-K in a race. Shamseddin would battle back to regain the chip lead, but Cimpan doubled through once more, this time with pocket aces against A-J. In the final hand, Shamseddin was all-in with K-J, but ran into Cimpan’s A-J. Cimpan earned $910,000 for the win and his second WPT title; his first came in the Season VII L.A. Poker Classic. In that event, Cimpan bested Binh Nguyen in a talented final table that also included Mike “UNCCSowers” Sowers, Chris Karagulleyan, and Chris Ferguson.

Here were the results:

1. Cornel Andrew Cimpan – $910,058
2. Soheil Shamseddin – $463,332
3. Matt Stout – $265,710
4. Eric Froehlich – $232,496
5. Curt Kohlberg – $199,283
6. Lee Markholt – $166,069

Other notable names who cashed in the WPT Foxwoods Poker Finals included:

7. Kenna James – $132,855
8. Steve Brecher – $99,641
9. Adam “Roothlus” Levy – $66,427
11. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi – $46,499
12. Todd Terry – $46,499
18. Terrence “Unassigned” Chan – $31,533
21. Jason Mercier – $26,571
33. Nenad Medic – $21,588
34. Eric “sheets” Haber – $21,588

On Day 5 of the World Poker Finals, the field shrunk from 10 players to six and, amazingly enough, Shamseddin knocked out each of the four players to set up the televised final table. Markholt and Cimpan had each taken down WPT titles before. Next up for the roving tournament series is the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio. The action gets underway on December 14th.

Stout heads final 10 at World Poker Finals

The PokerListings' blogger and esteemed online pro amassed 2.1 million chips on Day 4 of the WPT World Poker Finals in Foxwoods yesterday.

With 10 players remaining, Stout now not only has a good shot of reaching the final table of six players today but winning it all tomorrow.

The competition will be fierce, however, as respected pros Adam "Roothlus" Levy, Lee Markholt, Kenna James, Eric Froehlich, Cornel Andrew Cimpan, Soheil Shamseddin and consummate WPT casher Steve Brecher are all still in the running.

The lesser-known Curt Kohlberg and Tom Dobrilovic round out the last 10 players.

Despite a schedule that conflicts with the 2009 WSOP Main Event, the World Poker Finals still managed to draw 353 players, creating a prize pool of $3.3 million and $910,000 designated for first place.

Todd Terry, Christian Harder, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Victor Ramdin, Liv Boeree, Brock Parker, Billy Kopp and Chad Batista were just some of the big-name pros that bought into the $10,000 event.

Fellow PokerListings' blogger Jason Mercier finished in 21st place for $26,571.

Stout has been on somewhat of a heater as of late. The Lock Poker pro went deep at the 2009 WPT Festa al Lago before eventually busting out in 13th for $39,760.

The World Poker Finals resume at 12 p.m. ET today. Keep checking Stout's blog on PokerListings for the inside scoop on the event as he posts frequently.

Here are the end of Day 4 chip counts:

1. Matt Stout - 2,101,000
2. Cornel Andrew Cimpan - 1,554,000
3. Soheil Shamseddin - 1,233,000
4. Kenna James - 1,217,000
5. Curt Kohlberg - 1,127,000
6. Adam "Roothlus" Levy - 892,000
7. Eric Froehlich - 714,000
8. Steve Brecher - 660,000
9. Tom Dobrilovic - 565,000
10. Lee Markholt - 480,000

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Soheil Shamseddin Atop WPT Foxwoods Leaderboard After Day 3

After three days of play at Foxwoods, poker professionals Soheil Shamseddin and Lee Markholt sit atop the 27 players remaining in the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Poker Finals.

Day Three began on Saturday afternoon with 68 players vying for one of the 36 cash positions that the event paid. Steven Merrifield led the action when the cards flew and was followed by Day One chip leader Todd Terry, Terrence Chan, and Shamseddin. With play being stopped at 27 players, it was figured that the day would be a short one, but the action was hectic nonetheless.

The final woman in the event, Lori Miller, was eliminated early in the day at the hands of Matt “All In At 420” Stout, ensuring the final table would not have a female combatant. World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Matt “mattg1983” Graham and the final two ClubWPT.com qualifiers, Dean Meyer and Jesse Lopez, followed soon after.

Perhaps no one had a tougher dismissal from a tournament than top poker pro Alex Bolotin, however. Bolotin, who finished this event last year in 13th place and earlier this year won the Ante Up for Africa charity event at the WSOP, first got his chips to the center with Rodney Legendre’s tournament life on the line. Bolotin’s pocket kings had the edge over Legendre’s jacks, but on the turn, a jack fell. Moments later, Bolotin called off the remainder of his chips with pocket tens against Chris Dombrowski’s pocket fives. Irritatingly for Bolotin, a five hit the flop for Dombrowski, eliminating Bolotin after he had the 80/20 edge twice within minutes of each other.

After six hours of play, the money bubble burst with the elimination of Michael Farris. With only nine more players to bump off to end the day, the knockouts then came quickly. Eric “Sheets” Haber dropped in 34th place and, soon after that, Nenad Medic’s run at a second World Poker Finals championship ended with his elimination in 33rd. Merrifield’s run was cut short when he bumped his A-Q into Alexi Lammi’s Big Slick, sending Merrifield to the rail in 28th place.

Then, Markholt began to make his move up the leaderboard. He took a 300,000-plus pot from Cornel Cimpan when he hit trip aces on the flop and used that hand to move into the chip lead. Shamseddin, who admitted he was playing tight earlier in the day, doubled up through Cimpan soon afterwards to take away Markholt’s lead.

Markholt, with his cash in this event, now holds the record for most cashes in WPT history, breaking a tie with Barry Greenstein, who did not compete at Foxwoods. With the cards ready to hit the air on Sunday afternoon, the Top Ten looks like this:

1. Soheil Shamseddin – 945,000
2. Lee Markholt – 812,000
3. Terrence Chan – 764,000
4. Matthew Stout – 687,000
5. Steve Brecher – 592,500
6. Michael Mizrachi – 575,000
7. Frank Calo – 569,000
8. Jason Mercier – 490,000
9. Alexi Lammi – 473,000
10. Eric Froehlich – 425,000

Others who will walk away from Foxwoods with a cash, but have some work if they want to win this WPT title, include Christian “charder” Harder, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, and Kenna James, who will have the short stack as the day begins.

The plan on Sunday is to play down to ten players, who will come back on Monday to determine the WPT six-handed televised final table.

Steven Merrifield Surges to WPT Foxwoods Lead After Day 2

While the majority of the industry is focusing its attention on the final table of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas today, Day Three of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) World Poker Finals at the Foxwoods Casino and Resort in Connecticut will start back up Saturday afternoon, with poker professional Steven Merrifield leading the pack.

205 players of the original 353 runners came back for action on Day Two, with Todd Terry as the chip leader. Terry was facing significant challenges, however, with Adam Lippert and Alan Sasser in hot pursuit. Sasser, who was in the WPT Foxwoods event on a freeroll after winning his seat in an online qualifier on ClubWPT.com, was unable to push into the Day Three action, though, and he was joined on the rails by other top players such as Lippert, former WPT Player of the Year Gavin Smith, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Prahlad Freidman, and Liv Boeree.

Jason Mercier looked to be making his move on the chip lead until an unfortunate bad beat knocked him down the ladder. With Mercier’s opponent all-in on the flop with a pair of nines and an ace kicker, Mercier called with pocket queens and looked to have a stranglehold on the hand. The turn, however, brought an ace and the river another nine, giving his opponent a boat and a key double up. Mercier, who was knocked down to around 80,000 in chips at that point, was able to work his way back up and will start Day Three under the chip average with 139,000.

For much of the final few hours of play on Friday, the action on the felt left many around the tournament arena wondering who was actually in the lead. Day One leader Terry, Soheil Shamseddin, Christian Harder, and Terrence Chan all claimed to have the lead. It took a late run by Merrifield, including a key victory against Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, to drive him to the top of the leaderboard for the start of action today.

As the cards prepare to fly in Foxwoods this afternoon, here are the top ten of the 68 players remaining in the field:

1. Steven Merrifield – 465,100
2. Soheil Shamseddin – 401,000
3. Todd Terry – 396,500
4. Terrence Chan – 394,200
5. Curt Kohlberg – 370,000
6. Frank Calo – 361,200
7. Christian Harder – 330,400
8. Jesse Martin – 329,800
9. Joe Serock – 277,000
10. Adam Gerber – 270,000

Other top names in the field include former WPT champions Cornel Andrew Cimpan, Steve Brecher, and Nenad Medic. Interestingly, Medic has a chance to make WPT history. If the Canadian can come back to win this tournament, it would mark the first time that a player has won the same WPT event twice; Medic also won in 2006. His work is cut out for him, however, as he sits below the average chip stack with 151,000 in chips.

With the top 36 finishers paid in the tournament, the money bubble will most likely burst sometime Saturday afternoon. Poker News Daily will have all the latest from Connecticut as the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals works to its final table on Tuesday evening.

Todd Terry Leads WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals After Day 1

A total of 353 players entered the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Foxwoods World Poker Finals, a drop of 14% from the 412 who took to the felts last year. At the end of Day 1, Todd Terry leads the way.

Terry made the final table of August’s WPT Legends of Poker, banking $231,000 for his third place performance. Terry holds 165,000 chips in the New England casino entering Day 2 play on Friday, when 206 survivors will resume at Noon ET. Late action on Thursday featured Mohsin “chicagocards1” Charania doubling up at the expense of Gavin Griffin. Charania was all-in pre-flop holding A-Q, dominating the 6-8 of Griffin. The Team PokerStars Pro front man flopped top pair on a board of 8-3-2, but Charania hit a queen on the turn to move in front for good. Charania finished in the money three times during the WPT’s seventh season.

Among those who stood atop the leaderboard when play concluded at Foxwoods was Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, who gained a chunk of his chips when an opponent ran pocket kings into Mizrachi’s aces. Mizrachi owns a stack of 125,900 entering Day 2, good for sixth overall. He is in search of his third WPT title after taking down the L.A. Poker Classic during Season 3 and the Borgata Poker Classic during Season 4. Despite his early success, he has not cashed in a WPT tournament since March of 2008.

Holding the 11th largest chip stack after one day of play is Jonathan Jaffe, the runner-up in the World Poker Finals last year. Jaffe owns a mountain of 116,000 chips and is one of 18 players to cross the six-figure mark. Jaffe earned $670,000 for his second place showing in 2008, as he fell to Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little heads-up at the feature table. Also making last year’s six-handed finale were David “The Dragon” Pham, Charles Marchese, Jack Schanbacher, and Mike “The Mouth” Matusow.

Here are the chip counts after one day of play in the $10,000 buy-in WPT tournament:

1. Todd Terry – 165,700
2. Danny Shiff – 159,525
3. Adam Lippert – 159,000
4. Jack Schanbacher – 148,775
5. Soheil Shamseddin – 126,000
6. Michael Mizrachi – 125,900
7. Chris Moore – 123,700
8. Danny Illingworth – 121,600
8. Alan Sasser – 121,600
10. John Barucci – 119,950

Other players still in the hunt for the $910,000 first place prize include:

Matt “mattg1983” Graham – 99,175
Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp – 94,575
Christian “charder” Harder – 91,575
Poorya Nazari – 89,400
Jason Mercier – 84,750
Steve Sung – 76,275
Nick Schulman – 76,000
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin – 75,100
Nenad Medic – 69,150
Prahlad Friedman – 67,450
Cornel Cimpan – 65,450
John “World” Hennigan – 61,250
Matt Hawrilenko – 51,250
“Cowboy” Kenna James – 49,425
Chad “lilholdem954” Batista – 47,000
Kathy Liebert – 46,025
Gavin Smith – 42,375
Liv Boeree – 40,550
Steve Brecher – 35,675
Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron – 34,475
Victor Ramdin – 32,750
Amnon Filippi – 31,675
Adam “Roothlus” Levy – 31,200
Tommy Vedes – 30,450
Gavin Griffin – 21,125

When play ended on Thursday, the action was in Level 8 and blinds were 400-800 with a 100 chip ante.

One of the toughest draws on Friday is at Table 22, where World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner and Team PokerStars Pro member Jason Mercier will join fellow online poker pros Adam “Roothlus” Levy and Isaac “westmenloAA” Baron. Also at Table 22 will be Tommy Vedes, who is fresh off winning the WPT’s Festa al Lago event in October, and John “World” Hennigan, a two-time WSOP bracelet winner.

The WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals crowns a champion next Tuesday, November 10th. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT coverage.

Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet Introduce Synchronized Breaks

A recent change to the tournament schedules at CEREUS Network sites Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet has online grinders rejoicing at the fact that it will now be even easier to bolt to the bathroom during a long session of online tournament play.  The two rooms are the latest to adopt the practice of synchronizing breaks.

Like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker before them, Absolute Poker and Ultimate Bet’s five-minute breaks will run from 55 minutes past the hour to the top of the hour.  This means that even if a tournament has not been running for an hour, players will still go on break at 55 after in order to stay synchronized with the rest of the schedule.

There are a few exceptions to the new synchronized break policy.  For example, any tournament that is still in the late registration period will not go on break at the scheduled time.  Regular tournaments that are still in the first blind level at 55 minutes past the hour will also skip the five minute break, as will Turbo and Ultra Turbo tournaments that are in the first two levels of play.  Multi-table sit and gos will also not be taking part in synchronized breaks, but the official statement from CEREUS suggests that this exception may be a temporary one.  If users are ever unsure about whether or not a tournament has synchronized breaks, they can check the lobby for verification.

Earlier this month, Team Ultimate Bet Pro Adam “Roothlus” Levy informed members of the online poker forum PocketFives.com that synchronized breaks were coming by November and also filled them in on some potential changes on the site.  He said the room would be revamping its tournament schedule to cater to the needs of high-stakes multi-table tournament players, including moving up the popular $300 buy-in $100,000 Guaranteed deep stack tournament one hour from its current 5:30pm ET start.

Ultimate Bet pro Annie Duke told Poker News Daily, “When Full Tilt rolled it out, our developers were doing things related to CEREUS, which was a long process. I’m excited that the tournament schedule has some changes coming over the next couple of weeks.”

There has yet to be any official statement from Ultimate Bet regarding changes to the tournament schedule, but a press release from CEREUS did announce that they have implemented a new “Raise To” button.  Previously, players had to subtract the amount of the initial bets from their raise.  The new “Raise To” button allows users to simply type in the amount they would like to raise to.

Full Tilt Poker first introduced synchronized breaks in April and PokerStars followed suit in August.  While the concept has been a big hit among online tournament regulars who were previously unable to step away from their computers without inevitably missing hands, several players have noticed some timing issues that are cutting players’ breaks short.  When PokerStars first started synchronizing breaks at 55 minutes past the hour, the tournaments on both Full Tilt and PokerStars would go on break at almost exactly the same time.  Now, several players have noticed that there is almost one minute between the time in which PokerStars players are sent on break and when Full Tilt players are sent, cutting down noticeably on the time they can spend away from the virtual tables.

Despite the timing discrepancies, synchronized breaks have still been a big success overall and this recent step by CEREUS suggests that a five-minute break at the end of the hour is on its way to becoming an industry standard.

WPT signs on for Annie Duke Charity Tournament

The WPT is putting up a seat in its exclusive Celebrity Invitational tournament to the winner of the charity event.

Organizers have also released an updated list of celebrities to attend the Duke charity tournament.

It now appears Amazing Race competitors Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho will be buying in, along with fellow reality TV star Trishelle Cannatella, Magician Penn Lillette, world champion snowboarder Jeff Brushie, supercross icon Jimmy Button, actor Joshua Malina and several others.

The usual assortment of poker players will also be lining up to play with Duke, Howard Lederer, Dan Harrington, Joe Sebok, Greg Mueller, Adam "Roothlus" Levy, Andy Bloch and "Hollywood" Dave Stann scheduled to appear.

The public will be able to buy in for $330 and rub shoulders with all the aforementioned celebrities and poker players.

The top 10 finishers will receive prizes from sponsors WSOP Academy, ClubWPT.com, Rockwell Time, Crown Royal, Team UltimateBet, Cartwright Entertainment, Hardcore Elegance, AMA Supercross Anaheim and Commerce Casino.

Taking place at the Commerce Casino in L.A., the Annie Duke Celebrity Poker Night is set to benefit the Decision Education Foundation, which teaches young people to make smart decisions.

The WPT Celebrity Invitational takes place Feb. 20-21, 2010. Also held at Commerce Casino, the Celebrity Invitational is recognized as one of the biggest celebrity tournaments in the world.

The event has drawn the likes of Ben Affleck, Tobey McGuire, Vince Vaughn and Mena Suvari. Former winners include Phil Laak, Van Nguyen and Freddy Deeb.

To sign up for the the Annie Duke Celebrity Poker Night or learn more about it, click here.

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Best Poker Twitter Accounts You’re Probably Not Following

The Twitterverse is a vast and sometimes scary place.  With so many people microblogging the minutiae of their everyday lives, it is often difficult to find Twitter accounts that are genuinely worth reading.  For every active celebrity, there are a half-dozen who only Tweet about what they had for dinner.

In other words, just because someone is famous doesn’t mean their tweets will keep you rapidly hitting refresh on your cell phone or laptop.  The same can be said for the celebrities of the poker world, whose tweets range from chip counts to outrageous stories from debauchery-filled nights on the Las Vegas Strip.  Since it seems as though every poker player around has opened up a Twitter account, we here at Poker News Daily have taken it upon ourselves to point out some quality feeds for your reading pleasure.

We’ll assume you are aware of the biggies.  With more than 943,000 followers, you’ve more than likely already added Joe Sebok (@JoeSebok) to your list of poker-related Tweeters.  Doyle Brunson, known to Tweeters as @TexDolly, is rapidly approaching 100,000 followers, so we won’t waste your time reiterating how groan-inducing, but funny, his endless string of blonde jokes is.  What we will do is offer up five Twitter accounts from players who may not be the most well-known pros on the circuit, but offer up some quality insight in 140 characters or less.

@basebaldy

This is the time of year when the various Player of the Year races start heating up and a few players in contention start entering every tournament around.  World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin is one such player who has been documenting his progress via his Twitter account.  His tweets not only provide chip counts and updates on his own progress, but also give rundowns of some of the kookier characters he encounters on the felt

Choice Tweet: “Not sure why I convinced @JonathanLittle to play this 300 with me. It doubled the number of good players in the field.”

@Erik_Seidel

If you think eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel’s Twitter feed will make you a better poker player, think again.  It will instead provide you with a steady stream of chuckles thanks to Seidel’s witty quips on everything from Balloon Boy to President Obama.  His loyal group of 4,000+ followers has already begun to spread the word about the joys of Seidel’s dry sense of humor and eagerly await his Tweets, which crop up once every couple of days.

Choice Tweet: “T-Mobile Sidekick has lost all customer data. Andy Richter, Paul Shaffer + Tom Arnold also reported missing”

@RoothlusUncut

The brainchild of poker pro Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer, @RoothlusUncut is composed entirely of quotes from Ultimate Bet sponsored pro Adam “Roothlus” Levy.  Ranging from the comical to the absurd, @RoothlusUncut’s tweets will often leave you more than curious about what conversation and situation could possibly produce them.  Unfortunately, Levy’s relocation to Los Angeles has left the account idle for the past couple of months, but the concept is such a good idea that we simply couldn’t let it go unmentioned.

Choice Tweet: “I just looked up the last google I did…Jane Seymour’s age”

@allenkessler

While the Twitter updates from Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler filling the world in on his latest bad beats are entertaining in their own right, what is perhaps even more fun is reading the tweets of those who talk back to him.  Whether it is Kessler arguing with tournament director Matt Savage or exchanging pleasantries with the growing contingent of online players who think of Kessler as a cult hero of sorts, the banter is what really makes his feed so fun.  There is also the added bonus of hearing updates from tournaments at smaller venues that do not always receive mainstream poker media coverage.

Choice Tweet: “If anyone is hungry I have a 200 comp at ago restaurant at the hard rock”

@Maridu

In order to fully appreciate Team PokerStars Pro Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck’s Twitter feed, you need a working knowledge of Portugese.  The Brazilian pro switches back and forth between her native tongue and English as she posts updates on herself and other South American pros like Alexandre Gomes and Andre Akkari.  Following Mayrinck on Twitter can also be a profitable venture, as she recently offered $10 on PokerStars to the person who gave her the best Halloween costume idea.  Always one to get a conversation going, Mayrinck keeps it lively and interactive like a good Twitter account should be.

Choice Tweet: “i long for a world where chickens can cross roads without being questioned about their motives…”

This list is certainly not all-inclusive and we’ll continue to scour the internet for more top Twitterers, but for those looking to kill some time while grinding online, these are a good place to start.

WPT Festa al Lago Attendance Drops 25%

Despite players having an unprecedented eight levels to register for the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Festa al Lago, attendance dropped 25% year over year. In 2008, 368 players took to the felt, while this time around, the field numbered 275.

Registration ended five hours into play on Day 2 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, the host venue for the annual Festa al Lago. A total of 30 players bought in on Thursday, including Andy Bloch, Todd Brunson, Freddy Deeb, Chris Ferguson, Hasan Habib, Isaac Haxton, Phil Hellmuth, John Juanda, Howard Lederer, Kenny Tran, and Bodog pro David Williams. Players who entered the Festa al Lago Main Event late received 60,000 chips, the same number as players who began yesterday received. However, the average stack at 5:00pm Pacific Time when registration shuttered was 114,000, nearly double that total.

Tran’s day was quite abbreviated. After arriving at the last minute and not taking a seat at the table until his stack had shrunk to 48,000, he quickly found himself all-in pre-flop with K-Q of diamonds against top online poker pro Steve “gboro780” Gross’ pocket sevens. Tran hit a king on the turn to take the lead in the hand, but Gross spiked a two-outer on the river to send the poker pro home. WPT coverage candidly summed up Tran’s outing: “Kenny Tran paid $15,000 to play for about ten minutes, but he still outlasted more than half the field.”

The feature table began with a star-studded lineup headlined by Full Tilt Poker pro and World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine member Phil Ivey. Flanking him were fellow Poker Hall of Fame nominee Barry Greenstein, “Big Game” regular Eli Elezra, Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, and Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer. Elezra was ultimately sent packing from the table after running pocket tens into pocket aces.

Phil Hellmuth headed to Table 55 upon arriving at the Bellagio about two-and-a-half hours into play on Thursday. Joining him were 2001 WSOP Main Event Champion Carlos Mortensen, Mike “goleafsgoeh” Leah, and Daniel Alaei. After coming up short in a race with A-K against pocket queens to drop his stack down to 23,000, Hellmuth raced again, this time for his tournament life. Hellmuth once again held A-K and was up against the pocket jacks of Dee Luong. However, he could not improve and was sent packing from the Las Vegas casino.

Twenty-seven places will pay out at the marquee WPT event, with a $1.2 million first place prize up for grabs. Here’s how the field will be paid out in the $15,0000 buy-in contest:

1st Place:  $1,218,225
2nd Place:  $795,150
3rd Place:  $477,090
4th Place:  $278,300
5th Place:  $208,725
6th Place:  $168,970
7th Place:  $129,210
8th Place:  $89,450
9th Place:  $63,610
10th Place – 12th Place:  $47,710
13th Place – 15th Place:  $39,760
16th Place – 18th Place:  $31,805
19th Place – 27th Place:  $23,855

At the time of writing, which is 8:30pm local time in Las Vegas, here were the top 10 chip stacks as play continued in the Festa al Lago. The action was in Level 10, where blinds were 1,000/2,000 with a 200 chip ante:

1. Chad Batista – 425,000
2. Jason Somerville – 404,000
3. Corwin Cole – 390,000
4. Mark Seif – 370,000
5. Chau Giang – 350,000
6. Steve Gross – 345,000
7. Mike Leah – 340,000
8. Markus Gonsalves – 320,000
9. Dutch Boyd – 260,000
10. Eugene Katchalov – 255,000

Last year, Team PokerStars Pro member Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier defeated Nam Le heads-up to take home $1.4 million in the Festa al Lago Main Event. Others making the final table included WSOP bracelet winner Nenad Medic and Ultimate Bet pro Adam “Roothlus” Levy.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT Festa al Lago coverage.

WSOP on ESPN: Antonio Esfandiari Featured on Day 7 Coverage

With 64 players left, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event played out Day 7 on ESPN on Tuesday night. The feature table included Antonio Esfandiari, Ryan Fair, Steven Begleiter, and James Akenhead.

In the first hand shown at the feature table, Esfandiari raised to 135,000 pre-flop with A-3 and Akenhead pushed for 1.5 million with pocket nines. Hung Pham folded pocket tens and Mark Ader shoved with A-K. Akenhead was all-in for his tournament life against Ader after Esfandiari got out of the way and the flop came nine-high, giving Akenhead a set. Elsewhere in the Amazon Room, Prahlad Friedman pushed all-in with K-Q pre-flop and was called by Bradley Craig, who held A-K. The board ran out 7-9-2-8-9 and Friedman was sent packing in 64th place.

The lone woman remaining in the field, Leo Margets, doubled up Grayson Ramage with pocket fours versus pocket eights when Ramage spiked a third eight on the flop. Meanwhile, Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp scooped a 6.3 million chip pot at the expense of John Martin, who shoved on a board of A-6-9-K with two diamonds holding 8-7 of the suit for flush and straight draws. Kopp had pocket sixes for a set and watched as the river came the jack of spades. Kopp added Martin to his list of knockouts, which also included WSOP Main Event champions Peter Eastgate and Joe Hachem.

Joe Sebok hit the rails in 56th place when his A-9 ran into Nick Maimone’s A-Q. Then, Akenhead doubled up again, this time with pocket kings against Adam York’s A-J. Also doubling up was 2008 WSOP November Nine member Dennis Phillips, who check-raised Steve Sanders all-in on a 2-A-6 (all clubs) board holding pocket queens, including the queen of clubs. Sanders held pocket aces for top set and watched as the river came another club, giving Phillips a flush.

The longtime ESPN segment “The Nuts” reviewed the origin of the term “donkey” and then Tom Schneider hit the skids in 52nd after running A-7 into pocket nines. Jonathan Tamayo scooped a 6.7 million chip pot holding pocket kings against Craig’s A-K and, at the feature table, Fair became agitated in a hand against Pham. In it, Fair raised to 150,000 pre-flop with pocket tens and Pham re-raised to 550,000 with kings. Fair shoved and Pham, after some deliberation, made the call. Fair exclaimed, “Such a slowroll,” but sucked out when a ten hit the flop. Fair did a chest bump with a person in the audience after the hand was over and explained, “I don’t feel that bad.”

Adam Bilzerian, one-half of the Norman Chad-dubbed “Flying Bilzerian Brothers,” found the exit in 47th place after running tens into kings; his brother, Dan Bilzerian, took 180th. Phillips’ run through the 2009 WSOP Main Event ended after he was all-in pre-flop with A-K of diamonds against Francois Balmigere’s A-K of spades. The board included three spades, sending the crowd favorite out in horrific fashion after back-to-back runs in the $10,000 buy-in poker tournament. Meanwhile, Kopp, the chip leader, padded his stack after busting a player with pocket jacks against pocket tens.

Darvin Moon, sporting his signature New Orleans Saints hat, was moved to the feature table and, while arranging his chips, was involved in a hand against Eugene Katchalov. In it, Katchalov shoved with A-10 pre-flop and Moon isolated with pocket kings by raising to five million. Esfandiari peeked down at pocket jacks and, after much deliberation, tossed them into the muck. The board ran out 8-6-10-2-K and Moon sent Katchalov packing in 39th place. His run of cards continued against Balmigere, who flopped a set with pocket tens, but Moon hit the nuts, an ace-high straight. Balmigere surrendered by the river, but Moon’s stack still grew to over 15 million.

Joe “LatestLines2” Ward sent Martin Lapostelle (pocket queens) and Gabriel Vezina (pocket jacks) packing in the same hand holding pocket kings. A king hit the flop, making Ward a 98% favorite to win the hand, and the turn and river blanked out. Although Ward scooped a 6.1 million chip pot, he’d ship much of it to Phil Ivey. In the end, Ward was all-in against Jamie Robbins holding A-K against Robbins’ A-Q. Both players hit an ace on the flop, but a queen on the river secured Ward’s exit in 28th place, ending play on Day 7.

WSOP on ESPN coverage continues next week with Day 8 of the 2009 WSOP Main Event. The action gets underway at 9:00pm ET.

Sebok seeks redemption as WPT Festa begins

A win in the $15k event last year began Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier on the path towards WPT Player of the Year honors, but the Warsaw leg of the European Poker Tour will keep the French pro from returning to defend his title this time around.

Grospellier came into the final table last year with a rather sizeable chip lead and completely dominated a final six that included Nam Le, Osmin Dardon, Nenad Medic, Adam Levy and William Mietz to win the $1.4 million first place prize.

However, it was a hand on the event's penultimate day, one that would become one of the most talked about hands of the WPT's seventh season, that Grospellier later claimed propelled him to victory.

Joe Sebok, no stranger to WPT final table bubbles having finished seventh at both the Legends of Poker and Bay 101 Shooting Star in 2007, had the chip lead nine-handed and appeared to be a lock to finally make a televised final table on the tour.

Sebok fell back to the pack doubling up short stack Olav Prinz Von Sachsen losing a race with ace-king against sevens and a few minutes later, Grospellier raised his big blind from the small blind, just has he had been doing all day long.

This time Sebok decided to a take a stand, pushing all in with K 9 and without much hesitation, Grospellier made the call with the dominating A 9.

The board bricked out, Grospellier had the chip stack and table image needed to take a stranglehold on the Festa al Lago title and an utterly shocked Sebok was suddenly on the outside looking in.

For weeks after, Sebok's play was both criticized and lauded on Internet poker forums and his own PokerRoad radio show ad nauseam.

Now, a year later, as he headed back to Las Vegas looking for redemption and another shot at the WPT glory he was so close to attaining he could practically taste it, Sebok told PokerListings he's come to terms with it all.

"It makes me kind of sad that some of the most discussed hands in WPT history are ones that I've lost," Sebok said. "But seriously, it's one of those hands where it's still not really clear whether it was the right play or the wrong play."

In the aftermath, dozens of top pros have weighed in with advice on how Sebok should have played the hand, with opinions ranging from folding pre-flop to not changing a thing and everything in between.

But while Sebok staunchly defended his play in the weeks and months following the event, claiming he was well ahead of Grospellier's raising range and expected him to fold, even he is now looking at things a bit differently.

"When you take into account that it was getting to that point in the tournament where everybody was about to blow, because of the size of the stacks, given that, I guess now I would lean towards not playing the hand," Sebok said.

"It was really a big enough deal for me to make the final table that perhaps, in hindsight, I should have laid it down."

However, Sebok, who is now sponsored by UltimateBet, said he understands putting a questionable play behind you, even if it represented another lost opportunity at a WPT final table, is an important part of being a poker professional.

"Thankfully I've gone through a lot of these recoveries and each one gets a little shorter," he said. "It sucks not to have made it when you keep getting so close, but really, that's poker. What going are you going to do?"

Learning what he can from his past mistakes, Sebok is now solely focused on the Festa al Lago main event in front of him, not the one behind.

"The goal is always to get off to a good start, take advantage of everything you can and get to the final table," he said. "I've done everything right so far, minus the last part. Hopefully things will be different this time around."

To follow Sebok's progress and the entire WPT Festa al Lago main event from start to finish, click through to PokerListings' Live Updates beginning at 12 p.m. PST Wednesday.

Visit PokerListings.com

Alex Outhred Discusses Deepstacks University

Known as “The Insider” for his efforts in cataloging hands at every final table of the early years of the World Poker Tour (WPT), Alex Outhred went on to create the curriculum for and become one of the preeminent instructors for the WPT Boot Camp, which has taught the intricacies of poker to thousands of players. Then, he moved on to the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Academy, where he was critical in the implementation of its study guide. Outhred now has some other “pots on the stove,” both inside and outside of the poker world, including a new teaching outlet.

One of his latest endeavors, Deepstacks University, had been keeping him in the recording studios. Deepstacks University is an online and live poker school slated to open at the beginning of November. What makes Deepstacks University different is that it offers players poker instruction for a cost that is vastly less than the various boot camps that are available. It was easy to see Outhred’s enthusiasm for the new teaching tool after only a few moments of talking to him.

“Deepstacks University, in my opinion, is truly a quality product,” Outhred stated immediately. “We have some of the best minds in the game in Tom McEvoy, T.J. Cloutier, Mike Matusow, and the Binger brothers (Michael and Nick). I have played and worked with everyone involved with Deepstacks University and it’s truly an honor to work beside them.”

Outhred’s desire to teach poker stems from his background, which included everything from studying psychology at the University of Michigan to being exposed to the wealth of teachers and psychologists within his family. “It is really a great feeling when you see someone who benefited specifically from your instruction win a big tournament or a WSOP bracelet or Circuit ring. To illuminate poker concepts and theory that play a factor in taking down a title is definitely a point of pride for me, for the student, and the process itself.”

He’s also quick to note, however, that there is something in it for himself. “When I am teaching my courses on Deepstacks University, it does help me out,” Outhred said. “All of the things that I tell students help to reinforce the same ideas in my head, which then run over into my play at the tables. By keeping these ideas and concepts fresh and accessible in my head, I can only play better. An important aspect of this cycle that has developed lately has been bringing fresh lessons that I’m learning at the live tables directly to the Deepstacks University videos.”

With a wealth of players around him (in addition to the professionals listed before, other top pros such as Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Andrew “Browndog19” Brown, Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg, and Liv Boeree round out Team Deepstacks), Outhred has found that there is always room to improve his game. “It’s tough to pick just one (of my associates), but Nick Binger is someone I learn from because I believe we have a uniquely similar style of play,” Outhred said. “We both seem to have that knack for going with our reads and knowing when to drop a big hand or kick into that purely aggressive mode that it takes to do well in tournament poker. Seeing his style of play and the corresponding results embolden my confidence in my own game and my likelihood for future success.”

In the past three years, Outhred has pulled in approximately $300,000 from tournament poker (he was 54th in last year’s WSOP Main Event) and also earned $500,000 from the FOX television game show “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?” The money earned has allowed him to become part owner in a restaurant, Stout Burgers and Beer, in Hollywood, California. The establishment is set to open next month.

“I’ve been thinking about the future and the restaurant was something I wanted to do,” Outhred admitted. “I have been on a bit of a bad streak results-wise since the WSOP last year and I really wanted to see the restaurant and Deepstacks University get off the ground. To be able to do that, I really put my attention on them and put playing high buy-in poker events on hold until next year.”

Starting the restaurant while maintaining a place in the poker world was critical for Outhred: “I wanted to be able to take care of my future and be secure. By getting these things in line, I’ll be able to do that. People sometimes forget that poker will always be there and I didn’t want to be one of the people who forgot that.”

Outhred seems to be demonstrating that someone can combine life and poker and be successful at both. With Deepstacks University and his restaurant set to open for business within a couple of weeks, “The Insider” will be busier than ever and we can only hope to see him back on the felt soon.

Big time pros dominate Sunday tournaments

This week big name live and online pros dominated the fields, taking center stage.

The biggest win of the day came from Full Tilt Pro Vivek Rajkumar, who recently bubbled the final table at EPT London.

Sunday, Rajkumar took down the $500 buy-in monthly $1 million guarantee on Full Tilt, banking $180,000.

Rajkumar went into the final table with a 400,000 chip lead, and by 4:45 a.m. managed to work his way down to heads-up.

With dawn about to break, the players agreed to make a deal, with each taking around $170k, leaving $10k in the prize pool for the winner, decided only five hands later.

Also making an appearance on Rajkumar's final table was poker professional Cody "thugmoneymkr" Slaubaugh whose run finished in 7th place.

On PokerStars, the Sunday million brought out 7,856 players, with Jamie "TheCronic420" Rosen making the final table to finish in an impressive 6th place for $47k.

The other major players to post final-table appearances this week in Sunday events online included Travis "TravestyFund" Rice, Tom "kingsofcards" Marchese, Chad "jse81″ Batista, Peter "#1PEN" Neff, Matt "All In At 420″ Stout and Adam "akat11″ Katz.

Visit PokerListings.com

Dennis Phillips, Peter Eastgate Featured on WSOP on ESPN Coverage

Two original November Nine members, Dennis Phillips and 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate, took center stage on ESPN on Tuesday night. Play from Day 6 of the 2009 Main Event wrapped up from the Rio in Las Vegas.

Eastgate and Phillips were seated at the feature table during the first hour of ESPN’s WSOP coverage, which aired at 9:00pm ET. Joining them were J.C. Tran, Joe Hachem, and one of the chip leaders throughout much of the day, Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp. In the first hand shown at the feature table, Hachem raised to 55,000 pre-flop with A-K and Thai Tran made it 305,000 with pocket kings. Hachem noted, “It doesn’t feel right” and promptly mucked.

2009 November Nine members Phil Ivey and Steven Begleiter could be found at Table Two. Ivey raised to 54,000 holding K-J and Begleiter made the call with 8-7 of diamonds to see the flop came 9-A-6. Begleiter check-called an 80,000 chip bet from Ivey to see a three hit the turn. The action went check-check to a queen on the river. Begleiter bet out 175,000 to build a 490,000 chip pot with his busted straight draw and Ivey folded.

Kopp continued to build his stack, sending Nasr El Nasr home in 137th place with pocket aces against pocket queens. After the board fell 2-4-10-10-3, Kopp raked in the 3.2 million chip pot to hold the second largest stack in the room. Incidentally, Phillips held pocket fours in the hand and would have turned a boat. Meanwhile, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier was sent packing with A-K against the pocket kings of online poker pro Scott Sitron.

“The Nuts” examined the use of the phrases “nice hand” and “good luck,” while out in the field, 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider doubled up with pocket aces against John Martin’s A-K. Bradley Craig, who was once down to just 400 chips during the Main Event, doubled up with A-Q versus the pocket kings of Noah Boeken to balloon his stack to 2.6 million. Back at the feature table, J.C. Tran was sent packing at the hands of Phillips for his fourth Main Event cash since 2004.

Hachem’s run through the 2009 WSOP Main Event came to an abrupt halt when he shoved his five big blind stack with J-9 of clubs. Kopp made the call with pocket fours, setting up a race situation. By the river, Hachem was rooting for an ace, king, jack, nine, or club to double up, but the three of hearts sealed the 2005 Main Event Champion’s fate. Eastgate represented the lone winner of the $10,000 buy-in tournament left in the field.

The second episode, which began at 10:00pm ET on ESPN, included the same feature and side tables, with poker pro Joe Sebok making his way to the former. At Table Two, Ivey drew out on Hac Dang with pocket jacks against Dang’s pocket queens when the flop came jack-high. Antonio Esfandiari also drew out on an opponent to send them to the rails, as “The Magician’s” K-Q found the nuts on a flop of 9-10-J to send Bobby Law packing with A-K in 91st place.

In the Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Wild Card Hand, in which the hole cards of one player are concealed, Phillips raised to 70,000 pre-flop with pocket kings and Thai Tran made the call from the big blind. The flop came 10-A-3 and Tran check-raised Phillips to 440,000. Phillips called to see a six fall on the turn and the action went check-check. The river was an eight and Tran checked. Phillips checked behind and Tran showed a baby ace, A-2, to scoop the pot.

Out in the field, Darvin Moon sent Jamie Brown to the exits with pocket aces against pocket kings to scoop a 3.8 million chip pot and become the new chip leader. Shortly thereafter, Kenny Tran was all-in with A-5 of diamonds against Joe Cada’s pocket eights. The board ran out 4-3-3-9-6 and Tran busted in 86th place. It was then Eastgate’s turn to pack his bags after an impressive run in 2009 after winning it all one year ago. The 2008 WSOP Main Event Champion pushed all-in pre-flop with A-J; Kopp made the call with pocket eights, as did Phillips, who held K-Q. Kopp and Phillips checked the action to the river, which put four hearts on the board. Kopp held the only heart and sent Eastgate to the rails in 78th.

A new feature table was assembled featuring Moon, Phillips, and Schneider. In one hand, Schneider raised to 110,000 with A-J and Phillips made it 310,000 with pocket queens. Moon, holding A-K, pushed the action to 675,000, Schneider got out of the way, and Phillips made the call. ESPN announcer Norman Chad noted, “It’s the every man against the every man.” The flop came A-4-8 and Moon bet 750,000 with his top pair after Phillips checked. Phillips commented, “I have no idea if you’re pushing me around or not” and folded, showing his hole cards. The pot was worth 2.3 million chips.

Ivey made a flush to eliminate an opponent at Table Two, while Nichoel Peppe, one of two women remaining in the field, was all-in with her tournament life on the line holding J-4 of hearts against Adam York’s pocket aces. The board came with one heart and Peppe exited in 75th place, leaving Leo Margets as the last woman standing in the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

A total of 64 players remain. WSOP on ESPN coverage hits television airwaves on Tuesdays at 9:00pm ET and runs for two hours. The Main Event final table can be seen on November 10th.

DeepStacks University beta goes live

Headed up by Mike Matusow, the brand new training site been developed to help poker players develop the skills necessary to be a winning player.

"Serving as Dean of DeepStacks University is one of the most exciting projects I've ever been part of," said Matusow.

"The team, from the experienced instructors to the talented executives running the company, is first class all the way.

"I've been around a long time, seen tons of ideas and projects come and go, but when it comes to online poker education, nothing compares to what DSU has to offer. I'll be able to transfer my years of knowledge, experience and strategy development to you in a way that is not possible anywhere else."

The key feature of DeepStacks University is something the site is calling Reactive Training Technology, which essentially allows players to interact with a training video.

Players are able to use separate "modules" to help work on a specific part of their poker game. The University is scheduled to release new modules every week.

DeepStacks University instructors include the aforementioned Matusow, TJ Cloutier, Michael Binger and Adam "Roothlus" Levy.

"DeepStacks University is going to be one of the best training sites around," said Levy. "With interactive modules letting players really feel a part of everything and a team of top-notch professionals, DeepStacks University is sure to be around a long time."

Special early access offers are available for first time users and registered customers through the beta site found at www.deepstacks.com.

Visit PokerListings.com

WSOP Main Event Days 5 and 6 Air on ESPN

With 96% of the field gone, players took to the felts for Days 5 and 6 of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event on ESPN. Three women, two former Main Event champions, and one gold bracelet remained.

The first hand shown at the feature table, which once again contained Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Jeff Shulman, saw Randy Propson and Grospellier see a flop of 10-2-6. The action went check-check to bring a king on the turn and Grospellier check-called a bet of 42,000 from Propson. The river was a deuce and Grospellier once again check-called a bet, this time 75,000. Grospellier showed A-8 for ace-high, good enough to scoop the 330,000 chip pot. Elsewhere in the room, Phil Ivey bet 40,000 on a board of 8-7-7-8-J and Charles Clark called. Ivey showed J-6 for a rivered two pair to claim the pot.

At Table Two, Andreas Flakstad shoved all-in holding pocket eights on a 7-J-2-3-5 board with three hearts. Antonio Esfandiari tanked before finally folding pocket queens. Table Two also included “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here” winner Lou Diamond Phillips. Back at the feature table, Brent Catalano doubled up at the expense of Joe Hachem, who joined the cast. Catalano held pocket queens in the hand, which saw Hachem miss a flush draw.

In the PokerStars-sponsored “Straight from the Pros” segment, Hachem relived a hand from the 2007 Main Event in which he stressed the importance of position. Then, back at the Rio, Estelle Denis, one of three women remaining in the field, pushed all-in over the top of a raise by J.C. Tran. However, the dealer pulled her cards into the muck. A floor supervisor, Steve Frezer, was called. After Denis told him her cards, Frezer looked at the top two cards in the deck, which did not match, and her hand was declared dead. Denis noted that she had aces.

Joe Sebok could be found alongside his cousin, Mike Linn, and both were decked out in PokerRoad gear. In the Jack Link’s Beef Jerky Wild Card Hand, Francois Balmigere raised pre-flop with unknown cards and Hachem called from the big blind with 5-7 of diamonds. The flop came 10-5-2. Hachem checked, Balmigere bet 43,000, and Hachem called to see the turn fall an ace. Hachem once again checked, Balmigere fired out a bet of 86,000, about half the size of the pot, and Hachem folded. Balmigere held just 6-7 for a bluff.

At Table Two, Esfandiari signed a woman’s chest and promptly autographed a man’s stomach, attracting the attention of ESPN cameras. Then, his pocket aces sent Adam Sanders and his pocket tens packing after the board ran out 4-K-K-8-3. In “The Nuts,” which asked poker pros which of their peers would make ideal reality television show contestants, Phil Hellmuth claimed his agent inquired if he wanted to be on ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars.” In one of the final hands shown during the first episode, which aired at 9:00pm ET, Phillips was all-in with kings against two players holding pocket aces. The board came 8-9-9-5-9 and one of the last celebrities left in the field hit the rails in 186th place.

The second episode profiled Day 6 at the 2009 WSOP Main Event and kicked off with a rap by bracelet winner Prahlad Friedman. ESPN announcer Norman Chad quipped, “In terms of rapping, I’d have to put him ahead of Jeff Madsen, but behind Jay Z.” Out in the field, ESPN viewers saw two eventual November Nine members clash, as James Akenhead check-raised Steve Begleiter, who promptly re-raised to 505,000. Akenhead made the call on the 9-8-Q board with two clubs to see the three of spades hit the turn. Akenhead check-called an 850,000 chip bet to bring the river, the seven of spades. Both players checked and Begleiter scooped the massive 2.8 million chip pot with 9-7 for two pair.

Seated at the same table during the 10:00pm ET episode were Hachem, Tran, Dennis Phillips, and Peter Eastgate, a group dubbed by ESPN announcer Lon McEachern “the table of death.” Elsewhere, Dan Bilzerian, one-half of the Norman Chad-labeled “Flying Bilzerian Brothers,” was ousted by Jonathan Tamayo with his A-6 could not out-draw pocket tens. After the Full Tilt Poker sponsored segment “Deal Me In” recapped a hand with Jennifer Harman during the 2005 Main Event, Nichoel Peppe took down a pot at Table Two. Peppe and Leo Margets headlined the side table and represented the lone women remaining in the 2009 WSOP Main Event after Denis was sent packing.

Darvin Moon put in a raise to 650,000 and Ben Lamb called on a board of A-3-2-J. The river came a nine. Lamb checked, Moon bet 500,000, and Lamb folded, boosting Moon’s chip stack to 4.1 million, among the top tallies in the Amazon Room. Adam Bilzerian doubled up after calling all-in with 5-4 on a board of 6-5-2. His opponent showed J-9 for a bluff and Bilzerian’s hand held up. Bilzerian would give some of his newfound chips to John Martin after Martin was all-in with pocket nines on a 5-8-7-2 board with two spades. Bilzerian held 5-6 of the suit for flush and straight draws, but the river was the jack of hearts.

Tom Schneider, the 2007 WSOP Player of the Year, took down a 2.6 million chip pot at the feature table to close out Tuesday’s WSOP on ESPN festivities. New episodes air at 9:00pm ET on Tuesdays on ESPN and replay throughout the week.

Adam Levy Leads Aruba Poker Classic Day 1a

The UltimateBet 2009 Aruba Poker Classic kicked off yesterday, with 188 entrants stumping up $5,500 or qualifying via a generous UltimateBet or Absolute Poker satellite package.

Poker News in Brief: Sept. 28-Oct. 4, 2009

Plus, by finishing second, Daniel Negreanu became poker's all-time leading money winner.

With all the news out of London, it was easy to forget about the rest of the poker world. Fortunately, as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature, we've broken down some of the lesser-known stories below.

This week we'll take a look at a renowned poker player going cosmic, five poker players getting a big relief and a new WSOP promotion from Milwaukee's Best Light.

Guy Laliberte blasts off

Cirque du Soleil founder and alleged high-stakes fish Guy Laliberte became the first Canadian space-tourist on Wednesday.

Laliberte, along with a Russian cosmonaut and an American astronaut, successfully blasted into space aboard a Soyuz spacecraft headed for the International Space Station.

The French-Canadian billionaire is isn't just along for the ride and on Oct. 9, if all goes according to plan, he will be the master of ceremonies for a global performance involving 14 cities and noted celebrities like Bono, Shakira, David Suzuki and former vice-president Al Gore.

The show is to promote the One Drop Foundation for access to clean water.

Laliberte is scheduled to return to earth on Oct. 11.

Milwaukee's Best Light starts poker promotion

Milwaukee's Best Light, the official beer sponsor of the WSOP, is giving their customers a chance to win a seat in the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

The promotion is part of the brand's two-month "Online Poker Challenge" which will see two seats awarded to the 2010 Main Event.

From now through Nov. 22, those 21 and older can visit www.wsop.com and click the Milwaukee's Best Light banner to register and compete in Texas Hold'em online.

At the end of each week, the 1,000 participants with the highest point totals will be eligible to participate in that week's final tournament, which will determine the top 100 point holders.  Those top 100 qualifiers will advance to the month-ending grand prize tournament.

Players will also have the opportunity to earn bonus points by referring friends, answering trivia and obtaining codes inside specially marked boxes of Milwaukee's Best and Milwaukee's Best Ice.

Pro-online poker bill hits 60 co-sponsors

Rep. Barney Frank's Internet Gambling, Consumer Protection & Enforcement Act of 2009 reached 60 co-sponsors this week. Among the newest to sign on board with the bill are Rep. Lyn Woolsey, William Clay, Adam Schiff and Christopher Murphy.

The bill is currently waiting to be heard before committee, but support is starting to grow in the Republican Party.

Frank originally said the bill would be heard by Easter this year, but it was pushed back to July and then September. It's now likely the bill won't be discussed until the new year.

In the meantime, Frank has introduced a second bill that would postpone the coming enforcement of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act Dec. 1, 2009.

Judge dismisses case against Mt. Pleasant poker players

The decision to convict five South Carolinian poker players has been reversed.

Bob Chimento, Jeremy Brestel, Michael Williamson, Scott Richards and John T. Willis were originally found guilty of violating South Carolina's anti-gambling laws for running a private Texas No-Limit Hold'em game in 2006.

The group didn't profit from running the games, but money was raked from the pot to help cover expenses.

Earlier this year, South Carolina Circuit Judge R. Markley Dennis ruled that poker was a game of skill, not chance, but the five were still found guilty of operating a gambling house.

Thursday Dennis released a letter stating he had decided to reverse the convictions of all five players. The municipal court found the evidence "overwhelming" that Texas Hold'em is a game of skill.

Poker advocacy groups like the Poker Player's Alliance are touting it as a victory for poker players in the U.S.

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HORSE is HORSE

I was cruising around the internet this week reading a number of poker blogs, as I am apt to do, when I queued up Daniel Negreanu’s. Never one to shy away from giving his opinion, he was adamant that No Limit Hold’em should be the only game played at the final table of the $50,000 HORSE event at the World Series of Poker, just as it was when Chip Reese won the first edition of it in 2006. As much as I am a fan of Negreanu’s, and as much as I respect him, I must disagree.

First, let me say that I completely understand where he is coming from on this issue. For the first three years of the event, almost 150 players entered the tournament each time. This year, only 95 runners competed. Negreanu believes that the reason for this is that HORSE doesn’t deliver television ratings, so ESPN is not broadcasting the event. In turn, many of the players who would have played can no longer afford to, as their online poker room sponsors don’t want to pony up the buy-in if there is no chance for the players, and the poker room logos they would be wearing, to appear on the small screen. The prestige of the event would shrink along with its size as would the “EV [for] the grinders who play mixed cash games for a living.”

It all makes sense. If the general poker watching public doesn’t want it, the network doesn’t want it. If the network doesn’t want it, the sponsors don’t want it. And if the sponsors don’t want it, the players can’t afford to play.

But I still don’t think the final table should be No-Limit Hold’em. Why? Because it’s a HORSE tournament. It doesn’t make sense to change the final table to a game that wasn’t even a part of the previous several days of the event. Why should a player work hard at five different limit games only to make the final table and have it all taken away on one unfortunate hand? It’s not that it’s “not fair”, because, after all, everybody would know what the structure was going into the tournament. It is just silly. Why not make the final table of every WSOP event No-Limit Hold’em? Then ESPN could film them all and then select the most exciting ones for broadcast.

Personally, while I can see some truth in Negreanu’s belief that the no-No-Limit Hold’em format is why ESPN is not airing the HORSE tourney, I don’t feel that that’s really the main reason why it’s not going to be on television. The popularity of poker on television is on the downswing. For the last few years, we’ve been bombarded with poker programming and it has become old. Even for the casual fan, the all-in fests that make up the majority of poker telecasts have become boring. ESPN is now only showing four WSOP events and only two are “real” tournaments – the $40,000 Special Anniversary Tournament and the $10,000 Main Event. The other two – the WSOP Champions Cup Invitational and the Ante Up for Africa Charity event – are being shown for their novelty and for their star power (the former for poker celebrities and the latter for likely appearance of entertainment celebrities).

Really, the $40,000 No-Limit Hold’em event is taking the place of the $50,000 HORSE event in the ESPN lineup. It’s a high buy-in event, which creates a field densely populated with recognizable faces and it’s No-Limit, which ESPN likes. I would not be surprised if the WSOP finds a way to keep an ultra-high buy-in No-Limit event next year to satisfy the desire for an elite tourney.

In the end, the problem might be able to be solved by a simple name change. If it wasn’t called a HORSE tournament, then many people, including myself, would not be so averse to having a “non-HORSE” game played at the final table. The lack of logic would not longer be a problem. Name it “The All-Around Championship” or something and mix several different formats, including No-Limit Hold’em. Now you have an event where players can compete to see who is the best all-around poker player (not that the “best” can be determined through one tournament) and the final table is attractive for television. Make the buy-in high enough to limit the field and you will likely have a final table with a significant proportion of “name” poker pros.

If it sounds like it’s just a semantics issue, it is. But seriously, how can it be a HORSE tournament when the final table isn’t in HORSE format? Would it make sense to have the championship game of the NCAA basketball tournament be a football contest because football gets better television ratings than basketball? Of course not. Sure, the final table was No-Limit when the venerable Chip Reese won it in 2006, but that doesn’t mean it should have been.

Poker Community Responds to Amazing Race Premiere

Professional poker players Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle are quickly becoming the talk of reality television fans and poker enthusiasts alike after just one episode of the new season of the CBS series “Amazing Race.”  These two racers, who each made their claim to fame by being the last women remaining in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, are quickly gaining fans and critics after the two-hour premiere, during which they went from first to last place, impressing and irritating their competitors along the way.

Poker News Daily sought the opinions of those on both sides of the issue in order to gain more insight into why the Ho/Michelle team has such a polarizing effect on people.  In addition to discussing some of the pros and cons of their appearance, we also picked up behind the scenes information that sheds more light on how the two young women are being portrayed.

The Skeptic

It didn’t take long for occasional poker journalist and online poker regular Jon Wein to decide that he did not enjoy the duo of poker ladies participating in the show.  He tuned in to watch the show, but Wein claims he “had to turn it off after [Tiffany Michelle] and Maria Ho implied they were rich for the like eighteenth time.”

His biggest issue with the two women appearing on the show is that it deprives other, ostensibly more deserving, poker players from time in the limelight.  “It literally makes me sick that Tiffany Michelle gets this much coverage and publicity for one Main Event run. She’s done nothing else,” he explained.  “Ultimate Bet has all of these talented pros like Matt ‘mattg1983’ Graham and Adam ‘Roothlus’ Levy and then they have her… It’s a complete slap in the face to them.”  Wein even took a playful jab at Michelle’s former Poker News employer Tony “Tony G” Guoga.  “I literally curse Tony G’s name to this day because he put her in the Main Event,” he joked.

While Wein has a very clear opinion on Michelle, he has less to say about her partner.  “I don’t know Maria and have never spoken to her.  I only know what the media portrays her as,” he said.

Considering poker players do not get too many opportunities at mainstream media exposure, an appearance on a reality show can have a major influence on how the game is perceived by those who are not fans of it.  Wein is skeptical that the team, Michelle in particular, will grow poker’s popularity.  “Even if [Michelle] is the sickest ‘Amazing Race’ contestant ever, I just don’t understand how anyone can be like, ‘Wow, what a great ambassador for the game. What a humble person about their successes’…I think she is a poor example of what a poker player should be.”  His opinion is based not only on the first episode of “Amazing Race”, but also last year’s Main Event coverage and his own personal experiences over the course of several summers in Las Vegas.

He may just be one viewer, but the presence of Michelle and Ho on the show has actually convinced the longtime “Amazing Race” fan to take some time off from tuning in, as Wein said he had no plans to watch future episodes this season.

The Supporter

Like Wein, longtime tournament reporter B.J. Nemeth knew Ho and Michelle long before their appearance on “Amazing Race.”  In fact, it is only because of their presence on the show that he tuned in this season.  “I have never watched ‘Amazing Race’ before this season and I am watching primarily because I am friends with Maria and Tiffany,” Nemeth explained.  “I am also watching (to a lesser extent) because of my weekly appearances on PokerRoad’s ‘The Poker Beat,’ where I am sure we will discuss and analyze the show at some point, just as we did with Annie Duke on ‘Celebrity Apprentice.’”  He is a fan so far and even suggested that he might tune into the show for future seasons.

The show has made a fan of Nemeth, but he thinks it will have little impact on bringing new fans to poker.  He explained, comparing their appearance to Duke’s memorable run on “Celebrity Apprentice”:

“Amazing Race” is a unique game and the specific job skills that people bring with them will have little impact, whether they are a doctor, a lawyer, or a poker player.  “If [Michelle and Ho] perform well or win, it won’t be because they are poker players. If they embarrass themselves and lose, it won’t be because they are poker players. And I don’t think mainstream fans will judge the poker industry by how they finish… The impact on poker is very different from Annie Duke’s presence on ‘Celebrity Apprentice,’ where she was only on the show because she was a famous poker player, and it was brought up repeatedly from a strategy standpoint and in the boardroom with Donald Trump.”

Nemeth also conceded that any publicity was good publicity though and, unlike Wein, believed that the appearance of the young female poker players would more than likely help rather than hurt the poker cause.  When it comes to Wein’s concerns that their behavior will come off as indicative of the poker industry as a whole, Nemeth disagreed.  “Even though ‘Amazing Race’ fans identify Maria and Tiffany as the ‘poker players’ or the ‘poker girls,’ that’s just an identifier because it’s tough to learn names of 10 to 12 two-person teams,” he pointed out.  “They refer to the other teams in similar ways – ‘the asshole lawyer,’ ‘the interracial couple,’ ‘the father-son team,’ and ‘the gay brothers.’ Reality TV fans are smart enough to know that personality traits are unique to individuals and not to entire professions or sexual preferences.”

The Scoop

Ho and Nemeth had a lengthy chat after the show’s Sunday premiere and Nemeth shared behind-the-scenes details of the first episode with Poker News Daily.  “Maria and Tiffany have agreed that they won’t be answering their critics or talking about specific things until the show is complete. It’s not easy, because they’ve seen a lot of the criticism and want to respond, but they know it would be counterproductive at this point,” Nemeth explained.  However, he did clear up a couple of early points of criticism on behalf of his friends.

He immediately addressed a major issue that both reality television fans and poker enthusiasts were quick to criticize the girls for - their rolling luggage.  Historically, backpacks have proven to be the most popular way to travel on the show and avid fans suggest that rolling luggage slows players down too much during crucial periods of the race where they may have to run.  Nemeth explained that their bags convert into backpacks and the clip showing Ho rolling it down the street was during a three mile walk from one location to the next.

Nemeth also filled us in on the controversial decision by the pair to conceal their occupation from their opponents.  According to Nemeth, the producers encouraged them to keep their status as poker pros under wraps since previous contestants like former “Survivor” winners Rob Mariano and Amber Brkich were highly criticized by their fellow racers for already being rich and famous.

As for their false claim that they worked with a non-profit group?  This is not entirely a lie.  Both women have done a lot of charity work, so there was more truth to their statements than the show depicted.  “The homeless charity that Tiffany mentioned on the show is a real charity that she has worked with and its director called her on Monday to support her,” said Nemeth.  He also said that the girls received less flack from their competitors about their tiny fib than the show implied and that they are still in touch with over half of the teams from the season.

These are just two of several opinions on a show that still has a long way to go to reach the finish line.  In every season of reality television, there will inevitably be heroes and villains.  So far, Ho and Michelle are netting their fair share of criticism compared to the other participants, but picking up a few new fans as well, so it will take a little more airtime to get a better idea of how they will be remembered on “Amazing Race” and whether or not it will have any bearing on the world of poker.

Hellmuth, Michelle headline Aruba Poker Classic

In fact, tournament organizers are expecting a record number of pros to make the trip to sunny Aruba.

"This is one of my all-time favorite poker tournaments," said Annie Duke, UltimateBet's Cardroom Consultant and member of Team UB.

"While the UB community is famous for gathering together at all sorts of other poker tournaments like the WSOP, Aruba is all about celebrating the successes of UltimateBet's online poker players. I can't wait to meet the people I play against online, party with old friends on the beach and make some new ones."

The entire Team UB roster is scheduled to appear including Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Joe Sebok, Adam Levy, Billy Kopp, Bryan Devonshire, Brandon Cantu, Hollywood Dave Stann, Live Boeree, Matt Graham, Mark "P0ker H0" Kroon, Scott Ian, Michael Binger, Gary "debo34" Debernardi and Shawn Rice.

Also confirmed to play are Amazing Race stars Tiffany Michelle (who is also a UB pro) and Maria Ho.

Michelle mentioned she was looking forward to the event when interviewed by PokerListings regarding her Amazing Race experience.

"We've been doing a lot of press to support the show so it will be exciting to go to Aruba," said Michelle. "I'm excited to sit back down at a poker table and see if I still got it."

Lacey Jones and Matt Vengrin, who represent Absolute Poker on UB's CEREUS network, will also make an appearance at the tournament.

The Aruba Poker Classic began in 2002 and has since seen a number of high profile winners including Juha Helppi, Erick Lindgren, Freddy Deeb and Travis Rice.

Last year, online pro Matt Brady outlasted 550 players to win $1 million out of a prize pool of over $2.6 million.

Taking place at the Radisson Aruba Resort, Casino & Spa, the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic will run Oct. 3-10 with the $5,500 main event starting Oct. 5. For the complete schedule go to the Aruba Poker Classic website.

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Jeff Shulman Takes Center Stage on WSOP Main Event on ESPN Coverage

Day 5 of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event played out on ESPN on Tuesday night. Jeff Shulman, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, and Andy Black were seated at the feature table as the field narrowed from 400 players.

Holding down the fort at Table Two were several brand name pros, including Vitaly Lunkin, Prahlad Friedman, and Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger, who will be featured once again on tonight’s installment of the G4 online poker reality show “2 Months, $2 Million.” Lichtenberger raised to 20,000 pre-flop with 10-5 and was met with an all-in from Lunkin, who held A-8. Lunkin told his foe, “It seems to me you are bluffing.” On Lichtenberger’s youth, ESPN announcer Norman Chad quipped, “It seems to me he doesn’t shave yet.”

Back at the feature table, Grospellier had pocket aces cracked by Scott Buller’s pocket kings when a king hit the turn. Needing an ace or jack to hit on the river, Grospellier watched as a benign deuce fell. Meanwhile, Pasha Esfandiary, brother of Antonio Esfandiari, was ousted with aces against pocket fives when a five hit the flop. Antonio changed his last name to end in the letter “i” because he thought it looked better, while Pasha has left his last name unchanged.

Adam Bilzerian, a Vanderbilt University graduate, revealed to ESPN cameras that he renounced his citizenship to the United States after college. He penned, “America: Love it or Leave it, So I Left” and now boasts a passport from St. Kitts and Nevis. He apparently regretted his decision, noting, “You don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone.” Adam was seated directly next to his brother, Dan Bilzerian.

ESPN cameras continuously checked in on Kara Scott, whom Chad ogled for much of the night. Scott doubled up Jamin Stokes with A-K against Stokes’ pocket kings, leaving Chad to note, “Kara Scott Chad should be more careful with our money.” Back at Table Two, Carter Swidler called the all-in raise of Lunkin with pocket nines. Lunkin held A-Q and the two were off to the races. The flop came A-Q-J, giving Lunkin two pair, and a running 2-3 doubled him up. “I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out of Here” winner Lou Diamond Phillips promptly dropped a pot against Scott Baumstein after Baumstein hit a straight on the river.

Lunkin was crippled when his pocket aces fell to 2-5, while 2008 WSOP Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate doubled up with pocket kings against Gabe Walls’ Ad-4d. Eastgate’s chips hit the middle on a 7-3-7 board with two diamonds and the reigning champion dodged a multitude of outs to scoop the pot. Black called off his stack with pocket fours against Shulman’s pocket eights on a 10-8-5-2-5 board, leaving Chad to lament, “I didn’t see that blowup coming.” Black appeared very weary during the hand.

In the second episode, which aired at 9:00pm ET, Tom Schneider, the 2007 Player of the Year, began as the chip leader with a stack of 2.2 million. Table Two featured Esfandiari and Phillips, while the feature table remained the same. Scott doubled up at an outer table and, interestingly enough, is just the second woman to cash in back-to-back Main Events. Meanwhile, fellow female player Nichoel Peppe scooped a 2.6 million chip pot, the largest to air during the 2009 WSOP Main Event on ESPN.

At the feature table, Shulman raked in a 323,000 chip pot after raising to 30,000 pre-flop with pocket fours. Grospellier made the call with Jh-10h and the flop came 4-8-K with two hearts. Shulman bet out 60,000 with his set and Grospellier came along to see the deuce of spades hit the turn. Shulman fired out a bet of 120,000 and Grospellier folded. Meanwhile, PokerRoad CEO Joe Sebok doubled up with A-K against Q-7 after spiking a king on the river to stay alive. He had begun to put his backpack on after a seven hit the turn.

Scott doubled up again, but ultimately fell with A-2 against 5-3. The board ran out Q-6-5-5-9, leaving Chad to lament, “I am crestfallen.” Also hitting the exits was Dan Harrington, who departed after his flush draw failed to hit. Heading in the other direction was Phil Ivey, who called an all-in with A-7 against 10-6 on a 6-7-Q board for most of his chips. The turn was a nine and the river was a five, sending Mats Anderson to the rails.

Tuesday’s theatrics ended with Grospellier earning a 1.3 million chip pot with pocket aces against Tyler Patterson’s pocket tens. The board ran out Q-6-3-K-6 and, despite slipping for most of Day 5, Grospellier was back to nearly even. Three women remain along with two former Main Event champions, Eastgate and 2005 winner Joe Hachem.

Starting next week, new episodes will air from 9:00pm to 11:00pm ET on ESPN.

Commerce hosting Annie Duke celebrity tournament

The Annie Duke Celebrity Poker Tournament will take place during the Commerce Casino's L.A. Poker Open with celebrities Scott Ian, Shannon Elizabeth, Brande Roderick and Joe Reitman all taking to the felt.

Joining the stars will be poker players Dan Harrington, Howard Lederer, Rafe Furst, Adam Levy, Andy Bloch, Dave "Hollywood" Stann and WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.

The event is sponsored by the WSOP Academy and presented by Rockwell Time. Globe-trotting Matt Savage will be handling the tournament directing duties.

Anyone willing to put down the $330 buy-in can take a seat at the tables. Re-buys and a one-time add-on are both available for $100.

Organizers are promising a "home style" poker game with fans being given the chance to mix it up with their favorite celebrity/poker players.

More than $30,000 in prizes and giveaways will be awarded throughout the event. The red carpet begins at 7 p.m. with the cards getting in the air at 8 p.m.

DEF was established in 2001 by educators, decision scientists and business people who had an interest in providing decision education to today's youth.

The organization already has several connections to poker world.

In 2008, Eric Brooks shocked the poker world by winning the $10,000 World Championship Stud event at the WSOP and donating 100% of the $415,856 he earned to the organization. Duke also sits on the board of directors.

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Brett Radin Wins Commerce Casino Ironman Tournament

Move over, Robert Downey, Jr. There’s a new Ironman in town! Brett Radin scooped $51,000 for taking down the Commerce Casino’s first ever Ironman event, a no-break poker tournament.

Radin defeated Chris “Trips” Tyrba in the Ironman tournament, which ran for 19 hours and 21 minutes. A total of 64 players bought in for $1,600 each and three meals were served at the table given the no break structure. The Commerce Casino added $10,000 to the prize pool, which came in at $103,000. The Ironman concept was the brainchild of veteran tournament director Matt Savage, who told Poker News Daily, “The Ironman is an idea that I came up with in response to players always asking, ‘When is the break?’ and others asking why the breaks are so long. When you signed up for the Ironman, there was no guesswork.”

Bathroom breaks and other reasons to stand up from the table meant missed hands in the Ironman tournament. As such, Savage noted that the extra twist tested players’ mental toughness: “Players should know that missing a hand in a tournament is not the end of the world and that many successful tournament players take unscheduled breaks away from the table. It was a test of a player’s skill and willpower, as the structure was very good.” Ultimate Bet pro and 11-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, for example, often misses hours of major tournaments in an effort to woo the assembled field with his customary late entrance.

Here were the top six finishers in the Ironman tournament:

1st Place: Brett Radin - $51,160
2nd Place: Chris “Trips” Tyrba - $22,686
3rd Place: Farzin Akhtar - $11,859
4th Place: Tyler “Titan of Tulalip” Patterson - $7,218
5th Place: Brian Brubaker - $5,672
6th Place: Eric “Basebaldy” Baldwin - $4,125

Baldwin is a WSOP bracelet winner, having taken down a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event during the 2009 tournament series. Baldwin promptly finished third in the World Championship of Pot Limit Hold’em, boosting his take from the 2009 WSOP to over $780,000. On the online felts, where he can be found under the “Basebaldy” moniker, Baldwin won the Bodog weekly $100,000 Guaranteed twice in May of 2008. Last December, he took down the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed for $132,000. Baldwin finished 54th in the Main Event of the 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) for $23,000.

Many who took to the felts in the Commerce Casino’s Ironman event were brand name players, including Shane “Shaniac” Schleger, Gavin Griffin, Matt “mattg1983” Graham, Joe Bartholdi, 2009 World Poker Tour (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic Champion Andrew Cimpan, and Adam “a_junglen” Junglen. Graham. Each entrant was given a stack of 10,000 chips and blinds began at 25-25. The price of poker increased every hour. On the structure, Radin commented in a press release distributed by the West Coast casino, “It was the truest poker tournament I have ever seen or played in. I love the fact that it played all the way down and no deals were allowed!”

The Commerce Casino plays host to the WPT L.A. Poker Classic every year, with its next installment slated for February 20th to 25th. In its last running, Cimpan defeated Binh Nguyen heads-up, with Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers and Full Tilt pro Chris Ferguson also reaching the final table. Cimpan banked $1.6 million for his efforts and the tournament aired as part of Season VII of the WPT on Fox Sports Net. The $10,000 buy-in contest generated a field of 696 runners.

The Ironman event was part of the Commerce Casino’s Hold’em Series. Its inaugural event, a $220 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament, generated a field of 3,967 players, which the Commerce Casino claimed was the largest non-WSOP field in live poker history. Players could re-enter on another starting day if they busted out.

Senator Wyden Withdraws Proposal to Use Internet Gambling to Fund Health Care

The debate on Capitol Hill rages on over health care reform, which, according to Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT), will likely come with a nearly $1 trillion price tag. Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) proposed using internet gambling revenue to defray some of the cost, but withdrew his amendment this week.

In a column that appeared in the Deseret News, Hatch noted, “At a time when we have trillion-dollar-plus deficits and an unemployment rate reaching double digits, [this health care reform] is a colossal mistake I cannot support.” With the massive cost turning many off, Wyden suggested using tax revenue from Congressman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act (HR 2267). The bill establishes a full licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry in the United States.

Michael Waxman, spokesperson for the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative, commented in a press release shortly after the amendment was introduced, “We applaud Senator Wyden’s proposal to collect and put to good use tens of billions in internet gambling revenue that would otherwise be lost in the underground marketplace. The Senate Finance Committee should approve this resolution, finally putting to an end a failed prohibition on Internet gambling that leaves Americans unprotected and unlicensed offshore operators as the only beneficiary in a thriving marketplace.”

HR 2267 was introduced in May and has attracted 58 cosponsors, the newest of which are William Lacy Clay (D-MO), Christopher Murphy (D-CT), and Adam Schiff (D-CA). Interactive Media Entertainment and Gaming Association (iMEGA) Chairman Joe Brennan told Poker News Daily, “There are not many places you can go to find ‘free money’ right now. Internet gambling is one of them. You’re not going to have many industries wanting to be taxed.” Also in Congress is HR 2268, the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act. The measure, introduced by Congressman Jim McDermott (D-WA), assesses a tax of 2% of deposits on licensed internet gambling outfits in the United States. HR 2268 was introduced on the same day as HR 2267 and has attracted four cosponsors.

A recent study by PricewaterhouseCoopers indicated that over $60 billion could be generated from taxing the internet gambling industry over a 10 year period. However, that figure includes legalized online wagering on sports. On Wednesday, “The Hill” published an article noting that Wyden had withdrawn his proposed amendment. The Senator’s Communications Director told the publication, “The last thing Senator Wyden wants to do is make it more difficult to expand subsidies for working families by introducing a new contentious issue to the debate. So when he offers the amendment, he will do it with other funding mechanisms.”

Wyden’s attempt to demonstrate tangible uses for internet gambling revenue comes on the heels of McDermott’s introduction of HR 6501 in July of 2008. McDermott’s bill, dubbed the Investing in Our Human Resources Act, provided up to $40 billion in assistance for those currently or formerly in foster care and those in declining job markets. HR 6501 was not acted on during the 110th Congress. McDermott’s proposal was not well-received, as Congresswoman Shelley Berkley (D-NV) labeled it “a classic case of putting the cart before the horse.” Former Congressman Jon Porter (R-NV) piled on, saying that HR 6501 marked “a frivolous attack on the gaming community to pay for services that local governments, states, and the federal government should already be providing.”

Last month, Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) introduced S 1597, the Internet Poker and Games of Skill Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act. The bill, as its name implies, focuses on licensing games such as poker, bridge, chess, mahjong, and backgammon “in which success is predominantly determined by the skill of the players.” Menendez’s measure has not attracted any cosponsors.

Congress is targeting October 30th as its adjournment date for the 2009 calendar year.

Poker Hall of Fame: Reaction to Changes in 2009 Ballot

Last week, Harrah’s, the World Series of Poker (WSOP), and the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council announced the final list of players to be considered for induction into the Hall this fall. What was originally a 10-man list was chopped to nine when online sensation Tom “durrrr” Dwan was left off because, in the Governing Council’s opinion, Dwan fell short of the “standing the test of time” criteria for Hall consideration. This has brought out differing opinions among some in the world of poker.

“I’d say that an age limit is reasonable,” longtime poker writer Ashley Adams stated to Poker News Daily. “There have to be some criteria - a minimum number of tournaments or dollars won would be reasonable - when it comes to deciding on nominees. I don’t think there should be a minimum number nominated, though. It should depend on the quality of the field.” David Apostolico, who authored two books such as “Machiavellian Poker Strategy” and “Tournament Poker and The Art of War,” said “it made sense” to leave Dwan off of the final nominees list. “No question ‘durrrr’ is a tremendous player,” Apostolico explained, “but the qualifications speak directly to longevity.”

Pamela Brunson, the daughter of poker legend Doyle Brunson (who has a vote for the new members of the Hall of Fame) and a highly respected player in her own right, echoes the thoughts of Adams and Apostolico: “I don’t think ‘durrrr’ should be inducted the Poker Hall of Fame yet. He’s a great player, but hasn’t been around long enough.” Poker News Daily’s Dan Cypra, who also owns a vote on the new Hall of Fame members, thought the issue would have solved itself in the voting. “Other members of the Committee I had spoken to were not considering Tom Dwan anyway… signaling out Dwan (by leaving him off the ballot) when he likely would not have received votes was a bit surprising.”

The question as to the “electability” of a quartet of players - Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Scotty Nguyen - has also raised several points of contention. Some feel that Negreanu and Ivey, despite their youth (Negreanu is 35, Ivey is 33), more than deserve their nominations. In addition, others think that baggage may drag down the two Nguyens and prevent their election to the Hall of Fame.

“Phil Ivey is definitely going down as one of the best overall players of all-time and Daniel Negreanu has done so much for poker,” Brunson commented. “Daniel is a great player with tons of personality. He has put his heart and soul into poker and is one of the best ambassadors of the game.” Cypra agreed with Brunson, but doesn’t believe that either will garner enough votes to earn admission to the Hall. “Ivey is poker’s sweetheart right now, fresh off two bracelet wins during the 2009 WSOP and a final table appearance in the Main Event on the horizon.” He continued, “His 2009 performance alone warrants consideration for the Poker Hall of Fame. Negreanu is one of the premier faces of the game. Serving as one of poker’s top ambassadors, winning four bracelets, and captaining the American Caesars Cup team gives him an impressive poker resume. However, I do not believe either has stood the test of time. Negreanu’s first WSOP cash was in 1998, while Ivey’s was in 2000.”

When the spotlight is trained on the Nguyens, more differences of opinion occur. “A general statement about ‘working in the interests of the game’ or ‘bringing honor and respect to the poker community’ is important,” Adams maintained. “By my standards, Scotty would get the nod from me and I’d have to think about Men.” Cypra, though, recalls Scotty Nguyen’s conduct at last year’s $50,000 HORSE tournament and disagrees: “Scotty Nguyen will not be receiving my vote. His antics during last year’s HORSE Championship hurt the game of poker. One could argue that, because of this, Nguyen has not filled the criteria of ‘played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers.’”

Voting by the 15 living Hall of Fame members and a 15 member media panel will conclude on October 2nd. The 30 member panel can choose up to three of the nominees (or write in their own choice) and a nominee has to earn 75% of the votes (in this case, 23) to be elected to the Hall. The results will be announced during the festivities surrounding the play of the WSOP Main Event final table.

When it comes to his choices, Cypra seems to have narrowed his options, stating, “I think Mike Sexton is a no-brainer. He’s the reason many of us are in the industry today and has served as the game’s top ambassador. He’s also a class act, a WSOP bracelet winner, and a TOC victor. I’m also leaning towards Dan Harrington and Tom McEvoy, who have stood the test of time right alongside Sexton.”

Brunson perhaps has an idea when she said, “I think some of the ‘old timers’ should be inducted before we get around to the young guys. They’ve been around a lot longer and put in their dues, even when poker wasn’t a popular and ‘cool’ profession!”

Adam Ehrlich Loses 2nd Match on “Face the Ace”, Wins Nothing

Saturday’s episode of “Face the Ace” on NBC featured a memorable contestant named Adam Ehrlich who was far and away the most talkative player in the show’s three episodes. Ehrlich, a 33-year old stock trader from Philadelphia, was the only player featured on the episode as he battled through matches with Full Tilt Pros Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and Phil Gordon. Ehrlich prevailed in his first match against Ferguson, but fell to Gordon in Round Two and was the latest contestant to exit from the program empty-handed.

In preparation for the show Ehrlich, whose friends nicknamed “A-dam good bet,” turned to books, but they were not on poker strategy. Instead, he bought a book teaching people how to get cast on reality and game shows. He previously auditioned for another NBC show, “The Apprentice.”

Ehrlich was joined in the studio by his girlfriend, Karen, who periodically came on stage to rub the felt for good luck. Luck did not appear to be on Ehrlich’s side during the hour-long broadcast though. He got off to fast start against Ferguson, raising several of the hands early on and taking down pots without going to showdown. As the two players grinded through the match, Ehrlich fired off non-stop questions to the pro, almost as if he was auditioning to be the next Jay Leno.

Host Steve Schirripa couldn’t resist ribbing the contestant a little and told Ferguson, “I think his strategy is to talk you to death.”

The rapidly escalating blinds quickly turned the match into an all-in shove fest. First, Ferguson moved all-in with Q-8 and Ehrlich called with A-K. As the crowd gathered around the table to watch, Schirripa urged a seated Ehrlich to stand and watch the board come out. Ehrlich obliged, knocking his chair over in the process. To make matters worse, Ferguson spiked a queen on the flop to double up.

Ferguson would get lucky again when his J-5 bested Ehrlich’s K-4 after they got it in on the A-K-5 flop and Ferguson spiked a 5 on the turn. Ehrlich retaliated though, doubling up with A-7 to K-5 and then taking the match down when his K-2 held up against Ferguson’s 5-9.

Ehrlich elected to forgo the guaranteed $40,000 and instead chose the second match, which offered a chance at $200,000 and, perhaps more importantly, more airtime. Ehrlich’s second opponent was poker author and commentator, Gordon.

“Did you read Phil’s book?” Schirripa asked Ehrlich.

“Lie if you haven’t,” Gordon quickly chimed in. Ehrlich admitted he hadn’t, but requested to get an autographed copy from the pro after the show. Gordon was a little more talkative than Ferguson and asked Ehrlich if he was nervous at all during his first match. Ehrlich said no and Gordon was surprised because he finds Ferguson to be an intimidating opponent.

“I think he’s a sweetheart,” Ehrlich responded.

“Yeah,” Gordon said. “But how do you beat him, you know?”

“Well,” Ehrlich said with a smile. “Now the world knows.”

The remainder of the Gordon match would have a flair for the dramatic, with each player pulling off big bluffs on each other. Ehrlich also took to making speeches before acting in a hand, adding a dramatic touch to the event. One audience member even yelled out an amusing suggestion about how to make the proceedings even more humorous:

“RoShamBo for it!”

Gordon, who is an avid rock, paper, scissors player, got a good chuckle out of the idea, but decided to stick with the poker instead. It was a wise decision. Though Ehrlich was able to double up with A-10 to Gordon’s K-7, the final hand would go to the pro. Gordon moved all-in with J-9 and Ehrlich called with A-5. One final time Ehrlich got unlucky on the flop, as it fell Q-9-7 to pair Gordon’s seven and give him the lead. The 10 on the turn did nothing for Ehrlich, nor did the 5 on the river.

Ehrlich was out, but remained positive about his experience, saying, “I got beat by the best, what can you do?”

To date, “Face the Ace” has only given out $40,000 in prize money and all of the other contestants have pressed their luck and gone home with nothing. The next episode of the show will air on Saturday October 31st at 3:30PM.

George Danzer, Raymond Davis Capture PokerStars WCOOP Titles

PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) continued to attract massive fields this week as each event went above and beyond its guaranteed prize pool. Despite the enormous turnouts, a couple well-known professionals managed to win tournaments in the year’s biggest online poker series.

PokerStars Team Pro member George Danzer took down the $320 6-max Pot-Limit Omaha (Event #19) on Thursday, besting a final table that included Shawn “sbuck21” Buchanan. Danzer defeated “kunkuu” heads up to collect his first WCOOP bracelet and $109,545. “Kunkuu” received $81,750 while Buchanan took third place for $62,130. Danzer is tied with “iacog4” for first place on the WCOOP leaderboard through 20 events.

Raymond “raydavis77” Davis claimed victory in the $320 Badugi (Event #15). Davis, who has more than $1.5 million in live tournament earnings, received $19,912 after making a deal with “bobsmith166” after the two reached heads-up play. Other big names at the Event #15 final table were Danny “THE__D__RY” Ryan (5th), Billy “crocky” Argyros (7th), and Jason “JP OSU” Potter (6th), who has two final appearances at this year’s WCOOP.

The most lucrative tournament of the week was the $530 No Limit Hold’em two-day event, which concluded on Monday. More than 6,000 players participated to generate a prize pool of $3,109,500 with the top 900 earning money. After nearly 23 hours of play over the two days, Hiren “hustla16” Patel walked away with the title after negotiating a three-way chop with “Juancesan” and “colonelkosta.” Patel earned $446,533 for the victory.

Other winners at the WCOOP this week were Thiago “XtheDecanoX” Decano, Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo and high-stakes online tournament regular “iCeVeNoM.” Here’s a look at the results from WCOOP events 10 through 20:

WCOOP #11 - $530 No-Limit Hold’em (2-day)
Entrants: 6,219

1. Hiren “hustla16” Patel - $446,533 (three-way chop)
2. Juancesan - $270,000
3. colonelkosta - $355,000
4. Daryl “aaaaaaaa” Jace - $171,022
5. fabstinho - $130,599
6. CONOW - $99,504
7. GypsieChris - $68,409
8. kidwhowon - $37,314
9. Shazmeister - $24,098

WCOOP #12 - $215 No-Limit Hold’em (4-max)
Entrants: 3,854

1. lebordelaii - $111,457
2. Catafract80 - $63,822
3. pejcao - $40,467
4. SebbyGI - $29,675

WCOOP #13 - $320 Stud
Entrants: 668

1. yhcaep - $33.814.50 (heads-up chop)
2. Ronja211 - $30,814
3. barrosa 50 - $20,040
4. DAVIDOXXX - $15,030
5. sonajero - $10,020
6. ez monney - $7,014
7. BIGtittitilt - $4,509
8. dolphin4 - $3,006

WCOOP #14 - $320 Mixed Hold’em (6-max)
Entrants: 1,564

1. dangdokodang - $70,727 (heads-up chop)
2. yadio - $60,564
3. DonkCommited - $42,201
4. drgonzo10978 - $28,134
5. viti45 - $18,756
6. Tom “SBRounder” West - $11,066

PokerStars WCOOP 15 - $320 Badugi
Entrants: 376

1. Raymond “raydavis77” Davis - $19,912 (heads-up chop)
2. bobsmith166 - $17,312
3. goleafsgo41 - $11,844
4. Cordelia - $8,460
5. Danny “THE__D__RY” Ryan - $5,640
6. Jason “JP OSU” Potter - $3,948
7. Billy “crocky” Argyros - $2,820
8. MadisonAce29 - $2,256

WCOOP #16 - $1,050 No-Limit Hold’em
Entrants: 1,558

1. Thiago “XtheDecanoX” Decano - $249,280
2. Adam “skilled_sox” Ewenstein - $186,960
3. Greg “DuckU” Hobson - $140,220
4. pedmend - $102,438.50
5. Joe “hoodini10” Udine - $74,005
6. O0Brian0O - $57,646
7. Holla10 - $42,066
8. cabbie182 - $27,265
9. amrasaralond - $15,580

WCOOP #17 - $530 NLHE Triple Shootout (10-max)
Entrants: 1,000

1. iCeVeNoM - $91,250
2. dynamoM - $63,500
3. TabberNackle - $47,250
4. Mumtum23 - $35,250
5. 6060606060 - $24,750
6. Vandiesel - $20,000
7. Bambeklis - $15,750
8. Jorge “twin-caracas” Arias - $12,500
9. blanconegro - $9,500
10. bestwoman127 - $7,000

WCOOP #18 - $320 8-Game
Entrants: 999

1. Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo - $50,250
2. vui-qua-di - $37,500
3. JohnSmith - $28,500
4. Aguskb - $19,500
5. Mark “The Omaholic” Roland - $12,870
6. johnny1430 - $9,000

WCOOP #19 - $320 Pot-Limit Omaha (6-max, 1 Rebuy/1 Add-on)
Entrants: 976

1. George Danzer - $109,545
2. kunkku - $81,750
3. Shawn “buck21” Buchanan - $62,130
4. TheTaker - $42,510
5. badbanker70 - $28,056
6. parksy1066 - $19,620

WCOOP #20 - $320 Limit Triple Draw 2-7
Entrants: 468

1. Timmy K - $26,676
2. Roc23rb - $19,656
3. Iteopepe88 - $14,931
4. TurnRiva - $9,828
5. Donkaroo22 - $7,020
6. Aaron “GambleAB” Bartley - $4,492