Poker News

Cole South ends the week with a $170,000 win at Full Tilt

Ivey Derailed for $786,935

The celebrated Team Full Tilt Pro was up $1.6 million in August, prior to this weekend, and decided to get involved in some huge games against Clockwyze, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, Sam "URnotINdanger2" Palmer, Cole South and Hac "trex313" Dang.

It didn't matter whether Ivey was playing $200/$400 Cap PLO Six-Max, Heads-up or $500/$1,000 Cap No-Limit Hold'em he was losing.

After 2,832 hands over two days, Ivey found himself down a stunning $785k. The online tables will be watched closely this week to see if Ivey attempts to recoup his losses or takes a break.

Meanwhile Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies recorded his first big win of the month by destroying his competition in Cap PLO for a weekend haul of $365,051.

Sahamies wasn't the biggest winner over the past few days, however, as online player O Fortuna PLS cruised to a $483,809 score. Essentially all of O Fortuna PLS's profits came from Tom "durrrr" Dwan in $2,000/$4,000 Limit Hold'em.

Incredibly durrrr still finished the weekend about even thanks to his success in other games.

Below are some of the biggest pots on Full Tilt from this weekend. For more hand replays head to our online poker stats page.

Dwan Hits $969k for the Week

The young online poker pro originally from New Jersey put in countless hours at the tables this week as he played over 7,070 hands and earned $969,145.

Dwan's victims included Gus Hansen, Niki Jedlicka and Patrik Antonius.

The sheer volume Dwan is able to generate in a week continues to leave his opponents in the dust. Cole South was the nearest high-stakes player in terms of hands played but he had only 3,434.

For the year Dwan is now up an astounding $4.8 million.

Meanwhile Phil Ivey continues to be red hot online with another $931k in his bankroll after a busy week.

Ivey didn't shy away from anyone, taking on Dwan, South, NEKOTYAN, Jani Vilmunen, Dan "Jungleman12" Cates, Observer84 and others while recording over 3,000 hands.

The action was spread over a variety of games including $300/$600 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha, $2,000/$4,000 Limit Hold'em and even $500/$1,000 Cap No-Limit Hold'em.

To put things in perspective, Ivey only won $352,319 over the entire six-week long WSOP. Ivey is now up $3.2 million in online poker alone this year.

Also winning hundreds of thousands this week were Cole South (+$343,742), Dan "Jungleman12" Cates (+$285,628) and Jared "harrington25" Bleznick (+$204,446).

Meanwhile NEKOTYAN had the dubious honor of being the hardest hit player this week.

NEKOTYAN, who is rumored to be Russian pro Vladimir Schemelev, lost $1.04 million or approximately everything he won by placing second in this summer's WSOP $50k Player's Championship.

Gus Hansen was also a big loser, racking up $484,456 in damage. Hansen now finds himself $794,667 in the hole in 2010.

Below are some of the biggest pots on Full Tilt from this week. For more hand replays head to our online poker stats page.

Ivey Clashes with Dwan

The pair played for over two hours, recording 132 hands in $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha, 108 hands of $500/$1,000 Cap No-Limit Hold'em and 66 hands of $500/$1,000 Cap PLO.

Ivey was unstoppable in each game as he won a total of $210,160 from Dwan over all three variants. He did most of his damage in the $500/$1,000 Cap PLO game where he won $79,974 alone.

Dwan, who didn't seem to be running particularly well in the matches, decided to eventually quit after receiving two consecutive bad beats.

In the final hand of the match Ivey rivered a flush against Dwan and that was enough to finally send the pride of Edison, New Jersey, packing.

Ivey, who seems to be hell-bent on draining every account on Full Tilt, was not finished and went on to play a three-handed match of $300/$600 PLO against CardRunners instructor Cole South and Finnish cash game wizard Jani Vilmunen, where he picked up $196,761.

Add in another $28,977 from Limit Hold'em against IHateJuice and deprimiert and Ivey finished the day with $435,899 in profit. That takes him up to $2.8 million for 2010.

Of course there is one player still ahead of him on the earnings leaderboard. Despite losing 69,961 last night, Dwan is still up $4.5 million for the year.

Dan "Jungleman12" Cates, who didn't play yesterday, is still third with $2.4 million.

Below are some of the biggest pots from the Ivey and Dwan match. For more hand replays head to our online poker stats page.

Dwan Drops $225k

After winning nearly $400k on Sunday, disaster struck durrrr last night when he played a prolonged heads-up battle against unidentified online player O Fortuna PLS.

The game was $2,000/$4,000 Limit Hold'em and Dwan sat for three hours, played 585 hands and got absolutely wrecked by O Fortuna PLS.

Although the suckouts aren't quite as sick in Limit Hold'em, it was obvious that O Fortuna PLS did get some help from the cards

In one $20k pot, O Fortuna PLS rivered trip fives with K♣ 5♠ in the hole. In another pot that exceeded $20k O Fortuna PLS hit a three-outer to make a better two-pair than Dwan.

When the damage had finally been tabulated, Dwan had taken a $242,056 hit and may stay away from the Limit Hold'em for a few days.

It was a very different experience for fellow Team Full Tilt Pro Phil Ivey who played over 1,000 hands in the last 24-hours in a variety of games.

Ivey's best session came against online player deprimiert, who he crushed for $372,847 in 334 hands of $2,000/$4,000 Limit Hold'em.

Ivey also recorded a solid $300/$600 PLO Six-Max session against the likes of Cole South, Vaga_Lion and trex313 where he won $178,537.

It wasn't all good, however, as Ivey lost $129k to Jared "Harrington25" Bleznick at $500/$1,000 PLO and another $60k in $500/$1,000 CAP No-Limit Hold'em to R-Quaresma.

In total Ivey finished up $392,977, which continues the exceptional summer he's been having. If Ivey keeps up this pace he could potentially pass durrrr on the 2010 cash game earnings leaderboard.

Below are some of the biggest pots from the Ivey and Harrington25 match. For more hand replays head to our online poker stats page.

Andrew Wiggins Discusses Future of CardRunners

At the 2010 CardRunners party in Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker (WSOP), Poker News Daily caught up with site co-founder Andrew “muddywater” Wiggins. The conversation, which took place at El Segundo Sol on the Las Vegas Strip, features a look at the future of the popular poker training site, which recently absorbed StoxPoker and saw longtime instructors Brian Townsend and Cole South depart.

Poker News Daily: Thanks for sitting down with us in this festive atmosphere. The margaritas are quite tasty, by the way. Anyway, given the completely revamped website and pro turnover, give our readers a glimpse into the future of CardRunners.

Andrew Wiggins: The new site came out really well and if you haven’t seen it, you should check it out. It’s easier to navigate and we’re offering a lot more content like podcasts and articles. It’s more user-friendly, has a good look to it, and we added a lot of new pros because all of the guys from StoxPoker came over. “JungleMan” just put out a video and the guy’s a stud, so things are good at CardRunners.

PND: Talk about the focus of CardRunners in the near future.

Andrew Wiggins: We’re rolling along trying to put out the best content possible. We put up a lot of content and I think people who are members of CardRunners get a lot of value for their membership. We’re just trying to make sure they get as much value as possible.

PND: How has your 2010 WSOP gone so far? We’re talking to you prior to the Main Event, so can you preview that for us as well?

Andrew Wiggins: I played three events and I think I made it about three hours. I’m playing the Main Event on Day 1C and, basically, I’m going to win that, retire, and never play poker again.

PND: What’s your mindset headed into Day 1 of the Main Event? Do you sit back and figure it’s a deep structure or do you try to be aggressive and exploit people trying to coast to Day 2?

Andrew Wiggins: Min-cash – $25,000 is sounding pretty good right now. I’ve never cashed in the Main Event, so it would feel pretty good to get in the money, but I don’t have any set game plan. It depends on the table and my experience so far at the World Series is hit or miss. You can either get a really good table – a lot of older people who really aren’t in tune with the poker world – or you can get a bunch of 22 year olds who are probably a lot better at poker than I am.

I’m crossing my fingers that I get a good table and I’ll go from there. I’m going to take it slow and hopefully the cards will be there and the situations will come up where I’ll get my money in good.

PND: What have the fields been like so far compared to past years?

Andrew Wiggins: I think they get harder every year. Three or four years ago, you could sit down and there’d be a bunch of people at your table giving chips away. I’ve seen a little bit of that, but more so than not, I’ve seen a lot of really good players. There isn’t as much value as there used to be, but that’s just the way it goes.

James Carroll Leads WSOP Main Event After Day 3; Johnny Chan Lurking

After the day of rest on Sunday, the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event got back underway on Monday, as for the first time in a week, the entire tournament field played at the same time.  2,559 players began Day 3 with high hopes, but with the knowledge that even if they made it through the day, they would still be a long way from making the money.

Henderson, Nevada’s James Carroll leads the way after Day 3 with 803,000 chips, 62,000 more than Chicago’s Imari Love, who has 741,100.  Gerasimos Deres, who hails from Helsingborg, Sweden, is the highest ranking non-U.S. player, sitting in third place with 733,700 chips.  Rounding out the top five are Italy’s Filippo Candio (727,300) and Max Casal from Burbank, California (687,200).

The talk of the tournament so far, and something that must have ESPN giddy with anticipation, is the emergence of the legendary Johnny Chan.  Currently sitting in ninth place with 636,000, the ten-time WSOP bracelet winner looked strong all day and was actually the chip leader for a while.  Like much of poker’s “old guard,” Chan has not been as prolific a tournament player in recent years, with his last WSOP bracelet coming in 2005 when he won the $2,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event.  What cashes he has had in recent years at the WSOP have been solid, though.  In 2008, he cashed three times with one final table, one top-15 finish, and a cash in the Main Event.  He cashed once last year, making the quarterfinals of the $10,000 Heads-Up event.  And this year, while it was not an official bracelet event, he banked $100,000 in the Tournament of Champions.

Other notable names near the top of the standings include Cole South (40th place), Theo Jorgensen (47th), Scott Clements (48th), Fabrice Soulier (68th), Dragan Galic (87th), Shannon Shorr (88th), J.P. Kelly (120th), Vanessa Selbst (164th), Jay Rosenkrantz (168th), Sammy Farha (225th), Karina Jett (247th), Matt Matros (260th), Vince Van Patten (269th), and Barry Shulman (276th).  Annie Duke, Phil Galfond, Dan Harrington, Mori Eskandani, Humberto Brenes, Bernard Lee, Patrik Antonius, Adam Junglen, and Hoyt Corkins are also among the “name” players who have advanced to Day 4.

Falling into the “wait ’til next year” category were the defending Main Event champ Joe Cada, legendary gambler Archie Karas, Kenny Tran, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Bill Chen, Dan Heimiller, 2003 Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker, Kara Scott, Erik Seidel, Paul Wasicka, David Williams, Barbara Enright, Prahlad Friedman, Phil Laak, Lacey Jones, Jennifer Harman, Tom Franklin, David Singer, and Daniel Negreanu, just to name a few.

In addition to Chan, perhaps the most intriguing player story is not about one player, but four.  The four Mizrachi brothers – Michael, Robert, Donny, and Eric – are all still in the running for the 2010 Main Event title.  Robert leads the family with 342,800 chips, followed by Donny with 128,600, Eric with 95,800, and Michael with 91,700.  The brothers have already made the 2010 WSOP a family affair, as both Michael and Robert made the final table of the $50,000 Player’s Championship, with Michael knocking out Robert in third place en route to his first bracelet.

And from the odd news department comes Belgium’s Philip Goossens.  Goossens was doing quite nicely in the Main Event, sitting on a healthy 92,400 chip stack going into Monday’s Day 3.  But therein lied the problem.  Goossen had qualified through Bwin, which paid for his buy-in, hotel accommodations, and travel expenses until July 12th.  Since Goossens made it to July 12th, Bwin paid to extend his hotel stay, but any expenses incurred for rescheduling his flight home were up to him.

He didn’t have the money to foot the €1,000 bill to change his ticket, so he appealed to Bwin to help him out.  The poker room did not honor his request and so rather than spend the money without being guaranteed to cash in the tournament, Goossen elected to go home as scheduled.  His chip stack sat in front of an empty seat Monday and Goossen was finally blinded out of the tournament late in the day.

Just over 1,200 players will return to the Rio on Tuesday for Day 4 of the 2010 WSOP Main Event, hoping to find themselves on the right side of the money bubble when it likely bursts at some point today.  Cards will be in air at Noon PT.

2010 World Series of Poker Day 42: Jesper Hougaard, Cole South and Johnny Chan Among Leaders

WSOP Main Event Day 2a: 100% Lebron Free

A total of 2,412 players packed into the Rio on Day 2a with hopes of building a giant stack before the last level expired.

Full Tilt Poker Pro Corwin Cole entered as the chip leader with 228,000 but his status as chip leader was soon usurped by rotating group of players that included Cole South, Dwyen Ringbauer, Dragan Galic and Sammy Farha.

Greg Mueller, Sara Underwood, Garry Gates, Tyler Cornell, Steve O'Dwyer, Daniel Alaei, Ted Forrest, Will Failla, Tom McEvoy, Fatima Moreira and Steve Wong were all among the over 1,000 players to be eliminated on Day 2a.

Jennifer "Jennicide" Leigh, who has been a ghost in the poker world for the last year, was surprisingly dominant at her table building a stack of approximately 150,000.

Daniel Negreanu lived it up on the ESPN stage all day, delighting hundreds of railbirds as he bantered with the table and tried to make some sick reads. The Team PokerStars Pro member will have his work cut out for him on Day 3, however, as he finished with only 27,500.

Joe Cada is starting to put together an impressive title defense as he finished with nearly 100,000 chips.

By the time the smoke had cleared on Day 2a approximately 1,260 players remained.

Patrik Antonius, Johnny Chan, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Amanda Baker, Robert Mizrachi and Amanda Baker all finished the day with over 200,000 chips.

All the aforementioned players will reconvene for Day 3 on Monday at 12:00 p.m. but tomorrow Steve Billirakis, Alex Kostritsyn, David Benyamine and thousands more will meet tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. to fight out for Day 2b supremacy.

We'll be right there with you with live updates, videos, photos and more.

WSOP Live!

Check out PokerListings' WSOP Live! The most star studded and entertaining daily WSOP recap in the industry:

Mathiu Sauriol Leads WSOP Main Event Day 1C; Johnny Chan Close Behind

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) set numerous attendance records in 2010, so even amidst the trials and tribulations poker players have endured during the UIGEA enforcement, it isn’t surprising to see the WSOP Main Event attract so many players this summer. With 2,314 players participating on Day 1c, the 2010 Main Event will officially go down as the second largest poker tournament in history. The total was up from 1,696 entrants on Day 1c last year, an increase of 36%. And with Day 1d registration still open and a max capacity of around 3,800 in the Rio this year, the total could eclipse 8,000 entrants. The 2006 Main Event had 8,773 players.

Mathiu Sauriol ended the Day 1c as the chip leader, bagging up 168,900 chips at the end of four and a half levels. Sauriol will enter Day 2a third overall in chips, trailing Day 1a chip leaders Corwin Cole (228,000) and Dwyen Ringbauer (191,125). Close on Sauriol’s heels was two-time Main Event champion Johnny Chan, who doubled up early in the day to finish with the second highest total of the 1,489 players that advanced. Others ending the day healthy in chips were Lauren Kling, Hoyt Corkins, David Williams, Billy Kopp, Isaac Baron, Lex Veldhuis, Robert Mizrachi, Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh, David Pham, Cole South, and Patrik Antonius. Here’s a look at the top 10 chip counts from Day 1c:

1. Mathiu Sauriol — 168,900
2 .Johnny Chan — 163,700
3. Andrew Liporace — 155,250
4. Joe Monro — 153,350
5. Lauren Kling — 149,650
6. Barny Boatman — 144,050
7. Steven Goosen — 142,925
8. Michael Reed — 142,125
9. Sean Prendiville — 140,500
10. Benjamin Blair — 137,200

UB.com‘s Phil Hellmuth made yet another grand entrance to the Main Event, this time arriving dressed as a UFC Fighter. UFC announcer Bruce Buffer announced Hellmuth as he entered the Amazon Room with UFC fighter Wanderlei Silva at his side. However, unlike the past two years, Hellmuth’s Main Event ended well short of a deep run, as he was eliminated late on Day 1c. Upon the announcement of his exit, the Amazon Room and Rio Pavilion exploded in applause. Shortly after, Tournament Director Jack Effel announced that 2007 WSOP Event winner Jerry Yang had been eliminated and both rooms remained silent.

Others hitting the rail early on Day 1c were Huck Seed, Dario Minieri, Steven Begleiter, Men Nguyen, Jeff Madsen, Chad Brown, Chau Giang, and Tom Dwan, who had ESPN cameras following him around all day as he moved from table to table in the Pavilion and Amazon Room. Dwan, playing his last tournament to collect a bracelet and win or lose millions of dollars in prop bets, was being watched closely all day by his peers, but ultimately hit the rail during the final level of the day.

Day 1d will get underway at noon on Thursday. Among those expected to take to the felts include Vanessa Rousso, Daniel Alaei, Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Michael Binger, Shannon Elizabeth, Dan “djk123″ Kelly, and Player of the Year leader Frank Kassela. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for continuous updates from the 2010 WSOP Main Event!.

Sahamies approaching Antonius in profits, the downswing of “Isildur1? still continues

June has been anything but action-packed in Full Tilt Poker’s high stakes games. However, this week has shown that the game scene is livening up again: there have been big names - like Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, Cole South, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and ”Isildur1″ - playing at the tables.

Patrik Antonius’s 345,000 dollar profits are still the biggest of the month, but the other Finn, Ilari Sahamies, is not far behind with his 284,000 dollar June winnings. Third on the list is Tom “durrrr” Dwan who has managed to play almost 1,200 hands and to earn 255,000 dollars at Full Tilt while being busy with WSOP as well.

So far Joel “Odonkor1??” Nordqvist is leading the loser list of the month due to his 235,000 dollar losses, but seems like “Isildur1″ is approaching him quickly. After last night the mysterious Swede has already lost more than 200,000 dollars during June.  

Source: HSDB and The Hendon Mob

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Sahamies approaching Antonius in profits, the downswing of “Isildur1″ still continues

Isildur1 is back to losing ways

Brian Townsend – Poker Player Profile

Brian Townsend, who currently resides in Santa Barbara, California, is a professional poker player known for his dominance of Full Tilt Poker’s No Limit Hold’em and Pot-Limit Omaha short-handed games. He’s been successful enough to earn TV appearances on shows like GSN’s High Stakes Poker and NBC’s Poker After Dark, on which he won $120K by defeating Doyle Brunson heads-up.

Despite his ascent to the top of the poker world, Townsend has been the cause of controversy on two separate occasions. Soon after he became a Full Tilt Poker pro, it was discovered that he had violated the site’s terms of service by playing on two different accounts. He admitted to using the name ‘Stellarnebula’ to play lower stakes games and was promptly suspended from Full Tilt Poker for six months.

More recently, he was part of a crew of players, which also included Cole South and Brian Hastings, who shared Isildur1 hand histories in order to construct his situational ranges. Hastings went on to beat Isildur out of $4.2 million, but all three players were subsequently disciplined when it came out that they had shared information.

In 2010, Townsend, who had served as lead instructor and part owner of CardRunners.com for the past three years, stepped down from his positions. His blog on CardRunners states: “As of June 1st I will no longer be a lead instructor at CardRunners. I will still be around in the capacity that I was before I joined CardRunners as a lead instructor. You can find me in the forums participating in discussion as well as watching the videos.”

He went on, saying: “There is a lot that goes into being involved in the running of a small business while also playing poker full time and having a life outside of poker. It can be difficult to give enough time to everything. CardRunners is still a great business but it is one that is much more time consuming than I would have imagined.”

One thing is for certain, the more poker Brian Townsend plays the worse it is for his opponents.

Brian Hastings – Poker Player Profile

Brian Hastings, known as LucLongley and Stinger885, is an online poker prodigy. He got his start playing low-limit ring games and eventually worked his way up. Before long, Brian was a regular winner in $50/$100 and $200/$400, some of the highest staked games available. Currently, Brian is one of the most feared online players in the game, right up there with Tom Dwan, Phil Ivey, and Patrik Antonius.

In December 2009, Hastings was involved in minor controversy following a session vs. Isildur1 in which he beat the Swede out of $4.2 million. Hastings, along with Brian Townsend and Cole South, shared heads-up hand histories of their play vs. Isildur, using the database to construct ranges for his play in certain situations. The infractions are widely considered to be mild, and all three where suspended accordingly by Full Tilt Poker.

Already a millionaire at age 22, Brian Hastings remains a student at Cornell University. In an interview with Bluff Magazine, Hastings addressed his decision to stay in school, saying, “Basically I’ve received lots of advice from close friends, family, and colleagues preaching the importance of a degree. Obviously this is no surprise coming from my family, but I think it’s even more significant coming from someone like Taylor Caby, who is in a similar position as me but a few years older. Also, I’m not sure I want to just play poker for the rest of my life, so I’d like to keep my options open.”

When he’s not playing online at Full Tilt Poker, where he is a sponsored pro, Brian Hastings makes videos for leading online poker training site CardRunners.com. When asked what he does away from poker, Hastings responded: “Aside from my poker playing, I’m basically a normal college kid. I’m in a fraternity and enjoy parties. I also like to play golf, play video games, and watch movies and TV.

The legendary “sbrugby” is back – Brian Townsend quitted at CardRunners and as Full Tilt Red Pro player

Brian “sbrugby” Townsend tells in his today’s blog that he will quit teaching at CardRunners and running his business. From now on Townsend is neither a Full Tilt Red Pro player anymore, so in the future you can recognize the poker shark from the nick “sbrugby”.

The message is very similar to Cole South’s announcement on his quitting decision a month ago.

- Time’s up, says Townsend and tells that he doesn’t have any more time for CardRunners, as he now wants to concentrate on playing poker only.

Townsend praises and thanks the CardRunners community and all those friends he has gotten since 2007 when he joined the CR. In the future Brian will still bustle on CR forums. Read about his decision to quit from Brian’s blog.

Source: CardRunners, Cole South’s blog and TheHendonMob

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The legendary “sbrugby” is back – Brian Townsend quitted at CardRunners and as Full Tilt Red Pro player

Brian Townsend Steps Down as CardRunners Lead Instructor

First Cole South, now Brian Townsend. On his blog posted on Wednesday, Townsend revealed that he’d be stepping down as the lead instructor of the popular poker training site CardRunners. Instead, he outlined his new role: “I will still be around in the capacity that I was before I joined CardRunners as a lead instructor. You can find me in the forums participating in discussion as well as watching the videos.”

Townsend joined CardRunners in 2007 and, since then, has helped grow the site into one of the market leaders. Townsend told his blog readers that two more videos are in the works for June: the end of his $50/$100 heads-up match against fellow online poker player “Urnotindanger2” and a Pot Limit Omaha theory discussion with Tom “LearnedFromTV” Chambers.

Why would Townsend vacate a prominent role with CardRunners? He explained that a focus on poker might be to blame: “CardRunners is still a great business, but it is one that is much more time consuming than I would have imagined. I value the friendships I have created here immensely, but over the previous months, I have started to realize that it is time for me to move on and devote my time to playing poker.” In addition to departing from his role with CardRunners, Townsend will no longer be a Full Tilt Red Pro.

In April, Cole “cts” South announced that he was leaving CardRunners to play poker and complete his degree. South admitted that he was “spread too thin,” telling readers in a blog posted on CardRunners’ website, “In the past year I have, at the same time, been a full-time student, a professional poker player, and an owner/instructor of a poker training site, and I’ve found myself spread too thin.” Additionally, South divested himself of ownership in the training site.

Townsend has had his share of run-ins with Full Tilt that have caused his Red Pro status to be suspended. His most recent violation came in December, when Townsend acquired 30,000 hands involving the mystery Swedish online poker pro “Isildur1.” He added his acquired hands to his existing stash of 20,000, which is a violation of Full Tilt Poker’s Terms of Service. Accordingly, Townsend’s Red Pro status was suspended for one month.

The allegations involving “Isildur1” came after fellow CardRunners instructor Brian Hastings took the Swede for over $3 million earlier in the month. However, Hastings told ESPN reporter Gary Wise, “Obviously I’m happy and I’ll take it, but Brian [Townsend] did a ton of work. The three of us discussed a ton of hands and the reports that Brian made, so I’m very thankful to him and to Cole as well.” Hastings’ comments led to the admission by Townsend of violating Full Tilt’s Terms of Service.

In 2008, Townsend admitted to multi-accounting on Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. On the latter site, Townsend logged in under the user names “aba20” and “makersmark66.” On Full Tilt Poker, Townsend hit the felts under his Red Pro name of “Brian Townsend” and as “Stellarnebula.” Full Tilt suspended his Red Pro status for six months and Townsend agreed to donate $25,000 to charity.

Townsend was not listed as a CardRunners Red Pro on Full Tilt’s website at the time of writing. The remaining CardRunners Red Pros are Isaac Baron, David Benefield, Taylor Caby, Ryan Daut, Hastings, Eric Liu, Mike McDonald, Haseeb Qureshi, Mike Schneider, and Andrew Wiggins. Despite leaving CardRunners, South is still listed as a Full Tilt pro.

Recently, CardRunners merged its StoxPoker brand after site namesake Nick “StoxTrader” Grudzien parted ways with the company. Shortly thereafter, CardRunners launched a brand new website.

Read Townsend’s CardRunners blog.

Michael Mizrachi Leads WSOP $50,000 Player’s Championship After Day 3

Twenty-one players remain in the $50,000 Player’s Championship at the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) after Day 3. Leading the field is a familiar face, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, who owns a stack of 1.48 million chips entering Day 4. Hot on his heels with 1.43 million is Russia’s Vladimir Schmelev. Also appearing in the top 10 is Robert Mizrachi, brother of “The Grinder.”

One of the final eliminations of Sunday’s play at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas belonged to Hasan Habib. Day 2 chip leader Kirk Morrison made aces-up in Stud Eight or Better and neither player managed to make a low. Morrison’s stack shot up to 610,000 as a result and he ended the day with 518,000. Habib barely missed out on the money, as the top 16 players will cash. The minimum payout is $98,000 and a top prize of $1.5 million is up for grabs.

Also busting on Sunday was Erik Sagstrom, who 3bet all-in pre-flop with 10-8 of spades during Limit Hold’em, but ran into high-stakes cash game pro David Oppenheim’s Q-J. Sagstrom could not improve and he headed for the exit. Sagstrom finished third in last year’s $50,000 WSOP HORSE Championship for over $500,000. Oppenheim took fifth in the 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship and grabbed third in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Borgata Poker Open in 2003.

Oppenheim sent former CardRunners instructor Cole South to the rails during No Limit Hold’em. South was all-in with pocket eights in a race against Oppenheim’s A-K. Oppenheim flopped two pair and an eight never fell, sending South out short of the money bubble. South left CardRunners in late April to play poker and work on his college degree.

The remaining field of the $50,000 Player’s Championship represents a beastly group. Brett Richey and David “Bakes” Baker are carrying the flag for the online poker world, while the remaining players primarily consist of seasoned poker pros like Andy Bloch, 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event champ John Juanda, 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship runner-up Erik Seidel, and WPT co-founder Lyle Berman.

Here’s a look at the survivors of Day 3 of the Player’s Championship at the 2010 WSOP:

1. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi – 1,483,000
2. Vladimir Schmelev – 1,432,000
3. David Oppenheim – 1,340,000
4. Abe Mosseri – 1,338,000
5. Daniel Alaei – 1,227,000
6. Robert Mizrachi – 1,032,000
7. Mikael Thuritz – 952,000
8. Allen Bari – 940,000
9. James Van Alstyne – 845,000
10. John Juanda – 788,000
11. Brett Richey – 754,000
12. David Baker – 713,000
13. Lyle Berman – 696,000
14. Alexander Kostritsyn – 638,000
15. Nick Schulman – 611,000
16. Ilya Bulychev – 602,000
17. Kirk Morrison – 518,000
18. Andy Bloch – 418,000
19. Erik Seidel – 373,000
20. David Singer – 364,000
21. Eli Elezra – 336,000

Starting on Sunday inside the Rio was a $1,500 Omaha High-Low event (#4) that attracted a field of 818 players. Last year, the first Omaha High-Low tournament on the docket began on Friday, May 29th and generated a field of 918, meaning attendance this year is off by 11%. After Day 1, Oleg Shamardin leads the way with 70,800 chips, a whopping 25,000 ahead of Scott Epstein’s second place tally of 45,400.

Several notable names grace the top 10 of the leaderboard after Day 1 of WSOP Event #4, including reigning $50,000 HORSE champ David Bach, 2009 dual bracelet winner Brock “t soprano” Parker, and cash game guru Chau Giang. Here’s a look at the top 10:

1. Oleg Shamardin – 70,800
2. Scott Epstein – 45,400
3. Daniel Klein – 39,900
4. David Bach – 39,700
5. Clinton Steelman – 38,800
6. Brock “t soprano” Parker – 36,700
7. Steven Aaron – 32,600
8. Jean-Daniel Pessina – 32,500
9. Chau Giang – 31,300
10. David Eckert – 31,200

A combined field of 481 players will take to the felts on Monday for Day 2 of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event (#3). Forty will need to be ousted before the money bubble breaks. Braxton Dunaway was the overwhelming chip leader after Day 1B at nearly 140,000. Others who survived the second of two starting days included Jordan “iMsoLucky0” Morgan, Ravi “govshark2” Raghavan, UB.com pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar, and Poker Hall of Fame nominee Men “The Master” Nguyen.

Play will pick back up in Event #3 at 2:30pm PT. Monday marks the Memorial Day holiday in the United States and the beginning of the first $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event (#5), which issues its “Shuffle Up and Deal” command at Noon PT.

Pros, Amateurs Mix on Day 2 of 2010 WSOP

The poker rooms at the Rio were filled with a unique mixture of elite poker players and relative amateurs.

With nearly 3,000 players all playing simultaneously the day was a good forecast of what's to come at the 2010 WSOP.

Here's a closer look at the tournaments that played out today:

Event 2 - $50,000 Player's Championship

Action picked up in a big way on Day 2 of the $50,000 Player's Championship.

Although only six players busted on Day 1, a total of 56 players were relieved of their $50k buy-in on Day 2.

It was hard to keep track of the big-name pros that busted as Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Michael Binger, Isaac Haxton, Hoyt Corkins, Patrik Antonius, Carlos Mortensen, Ashton Griffin, Tony G and Mike Matusow were all eliminated.

On the other hand Kirk Morrison has come out of nowhere to wield an impressive stack of 760,000 chips.

Morrison went on a massive heater in 2007, placing second in the WPT Championship for $2 million and then cashing four times in that year's WSOP.

Since then Morrison has been non-existent on the tournament circuit and his appearance in this event was unheralded.

Morrison is joined at the top by Andy Bloch who finished with 716,000 chips and Nick Schulman who bagged 683,000.

Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Justin Bonomo, Cole South, David Bach and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson made it through the day as well.

Day 3 of the $50k Player's Championship begins tomorrow at 3 p.m. PST. Join us for ongoing live updates of this elite tournament.

Event 3 - $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em

To say the first $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em event was packed was an understatement.

A total of 2,601 clambered into the Rio in the first real test of the building's expanded poker facilities.

It passed with flying colors as it took only a few levels to fit ever player into the cavernous Pavilion Room.

The relatively shallow structure of the tournament helped cut the field down to size and by the end of the day over 2,300 players had been relegated to the rail.

Among the players to be eliminated were Shannon Elizabeth, Sam Stein, Joe Cada and Shannon Shorr.

Meanwhile Vanessa Rousso, Joe Sebok, Bryan Devonshire and Jonathan Little found themselves amongst the 290 players to secure a trip to Day 2.

Action resumes at noon PST time tomorrow with records on the line as organizers are expecting even more players. Tune in to PokerListings for all your live updating needs.

For even more on Day 2 in Las Vegas check out PokerListings WSOP Live! below:

WSOP $50k Championship Takes Center Stage

Since it began in 2006, the tournament has only had 650 entrants but with elite fields and winners like the late Chip Reese, Freddy Deeb, Scotty Nguyen and David Bach the poker world has taken notice.

"Of course you get all the crazy money and prestige with winning the Main Event but to me winning this tournament is actually more important and I think there are other players who feel the same way," said last year's winner Bach.

Although tournaments tend to take the lion's share of publicity in the poker world, there are many players who believe that cash games are the true test of poker skill and the $50k Player's Championship, with its use of Mix-Games, is perhaps the closest thing to a cash game at the WSOP.

Last year the number of players dropped to its lowest ever (95) but to the general public it's simply astounding that anyone plays the tournament at all.

"I'm always blown away there are even 50 players who have $50,000 cash to plop down for an event," said WSOP communications director Seth Palansky

This year 116 players paid the $50,000 to play including big-name players Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson.

Tom Dwan makes an appearance at the $50k Player's Championship.

 

It's not just the old-school cash game players who are keen on the format either as Jason Mercier, David Benefield, Phil Galfond, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Cole South and several other up-and-comers decided to play this year's $50k Championship.

South has been spending a large amount of time playing the high-stakes Mix-Games on Full Tilt Poker over the last year and enjoys the change of pace.

"I like that it tests a lot of elements of being a poker player like Pot-Limit Omaha and Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw, Seven-Card Stud Eight-or-Better," he said. "These are games that incorporate a lot of concepts."

The tournament is not without its controversies, however, and this year there were several significant changes to the marquee event.

For the first time ever the event was changed from H.O.R.S.E. to 8-Game and the decision was also made to switch back to No-Limit Hold'em at the final table to get it televised.

Not everyone likes the move.

"I don't like the changes," said Bach. "My biggest problem is actually having Pot-Limit Omaha as part of the mix. It's too much of a gambling/variance game. It takes some of the skill out of what is supposed to be the most skillful tournament."

Bach was also not supportive of changing to No-Limit Hold'em at the final table.

"The tournament is named after Chip Reese and he was a Limit player," he said. "There are plenty of No-Limit Hold'em events at the WSOP."

The gambit seems to have paid off for the WSOP, however, as 21 more players bought in, perhaps intrigued by a TV final table appearance.

To Palansky the numbers in the event are almost irrelevant.

"The best players in the world come to play and want to test themselves against each other. It should be a unique and small event."

The 2010 WSOP continues through July 17. For comprehensive coverage live from Las Vegas tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

Cole South loses $250k

Ziigmund and Cole South met again in PLO heads up

Lately it’s been pretty quiet on Full Tilt Poker’s highstakes arena, but on Monday we got to see many familiar faces at the tables again. The most interesting encounter was the PLO heads up battle between Cole South and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies.

First Sahamies and South played $500/$1000 blinds at $40k CAP table. South was stronger at this table and won nearly $100k. After this the game was switched into $300/$600 deep table where both gamblers bought in with $120k. Sahamies got whip hand at this table and managed to gather a nice $150k profit for himself, although South grabbed a couple of $80k pots under his belt too.

South’s two pair take the $81k pot
South’s nut flush gets value from Sahamies

Altogether Sahamies and South played over 200 hands of heads up - and in the end Sahamies was the one to remain $70k on the positive side. Besides heads up South also played mixed games for example against Gus Hansen and David Benyamine. Unfortunately he wasn’t lucky with these poker troupers either. According to Highstakesdb.com South lost $-247k during those 776 hands he played in four hours.

Source: Highstakesdb and TheHendonMob

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Ziigmund and Cole South met again in PLO heads up

Cole South and Brian Townsend dominate Full Tilt

Cole South and Brian Townsend dominate Full Tilt

Tom “durrrr” Dwan Drops Another $280k

His session started in the early afternoon on Full Tilt's $500/$1,000 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha tables heads-up against Hansen.

The match lasted for 138 hands with Hansen making $27,520.

After a two-and-a-half hour break, Dwan restarted his match with Hansen, losing another $46k after 241 hands.

Stuck over $83,000 Dwan took on Ivey at the big cap game, losing another $199,964 after just 109 hands.

Ivey went on to lose $124k to jungleman12 at $300/$600 No-Limit Hold'em, finishing the day up just $86,156.

After losing the $200k to Ivey, Dwan played over 2,400 hands of $5/$10, eventually finishing his day down $280,240. But Despite the loss, Dwan remains the year's top profit earner so far, up $3.1 million.

In the meantime, Hansen continued to crush the $500/$1,000 Cap PLO games taking $62k from Cole South, and another $65k from Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies.

In total, he finished the day up $257,313.

Below are three of yesterday's largest pots. For more hand replays head to our online poker stats page.

Gus Hansen destroys Cole South for $800,000

Cole South and durrrr profit at the CAP PLO games

Gus Hansen leading in this month’s overall profits after his great Cap PLO day

The action in Full Tilt Poker’s $500/$1000 Cap PLO games still continues. Right now Cole South and Gus Hansen are playing Cap PLO against each other.

For railbirds this game form may not be the most fascinating, as the pot can reach only a maximum of 80,000 dollars during one hand.

Despite relatively small pots, big money changes hands daily, and after last night’s games the biggest profits have been made by Gus Hansen. The Dane has earned already over a million bucks in May which means he’s number one on this month’s profit list.

The biggest losses of May are still made by Tom “durrrr” Dwan who has now lost altogether 1,6 million dollars.

The games really need “Isildur1″ now, so let’s just hope the Swede will be back at the tables soon.

Source: HighstakesDB.com and HendonMob

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Gus Hansen leading in this month’s overall profits after his great Cap PLO day

Cole South to Ilari Sahamies: “No wonder you won’t be coming to Vegas this year”

Lately there has been a lot of $500/$1000 PLO Cap action at Full Tilt Poker. In these games the maximum bet during one hand is $40,000. Also last night’s biggest profits and losses were made in this game.

The biggest winner of the night was Cole South who managed to make almost 430,000 dollar profits - mainly at the expense of Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies. This means that Sahamies ended up being the one who lost most: 441,000 dollars.

During the game Sahamies’s table manners made South nearly lose his temper, and the latter just noted that “it is no wonder why Ilari won’t come to Vegas this year”.

Ziigmund sits out
Cole South: lose a pot quit lose a pot quit
Ziigmund: have to go
Cole South: no wonder u arent going to vbegags this year
Ziigmund: what?

Also Patrik Antonius criticized Ziigmund’s behaviour at high stakes tables in Pokertube.com interview just a while ago:

“He has absolutely no manners, he is the most obscene of all. Perhaps his strategy is to make his opponents tilt so badly that it necessarily affects their game. If he behaved in the same way in live situations, he would probably suffer some injuries”.

Source: HSDB and HendonMob

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Cole South to Ilari Sahamies: “No wonder you won’t be coming to Vegas this year”

Ziigmund was Friday’s biggest winner by giving Ivey a lesson – “durrrr” lost over half a million

Ilari ”Ziigmund” Sahamies grinded Friday’s biggest profits by earning 386,000 dollars. Tom “durrrr” Dwan, in turn, lost more than half a million dollars.

241,000 dollars of Sahamies’s profits came from heads-up game against Phil Ivey. All 1 246 hands Ilari played were from heads-up $500/$1000 tables. Also the losses of ”durrrr” came mostly from same tables – which may mean that his edge is clearly in deepstack games.

TOP 5 winners:

* Ziigmund – 1246 hands -  $386,523
* Urindanger – 182 hands -  $202,617
* theASHMAN103 – 364 hands -  $182,804
* Cole South – 198 hands -  $37,073
* kmoneyk10 – 893 hands -  $31,468

TOP 5 losers:

* durrrr – 1127 hands -  -$582,573
* Phil Ivey – 235 hands -  -$242,028
* 4th an 1 – 893 hands -  -$31,635
* Gus Hansen – 2043 hands -  -$28,401
* skjervoy – 244 hands -  -$23,461

Tom Dwan managed to win $147k yesterday in only 34 hands, so maybe he is picking up the pace after the last terrible sessions.

Source: Highstakesdb

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Ziigmund was Friday’s biggest winner by giving Ivey a lesson – “durrrr” lost over half a million

CardRunners Re-Launches Website, Welcomes New Poker Pros

The popular poker training site CardRunners was recently re-launched and now includes a bevy of new features. In addition, the site has welcomed 25 new guest pros to the team specializing in a wide range of poker genres.

Among the new features is a revamped video player. Text found on CardRunners’ all-new website explains the logic behind the video player’s appearance: “The player was designed to be functional for learning, while also aesthetically pleasing.” You can now place a time stamp on a video for easy reference and discussion notes are available in order to facilitate further analysis by coaches and fellow players.

Also available are personal notes, which CardRunners explains as follows: “Personal notes mark spots in videos for notes about concepts or reminders related to the topic. Personal notes cannot be viewed by other members or instructors. Like discussion notes, they can be referred back to at later times.”

The video viewer boasts a widescreen format so that a pair of tables can be housed side by side. Users can watch the educational videos in full screen and pop-out modes. A dozen videos have been added to the CardRunners library since May 1st, including “Million Dollar Bankrolls” by rumored Durrrr Challenge competitor Brian “Sbrugby” Townsend, “Live Sessions: PLO” by mindcirkus, and the latest installment of “Brain Fail” by JimmyLegs.

Also brand new is the “Shoves” area of the site. The most popular pieces of content from CardRunners can be found here and you’re able to filter by category, media type, and date range. Among the most popular items at the time of writing are “Hitler Reacts to Cole South Leaving CardRunners” and “Working on a Book for the Micros.” The former has 16 user comments and links to a video on Vimeo.com.

Users of the new CardRunners website can also create playlists of their favorite videos and show them off to their friends through a special sharing feature. The site’s homepage includes a “Quick Hits” section off to the right that displays the latest news from the training outfit.

Many of the comments from users on the new site seem to center on video viewing. One commenter posted, “Have not been able to watch even one video, either by download or by streaming. Streaming always cuts off and download always gets an error sometime in the video. Just upgraded my WMPlayer and installed a new codec pack and no help. In short, completely unable to watch videos.” Others called for even more features to be added: “The absence of ‘last viewed date’ and ‘stakes’ from the video list is a serious omission. Please add these features and, if possible, retrieve the ‘last viewed’ information from the old website.”

Recently added to CardRunners are hand history tools, which went live on May 2nd. Users can upload hand histories from PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, PartyPoker, and their Holdem Manager database directly into CardRunners. Then, the hands can be replayed on the site and marked with comments. If more analysis is needed, CardRunners allows you to export hands for use on major online poker forums.

New pros have also joined CardRunners, changing the landscape of its video content. Jungleman 12, Rask, JBaller88, NxtWrldChamp, Matthew Janda, D_Zoo, Pokey, Ed Miller, SplitSuit, Matt Matros, and Cottonseed will lend their insight on No Limit Hold’em. LearnedfromTV and mindcirkus will take on the role of new Pot Limit Omaha instructors, while Predator006, Shabamabam, and Campfirewest will provide expertise on Omaha High-Low.

New Limit Hold’em pros include BallzDeepx, Tpirahna, The Bryce, and Doughnutz, while PrimordialAA, pzhon, sippin_criss, and Collin Moshman will break down sit and go strategy. Finally, ChipsAhoya and Doctor Razz will teach Stud and Razz.

The site boasts a membership fee of $30 per month along with a $100 sign-up fee, although purchasing subscriptions for six or 12 months can result in a discount. Truly Free Poker Training is a free way for people to become members of CardRunners without paying the sign-up fee just for playing at Full Tilt Poker. Subscriptions are earned in weekly increments and members receive one week of access for every 1,375 points they earn. The points are not deducted from players’ Full Tilt accounts and don’t impact MGR. Visit CardRunners for more information.