Poker News

Chan Still Among Leaders After Day 3 of WSOP Main Event

The cash is drawing nearer as the eliminations pick up and the celebrations become more intense. Only 747 will emerge with a payday and that bubble is expected to burst tomorrow.

Some of the players who had their Main Event dreams dashed today include former champs Joe Cada and Chris Moneymaker. Also sent to the rail were Kara Scott, David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Jen Harman, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, David Williams and Erik Seidel.

Surprisingly, all four of the Mizrachi brothers are still alive and The Grinder is the only person who can run down Frank Kassela for WSOP Player of the Year. He has to win in order to secure that feat.

Some of the other big names remaining include Jason Mercier, John Robert Bellande, Johnny Lodden, Barry Greenstein, Eric Baldwin, Sammy Farha, David Grey and Patrik Antonius.

Johnny Chan once again ended the day among the chip leaders. Chan said he was happy and tired as he bagged up his chips to end the day.

"I'm glad we're changing tables because the player to the left of me was probably the only one to win a lot of chips off of me," Chan said.

When asked to compare the 2010 competition to the fields he defeated back in 1987 and 1988, Chan chuckled. "Let's just say this; the players are a lot better nowadays."

Chan is confident that he can win a third Main Event title and record 11th bracelet. "I absolutely think I can win, otherwise I wouldn't be here," he said. "All those chips help give me confidence too."

Chan finished with 636k and found himself 9th on the leader board heading into day 4.

Tomorrow's action will once again start at noon in the Amazon Room and promises to be one of the most exciting and intense days on the entire WSOP calendar. As always, keep checking in here at PokerListings for all the latest news and live updates.

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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!

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PokerStars Sponsors JohnnyBax’s Stable in WSOP Main Event

PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, is sponsoring some of the most well known, successful players in this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. From Daniel Negreanu to David Williams to Vanessa Rousso, the USA-friendly site has a noticeable presence in the world’s most prestigious poker tournament.

Last year, the poker industry watched as internet poker sensation Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy railed Joe Cada throughout his historic Main Event final table run in November. Josephy, along with Eric “sheets” Haber, routinely field a stable of players for the Main Event and this year is no exception. However, Poker News Daily has learned that PokerStars has officially sponsored the group in 2010.

Unfortunately, Josephy, a bracelet winner, ran a set into the nut straight on Day 1D after all of the money went in on the turn. The board failed to pair on the river and that was all she wrote for the East Coast native, who cashed twice in this year’s tournament extravaganza for over $10,000 combined. He’ll now watch from the sidelines as his stable forges on. The group includes players like Nick “fu_15” Maimone and Jamie “TheNew” Robbins, who finished 15th and 11th in last year’s Main Event, respectively.

Poker agent Dan Frank is responsible for brokering one of the largest player deals we’ve seen in terms of the number of people involved and will oversee its execution on the floor of the Amazon Room. Cada was seated at the ESPN feature table on Wednesday for Day 1C and finished with a stack of 67,150, good for 254th overall. He became the youngest WSOP Main Event champ in history last year after defeating Darvin Moon heads-up for $8.5 million.

Josephy’s bracelet came five years ago in a $1,500 Seven Card Stud tournament. In 2006, he blasted through the field of the World Poker Tour Championship and banked $146,000 after finishing 12th. The same year, “JohnnyBax” landed in second in the Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic for $446,000 in a tournament won by Devon Miller. Josephy wasn’t done there, however, taking second in a $4,800 No Limit Hold’em preliminary event held during the Foxwoods World Poker Finals for another $187,000.

Last year, Josephy finished third in a $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event at the WSOP, narrowly missing out on his second bracelet and banking $166,000 in the process. Online, he’s been no slouch. Three weeks ago, Josephy took down the Full Tilt Poker Sunday Brawl for $78,000, his largest online score according to PocketFives.com. He sits at #59 in the site’s Online Poker Rankings on the strength of holding the 46th best Pro Poll score worldwide.

Cada, meanwhile, tuned into the UFC fight in Las Vegas last Saturday before gearing up for his Main Event title defense. He faced off against Poker News Daily’s own Sean Gibson in a penalty kick competition the day before and fell four goals to three. Frank served as the goalie for the competition and together with Cada has offered up a challenge to anyone in the poker community.

For $1,000, anyone – even you – can challenge Cada to a best-of-five penalty kick competition with Frank once again in goal. However, rather than using palm trees as a goal as we did in our competition, a real net must be used. Frank told Poker News Daily that Cada was “devastated” after losing the prop bet, but we’re sure that an $8.9 million top prize in the Main Event this year would mollify any hard feelings.

PokerStars will continue to receive exposure through Josephy and Haber’s stable today as Day 2A kicks off from the Rio in Las Vegas. The field will showcase the survivors of Day 1A and Day 1C.

PokerStars Sponsors JohnnyBax’s Stable in WSOP Main Event

PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, is sponsoring some of the most well known, successful players in this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. From Daniel Negreanu to David Williams to Vanessa Rousso, the USA-friendly site has a noticeable presence in the world’s most prestigious poker tournament.

Last year, the poker industry watched as internet poker sensation Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy railed Joe Cada throughout his historic Main Event final table run in November. Josephy, along with Eric “sheets” Haber, routinely field a stable of players for the Main Event and this year is no exception. However, Poker News Daily has learned that PokerStars has officially sponsored the group in 2010.

Unfortunately, Josephy, a bracelet winner, ran a set into the nut straight on Day 1D after all of the money went in on the turn. The board failed to pair on the river and that was all she wrote for the East Coast native, who cashed twice in this year’s tournament extravaganza for over $10,000 combined. He’ll now watch from the sidelines as his stable forges on. The group includes players like Nick “fu_15” Maimone and Jamie “TheNew” Robbins, who finished 15th and 11th in last year’s Main Event, respectively.

Poker agent Dan Frank is responsible for brokering one of the largest player deals we’ve seen in terms of the number of people involved and will oversee its execution on the floor of the Amazon Room. Cada was seated at the ESPN feature table on Wednesday for Day 1C and finished with a stack of 67,150, good for 254th overall. He became the youngest WSOP Main Event champ in history last year after defeating Darvin Moon heads-up for $8.5 million.

Josephy’s bracelet came five years ago in a $1,500 Seven Card Stud tournament. In 2006, he blasted through the field of the World Poker Tour Championship and banked $146,000 after finishing 12th. The same year, “JohnnyBax” landed in second in the Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic for $446,000 in a tournament won by Devon Miller. Josephy wasn’t done there, however, taking second in a $4,800 No Limit Hold’em preliminary event held during the Foxwoods World Poker Finals for another $187,000.

Last year, Josephy finished third in a $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event at the WSOP, narrowly missing out on his second bracelet and banking $166,000 in the process. Online, he’s been no slouch. Three weeks ago, Josephy took down the Full Tilt Poker Sunday Brawl for $78,000, his largest online score according to PocketFives.com. He sits at #59 in the site’s Online Poker Rankings on the strength of holding the 46th best Pro Poll score worldwide.

Cada, meanwhile, tuned into the UFC fight in Las Vegas last Saturday before gearing up for his Main Event title defense. He faced off against Poker News Daily’s own Sean Gibson in a penalty kick competition the day before and fell four goals to three. Frank served as the goalie for the competition and together with Cada has offered up a challenge to anyone in the poker community.

For $1,000, anyone – even you – can challenge Cada to a best-of-five penalty kick competition with Frank once again in goal. However, rather than using palm trees as a goal as we did in our competition, a real net must be used. Frank told Poker News Daily that Cada was “devastated” after losing the prop bet, but we’re sure that an $8.9 million top prize in the Main Event this year would mollify any hard feelings.

PokerStars will continue to receive exposure through Josephy and Haber’s stable today as Day 2A kicks off from the Rio in Las Vegas. The field will showcase the survivors of Day 1A and Day 1C.

Kassela Talks About Potential WSOP POY Win

Kassela entered the Main Event with 285 points, while Juanda was the next closest with 225.

Based on the POY scoring model that awards 100 points to 1st and 75 points to 2nd, the only way Kassela won't be the 2010 Player of the Year is if one of three remaining contenders wins the Main Event. Those still in the running include Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Vladimir Shchemelev and Dan Heimiller.

"The most important thing now is for me to cash the Main Event," Kassela told PokerListings during the final break of day 1D. "I think if I finish in the top 20 then I have everyone else drawing dead."

Kassela is doing his part to seal the deal as he just sent a player to the rail right before break, building his chip stack up to 89k. "Today's table has been relatively stable; it's really been a perfect starting table," he said.

Kassela wasn't on many radars coming into the series despite having a long list of cashes dating back to 2004. After winning two bracelets in stud events and final tabling the high roller $25k Six Handed event in 2010, he's now on the verge of joining an elite group of past POY winners that includes highly respected pros such as Daniel Negreanu and Allen Cunningham.

"It's looking good, but there are no sure things," a humble Kassela said. "Grinder has a lot of chips and if there is anyone who can do it, it's him."

Still, the father of five admits the POY race would be a great finish to an already fantastic WSOP.   

"For a poker player it's been a dream summer, I don't know what more you can say."

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Williams, Selbst Join PokerStars

The online poker room introduced the two players as members of Team PokerStars Pro during a press conference at the Palms on Tuesday.

Williams mentioned he was happy to be a part of the PokerStars family.

"It's quite special to be part of Team PokerStars," said Williams. "I've always felt it's the biggest and best site there is."

"Being part of a product that you can endorse whole-heartedly is amazing."

Both players are young but have experienced a lifetime of poker over the last decade.

A former Magic: The Gathering player, Williams rose to poker stardom when he finished runner-up to current Team PokerStars member Greg Raymer in the 2004 WSOP Main Event.

It was the best ever finish for an African American in the Main Event and Williams earned $3.5 million for his second place finish.

Over the next few years Williams was never short of media exposure as Bodog Pro and was featured on reality game show King of Vegas and in his own Raw Vegas video blog.

His poker record is also impeccable with second place finish in the WPT Borgata Poker Open for $573,800 in 2004, a WSOP bracelet win in the 2006 $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event.

Most recently Williams won the WPT World Championship at Bellagio for $1.5 million to bump his lifetime earnings to $7.9 million.

Williams is hopeful his game will only improve as a member Team PokerStars Pro.

"If I'm struggling or I have questions about my game I'm going to have world champions that I can turn to," he said.

Meanwhile Vanessa Selbst is one of the premier female players in the game with five WSOP final tables, a victory in the 2008 WSOP $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha for $227,933.

Selbst won NAPT Mohegan Sun back in April for $750,000, which bumped her lifetime earnings up to $1.6 million.

Selbst was born in Brooklyn, New York, and cut her teeth playing online poker where she was known as fslexcduck.

She's currently a law student at Yale and an instructor at the online poker training site Deuces Cracked.

Selbst and Williams will join a team that already includes Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Vanessa Rousso, Greg Raymer, Chris Moneymaker, Jason Mercier, Barry Greenstein and many more players from around the globe.

Both players will play in the ongoing 2010 WSOP Main Event.

The 2010 WSOP continues through July 17. For comprehensive coverage of the WSOP tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

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Daniel Alaei Claims Third Bracelet; Huck Seed Wins TOC

With the World Series of Poker Main Event just hours away, Sunday was originally intended to be a quiet day at the Rio Hotel and Casino. But with constant schedule changes to the Tournament of Champions and two events adding an extra day of play, it turned out to be a rather eventful day in the Amazon Room as two of poker’s most talented players walked away with titles at the day’s conclusion.

Poker pro Daniel Alaei won his third career bracelet and a prize of $780,599 by winning the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship. Alaei bested 346 players, a field that included Tom Dwan, Phil Hellmuth and Jason Mercier, all of whom busted just before the final table. An extra day was added to the event, as the final table wasn’t reached until after midnight the day before, so players recharged their batteries and returned at 4:00 p.m. to play down to a winner.

Much of the day was led by France’s Ludovic Lacay, who entered second in chips but was able to chip up despite not eliminating a player at the final table. At the dinner break, Lacay had more than twice the chips of Alaei, who was in second, but he lost the lead with four players remaining. Ville Mattila got his chips in on a flop of 10h-9h-6c with Js-Jc-6s-6s against Lacay’s flush and straight draws. Mattila’s hand held up to give him the lead, but it wouldn’t last for long.

Minutes later, Mattila and Alaei wound up in a preflop raising war that saw nearly 5 million chips end up in the pot before their hands were revealed. Alaei was all in with As-Ah-Kc-7h against Mattila’s Jc-7c-9d-5s, and after the board came Qh-8h-8c-3s-Ac Alaei took over the chip lead, with Mattila now second, Lacay third and Miguel Proulx fourth.

It took a couple more hours for the next player to hit the rail, but Daniel Alaei found a great spot to eliminate Lacay. The short-stacked Frenchman moved all in with Ks-Jh-9d-2s but was in rough shape against the Ah-Kc-Qd-Js of Alaei. Lacay’s hand failed to improve and he collected $262,208 for his fourth place finish.

Mattila was the next to go, running aces into Alaei’s trip kings to send him on his way in third place. That gave Alaei a substantial lead over Proulx, who won the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha Event earlier in the summer. His attempt at bracelet #2 would fall short, as he got his last chips in with Ac-Kh-10h-2h against Alaei’s 7s-6c-5s-5h, and Alaei would make a set of fives on the flop to eliminate Proulx in second and give him bracelet number three.

Alaei’s first WSOP win came in the $5,000 buy-in Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball event in 2007. He won gold bracelet number two last year in the $10,000 buy-in Omaha High-Low Split championship.

1. Daniel Alaei — $780,599
2. Miguel Proulx — $482,265
3. Ville Mattila — $354,218
4. Ludovic Lacay — $262,208
5. Trevor Uyesugi — $195,631
6. Stephen Pierson — $147,138
7. Dmitry Stelmak — $111,524
8. Alexander Kravchenko — $85,180
9. Matthew Wheat — $65,578

The WSOP Tournament of Champions finally decided on a day to play down to a winner on Sunday and a large crowd gathered to watch the biggest names take to the felt in the Amazon Room. Mike Matusow began the day with the chip lead but most of them went to Daniel Negreanu, who flopped a set of kings against Matusow’s top pair, sending “The Mouth” out in 16th. Negreanu led the way going into the final table, with Johnny Chan, Joe Hachem and Huck Seed all lurking.

After several hours of play and the stacks growing shallower by the minute, Negreanu, Hachem and Chan had fallen and Howard Lederer was heads up with Seed for the title. The short-stacked Lederer moved all in with Qc-8c and Seed made the call with As-2s. Seed made a pair on the flop and used it to claim his first TOC title and the $500,000 prize.

1. Huck Seed — $500,000
2. Howard Lederer — $250,000
3. Johnny Chan — $100,000
4. Joe Hachem — $25,000
5. Barry Greenstein — $25,000
6. Daniel Negreanu — $25,000
7. Jennifer Harman — $25,000
8. Annie Duke — $25,000
9. TJ Cloutier — $25,000

Two more prelims will play down to a winner on Monday as the $1,000 No Limit Hold ‘em Event #54 and the $2,500 No Limit Hold ‘em Event #56 will crown champions. Online superstar David “DPeters17″ Peters takes the chip lead into the final day of Event #54, eyeing a first place prize of $570,960, while PokerStars Team Pro Salvatore Bonavena leads Event #56, which has a reward of $825,976. Both final tables will begin at 3:00 p.m. local time.

And, of course, the highly anticipated Day 1a of the Main Event will get underway at Noon Pacific Time on Monday. Another late schedule change was made by Harrah’s, as players will take to the felts for 4 1/2 levels on Days 1 and 2, adding an extra hour of play to each day. Everyone who advances on Days 1a and 1c will play on Day 2a, and Days 1b and 1d will form Day 2b.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for continuous updates from the 2010 WSOP Main Event!

Independence Day Weekend In Las Vegas From Poker In Twitter

Whether it was for the various parties going on, the fireworks or the start of the World Series of Poker Championship Event on Monday, the Independence Day weekend brought all the pros to Las Vegas. The Twitterverse was abuzz with their activities as they worked towards the biggest day of the poker year.

One of the big events over the weekend was the Doyle’s Room party held at the Blush nightclub. UB.com’s Bryan Devonshire had an adventure prior to arriving at the Blush bash, tweeting, “Last night on my way to Doyle’s party I set my phone in a margarita. It doesn’t work anymore.” The Brunson family turned out to be great hosts for the party as Pamela Brunson chirped Sunday morning, “Got in @ 6am from Doyle’s room Blush party and after party @Surrender. I don’t remember WHY I used to enjoy doing that! I’m POOPED!” Even Doyle was stung by the party atmosphere when he recounted his night:  “I’m trying to recover from the Doyle’s Room party at Blush. I’m not going to drink anymore except for an occasional beer until New Years Eve!”

The Fourth of July celebrations saw many of the players hitting various spots around Sin City. “Happy Fourth of July,” Justin “BoostedJ” Smith tweeted on Sunday. “Steak dinner at aria then going to club bank at Bellagio. Should be awesome night…Vegas is packed for the weekend!” Allen Kessler seemingly made a tour of the city when he Tweeted his schedule for the day:  “3 parties tonite. First @fkassela bbq, then @twoplustwoforum forum party at aria, now at bluff party at sapphire.”

Some went for a more low-key Independence Day celebration. Tiffany Michelle included a Twitpic of her activities, adding, “What better way to spend the 4th than in the pool with your girlfriends?” Lacey Jones was reflective when she tweeted her thoughts to her followers, “If there is anything I love w my whole heart it’s our Troops. Thank you to all the men & women who have served our country proud. Happy 4th!” Finally, Kara Scott missed some of the action when she tweeted, “Watching fireworks in a cab. Can juuuuust about see through the gaps in the buildings as we drive past.”

For some over the Independence Day weekend, poker took center stage over the parties and fireworks. The “Ante Up For Africa” charity poker tournament at the WSOP had many on Twitter talking, including eventual champion Phil Gordon. “129,000 in prize money going to a worthy cause,” Phil tweeted after his win and his donation of the first place bounty. “That and a big hug from runner up Shannon Elizabeth made this a great day!” For her part, Shannon Elizabeth was pleased with her performance when she chirped, “So happy! I just got 2nd in Ante Up For Africa! I had lots of lucky hands today-& was so fun!” Annie Duke issued her heartfelt thanks to those who participated when she tweeted, “Great day for @Anteupforafrica. Raised nearly $300K. Thank you so much to everyone who played.”

In one of the more comical exchanges following Gordon’s win in the charity event, fellow Full Tilt Poker members Rafe Furst and Andy Bloch took turns razzing Gordon. After Furst offered his congratulations (“Congrats @PhilNoLimits in your first WSOP tournament win at Ante Up for Africa!”), Bloch jabbed at Gordon’s WSOP record by tweeting, “Does it count as a bracelet?” Furst stuck the knife in a bit deeper when he replied, “I think we should make him an honorary one.”

The WSOP Tournament of Champions wrapped up play on Sunday night and the Twitterscape was buzzing with activity. “Gave it my best in the TOC,” Duke tweeted upon finishing ninth. “Short stacked all day and got my money in as good as I could hope for. Thanks @WSOP for the freeroll.” Jennifer Harman was playful with her exit Tweet, saying, “I’m out 7th. The last hour I feel like I played like a goof ball. Next tourney Main Event.” Daniel Negreanu enjoyed his stay at the TOC final table, although he reported, “Just busted to Hachem. AA vs 55 flop came 652. Oh well, it was a fun tournament but in the end my cards ran out of gas.”

Once Huck Seed and Howard Lederer reached heads up play, Duke began to pay more attention to the play. Although she tried to stick with the action (“Still rooting @HowardHLederer on in TOC. No sleep till he wins!”), Duke eventually gave up, tweeting, “I’m giving up. I need to sleep. Hoping I wake up to find that @HowardHLederer won the TOC. If not Huck is a great back up! Go Bub and Huck!”

Lederer was quite prolific with his tweets as he reported the action. “Just got head up with Huck,” tweeted Howard. “I have 468 to his 342. Given his HU record, I feel like a small dog.” Howard did well for himself, forcing the action for almost two hours before busting out in second place. “Disappointed,” Lederer tweeted at the conclusion. “Huck played great and deserved to win. Thanks much to Harrah’s for the freeroll and the voters for opportunity.”

One of the things that was going on outside of the tables was players noticing the structure of this year’s Championship Event. Andy Bloch was on the case when he chirped, “Warning: when choosing main event starting day, day 1b plays on 2b and day 1c plays on 2a. WSOP has done an appalling job getting word out.” After reviewing the structure of play for the early part of the Main Event, Bloch noted, “Just looked at the main event structure sheet. Playing only 4 levels days 1-5 with a 90 minute dinner break after level 2? Seriously? To the people who decided to have dinner breaks at 4:20: what were you smoking?”

This launched further discussion from Allen Kessler and Pamela Brunson. “Wow I just found out day1a main event players can be in the event 10 days and still not cash,” Kessler tweeted. “Only playing 4 levels/day should be looked at.” Brunson thanked Bloch for his warning, tweeting, “Wow…..that’s stupid! Thanks for tweeting to let us know. I need to recheck my appointments!”

On the lighter side of poker in Twitter, it seems that Joe Reitman might need to start wearing a name tag around the Rio. “Guy on a rascal said ‘Jeff can u sign my hat?,” Reitman tweeted after once again being confused with Jeff Shulman. “Had to tell him ‘I’m not Jeff.’ He was disappointed. Could have lied. But he was on a rascal.” The always endearing Vicky Coren noted upon her arrival in Las Vegas, “Passing the blackjack area, I’d know I was in Vegas with my eyes shut. ‘Please translate for Mr. Wong: the cards must STAY ON THE TABLE.’” Finally, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin reminisced about his Fourth of July memories:  “Next year I want lawn chairs, coolers, and fireworks in the front yard. Some of my best memories are running around trees with sparklers.”

Seed Flowers In WSOP Tournament of Champions

Mike Matusow entered the day with a healthy chip lead and it was expected Matusow would have received a boon from watching Tom Dwan's bracelet bid crash and burn the evening before.

Having booked extensive action against "durrrr", Dwan's failure to win a bracelet saved Matusow an expensive liability, but he proved unable to use this to spur him on to victory - dropping out as one of the first eliminations of the day.

Daniel Negreanu was Matusow's main tormenter - crippling then eliminating his fellow high-stakes player with pocket kings both times.

This provided a springboard for Negreanu to enter the final table as the chip leader - but a day of large chip swings saw Negreanu also crash out in 6th spot, following the dismissals of TJ Cloutier, Annie Duke and Jennifer Harman.

"In the end my cards ran out of gas," said a slightly disappointed Negreanu following his dismissal.

With Barry Greenstein and Joe Hachem next to bust, we were left with Johnny Chan, Huck Seed and Howard Lederer contending the title.

With three WSOP Main Event titles, 16 bracelets and a wealth of hard-earned experience between the three, it was always going to be an absorbing contest and so it proved with no man willing to cede ground.

Eventually though something had to give, and that something was 10-time bracelet-winner Johnny Chan, paving the way for a Lederer/Seed face-off.

Once the obligatory dollar bricks had been deposited on the felt, Lederer and Seed tore into each other, eventually Seed coming through to secure the title and claim his place in history.

"“There were a lot of great players in this event," said Seed following his hard-fought victory. 

"It was fun to compete.  It was like a reunion of the old school players.”

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DoylesRoom Brunson 10 Candidate Dan Kelly Wins WSOP $25,000 Six-Max NLHE

In the $25,000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event at the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP), six players came back on Saturday to determine a champion. Eliminated on Friday evening were favorites Carlos Mortensen (17th), Daniel Negreanu (11th), and Isaac Haxton (9th), but the final table still provided exciting action. Leading the tournament when six-handed play began was DoylesRoom Brunson 10 candidate Dan “djk123” Kelly, who held a nearly 2-1 lead over 2010 WSOP double bracelet winner Frank Kassela.

In what was the quickest final table at this year’s WSOP at 4.5 hours, Kelly was able to hold off the charge of some highly skilled pros. Eugene Katchalov was the first to depart and, while he wasn’t able to take the bracelet, Katchalov’s finish marked his fourth final table at this year’s WSOP. Eugene has banked over $500,000 for his performances over the last six weeks.

Another top player, Mikael Thuritz, was dismissed in fifth. After making the final table of the $50,000 Player’s Championship, Thuritz’s performance at this final table marked his third cash of his WSOP, with no cash lower than 13th place.

Kassela was dispatched from the final table in third place, ending what would have been a historic run at a third WSOP bracelet this year. With his finish, Kassela surged into the lead of the WSOP Player of the Year race. He currently sits with 285 points, 60 more than John Juanda and 75 more than Vladimir Shchemelev. Since only the Main Event remains, Juanda would have to finish at least third to tie Kassela; Shchemelev would have to finish second.

Canada’s Shawn Buchanan was the runner-up to Kelly, but he has to be happy with his performance at this year’s WSOP. His second place finish was his eighth cash of the year, tying him with Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler for the lead.

With the victory in Event #52, Kelly also has the chance at a very special reward. His sponsor, DoylesRoom, is currently running a battle featuring Kelly, David “Doc Sands” Sands, Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka, and Michael “Martine23” Martin for the next position with the powerful Brunson 10. Whoever garners the most points in all events at the WSOP will take the seat alongside such notable young players as Amit “amak316” Makhija, Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark, and Chris “moorman1” Moorman:

1. Dan “djk123” Kelly (Potomac, MD) – $1,315,518
2. Shawn Buchanan (Abootsford, British Columbia) – $812,941
3. Frank Kassela (Rossville, TN) – $556,053
4. Jason Somerville (Stony Brook, NY) – $386,125
5. Mikael Thuritz (Las Vegas, NV) – $272,084
6. Eugene Katchalov (New York, NY) – $194,559

The highly popular Ante Up for Africa charity event also played out during action on Saturday. The non-bracelet event, created by Poker News Daily guest columnist Annie Duke, acclaimed actor Don Cheadle, and Norman Epstein four years ago to raise awareness about the issues in Darfur, drew in 83 players, including several top pros and many celebrities. Players such as former Main Event champion Joe Hachem, Erik Seidel, Player’s Championship winner Michael Mizrachi, and Duke joined celebrities such as talk show host Montel Williams, boxing legend Evander Holyfield, Australian footballer Shane Warne, NFL great Jerome Bettis, and “Rounders” actor Matt Damon to raise money for the cause.

Seidel and Bettis both made the final table and went out in fifth and sixth place, respectively. The final duo that battled for the championship were Carbon Poker’s Shannon Elizabeth and top pro Phil Gordon, both veterans of the Bravo poker series “Celebrity Poker Showdown.” Gordon was able to defeat Elizabeth during heads-up play and then immediately turned around and donated his winnings back to Ante Up for Africa. All totaled, the charitable tournament raised over $275,000 to support the cause that Duke and Cheadle have brought to the poker world’s attention.

1. Phil Gordon (Henderson, NV) – $129,086
2. Shannon Elizabeth (Los Angeles, CA) – $79,776
3. Aleksey Filatov (Norwood, MA) – $55,843
4. Carter Phillips (Las Vegas, NV) – $40,676
5. Erik Seidel (Las Vegas, NV) – $29,926
6. Jerome Bettis (Roswell, GA) – $22,355
7. Barry Hartheimer (New York, NY) – $17,930
8. Kyle Carlston (Henderson, NV) – $14,945
9. Claire Renaut (London, United Kingdom) – $12,843

Although the Main Event begins tomorrow, there are still four tournaments in progress. In the final $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event, David Peters leads the field into Day 3. With 47 players remaining, the final nine will be the target late this evening and the final table will play out on Monday.

The final $10,000 World Championship event (#55), Pot Limit Omaha, will determine a champion today with a staunch final table. Ludovic Lacay leads an international field that includes second place pursuer Daniel Alaei and 2007 WSOP Main Event fourth place finisher Alexander Kravchenko.

Event #56, $2,500 No Limit Hold’em, will also play deep into the night to determine a final table. Corwin “mig.com” Mackey holds a 2-1 lead over Sweden’s Christian Jeppsson when play continues this afternoon. Other notable players on the leader board include Jon “PearlJammer” Turner, Dan Shak, and Court Harrington.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from the 2010 WSOP.

WSOP Event #52: $25k NLHE 6-max ended in Dan “djk123? Kelly’s celebration

The final table of the WSOP $25k NLHE 6-max was over pretty quickly: young Dan Kelly, who had started the final from great standings, rolled to victory in less than four hours.  

Only 21-year-old Kelly got experienced Shawn Buchanan as his heads-up opponent. In the last hand, Kelly got it all on the river holding AT against Buchanan’s pocket jacks, and the celebration for over $1,3 million dollar victory could begin.

Buchanan came second and cashed $812,941 dollars from his great game performance. Buchanan started challenging Kelly for real after Frank Kassela (the 3rd) “handed over” all his chips to Buchanan’s chipstack. Kassela, who is looking for the third bracelet of the summer, assured his lead in the WSOP Player of The Year competition - and the victory is about to be at his fingertips, unless the players behind him perform very well in the Main Event.

The prize pool and results:

1. Dan Kelly – $1,315,518
2. Shawn Buchanan – $812,941
3. Frank Kassela – $556,053
4. Jason Somerville – $386,125
5. Mikael Thuritz – $272,084
6. Eugene Katchalov – $194,559
7. Sam Trickett – 141,168$
8. Bryn Kenney – 141,168$
9. Isaac Haxton – 104,651$
10. Brian Hodhod - 104,651$
11. Daniel Negreanu – 77,569$
12. Abe Mosseri – 77,569$
13. Martins Adeniya – 58,699$
14. Billy Jordanou – 58,699$
15. Heather Sue Mercer – 58,699$
16. Vadim Trincher – 58,699$
17. Carlos Mortensen – 58,699$
18. Justin Bonomo – 58,699$

Sources: Bluff, PokerNews and TheHendonMob

 

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WSOP Event #52: $25k NLHE 6-max ended in Dan “djk123? Kelly’s celebration

6-Max Mania - Day 36 WSOP Recap

Day 36 saw Frank Kassela take command of the Player of the Year race with a final table appearance in $25k Six-Max Hold'em.

We saw a bracelet champion crowned in $1.5k Limit Hold'em Shootout, while Tom Dwan absolutely destroyed Day 2 of the $10k PLO Championship.

Here's a look around the day:

Event 52 - $25k No-Limit Hold'em Six-Max

Friday's most popular tournament was the $25k Six-Max, as several big names were around the table to sweat the action on Day 3.

Frank Kassela's monster 2010 WSOP continues, as the two-time bracelet winner is at the final table with a chance to lock up Player of the Year honors.

Kassela comes back second in chips, trailing chip leader Dan Kelly, who sits at 5.9 million.

Just 18 places paid out in the event, but it was a big payday for all that did make it, with Carlos Mortensen and Justin Bonomo finishing 17th and 18th, with both taking home $58,699.

The final table commences at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Event 53 - $1.5k Limit Shootout

Brendan Taylor survived a long final table, taking home the bracelet and $184,950 for first place.

Only the strong can survive in the grueling $1.5k Shootout, and the final eight came back to the Rio Thursday with Terrence Chan amongst the contenders.

Chan's luck didn't last long on Day 3, as the Canadian pro was the first bustout of the day, finishing eighth for $12,961. Jonathan "Fiery Justice" Little busted in third place to take home $73,218.

Ben Yu finished second and takes home $114,484.

Event 54 - $1k No-Limit Hold'em

The total came in at 3,844 entrants for the final $1k Championship of the WSOP 2010, and the format has been an attendance winner no doubt.

Antoine Saout, Kathy Leibert and Theo Tran and Phil Ivey were amongst the Day 1b casualties in a chaotic day in the Pavilion Room.

A total of 602 players return to the Pavilion Room for Day 2, which commences at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

British pro James Dempsey will begin Day 2 as the chip leader, and $570,960 is the announced first-place prize.

Event 55 - $10k Pot-Limit Omaha Championship

Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Phil Hellmuth and Nenad Medic were amongst the notables atop the chip leader board as Day 2 came to a close.

In reality the day was all about durrrr who tormented his opponents all day long and finished with 910,000 chips, nearly twice what his closest competitor had. Because Dwan has numerous bracelet bets, there will be an intense amount of interest in what transpires tomorrow.

This event is the final $10k Championship before the Main Event, and first place receives $780,599.

33 players return at 3 p.m. Saturday.

Event 56 - $2.5k No-Limit Hold'em

The final 2010 bracelet event before the Main Event began Friday, with 1,952 players coming out for $2.5k No-Limit Hold'em.

Plenty of familiar faces were in the crowd on Day 1, including Phil Ivey, Theo Tran and Sorel Mizzi.

By the end of the day only 585 players remained with Shannon Elizabeth, David Williams and Daniel Negreanu were amongst the Day 1 casualties.

Mark Newhouse and Jamie Gold were among the end of day chip leaders.

Players come back for Day 2 at 3 p.m. Saturday.

To view how the day played out in more detail as well as see blogs, news and videos from the Series, click through to PokerListings WSOP 2010 coverage.

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Ryan Welch Defeats Jon Eaton to Win WSOP Bracelet

In what could best be described as “the calm before the storm,” only one bracelet was awarded on Thursday night in action at the World Series of Poker (WSOP).

In the $3,000 Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em tournament, Event #51 on the WSOP schedule, 12 men returned on Thursday afternoon for their shot at a coveted gold and diamond WSOP bracelet. Jon Eaton held a roughly 600,000 chip lead over Frank Rusnak, with underrated pro Will “The Thrill” Failla lurking in third place. The players wasted little time once the cards hit the air, getting down to the final table in roughly 4½ hours.

Rusnak was one of the victims of the early carnage, doubling up Bradley Craig and losing a key hand to Failla to drop his chip stack into the danger zone. Rusnak, who has almost $600,000 in tournament earnings since his debut in 2007, was never able to get any traction from the start and got his final chips in with K-Q. He was called by Koen de Bakker, who had him dominated with his A-Q. The flop offered an appealing A-5-J rainbow arrangement, but delivered no 10 for Rusnak, dropping him from the tournament in 11th place.

Once the final table was established, one of the rarer occurrences during a WSOP final table occurred. Guillaume Darcourt, after an all-in bet from Tad Jurgens and an all-in over the top from Noel Scruggs, agonized over a decision that would either make his tournament or crush his dreams of a WSOP bracelet. After the careful deliberation, Darcourt made the call with pocket sevens, only to see Jurgens table pocket queens and Scruggs show his A-Q. The seven that popped on the flop sent a thunderous roar through the audience and delivered a rare bird at a WSOP final table, the double knockout. Jurgens started the hand with fewer chips and finished in ninth and Scruggs took the eighth place slot.

Over the next four hours, the remainder of the final table would be eliminated, bringing the action to a heads-up battle between Eaton and Ryan Welch, who diligently ground his way through the final table. On the final hand, with Eaton holding slightly fewer chips than Welch, the duo got their chips to the center of a 9-7-6-10-K board. Eaton bet out roughly 525,000 on the river to start, only to face an all-in reraise from Welch. Eaton struggled with the decision, reasoning out the hands that Welch could possibly hold before making the call. Welch immediately showed Q-J for the rivered nut straight and, once the chips were counted, became the latest WSOP champion.

1. Ryan Welch (Henderson, NV) – $559,371
2. Jon Eaton (Las Vegas, NV) – $344,830
3. Guillaume Darcourt (Paris, France) – $223,459
4. Will Faille (Smithtown, NY) – $163,532
5. Bradley Craig (Cleveland, OH) – $121,451
6. Sergey Lebedev (Troitsk, Russia) – $91,407
7. Tommy Vedes (Fort Mojave, AZ) – $69,647
8. Noel Scruggs (Del Mar, CA) – $53,694
9. Tad Jurgens (Tempe, AZ) – $41,842

Four other events were in play on Thursday, with two tournaments that will award bracelets on Friday. In Event #52, the $25,000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament, 18 players will come back on Friday afternoon from the original 191 starters. Bryn Kenney is the overnight chip leader stacked with 2.425 million, but there is danger lurking around every corner. Daniel Negreanu, who has had a quiet 2010 WSOP, is in sixth place, with 2010 double bracelet winner Frank Kassela ahead of him in fifth. Add in Sam Trickett, Isaac Haxton, Shawn Buchanan, Eugene Katchalov, Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, Carlos Mortensen, and Vadim Trincher, and the final table of this event should hold for exciting poker.

In the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout, Victory Poker pro Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little and Terrence “Unassigned” Chan lead a final table of eight. As with a Shootout tournament, all eight worked their way to the final table by defeating a full table of opponents over the first two days of play. Everyone will start with 450,000 in chips when the cards fly this afternoon.

The first Day 1 of the latest $1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament drew a sizeable field of 2,340 players, potentially making this $1,000 event one of the largest of this year’s WSOP, depending on the second Day 1 gathering. The final table of this tournament will take place on Independence Day.

The $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship drew a starting field of 346, which was whittled down by over half to 171 by the end of Day 1. Australia’s Antonio Paino is the chip leader with 240,000, with several top pros mixed throughout the field. 2009 November Niner James Akenhead is in third, with Fabrice Soulier (sixth) and Ted Lawson (seventh) both in the top 10. Final table play in Event #55 will take place on Saturday.

Only one event will begin play on Friday, the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em event. It is also set to finish play on Sunday, prior to the start of the $10,000 World Championship event on Monday. Although there are tournaments in action over the next few days, it more than likely will be a preparation weekend for many of the top players as the WSOP moves into its final two weeks and its World Championship event.

July 1st – Daily Deal

Today’s Daily Deal comes from the Amazon Room at the Rio in Las Vegas from the 2010 World Series of Poker. Host Sean Gibson covers the day’s big news which includes Shannon Elizabeth signing to become a sponsored pro over at Carbon Poker. In addition we get a quick update from the World Series of Poker including a rumor heard straight from Daniel Negreanu as well as news that PokerStars received a license to operate in France.

Home Stretch - Day 35 WSOP Recap

We saw a slew of poker's greats surround the halls of the Rio Pavilion, with both the $25k Six-Handed No-Limit Championship and $10k PLO Championships in play.

The $1.5k Limit Shootout also played down to the final table and the final eight are set to play for the bracelet tomorrow.

Here's a look around Day 35 at the WSOP:

Event 51 - $3k Triple Chance

The heads-up finale came down to two online wizards battling it out for a bracelet in a big-time live poker event.

Ryan Welch defeated fellow online pro Jon Eaton to take down the bracelet and first-place cash of $559,371.

The win gives Welch the first WSOP bracelet of his career to add to his numerous big online scores.

Other notable money finishers included Will "The Thrill" Failla (fourth), Tommy Vedes (seventh) and James Akenhead (17th).

Event 52 - $25k No-Limit Hold'em Six-Max

As expected, the WSOP's newest high buy-in event is playing out as a showcase for poker's best and wealthiest.

Daniel Negreanu, Carlos Mortensen, Heather Sue Mercer, Eugene Katchalov, Justin Bonomo and Bryn Kenney are among the 18 players still in contention heading into Day 3.

John Juanda was the unfortunate bubble boy, busting in 19th place. Juanda's elimination may have lasting implications for the WSOP Player of the Year race as Frank Kassela survived in this event and will get at least five POY points tomorrow.

Play resumes at 3 p.m. Friday. It's a four-day event and the final table is scheduled for Saturday. First place will pay out an epic $1.3 million.

Event 53 - $1.5k Limit Shootout

The final eight is set for this Limit Shootout event, which comes back at 2:30 p.m. Friday to determine a champion.

Canada's Terrence Chan is in the mix as is Jonathan "FieryJustice" Little as the players vie for the first-place prize of $184,950.

Notable cash finishers busted out on Day 2 included Theo Tran and Marcel Luske.

Event 54 - $1k No-Limit Hold'em

A huge turnout filled the Pavilion Room, as 2,340 players came out for Day 1A.

There were a few familiar faces amongst the mass chaos, as Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler, Liv Boeree, Shannon Shorr and Kara Scott all made it through to Day 2.

Day 1b of this event commences at noon Friday.

Event 55 - $10k Pot-Limit Omaha Championship

The final $10k event before the Main Event, the $10k PLO World Championship began Thursday with 346 players.

The roster of players in the field reads like a poker who's who, with David Benyamine, Greg Raymer, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Men "The Master" Nguyen all still in the game.

None other than Tom "durrrr" Dwan is also among the chip leaders along with former November Niner James Akenhead and Annette Obrestad.

Day 2 resumes at 3 p.m. Friday.

To view how the day played out in more detail as well as see blogs, news and videos from the Series, click through to PokerListings WSOP 2010 coverage.

WSOP Live!

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$25k 6-Max Event Debuts at WSOP

Following the trend set by the $50k Players Championship, which began in 2006, the WSOP has introduced another event with a higher buy-in than the $10k Main Event.

Excluding the 2009 WSOP 40th Anniversary Commemorative Tournament, which was a one-time $40k event, the $25k Six-Handed No-Limit Championship is now the highest buy-in No-limit Hold'em event in WSOP history.

According to Barry Greenstein, who sits on the Poker Players Committee, the high-end event is here to stay.

PL.com caught up with Greenstein, who was amongst the chip leaders when the event went on Day 2's first 20-minute break.

"It got a good turnout, and you could say this is the toughest field arguably," Greenstein said.

"Those good online players who've made a lot of money and play a lot of six-max, this is their world championship."

191 players registered for the event, with first prize a massive $1,315,518.

Not surprisingly, the field is as tough as it gets, with Greenstein, Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Frank Kassela, Daniel Negreanu and Carlos Mortensen all still in contention for 18 money spots on Day 2.

"We've often talked about having a bigger No-limit tournament," Greenstein said. "Some people think the $10k Main Event is antiquated, that it's not enough for a championship."

"The WPT Championship has a bigger buy-in. Even the EPT Championship, because of the Euro, has a bigger buy-in."

Greenstein went on to explain the motivation for the Players Committee to create the $25k Six-Handed Championship.

"We didn't want to have something replace the Main Event, like be a bigger buy-in No-Limit," Greenstein said. "We've intentionally not done that."

"This was a nice compromise, where we had a different event, a six-max event, and then it made sense to increase the buy-in."

The 2010 WSOP continues through July 17. For comprehensive coverage of the $25k 6-Max No-Limit event tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

Visit PokerListings.com

Two New Champs Crowned at Red-Hot WSOP: Day 34 Recap

The series may be closing in on its final, huge event but make no mistake - no one is passing time here at the Rio and there was some incredible action on show as usual.

Event 49 - $1.5k No-Limit Hold'em

Three tables returned to play to the bracelet here - and although there were fears this could play out deep into the night, the bracelet was decided relatively early as a quick-fire final played out.

In the early hours of the morning it was Taylor Larkin and Michael Linn who faced off, Linn ultimately besting Larkin to win his first WSOP bracelet and the $609,453 first-prize money.

Event 50 - $5k Pot-Limit Omaha

Another bracelet was scheduled to be handed out today, and so it was. The day began at a fast rate although once the play became short-handed caution prevailed and the players seemed to have reached an impasse. There were some fireworks from the rail though with security having to close a portion of the final table in a bid to keep the peace between the warring fans.

Eventually the poker impasse was broken, Chance Kornuth and Kevin Boudreau storming through to the heads up where ultimately Kornuth prevailed in front of his rowdy rail to take down the bracelet and the $508,090 first-prize money in what was a very strong field.

Event 51 - $3k Triple Chance

With 175 players remaining for Day 2, it seemed unlikely we would be able to play down to a final table - but the whirlwind pace that characterized Day 1 play was back in force and they almost managed it.

The field was shredded in 10 firebrand levels with players like Gavin Griffin and James Akenhead making deep runs - though neither managed to survive the day.

Instead, the 12 players who did make it through will be headed by Jon Eaton at the top of the chip counts when they return tomorrow  with Tommy Vedes hot on his shoulder in 2nd.

They'll be back at 2.30 p.m. to play it out for the bracelet and claim the $559,371 first-prize money.

Event 52 - $25k No-Limit Hold'em Six-Max

Day 1 of the $25k NLHE Six-Handed event is in the books and 78 players will return for Day 2 - meaning 113 of the original 191 registrants will wake up $25k poorer tomorrow.

This event proved a huge favorite amongst both the seasoned vets like Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu and the online whiz kids like Phil Galfond and Tom "durrrr" Dwan.

Considering the players were given healthy stacks of 75k, there was a surprising rate of attrition - the sheer aggression the players generated causing a number of casualties before the end of the day.

When they finally bagged and tagged the chips, Philipp Gruissem was the man out in front, although Daniel Negreanu, Sam Trickett and Isaac Haxton also had fine days and will present a worthy challenge when they reconvene for Day 2 at 2.30 p.m.

Event 53 - $1.5k Limit Shootout

No one would suggest the Limit Shootout format was the sexiest of the events on the schedule but 548 Limit specialists and bracelet-hunters showed up to battle for the title.

By the end of the day, there were plenty of familiar faces amongst the winners, including Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Barry Shulman, Chau Giang and Marcel Luske.

Those players and the other winners will return tomorrow to continue battling along the path to crown the latest braceleted champion.

To view how the day played out in more detail as well as see blogs, news and videos from the Series, click through to PokerListings WSOP 2010 coverage.

WSOP Live!

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

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Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke Vying for WSOP Tournament of Champions Title

While the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Tournament of Champions (TOC) takes a break until July 3rd, the leaders of Team UB.com, Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke, find themselves right in the thick of things.

With 17 of the original 27 players remaining, Hellmuth and Duke are back-to-back in the middle of the pack.  With 44,100 chips, Hellmuth is in eighth place, while Duke is right behind him in ninth with 42,600.  If they hold those same positions throughout the rest of the tournament, they will both earn $25,000.  Undoubtedly, though, they each have their eyes trained on the $500,000 grand prize.

Duke has not had any success at this year’s WSOP, as she is still without a cash, so a win in the TOC would be a great boost for the 2009 “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up.  It will also be quite an accomplishment to beat such a stacked, albeit small, field after recently winning the similarly challenging National Heads-Up Poker Championship.  Duke was one of five automatic qualifiers for the TOC, earning her spot by winning the inaugural Tournament of Champions back in 2004.  Coincidentally, she defeated Hellmuth heads-up in that event to win the $2 million purse.

While Hellmuth prides himself on holding the most WSOP bracelets of anyone in the history of poker, he would still love to win the TOC, even though it would not technically count as his 12th bracelet.  Hellmuth has had a disappointing run at the WSOP so far, with just three cashes for $70,622.  He does have two top-15 finishes, including a final table, but for Hellmuth, also the all-time leader in number of cashes at the WSOP, it has been frustrating.  Last night, he Tweeted, “Feeling so TORTURED right now!! Busted on level 15, in 59th place… 45 get paid. Four times I played till level 14 or later, and didn’t cash.”

Hellmuth earned his seat in the Tournament of Champions through the online fan vote.  He was the fourth-leading vote getter of the 20 players who qualified via balloting, garnering 12,673 votes.  Ahead of him were Phil Ivey (16,267), Daniel Negreanu (16,239), and Doyle Brunson (13,796).

The TOC has a dash of past UB flavor, as well, as ex-UB pro Antonio Esfandiari (now with Victory Poker) is 16th place and Scotty Nguyen, who was once sponsored by UB, is in fourth place.

The TOC is slated to pick back up on July 3rd and play down to a final table, which will be contested the following day.  If any player is still alive in events happening on July 3rd, however, the TOC will not resume at all until July 4th, when it will start bright and early at 9:00am local time.

David Williams Signs with PokerStars

Poker News Daily can independently confirm that 2010 World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship winner David Williams has signed with PokerStars. Williams’ agency, Poker Royalty, confirmed that a contract was forged in recent days and the former Bodog pro will now join the world’s largest online poker site.

Williams parted ways with Bodog shortly after taking down the WPT Championship at the Bellagio to the tune of $1.5 million. The tournament marked his fourth WPT final table and gave him nearly $3 million in career WPT earnings. Bodog, which has parted ways with Jean-Robert Bellande and Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo since 2010 began, promptly introduced Amanda Musumeci as its newest sponsored pro. Musumeci joins Evelyn Ng as the lone Bodog-backed pros.

On July 6th at the Palms, PokerStars is hosting a cocktail event featuring reigning World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Joe Cada, Williams, and North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun Main Event winner Vanessa Selbst. Neither Selbst nor Williams appears on PokerStars’ website as a sponsored pro at the time of writing. Selbst, a Yale law student, banked an even $750,000 by taking down the $5,000 NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event in April, besting a final table that included Scott Seiver and Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy.

Williams’ total live tournament winnings nearly top $8 million. The Panorama Towers resident finished as the runner-up to Greg Raymer in the 2004 WSOP Main Event for $3.5 million. Two years later, Williams landed at the final table of the WPT Bay 101 stop for $280,000. He won a gold bracelet at the 2006 WSOP in a $1,500 Seven Card Stud event and promptly took second in a $5,000 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball tournament for another quarter-million dollars.

Williams has been a staple of televised series like the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, NBC’s “Poker After Dark,” GSN’s “High Stakes Poker,” and the PokerStars-backed “Big Game.” He celebrated his 30th birthday earlier this month, noting on Twitter, “Thanks you to everyone for the Happy Birthday messages. 30 isn’t so bad… I guess.”

PokerStars issued a weekly news roundup on Tuesday morning that did not mention Williams’ signing. He’ll join a stable of pros that includes Cada, Raymer, Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker, Peter Eastgate, Barry Greenstein, and the site’s main face, Daniel Negreanu. Year-over-year, PokerStars has posted a 14% increase in online poker traffic according to PokerScout.com and currently owns a seven-day running average of 25,000 real money ring game players.

The PokerStars cocktail reception at the Palms is invite-only and designed for members of the media to conduct one-on-one interviews. It’s one of the many gatherings planned for this week in Las Vegas leading up to the 2010 WSOP Main Event, which begins next Monday, July 5th, with the first of four starting days. The tournament plays down to a final table on July 17th. Then, the nine survivors will disperse from the Rio until the first week of November. You can catch the Main Event, Tournament of Champions, and $50,000 Player’s Championship starting next month on ESPN.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest player signings.

WSOP TOC: Mike Matusow leading, Huck Seed as second

Mike “The Mouth” Matusow finished the second day of the WSOP Tournament of Champions in a great way: in chiplead. The loudmouth collected exactly 85,500 chips which is a bit more than Huck Seed’s 73k.  

-Matusow won the Tournament of Champions in 2005 and was third in 2006. 

A few big names were eliminated during the day - for example Doyle Brunson, Joe Cada and Mike Sexton had to leave the tournament table.

Below all the remaining 17 players and their exact chipstacks:

1. Mike Matusow          85,500
2. Huck Seed         73,000
3. Johnny Chan         68,600
4. Scotty Nguyen         64,700
5. Joe Hachem             64,300
6. Erik Seidel         58,900
7. Allen Cunningham     58,900
8. Phil Hellmuth         44,100
9. Annie Duke         42,600
10. Daniel Negreanu     39,900
11. TJ Cloutier         38,800
12. Jennifer Harman     34,200
13. Howard Lederer         30,800
14. Chris Ferguson         30,100
15. Barry Greenstein     29,900
16. Antonio Esfandiari     24,400
17. Bertrand Grospellier     21,400

There are also some changes in the tournament schedule as the tournament has proceeded much slower than expected: still 17 players are competing for the $500,000 dollar main prize, although according to the estimates we should already know the finalists.

Originally it was meant to be that the nine finalists would return to the table on 4th of July, but since there are still this many players left, the tournament will continue already on July 3rd.

However, the Ante Up for Africa tournament can still mix the schedules, so it remains to be seen when we finally know the winner of this year’s TOC…   

Source: PokerNews and TheHendonMob

 

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WSOP TOC: Mike Matusow leading, Huck Seed as second

Sigurd Eskeland Captures First World Series of Poker Bracelet

Norway’s Sigurd Eskeland earned his first ever World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet on Tuesday morning, defeating Steve Sung heads-up in the $2,500 Mixed Event.  The former school teacher won $260,497 in his third career WSOP cash.

The Mixed Event features eight different games: No Limit Hold’em, Fixed Limit Hold’em, Pot Limit Omaha, Omaha 8/b, Razz, Stud, Stud 8/b, and 2-7 Triple Draw.  Day 3 began with 20 players still remaining and Eskeland had a ways to go, sitting in 12th place.  Aside from the chip leader, Nikolai Yakovenko, who had 310,000 chips, it was a fairly tightly grouped field.

Eskeland waited patiently through several eliminations before surging into the chip lead thanks to a series of double-ups.  After eliminating Alex Wice in third place, Eskeland went into heads-up play with a 2-to-1 chip advantage over Sung.  He expanded his lead quickly, but after about 40 minutes, Sung had pulled to even and looked like he was poised to make a run at the bracelet when he took the lead shortly thereafter.

Sung’s lead didn’t last long, though, and just over two hours into the heads-up match, he had all of his chips in the middle in a No Limit Hold’em round with Qd-Qs against Eskeland’s Ac-9s.  The flop was harmless – 3d-9c-4c – and it looked like Sung still just needed to dodge an ace to double-up.  The Jc on the turn gave Eskeland a flush draw, though, and the river was heartbreaker for Sung: 2c.  That brought Eskeland a flush and the title.

2010 WSOP Event #48 $2,500 Mixed – Final Table Results

1. Sigurd Eskeland – $260,497
2. Steve Sung – $160,952
3. Alexander Wice – $102,314
4. Nikolai Yakovenko – $73,776
5. Stephen Su – $54,032
6. Scott Seiver – $40,175
7. Jared Jaffee – $30,319
8. Kirill Rabtsov – $23,223

Elsewhere around the Rio, the Tournament of Champions (TOC) wrapped up Day 2, albeit behind schedule.  The plan was to play Day 1 last Sunday and Day 2 on Monday, at which point the final nine players would be determined.  Play would then resume on July 4th.  However, after Monday’s action, there were still 17 players left.  Therefore, WSOP officials decided to bring everyone back on July 3rd to play down to the final table, which will still be played on July 4th.  The schedule may be modified even further, though.  There are two events taking place on July 3rd – the Ante Up for Africa charity tournament and the $25,000 Six-Max – so there is a chance that one or more of the TOC players will already be playing in an event.  If that is the case, the TOC will resume on July 4th at 9:00am so that there is enough time to determine a champion.  Here is a look at the current standings:

1. Mike Matusow – 85,500
2. Huck Seed – 73,000
3. Johnny Chan – 68,600
4. Scotty Nguyen – 64,700
5. Joe Hachem – 64,300
6. Erik Seidel – 58,900
7. Allen Cunningham – 58,900
8. Phil Hellmuth – 44,100
9. Annie Duke – 42,600
10. Daniel Negreanu – 39,900
11. T.J. Cloutier – 38,800
12. Jennifer Harman – 34,200
13. Howard Lederer – 30,800
14. Chris Ferguson – 30,100
15. Barry Greenstein – 29,900
16. Antonio Esfandiari – 24,400
17. Bertrand Grospellier – 21,400

There were three other tournaments running on a busy day at the Rio on Monday.  Event #47, $1,000 No Limit Hold’em, completed its second day with just 33 of the original 3,128 players remaining.  Manuel Davidian tops the field with 889,000 chips, 176,000 more than his next closest competitor, Adam White.  Of note is recent bracelet winner Scott Montgomery, who in 24th place is gunning for his second win of the 2010 WSOP.  Here is what the top ten looks like:

1. Manuel Davidian – $889,000
2. Adam White – $713,000
3. Jason Riesenberg – $635,000
4. Owen Crowe – $607,000
5. Justin Young – $449,000
6. Laurence Stein – $442,000
7. Paulus Valkenburg – $439,000
8. Pekka Ikonen – $435,000
9. Shawn Busse – $432,000
10. Olivier Busquet – $377,000

Event #49, $1,500 No Limit Hold’em, is entering its second day with 315 of 2,543 players remaining, so the field is still 45 players away from the money.  Giuseppe Zarbo leads the chase to the $609,493 first prize with 156,500 chips.  Other players of note are still alive, including George “Jorj95″ Lind III (96,400), David “The Dragon” Pham (83,300), J.P. Kelly (61,600), Mark Gregorich (55,600), Shane Schleger (54,800), Liv Boeree (43,400), Roland de Wolfe (38,400), Matt Matros (36,600), and Andy Bloch (35,000).  Play will resume at 2:30pm local time.

Finally, Event #50, $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha, also concluded its first day.  Almost half of the original 460-player field is still alive, so it is a long way until the cash bubble bursts.  Kevin Schaffel, a member of last year’s November Nine, leads all players with 178,900 chips.  Also among the leaders are Jarred Solomon, who just made the final table of the $2,500 Mixed Hold’em event, 2005 Main Event final tablist and this year’s $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha champ John “Tex” Barch, 2010 $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha 8/b runner-up Dan Shak, and inaugural WSOP Europe Main Event champ Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad.  First place pays over $500,000.  The players will be back at 3:00pm local time to continue their quest for a bracelet.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for more updates from the 2010 World Series of Poker.

WSOP Tournament of Champions Begins from Poker in Twitter

Gavin Smith‘s first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet over the weekend nearly melted down the Twitterverse. After Smith made his breakthrough victory in the $2,500 Mixed Hold’em event on Saturday, congratulations flooded in for the popular Canadian. UB.com pro Joe Sebok was excited over Smith’s first WSOP bracelet win, Tweeting, “Congratulations @olegsmith. Love you friend. You worked hard for this and you deserve it. Happy to share this moment with you, bud.”

The accolades continued to come in for Smith throughout the day on Sunday. “Congrats on the bracelet @OleGSmith!,” Tweeted “Hollywood” Dave Stann. “Awesome to see one of the good guys come out on top – you rock, dude!” PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu had an ulterior motive with Smith’s win, but was thrilled nonetheless: “Congrats @olegsmith you brought it home! That win helped me beat Matusow for 10k woot.”

The revived WSOP Tournament of Champions was also a hot topic over the weekend. “Good luck to the wonderful Mike Sexton in the TOC today, a great ambassador for the game and a champion!,” PartyPoker pro Kara Scott tweeted as the 27-player tournament began. John Juanda, one of the players voted in by fans, Tweeted his starting table to his followers: “Seed, Ivey, Harman, Cada, Seidel, Ferguson, me, Chan, Barton. Wish me luck, guys! I’ll need it!”

Apparently the poker gods weren’t listening to Juanda because, not even one hour later, he reported his demise: “Just like that, I’m out of TOC. Tried to get Harman to lay down 2nd set and it didn’t work!” Others did much better and will move on to Day 2 of the TOC, including Erik Seidel (“Day over TOC. I finished w 72k.”), Howard Lederer (“Finished day 1 of WSOP TOC with 25,800. Slow day, no cards, deep stacks. Tomorrow the action should pick up.”) and Barry Greenstein (“End of today’s session. I didn’t play too well toward the end. 22 left. Average is 37k. I have 57k.”)

A considerable amount of attention was paid to the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event on Sunday night. Once the action in the event became heads-up, it featured two of the most respected players in the game, Dan Shak and Chris Bell. “Dan Shak and Chris Bell now heads-up for the bracelet,” Annie Duke chirped from tableside. “Freeroll on who wins. Both of them are deserving and great guys.”

Notable pros lined up to cheer on their horse. Noted tournament reporter B.J. Nemeth caught one particularly interesting exchange when he Tweeted, “Chris Bell to the TD: ‘This isn’t fair. Dan has Shannon Elizabeth rooting for him, and I’m stuck with Gavin Smith.’” After Bell was able to defeat Shak for the bracelet, Smith Tweeted his feelings: “Chris Bell, one of my closest friends just won his first bracelet, I think I am as happy now as I was last night!

For the best Tweets of the Week, we’ll start with Negreanu. While playing in the Mixed Game tournament at the WSOP, Negreanu posed the question, “Weird question was raised: what are the odds that at an 8 handed stud table, all 8 players are rolled up?” Leave it to the author of “The Mathematics of Poker” and double bracelet winner Bill Chen to know the answer, as Negreanu Tweeted, “Bill Chen just told me it’s 1 followed by about 20 zeros.”

Finally, the World Cup has drawn the attention of poker players. “Up early to sweat soccer,” Shannon Shorr Tweeted. “Need Germany to upset England as my only other team, Slovakia, is drawing dead against Holland tomorrow.” Scott Huff commented on the shoddy officiating when he chirped, “If I was from Mexico I’d be livid right now. As it is, I’m curious why FIFA even bothers having a rule book.” Perhaps it wasn’t the World Cup, but Full Tilt‘s Ali Nejad stepped up to play soccer rather than watch it: “Played rooftop soccer all day @nikemontalban. Or based on the way my body feels… rooftop soccer played me.”

WSOP Tournament of Champions continues - Ivey, Juanda and Farha out

The WSOP Tournament of Champions started yesterday. 20 poker professionals chosen by a public vote and seven other players who qualified in the tournament started the chase for the million dollar prize pot.

The first day already demanded five big names - John Juanda, Barry Shulman, Greg Raymer, Sam Farha and even Phil Ivey himself were all eliminated from the tournament.

The tournament lead, instead, was taken by Erik Seidel (72,075), Johnny Chan (71,325) and Mike Matusow (70,575).

Below all the remaining players and their chips:

Erik Seidel		72,075
Jon Chan		71,325
Mike Matusow		70,575
Barry Greenstein		56,775
Joe Hachem		55,650
Huck Seed		51,875
Bertrand Grospellier		51,175
Allen Cunningham		49,300
Scotty Nguyen		48,900
Dan Harrington		38,250
Daniel Negreanu		36,125
Antonio Esfandiari		25,925
Howard Lederer		25,750
Chris Ferguson		25,125
Phil Hellmuth		21,825
TJ Cloutier		20,125
Jennifer Harman Traniello		19,275
Andrew Barton		18,200
Mike Sexton		18,125
Annie Duke		12,500
Joseph Cada		12,125
Doyle Brunson		10,200

 

So who will eventually be the champion of this ultimate high-level tournament?

The tournament continues today and then on the 4th of July, and the whole event will be broadcasted as a part of ESPN’s WSOP 2010 TV-broadcasts.

Source: PokerNews

 

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WSOP Tournament of Champions continues - Ivey, Juanda and Farha out

Erik Seidel leads 22 players in WSOP Tournament of Champions

The much-anticipated $1m invitational freeroll that is the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions kicked off yesterday with 27 players taking to the felt. Most of the poker names that you expect were there – Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen, Allen Cunningham, Daniel Negreanu... the list goes on.

Gavin Smith Wins First World Series of Poker Bracelet

In the $2,500 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Mixed Event – featuring levels that alternate between Limit Hold’em and No Limit Hold’em – nine players came back on Saturday afternoon to determine a champion. Jarred Solomon held a slim lead over Full Tilt Poker’s Gavin Smith when play began, with WSOP Circuit terror Dwyte Pilgrim sitting on the short stack. Starting with Limit Hold’em, the players wasted little time in getting down to business.

Within the first three hours, three players were dispatched from the event. Pilgrim could never get any traction to make a drive at a WSOP bracelet, departing the final table in eighth place. 2007 British Columbia Poker Championship victor Daniel Idema, who came to the felt as the second shortest stack, was also a victim of the early action before leaving the event in seventh place.

Solomon was felted prior to the dinner break by Danny Hannawa and finished in sixth place. After dinner, Hannawa held a 240,000-chip lead over Timothy Finne, Jamie Rosen, Smith, and Michael Michnik. With the game changed to No Limit, several players became more aggressive, attempting to be the last man standing.

Hannawa dumped Rosen in fifth place, at which time Smith took over play. The Canadian aggressively took chips from Michnik and, in a key hand, assumed the chip lead from Hannawa when Smith, holding A-Q, flopped a queen and Hannawa couldn’t beat him. He continued to pound the pot with bets as the game switched to Limit, when he was able to vanquish Michnik in fourth.

After Hannawa was able to defeat Michnik at the end of the Limit level, heads-up play began in No Limit with Smith holding a 400,000-chip edge over Hannawa. After decimating Hannawa with a pair of eights on a 4-2-8-K-10 board, Smith saw fortune fall his way on the final hand. Hannawa committed the remainder of his chips holding a 10-8. After Smith called with his suited A-Q and the board ran A-K-2-J-J, he dropped the “best player to never win a bracelet” tag from his name by winning Event #44:

1. Gavin Smith (Las Vegas, NV) – $268,238
2. Danny Hannawa (Farmington Hills, MI) – $166,050
3. Timothy Finne (Fanwood, NJ) – $110,324
4. Michael Michnik (Hollywood, FL) – $81,871
5. Jamie Rosen (Las Vegas, NV) – $61,441
6. Jarred Solomon (Johannesburg, South Africa) – $46,562
7. Daniel Idema (Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada) – $35,601
8. Dwyte Pilgrim (Brooklyn, NY) – $27,438
9. Mike Santoro (Egg Harbor, NJ) – $21,304

In Event #45, another $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament, 35 players will return on Sunday afternoon to determine a champion. Sam Trickett, who was the runner-up to Jason DeWitt in the $5,000 No Limit event, holds the chip lead with several notable names in the mix behind him. 2010 WSOP bracelet winner Dutch Boyd sits in fifth, with Paul “X-22” Magriel, Alex Outhred, and Tim “tmay420” West just off the top 10.

Twenty-one players will return for Day 3 in the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event, which will probably run deep into Monday morning to determine a champion. Sergey Altbregin leads the tournament when the cards fly this afternoon, but a host of top pros are still in the mix. In second place is David “DevilFish” Ulliott, with Dan Shak and Chris Bell also in the top five. A blast from the past in the top 10 is Leif Force, who is known for his 11th place finish in the 2006 WSOP Main Event. Add in other pros such as Rob Hollink, Dan Heimiller, Allen Kessler, Andy Black, “Miami” John Cernuto, and Erik Seidel and the final day of this tournament will be one to watch.

Two tournaments opened up play on Saturday, with the first Day 1 of the latest $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event pulling in 1,759 entries. 310 players survived the carnage on Saturday to come back for Day Two on Monday. The final size of the field will be determined with the second Day 1 taking place on Sunday.

In Day One of the $2,500 Mixed Event, 453 players stepped up to test themselves against one of the toughest formats in poker. 192 will come back for Day 2 today, with Jared Jaffee holding the overnight chip lead. $50,000 Player’s Championship winner Michael Mizrachi is in fifth place, with other stars of the game such as Luca Pagano, Brandon Cantu, Steve Billirakis, Dario Alito, Alex Kravchenko, Scott Seiver, Andrew Robl, and 2010 double bracelet winner Frank Kassela all in the top 20.

While these tournaments all are featuring a great deal of star power, they will be dwarfed by the only tournament that starts today. The WSOP Tournament of Champions, which features 27 of the biggest names in the poker world, opens up play Sunday at Noon PT.

It looks to be a battle of the online poker rooms, as nine members of the Full Tilt Poker stable (Phil Ivey, Chris Ferguson, Allen Cunningham, John Juanda, Seidel, Jennifer Harman, Huck Seed, Howard Lederer and Mike Matusow) will hit the felt against six PokerStars pros (Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Joe Cada, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier). Team UB sends its most prominent representatives in Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke, while Doyle Brunson represents DoylesRoom. Defending Tournament of Champions titleholder Mike Sexton will carry the PartyPoker banner as he attempts to repeat.

It all makes for one of the busiest Sundays during the run of this year’s World Series of Poker.

Stars Headline 2010 TOC

20 of the 27 players seated for the start of the TOC Sunday were voted in by fans on WSOP.com, and this year's TOC is the equivalent of an All-Star game from any major sport.

A ballot of 50 names was released by the WSOP on March 15, and the public had until June 15 to vote.

The top 20 players receiving the highest vote total earned a TOC, along with seven other qualifiers.

The result is an field that includes names like Phil Hellmuth, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, Sammy Farha and Scotty Nguyen, seated with Barry Greenstein, Allen Cunningham, Mike Sexton and Barry Shulman.

All of those big names are sitting around just one table at the TOC.

"All in all I think it's great for the game, and I think all poker players should appreciate the fact that somebody's putting up a million dollars for a freeroll, for players to put that back in the poker community," Sexton told PL.com on a break.

"Obviously it's a phenomenal field. I predicted the final table will be the greatest final table in the history of poker. I think it'll be that strong."

The TOC is back for the first time since 2006, and the formula was overhauled for 2010, allowing the public to vote in the first-ever event of it's kind.

"Any time you have a voting process, people are going to talk about it," Sexton said.

"That's the way it is. It's like any major sport. All-Star baseball game, basketball, it doesn't matter. If the fans vote on it, they vote for people that they recognize, that are popular."

The event is definitely creating a buzz in the Amazon Room, with all three feature tables offering a spectacular lineup.

Top vote-getter Phil Ivey is in the field, along with Daniel Negreanu, Annie Duke, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Erik Seidel.

"It's a tough field," said Sammy Farha with a grin.

"I like that though, it's better for me. They're all good players. There's no strange move or something like that. I'd rather be in a field like this than against different faces that I haven't seen before."

The TOC will play four levels Sunday and wrap up early in the afternoon, allowing multi-tabling pros to fulfill other bracelet-event commitments later in the day.

Action will resume in the TOC at 12:00 p.m. on Monday with the goal of playing down to a final table of nine. The final table will play out on July 4.

Farha told PL.com that he's done playing bracelet events for the summer, with the $10k Omaha Hi-Lo bracelet already in the bag for the 2010 WSOP.

Nonetheless, Farha says the TOC title is meaningful to the pros.

"You know what you hear, we're having fun, we're socializing," Farha said.

"That means nothing. The play, it's very competitive. We're all going to try to beat each other."

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

Visit PokerListings.com

ESPN Inside Deal: Phil Ivey to Sit Out WSOP Tournament of Champions?

With regular hosts Laura Lane on vacation and Bernard Lee in Las Vegas, ESPN Poker Editor Andrew Feldman assumed the helm of “Inside Deal.” The ESPN.com poker news show sponsored by PokerStars welcomed Barry Greenstein.

Lee appeared via satellite from Sin City, where he’s competing in the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP). With five final tables coming up on ESPN3.com, Lee explained what viewers might witness in the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max event, which starts on June 30th: “I don’t think there are going to be huge names that the general public knows. We’ll probably see a couple of people that are very familiar, but we’ll also see some people who are very big online names, but the general public won’t know them.”

Pros have dominated the 2010 WSOP so far. In fact, through the first 37 completed events, pros have taken down 25 bracelets, or a 68% success rate. Lee gave his take on the past month of action: “It’s the Year of the Redemption. I also think the Year of the Pro is coming about. A lot of these people who are having their redemption years and second bracelets are pros. It really shows that their experience is coming through.”

Greenstein finished ninth in the voting for the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions out of the 20 players voted in by the general public. On top of the leaderboard was Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey, who Greenstein noted might not even play in the invite-only event: “I haven’t even talked to Phil about it. I would guess he would play. What he was probably concerned about was the way they had it set up initially, it was going to conflict with him playing in events and he has a bunch of side bets.”

Last week on the ESPN “Poker Edge” podcast, co-host Phil Gordon told Feldman and the show’s listeners, “I heard that Phil Ivey is not even going to play. I was told that because there is a bracelet event the same day as the TOC, Phil isn’t going to play the TOC… You might be seeing Ivey running back and forth from the TV table.” Feldman then suggested holding the Tournament of Champions over the November Nine weekend.

On the field of 27 that will take to the felts in the Tournament of Champions, which includes 25 bracelet winners and two qualifiers, Greenstein told “Inside Deal” viewers: “Some people were complaining, ‘Hey, why didn’t we get some of the newer, younger players?’ This is really more like an all-star game and is based more on the career you put forward, so I’m happy that people consider me in the top 20 most popular players.” Greenstein received just over 9,800 votes for the Tournament of Champions, while Ivey and Daniel Negreanu each earned over 16,000.

Attendance for Mixed Games at the 2010 WSOP is up compared to last year. In Greenstein’s eyes, the growth is in part due to the influence of the world’s largest online poker rooms like PokerStars: “It’s been helped by the Eight-Game on PokerStars and I think some of the other sites have put on Mixed Games. It makes poker more interesting. I’ve always enjoyed, when I play cash games, playing as many games as possible. It’s boring to play one game.” Greenstein added that he used to take bathroom breaks during Limit Hold’em rounds because grew tired of the age-old poker variation.

Lee and Greenstein debated the merits of adding other tournaments to the annual WSOP schedule. Greenstein, who sits on the WSOP Player’s Advisory Council, revealed that online poker players have asked for a Six-Max Pot Limit Omaha Championship. Lee pitched combination games like a Lowball Championship and Stud Championship.

“Inside Deal” is released every week exclusively on ESPN.com.

PokerStars Big Game Week 2: Doyle Brunson Runs over the Table

Monday night marked the first episode of Week 2 of the PokerStars.net sponsored “Big Game” on Fox. The high-stakes cash game featuring a “Loose Cannon” qualifier from PokerStars battling against five poker pros airs at 1:00am or 2:00am nightly in most markets.

Daniel Negreanu was the high roller at the table, buying in for $200,000, while everyone else purchased $100,000 in chips. This week’s “Loose Cannon” is William Davis, who candidly told “Big Game” hostess Amanda Leatherman prior to his battle, “I could win or lose a pot worth more than my house.” Davis’ wife is not a fan of Negreanu, who serves as the face of the “Big Game,” because he talks too much.

The “Loose Cannon” made his presence known early, raising to $1,200 pre-flop with pocket deuces and receiving a call from defending World Poker Tour Championship winner David Williams, who held pocket tens, including a club. The flop came 5-4-4 with two clubs and Williams check-called a bet of $2,100. The turn put a third club on the board and the action went check-check to the deuce of clubs on the river, giving Davis a boat and Williams a flush. Williams checked, Davis bet $6,000, and Williams tanked before electing to abandon ship.

Then, internet entrepreneur Jason Calacanis raised to $1,200 pre-flop with pocket deuces, 10-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner Doyle Brunson popped it to $4,800 with pocket queens, and Davis 4bet to $14,800 with a wired pair of jacks. Brunson pushed the action to $46,400 after trying to push all-in, but the action on the “Big Game” is Pot Limit before the flop and No Limit thereafter. Davis released his hand, causing host Joe Stapleton to comment, “That was some power poker. A $60,000 pot without a flop.”

The hand of the night occurred when Williams bet $3,000 holding A-4 of spades on a flop of 8-8-Q with two spades for the nut flush draw. Davis called with K-10 of spades for the second nut flush draw and the turn brought the deuce of spades, filling both players’ flushes. Williams bet $7,000 and Davis called to bring a fourth spade on the river. Williams bet $20,000 and Davis insta-called, shipping the $64,400 pot to Williams. Just like that, the “Loose Cannon” was down $43,000 out of his $100,000 stake.

Brunson hit the deck hard on Monday night’s episode, picking up pocket queens twice and pocket kings once in the first 10 hands. He was up over $20,000 by the time all was said and done, roughly tied with Williams. In the final hand shown, Davis picked up aces and raised to $1,200. Cash game guru Abe Mosseri called with J-6 of hearts and the action flop came 5-5-8 with two hearts. Davis bet $3,200 with his overpair and Mosseri called to bring an offsuit deuce on the turn. Davis fired out another bet, this time $9,000, and Mosseri called despite not receiving the right price to hit his flush draw. The river brought another offsuit duck. Davis bet $23,000 and Mosseri folded, ending the action for the evening.

Davis was still down $28,000 to close out the episode. The “Loose Cannon” qualifier had an Aggression Factor of 2.7, the second lowest at the table, through the first 30 hands. Negreanu had a Pre-Flop Raise Percentage of 30%, the highest of the group, while Davis turned in the second highest tally at 23%.

The PokerStars.net-backed “Big Game” airs daily on Fox. Check your local listings for more details.

Phil Ivey Wins Eighth WSOP Bracelet

“…gulp”

An ellipsis and four letters.  So simple, yet it says so much.  This was the Tweet made by Howard Lederer at 4:49am Las Vegas time in response to fellow Team Full Tilt member Phil Ivey winning his eighth World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet.  Ivey out-dueled poker author and 2006 double bracelet winner Bill Chen to win the $3,000 HORSE event and $329,840.  Ivey has now pulled into a tie with Erik Seidel for fifth on the all-time WSOP bracelet list behind Phil Hellmuth (11), Johnny Chan (10), Doyle Brunson (10), and Johnny Moss (nine).

But that princely sum of just over $329,000 pales in comparison to the amount of money Ivey may have won in side bets with other poker pros.  It is not known for certain exactly how much Ivey will be collecting from top players such as Eli Elezra and Tom “durrrr” Dwan, but put it this way, word is that after winning, Ivey turned to someone and asked, “So how much is first, anyway?”

This brings us back to Lederer and his concise Tweet.  According to PokerListings, before this year’s WSOP, he bet Ivey $5 million that the young poker stud would not win two WSOP bracelets by the end of 2011.  Lederer is obviously starting to sweat now that Ivey is halfway there with all of next year’s WSOP plus 17 events this year still remaining.  After the tournament, the 33-year old Ivey told WSOP officials, “I think I can win 30 gold bracelets.  I think I can reach that if I keep playing and stay healthy.”

Ivey’s run to the title was one of the more impressive of the 2010 WSOP.  He was in decent shape when play started Monday with 25 players remaining, but when the field was narrowed to 16, or the final two tables, he was lagging behind as the shortest chip stack.  He then made a tremendous run and to reach the final table in second place behind only Chen.

He would need all of those chips to beat an extremely tough final table.  In addition to Chen, it included a combined eight bracelets from Jeffrey Lisandro, John Juanda, Ken Aldridge, and Chad Brown.  And those are just the final table players.  Bowing out Monday on the way to the final table were names like David Singer, Scott Seiver, Dan Heimiller, Farzad Bonyadi, and David Benyamine.

But even after knocking out Juanda in third place, Ivey entered heads-up play with Chen facing a 3-to-1 chip deficit.  After about 10 minutes, the gap had widened, as Ivey’s stack fell below one million.  But just over a half-hour into heads-up, Ivey took the lead, eventually flip-flopping the stacks that the two players had to start the one-on-one match.  Chen didn’t give up, though, and took the lead back, but Ivey turned the tables once again and didn’t look back.

After about two hours, the end came on a Razz hand.  On fifth street, all of Chen’s chips were in the pot and the two players showed their hands.  Chen had a strong one – a made 7-6 – but Ivey had him beat with a made 6-5.  Chen would need either a 3 for a chop or running 3-4 for a wheel to win the pot.  Both players received a 7 on sixth street, changing nothing, and Ivey was the one who made his wheel, drawing a 4 on the river to seal the deal.  Chen won $203,802 for second place.

According to TheHendonMob.com, the win gives Ivey $4,886,988 in total winnings in his WSOP history, putting him 12th on the all-time list.  The $329,840 in prize money for the tournament moved him back ahead of Daniel Negreanu for the top spot on the overall live tournament winnings leaderboard.  Ivey now has $12,836,394 in brick-and-mortar tournament earnings in his career, just ahead of Negreanu’s $12,633,218.

Event #38, $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold ‘em, Day 2 completed

Play has entered the money as less than three tables remain in Event #38, the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold ‘em World Championship. Yesterday 122 players took to the felt to play down to the money but after losing such poker legends as Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein and Joe Hachem we are left with the last 26.