Poker News

Full Tilt Poker Launches French Site

Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest online poker site, officially announced the launch of FullTiltPoker.fr this week, allowing French players the ability to play on the popular online poker site. The new poker room will be available exclusively for residents of France and French territories as part of the newly established online gambling regulations in the country.

French players were restricted from playing on Full Tilt Poker on July 13, receiving the following message when they logged into the site: “Due to our ongoing application for a French gaming license, real-money transactions and game play have been restricted for players based in France and French Territories. The dedicated French version of our game software will be up and running as soon as possible.”

On July 26, ARJEL (Authority of Regulation of Online Games), the French online gaming regulatory body, granted Full Tilt Poker a license to operate in France. Having met all ARJEL license specification requirements, Full Tilt was given the green light to offer its games and services to players in France.

Among the list of poker professionals supporting FullTiltPoker.fr are French players David Benyamine, a World Series of Poker bracelet and World Poker Tour Grand Prix de Paris winner, and European Poker Tour champ Pascal ‘PPTHEBANDIT’ Perrault. Both players are part of the vast stable of Full Tilt Red Pros.

According to PokerScout.com‘s Online Poker Traffic Report on Wednesday, FullTiltPoker.fr already ranks 25th in the world in ring game traffic, with an average of 235 players on its site. PokerStars.fr leads the French market and ranks ninth in the world in traffic with a seven-day average of 1,520 players, while Everest Poker comes in 10th with an average of 1,280 players. Also ranking in the top 20 are OnGame.fr (17th, 750 players) and PartyPoker.fr (20th, 660 players).

With the addition of Full Tilt, PKR, and seven other sites last week, the list of ARJEL licensees now comes up to 27. The first 11 licenses were issued in June, a list that included Bwin, ChiliGaming, PartyGaming, Everest Poker, BetClic, and Paddy Power. PokerStars, iPoker and Microgaming were granted licenses in July.?

Final 27 Set at 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event

After Day 7 concluded, the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event was down to just three tables.  What was once a sea of poker tables amid dreams of hitting the third largest prize ever awarded is now down to just a select few.  At the beginning of the day, there were 78 players hoping to chip up and make a run at the 2010 WSOP November Nine.

On a day where players came in with massive stacks and looked to chip up, many felt the violent swings of poker variance.  People in the chip lead found themselves crippled and ultimately busted out, while others went on runs of a lifetime.  Play lasted five levels for nearly 12 hours of poker and concluded last night at 11:00pm PT, well sooner than most of the people in the room expected.

Our chip leader heading into the final 27 players is California poker pro Joseph Cheong, who lives in La Mirada, California and goes by the online moniker “subiime.”  He has a psychology degree from the University of California at San Diego and at 24, is looking to leverage his 24.49 million chip stack all the way to the final nine players.  The word on the rail is that he took all of his own action in this one, meaning if he takes first place, he won’t have to share the $8.94 million prize with anybody.

Another Californian sits behind Cheong in second place, Cuong “Soi” Nguyen from Santa Ana, California.  Poker buddies and work friends are sweating Nguyen on the rails.  His stack is at an astonishing 23.1 million and looks very healthy as a true amateur left in the field.

Another player making waves on Day 7 was online poker pro Jason Senti, better known as “PBJaxxx” online.  He’s one of the lead instructors at BlueFire Poker and has a ton of mid and high-stakes heads-up experience.  Sound familiar?  It should, as last year, another heads-up cash game regular, Joe Cada, took the event down.  Senti has his family and friends railing him and created an impromptu drinking game every time he took down a big pot.  Needless to say, they were one of the most fun groups to hang out with during the night.  Senti joined us for a quick interview and came off as very even-keeled and confident heading into the final day of play here at the Rio thanks to his 13.55 million stack.

Big names left in the tournament underwent brutal beats and sick coolers that forced them to hit the rail.  Popular pro Theo Jorgensen, who has a bracelet to his name already, was the chip leader at the beginning of the day, but left after he lost his stack in just under an hour.  His flopped set of sixes on a 6-7-T board were out-flopped by 9-8 for the nuts, which held up.

Day 5 chip leader Evan Lamprea also hit the rail in 46th place and Jacobo Fernandez (who has 14 cashes in the last three years at the WSOP) left in 49th place.  David Benyamine, popular from his many televised cash game appearances, left the tournament in 58th place.  Many, including ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, joked that they never saw Benyamine play a single hand on any day of the tournament.

Also leaving the tournament was UB.com sponsored tournament pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, who was coming off a second place finish at the World Poker Tour Championship just a few months ago.  Baldwin was up and down for the better part of the last three days and was eliminated in 59th place.  Finally, “Survivor” cast member Jean-Robert Bellande booked his best ever effort in the Main Event by finishing in 78th place.

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi remains in the field with 6.3 million (16th place) and can still capture the prestigious WSOP Player of the Year award.  Other familiar names left in the field include UB.com pro Adam “Roothlus” Levy and PokerStars’ Johnny Lodden, who find themselves in the bottom half of the remaining field.

Here is how the final 27 stacks up entering the play down day:

1. Joseph Cheong – 24,490,000
2. Cuong Nguyen – 23,100,000
3. Pascal LeFrancois – 15,780,000
4. Jason Senti – 13,550,000
5. Matthew Jarvis – 13,300,000
6. Matt Affleck – 12,515,000
7. Jonathan Duhamel – 10,520,000
8. John Racener – 10,470,000
9. Filippo Candio – 10,020,000
10. Benjamin Statz – 9,885,000
11. Robert Pisano – 8,060,000
12. Michiel Sijpkens – 7,765,000
13. Duy Le – 7,255,000
14. Scott Clements – 7,250,000
15. David Baker – 6,825,000
16. Michael Mizrachi – 6,300,000
17. Brandon Steven – 6,045,000
18. Adam Levy – 4,745,000
19. William Thorson – 3,680,000
20. Redmond Lee – 3,315,000
21. Mads Wissing – 3,070,000
22. Ronnie Bardah – 2,525,000
23. Matthew Bucaric – 2,270,000
24. John Dolan – 2,175,000
25. Patrick Eskandar – 1,655,000
26. Johnny Lodden – 1,560,000
27. Hasan Habib -1,510,000

Theo Jorgensen Leads Michael Mizrachi, John Racener In WSOP Main Event; Chan Eliminated

The final days of the 2010 World Series of Poker Championship Event are drawing nigh, with only 78 players left to decide the next World Champion.

Play on Thursday started with 205 runners, led by Canada’s Evan Lamprea, but the true story of the action at the WSOP Main Event sat further down the Top Ten. After not appearing for many of the preliminary events, two time WSOP Main Event winner Johnny Chan came to the felt with a vengeance. Through the first five days (and over 7000 eliminations), Chan battled his way to sit in ninth place with 2.559 million in chips to start play on Day 6. Unfortunately for the last back-to-back winner of the WSOP Main Event, the variances of the game of poker arose to take him down, destroying his meticulously built stack in the span of one hour.

Early during action on Day 6, Chan entered into a preflop battle against Robert Pisano, which eventually led to Pisano getting the remainder of his chips in against the 1987-88 World Champion. Chan confidently tabled his pocket Kings, only to see Pisano have the better of the situation with pocket Aces. After the board ran ten high, two other players at the table informed “The Orient Express” that they had folded his two outs. The carnage left Johnny sitting with only 800,000 chips remaining and Robert on a 4.4 million chip mountain.

Chan patiently waited over the next hour for an opportunity to get back in the tournament and seemingly found it against Jonathan Driscoll. In the cutoff, Johnny moved the remainder of his chips to the center only to have Driscoll immediately call from the button. After the blinds got out of the way, another cooler hit Johnny; his pocket Jacks were once again behind the pocket Aces that, this time, Driscoll held. The board once again ran low (seven high) and eliminated Chan in 156th place.

For those who were looking for the “last woman standing” this year, Breeze Zuckerman provided that excitement. Entering the day in 131st place with 738,000 in chips, Zuckerman was the only woman with a shot at the WSOP “November Nine” after the departure of Dorothy Von Sachsen on Day 5. Over the first three hours of play, Breeze was able to work her way up to slightly over 1.1 million in chips and found herself on one of the ESPN television stages. After the move to the big stage, however, Zuckerman bled chips and eventually was eliminated from the tournament in 121st place at the hands of defending CardPlayer Magazine Player of the Year Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, several players used Day 6 to mount their assaults on the top of the leader board. 2010 $50K Players’ Championship winner Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi started the day in 30th place with 1.793 million in chips and used the run of play on Thursday to surge to the top of the mountain. Mizrachi seemed to be on the right side of the action throughout Day 6 and, late in the evening, vaulted into the chip lead after pushing Randy Dorfman and Christopher Bolt out of a pot with a four bet. His stay as the “leader of the pack” was short lived, however, as another charger on the day, Denmark’s Theo Jorgensen, took a pot from “The Grinder” with a river bet ten minutes later to assume the chip lead.

When the cards fly at noon (Pacific Time) on Friday, the remaining 78 players will look up at a strong leader board that includes this Top Ten:

1. Theo Jorgensen 9.3 million in chips
2. Michael Mizrachi 7.535 million
3. John Racener 7.2 million
4. Jonathan Driscoll 6.57 million
5. William Thorson 6.525 million
6. Matthew Jarvis 6.125 million
7. Edward Ochana 5.95 million
8. Alexander Kostritsyn 5.715 million
9. Cuong Nguyen 5.65 million
10. Joseph Cheong 5.555 million

Surprisingly, the Top Ten players have quite the resume in the poker world. Jorgensen is the reigning champion of the World Poker Tour’s resurrected Rendezvous a Paris, which he won back in May, and has $2.3 million in career earnings. Along with his victory in the $50K Players’ Championship, Mizrachi has two WPT titles and $8.8 million in earnings. Racener holds a WSOP Circuit championship ring and has earned $1.18 million in his short career. Thorson is the defending PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Pot Limit Omaha champion and Kostritsyn won the championship of the Aussie Millions in 2009, with each having over $2.3 million in career earnings. All totaled, the Top Ten have earned almost $18 million in their poker careers.

Sitting down the remaining 78 players are several dangerous players. The aforementioned Baldwin is currently at 2.135 million in chips, with European sensation Johnny Lodden on his heels with 2.105 million. Adam “Roothlus” Levy sits in 49th place with his 1.685 million chip stack, with Katy, TX’s David Baker and Full Tilt Poker superstar David Benyamine in pursuit. Day 4 chip leader Tony “Bond18” Dunst, Day 5 leader Lamprea, Hasan Habib and Scott Clements are all within striking distance of the Top Ten.

Friday’s plan of action at the WSOP is to play down to the final 27 players before calling it quits for the night. On Saturday, the battle for the “November Nine” begins as those three tables whittle themselves down to one. By the end of action on Saturday, the poker community will know the names and faces behind who will become the next champion of the World Series of Poker Championship Event.

Only Three Tables Remain in WSOP Main Event

Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi is still alive with 5.5 million and battling for a bracelet and potential Player of the Year title. The new chip leader is Joseph Cheong, who has 24.3 million.

Also still in the mix are Pascal LeFrancois, Scott Clements and Hasan Habib.

Some of the players who saw their title hopes fade on day 7 include John Robert Bellande, Theo Jorgensen, David Benyamine, Bryn Kenney, Alexander Kostritsyn and Tony Dunst.

All of the remaining players are guaranteed at least $317k in their quest for the top prize of $8.9 million.

Tomorrow will mark the 8th and final day of play for all but nine of the players. This is the third year the WSOP has utilized the "November Nine" format where the final table returns to play in November.

Upon reaching the final table tomorrow the final nine players will receive 10th place money and then will have to wait to see how the rest shakes out this fall.

Play will resume at noon tomorrow for the final day on the WSOP calendar this summer. As always, PokerListings will keep you abreast with all of the latest news and live updates.

 

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World Poker Tour Brings Back Kimberly Lansing for Season 9

In an overhaul of sorts for Season 9, the World Poker Tour (WPT) has brought back Kimberly Lansing. Her role, you ask? According to a press statement released on Saturday, Lansing will “provide show opens, breaks, commentary, and perspective, including player interviews that will serve to bring out the human interest side of playing for high stakes.”

Sunday marks the first day of play in the Bellagio Cup VI, the kickoff U.S.-based event of Season 9 of the WPT. With buy-ins for several upcoming tournaments slashed to encourage more participation, Season 9 may mark a rebirth of sorts for the age-old series that first appeared on the Travel Channel back in 2003.

Lansing last appeared on WPT programming in Season 6. On why she will rejoin the tour’s ranks for the forthcoming cycle, WPT President Adam Pliska commented in the same press release, “We believe the WPT anchor represents a significant step forward in poker programming and Kimberly is a natural fit for the position. Her charisma, style, professionalism, and knowledge of the sport have earned her the respect and attention of players throughout the poker community.”

Party Gaming purchased the WPT late last year, leading some to believe that PartyPoker pro Kara Scott may make her way to the small screen. However, Lansing will become a mainstay at live tournaments located at casinos around the United States. Also receiving more exposure during Season 9 will be WPT hosts Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten, who will now attend the starting day of every U.S. event. Despite the Bellagio Cup starting on Sunday, Van Patten sits in 101st after Day 2A of the World Series of Poker Main Event holding a stack of 174,200.

The WPT held a press conference on Saturday morning to announce the changes for Season 9 and also officially introduced Matt Savage as its Executive Tour Director. Savage, a co-founder of the Tournament Directors of America, will work hand in hand with players, casinos, and tournament staff to provide a seamless experience for WPT players. Savage added, “There are so many exciting changes at the World Poker Tour and I’m looking forward to having a big role in the WPT’s continued success. This is an amazing team and I’m proud to be working with them.”

Also debuting during Season 9 will be the Royal Flush Girls, who include 2007 Miss Kentucky USA Michelle Banzer, “FHM Singapore” cover girl Sunisa Kim, and Formula Drift car builder Melyssa Grace. All told, six Royal Flush Girls will film vignettes for WPT programming, including a behind-the-scenes tour at the host venue. The Royal Flush Girls will be on-hand this weekend at the Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip.

The WPT last held an event on U.S. soil in April, when newly signed PokerStars pro David Williams took down the $25,000 Championship event. Williams defeated UB.com pro Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin heads-up in a final table that also included Shawn Buchanan, David Benyamine, Billy Baxter, and John O’Shea. Attendance for the 2010 WPT Championship was down over 40% from 2009, when 338 players took to the felts in a tournament won by Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko.

The seventh and eighth seasons of the WPT appeared on Fox Sports Net. However, no official announcement has been given as to whether the ninth season will also air on the cable station, although a statement is expected in the near future. Seasons 1 through 5 of the WPT aired on the Travel Channel, followed by a brief hiatus to GSN for Season 6. GSN officials opted not to air Season 7, leading to WPT landing on Fox Sports Net.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT news.

Jesper Hougaard, Johnny Chan Among WSOP Main Event Day 2A Chip Leaders

The marathon that is the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event rolled along on Friday, with 2,412 players returning from Days 1A and 1C to take part in Day 2A.

1987 and 1988 Main Event champion Johnny Chan sat just a few spots in back of chip leader Corwin Cole to begin the day, with $50,000 Player’s Championship winner Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi and England’s Barny Boatman also in the top ten. Although there was a festive atmosphere in the Amazon Room at the start of play, over half the field would not survive to bag up chips at the end of the night.

The early action consisted of many players who were looking to double up or go home with their meager chip stacks. One of the players able to succeed on that front was 2008 WSOP Main Event final tablist Dennis Phillips, who made Big Slick work against an opponent’s pocket jacks to earn an early chip up. Phillips would continue to drive his stack upwards, reaching 45,000 late Friday night. However, the popular St. Louis poker pro would Tweet his demise before the end of action: “The search for the next November Nine goes on… unfortunately was just eliminated & will not be in the hunt.”

Phillips wasn’t the only one to face his WSOP mortality on Friday. World Poker Tour host and Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton saw pocket kings vanquished when he was looking for a triple up, being outdrawn by pocket nines on a 2-9-8 rainbow flop. Also departing the Rio on Friday were 2009 November Niner James Akenhead, Rincon Circuit champion Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire, Ted Lawson, Liz Lieu, and UB.com’s “Hollywood” Dave Stann, who commented on Twitter about his defeat at the hands of Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh: “That was fun. Guess I’m headed back to LA early… Straights don’t beat flushes here apparently. nh Jennicide.”

Several top pros rode the elevator the opposite way on Day 2A. Chan, who started action stacked with 163,700 in chips, continued to be a force at the tables. “The Orient Express” was able to build on his Day One play, ending Day 2A in tenth place on the leaderboard with 281,600 in chips.

Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Annie Duke was also able to mount an assault. Starting the day with 67,000 in chips, the current National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner rode a roller coaster throughout the day before getting into an epic hand late in the evening. Holding on a board, the UB.com pro was able to get her opponent to commit the remainder of their chips with an offsuit 4-2.

A nondescript nine hit on the turn, but the crowd was stunned when the hit, making Duke’s opponent a boat, which many railbirds inaccurately assumed gave her tablemate the hand. According to WSOP.com reports, Duke calmly pointed out, “I have the straight flush,” earning her the pot in stunning fashion. Duke used that hand to skyrocket to 176,600 in chips.

Making the most noise in the Rio on Friday was Denmark’s Jesper Hougaard. The only person to ever win Las Vegas and European WSOP bracelets in the same year (2008), Hougaard started Friday with the 51,000 chips he built on Day 1C and attacked his tablemates throughout the day. By the time the smoke cleared on Friday night, Hougaard had amassed 316,200 in chips, good for third place behind Boulos Estafanous. According to WSOP statistics, 1,192 players have reported chip counts and will be back for play on Day 3.

Those who come to the felt on Saturday will have a significant challenge ahead of them. Day 2B – the combination of Days 1B and 1D – will be composed of slightly more than 2,700 players. James Danielson is the leader of Day 2B at 201,050 in chips, but he is pursued by WSOP bracelet and gold ring winner Steve “MrSmokey1” Billirakis (187,150). Other top professionals stepping to the felt on Saturday include tenth place Jason DeWitt (149,950), Full Tilt Poker’s David Benyamine (130,800), Team PokerStars pro Vanessa Rousso (111,050), Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (107,100), and English powerhouse James “Flushy” Dempsey (106,175).

Sunday will be a rest day for the survivors of the WSOP Main Event. The field will come together for the first time on Monday, when Day 3 will consolidate the field at the Rio. Expect the field to number approximately 2,500 by that point, with the latest incarnation of the “November Nine” to be determined one week from today.

7,319 Players Enter Second Largest WSOP Main Event in History

7,319 players stormed the Rio All Suites Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for the first four Day Ones of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, making it the second largest tournament in the history of the 41 year old institution.

To put this year’s tournament in perspective, only the 2006 WSOP Main Event and its 8,773 player field – held prior to the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in the United States later that year – eclipsed the number of players accommodated by the Rio this year. While this year’s Main Event is the second largest tournament in history, the first place prize will not be the second largest in history. Due to the flattened payout structure instituted by Harrah’s and WSOP officials last year, this year’s winner will receive $8,994,138, the third largest payday behind 2006 champion Jamie Gold’s $12 million and 2008 victor Peter Eastgate’s $9,152,416.

Day 1D was by far the largest of the four Day Ones held., as 2,391 players stepped up to take their shot at winning poker’s most cherished championship. Day 1D vastly outpaced the three previous Day Ones (1,125, 1,489, and 2,314 players, respectively), leaving poker fans around the Pavilion and Amazon Rooms of the Rio scrambling to search for their favorite pros.

Former Dallas Cowboy great and Pro Football Hall of Fame member Emmitt Smith issued the call to “shuffle up and deal” before stepping to the felt himself, decked in Full Tilt Poker regalia. Although he made it through the first break, the all-time leading rusher in NFL history didn’t last long at the tables. Joining him on the rail were such professional players as Ante Up For Africa champion Phil Gordon, John Kabbaj, Pamela Brunson, 2005 WSOP final table duo Joseph Hachem and Steve Dannenmann, John Juanda, Sorel Mizzi, and Noah Boeken.

According to statistics from the WSOP website, 1,699 players survived the carnage of the final Day One of the 2010 WSOP, with several notable professionals stepping up to the top of the leaderboard. WSOP bracelet holder Steve “MrSmokey1” Billirakis was able to capture the lead of Day 1D by finishing off the night with 187,150 chips. He is closely pursued by Khamsy Nuanmanee, a 24 year old player from Las Vegas who thrilled the crowd around the Rio with her run up to 170,525 in chips. Others trailing behind this duo on Day 1D include David Benyamine (130,800), Team PokerStars pro Vanessa Rousso (111,050), 2010 bracelet winner Matt Keikoan (105,175), Josh Arieh (103,650), Jason Mercier (90,525), and 2010 WSOP Player of the Year contender Frank Kassela (87,000).

The remaining 5,129 players in the 2010 WSOP Main Event will now proceed to play over the next two days. Days 1A and 1C will be hitting the felt Friday afternoon for Day 2A, with roughly 2,400 players scheduled to meet again for battle. Corwin Cole looks to be the overall leader for the four Day Ones with 228,200 in chips, but there are a host of challengers that await him in the Top Ten of Day 2A alone.

Sitting in fourth place at the start of Day 2A is the last man to win back-to-back WSOP Main Event titles, Johnny Chan, stacked with 163,700 in chips, top female professional Lauren Kling (149,650) in seventh, Hendon Mobster Barny Boatman (144,050) in eighth, and $50,000 Player’s Championship winner Michael Mizrachi holding down the tenth place slot with his 142,650 in chips. Others who will be looking to move up the leaderboard on Day 2A include Hoyt Corkins (129,150), defending WSOP Europe Main Event champion Barry Shulman (113,325), recent PokerStars signee David Williams (112,225) and former World Champion Chris Moneymaker (107,425).

After play today and Saturday, the field should be cut down to roughly 2,500 survivors. The WSOP Main Event will then take a break on Sunday before bringing the remaining warriors back for action on Monday. Then, players will attempt to reach 747th place, the first position that will be paid at this year’s Main Event.

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.

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Superb Turnout For 2nd Largest ME in WSOP History

An impressive 2,391 players turned up to to add to the already swelling numbers from the first three days. 7,319 was the final tally of players at this year's Main Event, ranking it as the second biggest WSOP of all time - just behind the 2006 Main Event.

This year's winner will take home $8.9 million of the $68 million prize pool and an assortment of pros, amateurs and celebrities turned up to take their shot at glory today.

Naturally, many saw their dreams fall by the wayside. Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler already has eight cashes at this year's series but won't be adding a ninth after falling during the day. Also out are Brian Townsend, Sorel Mizzi, John Juanda, Joe Hachem, Justin Smith and Phil Gordon as the ruthless nature of the biggest No-Limit Hold'em tournament on earth took its toll.

It was a different story for David Benyamine, Vanessa Rousso, Josh Arieh and PokerListings blogger Jason Mercier, who all experienced better fortune, breaching six figures by the close of play.

However Steve "MrSmokey1" Billirakis outdid them all, topping the chip counts by the time they were bagged and tagged with a gargantuan stack of 187k - good for third place in the amalgamated chip counts from all four days.

Day 2a will see 2,412 players return from day 1a and 1c to do battle across the felt and will begin at 12 noon Friday.

It's early days for the World Series Main Event but already the huge prizepool and fierce competition is making for an engaging spectacle and we expect the pattern to continue when they resume tomorrow.

For a more in-depth look at how the day developed, click through to PokerListings' WSOP 2010 section for live updates, news and videos.

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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.

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PokerStars Restricts French Online Poker Play

Effective June 24th, action on PokerStars.com for French players was blocked due to new regulations put in place by the country’s government. A popup that appeared for French users read in part, “All money in PokerStars accounts is 100% safe and is available for withdrawal. You can choose to cash out now if you prefer.”

Alternately, French players who wish to continue placating the virtual felts under the PokerStars banner can continue doing so on PokerStars.fr. The world’s largest online poker site explained what players can expect on the French-focused site: “We will be running free tournaments on PokerStars.fr this weekend to win seats to live French Poker Series events.” PokerStars adds that the move, while unfortunate, is “mandated by law” and the site looks forward to continuing to service French customers using its PokerStars.fr arm.

Posters on the popular online poker forum PocketFives.com reacted to the news in a thread entitled “Goodbye PokerStars! Signed: All French Players.” The PokerStars French version pits players from the European country against each other, similar to the scene in neighboring Italy. Despite French online poker players departing the worldwide market in earnest, PocketFives.com member “squintster” remained optimistic: “It seems like at least once a year for the last 5-6 years, I’ve seen some scenario that is thought to destroy online poker forever. Somehow, we always seem to come out decently strong with ever increasing numbers, so hopefully this results in the same fashion.”

Traffic on PokerStars has appeared to drop off in recent days since the ban on French players. On June 24th, the site attracted a peak of 36,566 real money ring game players according to PokerScout.com, a drop of about 10% from the 40,943 players recorded one week prior. On June 23rd, the number of cash game players topped out at 37,637, down 9% from the 41,585 the previous week. June 23rd and 24th marked the first back-to-back days that featured peak real money ring game player totals below 40,000 since May 1st to 2nd. However, whether the drop off is due to the loss of French action or some other factor remains to be seen.

According to statistics found on PokerStars’ site, its Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) attracted 27,316 entrants from France, the fourth most of any country and about 6% of the field of 462,000. The country with the most number of entrants, not surprisingly, was the United States, which contributed 147,000 players to the cause in the three-tiered tournament series.

In terms of money won, French players banked $1.62 million, good for eighth worldwide behind the United States, Canada, Germany, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Russia. Team PokerStars France includes Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Thomas Bichon, and Arnaud Mattern. Other popular French players include David Benyamine, Bruno Fitoussi, and Everest Poker sponsored pros Antoine Saout and Fabrice Soulier.

The PokerStars.com moratorium on French real money action went into effect at 9:30pm CET on June 24th. Earlier this month, the French Authority of Regulation of Online Games (ARJEL) granted gaming licenses to outfits like Unibet, Everest Poker, and the parent company of bwin. Online poker licenses were granted to Pari Mutuel Urbain (the former state-run outlet for gaming), Sajoo, SPS France Betting, and Table 14. Meanwhile, Microgaming, 888, and Party Gaming were not granted licenses despite being three of the largest companies in the industry.

Paradise Poker parent company Sportingbet, Betfair, and William Hill have shut their doors to the French poker market. Keep it tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest poker legislation news from France and around the world.

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.

John Juanda, Phil Ivey Vying for WSOP Gold in $3,000 HORSE Event

If it’s a slow Monday at work, check out the conclusion of Event #37 of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP), a $3,000 HORSE tournament. Not only is 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event champ John Juanda on top of the leaderboard with 25 players left, but fellow Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey is also in the hunt.

Ivey, who has been busy multi-tabling WSOP events, sits in seventh entering the HORSE tournament’s finale with a stack of 205,000. Juanda, meanwhile, amassed a mountain of 393,000 during play on Sunday and is searching for his fifth WSOP bracelet. Amazingly, Juanda has already made three final tables during the tournament series, logging two fifth place finishes and one fourth place finish for a combined haul of over $600,000. His largest cash so far has come by virtue of taking fourth in the $50,000 Player’s Championship for $436,000, a tournament won by Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi.

Ivey, who finished seventh in the 2009 Main Event for $1.4 million, has three cashes in this year’s WSOP for $22,000 total. All told, he has over $5 million in career WSOP earnings and been dubbed by WSOP reporters as “immortal.” He’s topped ESPN’s “The Nuts” poker rankings ever since their inception and is in the hunt for his eighth bracelet.

Sunday featured the departures of Steve Sung, Chris Reslock, PokerStars pro Katja Thater, tournament director Matt Savage, and Italian poker sensation Max Pescatori, all of whom made the money. Talk about one of the tougher finales to play out at the 2010 WSOP. Here are the final 25 in Event #37:

1. John Juanda – 393,000
2. Dave Baker – 373,000
3. Ryan Hughes – 354,000
4. Daniel Makowsky – 312,000
5. Kenneth Aldridge – 257,000
6. Brent Wheeler – 256,000
7. Phil Ivey – 205,000
8. Jeffrey Lisandro – 193,000
9. Mitch Schock – 189,000
10. Alexandre Luneau – 182,000
11. Dan Heimiller – 180,000
12. Ming Reslock – 173,000
13. Jordan Siegel – 161,000
14. Bill Chen – 158,000
15. David Benyamine – 137,000
16. Yuebin Guo – 109,000
17. Chad Brown – 108,000
18. Scott Seiver – 105,000
19. Albert Hahn – 100,000
20. Farzad Bonyadi – 98,000
21. David Singer – 93,000
22. Zachary Milchman – 71,000
23. Dale Phillips – 57,000
24. Mark Johns – 31,000
25. George Trigeorgis – 15,000

Harold Angle bested Michael Minetti to take down the $1,000 Seniors’ No Limit Hold’em Championship and earn $487,000. Angle, 78 years young, paced the largest Seniors’ field in WSOP history and will return to Florida with nearly a half-million dollars in cash and his first gold bracelet. In the final hand of the tournament, Minetti got his money in ahead pre-flop with pocket jacks against K-J. However, Angle hit a king on the flop and the case jack failed to fall on the turn or river.

Here’s how the final nine cashed out in the Seniors’ No Limit Hold’em Championship:

1. Harold Angle – $487,994
2. Michael Minetti – $301,839
3. John Woo – $213,612
4. Eric Stemp – $154,624
5. Daniel Camillo – $113,225
6. Preston Derden – $83,872
7. Jack Ward – $62,833
8. Carlos Pianelli – $47,591
9. Jay Hong – $36,450

The $10,000 Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em Championship was paused after one match in the best-of-three battle between Ayaz Mahmood and Ernst Schmejkal. After six and a half hours, Mahmood recorded a 1-0 lead and the pair will return to the Rio at 7:00pm PT on Monday to determine a winner.

Mahmood defeated Jason “JCarver” Somerville in the semis, while Schmejkal outlasted Alexander Kostritsyn. Both players defeated in the semifinals picked up $220,000 and the tournament’s winner will earn $625,000. Falling in the round of eight were 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship runner-up Vanessa Rousso and DoylesRoom Brunson 10 candidate Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka. Both picked up $95,000 for their efforts and joined Ludovic Lacay and Kido Pham as those not advancing out of the quarterfinals.

No one has a case of the Mondays in Las Vegas today, as a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout (Event #39) will kick off at Noon PT. The three-day event is capped at 2,000 players. In a shootout format, players must outlast their entire table in order to advance. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest action from the 2010 WSOP.

Heads-Up: WSOP Day 24 Recap

Plenty of big-time tournaments were on display Sunday, with the $10k No-Limit Hold'em Championship final table as the main course.

A champion was also crowned in the $1k Seniors Championship, while a slew of former WSOP POYs battled it out in $3k H.O.R.S.E.

Here's a look around the WSOP on Day 24:

Event #34 - $1k Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship

Harold Angle outlasted the rest at the final table, winning a first-place prize of $487,994 and taking down the bracelet at the $1k Seniors Championship.

This event was open for registration to anyone over age 50, so there weren't any online whiz kids in the field of 3,142 players.

That doesn't mean there weren't a slew of great players in the field, including Tom Schneider, who finished 14th and cashed for $22,805.

This tournament saw a huge increase in attendance over 2009, when 2,707 players were in the field.

Event #35 - $10k Heads-Up Hold'em Championship

This 256-player event did not play down to a winner on Sunday as was originally scheduled.

The final two players, Ayaz Mahmood and Ernst Schmejkal, played the first of three heads-up matches until 5:30 a.m. Tuesday and decided to call it a night. Mahmood took the first match but they will return to decide a winner at 7 p.m. on Tuesday.

Vanessa Rousso finished in the quarterfinals for $94,956 while Russian Alex Kostritsyn lost in the quarterfinals $219,969. Gavin Smith, Alex Kravchenko and Chris Moorman also made it into the money.

Event #36 - $1k No-Limit Hold'em

Day 1b of this event drew 1,119 entrants, bringing the combined Day 1s total to 3,649.

We saw a good portion of the Day 1b field eliminated today, as only 165 players made it through.

Soheil Shamseddin will be amongst the chip leaders coming back after a terrific run in Day 1b.

Day 2 commences at 2:30 p.m. Monday with all 455 surviving players from Day 1a and 1b.

Event #37- $3k H.O.R.S.E.

The mixed games format continues to gain popularity at the WSOP, as 478 players registered for $3K H.O.R.S.E.

219 of poker's most well-rounded players came back Sunday for Day 2, with lots of notable names in attendance.

David Benyamine, John Juanda, Phil Ivey and Jeff Lisandro were a few of the sharks terrorizing the field on Day 2, and each of the four pros had chips to work with when the money bubble burst at 48 players.

Chau Giang, Robert Williamson III, Daniel Negreanu and Michael Binger were amongst the unlucky contenders eliminated before the cash.

By the end of the day 25 players remained with Juanda in the chip lead with 393,000 and Phil Ivey lurking in seventh place with 200,000.

We're scheduled to play down to a champion Monday, with the winner set to pocket $329,840.

Day 3 begins at 3 p.m. Monday.

Event #38- $10k Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship

268 deep-pocketed players hit the felt for the beginning of the $10k PLO Championship, and as expected a ton of big names registered for the event.

Daniel Negreanu, Annette Obrestad, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Tom Dwan and Jennifer Tilly were all in attendance on Day 1.

By the end of the day Tilly, Dwan, Ferguson, Obrestad were all eliminated but Negreanu will take a decent stack into Day 2.

Tom "Kingsofcards" Marchese was the man of the hour, however, as he finished with 334,000 for the chip lead.

Day 2 will kick off at 3 p.m. tomorrow.

For a full account of how day 24 of the WSOP 2010 played out, click through to PokerListings' WSOP coverage.

WSOP Live!

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

Visit PokerListings.com

World Team Poker Signs Kathy Liebert, Cyndy Violette, Antonio Esfandiari

The roster for the 24-team World Team Poker World Championship just got a little bit bigger. Top female poker pros Kathy Liebert and Cyndy Violette have been inked to play for Team Germany, whose roster currently includes Dan Heimiller. The World Championship will take place from October 11th to 17th in Las Vegas, although a host venue has not yet been announced.

Violette has been a staple of the poker scene since the 1980s. She final tabled Ladies’ Events at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 1985 and 1987 before winning her first bracelet in 2004 in a $2,000 Seven Card Stud High-Low Split Eight or Better tournament for $135,000. In 2005, Violette was the runner-up to Erik Seidel in a $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event for $295,000, but she has not made a final table at the WSOP in four years.

Liebert also won a bracelet in 2004, taking down a $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout for $110,000 in a final table that included Brock “t soprano” Parker, Kevin Song, and Joe Cassidy. Liebert finished third in the 2008 World Championship of Pot Limit Hold’em for just over $300,000 and owns over $1 million in WSOP and Circuit earnings. Last November, Liebert won a $2,325 No Limit Hold’em event held during the Foxwoods World Poker Finals for $74,000 and took third in the World Poker Tour (WPT) North American Poker Championship two years ago for nearly $300,000.

Now, these two poker divas, whose parents are German, will step up to bat on behalf of Team Germany. Competing against them under the Iranian banner will be Victory Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari, who also joined on with World Team Poker in recent days. Esfandiari already has two cashes during the 2010 WSOP, including a 12th place showing in a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event for $47,000. Esfandiari finished 24th in last year’s Main Event for $352,000 and won a bracelet in 2004 in a $2,000 Pot Limit Hold’em contest.

Other World Team Poker rumors have two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Greg “FBT” Mueller captaining Team Canada, whose roster of pros has yet to be announced. World Team Poker’s Robert Turner told Poker News Daily that the hype for the World Championship event in October is quickly building: “People like our concept. It’s something new in poker that’s never been done. Even though there have been attempts to do team events, we have it right. There is no collusion, we combine chips, and the fact that we’re with Fox Sports Net has helped. That’s the home run for us.”

On July 14th, a teaser episode of World Team Poker’s kickoff event at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas will air on Fox Sports Net. Then, beginning in September, the rest of the action from the Downtown casino will be broadcast in one-hour episodes on the sports station on Sunday nights.

Earlier this month, World Team Poker signed Full Tilt pro Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad to Team Norway, whose roster also includes Thor Hansen. Team China took down the tournament series’ inaugural event at the Golden Nugget, besting Team Brazil. The Chinese squad included Johnny Chan, David Chiu, Chau Giang, Maria Ho, Winfred Yu, Rich Zhu, and Derek Cheung.

Twenty-three countries are listed on World Team Poker’s website, meaning that one more may need to come aboard in order to fill out a 24-team World Championship field: Armenia, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the Czech Republic, England, Germany, Greece, India, Iran, Israel, Italy, Korea, Lebanon, Mexico, Norway, the Philippines, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey, the United States, and Vietnam. Curiously absent is France, whose roster could include players like Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Everest Poker’s Antoine Saout, and David Benyamine.

Stay tuned for the latest news from World Team Poker.

Tom Dwan (durrrr) Falls Short in WSOP Event #11

A rail filled with several notable high-stakes poker pros. Millions of dollars in prop bets on the line. And one of poker’s biggest names at the center of it all. That was the scene late Sunday night at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) as Tom “durrrr” Dwan was heads-up for his first bracelet, creating one of the most exciting non-Main Event final tables the WSOP has ever seen.

Many nosebleed players, including Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, Eli Elezra, and David Benyamine, had bet six- and seven-figure amounts that Dwan would not win a bracelet this summer (each laid Dwan 3.5-1 odds). Most were on hand to watch Dwan at the final table of Event # 11, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament, where Dwan entered the final nine with the chip lead. The aforementioned pros were holding their collective breath as Dwan made his way closer to his ultimate goal, which allegedly would net him around $8 million on top of the $614,000 payday for first place.

After hours of nerve-racking play Dwan found himself heads-up with Simon Watt, a 27 year-old software developer from New Zealand. Watt held a significant chip edge over Dwan and used it to bleed Dwan down even further. Finally, a short-stacked Dwan moved all-in pre-flop for his last 1.6 million chips with Qd-6c and Watt called instantly with 9d-9c. The ESPN tournament area erupted, mostly with those calling for a Queen, but Dwan remained still in his seat as he watched the dealer reveal a board of As-Ac-8c-Ad-Kh. When the river card hit, Dwan shook Watt’s hand and quickly slipped out of the Amazon Room before any media personnel could reach him. He would come back to pick up his $381,885 payday on Monday.

After the madness at the Rio calmed, Watt told the media he had only one friend hiding in the enormous Dwan-backed crowd, Joe Ellis. But he now has some high-stakes poker pros that will consider him a buddy for life. Matusow, according to PokerNews, walked over to Watt after the match and said, “Thank you for saving us all millions of dollars. How does it feel to be every high-stakes gambler’s hero?” Meanwhile, Negreanu posted his “congratulations” to Dwan on Twitter: “Congrats to Tom Dwan! We were all rooting for you… To come second! Wow I escaped. What a sweat that was.”

Watt, who became the first ever bracelet winner from New Zealand, has only one other recorded major tournament cash in his poker career, a win at the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) championship in Auckland. This was his first ever cash at the WSOP, one that he’ll certainly never forget. “It was amazing. It was strange,” Watt said after he was awarded his bracelet. “It would have been crazy enough to just make the final table. But to play against ‘durrrr’ heads-up made it much better.”

As for the 23-year old Dwan, the bet lives on, and he plans on playing every event he can until the WSOP concludes in July. Should he make another deep run in an event, we’ll have all the updates here at Poker News Daily.

Event #11 Results:

1. Simon Watt — $614,248
2. Tom Dwan — $381,885
3. David Randall — $270,299
4. Austin McCormick — $194,939
5. Jason Young — $142,346
6. Michael Smith — $105,185
7. Marvin Rettenmaier — $78,681
8. Kyle Winter — $59,547
9. Eric Ladny — $45,603

GSN to Air Aussie Millions and Full Tilt Doubles Poker Championship

From a network that was once thought to be jumping off the poker bandwagon comes two brand new shows and nine hours of coverage dedicated to the sport. On Thursday, GSN officials announced that the network will air the 2010 Aussie Millions beginning on June 5th and the Full Tilt Poker Doubles Championship beginning on August 14th. Both will occupy the same 9:00pm ET time slot.

Recently wrapping up on GSN was the sixth season of the popular cash game franchise “High Stakes Poker.” The show, which featured players such as Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey, and Dennis Phillips in its most recent incarnation, has aired on GSN ever since its debut in 2006. Gabe Kaplan and A.J. Benza called the action for the first five seasons. For the most recent run, industry veteran and PartyPoker pro Kara Scott replaced Benza and conducted interviews from the “High Stakes Poker” suite.

David Schiff, GSN’s Vice President of Programming and Development, commented in a press release, “High Stakes Poker has been a ratings success on GSN, with Season 6 ratings up dramatically over previous seasons in all key demographics. We’re excited to now enhance the franchise with even more world-class international poker coverage. Saturday nights on GSN will be the go-to destination for serious poker fans.”

Previously, poker on GSN appeared on Sunday. However, GSN will now air a “poker block” between 6:00pm ET and 3:00am ET on Saturday. If you do the math, you can see that means a whopping nine hours of poker each week. Here’s a look at the schedule for the “poker block” airing on GSN beginning on Saturday, June 5th:

High Stakes Poker, Season 4 – 6:00pm ET
High Stakes Poker, Season 5 – 7:00pm ET
High Stakes Poker, Season 6 – 8:00pm ET
Aussie Millions – 9:00pm ET
High Stakes Poker, Season 5 (repeat) – 10:00pm ET
Million Dollar Challenge – 11:00pm ET
Aussie Millions Presented by FullTiltPoker.net (repeat) – 12:00am ET
High Stakes Poker, Season 4 (repeat) – 1:00am ET
High Stakes Poker, Season 6 (repeat) – 2:00am ET

When August 14th rolls around, the Doubles Poker Championship will supplant the Aussie Millions. The series was filmed at the Golden Nugget and participating teams coughed up a buy-in of $50,000 per player. A total of 16 teams entered, each sharing one hand during play and vying for a high-stakes $1 million top prize.

The cast of characters in the Doubles Poker Championship includes many that you’d expect to find in a $50,000 buy-in event: “High Stakes Poker” regulars Ivey and Dwan, 11-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, 10-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan, Full Tilt Poker pro David Benyamine, reigning National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Annie Duke, Chris Ferguson, Danish poker sensation Gus Hansen, and Jennifer Harman. Former Absolute Poker pro Lacey Jones will host.

Three events will air as part of GSN’s coverage of the 2010 Aussie Millions: the $100,000 Challenge, Heads-Up Championship, and the Main Event. Ten episodes were produced in total. Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest online poker site, sponsors both the Doubles Poker Championship and Aussie Millions on GSN.

The “Million Dollar Challenge,” which will begin airing in the 11:00pm ET time slot beginning on June 5th, formerly appeared on Fox and is sponsored by PokerStars. Fox’s Chris Rose and Team PokerStars Pro front man Daniel Negreanu host the show, which features Negreanu coaching contestants in two heads-up matches before facing off against them in the third round. “Million Dollar Challenge” debuted last October and, at the time, served as nearly direct competition for Full Tilt Poker’s “Face the Ace.”

GSN reaches 72 million cable subscribers. The network has not yet announced when or if “High Stakes Poker” will return for Season 7.

David Williams leaves Bodog Poker

David Williams grabbed headlines recently when he took down the 2010 World Poker Tour $25,000 Championship, beating up a final table that included David Benyamine and Phil Hellmuth to take home $1,530,537... which makes it odd that he and sponsors Bodog would part company.

ESPN.com Holds Fifth Annual WSOP Fantasy Draft

Since 2006, ESPN.com has held a fantasy poker draft leading up to the World Series of Poker, and the poker writers and players involved pick the team of players that will perform the best at this year’s WSOP.  On Monday, ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman published the results of the fifth annual draft, which was held last Friday.

This year’s league consists of 12 teams, captained by Feldman, Chops from WickedChopsPoker.com, Bluff Magazine Editor-in-Chief Lance Bradley, Poker Pro Magazine’s Chad Holloway, ESPN.com’s Gary Wise, poker pro and Poker News Daily contributor Bernard Lee, and poker pros Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Howard Lederer, Mark Seif, Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Smith, and Dennis Phillips.  The draft was a standard fantasy sports-style “snake” draft in which the last person to pick in the first round selects first in the second round, the last person to pick in the second round led off the third round, and so on through eight rounds.

Negreanu dominated the league last year, getting five bracelets and a Main Event final table appearance from Phil Ivey and Jeffrey Lisandro.  In his blog at FullContactPoker.com, Negreanu wrote that he feels he has another “really strong” team this year.  He also noted that had he had the number one overall selection of the draft, he would have taken Ivey.  As he had the second pick and Ivey was already drafted by Chops, Negreanu picked himself.  Both Smith and Seif also drafted themselves, Smith in the second round and Seif in the seventh round.

The scoring for the ESPN.com fantasy poker league is as follows:

Make the money – 1 point
Make the top 50 – 2 points
Make the top 20 – 5 points
Make the final table – 10 points for a tournament with 100 players or fewer, plus 1 point for every 100 players beyond that
Ninth place – 1 additional point on top of base final table points
Eighth – 2 additional points
Seventh – 4 additional points
Sixth – 6 additional points
Fifth – 10 additional points
Fourth – 15 additional points
Third – 20 additional points
Second – 30 additional points
First – 40 additional points

Point totals will be doubled for any event with a buy-in of $10,000 or more.

And now, the teams, listed in the order in which they selected in the first round:

Chops
Phil Ivey
Carlos Mortensen
David Benyamine
Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka
Brock “t soprano” Parker
Abe Mosseri
Tom Marchese
Josh Arieh

Daniel Negreanu
Daniel Negreanu
Scotty Nguyen
David Chiu
Justin “Boosted J” Smith
Todd Brunson
Freddy Deeb
Brett Richey
John Monnette

Andrew Feldman
Jason Mercier
Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier
Chau Giang
Scott Seiver
David Pham
Alexander Kostritsyn
David “Doc Sands” Sands
Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo

Gary Wise
Allen Cunningham
Daniel Alaei
Andy Bloch
Eli Elezra
Issac Haxton
Tom Schneider
Nick Schulman
Vitaly Lunkin

Howard Lederer
Barry Greenstein
John Juanda
Robert Mizrachi
Chad Brown
Matt Glantz
Amnon Filippi
Ralph Perry
Thor Hansen

Dennis Phillips
Erick Lindgren
Jeffrey Lisandro
J.C. Tran
David Singer
Brandon Cantu
Greg “FBT” Mueller
John “The Razor” Phan
Nam Le

Mark Seif
Tom “durrrr” Dwan
Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond
Ted Forrest
Doyle Brunson
Jennifer Harman
Johnny Chan
Mark Seif
Eric Froehlich

Lance Bradley
Erik Seidel
Howard Lederer
Chris Bjorin
Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko
Patrik Antonius
Kenny Tran
Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger
Dan “djk123″ Kelly

Bernard Lee
Chris Ferguson
Michael Binger
Paul Wasicka
Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin
Max Pescatori
Dwyte Pilgrim
Roland de Wolfe
Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little

Eric Baldwin
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements
Matt Hawrilenko
Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo
Corwin “mig.com” Mackey
Shannon Shorr
Justin Young
James Van Alstyne
Michael Katz

Gavin Smith
Huck Seed
Gavin Smith
Jeff Madsen
Steve Sung
Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire
David Oppenheim
Chris Bell
Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar

Chad Holloway
Phil Hellmuth
Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi
Mike Matusow
Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad
David Williams
Jason “JCarver” Somerville
Phil Laak
Amit “amak316″ Makhija

Brunson Beer Pong Invitational to Be Held Wednesday

Coming up on Wednesday at Hogs and Heifers, located at 201 North Third Street in Las Vegas, is the third annual Brunson Beer Pong Invitational. The event, which is sponsored by Doyle Brunson’s online poker site DoylesRoom, will see some of the top names in our industry try their hand at an old frat party favorite.

Beer pong involves tossing ping pong balls into plastic cups filled partway with the tasty alcoholic brew. For every cup your opponent hits on your side of the table, you have to drink its contents. The first team to land a ping pong ball in every cup wins. The game can be found throughout college campuses in the United States and casinos like O’Sheas on the Las Vegas Strip even offer beer pong to patrons.

UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth and Absolute Poker diva Trishelle Cannatella will serve as the emcees of the Brunson Beer Pong Invitational and use a bullhorn to provide commentary. The staff at Pokerati has been tasked with creating a bracket and the field is invite-only, although anyone interested in watching their favorite poker pros drink beer can come out and watch. Up for grabs are a BBQ and trophies, among other prizes.

Brunson will team with fellow DoylesRoom pro Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark, the nephew of the late Chip Reese. Brunson’s son Todd will also be in attendance and pair with one of the online poker world’s legends, Brett “gank” Jungblut. Also representing DoylesRoom is Brunson 10 member Steve “gboro780” Gross, who sits atop the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings and will team with Hoyt Corkins on Wednesday in the beer pong extravaganza.

Two of the first couples of poker will compete, Erica Schoenberg and Erick Lindgren as well as Chad Brown and Vanessa Rousso. Schoenberg, formerly the better half of David Benyamine, and Rousso are two of only a handful of women that will take part in the Beer Pong Invitational. Other ladies scheduled to toss ping pong balls include Full Tilt Poker pro Mandy Baker, Melanie Weisner, Vanessa Peng, former “Amazing Race” contestant Tiffany Michelle, and Lisa Parsons.

On the event’s Facebook page, a bevy of poker personalities have indicated they’ll be on-hand, including Nat Arem, Pam Brunson, Lee Watkinson, Poker News Daily’s Brett Collson, GreasieWheels’ Lisa Wheeler, and poker PR guru Lara Miller, who is handling media for the Brunson 10 throughout the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Last year, Dan “Wretchy” Martin and Peter “#1PEN” Neff bested Todd Brunson and Jungblut in the finals. Here’s a look at several of the teams that will take to the beer pong tables on Wednesday, according to the event’s Facebook page:

Doyle Brunson and Zachary “CrazyZachary” Clark
Todd Brunson and Brett “gank” Jungblut
Hoyt Corkins and Steve “gboro780” Gross
Erica Schoenberg and Erick Lindgren
Chad Brown and Vanessa Rousso
Ty Stewart and partner
Allie Prescott and Shaun Deeb (or Liv Boeree)
Dan “Wretchy” Martin and partner Dan “USCwimmer” White
Melanie Weisner and Vanessa Peng
Drew Crawford and Nick Davies
Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger and Dan “Kingdan” Smith
Mandy Baker and Shawn Patrick Green
Rick Fuller and Jim Shipley
Jason “JaspudUF” Lee and Dave Walker
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst and Randal “RandALLin” Flowers
Marc Seif and partner
Scott Seiver and Greg Dyer
Dan Michalski and Jon Katkin
Bob Lauria and Dan Suied
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar and Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dywer
Eric Ramsey and Dave Behr
Matt “All In At 420” Stout and Al Rasah
Tiffany Michelle and Lisa Parsons
Billy “Patrolman35” Kopp and partner

The third annual Brunson Beer Pong Invitational serves as a lead-in to the 2010 WSOP, which kicks off on Friday with the first two of 57 bracelet events. Accordingly, the beer pong festivities will be filmed by ESPN and air as part of the network’s WSOP coverage.

A lot of fuzz about PokerStars high stakes player “RaiseOnce”

The nick “RaiseOnce” is a hot topic in PokerStars high stakes games. This mysterious gambler seems to be ready to challenge anyone - of course with the biggest possible stakes.

There has been loads of opinions about the person behind the nick, and according to the rumours it might be Phil Ivey, David Benyamine or some else well-known Full Tilt Poker player.

In the discussion below the high stakes gamblers “Sleyde” and “FiSHeYe1984? talk about the identity of “RaiseOnce”. Sleyde notes that the mysterious player owns a part of Full Tilt Poker whereas FiSHeYe1984 believes that “RaiseOnce” has an unlimited amount of money to play.

Sleyde: fisheye
FiSHeYe1984: kk
Sleyde: how it go vs raiseonce
FiSHeYe1984: +45
FiSHeYe1984: but huge variance
FiSHeYe1984: played kinda bad at times
Sleyde: you kno who it is?
FiSHeYe1984: well I have an idea
Sleyde: ok
FiSHeYe1984: have you seen a 4bet allin
FiSHeYe1984: with 52o?
Sleyde : yea i have that idea too
FiSHeYe1984: nah 5bet
FiSHeYe1984: allin
FiSHeYe1984: well not sure
Sleyde: he has the same chat behaviour
FiSHeYe1984: it doesn’t make a lot of sense for him
Sleyde: but when i played him he cbet and barreld like a lot
Sleyde: plus hes ftp owner and not allowed to play here right or something
FiSHeYe1984: well i didn’t say a name
Sleyde: ok
Sleyde:
FiSHeYe1984: its public chat
Sleyde: me neither
FiSHeYe1984: not gonna go further
FiSHeYe1984: whoever he is, todays session made me realize
FiSHeYe1984: I might not want to play
FiSHeYe1984: him that high atm
Sleyde: hehe
FiSHeYe1984: think I have an edge but variance might not be worth it vs someone who is rolled infinite
Sleyde: true that

It is hard to say who is this all about. At least one could think that all “Team Full Tilt” players play exclusively at Full Tilt Poker.

Source: 2+2 and TheHendonMob

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A lot of fuzz about PokerStars high stakes player “RaiseOnce”

David Benyamine is back in high stakes games - and lost $184k

In recent years David Benyamine has been a regular face in high stakes games, but in 2010 he has been quite absent - until yesterday. But the Frenchman’s comeback did not quite go according to the plan…

Among others Brian Townsend played against Benyamine, and the PLO HU $200/$400 hand between these two ended up like this:

80,000$ pot – on the flop all-in

Benyamine played altogether 1 172 hands during which he managed to throw away 184,000 dollars. This means that his this year’s overall game balance is now $350k negative.

According to HighstakesDB, the Frenchman’s all-time profits are still 1,5 million dollars. Hopefully Benyamine’s return will not remain only to this session, as his presence at the tables means always interesting and swing-rich games!

Source: HighstakesDB and TheHendonMob

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

David Benyamine is back in high stakes games - and lost $184k

David Benyamine loses almost $200,000 at Full Tilt Poker

David Benyamine, a high stakes regular in most games, has returned to
Full Tilt Poker for one of the first times since leaving the Red Pro
team last year. He unfortunately came to regret that decision when he
dropped $184,000.

The sixth season of High Stakes Poker ends now - watch the last episode from here

Yeah, unfortunately you read it right: the sixth production season of High Stakes Poker has come to its end. In the last episode Lex Veldhuis returns to the table, but otherwise the player line-up remains the same.

The players:

• Tom ”durrrr” Dwan
• Doyle Brunson
• Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier
• David Benyamine
• Eli Elezra
• Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond
• Daniel Negreanu
• Lex Veldhuis

The final episode of the season: High Stakes Poker S06 E13.

This season provoked a lot of discussion, and some changes annoyed the fans. Many considered replacing A. J. Benza with Kara Scott as a major mistake, and even a widespread online petition was started in order to get Benza back in the picture.

Source: Pokercast.tv and HendonMob and 2+2 Poker Forum

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

The sixth season of High Stakes Poker ends now - watch the last episode from here

WPT Grand Prix de Paris is back after five years of silence!

The World Poker Tour returns to France as the WPT Grand Prix de Paris started yesterday at the legendary casino called Aviation Club de France.

This 10.000 € buy-in tournament will be broadcasted like the WPT as usual. The participant amount is limited to 400 players. Each and everyone will get 30.000 chips in the beginning, and the 90-minute levels will start from the blinds 50-100. The final table of the tournament should be known on Wednesday after which there will be a two-day break. The final shall be played and shoot on Saturday 15th of May.

The tournament schedule:

* Saturday, May 8: Day 1A (7 levels to be played)
* Sunday, May 9: Day 1B (7 levels to be played)
* Monday, May 10: Day 2 (7 levels to be played)
* Tuesday, May 11: Day 3 (7 levels to be played)
* Wednesday, May 12: Day 4 (will be played until there are 6 players left)
* Saturday, May 15: Final Table

In the event there will also be a 20,000 euro High Roller NL Hold’em tournament which starts on Friday 14th of May.

It’s been whole five years from the last WPT Paris tournament. Do you remember the earlier winners in the promised land of baguette and wine?

* 2003: David Benyamine — $410,886 (96 participants)
* 2004: Surinder Sunar — $849,825 (205 participants)
* 2005: Roland de Wolfe — $600,898 (160 participants)

You can follow the tournament through PokerNews live report.
Sources: CardPlayer and PokerNews

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

WPT Grand Prix de Paris is back after five years of silence!

High Stakes Poker: Mike Matusow Folds K-Q Suited, Leaves Table

On Sunday’s episode of the GSN cash game franchise “High Stakes Poker,” Mike Matusow, who had largely played tight throughout the season, folded K-Q suited in the small blind after a standard pre-flop raise and promptly left the table.

It was a culmination of a rocky appearance on “High Stakes Poker” for Matusow, who folded his way through his first episode before taking $400,000 off PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu last week. On Sunday, Matusow ran pocket jacks into David Benyamine’s pocket queens early on, but folded to a $15,000 bet on a board of 6-2-A-7. Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, seated two to Matusow’s left, remarked, “That’s why you’re a genius, buddy. You know when you’re beat.”

In the largest pot of Sunday’s episode, Grospellier bet $11,000 holding A-3 of hearts on a board of 7-10-10-6 with two hearts for the nut flush draw. Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond called with 9-7 for two pair and Negreanu made it $41,000 with 10-7 for a boat. Grospellier got out of the way and Galfond called to bring a king on the river. Negreanu bet $80,200 and Galfond paid him off, shipping a mammoth $272,800 pot to “Kid Poker.”

On the next hand, Tom “durrrr” Dwan raised to $3,200 pre-flop with A-Q of clubs and Galfond came along with A-10. Negreanu called with 4-3 of hearts and the flop came 6-K-Q. Galfond checked, Negreanu bet $8,000 with air, Dwan came along with second pair, and Galfond folded. The turn was a four. Galfond once again checked, Negreanu fired out another bet, this time $24,000, and Dwan called. Galfond got out of the way and the river was a seven. The action went check-check and Dwan scooped the $83,000 pot.

In the second largest pot of the night, six players saw the flop and $101,000 was up for grabs before any community cards were dealt. The flop came 3-A-A with two spades and Dwan, holding pocket tens, bet $22,800. His lone caller was Grospellier, who also held pocket tens, and the turn was a nine. Dwan and Grospellier checked to see another ace hit on the river. Dwan bet $58,400 and Grospellier tanked before finally electing to call. The duo chopped the $264,200 pot.

Upon seeing Grospellier’s call with pocket tens, Negreanu exclaimed, “Wow, what a call!” Meanwhile, high-stakes pro Eli Elezra admitted, “Elky, I’m sorry, but I would call faster.” In an interview with “High Stakes Poker” floor reporter Kara Scott, Dwan speculated on what Grospellier held: “When he was thinking for that long, I thought he had sevens or eights. To fold a nine is ridiculous and to fold a pair of tens is beyond ridiculous.”

After relaying the story of getting hit by a bus in London, Matusow folded K-Q suited in the small blind to a $3,000 pre-flop raise from Grospellier. Matusow already had $400 invested, leaving “High Stakes Poker” host Gabe Kaplan to lament, “Now in Texas, you can go to jail for that.” Rather than turning himself in to authorities, Matusow promptly packed up his bag and left the “High Stakes Poker” set at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas.

In the final pot of the night, Negreanu raised to $4,200 pre-flop with J-6 of hearts and DoylesRoom namesake Doyle Brunson called with 7-5 of spades. Benyamine came along with A-5 of clubs and the flop was 3-6-4, giving Brunson the nuts. Benyamine checked, Negreanu bet $10,500, Brunson moved all-in for $69,800, Benyamine folded, and Negreanu called with top pair. The duo agreed to run it twice and Negreanu failed to improve on either board, doubling Brunson up to $153,600. Brunson is seeking to extend his streak of 16 straight winning sessions in televised cash games.

Next week on the season finale of “High Stakes Poker,” Lex Veldhuis joins the table and the stakes get even bigger. New episodes of “High Stakes Poker” air on Sundays at 8:00pm ET on GSN.

Only two episodes of High Stakes Poker left – watch the latest episode from here

The twelfth episode of High Stakes Poker’s sixth production season is already out, and you can watch it from here. Next week the sixth season of the series will unfortunately come to its end.

The following ones are playing for the hundreds of thousands of dollars:

• Tom “durrrr” Dwan
• Daniel Negreanu
• Doyle Brunson
• Mike Matusow
• Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier
• David Benyamine
• Eli Elezra
• Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond

Link to the newest episode:

HSP Season 6 Episode 12

Source: Pokercast TV

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Only two episodes of High Stakes Poker left – watch the latest episode from here

Brian Townsend May Be Next Opponent in Durrrr Challenge

CardRunners instructor Brian Townsend is next in line to take on Tom “durrrr” Dwan in the online version of the Million Dollar Challenge, according to Bluff Magazine. However, Dwan shot down the rumors in a post on TwoPlusTwo.

The cover story of the May issue of Bluff Magazine, “Facing All Challenges,” chronicles the 15-month saga of the Durrrr Challenge. In it, Dwan revealed that his next opponent would be none other than Townsend, who is known as “sbrugby” online. The article sheds some light on the structure of the rumored match against Townsend: “Dwan says his goal for the match against Townsend – the starting day for which is still being worked out, while parameters such as buy-ins, number of hands, choice of games, etc. are staying the same – is simple: Make the action fast, exciting, and get the buzz going once again about the Durrrr Challenge.”

Dwan forecasted that the match against Townsend could take as little as six weeks, although play could stretch for two or three months. Dwan told Bluff Magazine, “With Brian, there will be days when we’ll probably play 5,000 hands. With Patrik, we didn’t really have any of those days. It’s possible we could get it done in six weeks.” Townsend is apparently ready to play immediately, whereas Full Tilt Poker’s website contends that Phil Ivey and David Benyamine are next in line to play. Dwan, Antonius, Ivey, and Benyamine are all sponsored pros of the world’s second largest online poker site.

While the Bluff Magazine article, which was devoted mainly to the Durrrr Challenge, seems to indicate that Townsend is the clear-cut favorite to step up to the plate, Dwan recanted his story in an April 20th post on TwoPlusTwo: “Long story, but he’s not next. I’ll blog after seshy.” No blog was submitted after Dwan’s “seshy,” as its most recent entry is an advertisement for the Full Tilt Poker Academy that came on April 15th. Bluff officials and the poker community were equally perplexed.

Dwan’s post ignited a flurry of discussion in a TwoPlusTwo thread even though the poker pro failed to reveal who his next opponent would be. Poster “britewire” chimed in, “I’d love to see Ashton Griffin or aejones take up the challenge, but I don’t think they have the [bankroll] for it.” Others demanded that Dwan publish a new blog post to shed some light on the situation: “Wtf is this thread still running? Durrrr came on at like post #20 and shot the rumor down (although he’s failed to deliver the blog about it that he promised).”

The Durrrr Challenge featuring Patrik Antonius is nearing the 40,000-hand mark thanks in part to extensive sessions on Tuesday and Wednesday. The total number of hands played and the amount Dwan is up remain unclear due to conflicting reports from various poker outlets, but the latter number is likely around $1.9 million. Full Tilt officials told Poker News Daily that challenge stats on their website would be corrected by the end of the day on Thursday.

Townsend, meanwhile is fresh off a 30-day suspension of his Red Pro status for sharing hand histories with fellow CardRunners instructors Brian Hastings and Cole South to fend off the Swedish mystery pro Isildur1. On his $4 million day against Isildur1, Hastings told ESPN in a December interview, “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 [South] as well.” Townsend was suspended for multi-accounting in 2008.

Many in the poker industry have grown weary of play between Dwan and Antonius that started in the beginning of 2009. Antonius told Bluff, “Obviously, we failed when it comes to keeping it interesting. Everyone was following it, and then we… didn’t play.” Diversions included the annual World Series of Poker (WSOP), high-stakes games against Isildur1, and extensive traveling.

Check out our sister site, DurrrrChallenge.com, for the latest news from the Tom Dwan Million Dollar Challenge.

Aria Debuts Ivey Room with $1 Million Invitational Poker Tournament

On May 21st and 22nd, the Aria Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas will debut The Ivey Room, a private high-stakes poker room bearing the name of all-around poker stud Phil Ivey. As part of the festivities, a $1 million invitational freeroll will play out.

An invitation to the event posted on TwoPlusTwo and confirmed by poker room officials read in part, “Aria Resort and Casino, the heart of CityCenter, is revealing our exclusive new high-limit poker room, The Ivey Room. To commemorate this special occasion, you are on the Dean’s List to compete in this prestigious event.” Ivey is a seven-time bracelet winner and made the final table of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. His proficiency in tournaments, cash games, and nearly all poker genres has made him one of the most feared players in the game.

On Friday, May 21st, a cocktail reception and tournament registration will take place in the Deuce Lounge at Aria. The next day, the $1 million invitational will be held and culminate with the winner playing Ivey heads-up for $250,000. Second place takes home a $70,000 cash prize, third place pockets $40,000, fourth place banks $35,000, fifth place will earn $25,000, sixth place will make $15,000, seventh place will boost their bankroll by $10,000, and the eighth place finisher will cash for $5,000.

The showdown between Ivey and the tournament’s winner for $250,000 will take place in The Ivey Room immediately following play. As added bonuses during the freeroll, Ivey will have a $100,000 bounty and another $200,000 will be placed on other players’ heads.

Knocking out Ivey requires busting the person who many consider to be poker’s top all-around player. Ivey owns seven WSOP bracelets, tied for the sixth most overall, and is poker’s all-time money leader. His seventh place finish in the 2009 WSOP Main Event was worth $1.4 million, although he used part of his winnings to buy out of a $1 million vegetarian prop bet with Tom “durrrr” Dwan forged on the felts of “High Stakes Poker.”

MGM Mirage owns Aria and the Bellagio, among other casinos in Las Vegas and around the world. The latter features the high-limit area known as Bobby’s Room, which sits in the rear of the main Bellagio poker room. Bobby’s Room boasts a $20,000 minimum buy-in and features two tables. A bevy of well-known pros can be found battling it out at the Bellagio around-the-clock, including Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Chau Giang, Jennifer Harman, and Daniel Negreanu.

Aria boasts a 24-table poker room and spreads games including Limit Hold’em, No Limit Hold’em, Seven Card Stud, Pot Limit Omaha, 2-7 Triple Draw, Badugi, Omaha Eight or Better, and Chinese Poker. Text found on Aria’s website elaborates, “The setting is perfect for enjoying great poker action that is safe, friendly, and smoke-free. The dealers are trained to run the games professionally, while the management team and poker rules are your assurance that our games uphold the highest standards of integrity and fair play.”

The makeup of the invitational tournament’s field is unclear. Aria officials told Poker News Daily that The Ivey Room is currently open to the general public, but is simply dubbed the “high-limit room” for the time being. The Aria Casino poker room opened last December amid much fanfare, with patrons including Guy Laliberte, David Benyamine, Dwan, and Patrik Antonius. A press release about the $1 Million Invitational was due out this week pending approval by MGM Mirage officials.

High Stakes Poker: Mike Matusow Wins $500,000 Pot Off Daniel Negreanu

In Sunday’s episode of the GSN cash game series “High Stakes Poker,” two major pots featured Mike Matusow tangling with Daniel Negreanu. Matusow took down both, furthering Negreanu’s struggles on the series.

The episode began with Eli Elezra up nearly $300,000 as the table’s big winner. Negreanu was active early, attempting a squeeze play holding just K-2. Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier raised to $3,000 pre-flop with pocket aces and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond called with A-9. Negreanu pumped the action to $15,000, Grospellier re-raised to $44,000, and the table folded around.

Then, disaster struck for Negreanu. Matusow, holding pocket kings, just called pre-flop and Negreanu came along with 9-8 of clubs. Elezra raised to $5,000 with A-7 and Matusow and Negreanu called. The action flop came 9-K-9, giving Negreanu trips and Matusow a boat. Matusow checked, Negreanu checked, Elezra bet $8,800 with “squadoosh,” Matusow called, Negreanu raised to $28,800, and Elezra got out of the way. Then, Matusow bumped the price of poker to $68,800, Negreanu moved all-in, and Matusow insta-called for his stack.

The duo agreed to run it twice with a pot of $329,200 hanging in the balance. The first board ran out 4-7, shipping the all-important first half of the pot to Matusow. The second came 2-J and Matusow scooped the entire $329,200 pot. Negreanu reached into his bag and plopped another $200,000 in chips on the table.

In the second major pot featuring Matusow and Negreanu, the former once again just called pre-flop with a premium hand, A-Q of clubs, and recent World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship final table member David Benyamine called with J-5 of diamonds. Grospellier came along with K-8 of diamonds, Galfond called with 7-3 of hearts, and Negreanu pushed it to $16,000 with pocket tens. Matusow made it $45,000 and Negreanu called to see a flop of 6-4-7 with two clubs.

Negreanu checked in the dark and Matusow asked for a count before pushing all-in for $199,100 with two overcards and a flush draw. Negreanu deliberated for several minutes before electing to call all-in. The massive pot totaled $496,800 and the turn and river were once again run twice. Clubs filled Matusow’s flush draw each time and he scooped the entire pot. “High Stakes Poker” host Gabe Kaplan told viewers, “It really is extraordinary how unlucky Daniel Negreanu is on ‘High Stakes Poker.’”

In an interview with “High Stakes Poker” hostess Kara Scott following the half-million dollar hand, Matusow explained, “I would have never called, especially not against me. All I’ve turned over is kings, kings, and the nuts every time.” Matusow had largely been quiet throughout the sixth season of the popular high-stakes franchise until Sunday night, when he ended the episode up nearly $400,000, nearly all of it at the expense of Negreanu.

Only one hand featuring Tom “durrrr” Dwan was shown. In it, Negreanu called a $1,600 straddle with Q-J, including the queen of hearts, and Dwan raised to $8,000 with 8-6 of spades. Negreanu called and the flop came 7-A-10 with two hearts. The action went check-check to the eight of hearts on the turn, pairing Dwan and giving Negreanu a flush draw in addition to his gutshot straight draw. Negreanu bet $14,000 and Dwan called. The river was the king of spades, filling Negreanu’s straight, and he bet $42,000. Dwan got out of the way and Negreanu recouped a small portion of his losses on the evening.

The PokerStars-sponsored segment “Did You Know” focused on the string raise, while “30 Seconds with Kara Scott” asked players what their first cars were as well as what they drive now. Catch new episodes of “High Stakes Poker” every Sunday at 8:00pm ET on GSN.