Poker News

Poker After Dark: The Cash Game Continues on NBC

This week, “The Cash Game” continues on the NBC franchise “Poker After Dark.” The second week of action began on Monday night at 2:05am ET with a good old-fashioned Twitter fight between UB.com pro Phil Hellmuth and DoylesRoom namesake Doyle Brunson. Hellmuth told his elder, “I’ll side bet you that I can get 75,000 more Twitter followers in the next three months just by hosting freeroll tournaments.” Hellmuth offered to bet $1 million and Brunson countered with $10,000, but no agreement was reached.

Hellmuth’s comment was in part a jab at Brunson for growing his Twitter following using promotional tactics. In case you’re wondering, Hellmuth has 39,000 Twitter followers, while Brunson has nearly ten times that total at 340,000. Brunson began the episode up over $130,000 from last week’s action, while Tom “durrrr” Dwan was down $150,000. At one point, over $1 million was spread across the table, $350,000 of which was contributed by Dwan.

On a flop of Q-6-4, Dwan bet $3,600 with 6-4 for two pair and Eli Elezra called with Q-9 for top pair. The turn was a king and Dwan once again led out, this time for $9,300. Elezra called behind and spiked a nine on the river, making a better two pair than Dwan. The youngster fired out $22,800 and Elezra begrudgingly called, saying, “I guess I ran into the flush” when the board showed three hearts. However, Elezra raked in the $76,100 pot, received some ribbing from his tablemates for his flush comment, and Dwan reloaded for another $100,000.

Then, it was Hellmuth’s turn to shine. On a flop of 9-9-J, Hellmuth fired out a continuation bet of $7,000 with A-3 suited and Phil Laak made the call with 9-8 suited for trips. The turn was another jack and Laak led out for $4,700. Hellmuth called behind and the river was a three. Laak bet $23,000 and the Hellmuth theatrics began. The 11-time bracelet winner removed his sunglasses and dramatically pondered the situation before ultimately deciding to call. Laak raked in the $75,700 pot with a boat and Hellmuth lamented, “What the f***? Wow. 9-8 of hearts? Wow.”

Dwan righted the ship, leading out for $10,400 with 6-5 of diamonds on a flop of Q-3-A with one diamond. Brunson called with A-2 for top pair and the turn was the nine of diamonds, improving Dwan from air to a flush draw. Dwan bet $27,600 and Brunson insta-folded the best hand, shipping a $63,000 pot to Dwan.

In the hand of the night on Monday’s episode of “Poker After Dark,” Elezra raised to $3,300 pre-flop with Q-10 of hearts, Hellmuth called with 8-7 of spades, and Dwan put in a $12,700 squeeze play with pocket jacks. Full Tilt’s Gus Hansen 4bet to $33,800 with pocket tens and Dwan put the Dane all-in for another $60,000. Hansen called and the duo agreed to run it twice.

In the first board, Hansen made a flush on the river to scoop half of the $191,700 pot despite being a 9:1 underdog pre-flop. In the second board, Dwan’s wired pair held and the two players chopped the spoils; each netted about $3,500 in the process. By the end of the night, Laak was up $130,000, while Brunson was up $120,000.

The second week of “Poker After Dark: The Cash Game” airs daily at 2:05am ET on NBC. This is the last week of new episodes of the NBC poker series until August. If you’re a fan of shows like GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” and PokerStars’ “Big Game,” then you’ll love the cash game version of “Poker After Dark.” Whereas many of the tournaments on “Poker After Dark” are unexciting, the cash game has a high-octane pace.

The Aussie Millions on GSN: Hansen on Top in $100K Event

Aussie Millions High Roller Coverage Continues on GSN

Action from the 2010 Aussie Millions AUD $100,000 High Roller Event continued on GSN on Saturday night at 9:00pm ET. The hour-long show, presented by Full Tilt Poker, included a final table stacked with sponsored pros of the world’s second largest online poker site.

Paul Khoury and Grub Smith once again had the call of action in the 24-person tournament, which had seen a single elimination since it began. The on-screen product is weak compared to other GSN shows like “High Stakes Poker.” No pot sizes are shown and bets are displayed for only a few seconds, making the action rather difficult to follow. However, it’s refreshing to see two non-American announcers sharing poker insight from other parts of the globe. The Aussie Millions emanate each January from the Crown Casino in Melbourne, which received several commercial spots during the telecast.

Erik Seidel was the first casualty of the evening. The eight-time bracelet winner raised to 6,000 pre-flop and Gus Hansen made it 20,000. Seidel moved all-in over the top for another 35,000 and Hansen called, flipping up A-Q of hearts. Seidel showed pocket nines to set up a race, but Hansen turned Broadway to send Seidel packing.

Fellow Full Tilt Poker pro Chris Ferguson followed shortly thereafter. On a flop of 8-7-8, Ferguson bet out 25,000 with pocket kings and Erick Lindgren called for extra time with pocket tens before electing to move all-in. Ferguson called for his tournament life and a running 9-6 gave Lindgren a runner-runner straight.

DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Dani “ansky” Stern then moved all-in with A-10 pre-flop and received a call from Lindgren, who held A-Q. Despite being dominated pre-flop, Stern watched as the board ran out K-Q-4-J-10, giving both players an ace-high straight and chopping the pot. Stern was one of the few non-Full Tilt Poker pros at the feature table, but his trademark green DoylesRoom logo was clearly visible. Stern was one of the four cast members on the short-lived G4 online poker reality series “2 Months, $2 Million.”

Then, 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event champion John Juanda bet 19,000 on a K-8-3-9 board holding K-J for top pair. Hansen called with A-8 and the river was an ace, improving the Dane to the Dead Man’s Hand for two pair. Juanda bet out 25,000, Hansen min-raised to 50,000, and Juanda called all-in after using both of his extra time buttons. Just like that, Juanda was ousted from the prestigious AUD $100,000 buy-in tournament.

Hansen continued his rampage, firing out a bet of 16,000 with 10-8 for top pair on a flop of 3-7-10. 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeffrey Lisandro pushed all-in for 63,500 with 8-7 for middle pair and Hansen tanked before calling. The turn and river were both nines, sending Lisandro out and giving Hansen his third elimination of the evening.

Following Lisandro’s exit, the tables were balanced, adding Tony Bloom, PokerStars pro Barry Greenstein, and Dan Shak to the mix. Greenstein made his presence known, betting 14,000 with pocket queens on a flop of 3-6-8. Hansen came along with 7-6 for middle pair and the turn was a nine. Hansen led out for 100,000, Greenstein called all-in, and a river king ensured a double up for “Bear” to 240,000.

Aussie Millions coverage airs on Saturday nights on GSN at 9:00pm ET.

The Poker Lounge with Full Tilt Poker

This is your chance to play the world’s top poker players in poker’s brilliant new TV show, The Poker Lounge with Full Tilt Poker!

Have you seen the totally cool ads on Channel 4, putting faces to the famous Full Tilt poker pros such as Gus Hansen, Chris Ferguson and Phil Ivey whilst they play in The Poker Lounge? This is YOUR opportunity to join them in an UK exclusive, luxurious poker haven and play for $120,000. You not only get to meet these top poker guys but they will be joined by the top players on the circuit and play poker with them on TV, are you up for it??

Full Tilt are offering their players the chance to win a fantastic Poker Lounge Prize package worth a staggering $22,000 – that’s $20,000 tournament buy in plus $2,000 for travel and hotel. The filming will take place in the UK July 19th to 22nd, are you free?

How do you get a piece of this action? You can freeroll in or buy in to the final. Read on:-

• Poker Lounge 2010 Round 1 - Freerolls Daily x 2
• Poker Lounge 2010 Round 2 – June 19th buy in 200 FTPs
• Poker Lounge 2010 Qualifier - July 4th buy in $640
• Poker Lounge 2010 Final - July 11th buy in 5,000 FTPs

What an excellent promotion this is, a chance to play your absolute best poker with the greats and all recorded forever on TV.

Full Tilt has a team of poker players second to none on their books and if you haven’t yet got yourself a Full Tilt Account get to it and sign up NOW. Use the Full Tilt Referral Code FTPGOLD and not only will you be entitled to 100% up to $600 sign up bonus, but, you can play in any exclusive pokernews freerolls taking place, forever!

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June 11th – Daily Deal

On today’s Daily Deal, we catch you up to date with the latest action from the World Series of Poker, the first episode of Poker After Dark’s The Cash Game airs on NBC, and we talk to Chris Rose, the host of the PokerStars.net Big Game.

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.

We start today’s episode with a recap of the latest from the WSOP at the Rio here in Las Vegas. Event thirteen ended after over four days of play and American Steven Gee won the bracelet and four hundred and seventy thousand dollar prize. Event 16, which was a fiften hundred dollar six max hold’em tournament was won by Carter Phillips to the tune of four hundred and eighty two thousand dollars.

Event seventeen had a field that looked like a who’s-who in poker for the five thousand dollar deep stacked no limit holdem tournament. When play ended with eighteen players left there were plenty of big names in the hunt. Jeff Williams lead the pack and Amit “amak315″ Makhija is close behind in third. Antonio Esfandiari is in sixth place and David Benefield resided in fourteenth. Williams ended up finishing in third place and pro Jason DeWitt won first place for over eight hundred thousand dollars.

In other news from the W S O P, it was Bertrand Grospellier, known online as Elky, who won the special exemption seat for the Tournament of Champions, besting a star studded final table which saw him beat Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi heads up.

Doyle Brunson may not be making lots of waves in the WSOP, but he made plenty of heads turn in the recently broadcasted first episode of “Poker After Dark: The Cash Game.” The six-handed game saw Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Laak, Eli Elezra, and Gus Hansen buy in for a hundred thousand dollars, while Tom “Durrrr” Dwan put forth a quarter million. By the end of the first episode, Brunson was a hundred and thirty five thousand dollars the richer, while Dwan had lost a hundred and sixty thousand dollars, or two-thirds of his stack. If the nosebleed action is your thing, you can watch “Poker After Dark” nightly at 2:05am ET on NBC.

We are less than a week away from the debut of the PokerStars-sponsored “Big Game” on Fox. This poker shows pitches a “loose cannon” amateur against five seasoned pros, with buy-ins of one hundred thousand dollars for all. The first loose cannon will most likely come undone at the sight of the competition, which includes twelve-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, and all-time stamina champ Phil Laak.

PND spoke with “Big Game” host Chris Rose, who will also be providing live Twitter updates. According to Rose, the show has a lot to say for itself:

“The fact that you have poker pros salivating for the chance to sit at a table with a fish with a hundred thousand dollars in front of them is great. A lot of amateur players have never had that kind of money walking into that situation. We’re all able to put ourselves in that person’s chair. The loose cannon is really the wild card. Some of them get lucky, some of them are very bright players, and some end up limping away.”

He also gave us a tantalizing peek into what will probably be epic table banter: “Tony G and Phil Hellmuth are seated next to one another. There were times when Joe Stapleton and I were voicing the show and laughing because Tony G was digging in and not letting go for hours on end. It was a thing of beauty to listen to.”

Should make for some exciting poker television. Thanks for joining me on The Daily Deal and if you haven’t already be sure to bookmark our site so you can come back for the latest in poker news. Until tomorrow, this is Sean Gibson wishing you deep runs in all your tournaments!

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier won the last seat in the TOC

As we reported earlier, the WSOP Tournament of Champions was looking for one more player amongst Andy Bloch, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Gus Hansen, Don Cheadle, Sorel Mizzi, Michael Mizrachi, Liv Boeree, Gavin Smith and Paul Wasicka.

As a wonderful tournament player the Frenchman Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier left all the others behind in the specific SNG tournament and got himself a ticket to one of the most-spoken tournaments of the year. Grospellier’s toughest opponent was Michael “Grinder” Mizrachi who has also been doing great in this year’s WSOP.

However, Mizrachi just couldn’t prevent ElkY from winning an entry for the TOC. The crucial deal started with Mizrachi leading with Ah-6h. But after the chips went in on the preflop, he got to notice that the French had hit the king on the turn and received even a flush from the river. After his victory the former ex-Starcraft pro thanked the WSOP Academy for giving him this possibility to attend the TOC and already started to look forward to the first WSOP bracelet of his career…  

Grospellier’s poker career has been very successful. More than $6 million dollars of tournaments profits and victories from the EPT and WPT have made him one of the most dangerous tournament opponents of today. Perhaps this summer the French will join Gavin Griffin and Roland de Wolfe in the small cast of Triple Crown winners (EPT, WPT and WSOP victories)?

Source: WSOP and The Hendon Mob

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Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier won the last seat in the TOC

Bertrand Grospellier (Elky) Wins WSOP Tournament of Champions Qualifier

Team PokerStars Pro member Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier has only one cash in the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP), a 91st place showing in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament. However, he lodged an all-important win in the WSOP Academy Tournament of Champions qualifier, which played out on Thursday.

The freeroll, which will air as part of the WSOP Academy’s revamped website, featured nine of the game’s top pros lacking a bracelet. Tom “durrrr” Dwan skipped the Tournament of Champions qualifier, instead electing to compete for his first WSOP bracelet. Dwan was running deep in the 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship and held the seventh largest stack after Day 1. Perhaps the millions of dollars in side bets and opportunity to snag a bracelet were enough motivation for Dwan to no-show the Tournament of Champions sit and go, which instead featured Gavin Smith.

The action kicked off around Noon PT from the Lightspeed VT Studios in Las Vegas. The first player knocked out was Titan Poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi. The youngster was all-in with pocket sixes against Full Tilt Poker pro Gus Hansen’s A-3. By the river, Hansen had made a flush and the nine-handed WSOP Academy Tournament of Champions qualifier was truncated to eight.

Any Bloch was the next player ousted. The former MIT Blackjack Team member ran A-J into Smith’s pocket kings. “Iron Man 2” actor Don Cheadle, who pledged to donate any Tournament of Champions winnings to charity, followed shortly thereafter. Cheadle also fell to pocket kings, as the acclaimed actor ran pocket jacks into the superior pocket pair and couldn’t improve.

Paul Wasicka then doubled up at the expense of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi with A-J against A-Q all-in pre-flop. Then, PokerStars pro Grospellier also doubled with A-J, this time against Hansen’s A-4. The all-ins were fast and furious, as despite Dwan electing to miss the sit and go, a Twitter post made by WSOP Academy officials noted that the structure was designed to accommodate events at the Rio: “Fast structure today at the WSOPA TOC – players have WSOP events this afternoon.”

UB.com pro Liv Boeree, who took down the largest European Poker Tour (EPT) tournament outside of the Bahamas in San Remo earlier this year, busted with K-Q against Smith’s pocket nines. Smith then gave a portion of his stack to Wasicka, who doubled with pocket nines against pocket fours.

Hansen departed in fifth place from the WSOP Academy Tournament of Champions qualifier after running K-9 into Mizrachi’s pocket sevens. Mizrachi then served as the executioner of Smith, whose J-9 could not draw out on A-4. The action slowed considerably three-handed, with Mizrachi, Wasicka, and Grospellier all vying for a seat in the $1 million freeroll that will air as part of ESPN’s coverage of the 2010 WSOP.

Mizrachi doubled up through Wasicka after hitting a set with pocket sixes against K-J. “The Grinder” was still on life support three-handed, only holding 9,000 chips with blinds of 600/1,200. However, Mizrachi survived to the finals after sending Wasicka to the rails with A-7 against A-6. The pot appeared to be headed for a chop, but Mizrachi spiked a seven on the river to eliminate the Victory Poker pro.

Entering heads-up play, Mizrachi held a 2:1 edge in chips, 60,800 to Grospellier’s 29,200. Ten minutes in, Grospellier quickly righted the ship and doubled up, but “The Grinder” still held a 2:1 chip lead. By the time heads-up play reached its first break, Mizrachi and Grospellier were deadlocked at 45,000 chips apiece. Grospellier ultimately opened up a 2:1 lead in chips as the blinds grew higher and the Frenchman’s aggression grew stronger.

“The Grinder” didn’t lay down a die, however, getting all of his chips into the middle with pocket fives against A-10. The wired pair held and Mizrachi was right back in the thick of it. However, Grospellier came out on top after his K-10 drew out on Mizrachi’s A-6 and earned a seat to the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions.

In case you’re wondering, the Tournament of Champions qualifier ended at 4:00pm PT, while the 2-7 Draw Lowball event began at 3:00pm.

The Tournament of Champions will feature 27 players and begin on June 27th. Then, the final nine will return to the Rio to play down to a winner on July 4th. Annie Duke, Joe Cada, Barry Shulman, Mike Sexton, and Mike Matusow all have automatic bids and 20 other players will join them based on a fan vote. The final seat will feature a U.K. player who qualified via the WSOP’s for-profit online poker site.

ElkY Wins Seat To WSOP Tournament of Champs

“I want to thank the World Series Of Poker Academy for giving me the chance to win my way into the TOC,” said ElkY after winning the playoff, defeating Michael Mizrachi heads-up.

The single table tournament saw Andy Bloch, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Gus Hansen, Don Cheadle, Sorel Mizzi, Michael Mizrachi, Liv Boeree, Gavin Smith and Paul Wasicka battle it out for the single seat, but when the smoke cleared, ElkY was the last man standing.

The Tournament of Champions will see 27 players - 20 selected by public voting, 5 automatic entries and two sponsor-exemption entries - face off to compete for a $1 million prize pool.

The 20 players eligable for public choice include 521 WSOP bracelet holders whilst the five automatic entries already selected are the three previous WSOP Tournament of Champions winners (Annie Duke, Mike Matusow and Mike Sexton) and the reigning WSOP and WSOPE Main Event Champions (Joe Cada and Barry Shulman.)

"The public and player response to the WSOP Academy tournament was far greater than we originally expected and certainly shows that the Tournament of Champions is the All-Star Game of poker,” said Jeff Goldenberg, CEO of the WSOP Academy.

“We saw some incredible poker which is going to produce amazing training experiences for our online students.”

Doyle Brunson Up $135,000 in Kickoff Episode of Poker After Dark: The Cash Game

The first episode of “Poker After Dark: The Cash Game” aired on Monday night at 2:05am ET on NBC. The installment ended with two titans of the game, DoylesRoom namesake Doyle Brunson and UB.com front man Phil Hellmuth, dominating the action. The former ended the episode up $135,000.

Five of the six members of The Cash Game table bought in for $100,000, while Tom “durrrr” Dwan dared to be different and came armed with $250,000. The blinds were $200/$400 and Ali Nejad flew solo, providing commentary on the action. Leeann Tweeden introduced the players to begin the first episode of the week, but did not conduct any interviews from the “Poker After Dark” suite. Brunson and Hellmuth combined for 21 of the group’s 22 World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets.

Hellmuth got the episode started off on the right foot. Phil Laak bet $3,200 on a flop of 5-9-2 with one club holding A-K and Eli Elezra came along with 9-7 of clubs for top pair. Hellmuth, who had 5-4 of spades, called to see an eight of clubs hit on the turn. Hellmuth bet $7,000, Laak got out of the way, and Elezra called to bring a four of diamonds on the river. Hellmuth bet $9,000 with two pair and Elezra called, shipping the $46,300 pot to the UB.com pro, who was quickly up $40,000.

After raised action pre-flop, Hellmuth and Full Tilt Poker pro Gus Hansen checked it down on a board reading Q-7-2-9-6. Hansen showed A-4 for ace-high, while Hellmuth held A-K for a better kicker. Hellmuth scooped the $35,100 pot at the expense of the “Great Dane” and continued his success in the televised NBC cash game.

Laak then tangled with Dwan, raising to $1,400 pre-flop with 9-4 of diamonds. Dwan made the call with 9-3 of hearts and the flop came 10-6-4. The action went check-check to the seven of diamonds on the turn, putting two of the suit on the board. Dwan bet $2,700, Laak called, and the river was the three of diamonds, filling Laak’s flush. Dwan check-raised to $23,200 and Laak called, giving the massive $55,100 pot to “The Unabomber.”

Then, the action heated up in the private cash game filmed at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas. Dwan raised to $1,400 with pocket threes and Brunson 3bet to $4,900 with 10-9 of hearts. Dwan called to bring a flop of 9-9-5. Brunson led out for $7,000 with trips and Dwan called with two pair. The turn was a six. Brunson kept firing, this time $22,000, and Dwan called to see a jack on the river. Brunson moved all-in for $62,000, about a pot-sized bet, and Dwan tanked, repeatedly looking Brunson over, before calling. The dealer pushed the $193,000 pot, the largest of the episode, to Brunson.

Brunson and Dwan continued to joust. Dwan raised to $1,600 with J-5 of diamonds and Brunson called with K-Q. Elezra came along with 5-2 after putting in an $800 straddle pre-flop and the first three cards came Q-6-2. Elezra checked his gutshot straight draw, Dwan bet $4,100 with squadoosh, Brunson called with top pair, and Elezra mucked. The turn was the 10 of diamonds, giving Dwan a flush draw, and the youngster from New Jersey led out for $10,600. Brunson called and the river was the three of clubs. Dwan fired a third bullet to the tune of $24,700 and Brunson called, scooping the $84,500 pot.

By the time all was said and done, Brunson was up $135,000, while Dwan had bled $160,000, or two-thirds of his stack. “Poker After Dark” airs nightly at 2:05am ET on NBC.

Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Gus Hansen and Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi play for a place in the WSOP Tournament of Champions

The WSOP has announced the nine players who get to fight for the last place in the WSOP Tournament of Champions where the prize money is $1,000,000 dollars. These players will play a sudden-death playoff tournament as they couldn’t make it to the public vote since they haven’t won a WSOP bracelet - so far.

According to the WSOP newsletter we will see one of the following nominees in the tournament; Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Andy Bloch, Bertrand “ElKy” Grospellier, Gus Hansen, actor Don Cheadle, Sorel Mizzi, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Liv Boeree or Paul Wasicka. The tournament event shall be played on June 10th and it will also be shooted for educational purposes of the WSOP Academy. You can watch the tournament on the Academy website.

In the TOC voting the 20 most voted players will be chosen to the tournament. You can vote until June 15th in HERE. Below there is a TOP 50 list of the nominees (in random order) who have polled voices: 

Source: WSOP, TheHendonMob and Bluff Europe

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Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Gus Hansen and Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi play for a place in the WSOP Tournament of Champions

Nine Poker Pros to Vie for Final WSOP Tournament of Champions Seat

According to WSOP officials, the final World Series of Poker (WSOP) Tournament of Champions sponsor seat will be awarded to the winner of a nine-man sit and go put on by the WSOP Academy. Nine popular poker pros that did not qualify for Tournament of Champions voting because they’ve never won a bracelet will compete on June 10th for a spot in the $1 million freeroll.

The lineup is a veritable “who’s who” of non-bracelet winners, headlined by Tom “durrrr” Dwan. The youngster from New Jersey appeared in the top 10 following fan voting for the 2009 Poker Hall of Fame class despite not being old enough to rent a car. Dwan was promptly stricken from the ballot, but will now get his chance to earn a WSOP Tournament of Champions seat. Dwan was the runner-up to Simon Watt in Event #11 of the 2010 WSOP, nearly reaping the rewards of millions of dollars in bracelet side bets.

Andy Bloch is also a member of the high-stakes sit and go. Bloch has 10 final tables during WSOP and WSOP Europe play, including a runner-up finish in the inaugural $50,000 HORSE Championship to Chip Reese. However, the one accolade that has eluded him is a WSOP bracelet.

Danish poker sensation Gus Hansen will also take to the felts as part of the WSOP Academy’s Tournament of Champions sit and go. Hansen won three events during the first two seasons of the World Poker Tour (WPT) and is responsible for many Denmark residents getting into the game. Hansen has over $4 million in career WPT earnings and took second in the 2008 WPT Championship for over $1 million.

WSOP Academy CEO Jeff Goldenberg told ESPN.com why the popular training entity was sponsoring the unique nine-handed event: “We’ll be using the footage from this event on the soon to be released WSOP Academy Online. Fans everywhere can watch as nine extremely talented players battle it out for one of the most sought after seats ever given away. The WSOP Academy is very happy to be part of this opportunity.” Ali Nejad and 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth will provide commentary for the sit and go.

Goldenberg added in a press release distributed by WSOP officials, “The WSOP Academy will utilize the sponsor seat at the TOC to highlight the talents of players who are champions in their own right, but did not have an opportunity to be voted into the TOC. We have created a unique opportunity for our customers to watch and learn from these players as they battle for a highly coveted prize. We expect to see some great poker!”

The WSOP Academy’s roster of instructors includes Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Annie Duke, Hellmuth, 2004 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Raymer, and 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event victor Annette Obrestad. Other players set to take part in the June 10th sit and go include Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Titan Poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, WSOP Player’s Championship winner Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, UB.com pro Liv Boeree, Victory Poker pro Paul Wasicka, and “Iron Man 2” star Don Cheadle.

Duke, Mike Matusow, Mike Sexton, Joe Cada, and Barry Shulman earned automatic bids to the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions, which will begin on June 27th with 27 players. The final nine will convene at the Rio on July 4th to play down to a champion. One sponsor seat will belong to a qualifier from the WSOP’s for-profit online poker site, while the remaining 20 spots will be determined by a fan vote.

The Tournament of Champions is one of three events that will air on cable station ESPN as part of its coverage of the 2010 WSOP.

Sit-and-Go Will Decide Final TOC Spot

The spot in the TOC will be awarded to the winner of a "sudden-death" playoff sit-and-go, featuring an all-star lineup, organized by the WSOP Academy.

The WSOP Academy qualifier tournament will kick off Thursday at noon, and opens up a chance at a TOC seat for nine selected players that weren't on the original fan ballot.

The nine player lineup should make for an interesting sit-and-go, with Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Andy Bloch, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Gus Hansen all in the field.

"I'm really glad I was picked and I think it's a great honor for me," Grospellier told PL.com. "I really hope I can get a spot (in the Tournament of Champions)."

Sorel Mizzi, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Liv Boeree and Paul Wasicka round out the field of nine.

The original fan ballot includes a list of 50 of poker's best, with the top 20 vote getters taking a spot in the 27-player TOC field. The TOC will play down to final table on June 27 with a final table scheduled for July 4.

Five players get automatic entries into the event, including 2010 Main Event champ Joe Cada and 2010 WSOPE Main Event winner Barry Shulman.

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, Annie Duke and Mike Sexton also get automatic spots as former TOC winners.

That leaves two sponsor-exemption spots for the TOC, and the WSOP Academy tournament will fill one of the two remaining spots.

"It's very tough competition," Grospellier said. "I still like my chances in a sit and go. If I run good and play well I'm confident."

Fan voting for the 2010 Tournament of Champions is still available on www.wsop.com through June 15.

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

Sit & Go to Decide Final TOC Spot

The spot in the TOC will be awarded to the winner of a "sudden-death" playoff sit-and-go featuring an all-star lineup organized by the WSOP Academy.

The WSOP Academy qualifier tournament will kick off Thursday at noon, and opens up a chance at a TOC spot for nine selected players that weren't on the original fan ballot.

The nine player lineup should make for a fantastic sit-and-go, with Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Andy Bloch, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Gus Hansen all in the field.

"I'm really glad I was picked and I think it's a great honor for me," Grospellier told PL.com. "I really hope I can get a spot (in the Tournament of Champions)."

Sorel Mizzi, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Liv Boeree and Paul Wasicka round out the field of nine.

The original fan ballot includes a list of 50 of poker's best, with the top 20 vote getters taking a spot in the 27-player TOC field.

Five players get automatic entries into the event, including 2010 Main Event champ Joe Cada and 2010 WSOPE Main Event winner Barry Shulman.

Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, Annie Duke and Mike Sexton also get automatic spots as former TOC winners.

That leaves two sponsor-exemption spots for the TOC, and the WSOP Academy tournament will fill one of the two remaining spots.

"It's very tough competiton," Grospellier said. "I still like my chances in a sit and go. If I run good and play well I'm confident."

Fan voting for the 2010 Tournament of Champions is still available on www.wsop.com through June 15.

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

Tom “Durrrr” Dwan’s Bracelet Near Miss and Matros’s Hold’em Performance – Yesterday at the WSOP

Taking second place in a World Series of Poker (WSOP) event would be slightly disappointing for any poker player, but $381,000 in cold hard cash might console most of them. For Tom “durrrr” Dwan, who finished second in Event #11: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em on Sunday, it was all about the bracelet. Dwan, one of the best nosebleed stakes cash game players in the world, regularly wins and loses pots bigger than his second place haul, so he may be excused for not being ecstatic. But this year, Dwan has a plethora of bracelet bets with various other high-stakes pros and should he actually win one, it would be “his biggest day ever.”

On the final hand of play, Dwan moved all-in with Qd-6c and the man who stole his thunder, Simon Watt, immediately called with 9d-9c. When the board ran 8c-Ac-As-Ad-Kh, Dwan gave Watt a curt handshake and headed straight for the exit. For his victory, Watt takes home $614,248 and a gold bracelet. Here’s how the final table played out:

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

Also playing down to a winner on Sunday was Event #12: $1,500 Limit Hold’em. When all was said and done, poker writer Matt Matros emerged victorious to the tune of $189,870 and his first WSOP bracelet. Prior to this win, Matros was best known for his third place finish in the 2004 World Poker Tour (WPT) Bellagio Five Star World Poker Classic for $704,000. Matros claimed victory last night when his Qh-8d outdrew runner-up finisher Ahmad Abghari’s Ac-Tc, sending Abghari to the rail with $117,272. The final table rundown can be found below:

1. Matt Matros – $189,870
2. Ahmad Abghari – $117,272
3. Terrence Chan – $83,185
4. Georgios Kapalas – $59,838
5. Adrian Dresel-velasquez – $43,647
6. Jason Potter – $32,281
7. Jameson Painter – $24,198
8. Roberto Truijurs – $18,385
9. Mark Burford $14,149

Saturday and Sunday marked Day 1A and Day 1B of Event #13: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em, which will see Day 2 kick off later today at 2:30pm PT. 566 players remain, with 324 slated to make the money. The eventual winner will bag $472,479. Heading into the afternoon, the top chip counts look like this:

1. Andre Black – 90,275
2. Pedro Reis – 78.550
3. Michael Lederer – 77,350
4. Narinder Singh Khasria – 76,000
5. Marcello Delgrosso – 68,300
6. Jack Schanbacher – 63,150
7. David Baker – 60,950
8. Matthew Vance – 60,475
9. Jonathan Tare – 57,450
10. Steven McLoughlin – 56,600

Meanwhile, the final table is set for Event #14: $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball, which is to play out later today. Sitting atop the remaining field is Nicholas Binger, who holds a commanding chip lead of 309,500. Next best is Derric Haynie with 189,000, followed by Yan Chen with 182,500. The rest of the final table is rounded out by Mike Wattel (146,000), Alexander Kravchenko (144,500), James Bord (83,800), and Todd Bui (68,500). Top prize for the event is $92,817.

Getting underway yesterday was Event #15: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better World Championship, which is scheduled to finish up on Tuesday. Out in front of the 112 players left after Day 1 is Marco Johnson with 121,500. Other notable stacks include Phil Ivey (109,800), Jennifer Harman (93,500), Eli Elezra (78,900), and Gus Hansen (76,700). Play will resume at 2:30pm PT this afternoon.

There’s just one event on tap today at the World Series of Poker, but it’s a juicy one. Event #16: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed is scheduled to start at Noon PT.

Dwan Scares High Stakes Pros

Several big name pros had placed large bets against Dwan winning a bracelet at the 2010 WSOP.

"He had a lot of people scared," said Howard Lederer. "I was betting against him winning two this year, and two in three years."

"I don't have one-for-one this year, so I actually wouldn't have lost anything last night if he had won a bracelet, but it would've been bad for me."

Huck Seed, Mike "The Mouth" Matusow and Eli Elezra were amongst the high rollers sweating Dwan's eventual second-place finish Sunday.

Elezra's battles with Dwan on High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark are well documented, and Elezra is continues to gamble with Dwan for huge stakes at the 2010 WSOP.

Eli was on his way to meet up with Gus Hansen for some Chinese Poker as both Full Tilt pros went to dinner break at the $10k Seven-Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship.

Before heading out Elezra gave PL.com the scoop on his two bets against durrrr for this year's WSOP.

Eli gets $600k if Dwan doesn't win a bracelet but pays $1.8 million if Dwan does.

 

"Every tournament we're entering it's $250k if someone wins, any tournament," Elezra said.

"The second one is I'm laying him 3-to-1 on every (WSOP) tournament, including Europe. That's also for $600k."

Elezra continued to push the action even after Dwan made the Event 8 final nine.

"Then I bought Huck Seed's bet for $100k against him for 3.25-to-1, and I did it when there was nine people left at the final table, so I really took a chance," Elezra said.

"But he sold it to me for like $80k. Huck sold it to me, he's paying me to take over the bet because he wanted out of it. So I decided I'm going to gamble all the way with him."

Dwan is well-known in poker circles as a man who's not afraid to put himself in challenging situations.

"He's an action guy," Elezra said. "That's what I love about him on High Stakes Poker and the Poker After Dark cash game."

"I like a guy that gives me action and I give him action back. He's not a guy that'll sit down and wait for aces. So we know he's a gambler."

When New Zealand's Simon Watt finally busted Dwan to take the Event 8 bracelet, Matusow was on hand, and perhaps "The Mouth" summed it up best.

"They're going to put you on the wall at Binion's," Matusow said. "'Here's Simon - he stopped every High Stakes gambler from going broke.'"

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

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.

The Online Railbird Report: Hansen’s Up, Dwan’s Down and Benyamine’s Back

May 17th – Daily Deal

On today’s Daily Deal, the PPA speaks about the looming implementation of the UIGEA, we find out who won the WPT Grand Prix de Paris, former WPT stockholders go into a new branch of business and new celebrities confirm attendance to the After-school All Stars charity tournament.

Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily, brought to you by PokerSource.com.

On June 1st, the financial services industry in the USA must fall in line with the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act – the dreaded UIGEA. John Pappas, the Executive Director of the Poker Players Alliance, reminded the poker community that the PPA was once successful in delaying this implementation, and that even if they fail to stop UIGEA it will not be the end of online poker. In Pappas’s words, “We don’t suspect this to be a doomsday scenario for online poker. To be clear, it is not going to be unlawful for you, the poker player, to play internet poker. Nothing in the UIGEA makes it illegal for individuals to play.”

WSOP bracelet winner Theo Jorgensen came out on top in the World Poker Tour’s Grand Prix de Paris on Saturday, taking home six hundred and thirty three thousand Euros. A total of two hundred and forty-seven players put up ten thousand Euros to play the Grand Prix de Paris, including heavyweights such as November Nine member Antoine Saout and Men “The Master” Nguyen. Jorgensen has more than Tournament wins to his credit: he once defeated Full Tilt Poker pro Gus Hansen in a boxing match.

Coming up, former WPT stockholders get energized, and more celebrities join the After-School All-Stars.

Former World Poker Tour chief executive Steve Lipscomb plans to use the cash from the sale of the popular WPT brand to enter a new type of business. The company, which now goes by the name Ante4 Inc., became an energy corporation in April and has seen its share price more than double in less than a month. On April sixteenth, the former WPT merged with an oil leasing firm in Billings, Montana to form Voyager Oil and Gas. Former professional poker player Lyle Berman, who served as Chairman of the WPT and holds the same position at Voyager, said “We thought if we could find a company with a great business model that needed cash, the stock would trade significantly above $1.40. We have fulfilled that mission.”

Good news for charity: former “Everybody Loves Raymond” star Brad Garrett will join the upcoming charity poker tournament benefiting After-School All-Stars. Other celebrities in attendance will include Ante Up for Africa co-founder Don Cheadle and Absolute Poker pro Trishelle Cannatella. The tournament will be hosted by UB.com pro Annie Duke, and it will play out on May 20th from the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.

Thanks for joining me on The Daily Deal by Poker News Daily, brought to you by PokerSource.com. Don’t forget to visit PokerNewsDaily.com and be sure to follow us at Twitter.com/PokerNewsDaily for the latest in poker news. I’m Sean Gibson…good luck on the flop!

Theo Jorgensen Wins WPT Grand Prix de Paris

World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Theo Jorgensen came out on top in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Grand Prix de Paris on Saturday. Jorgensen, who once defeated Full Tilt Poker pro Gus Hansen in a boxing match, banked €633,000 from the €10,000 buy-in tournament. Jorgensen entered the final table as the chip leader.

A total of 247 players turned out for the Grand Prix de Paris and, when the smoke cleared, eight reached this weekend’s final table. Among those who sought poker glory in Paris and coughed up the €10,000 entry fee were November Nine member and Everest Poker pro Antoine Saout, Andrew Feldman, Aussie Millions Main Event winner Tyron Krost, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and PokerStars pro Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier.

Jimmy Ostensson was the final table’s first casualty, bowing out when his wired pair of nines could not hold up against the A-6 of Fabrice Touil. The flop came J-4-K, but a running A-6 sent Ostensson out of the Aviation Club and looking for a taxi on the world-famous Champs-Elysées.

Seventh place at the Grand Prix de Paris went to Arnaud Mattern, who picked an inopportune time to shove with A-Q, as Antoine Amourette picked up pocket rockets. Mattern, who won the 2007 European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague stop, picked up €82,000. Nourredine Aïtaleb was the next to go. Aïtaleb shoved with A-J, but ran into Per Linde’s pocket queens. Linde, who finished 13th in April’s EPT San Remo Main Event, was once one out away from elimination in Paris.

In the defining pot of the Grand Prix de Paris, Jorgensen doubled up at the expense of Amourette with pocket kings against pocket sevens. The board ran out 5-4-5-10-3 and Jorgensen scooped a 3.3 million chip pot, the largest of the tournament at the time. Amourette quickly doubled up to stave off being the Grand Prix de Paris’ fifth place finisher, a distinction that went to Touil, who committed his chips pre-flop with A-8. Jorgensen called with J-8, but spiked a jack on the turn to shrink the field even further.

Mikhael Guenni woke up with pocket fives when his stack amounted to just five big blinds, but ran into Jorgensen’s pocket nines and could not improve. Linde was the next to go. Short-stacked, he pushed all-in with a paltry 7-5 and failed to draw out on Jorgensen’s K-J. Jorgensen flopped a straight and never looked back, sending Linde home €234,000 richer for his wear.

Heads-up play spanned all of three hands. In the final pot, Amourette was all-in with K-6 and up against Jorgensen’s A-K. The board ran out 6-J-4-A-5 and Jorgensen claimed his first WPT title. The tournament marked Jorgensen’s first top 20 finish in a WPT event. His bracelet came in 2008 during the WSOP Europe festivities, where he outlasted a field of 165 players in a £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event for £218,000. Jorgensen defeated Titan Poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi heads-up for his WSOP title in a final table that also included Erik Friberg, Max Pescatori, Chris Ferguson, and Jason Mercier.

Here were the final table results from the WPT Grand Prix de Paris:

1. Theo Jorgensen – 633,902
2. Antoine Amourette – 328,690
3. Per Linde – 234,780
4. Mickael Guenni – 187,825
5. Fabrice Touil – 140,870
6. Nourredine Aïtaleb – 93,910
7. Arnaud Mattern – 82,175
8. Jimmy Ostensson – 70,435

Kicking off on Wednesday is the WPT Spanish Championship, which will emanate from Casino Barcelona. The €3,500 tournament crowns a winner on May 23rd and preliminary events begin on Monday. In June 2009, Mark Flowers defeated Per Sjogren in the finale of the WPT Spanish Championship, which attracted a field of 160 players.

Tom Dwan keeps falling - Borrows $200k from Gus Hansen

Tom “durrrr” Dwan’s fall keeps on getting gloomier and gloomier at the Full Tilt Poker’s high stakes games. He lost almost $600,000 more last night.

Although Dwan is still up almost 3,2 million dollars for the year, he could have done a bit better as three weeks ago his earnings were 7,3 million dollars.

Dwan has made huge losses in the big Limit Hold’em games as well. Highstakesdb doesn’t record these games at all, so his hole is actually a lot bigger than it seems.

Railbirds found Dwan borrowing money from Gus Hansen and eventually “durrrr” was spotted at some $5/$10 NLHE and PLO tables:

durrrr: can u send me 200?
durrrr: yo
durrrr: phone died
durrrr: right as u calld
Gus Hansen: do you want 2
durrrr: ya pls
Gus Hansen: on the way
durrrr: tyty

Source: Highstakesdb

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Tom Dwan keeps falling - Borrows $200k from Gus Hansen

The Online Railbird Report: Hansen Back on the Upswing, Isildur1 Back in Action

Gus Hansen destroys Cole South for $800,000

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: HighstakesDB.com and HendonMob

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

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

Tom “durrrr” Dwan’s four-million downswing soon history?

During the latter half of April Tom “durrrr” Dwan was nearly invincible in Full Tilt Poker’s high stakes games - and his profits were already amazing: 7,3 million dollars! But then his game started to suffer big time from poker variance. Dwan was driven in a terrible downswing where he ended up losing a whole four million bucks in less than three weeks.

But now it looks like Dwan’s via dolorosa is gradually over, as during the last 24 hours he has profited a nice 150,000 dollars (also his Sunday Limit Hold’em losses are counted in this sum).

The biggest losses during the last 24 hours has done, in turn, Gus Hansen who had already pocketed 1,1 million dollars before this. A big chunk of these winnings was gone last night as the Dane lost altogether 325,000 dollars.

Source: HSDB and HendonMob

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Tom “durrrr” Dwan’s four-million downswing soon history?

Dwan, Ivey and Antonius Face Off

Coming into the weekend with a Friday night loss of $110,384, Dwan hoped to turn around his recent slide but was unable to find his footing.

He only played 46 hands of poker on Saturday before logging off with just $9k in profit. After making another $9k from 35 hands of $50/$100 Sunday morning, Dwan sat for his first real session of the weekend by joining O Fortuna PLS and MisoRucky at $1,000/$2,000 Heads-Up Fixed-Limit Hold'em.

Dwan sat for a total of 2,421 hands and lost $182,374 at the game, the majority of which went to O Fortuna PLS.

$500/$1,000 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha would be Dwan's next stop, where he would play a combination of Ivey and Gus Hansen heads-up, making $129k from the two Full Tilt Pros.

Unfortunately, while he was making money at the Cap game Dwan dropped exactly $40k at just 11 hands of $500/$1,000 PLO to Hansen, keeping himself stuck for nearly $200k on the weekend.

Excluding just eight hands of $500/$1,000 PLO where Dwan made $10k, Dwan's last session of the weekend took place at the $300/$600 PLO Six-Max game with Antonius and Ivey.

Thanks to losing the largest pot at the table, Dwan dropped another $167,101 in the game, bringing his total losses for the weekend to over $347k.

Ivey, who's online play has been somewhat sparse so far this year, started his weekend with a $212k loss playing $500/$1,000 Cap-PLO on Friday night. Much like Dwan, Ivey played very few hands on Saturday, adding an additional $22k to his losses.

But after making over $114, from the $500/$1,000 Cap-PLO game with Dwan and Hansen, Ivey finished his weekend at the Six-Max game, where he made $28k from just 25 hands.

In total he logged out down $91,056.

Antonius put in the lightest weekend of the three Full Tilt pros, playing just 92 hands from Friday night until early Sunday evening.

His first substantial session came at the Six-Max game, where he beat Dwan and Ivey out of $140k. Unfortunately, Antonius lost back more than half of that profit immediately after, dumping $74k back to Ivey in just 17 hands of $500/$1,000 Cap-PLO.

In total, Antonius finished the weekend up $67,187.

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

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

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

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

TOP 5 winners:

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

TOP 5 losers:

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

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

Source: Highstakesdb

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

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

Gus Hansen Drops Over Half a Million

The session began with Hansen sitting alongside Di "Urindanger" Dang for 176 hands at $500/$1,000 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha. By the end of the match, Dang hand earned over $57,000 before logging off for the night.

Up next came Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, who waged all out battle against the Great Dane for nearly three hours.

The match proved to be a complete disaster for the Full Tilt pro as Hansen proceeded to lose $375,282 to Sahamies over 686 hands.

Up a total of $453,459, Sahamies logged out of the site opening the door for Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin, the next in line to take a shot at one of the world's most popular high-stakes action players.

Griffin only stuck around for just 40 minutes, but still managed to book $150k in profit over his 120 hands.

Hansen would find his final opponent for the session in Tom "durrrr" Dwan, and much to the dismay of the year's current profit leader, the Great Dane finally managed to turn a small profit on the match.

Dwan finished his session down over $125k.

Hansen left the tables down $556,270, cutting his profits so far this year by more than half.

Below are three of the max-capped pots from yesterday's sessions. To see more hands head to our online poker stats page.

Gus Hansen on fire; wins $300,000

Gus Hansen’s May earnings already over a million dollars - Isildur1’s comeback was a short one

Last night Gus Hansen earned about 308,000 dollars and has now profited more than a million from his Full Til Poker games in May.

During the last couple of days the Dane has done good results especially at $500/$1000 CAP PLO tables where each hand has a stake-limit of $40,000. This game seems to suit Hansen much better than the ordinary PLO.

Besides Hansen “jungleman12? ($464K), Phil Ivey (+$400K) and Niki Jedlicka (+$348K) have started this month with excellent results.

The biggest losses in May have been contributed by Tom “durrrr” Dwan (-$1,55M) and Ashton ”theASHMAN103? Griffin (-$571K).

Isildur1 takes a dive

People can stop holding their breaths as Isildur1 didn’t manage to make his comeback. He lost over 190,000 dollars last night, so the Swede needs to grind up his roll yet again. Rumors tell that he went busto on Full Tilt Poker last night.

Isildur1’s last money went to “LokoIsBack”:

Source: Highstakesdb

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Gus Hansen’s May earnings already over a million dollars - Isildur1’s comeback was a short one

Gus Hansen Dominates Tilt’s Cap Games

Hansen's day started with a $500/$1,000 Cap-PLO session against ex-CardRunners pro Cole South. After 169 hands, South took his leave down just over $12k.

While waiting for his next opponent at the nosebleed games, Hansen stopped by the $200/$400 Cap-PLO games for 99 hands, adding another $15k to his roll.

Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin signed on to be Hansen's next victim at the nosebleed cap games, losing $145,388 in his 111-hand stay.

After fleecing Griffin, Hansen took six hours off before returning to Full Tilt to join the running $200/$400 Cap-PLO game, where he lost $50,499 over 95 hands.

Shortly after starting the $200/$400 session, Hansen joined Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies at a regular $500/$1,000 PLO table, but left the game after just 26 hands down $14k.

It appears as if Hansen left the game with Sahamies to host a $500/$1,000 Cap-PLO re-match against South. The second round lasted for 220 hands with Hansen making another $376,430.

In total, Hansen added $485,129 to his roll, bringing him up to around $860k profit on the year so far.

Below are three of the hands from yesterday's sessions. To see more hands head to our online poker stats page.