Poker News

Final table set at Aussie Millions Main Event

After Day 3, 18 players remained and now a final table has been set at the $10,500 AUD Main Event at the 2010 Aussie Millions tournament series. With $2,000,000 AUD to be won, the remaining players are all focused – and some are deadly at tournament final tables.

Hoyt Corkins Leads WPT Southern Poker Championship Final Table

DoylesRoom pro Hoyt Corkins will take a commanding chip lead into the final table of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Southern Poker Championship. The tournament marks Corkins’ sixth WPT final table.

Corkins sent Andy Philachack packing on the final table bubble. Philachack pushed his chips in with A-K and found himself ahead of Corkins’ A-Q. However, the flop came A-Q-4, giving Corkins top two pair and leaving Philachack rooting for a king or running cards for a straight. It was not meant to be, as the board ran out 6-10 to set up this afternoon’s televised six-handed final table, which will air as part of Season 8 of the WPT on Fox Sports Net. Philachack took home $67,000 for his seventh place showing at the Beau Rivage in Biloxi, Mississippi, the site of the Southern Poker Championship.

Corkins won the Season 2 Foxwoods World Poker Finals and was also the runner-up in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. Three seasons later, Corkins returned to a final table at the Bicycle Casino’s Legends of Poker and, during Season 6, Corkins claimed second in the Gold Strike World Poker Open in Tunica. His most recent final table appearance came in December 2008, when Corkins finished sixth in the prestigious Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic.

Corkins, decked out in DoylesRoom attire following Tuesday’s play, told WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman, “I want to get first or second because that would give me 4,000 WPT Points. There are only three people in that club – Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and Gus Hansen.” Corkins has $2.6 million in career WPT earnings and is one of the most recognizable faces in the game today.

Knocked out in eighth place was top female pro J.J. Liu. In her final hand, Liu moved all-in over the top of a raise by Jonathan Kantor. James Reed called, Kantor re-shoved, and Reed got out of the way. Kantor flipped up pocket aces, while Liu showed pocket eights. The board ran out 9-6-4-K-J and that was all she wrote for Liu, who has two WPT final tables to her credit. Liu finished fourth in the Season 4 Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic and took second in the Season 5 Bay 101 Shooting Star event.

The top 18 players in the WPT tournament finished in the money and the title of Bubble Boy went to Sam Rashid. As has been a theme in the Southern Poker Championship, Rashid ran into a higher pocket pair, as his kings could not draw out on Narinder Khasria’s aces. The board came 9-3-2-Q-10 and the field rejoiced as Rashid exited empty-handed in 19th place.

Players were jolted awake in the early morning hours today by the hotel’s fire alarm after smoke was reported on the ninth floor. Jared Jaffee, who made Wednesday’s final table, commented to the WPT’s B.J. Nemeth, "I knew the world would end if I ever made a final table." The Beau Rivage is the tallest building in Mississippi at 32 floors and features 1,740 guest rooms.

Among those still remaining in the WPT Southern Poker Championship is Mississippi native Tyler “Tydean” Smith. He was the executioner of James Guinther, who was eliminated in 10th place for $25,000. Guinther was all-in pre-flop with pocket tens, but ran into Smith’s pocket jacks. He couldn’t dig himself out of the 4:1 hole and Smith boosted his chip stack to 750,000 as a result. Smith reached the final table of the Southern Poker Championship for the second straight year; he took fifth in 2009.

Heading into today’s finale in Biloxi, Smith sits in second place on the leaderboard with a stack of 1.17 million, trailing Corkins’ pile of 2.07 million:

1. Hoyt Corkins - 2,069,000
2. Tyler Smith - 1,169,000
3. Jerry Vanstrydonck - 1,044,000
4. Jonathan Kantor - 894,000
5. Jared Jaffee - 762,000
6. James Reed -377,000

The six remaining players are competing for a top prize of $739,000, while each is assured an $86,000 payday for making the final table:

1st Place: $739,486
2nd Place: $366,643
3rd Place: $196,829
4th Place: $135,079
5th Place: $106,134
6th Place: $86,837

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

Aussie Millions: Main Event Day 2

Day 2 of the 2010 Aussie Millions Main Event is in the books. The remaining players from all three Day 1 flights met in the same room for the first time today. Play was split between the Crown Poker Room and Studio 3, where film crews have been...

Full Tilt Poker Introduces Rush Poker

At most online sites, the hands in a ring game are dealt at nearly twice the speed of what would occur during a live session. This isn’t quick enough for some players, who prefer playing at multiple tables to earn more money for their bankroll and satisfy their desire for action. A new innovation at Full Tilt Poker has responded to the call for faster play on the virtual felt.

Called Rush Poker, Full Tilt Poker has come up with a game that could draw a great deal of attention from those with the need for speed. If a player at a table is dealt a hand – for example, J-2 offsuit – and doesn’t want to play the hand, the player can click the "Fold" button (once in action, there is a “Quick Fold” button that can be used at any time instead of waiting for your turn). Instead of sticking around to watch the remaining players at the table battle it out, the player is immediately jetted off to another table, with a completely new batch of players, and a new hand is dealt. The only time a player stays at the table is when they are actually in action with a hand; once a player folds, the player is gone to another table with a new group of players. This leads to a monumental number of hands during any given session.

Team Full Tilt is firmly behind the Rush Poker variation and they will step in to the fray along with their regular players. Howard Lederer commented on his Twitter account, “Had fun giving Rush poker a try on FTP. 300 hands per hour at one table. Cool.” Fellow Team Full Tilt member Andy Bloch was equally impressed when he stated on Twitter, “Playing new Rush Poker on Full Tilt Poker. Online poker may never be the same!”

Be prepared for a tremendous amount of action if you approach the Rush Poker tables, however. Poker News Daily examined the lobby at the Rush Poker tables for this article and, at the time, only No Limit Hold’em had action, with three Six-Handed tables ($0.25/$0.50, $0.10/$0.25 and $0.05/$0.10) and three nine-handed ring games (same levels). Among the six groups that were in action, the low count for players was around 420 players and the high was approximately 1,550 players.

The average number of hands dealt during an hour of play fluctuated between 277 to 318, negating the need for multi-tabling. Average pot sizes were quite similar to what happens at the regular speed tables. It did seem, however, that players played a bit tighter on the Rush Poker tables, with the “players seeing the flop” percentages ranging from 19% to 25%.

At the tables, the action runs very smoothly. Whether you wait until your action to fold or use the “Quick Fold” option, as soon as you make your decision, an entirely different table of players loads up for action. When you move, you can land in any position at the table. In the span of less than ten minutes, this author played 50 hands, making for a rough average of 300 hands per hour.

There is a downside to the quick action, however. Players who prefer to learn their opponents’ tendencies will not have that luxury, as each different hand is played with a different group of opponents. Checking the previous hand history is useless as you are no longer playing the same opponents with the table change. Using any type of poker software is nearly impossible; with the quick table changes, the software cannot keep up. If a player receives a few bad beats, the quick action can also rapidly burn through the stakes a player brings to the table.

Whether Full Tilt Poker’s new Rush Poker will catch on is up to the players to decide. At the time of writing, the Rush Poker tables accounted for only about 10% of the total action on the site. Full Tilt Poker has also applied for a patent on this variation of online poker, making it highly unlikely that other sites will pick up on this new phenomenon.

Dover Man Wins Largest-Ever Bad Beat Jackpot

56-year-old Steve Gedney was awarded $276,979 of the $553,958 jackpot when his quad threes were beaten by an ace on the river giving Bridgwater, New Jersey’s Chris Dobrzanski four aces.

Dobrzanski took home $138,489 and the remaining seven players at the table were each awarded $19,784.

There was roughly $400 in the pot.

"This is an unforgettable day for everyone at Caesars, especially our loyal players and dedicated poker team," said Joe Domenico, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Caesars Atlantic City. "The energy building in our poker room over these past months has been incredible and to see it culminate in this record setting jackpot couldn't be more rewarding.”

The progressive bad beat jackpot at Caesars Atlantic City is paid when four-of-a-kind is beaten. Like most, the prize is split among all players sitting at the table with 50% going to the losing hand, 25% to the winning hand, and 25% equally divided amongst the remaining players at the table.

The previous record for the largest-ever live bad beat jackpot was $361,244, also set at Caesars Atlantic City.

The largest bad beat jackpot of all time is $1.2 million, recorded online on Carbon Poker in February 2009.

Visit PokerListings.com

Dover Man Wins Largest-Ever Bad Beat Jackpot

56-year-old Steve Gedney was awarded $276,979 of the $553,958 jackpot when his quad threes were beaten by an ace on the river giving Bridgwater, New Jersey’s Chris Dobrzanski four aces.

Dobrzanski took home $138,489 and the remaining seven players at the table were each awarded $19,784.

There was roughly $400 in the pot.

"This is an unforgettable day for everyone at Caesars, especially our loyal players and dedicated poker team," said Joe Domenico, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Caesars Atlantic City. "The energy building in our poker room over these past months has been incredible and to see it culminate in this record setting jackpot couldn't be more rewarding.”

The progressive bad beat jackpot at Caesars Atlantic City is paid when four-of-a-kind is beaten. Like most, the prize is split among all players sitting at the table with 50% going to the losing hand, 25% to the winning hand, and 25% equally divided amongst the remaining players at the table.

The previous record for the largest-ever live bad beat jackpot was $361,244, also set at Caesars Atlantic City.

The largest bad beat jackpot of all time is $1.2 million, recorded online on Carbon Poker in February 2009.

Visit PokerListings.com

PokerStars Caribbean Adventure final table set

The 24 remaining players of the 1,500 plus that entered the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $10,300 main event returned to the Atlantis Resort’s Imperial Ballroom to play down to the final table, with the likes of John Duthie, Robert Mizrachi, Jeff Madsen and Praz Bansi gunning for a spot in the final eight.

Ryan D’Angelo, John Duthie Lead PCA Main Event into Play Down Day

Today, the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event enters its play down day, as the 24 remaining players will become eight when all is said and done. At stake is a $2.2 million first place prize and the title of 2010 PCA Champion.

Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo leads the field entering Sunday’s action at the Atlantis Resort and Casino on Paradise Island in the Bahamas. His chips number 7.5 million, while the next closest competitor, European Poker Tour (EPT) founder John Duthie, owns just 5.3 million. D’Angelo scooped a blockbuster pot late in the day on Saturday after putting in a check-raise to 310,000 on a flop of 5-A-9. Dimitri Hefter called and the turn was a king. D’Angelo bet 500,000 and Hefter called to see a three hit on the river. The action slowed down, as both players checked, but the damage was done and D’Angelo’s A-Q was enough to rake in the chips.

Meanwhile, Duthie amassed a chunk of his chips after cracking Swedish poker player Kent Lundmark’s pocket aces. Duthie’s opponent led out for 100,000 on a flop of 7-2-8 with two spades. Duthie raised it up to 300,000 and Lundmark pushed all-in over the top for 2.2 million. Duthie called and showed 7-8 of diamonds for top two pair, while Lundmark turned over his wired pair of aces. The board ran out K-6 and Lundmark hit the rails in 29th place for $66,000.

Wayne Bentley, who held a commanding chip lead after the combined Day 1 field, continues to fly high in the 2010 PCA Main Event. Heading into Sunday’s play down day, Bentley owns a stack of 2.9 million, good for third overall. Three tables will accommodate the field this afternoon and Bentley heads to #1, where D’Angelo and Harrison Gimbel, who led the field entering Day 4, will join him. Bentley’s chip stack was chopped down to just 75,000 at one point on Saturday after his A-K could not withstand pocket queens. The board ran out five cards nine or lower and Bentley was crippled before mounting an epic comeback to land in third on the leaderboard entering today’s action.

Speaking of the leaderboard, here are the 24 players remaining in the 2010 PCA Main Event:

1. Ryan D'Angelo - 7,483,000
2. John Duthie - 5,304,000
3. Wayne Bentley - 2,878,000
4. Thomas Koral - 2,438,000
5. Barry Shulman - 2,433,000
6. Aage Floenes Ravn - 2,282,000
7. Zachary Goldberg - 2,195,000
8. James Tolbert - 2,016,000
9. Benjamin Zamani - 1,905,000
10. Robert Mizrachi - 1,823,000
11. Harrison Gimbel - 1,803,000
12. Tyler Reiman - 1,796,000
13. Darren Keyes - 1,614,000
14. Luc Greenwood - 1,528,000
15. Dimitri Hefter - 1,350,000
16. Matthew Haugen - 1,161,000
17. Jimmie Guinther - 932,000
18. Jeff Madsen - 896,000
19. Gijs Verheijen - 882,000
20. Bo Schultz - 720,000
21. Tamas Lendvai - 662,000
22. Praz Bansi - 542,000
23. Richard Toth - 488,000
24. Kenny Nguyen - 242,000

Eight nations are represented in the final 24. Duthie is the only member of Team PokerStars Pro remaining in the field after his comrades like 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion Joe Cada, 2004 Main Event winner Greg Raymer, 2003 World Champion Chris Moneymaker, and former PCA victor Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier busted in prior days.

The elimination of Amanda Baker in 38th place set up a male-only field on Day 5. Poker pro Praz Bansi sent her packing after Baker pushed all-in with Q-J and Bansi made the call with pocket rockets. The board came K-2-4-4-3 and the last woman standing in the $10,000 buy-in feature tournament saw her title hopes evaporate.

Every one of the 24 remaining players is assured a payday of at least $75,000. The top four finishers will earn $1 million from the record-setting PCA Main Event field of 1,529 entrants. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest 2010 PCA coverage.

Full Tilt Poker Crashes on Sunday

It was an unusual Sunday for online poker players all over the world, as Full Tilt Poker, the world's second largest online poker site, had its server crash during the heart of its heavy-traffic period. The site’s stoppage affected everyone playing on the site, including those still alive in Full Tilt's flagship Sunday tournament, the $216 buy-in $750,000 Guaranteed.

The crash occurred at 7:45pm ET and players were booted from the site and unable to log back in. When attempting to open the Full Tilt client, players received a message saying, "Unable to connect to server." This went on for hours and the poker community erupted.

Full Tilt posted the following message on its site shortly after the crash occurred: "Unscheduled Maintenance In Progress: We recently experienced a network outage. We expect to be operational shortly." After failing to get the site back up in a timely manner, Full Tilt Poker cancelled all running tournaments at 9:41pm ET. Then, at approximately 11:15pm, ET, the site's support staff sent the following e-mail to players who were still playing in tournaments:

When a tournament is cancelled before it reaches the money, according to tournament rule 31.2 (http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/tourRules.php):

-All players still in the tournament at the time of the cancellation will be refunded their tournament buy-in and tournament fee. Players will have their buy-ins refunded in the tournament prize pool currency.

-In addition, the remaining prize pool will be divided and distributed according to chip count - (Remaining Prize Pool)*(Your Chip Count)/(Total Chips in Play) = Your Share of Remaining Prize Pool.

The reimbursement policy for rebuy tournaments is slightly different and several players expressed their confusion regarding Full Tilt's procedure. PocketFives.com forum member "MattElsarelli" posted the following concerning a tournament he was playing: "Does anyone know their policy on refunding for rebuys? I'm like 15 buy in deeps in the $20 rebuy, do I get refunded all of them?"

He got his answer from a fellow poster who laid out Full Tilt's Tournament Rules: "In a Rebuy tournament - the number of rebuys or add-ons a player has made does not affect the payout if a tournament is cancelled. If a tournament has not reached the money, all players will have their initial tournament buy-in and fee returned, as described in bullet 31.2. In addition, any other money in the prize and Cashout pools where applicable (excluding guarantees and money added by Full Tilt Poker), will be divided and distributed to the remaining players, based on their respective chip counts."

For tournaments that awarded a non-monetary prize, such as a live tournament package (like a World Poker Tour event), Full Tilt Poker assigns a monetary value to the prize and distributes it in cash to the remaining players based on their chip counts. In ring games, the hand being played at the time of the stoppage was considered dead and all bets were returned at the point of the crash.

As of Monday morning, Full Tilt Poker was operating as normal.

Faraz Jaka in the Lead, Scotty Nguyen Again Makes it to Final Table in WPT

Nguyen is used to do well at Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic in Bellagio, as he made to the final table of this exact tournament also on the first season of WPT. Nguyen started the day 5 with second smallest chip stack in the play, but in the end of the day he found himself second in chips.

First double-up of the day for Scotty came when he moced his 327k chips all in with a pair of fours. Faraz Jaka called with A-3 of spades and managed to pick up a spade flush draw on the flop. After two blanks on the turn and on the river Nguyen was still in the tournament, now with a healthier stack of 727k in chips.

Jaka tried hard to bust Nguyen out of the tournament, as the players collided later again. Scotty raised under the gun to 120,000, in which Jaka responded with a raise from the cutoff to 300,000. Nguyen called and the flop came A-K-4 rainbow. After a check, a bet and an all in call by Nguyen, cards was turned up and Scotty was well ahead with A-J against Q-J. A couple of fives completed the board and Nguyen was up over million chips.

The the most controversial hand went also Scotty, when he tripled up through John Juanda and Chad Batista. Juanda moved all in from the button, without moving any chips forward, only saying “all in”. Then Batista, who was wearing headphones and didn’t hear Juanda’s action, moves all in too. Nguyen makes the call all in and at some point Batista realizes Juanda was all in before him and wants to take his bet back.

Scotty is looking for a second win in WPT.

Batista is clearly pissed and Scotty openly laughing about the situation doesn’t make him feel any better. Finally the cards are turned over, A-6 for Juanda, a pair of deuces for Batista and the rockets for Nguyen. The board doesn’t bring any help for Juanda or Batista and Nguyen triples up over 3 million on chips.

After the remaining players gathered to the final 10-handed table, the game progressed quickly. It took only 26 hands to find out the last six who would make it to the televised final. Batista was out first after losing a flip against Scotty with a pair of fives agains K-J suited, when a king hit the flop.

Next victim Curt Kohlberg, who had lost a chip lead of over 5 million chips just a while ago. was busted out also by Scotty. Josh Arieh bust out Eric Hershler after winning a flip of K-J against A-T. The last hand of the day was between Arieh (T-T), Shawn Buchanan (Q-Q) and Joe Cassidy (K-J). Cassidy and Buchanan were both all in when Arieh got them covered, but Buchanan’s queens held up and Cassidy was sent to the rail in 7th place.

The winner of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic will win a $1,428,430 first prize.

Here is the official chip count and the seating of the final table:

Seat 1: Daniel Alaei - 3,925,000
Seat 2: Faraz Jaka - 5,385,000
Seat 3: Josh Arieh - 1,710,000
Seat 4: Steve O’Dwyer - 1,050,000
Seat 5: Scotty Nguyen - 4,900,000
Seat 6: Shawn Buchanan - 2,800,000

Source

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Faraz Jaka in the Lead, Scotty Nguyen Again Makes it to Final Table in WPT

Curt Kohlberg, Faraz Jaka Lead WPT Five Diamond Entering Play Down Day

The final six players in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic will be determined today from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Leading the way with 16 to go are Curt Kohlberg and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka.

In one of the final pots of the evening on Thursday, Jaka battled against Season 7 L.A. Poker Classic third place finisher Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers. After a flop of Q-7-3, Jaka bet out 90,000 and Sowers made the call to see a deuce hit the turn. Jaka once again fired at the pot, this time for 240,000, and Sowers came along. The action went check-check after a river king and Jaka exposed K-4 for top pair to scoop the pot. Earlier in the day, Jaka doubled up at the expense of Scotty Nguyen after flopping middle set against Nguyen’s open-ended straight draw. The turn and river blanked for Nguyen and Jaka boosted his stack to 2.2 million before ending at nearly 2.8 million.

Kohlberg, meanwhile, took down pot after pot on Thursday at the Bellagio to secure his spot atop the leaderboard entering the play down day. In one hand, he tangled with Lock Poker pro Matt “All In At 420” Stout. Kohlberg led out for 55,000 on a flop of 7-2-2 and Stout raised to 165,000. Kohlberg called to see a three hit the turn. The action went check-check to a river four and Kohlberg check-called a sizable 225,000-chip bet from Stout. Kohlberg flipped over pocket nines, which was enough to scoop the pot. He ended with nearly 2.9 million, tops in the Five Diamond field.

On his Day 4, Kohlberg told WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman after play had concluded, “It was a long day. There were a lot of really good players and I was just trying to pick my spots. Fortunately, it worked out.” In November at the WPT’s last tournament, Kohlberg made the final table of the Foxwoods World Poker Finals, taking fifth place for $199,000. He also made the final table of the Grand Prix de Paris in 2005, earning $112,000 for his fifth place showing in the European tournament.

Among those who hit the rails on Thursday after the money bubble burst in the $15,000 buy-in tournament were Stout (20th place for $28,569), Antonio Esfandiari (23rd place for $28,569), Steve Brecher (25th place for $28,569), and DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Amit “amak316” Makhija (26th place for $28,569). As it stands now, 16 players remain and the average chip stack is 1.2 million. Here’s a look at the field as Day 5 kicks off on Friday:

1. Curt Kohlberg - 2,856,000
2. Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka - 2,768,000
3. Daniel Alaei - 2,422,000
4. John Juanda - 1,851,000
5. Chad “lilholdem954” Batista - 1,550,000
6. Joe Cassidy - 1,445,000
7. Josh Arieh - 1,067,000
8. Shawn Buchanan - 1,007,000
9. Stephen “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer - 826,000
10. Carter “ckingusc” King - 805,000
11. Eric Hershler - 796,000
12. Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers - 661,000
13. Matthew Waxman - 641,000
14. Joseph “BigEgypt” Elpayaa - 446,000
15. Scotty Nguyen - 339,000
16. Lee Salem - 275,000

The final 16 represents a star-studded group on the WPT circuit, as 10 of them have made final tables before: Kohlberg, Jaka, Juanda, Cassidy, Arieh, Buchanan, Hershler, Sowers, Nguyen, and Salem. Each of the remaining players is assured at least a $38,092 payday. Here are the paydays up for grabs at the six-handed televised final table, which will air on Fox Sports Net:

1st Place: $1,428,430
2nd Place: $952,290
3rd Place: $571,374
4th Place: $333,302
5th Place: $249,976
6th Place: $202,362

We’ll have complete results of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic right here on Poker News Daily.

PokerStars Launches Team Pro Tuesdays

This week marks the second installment of Team Pro Tuesdays on PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site. Every Tuesday through December 29th, PokerStars sponsored pros will be hitting the virtual felts in earnest.

Team PokerStars Pro includes the reigning champion of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, Joe Cada, who became the youngest winner ever of the $10,000 buy-in tournament in November. Cada shattered fellow Team PokerStars Pro member Peter Eastgate’s standing record by a full year, as the site boasts the last two WSOP Main Event champions. Chris Moneymaker, widely considered to be the man responsible for starting the modern poker boom, is also a card-carrying member of Team PokerStars Pro. Moneymaker took down the feature tournament in 2003 as a little-known accountant from Tennessee, defeating established pro Sammy Farha heads-up.

In 2004, Greg Raymer became poker’s newest star and Aussie Joe Hachem followed in 2005. Both are now sponsored by PokerStars and are benevolent ambassadors for the game. Text found on PokerStars’ website explains what players can expect as part of Team Pro Tuesdays: “On this day every week, scores of our pro players will be logging on and playing at the tables, covering everything from cash games to tournaments across a wide range of games and buy-in levels. You’ll be able to watch your favorite players in action and talk to them from the rail.”

PokerStars pros will take to the felts during two separate time blocks each Tuesday, from 12:00 to 15:00 ET and again from 19:00 to 22:00 ET. In order to figure out which pros are online, visit the “Team Pro” link at the bottom of the PokerStars lobby. You can also click “Requests” on the top menu bar and then hit “Find a Team PokerStars Player.” The concept of playing with the pros is similar to the main marketing message of rival online poker site Full Tilt, whose stable of players includes Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan, the newest member of the team.

In addition to being able to play with pros in cash games, PokerStars is running a pair of Outlast the Pro tournaments. The first installment takes place at 13:00 ET on Tuesdays, while the second running issues its “Shuffle up and deal” command at 20:00 ET. Each tournament has a buy-in of $11 along with $1,000 in cash added to the prize pool. Players who remain in each tournament longer than every single one of the pros in the field will divvy up the $1,000 in added funds. For example, if Cada were the last pro standing and knocked out in 83rd place, the remaining players would each pocket $12.20, or $1,000 split 82 ways. The Outlast the Pro tournaments can be found by visiting “Tourney” and then “All” in the PokerStars lobby.

Other members of Team PokerStars Pro include “PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge” front man Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, and Humberto Brenes. Its roster also includes top female pros like GoDaddy Girl Vanessa Rousso, Vicky Coren, Barry Greenstein, Chad Brown, Gavin Griffin, and Maridu Mayrinck, who was featured in this year’s WSOP Main Event coverage on cable station ESPN.

According to PokerScout.com, which keeps tabs on online poker room traffic, PokerStars is the largest site worldwide with a seven-day running average of 28,600 real money ring game players. During its peak hours, well over 40,000 cash game aficionados call the site home. It happily accepts customers from the United States.

Day Two of EPT Prague under way

Marc Gork is the man to catch going into Day Two of the latest EPT event in Prague. The German heads the 382 remaining players holding a stack of 169,200 chips. There are plenty of big names to keep him company at the top of the leader board though with ElkY, Irish Team PokerStars Pro Jude Ainsworth, Luca Pagano, Anthony Lallouche and Rasmus Nielsen all in the top 20.

Latin American Poker Tour, Day 4: Amer Sulaiman Snags the Win

Eight remaining players returned Sunday to see who would be crowned champion on the first leg of Season 3 of the 2009 PokerStars.net Latin American Poker Tour. When the day was done, Amer Sulaiman took home the coveted trophy...

EPT Vilamoura under way

The first European Poker Tour event to be held in Portugal got under way in Vilamoura yesterday with Ljubomir Josipovic leading the way at the end of Day 1A. The Austrian heads the 76 remaining players with a stack of 192,900.

6 Players are left at the EC Poker Tour and Schuchardt is getting stronger

The 6 remaining players are back after a one hour break where they got a chance to refuel at the Casino’s terrace overlooking the beautiful marina and surrounding fortifications.

EC Poker tour - Sebastian Percy-Smith, the first player out of the money…

There are only 19 players left in the game and the poker room is filled with spectators who are trying to catch the best actions by the remaining players.

Asian Pacific Poker Tour – money bubble burst

Almost 400 players stepped up to the plate at the Asian Pacific Poker Tour Cebu main event, taking the first-place prize to nearly $150,000. Now, just 40 players remain after Till Umbach was eliminated on the money bubble to guarantee every remaining player a $3,000 payout.

Moon, Ivey, Buchman favored at WSOP final table

As of Friday PartyBets had Ivey and Buchman at 4:1 right behind Moon who is 10:3.

Moon has six times the chips of Ivey but bettors seem to unable to resist the allure of Ivey who is billed as the world's best poker player.

Earlier this week Ivey briefly moved into position as the outright favorite to win the Main Event but Moon quickly regained his spot as the favorite.

"There will be a lot of punters out there sweating Ivey and a lot of bookies praying that he doesn't get the early double-up that is essential for him to make a remarkable comeback from seventh in chips," said a PartyBets spokesperson. "If Ivey achieves what punters think he can it will be the worst poker result in bookmaking history."

Buchman is tied with Ivey but has more than three times Ivey's stack. Meanwhile PartyBets didn't put much faith in Frenchman Antoine Saout winning the contest as he is 16:1 despite having nearly the same amount of chips as Ivey.

Betfair also has Moon, Ivey and Buchman listed as the top three favorites to win the 2009 Main Event as of Friday.

The key difference is that the site ranks Moon as the odds-on favorite at 4:1, Buchman second at 9:2 and Ivey in third at 6:1.

Of course the best bet would have been Ivey before the summer began. There was a point when Ivey was listed as an extreme long-shot at 175:1. That number has done nothing but go down since the 2009 WSOP began.

The 2009 WSOP final table begins tomorrow at 12:00 p.m. PST. Play will continue until heads-up when the two remaining players will go on an extended break and then return on Monday at 10 p.m. PST and then play to a winner.

Check PokerListings.com for exclusive live coverage of the final table.

Click here to see the last minute PartyBets odds and here for the Betfair odds.

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Hand Dissection – Reed Hensel at the 2009 WSOP Main Event

Abusing the money bubble has become an effective tactic in tournament poker. It is generally accepted that players should turn up the aggression as the bubble approaches because, in most cases, players will tighten up to guarantee a cash reward.

No better example of this practice came than at the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. With the money bubble looming and a payday of $21,365 in sight, short stacks began folding premium pocket pairs face up as bigger stacks applied pressure. On multiple occasions, pocket kings hit the muck pre-flop and the standard “abc” poker went completely out the window.

If you’ve been following ESPN’s coverage of this year’s Main Event, then you might recall the final hand on the bubble between Kansas pro Reed Hensel and Kia Hamadani that later created some debate among poker fanatics. With 649 players remaining and the top 648 getting paid, Hamadani was all-in for his last chip when Hensel made a play at the pot with rags to drive out the other players at the table and win the side pot. Hensel’s hand ultimately trumped Hamadani’s to secure a payday for the remaining players in the field. Hensel took some time with Poker News Daily to discuss the hand.

Hand Recap:

Blinds 2,500/5,000, ante 500

One spot before the money, Hamadani is all-in pre-flop for his last blue 500 chip. Hamadani, in early position, doesn’t peek at his hole cards and the action folds around to Hensel in the hijack. Hensel raises to 17,000 with 9h-2c. Marty Zabib calls from the small blind and Mike Nye decides to tag along from the big blind.

On a flop of Qh-6h-Qd, Zabib and Nye check and Hensel fires out a continuation bet of 20,000. The two players fold and Hensel scoops the side pot worth 51,000. Now that he’s heads-up against the short stack, Hensel tables 9h-2c. A cheerful Hamadani becomes visibly crushed as he turns over 4c-3h. The Amazon Room erupts as Hensel’s nine-high is in front and, when the nine of diamonds lands on the turn, Hamadani is left drawing dead. Hensel scoops the main pot of 4,500 and Hamadani is ousted one spot out of the money.

Poker News Daily: First, describe a little bit how this table was playing on the money bubble. Were the players being passive for the most part? Was anyone opening a high percentage of pots?

Hensel: My table was incredibly passive on the bubble. One guy folded J-J face up from the big blind to my 2.5x opening raise. I was fortunate to land the best seat at the table as well. I was in Seat 6 or 7 and the only two people that really knew how to exploit the bubble were to my direct right. This meant that for seven out of nine hands every orbit, I had position on both of them. If both of them folded, I raised and took the blinds down. If one of them opened, I could bet them with any two cards and put them in a very tough spot. I bet their raises around 30% of the time. I would have done it more, but they were folding probably more than they should have, so I was happy with taking the blinds four times per orbit.

PND: Did Hamadani’s declining stack affect your bubble strategy?

Hensel: I don’t think this had much of an effect of what I was doing. He started the day with 200,000 in chips and then got down to 30,000, where he folded every hand until the bubble hand. I guess if he had maintained a stack, it could have influenced my play more because he seemed really aggressive, so I imagine he would have wanted a piece of the free blinds as well. Everyone else at the table knew that we were really close to the money and they could look at Hamadani’s stack and see that all they had to do was wait him out, hence they became more willing to fold to my raises.

PND: I’m assuming that since you opened the betting with 9-2 offsuit, you would make this play with any two cards. Talk about the value of raising pre-flop in such a critical situation.

Hensel: It’s really common knowledge that around the bubble is the best point in a poker tournament to apply pressure by raising and taking pots down uncontested. There isn’t a tournament where this is more apparent than the Main Event. I haven’t played too many $10,000 tournaments outside of two Main Events, but I can’t imagine that in some random WPT or EPT stop people are folding A-A and K-K too often just to double their money.

Like I said earlier, a guy showed me his J-J and folded to my pre-flop open even though I had been raising four or five times an orbit. Because of this and my dream situation at the table, I simply had to raise every hand when they folded to me. The blinds were 2,500-5,000 with a 500 ante. I would raise to 12,000 or 13,000 and win 12,000 chips.  I really don’t think I got called once out of 30 or so raises. I probably ran good and didn’t run into Q-Q, K-K, or A-A, so in reality, I probably should have gotten raised all-in once or twice. The point still stands that risking 12,000 to win 12,000 is incredibly profitable when it works somewhere around 85% of the time.

PND: Zabib and Nye decided to call and take a flop. With what range of hands would you expect them to defend their blinds in this spot?

Hensel: When both solid players folded to me, I knew I was raising before I looked at my cards and they just happened to be 9-2. I decided to make it 17,000 pre-flop instead of my standard 12,000 because I really wanted them to fold so I could win the 7,500 chips and maybe get more bubble hands in if Hamadani beat me. I thought this would make it seem like I had a premium hand. I figured both Zabib and Nye would fold, but it wasn’t too surprising that they flatted.

A standard thing to do in this situation is to check every hand down through the river to help the odds that one of our three hands beats the all-in hand. However, this is not the smartest thing to do, especially when a side pot is involved. At the time, I figured Zabib had a slightly above average hand, probably a middle pair or A-J suited. I figured Nye had any two cards, as he would have the amateurish attitude of checking it down.

PND: How often are you expecting them to fold after you made a continuation bet on the flop? Explain why this play is so profitable.

Hensel: On the specific flop of Q-Q-6, I thought they would fold just about everything. I bet small for two reasons. One, I thought it would represent a strong hand and could possibly get a hand like A-6 or 7-7 to fold. Second, if one of them had a hand that they wouldn’t fold like 6-6 or Q-X, then I save myself chips because I would have shut down had either of them check-called the flop. The side pot was 51,000 and I risked 20,000 to win it, which I do probably 80% of the time. At that point, I didn’t care about the 4,500 in the main pot. It turns out that I maybe even overestimated their calling range because Nye said he folded Ah-Kh, which was a nut flush draw. If he folds this, I could see him folding Q-2 to Q-J and possibly K-Q.  He just really wanted to cash.

PND: How much did “making the money” in the WSOP Main Event mean to you? Were you playing it the same way you’d play any tournament online?

Hensel: I played the entire tournament a lot tighter than I would online. People in this tournament give up too much with a deep stack, making it kind of silly to get into leveling wars with other good players. Making the money did matter to me, but I wouldn’t have been crushed if I had bubbled. I pretty much didn’t want to go out on some crazy bluff out of the money, but I wasn’t going to pass on a +EV spot just to make it in.

PND: I’ve had people try to convince me that you only made this play because the ESPN cameras were rolling. Is there any truth to that?

Hensel: None at all. As cliché as it sounds, I didn’t even notice them during the hand.

PND: You ultimately finished in 70th place in the Main Event, collecting $90,344. How would you grade your experience over the six days?

Hensel: I had a great time in this tournament. On each of the first three days, I lost half of my stack during the first level and then spent the rest of each day grinding it back. This was emotionally exhausting and I’m glad there were a lot of off days up front or I may not have made it. Overall, though, I give myself an A+ and hope to make the final 100 again in the next few years, as I think I learned a lot about end game strategy in live tournaments.

ESPN Producer Tells About November Nine Preparations

PokerNewsDaily got the ESPN Producer Jamie Horowitz to tell about the preparations for WSOP Final Table. He tells that they have a lot to do before the grand finale.

WSOP Final Table will be played at November 7th. Play will continue until they have two remaining players in heads up. All the poker fans are eager to see who wins so ESPN needs to create the broadcast within 24 hours from the filming.

An episode within 24 hours

Jamie Horowitz tells that they have 40 HD cameras running at the Final Table along with massive amounts of labor and other equipment. To get the episode aired in time will need quite a heroic task:

“The show that you normally see takes weeks to put together. In November, they’re going to play from nine players to two on Saturday and a couple of hours in, we’ll start editing. Sunday is a full-on edit day. On Monday, we play from two down to a champion.”

Horowitz also adds that even putting up the whole show in 24 hours will be a hefty task, the story still needs to be told in a “selling” way, with all the drama and intensity of the Final Table. They need to tell a story about the two heads up finalists, that they are both winners.

Source: PokerNewsDaily

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ESPN Producer Tells About November Nine Preparations

Jason Lavallee Leads WPT Festa al Lago with 11 Players Remaining

The 2009 installment of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Festa al Lago began on Wednesday and ultimately sported a field of 275 runners after an extended registration period. Now, just 11 remain, led by Jason “StatusUp” Lavallee, who boasts a stack of nearly 4.1 million.

Taken out in 12th place and serving as the final elimination on Saturday was Steve Brecher, who won the Season VII Bay 101 Shooting Star event for just over $1 million. Brecher held pocket nines and rivered a set on a board of J-10-7-5-9. However, Jason Burt had K-Q and the same river card gave him a straight and the win in the hand. Burt owns the sixth largest stack in the room entering play on Sunday at 1.2 million and Brecher’s 12th place showing was worth $47,000.

Matt “All In At 420” Stout, a Lock Poker pro, was sent packing in 13th place on Saturday. Stout shoved on a board of J-8-3-4 with pocket tens, but ran into a set of threes belonging to Craig Crivello. Needing to hit one of the two remaining tens in the deck, Stout watched as the river came a king. Hitting the rails in 14th place was Rob Tepper, who pushed his nine big blind stack all-in pre-flop with K-2, but ran into the pocket tens of Aaron “aejones” Jones. The board came A-8-7-2-Q, which sent Tepper packing, $39,000 richer for his wear.

Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar hit the skids in 15th place. The accomplished poker pro, who won the Season VII WPT Borgata Poker Open for $1.4 million, was eliminated at the hands of Lavallee. The classic race situation featured Lavallee holding A-K of diamonds and Rajkumar boasting pocket queens. The flop came king-high and Rajkumar could not catch up, ensuring that he would not make his second WPT final table. Instead, Rajkumar banked a $39,000 consolation prize.

Here are the chip stacks of the 11 remaining players in the Festa al Lago, which emanates from the Bellagio in Las Vegas:

1. Jason Lavallee – 4,063,000
2. Freddy Deeb – 2,319,000
3. Shawn Cunix – 2,189,000
4. Kido Pham – 1,500,000
5. Tommy Vedes – 1,437,000
6. Jason Burt – 1,194,000
7. Larry Berg – 810,000
7. Chris Bjorin – 810,000
9. Richard Sciuto – 738,000
10. Aaron Jones – 679,000
11. Craig Crivello – 539,000

Jones was prominently featured on the G4 online poker reality show “2 Months, $2 Million,” which aired its season finale last week. Vedes, meanwhile, has received a bevy of face time during ESPN’s broadcast of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event, a tournament he took 19th in for $352,000. Vedes made the final table of a $1,500 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha High-Low Split Eight or Better tournament at this year’s WSOP as well, taking fifth place for $47,000. He is fresh off an 18th place effort in the WPT’s Merit Cyprus Classic for $17,000.

The money bubble burst during play on Saturday, with the top 27 on the leaderboard walking away with cash. Here’s a list of those who made the money yesterday at the Bellagio:

12. Steve Brecher – $47,710
13. Matthew Stout – $39,760
14. Robert Tepper – $39,760
15. Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar – $39,760
16. Dutch Boyd – $31,805
17. Jeff Blenkarn – $31,805
18. Matt Glantz – $31,805
19. Terry Ryan – $23,855
20. Jonas Entin – $23,855
21. Corwin Cole – $23,855
22. Lee Markholt – $23,855
23. Chad “lilholdem954” Batista – $23,855
24. Mark Seif – $23,855
25. Chris Ferguson – $23,855
26. Prahlad Friedman – $23,855
27. Markus “LURPED” Gonsalves – $23,855

The tournament will play down to its six-handed final table today and then crown a champion on Monday.

World Poker Tour Marrakech: Ludovic Lacay Leads with 17 Remaining

With the field having been cut from 416 down to 151 on Day 1, the remaining players came back to the El Saadi Casino for another ten levels of play at the World Poker Tour Marrakech main event. Some of the big names fell very early on, Annette...

End the WSOP Arms Race

Well, we’ve winnowed the WSOP Big Dance field down to nine survivors who will compete for The Bracelet in November. But one race that started earlier in the event is still going on, and presumably will continue right up until November.

I’m talking, of course, about the arms race among the various online poker sites to get their brand on the shirt and/or hat of as many of the final table participants as they can.

As you may be aware, as the field narrows in the WSOP main event, some online poker sites approach the remaining players with offers of money (cash, tournament buy-ins, etc) in exchange for advertising on the player’s shirt. Depending on the site involved and the point in the tournament, the deal may be for a single day, the remainder of the tournament, or as much as a year.

It is a bizarre bazaar, with the sites proffering their offers, the players shopping those offers to competitors, and so on. It is expensive and time-consuming for the online sites, and I’m sure they’d rather not be doing it, but they’re all but forced into the situation.

This is just craziness; no other sporting event does this. Can you imagine Nike and Calloway running around toward the end of a PGA event trying to get the board leaders to wear their hats and shirts? A giant pause in a NASCAR race while the guys winning by a bunch of laps change the patches on their firesuits?

I worked on the European Poker Tour for a year and we never had that problem. If a player came into the tournament with a sponsor, then he “danced with the girl what brung ‘im.” If he entered the tournament without a sponsor, then he didn’t have a sponsor at the final table.

Instead, at the WSOP, we have online sites competing for the attention of players who are already guaranteed six-figure paydays, and harboring legitimate dreams of much more. That means that it costs big bucks to get any traction in this marketplace. And the way in which it’s done means that the players can play the bidders against each other to get the best deal.

The current system favors exactly one tiny population: the talented and lucky few who have made it down to the final handful of tables. It certainly doesn’t favor the online sites, which are in a very costly financial arms race to sponsor these players. Nor does it favor the thousands of players who didn’t get that far in the event.

Finally, it breeds a mercenary and cynical relationship between the online sites who have sent their satellite qualifiers to the event and the players. Players blithely ignore the online sites’ terms and conditions regarding wearing the sites’ logo-wear, hoping to get a better deal in the Day 5 scrum. The online site responds by virtually ignoring its qualifiers, knowing that it will have to offer a great deal more later on if it hopes to keep deep-going qualifiers in its stable.

What’s particularly sad is that this is all completely avoidable. The WSOP could simply institute (and enforce) an EPT-like rule: every player must declare his or her allegiance (if any) at the beginning of the tournament. No changing horses in mid-stream. In fact, such a rule existed some years ago, if my memory serves. It’s high time that rule came back.

This would force the sites to compete for the players before the event began. Perhaps they’d choose to offer deals to any player who decides to play in the event, effectively providing a small rebate on the buy-in. It might well lead to more attractive WSOP packages offered by the online sites, since they’d be assured of carrying any of their qualifiers to the final table, should those qualifiers be so lucky.

Furthermore, the status quo is certainly a mess for the ESPN people. What does the TV audience think when they see Bob Smith sporting a SuperPoker shirt on Day 3, but then TopNotchPoker gear on Day 5? It makes it harder for a casual poker fan to know who’s who, and if he’s paying attention to these things, probably confuses him some. “Wasn’t that guy wearing a SuperPoker shirt in the last show?”

Here’s the thing: I know every person who sits down with his 30,000 in chips at the WSOP is thinking about reaching that final table and everything that goes with it. But the truth is that from an EV standpoint (and that’s what we poker players should think about), virtually every one of us would be better off getting a little something up front, rather than what we might get should we survive to the last three tables.

Now, having said all that, I must issue a couple of important disclaimers:

1. I am the cardroom manager at Cake Poker. We had qualifiers in the WSOP main event, though regrettably, none of them made the final nine (or anywhere near it, truth be told).

2.  The suggestions I’ve made would probably create a more opportunity for smaller sites (such as Cake Poker) compared to the 900-pound and 800-pound gorillas in the room, to wit, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker. But I claim that my proposal is good for both a large majority of the players and the poker sites. I hope that argument resonates.

One final note: I’m tickled that we knew, from the start, what logo one of the final nine would be wearing. Call me old-fashioned, but there was Phil Ivey, wearing his company’s logo on Day 1. And on Day 5. And he’ll be wearing it at the final table. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could say that about all nine?

Lee Jones is the Card Room Manager of Cake Poker. He has worked in the poker industry for over six years and been associated with professional poker for almost 20 years. He is the author of “Winning Low Limit Hold’em,” which has been in print for almost 15 years.

Antoine Saout, James Akenhead Reach WSOP Europe Main Event Final Table

Not one, but two members of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine made the final table of the WSOP Europe Main Event. Last year, Ivan Demidov accomplished the feat. This year, Antoine Saout and James Akenhead will battle for the top prize.

Akenhead nearly found his first gold WSOP bracelet in 2008, but took second in a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament and cashed for $520,000. In that event, his opponent, Grant Hinkle, was all-in holding just 10-4 against Akenhead’s A-K. However, Hinkle made four tens in the hand and became one-half of only the second set of brothers ever to win WSOP bracelets and the first to do so in the same year. Akenhead is in his backyard for the WSOP Europe festivities, as he makes his home in London. He sits with the second largest chip stack entering final table play with 1.4 million, trailing only Team PokerStars Pro member Jason Mercier’s hefty total of 3.2 million.

Saout owns the sixth largest chip stack in the WSOP Europe Main Event at 701,000. The Frenchmen is also a member of the November Nine and sponsored pro of Everest Poker. Interestingly enough, he won a $50 satellite to claim his WSOP Main Event seat. Last November, he finished sixth in a Spanish Poker Tour event in Marbella for €5,800 and promptly reached another final table in Castellon in June for €780. Saout and Akenhead are the only two non-Americans at the final table of the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas. Saout will take to the felts in Seat 8 on Thursday in London.

The November Nine has another tie to the final table, as CardPlayer Founder Barry Shulman owns the fourth largest chip stack in London at 1.1 million. He is the father of November Nine member and CardPlayer Editor Jeff Shulman, who infamously threatened to throw away the WSOP Main Event bracelet should he win it. The younger Shulman owns the third largest chip stack entering the final table at the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio in November.

Daniel Negreanu finished fifth in last year’s WSOP Europe Main Event and scooped £217,200. Now, he’ll seek his first WSOP Europe bracelet in this year’s feature tournament. Incredibly, Negreanu reached the final table in back-to-back WSOP Europe Main Events in London, but is the tournament’s short stack entering today’s finale. Negreanu, a Poker Hall of Fame nominee and four-time bracelet winner, recorded eight cashes during the 2009 WSOP, including a pair of six-figure scores in the World Championship of Omaha High-Low Eight or Better and Six-Handed Limit Hold’em.

Mercier is the chip leader entering the final table in London. The card-carrying member of Team PokerStars Pro hails from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and won a bracelet this year in a $1,500 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha event for $237,000. Mercier defeated online poker pro Steven “PiKappRaider” Burkholder in that event, which attracted 809 players. In May, Mercier won a tournament during the quarterly Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) for $86,000. Mercier sent six of the final 15 eliminated players to the rail on Wednesday to build his massive chip lead.

The final table kicks off today at 2:00pm local time. Here’s a look at the remaining players and their chip stacks:

1. Jason Mercier - 3,198,000
2. James Akenhead - 1,398,000
3. Praz Bansi - 1,160,000
4. Barry Shulman - 1,090,000
5. Markus Ristola - 784,000
6. Antoine Saout - 701,000
7. Matt Hawrilenko - 674,000
8. Chris Bjorin - 518,000
9. Daniel Negreanu - 438,000

The prizes up for grabs for the nine WSOP Europe Main Event final table members are as follows:

1st Place: £801,603
2nd Place: £495,589
3rd Place: £360,887
4th Place: £267,267
5th Place: £200,367
6th Place: £150,267
7th Place: £114,228
8th Place: £87,074
9th Place: £66,533

Matt Hawrilenko Leads WSOP Europe Main Event Entering Day 4

Two days of play remain in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event and, perched atop the leaderboard entering Wednesday’s battle is Matt Hawrilenko, a 27 year-old poker pro who goes by “Hoss-TBF” online.

Hawrilenko took down a $1 million first place prize for winning Event #56 of the 2009 WSOP in Las Vegas, a $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event. He triumphed over a final table that included Matt Waxman and Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka and owns 701,500 chips in London, the only player to eclipse the 700,000-chip plateau. Hawrilenko already has three WSOP final tables in 2009 and has quickly become one of the most feared names on the circuit. Hot on his heels is CardPlayer Magazine founder Barry Shulman, father of WSOP November Nine member Jeff Shulman. The latter was featured heavily in last night’s coverage of the 2009 Main Event on ESPN and was seated at the feature table.

Speaking of the November Nine, two of its members remain in the hunt to repeat Ivan Demidov’s miraculous feat last year. In 2008, Demidov made the final table of both the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas and the WSOP Europe Main Event in London. Antoine Saout, who hails from France, sits with the 24th largest chip stack (202,000), while England’s James Akenhead boasts the 30th biggest tally (153,500). The nine final table members in Las Vegas will take to felts on November 7th, when they’ll return to play down to two. Then, the action resumes late in the day on November 9th to determine a winner. The tournament’s finale will air on cable station ESPN on Tuesday, November 10th.

Also still in the hunt is Doyle Brunson, who was sixth in chips entering play on Tuesday. Brunson has trailed off a bit to own the 21st largest stack out of 36 remaining players. He owns 10 WSOP bracelets, tied with Johnny Chan for second most overall; the duo trails Ultimate Bet pro Phil Hellmuth’s 11. Brunson has been shut out of the winner’s circle since 2005 and will look to make a run entering the play down day in the WSOP Europe Main Event. Brunson has 246,500 chips and joining him at Table 1 today are Jason Mercier, 2009 Poker Hall of Fame nominee Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Shulman, among others.

Here are the Top 10 chip stacks remaining in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event:

1. Matt Hawrilenko – 701,500
2. Steven Fung – 648,000
3. Praz Bassi – 471,000
4. Arnauld Mattern – 469,500
5. Barry Shulman – 452,500
6. John Kabbaj – 448,500
7. Peter Gould – 409,000
8. Shandoi Demjan – 367,500
9. Keith Hawkins – 330,500
10. Eric Liu – 330,500

The rest of the field is as follows:

11. Ram Vaswarni – 322,000
12. Daniel Negreanu – 314,500
13. Chris Bjorin – 306,500
14. Thomas Bichon – 305,000
15. Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 285,000
16. Saar Wilf – 273,500
17. Teddy Sheringham – 272,500
18. Andre Akkari – 272,000
19. Tommy Pavlicek – 266,500
20. Anthony Cousineau – 257,000
21. Doyle Brunson – 246,500
22. Christian Harder – 243,000
23. Craig Burgess – 232,500
24. Antoine Saout – 202,000
25. Michael Fasco – 200,500
26. Elizabeth Lieu – 193,500
27. Markus Ristola – 157,000
28. Konstantin Buecherl – 156,500
29. Steve Zolotow – 156,500
30. James Akenhead – 153,500
31. Christian Kruel – 140,000
32. Jason Mercier – 125,000
33. Oyvind Riisem – 113,500
34. Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott – 80,000
35. David Docherty – 71,500
36. Men Nguyen – 63,000

The field will be chopped to nine today and the action is already underway from the Casino at the Empire. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WSOP Europe coverage.

World Series of Poker Europe Main Event Day 3: Hawrilenko Leads Final 36

The World Series of Poker-Europe Main Event reached the money Tuesday night, each of the 36 remaining players guaranteed at least £21,142 for their efforts. Though the original plan was to play down to 27, WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel made...

The players are back from their dinner break!

As the 94 remaining players take their seats, some looking focused and others looking like they may have got a bit freaky with their servings of chicken dumplings, the introduction of antes is announced alongside the new blind levels of 150-300.

The players are back from their dinner break!

As the 94 remaining players take their seats, some looking focused and others looking like they may have got a bit freaky with their servings of chicken dumplings, the introduction of antes is announced alongside the new blind levels of 150-300.

Pokerstars European Poker Tour Barcelona Final Table: Carter Phillips Wins €850,000

The eight remaining players returned today to see who would be crowned the champion of the 2009 PokerStars.net European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event. Along with taking home the coveted trophy, the winner would receive a hefty payday to the tune...