Poker Player Blog

Well another week of the 2010 WSOP is behind us and we continue to enjoy some fabulous poker. As we go into the mid way break we have completed 57 events. Here’s an update on events 23 through 33.

Event 23 was the $2,500 Limit Hold’em six handed game and Dutch Boyd of the United States took it home with a J 10 against Brian Meinders also a native who was holding an A 8. The hand and a little good old fashioned poker gave Boyd $234,065 to put in the bank.

Event 24 was the much anticipated $1,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em event was taken by Jeffrey Tebben who landed a hefty $503, 389 bank roll. Tebben’s K2 was enough to take JD McNamara’s pair of jacks in the head to head.

For the 25^th event the pros stepped out. It was a $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low or Better Championship with Sam Fartha taking home the nearly half million in prize money. He did it with a J 9 7 4. But it was a close one runner up James Dempsey was holding a J 8 6 5. Talk about weird deals.

It was William Haydon of America was the main man in event 26. The $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Six Handed was won with an A J. Jeffrey Papola was runner up with his A 6. Things were close but Haydon went home with the $630,031 in prize money not to mention a pretty gold bracelet.

Event 27 was the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-98 event was taken by David Warga. He won the $208,682 over Maxwell Troy.

In Event 28 $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha and Miguel Proulx of Canada took home a nice new piece of jewelry as well just over $315,000. This victory was quickly followed by Matt Keikoan’s win over Daniel Idema in the $10,000 Limit Hold ‘em championship. The last time Keikoan got a bracelet was 2008 so this made for a nice comeback after last year’s early finish.

The winners for events 30, 31 and 32 have yet to be posted but winner of event 33, the $2,500 Pot Limit Hold em/Omaha, was Jose-Luis Veladorwith a low hand of 7 6. Hey who cares right? He got to take home over a quarter million dollars. It’s not about the hands it’s about the skills.

It’s the second full week of play at the WSOP 2010 main event and we still have five more weeks of professional poker playing to enjoy. I’ll get right to this week’s results.

The week started event 16 or No Limit Hold’em six handed with a three day schedule and a $1,500 buy in.  Over 1,600 players took part with Carter Philips of North Carolina taking home the first place win. Samuel Gerber of Switzerland came in second and Craig Bergeron of Michigan coming home third. It’s always nice to hear that some money is going to the car making state right?

Event 17 began Tuesday and consisted of a $5,000 buy in for a game of good old fashioned no limits. It was Jason Dewitt that pocketed the $818,959 in first place earnings and Sam Trickett of England who took home the half million dollar second place finish. Jeff Williams of Georgia took home a healthy $328,762 for third place.

The buy in for Limit Hold em event 18 which started on Wednesday had a $2,000 buy in and Americans taking first, second and third place. It was Eric Buchman of Hewlett, NY that took home the bracelet. Brent Courson from poor old Michigan came in second and Steven Hustoft of Washington who came in third.

Also on Wednesday the 2-7 Draw Lowball no limit world championship began with a hefty $10,000 buy in and 101 entrants. David Baker of Michigan took home the bracelet as well as $294,321 in earnings.  Eric Cloutier of Louisiana came in second and George Danzer of Germany came in third.

Thursday began events 20 and 21. The Pot Limit Omaha with its $1,500 buy in went to John Barch of Texas. Klinghammer Thibaut of France got second place and Trai Dang of California came in third. There were a total of 885 entries. The Seven Card Stud event had 408 entries with Richard Ashby of Great Britain taking home first place. Christine Pietsch of California came in second and Darren Shebell of Las Vegas took third place.

As I write this on Sunday evening the results for events 22, 23, 24, and 25 are not yet known. 22 began Friday with the Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship. Event 23 is a four day Limit Hold’em tournament and event 24 in a No Limit hold’em game. The Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better World Championship started Saturday night and will go on for three days.

We are enjoying the mixed results so far and continue to wish all the players great cards and loose opponents.

It was quite a week in poker history for the first full week of the WSOP 2010 poker tournament. Here’s a run down of the results.

Praz Bansi from London, England took event 5’s No limit Hold ‘em tournament win home with a pretty new bracelet and over half a million in earnings. Vincent Jacques, the Canadian came in second and Alaska native Calvin Kordus came in third.

The three day No Limit Hold’em  Shootout started on Tuesday and lasted for three days. Maximum number of players was set at 2,000. The $5,000 buy in didn’t stop 358 from participating. This one went to the Americans with Joshua Tieman of Chicago, IL taking home the win with a total of $441,692.000 in his pocket. Second and third place went to the Brits with Neil Channing and Stuart Rutter placing respectively.

Event 7 was the 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball had a $2,500 buy in and had Americans (aka the home team for this blog) placing in all but two of the first 20 slots. Despite gallant efforts by Don Mcnamara who came in third and Raphael Zimmerman who placed second, Peter Gelencser from Budapest Hungary went home with the win and over $180,000 for the effort. Wonder what that is in Hungarian bucks?

Another No Limit Hold em was event number eight with a “low” $1,500 buy in. Pascal LeFrancois from Canada took home the $568,974.00 in first place winnings. Max Steinberg of Oakland, CA came in second and Kevin Howe from Glasgow, Scotland came in third. Quite a mixed bag. But with a quarter million being the third place winnings I wouldn’t really care as long as I placed in the top three right?

Events nine and ten got underway on Thursday June 3. The Pot Limit Hold ‘em three day event had a $1,500 buy in.  British player James Dempsey won this bracelet with Steve Chanthabouasy and JJ Liu from the United States taking second and third place. Event ten was the seven card stud world championship with a hefty $10,000 buy in. This three day event was an American win with Men Nguyen taking first, Brandon Adams of England taken second and Steve Billirakis of Illinois brining up the rear.

On Friday it was events 11 and 12 No Limit and Limit hold’em both with $1,500 buy ins. It was kiwi Simon Watt of New Zealand who took home first place and $614,248.00 in the No-Limit event and Matthew Matros of Brooklyn, NY who put $189,870 as well as a gold bracelet in the bank after the Limit Hold’em game.

Saturday began with another No limit Hold ‘em game with the $1,000 buy in attracting 3,042 players. Steven Gee of Sacramento took home that one. Saturday evening was the 2-7 Draw Lowball no limit tournament with another California Yan Chen winning the bracelet.

The week ended with the seven card stud hi low split 8 world championship taking place Sunday night with a $10,000 buy in. Americans took first, second and third place with Frank Kassela of Memphis coming first, Allen Kessler of Las Vegas coming second and Jennifer Harman of Reno taking third place.

This week saw the beginning games of the 2010 WSOP main event and as I write this on Sunday evening we are already into Event four of the most prestigious tournament around. With 57 bracelets to distribute, this is only the beginning. Here’s a recap of the action so far.

Friday was opening day and say 722 players sat down for the beginning of the $500 casino employee No limit Hold ‘Em tournament. By the close of action that first day there were only 53 that made it into the second day of play. 2008 winner Jonathan —– was one of my favorites and was in the high chip count with Kent Washington and ——-. Washington was far ahead of the others and looked good going back into battle. In the end it was Hoai Pham and his pocket Aces that took home the bracelet as his heads up opponent Arthur Vea lost it with a pair of fours. Pham went home with over $70,000.

Friday evening saw the beginning of the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship when the poker heavyweights had their first shot at a bracelet. With multi game play, the first day saw only six of the 116 players going down. Swedish player Erik Sagstrom closed out the first day on top with over 329,000 chips. At the end of day two of play Sagstrom dropped to fifth position with the new leader Kirk Morrison holding on to a healthy 741,000 chips. Before thee dinner break on day three there are approximately 35 players left.

Event Three started Saturday. It is a $1,000 buy in No Limit Holdem. Day one came to a close with the following chip leads:

Terry Fleischer 119,300

Nancy Todd Tyner 103,000

Jerrymee Jose 96,100

Drew Crawford 95,000

Anders Taylor 93,200

The day started with 2061 players and ended with around 208 going through to the second day of play. They are still playing as I write this so we’ll check tomorrow for chip counts.

Event Four started today (Sunday) and is $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo.  Thang Luu is the obvious favorite for the event with two previous wins and one second in the last three years. There are 780 players in today’s play. We’ll check back on this game tomorrow.

Its starting to get good.

Fred Berger wins in Louisiana: Fred Berger, who won a WSOP bracelet in heads up play against Chris “Jesus” Ferguson eight years ago, took home a WSOP ring this past Wednesday evening winning the Harrah Bayou Poker Challenge in New Orleans. He won against Mike Beasley, earning nearly $200,000 in winnings, the coveted WSOP ring and a seat in the WSOP main event that starts next Friday. That’s worth $10,000 and hopefully brings this decade long professional tournament player continued success.

Social networking and poker honcho matchup: Facebook signed a contract this past week with Zynga Game Network, the gaming software gurus, for a five year partnership that lets Zynga promote their games on Facebook. Facebook games will stick around such as the popular “Farmville” and the annoying “Mafia Wars” but a few more Zynga games will be added to the pot. The company’s poker game has a total of 28 million users to date and this commitment to work together to offer social networking gaming looks to benefit both FB and Zynga.

Poker Stars Main Event: The Poker Stars Asian Pacific Poker Tour came to a close with Victorino Torres coming out the victor. There were a total of 342 players from 40 different countries in the tournament that held its main event in Macau. Torres is an American and brought home over three million Hong Kong dollars for his trouble on this working vacation. That’s about $400,000 and a chance to defend the title next season.

Frank Gets Frank on Gambling Legislation: More discussion will take place on the proposed legalization (and thus taxing and regulation) of internet gambling in July. The congressman in charge of the discussion will be Barney Frank , head of the House Ways and Means Commission.  There are 69 co-sponsors for the bill and the Poker Player’s Alliance is heading up the lobbying campaign. The hope is the poker world will get some say on what goes into the final bill and that poker will not be unfairly targeted by the reform.

On a lighter note…

This year’s WSOP main event will hand out a total of 57 coveted bracelets to the winners of their games. The difference this season is that the bracelet will be personalized for each winner. The designer of the bracelet is Steven Soffa, a well known jewelry artist, who will be at the poker tournament to engrave the pieces and add details from the game each player wins. This is a first for WSOP and may be the beginning of a new bracelet tradition.

AB and UB poker still having security issues: Cerius Poker has reported to the media and gaming agencies that they have suffered under the weight of lousy encryption codes. Apparently the issues have been fixed but poker gurus are suggesting hardwiring your pc to the internet for at least a little longer until the all clear is officially and finally sounded.

WPT Grand Prix Paris Tournament: Theo Jorgensen takes home over $800,000 after the close of the tournament on May 15, 2010. There were a total of 247 players and the action took place over seven days. The main game was Holdem. The final table included Antoine Amourette who came in second and Per Linde who came in third.

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Act is set to go into law June 1^st despite attempts from the Poker Players Alliance to have poker be exempted from the legislation. This means online gambling will be regulated to increase national revenue and boost employment at the expense of online gamers. The PPA explains that peer to peer play should not be affected by the law.

Faraz Jakar is named player of the year by the WPT on account of his 1.42 million in winnings, two final tables and several cash wins. His third place finish at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic back in December 2009 gave him the points he needed to snag the title. Jakar takes the title from last year’s recipient Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier.

Thuy Doan fundraising tournament to take place May 16 over at Full Tilt Poker. The money raised will go towards paying for the young female player’s prosthetic leg, one of the many problems she has encountered since contracting cancer. Buy ins start at $100.

The WSOP Poker Player’s Championship is scheduled for May 28 and will take place over five days. There’s a $50,000 buy in to ensure only the best of the best get to play. Every type of poker play will be on the tables including Stud, Omaha, Holdem and Razz.

And of course, the world prepares for the World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas to begin May 27^th. Just a few more days until things start to get serious.

The World Series of Poker main event begins this May 27 at the Rio All Suite and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada and will last until July 17 and the final heads up game. The WSOP Main Event tournament began back in 1970 and has been a staple of the poker industry for four decades. Winning a WSOP bracelet remains the top bragging rights between professional players.

Player numbers differ every year but usually means the winner of the main event has to beat out hundreds often thousands of players to win the top money prize and bracelet. The 2010 prize money is going to hit the many millions mark and with a new $50,000 championship buy in event, I looks to be addictive viewing. Usually the tournament culminates with a $10,000 buy in to a no limit Texas Hold ‘em event.

2010 WSOP main event will include the distribution of 57 WSOP bracelets. This means there are a total of 57 different events taking place in this year’s tournament. These poker player gems are made of solid gold and often features diamonds as well as the details of that year’s WSOP tournament. Bulky in their design, WSOP bracelet are meant to show weight and prestige among your poker playing peers and provide players with a sense of history.

A number of well known players will be looking for another bracelet at this year’s event including Phil Helmuth who currently holds the record of 11 bracelets, Doyle Brunson one of the older players on the circuit and Erik Seidel who spends his time working on his virtual game.

The 2010 WSOP main event will determine who’s who in the world of professional poker for the next year. It will introduce budding young players and retire world old professionals.  It is the poker tournament by which all others are measured and with the new additions to this year’s schedule, 2010 looks to be a killer year in the poker playing world.

Every time I turned around this week I found out about another legal issue on the poker circuit. Here’s a recap of the week’s highlights.

Massachusetts politicians have been debating a bill to tax and regulate online poker in the state to boost the economy. They are trying to make tax gambling revenue on online sites while simultaneously promoting the opening of casinos and slot machines in the state. This will stimulate growth that’s for sure but taxing online poker has put many up in arms.

The Absolute Poker scandal resurfaced this week after a pro blogger revealed additional files and data that pointed to Scott Tom, co-founder of the online poker company as the responsible party who embezzled over $800,000 during online poker tournaments using fake accounts. Joe Norton, the other founder of the company, had admitted back in 2007 there had been a breach in security from someone inside the company. The blogger that broke the story, Hayley Hintze, has been threatened with two lawsuits by the online poker giant for liable.

Full Tilt Poker faces issues with both the state of Kansas and the government. An earlier lawsuit regarding the payment of compensation to poker game losers in the state will probably come to nothing as the Full Tilt gaming site is a peer to peer site. The company itself did not play against the residents of Kansas who are upset at losing. The suit did apparently spark a grand jury investigation of the company but that remains a rumor on the poker circuit rather than a hard fact.

It seems the week has ended on a high note with the legal determining that poker is a “mind sport” and thus on a level with chess and bridge. The announcement by the International Federation of Poker allows the game of poker to join the other mind skill games at the IMSA World Mind Sport Games which will take place in London at the same time as the 2012 Olympics.

It’s important for poker players, especially online players, to keep up to date on possible changes to poker laws, issues of honesty with poker game producers and possible corruption on sites. To enjoy a safe, fair game of poker, the player must make smart choices. Being informed is the only way.