After a few hands we lost Player of the Year Ben Lamb to aggressive play from Czech Republic’s own Martin Staszko who went for a hip lead as fast as he could. And for a long time he held onto it, making Heinz a dangerously low short stack on several occasions. Half way through the battle most would have predicted Staszko the winner.

But laid back Pius Heinz wasn’t giving up. A few well paced bets and his chip count began to rise until he was nearly level with Staszko. For the next few hours, Staszko and Heinz traded the chip lead without incident and folks began to think the pay would never end. Both players were stubborn, aggressive and not about to give up that coveted bracelet.

In the last hour of play, Heinz’s chip lead began to dominate and Staszko had to go with several all-in plays. With giant pots of $30 and $40 million it seemed that Staszko was on his way out. But some how he just kept going and the audience, the commentators and the players began to show signs of fatigue.

Around two in the morning, Heinz’s chip count was up to 162,300,00 and Staszko was down to $44 million. He went all in with 10-7 and the crowd reignited into an anticipatory roar. Heinz called and laid out his cards: A-K. Staszko had to get lucky. The flop was 5-2-9 and things started to look grim. With a Jack on the turn it was all over. No-one cared what the river card was because Pius Heinz’s victory was secured.

A humble Heinz shook hands with a gracious runner up and claimed his place in poker history. It was a heck of a ride and I for one, cannot wait for next year.

After the break all goes well until Staszko goes up against Heinz once again. The pot sits at $40 million and its Heinz’s move. Everyone is waiting. We are over four minutes. Heinz folds. Staszko moves up to $58,400,00 chips. Is he making a comeback? Going for Heinz rather than short stacker Lamb?

After several hands Lamb goes all in against Giannetti who has pocket jacks. Lamb has A-7. Flop is K-5-9. Turn is 4 and the river is a 9. Lamb is still in the game. Gianetti is short stack. With 6,700,00 chips. Giannetti goes all in on the last hand. Staszko calls. Staszko has Q-2 and Giannetti has Q-10. Flop is 3-8-4. Turn is a 4 and the river is a jack and Giannetti wins.

Giannetti goes in once more against Lamb who is holding pocket kings to Giannetti’s A-3. The flop is Q-K-K!!! Lamb does it again with four kings and we say goodbye To Giannetti and his sunglasses. Its over for the night.

As we head into the final three here’s how things stand:

Pius Heinz 107,800,00

Ben Lamb 55,400,00

Martin Staszko 42,700,00

Its going to be a heck of a night on Tuesday!

2011 WSOP Main Event: Final Table Day One Basics

Well if you want a blow by blow account of the first day of the WSOP final table, head over to my other blog at www.fullofpoker.com Here I’m just going to show you how we got from nine to four before the dinner break. As I write we are one all-in away from the final three.

Here’s how it went down:

Lamb calls 9 million and Holden goes all in. Lamb has AK and Holden has AJ. The flop is 9-8-A. The turn is a Q giving Lamb the hand. Sam Holden leaves the table. Ben Lamb increase his stack by sixty percent. We are down to eight players.

Bounahra calls on the button and O’Dea goes all in. Bounahra folds. Lamb takes an easy pot on the button. Heinz takes a few more chips off Makiievski. Things are getting tight and I expect to see some players going out soon. Makiievski goes all in against Heinz. Flop gives Makiievski two pair but on the turn Heinz gets 3 nines! River is a 7 and we say goodbye to the Ukrainian.

Giannetti plays a few good hands and ends up just three million chips behind first place Pius Heinz. Out of nowhere Bounahra goes all in against Staszko. The flop is 6-7-2. The turn is a King and the river is a 6. Bounahra needed a five. We say goodbye to the Belize cheering section and a small nation’s poker hero. This makes O’Dea the short stack with Phil Collins not too far behind.

Collins moves all-in to Lamb who folds giving Collins some much needed chips. Lamb then moves all-in against O’Dea. This could be an elimination hand. O’Dea is taking a long time to make a decision. His bracelet winning father is watching him from the audience. He calls! The flop is 6-J-J. Turn is a 4. River is8! Ben Lamb wins! O’Dea becomes the short short stack. Next level will end him without a major change of luck.

O’Dea goes all-in right after the break with his stack of $2.2 million. He goes up against Staszko with pocket eights. Flop is 9-5-10. Turn is a jack. River is a 2. Its time to say goodbye to the Irishman. He certainly put up a good fight. What a difference a couple of hours can make.

Next hand Collins goes all-in with $16 million against Heinz. Heinz calls with pocket nines. Collins has A-7. The flop is 6-5-4. Turn is a 9! The river is a 7 and right after we lose O’Dea we lose Phil Collins.

As we go into the dinner break here’s how things stand:

1. Pius Heinz 85,500,00
2. Matt Giannetti 50,325,00
3. Ben Lamb 46,300,00
4. Martin Staszko 23,900,00

Event 46: No Limit Hold’em/Six Handed Championship—Joe Ebanks of Stow, Ohio brought home the six handed event as well as over $1.1 million in prize money. Brit Chris Moormon took second place and Bertrand Grospellier of France came in third. There were 474 original entries with a $10,000 buy in.

Event 47: Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better—From the 450 entries Owais Ahmed of California took home a respectable quarter million for coming in first place. Michael Mizrachi almost last year’s winner almost won again. In this event he came in second but got $158K to take home so hey…

Event 48: No Limit Hold’em—Everyone’s favorite game. This event had a $1,500 buy in and attracted a whopping 2,713 players to the tables. Athanasios Polychronopoulos of New York state got a bracelet and $650K for his trouble. Heads up opponent Simon Charette of Canada took home $400K. Not bad for two days work.

Event 49: 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball—Just over 300 players took their chance at this specialty game and Leo Martin of Las Vegas was certainly glad he did. He won the title after heads up play with a fellow Las Vegas resident Justin Bonomo. David Bach of Georgia came in third.

Event 50: Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em—France took home the gold bracelet in this event. Antonin Teisseire triumphed in heads up play against Darryl Ronconi of Illinois. Between the two of them they earned a nice $1.3 million. There were 817 entries and Adam Geyer of Texas came in third.

Event 51: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better—David Singontiko of Chatsworth, California took home $268K for his first place win in the event that had 946 entrants and a $1,500 buy-in. Canadian Michael Yee of Ontario, Canada took second place with Jeffrey Gibralter of Texas bringing up the rear.

Event 52: Mixed Hold’em (Limit/No Limit)—Americans took all five of the top ranks in this game that had 580 original entrants. It was Matt Matros, 34, of Brooklyn who came out on top after heads up play with Jonathan Lane. This was Matros’ second bracelet win and took home $300K as well.

Event 53: Ladies No-Limit Hold’em Championship—A popular event here, not to mention a political one. With almost a million in prize money, there were 1,055 original entrants. Marsha Wolak of Florida won the bracelet. Karina Jett came in second and Carol Tomlinson came in third. Wolak was dubbed the “Poker Queen” after her performance.

Event 54: No-Limit Hold’em—a nice mix of nationalities fill the first five places in this results table but with 4,576 original players its no wonder. Maxim Lykov of Russia came in first, Dror Michaelo of California came in second, Warren Wooldridge of London took home third, Ren Ho Zang of Canada took fourth place and Harold Olsen of Norway came in fifth.

Event 55: The Poker Player’s Championship—What a great line up for this game that had only 128 entries. That could be because of the 50K buy-in; just a guess. Phil Hellmuth of bracelet and big mouth fame lost first place to Brian Rast of Las Vegas. But its all okay as Rast took home $1.7 million and Hellmuth took home $1 million. Can’t really complain about second place right?

But I’m sure he will.

No extra room for gabbing so here goes…

Event #18: No Limit Hold’em—3,157 original players came down to Foster Hays of Dallas and Casey Kelton of Alaska with Hays taking home the bracelet and a lovely $735,400 for his hard work. There was a buy in of $1,500.

Event #19: Two personal favorites took home first and second place in this six handed event that has 354 original players and a buy in of $2,500. It was Darren Woods of England that took home the bracelet after heads up play with Stephanie Nguyen of California.

Event #20: No-Limit Hold’em—Oh we just love our hold’em don’t we? This time it was Jason Somerville of New York that loved it the most winning heads up lay against Yashar Darian of New Jersey. Somerville took home $493,091 for his trouble. Almost half a million for two days work; must be nice. There were 3,175 original entries.

Event #21: Seven Card Stud Championship—Bertrand Grospellier of Paris, France took home $331,639 and a bracelet after heads up play with Steve Landfish of Vermont. There were a 126 players and a buy in of $10,000. Not for the faint hearted.

Event #22: Pot Limit Omaha—a $1,500 buy in did not deter 1,071 players for a two day Omaha extravaganza. France took home the bracelet and almost $300K after Elie Payan triumphed in heads up play against Rafeal Kibrit of Illinois. David Sands of Las Vegas came in third.

Event#23: Eight Game Mix—489 original players boiled down to heads up play between John Monette of California and Eric Buchman of New York. Monette grabbed the bracelet and an extra 100 grand for first place. Buchman enjoyed $171,855 for his trouble. There was a $2,500 buy in and a prize pool of $1,112,475.

Event#24: No-Limit Hold’em Shootout—$1.8 million in prize money didn’t really match the scant 387 entries but Mark Radoja of Ontario really doesn’t care because he took home $436,568 of it not to mention a bracelet. A buy in of $5,000 probably kept the numbers down. Jeffrey Gross of Ann Arbor enjoyed the heads up play and Nicolas Fierrogottner of Chile took home third place.

Event#25: Seven Card Stud Hi-Low or Better—a relatively small (and I do mean relative) prize pool of $818,100 marked this annual event which had 606 original entries and a $1,500 buy in. Chris Viox enjoyed heads up play with already bracelet winner Mike Sexton. This time it was Viox who took home the bling as well as a nice $200,459 to put in the bank.

Event #26: No Limit Hold’em Six Handed—1,378 original entries came down to Oleskii Kovalchuk of the Ukraine and Ionel Anton of Bucharest. Kovalchuk came away with the bracelet and a cool $689,739 for his trouble. Second place earnings of $428,140 weren’t too bad either. I mean I’d take it.

Event #27: Limit Hold’em Championship—152 original entries for this $10,000 buy in event has been reduced to a single winner Daniel Idema of Vancouver who took home a delicious $378,642.00. WSOP official reports say this was a tough event and Idema played the toughest. Matthew Gallin of Las Vegas lost in heads up play and Barry Greenstein of California came in third.

Event #28: No Limit Holdem—there were 2,500 original entries for this one with a buy in of $1,500. It was Andy Frankenberger of New York who took home the first place prize of $599,153 after heads up play with Joshua Evans of Plano, Texas.

Event #28: No Limit Holdem—there were 2,500 original entries for this one with a buy in of $1,500. It was Andy Frankenberger of New York who took home the first place prize of $599,153 after heads up play with Joshua Evans of Plano, Texas.

Event #29: $2,500 10-Game Mix / Six Handed—we are at heads up play on Day four of this event that had 431 entries. Left are Brian Haveson and Chris Lee with Haveson’s chip stack diminishing by the minute. I’m calling this one early for Chris Lee.

Event #30: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship—the $3.3 million prize pool reflects the 3,752 entries for the Seniors No Limit. Walter Shawne has a comfortable chip lead but just a few hands could change it to Stephen Kreig of California or third place chip count Andrew Bradshaw of England.

Event #31: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha—Its day three of the Omaha event and there’s just 22 players left in the game. Brock Parker and Ben Lamb are fighting their way up to Sam Stein’s chip lead. What will the morning bring? A $3,000 buy in and 685 entries make this an interesting game. 22 left and almost two million to give away.

Event #32: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em—225 players left out of the original 2,828. This popular event has a prize pool of nearly four million dollars. So remember more players means longer play but also much much more money. Talk about motivation. Carter Gill of Oregon holds the chip lead.

Event #33: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship—105 of the 168 original entries left with Gary Benson holding the chip count Sunday night. A nice little prize pool of $1,579,200.00 awaits the finishers.

Event #34: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em— this is the first day of play for the latest game of hold em. At this point there’s no official numbers on the WSOP website but Dwyte Pilgrim holds the top of the chip count board.

So we all know the 2010 WSOP in Vegas is pretty much over except for that final televised table in November. Here’s a little background on those final nine players.

Filippo Candio: 25, Italy. Recent credits include his win at the 2009 Italian Pro Championship and past sponsorship from PokerStars.net. Considered a strong favorite by those actually watching him play in the casino during this year’s tournament.

Joseph Cheong: USA. Recently came first at the Harrah’s No Limit Holdem event back in March and has been on the professional circuit for a few years.

John Dolan: 24, USA. First two place finishes to his name and 14 money wins makes Dolan a viable contender for that final gold bracelet. He hails from Florida and usually does his winning online.

Jonathan Duhamel: 22, Quebec.  Has placed or won series money in professional tournaments since 2008. With two cash wins from the 2010 WSOP, let’s hope the third time is a charm for this young but talented player.

Matthew Jarvis: 26, Canada. Despite playing poker for the last six years, this is Jarvis’ first final table. A relative unknown Jarvis has dreamed of this day for years. Let’s hope all that wishing comes true.

Michael Mizrachi: 29, USA. Known as the Grinder on the professional circuit, Mizrachi has already won during this year’s WSOP tournament and had a heads up battle. He seems to be playing at full strength this year. Poker has been a passion for Mizrachi since he was a young child so let’s hope the years of practice pay off.

Soi Nguyen: 37, USA. A non professional and the oldest of the final nine. Ngyuen has no professional record to speak of so could be considered the long shot in this one.

John Racener: 24, USA. A few wins in the past but nothing that compares to the final nine at the WSOP. Racener has been around for a few years and has done well in the circuit tournaments. Let’s see how things pan out for him in late fall.

Jason Senti: 25, USA. A professional player and instructor, Senti is well known in the online casino world. In real life Senti won event 29 in last year’s WSOP.

Personally I favor Mizrachi for this one. He’s having quite a tournament with a couple of close ones, a few heads up and even a bracelet. He’s on a roll and if he doesn’t lose that energy or edge while he waits four months to get back at his opponents, it may be his year to shine.

But then, they all have four months to perfect their poker skills so in the end it’s still anyone’s game.

And that’s the fun thing about poker right?

This data is compiled from the WSOP home page and Pokernews.com

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.

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:

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.