With a $50 000 buy-in and major prizes, event 39 attracts almost Main Event attention
Play in the World Series of Poker tournaments continued this week, but it was the H.O.R.S.E. (Hold'em, Omaha, Razz, Stud Hi and Stud Hi/Lo) competition that everyone was watching. With a $50 000 buy-in, a mixed game format, massive prizes and top names this contest almost rivals the Main Event in spectator and publicity terms.
This year's event has a five day timeframe and as we went to press day 3 had been completed and 21 of the original 148 starters had survived. With a main prize of $2 276 832, no quarter was being asked or given by the many professionals who bellied up to the tables each day, playing at the top of their skills. Online poker.
Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, Darrell 'Gigabet' Dicken, John Phan, Carlos Mortenson, Chau Giang, Thor Hansen, Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson, Mike 'The Mouth' Matusow, Tony G, Barry Greenstein and many others started day one, with the field down to 127 by day 2 and Eli Elezra holding command of the leader board with 561 000 in chips.
Notable departures on Day 1 included Josh Arieh, Jeffrey Lisandro, Nick Schulman, Sam Farha, Mark Vos and 10-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan, together with Andy Black, Lyle Berman and David Pham.
By the end of Day 2 there were only 52 players left, and Elezra in the top ten in chips, although he had slipped to number 3 on the leaderboard. Among the big names sent packing were TJ Cloutier and Doyle Brunson. They were joined at the rail later by Mickey Appleman, Patrik Antonius, Ted Forrest, Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi, Howard Lederer, Darell 'Gigabet' Dicken, Marco Traniello, woman poker babe Jennifer Harman Traniello and Chris Ferguson.
At one stage, as players exited and tables were rearranged, one table sported Eli Elezra, Erik Seidel, Phil Hellmuth, Greg Raymer, Chad Brown, woman poker player Cyndy Violette, Chip Reese, and Carlos Mortensen, representing the history of 3 world championships, 26 bracelets and over $39 million in career earnings!
Day 3 of the H.O.R.S.E. whittled the field down even further - to 21 players at the close of play. Amnon Filippi is the top man in chip counts on 2 343 000, pursued by Kenny Tran (1 959 000) and Bruno Fitoussi (1 248 000)....and two days of tough poker still lie ahead.
Dewey Tomko, David Singer (who also made last year's final table in this event), Freddy Deeb, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Gabe Kaplan, Greg Raymer and Daniel Negreanu are still in contention. Download poker wallpapers.
Day 3 eliminations have included Phil Hellmuth (who fell in the last hour of the day's play), Huck Seed, Eli Elezra, John Juanda, Isabelle Mercier, Erick Lindgren, Allen Cunningham, Phil Ivey, Annie Duke, Erik Seidel, Scotty Nguyen, David Williams, David Sklansky, Tuan Le, Toto Leonidas, Mike Wattel and Cyndy Violette. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more updates.
640 entrants & women poker players signed up for the $5 000 No Limit Hold 'Em poker tournament in the World Series of Poker over the weekend at the Rio in Las Vegas, creating a seriously large prize-pool that would eventually cough up a main prize worth $730 740 after three days of hard and competitive poker.
By the second day the field was down to 85, and of those only 63 made the money bubble and cashed...and only nine of those made it to a largely experienced final table where Karga Holt held an imposing chip lead on 1 211 000, with the closest competition young gun James Mackey (21) on 1 074 000 and the low man on the chip count Michael Binger on 240 000. Download poker wallpapers.
The final table event was one of those selected for webcasting on a one hour delay, and was therefore held before a restricted live audience in the Bluff tent. Play online poker.
Hand 16 saw the first elimination when Michael Gracz moved all in and was called by James Mackey, with pocket queens. Gracz tabled nines and was on his way to the rail in ninth place after the board brought only another queen for Mackey instead. Play route 66 poker.
A confident and aggressive young Mackey dominated the game and built up a significant chip lead as it progressed, with Tex Barch the next to exit, eliminated by Stuart Fox in eighth place. European pro and WSOP bracelet holder Jan Sorensen followed after a bad beat from Michael Binger, pushing back his chair in seventh place. Play $500 match poker bonus.
Mackey was in action again soon after, in a confrontation with Nick Schulman that saw the young player raise from the small blind, only to have Schulman move all in. Mackey made the call with A-10 off, and was ahead of Schulman's A-5. Once the board blanked for both players, Schulman was on his way to the door in sixth place, collecting the first of the six figure checks at $108 457 and giving Mackey an even bigger lead in the game. Women poker.
The original chip leader, Karga Holt had a poor run of luck and was eventually taken down in fifth place on $140 091 after clashing with Binger. After that, it took less than thirty hands to decide the game in quick and expert poker from the remaining four players. Mackey took down William McMahon in the number 4 slot ($194 319) and then went on to eliminate third placed Binger ($295 245) from a commanding 3 to 1 chip lead. Online poker.
Four hands after that the Mackey vs. Fox heads up was all over, too as an aggressive Mackey moved all in. Fox held K-4, and it led Mackey's 10-2. The flop missed both, but the turn gave the lead to Mackey and, after another ten arrived on the river, the young gun claimed the victory, the bracelet....and a giant of a main prize worth $730 740. Second placed Fox did well out of the generous prize-pool, too - his take-home was a check for $448 892. Stay tuned to our poker blog for updates.
While no bracelets were awarded at the World Series of Poker yesterday, there was plenty of action, as one tournament played down to a final table and two events began.
Chan looking to nab number 11 Johnny Chan, who was tied with Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson with 10 career WSOP bracelets until Hellmuth won his 11th on Monday, sits in fourth chip position with 23 players remaining in Event # 23, a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha poker tournament.
The poker tournament will resume at 2 p.m. PST today and will play until a winner is determined.
Scott Clements, who won a bracelet in Omaha Hi-Low last year, leads the field with $248,000 chips. Dau Ly is second with $187,000, with Chan in fourth with $116,000. Download poker wallpapers.
Other notable contenders include Eric "Rizen" Lynch (sixth; $97,500) and Andrew Black (13th; $54,000). Play online poker.
Schulman makes first WSOP final table Nick Schulman, who broke onto the scene by winning over $2.1 million on the World Poker Tour at the 2005 World Poker Finals at Foxwoods, makes his first WSOP final table appearance today in Event #21, a $5,000 No Limit Hold'em event. But it's not going to be easy for Schulman. He will face one of the most talented final tables this year's Series has produced.
Schulman is in third position with just over $1 million chips. Karga Holt leads the field with just over $1.2 million, with James Mackey in second. Play route 66 poker.
Stuart Fox, who made two WSOP final tables last year, is in fourth with $718,000. Tex Barch, who was third in the 2005 Main Event, is in fifth with $709,000. Michael Gracz, a bracelet winner in 2005 who is making his second final table of this year's Series, is in sixth with $534,000, two-time bracelet winner Jan Sorensen is in eighth with $349,000, and Michael Binger, who was third at last year's Main Event and already has three top-30 finishes this year, is in ninth with $240,000. Play $500 match poker bonus.
First place will pay $730,740.
Several notable players just missed making the final table, with Phil Laak finishing 11th and women poker player Kathy Liebert 13th. Liebert, who has 20 career WSOP cashes, now has over $4 million in career tournament winnings.
Long final day in Stud Hi-Low World Championship? Event #23, the $3,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better tournament, started yesterday with 236 players & women poker pros. After 10 hours of play, the field was cut in half to 118.
The tournament was originally scheduled to last just two days, but some tournament have been extended when necessary. This just might be the case for this one. Stay tuned to our poker blog for more live updates.
Start of Second Week Sees More of the Same as Surge Continues
The opening week of the 38th annual World Series of Poker® presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light set multiple records at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and saw prize payouts of more than $16 million – awarding more in just five days than during the entire 2000 World Series of Poker Tournaments.
The record fields – and prize payouts – continued as the second week of the richest sporting event on the planet got underway in Las Vegas.
“The event is off to an amazing start,” said World Series of Poker Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack. “We’re drawing huge crowds, setting new milestones and quickly learning to expect the unexpected as talented amateurs square off against the biggest names in the game.”
The first record fell quickly, with online poker pro, Steve Billirakis of Chicago winning Event 1 (the $5,000 Mixed Hold’em World Championship) and becoming the youngest gold bracelet winner in World Series of Poker history at 21 years and 11 days. Billiarkis’ improbable feat eclipsed the mark set at the 2006 World Series of Poker by Jeff Madsen, who set the previous mark at 21 years, one month and nine days.
Billirakis outlasted a field of 451 participants, including some of the game’s most accomplished players & women poker players, to take home a top prize of $536,287. The event began June 1 and concluded June 4.
Even before Billirakis strapped on his bracelet, another poker record fell with the start of Event 3 on June 2. A $1,500 No-Limit Texas Hold’em event attracted 2,998 players & women poker, becoming the third-largest live poker tournament in history and the largest non-WSOP Main Event tournament in live poker history.
The 2005 WSOP Main Event attracted 5,619 players & women poker players; the 2006 WSOP Main Event drew 8,773. Until this week, the largest non-Main Event tournament was Event 17 at last year’s World Series of Poker. That event – another $1,500 No-Limit Texas Hold’em Poker tournament – attracted 2,891 registrants.
But this year’s 2,998 players set a new standard. Ciaran O’Leary, originally from Ireland and now living in Seattle, took home the gold bracelet and $727,012 for the victory. Download O’Leary poker wallpapers.
Saturday, June 9 set a record for the busiest single day in live poker history, with 3,009 people registering for two events. The $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship attracted 2,628 players; the $2,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship drew 381 players, becoming the largest H.O.R.S.E. tournament in history. H.O.R.S.E. is a mixed-game event that includes Hold’em, Omaha, Razz, Seven-Card Stud and Seven-Card Stud High-Low Eight or Better. Play online poker.
The new single-day record bested the previous mark – set just seven days earlier during Event 3 – by 11 players. While the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event remains the largest poker tournament in history with its 8,773 participants, the official “Day One” of that tournament was divided across four separate days due to the enormous size of the field.
The 2006 Ladies Championship, a three-day event that began Sunday, drew a record women poker players as well. This year’s Ladies Championship attracted 1,286 participants, its largest field since the annual tournament began in 1977.
The 2006 turnout bested last year’s record of 1,128 players by about 15 percent. The total prize pool for this year’s Ladies Championship is $1,170,260; first-place will pay $262,077. Both are records for the Ladies Championship.
The 38th annual World Series of Poker presented by Milwaukee’s Best Light began June 1 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas and runs through July 17. It will feature a record 55 bracelet events, up from 46 last year.
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With a $50 000 buy-in and major prizes, event 39 attracts almost Main Event attention
