Category: Poker Tournaments

Team Americas Wins Caesars Cup

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The 2011 Caesars Cup featured two teams who had star-studded lineups, but one who was looking for redemption after a tough loss back in 2009.  Back in 2009, Team Europe took down the event with a score of four to one, but Team Americas was determined to make this years’ Caesars Cup a closer affair.  This years’ match-up featured Phil Hellmuth leading Team Americas, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier leading Team Europe.

The Caesars Cup works very similar to the Ryder Cup in Golf.  Both of the two players listed above pick four players to play for their side, and then it is a best of five series with multiple different heads up and two player poker events.  Hellmuth had a team filled with stars such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Jason Mercier (who took Huck Seed’s spot), and the current Player of the Year leader Ben Lamb (who replaced Doyle Brunson).  Team Europe had their own star studded lineup of Grospellier, Gus Hansen, Jake Cody, Tony G, and Max Lykov.

The series kicked off with a tag team match, which included two players from both sides.  Team Americas sent out Mercier and Lamb against Jake Cody and Tony G.  Team America was able to take the first event, and get a 1-0 lead.  Then came another tag team match, with Hellmuth pairing up with Negreanu, who actually paired up together back in 2009; but lost the event.  This time they were up against Hansen and Lykov, and they had the same result as 2009, which evened up the series at 1-1.

At that point, came the heads up matches, and the first even put Chan against Team Europe’s captain Grospellier.  In the end, having the “C” for captain was not enough to take down the strong Johnny Chan, and Team Americas went up 2-1.  Hellmuth entered the last heads up match to finish the deal for Team Americas, and he knocked off Lykov to give Team Americas the win, and take home the 2011 Caesars Cup.

An interesting side note to this is that Hellmuth and Lamb both represented Team Americas, and are the two players who head the current Player of the Year race.

Elio Fox Takes Down The WSOPE Championship Event Gold Bracelet

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The €10,400 buy-in World Series of Poker Europe’s Championship Event drew in an impressive field of 593 players, and a very nice prize pool of €5,692,800.  The final table featured some big named players, and a few unknown names as well.  Overall though, when play was down to the final eight players, the chip stacks were fairly competitive, and it made for an exciting final table of play.  In the end though, it was a story of one player who started off the day as the chip leader, and ended the day with all of the chips in his stack.

The heads up match came down to two well-known players in Elio Fox and Chris Moorman.  The two players duked it out for 200 hands that went on for a good while, before a champion was crowned.

To set the final table from nine to eight players, the final player eliminated was one of the most well-known players in the event, in Patrik Antonius.  This set up a final table of eight players with chip stacks that ranged from 3.99 million to 1.015 million.  It featured the following players, Fox, Moorman, Jake Cody, Dermot Blain, Brian Roberts, Max Silver, Moritz Kranich, and Shawn Buchanan.  After the first elimination, play went on for another 75 hands before there was another elimination, which made for pretty tense play amongst the players.

The table was then eliminated down to the final four, which featured Fox, Moorman, Brian Roberts, and Moritz Kranich.  Moorman and Fox continued to put quite a bit of pressure on Roberts, who eventually was eliminated in fourth, and was then followed up by an elimination of Kranich in third.  This set up the heads up match.

Fox started out with a 2 to 1 chip lead over Moorman, and Fox just seemed to hold control for most of the match.  It wasn’t until the 201st hand of the tournament though until Fox was finally able to land the knockout blow, as his A-10 was up against the A-7 of Moorman.  Fox’s hand was able to hold up, and take down the grand prize of €1,400,000,as well as the gold bracelet.  Moorman on the other hand took home a nice consolation prize of €800,000.

Tony G Cashes the WSOPE Main Event and Cashes In On a Prop Bet

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Cashing at the World Series of Poker Europe’s Main Event is already a huge feat, and one that many players dream of.  On that note, some players just dream of playing in the Main Event at all; and cashing is just an added bonus that most players never could even imagine happening.  Well, for Tony G, who has had some nice scores in his day in the game of poker; he was so confident that he would cash in the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe’s Main Event, that he decided to place a nice $20,000 wager on Matchbook.com that he would make the money in the Main Event.

Just a bit into Day 3 of the event, Tony G had made it into the money, and received both a nice payday from cashing, and also for his $20,000 bet on himself at 5 to 1 odds.  These odds gave him a payout of $100k for getting into the cash, and he also took home €37,000 for his efforts throughout the tournament.  Tony G then went on to survive Day 3 of the event with 24 other players, and make it to Day 4 of the event in Cannes, France.

As if it couldn’t get any better for Tony G, he also got to tell James Bord about the big win on the online gambling site; which is interesting because Bord is actually one of the owners of Matchbook.com.

Tony G has been in the news quite a bit lately, as he recently replaced Dario Minieri in the Caesars Cup (which may not hold up with this deep run at the Main Event), and also for getting into an argument with Andrew Robl at the tables.  On top of that though, he also debated filing a lawsuit against the AGCC for their actions against Full Tilt Poker.

While Tony G wasn’t able to build up his short stack when he entered Day 4 and make a final table push, he did end up finishing the event in 24th place and getting a nice payday.  Overall, you could say that his $125k+ payday was a nice consolation to not winning the 2011 WSOPE Main Event.

Tristan Wade Takes Down WSOPE Shootout Event

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The World Series of Poker Europe still has two bracelets to hand out, but one bracelet has now been given out to player who had to beat out one of the toughest final tables in recent history.  Tristan Wade took down the WSOPE Event #4, which was a €3000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout event.  While it was a shootout event that featured the winners from each table advancing, the chips were a bit different due to the table setups from earlier.  This didn’t make much of a difference though, as Wade outplayed the field and got hot at the right times to take down the event.

The final table featured names like Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Steve O’Dwyer, Mike Watson, Max Silver, Richard Toth, Emil Patel, John Armbrust, and Taylor Paur.  Grospellier looked to be a force to be reckoned with early on in play, but was eliminated in fifth place in the event, but took home a solid €47,763 for his efforts.  It eventually came down to Wade and Michael Watson in heads up play to decide who would take down the bracelet and the €182,048 grand prize.

Heads up play went on for nearly two hours before Wade changed his play style and began to get aggressive.  He started pushing all in on the big blind, raising consistently from the button, and putting an incredible amount of pressure on his opponent.  Watson continued to hang around and push back as much as he could, and even got the match-up close as his K-10 suited beat out the pocket Jack’s of Wade; but it wasn’t meant to be in the end as Wade picked up Jack’s again and held up against Watson’s A-5.

Wade outlasted 257 other players to become a WSOPE gold bracelet winner, and also got the impressive first place pay day as well.  Watson was still paid out a nice €112,526 for his impressive run as well.

The World Series of Poker Europe continues on now while Event #5, a No Limit Hold’em Split Format event winds down, and the same goes for the Six Handed Pot Limit Omaha Event #6.  The final event is the €10,000 buy-in WSOPE Championship event.

Steve Billirakis Wins WSOPE Event #3

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Event #3 of the World Series of Poker Europe made the switch from No Limit Hold’em to Pot Limit Omaha.  The first two events at the WSOPE featured new names to take down gold bracelets, but event number 3 was a different story, as Steve Billirakis now took down his second gold bracelet of his career.  The final table of this PLO event featured some big names as well, so the task wasn’t easy in any way for Billirakis.  He made it past the likes of Sam Trickett, 2011 November Nine participant Eoghan O’Dea, and Sam Chartier.

It was about three hours of play until the final table was down to its final five players, but Billirakis and Trickett remained alive and in the hunt for the gold bracelet.  When five players remained, Billirakis was at the back of the pack though, and sitting in fourth place in chips; while what some would consider his toughest opponent, Trickett, was in first place.  It wasn’t until just before dinner break that Billirakis was able to make his move though, and took a big pot from Trickett, moving him all the way up to second in chips.

After the break, play didn’t take nearly as long as it did to get to this point, as Billirakis and Michele Di Lauro made it out on top, and headed into heads up play.  Heads up play was the shortest of all the action, as it lasted a grand total of two hands before the new champion was crowned.  Billirakis took a one million chip pot from Di Lauro on the first hand, to give himself a massive four to one chip lead over his opponent; and his next hand ended the tournament all together.

Billirakis won the bracelet, and the €238,140 first place prize for his incredible run.  Di Lauro on the other hand had a nice payout for the second place finish, getting €147,171.

The World Series of Poker Europe will now continue on with a few more events before the players head into the €10,000 WSOPE Main Event, which will feature some of the best names in the game.

Andrew Hinrichsen Wins WSOPE Event #2

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The World Series of Poker Europe’s second event was a massive hit to say the least.  An incredible  771 players bought in to the €1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event; which made it the largest number of entrants to an WSOPE event in history, surpassing the old record of 608 by more than 150 players.  The winner of the event got a nice pay day too, and took home €148,030 for winning it all.  All in all, the event drew a total prize pool of €740,160.

That beautiful first place prize was taken down by a player who may not be incredibly well known in the live poker circuit; but he has brought in some nice results in this past year.  Andrew Hinrichsen played in the World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas this year, and while he wasn’t able to win a gold bracelet then, he still finished in 23rd place and won $302,005 for his strong run.  It only took a few months after that for him to win that gold bracelet though, as he is now the winner of the second event at the WSOPE.  His recent cashes don’t stop there though, as he also finished sixth in a preliminary event at the Aussie Millions, and finished second in the Australia-New Zealand Poker Tour as well.  All of this puts him at a total of just over $750k in live poker tournament winnings in his career.

Poker Sites for Players from Europe

When Hinrichsen made it to the final table he was sitting in second place with 434k in chips, and even got that total up to 800k in chips.  He couldn’t hold his big chip stack though, as he actually entered heads up play as a three to one underdog in terms of his stack.  He rallied back though, and it only took about fifteen minutes for him to get it all in against his opponent, Gianluca Speranza.  This of course ended up with a nice double up to give him the chip lead, and the rest was history from there.

Speranza got a nice pay out for his second place finish as well, taking home €91,262.  The World Series of Poker Europe continued on with event #3 on Wednesday, and will continue to host events through the rest of the month.

Guillaume Humbert Takes Down WSOPE Event #1; Denies Hellmuth 12th Bracelet

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With Event #1 at the World Series of Poker Europe drawing a ton of interest, one player stood out above all of the other big names.  Phil Hellmuth made it into the final 12 of the event, and looked to be on his way to taking down his 12 WSOP bracelet.  Mixed with Phil there were quite a few other big names in the event as well, as players like Jason Mercier, Vanessa Selbst, and Daniel Negreanu took their shot at the €215,999 first place prize.

It looked like Hellmuth had a realistic shot at taking down his 12th gold bracelet in the No Limit Hold’em Six-Max Event, but he was unable to hold up in the end.  Hellmuth got in some coin flips that didn’t hold up, and also got a bit tilted at some of the players who he was matched up against.  Hellmuth’s efforts were good enough for a 7th place finish, and a nice €24,183 pay day.  This finish will put him close to the current Player of the Year leader Ben Lamb, and it’ll be interesting to see how the Player of the Year race will end up.

The real story of the event came down to Guillaume Humbert, who finished in first place and took home the grand prize of €215,999.  Humbert is actually a part time online poker pro, who used some of his earnings to buy-in to this event, and this was actually his first ever live poker tournament of his career.  He grinded his way through the final 12 players, and got to heads up play against Azusa Maeda.  When heads up play began, Humbert was about 600k in chips behind Maeda, but played aggressively for around an hour to gain a chip lead, and never actually had a hand go to showdown.  Play finally came to an end with Maeda pushing all in with a straight draw and back door flush draw; but he was dominated by a flopped straight of Humbert.  Maeada took home a nice consolation prize of €133,471 for an excellent run; but it was Humbert’s day in the end.

You could assume that this probably won’t be the last that we see of Guillaume Humbert at the World Series of Poker Europe.

888 Poker Introduces A Por Ella Bounty Event

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888 Poker has introduced a new event in which players have the chance to take on the Last Woman Standing in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, Leo Margets. Hailing from Spain, the 888 Poker pro finished 27th in a field of 6,000 players to claim a $352,000 payday and now you have the chance to claim a $1,000 on her head every Thursday at 888 Poker’s A Por Ella bounty tournament.

Starting every Thursday at 20:00 GMT, A Por Ella costs only $10 + $1 to enter, with a $1,000 bounty on playername “LEO” on the first Thursday of every month and a $250 bounty on the rest of the Thursdays in any given month. The winner of each A Por Ella event and the winner of the bounty on LEO will both win bonus prizes of a free seat in the following week’s A Por Ella event. In addition, for that event 888 Poker will place a $50 bounty on each of those players’ heads, giving the rest of the players something extra to vie for.

Each A Por Ella event is capped at 500 players. If LEO doesn’t show to an event, her bounty will be split among the players at that event’s final table. If the previous week’s tournament or bounty winner doesn’t show to an event, the bonus bounty on their heads will be dissolved entirely.

You can find the A Por Ella tournament listed under the Multi-Table tab in your 888 Poker lobby.

World Series of Poker adding $1 Million Buyin Event for 2012

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The World Series of Poker will hold a poker tournament next year with a $1 million buyin. This event is for the really high rollers.

Roughly 15 players already have confirmed that they will play in the no-limit Texas Holdem event starting July 1 next year. Some of the players include Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Laliberte, Treasure Island hotel-casino owner Phil Ruffin, and poker professionals Tom Dwan, Daniel Negreanu and Johnny Chan.

11 percent of the buy in will go to the charity, One Drop, a non-governmental organization in Montreal that helps people access water in Third World countries. The WSOP will not charge it’s normal tournament fees for the event. Organizers hope to raise $5 million for the charity.

42nd Annual World Series of Poker Begins

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WSOPThe 42nd annual World Series of Poker officially begins today May 31, 2011 running through July 7 when the November Nine will be set to square off at the final table of the WSOP main event in November. This year’s series marks the most gold bracelet tournament events of any year in WSOP history, with 58 events in all. The grand prize for the 42nd annual WSOP main event is once again somewhere around $9 million.

The 2011 WSOP starts with a casino employees event for the staff at Rio’s Hotel and Casino, where for the 7th time in a row the WSOP festivities will be held, and their compatriots from other casinos near and far. The first open event is actually the second event of the series, also taking place Tuesday, May 31, the $25,000 Heads-Up No Limit Hold’em Championship.

The series schedule also features championships in Omaha, Seven Card Stud, Limit Hold’em, Hi-Low, H.O.R.S.E. and more. Speaking of poker varieties, another sure-to-be-exciting event on the 2011 WSOP schedule is #55 taking place July 2, the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship, a mixed event comprised of 8 games.

Most of the major poker sites (and many of the minor ones) are now holding satellite tournaments into the 2011 WSOP main event. Some sites are even holding satellites into other events of series as well. Buy-ins for 2011 WSOP events range from $500 to $50,000 with live single table and mega satellite tournaments running daily at the Rio during the event. Also happening at the Rio in league with the 2011 WSOP are 24-hour cash games.