Tag: tournament

2011 WSOP Event 16 Recap

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WSOPEvent 16 of this year’s WSOP has turned into the big story so far. While not much was expected out of the 10k 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship (No Limit) in the way of stories, this tournament changed those expectations incredibly.

Only 126 players were signed up to play this event, creating a $1.2 million prize pool. However, this tournament is not about overcoming a large field to win a bracelet, but who you have to overcome. Frequently, these tournaments are referred to as a pro’s opportunity to buy a bracelet, but after the field that turned out to play this tournament, that may be a hasty argument.

The final table: Phil Hellmuth, Richard Ashby, John Juanda, Steve Sung, Nick Schulman, David ‘Bakes’ Baker, and Hasan Habib (Joe Cassidy and Greg Raymer busted in 8th and 9th respectively). If you were going to try to “buy a bracelet” in this event, you would have to overcome these men to do so. All of the men at the final table each had a WSOP bracelet.

All the stars seemed to be aligning for Phil Hellmuth, who entered the final table as the chip leader. Hellmuth, who was going for his record 12th World Series of Poker bracelet, was trying to earn his first non-Hold’em bracelet. He kept this momentum up, getting heads-up versus John Juanda with a nearly 3-1 chip lead.

Juanda exactly isn’t a slouch, though. Having 4 WSOP bracelets and finishing 4th in this very event in the past two years, Juanda has been called the best 2-7 Lowball player in the world. He lived up to this title against Hellmuth. In a heads-up match that lasted over 4 hours, Juanda slowly picked at Hellmuth’s stack, quietly and methodically, until he sent the 11-time champion to the rail. Hellmuth, while more than disappointed to not have earned the bracelet, still took home $226k. Juanda earned his 5th bracelet and $367,170 for his win, along with the joy of denying the Poker Brat number 12.

 

2011 WSOP Event 15 Recap

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WSOPYet another Hold’em tournament was found in Event 15: $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em. Unlike No Limit, players in this event are only allowed to bet or raise the value of the pot rather than the entirety of their stack.

765 players registered to play this event, creating a prize pool just over $1 million. All came out with the hope of earning a bracelet by paying one of the smallest buyins in this year’s WSOP. Only one, however, would make true on that wish.

A min-cash would almost double your entry fee, and many well known pros made at least the nearly 3k. John Dolan, Alessio Isaia (with his 3rd cash this WSOP), Hoyt Corkins, and Christian Harder all went deep in this event and made some good profit on their $1,500. However, all would exit the tournament before the final table was formed, either to enter another tournament or watch disappointedly from the rail.

Ted Lawson, Ali Eslami (also cashing for his 3rd time this event), and Allen ‘Chainsaw’ Kessler made this final table very difficult to overcome. While Lawson and Eslami bowed out early, Kessler had his sights strongly set on the bracelet.

To win the bracelet, Kessler would have to overcome lesser-known pro Brian Rast. Rast, who was staked by ‘The Magician’ Antonio Esfandiari, proved too much for the Chainsaw and ended up taking the bracelet and the $227,232 that went along with it. Kessler would have to be satisfied with the 2nd place prize of $120k and the hope of winning his first bracelet some other time.

 

2011 WSOP Event 14 Recap

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WSOPAnother Limit Hold’em tournament was played for Event 14: $3,000 LHE. While being a Hold’em tournament, its limit nature only brought out 337 players to vie for the bracelet, creating a prize pool just shy of $1 million.

Such a small field means that fewer players make the cash, and this event only paid the top 36 finishers. Barely making into the money by finishing in 36th was WSOP bracelet winner David ‘Bakes’ Baker, who was eventually joined in cashing by Marco Traniello (best known as Jen Harman’s husband), Sorel Mizzi, and Victor Ramdin (who celebrated back to back cashes).

The final table brought some TV time to players that had not received much in the past. In fact, former November Niner Jeff Shulman was the only player to have received much, and his run was cut short as he was the first elimination from the final table.

Brandon Demes entered the final table and allowed those chips to carry him into heads-up play against Tyler Bonkowski. However, Bonkowski was too much for him, and sent him to the rail to collect his $136k second place prize.

Bonkowski, who had a handful of cashes in last year’s WSOP, gets his first this year this win. He also collects a new piece of jewelry and $220,817 to parlay into another WSOP victory.

 

2011 WSOP Event 13 Recap

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WSOPEvent 13 of this year’s World Series of Poker, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout tournament, had a capped number of entrants at 2,000. This cap never quite came into play, with 1,440 players showing up to play, creating a nearly $2 million prize pool.

How a shootout works: each player is assigned a table, as usual, to begin the tournament. However, as players bust, the tables are not balanced; rather, each plays down to a winner, much like a sit-n-go. Once someone wins the table, they wait until all tables are finished. Once they are, the winners of the individual tables are reseated again with the other winners, and the same thing happens until we are down to 9 or fewer winners. Once that happens, the final table is formed, and the winner of this table is the winner of the tournament.

Considering this is not a traditional tournament structure, the 1,440 entrants is still quite impressive. Many of these players are those we have seen on TV before: former November Niner Filippo Candio, former actress Jen Tilly, WSOP champion Greg Raymer, and Pokerstars spokesman Daniel Negreanu all finished in the money, making at least almost $5k for their efforts.

The final table was stacked with talent. Former bracelet winners David ‘the Dragon’ Pham, Vitaly Lunkin, Dan ‘djk123’ Kelly, and Erik Cajelais were all vying to add another to their trophy case. However, none of these were ever really in contention, with Cajelais outlasting the rest, but still finishing in 5th.

Eventual winner Andrew Badecker made sure to put himself in the best place to win this tournament very early, entering the final table as the chip leader. Throughout the entirety of the final table, he rarely lost the lead, and when he did, he reclaimed it quickly. Eventually, he busted Robbie Verspui, who took home $228k for his second place finish. Badecker, along with the bracelet, also took $369,371 home for his win.

888 Poker Runs $210K Daily Challenge Series Featuring $10K Monday Twins

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888 Poker is offering players a chance to win extra for their efforts every day of the week. With the Daily Challenge Series, 888 Poker invites players of all types of action and all sizes of bankroll to participate in 7 weekly tournaments, one on each day of the week, with a total weekly guaranteed prize pool of $210,000. What’s more, there are two Daily Challenge tournaments on Mondays, known as the Monday Twins, worth $10,000 each, and three Daily Challenge tournaments on Sundays, offering $5,000, $10,000 and $100,000 guaranteed respectively.

Every Daily Challenge tournament has a trio of low buy-in satellites leading up to it, awarding free seats in the day’s big event. Two satellites are Sit and Go tournaments, one of which is always a rebuy/addon event, both of which run every two hours. The third satellite is always a 15-seat guaranteed event starting at 17:35 GMT. All Daily Challenge Tournaments start at 19:35. Direct buy-ins vary depending on the prize pool.

The Tuesday Challenge and Thursday Challenge each have a $12,500 guaranteed prize pool; the Wednesday Challenge has a $10,000 prize pool; the Friday Challenge has a $15,000 prize pool; and the Saturday Challenge has a $25,000 prize pool.

The Monday Twins is a special kick-start to the weekly series, with a pair of $10K tournaments each preceded by its own three satellites (the third satellite for the “second” Monday Twin event starts at 17:55 GMT).

Winding up the week with a bang is the $100,000 Sunday Challenge and its satellites, as well as two Sunday Challenge Starters scheduled prior to it with staggered start times so 888 Poker players can enjoy all three Daily Challenge events that day.

2011 WSOP Event 9 Recap

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WSOPEvent 9: $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball is both our first draw and lowball tournament of this year’s Series. As could be expected with a Draw game, not many entrants registered, but 275 signing up to play is still a respectable number.

These players came out with the hope of besting a small field in order to obtain the bracelet, considering the $370,000 prize pool is the smallest of this year’s World Series thus far. 28 players cashed this event, all of who at least doubled their initial entry.

The story of the tournament is how incredibly tough the final table was. Resident pros Chris Bjorin, Thomas Fuller, Josh Brikis, ever popular Jason Mercier, and ESPN Poker Commentator Bernard Lee all put themselves in position to win as the tournament field was whittled down. Bjorin and Mercier were both trying to add another bracelet to their mantle, while the rest of them were trying to capture their first elusive. Brikis may have had the most drive, having had his opportunity to play heads-up for a bracelet in 2009, but coming up short.

Bjorin had his shot to add have another bracelet clasped around his wrist, going heads-up against Matt Perrins for the title. Perrins, however, proved too much, and prevailed in this battle between young and old. With this victory, Perrins claims the bracelet and the $102,105 for first prize.

Congratz Matt! Way to overcome a stacked final table.

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.

Carbon Poker Snakes and Ladders

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Carbon Poker introduces Snakes and ladders. A cute name for sit and go steps. The rationalization of the name is that you either climb the ladder or you snake down to a lower position. As far as I can tell, these tournaments are exclusive to Carbon Poker on the network. Carbon appears ready to make noise of its own with the signing of Shannon Elizabeth to play poker for them.

‘Snakes and Ladders’ are a special type of tiered sit’n’go where players can win up to $2,000 cash for as little as $1.10 or 110 VIP points.

There are 7 levels to the ‘Snakes and Ladders’ sng’s and even if you don’t advance to the next level in a particular Step sng, you can still win a chance to play the same level again, or one below. You also have the choice to buy-in directly at any of the 7 levels, or jump off the ladder and into Carbon’s satellite tournaments using the Step 3 coupon.

To register for Steps tournaments, click on the tabs: Tournaments » Sng » Satellites.

Here is an easy to follow image that gives you a much better idea of how to climb the ladders and where you might snake down to.