Posts Tagged ‘la poker classic’
Antonio Esfandiari Makes Birthday Magic at Bellagio
December 10th, 2010
Imagine the birthday party those stacks of cash would buy in Vegas!
At Bellagio in Las Vegas, Antonio Esfandiari outlasted one of the toughest final table lineups in recent World Poker Tour history to grab his second WPT title at the Five Diamond World Poker Classic – and he did it on his birthday, no less.
The 32-year-old Esfandiari entered the final table second in chips behind Vanessa Rousso, who scored the day’s first knockout with Q-Q to Ted Lawson’s 9-9, busting Lawson in sixth place ($126,693). Andrew Robl stepped up next and sent Kirk Morrison home in fifth place ($168,924) when his 5-5 flopped a set against Morrison’s top pair with A-J. Then Esfandiari eliminated 2010 November Niner John Racener in fourth place ($232,271) with K-Q against Q-8 to set up a three-way battle for the top spot.
Robl and Rousso tangled again and again while Esfandiari sat back and waited for a good spot, with Robl getting the better of the confrontations. Eventually Rousso shoved all-in with Q-2, only to run into Esfandiari’s A-Q and hit the rail in third place ($358,964). The two remaining competitors traded the chip lead several times before Esfandiari’s K-J outlasted Robl’s Q-T, sending Robl to the payout cage to collect his $549,003 runner-up reward.
The $870,124 Bellagio win is the first tournament victory for Antonio Esfandiari since he beat the field in a $500 event at the Imperial Palace in Biloxi back in 2007. More importantly, it’s his first major victory since 2004, when he won both the WPT’s LA Poker Classic and his first WSOP bracelet in the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em event. Those wins helped to catapult him into poker’s spotlight, where he’s managed to stay ever since. Only time will tell whether The Magician capitalizes on his recent success the way he did back in the day, but for now, at least, he’s enjoying the moment.
Joe Tehan Wins Big in Los Angeles
November 18th, 2010
A coin flip here, a coin flip there, and a big LA win for Joe Tehan.
Las Vegas poker pro Joe Tehan entered yesterday’s final table of the NAPT Los Angeles main event squarely in the middle of a pack of highly talented poker players. With Chris DeMaci holding a big chip lead and tournament powerhouse Jason Mercier in second place you could be forgiven for discounting Tehan’s chances and betting the field – but you would’ve ended up on the losing end of that bet, because Tehan eliminated all seven of his opponents en route to his second live tournament win of 2010.
Tehan’s run was the stuff dreams are made of. He got off to a great start when his K-K held against DeMaci’s A-K before he lost part of his newfound chip stack with 7-7 to Anh Van Nguyen’s Q-Q. From there, though, the Las Vegas pro cruised at this California final table. It’s often tough just to win one coin-flip with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, but Tehan won three consecutive flips to eliminate Jake Toole (A-Q vs J-J), Mercier (J-J vs A-K) and Michael Binger (A-J vs T-T). Now holding a commanding chip lead, Tehan took out Nguyen (holding A-Q) and Ray Henson (holding A-J) in the same hand with K-5, eliminated Al Grimes with J-9 vs 8-7, and finished off DeMaci with K-T vs K-4 to grab the $725,000 top prize.
It was fitting that Tehan’s latest big score came in Los Angeles. His first career live poker tournament victory came in LA back in 2006 when he won a preliminary event at the LA Poker Classic for $179,605. Since then he has made six more final tables in the City of Angels, including the recent Commerce Hold’em Series Championship Event. The NAPT win, though, is easily his biggest LA score to date, and the second-largest of his entire career behind his 2006 WPT Mandalay Bay Poker Championship victory.
With his win at the NAPT Los Angeles, Joe Tehan moves over the $3 million mark for career live tournament winnings. That puts him into some select company – right around him on the all-time money list are former world champions Chris Moneymaker and Tom McEvoy, Brazil’s all-time money leader Alexandre Gomes, two-time WPT champ Cornel Cimpan and all-around superstar Patrik Antonius.
EPT London Final Features John Juanda, Tom Marchese
October 3rd, 2010
London’s long month of poker tournaments is nearly over.
Five long days of poker are finished at the largest live poker tournament in UK history, and just eight men remain in contention for the £900,000 top prize at the EPT London main event.
American Kyle Bowker will enter tomorrow’s final table with the chip lead and a solid opportunity to grab the biggest score of his career. He ran roughshod over the field, building his stack from 921,000 chips at the start of play all the way up to a truly impressive count of 7,165,000 by the time the final eight player had been determined. Regardless of what happens Bowker is guaranteed his biggest cash since finishing second in the WSOP Circuit main event at Harrah’s Atlantic City last December, but he’ll certainly have the ammunition to make a title run instead of settling for an eighth-place finish.
The biggest obstacle standing between Bowker and an EPT title is his fellow American John Juanda. Juanda’s day went much like Bowker’s as he built his stack from a starting count of 1,272,000 chips up to 7,075,000 at day’s end. Sitting one seat to his left, he’ll have position on Bowker for the rest of the tournament. After years of not playing the EPT, this marks the second straight year that Juanda has cashed at EPT London. He finished in 40th place last year.
Also in the mix is Tom Marchese, who won the NAPT Venetian Las Vegas main event back in the spring. Marchese has won more than $1.6 million in live poker tournaments in 2010 despite never having cashed in one before this year. He’s one of the shorter stacks, starting in fifth place with 1,480,000 in chips, but he’s also a very dangerous player who sits one double-up away from making an impact on this final table.
The rest of tomorrow’s lineup is relatively short on major final table experience, but it does include former LA Poker Classic main event final tablist Per Ummer, and Artur Wasek, who survived a hold-up to finish in fifth place at last season’s EPT Berlin. Still, the nature of the game means that David Vamplew, Kayvan Payman and Fernando Brito all have the chance to walk away the winner at EPT London. They’ll start playing down to a champion at 12 p.m. local time Monday.
Big-Name Poker Pros Survive WSOP Europe High Roller Day 1
September 22nd, 2010
Phil Ivey is easily the biggest name left in the WSOP Europe High Roller field.
The first-ever WSOP Europe High Roller heads-up tournament started yesterday and drew 103 players, meaning that 25 of the field drew a bye in the first round. Everyone else drew an opponent in the first round and got down to business.
A slew of players who have solid years in 2010 fell by the wayside yesterday, including Sam Trickett, Justin “Boosted J” Smith, Jeffrey Lisandro, Sorel Mizzi, Tom Dwan, Daniel “jungleman12” Cates, and November Niners John Racener and Joseph Cheong. Others who failed to make it to round three included 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela, former WSOP Europe Main Event winner John Juanda, 11-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, WPT Player of the Year Faraz Jaka, November Niner Michael Mizrachi, EPT London winner Jake Cody and LA Poker Classic High Roller winner Scott Seiver.
As for the winners, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies defeated Mike Matusow in round two only to draw WSOP Tournament of Champions winner and former NBC National Heads-Up champion Huck Seed in round three. The November Nine’s Matt Jarvis conquered Brandon Adams and drew EPT Prague High Roller winner Martin Kabrhel. And Jani Sointula will play Phil Ivey for what might be the first time since they were both in the final three of the 2004 Monte Carlo Millions. (Sointula won that time.)
Other poker pros who survived to round three include Shawn Buchanan, Howard Lederer, Ram Vaswani, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, McLean Karr, Amit Makhija, Daniel Negreanu, Andrew Robl, Neil Channing, Chris Moorman and Ludovic Lacay. They’re already back in action and you can check in on their progress via WSOP Europe live updates.
WSOP Main Event Day 1D Complete, Day 2 Begins Today
July 9th, 2010
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis, once the youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet, finished Day 1D of the 2010 Main Event with the biggest chip stack.
Day 1D ended up being the biggest of the four starting flights for the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event. A total of 2,391 players, all hoping to navigate the single largest tournament field of the year, started their journeys toward the final table at noon Vegas time on Thursday. Added to the other three starting flights, today’s number gives this year’s tournament a total field of 7,319 players, making this the second-largest live tournament in poker history behind only the 2006 WSOP Main Event.
Leading the way at the end of the day was Steve Billrakis, known online as MrSmokey1. Formerly the youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet, Billirakis bagged up 187,150 in chips to stay ahead of Khamsy Nuanmanee, who finished up with 170,525. LA Poker Classic champion Andras Koroknai of Hungary (141,250), EPT London champion Aaron Gustavson (140,000) and ubergambler Archie Karas (137,775) were the other known quantities who finished in the top ten.
Further down the leaderboard but still with significant stacks were David Benyamine, Vanessa Rousso, Matt Keikoan, Josh Arieh, Jason Mercier, Dan Heimiller, Eric Buchman, Kara Scott, Bill Chen, Humberto Brenes, Tommy Vedes, Allen Cunningham, Michael Binger and likely WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela. And among the unlucky players who busted on Day 1D were John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Justin “Boosted J” Smith, Joe Hachem, Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler, and Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro.
Just 747 of the players who began the Main Event this week will make the money. The minimum payout this year is $19,263. Those numbers slide up all the way to the November Nine spots at the final table, where everyone is guaranteed $811,823 and the top eight players will all become overnight millionaires. Whoever manages to outlast the entire field will grab the first prize of $8,944,138, the world champion’s bracelet, and a banner with his or her photo that will grace the WSOP for the rest of its existence.
Day 2A begins today at noon PT, combining the survivors from Day 1A and Day 1C into a single field. Those who manage to navigate the landmines there will go on to Day 3, the first day where all the remaining players will be combined into a single field, which will be held on Monday, July 12.
WSOP: $10,000 Heads-Up World Championship Enters Day 2
June 19th, 2010
Phil Ivey is the marquee attraction in today’s $10,000 Heads-Up World Championship.
The World Series of Poker’s $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up World Championship goes into its third round at the Rio today. The 256-player field has already been reduced to just 64, with known quantities like Michael Mizrachi, David Benyamine, J.C. Tran, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Justin Bonomo, Jeff Madsen, Greg Mueller, and November Niners Antoine Saout, Chino Rheem and Scott Montgomery already on the rail.
There are some interesting matchups on the schedule for the third round today. Phil Ivey takes on career $2.5 million man Kido Pham, former WPT Player of the Year Gavin Smith faces High Stakes Poker commentator Gabe Kaplan, online star Chris Moorman takes on Russian final table machine Vladimir Schmelev, and WPT Championship winner David Williams takes on LA Poker Classic heads-up champ Chris Moore. Other notables returning today include Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Josh Arieh, Antonio Esfandiari, Scott Clements, Faraz Jaka, Ashton Griffin, Alexander Kravchenko and Jordan Morgan.
This tournament has only been running at the WSOP since 2007, when it was introduced as the $5,000 World Championship. That tournament drew 392 entries and was criticized by many players because a large number of players were given byes in the first round thanks to the uneven number of participants. In the end former professional StarCraft player Daniel “Rekrul” Schreiber defeated Mark Muchnik in the final round to take home $425,594.
The event returned in 2008 with a $10,000 buy-in and drew more players than the previous year, with more players getting byes in the first round. The eventual champion was Kenny Tran, who beat Alec Torelli at the end to grab the $539,056 top prize. And in 2009 the WSOP finally put a 256-player cap on the event, which kept its $10,000 buy-in. Leo Wolpert defeated John Duthie in the finals, taking down $625,682 in the process.
The top prize for this year’s WSOP Heads-Up World Championship is $625,682. Everyone who wins their first match today will earn the minimum cash of $17,987. Action gets back underway in the Amazon Room at 3 p.m. PT today.
WSOP: Hungary’s Peter Gelencser Wins $2,500 Triple Draw
June 4th, 2010
Peter Gelencser stepped into Hungarian poker history last night.
The last 12 months have been very good for Hungarian poker players. Peter Traply became the first Hungarian to win a World Series of Poker bracelet last summer when he took down the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout, and back in March of this year Andras Koroknai became the country’s first World Poker Tour champion when he won the LA Poker Classic main event. Traply actually translated for Koroknai when he did his interview with Matt Savage following the tournament – and if you look closely at the group of Koroknai’s friends hanging around in the background of that video, you’ll spot the man who just became the second gold bracelet winner from Hungary.
Peter Gelencser, 22, of Budapest, earned his place in Hungarian poker history with a win in Event #7, the $2,500 Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw tournament. Triple Draw is one of the more obscure events on the schedule; in fact, this was only the sixth time in the 41-year history of the WSOP that the game has been played for a bracelet. The other five tournaments have been won by some of the game’s more accomplished players, including John Juanda, Men “The Master” Nguyen and John Phan, so Gelencser’s win puts him in some select company. And given that this was the largest Triple Draw tournament in WSOP history, with 291 players buying in, Gelencser’s accomplishment is arguably even more impressive.
“I’m shocked,” Gelencser said before collecting his $180,730 prize. “My dream is to win a gold bracelet. This means everything to a poker player. It is the best accomplishment in poker.”
Andras Koroknai said in his post-LAPC interview back in March that his win would be a great motivation for other Hungarian poker players, and it looks like he was right. With a win by Peter Gelencser, the rest of the country’s rounders will have even more motivation to come and step on the toes of more established poker nations here at the WSOP.
WSOP: Stacked Field in $5,000 NLHE Shootout
June 2nd, 2010
Heather Sue Mercer and Josh Tieman face off in the $5K Shootout.
One of the beautiful things about the WSOP is the sheer variety of the schedule, both in terms of the number of different poker variations being played and the range of buy-ins. For every donkament on the schedule there’s a tournament full of superstars – and with the $50,000 Players Championship now out of the way, the next big event for the poker elite is the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout.
Play in the event actually began yesterday, with the winner of each of the 36 tables progressing to today’s action. That set up some seriously tough table draws in the Amazon Room today. Add in the fact that the action is six-handed today and you’ve got yourself a true test of poker skill.
Table 364 featured a lineup of Tom Dwan, 2009 November Niner James Akenhead, EPT Warsaw High Roller champ Dario Minieri, French pro Nicolas Levi, serial final tablist Chris Bell and 2008 WSOP bracelet winner Blair Hinkle. Over on Table 362 there were the likes of 2000 WSOP Main Event winner Chris Ferguson, two-time PCA High Roller runner-up Will Molson, reigning EPT London champ Aaron Gustavson, and former Duke University placekicker-turned-poker player Heather Sue Mercer. And Table 367 featured another tough draw, with former WPT Championship final tablist Christian Harder, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Max Pescatori, former Irish Open champ Neil Channing, former Bluff Magazine Player of the Year Chad Brown and 2010 LA Poker Classic $10,000 Heads-Up winner Chris Moore.
Several players still in the event right now have experience going deep in WSOP Shootout events – in fact, Moore, Tieman and Eugene Katchalov all made the final table of last year’s monster $1,500 NLHE Shootout. If any of them can repeat that feat in this event they’ll be looking at quite a bit more money – the minimum cash at the final table is $71,998 for sixth place, more than both Katchalov and Tieman made for their finishes in the $1,500 last year. Meanwhile the top prize is $441,692 – not a bad take for essentially winning three straight sit-and-go tables. That final table will go off at 3pm PT tomorrow afternoon.
Dwyte Pilgrim Leads Small Field at WPT Hollywood Poker Open
March 22nd, 2010
Dwyte Pilgrim looks to add a WPT title to his two WSOPC wins in Indiana.
When the World Poker Tour added the Hollywood Poker Open in southern Indiana to its schedule this year, organizers had to be hoping for a solid turnout. That didn’t come to pass, as just 144 players ponied up the $10,000 buy-in on Saturday.
Eric Froehlich, once upon a time the youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet, entered Sunday’s Day 2 in Indiana as the chip leader but found himself on the rail before play had completed. Other poker pros who made the journey to the Midwest but had to book early flights to warmer climes included Erik Seidel, Kathy Liebert, Jason Mercier, Vanessa Rousso, Soheil Shamseddin, Faraz Jaka, Steve Sung, Prahlad Friedman, Brock Parker, Andrew Lichtenberger, Sam Stein and David Williams.
While others who started the day in his vicinity fell by the wayside, two-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Dwyte Pilgrim cruised from a starting stack of 29,000 chips to the top spot at the end of Day 2 with 313,900. Other notable names with healthy stacks include two-time WPT final tablist Tyler Smith, 2010 LA Poker Classic final tablist Gevork Kasabyan, former WSOP Main Event winner Carlos Mortensen, and former WPT and WSOP Player of the Year Erick Lindgren.
Just 38 players will return to the poker room today at 2 p.m. local time to battle it out for top honors at Hollywood Casino. Of them only 12 will make the money, with the winner taking home $391,000, a minuscule purse by WPT standards and the lowest first prize on the tour since 2006.
Phil Hellmuth Makes Third World Poker Tour Final Table
March 12th, 2010
Phil Hellmuth hopes the third time is the charm on the World Poker Tour
The TV table of the World Poker Tour’s Bay 101 Shooting Star tournament is now set, and all eyes are on the man sitting second in the chip counts.
Phil Hellmuth, the 1989 WSOP Main Event champ and winner of another 10 WSOP bracelets since then, entered yesterday’s action at Bay 101 with the chip lead and a bounty on his head. By the end of the grueling 15-hour day he would sit in second place and stand as the only remaining Shooting Star in the field thanks to the eliminations of Scotty Nguyen, “Miami” John Cernuto and Chau Giang.
As well as things went for Hellmuth, they went even better for Andy Seth, known online as “BKiCe.” He entered the day in third place behind Hellmuth and Hasan Habib and lingered behind the leaders for much of the long day, but toward the end he was able to pick up some big dominating hands in perfect spots and as a result he jumped ahead of the pack. He even managed to tangle with Hellmuth once he’d secured the lead and come out the better for it.
If Hellmuth were to win this tournament he would bank $878,500. That would move him up on spot on the all-time money list to fourth place, jumping past Scotty Nguyen but still trailing Jamie Gold, Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey. Of course, the Poker Brat will have to get through some pretty tough competition – and overcome some history – if he wants to win this final table. He has previously made two W
PT final tables – the 2003 World Poker Finals and the 2008 LA Poker Classic – but never finished better than third place. He also hasn’t won an open-field tournament since his last bracelet win at the 2007 WSOP.
The TV table is set to begin filming at 4 p.m. PT today, and Phil Hellmuth fans (there are still a few of those, right?) can get updates on his progress from the World Poker Tour live updates crew.
WPT Bay 101 TV Table Chip Counts
Andy Seth – 2,164,000
Phil Hellmuth – 1,433,000
Dan O’Brien – 1,129,000
McLean Karr – 1,112,000
Hasan Habib – 455,000
Matt Keikoan – 371,000
