Archive for the ‘Poker News’ Category

Meet The 2010 WSOP November Nine

Tuesday, July 20th, 2010

After 78 strenuous hours over 8 days of poker sessions, the Final Table for the WSOP 2010 Main Event has finally been determined. The final nine players, known as the “November Nine”, are set to compete on ESPN on November 9 of this year. So who made it? Read on to find out.

Seat 1 – Jason Sentl is a 25-year old professional poker player from St. Louis Park, MN. This is Sentl’s first time to cash in a WSOP event.

Seat 2 – Joseph Cheong is a 24-year old professional poker player from La Mirada, CA. He won a WSOP Circuit gold ring three months ago.

Seat 3 – John Dolan is a 24-year old professional poker player from Bonita Springs, FL. He has a total of 6 WSOP cashes, including three this year.

Seat 4 – Jonathan Duhamel is a 22-year old professional poker player from Quebec. If Duhamel wins, it will be the 6th gold bracelet-win for Canada this year.

Seat 5 – Michael Mizrachi is a highly successful and well-known poker player. At 29-years old, he won his first WSOP bracelet in this year’s Poker Players Championship.

Seat 6 – Matthew Jarvis is a 25-year old professional poker players and student from Surrey, BC in Canada. He primarily plays online poker and this is his first time cashing in the WSOP.

Seat 7 – John Racener is a 24-year old professional poker player from Port Richey, FL. He is well known on the national WSOP Circuit, and won the Main Event championship victory in 2007 at Harrah’s Atlantic City.

Seat 8 – Filippo Candio is a 26-year old professional poker player from Cagliari, Sardinia in Italy. He is the first Italian to play at the WSOP Main Event final table.

Seat 9 – Cuong “Soi” Nguyen is a 37-year old medical supply salesman from Santa Ana, CA. He is the only amateur to make it to this year’s final table.

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Phil Ivey Blows Fans Away With Ninth WPT Final Table

Monday, July 19th, 2010

The World Series of Poker is the biggest thing on everyone’s minds in the poker world right now, but Phil Ivey is taking a little bit of the spotlight of the WSOP by setting records with his 9th World Poker Tour final table. Everyone knows that Phil Ivey is awesome, with eight WSOP bracelet wins and one WPT title. Now he is proving yet again that he is a King of the poker world.

In the end, Ivey didn’t win the event. He lost to Moritz Kranich and Justin Smith, but still managed to come in third place, taking home $363,650. Ivey did manage to rise to chip leader at one point during the game. However, he bust with a Queen-4 against Smith’s King-8 and was out.

Before last week’s event, Phil Ivey had cashed out in 12 World Poker Tour events, and of these he had been in the final table for eight. Ivey is not the only player to score nine final tables in the WPT, though it is a very rare occurrence. Daniel Negreanu and Scotty Nguyen have accomplished the same feat. Gus Hansen has achieved a seat in 10 WPT finals.

The final rankings in the event are as follows:

First Place – Moritz Kranch – $875,150
Second Place – Justin Smith – $594,755
Third Place – Phil Ivey – $363,650
Fourth Place – John Caridad – $237,902
Fifth Place – Robert Akery – $169,930
Sixth Place – Eric Afriat – $118,950

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Peter Eastgate Throws In His Chips, Retires From Professional Poker at 24

Tuesday, July 13th, 2010

Peter Eastgate became a household name in the world of professional poker when he beat Ivan Demidov and took home the title in the WSOP 2008 Main Event, taking home $9,152,416. In 2008, Eastgate was the youngest player to ever win a Main Event in the WSOP (though Joe Cada overturned the record the following year). Now, Eastgate is one of the youngest professional poker players to retire, throwing in his chips at the age of 24.

Eastgate has been lucky enough to rake in win after win over the course of his poker career. In 2009, he took home $343,000 in a European Poker Tour Caribbean Poker Adventure Hold’em event; he also won over $1.3 million when he took second place at the EPT London Championship Event. Eastgate is in fourth place on the all-time money winners’ leader board and has earned more than $11.3 million in a few short years. Why is he giving all of this up?

Eastgate says that he never had any intention of playing poker forever, and he’s ready to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. He says, “When I started playing poker for a living, it was never my goal to spend the rest of my life as a professional poker player. My goal was to become financially independent. I have decided that now is the time to find out what I want to do with the rest of my life.”

There are poker players who strive for their entire lives to earn a quarter of what Eastgate has won in the past few years. It will be interesting to see if Eastgate will be as successful at whatever he decides to do with his life as he has been in the world of professional poker.

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David Assouline WSOP Main Event Chip Leader Going Into Day 3

Monday, July 12th, 2010

Going into the third day of the 2010 WSOP Main Event, the number one chip leader with $387,800 in chips is David “a$$ou” Assouline. Assouline is a 25-year old from Montreal, Canada. His name may be new to you, as this is Assouline’s first WSOP Main Event. However, Assouline is showing the poker world that you don’t have to be a well known, seasoned professional to kick “a$$” at the World Series of Poker.

Although Assouline has never played in a WSOP Main Event before, he does have some experience with big buy-in tournaments. He played in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure earlier this year. He also has won a variety of other online poker tournaments. Last October, he took home $149,171 as the winner of the Sunday Warmup tournament, he won the Sunday Second Chance for $53,831 in April, and he recently won the Sunday Million for $61,500, all PokerStars tournaments.

Assouline is excited about participating in the WSOP Main Event and his wish for a smooth transition from online to live poker tournament events seems to be going his way. He is playing a strong game, but Assouline admits that lady luck isn’t hurting either. He says, “To have as many chips as I do at this point in the tournament, you have to have a few coolers go your way. Don’t get me wrong, I’m playing well, but I’ve had my aces run into kings twice already.”

Keep an eye out for David Assouline as the WSOP Main Event continues.

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Freeroll Qualifier Belinda Roberts Living Her Dream At WSOP

Wednesday, July 7th, 2010

I love stories about regular people who get to live their dreams, so when I heard about WSOP freeroll qualifier Belinda Roberts I couldn’t resist writing about her. Roberts, a 49-year old Australian woman that used to work as a casino dealer, has taken her place in the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

Roberts qualified for the World Series of Poker by playing in an exclusive VIP Champion Camp freeroll, held b PokerListings and 888. She earned a free spot in the WSOP Main Event, as well as a flight and accommodations from PokerListings and yesterday she took her seat at the Main Event to play alongside poker’s greatest players.

Roberts said, “I’ve been dreaming of sitting under these lights for so many years. I was actually planning on 2011 Aussie Millions and hopefully satellite into the Main Event.” Luckily she didn’t have to wait for Aussie Millions and was able to qualify from the online freeroll. Roberts says she has always been fascinated by poker. She has watched the WSOP and other televised poker events for years and now she gets to finally be a part of it.

When Roberts took her seat at the main event she was sporting an Australian bush hat with a fancy mosquito veil and was hard to miss. When asked about her hat she said, “It’s an Aussie thing to keep out all the flies. I suppose it’s something that identifies who I am and gives me the added bonus that you can’t see my face. It’s sort of a joke amongst my friends and family.”

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Who Will Be WSOP 2010 Player Of The Year?

Thursday, July 1st, 2010

As the World Series Of Poker tournament progresses things are heating up and the question on every player’s mind is, who is going to win the race for WSOP 2010 Player Of The Year? Each year, players are ranked based on their cumulative measure of performance and the player that comes out on top receives the Player Of The Year Title.

This year, Frank Kassela and John Juanda are currently tied for first place in the rankings, with 225 points each. Kassela has won two bracelets so far and Juanda has not won any, however his cash wins have given him a top spot on the leader board.

Juanda says that if he wins Poker Player Of The Year “it will make me feel a bit better about not winning a bracelet. But every year I go without a bracelet, it’s disappointing.” Kassela says that he has “been playing in a ton of events since [he] won the last one, just because [he] knew [he] had a decent chance at Player of the Year.” It’s a close race, and if either player wants to go home with the title they will have to up their game, compete in a lot of events and either win or place in the top with cash wins.

The current standings for Poker Player Of The Year are as follows:

John Juanda – 225 points

Frank Kassela – 225 points

Vladimir Schemelev – 210 points

Dan Heimiller – 200 points

Michael Mizrachi – 190 points

Men Nguyen – 180 points

Richard Ashby – 180 points

Jeffrey Papola – 180 points

James Dempsey – 180 points

Allen Kessler – 175 points

David Chiu – 170 points

David Baker – 170 points

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California Will Discuss Intrastate Internet Poker Legislation Today

Tuesday, June 29th, 2010

Live poker games have been available to Californians for some time now. However, there are currently no licensing requirements, regulations or law enforcement tools designed to protect the millions of poker players in California who play real money games on the Internet. Today at 3:30pm PST, California’s Senate Government Organization Committee will discuss the state’s first Internet poker legislation.

The legislation, known as Senate Bill 1485, will implement several rules and regulations on the Internet poker industry and players in California. The bill will authorize three hub operators to allow legal poker gaming online in the state. This means that Californians will only be able to play at those specified hubs when in California. Additionally, these hubs must fork over at least 20% of their gross revenues to the Internet Gambling Fund each month, a newly created Californian fund. Online poker players must be at least 21 years old.

Both the Morongo Band of Million Indians and the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) have issues with the bill in its present form. John Pappas, the executive director of the PPA said, “We have some legitimate concerns with the legislation that hopefully will get remedied. A lot of people think the chances of this bill moving forward this year are slim because no one has really gotten behind the current draft and there seems to be a lot of division on what the best end product would be.”

It will be interesting to see what results from discussion of the bill in California today.

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Phil Ivey Wins 8th World Series Of Poker Bracelet

Friday, June 25th, 2010

It probably doesn’t come as a surprise to most poker enthusiasts that Phil Ivey is continuing to kick some serious butt in this year’s World Series of Poker. This week he took home his 8th WSOP bracelet in he $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. Ivey has been on a roll since his first WSOP bracelet win in 2000.

Ivey took home one bracelet in 2000, three bracelets in 2002, one in 2005 and two in 2009. This is his first bracelet win in 2010, but he still could stand to win more! His bracelet wins and events are as follows:

2000 – $195,000 in $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha Event
2002 – $118,440 in $2,500 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Event
2002 – $107,540 in $2,000 S.H.O.E. Event
2002 – $132,000 in $1,500 7 Card Stud Event
2005 – $635,603 in $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Event
2009 – $96,367 in $2,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball Event
2009 – $220,538 in $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo / 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo Event

The $3000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament is a tournament made up of multiple poker variations. Players compete in Texas Hold’em, Omaha Eights or Better, Omaha Hi, Razz, Seven Card Stud, and Seven Card Stud Eight or Better. Ivey bested poker greats in the event including Jeffrey Lisandro, Chad Brown, John Juanda and Bill Chen. The win puts him in a tie with Erik Seidel for 5th place in all-time WSOP bracelet wins.

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WSOP 2010 Tournament Of Champions Announced

Thursday, June 17th, 2010

One of the most exciting World Series of Poker events is the Tournament of Champions, an invitation only $1 million freeroll for the world’s top poker players, who are admitted based upon a vote. After more than 350,000 ballots were counted the final lineup for the tournament was announced.

Five players were already shoe-ins for the tournament – Joe Cada, Annie Duke, Mike Matusow, Barry Shulman and Mike Sexton – and Andrew Barton and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier were also automatically entered as Team PokerStars sponsor exemptions. However, this year all the rest of the players were decided upon based on a vote.

Ty Stewart, vice president of the WSOP, spoke about the voting and the results. He said, “We’re very pleased with the response to this new format. The selections show that poker has a mass fan base that is knowledgeable about the history of the World Series of Poker.”

I won’t keep you in suspense any longer. The list of poker stars voted into the tournament, and the number of votes they received are as follows:

1. Phil Ivey with 16,267 votes

2. Daniel Negreanu with 16, 239 votes

3. Doyle Brunson with 13,796 votes

4. Phil Hellmuth with 12,673 votes

5. Chris Ferguson with 11,585 votes

6. Allen Cunningham with 10,486 votes

7. Johnny Chan with 10,434 votes

8. Scotty Nguyen with 9,806 votes

9. Barry Greenstein with 9,806 votes

10. John Juanda with 8,835 votes

11. Erik Seidel with 8,802 votes

12. Jennifer Harman with 8,206 votes

13. Huck Seed with 8,180 votes

14. Dan Harrington with 7,342 votes

15. T.J. Cloutier with 6,281 votes

16. Sammy Farha with 6,085 votes

17. Howard Lederer with 5,596 votes

18. Grey Raymer with 5,404 votes

19. Joe Hachem with 5,272 votes

20. Antonio Esfandiari with 5,129 votes

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Men Crash WSOP $1000 Ladies Tournament

Monday, June 14th, 2010

Around half a dozen men registered for this year’s WSOP $1,000 Ladies Tournament. It’s not the first time that men have tried to get in on women’s poker events, but this time officials and tournament players expressed their anger. WSOP officials even threatened to ban the men who registered for the event, which is traditionally reserved for women.

The Director of Communications for the World Series of Poker said that, “We will have our repercussions against any man that entered the ladies tournament. There are consequences for actions, and they’ll pay the price. Players with no class can have their services refused at any time.”

Men trying to enter women’s poker tournaments brings up a lot of questions. For starters, is it fair to have women’s only tournaments? After all, poker is not a sport in which women have a physical or mental disadvantage. Everyone is on the same field. There aren’t men’s poker events in the WSOP that deny women, so why should women get their own event? However, many male poker players take things to far, entering women’s events just to ridicule women. Shaun Deeb, for instance, dressed in drag at a women’s only event.

Women are the minority in poker, and an exclusive event can serve as a nice break from all the men in the poker world. However, many men don’t see the point and want to ruin things for the women. In any case, it should be interesting to see whether anything will happen to the men who tried to enter the event.

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