Posts Tagged ‘2011 WSOP’

Amanda Musumeci falls short in 2012 WSOP Event #9

Friday, June 8th, 2012

To say that there’s a drought among female winners at the WSOP is an understatement. In fact, the last woman to win an open-entry WSOP tournament came in 2008, when Vanessa Selbst won a $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event. Maria Ho came close to ending this drought last year when she finished runner-up to Allen Bari in a 2011 WSOP $5,000 NLHE tournament – but again, no dice.

So it’s no surprise that plenty of people were excited when Amanda Musumeci made a deep run in the recent 2012 WSOP Event #9. The Philadelphia native burst onto the poker scene last year when she made a deep run in the 2011 Main Event; she ended up finishing 62nd and earning $130,997. So many poker fans were already well aware of Musumeci by the time the Event #9 final table rolled around.

Unfortunately for her, Ashkan Razavi was busy steam-rolling opponents at the final table, and by the time he and Musumeci met heads-up, he had built over a 6:1 chip advantage on her. She managed to make things entertaining by doubling up at one point and prolonging the heads-up match for a while; however, it wasn’t enough as Musumeci finished in second with a sizable $481,643 prize.

Seeing as how she was runner-up, this signifies another miss for the ladies when it comes to open WSOP tournaments. Of course, things aren’t over by a long shot for the women because there are still 50 bracelet events left to be played, which leaves them with plenty of time to end the dry spell.

As for Musumeci, there’s no reason to be sad because she’s proven to be quite the grinder over the past year. In between her 62nd Main Event finish and the 2nd place finish in the 2012 WSOP, she managed to cash in 15 different tournaments – including eight WSOP Circuit events. Taking all of this into account, she’s now earned $748,223 in career tournament winnings.

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Jonathan Duhamel Robbery shows Trend in Poker World

Thursday, December 22nd, 2011

The poker world was shocked today to find out that 2010 WSOP Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel had been bound, beaten and robbed at his Montreal home. According to Duhamel’s account, the robbers forced their way into his house early in the morning, then started attacking him. Eventually, they tied him up, and began hitting the poker pro repeatedly until he told them where his valuables were.

And the items they took were valuable indeed as the robbers stole Duhamel’s 2010 WSOP Main Event bracelet, along with a Rolex Submarine watch that came courtesy of PokerStars. The 24-year-old spoke about the valuable items by saying, “I won’t hide the fact that these two items have a much larger value for me than their commercial value, and I really hope we will be able to retrieve them in a near future.” Hopefully, Duhamel can eventually recover the stolen bracelet and watch since his name is on them.

Moving past the Jonathan Duhamel robbery, a bigger problem may be at stake here since the Canadian is just the latest poker pro to be the victim of a robbery. Early this year, Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh had her room safe broken into at the 2011 WSOP. Leigh had a few thousand dollars in the safe, and suspected that it may have been an inside job by hotel staff members.

Much like Duhamel, Scott Montgomery had a scary robbery experience, but to a different degree. A knife-wielding man demanded that Montgomery empty his pockets in a Bellagio restroom; the Canadian obliged, giving the man over $2,000.

One more recent incident involved Kayvan Payman, who was robbed of €4,000 at the EPT Barcelona tournament. Apparently, Payman was leaving the bar with friends, and got ahead of them before having several Spanish thugs surround him and demand money. After being robbed, the poker pro ran back to find his friends, and they chased after the criminals. Eventually, they came upon a local restaurant, where two men not related to the robbers attacked the group with a machete and frying pan.

Fortunately, Payman and his friends weren’t seriously hurt, but the rash of poker robberies has to make a person wonder what’s behind all of these incidents. One element at play here is that poker pros often carry a lot of money around with them, which can attract the attention of thieves. Another aspect behind poker robberies is that players like to drink and party, which leads them to meeting some unsavory characters. And most robbers target people or businesses that they know. Finally, grinders do a lot of traveling, which puts them in unfamiliar cities and locations, thus increasing the chance of being robbed.

We could go on with the list of poker robberies and reasons behind them, but the bottom line is that players need to be careful with whom they associate, and also when they flash their money.

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2011 WSOPE Main Event sets Record

Wednesday, October 19th, 2011

Nobody’s going to mistake the WSOPE Main Event for the WSOP Main Event quite yet, but it’s definitely getting bigger. For evidence of this fact, you need look no farther than the fact that the 2011 WSOPE Main Event set the official attendance and prize pool record.

There were 593 players willing to ante up the €10,000 + €400 buy-in, and almost €5.7 million total will be paid out to the top 64 players. It’s definitely worth mentioning that the 2011 WSOPE Main Event winner will be walking away with a €1.4 million prize.

Looking back through history, nobody has managed to win this much money in the WSOPE Main Event. In fact, the biggest winner that we’ve seen in the tournament is Norwegian poker pro Annette Obrestad, who won the inaugural WSOPE ME in 2007, which netted her a predetermined €1 million. Since Obrestad’s victory, John Juanda is the next closest winner in terms of money since he earned €868,800 for taking down the 2008 WSOPE Main Event.

So who is bound to be the biggest winner in WSOPE history? Currently, little known American Elio Fox will headline the WSOPE final table since he’s got the most chips at 3.9 million. Just behind Fox in second place is UK poker sensation Jake Cody, who has 2.7 million chips. Cody is probably the most famous poker player on the final table – at least currently – since he won the $25,000 NLHE Heads-Up Championship at the 2011 WSOP, and earned Player of the Year honors at the 2011 British Poker Awards.

Another big name on this final table is Chris Moormon who, along with countryman Jake Cody, has had his fair share of success in the poker world. In any case, it will be interesting to see how the final table plays out, and who earns the title.

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Jake Cody named Poker Player of the Year

Sunday, September 4th, 2011

Jake Cody started the 2011 WSOP off with a bang after winning the $25k No-Limit Hold’em Heads-up Championship. And his reward for winning was a massive $851,192 prize and a WSOP gold bracelet. Perhaps even bigger than the bracelet though was the fact that Cody became only the fourth person ever to win poker’s triple crown, which includes winning a WSOP, EPT and WPT title.

With Cody joining the ranks of poker’s elite, it’s no surprise that he cleaned up at the 2011 British Poker Awards by taking “Player of the Year” and “Best Tournament Player” honors. As for the voting process, the 2011 British Poker Awards are a unique deal because those attending the Poker in the Park festival get to vote on winners.

Seeing as how Poker in the Park is held in London, it’s not surprising that the UK’s Cody was able to take the Player of the Year title – although this isn’t to say that he didn’t earn it. In addition to Cody winning a couple of awards, quite a few other UK pros earned some hardware, including Chris Moorman (Best Online Player), Sam Trickett (Best Cash Player) and Matt Perkins (Best Breakout Player).

The British poker fans did show some love to people outside of the UK since they voted Jason Mercier as the “Best International Player” and Kara Scott as the “Best Poker Personality.” It’s no surprise that Mercier would win an honor since most poker tournament rankings – including ESPN’s – continually put the Florida-based pro at the top of the list. As for Scott, the Canadian hostess of Poker After Dark seems to be loved by all in the poker community since she’s got looks and a great personality (as the award alludes to).

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Phil Hellmuth misses Bracelet #12 Again in Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Earlier in the month, all-time WSOP bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth was going for bracelet #12 in the 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship. Unfortunately for Hellmuth, he narrowly missed out on a chance to extend his lead after John Juanda trounced him heads-up. However, the poker gods gave Hellmuth yet another shot at glory on the final table of the Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship.

The star-studded final table featured the Poker Brat, John Racener, Ted Forrest, David Benyamine and Ali Eslami. But Hellmuth was able to work his way through this stellar lineup, and into a heads-up match with Eric Rodawig. Interestingly enough though, it was the unheralded Rodawig who walked away with the bracelet when everything was over with.

The big story here is obviously the fact that Hellmuth finished runner-up for the second time in this WSOP. And for a guy who’s on a four-year bracelet drought, this isn’t good news. On the other hand, it’s not like he had a chip advantage going into the heads-up match since Rodawig led nearly 3-1. Plus the Poker Brat is leading the WSOP Player of the Year standings, which is encouraging.

Before we make this whole post about Hellmuth, the bracelet win is huge for Eric Rodawig, who has just three live tournament cashes in his career. Before winning the Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship, Rodawig didn’t really have any significant tournaments titles. With the big cash here, Rodawig now has $485k in career winnings.

Here is a look at the final table results from the Seven Cards Stud Hi-Lo Championship:

1. Eric Rodawig – $442,183
2. Phil Hellmuth – $273,233
3. John Racener – $171,122
4. Ted Forrest – $123,904
5. David Benyamine – $96,836
6. Mikhail Savinov – $77,222
7. Joe Tehan – $62,710
8. Ali Eslami – $51,750
9. Antony Lellouche – $43,317

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WSOP Attendance Record in 2011?

Saturday, June 18th, 2011

2011 was supposed to be the year where WSOP attendance fell dramatically from its record in 2010. After all, the events of Black Friday ensured that many Americans wouldn’t be able to compete for WSOP prize packages through sites like PokerStars, UB Poker, Absolute Poker and Full Tilt. However, a total anomaly has happened this year since WSOP attendance is not only doing well, but it’s on pace to set records!

After 29 events, WSOP attendance is 10% higher than it was in 2010, and there are no signs of this growth slowing down. About the only thing that could possibly hinder the attendance from reaching record figures is that less amateurs will have won $10k Main Event prize packages through online sites. However, it’s pure speculation at this point, much like the speculation that attendance figures would be way down.

So just how is the world’s largest poker event even more popular this year? Well one possible reason could be the fact that many US online pros are unable to play at the biggest poker sites, so they’re concentrating their efforts on the 2011 WSOP. This theory is highlighted by a large number of noted online pros, such as Tom Dwan, David Sands and Richard Lyndacker, who are entering as many events as they can this year. In the past, many of these players took a casual approach to the WSOP since they mainly relied on internet games.

Of course, there is also a large international presence at the WSOP, which includes three players from the UK who have won bracelets. Going further with this, Ukraine-born players such as Eugene Katchalov (lives in US) and Oleksii Kovalchuk have also won bracelets.

Whatever the main factor is behind this WSOP attendance surge, it will be fun to see if the record is broken once again in 2011.

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Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier joins Triple Crown – wins Seven Card Stud Championship

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

While Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier has become one of the best poker players of all-time, the one knock against him is that he hasn’t won a WSOP bracelet. However, this all changed when Grospellier won the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship at the 2011 WSOP.

The Frenchman cruised through a 126-player field that included some incredible players such as Alexander Kostritsyn (5th place), Chad Brown (6th place), Nick Schulman (9th place), Men Nguyen (10th place), Ville Wahlbeck (12th place), Jason Mercier (14th place) and Matthew Hawrilenko (16th place). After winning, ElkY hauled in $331,639 and joined the prestigious triple crown club (EPT, WPT and WSOP title).

Previously, the only players to win the triple crown included Gavin Griffin, Roland De Wolfe and Jake Code (via 2011 WSOP). Now Grospellier has cemented himself further into poker lore by becoming only the fourth person to win the triple crown.

As far as Grospellier’s march to the incredible accomplishment goes, he kicked things off by winning the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. ’08 turned out to be a great year for ElkY as he went on to capture the WPT Championship title as well. But as quickly as WPT and EPT success came, Grospellier had to wait quite some time before he finally tasted true WSOP success.

Fortunately for him, the time has finally come, and he can now add WSOP hardware to his already impressive list of accomplishments. With the Seven Card Stud Championship now under his belt, Grospellier now has almost $8 million in live tournament winnings, which ranks him 25th on the all-time money list. And since ElkY puts a lot of focus on live tournaments, you can bet that he will be moving up on the list over the next few years.

 

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Matt Perrins wins WSOP 2-7 Draw Lowball during First Time Playing

Wednesday, June 8th, 2011

The World Series of Poker isn’t exactly the best place to try out a new poker game. After all, the WSOP is full of the best live poker players in the world. However, Matthew Perrins felt perfectly comfortable trying to parlay his Texas Hold’em skills into a 2-7 Draw Lowball tournament. And what’s funny about this story is that Perrins won Event #9 and $102k despite barely knowing how to play the game.

In order to learn how to play 2-7 Draw Lowball, Perrins watched a few YouTube videos, and that was it. He picked up the rest by asking fellow opponents how to play the game.

As Perrins told the media, “During Day One and the first three or four hours, I was not sure what was going on. I was getting into a few hands, and I was not sure what I should do here. So, I ended up speaking to some of my mates. I started to pick it up. As the tournament got deeper, it was kind of similar to Hold’em as in where being aggressive and three-betting will get you a lot of chips. That’s where I started moving toward the final table.”

As for his strategy during the tournament, Perrins told reporters, “I knew that everyone had a lot more experience than me, but since I was able to play it a bit like Hold’em, they would fold. When I three-bet and was aggressive, it worked.”

Perrins wildly celebrated with friends and other players after winning his first WSOP bracelet. With the WSOP victory and $102,095 in winnings, the Brit now has almost $655k in live tournament winnings. In addition to this, Perrins is also a very good online poker player who has carved out a very successful career.

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