Posts Tagged ‘Antonio Esfandiari’

Konstantin Puchkov and the Unheralded WSOP Record

Thursday, July 12th, 2012

It’s now been a couple of weeks since Antonio Esfandiari won the Big One for One Drop, and people are still talking about this impressive win. It’s for good reason too because he set a record for the largest poker tournament cash in history with $18,346,673.

Unfortunately, it appears as if Esfandiari’s record has overshadowed the accomplishments of others during the 2012 WSOP, such as Konstantin Puchkov and his recent record. The Russian set the record for most WSOP cashes in a single year with 11. Considering that there were 61 tournaments in the 2012 WSOP and Puchkov probably only had time to play half of them, this is no doubt a very impressive mark!

Out of these 11 WSOP cashes, he made two final tables in the Event #37 8-Game (6th, $41,844) and the Event #46 Limit Hold’em (9th, $49,245) tournaments; the latter represented his biggest cash of the year. Keeping this in mind, it’s no wonder why the Moscow native hasn’t set the poker world on fire with his incredible accomplishment. However, the amount of money isn’t what’s important here, but rather how consistently well he did against the top poker pros in the world.

As for his career, Puchkov has managed to amass $1,666,596 in live tournament winnings. His best year from a money perspective is when he collected $792k on the felt during 2010. Much of his money came from finishing third in the 2010 EPT Barcelona Main Event ($410k) and winning a WSOP $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. tournament ($257k).

Away from the tables, Konstantin Puchkov trains horses around the Moscow area. What’s funny is that Puchkov names his horses after poker terms, and even commented that he loves the game of H.O.R.S.E. because of his first career. With all the money he’s been winning in poker, the Russian will no doubt have a lot more hay to feed his horses with.

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Antonio Esfandiari wins $18.35m – Does Winnings List have any Meaning?

Wednesday, July 4th, 2012

The biggest poker news of the week is no doubt Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari winning the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop tournament. He navigated through a 48-player field and on towards victory as much of the poker world watched with intent interest. And a huge reason for all the interest was the $18,346,673 first place prize on the line!

Once Esfandiari finished Sam Trickett off in heads-up play, he was the recipient of this insane fortune….or at least he and his backers were. Seeing as how The Magician sold a lot of his shares in order to meet the hefty buy-in and cut down on variance, he likely received less than 50% of the $18.35 million. However, the full amount goes down in the record books and vaults him towards the top of the all-time live poker tournament winnings list with $23,245,828.

This is certainly nice for the headlines and could definitively bring some more recreational players into the game. However, it completely obliterates any sort of relevancy that the all-time tournament winnings list used to have.

These days, the tourney winnings list doesn’t mean much to a lot of players because they can’t compete with top-level pros who have lots of backing. Furthermore, events like the Big One for One Drop are more like glorified sit and go’s than anything since only a small number of players are competing, yet ridiculous amounts of money are up for grabs.

So how should we view the poker tournament winnings list in today’s era? Well it’s a fun little thing to look at from time to time, but you certainly can’t measure one’s overall tourney success from this. That said, there are still some very fine players towards the top of the winnings list – it’s just that the average grinder will never have an opportunity to compete with them.

Big One for One Drop Results

1. Antonio Esfandiari — $18,346,673
2. Sam Trickett — $10,112,001
3. David Einhorn — $4,352,000
4. Phil Hellmuth — $2,645,333
5. Guy Laliberté — $1,834,666
6. Brian Rast — $1,621,333
7. Bobby Baldwin — $1,408,000
8. Richard Yong — $1,237,333
9. Mike Sexton — $1,109,333

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Victory Poker Closed – Failed to Diversify

Tuesday, May 31st, 2011

Few poker sites in recent years have made the splash that Victory Poker has in its short existence. Victory aggressively marketed their room, they had a solid rakeback deal, and they signed an impressive roster of pro players that included Andrew Robl and Antonio Esfandiari. Not coincidentally, these two pros gained Victory even more exposure when they appeared on High Stakes Poker wearing the Victory Poker patches. But even with everything that Victory did right, they failed in one key aspect – diversification.

The site was too centered on the American market, and once the events of Black Friday hit, their player base died fast. Plus their impending move from the Cake network to the CEREUS network was cut short by Black Friday.

And while it’s possible that Victory could have survived longer, CEO Dan Fleyshman had enough and was burnt out. Fleyshman dropped the bombshell on the poker world through his Facebook page by writing “The brand will continue doing strategy, news (and) videos as an affiliate site. I will be focusing much more on my upcoming charity, consulting other companies and helping with Victory marketing.”

As far as I can remember, this is the first time that a major poker room like Victory has made the decision to transform into a poker affiliate site. And while it’s not exactly a success transforming into an affiliate, it will be interesting to see how the room does in this capacity.

In regards to the Victory Poker pros, there is no word on what will happen to Esfandiari or Robl; I’m sure that they’ll find a sponsor somewhere though. And if you’re wondering about the Victory players, all accounts, Gold Chips, and other bonuses will be transferred to Cake Poker in June.

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