Posts Tagged ‘tournament’

Joe Tehan Wins North American Poker Tour LA Main Event

Thursday, November 18th, 2010

Last night the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) wrapped up its main event in Los Angeles and in the end the trophy and $725,000 cash prize went to Joe Tehan.

Tehan, originally from New York, has been playing poker professionally for several years, and has a couple of big wins under his belt. In 2006, Tehan took home a whopping $1,033,440 in the World Poker Tour fifth season Mandalay Bay and he had earned over $3 million in live poker tournament earnings, taking into account last night’s $745,000 win.

Tehan played an amazing game last night. He entered the final table in fifth place and managed to bust out every single player at the table. He even managed to knock two players out in one hand (Henson and Nguyen).

Although the $745,000 win pales in comparison to Tehan’s win of over $1 million in Mandalay Bay, it was still enough to put him over the $3 million mark for earnings in live tournament play.

Check out the final lineup for the NAPT Los Angeles event below:

1st Place – Joe Tehan – $725,000

2nd Place – Chris DeMaci – $440,000

3rd Place – Al Grimes – $250,000

4th Place – Anh Van Nguyen – $195,000

5th Place – Ray Henson – $145,000

6th Place – Mike Binger – $114,000

7th Place – Jason Mercier – $84,857

8th Place – Jake Toole – $60,000

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EPT London Champ David Vamplew Is On A Roll

Friday, October 8th, 2010

Poker tournament winners keep getting younger and younger. Just last month we reported that 24-year old Sam Trickett won the World Poker Open this year. Now, an even younger player is making headlines. 23-year old David Vamplew not only won the European Poker Tour’s London Main Event on Monday, taking home £900,000, but he also had a big win on Tuesday as well, winning the PokerStars UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) Champion of Champions event in London.

In the UKIPT Champions event, Vamplew beat a number of big name UK poker players including Padraig Parkinson, Joeri Zandvliet, Andy Couldridge, Femi Fakinle, Gilles Augustus, Jamie Burland, Max Silver and Nick Abou Risk. When asked to comment on his second win in a row Vamplew said, “After yesterday, it’s the icing on the cake.”

It really is amazing that Vamplew had two huge wins in two days, especially when you take into consideration the fact that before this week the largest cash out he’d had in a tournament was $6,000. The EPT London Main event had a record-setting number of players, with 848 competitors. Not to shabby to come out on top over more than 800 other poker players at the age of 23! Vamplew said, “It’s going to take a while to sink in. I had to get lucky to win.” Well Vamplew! It looks like you got lucky twice in a row!

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WPT Borgata Poker Open Sees Record Attendance With 1,042 Entrants

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

The World Poker Tour has always had a strong turnout on the East Coast, but nothing compares to the record number of attendees they have seen in the last two years. Last year a whopping 1,018 players registered and this year even more players joined the tournament. The 1,042 entrants this year signify the highest ever number of attendees in the WPT Borgata Poker Open event.

Why did so many players come out for the Borgata Open? It could be that more and more people are getting into tournament poker, but the more likely reason is that the WPT drastically lowered the buy-in for the event. Typically the event had a $10,000 buy-in, but for the last two years they lowered it to $3,500. At the same time as they lowered the buy-in, they raised the prize-pool guarantee to $2 million. With these kinds of stakes, who wouldn’t sign up?

Of course, it is important to point out that the payout structure for the event has also been changed so the winner will walk away with a smaller payout than in years past. A year ago, winner Olivier Busquet took home $925,514. This year’s tournament winner will take home only $733,802. But I’d say that’s still pretty good considering the $3,500 buy-in.

If you are one of the players taking part in the WPT Borgata Poker Open, or have another tournament coming up, I suggest practicing with a free poker game online to brush up on your skills before the big event!

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24-Year Old Sam Trickett Wins World Poker Open

Thursday, September 16th, 2010

I always feel a twinge of jealousy when I find out that a poker player younger than me has won a major tournament. The most recent in the trend of young poker winners is Sam Trickett, a twenty-four year old poker pro from the UK, who just took home $200,000 for winning the PartyPoker.com World Poker Open IV in London.

Trickett used to be a professional soccer player. However, after he suffered a knee injury in 2005 his gaming selection changed from soccer to poker and he has been claiming fame as a poker pro ever since, though he hasn’t had many huge wins under his belt. Trickett won the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Luton Main Event back in 2008, taking home a $210,000 prize, and he has taken home a prize that is almost as large with his World Poker Open win.

Trickett came out on top after fierce competition with a variety of well-known poker pros, including John Duthie, Andrew Robl and Juha Helppi. He beat Canadian poker pro Yevgeniy Timoshenko in a heads up game at the end of the tournament. Trickett commented on his win saying, “To finally win a big tournament is brilliant. It is great to hear people saying congratulations rather than commiserations.”

The final table payouts for the World Poker Open London were as follows:

1 – Sam Trickett – $200,000

2 – Yevgeniy Timoshenko – $110,00

3 – Toby Lewis – $75,000

4 – Juha Helppi – $35,000

5 – John Duthie – $25,000

6 – Andrew Robl – $20,000

7 – Dale Hoy – $15,000

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Would You Play In A $250k Buy-in Tournament?

Friday, September 10th, 2010

The costs of buy-in poker tournaments run the gambit from less than a dollar to thousands, but a new IPPA Monte Carlo tournament has announced that they will be holding one of the most expensive poker tournaments of all time. The International Poker Players Association Championship organizers are offering a tournament in Monte Carlo with a massive $250k buy-in.

If you’ve got the bankroll to participate in the $250k tournament (and I’ll go out on a limb and say that probably few do), then you can compete for a huge $12 million prize pool. The big winner will take home $5 million of the total $12 million prize. Once, the $50,000 WSOP event seemed like the big time, but compared to the upcoming IPPA Championship event it seems like small change.

Who has signed up for the $250k tournament so far? Poker bigwigs set to compete include Michael Mizrachi, Robert Mizrachi, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Tony G, Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, Freddy Deeb, Huck Seed, and Gus Hansen. These players, and others who decide to pay the massive buy-in, will compete in Texas Hold’em. Originally, the $250k tournament was scheduled for last year, but was set to be a H.O.R.S.E. tournament and not enough high profile players signed up. The decision to switch to Texas Hold’em has made the event much more popular.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t imagine ever shelling out $250k to pay in any kind of tournament. However, it should still be fun to see who shines in the competition and walks away with millions.

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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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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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Michael Mizrachi Wins WSOP Player’s Championship Event

Thursday, June 3rd, 2010

Event 2 of this year’s World Series of Poker, the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship, has come to a close and Michael Mizrachi was declared the winner. The event also was the second time in history that two brothers made the final table in a WSOP tournament, as both Michael and his brother Robert made it to the final table of the event.

It was actually Michael that eliminated his brother, who had entered the tournament with the chip lead. I’m sure the brothers don’t harbor any foul feelings, as Robert still finished in 5th place. Robert took home $341,429 while his brother took home a whopping $1,559,046 with his first place win.

It’s a good thing Michael Mizrachi won, as we recently covered the fact that he was in trouble with the IRS, owing them to the tune of $339,000 in Federal taxes. He was facing foreclosure and some of his real estate had already been seized. His $1.5 million win should do a lot to get him out of the hole, and I’m sure he’ll remember to pay taxes on his winnings this time!

Here are the top 8 players and their final winnings in the WSOP Poker Player’s Championship Event:

  1. Michael Mizrachi wins $1,559,046
  2. Vladimir Schmelev wins $963,375
  3. David Oppenheim wins $603,348
  4. John Juanda wins $436,865
  5. Robert Mizrachi wins $341,429
  6. David Baker wns $272,275
  7. Daniel Alaei wins $221,105
  8. Mikael Thuritz wins $182,463

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China Takes First World Team Poker Tournament Win

Sunday, May 23rd, 2010

Last week the inaugural game of the World Team Poker Tournament took place at the Gold Nugget Casino in Las Vegas. The tournament, which had a $50,000 buy-in, lasted for eighteen and a half hours. Eight teams participated from eight different countries – China, Vietnam, Israel, England, Australia, Brazil, Greece and the United States – but at the end of the night it was China that came out on top.

Team China won a net total of $300,000 in the tournament. Brazil, the runners up, will take home $100,000. It was not a shocking win, as China has been one of the favorites in the tournament from the beginning. The Chinese poker team is led by co-captains David Chiu and Johnny Chang. Other team players include Derek Cheung, Winifred Yu, Rich Zhu, Maria Ho and Chiau Giang.

The team tournament style worked as follows. Each team player started out at a preliminary table. The top two players at each table advanced to the final table. Countries that had more than one qualifying player were awarded only one seat at the final table, with the advancing player taking the winning chips of all other players. The tournament was a mix of Limit Holdem, No Limit Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha. Team captains were allowed to substitute players each time the game changed. The USA and England did not even make it to the final table.

The tournament ended after one of the longest and hardest heads-up matches to occur in recent history, China is the proud winner of the first World Team Poker Tournament.

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