Posts Tagged ‘WSOPE Main Event’

Veronika Pavlikova – The Next Annette Obrestad?

Monday, March 26th, 2012

In 2007, Annette Obrestad accomplished the impressive feat of winning the WSOPE Main Event along with $2 million. What made this victory truly exceptional was that she did it one day before her 19th birthday. That said, it’s not totally strange to hear 18-year-old Veronika Pavlikova compared to Obrestad after she just won the France Poker Series Snowfest Evian Main Event.

Okay….so this isn’t the WSOPE, but it’s impressive nonetheless because this 296-player tournament featured a €296,000 prize pool along with plenty of pros in the field. And 18-year-old’s aren’t expected to win tournaments of this magnitude, so Pavlikova has joined an elite class. But is she at the level of Obrestad?

The first thing worth mentioning here is that Veronika Pavlikova has basically come out of nowhere – as opposed to Annette Obrestad, who well known throughout the poker community long before she won the 2007 WSOPE Main Event. Starting online at the age of 15, Obrestad won hundreds of thousands of dollars playing underage poker. So Veronika Pavlikova certainly doesn’t have the online presence that Obrestad does.

As for live poker tournament winnings, you could argue that Pavlikova is actually better at this point. Before her WSOPE Main Event win, Obrestad had around $39k in live tourney cashes, which is still great for an 18-year-old. However, Pavlikova earned over $93,000 (€70,000) for her victory, and she still has a while before she turns 19.

Only time will tell how good Veronika Pavlikova ends up being, or if she continues to draw Annette Obrestad comparisons. But at this point, the Czech is certainly a good player who only looks to improve on her career winnings as time goes on.

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.

2011 WSOPE begins Today

Friday, October 7th, 2011

The 2011 World Series of Poker Europe starts today, and plenty of people are excited about the new changes to the event. Instead of being held at the Empire Casino in London’s Leicester Square, the tournament will now be staged at the Casino Barrière de Cannes Croisette. The big reason for the change is that the 2011 WSOPE is expected to be huge, and organizers didn’t think the Empire Casino could hold the growing tournament fields.

WSOP Director Seth Palansky commented on this matter by telling reporters, “We’re committed to Cannes for the next couple of years. Capacity is an issue in London, and we would either have to convince the regulators it’s okay to hold an event in a non-gaming establishment on a temporary basis, or a location opens up that has more space.”

What’s really interesting about all of this is that the WSOPE Main Event is expected to be much bigger than last year. And this is saying something because last year’s Main Event offered a $5,337,694 prize pool, and James Bord won the largest share at $1,281,048.

Moving past the Main Event prize pool, the overall tournament pools are expected to dwarf what’s been seen in previous years as Palansky told the press, “We’re anticipating the biggest World Series of Poker Europe we’ve ever had, without a doubt. With seven events there’s a distinct possibility that we will reach the prize pool numbers of the first four years in this one year alone.”

As mentioned before, the 2011 WSOPE starts today, October 7th, and will run until the 15th. Here is a look at the entire 2011 WSOPE Europe schedule:

Event 1: 6-Handed Hold’em €2,680
Event 2: No-Limit Hold’em €1,090
Event 3: Pot-Limit Omaha €5,300
Event 4: Shootout Hold’em €3,200
Oct 12: Event 5: No-Limit Hold’em Split €10,400
Event 6: 6-Handed PLO €1,620
Event 7: WSOPE Main Event €10,400
Ladies Event: NLHE  €550