Poker news tagged with '2011 wsop'

We are only 2 days away from the final table that people all over the globe has been longing for - for a very long time, the 2011 World Series of Poker final table! The final table kicks off on Sunday at 3:30 ET and will be broadcasted on ESPN2. If you plan on watching the final table and want some information on the finalists, we can recommend you to check out the ESPN INSIDE DEAL: November Nine Preview Show below.

Read more » VIDEO: 2011 November Nine kicks off on Sunday!

Nine days have now passed since the 2011 WSOP Main Event final table was set, and we are really sorry that we haven't been able to put up the news until now. Now, below you will find the 9 finalists and some brief information about each one of them (information taken from the official WSOP website). The final table (televised) will be played in the first week of November.

8 of the 9 finalists are guaranteed at least $1 million each, and the winner will become the World Champion and receive a prize check of almost 9 million dollars! All of the finalists have plenty of chips to work with, so expect it to be one of the most interesting final tables in WSOP history! 

Read more » Incase you missed it: The 2011 WSOP November 9 is set

What a comeback by Brian Rast! He was down to about 2 million and almost out of the tournament a while ago. Now, about 10-15 minutes later, he's the champion and $1,720,328 richer! This was his second bracelet at the 2011 WSOP! Very impressive!

This is how the last 2 hands were played out.

Hand #216
Brian Rast had the button and raised to 240k. Phil Hellmuth called. The flop fell Q[s]7[h]8[h], and Hellmuth bet 300k. Rast called. The turn was the 4[c], Hellmuth checked, and Rast checked as well. The river was the 4[d] and Hellmuth betted 300k. Rast folds, and Hellmuth won the pot.

Read more » Phil Hellmuth eliminated in 2nd place for $1,063,034

There are now only 2 players remaining in the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship. Phil Hellmuth is in the lead with 13,940,000 chips against Brian Rast's 5,260,000 stack. We might be only minutes away from the final hand being played. In fact, Rast was almost out of chips a while ago, but then he doubled up though Hellmuth. Anyhow, Phil Hellmuth has fantastic chance of winning his 12th WSOP bracelet and also take home the biggest win of his entire poker career.

Stay tuned for more updates!

We are just hours away from the biggest and most prestige filled tournament in the poker world, the World Series of Poker Main Event! Most of the big names in poker are going to take part this year and we can expect a huge prize pool since the 2011 WSOP has seen many record fields. The Main Event is a 13-day event with 4 starting days.

Read more » 2011 WSOP: The Main Event starts today

The Event #55: The Poker Player's Championship final table is running at the moment. There are 3 players left: 11-time WSOP gold bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, 2011 WSOP bracelet winner Brian Rast, and Minh Ly. Brian Rast is in the lead with 9,5 million chips, Phil Hellmuth is in second place with 6,8 million, and Minh Ly has about 2,8 million.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's getting extremely exciting! All players are guaranteed at least $665,763 each. The winner will get $1,720,328 and the coveted gold bracelet, and the runner-up will get $1,063,034. Personally, I hope that Phil Hellmuth will win his 12th bracelet and take home the biggest cash in his career.

We will return with an update as soon as a winner has been crowned! Stay tuned!

What an incredible performance by Phil Hellmuth at this year's World Series of Poker. He has finished second in two events, cashed in another 3 events, and right now he's in 3th place in the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship with only 9 players left. There is no doubt whatsoever that he will miss out on the final table table (8 players) tomorrow and fight for his 12th gold bracelet. Yes, you heard right: Phil Hellmuth has won not less than 11 WSOP gold bracelets in his poker career!

Read more » Phil Hellmuth - a living legend

Day 4 of Event #55: The Poker Player's Championship is being played at the moment. The tournament is on a 15-min break right now and there are only 13 players left. Chip leader is Brian Rast with 3,3 million chips, and in second place is Owais Ahmed with 2.2 million, closely followed by Minh Ly.

Ben Lamb, Phil Hellmuth and Jeffrey Lisandro (picture) are the biggest names left in the remaining field of players. We will return with an update as soon as the tournament is down to a final table. Stay tuned, folks!

Day 3 of the $50k buy-in tournament has come to an end. There are plenty of big names left in the remaining field of 29 players - Phil Hellmuth (picture), Gus Hansen, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Berry Greenstein - just to mention a few. Chip leader is Josh Arieh with a 1,819,000 stack, and in second place is Brian Rast with 1,633,000.

Read more » The Poker Player's Championship (50k buy-in): 29 players through to Day 4

At the moment there are only 30 player left in Event #55: The Poker Player's Championship. Chip leader is Josh Arieh, from USA, with 1,8 million, and in second place is Brian Rast with 1,43 million. Most notable players in the top of the remaining field are Phil Hellmuth (1 million), Gus Hansen (900k), Shaun Deeb (745k) and Sebastian Ruthenberg (740k).

Ben Lamb, who started the day with the biggest stack, has 450,000 chips left and has dropped to a 16th place. Well, there is still some time before the day comes to an end and, as we all know, anything can happen in the game of poker! We will return with an update as soon as the day is over. Stay tuned!

Day 2 of Event #55: The Poker Player's Championship came to an end about 2 hours ago. In the lead is Benjamin Lamb, winner of the $10k PLO Championship, with 704,500 chips, closely followed by Gus Hansen (688k) and Sebastian Ruthenberg (669k). These 3 and another 71 players will return to Rio's poker room tomorrow and play Day 3 of the tournament.

A prizepool of $6,144,000 is up for grabs and the winner will walk away with $1,720,000 - the largest 1st place prize so far at the 2011 WSOP! The remaining field of players includes many big names, so we can expect to see some great poker! 

What a thrilling end of Event #47: Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better! Michael "the Grinder" Mizrachi and Owais Ahmed played heads-up for the first place prize of $255k and the coveted gold bracelet. "the Grinder", who you might recognize from High Stakes Poker and the 2010 WSOP Main Event final table, enjoyed a 3 to 1 chip lead, and also he had his entire family, a few friends and fans on the rail cheering for him. Apart from that, he had most experience from playing final tables under high-pressure.

Read more » 2011 WSOP: "the Grinder" finished second and missed out on his 2nd bracelet.

Kenneth Griffin started day of Event #45: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em second in chips out of 21 players (Antonio Esfandiari, David Baker, Andrew Teng etc). Griffin played extremely well and his aggressive style of playing poker really worked against his opponents since he ended up taking down the whole tournament for $455,356 and received his first gold bracelet.

Read more » 2011 WSOP: Former US Marine and Iraqi Veteran wins $455,356

Not less than three non-americans made it to the final table of Event #43: No-Limit Hold'em: Andre Akkari from Brazil, Nicholas Choulty from Lebanon and Phillip Meulyzer from Belgium. However, Choulty and Meulyzer already went out in 6 and 8 place, which left Andre Akkari alone with 5 very skilled american poker players.

Well, he was not completely alone. Akkari had many Brazilian friends and fans charing for him on the stand and they got louder and louder as he got closer the big money. After some time, he was suddenly playing heads-up against Nachman Berlin. However, after 90 minutes of play, the day came to and end as 10 levels had been played.

Read more » 2011 WSOP: Viva Brazil! Andre Akkari wins! ($675k)

Congratulations to Ben Lamb, winner of Event #42: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship. But boy was it close that he almost lost all his chips in the final hand. Below you can see how the last super-exciting hand between Ben Lamb, from Las Vegas, and Sami Kelopuro, from finland, was played out.

Read more » 2011 WSOP: Ben Lamb took down the $10k PLO Championship for $814,436!

Yesterday, Arkadiy "Kamsky" Tsinis became the third Ukrainian-born bracelet winner at this year's World Series of Poker. This was Tsinis's first WSOP bracelet and the biggest win in his poker career. It remains a mystery why the Ukrainian poker players have been so successful at this year's WSOP - considering that they haven't won a single bracelet ever before. Now, suddenly - there are 3 WSOP champs!

Tsinis lives in Las Vegas these days, and he resided for many years in New York. And apart from being a fantastic poker player, Tsinis is a very good and successful Chess and Backgammon player as well. However, it's from poker that he has made his fortune. In total, he has cashed in 22 major tournaments and received $799,128. Expect to hear a lot more from Tsinis and other Ukrainian poker players in the near future!

Last Saturday, Fabrice Solier, from France, and Shawn Buchanan, from Canada, continued the heads-up on the $10k HORSE final table. Up for grabs was a WSOP gold bracelet and $609,130. Soulier returned to he final table with a huge chip lead over his opponent. And just like many expected, it was game over for Shawn Buchanan after just a few hands. This is how the final hand was played out:

GAME: Omaha-8
Fabrice Soulier was on the button and raised. Shawn Buchanan called. The flop came down 10[c]8[d]4[h]. Buchanan checked, Soulier raised, Buchanan put in 3 bets, Soulier made it four bets, and Buchanan called all in.

Read more » Fabrice Soulier won Event #37: $10k H.O.R.S.E. Championship ($609,130)!

Day 3 of the $10k H.O.R.S.E. Championship has come to an end. Even though there are only 2 players left, Fabrice Soulier (from France) and Shawn Buchanan (from Canada), the tournament director called it a day as 10 levels had been played. Yes, there is a 10-level rule at the WSOP. This rule was clearly not so popular amongst the 2 finalist who wanted to continue playing and get it over with.

Read more » $10k H.O.R.S.E. Championship: The heads-up will resume tomorrow

Barry Greenstein is not only known for being an extremely good and successful poker player, but also for being one of the poker world's most generous players. In fact, Greenstein has received the nickname '"The Robin Hood of Poker" thanks to all the money he has donated to charity, mainly to charities for children, throughout the years. In total, he has won over $7 million dollars in tournaments and probably even more in cash games, so one can only imagine how much money he has donated.

Read more » Greenstein lives and breathes poker during the WSOP

The final table of the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship is played at the moment. A few moments ago, Tom Dwan was eliminated in 5th place for $134,480. The 4 remaining players are Fabrice Souller, from USA, with 2,775,000 chips, Andrey Zelchenko, from Russia, with 2,650,000 chips, Shawn Buchanan, from Canada, with 1,300,000 and Daniel Ospina, from USA, with 590,000.

The winner will take home $609,130. We will return with an update as soon as the tournament has come to an end.

The American poker pro Jason Mercier has done it again! Today, he took home the $5k Six-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha Championship and laid hands on the first prize of $619,575 and his second WSOP gold bracelet! Mercier had to overcome a strong field totaling 507 entrants, and it was the most impressive tournament win of his career. Mercier has cashed 18 times at the World Series of Poker - more than $1.5 million won! In total, he has more than $6 million in live tournament earnings.

Yesterday, Phil Hellmuth was once again denied the 12th WSOP gold bracelet. This time it was Eric Rodawig who defeated Hellmuth heads-up on the $10k Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship final table.

For the win, Rodawig received his first WSOP bracelet and also the biggest cash in his poker career - $442,183. It was an extremely tough final table for Rodawig. Ali Eslami, David Benyamine & Ted Forrest - just to mention 3 other pros he had to defeat before winning the 45-minute long heads-up match against Hellmuth. Quite impressive, hah?

Read more » 2011 WSOP Event #33: Eric Rodawig won, Hellmuth runner-up again

The $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship attracted a field of 240 players. A prize pool of $2,256,000 is now up for grabs and there are 174 remaining players with the chance of taking home the first place prize of $609,130 and the coveted gold bracelet. Leading the field is Ron Ware with 122,300 chips, in 4th place is Daniel Negreanu with 99,900, and in 7th place is Barry Greenstein with 86,900.

There are many big names in the remaining field of players, so we can expect to see some really good and entertaining poker. Day 2 will start at 2:30 p.m. PDT, and the plan is to play it down to a final table of 8 players before calling it a day. Below you can find the top 10 players of the tournament. 

Read more » $10k H.O.R.S.E Championship: Negreanu in 4th place with 174 remaining players

If you didn't read the news about Daniel Idema's $10k Limit Hold'em win yesterday, you really missed out on something! Yes, we didn't only write about the winner and the final table - we also wrote about when Daniel Negreanu went bananas and smashed his headphones. Below you can read what happened. Enjoy! :)

Read more » 2011 WSOP: Daniel Negreanu goes bananas (in case you missed it)

The 42nd annual World Series of Poker at the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino reached the halfway point yesterday. Even though many thought Black Friday would affect this year's WSOP negative, the participation is up 11.7% so far with 33,173 entrants and 8.6% bigger prize pool than 2010 WSOP. Not less than 11 WSOP tournament records have been broken so far. They are:

Read more » 11 new tournament records at the 2011 WSOP

It ended up being Daniel Idema, from Canada, who took home one of 2011's most prestigious tournaments: the $10,00 Limit Hold'em Championship. On the final table, Idema had to defeat players like Nick Schulman, who has numerous titles to his credit including a WSOP in 2009 $10k NL Deuce-to-Seven Draw event; PokerStars Pro and three-time bracelet winner Barry Greenstein; runner-up in the 2009 WSOP $40k NLHE tournament, Isaac Haxton; online sensation Justin "Boosted J" Smith. On top of that he was the only non-american on the final table.

Read more » 2011 WSOP: Daniel Idema won the $10k Limit Hold'em Championship

John Monnette, 29, is the winner of the most recent Wold Series of Poker tournament at the Rio in Las Vegas. Monnette, from Canada, defeated a record field of 489 players and received his first WSOP bracelet. For the win he also received $278,144 in prize money.

This marks his 17th cash at the WSOP, with the best previous WSOP result back in 2009 when he finished second in the No Limit Deuce to Seven Lowball event for $59,586. In total, he has $596,056 in career WSOP winnings.

A couple of days have now passed since 26-year-old David Diaz beat a field of 1,339 players and took home the 2011 WSOP No Limit Hold'em Triple Chance title for $352,208. But this was far from the biggest achievement in his life - as a kid, he was diagnosed with cancer and had small chances of surviving.

Read more » WSOP Champion: "I had cancer when I was four-years old"

We're back with yet another update on the 2011 WSOP. Since our last update on June 10th, another 4 events have finished - Event #13 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout, Event #14 Limit Hold'em, Event #15 Pot Limit Hold'em and Event #16 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship. Below you can read about how John Juanda beat Phil Hellmuth in an epic heads-up match...and much more...

Read more » 2011 WSOP: John Juanda denies Hellmuth of 12th bracelet

In our last 2011 WSOP update, you could read about Jake Cody completing poker's triple crown, Event #11: Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship in which players like Tom Dwan, Todd Brunson, Freddy Deep fought for a first place prize of $465k, and you could also see the winners in all the 8 completed events. Now, 3 days later, another 4 events are in the books. Below you can read about these 4 events, the new champions, and the player who got pissed off when he finished second for $334,756.

Read more » 2011 WSOP: "How can he beat me in that many all-ins, Jesus Christ!"

In case you haven't noticed, or have been sleeping under a rock, the 2011 42nd Annual World Series of Poker is running at Rio in Las Vegas at the moment. So far 8 events have finished and 3 events are being played at the moment (Event #8: No-Limit Hold'em, Event #10: No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed, and Event #11: Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship).

Read more » A brief update on 2011 WSOP

It ended up being the Britain poker pro Jake Cody who won the $25,000 heads-up event after knocking out Yevgeniy Timoshenko, from America, in second place. For the win Jake Cody received a first place prize of $851,192 and his first WSOP bracelet. The win also meant that he completed Poker's Triple Crown - the 2011 WSOP $25k heads-up win, the WPT Grand Prix De Paris win in 2005, and the EPT Dublin Championship win in 2006.

There are now only 8 players left in Event #2 Heads-up No-Limit Hold'em (Buy-in: $25,000 Entries 128). The biggest name in the remaining field of players is the Danish Full Tilt Poker Pro Gus Hansen. Gus is already guaranteed at least $138,852 but if he goes all the way he will walk away with $851,192.

remaining players:
Gus Hansen (Monaco)
Matt Marafioti (Canada)
Eric Froehlich (United States)
Anthony Guetti United States)
Yevgeniy Timoshenko United States)
Jake Cody (United Kingdom)
David Paredes (United Kingdom)
Nikolay Evdakov (Moscow)

Phil Ivey, who many consider the best poker player in the world, has finally spoken out on Black Friday. In a press release that was released on May 30th, Phil writes that he's very disappointed that Full Tilt players still haven't received their money since Black Friday and therefore he has decided not to take part in the 2011 WSOP. But that's not all. Phil has also filed a lawsuit against Tiltware, the company that handles Full Tilt Poker's withdrawals, and he's working day and night to solve the problem.

Read more » Phil Ivey: "I am not playing in the World Series of Poker"

Team Bodog has now been strengthened by the well-known poker profile Tatjana Pasalic. Pasalic, 26, is best known as a TV presenter, interviewer and freelance worker in the poker world. She came in contact with online poker at the age of 19 and played her first live tournament in September 2009 where she finished 47th out of 440 for $2,937. The year after she finished 6th out of 24 at the PartyPoker.com Women's World Open IV for $3,000.

Tatjana Pasalic will now get to play in the WSOP Main Event and other big tournaments for free with the rest of Team Bodog, so it's probably just a matter of time before she lay hands on a big cash. Pasalic has a very busy year ahead of her since she will continue working with media coverage on, for example, the WPT tour. 

In Daniel Negreanu's latest blog one can read what he has to say about Black Friday and how it has affect live games in Vegas, how it will affect the 2011 WSOP, and how families depending on online poker will suffer financially. Below you'll find the most interesting parts from Daniel's latest blog about Black Friday.

The Main Event will see a massive drop in players
"While the US has obviously taken a hit in terms of poker, the game is thriving internationally and I expect to see a decent sized field in Madrid. Possibly down from last year, but I don't think the numbers abroad will decrease too much at all. In the US, I definitely think the numbers for events will shrink. The WSOP, for example, will see a massive decline in the number of entrants both in the daily events, and especially the main event. The number of players for the main event will likely revert back to 2004 type numbers in the 3000 range."

Read more » Daniel Negreanu comments on Black Friday