Phil Hellmuth, 45, has won millions of dollars and 11 WSOP bracelets through his career so far. He was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame back in 2007 which confirms what a successful player he is. However, in the past few years - things have not gone Phil's way at the poker table, and every time we hear about him lately - it's usually about him crying out load after a "bad beat". According to Daniel Negreunu, Phil must wake up and realize that poker has changed and that one must adjust to how its being played these days.

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Jose Ignacio Barbero from Argentina came to be the last man standing in PokerStars LAPT Punta del Este Main Event. For the win he received nothing less than $279,330. This is not the first time Barbero does well in a bigger tournament. He ended up in 89th place in the WSOP Main Event and has also won a side event in PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. However, the win of LAPT Punta del Este Main Event is his biggest achievement so far.

Final table results:

1. Jose Ignacio Barbero, $279 330

2. Nicolas Cardyn, $161 550

3. Andres Korn, $99 020 

4. Norbert Ludger, $ 72 960 

5. Daniela de Lima Zapiello $52 110
6. Marco A. Caicedo, $41 690
7. Bernardo da Silveira Dias, $31 270
8. Roman Suarez, $20 850

After almost 1 week of play, Borgata Winter Open (not longer part of World Poker Tour), one of Americas biggest live tournaments, had finally found its winner, Jeff Madsen. Jeff Madsen defeated a starting field of 766 players, which included some really big names (Gavin Smith & Jason Mercier just to mention 2). For the win, Madsen received $625,006. Now he has won almost $3 million dollars from different live tournaments and also got the best possible start on the new year.

Jeff Madsen info:
Jeff Madsen was born June 7, 1985 in Santa Monica, California. He made a name for himself back in 2006 when he won 2 WSOP bracelets and also ended up in 3rd place in 2 other WSOP events. Thanks to the great results in 2006 WSOP, he's the third-youngest winner of a WSOP event.

If you've always dreamed of playing at the World Series of Poker but never made it through the qualifiers, this completely unique offer from 888 Poker is for you.

Members can win one of a massive 88 WSOP packages via their choice of several ways, which range from a simple status points race to bounty hunting. There's a way for tournament lovers, one for those who like the occasional spin on the slots between poker games and another for the hardcore, persistent poker player.

What's great about 888 Poker's offer is that anyone can win a WSOP package, from the poker pro to the complete poker novice. They're even offering new members $8 free just for registering - that's your jumpstart on the path to the WSOP.

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A new rule was recently inducted into the 2010 World Series of Poker Official Tournament Rules. The new rule says that it's not okay to have a bad smell while taking part in any of the WSOP events. If someone doesn't take care of their hygiene, the tournament staff has the right to tell the player about his bad hygiene, and also take him off the table until the problem has been taken care of.

2010 World Series of Poker Official Tournament Rules: 37 B
All participants are entitled to expect civility and courtesy from one another at every Tournament table and throughout the
Tournament area. Any individual who encounters behavior that is not civil or courteous -- or is abusive in any way -- is encouraged
to immediately contact a Tournament official. This shall include, but is not limited to, any player whose personal hygiene has become disruptive to the other players seated at their table. The determination as to whether an individual's personal hygiene is disruptive to other players shall be determined by the Tournament Staff which may, in its discretion, implement sanctions upon any such player who refuses to remedy the situation in a manner satisfactory to Rio.

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Joe Cada, 21, became the new World Champion just a few moments ago! He and Darvin Moon played heads-up for almost 3,5 hours, and WOW what an heads-up it was! Cada started with more than double the chips than Moon. But Moon had no plans on giving up as he gave Cada a really tough fight and even overtook the lead for a while.

The big turn for Joe Cada came when he flopped middle pair and Moon pushed all-in with a straight draw. Cada's middle pair stood up and gave him the lead. Only 8 hands later it all came to an end...

Final Hand:
Joe Cada has the button (big blind 3 million), Moon raise to 8 million. Cada double-checks his hand before announcing an all in. Moon dobule-checks his hand as well before making the call. 150 million is now in the pot.

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The 2009 WSOP Main Event final table is now finally down to 2 players after 15 hours of play. Darvin Moon, 45, and Joseph Cada, 21, are going to play heads-up for the World Champion title and the first prize of $8,5 million on Monday night at 10:00 PST (Tuesday 07:00 AM). Joseph Cada has more than double the stack than his final opponent, Darvin Moon. However, both players still have plenty of chips and it will for sure be a thrilling heads-up to watch.

Phil Ivey ended up on 7th place
Phil ivey, the big favorite to win the tournament, played very well on the final table and it seemed like no one wanted to double him up. But when Phil finally managed to get some action, the luck wasn't on his side. Phil moved all-in in before the flop with A[c]K[s] and Darvin Moon called with A[d]Q[s]. A queen came on the flop and neither turn & river cards were to no help for Phil. Phil Ivey ended up on 7th place and left lots of fans around the globe disappointed.

 

 

James Akenhead, from England, is a 26 years old Full Tilt PRO who will start the final table tomorrow with the least chips of the 9 remaining players. James hasn't been playing poker for a very long, but he has still been very successful and won over $800,000 online and live so far. At the 2008 World Series of Poker, he finished second in event #2 ($1,500 NL Texas Hold'em). With other words, he's not a newbie when it comes to playing in the World Series.

James will only bring 6,800,000 chips with him to the final table on Saturday, and he will need to double up at least 2 times quite fast in order to have some kind of chance of becoming the World Champion.

The 2009 WSOP final table is only 1 day away folks! Don't forget to vote for your favorite to win in our "Who will become the World Champion"-poll. For those of you who want to bet some money on the November 9 finalists, we can recommend KickOffPoker who also offers a €5000 deposit bonus & 45% cashback.

 

Antoine Saout, 25, is from Saint Martin des Champs, France and he's one of the 2 finalists that aren't born in USA. Antoine mostly plays poker online and there he has won about $200,000. Although he has been quite successful online, he has no records of any live tournament winnings, until now. This is Antoine's first ever WSOP and he won his entry to the Main Event through a $50 satellite online.

Antoine Saout had a really tough struggle to make it this far in the tournament. No one else than the other November 9 finalist Phil Ivey was seated on his left at the poker table for the 3 last days of the tournament. Now, however, both he and Phil Ivey are going to play for some serious cash on Saturday when the final table kicks off.

Antoine brings 9,500,000 with him to the final table on Saturday. He's quite short stacked with other words. But Antoine might have some kind of advantage because of the tough fight he had the 3 last days of the tournament. And who knows? Maybe he will be really dangerous if he mange to double up at the early stages of the final table.

 

Phillip "Phil" Ivey was born in Riverside, California February 1, 1976. When he was only 3 months old he and his family moved across the country to Roselle, New Jersey. Phil's grandpa taught him to play poker when he was just a kid, Phil then crafted his game playing skills amongst his co-workers at a New Brunswick, New Jersey telemarketing firm in the late 90's.

Used a fake ID
When Phil was around 17 years old, he started going to Atlantic City to play poker for money. Of course he was too young to enter any of the casinos, but thanks to a fake ID card with the name "Jerome" on it he managed to get in. Phil used to play for 16-17 hours straight at the casino and sometimes he missed the last bus home so that he had to sleep on a bench near the casino. The casino staff used to call him "No home Jerome" because of that.

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Kevin Schaffel, 52, a father of 2, was born and raised in Miami and is these days living Florida, USA. Kevin started playing poker at home with his family when he was just 11 years old. Many years later, he understood that he had some sort of talent for tournament poker and that he actually could make some money out of it. And so he did. Kevin has cashed in 7 bigger tournaments and won over $600,000 during his poker career. Even though he has been so successful and made so much money, he still wants more...

Aiming high
Kevin's ambitions with poker part from making money, has always been to win either a WSOP Main Event, or a WPT title. If he wins the Main Event, which is the biggest dream for him, he will retire straight away and play poker and golf full-time.

Final table
Kevin Schaffel brings 12,390,000 chips with him to the final table and is with that on 6th place. He doesn't see a quite short stacked Phil Ivey as a really big threat (like many of the other November 9 players) and he thinks that he has a decent chance of taking home the tournament even though he's far behind some of the players in chips.

Joseph Cada is only 21 years old and the youngest player on the final table. Joseph has been playing poker for 6 years and he started playing poker online at Party Poker at the age of 16. After that, he has achieved a lot in different tournaments at Full Tilt poker. This year Joseph Cada played his very first World Series and took the world of poker by storm as he made it to 2 final tables!

On Saturday Joseph and the other 8 remaining players will have hundreds of thousands people from all over the globe watching them. It will be very interesting to see if Joseph can handle the pressure like he said he could in an interview some time ago.

After some research about Joseph Cada it stands clear that he's one of the November 9 players that people talk the most about on different forums and websites. Many think that he won't have a chance on the final table, when others think that he has a great chance of becoming one of the last remaining players, but maybe not another Peter Eastgate.

 

Jeff Shulman, 34, was born and bred in Seattle, Washington and later on in life he moved to Las Vegas, where he's still living today with his wife and child. Jeff's biggest interests are golf, poker, and his job as editor for a big poker magazine, which his dad is the CEO of. But it's not from playing golf, or his job as an editor that has made him rich and famous.

Made millions from playing poker
When Jeff started playing poker in 3rd grade at summer camp, he probably couldn't even dream of how successful he would become in poker some years after. Jeff became a good all-round player, but especially good at playing live poker tournaments, and it's from that he has built a fortune. In total he has won over $2,4 millions from different events in EPT, WPT, WSOP etc. Even though he has made so much money from different live tournaments, he has only won 1 major tournament.

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Steven Begleiter, 47, reside in Chappaqua, New York with his family. Steven is a former executive for the investment bank Bear Stearns, where he has worked for almost 25 years. His interest for poker started already when he was a kid, and since then he has been playing poker regulary, but never for high stakes as he sees poker as a social thing.

He won his entry fee to the Main Event through a poker leuage with 20 players in his hometown. Whatever his final total cash winnings are at the final table, he intends to share 20% of it with those 20 players.

When Steven entered the main event, he had no expectations more than just making it to the money. When he finally got to the money, he noticed that players started dropping like flies, which made him feel more relaxed. It was at this time his long awaited winning streak started as well, and suddenly he had made it to the final table with huge stack. Steven Begleiter will start the final table on Saturday third in chips.

 

Eric Buchman, 29, from Valley Stream, New York started playing poker 10 years ago and was in the beginning just a break even player. But it only took him 2 years until he started winning. During his career as pro he has achieved quite a lot. For example he has cashed 9 times in WSOP and also has some great results from online poker cash games. In the beginning of the Main Event, Eric just had the strategy to survive to the next day. But on the last day of the tournament he changed his tactic and tried to accumulate as much chips as possible so he would put himself in a position to win the tournament. As the final table kicks off on Saturday, Eric is on second place with 34,800,000 chips.

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With only 5 days left to go before the 2009 World Series of Poker final table kicks off, we will put a lot of our energy and focus on writing about the November 9 finalists and other relevant information that might be of interest. First out is chip leader Darvin Moon.

Darvin Moon - The working class hero
Darvin Moon, 45, lives in Oakland, Maryland and work as a logger. He won his ticket to the Main Event through a satellite at a casino in West Virginia. But even though he was going to play the main event, he didn't put his hopes up high, and he could never ever imagine in his wildest fantasies that he would make it this far in the tournament. He was wrong as the whole cards and the flops were the best possible for him from start until the final table. Now he has a massive chip lead and is the big favorite to take home the main event.

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On Saturday it's finally time for 2009 WSOP Main Event final table, and it's these 9 players who are going to fight for the first prize of $8.5 million and the World Champion title.

Darvin Moon - 58,930,000
Eric Buchman - 34,800,000
Steven Begleiter - 29,885,000
Jeff Shulman - 19,580,000
Joseph Cada - 13,215,000
Kevin Schaffel - 12,390,000
Phil Ivey - 9,765,000
Antoine Saout - 9,500,000
James Akenhead - 6,800,000

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Jennifer Tilly, 51, is known mostly for her talent as an American-Canadian actress, but also for being a great poker player and the girl friend of Phil "The Unabomber" Laak. She has won over half a million dollars from different live tournaments, and also won a WSOP Bracelet a few years back. Jennifer has always been happy to share things in her life with others on the internet. But lately she stopped after she found out that some people were writing really bad things about her.

"It used to be really fun and interesting to speak to other poker players on the internet. Lately, however, I have read a lot of bad things about myself that made me feel really sad";Jennifer says.

Jennifer Tilly is only one of many celebs with similar problems. For example: Gus Hansen had problems not long ago with people claiming to be him by creating fake facebook-accounts and websites in his name.

 

Patrik Antonius, the Full Tilt Poker Pro, has been playing his very best poker this year. He has won over $5 million dollars so far, and it seems like he's unbeatable at the moment. A few days ago he took on Richard Ashby, Gus Hansen, and David Benyamine at Full Tilt poker. Neither of them had a chance against Patrik Antonius, who had a hard time finding someone else to play against after that all 3 of them had left the table.

About Patrik Antonius:
Patrik Antonius was born December 13, 1980 in Helsinki, Finland. Before his great poker career took off, he worked as a model and also had a promising tennis career in front of him. Antonius turned poker pro 2002 and became famous 3 years later after some great results in different EPT and WSOP events. Since Patrik Antonius started playing poker, he has made millions of dollars from cash games and tournaments.

 

There is probably nothing bigger for a poker player than getting inducted to The Poker Hall of Fame. Its a proof that one has been a really successful player that have stood the test of time and contributed to the game of poker. The nominated players this year are the following.

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Phil Hellmuth, is one of the most successful players in WSOP throughout all years. He has cashed 74 times, won 11 bracelets, and was until 2008 (when Peter Eastgate won) the youngest player ever to win the WSOP Main Event. Mainly because of his amazing achievements in WSOP, he was inducted to the poker hall of fame a few years back.

Hold'em for Heroes
Phil Hellmuth, has decided to organize a charity tournament with the name Hold'em Heroes. All the money in this tournament will go to TASER Foundation for Fallen Officers. The tournament is scheduled to start 19th November, and Phil Hellmuth is very proud and thankful to get the opportunity to help others.

"I and my friends are very thankful for these brave men and women. We are very proud to help them"; Phil Hellmuth says

 

Earlier this year, Scotty Nguyen, made a statement that he would stop playing poker if he didn't win at least 4 million dollars in 2009 WSOP. The most people thought that it was crazy of him to say something like that, and they meant that there is not a chance in the world that he will stop playing if he doesn't win 4 million dollars. All of them were right. Scotty Nguyen, weren't even close to win that much money in 2009 WSOP, and he never stopped playing poker after the world series. In an interview with a Swedish magazine he said the following.

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Two days ago, World Team Poker, celebrated its launch at Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. According to the director of communications of World Team Poker, Gideon Cross, this will be the world's first professional poker sports league. Although the structure for this league still isn't ready, Gideon Cross, said that there will be 32 teams of 5 players supporting each country. Each team will get a captain who's chosen by WTP. The captain will then get to choose his 4 teammates. For example, the 11 eleven-time WSOP bracelet winner, Phil Hellmuth (picture), will be the captain for Team USA. Still no date is set for WTP, but most probably it will start off with the first event in Las Vegas in November this year.

Who do you think will get to be the captain for your country? And which 4 players do you think he would choose?

Phil Ivey, is probably the best poker player in the world at cash games and tournaments since a few years back. He has won millions of dollars live, online and from different tournaments. He's greatest achievements during his whole poker career however, has to be that he has won 7 WSOP bracelets. It also thanks to his huge success in WSOP that he's now one of the top candidates to get voted in to "Poker Hall Of Fame".

At the moment, Phil Ivey, is one of the 9 players that will play the WSOP main event final table in November this year. On the final table, he has the chance to get another WSOP bracelet and also to win over 20 million dollars. This huge amount of money, according to an article on a poker site. This is how the author of this article came to this conclusion.

1st prize = $8,5 million + $10 million extra from Full Tilt (assuming that Full Tilt pros have the same deal as satellite qualifiers) + $2 million for the side bet he placed with Andy Bloch ($20,000 to 99,1 times the money when around 2400 players still were in the tournament) + $1 million from Tom Dwan. 

The total winnings according to this calculation would therefore be $21,5 million dollars. But who knows? Maybe Phil placed more than 2 side bets on himself to win the main event?

 

In 1979, Benny Binion, the owner of the Horseshoe Casino, created the Poker Hall Of Fame to preserve the names and legacies of the world's greatest poker players. He also was the man behind the first ever World Series of Poker (1970), and the first one to organize high stakes games where the public could watch. Anyhow, Harrah's Entertainment took over the right for WSOP in 2004, and also the ownership of the Poker Hall of Fame. Today the Poker Hall of Fame is handled directly by the WSOP crew. Up till now, 37 people have been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. Only 15 of those people are still living.

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Darvin Moon, the chip leader in the Main Event of World Series of poker 2009 have no interested in signing any contract with any poker site. And it doesn't matter if they try to draw with millions of dollars and nice hotel rooms in Las Vegas.

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Darvin Moon has a huge chip lead of the last 9 remaining players in the Main Event, WSOP 2009. He's already guaranteed to become a millionare even if he ends up last on the final table in November. But Darvin takes everything very relaxed and continue working his "9-5" shift in the woods.

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The players at Everest poker who qualified online for the main event must be really happy at the moment as they will get a share of $1 million dollars. All this thanks to that Antoine Saout from France who made it to the final table in the main event.

Not less than 53 players qualified online to play in the main event in WSOP through Everest Poker this year. Everest were really generous this year as they promised to add the total amount of money that their players made from the main event to a special "pot" (from their own pocket), a pot which their online qualifiers got to share between them. However, the maximum amount of this "pot" was set to $1 million dollars, luckily for Everest Poker, as one of their players has made it all the way to the final table in WSOP. All the 53 online qualifiers will now get $18,868 each, plus that they already got to play in the main event.

 

One of the finalists in the main event of WSOP this year is so disappointed on how the tournaments have been organized this year that he said he will throw away his bracelet if he takes home the whole tournament. All this in order to make a statement and the with the hopes that things will improve in future world series of poker for other poker players.

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According to different poker forums and magazines, Phil Ivey has betted x-amount of money on himself to win the Main Event to x-times the money. According to one of his friends and teammates in team PokerStars, he would take home one of the biggest wins the world of poker has ever seen if he becomes the last man standing.

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The 2009 WSOP Main Event attracted not less than 6494 players (who paid $10,000 buy-in each), of all these participants, only 9 players "The November Nine" still have the chance to win some serious cash on the final table in November. One of these 9 players is no one less than Phil Ivey from team PokerStars.

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Day 6 of the main event is now over. Of 185 players who started this day, only 64 players made it through to day 7 after 10 hours of hand by hand poker. Unfortunately for Sweden is that their big hopes Christer Björin and Rifat Palevic both got knocked out in during 6. Other big names that got knocked out this day were Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Joe Hachem, JC Tran and David Benyamine.

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Day 5 of the 2009 WSOP Main Event has been completed and a total of 185 players are going to show up to continue playing during day 6.

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Amir Lehavot (610,000) has taken the lead from Troy Weber (435,000) who was the chip leader when day 2 started. I took the lead thanks to this hand, Amir Lehavot said in an interview with a poker magazine.

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6494 players paid the buy-in of $10,000 and took part in the main event in the world series of poker this year. Of all the 6494 participants, 646 players will receive a piece of the total prize pool of $64,940,000. Even though $64,940,000 is a lot of money, it's still not as much as in last year's main event.

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Jack Ury is 96 years of age and the oldest participant in WSOP 2009. This is the third time he takes part in the World Series of Poker and he has been playing poker since 1953. Jack Ury was probably the most appriciated participant  the day he took part as he received standing ovations many times.

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Over 800 players had to take their $10,000 buy-in and walk back home today when they tried to sign up for the main event. This because all the starting lists were full and the crew behind the tournament had to close the registration.

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Surrounded by dozens of women, trumpeters and cheered on by his fans, Phil Hellmuth arrived dressed up as Julius Ceasar at the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

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Jeff Lisandro, the most successful poker player in this WSOP (3 bracelets won) keeps on impressing. Now he's doing very well in the Main Event as well as he has made it from Day 1 to Day 2. Now the question is, can he make it all the way to the money, or maybe he can even take down the whole tournament?

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Poker legend Doyle Brunson was eliminated from the WSOP Main event on Day 1b which was played on Saturday.

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Tom "durrrr" Dwan had a really tough start in the beginning of the year with millions of dollars lost. But the last few months he has improved his poker and is now over $1,5 million plus, he's also leading his own challenge (durrrr challenge) versus Patrik Antonius.

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After that Erik "Erik123" Sagström got kicked out on a third place, it came to be a very long heads-up between David Bach and John Hanson. But after many hours of playing it came to be David Bach who took down the tournament. For the win he received the first prize of $1,276,802 and a gold bracelet. But that's not all, he also received the Chip Reese Trophy - something that is almost more invaluable than a bracelet.

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The $50K HORSE Event is still being played as we speak but Swedish poker pro Erik "Erik123" Sagström will not be fighting for the million dollar price pool as he finished the tourmament in 3rd place.

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The Englishmen, John Kabbaj, took home event #45 PL Hold'em with a buy-in of $10,000. When the tournament was down to heads-up, it took 28 hands before the final hand was played and John Kabbaj finally was the last man standing.

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It looks as the two WSOP Main Event finalists are going to fight it out once more but this time it will be on the virtual felt in a heads-up charity tournament hosted by PokerStars.

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WSOP 2009 started on the 26th of May and has now been going on for 30 days. Lots of tournaments and cash games have been played day as night during this time and hundreds/millions of dollars has been won by pros and non pros. But who's has been the most successful poker player so far in WSOP 2009? And who has won the most money?

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The Omaha Pot-Limit event in 2009's World Series of Poker attracted not less than 295 players who paid the buy-in of $10,000. Matt Graham came to be the last man standing after knocking out Vitaly Lunkin. For the win Graham received $679,379 and a well deserved WSOP bracelet.

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During the 2008 World Series of Poker there were a lot of poker players who were using Twitter while playing in a tournament.

As of this year it will no longer be allowed to use Twitter or any other blogging tools for that matter as a new rule has been implemented this year.

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WSOP Event 19 was a No Limit Hold Em Six handed tournament and the final table was played last night. After several hours of play at the final table it was US poker pro Brock Parker who won the tournament which gave him a bracelet and a $552.745 first price.

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Swedens most experienced poker player Christer Bjorin is in the lead in the World Championship Omaha Hi/Low tournament with 134 000 in chip after the end of day 1.

A total of 179 players paid the $10.000 buy in to participate in this tournament and in the top 10 we can currently find players like Sammy Farha, Phil Hellmuth, and Phil Ivey. It is expected to be a very tight race for the title between these players.

A but further down in the list we find Omaha specialist David Benyamine with only 11 000 in chips.

The play will resume again today and we will keep you updated on the results.