BankrollMob News: Poker, Casino, Crypto & Betting

Yesterday, Larry Wright, a part-time poker player and retired businessman from McQueeney, Texas, that has been coming to the World Series since the 70s, won the Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball (No-Limit) Championship and received his very first gold bracelet and $101,975 in prize money (the biggest cash of his entire poker career).

Wright overcame a field of 285 players during the three-day period that the tournament was played. The final table included a very strong lineup - including 4 former World Series of Poker champions: Brandon Cantu (runner up), Michael Mizrachi (4th), Rep Porter (6th), and Erick Lindgren (5th).

42 players have so far pre-registered for the $1 million buy-in tournament ($111,111 will be a charitable donation to One Drop) THE BIG ONE FOR ONE DROP that will be played at RIO All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on July 1st, 2012.

Five of the players are businessman who don't want their names published, 3 seats are reserved for qualifing players, the remaining 34 players are a mix of rich people and well-known poker pros.

Yesterday, Joe Cassidy, Phil Ivey and Scotty "the Prince" Nguyen played three-handed in Event #24: Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-better. Ivey had the chance to win his 9th bracelet and was in second place for quite some time. However, things didn't turn out the way Ivey had planned and soon he was running low on chips, then eliminated by Cassidy in 3rd place for $136,046.

The two finalists, Cassidy and Nguyen, then agreed to continue the heads-up the following day because it was past 3 am in the morning and they had been playing for many long hours.

Read more » 2012 WSOP Event #24: Joe Cassidy defeats "the Prince" heads-up, wins first gold bracelet!

In case you didn't read our news on Event #24 (Omaha Hi-LowSplit 8-or-better) this morning, we can inform you that Phil Ivey (8 WSOP bracelets), Scotty Nguyen (5 WSOP bracelets) and Joe Cassidy were the last 3 players fighting for a first prize of $294,777 and a gold coveted bracelet.

Read more » 2012 WSOP: Day 3 Ends with Cassidy & Nguyen Heads-Up

There are only 3 remaining players in Event 24: $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better. Even though some might not be familiar with the game of this event, you still probably find it interesting to know that poker giants Scotty Nguyen and Phil Ivey are chasing another bracelet!

That's right! Scotty has the chance of winning his 6th gold bracelet and Phil can take home his 9th! Both of them have plenty of chips to gamble with and it will be interesting to see if the other player, chip leader Joe Cassidy, can do anything to stop them.

We will be back with more information as soon as a winner has been crowned!

Monday has been anything but boring as Phil Hellmuth just won his 12th gold bracelet after defeating Don Zewin heads-up. Also, we got to watch an epic heads-up match between Phil Ivey and Andy Frankenberger in event 17: $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em. As soon as the heads-up battle started, more and more people gathered around the table and cheered on their favorite player.

Read more » 2012 WSOP: Andy Frankenberger overcame Phil Ivey heads-up!

Phil Hellmuth has just won Event 18 ($2,500 buy-in Seven-Card Razz) and laid hands on his 12th WSOP gold bracelet and $182,793 in prize money! The tournament attracted 309 players and not less than 6 former bracelet winners were among the top 8 finishers, so you can just imagine how tough it was for Hellmuth to reach his 12th WSOP bracelet - the most bracelets by any player in history!

Read more » Phil Hellmuth scores his 12th bracelet!

Phil Hellmuth has a massive lead against Don Zewin (his final opponent) in Event 18: $2,500 Seven Card Razz. If Hellmuth wins the tournament, he will get his 12th WSOP bracelet! Besides the gold bracelet, the winner will get $182,793!

We will post another update when a winner has been crowned!

Right now the final table of Event 17 ($10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em) is being played and there are only 2 well-known players left fighting for the gold bracelet, Phil Ivey and Andy Frankenberger. Both players have even stacks and it will be a very interesting match to follow. 

We will return with more info as soon as a winner has been crowned. Stay tuned!

After winning eight straight matches (Jason Mo in the final), Brian Hastings was the last man standing in Event #12: $10,000 buy-in Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em! For his victory, the 23-year-old American poker pro received his first WSOP gold bracelet and $371,498.

Read more » 2012 WSOP: Brian Hastings Is A Gold Bracelet Winner!

The buy-ins for several major PokerStars tournament will be cut in half on Sunday, June 17, including the very popular Sunday Million. The prize pool guarantees will be the same as usual though, so you will get to play for the share of millions in cash prizes for half the normal buy-in!

The Half Price Sunday includes the following tournaments:

The tournaments can be found under 'Tourney' & 'Special' in the PokerStars lobby. You can also win your way to any of the tournaments with a huge range of satellites running in the lead up to each one. Good luck!

Yesterday, the $10,000 Heads-up No-Limit Hold'em event at the 2012 World Series of Poker kicked off and attracted a field of 152 players. Viktor "Isildur1" Blom had all eyes on him when he registered for the tournament as it was his first-ever WSOP event and also because many consider him to be one of the best NLH heads-up players in the world! 

Read more » Disappointing WSOP Debut for Viktor "Isildur1" Blom

Doyle Brunson has played professionally for over 50 years and has managed to win 10 WSOP Gold Bracelets during this time (35 WSOP cashes in total). Brunson is turning 79 years old later this year and of course he doesn't have the same engery anymore to play lots of poker tournaments and traveling. However, it still seems like we will see him taking part in up to 5 events at this WSOP... 

In his latest blog, 'Getting old is tough but it is the only way to a long life', he wrote that he plans on playing 4-5 events at this World Series of Poker, including $10,000 HORSE, the $50,000 Players Championship, and the $10,000 2-7 lowball.

Read more » 2012 WSOP: Doyle Brunson plans on playing 4-5 events this year

Andy Bloch is the name of the winner of Event 7: $1,500 buy-in Seven Card Stud($126,363). Bloch, 43, has been taking part in the World Series of Poker since 1995 but never won a single event. In other words, it took Bloch 18 years to get his very first gold bracelet. Bloch now has 28 cashes, 8 final table appearances, and more than $2.3 million in WSOP earnings.

Read more » 2012 WSOP: Andy Bloch finally gets his Gold Bracelet!

It ended up being Cory Zeidman who took home Event 4: $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or better. For the win Zeidman received the biggest cash of his entire career ($201,559) and his very first WSOP bracelet. Zeidman previous WSOP cash occured in the very same event last year (believe it or not). Then he arrived at the final table as the chip leader as well but finished in 6th place for $30,228.

Chris Bjorin, a regular at the WSOP since the early 90s-- 2 bracelets and 62 cashes, received $124,838 for his runner-up finish but seemed quite disappointed to have missed out on his 3rd bracelet - especially since he had decent lead when only 3 players remained. 

Apparently the high-stakes profile Sam Trickett was robbed at the 2012 WSOP on Wednesday this week. Now you might think that he was pickpocked by a stranger on the street or something like that, but that is not the case. Sam Trickett twittered the following about the incident.

There are already some people speculating about the identity of the "well-known pro". However, we won't post any of that here as it might drag an innocent man or women's identity through the mud. In other words, we will wait and see if Trickett writes it himself.

Some good news for all you "Isildur1" fans out there. In an interview with a Swedish poker magazine, Viktor Blom, 21, said that he will go to Las Vegas and play his first-ever World Series of Poker event on Tuesday next week.

"I will go there for the NLHE heads-up tournament with $10,000 buy-in and then I try to play as many tournaments as possible until the main event has come to an end. I'm really looking forward to it. It will be really fun! I feel really happy that I get the chance of going there, but it sucks that it's during the summer."

The 639 players who entered Event #5 ($1,500 buy-in Pot-Limit Hold'em) on Wednesday have now become only 13 players. The Canadian Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu is one of them and he's in second place at the moment with 300,000 - 15,000 chips behind the chip leader Brand Hale.

A key pot for Daniel Negreanu occured about 1 hour ago when he raised Bryan Pellegrino, who had a big lead, to 63,000. Pellegrino announced pot-sized raise and Negreanu quickly went all in for 146,000. Pellegrino called. 

Pellegrino: AA

Negreanu: KK

"Sorry," announced Pellegrino.

"It's not over yet," Negreanu replied.

The board ran out 95JKJ and a non-nochalant Negreanu said, "I spiked a king, didn't I?"

Event #4: Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better ($1,500 buy-in) attracted a field of 622 players when is started on Tuesday. Now, after 3 days + several hours of play, only 3 players remain and in the lead is no one else than poker legend Chris Bjorin from Sweden (based in London, England).

Chris Bjorin has throughout his career kept a relatively low profile and avoided many televised poker tournaments and interviews. He has been a regular at the WSOP since the early 90s and has won two WSOP bracelets and has many other notable WSOP cashes. His highest finish in the WSOP Main Event was 9th place finish 1997. 

It was a really exciting final table of Event #2 ($1,500 NLHE) as previous bracelet winners Vanessa Selbst, JP Kelly and Andrew Badecker were on it. All eyes were on JP Kelly when the final table started, but nothing worked out for the British poker pro and he was knocked out already in 8th place.

Vanessa Selbst was the next player to hit the rail. After losing a significant pot to Jacob Bazeley, she moved all-in from cutoff holding K7, Andrew Badecker called from small blind with KQ. The board ran out J94Q8 and Badecker moved into the chip lead with three remaining players.

Read more » 2012 WSOP: Brent Hanks scores his first bracelet!

Event #2: No-Limit Hold'em (buy-in $1,500 ), which started on Monday and was the first WSOP event of 2012 that anyone could enter, is now down to 15 players and play will resume today at 1pm local time with Jacob Bazeley out in front (1,291,000 chips).

Read more » 2012 WSOP: JP Kelly closing in on bracelet #3

Event #1: Casino Employees Championship (NLH - $500 buy-in) kicked off the 2012 WSOP last Sunday and has now come to an end. The name of the champion and the very first Gold Bracelet winner this year is Chiab Saechao from Visalia, CA. He overcame a field of 732 players and received (besides the bracelet) $70,859 for his fantastic achievement.

Read more » Chiab Saechao wins the first WSOP Gold Bracelet of 2012!

Last year Phil Ivey didn't take part in the World Series of Poker because he thought it was unfair that many players couldn't afford to play after Full Tilt Poker and other poker sites were closed down on Black Friday. Even though Full Tilt Poker still hasn't paid back its players and Americans still can't play on most online poker sites, Phil Ivey still decided to make a comeback at the WSOP yesterday as he signed up for Event #2 $1,500 NLH.

But unfortunately the American pro didn't get the instant comeback success he had hoped for as he was knocked out by Maria Ho after just a few hours of play. Well, there are still many events to be played and lots of time for Phil Ivey to turn it into a successful comeback. It will be interesting to see how things turn out! 

The mysterious high-stakes player "patpatman" has been running extremely good on PokerStars nosebleed tables lately. In total, he has won $350k in the past two weeks (about 11,300 hands) and is already up over $1,1 million this year.

So who is this tallented player?
There are many suggestions circulating on the web on who "patpatman" is. However, it seems like most people think that it is Tom "durrrr" Dwan because the account is registered in Macau, China, where Tom Dwan goes regularly and participates in huge cash games. Besides that, "patpatman" likes to play deep at the highest tables and seems to master both NLHE and PLO. Also, he has been making some comments in the chat about current games in Macau.

source: highstakesdb

On Sunday the 43rd annual World Series of Poker kicked off with Event 1: $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em (final table is being played right now - 5 players remain - 732 entries in total), and last night Event 2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em started as well.

Read more » 2012 WSOP: Many familiar faces left in Event #2: $1,500 NLH