BankrollMob News: Poker, Casino, Crypto & Betting

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! 

Not less than 1055 players paid $1,000 and entered Event #53: Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship. After 3 days of play, the field had been narrowed down to only 15 players. The final table began during Sunday afternoon with 9 players (8 Americans and 1 Canadian). One of these finalists, believe it or not, was a man!

Read more » Ladies NLH Championship attracted many players

Even though we have been writing a lot about the ongoing World Series of Poker in the past month, it doesn't mean that there hasn't been any action at the nosebleed tables online. One of the biggest winners last month was Viktor "Isildur1" Blom from Sweden. Even though it was a swingy month for the young Swede, he still ended up with a $227k profit.

Read more » High Stakes: They won and lost the most money last month

Event #46: No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed Championship saw a field of 474 players fight for a prize pool of $4,455,600! On the 4th day of play, there were only 2 players left, Joe Ebanks and Chris Moorman, and they fought for the biggest first-place prize (so far) at the 2011 World Series of Poker. Ebanks roughly had a 5:1 lead and it didn't take long before he and Moorman played the last hand:

Read more » Joeseph Ebanks wins the No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed Championship ($1.1 million)

According to an article in The Los Angeles Times, Full Tilt is about to be bought by a group of European investors, which means that U.S. players would be paid the roughly $150,000,000 million owed to them. In the article, which was published yesterday, reporter Nathaniel Popper says:

"Attorneys associated with Full Tilt said the company signed an agreement Thursday with a group of investors who would put up enough money to pay back players and in doing so attain a majority stake in Full Tilt's Irish parent company, Pocket Kings."

Read more » Full Tilt Poker to be sold

Play in our "BankrollMob $100k challenge" satellite on Sunday July 3rd at 14:00 GMT (16 CET, 10 EST) and you could win 1 of up to 5 seats for the main $100k Sunday Challenge tournament at the same day, at 19:35 GMT.

All BankrollMob members who signed up, or will sign up, at 888 Poker through any of our links, and have made a deposit at 888 Poker, will be able to play in our $100k challenge freeroll sattelite.

Read more » Win a seat to $100k Sunday Challenge with BankrollMob

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.

888poker is hosting a special last chance 99c frenzy tournament, to win a $15,500 package to next week’s World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas.
 
The 99c rebuy/add-on tournament will run on Saturday July 2nd at 21:25 GMT and is sure to be a blast!

The $15,500 package includes:

• $10,000 entry to the WSOP Main Event
• $2,500 for travel (paid into 888poker account)
• 10 nights at the Palazzo Hotel including resort fee, internet access (check-in July 5th, check-out July 15th)
• 888poker Live Event Merchandise Kit
• Special VIP event on July 7th (invitation direct to winners only)

The winner must be able to travel to the USA next week, but can arrive as late as July 8th if required. The package can be transferred to another 888poker member, but is non-refundable.Read more » WSOP Last Chance Frenzy at 888poker

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

Earlier today the following statement was issued by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission:

"Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) has today issued Hearing Notices under Regulation 46 of its Regulations to Vantage Ltd. Oxalic Ltd, Filco Ltd and Orinic Ltd, collectively trading as FULL TILT POKER.

In addtion, AGCC has issued Suspension Notices under Regulation 47 to the above named companies requiring them to suspend all operations with immediate effect.

The decision to suspend these licenses follows a special investigation prompted by the indictments unsealed by US Attorney General's Office in the Southern District of New York on 15th April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licensees and their business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation. The nature of the findings necessitated the taking of immediate action in the public interest.

Read more » Update 18:27 - BREAKING NEWS - Fulltilt Poker License suspended

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)

David Yu, who has been the CEO at Betfari for over 6 years, has resigned and will be leaving the organization very soon. Yu's contract ends in October 2012, but yesterday he said that he wants leave earlier than that. The reason for this might be the strict & tough regulations in Europe and USA.

Apart from that, the company's stock price has dropped 47% since October last year. It remains unclear what David Yu will do after leaving Betfair. But one thing is for sure though: Yu isn't in a hurry to find a new job as he earned about half a million british pounds per year working for Betfair.

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!

Another week of High Stakes action is now in the books. Viktor "Isildur1" Blom, who was the biggest winner 2 weeks ago with a $290k profit, didn't do so well last week. Nothing went the young Swede's way and on Sunday night he had lost $188,986, which was enough for the not-so-glorious second place on the top 5 losers list.

The biggest winner last week ended up being Ben "Sauce123" Sulsky with a profit of $349,551. Sulsky has been very successful in the past few years at Full Tilt's and PokerStars nosebleed tables. However, we haven't seen much of him in the weekly top 5 winners list for quite some time.

Read more » High Stakes results of the previous week

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 1084. 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.

The movie star and poker player Tobey Maguire (best known from the Spider-Man movies) has been sued for $300,000 in a suit surrounding a multi-million dollar, illegal poker game. The suit was was filed in USA Bankruptcy Court in Los Angeles in March.

Celebs like Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon also played in these illegal poker games, however, their names are not mentioned in the suit. The reason for this is that the people investigating the case could re-create the history of numerous transactions that have been made, and Maguire's name has appeared there.

Read more » Tobey Maguire sued for $300,000

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)