BankrollMob News: Poker, Casino, Crypto & Betting

Day 1 of Tournament of Champions is now in the books. 22 of 27 players (20 of them chosen by popular vote) have survived and made it to the second starting day. In the top of the field is Erik Seidel (72,075) closely followed by Johnny Chan (71,325) and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow (70,575). I must say that it was a quite entertaining first day of the tournament.

Many great plays, bluffs and lay downs is what we got to see in the first day of the tournament. But maybe this is what to expect when the poker world's elite are playing cards? I'm sure that day 2 of the tournament will be as interesting as the first one, and I hope that "The Mouth" will make it far in the tournament! Not because he's the best poker player, but because he's a great entertainer at the poker table!

507 players signed up for the $2,500 mixed hold'em (event 44) at the 2010 WSOP. After 3 long, but interesting, days of poker there were only 9 players left and time for the final table to be played. Danny Hannawa started the final table as the chip leader with Gavin Smith not far behind. Gavin quickly overtook the chip lead and then knocked out Danny in heads-up. For the win he got his very first WSOP bracelet and the first place prize of $268,238.

Gavin Smith, 41, has won over $5 million dollars during his 16 year poker career, including 4 WPT final tables and a win at 2005 Mirage Poker Showdown. In the past few years, Gavin has been very anonymous when it comes to WSOP results - until now. After reading an interview with him after his long-awaited win, one quickly understands how hard he has been working on his game before the 2010 WSOP. I don't think Event 44 could have gotten a better (and happier) winner than Gavin Smith.

Ante Up for Africa is a nonprofit organization that's raising money and awareness for Africans in need. The organization was founded by Don Cheadle, Norman Epstein and Annie Duke. Since a few years ago, Ante Up for Africa has been a returning charity event at the World Series of Poker where lots of celebs usually take part.

New for this year is that they have launched an online campaign where the aim is to raise $10,000 before the Main Event starts on July 5. In 2009, $600,000 was raised and donated to three Darfur-related charities. Let's hope that more money will be raised this year!

Click here if you want information on how you can donate money.

Tom "durrrr" Dwan is playing lots of events at the WSOP this year, mainly because he wants to win his first bracelet and the prop bet against Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu which will give him $2 million dollars! One would think that it must be tiring to play so many events, but it doesn't seem to be that way for durrrr since he has been finding energy and time to play online as well. How come someone with millions of dollars in the bank account still can be hungry for more and eager to play every single day, all year round? The answer is very simple, Tom Dwan loves the game and the kick he gets from playing against the world's best poker players. That's probably what makes him one of the best poker players in the world.

Read more » High Stakes: durrrr wins $200k - in just 3 days!

Isildur1 has been playing frequently at Full Tilt poker in the last few weeks. However, it's not the sick swings that we used to see back in 2009, even though he still plays for high stakes. Anyhow, yesterday Isildur1 played Omaha and No Limit Hold'em heads up's against URnotINdanger2, mickeyG16, Hal0zination and Theo "THEDONKEYNO1" Jorgensen.

Isildur1 was losing around $50k to URnotINdanger2 but managed to win back the money he lost from some of the other players mentioned above. He was winning the most money from Theo Jorgensen - around $27,000. After that Isildur1 decided to call it a day, he had won only $4,000. Not a lot of money for someone who used to gamble for millions every day, but still better than nothing.

A group of poker players in Austria, lead by actor and director Max Krucki, are at the moment trying to break Phil Laak's world record in staying awake as long as possible playing poker. And according to a rumor, someone in the group managed to crush the old record this morning. Anyhow, the group of Austrian poker players are trying to stay awake and play poker for 150 hours straight. Phil managed to stay awake for 115 hours, almost 5 days. In other words, if they manage to stay awake for 150 hours, they have beaten the old record with 35 hours and been awake for more than 6 days.

For me, it sounds like pure madness to stay awake and play poker for such a long time - just in order to break some record. Maybe it's just me? What is your opinion on this?

A Swedish poker pro has gotten himself into trouble for a second time in very short time. In November last year, the poker pro and some other people were waiting in a queue to order some fast-food after a late night out in central Stockholm. Suddenly the poker pro attacked one man in the queue for no reason with karate kicks . The man who got attacked filed a report against the poker pro, who refused to admit what he had done.

Read more » 2010 WSOP: Swedish poker pro chased by Las Vegas police

Event #35: $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship attracted a strong 256-player field this time. Tom Dwan, Barry Greenstein, Howard Lederer and Daniel Negreanu were just a few of the notable players that took part. Big names that made it far in the tournament were Phil Gordon, Bertrand Grospellier, Sorel Mizzi. However, it wasn't any of them who took home the tournament. After 4 long days of thrilling heads up poker, Ayaz Mahmood (right) was the last man standing after that he had sent his final opponent Ernst Schmejkal (left) off the rail. For the win he received nothing less than $626,674.

Mahmood is a 38-year-old former furniture retailer-turned poker pro now living in the Houston suburb of Sugarland, TX.  He is originally from Bangladesh.  In fact, Mahmood became the first Bangladesh-born WSOP gold bracelet winner in the 41-year history of the WSOP.

Phil Ivey keeps on impressing with more fantastic results and achievements! Not many hours ago, he did it again as he took down the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E event! Phil made it to the final table alongside with some other big names in poker - John Juanda, Jeff Lisandro etc. Anyhow, Phil made it to heads-up against Bill Chen and it didn't take long before he sent him off the rail as well and grabbed his 8th bracelet! It's almost a bit sick (and unreal) that a poker player can be so extremely successful both online and live. And we shouldn't forget that Phil has made some serious cash from prop bets as well. Phil Ivey is, if you ask me, a complete gambler that deserves to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame within the next few years! 

On August 28 the 2010 FIBA World Championship in Turkey kicks off. The world championship in basketball, like football, is one of the biggest happenings in the sport and usually millions of people around the globe are following the tournament. Maybe the worlds biggest poker site can take the world cup to a new level?

Yes, you heard right! Pokestars has just announced that they will sponsor the Spanish basketball association during 2010 FIBA World Championship. The sponsorship is not only good news for the Spanish poker association but also for PokerStars members.

Read more » PokerStars to sponsor the Spanish basketball association

Week #1 Leaderboard has now ended and top 15 players have been paid their prizes. Today a new week starts so it will be exciting to see if the same players can keep it going and also finish in the top on Sunday.

Remember that the Overall leaderboard covers the entire tournament, so there's no need to feel upset if you scored big yesterday but still didn't finish top 15 on the weekly leaderboard, since your points will also apply to the Overall leaderboard.

We have just added odds to a few more matches so you can now bet on the next few days as well. At this stage of the tournament, expect to come back every other day to place bets on new matches since we update on a regular basis.

If you're new to this Mob Betting promotion, don't worry, it's not too late to join. A new weekly leaderboard has just started and everybody has zero points, so it's equal for all. The later you wait to join, the harder it will be to gain a good position on the Overall leaderboard, though. But the weekly leaderboards reset every Sunday and week 2, 3 and 4 are still to be played.

Find the Mob Betting at the bottom of your Mob Account page - click here.

Even though the majority of notables in the poker world can be found in Las Vegas at the moment (or getting ready to go there), there are still a few that play in other tournaments around the globe. William Thorson, 27, the Swedish PokerStars Pro, is one of them. It turned out to be a wise decision of Thorson to go and play PokerStars Baltic Festival in Tallinn, instead of playing some event in 2010 WSOP.

Thorson survived a field of 222 players and won over the Lithuanian poker pro Dominykas Karmazinas after 3 hours of heads-up. This is the first major No Limit Hold'em title for William Thorson. He has been very successful in different Omaha tournaments and also reached 4 final tables in the EPT, but he has never won a single major NLH tournament before.

Read more » William Thorson won PokerStars Baltic Festival (€80,823)

There are quite few successful people from the music industry that have made an attempt to start a poker career (mixed results usually), however, it's not that common the other war around - poker players getting into the music industry. Probably there is a reason for this. Well, there are 1 or 2 that have been quite successful. One of them is the finnish poker pro Illari "Ziigmund" Sahamies. His new song, 'Pojat On Poikki' - means something like 'Boys are always boys', has been running hot on youtube and myspace lately. Maybe Ziigmund should quit poker and become a full-time musician instead? Judge for yourselves.

Read more » Ziigmund's new career.

27 players are now ready for the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions. 20 (9 of them World Champs) of these players were voted by the people and over 350,000 ballots were submitted. Daniel Negreanu and Phil Ivey were the ones who had received the most votes. Phil received the most votes, however, he and Daniel were only separated by less than 30 votes.

The Tournament Of Champions will start on June 27. The final table will be played on July 4 and it will be televised on ESPN. A really interesting and thrilling final table is to expect!

Read more » 2010 WSOP: Tournament of Champions

"It must be that time of the month for Annette, whatever her name is. I'm at Bobby's Room almost every day if she really wants to play" is what Doyle Brunson, 76, wrote on his twitter when he got to know that Annette Obrestad, 21, had been dissing his style of playing totally in an interview with a poker magazine.

However, it didn't take long before Doyle realized that his comment wasn't that nice and therefore he decided to apologize to all women.

So what made Doyle so upset?

Read more » Doyle's attack on Annette Obrestad

Phil Hellmuth hasn't been doing all that well at the poker tables in the past few years, and he has been criticized by some of the best poker players in the world because he refuses to understand that poker has changed and that he can't play the same style as he used to "back in the days" when he was successful. It's clear that Phil Hellmuth doesn't care much about what others think about him and his game, however, he loves to criticize others - especially after bad beats.

There are lots of video clips on youtube and similar sites where one can see Phil Hellmuth cry out loud, complaining after a bad beat. Even though Phil believes, like other successful poker players, that luck is just part of the game and that a good player will win in the long run, he still thinks that he's losing lately because of bad beats. Well, I have to agree with him after watching this hand, at the same time as I think it was a bad move from him to deal the hand 4 times.

Read more » High Stakes: Sickest hand ever? (VIDEO)

We just added more odds to our Mob Game World Cup betting game. Now all matches up until (and including) Friday June 18th will have odds so you can bet on them - it's of course still free to bet, as it will be during the entire World Cup 2010.

As for the leaderboards, Week #1 Leaderboard is still going on, and the Overall leaderboard too. Week #1 leaderboard will end on Sunday so it's not too late to get in the game now. The two top players so far are smygarn and poisson19, who managed to hit Germany's 4-0 victory over Australia, giving them odds 21. Since we consider all bets to be "100 points", odds 21 would mean each of them got 2100 points for the leaderboard, bringing them up to a total of 4435 points. As you can see, it doesn't take that many correct bets to rocket yourself to the top of the leaderboards, so better go make your bets now!

We continue to add odds a few times a week so be sure to come back every now and then to make new bets.

For more information, click here: NEW: Mob Betting - Bet on World Cup 2010 For Free & Win Prizes

Peter "Zupp" Jepsen is the poker pro who had everything, sponsorship contract, a beautiful girl friend who loved him, money, investments etc. However, last year, everything took a big turn in his life and he didn't cash in single tournament and the investments didn't pay off at all.

Part from the fact that he was running out of money, he got the swine flue, broke his foot, got chronic inflammation. On top of the money and health issues, his girl friend left him. Life was and is still not easy for Peter "Zupp" Jepsen. However, he's planning on a comeback at 2010 WSOP. He will play cash games and in a few of the events. But, if he doesn't do well - his poker career is probably over, according to himself.

Even though 2-7 Draw Lowball might not be the most common and popular poker game today, it still attracted 101 players who were willing to pay $10,000 and enter Event 19 at 2010 WSOP. Among these 101 players were lots to notables - John Juanda, Erik Sagström, Christer Björin, Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu etc.

Anyhow, 101 players became 72 players after the first day, and 72 players became 21 players after the second day. Among the remaining players we find huge names such as Daniel Negreanu (picture), Barry Greenstein, Erik Seidel, John Juanda etc. It will be a very interesting closure of the tournament with so many notables involved.

Exclusive for BankrollMob members:

As a member of BankrollMob, you can now participate in a new Mob Game which we call "Mob Betting". It's currently focused on the World Cup 2010 but we might use it for future events as well.

For the World Cup 2010 we made Mob Betting completely free for our members to use - but still with real prizes based on leaderboards. There are a total of five leaderboards: One overall leaderboard that covers the entire World Cup tournament and four weekly leaderboards, the first weekly does have a few matches from this week though.

Each leaderboard will have prizes, with the overall leaderboard having the biggest prizes. The total prize pool is worth $1765 and consists of money prizes (as Mob Points), tickets to our weekly Mob Draw (with several $50 prizes) and bonus shots to crack the Mob Safe and win the content (usually at least $20).Read more » NEW: Mob Betting - Bet on World Cup 2010 For Free & Win Prizes

Carter Phillips had his breakthrough last year when he became the EPT Barcelona, but since then we haven't heard much from him. He has been playing in quite a few tournaments but not won any bigger amounts worth mentioning. However, tonight the long-awaited payday finally came for the 21-year-old American as he took down the $1,500 buy-in six-handed no-limit Hold'em tournament (event 16) at 2010 WSOP.

Read more » EPT Barcelona winner takes down Event 16 ($482,774)

A big congratulations to Steve Gee who took home event 13 early this morning. Gee survived a massive field of 3042 players and grabbed the first prize of almost half a million dollars and his very first WSOP Bracelet. This was the second $1,000 buy-in No Limit Holdem event held at this year's WSOP. However, there are plenty of events with $1,000 buy-in to go (like this one - Event 13), so we will probably see even larger fields of players in the upcoming events.

Final table results:

1. Steve Gee - $472,479 (USA)
2. Matthew Vance - $292,232 (USA)
3. David Baker - $206,813 (USA)
4. Nicholas Heather - $149,702 (Ireland)
5. Jeffrey Gross - $109,621 (USA)
6. Daniel Thomas - $81,203 (USA)
7. Kyung Han - $60,833 (USA)
8. Jared Hamaby - $46,077 (USA)
9. Mats Gavatin $35,290 (Sweden)

As promised, a $1000 BankrollMob freeroll would appear on Party Poker. It's scheduled for June 27th at 19:00 GMT (21:00 CET) and is a "replacement freeroll" for the failed weekly $200 freerolls we experienced in May.

The requirements are the same though, you'll only have to earn 50 Party Points between May 1st and Wednesday June 23rd, so there's still time to qualify for this $1000 freeroll. Needless to say, your Party Poker account must be created through BankrollMob links.

Click here for more freeroll information.

If you do not already have a Party Poker account, check out our amazing Party Poker bonuses - there's both a $100 no deposit bonus and a 5000 Mob Points gift offer.

The finnish poker pro Ville Wahlbeck, 34, had a fantastic 2009 with over $1 million in winnings from different live tournaments. He ended up second (after Jeff Lisandro) in the WSOP ranking and he was voted the best live player of 2009 at Nordic Poker Awards. Ville Wahlbeck is one of the most successful poker players ever from Finland. Many compare him and his success with finnish poker giants such as Patrik Antonius and Juha Helppi.

Ville has now signed a sponsorship contract with PokerStars and will from now on represent them in different tournaments around the globe. Let's hope that Ville gets a warm welcome from the rest of the PokerStars Nordics (Peter Eastgate, Johnny Lodden, William Thorson, Mats Sundin and Sami Selio) and that his success at the poker tables will continue.

The $1,000 No Limit Holdem event (Event 13) of 2010 WSOP attracted a huge field this time. Not less than 3042 players signed up for the tournament and created a huge prize pool - for being such a cheap event to enter. Anyhow, after a few days of poker, we have finally reached the final table. These are the 9 players who are going to battle for the first prize of $472,479.

1. David Baker, 2 553 000

2. Matthew Vance, 1 731 000

3. Steven Gee, 1 540 000
4. Nicholas Heather, 993 000
5. Kyung Han, 613 000
6. Daniel Thomas, 423 000
7. Jared Hamby, 423 000
8. Mats Gavatin, 393 000

9. Jeffrey Gross, 281 00

The payout structure is quite steep, so we can probably expect the final table to go on for long time. Good luck to the remaining 9 players!