Russ Fox, a tax consult based in Las Vegas, has in the past few years been calculating how much the WSOP Main Event finalists will get to keep after paying taxes. This year $10,028,396 of the $27,258,025 final table prize pool should be taxed. The biggest tax bite will be taken from the winner Gregory Merson...
It's over. After 13 hours of play and 399 hands, the American poker pro Greg Merson, 24, was crowned the champion of the 43rd Annual World Series of Poker Main Event! Merson sat down at the final table two days ago with the third largest stack. After about seven and a half hours of play, only three players had chips left and Merson had 88.35 million chips - about 26 million more than his closest opponent, Jesse Sylvia.
After about seven and a half hours of play, Day 8 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event and the first night of the final table came to an end. The final 3 players who still have the chance of taking home the $8.5 million first prize and the world champion title are Greg Merson, Jesse Sylvia and Jacob Balsinger - all from the U.S. (the only non-U.S. player, Andras Koroknai, was eliminated in 6th place for $1.6 million).
Greg Merson, who was ranked third when the final table kicked off, had an amazing winning streak during Day 8. When Day 9 begins tonight, he will bring a massive 88.35 million stack to the table - about 26 million more than Jesse Sylvia, who had the lead when the final table kicked off yesterday. Balsiger, who eliminated Russel Thomas in 4th place and put an end to Day 8, will bring 46.8 million chips to the final table when play resumes. Day 9 is scheduled to kick off tonight at 5:45 PM local time. Until then, check out the interviews below (taken from WSOP's website).
The 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event started on July 7, 2012 with 6,598 players each putting up $10,000 to create a $62,031,385 prize pool. Today, after about a 3 month break, the final nine players ("The October Nine") will meet again at the Rio in Las Vegas and fight for the remaining $27,285,025 in prize money and, of course, the world champion title!
Since the inception of the November Nine 2008, there have been quite a few stories about how the finalists have practiced and prepared before the WSOP Main Event final table. Some of the finalists have even hired other poker players to help them improve their game. This year is no different...
When about 50 players remained in the 2012 WSOP Main Event, Aussie David Balkin ended up in a heads-up duel against Gaelle Baumann from France. Before the river card had been dealt, Balkin had about 75% chance of taking home the pot with three of a kind 10s against Baumann's AJ (flush draw and straight draw). The river card gave Baumann the nut flush and Balkin moved all-in almost straight away. Baumann snapped called. Balkin took a quick look at Baumann's cards before heading to his friends in the crowd and celebrated. But in a matter of seconds someone said "You lost, bro!!" and Balkin realized his big mistake.
This summer's World Series of Poker saw many sick hands, but the question is if this wasn't the sickest of them all!? In the hand, which occurred during Day 3 of the main event, 2 players (Henry Tran and Benjamin Alcober) bluffed each other until the river where Henry Tran finally hit a pair of deuces and made a hero call. What makes this even more amazing is that the hand was caught on ESPN's cameras! Watch and enjoy!
Greg Merson's road to this year's main event final table has probably been the toughest of all 9 finalists. About 5 years ago he finally managed to put an end to his drug addiction, and ever since he has been very open about his addicition in interviews.
For example: In a recent interview with ESPN, Merson said that he financed his addiction by playing poker in the beginning of his career and that he stopped caring about school and other things in life. However, he managed to quit drugs after getting professional help and then started taking poker more seriously. The kick he got from playing poker drug-free helped him fill the gap after he stopped with, for example, cocaine.
On Monday, Daniel Negreanu finally released another "Weekly" Rant. This time Daniel talks about PokerStars' purchase of Full Tilt Poker, the 2012 World Series of Poker, homosexuality, the TV Series Breaking Bad, the tragic death of Ryan Young, and more.
The 2012 WSOP Main Event attracted 6,598 players and became the fifth-largest Main Event in history. Nearly 2 weeks and more than half a million hands after that the $10,000 buy-in event kicked off, only 9 players remain with the chance of winning the gold coveted bracelet that comes along with the $8.5 million first prize! Yesterday we presented 4 of the 9 finalists. Here is some brief information on the other October Niners (ranked according to stack size).
The 2012 WSOP Main Event attracted 6,598 players and became the fifth-largest Main Event in history. Nearly 2 weeks and more than half a million hands after that the $10,000 buy-in event kicked off, only 9 players remain with the chance of winning the gold coveted bracelet that comes along with the $8.5 million first prize! Here you can read about 4 of the finalists (ranked according to stack size).
Day 6 of the 43 Annual World Series of Poker Main Event is now in the books. Erik Hellman from Sweden ended up as the last player to get eliminated (28th place for $236,921) before the tournament crew called it a day.
Both Day 1 a and b have now come to an end with approximately 900 survivors, who now will get to rest a bit before it's time for Day 3 to start. Among the survivors you'll find notable players such David Diaz, Eugene Katchalov, Maria Ho, Gavin Smith, Katie Dozier, Bernard Lee, Amnon Filippi, Dani Stern, Mike McDonald, Taylor Paur, Sammy Farha, Brock Parker, Jackie Glazier, David Pham, Gabe Kaplan, Kevin Pollak, Brian Hastings, Eric Baldwin and Faraz Jaka to name a few.
It's not very often that Phil Ivey has the time or wants to sit down for a "proper interview". In fact, it took about 3 years until WSOP's Nollan Dalla was invited over to Ivey's private trailer in the parking lot aside the mammoth tournament area at the Rio for a seocnd one-on-one interview with the world's best poker player.
In the interview, Phil said that he's happy to have made it to 5 final tables in two weeks at the 2012 WSOP but that he's never satisfied with coming second in a tournament.
No, I don't get any satisfaction from second place at all. It's all about winning.
The second out of the three opening fields in this year's WSOP Main Event concluded late on Monday night. Main event 1B attracted no less then 2,114 players. This means that the two starting fields has so far a total of 3,180 participants. From the 1B starting field only 1,387 remained after the first 12 hour opening session. In combination with the remaining players from the 1A field, the number of players that, as of now, will continue to day 2 is 2,044. According to WSOP.com reporter Nolan Dalla "Predictions indicate that at there will be more players for Day 1C than Day 1A and Day 1B combined".
Like the 1A field, the 1B field also saw some past bracelet winners leave during the first session. These included the 2001 world champion Carlos Mortensen, 2004 Main Event winner Greg Raymer and the mighty five time WSOP bracelet winner Scotty Nguyen.
The Main Event 1B concluded with John Hoang as the chipleader. The top ten standings from Day 1B is: 1. John Hoang - 180,000 2. James Schafer - 171,250 3. Vanessa Selbst - 168,350 4. Anh Van Nguyen - 163,050 5. Jeff Beckley - 158,550 6. Matthew Woodward - 158,500 7. Cornelius Foley - 146,875 8. Shawn Quillin - 146,300 9. Jason Somerville - 144,725 10. Fergal Nealon - 141,825
Sam Trickett finished in second place for $10.1 million in the $1,000,000 buy-in tournament Big One for One Drop a few days ago. After the big win he and some friends went out to celebrate his amazing achievement with lots of champagne.
However, it didn't take long before the amazing night turned into a nightmare as he was attacked and beaten by six men on his way out of a club. Also, they spat in Trickett's girlfriend's face.
23-year-old Tomas Junek from Czech Republic is the latest gold bracelet winner after defeating, for example, the 2008 Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate on the final table in Event #56: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em (2,798 players participants) earlier today. Apart the gold coveted bracelet, Junek received $661,022 in prize money.
Many former WSOP Main Event finalists and winners have been doing quite well at the 2012 WSOP. Now it's the 2008 main event champion Peter Eastgate's turn as he's among the last 4 players in Event #56: No-Limit Hold'em, a tournament that saw a field of 2,798 players, and has the chance of winning his second gold bracelet.
The most expensive tournament in poker history has come to an end - The Big One for One Drop ($1,000,000 buy-in). Antonio "The Magician" Esfandiari ended up taking home the whole thing and bank-account busting $18,346,673 - the richest prize in poker history. Besides that, he received his second gold bracelet after winning the $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em event in 2004 for $184,860.
The Big One for One Drop ($1,000,000 buy-in) is now down to only 8 players. Antonio Esfandiari holds the lead with 39,925,000 chips, and Sam Trickett is not far behind with his 37,000,000 stack. Brian Rast, the Day 1 chip leader, is still in the tournament, but he's now in 4th place with 11,350,000 million chips.
The first day of the most expensive tournament in poker history has come to an end. Not less than 48 brave (and rich) players entered the $1,000,000 buy-in tournament The Big One for One Drop (Event #55 - No-Limit Hold'em).
After 9 levels of play, the first day came to an end with 37 players (players that were eliminated on the day included, for example, Jens Kyllönen, Jonathan Duhamel, Paul Phua, Erik Seidel, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Nick Schulman, Eugene Katchalov, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and Giovanni Guarascio.). Brian Rast tops the the remaining field with his 10,7100,000 stack, Phil Hellmuth is in second place with 8,395,000 chips.
Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst won the $2,500 Buy-in Six-Handed Ten-Game Mix (Event #52) this morning. The Yale University graduate and poker pro from New York City defeated a very tough field of players and now has a second WSOP gold bracelet and a whopping $244,259 in prize money in her bank account.
This prestigious event attracted a field of 108 players (most of them well-known poker pros) that generated a massive prize pool of $5,184,000! After a five-day battle, Michael Mizrachi was the last man standing and received his 3rd gold bracelet and stunning $1,451,527! Mizrachi is now in fourth place on the all-time money leader board!
Final table results: 1 Michael Mizrachi United States $1,451,527 2 Chris Klodnicki Unites States $896,935 3 Andy Bloch United States $561,738 4 Luke Schwartz United Kingdom $604,736 5 Roland Israelashvili United States $317,882 6 Stephen Chidwick United Kingdom $253,497 7 Bill Chen United States $205,856 8 Bruno Fitoussi France $169,879
Event #45: The Poker Players Championship is now down to a final table with 8 players. Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi (2 WSOP bracelets) has the lead with 3,648,000 chips, and Andy Bloch (1 WSOP bracelet) is in second place with 3,598,000.
The tournament attracted a field of 108 players who could afford the very expensive buy-in of $50,000! Now, after 4 days of play, the remaining 8 players are guaranteed at least 169k each! The winner will take home amazing $1,451,527 and the gold coveted WSOP bracelet!
Final Table Seat Draw
1 Bill Chen 1,293,000 2 Luke Schwartz 1,494,000 3 Andy Bloch 3,598,000 4 Stephen Chidwick 2,026,000 5 Michael Mizrachi 3,648,000 6 Chris Klodnicki 3,276,000 7 Bruno Fitoussi 188,000 8 Roland Israelashvili 694,000
When Oleksii Kovalchuk, who won the $2.5k buy-in No-Limit Hold'em event in 2011 for $689,739, entered the $2,500 buy-in Mixed Split - Seven-Card Stud/Omaha (Event #42), he had little hope that he would succeed. Mainly because he hadn't mastered the games or even understood them completely.
102 players are battling it out in the $50,000 buy-in tournament The Poker Players Championship at the moment. In the lead is Ali Eslami with 253,300 chips, closely followed by Bruno Fitoussi with 251,400.
The remaining field of players includes so many well-known pros that it's hard to pick a few favorites to reach the final table. Besides that, the prize pool and the total entries are sill not stated on WSOP's website, so we will have to return with some more information about that later on today.
The winner of event #34, Naoya Kihara took his nation's first ever WSOP Gold Bracelet last night when he won the Six-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha event and won $512,029 in prize money.
The 30 year old Japanease player made his WSOP debut in last year's WSOP where he managed to get in the money by finishing 653rd in event #58 which gave him $19,359. The former school teacher turned poker pro is mostly playing online poker but according to WSOP.com Kihara now "hopes to travel around the world and play in more live tournaments with this victory".
At the final table in event #34, Kihara was accompanied by two former Gold Bracelet winners; the 2008 Pot-Limit Hold'em winner Davidi Kitai (finished at 5th) and the No-Limit Hold'em winner of 2010 Jason DeWitt (finished at 8th). The runner-up was Chris De Maci who's WSOP record shows a 12th placement in 2005's Hold'em event #9.
As for the future, Kihara is hoping to get an online sponshorship deal but also, according to WSOP.com, to "become a poker ambassador in his home country, as well as throughout Asia".
Carter Phillips is the name of the winner of Event #31: $1,500 No Limit Hold'em. Phillips topped a field of 2,811 players, the largest $1,5k NLHE event so far at the 2012 WSOP, and defeated the winner of the 2009 Main Event heads-up, Joe Cada.
This was Phillips' second WSOP bracelet after winning the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em - Six Handed event in 2010 for $482,774. This time he received amazing $664,130 - the second biggest tournament cash of his career after the EPT Barcelona main event win in 2009 that gave him $1,216,023!
Doyle Brunson is turning 79-years-old later this year and has a long and sucessful poker career behind him. However, as of late his health has been getting worse and many of his fans were even worried that he wouldn't be able to take part in the 43rd Annual World Series of Poker, which started a few weeks ago.
But just as the tournament series had started Brunson wrote on his website that he had decided to play 4-5 events at this year's WSOP - something that made his fans and friends both happy and proud.
The 43rd Annual World Series of Poker is running day and night in Las Vegas at the moment. All the best poker players in the world are there to play poker, party and simply have a good time. One of them is Viktor "Isildur1" Blom from Sweden.
After a very tight heads-up against John Monnette (lasted for about 90 minutes), David 'Bakes' Baker took home his second gold bracelet (winning the $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball event in 2010) and the $451,779 first place prize! On the final table, Baker overcame fantastic players such as Phil Hellmuth (4th) and Phil Ivey (5th), so it definitely was a well-deserved win by the 25-year-old poker pro from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan.
Event #32: H.O.R.S.E. attracted a field of 178 players that generated a $1,673,200 prize pool. A total of 24 players received a share from it and here are the 8 finalists:
Last night the extended Day 4 of Event #29: Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship continued. Only 4 players had chips left and Dennis Phillips, best known for his 3rd place finish in the 2008 WSOP Main event, had a decent chip lead over the other players.
After some hours of battle, Dennis Phillips and Allyn Jaffrey Schulman, wife of 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event winner Barry Shulman and step-mother of 2009 WSOP Main Event final tablist Jeff Shulman, were the last 2 players of the tournament. Phillips had five-to-one chip lead at some point of the heads-up and no one thought Schulman would come back.
Ylon Schwartz, finished 4th in the 2008 WSOP Main Event for $3,7 million, won his first gold bracelet last Saturday when he took down Event #27: H.O.R.S.E. Now, 3 days later, another 2008 WSOP Main Event finalist has the chance of winning his first gold bracelet.
The former chess master and poker pro Ylon Schwartz won his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet last Saturday! He topped a field of nearly 900 players in the $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament and received $267,081 in prize money!
Schwartz has now earned over $4,4 million (23 cashes) in the past six years at the World Series of Poker. Most of his WSOP earnings come from when he finished 4th in the 2008 Main Event and received mind-blowing $3,774,974 in prize money.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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!
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.
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: A[c]A[s]
Negreanu: K[h]K[s]
"Sorry," announced Pellegrino.
"It's not over yet," Negreanu replied.
The board ran out 9[h]5[h]J[c]K[c]J[h] and a non-nochalant Negreanu said, "I spiked a king, didn't I?"
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After about seven and a half hours of play, Day 8 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event and the first night of the final table came to an end. The final 3 players who still have the chance of taking home the $8.5 million first prize and the world champion title are Greg Merson, Jesse Sylvia and Jacob Balsinger - all from the U.S. (the only non-U.S. player, Andras Koroknai, was eliminated in 6th place for $1.6 million).
The second out of the three opening fields in this year's WSOP Main Event concluded late on Monday night. Main event 1B attracted no less then 2,114 players. This means that the two starting fields has so far a total of 3,180 participants. From the 1B starting field only 1,387 remained after the first 12 hour opening session. In combination with the remaining players from the 1A field, the number of players that, as of now, will continue to day 2 is 2,044. According to WSOP.com reporter Nolan Dalla "Predictions indicate that at there will be more players for Day 1C than Day 1A and Day 1B combined".
The winner of event #34, Naoya Kihara took his nation's first ever WSOP Gold Bracelet last night when he won the Six-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha event and won $512,029 in prize money.
