The World Series of Poker Europe played host to the 2011 Caesars Cup yesterday, a special event that pitted Team Europe (led by Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier) against Team America (lead by Phil Hellmuth). Since Team Europe won the event in 2009, Team America was hungry for redemption this year, and redemption is exactly what they found.
For Team America, Phil Hellmuth initially chose a team based solely on experience and WSOP bracelet wins, grabbing Johnny Chan, Huck Seed, Doyle Brunson and Daniel Negreanu. After Seed and Brunson announced that they wouldn’t be making the trip to Cannes, Hellmuth significantly lowered the average age of his team by adding Ben Lamb and Jason Mercier, two of the most successful poker players of the modern era.
Grospellier’s team was incredibly strong as well, featuring cutting-edge heads-up experts Gus Hansen, Jake Cody, Maxim Lykov and Tony G. It could be argued that any of these ten players would be capable of winning the WSOP Main Event, given their collective resumes.
The event utilized a best-of-three format, with the first match pitting Lamb and Mercier against Cody and Tony G. Teammates took turns on each street, using the same hand and stack. Team America ultimately won the match with 10-8 suited over Q-9 offsuit, bringing the score to 1-0.
The second match had Hellmuth and Negreanu facing off against Lykov and Hansen, with players alternating hands, but still sharing a stack. Hellmuth paid dearly to see the flop in one hand, but ultimately folded before the turn to give a significant lead to Lykov. Hansen dominated Negreanu, eventually winning an all-in coin-flip with ace-high and evening the score at 1-1.
If you’ve seen Rounders, you know that Johnny Chan is a heads-up poker legend. He lived up to his reputation in Round 3, a match that pitted Chan directly against Grospellier. He secured the victory with trip-4s after trading pots during the earlier stages of the match.
With the score at 2-1, Hellmuth decided to pit himself against Lykov in what would be the final match of the Caesars Cup. Hellmuth scored a pair of queens on the final hand, winning the event and ensuring that the third installment of the series would take place in Las Vegas.
Oct 19 2011
PokerStars “Double Vision Sunday” a Huge Success
written by: James Comments: Comments Off
It seems as though PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, is looking to get even bigger. This past Sunday, the site made an unprecedented move by running both the Sunday Warm-Up and the Sunday Million twice, effectively doubling the amount of guaranteed prize money and proving that the PokerStars audience has an insatiable appetite for Sunday majors. Every single Sunday major had its guarantee busted by overwhelming demand.
Five players received cashes of over $100k in the Sunday Million, an event that attracted 7,046 players to pay buy-ins of $215 each to generate a $1.4 million prize pool. A five-way deal was struck, and acozubi emerged victorious for $145k. Third-place finisher Allin_Tasse was nearly as successful with $142.5k.
The field for the Sunday Million II was somewhat smaller at 5,462, but still managed to beat the $1 million guarantee by over $92k. Andrey Zaichenko was the outright winner for $159k, striking a three-handed deal in which runners-up pececada and goba373 received $126k and $102k, respectively.
Kyle Knecht and inheritance placed first and second in the Sunday Warm-Up after striking a two-way deal, winning $115k and $107k, respectively, in a field that included 4,063. The attendance drop-off in the Sunday Warm-Up II was hardly noticeable, as 3,816 players showed up to destroy the $500k guarantee with a $753k prize pool. No deal was struck, and Method999 received just under $120k for his win.
As usual, the Sunday Storm was the biggest online poker event of the week in terms of attendance numbers. Over 32,000 players paid $10 buy-ins to generate a $320k prize pool. The final table deal trend continued, with atzektm, right_on!^*7 and DeviousDP placing 1st, 2nd and 3rd for $22k, $18k and $22k, respectively.
Oct 19 2011
Moorman and Silver Dominate Day 3 of the WSOPE Main Event
written by: James Comments: Comments Off
The fourth official day of action at the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event (given two Day 1 starting flights) started with 116 players and ended with 25, nine runners shy of the 16 that event organizers had hoped for. The pace of play was indeed below average, with Level 19 ending well after midnight.
The chip race is incredibly tight at this point, with Chris Moorman and Max Silver (both of the United Kingdom) battling it out for the lead. At the closing of Day 3, Silver led by an impossibly small margin of 11 chips, with both players holding roughly 1.78 million chips.
Despite remaining relatively unknown in the U.S., Silver is quickly gaining notoriety in Europe. In the fall of 2010, Silver won an EPT London side event and the title at UKIPT Dublin. More recently, Silver has made deep runs in the 2011 edition of EKIPT Dublin, WPT Paris and Event 4 of the current WSOPE. A victory in the Main Event would represent his biggest live tournament win by far, and solidify his status as a major name in professional poker.
Moorman is primarily known as an online poker expert, though that reputation is quickly changing as he gains more live tournament experience. He made a deep run in the 2011 Aussie Millions and cashed in multiple WSOP events over the summer for over $1 million.
On Day 3, Moorman absolutely obliterated previous chip leader Constant Rijkenberg, pushing all-in on a hand that could’ve sent him home just shy of the money. Rijkenberg was crippled and hit the rail soon after. Moorman also knocked out Melanie Weisner, Carbone Damiano, Freddy Deeb and Hoyt Corkins. Fan-favorite Barry Greenstein ended up in the dreaded bubble boy position.
Other big names remaining in the Main Event race include John Eames, Tony G, Erik Seidel, John Duthie, Jake Cody, Patrik Antonius and Shawn Buchanan, a dangerous field indeed.
Some of the pros that cashed on Day 3, but failed to survive included McLean Karr, Victor Ramdin, Barny Boatman and PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree.
Oct 19 2011
Poker Hall of Fame voter talks about selections
written by: Steve Comments: Comments Off
There is a lot of uncertainty in how the voting for the 2011 Poker Hall of Fame will play out considering that no fewer than four have strong ties to two online poker sites that have yet to fully repay their players, Full Tilt poker and Absolute/UB Poker. When you factor in that the 35 Hall of Fame voters are either players or media figures (all of whom have been impacted by Black Friday) these affiliations could turn into something akin to players during the “Steroid Era” of baseball that have been having a difficult time getting elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame despite gaudy numbers.
One voter in particular, Dan Cypra, decided to talk about this aspect of the 2011 Hall of Fame class, and Cypra was quick to eliminate any player who has ties to these online poker rooms from consideration. Cypra wrote the following in an article at PocketFives.com: “I began my vote by discounting any poker pro associated with Full Tilt Poker, UB or Absolute Poker, none of which has paid back U. S. players following Black Friday,”
Cypra went on to explain how he divvied up his votes (each voter gets 10 points which he/she can spread around to as many players as they choose, so long as all 10 points are given). The primary recipient of Cypra’s points went to Linda Johnson (who Cypra gave 5 points), with the remainder of his points going to Barry Greenstein (3 points) and Tom McEvoy (2 points).
It will be interesting to see if other voters take a similar approach, which could lead to players from the older generation like Johnson, McEvoy, or Marcel Luske having a shot at the Poker Hall of Fame in 2011.
The Latin American Poker Tour, sponsored by PokerStars, recently made a three-day stop at Medellin’s Allegre Casino for LAPT Colombia. Julian Menendez emerged from a field of 681 competitors to win the Main Event, winning nearly $65k along with the title. Despite being an inaugural event, LAPT Colombia attracted more players to its Main Event than any LAPT event in history.
The field was so large that Day 3 began with 28 remaining players as opposed to the usual final table only. Although the Day 3 field was dominated by South Americans (and particularly Colombians), players from Australia and the United States made appearances as well.
The eliminations came fast and furious as soon as play started for the day, with heavy blinds and antes blasting away at the lesser chip stacks. Players landing in places 28th through 10th received payouts ranging from $2.5k to almost $10k.
Menendez was a long-shot for LAPT glory when the final table began, as his stack of 735k chips paled in comparison to those of Alexis Gomez (910k), Jonathan Markovitz (1.15m), Stuart McDonald (1.235m), Victor Forero (2.045m) and especially Jonathan Monsalves (2.495m).
Jhon Jairo was booted in 9th place by Alexis Gomez, who held pocket aces. Markovitz was next to go when his suited J-8 failed to improve against the pocket kings of McDonald. Gomez then knocked out Rafael Pardo in 7th place.
The six remaining players then struck a deal in which each would receive a large chunk of the prize pool in accordance with their chip counts at the time. As fate would have it, the deal worked out amazingly for Stuart McDonald, and not nearly as well for eventual winner Menendez. Only an additional $14k would be reserved for 1st place.
McDonald had the most chips at the time of the deal, so he received over $87k. He was knocked out immediately after the deal from some overly-aggressive play. It’s certainly unusual to see the 6th-place finisher in a major tournament receive about 35% more money than the outright winner.
Had it not been for the deal, McDonald would have received $27k, while Menendez would’ve cashed for over $151k.
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