The survivors from Day 1a and Day 1b at the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event combined on Day 2, creating a pool of 328 runners. That field was whittled down to just 115 after six levels of action at the Hotel Barriere in Cannes, France. When play ended for the day, Constant Rijkenberg held 462,800 chips, more than any other player.
The early stages of Day 2 saw some of the biggest stacks from the starting flights fall to nothing. Jamie Rosen, who entered Day 2 with the chip lead, hit the rail quickly after some conspicuously aggressive play. Third-place contender Tommy Vedes met the same fate.
In the luckier category was Rifat Palevic, who built a stack of over 500k chips despite facing a highly competitive table that included Samuel Holden, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Jake Cody and the legendary Johnny Chan. He faltered slightly later in the day after a few big-pot battles with Hoyt Corkins and Vadim Ifergan, but still maintains one of the leading stacks. Corkins, who cashed in 13th place last year, is one of the strongest remaining players with almost 430,000 chips.
A number of big-name pros are carrying formidable stacks as well, including Erik Seidel, Chris Moorman, Jake Cody and Victor Ramdin. Patrick Antonius, Tony G, John Duthie, Freddy Deeb, Rebecca Selvin, Liv Boeree, Melanie Weisner and Robert Mizrachi are still in the runnings as well, albeit with slightly smaller stacks. Liv Boeree is currently the leading female contender with over 202k chips.
Other famous pros failed to make it through Day 2, including Johnny Chan, David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Bruno Fitoussi, Scotty Nguyen, Peter Jettern, Antonin Teisseire and Leo Margets of Lock Poker Pro.
The money bubble will be broken on Day 3, which is slated to have eight-handed dealing at all tables.
Oct 18 2011
Nevada Gaming Control Board authorizes WSOP prop bets
written by: Steve Comments: Comments Off
As if there wasn’t enough side-bets and action taking place on the rail if the World Series of Poker Main Event we have this: For the first time Las Vegas sports-books will be allowed to offer prop bets on the World Series of Poker! The Nevada Gaming Control Board has authorized five different prop bets in addition to allowing patrons to wager on the eventual winner of the WSOP Main Event.
Here is a look at the bets that will be available at Caesars Entertainment properties in addition to wagering on the nine final table participants to win the tournament, courtesy of the Las Vegas review-Journal:
- Who will be the first player to bust out when the field of nine reconvenes?
- Will the current chip leader win the Main Event?
- What poker hand will determine the champion?
- What will be the total number of hands dealt at the final table?
- Will there be more red cards or black cards on the final table’s first flop?
It will be interesting to see how much action the WSOP betting lines will attract –which will determine the shelf-life of WSOP prop bets, and the possibility of expanding the number of bets next year—but as of now the Las Vegas sports-books are not expecting too much betting on the WSOP, as Las Vegas Hilton Race and Sports Book Director Jay Kornegay told the LVRJ: “The propositions will drum up some conversation, but I don’t think we’ll see much action. We’ll put up the odds as it gets closer to the event. There is a fan base that’s growing, but people aren’t really used to the idea of betting on poker.”
Mr. Kornegay is obviously not aware of poker players betting habits, since a couple of big name poker pros could, and probably will, wager millions by themselves!
The World Series of Poker Europe’s Event 5, a split-format NLHE tournament with a staggering 10,300 Euro buy-in, played to completion on Saturday. Michael Mizrachi, aka The Grinder, emerged victorious from a field of 125 in the hotly-anticipated high roller event to win an incredible 336k Euro. Mizrachi’s latest win adds to his two existing WSOP victories and brings his career tournament earnings to $12 million, more than all but five players in poker history.
Mizrachi was in the middle of the back when the 16-handed heads-up round began. He defeated Kent Lundmark in a single hand, pushing all-in with K-K against 10-10 on a garbage board. He then defeated Brian Hastings, who had just defeated Erik Seidel. Despite Hastings’ momentum, Mizrachi was able to win the important pots and secure a semifinal battle with Roger Hairabedian of France.
The semifinal match lasted far longer than Mizrachi’s previous heads-up bouts. After several hours of whittling away at each other’s chip stacks, Mizrachi secured a straight on the turn to dominate trip fives, sending himself to the finals in the process.
Event 5 was ultimately decided in a heads-up battle between Mizrachi and Shawn Buchanan. Both players took second place in heads-up NLHE events at this past summer’s WSOP, and both were obviously seeking redemption. However, Mizrachi started with double Buchanan’s chips, and he used his extra betting power to his advantage.
Luck played a part in Mizrachi’s victory as well. The final hand had Buchanan calling with A-J to Mizrachi’s A-10, but the flop came down 10-6-3 and all but secured the win for Mizrachi. A 2 on both the turn and the river solidified the leaderboard. Shawn Buchanan received nearly 208k Euro for his runner-up finish, but there’s little doubt that the title was what mattered most to both players.
Chalk up yet another casualty to Black Friday, as multiple sources have confirmed that NBC has decided to pull the plug on the popular “made-for-TV” poker tournament. WickedChops Poker was the first to break the story after receiving confirmation from NBC Sports Senior Director of Communications Adam Freifeld (who posses one of the longest titles I have ever seen) that the show would not be returning in 2012, but he did leave open the possibility of a return in the future.
The NBC National Heads-Up Championship had an impressive seven-year run, and utilized a unique, invitation-only, format that consisted of the top poker talent in the world as well as a handful of poker enthusiast celebrities –players were responsible for the $20k buy-ins required to enter the event.
The tournament relied heavily on advertising revenue from the major online poker sites, and with the expulsion of Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars from the US market, the ad-buys were simply not there. Thus far the only major televised poker shows that have survived the Black Friday pinch are the World Poker Tour, the World Series of Poker (which has more mainstream sponsors to go along with online poker sites) and the popular high-stakes cash-game, GSN’s High Stakes Poker. Falling by the wayside in the aftermath of Black Friday were the PokerStars Big Game, Poker After Dark, the PokerStars NAPT, as well as the nixing of Full Tilt Poker’s Onyx Cup before it even started.
Here is a look at the past winners of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship:
- 2005 – Phil Hellmuth
- 2006 – Ted Forrest
- 2007 – Paul Wasicka
- 2008 – Chris Ferguson
- 2009 – Huck Seed
- 2010 – Annie Duke
- 2011 – Erik Seidel
James Bord is best known as the defending champion of the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, and is also part of the large contingent of top UK poker pros that have taken the poker world by storm over the past few years. Bord managed to make poker headlines a second time thanks to his affinity for outwardly expressing his opinions, as was evidenced by his verbal altercation with John Juanda at the World Series of Poker this summer –Bord called Juanda a thief, amongst other things, due to his affiliation with Full Tilt Poker.
Now Bord is once again making headlines, thanks once again to his mouth and not his play, after telling UK.pokernews.com that he felt the rest of the world has surpassed the US in terms of poker ability, and that he was willing to put his money where his mouth is by making a very bold claim regarding bets at the online sports-book where he is a partial owner, Matchbook.com, which you can read below:
“I don’t think an American can win the bracelet; Europeans are now far superior,” Bord said this week. “We used to look up to the U.S. players back in the day, but those days are now long gone. I’m prepared to put my money where my mouth is and refund any losing bets up $500 if an American wins.”
So there you go, if you want a $500 freeroll just head on over to Matchbook.com and bet on an American player to take down the WSOPE Main Event –I sincerely hope Bord took out an insurance policy on this happening considering this is the freeroll to end all freerolls!
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