Jungleman12 Expresses Interest In 50,000-Hand Competition

The 2010 World Series of Poker is over, at least until November, so it is time for the poker world to get things back to normal. Though he didn’t cash in on his bracelet prop bets, Tom “durrrr” Dwan can at least be comforted by the fact that he no longer has to sprint across the Amazon Room from tournament to tournament in an effort to multi-table.

In fact, the young Full Tilt Poker pro has been doing all of his multi-tabling from the comfort of his home, taking on the likes of URnotINdanger2 and Jungleman12.

Against URnotINdanger2, Dwan logged over 7,000 hands playing $50-$100 pot-limit Omaha. Though he lost just more than six figures in that match, he was able to win it all back and then some against some other players to book a small $12,000 win on the day.

Though the action has been relatively tame, the big news is that Dwan is itching to play and has perhaps found the newest taker of his Durrrr Challenge in Jungleman12. After some time spent at the $100-$200 no-limit hold’em tables, the two online phenoms had this conversation.

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A 68-year-old retired fisherman from San Pedro, California landed a big score this week, winning Commerce Casino’s first ever summer Guaranteed Million Dollar Tournament.

Rick Bakovic won the title and $173,500 first-place prize defeating a healthy 3,300-player field in the $335 buy-in event in the Los Angeles area Tuesday.

“It’s the thrill of a lifetime,” said Bakovic, who has been playing five tournaments a week for the past five years, but never cashed for more than $22,000.

“It just goes to show that if I can do it, anyone can.”

A unique feature at Commerce Casino, this event gave players the option of entering or re-entering on any of the first five days. The top 27 players advanced each day to the final, leaving 135 to battle it out for the big money.

Famous faces like John Phan, Bruce Buffer, Shannon Elizabeth, Maria Ho, Joe Tehan, Archie Karas and former L.A. Poker Classic winner Eric Hershler all played.

David “Dragon” Pham, Nam Le and “Miami” John Cernuto made it to the final day, but not the final table.

Despite a $59,500 overlay, Commerce officials say this event will be back on its schedule.

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This year’s World Series of Poker broadcasts start on ESPN today. There will be two hours of poker entertainment every Tuesday until the Main Event final table broadcast on November 9th.

Main Event takes up nearly all of the schedule from the third week onwards. The first episode comes from the $50k Players Championship mixed event with the final table, played in NL Hold’em, comprising the latter half of the program. The final table line-up is as tough as they come: Daniel Alaei, David Baker, John Juanda, the Mizrachi brothers Michael and Robert, David Oppenheim, Vladimir Schmelev, Nick Schulman, and Mikael Thuritz.

Next Tueday’s program comes from the 27-player special event WSOP Tournament of Champions. The final table line-up for this $1,000,000 freeroll was as follows: Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, Jennifer Harman, Annie Duke, TJ Cloutier, Howard Lederer and the former World Champions Huck Seed, Joe Hachem, and Johnny Chan. The winner takes home $500,000.

From August 10th until November 9th all episodes will be from the Main Event. Norman Chad and Lon McEachern return as commentators, and the episodes will be available on the ESPN website.

Source:Coinflip.com

Billy Baxter, Eli Elezra, Freddy Deeb, Maria Ho, John Phan, Tim Phan and Lee Watkinson will don the All In Energy patch in upcoming poker tournaments.

The aforementioned players, along with company co-owner Johnny Chan, will form the energy drink company’s new Team All In.

“This is a positive step for poker as there are not a lot of endorsement deals for players beyond the poker playing websites”, said Johnny Chan, “This relationship is extremely beneficial for both groups and it is an honor to be in the company of such a prestigious group of poker players.”

Chan is coming off an exceptional run at the 2010 WSOP Main Event, where he eventually finished in 156^th for $57,102.

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Germany’s Moritz Kranich was the ultimate victor in the World Poker Tour’s Bellagio Cup VI this weekend.

With the WSOP Main Event in full swing, the Bellagio event didn’t garner the kind of attention WPT tournaments usually receive but it was a notable final table with Phil Ivey and Justin “BoostedJ” Smith looking to make some noise.

Ivey was perhaps the biggest story of the tournament as he made his record ninth WPT final table and was looking to win his second WPT title.

He put in an impressive run at the final table building a large chip lead in the early stages, after busting Rob Akery in fifth place

Ivey was eventually ousted in third place, barely missing out on the chance to play heads-up for his second WPT title.

The WPT Bellagio Cup VI final table was all too familiar for Justin “BoostedJ” Smith who came in third place last year.

Smith lost to Kranich after a fierce session of heads-up play to once again fall short of victory. Smith picked up $594,755 for his second place finish although he is still awaiting his first major live tournament win.

Finally Kranich, who won EPT Deauville in 2009 for $1.1 million, added another huge win to his poker resume.

An online poker pro, Kranich now has two major titles to his name and over 10 cashes in tournaments around the globe.

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The delirium set in at the Rio as players entered their eighteenth hour of play.  Many people were wondering if Day 9 would have to be added to the schedule just to get a true final table set.

Blinds have gone up to 250,000/500,000 with a 50,000 ante.

More Of The Same

Things tend to slow down quite a bit at a poker table when millions of dollars in cash prizes and sponsorship deals are on the line.  Players were taking their time with every decision whether it be a raise, call, or open fold.  It was no wonder we spotted railbirds and media curled up in a ball to catch a few moments of shuteye.

The Long Awaited November Nine

It has been an epic journey to get to the November Nine, but it has finally happened.  When the final ten players were assembled, both Brandon Steven and Michael Mizrachi were short stacks and either were at jeopardy of being eliminated right before the final nine.

After almost six hours of ten handed play, it would be Brandon Steven who would not be returning back to Las Vegas in November.  Jonathan Duhamel raised to 1,225,000, and Brandon Steven moved all in for 4,475,000.  Matthew Jarvis called the all in, and Duhamel surprisingly got out of the way.

It was heads up to the flop and everyone was on their feet in anticipation of the action to come.

Steven turned up his hand first and showed down A♣ K♠.  However, this wasn’t a made hand against the Q♠ Q♣ of Jarvis.

The flop came out T♣ 4♥ 3♦.  The crowd went wild, as everyone was one step closer to completing the epic round up.  The 4♣ came on the turn, and the 5♥ came on the river.  The board was safe enough for Jarvis to hold with his queens and deliver a devastating blow to Brandon Steven.

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A total of 78 players — all survivors of six days’ worth of poker — arrived at noon yesterday with hopes of continuing their long and winding tourney journeys. They were the final standing from the starting field of 7,319, and all had already achieved much.

Bustouts began shortly after cards went in the air, with Jean-Robert Bellande, Meenakshi Subramaniam, David Benyamine, Peter Jetten, Alexander Kostritsyn, and Tony Dunst among those departing during the first levels.

The pace slowed as the dinner break approached, and with 42 left it was thought it might take a while before we’d get down to three tables.

But then came the fireworks of Level 29 — specifically the last hour of Level 29, when 11 players were eliminated. It didn’t take long after that for Theo Jorgensen, Gianni Direnzo, and Bryn Kenney all to hit the rail, too, each earning $255,242 for getting this far.

As the night wore on, Joseph Cheong and Cuong Nguyen put some distance between themselves and the rest of the field, but there’s a formidable bunch behind them, among them Matt Affleck, John Racener, Scott Clements, David Baker, and Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi. Mizrachi took some hits early today, but true to his name, grinded his way back into contention, and still (incredibly) has a chance of tying Frank Kassela for WSOP POY with a Main Event victory.

Source:Pokernews.com

The 2010 WSOP started way back on May 28, 2010, when 721 Casino Employee’s took part in Gold Bracelet Event #1.

The 721 entrants, was a decline of 17% from the year earlier.  But, this turned out to be the anomaly of the summer, as participation skyrocketed throughout the remainder of the 41st Annual World Series of Poker, including Event #57, the WSOP Main Event.

Now that the WSOP Main Event Day 1D registration is officially closed, the final numbers are in.

Here’s how the Main Event shaped up in 2010:

ENTRANTS: 7,319

PRIZE POOL: $68,798,600

1st PLACE PRIZE: $8,944,138

This means the 2010 WSOP Main Event became the second-largest live poker tournament ever, only bested by the 2006 WSOP Main Event.

The total prize pool is the second-largest in history as well.

The winner of the 2010 WSOP Main Event will walk away with more money than Joe Cada did last year, and more than the COMBINED amounts that the Indianapolis 500, Daytona 500, U.S. Open (golf) and U.S. Open (tennis) winners took home.

Participants from 117 different nations around the world came to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in 2010 to compete in the 41st running of the World Series of Poker.

This year’s WSOP awarded the most prize money in its history and had the most entrants ever.  Overall, attendance increased more than 20% over last year’s record numbers.

Source: WSOP.com

The first heat of the World Series of Poker’s Main Event got underway yesterday, and it will take four days to get the players in order for the actual start of the largest poker event of the year. At noon Thursday, reigning WSOP champion Joe Cada will shuffle up and deal to make it official. The final number of competitors and the total prize purse will be known that night.

This year’s 41st annual WSOP has already set a new overall attendance record with 63,706 entrants through the first 55 events of the poker extravaganza. For the sixth consecutive year, the prize pool to date has exceeded $100 million mark. Last year’s then-record number of entries was 60,875. It’s the seventh consecutive year that the number of entries has increased — and this year despite a slowing world economy and competition from the FIFA World Cup.

“We’re thrilled that poker enthusiasts from every corner of the globe have reinforced the WSOP’s standing as one of the most popular competitive events anywhere,” said Ty Stewart, WSOP vice president. “ This year’s turnout continues to show the players’ passion for poker’s biggest stage.” Harrah’s took over ownership of the WSOP in 2004, and attendance has increased each year.

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