Jess Welman only finished in 8th place in Event #1 of the Detox Poker Series for a $3k score. But it was the biggest of her career thus far, came with an ROI of infinity having won her seat in the media freeroll, and already she’s gotten more press than the 8th place finisher of the November Nine will likely get.
Here’s her first bustout interview with Marco from QuadJacks … and naturally she credits all her great play + rungood recently to skills acquired in the Pokerati Game:
(At least that’s what I heard … no?)
Big ups to the best red-headed co-panelist on The Poker Beat … who also happened to be the only player in Event #1 to show up with muffins.
Day 4 of the Detox Poker Series at the Hard Rock had the unique distinction to see a Pot-Limit Omaha event draw a larger field than a NL holdem event.
$350 NL Holdem
The first tournament on Monday was the $350 NL Holdem event, which drew a field of 46 entries, with the top five making the money. David Rodriguez defeated Kyle Carston in a brief heads-up battle, taking down $6,210 and the championship trophy. Full results and the winner’s photo can be seen here.
$350 PLO 8
The 5pm tournament was the $350 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better event, drawing a field of 60 players with the top six picking up cash. The final hand of the tournament came when play was three-handed, as Neil Legerski made a full house against Gary Bolden and Carol Lynn Kline’s low draws to take down the title along with $7,560. Full results and the winner’s photo here.
Tuesday’s tournaments
The 1pm tournament is the $350 NL Holdem 6-Max event, followed at 5pm by the $350 NL Holdem shootout. For those who go to the Hard Rock for cash game action, entries into Wednesday’s $230 NL Holdem $50,000 Guarantee and this weekend’s $550 NL Holdem $200,000 Guarantee are being awarded in high-hand bonuses and splash pots. A reminder, the 5pm tournament on Wednesday is the $230 Pokerati Game (1/2 NL Holdem, 1/2 PLO). Schedules, structures and other stuff at www.detoxpoker.com
The Hard Rock Hotel’s Detox Poker Series, lead by tournament director extraordinaire Matt Savage had four tournaments playing down to a winner on Sunday. The tournament that drew a lot of attention to the live streaming at the Detox Poker site featured a popular member of the poker media making the final table, but a former WPT winner who held all the chips in the end.
$350 NL Holdem
The final day of the $100,000 Guarantee $350 NL Holdem started with 18 players quickly making their way to a final table, which featured Bluff/WPT/Poker Beat reporter Jess Welman and 2006 WPT Mandalay Bay Championship winner Joe Tehan. Welman took her short stack into an 8th place finish, earning $3,140. Tehan maintained his chip lead until a deal was made three-handed, with Tehan collecting $31,943. The full results of the final table can be found here.
$350 HORSE
Event #3, the $350 HORSE wound up with Benjamin Yu and Colby Pitt making a deal heads-up with Yu earned the victory and $5,930. While Pitt was runner-up, he won more money, collecting $6,168. Full results available here.
$350 NL Bounty
Event #4, the $350 NL Bounty tournament, drew a field of 60 players, each with a $100 bounty on their head. Kent Frampton started heads-up down 5 to 1 in chips against Veerachai Vongxaiburang, eventually picking up the win good for $5,040 while Vongxaiburang earned $2,640. Blake Bluffington finished 3rd for $1,680 and Sam Grizzle finished 4th, earning $1,200. Full results and a winner’s photo here.
$350 7-Game
A field of just 28 participated in event #5, Scott Fischman 7-Game Mix with James Wheatley earning the title for $4,620. Brian Kim was runner-up for $2,520, Ryan Hullerman finished 3rd for $1,260.
Monday’s tournaments
Two more tournaments on the schedule, starting at 1pm with event #6, $350 NL Holdem, while at 5pm it’s Event #7, $350 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 or Better. Be sure to check out DetoxPoker.com for updates, interviews and streaming video.
Saturday was a busy day for the Detox Poker Series, with day 1b of the $335 NL Holdem $100,000 Guarantee, the final table of the $350 Omaha 8 or Better event, and the opening day of the $350 HORSE.
$335 NL Holdem
Day 1b drew a field of 193 entrants, creating a total prize pool of $121,150 with the remaining 18 players Saturday making the money, with the final nine joining the nine survivors from Friday to play down to a winner at 3pm. Joe Tehan leads the field of day 1b survivors with 288,000 in chips. The other notable from day 1b returning this afternoon is Bluff Magazine/World Poker Tour/The Poker Beat Jess Welman, finishing with 75,500 in chips. Here’s how the final two tables will be seated with 19:42 remaining in level 16: 1,500/3,000 with a 500 ante.
The final 18 are guaranteed at least $1,050, with the winner pocketing $34,440. The full list of payouts and players who cashed can be found here.
$350 Omaha 8 or Better
Frankie O’Dell, winner of two WSOP bracelets in Omaha 8 or Better, added another tournament win to his results as he defeated Mitch Schock heads-up. The pair made a deal with O’Dell earning $6,000 with Schock earning $4,944. The rest of the results are available here.
$350 HORSE
71 players hit the felt for some weekend mixed game action in the $350 HORSE, with the final table making the money. The bubble boy was Frankie O’Dell, unable to parlay his earlier win into back-to-back final tables. The final tablists are guaranteed $682, with the winner pocketing $7,881. Play resumes at the final table with 15:00 left on level 14, playing the 5th hand of Stud 8 or Better, limits at 2,000/4,000 and a 500 ante:
Two more tournaments get underway today, at 1pm is the $350 NL Holdem Bounty tournament, with $100 bounties on every player’s head. The 5pm tournament is the $350 Scott Fischman 7 Game Mix event, consisting of HORSE, NL Holdem and Pot Limit Omaha. Be sure to check out Detox Poker and Quad Jacks for video, updates, interviews, and much, much more.
Just a reminder that the Matt Savage-run Detox Poker Series starts this afternoon at the Hard Rock Hotel Poker Lounge in Las Vegas. Two tournaments kick off today: Event #1 is day 1a of the $350 NL Holdem $100,000 Guarantee tournament. They need 333 players total to hit the guarantee.
Event #2 starts at 5pm, it’s day 1 of the $350 Omaha 8 or Better tournament. More information on these events can be found over at www.detoxpoker.com where you can find structures, live video and chat when available.
Be sure to check out Pokerati every day for daily reports during the series, and follow @detoxpoker on Twitter.
The final opening day of the $335 Commerce Guaranteed Million Dollar Tournament drew a field of 896 players, making the total number of entries 3300 on Saturday. This means the tournament finished with a $59,500 overlay in the tournament led by TD extraordinaire Matt Savage and his staff. The day 1e leader was Jesus Delgadillo with 247,500 in chips. The most notable name from day 1e returning Sunday at 2pm is former Team Pokerati member (?) Sara Chau of Dallas with 150,000 in chips.
Players who cashed for a 2nd time in the tournament Saturday: Arguan Roye, Binh Nguyen, Leopoldo Araneta, Tom West, and Wlodzimierz Panasiuk. The full list of players who cashed in the tournament and the payouts for those who’ve made it to the final day are available here. To see the table draw for the 2pm conclusion of the tournament as the winner is expected to earn $173,500, click here. Play resumes with 22 minutes left in level 15, as the blinds will be 1,500/3,000 with a 500 ante.
NOTE: Over 2,100 players have registered for day 1d, with a capacity field of over 3,700 expected.
Day 1c of the Main Event drew the biggest field as 2,314 players as defending champion Joe Cada handled the “shuffle up and deal” to get today’s activities underway. Cada finished the day with a respectable 55,000 in chips. Among the notables who don’t get to return for day 2b on Saturday: Tom Dwan, Howard Lederer, Huck Seed, Isabelle Mercier, Chad Brown, Men Nguyen, Faraz Jaka, Dario Minieri, Chau Giang, 2009 November Niner Steve Begleiter, and after making his usual dramatic entrance, Phil Hellmuth exited quietly.
At the end of 9 hours of play, 1,642 players will join the 762 day 1a survivors Friday afternoon at 12pm at the start of day 2a. The reported leader at this time is Mathiu Sauriol with 169,900 in chips. Johnny Chan finished the day 2nd in chips with 163,700, other notables back for day 2a include Lauren Kling (149,650), Barny Boatman (144,050), Hoyt Corkins (129,150), David Williams (112,225), Todd Terry (96,175), Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh (85,425), Brock Parker (71,125), Liz Lieu (70,050), Annie Duke (62,000), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (48,150), and Antonio Esfandiari (44,150). The full list of chip counts is now available at wsop.com. The full table draw for day 2a will be linked here and at my Twitter for those interested when it becomes available.
Day 1d of the Main Event gets underway at 12pm, with football Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith handling the “shuffle up and deal” duties, with some poker site sure to put a patch on him if he decides to play. The Main Event field is already the second-largest in history with over 7,000 players registered with a chance it breaks 8,000 over the next 8 hours. Catch the action over at wsop.com, Pauly’s blog and Twitter to see if anyone gets shut out, who gets knocked out, and how this afternoon’s action is played out.
Who says tournament poker is dying/hurting? It’s hard to go anywhere on the planet these days without finding a major soccer poker tournament. Lots of kids with disposable bankrolls, it seems … and lots of older folks trying to grab it.
At the EPT Deauville, which just wrapped up, all eyes were on Elky and Peter Eastgate to take down the biggest tournament ever in France. But out of 768 runners, they went out in 9th and 8th, respectively, with 21-year-old Brit Jake Cody winning the €847,000 top prize and presumably earning himself a spot on the PokerStars Kids Team.
Elky, meanwhile went pimptastic/not-gay in his homeland, sponsoring Team ElkyLady:
Across the continent, in Atlantic City. the World Poker Open at the Borgata is rolling along, with their $3,500 main event starting Sunday. They’re still drawing fields in the multi-hundreds, making Borgata the East Coast place to be.
But let’s not forget Mississippi — which used to be the preferred place for poker players to kick off the new year. They only got 208 entries into the $10k WPT main event at Beau Rivage. The final table for the Southern Poker Championship is set:
Name Chips
Hoyt Corkins 2,069,000
Tyler Smith 1,169,000
Jerry Vanstrydonck 1,044,000
Jonathan Kantor 894,000
Jared Jaffee 762,000
James Reed 377,000
Halfway around the world, the Aussie Millions is into Day 2 of their main event. After a festive Australia Day celebration, things got underway for the big-daddy of this Southern Hemisphere main event:
Some other cool tourneys at the Crown Casino still going … It’s very 2 Months $2 Milliony In the Australian heads-up championship, they’re duking it out to see which four will advance to the money matches against Andrew Lichtenberger, Barry Woods, Vanessa Selbst, and Martin Gudvangen.
And action is just getting underway for the Team Event. Here’s how they play team poker down under:
How Does Team Poker Work
The game is No Limit Hold’em. Teams of two, only one member from each team is on the felt at a time.
The partner’s rotate whose turn it is to play the team’s stack each level. The first players in the game get half of the team’s start bank, if they bust in the first level the team mate comes in immediately and plays with the other half of the team’s starting bank.
That person will play the remainder of the first level, and the second, before the original partner resumes play in the third level.
From the second level onwards team will have their full stacks in play, and once it’s gone the team is eliminated.
And our new-good friends at the Heartland Poker Tour are in Quapah, Oklahoma — at the Downstream Casino in the far northeast end of the state, running qualifiers for their next televised main event, which gets underway this weekend. This one is good clean All-American fun for the kids, too, as you only need to be 18 to play.
Not sure what to tell you off the bat … they’re about six hands in … and Darvin Moon has chipped up … he now has 90some million to Joe Cada’s 101ish million.
The WSOP&T Theater is packed-packed again … with plenty of folks lined up outside waiting to fill any empties.
So far I think I’ve seen the best ever rail-fan prop — about 10 rows from the stage, in Darvin Moon section of fans, a guy is holding up a toy chainsaw every time something positive for Moon occurs on the felt. Poker Loggers unite! Crap/LOL: domain name long taken/abandoned.
Lots of heckling, too … which gotta say, much to my surprise, Jack “Link’s” Effel is deflecting quite well.
MORE in this spot TK, at least for a while … keep refreshing.
– Everything intensified with such an audience watching. Even “checks” get gasps from the crowd … and mucks get “whoop whoop whoops!”
– Frat boy chants: “Let’s Go CA-DA! Let’s Go CA-DA!”
–The gaming agents (not to be confused with gaming-agents) that Pauly loves to talk about are here … but either they have little business to attend to and are simply supporting their client Joe Cada … or they have learned how to prevent people like me from taking pictures of them looking devious by saying things like, “hey, how’s it goin’?” (Foiled!)
– Blinds are 600k/1.2mm … and with 195 million total chips in play, that means an average stack has roughly 81 BB
Short jokes aside, “the little corporal” of poker is on a Napoleonic quest to dominate the poker world … or at least the WPT.
The WPT Festa al Lago final table gets underway this afternoon/eve (4pm PT). After all the early tourney hubbub about super-late registrations and related blind structures, the final table looks not unlike just about every other WPT final table — with one well-known pro, one kinda-sorta known pro (Vedes), and four other guys.
It was a seemingly epic battle for a queen’s ransom that went well into the wee hours GMT … old-school poker in Poker’s N€w World, if you will.
And making his second consecutive go at the WSOP-E main-event title, runner-up Daniel Negreanu would come up two outs short of being “happy” that he just became the biggest winner in the history of tournament poker.
Negreanu knocked out six of the other final table-ists to get heads-up. And yet in the end Barry Shulman — CardPlayer’s overlord emeritus — held strong in a war of presumably tight aggression to win £801,603 (= $1,283,687 USD). That, of course, is almost exactly the amount his son Jeff has been guaranteed for making the November Nine. No added pressure/father’s shadow issues for sure.
Negreanu’s second-place finish and £496k payday propelled him to the top of the all-time tourney-money leaderboard, passing Jamie Gold and Phil Ivey — who now needs to finish 6th-or-better this November to re-pass Negreanu as the winningest tournament player ever.
Here’s video of the final two hands from The Casino at the Empire, Leicester Square:
(If for some reason the above vid disappears, you can find the original page here.)
For those of us debating how ESPN and PokerPROductions (a different film crew than the gang producing WSOP-LV episodes) should do their broadcasting jobs … it seems this 6-day event will be shown in 2 hours, not 20 … and that includes squeezing in the Caesar’s Cup! While that may not seem to do poker-junkie justice to a tournament that kept a bunch of us jaded, immune-to-tourney-hype types checking in on the action for more than 16 hours of final table play, I suppose movie-length could work, too.
UPDATE: Clarification of ESPN’s programming intent in the comments below (from ESPN sources who would know). They plan to give it way too much more coverage than implied above.
The main event of WSOP Europe is underway now, with a super exciting final table of poker stars. These were the starting chip counts when they took their seats:
Seat 1: Barry Shulman (1,090,000)
Seat 2: Jason Mercier (3,198,000)
Seat 3: Praz Bansi (1,160,000)
Seat 4: Markus Ristola (784,000)
Seat 5: Chris Bjorin (518,000)
Seat 6: James Akenhead (1,398,000)
Seat 7: Daniel Negreanu (438,000)
Seat 8: Antoine Saout (701,000)
Seat 9: Matt Hawrilenko (674,000)
The group consists of six previous WSOP bracelet winners (Shulman, Mercier, Bansi, Bjorin, Negreanu, & Hawrilenko), two members of the November Nine (Akenhead & Saout), and a father of a November Niner (Shulman).
More than four hours into the final table “action,” Negreanu worked his way into second place. And that’s about it. Play continues with the likelihood that someone will eventually be eliminated. Live coverage can be found on the World Series of Poker website.
Don’t call it a comeback … Vinnie Vinh, from Houston, had done little on the tournament scene since his chair finished 3rd in a limit hold’em event at the ’08 WSOP. But he did book a 14th place finish in a $970 No-Limit tourney at the LA Poker Classic in February … and check out results of Event #10 — a $335 NLH — at the Commerce Hold’em Series:
EVENT #10 $335 NO LIMIT HOLD’EM
ENTRIES 152 PRIZE POOL $43,776
PLACE NAME/HOMETOWN PRIZE
1 Vinnie Vinh, Houston, TX $14,006 plus $2,580 Seat
2 David Lopez, Tucson, AZ $7,486
3 Pho Tran, West Covina, CA $4,772
4 Glenn Forster, Los Angeles, CA $3,502
5 Huy Quach, West Covina, CA $2,845
6 Derwin Lowery, Los Angeles, CA $2,145
7 David Liau, Los Angeles, CA $1,707
8 Dono Terranova, Los Angeles, CA $1,270
9 Patrick Karschamroon, Los Angeles, CA $919
10 Adam Weinraub, Orange, CA $657
11 Nhut Tran, Norwalk, CA $657
12 Panayotis Kalessis, Los Angeles, CA $657
13 Impounh Vongvone, Los Angeles, CA $569
14 Sami Banizuraij, Salt Lake City, UT $569
15 Rocky Eniso, Glendale, CA $569
16 Gideon Cross, Los Angeles, CA $482
17 Bobby Binsky, Miami, FL $482
18 Yarom Limor, Beverly Hills, CA $482
I’m keeping tabs on these big-little tourneys via Steve Hall.
UPDATE: Steve tells me that Vinnie is playing these minor league Commerce tournaments for Men the Master.
On the Left Coast, TMZ.com reports that Poker PROductions, the makers of the NBC show Face The Ace, is being sued for $85,000,000 by Brandon McSmith, who said the company “stole” his idea called “The All-Star Poker Challenge”. McSmith’s idea consisted of a player having to defeat five pros in a series of heads-up matches to win prize money and a $10,000 WSOP Main Event seat, with the contestant having the option to risk their winnings after conquering their opponent. This lawsuit appears to top Gambling Times’ lawsuit against Scott Lazar for $1,000,000 for lack of product placement in the poker movie “Deal”, which grossed under $100,000 in lawsuits that will go nowhere.
Dermot Blain – $541,089
Mike Kim – $384,999
Daoxing Chen – $239,327
Darkhan Botabayev – $166,497
Pontus Kers – $114,464
Jicheng Su – $74,923
Dbinder Singh – $52,033
Brandon Demes – $41,621
Stefan Hjorthall – $31,222
APPT Macau High Rollers Final Table Payouts
Vladimir Geshkenbein – $266,690
Johnny Chan – 154,400
Neil Arce – $84,218
Danny Huynh – $63,164
Grant Levy – $49,127
In Wook Choi – $35,091
Young Kim – $28,073
Nicholas Wong – $21,055
andrewneeme: RT @DanFleyshman: When people are financially invested, they want a return. When people are emotionally invested, they want to contribute. 11 minutes ago
