Recapping Thursday night’s action, with the final bracelet event before the WSOP starting this afternoon:

Welch jams Eaton for 3k Triple Chance bracelet

After a lengthy heads-up match, Ryan Welch secured his first WSOP bracelet, winning the $3,000 No-Limit Holdem Triple Chance tournament, earning $559,371. Eaton earned $344,830 for his runner-up finish, Guillaume Darcourt finished 3rd for $223,459 and Will “The Thrill” Failla coming in 4th for $163,352. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report are available at wsop.com.

Kenney leads 25k NL 6-max into money

Day two of the $25,000 No-Limit Holdem 6-max finished with 18 players remaining with John Juanda being the unfortunate bubble boy. When play resumes at 3pm, Bryn Kenney will start the day as the chip leader with 2,425,000. Among the notables: Abe Mosseri (1,035,000), Daniel Negreanu (860,000), Isaac Haxton (835,000), Justin Bonomo (576,000) and Carlos Mortensen (484,000). Full chip counts and updates during the afternoon at wsop.com.

$1500 Limit Shootout Final Table

Day two of the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout started with the disqualification of Yueqi “Rich” Zhu, for making a deal heads-up when he won his shootout table on Wednesday. Zhu explained to PokerNews he was feeling ill, and decided to make a deal with his opponent. After that was taken care of, the remaining 63 players at the eight shootout tables playing down to a winner. The final table will start at 3pm today with this lineup, each starting with 450,000 chips:

Jonathan Little
Terrence Chan
Mike Schneider
Joe McGowan
Ben Yu
Brian Tate
Brendan Taylor
Sijbrand Maal

Follow the updates for this event at PokerNews.

Dempsey leads day 1a of 1k NL

Day 1a of the final $1,000 No-Limit Holdem tournament of the WSOP drew 2,340 entrants Thursday afternoon to the Amazon and Pavillion rooms at the Rio. Play finished halfway through level 9 with 331 players to return Saturday afternoon. James “Flushy” Dempsey leads the day 1a field with 144,100 in chips. Among the notables returning: Shannon Shorr (45,000), Toto Leonidas (31,475), Jena Delk (23,175) and Liv Boeree (16,575). A full list of chip counts is available at PokerNews.

Paino leads 10k PLO Day 1

The $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha got underway Thursday afternoon with a field of 346 players taking the felt. After eight levels of play, 166 will return at 3pm, with the final 36 players making the money with the winner taking down $780,599. Antonio Paino leads the returning players with 240,000 in chips, with James Akenhead (181,100), Fabrice Soulier (151,200), Noah Boeken (114,400), Annette Obrestad (106,900), Tom Dwan (103,800) and Michael Binger (97,200) among the big names in the upper half of the leaderboard. The full list of chip counts is now available at wsop.com.

Friday’s tournament

Besides day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event starting at 12pm, the 5pm tournament is the $2,500 No-Limit Holdem event. Last year, Keven Stammen won this event in a field of 1,088 for $506,878.

First, regarding Main Event registration, day 1d registration is temporarily closed. That day has over 900 players registered while days 1a, 1b and 1c are running behind with around 350-500 players registered so far. Tournament staff hopes more players choose those day 1s catch up to day 1d’s figure before reopening registration.

For the first time in several weeks, no bracelets were awarded at the WSOP yesterday. However, as many as three could be awarded during Wednesday’s tournament action:

Seat 1: Wenlong Jin – 292,000
Seat 2: Chuan Shi – 894,000
Seat 3: Jason Mann – 893,000
Seat 4: Ilya Andreev – 985,000
Seat 5: Allan Baekke – 1,633,000
Seat 6: Shawn Busse – 1,203,000
Seat 7: Owen Crowe – 1,192,000
Seat 8: Pekka Ikonen – 626,000
Seat 9: Adam White – 1,685,000

R. Mizrachi leads 5k PLO

What is expected to be the final day of the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event resumes at 3pm with Robert Mizrachi (758,000) leading the field with 31 players remaining. Among the notables: Jose “Nacho” Barbero (480,000), Jason Mercier (221,000), Joe Beevers (212,000), Julian Gardner (190,000), Joe Serock (150,000), Justin “Boosted J” Smith (120,000) and Nam Le (60,000). Full chip counts available at wsop.com.

Linn leader final day of $1500 NL

Michael Linn (1,410,000) leads the final 23 players of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem when play resumes at 3pm this afternoon. Full chip counts available at wsop.com.

Vedes leads Triple Chance Day 1

Day one of the $3,000 Triple Chance No-Limit Holdem event drew a field of 965 entrants, with 177 returning to the tables at 2:30pm. Tommy Vedes leads the field with 231,100 in chips, followed by familiar names David Singer (204,100), Gavin Griffin (134,300), Joe Tehan (93,100), Tom Dwan (59,800) and Terrence Chan (52,200). Full chip counts available at wsop.com.

Wednesday’s tournaments

One of the most highly anticipated tournaments of the WSOP takes place at 12pm with the debut of the $25,000 No-Limit Holdem 6-max event. A field of over 200 players is expected, consisting of 6-max specialists from the Internet, veteran tournament poker professionals, and those with $25,000 to burn. Players start with 75,000 in chips with the opening level 150/300 with a 25 ante, giving players incentive to show up on time and get the action going. The 5pm tournament is the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout, won last year by Greg Mueller in a field of 571 players, earning $179,291.

This afternoon, the WSOP announced that the top 20 players receiving votes for their Tournament of Champions. The list is full of players (along with votes received) known by the casual poker player around the peak of the poker boom, circa 2005:

1. PHIL IVEY 16,267
2 DANIEL NEGREANU 16,239
3. DOYLE BRUNSON 13,796
4. PHIL HELLMUTH 12,673
5. CHRIS FERGUSON 11,585
6. ALLEN CUNNINGHAM 10,486
7. JOHNNY CHAN 10,434
8. SCOTTY NGUYEN 9,834
9. BARRY GREENSTEIN 9,806
10. JOHN JUANDA 8,835
11. ERIK SEIDEL 8,802
12. JENNIFER HARMAN 8,206
13. HUCK SEED 8,180
14. DAN HARRINGTON 7,342
15. T.J. CLOUTIER 6,281
16. SAMMY FARHA 6,085
17. HOWARD LEDERER 5,596
18. GREG RAYMER 5,404
19. JOE HACHEM 5,272
20. ANTONIO ESFANDIARI 5,129

These 20 will join Annie Duke, Mike Sexton, Mike Matusow, Joe Cada, Barry Shulman, WSOP Academy qualifier Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and WSOP.com online qualifier Andrew Barton on June 27th. In a change from the original schedule, the field will play four levels on the 27th, then play an additional four levels the following day. The remaining players will return on July 4th to play down to a winner with the final table of nine sharing in the $1,000,000 prize pool. The full press release is available here.

The $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Championship drew a field of 1,054 entrants, but the major discussion has been about the 10-15 men who were part of the field. Because of anti-discrimination laws, the WSOP staff can not legally prevent men from entering a women-only tournament. In previous years, led by former WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack, men have been discouraged from entering the Ladies’ event, with very few entering the past few years.

This year, their pleas fell on deaf ears as a group of players, most notably Shaun Deeb (appearing in drag), took their seats. Whatever reason they gave for entering the tournament (a lost prop bet, fighting for sexual equality, to get attention for themselves), their actions led Communications Director Seth Palansky to state in a CardPlayer interview that suspensions or bans from the WSOP would be handed out to the interlopers. There are several areas in the rules of the WSOP (especially in the Player Conduct and Tournament Integrity section) where the WSOP can decide what type of penalties to give to players for transgressions.

There’s been plenty of discussion about the on Twitter and the forums about today’s controversy with a discussion of women-only poker tournaments in general. Personally, I don’t see why men would want to enter a ladies’ tournament, as it gives the appearance that it’s being done for a selfish reason. Appearing in drag also doesn’t help your cause, even if it’s done with the hope of getting the ladies supporting your cause. F-Train did a good writeup about the topic this afternoon, with more opinions coming from the blogosphere and the WSOP over the weekend.

Here’s a look at Saturday evening’s WSOP action, starting with the two bracelet winners:

Men Master’s Stud for Bracelet #7

The $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship was won by Men “The Master” Nguyen defeating Brandon Adams heads-up to win his 7th WSOP bracelet and $394,807, moving him into a tie for 5th place with Phil Ivey and Billy Baxter. The full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report are now online at wsop.com.

Dempsey Flush with a Bracelet

James “Flushy” Dempsey wins his first WSOP bracelet, in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem event, defeating Steve Chanthabousay heads-up to win $197,470. A complete list of results plus Nolan Dalla’s report is at wsop.com.

Dwan Durrrrable in $1,500 NL

Day 3 of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem has Tom “Durrrr” Dwan the chip leader (1,068,000) with 21 players remaining. Play resumes at 2:30pm to play down to a winner and PokerNews will be following all the action.

Lucky Thirteen Going for Limit Bracelet

Day 3 of the $1,500 Limit Holdem event has 13 players returning at 3pm to play down to a winner. Jason Potter moves into the chip lead (371,000) followed by day 1 chip leader Jameson Painter (307,000) in second. Terrence Chan (288,000), Matt Matros (272,000) and Frank Kassela (162,000) are the other notables returning this afternoon. Find all chip counts and live updates this afternoon over at PokerNews.

The 15% Solution

Day 1a of the second$1,000 No-Limit Holdem played about halfway into level 9 this morning, with 278 players, about 15% of the field, returning Monday at 2:30pm. This decision was made after last weekend’s $1,000 event had players getting eliminated too quickly, a problem Tao of Pokerati discussed with Ty Stewart. The current chip leader is Andy Black (90,275), with Phil Gordon (44,225), Jena Delk (34,300), Shaun Deeb (26,850), Victor Ramdin (23,350) and An Tran (20,350) are some of the recognizable names returning Monday at 2:30pm. The full list of players and their chip counts is now available over at PokerNews.

Binger Best in 2-7 Lowball

A field of 67 returns Sunday afternoon at 3pm for day 2 of the $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball, Single Draw with Nick Binger the leader with 54,300 in chips. Scott Seiver is in 2nd with 46,875, with Chino Rheem in 3rd with 42,725. Other notables include Dario Minieri (31,725), 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball winner Peter Gelenscer (21,925), Michael Binger (17,350) and Erick Lindgren (16,600). Only 28 make the money, with the winner earning $92,817. The full list of players counts is at PokerNews.

Sunday’s Bracelet Action

Starting at 12pm is day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event, will there be a smaller field like last week? The 5pm tournament starts the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo World Championship. Jeff Lisandro won this event last year in a field of 164, one of the three he won in 2009. Plenty of big names are expected to turn out for their chance to win a bracelet without so many donks in the field.

Wrapping up the Friday tournament action, with another bracelet winner determined:

Québécois LeFrancois wins $1,500 NL

Pascal LeFrancois, a 23-year old student from Quebec, won the $1,500 NL Holdem event, winning $568,974 along with the coveted WSOP bracelet. LeFrancois defeated Max Steinberg in heads-up play, with Steinberg collecting $352,916 for his runner-up finish. The full list of results, Nolan Dalla’s tournament report, and a first for the official winner’s photo, can be found over at wsop.com.

Schmelev and Mizrachi at it Again in 10k Stud

Twelve players remain for day three of the $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship with Vladimir Schmelev and Michael Mizrachi looking to renew their rivalry from the $50,000 Players’ Championship won by Mizrachi earlier this week. Schmelev is the current chip leader (921,000), with Mizrachi in third (544,000). Other notables: Nikolay Evdakov (543,000), Steve Bilirakis (448,000) and Men Nguyen (302,000). The full list of chip counts is now available at PokerNews.

Chanthabousay Leads Pot-Limit Final Table

The final table of the $1,500 Pot-Limit Holdem gets underway at 2:30 this afternoon. JJ Liu is the first woman to make a final table at this year’s, starting third in chips with 479,000. Here’s how the entire final table will look:

Armen Kara 220,000
Gregg Wilkerson 230,000
Mark Babekov 246,000
JJ Liu 479,000
Edward Brogdon 89,000
Scott Haraden 224,000
Steve Chanthabouasy 533,000
Joseph Williams 385,000
James Dempsey 528,000

Gupta Going Great in $1,500 NL

Day 2 of the third $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event resumes at 2:30 this afternoon with 291 players returning, 270 making the money. Venkatesch Gupta will be the leader with 199,100 in chips. Among the notables: Blair Hinkle (112,400), Shannon Shorr (64,300), Erick Lindgren (57,600), Jerry Yang (49,100), Tom Dwan (44,500) and Neil Channing (42,000). Team Pokerati’s Pat Poels finished the day in 288th place with 3300 chips. The full list can be found over at PokerNews.

Taking it to the Limit for Day 2

The $1,500 Limit Holdem event returns with 177 players returning at 3:00pm to attempt to play down to a final table. Jameson Painter, who finished 5th at the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw event earlier this week, starts play today as the chip leader with 47,600. David Williams is 3rd in chips (41,800) with Jason Potter (32,800), Jeff Madsen (28,700) and Matt Hawrilenko (23,900) among the notables near the top of the standings. The full list of players returning can be found at wsop.com.

Saturday Tournaments

Saturday brings Day 1a of the second $1,000 NL Donkament to the WSOP at 12pm today, with about 4,000 runners expected over the next two days. The plan is to play ten one-hour levels today per usual, but if the pace of eliminations is as rapid as it was last Saturday, there could be a change in plans. The 5pm tournament is the $1,500 NL 2-7 Lowball Single Draw event, won last year by Phil Ivey when it had a $2,500 buy-in with a field of 147.

Recapping the Thursday night action as we start week two of the WSOP with a pair of bracelet events starting this afternoon.

Hellmuth in Contention for Bracelet #12

Day 3 of the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event has 25 players remaining when play resumes at 2:30pm this afternoon. The current chip leader is Saar Wilf with 1,207,000 followed by 2009 Casino Employees winner Andrew Cohen with 1,025,000. But the name that most will be following today is Phil Hellmuth, 5th with 567,000 in chips, going for his 12th WSOP bracelet. If he made the final table, would a decision be made to stop and hold the final table on Saturday in front of ESPN cameras?

Gelencser Tops in Lowball

Hungarian Peter Gelenscer bested Raphael Zimmerman in heads-up play to take down the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball bracelet along with $180,730. Zimmerman pockets $111,686 for the runner-up finish, while Don McNamara finished third for $73,803. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report can be found at wsop.com.

Play Pauses Prior to Payouts in Pot-Limit

After much discussion, tournament directors decided to halt play with 65 players remaining, two players short of the money in the $1,500 Pot-Limit holdem event. James Dempsey ended the day as the leader with 205,900 in chips. Original November Niner Scott Montgomery is in 2nd with 193,300. Notables in contention: JJ Liu (123,900), Joe Serock (70,400), Melissa Hayden (64,800), and Christian Harder (45,200). Team Pokerati’s Tom Schneider is also hanging around with 20,100 in chips. The full list of chip counts is available over at wsop.com.

Mizrachi and Schmelev 1-2 in Stud

The $10,000 Seven Card Stud World Championship concluded play after eight levels with the top two finishers in the $50,000 Players’ Championship, Michael Mizrachi (191,900) and Vladimir Schmelev (180,000) 1st and 2nd in chips with 85 players remaining. Plenty of notables are remaining, the full list is at wsop.com. Just 16 will make the money when play resumes at 3:00 this afternoon.

Friday’s Festivities

The third $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event of the WSOP gets underway at 12 noon today with another 2000+ player field expected. For comparison purposes, Mike Eise is the defending champion of this event, besting a field of 2,638 for $639,331.

At 5pm is the $1,500 Limit Holdem event, won last year by Tomas Alenius in a field of 643.

After starting your day off right by reading Pauly’s link dump, here’s the recap of Sunday night at the WSOP:

Dilemma Diverted at Donkament

After all those Tweets, forum posts, and other whinging, Day 1b of the $1,000 NL Donkament were able to finish all ten levels of play with 205 players remaining. The day 1b chip leader is Braxton Dunaway, with 139,000 chips. The full list of survivors is now available over at PokerNews. They’ll join the 276 who survived day 1a at 2:30pm, first bursting the money bubble at 441 players, on their way to a scheduled ten levels of play.

Grinder in Gear at the 50k Players’

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi is the day 3 leader of the $50,000 Players’ Championship with just 21 players remaining when play resumes at 3pm as they play down to the final table, which will consist solely of no-limit holdem for ESPN to broadcast later this summer. Mizrachi, in the news for his issues with the IRS and other financial difficulties, will start day 4 with 1,483,000 in chips. Vladimir Schemelev will start in 2nd with 1,432,000, with David Oppenheim 3rd (1,340,000). The chips for the other 18 names not mentioned are now up over at PokerNews.

Omaha 8

Day 1 of the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better finished with under 300 players remaining. As noted in the comments of the day 3 post, Thang Luu wasn’t able to attend after his incident with a dealer last year. Oleg Shamardin is the chip leader with 70,800 when play resumes at 2:30pm Monday. Top 10 notables: 2009 $50k HORSE winner David Bach (39,700), 2009 double bracelet winner Brock Parker (36,700), and Chau Giang (31,300). The entire list can be found at PokerNews here.

Can the $1,500 draw 1500?

Monday has one tournament starting today, the $1,500 No-Limit holdem at noon. With lower than expected numbers for the 1k over the weekend, will the trend continue? The first $1,500 event of the 2009 WSOP (held on a Tuesday) had a field of nearly 2800.

You can find updates during the day at PokerNews and www.wsop.com Make sure to check out Bluff Magazine, Wicked Chops Poker and PokerListings for more content from the WSOP.

Here’s a recap of the Sunday afternoon activities, with issues regarding the 1k NL event coming to a head early Monday morning.

Problems with Payouts?

Day 1b of the $1,000 No-Limit Holdem event drew a field of just 1,744 entrants for a total of 4,345 over the weekend. This means that 441 players will make the money, with first place taking down over $625,000. Day 1a ended with 276 making it through the end of level 10. Updates from the PokerNews and WSOP.com sites report that they will either play down to 170 players or to the end of level 10, whichever comes first. There were around 550 players remaining when the field returned from their 90-minute dinner break, so it’ll be intriguing to see how far they’re able to go tonight. In lieu of chip counts for today’s event, read Michael Craig’s blog for the story of a player banned for life for trying to steal an absent player’s chips during the 1k yesterday.

Kostritsyn in Control of Players’ Championship

Full Tilt pro Alexander Kostritsyn is the current chip leader of the $50,000 Players’ Championship as they head to their dinner break with approximately 35 players remaining. Kostritsyn, known online as “PostFlopAction”, is the only player with a seven-figure chip stack (1,430,000). Another Russian, Vladimir Schmelev, second with 830,000 in chips and Robert Mizrachi third with 810,000. Other notables: Erik Seidel (720,000), Erik Sagstrom (656,000) and Andy Bloch (604,000). Three more levels are scheduled, although that may change if they near the money, at 16 players.

Late Night Omaha 8

Play started this afternoon in the $1,500 Omaha 8 or Better missing it’s two-time defending champion Thang Luu. There had been talk during last year’s WSOP about Luu being banned for life for injuring a dealer’s hand in a cash game. Reports now indicate that he was banned for one year. A field of 818 signed up for some split-pot action, with eight levels of play scheduled tonight. 81 players will make the money, with the winner pocketing over $237,000. One very early casualty was Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, his third straight early elimination from a tournament.

With a big thanks to Pauly, here’s my recapping of the Saturday night action, which includes our first bracelet winner at the 2010 WSOP:

A-Hoai to Pham!

Hoai Pham

Hoai Pham, a dealer at the Village Club Card Room in Chula Vista, California, earned the first bracelet of this year’s WSOP in the $500 Casino Employees Event this morning. Pham’s pocket aces on the final hand was more than enough to best Arthur Vea’s pocket fours on the final hand of heads-up play, collecting $71,424 and a prized WSOP bracelet. Vea collected $44,079 for his 2nd place finish, with the rest of the field who made the money here. Pham will return to the Pavilion at 2:20pm today for the bracelet ceremony and to hear the Vietnam national anthem being played in his honor. You can read the tournament report from Nolan Dalla here.

Morrison Moves into First in 50k Players’

Kirk Morrison

Kirk Morrison ended day 2 of the $50,000 Players’ Championship as chip leader with 54 players remaining. Morrison started the day with just 124,800 in chips, below the 150,000 starting stack. Andy Bloch finished the day second in chips (716,500) while day 1 chip leader Erik Sagstron wound up in fifth (656,000). Other notables: Robert Mizrachi (625,500), Michael Mizrachi (439,000), Chris Ferguson (430,500) and David Singer (369,000). Among those without chips: Phil Hellmuth, Jennifer Harman, Howard Lederer, Erick Lindgren, Jason Mercier and Daniel Negreanu. Play resumes Sunday at 3pm with another six levels of play scheduled as the field gets even closer to the money. Click here to see all who remain.

Day 1a of Donkament Down

Amarillo Slim

Day 1b of the first $1,000 No-Limit Holdem gets underway at noon today, with what could be an intriguing situation for the WSOP staff towards the end of play. Day 1a concluded with 276 remaining from the initial field of 2601, slightly over 10 percent of the field. Poker gadfly Allen Kessler noted on 2+2 of possible problems if too many players get eliminated Sunday. The 2010 payout structures do not appear to be available on the WSOP site. Using the payout structure from 2009, if the numbers are similar for day 1b, they’ll be very close to the money for day 2 on Monday.

Getting back to the action on the table, Terry Fleischer appears to be the day 1a chip leader with 119,300. Nancy Todd Tyner is the only other player with a six-figure chip stack (103,000). Some recognizable names near the top: Lisa Parsons (61,400), Amarillo Slim (58,700), Tommy Vedes (55,700) and Chris Bjorn (39,800).

Trifecta for Thang?

Thang Luu

Besides day 1b of the 1k, the $1,500 Omaha 8 or better tournament gets underway at 5pm today. Thang Luu is the two-time defending champion of this event, finishing 2nd in the $2,000 Omaha 8 event in 2007. The late start may have an effect on the field, as 918 started this event when it started at noon last year. Check out PokerNews and www.wsop.com to follow the updates and other information about what’s happening.

Photos: Rob Gracie/WSOP and Flipchip/PokerNews

The eventful EPT Berlin Main Event final table came to a conclusion Sunday afternoon, and it would be American Kevin MacPhee taking down the first prize of 1 million Euros, defeating Ilari Tahkakollio heads-up. MacPhee also had the chance to do this brief interview Monday about his weekend:

An interesting footnote to the excitement from Saturday was a decision Tahkakollio made when play eventually resumed. With 21 players remaining, he was involved in a hand with Luca Canielli, who was all-in for his last 600,000 with As-Qd, against Tahkakollio’s Ad-10h, with the board showing 3c-Kc-8s-4c. At that moment, the armed robbery took place, scattering players and chips leaving this for the players to return to about four hours later (picture from pokerolymp.de):

As the players and tournament staff came back to their seats, and exact chip counts impossible to determine, tournament director met with the remaining players in the main event. It was decided that the players would go by the honor system to determine each player’s chip stack.

Next was to decide how to handle the Tahkakollio-Canielli hand. Since it was impossible to know if the deck had been tampered with amongst the confusion, Kremser ruled that the hand be ruled dead. However, Cainelli was unhappy with this decision as he was in need of doubling up. Kremser then ruled that the deck could be reshuffled so the river could be dealt, but would also need the approval of Tahkakollio, who could have decided to have the hand ruled dead and the two get their chips back. After thinking for several minutes, Tahkakollio decided to allow the river to be dealt, and when the 5h came on the river, Cainelli received his double up, while Tahkakollio had lost about a third of his chips. Tahkakollio recovered from that setback to make the final table third in chips, and after a tense back and forth battle with MacPhee when play got to heads-up, eventually collecting 600,000 Euros for finishing 2nd.

The original reporting of the hand was done by the PokerStarsblog.com team.

Daniel Negreanu has an interesting new post up where he breaks down what he believes to be the 10 Toughest Tournaments in the World.

Spoiler alert:

10. WPT LA Poker Classic (Los Angeles)
9. PCA (Bahamas)
8. WSOP Heads-up Championship (Las Vegas)
7. EPT Grand Final (Monte Carlo)
6. WSOP Main Event (Las Vegas)
5. WPT Championship (Las Vegas)
4. NAPT Bounty Shootouts (??)
3. WSOP-Europe Main Event (London)
2. WSOP $25k Six-handed Event (Las Vegas)
1. $50k WSOP Players Championship (Las Vegas)

Click here for Negreanu’s explanations of what makes each of these events special.

Numbers 4 and 2 are the only ones that seem possibly questionable to me. The Bounty Shootouts, indeed, are likely to become great. But it’s not even clear yet where the real championship will take place. (The upcoming version at Mohegan Sun will be the first open one of these.) Likewise for the WSOP’s new $25k six-handed event. High-roller and fast no-limit hold’em action, sure … but again, can you really put something at #2 when it hasn’t even happened yet? I’d rather see an Ironman tourney on that list … even though they aren’t big, yet, I think all who have battled in them can attest they are tough.

UPDATE: Anyone else finds Daniel’s omission of the NBC Heads-Up curious? I wouldn’t think much about it had he not included WSOP Heads-up as #8. Now I gotta wonder if his list woulda been different had he been in the final four this weekend / Annie Duke not won.

Here’s the final table of EPT Berlin, with the standard EPT Live streaming at www.eptlive.com scheduled to start at 6am ET:

Seat 1: Marko Neumann – 2,185,000
Seat 2: Marc Inizan – 3,655,000
Seat 3: Kevin MacPhee – 6,070,000
Seat 4: Artur Wasek -3,530,000
Seat 5: Marcel Koller – 3,590,000
Seat 6: Nico Behling – 960,000
Seat 7: Ketul Nathwani – 4,685,000
Seat 8: Ilari Tahkokallio – 3,940,000

How they got to that final table on Saturday took an approximate 5-hour detour when a group of masked robbers stormed the Grand Hyatt Hotel around 2:30pm local time. You can check out my previous two posts from Saturday for some clips here and here.

Various mainstream media reports have said that up to 1 million Euros have been stolen, or as some called it, a “jackpot“. While the EPT Berlin event did boast a 1 million Euro first prize, it’s expected that the amount the robbers were able to pocket is expected to be far less than that.

While there have been numerous eyewitness accounts, most of them are German, which can make some interesting translations for those looking for something in English. Here’s a few foreign reports (translated through Google Translate):

Bild newspaper photographer

Report on what happened in the cashier area

BZ-Berlin article, showing pictures of two of the thieves

Here’s a couple of interviews (in English), first from the cameraman who filmed the robbery in progress:

The other from another eyewitness:

Details are a little sketchy, but apparently at around 2pm CET (8am ET) a group of masked robbers stormed the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Berlin during day 4 of the EPT Berlin Main Event.

Here’s video someone recorded off the live stream as people frantically leave the area:

3:35pm Berlin time update from Pokerstarsblog.com :

“An armed robbery by six men took place today at EPT Berlin. Nobody was seriously injured. We hope to re-start all events at 4pm local time. A police investigation is under way. If you have video footage or photographs that could help the police, please contact the EPT organizers as soon as possible.”

UPDATE #2, make that 5pm local time for a possible restart.

UPDATE #3, the 1,000 Euro event that started today was canceled, while the main event finally resumed around 6:00pm local time, but the EPT Live webcast has been canceled. Also, here’s a breaking news article from Pokernews along with a video update:

Page 2 has some pictures during the incident:

More…

We all know there’s lots of chit-chat on blind structures, always, and there should be. They are important. In the early days of the poker boom, a lot of tourney directors didn’t really know what they were doing and surely didn’t understand the nuances of stack sizes deep into tournaments with bigger-than-expected fields. Then the Venetian came along with their Deep Stack concept, kinda-sorta revolutionizing the way smaller-stakes tournaments were played … at which point everyone started copying it and multiplying … and eventually trying to apply a bajillion starting chips concept to higher buy-in, big-time poker.

That’s when TDA honcho Matt Savage stepped up to say, wait a minute, let’s take a look beyond the first few levels, maybe these perceived Deep Stacks in a lot of instances aren’t all everyone says they’re supposed to be. Just about any educated “outsider” I’ve talked to who has taken a close look at the prevalent blind structures of the day contend that, indeed, while the non-bastardized Venetian Deep Stacks set-up is good, Savage’s not-so-deep-stacks structure as seen at the LAPC are indeed some of the best in the business — a model for other tourney directors to emulate.

After Day 1 of the WPT-Commerce main event, Daniel Negreanu agrees. Read more as he explains a bit why.

NOTE: I learned a good rule of thumb about antes from Negreanu, and where they fit in to breed action in “slower” events.