The Tournament Trail

WPT London :: 21-year old Jake Cody wins his 2nd major of 2010, WSOP win away from Triple Crown. PartyPoker million dollar man denied. PartyPoker Blog

WPT London High Roller :: Justin “Boosted J” Smith defeats Tony G heads-up in marathon final table, earning £141,000 WPT High Roller report

Partouche Poker Tour, Cannes :: Vanessa Selbst, Fabrice Soulier and Phil Laak near top of leaderboard as field plays down to final 18.

River @ Winstar :: Greg Raymer has a very good week: Finishes 6th of 101 for $760 in $330 Jack and Jill tournament with his mom in her first time playing, returns for final day 3rd of 20 for main event. Winner takes down over $600,000 Day 3 lineup from 2+2 WinStar’s Twitter providing updates

Beau Rivage Gulf Coast Poker Championship, Biloxi, MS :: Chad Brown holds the chip lead at final table of their $5,000 main event. Winner earns over $177,000 and 2011 Southern Poker Championship seat. BeauPoker Twitter

Commerce Holdem Series :: Guarantees in weekend tournaments go 1 for 2 as series enters week 2. Commerce Tournaments

Also …

Controversy in side event of Partouche Poker Tour regarding floorman’s decision, tales of alleged bias against non-French players.

PokerStars’ WCOOP continues with three more events today. PokerStars Blog.

World Poker Open underway at London’s Palm Beach Casino. Phil Laak defending champion of made-for-TV event, 48 players vying for $200,000 first place money. World Poker Open updates

There’s a lot going on going into this (American) Labor Day Weekend. Some happenings in poker you may want to follow, or follow up on:

On the tournament trail …

WSOP Circuit Council Bluffs, Iowa Blair Hinkle wins $1,500 Main Event, Robert Georato “Casino Champion”, qualifying for $1m National Championship at Caesars Palace in May. WSOP.com

PokerStars.net EPT Vilamoura, Portugal :: Toby Lewis takes down the title, football legend/MBE Terry Sherringham finishes 5th. PokerStars Blog.

WPT London :: Final table set, Party qualifier eligible for $500,000 bonus with win, £15k High Rollers starts this afternoon PartyPoker Blog

Partouche Poker Tour, Cannes :: Over 750 players, prize pool nearly €6 million, live streaming w/ hole cards starting Monday at Partouchepokertour.com. Follow along en Francais w/ Benjo at Winamax.fr

The River – Winstar, OK :: Raymer, J. Mercier, Chainsaw, G. Smith, Flack among hundreds of North Texas locals fighting in the $2.5m guaranteed main event this weekend

Commerce Holdem Series :: – Encouraging numbers halfway through 500k guarantee opening event despite rumblings of a boycott. Commerce Tournaments

UPDATE:

Gulf Coast Poker Championship – Biloxi, Mississippi :: $5,000 Main Event starts Saturday. BeauRivage.com

Elsewhere & Also …

PokerStars’ WCOOP gets underway Sunday.

WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Hammond tournaments to add more than 40 $10k Regional Championship seats to their tournaments – WSOP.com

Jennifer Harman, Kathy Liebert and Billie Brown get inducted into the Women in Poker Hall of Fame tonight. US Ladies Championship Saturday at the Golden Nugget. Women in Poker Hall of Fame

And Tatjana Pasalic spends three minutes with Phil Ivey

One of the important hedlines never written during the WSOP:

Florida Is the New France

(Apologies for not sharing this important insight with you readers. Just busy, ya know?)

It was the place a lot of WSOP dealers were saying they were headed after the Series … and some of them were already there, forgoing a summer in Vegas to set up shop near the beach early. These Pokerati card-carrying dealers began reporting near-immediately that indeed, the games were “sick”, and as a dealer it was nice to finally find a place where dealing actually paid well again.

All this because Florida passed a law legalizing poker some five years ago, and now, after a few revisions to the relevant statute, with betting limits and tourney buy-ins uncapped officially as of July 1 (and poker rooms now allowed to be open 24/7) the state has finally put itself in a position to realize the game’s potential — for them and for poker.

Also says something about the WPT’s continued effort to reclaim significance in the poker world. Can only imagine the WSOP will have a big circuit event there soon, too. In fact, might be willing to bet we’ll see one of those before we ever see an NAPT-Florida.

Below is the World Poker Tour press release about their partnership to put branded poker rooms throughout multiple Seminole casinos, and host a big televised $10k event at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida in late April/early May of next year. Early read is that this could become one of the big US tournaments of the year.

More…

Day 7 Table Draw

Theo Jorgensen will lead the remaining 78 players of the WSOP Main Event when play resumes at the Amazon room shortly after 12pm today. Jorgensen starts the day with 9,300,000 in chips followed by Michael Mizrachi with 7,535,000 and John Racener with 7,200,000 with play starting today on level 26, 25,000/50,000 blinds with a 5,000 ante. Play will continue until 27 players remain, then return Saturday to play down to the November Nine.

Other notables returning today:

William Thorson – 6,525,000
Alexander Kostritsyn – 5,715,000
Matt Affleck – 5,315,000
Bryn Kenney – 3,830,000
Eric Baldwin – 2,135,000
Johnny Lodden – 2,105,000
Adam Levy – 1,685,000
David Baker – 1,635,000
Tony Dunst – 1,550,000
David Baker – 1,540,000
Hasan Habib – 1,165,000
Scott Clements – 1,085,000
Jean-Robert Bellande – 700,000
Peter Jetten – 675,000

Notable eliminations from last report:
Juha Helppi
Todd Witteles
Fokke Beukers
Christian Harder

Full results here, and follow the updates over at wsop.com.

Bellagio Cup VI results

Moritz Kranich, a previous winner on the European Poker Tour, added a WPT title by defeating Justin “Boosted J” Smith heads-up to win the Bellagio Cup VI Main Event for $875,150. Smith earned $594,755 for the runner-up finish, with Phil Ivey finishing third for $363,650. Full results can be found here.

The Poker Beat’s Huff-honcho was away crafting his life and future … so I somehow, as a third- or fourth-stringer, commandeered the hosting chair. Think I can now lay claim to being the Glen Carano of poker podcasting!

With @JessWelman, @BJNemeth, and new-to-twitter @GaryWise1 providing analysis and reality checks, we got into Israel’s sudden crackdown on online gambling, the WSOP-Circuit revamp, and of course, the latter stages of the 2010 WSOP Main Event … along with the WPT Season 9 overhaul, which happened to be getting underway across the highway at Bellagio, in rather star-powered fashion.

July 15, 2010

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Day 6 table draw

Day 6 of the Main Event resumes at 12pm with 205 players remaining with Canadian Evan Lamprea leading the field with 3,564,000 in chips. Other notables looking to overtake Lamprea:

Notable stacks

Bryn Kenney – 2,902,000
Johnny Chan – 2,559,000
Fokke Beukers – 2,273,000
John Racener – 2,270,000
Michael Mizrachi – 1,793,000
Johnny Lodden – 1,625,000
Scott Clements – 1,535,000
JP Kelly – 1,474,000
Christian Harder – 1,263,000
Adam “Roothlus” Levy – 1,147,000
Phil Galfond – 1,025,000
Jean-Robert Bellande – 946,000
Breeze Zuckerman (last woman standing) – 738,000

Late night eliminations

Scotty Nguyen
Shawn Rice
Zachary Clark
Praz Bansi
Dash Dudley

Full results so far here, follow the action at wsop.com.

Ivey at Bellagio Cup VI final table

While the WSOP is expected to have less than 100 players remaining today, the focus of the poker community may be more focused on Phil Ivey making a record 9th WPT final table, as the Bellagio Cup VI final table was finally established after a lengthy day 4. When play resumes Thursday afternoon, here’s how they’ll be seated:

Seat 1: Phil Ivey – 1,595,000
Seat 2: Justin Smith – 2,100,000
Seat 3: Rob Akery – 1,980,000
Seat 4: Eric Afriat – 620,000
Seat 5: Moritz Kranich – 2,715,000
Seat 6: John Caridad – 5,120,000

Follow live updates over at the WPT site here.

Funny, was just typing up a “Rumorati” post about word spreading that Matt Savage would be taking on a new role with the WPT, as some sort of overseeing honcho — maybe like a hybrid of Jeffrey Haas’s and Thomas Kremser’s roles at the EPT? — when a press release came over the transom.

Check it out … a big move in poker, it would seem, for both Matt Savage and the WPT.

No word yet on how WHAT ARE OFTEN PERCEIVED TO BE some of the notoriously worst blind structures in poker, as seen on the WPT, might change under the aegis of a TD known for his much-heralded “deep structures” system of tourney progression. THE WPT, OF COURSE, CHANGED THEIR BLIND STRUCTURES (FOR THE BETTER, ARGUABLY) AFTER SEASON VI IN 2008, SHORTLY BEFORE SAVAGE MADE CHANGES TO HIS BLIND STRUCTURES IN A WAY THAT COUNTERED THE TREND OF DEEPER AND DEEPER STACKS.

WORLD POKER TOUR® ANNOUNCES MATT SAVAGE AS
WPT EXECUTIVE TOUR DIRECTOR

LOS ANGELES (June 16, 2010) – World Poker Tour® (WPT) announced today renowned tournament director Matt Savage will join their team as Executive Tour Director. In his new role, Savage lends his years of experience and vast knowledge base to WPT committing himself to improving player communication, tournament offerings, tour cohesiveness, and event growth.

More…

Season 8 of the World Poker Tour concluded Saturday evening with David Williams winning the $25,000 WPT World Championship, defeating Eric Baldwin in heads-up play. Williams collects $1,530,537 for his win, moving him into the top 20 on the all-time tournament earnings list. Shawn Buchanan’s third place finish meant Faraz Jaka became WPT Player of the Year. The full results from the final table:

1 David Williams $1,530,537
2 Eric Baldwin $1,034,715
3 Shawn Buchanan $587,906
4 David Benyamine $329,228
5 Billy Baxter $246,921
6 John O’Shea $199,888

The poker tournament circuit never stops though, as season 6 of the European Poker Tour holds their final tournament the €10,000 Euro Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Live coverage is available over at PokerNews and on the PokerStars Blog.

Of course … France opens itself up, and then gets way in on the televised poker thing … and sure enough the WPT is there to follow with a new stop. No time to vet any of this (we’re minutes from broadcast-time for The Poker Beat) so read the press release below and think for yourself what it might mean to have a WPT tournament that sounds like an Eminem song.

Oh, also, a wildly speculative, unsubstantiated prediction … the next France-like poker mini-hotspot you’ll see … it’s gonna be Florida.

WORLD POKER TOUR® EUROPEAN EXPANSION CONTINUES WITH NEW STOP AT FRANCE’S CASINO D’AMNEVILLE

3200 + 300€ Tournament Marks Second French Event for 2010

(LOS ANGELES) April 12, 2010 – Further expanding its tour offering in Europe, World Poker Tour® and Casino Municipal D’Amneville announced today a partnership to create the next WPT stop in France. The WPT Amneville 2010 tournament series kicks off October 30 – November 1 with land-based qualifiers and side events, followed by the 3200 + 300€ WPT Main Event November 2 – 6.

More…

If you missed it last week, The Poker Beat crew gathered via Skype to talk some poker legal news … Carlos Mortenson’s WPT domination (and where he stands overall in the poker) … and we invite folks via the Poker Road Forums to compete with us for a piece of our TPB prop bet picking the likely 20 to make the WSOP TOC.

NOTE: I predict 146 players in the WPT-Bucharest main event … turned out to be 161.

The Poker Beat
3/25/10

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Click below for my picks for the most-of-20 prop bet. And click here to submit your own and give yourself a chance at nabbing a piece of our prize pool.

More…

Don’t know much about bullfights. I know Carmen ends up at one. And there’s that part in The Sun Also Rises when everybody goes to Pamplona to drink and watch ‘em. Apparently your traditional corridas de toros features three distinct stages or tercios, each full of symbolic significance and designed to increase suspense before the final killing of the bull.

This week Juan Carlos Mortensen, a.k.a “El Matador,” successfully completed a third big stage in his World Poker Tour career, besting a field of 143 players at the WPT Hollywood Poker Open in Lawrenceburg, Indiana to take down the $393,820 first prize. That makes three WPT titles for the Ecuador native, tying him with Gus Hansen for the most ever.

As B.J. Nemeth noted in his WPT live reports, the win also makes Mortensen the all-time money leader in WPT history, bringing his total earnings to $5,754,308. Mortensen’s other WPT titles include a victory at the WPT Doyle Brunson North American Championship in 2004 and a win at the WPT Season Five Championship at the Bellagio in 2005.

B.J. also points out that Mortensen has now amassed more than $9.6 million in career tourney winnings. In other words, he’s killing.

Add to all of that Mortensen’s pre-boom WSOP Main Event title in 2001, and he’s certainly helped his candidacy for such things as the vote for the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions (where as of this moment he does appear among the Top 50 vote-getters). Not to mention helping his cause for possible Poker Hall of Fame consideration.

For more discussion of “El Matador” — as well as the WSOP TOC and other pokery topics of the day — check out this week’s episode of The (award-winning) Poker Beat.

The final table of the Bay 101 Shooting Stars Classic concluded early Saturday morning as McLean Karr, down to just 10 big blinds with 27 players left when day 3 started, winning $878,500, which includes a $25,000 WPT Championship seat, defeating Andy “BKiCe” Seth in heads-up play. Phil Hellmuth was the first elimination at the final table, when his QQ lost to Seth’s AJ when another ace hit the river, causing Hellmuth to curl up in the fetal position, leading Tony G to blog an open letter to Hellmuth, expressing concern for his mental health after his stunning elimination. Here’s the full results from the final table:

1 McLean Karr $878,500 including $25k WPT seat
2 Andy Seth $521,200
3 Daniel O’Brien $292,800
4 Hasan Habib $234,300
5 Matt Keikoan $175,700
6 Phil Hellmuth $117,000

Here’s an interview tournament director Matt Savage had with McLean and friend Maria Ho after his win:

The LAPC main event is fixin’ to get underway … Friday at noon, and Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Jason Mercier, and a few others got together to hold a $5,000 fantasy draft for the main event of California’s version of the WSOP.

More to come as the field takes shape tomorrow/today Friday. Last stretch of satellites going on now.

I’ve been following this event multimedially via the 147 emails a day they send me and via the official LAPC blog.

Here’s this week’s episode, with a report from the WPT Five Diamond Classic, a Mike Sexton interview, and other stuff. Per usual, parts 2 and 3 appear on the next page:

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This week, featuring Phil Hellmuth in studio for an interview, a preview of the WPT Doyle Brunson Classic at the Bellagio, Chino Rheem (the defending champion) discussing a key hand with Justin Young, and other stuff. As usual, parts 2 and 3 appear on the next page:

More…