After crowning a new World Champion last week, it would be a bit difficult to generate as much excitement for this week. But once you\’ve embraced young Mr. Duhamel and memorized the Canadian National Anthem, buck up because the tournament circuit never sleeps.
Some of the best players in the world converged on Southeast Asia and Los Angeles, with multiple events in each locale, but that wasn\’t all that happened this week.
APPT Macau (Macau)
18-year-old Zhang Dan Peng, playing in his first ever live tournament, defeated a field of 161 that included the likes of Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan and John Juanda, amongst others. Peng took home HK$1.67 million, about $215,000, for his victory. He is the first Chinese player to win the APT Macau. [PokerListings]
The biggest story to come out of Macau was what Ivey and Dwan were doing after they exited the tournament. They sat down at the cash tables with some wealthy Chinese businessmen, and according to Matt Savage there was at least $5 million on the table at the game\’s peak. [BetFair]
WSOP Circuit Biloxi (Biloxi, Mississippi)
The newly reimagined WSOP Circuit continues to bounce around the country at a blistering pace. The latest stop saw the Circuit head to Biloxi, with the $1,500 Main Event pulling in an impressive 270 runners. Travis Lutes was the last man standing, taking home $95,000 and a coveted seat in the upcoming WSOPC $1 million freeroll at Caesers. [PokerNews]
Isle Open Poker Championship (Pompano Beach, Florida)
The latest poker gold rush in the United States has to be going down in Florida, where recent changes to the law have allowed games to explode at dog tracks and casinos throughout the state. They didn\’t even need the name power of a major tour to draw 198 players to their $2,000 main event. Ayaz Mahmood, who won a bracelet at this year\’s WSOP, made the final table and finished 7th, and Matt Ezrol found himself $100,000 richer following his win. [Cardplayer]
APPT Cebu (Cebu, Philippines)
232 players who started action less than a week ago are now down to just nine. Kim Gap Young of Korea is the chip leader heading into this final table, where they\’ll be vying for PHP 5,810,000 for first place money. Action should be resuming shortly, so follow all of the action via the link just to the right of this sentence. [PokerStars Blog]
LA Poker Open (Los Angeles, California)
It\’s often said that you can\’t get something for nothing, but in this case you can come pretty close. The Commerce Casino has developed a tournament system with small buy-ins and several opportunities to re-enter that have generated massive prize pools. The LA Poker Open is no exception, as a $220 and a $125 event each crowned $100,00 winners, Vinh Duong and Peter Hengsakul respectively. The two tournaments had a combined prize pool of over $825,000. [Commerce Casino]
NAPT Los Angeles (Los Angeles, California)
81 players are still standing in this one. Check out Mark Gahagan\’s update for chip counts and notables that are still in contention.
There was some big news from the side events at this event, as early this morning Jess Welman chopped the Ladies\’ event for $3,000. This continues an incredible run in live events this year, including a cash in the WSOP Women\’s event and a final table appearance in Event #1 of the Detox Poker Series, which was a freeroll following a win in a media freeroll. She also finished second in the recent Foxwoods media freeroll.
Perhaps spending all of her time covering the poker circuit has rubbed off on her, and it is clearly time for her to consider going pro. In fact, just working for her at the WSOP this summer seems to have rubbed off on yours truly, as this past Friday night I won $3,700 in a $2 Rush rebuy tournament on FullTilt.
In Other News…
Recent Hall of Fame inductee Dan Harrington finished fifth in the appropriately named $1,000 Poker Hall of Fame event at the Caesers Classic… Check out this fantastic piece by Short-Stacked Shamus following up on the Cannes cheating scandal that gives some insight into the presence of poker media at live events.
In the Online World…
The biggest news in the online world is centered around FullTilt, as they finally followed the lead of PokerStars and headed out of Washington. It\’s not all bad though as the latest round of FTOPS is well underway, with over $19 million in prize guarantees.