Event #2 of the WSOPE, £5,250 Pot-Limit Omaha, has concluded with 2009 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro earning his 5th career bracelet, defeating Joe Serock heads-up, earning £159,154 in the win. Serock collects £98,262 for the runner-up finish. Willie Tann and Chris Bjorin, final tablists in event #1, finished 3rd and 9th respectively. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report, will be available shortly at www.wsop.com.

Day 1b of the £1,075 NL Holdem event drew a field of 195 players, with 27 returning Monday afternoon after 9 levels of play. The day 1b chip leader is Wesley Pantling, brother of Andrew Pantling, who finished 2nd to Phil Laak in Event #1 earlier this week. Other notables returning: Andrew Licthenberger – 42,400, EPT Vilamoura winner Toby Lewis – 35,300 and Scott Fischman – 23,200. Full chip counts at WSOP.com.

Elsewhere …

WPT Borgata Poker Open – Atlantic City :: 311 players registered for day 1a of the $3,300 + 200, $2,000,000 Guaranteed event, check out the updates over at WorldPokerTour.com.

PokerStars APPT Auckland – Final table action has just begun, PokerNews and the PokerStars blog are covering that action. The “godfather of New Zealand hip-hop”, Danny ‘Brotha D’ Leaoasavaii holds the chip lead.

Commerce Holdem Series – Final table of 2,085 NL Main Event – live streaming available here.

In another “good for poker” moment, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak took down his first WSOP bracelet, defeating Andrew Pantling heads-up to win the £2500 + 150 NL Holdem 6-max event, earning £170,802 and the coveted gold bracelet. Laak now has three top-18 finishes in Europe since his August ATV accident. Pantling collects £105,506 for the runner-up finish with Chris Bjorin picking up £70,473 for third place. Full results and Nolan Dalla’s tournament report forthcoming at wsop.com.

Event #2, £5,000 + 250 Pot-Limit Omaha, drew a field of 120 entrants with the top 18 making the money and a first place prize of £159,154 by Friday evening. Updates available over at PokerNews and WSOP.com Friday at 12pm, day 1a of the £1,000 + 75 NL Holdem kicks off, the first of three opening days. Last year’s winner was JP Kelly, the second player to win a WSOP and WSOPE bracelet in the same year, besting a field of 608 players to earn over £136,000.

Elsewhere …

Day 2 of PokerStars APPT Auckland gets underway with 96 of the original 218 players returning for a $123,000+ first place prize. PokerNews and the PokerStars blog are handling the update duties.

WPT Borgata Poker Open – Atlantic City :: $1,500 NL event event draws over 303 entries, Tiffany Michelle “ices” Maria Ho, $3,300 NL WPT event starts Saturday. – Borgata Poker Open blog

CardPlayer’s subscription-based poker site, Spade Club ceases operations – 2+2 thread

Shaun Deeb’s “unretirement” continues, winning his 2nd WCOOP bracelet.- PokerStars blog

A few fledgling careers getting a bankroll boost, a couple accomplished players cementing their stati as big-time pros, and one not-so-old legend proving (to himself?) he’s still got something … all in the last two weeks of October:

Tommy Vedes
Festa al Lago (Bellagio)
Las Vegas

New Yorker Tommy Vedes has been on a cross-continental tear — with 9 cashes, 6 final tables, and 2 wins in the past four months for more than $1.7 million in tournament winnings — at events in Las Vegas, London, Cyprus, Tunica, and Thackerville, Okla. His run may or may not have culminated this month with a made-for-TV WPT victory against a pro-heavy 275-player field in the $15k Festa main event.

Check out Vedes’ lifetime stats

Howard Lederer
Festa al Lago (Bellagio)
Las Vegas

New York émigré @howardhlederer may have been starting to doubt himself upon realizing he had only two wins in 25 WSOP final tables, and no victories anywhere in nearly two years. Fortunes changed with the latest $10k HORSE event in Las Vegas, kinda an “old school” tourney (19 entries, $92k top prize) that Lederer self-covered on Twitter.

Read why the Professor should always be your official “pick to win it”

Isaac Baron (“westmenloAA”)
Caesar’s Palace Classic
Las Vegas

Confirmed online tournament bad-ass showed he could close it out live in LV by winning the $5k main event at Caesar’s for a $250k payday. The 22-year-old beat a tough final table, too, bettering Theo Tran, Jimmy Tran, Kathy Liebert, and 2008 EPT Grand Final Champ Glen Chorny — a rematch of sorts, as Baron finished 4th at that final table.

More on Isaac Baron’s continuing climb

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