Remi Castaignon
Photo: PokerStarsBlog.com

Today’s Boxscore

Remi Castaignon €770,000 – EPT Deauville
Michael Mizrachi $101,267 – WSOP Circuit South Africa
Tyler Patterson $19,080 – 2013 LAPC NLHE Escalator

Big tournaments finished this weekend all over the planet, from Europe to South Africa and across the US. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi was already having pretty nice results over the last 12 months including a nearly $1.5 million victory in the 2012 WSOP Poker Players Championship. Now he can add WSOP Circuit ring winner to his resume after winning the 116-player Main Event at the Emerald Casino in South Africa.

Remi Castaignon is the latest EPT Champion for what is apparently his first tournament cash ever with a victory in the EPT Deauville Main Event. €770,000 is a fine way to get his first entry on HendonMob and it looks like he cruised to the win after entering the final table with 40% of the chips in play.

The 2013 LAPC continues to chug along with their preliminary events pulling in good numbers for the Savage structured grind. Plenty of big names are making their way to final tables including McLean Karr, Bryan Devonshire, Matt Affleck, and Tyler Patterson who managed a win along with the traditional ugly, 500 pound trophy. Elsewhere in the world, the WPT Seminole Hard Rock will play down to their champion in a few days with Matt Salsberg once again in the running with 36 players remaining.

Link Dump

Tweet of the Day – Mizrachi wins and Andrew Felman reminded to remind himself that everyone forgets The Grinder. Perhaps people could start giving the man his props now?

I won the Main Event @emeraldpoker@wsoptd @wsopLove you South Africa.Ty every 1.Every 1 Here is Great.Thanks again !!

— Michael Mizrachi (@TheGrinder44) February 10, 2013

In the latest NUTS, I wrote: “@thegrinder44‘s pattern continues. Win huge event, get forgotten in these rankings, win another huge event.”

— Andrew Feldman (@AFeldmanESPN) February 11, 2013

Bally Technologies and Amaya Gaming sign poker content agreement – More reports of Vegas iGaming additions. The race is on and will be interesting to see who comes out ahead.

MGM Resorts Looks To Re-Enter New Jersey In Possible Internet Gaming Move – Gov. Christie takes positive steps towards online poker in NJ and all of a sudden MGM is again interested in Atlantic City.

Poker / By Alex Outhred – Hey, look who has a poker strategy article in the world renown Buffalo News! Good friend, and one of the good guys, Alex Outhred. (Part congrats, part needle, all complimentary)

Zynga’s Shares Rise As Legal US Online Gambling Is Mooted – Any time Forbes or a legitimate publication talks about online gambling, it’s noteworthy. This one is chock full of snark.

$100k in 7 Days! Let’s do this! – Daniel Negreanu is using his platform for a very worthy cause. A refreshing change for him.

What’s happening at the WSOP in Vegas, while some may be planning their itinerary around the WSOP Europe (press release found on page 2).

The $1,500 HORSE event is down to their final table, and Phil Hellmuth is currently in 2nd place as he looks to take down his 12th bracelet. To see if Hellmuth gets that 12th bracelet, you can catch the live updates here. Here’s what the final table will look like as they’re now on their dinner break:

Seat 1: James Schaaf – 392,000
Seat 2: Matt Grapenthien – 46,000
Seat 3: Sam Silverman – 310,000
Seat 4: Phil Hellmuth – 400,000
Seat 5: Jason Dollinger – 346,000
Seat 6: Tommy Hang – 680,000
Seat 7: Victor Ramdin – 78,000
Seat 8: Esther Rossi – 166,000

The $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship is down to 5 players as they take their dinner break with Marty Smyth recently doubling through Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi to take the chip lead. Kido Pham ran into Mizrachi at the wrong time and was eliminated in 6th place. Follow the action at the wsop.com website here.

Other tournament action, plus the 2008 WSOPE announcement, on page 2:

More…

The $5,000 PLO w/rebuy event is down to its final 3, with Phil Galfond the dominating chip leader, David Benyamine is a distant 2nd. Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu and John Juanda were eliminated in 8th, 7th and 6th respectively in a short period of time. Johnny Chan was later eliminated in 4th place. The $1,500 NL event finally reached its final table, with Vitaly Lunkin currently the chip leader with 7 left.

The $10,000 Limit Holdem World Championship is closing in on the money with about 45 left. Current chip leader is two-time bracelet winner Eric Froehlich. Others near the top include Hoyt Corkins, Michael Mizrachi, and JC Tran. The $3,000 NL event is currently on dinner break with 30 left. Alex Zaslavsky is chip leader, with new father David Singer in 2nd.

The only tournament to start today was the $2,500 NL 6-handed event, which started with a field of 1,012 already down to 190 at the dinner break. Notables in the top 10 include “Devilfish” Ulliot, Max Pescatori, Kenna James and Dario Minieri.

More from me tomorrow with final results, and the Tuesday preview.

Reviewing what happened last night…

In a final table that ESPN SHOULD be covering (instead of ESPN360), the final table of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha w/rebuys final table has been set for around 3pm.

Seat 1: John Juanda 694,800
Seat 2: Phil Hellmuth 119,000
Seat 3: David Benyamine 1,041,000
Seat 4: Kirill Gerasimov 558,000
Seat 5: Phil Galfond 1,393,000
Seat 6: Daniel Negreanu 460,000
Seat 7: Brian Rast 1,176,000
Seat 8: Adam Hourani 300,000
Seat 9: Johnny Chan 624,000

The three names that may not appear familiar to the poker fan, but those who follow the online scene know OMGClayAiken, tsarast and the_houdini very well.

Other action from last night after the jump:

More…

What’s happening at the WSOP while some people can’t wait to turn 21 to play in Vegas. For those unfamiliar with Ozzy87, his name is Aurangzeb Sheikh, he made a WPT final table at 18, and has had previous issues with the law.

More…

What’s happening at the WSOP while I wonder if the new boss is as same as the old boss…

The only final table yesterday concluded early Thursday, and we finally got a bracelet winner that had won one previously. The $5,000 NL 2-7 KC Lowball w/rebuys event saw Mike Matusow outlasted Jeff Lisandro and the rest of a talented final table, featuring Tom Schneider. Matusow was down to 405,000 in chips with Lisandro and Barry Greenstein had the other 3,100,000 in chips when the dinner break began. Returning from the break definitely appeared to rejuvenate him, as he was on the attack early and often. Eventually, Lisandro eliminated Greenstein, but headsup was mostly controlled by Matusow, until he eventually won when his Q-8 hand beat Lisandro’s Q-9 and Matusow wins his 3rd WSOP bracelet and the $537,000 that came with it.

Final tables for today and other action after the jump:

More…

LAS VEGAS–Ooh, meant to tell you about Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi’s new deal as the face of Planet Hollywood’s poker room. Good fun to be had, particularly at the special Chinese Poker table, you can only imagine. Then again … though you gotta like the concept of pros-turned-hosts at brick-and-mortar poker rooms, I’m not really a fan of P-Ho, as Pauly calls it.

Click here to read the review I submitted to The Poker Atlas, in which I call this locale “my least favorite room in Vegas, if not anywhere.”

Click here to see the CardPlayerTV interview with Mizrachi that ignores the regular presence of horrible music/jackhammers in the background.

P.S. Wonder if my opinion would be different had two $60 tournaments (with re-entry permitted) and two 1/2 NLH sessions resulted in better than nearly $700 in losses.