Famous Players Expected to Participate

Every year, the World Series of Poker draws the very best players from the poker community and this is the best aspect of this tournament. Players who are expected to compete in this year’s WSOP include Phil Hellmuth, Michael Mizrachi, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negraneu and Johnny Chan. Pius Heinz is expected to show up in the tournament to defend his Main Event title. Since Johnny Chan did it in 1987 and 1988, Heinz became the first back-to-back champion. It would be very difficult for Heinz to repeat as champion, as a large field of approximately 6,800 poker players is expected to register for the Main Event.

How to Make the Main Event Final Table

Poker players can adjust their plans accordingly as this year’s Main Event tournament structure has already been released. On July 7, the $10,000 buy-in event will begin with three separate day 1’s starting that day. On July 7, Day 1A will be played; on July 8, Day 1B will be played and Day 1C will be played July 9. The remaining players from Day 1A will play in Day 2A on July 10, after those days have been completed. It will be in a separate room away from the Day 2A players, although the remaining players from Day 1B will also play their Day 2B on July 10. Day 2C will be held on July 11.

All of the remaining players will be combined into one Day 3 on July 12 and continue through the tournament as one group of players, once Day 2C is completed. At 12pm, Days 3 through 6 will start and it will have last five levels of play. With several 20 min breaks and one 90 min dinner break, each level is 120 min long. The field will continue play until there are only nine players remaining on Day 7, which will be held on July 16. Players should plan accordingly since this may take longer than five levels of play. The tournament will break until October 28 when nine players remain and then the nine players will return to Las Vegas to play the final table.

Until there are just two players remaining, the final table of nine players will play. Then they will break once again. On October 30th, in the Penn and Teller Theater the heads up portion of the final table will take place. The final table will be broadcasted by ESPN.

The €3,200 + €300 event saw all the action. The event was live-streamed over the Internet. It included the heads-up play with Thomas Beer, where Vandersmissen’s was defeated at the final table, banking Vandersmissen a cool €420000. In the final hand, Vandersmissen had 9d-7c and Beer had Ac-Kh on the button, raised and it was called by Vandersmissen. The slump brought Vandersmissen top pair and a series betting that saw Beer going all-in and bagging the triumph for Vandersmissen. Phil Hellmuth 33rd (€9400), Adam Levy 14th (€15400) and Andy Black finished 8th (€32700) were the other notables who banked winnings.

Paddy Power took a different approach, unlike past streams at the WSOP and WPT. To keep things interesting, he brought expert analysis from poker pro Dan O’Brien and presenters, at the table interviews. In the first day, despite Negreanu busting late, viewers tuned in their thousands to watch as over 150 Paddy Power qualifiers chased the €100,000 Sole Survivor prize. There was a 500-strong field battled for the €1.6m prize pool.

By Day 3, big names like newly crowned iSeriesLIVE champion James Dempsey and Hellmuth were still going strong and everyone was expecting a major name to land the title. Unfortunately, for the Poker Brat’s fans, on Day 3, Hellmuth busted early when his Kings were cracked. It was qualifier Ian Simpson who went into the final table after a sleepless night clutching the chip lead, as the final nine began to take shape.

After a monster three-way all-in with Andy Black and the brilliantly named Thomas Beer, things got better for Simpson when fellow Sole Survivor Phillip Magennis hit the rail in ninth. Simpson would eventually bust in fourth for an extra €107,500. His tens were outdrawn by Vandersmissen’s eights. The inexperienced Beer was all that remained in Vandersmissen’s way, when the always-entertaining David ‘Dixie’ Dean had bust in third for €225k.

This year’s Irish Open final table was held behind closed doors and viewers could see all hole cards via Paddy Power’s web stream and bet on the action like the iSeriesLIVE opener. Vandersmissen had other plans, although with the watching media praying for a Beer win and a week of Ireland/drinking puns.

The young Belgian made no mistake this time round, although he narrowly missed an EPT crown last year, finishing second at EPT Snowfest. Vandersmissen won practically every hand before forcing Beer to overshove a nine-high flop with A-K against his 9-7, in the most one-sided heads-up clash in poker history.

Joe Kuether is close behind Deed and he is looking to accomplish quite an impressive feat. Kuether is looking for his second main-event final table in a row. He finished seventh in the WSOPC Main Event at Caesars Palace.

Deeb got a big double-up against Brandon Cantu earlier in the day and set himself up for this run. at the time, Cantu was the chip leader but was not able to hang onto it after this hand. before Cantu rose to 31,000 on the button, Deeb limped in the cutoff. Deeb made the call and this is when action folded back around him. Deeb checked to Cantu who fired out 36,000. Deeb opted to call. After that, Deeb stacked out some chips and led into Cantu for 60,000. Deeb was quickly moved all in by Cantu and Deeb made the call. Deeb avoided the redraw on the river and had spiked a set on the turn.

The play started with 156 players but only 36 were able to walk away with money in their pockets. Scott Clements, Gavin Smith, Joe Tehan, bubble boy Allen Carter, Ray Henson, Bryan Devonshire, Gavin Griffin and David “ODB” Baker are among the players who did not make the money.

David Levi, Matt Salsberg, Eric Baldwin, Matthew Chang are Alex Masek are some of the players who made the money, but were not able to survive the day. Baldwin was eliminated in brutal kings versus aces preflop cooler with two tables left.

There are still few of them are familiar faces to the Circuit and they are still in contention. Brandon Cantu (335,000) is also still kicking, fresh off a win in a $1,000 buy in prelim event here at Harrah’s Rincon. Ty Spires (896,000) is still alive, looking to top his third place finish in the main event at the Bike in January.

At the end of the Day 2 the chip counts were – Freddy Deeb-1,100,000; Joe Kuether-1,017,000; Ty Spires-897,000; Ryan Gentry-759,000; Raymond Dandrea-582,000; Stephen Plache-543,000; David Funkhause-528,000; Brandon Cantu-335,000; Chris Cronin-323,000; Ryan Buckholtz-294,000 and Chris Bratene-128,000

On Day 3, the final 11 players will begin their charge to the last man standing. Play will kick off at 1200 PDT (2000 BST).

As with any ‘contract’ which relates to financial matters, there is always fine print when dealing with bonuses. This fine print will tell you the things that are absolutely imperative with regards to the bonus. For starters, it will tell you when the offer begins and ends. It’s no use opting in for a bonus that’s going to end tomorrow if the condition is that you wager the bonus multiple times over, as you will be limited in time.

The fine print will also tell you about the play through requirements, which is how many times you need to play the bonus amount as well your deposit before you can withdraw your winnings. Wagering requirements should be reasonable; otherwise you’ll never be able to take full advantage of the bonus offer.

Finally, the terms and conditions will list the minimum and maximum amounts you can wager in order to enjoy the bonus. If you only have $50 to spend, and the minimum you need to wager to claim the casino welcome bonus is $100, there is no point in even trying to redeem the bonus.

By taking a couple of minutes to read through the terms and conditions of a bonus offer, you’ll be able to find the best offer for you.

The New Zealand Poker community needed a shot in the arm and the 2011 New Zealand Poker Open has done exactly the same for the community. The country’s Hold Em aficionados have had to settle for overseas on online for over six months, as their only major tournament fixes.

In Day 2 of the Main Event, eighty players were qualified with just eighteen players returning to the SKYCITY Poker room for the final day. Until only nine players remained beginning the Final Table for the tournament, players bet, raised and folded.

Only two hours after the final day commenced, the Final Table at the SKYCITY New Zealand Poker Open had begun. 2010 winner Zheng was chip stack leader, throughout the majority of the Final Table. Until only Zheng and Manu Austin remained, players were eliminated. Until Manu pushed all in with King, both played cautiously and kept it tight, 6 and was called by Zheng who held 8, 10. With a pair of 10’s over Manu’s King High, the cards fell Jackson came out on top.

With a $25,000 heads up no-limit championship the WSOP kicks off. The main event is scheduled to begin July 7, capping off over a month long series of satellites. The WSOP will be offering over 7,000 different events leading up to the main event even with the controversy surrounding Internet poker wagering offshore.

Including some new events added to the schedule there have been a number of changes to 2011 World Series of Poker. Including No-Limit Hold’em, Seven Card Razz, Limit Hold’em, Badugi Limit, Seven Card Stud, 2-7 Draw Lowball No Limit, Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8 or better, Pot Limit Omaha, 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball Limit and Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split 8 or better, the other new event is the $2,500 buy-in 10-game mix. On June 16th it will be a 6 handed event.

The chip stacks is another new addition, which will be triple chip stacks to start every single bracelet event, regardless of buy-in. Each day’s play in any given event will last 10 levels as late registration will last four levels. For all players, this should result in better finishing times for to ensure a better night’s sleep.

Over the next two players on the leaderboard, Mr. von Kriegenbergh holds a dominating lead. With just under 2.2 million chips, Florida native Justin Zaki sits in second place. Abbey Daniels has just over 2.1 million chips going into tomorrow’s play. She is the only female poker player at the final table.

In the state of Florida, a total of 433 players entered the WPT’s first ever event, creating a $4,156,800 prize pool with $1,122,340 reserved for first.

When play resumes, Abbey Daniels and Justin Zaki, relatively unknown locals will be the two players closest to Von Kriegenbergh, but three experienced pros sound out the final six, which includes three-time WPT final tablist Curt Kohlberg, WPT title holder Tommy Vedes and 2008 Borgata Summer Open champ Allen Bari.

A 2010 graduate of the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, Von Kriegenbergh did place fourth in the $4,750 Main Event at The Big Event, scoring a $140,000 payday. He does not have a long live tournament history because of his age.

For the biggest payday of his flourishing professional career, the young poker pro is also in line. He is guaranteed to win at least US$166,272 at the WPT event, although he won US$140,000 in Los Angeles. He should be a strong contender to take down his first career title and million-dollar payday, with his colossal chip stack and strong play.

For the final table play, the chip stacks are – Taylor von Kriegenbergh: 4,384,000 (Seat 4), Justin Zaki: 2,197,000 (Seat 6), Abbey Daniels: 2,192,000 (Seat 1), Allen Bari: 1,984,000 (Seat 3), Tommy Vedes: 1,570,000 (Seat 2) and Curt Kohlberg: 655,000 (Seat 5).

Over two days, Hansen engaged in a prolific 5,000 hands, taking on hot names like NoPasaran, gavz101 and Patrik Antonius. At the $300 / $600 stake level, most of the games were played. Harrington25 lined Hansen’s pockets with an additional $169k, while Antonius gave up $329k.

A few US high stakes online players including Ben “Sauce1234? Sulsky, Matt Hawrilenko and Josh Arieh were still able to make it to the tables in the first few hours of the weekend. However, the field of competitors looked a bit more euro by Sunday.

Meanwhile, Antonius is now within $100k of being even in 2011. He had a rough start to the year. NoPasaran had a prevailing night pulling in $54k, but Antonius was the principal winner.

From Full Tilt Poker last night, U.S. players were obviously still absent and there were some new faces at the top of the online poker charts.

Among the top players on PokerStars were diemaus36o (+$21k), K_0_S_T_Y_A (+$47k), vence0r (+$27k) and 0Human0 (+$36k). Thecortster (-$26k), FallAtYourFeet (-$40k), scout326 (-$48k) and podnil (-$27k) are included in the list of losers. Vaga_Lion, who lost $27k, was one of the few identifiable players.

All remaining players are assured of at least €7,500 and the bubble boy was Andrey Lobzhanidze. After Sunday’s final table, the last man standing will take home the top prize of €825,000.

For the 120 players headed into Day 3, the good news is that they are all in the money, while chip leader Fabrice Soulier was beginning to put some distance between him and the rest of the field, which was bad news for them. The lone player over 1 million chips is the Frenchman and Alessandro Laubinger is his next nearby opponent has 742,400.

The start of day chip leader, Sander Berndsen, departed early in the day, while Soulier finished the day on top. Tobias Reinkemeier, Jeff Sarwer, Davidi Kitai, McLean Karr, Team PokerStars Pros Sandra Naujoks, Jan Heitmann and Arnaud Mattern, Matt Affleck and Nicolas Chouity.

Returning for Day 3 on Friday are just a few of the players and they are Per Linde, Vladimir Geshkenbein, Mayu Roc Uribe, Roberto Romanello, Jeff Hakim, Cornel Cimpan, Peter Eastgate and Team PokerStars Pros George Danzer and Sebastian Ruthenberg.

With the final 119 players taking their seats, Day 3 will commence at noon local time tomorrow. The goal is to play down to 24 players. To the final 24, the plan for Day 3 is to cut the field down, which means there is an additional carnage-filled day on the horizon at the Spielbank Berlin Casino.

For the second successive night, Gus Hansen smashed his challengers to the tune of $500k and put on a high stakes clinic on Full Tilt.

Scott “URnotINdanger2” Palmer was Hansen’s chief challenger, who, after a fast start in 2011 has run into a wall. 867 hands of heads-up $500/$1,000 PLO was played by the pair.

Hansen started out by winning $354k on a single table and his conquest was never really in question. Palmer made a gutsy effort, later in the session, to get even and won $252k on one table and another $218k on a different table, even though at one point Palmer were down over $500k.

The high stakes tables at PokerStars were active, even though all of the above mentioned action took place on Full Tilt as well. Ben “Sauce123? Suklsy earned $191k and recorded over 3,200 hands against Also11. WheresMyRoll (up $35k), skjervoy (up $101k), V. Wahlbeck (up $33k) and Martin Kabrhel (up $40k) were the other noteworthy winners.

Van Marcius (down $56k), jungleman12 (down $98k), OMGClayAiken (down $206k), URnotINdanger2 (down $53k), paula35 (down $87k) and Also11 (down $192k) are included as the biggest losers of the evening.