It took a few weeks and thousands of players but the 2010 WSOP has finally been narrowed down to a elite group of nine. The nine will play the final round of poker in November on television. Apparently, even today with the popularity of poker, main stream media still doesn’t get why anyone would want to watch all 57 events of the WSOP on TV; but hey, at least we get this final table.
Here’s the lineup:
Filippo Candio
Joseph Cheong
John Dolan
Jonathan Duhamel
Matthew Jarvis
Michael Mizrachi
Soi Nguyen
John Racener
Jason Senti
The final event of the WSOP consisted of good old fashioned No Limit Texas Holdem which, despite the numerous variations that exist in poker, remains the most popular way to play our favorite game of skill. Perhaps the popularity of Holdem was why there were over seven thousand entrants into this year’s events and 1,125 folks who handed over their $10,000 buy in for one last chance at gold.
The week long [...]

The Poker Olympics is drawing to a close! This is my final chance to recap the poker wins by nation as I pretend we are enjoying the Olympics. Only these Olympics aren’t boring. What will the final count reveal?
Well, here are the results and rankings as research by me and based on the actual; resu;ts from this year’s tournaments and don’t include any ranking system. I’m taking in the results of this tournament only.

COUNTRY
BRACELETS
PRIZE MONEY
(for bracelet winners only)

America
40
$19,652,046

United Kingdom
5
$1,681,160

Canada
4
$1,991,917

Hungary
2
$797,944

New Zealand
1
$614,248

Norway
1
$260,497

Russia
1
$256,820

France
1
$192,132

Vietnam
1
$71,424

Like the world cup there are some unexpected results. Perhaps the Americans thought they would get them all. Maybe the French thought one of their up and coming male players would represent their nation and perhaps Vietnam is stunned to be on the board. It’s been quite a race. There’s still one more bracelet and one more pot to go.
How will the final hours go? We’ll have to wait and see.

The $10,000 No Limit Hold ‘Em Championship is the final event of this year’s WSOP in Las Vegas and it’s been a great, controversial year. There were 7319 entrants and at the time of this writing almost half way through the final there is a “mere” 1980 entrants still in play. It’s been quite a roller coaster for many of the players from the amateurs to the pros. Here’s the high chip count as of July 12 in the evening.
1 Johnny Chan 580,000
2 Kevin Gates 515,000
3 Frank Kassela 450,000
4 Nicholas Rainey 440,000
5 Mikhail Shamalov 440,000
6 David Assouline 420,000
7 Alexander Kostritsyn 415,000
8 Joshua Appleby 408,000
9 Nikolay Losev 406,000
10 Matt Affleck 375,000
SOURCE: Poker News.net
So Johnny Chan huh? Most of us young poker enthusiasts remember him best for the scene including in that cult Poker classic “Rounders” when Matt Damon explains the perfection of his moves in a former 1988 WSOP heads up event. It’s nice to see [...]

Every time I turn around, or at least refresh my page, someone else has a poker pro sponsorship deal. Here are just the latest poker players to get that contract.
Shannon Elizabeth (the cute actress who is one awesome poker player) signed up with Carbon Poker this week. The deal includes her playing online exclusively at their casino, writing a blog for the company and represent them in tournaments.  When she isn’t appearing in cult classic like “American Pie” and “That 70s Show,” Elizabeth is playing her favorite game. She has a number of cash wins under her belt and came third at the NBC National Heads Up Event. Shannon Elizabeth is a coy player, great at bluffing and entertaining to watch.
PokerStars.net now has Vanessa Selbst (seven money finishes and one bracelet to her name) as a professional on their site. Selbst has been making her name lately winning the Main Event at Mohegan Sun earlier [...]

Coming up this July 3rd is the fourth annual charity event at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.  Organized by poker professional Annie Duke and actor Don Cheadle, the event will help support relief efforts in Africa’s most hard hit regions such as the much talked about Darfur. The charity organizers work with the WSOP I marketing and coordinating the event.
The event is not officially a part of the 2010 WSOP Main Event, it is housed in the same hotel at the same time to help ensure maximum attendance. The combination of poker professional and Hollywood faces should encourage all large bankrollers to participate in the hope of both helping those less fortunate and enjoying some big payouts. The rumor is the winner of the tournament could walk away with six figures in earnings.
Online reports indicate that Annie Duke and Don Cheadle will definitely attend along with Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Ray Romano, [...]

Yes people the poker tournament of the year is still going. Starting back in late may, it’s been over a month since the 2010 WSOP Main Event began and it’s been an interesting year to say the least. We’ve had some expected winners and some major surprises; not to mention the record breakers. Here are the results of the last twelve games.

No.
Event Title and Type
Winner
Earnings,

36
No-Limit Holdem
Scott Montgomery
$481,760

37
HORSE
Phil Ivey
$329,840

38
Pot Limit Holdem Championship
Valdemar Kwaysser
$617,214

39
No Limit Holdem Shootout
Steven Kelly
$381,922

40
Seven Card Razz
Frank Kassela
$214,085

41
Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better
Steve Jelinek
$245,871

42
No Limit Holdem
Dean Hamrick
$604,222

43
HORSE Championship
Ian Gordon
$611,666

44
Mixed Holdem
Gavin Smith
$268,238

45
No Limit Holdem
Jesse Rockowitz
$721,373

46
Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better
Chris Bell
$327,040

47
Results Not in

$

48
Mixed Event
Sigurd Eskeland
$260,497

There are only a few events to go and many of them are already in progress as I write this blog. A few folks have the holiday off but some will be playing through. Here’s a list of the events still in progress as the [...]

Event 25: Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better Championship. This one went to Sam Farha of Houston, Texas and gave him not only a bracelet but $488,237. This was a three day tournament with 212 entrants and a $10,000 buy in.
Event 26: Six Handed No Limit Holdem. William Haydon from the United States won this event against Jeffrey Papola of New York. Both men held aces but Haydon’s Jack beat Papola’s six of hearts and brought him a whopping $630,031 in prize money. There were 1,245 entrants with a buy in of $2,500.
Event 27: Seven Card Stud H-Low-8 or Better.  There was a $1,500 buy in and winner David Warga of Tempe who took home $208,682 as the last one standing of 208 competitors.
Event 28: Pot Limit Omaha. It was Miquel Proulx of Canada with a pair of Queens who took this victory back to his hometown of Quebec. He earned over $315,000 in prize [...]

Everybody knows California is broke. Is that why they are looking to the state’s million strong online poker players as potential tax revenue? The proposed bill would bring legislation to the world of online poker for Californians and (as proponents argue) make the game safer. Of course, it will give this troubled state economy a much needed boost.
The proposed bill (Bill SB 1485) is being held up by numerous dissenters including the Morongo Band of Mission Indians. Many Native Americans in California feel the bill will encroach on their tribal profits. As many tribes rely heavily on the poker economy, competition could jeopardize health and human services programs on Californian reservations.
Some of the details of the bill in its current form include legal prosecution for those who try and play poker on illegal websites, 20 percent of gross poker income being turned over to the state, all poker players being 21 or older and the [...]

I love taking the results of the 2010 WSOP Main Event and viewing it as the poker Olympics. The WSOP site calls it the world rankings but I see it more as the number of gold medals each nation has so far and who look to take home the title of best nation. Or should I say nation with the best poker players?
Well, here are the results and rankings as researched on the WSOP home page.

COUNTRY
RANKING
BRACELETS
PRIZE MONEY

America
1
32
$67,680,685

Canada
2
4
$6,897,918

United Kingdom
3
5
$5,783,278

Russia
4
1
$3,085,894

Germany
5
0
$1,732,629

France
6
1
$1,352,211

Hungary
7
2
$912,030

Sweden
8
0
$631,627

New Zealand
9
1
$629,056

Brazil
10
0
$621,846

It’s interesting that America has the most high ranked poker players. I mean it’s not like we have more people than the Chinese or more game playing history than the Europeans. Could having Sin City in your back yard really make that much of a difference? Or is it more likely professional poker is both encouraged and promoted in America as something to aspire to, a chance at a lucrative career and of course, getting to play [...]

I’m all in favor of the fans getting a say in the poker line up. The game of poker is so all about chance and skill that opinion doesn’t usually come into play. But for some of us, the professional poker players are celebrities in their own right, people that got famous for something other than looking pretty, being rich or being able to act or sing. Players are known by their skill and their fans are well aware of those abilities.
So when it was decided that the fans would vote for the players in this year’s WSOP Tournament of Champions to take place on June 27, 28 and July 4th. It’s the only time the fans have a say and the fans have certainly spoken.
Thousands upon thousands of votes were cast and the results as publish on the WSOP home page are as follows:

1
PHIL IVEY

2
DANIEL NEGREANU

3
DOYLE BRUNSON

4
PHIL HELLMUTH

5
CHRIS FERGUSON

6
ALLEN CUNNINGHAM

7
JOHNNY CHAN

8
SCOTTY NGUYEN

9
BARRY GREENSTEIN

10
JOHN JUANDA

11
ERIK [...]