Well ladies and gentleman here we go. We are down to the last three players in the poker event of the year. Pius Heinz, Martin Staszka and Ben Lamb. A crowd rousing introduction for the three players as they take their seats ready to make poker history.

We begin with action between Stasko and Lamb raising to a $85 milion pot Lamb raises to 42.5 knowing that was all Stasko had. Statsko calls him going all in the first hand! Stasko has a pair of sevens and Lamb has K-J. The flop is 3-9-2. The turn is a 3 and the river is 10! Stasko is still in it and Lamb is crippled with a major short stack of $12.7 million.

Stasko and Heinz go into heads up play for a pot of $31 million and no-one seems to be backing down. Staszko takes it with a pair of kings and becomes the chip [...]

Update: Stasko goes all in against Heinz with A-8. Heinz has a pair of sixes. The fop is 8-5-8 in Staszko’s favor. Turn is a 4. The river is a queen and Stasko survives. We all thought this was it for Staszko and play for the day but we are still going. Heinz has lost 20 million chips with Staszko. He drops Lamb back into fourth place. Time for a break.

After the break all goes well until Staszko goes up against Heinz once again. The pot sits at $40 million and its Heinz’s move. Everyone is waiting. We are over four minutes. Heinz folds. Staszko moves up to $58,400,00 chips. Is he making a comeback? Going for Heinz rather than short stacker Lamb?

After several hands Lamb goes all in against Giannetti who has pocket jacks. Lamb has A-7. Flop is K-5-9. Turn is 4 and the river is a 9. Lamb is still in [...]

Heinz, Giannetti and Saszko continue to trade chips as Lamb, Collins and O’Dea try to stay in the game. Heinz is confidently in the lead with over $65 million in chips. Ben Lamb has very few chips but he seems to be playing more and more aggressively hoping to move up the score board. It would be nice to see the WSOP player of the year in the final two. He had a lot of work to do very quickly.

Collins moves all-in to Lamb who folds giving Collins some much needed chips. Lamb then moves all-in against O’Dea. This could be an elimination hand. O’Dea is taking a long time to make a decision. His bracelet winning father is watching him from the audience. He calls! The flop is 6-J-J. Turn is a 4. River is8! Ben Lamb wins! O’Dea becomes the short short stack. Next level will end him without a major change [...]

Heinz continues to grow in confidence and chips as the final table craws towards evening. Giannetti plays aggressively against Heinz and wins $17 million and moves into second place. Collins goes all in against O’Dea trying to narrow the field by another player. Rather than go out O’Dea folds. Collins and O’Dea go in for a second time and O’Dea folds again. Players seem to be testing each other and adapting to the smaller table.

Giannetti plays a few good hands and ends up just three million chips behind first place Pius Heinz. Out of nowhere Bounahra goes all in against Staszko. The flop is 6-7-2. The turn is a King and the river is a 6. Bounahra needed a five. We say goodbye to the Belize cheering section and a small nation’s poker hero. This makes O’Dea the short stack with Phil Collins not too far behind.

O’Dea goes all in against Lamb and manages to [...]

Things are going rapidly now half way through day one of the final table. Everyone has started making bold moves and the chip count board is all over the place. Its hard to keep up with the action.

O’Dea goes all in with pocket sevens and Staszko folds. O’Dea is obviously trying to get a bigger chip count. After a little scuffle with Giannetti Heinz steps into the chip lead. Positions are changing rapidly. Holden goes all in on the button and takes it from Bunahara making O’Dea the short stack. O’Dea goes all in against Giannetti forcing a fold and increasing his stack.

Collins and Lamb go head to head but Collins quickly folds. A few quick hands but nothing special. Level ends with Heinz in the lead and Makiievski in ninth position.

The players take a break.

Lamb calls 9 million and Holden goes all in. Lamb has AK and Holden has AJ. The flop is 9-8-A. [...]

The play so far at the 2011 WSOP final table has been nothing if not interesting but in the final hour of level 37 professional goes against newbee at an astounding rate.

Staszko holds his own against Ben Lamb and wins the pot with a re-raise before a flop ever happened. Heinz and Collins go at it again Heinz re raises over $2 million to Collins $500K. After some deliberation Collins re-raises to $4.5 million and things start to get tense. Heinz goes all in with A-K and wins a $24 million pot. A little new school teaching old school. Heinz goes into fourth place.

Giannetti and Bounahra go head to head with a flop of J-Q-9 but Bounahra folds against Giannetti’s straight draw.

Heinz, O’Dea and Lamb enjoy a little action creating a $10 million pot before the flop. Lamb folds before the flop. Flop is 8-8-4. O’Dea bets $4.6 million and the pot keeps climbing. Heinz [...]

Bounahra is aggressively protecting his short stack raising to $1.6 million, forcing Holden to fold. He takes another coupe of hands and enjoys interacting with the crowd. Heinz too is trying to make his chip count and raises a million to Statsko and wins against the chip leader’s pocket sevens. Up to 19 million in chips, almost 3 million more than he started with.

Lamb shows his face with a raise on the button and takes an easy uncontested pot. Holden goes all in against Bounahra and gets a chip count of just over $10 million. Collins makes a little noise with a raise on the button and you can see all the other players debating heads up play with the professional. Heinz takes the chance and Collins folds to Heinz’s re-raise. A bold move for the German. Heinz is obviously happy with his win probably gaining valuable play information against Collins.

Lamb retaliates by raising Heinz [...]

Heinz comes out strong with a $1.2 million raise and O’Dea calls. Being the short stack Heinz has to be careful but he raised again after the flop of Q-6-3 to $1.42 million. O’Dea calls. Heinz checks and the turn is a jack. Both check and the river is an eight. Heinz holds on with another bet for $2.3 million. O’Dea folds and Heinz gets a little closer to a comfortable chip count. The crowd and the commentators seemed convinced that Heinz was on the way out but the surprising win has ignited the audience.

Heinz keeps it up with a quick win against Holden. Next new short stack Banahra folds trying to hold on a little longer. O’Dea raises to $1.3 million. Lamb folds the big bind to give O’Dea an easy victory. The hands are playing out short and fast with players alternating between aggressive play and cautious bets. O’Dea is becoming one of [...]

After the phrase “shuffle up and deal” the crowd broke out into an excited roar so much so I thought I was watching a European soccer match. A quietly excited November nine began to play all eagerly participating in the game that could change their lives forever.

With approx. 37 minutes left on the level it was a short introduction to the 2011WSOP Main Event final table with some surprising choices from the well rested players. The first flop was a K-7-J and with little contest Phil Collins took the first pot. Irishman O’Dea took second but Collins came back to take the third pot. Holden came out strong on the button and bet blind making an easy win as every other player folded. Things got a little more intense on the fifth in heads up play between Giannetti and Collins ending with Collins folding his A-10 to Giannetti’s K-10.

Heinz came into the game on the [...]

Czech native Martin Staszko is the first player from his country to get to the final table. That makes three right? He has seven cash winnings and just over $91K in earnings going into this event which is the largest of his professional career. Did I mention he is the chip leader going in? Here’s a few recent stats. Staszko, outside of the WSOP win, has not made too much of a splash yet.

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