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Poker News Round-up: Week #27Of the preliminary events at the WSOP the showpiece tournament is undoubtedly the $50,000 HORSE event. Even though it is does not determine the world champion nor does it any longer provide the toughest test of all round poker skills now that the mixed event has been introduced this year, there is still a certain prestige associated with this event like no other. A five day tournament with a fixed limit betting structure is about being the one to make the fewest mistakes as much as anything else, and this was certainly a marathon not a sprint. By the end of the first day just 8 players had been eliminated from a starting field of 148, amongst them Phil Hellmuth who declared "Well, I didn't think it was possible to go out of this on day one. I like to do things that are tough to do." Those who play in Bellagio’s Big Game and walk away with their bankroll intact were of course expected to do well and by the end of day two that was beginning to show with Lyle Berman, Minh Ly and Barry Greenstein all featuring at the top of the leaderboard. There were challenges from some of the younger generation of poker players as well and although Tom Dwan and James Mackey could not last the pace, another less well known young player took the opportunity to confirm his mixed game ability. 22 year old Michael Demichele finished fourth in the $10,000 mixed event this year and also cashed in a WSOP HORSE event last year, so when he finished day three as chip leader the seasoned pros that were left would have had to be taking the threat posed by this new kid on the block very seriously. Demichele was still going strong when the final table of eight was reached, although the task ahead of him was immense as yet again the $50,000 HORSE final was packed with quality players. It’s easy to see just why this event is so highly rated – since being re-introduced to the WSOP as this buy in the players comprising the three final tables have read as follows: Chip Reese, Andy Bloch, Phil Ivey, Jim Bechtel, TJ Cloutier, David Singer (twice), Dewey Tomko, Doyle Brunson, Patrick Antonius, Freddy Deeb, Bruno Fitoussi, John Hanson, Amnon Filippi, Kenny Tran, Barry Greenstein (twice), Michael Demichele, Huck Seed, Lyle Berman, Patrick Bueno, Scotty Nguyen, Erick Lindgren and Matt Glantz.  Scotty Nguyen and the Chip Reese trophy Demichele eliminated one former world champion when he busted Huck Seed in seventh, but not the other when heads up against Scotty Nguyen whose experience and the chip lead were enough to seal victory for the man from Vietnam. This year’s WSOP has thrown up some popular winners, and there is possibly nobody in poker more popular with the fans than Scotty Nguyen. During the final stages of this event he even allowed his stack to be blinded away at a crucial time during a trip to the bathroom as he couldn’t say no to the requests from fans to have their pictures taken with him. Nguyen was quick to thank his supporters afterwards and also to pay his respects to Chip Reese, in whose name a memorial trophy is now given to the winner of this event. Doyle Brunson had spoken of his desire to win it for his old friend, but he would surely agree that Nguyen is a player worthy of the award instead.  James Schaaf Other highlights of the week included the other HORSE tournament taking place for the much more accessible buy in of $1,500. Of 803 entrants, Phil Hellmuth finished day one as chip leader and to the surprise of many his name was atop the leaderboard at the end of day two as well. Just about every significant result of Hellmuth’s career has come in hold’em, but after just $6,604 in prize money from hold’em events at this year’s WSOP it seemed as though Hellmuth was ready to show that he is actually well versed at more than one game. A record 12th bracelet loomed for Hellmuth, and with Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan looking less and less likely to win another bracelet of their own with every passing year, the opportunity to extend his lead over them seemed a very realistic one at one point. However Hellmuth had to make do with third place in the end, losing out to James Schaaf who was playing in his first ever WSOP. Schaaf’s achievement is remarkable in light of the fact that he had been down to just 200 in chips at one point before staging a dramatic comeback.  Marty Smyth At about this time last year it was looking as though there would be no wins at the 2007 WSOP for the UK players when Ram Vaswani snared one of the last bracelets up for grabs in the limit hold’em shootout event. This year, after a promising start it again looked as though players from this part of the world would be coming back without a victory to their name, but once more there has been a win late in the series for a UK player. This time it was the $10,000 pot limit Omaha, and as ever this event drew a strong field. It was Karl Mahrenholz who made the early running representing the UK but he busted out on day two, whilst Northern Irishman Marty Smyth was making steady progress towards the final table. The Grinder Michael Mizrachi was chip leader going into the final table but a big double up via Mizrachi for Smyth put him in a commanding position that he would never relinquish. On the final hand both Smyth and his opponent Peter Jetten flopped the nut straight on a flop of 10 Previously it had been announced that the big HORSE tournament would not count towards the player of the year standings, but the rules were revised so that points from this event would now be included which was good news for Erick Lindgren. His third place in that event gave him enough points to pip Barry Greenstein to the title, and an impressive five cashes for a total of $1,348,528 mean that Lindgren is 2008’s WSOP player of the year. As events approach an end in Las Vegas, news has emerged this week of the events that will constitute the WSOP Europe later this year. The schedule has been expanded a little from 2007 and there are now five events, namely £1,500 no limit hold’em, £2,500 HORSE, £5,000 pot limit Omaha and the £10,000 no limit hold’em main event. The events will be held in September, and a further five tournaments will be hosted earlier on in the month which will not be bracelet events. The main sponsor will once again be Betfair, and a deal has also been struck with ESPN to broadcast coverage of the event globally. Pokerstsars have also released details of their big online festival, the World Championship Of Online Poker, which will run throughout September as well. There will be 33 events taking in a wide range of games including some not even seen at the WSOP such as deuce to seven single draw and five card draw. There are also plenty of hefty buy in events including a $25,000 heads up event, $10,000 HORSE and $10,000 no limit hold’em events. The main event will feature a smaller buy in than these events to attract greater numbers, and seeing as last year’s event lasted around 22 hours, it has now sensibly become a two day event. There was controversy last year when the account which initially won the main event was subsequently disqualified amid allegations of multi-accounting. TheVOid’s account was suspended before any of the prize money could be withdrawn and ka$ino was instated as the winner. But the matter did not end there and it has now gone to court in the Isle Of Man. At the time there were suggestions that it was Mark Teltscher playing on the account and those rumours seem as though they might have been accurate as Natalie Teltscher (to whom that account is registered) has filed a lawsuit against Pokerstars, claiming that they had no right to deny her the money won in her name. Apparently Natalie Teltscher admits that she didn’t play in the tournament herself and had someone play on her behalf but that Pokerstars is not legally entitled to do what it did. This would be in breach of the site’s terms and conditions but the case has been adjourned while a decision is made as to whether the player is contractually entitled to the money. Somewhere in Douglas a judge is currently trying to get to grips with the implications of multi-accounting in a poker tournament - there are no indications as yet as to how long this might take.
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and all the money went in. Smyth had the redraw to the club flush which hit on the river, but afterwards he admitted to being so caught up in the moment when he hit the straight that he didn’t even realize he had clubs in his hand for the freeroll. Victory in the biggest Omaha tournament ever saw Smyth collect $859,549 and a first bracelet.