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Poker News Round-up: Week #23 Nenad Medic wins event 1 And we’re off – the WSOP is underway and it’s not been a bad first week for those Brits who decided to head over to Vegas for the very start of the series. First up was a big $10,000 buy in event – the world championship pot limit hold’em tournament which attracted a very strong field. There were some early teething problems for the organisers as the tournament clock was found to be running out of synch and levels were finishing early, although many players were more interested in the tvs showing basketball than the ones with tournament information on. Presumably the sports bettors had many times more than the tournament buy in riding on the game. John “Large” Kabbaj led the charge for England but just missed out on a final table with his tenth place finish which was good for $49,632. From a final nine packed full of experience at the highest level, Canadian Nenad Medic emerged victorious to take the first bracelet of the series and a WSOP title to go with his WPT win.  Wrong move at the right time for Hinkle Event two was the first of the smaller buy in events at $1500 entry and as such a large field was expected. The final total was a staggering 3929 entrants making it the fourth largest live tournament of all time, meaning more money was up for grabs for first in this one than in the previous $10,000 buy in event. At the end of four days of hard graft a winner was within sight and it seemed that nobody was able to beat Chris Ferguson. After having his stack reduced to less than one big blind he survived countless all in confrontations to survive for a long long time after that, but eventually exited in third place at the hands of young Englishman James Akenhead. That left Akenhead to play Grant Hinkle for the bracelet, and after a couple of hours of small swings Hinkle held a small chip lead when all the chips went in pre-flop. Akenhead tabled A  E-dog Erick Lindgren wins his first bracelet David Singer added to his recent heads up tournament victory on Full Tilt with a first bracelet at his ninth WSOP final table when he won event three’s pot limit hold’em tournament, before event four produced another star studded final. The mixed hold’em $5000 event saw David Williams, Roland de Wolfe, Erick Lindgren, Justin Bonomo and Howard Lederer all fighting it out on the tough final table, along with some strong young internet players. After de Wolfe’s exit in fourth it eventually came down to a battle between Bonomo and Lindgren for the bracelet. Bonomo started with the chip lead but Lindgren ground that down before finishing him off with a wheel straight to take victory. Lindgren’s many achievements thus far had not included a WSOP bracelet and he was starting to get a reputation as one of the best players not to win one, but not only has he now broken his duck, he has done it against a field of quality opposition.  Another bad beat victim - Peter Gould Next came the mania of the first rebuy tournament in event five, with reports of many players just repeatedly moving all in blind until they won a hand. Steve Sung made 23 rebuys at $1000 a time, which is not quite as much as Daniel Negreanu’s record of 48 from 2006 but did mean that he would need to make the top 15 of this 766 runner field just to get his money back (which he didn’t.) In fact most of those who had exhibited the most craziness during the rebuy period were nowhere to be seen towards the business end of the tournament, but another Englishman was in the mix again. Peter Gould looked in great shape when he got all the money in with pocket tens versus pocket sevens with play down to just three, but a cruel seven on the flop saw him exit at the hands of Michael Banducci. Gould collects $245,997 and Banducci, who then went on to win the event, netted $636,736. Spencer Lawrence from London was another final tablist in event six, $2000 Omaha hi/lo, and he also came very close to a bracelet but lost outs heads up against Las Vegas resident Thang Luu. Nevertheless a good effort from Lawrence sees him pick up $156,343 in the largest Omaha hi/lo field in WSOP history. So that’s the first week of the WSOP done already, and a very interesting one it’s been too. Record fields, sick bad beats at crucial times and most of the biggest names in poker facing off against one another in search of a coveted bracelet. There is a life outside of the Rio, but for the next few weeks all eyes are on the events taking place in its convention centre. The newly introduced mixed event, testing an even greater range of skills than HORSE is set to crown its first champion soon and predictably enough the final table looks set to be one full of great players. Beyond that we have a little variation on what’s gone on so far with stud, deuce to seven draw lowball and some HORSE set to come in the next few days. For all the great action we’ve had so far, there should be much more left to come with 55 bracelet events in all and the main event not starting for another month yet. For those of you who haven’t got a seat for the big one at present, just fire up your computer and get some satellites running – you know you want to be there really.
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and would have been delighted to see that Hinkle was simply playing back at him in an attempt to stop Akenhead bossing the game too much. Hinkle’s all in move with 10
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left Akenhead drawing dead to running kings or aces. The case ten on the turn denied Akenhead the unlikeliest of turnarounds and suddenly Hinkle was celebrating a bracelet win with his supporters in the stands. It will feel like a kick in the teeth for Akenhead to have come so close to a first WSOP win in such circumstances, but he does at least have the consolation of now being over half a million dollars better off.
