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Poker News Round-up: Week #23Picking up where we left off last week, the $40,000 anniversary tournament at the WSOP managed to generate the largest ever prize pool for any WSOP tournament except for the main event at a massive $7,718,400. Representing England and Ireland were Neil Channing and Andy Black who both cashed for the minimum (still $71,858 though) but it looked as though the majority of the money would be staying in America as the final table was reached. Eight out of the remaining nine hailed from the USA with just Vitaly Lunkin of Russia left to represent the rest of the world, although he managed to steer his stack clear of trouble while others busted around him until it was him, Greg Raymer and Isaac Haxton left as the final three with roughly equal stacks. Raymer and Haxton soon clashed, getting it all in pre-flop with pocket fives versus pocket nines and after no improvement for either Haxton was left with around a two to one chip lead over Lunkin.  Event 2 winner Vitaly Lunkin Having demolished Haxton’s lead within minutes, Lunkin was unfortunate not to finish the job a couple of hours later when both players were all in on the turn with Haxton holding top pair against Lunkin’s pocket aces. The river was cruel though and paired Haxton’s other card in what must have been a devastating moment for Lunkin. Fortunately for him it took just another seven hands before he picked up aces again and once more got Haxton all in as an underdog. This time there was no rescue for the American though as Lunkin faded numerous cards on the turn and river to become champion of the first open WSOP event of 2009.  Thang Luu successfully defends his title Event number three ($1,500 limit Omaha hi/lo) produced a pretty amazing story when former Rio dealer Thang Luu won the event to successfully defend the title he also won in 2008. To repeat the feat this year Luu had to overcome the largest field ever for a live Omaha tournament at 918 runners and he took the event by storm, leading the field from day one. As if any further evidence might be required that Thang Luu is pretty handy at Omaha hi/lo, it’s worth noting that he also finished second in the $2,000 O8 event at the 2007 WSOP.  Steve Sung Event four was named the stimulus special because the relatively low buy in of $1,000 was intended to offer people the chance to play a WSOP event at a time when many are struggling financially (this size buy in had previously been abandoned after the 2006 series.) If Harrah’s had any concerns about how many people might be able to play at the WSOP this year they were soon eased when the event completely sold out, creating a field of 6012. Days 1a and 1b saw players bust out at a rate of one every fourteen seconds throughout the entire day, but that still left plenty to come back and do it all over again for days two, three and four. Managing to stick around to collect all 18 million chips was Chinese born pro player Steve Sung who collects $771,106 for what will have been an exhausting four days. The immense popularity of this event has prompted WSOP organisers to consider adding more $1,000 events to next year’s schedule. Communications director Seth Palansky said “This may be the event that makes us consider some of our buy-in levels. I think that’s a smart way to go... I think it’s something we really have to look at more seriously.” There were only two starting days for this event but had the appeal of it been anticipated fully a third starting day might have turned it into the largest live tournament of all time.  Omaha winner Jason Mercier Event five saw success for an American player who has had the vast majority of his success in Europe as Jason Mercier took down the $1,500 pot limit Omaha event. In April last year Mercier won EPT San Remo and followed that up with a final table at EPT Barcelona and victory in the high roller event at EPT London. Now he also has a WSOP bracelet to his name after making his way through a field of 809 to bring his career earnings to over $3 million with this latest addition of another $237,462.  Stud world champion Freddie Ellis We now have our first world champion of the series with the completion of event six which was the $10,000 buy in seven card stud. At just 142 entries this represented a decent shot at a bracelet for anyone who knows what they’re doing at stud and whilst there were many of the usual bracelet hunters in attendance, by the time play became three handed a new winner was guaranteed. Finland’s Ville Wahlbeck busted in third to leave two of the game’s more senior players to battle it out for the title in the form of Eric Drache and Freddie Ellis. At 67 years of age Ellis had been struggling with the long hours which need to be played to go right through a WSOP event, but he managed to stay alert long enough to overturn a big chip deficit towards the end and win the event. For Drache it is a third runner up spot at the WSOP, whilst Ellis picks up his first ever cash in Vegas in style with the stud world championship bracelet and $373,744.  Champions Invitational winner Tom McEvoy Whilst these bracelet events were taking place, twenty past winners of the main event sat down to play a champions invitational tournament. There was no buy in nor a prize pool but a fair amount of prestige and a new Corvette to the winner plus the newly created Binion Cup created in honour of Benny Binion. It came down to the winners from 1983 and 2002 to do battle for the 40th anniversary special tournament and Tom McEvoy had the pleasure of holding the nuts and seeing Robert Varkonyi move all in on him on the final hand. McEvoy has not really been a prominent player on the live tournament scene for a few years but seemed upbeat after his win. “Beating all my colleagues that were talented enough to win the Main Event was what it was really about. One of the reasons I was so determined to win this was to re-establish myself and prove, not only to myself, but to everybody else, that I can still do this” was what he had to say after his win. The poker world’s attention is very much focussed on the Rio at the moment but that’s not to say that there isn’t poker being played elsewhere, such as Nottingham’s Dusk Till Dawn club which recently hosted their Grand Slam tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of £250,000. For a number of reasons that guarantee wasn’t reached with tournament buy ins, leaving the club to pick up a £56,000 overlay making it one of the best value tournaments ever seen in this country. Winner of the event was day one chip leader Daniel Nutt who beat Peter Charalambous heads up to take the £81,250 first prize. That overlay was the last thing the club needed at the moment amid rumours that the club will be forced to shut soon, following a story in the Nottingham Evening Post. DTD owner Rob Yong has confirmed that recent changes to business rates and the way that poker is taxed have left them feeling the pinch, but he also specified that the club will definitely not be closing. Keeping the club open is important for the UK poker scene, especially as they were decent enough to post a guarantee and then stick to it without trying to wriggle out of paying, which is more than the likes of the WPT have done in the past. That’s all for this week, but there will surely be plenty to look forward to over the next few days, including the world championship mixed event which will provide a stern test of all round poker ability.
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