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Poker News Round-up: Week #24Week two of the WSOP has seen plenty of bracelets being dished out and as always there are some great stories emerging from the Rio. Therefore it’s with apologies to Travis Johnson, Anthony Harb, Keven Stammen, Lisa Hamilton, Brian Lemke and Zac Fellows who have all done fantastically well to win an event but they will not be receiving any further mention than that for now as we focus on some of the other winners of the past week.  Ivey does it again Last year Phil Ivey was the subject of much talk after allegedly booking some very large bets on himself to win a bracelet, and once again in 2009 he is rumoured to have had some sort of seven figure sum riding as a side bet that he would collect a sixth WSOP title. If that is correct then he will be a very happy man this week as the deuce to seven no limit draw bracelet for event eight ended up on his wrist after beating a field of 147. As word spread around the Rio that Ivey was close to another bracelet numerous pros flocked round the table, some of them presumably doing their best to conceal the fact that they were not quite as keen to see him do well as those who hadn’t taken up the prop bet against him. Despite a little wobble when heads up against seasoned deuce to seven player John Monnette, Ivey went on to seal the deal and earn substantially more than the $96,367 on offer as the official prize money. Events nine and ten brought the promise of a potential bracelet for England as Praz Bansi and Peter Gould in the $1,500 six handed no limit hold’em plus Ben Grundy, Paul Parker and John Kabbaj in the $2,500 pot limit Omaha/hold’em all made final tables. Third for Gould and Grundy were the best finishes from that group though as Ken “Teach” Aldridge and Rami Boukai both collected their first ever bracelets.  Mixed game champ Wahlbeck Ville Wahlbeck of Finland took his exit in third place from the world championship stud event last week pretty hard, but had a chance to redeem himself when he also went deep in the $10,000 mixed event a few days later. The opposition at the final two tables was significantly stronger for Wahlbeck in the mixed event but this time round he made it all the way through, finally beating David Chiu heads up for $492,384. With two big results under his belt in the space of a few days Wahlbeck took the lead in the player of the year race, but now it already looks as though he’s going to need another big one if he wants that number one spot back.  Uncle Albert impersonator Brock Parker The following day Brock Parker beat a field of 367 in the $2,500 six handed limit hold’em event 14 when he defeated Daniel Negreanu heads up for his first bracelet and a $223,697 payday. Amazingly three days later when the no limit version of the same £2,500 six handed hold’em tournament was played as event 19 Parker won again, this time beating a much bigger line up of 1068 entries. On the face of it one player winning more than one tournament at a single WSOP seems a long shot, especially given some of the enormous fields we see these days, yet this is the tenth consecutive year in which we have seen a multiple bracelet winner. With that win not only does Parker collect over half a million dollars, he also moves ahead of Wahlbeck in the player of the year rankings. We’re not yet half way through the series and already Parker has 210 points in the PoY standings thanks to those two wins plus another two cashes previously (Erick Lindgren took the title last year with a total of 245 points.) Elsewhere in the Rio there have been second bracelets for Jeff Lisandro who collected another stud title in event 16, and Daniel Alaei who won the $10,000 Omaha hi/lo for $445,898. In this event Daniel Negreanu had another near miss in his quest for bracelet number five with fourth place, after previously registering second and tenth place finishes so far this year. Ville Wahlbeck also managed to claw a few points back against Brock Parker with 13th place. Event 20 gave Erik Seidel the chance to win his ninth bracelet as he made the final table of the $1,500 pot limit hold’em where England’s John Paul Kelly started as chip leader. Seidel had promised to give his winnings to local charities whatever his finishing position, but his philanthropy was not rewarded and he busted in seventh after never really having much go his way. The opposite was true of Kelly who appeared to have committed suicide early on when he clashed with fellow big stack Andrew Radel after a flop of A  Congratulations JP Kelly With plenty of chips and perhaps a sense of invincibility Kelly was able to keep building his stack until it was just him and German Marc Tschirch left to battle it out heads up. Nearly an hour of jockeying for position preceded the final hand when Tschirch decided to just call Kelly’s bet on the flop of 8 In the world of internet poker, several pieces of recent news had suggested that the future for the online game was beginning to look much more rosy but there has been quite a severe setback this week with the news that over $30 million worth of players’ funds have been frozen. The US attorney for the southern district of New York has instructed three payment processors to freeze the accounts of around 24,000 players on the grounds that the money was derived from illegal gambling offences and money laundering. The allegations do not make any mention of the UIGEA but it is the Wire Act which is being quoted, which forbids gambling activity via the use of telecommunications. How this act applies to online poker is not really specified but the same New York district which has previously prompted action from the department of justice on Neteller accounts and the settlements with Party Gaming has unsurprisingly interpreted it unfavourably for online players. In response the Poker Players’ Alliance has threatened retaliatory legal action but however this is eventually settled it is unlikely that a conclusion will be reached soon. The eventual return of the funds seized when Neteller accounts were frozen took several months at great inconvenience to individual players, which is exactly what the intention is here, so it seems that the anti-poker lobby has already won this little battle whatever happens from here on. So, it’s shaping up to be another interesting WSOP with Ivey, Wahlbeck and Parker the main headline makers so far, but there are still many events left for others to step into the limelight. By this time next week we will have three more $10,000 world championship events wrapped up including the deuce to seven lowball, limit hold’em and heads up titles so there is plenty of great action coming up.
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