We have two more bracelet wins to catch up with at the 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online Series on WSOP.com.
We begin with Event #28: $1,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 6-Max, and William “SlaweelRyam” Romaine set aside his disappointment at finishing runner-up to Michael “miguelfiesta” Lech in Event #13: $1,500 High Roller Freezeout, by claiming the victory in this one.
Romaine finished 61st in the 2019 WSOP Main Event and adds his online bracelet to an online ring, earned in the same year as his deep run in the big one. Mark Ioli finished second. Ioli came 5/734 in the WPT Venetian Main Event in 2019. Gabe Ramos, runner-up to Yueqi Zhu in 2018 Mixed $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better; Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better; Big O (5-Card PLO/8), finished sixth.
Here are the final table results.
Event #28: $1,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 6-Max
525-entrants (425-unique, 100 re-entries)
Results
William “SlaweelRyam” Romaine – $110,673
Mark “victb” Ioli – $68,478
Vasu “kheescoopy” Amarapu – $45,287
Stephen “Chippingggup” Tyson – $30,474
Kyle “Ksparks740” Sparks – $21,047
Gabriel “NJ_FittyFish” Ramos – $14,813
Two high stakes stars that went deeper than therapy were Brian Rast (69th) and Anthony Zinno (81st).
Nick “shadowjacker” Guagenti Wins Event #29: $2,000 No Limit Hold’em DeepStack
Nick “shadowjacker” Guagenti joined Romaine on the podium. Guagenti has finished in the money in 37 bracelet events. Last year he finished third in the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E behind Denis Strebkov and Paul-Francois Tedeschi, and fourth in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better.
The prognosis didn’t look good for Guagenti given the amount of quality at the final table, but the man from Westerville, Ohio, overcame. Matthew Parry finished fifth in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship in 2016, James Gilbert is a gold ring winner, and Ryan Tosoc, Ari Engel and Thomas Cannuli all have gold bracelets hidden somewhere in their homes.
Here are the final table results.
Event #29: $2,000 No Limit Hold’em DeepStack
747-entrants (580-unique, 167 re-entries)
Results
Nick “shadowjacker” Guagenti – $305,433
Matthew “EarvinMagic” Parry – $189,193
Ari “philivey” Engel – $130,292
Brian “BD_out” Deutschmeister – $91,261
Ryan “toosick” Tosoc – $65,004
Vinny “brownmagic” Pahuja – $47,121
Rory “peeeeeeeeno” Brown – $34,773
James “DanFriel” Gilbert – $26,115
High stakes stars who went deeper than a stiletto into the groin of a sexual masochist include Shaun Deeb (36th) and Joe McKeehen (42nd).
On the day that 38-acres of prime Las Vegas Strip sold for $108m in a virtual auction, two peeps hopped onto WSOP.com, each bagging a virtual bracelet.
We start with Event #26: $500 No Limit Hold’em Grand Finale, and a 22-year-old from New Jersey walked away with the bracelet and $164,494 in prize money.
Ethan “RampageP’ Yau is a $1-$3 cash game grinder who owns the ‘RampagePoker’ YouTube channel, meaning fans of Yau got to witness the misfortune of 1,676 of his opponents as he streamed the whole thing live.
It was the first time Yau had cashed in a WSOP event. Joining him at the final table was Blake Whittington, who won the 2019 World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) Main Event in Tunica for $151,789. Whittington finished fourth.
Here are the final table results.
Event #26: $500 No Limit Hold’em Grand Finale
2,502-entrants (1,677 unique, 825 re-entries)
Results
Ethan “RampageP’ Yau – $164,494
Brian “LakersGTD” Patrick – $101,669
Mohammad “Tmomoney” Mufti – $74,647
Blake “shampainpopn” Whittington – $55,282
David “reallytight” Kim – $41,321
Jason “TATTOOMONEY” Scott – $31,075
Matt “OMG_Obama” Iles – $23,531
Joon “jykpoker” Kim – $18,014
The only high stakes player who ran deep in this one was Daniel Negreanu (92nd).
Ian Steinman Wins Event #27: $400 No Limit Hold’em Freezeout
The man who achieved global notoriety for folding a set of kings to Joe McKeehen’s Broadway straight on his way to a second-place finish at the 2018 WPT Rolling Thunder, has found his way to the top spot.
Ian “Apokerjoker2” Steinman placed a telephone cord around the necks of the 1,940-entrant field on his way to his first-ever bracelet win. Steinman is no stranger to WSOP success, winning four gold rings, and the 2016 WSOP.com Player of the Year.
Here are the final table results.
Results
Ian “Apokerjoker2” Steinman – $110,557
Satoshi “Godzilla” Tanaka – $68,373
Mahyar “Pscyho101”Ebrahimi – $49,796
Nicholas “Got_The_Glow – $Brancato – $36,526
Cameron “crezident” Rezale – $27,028
Lokesh “lanku111” Garg – $20,254
Alida “av1925” Veliu – $15,295
Huiwen “HLM99” Liu – $11,663
The only high stakes poker star to go deep in this one was Shaun Deeb (13th).
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) continues to run unabated on GGPoker without a DDoS attack in sight.
Phew!
We have three Pot Limit Omaha games to bring you up to speed on, and the high stakes fraternity endowed the final tables of all three with their presence.
We start with the 328-entrant Event #35: $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha, and Juha Helppi procured his second bracelet after beating the Spaniard Jesus Cortes, heads-up, to claim the $290,286 first prize.
High stakes stars littered the final table like spelling mistakes in my articles pre-Grammarly inspection with Mike Watson (4th), Jens Kyllonen (5th), Yuri Dzivielevski (6th) and Sergio Reixach (7th) all bowing down to Helppi.
It’s the second successive bracelet win for Helppi after taking down the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship in 2019 for $306,622.
Here are the final table results.
Event #35: $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha
328-entrants
Results
Juha Helppi – $290,286
Jesus Cortes – $213,270
Belarmino De Souza – $156,688
Mike Watson – $115,117
Jens Kyllonen – $84,576
Yuri Dzivielevski – $62,137
Sergi Reixach – $45,651
Marija Andrijasevic – $33,540
Event #37: $1,050 Bounty Pot Limit Omaha
Australian high roller, Hun Wei Lim, won the 971-entrant $1,050 Bounty Pot Limit Omaha contest. Lim beat Janne Peltoniemi, heads-up, to win his maiden bracelet, eight years after finishing runner-up to Aaron Lim in an AUD 5,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed event at the World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific (WSOP-APAC) in 2013.
Lim also won an AUD 20,000 No Limit Hold’em event during the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) event in Sydney in 2017 and finished runner-up to Jorryt van Hoof in the AUD 25,000 Pot Limit Omaha during the Aussie Millions in January.
Here are the results.
Results
Hun Wei Lee – $161,886
Janne Peltoniemi – $64,246
Craig Timmis – $66,836
Bradley Ruben – $39,472
Paul Teoh – $37,083
Attila Kuna – $25,287
Nikolaus Eigners – $14,537
Shaul Meir – $12,031
Event #40: $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha
Simon Lofberg cast his spell on the 532-entrant field in Event #40: $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha, and it held them in a gaze long enough for him to bag the $224,493 first prize and his first bracelet.
Lofberg beat Triton regular, Andreas Torbergsen, heads-up, to take the title. Kings Casino owner, Leon Tsoukernik, made an impression finishing in the fourth place.
Here are the final table results.
Results
Simon Lofberg – $224,493
Andreas Torbergsen – $164,553
Shyngis Satubayev – $120,617
Leon Tsoukernik – $88,412
Sai Wah Shek – $64,806
Arvi Vainionkulma – $47,502
Paul Teoh – $34,819
Benjamin Juhasz – $25,522
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory, Disneyland and Christmas Eve rolled into one. But not everyone looks forward to the annual trek to the desert with the overexuberant enthusiasm of a child.
Roberto Romanello, for example.
The Welsh wizard has always felt homesick during his times in Vegas. Add a set of twins into the equation, and it makes the ordeal even harder peas.
As much as Romanello would have preferred to stay at home, serving fish, chips and the mushy things to Gorseinon punters, he had the little problem of a Triple Crown to solve.
Nine years after adding a World Poker Tour (WPT) title to his European Poker Tour (EPT) title, Romanello filled the Triple Crown lacuna, and he didn’t even have to leave his house.
Romanello cast a sinister spell over the 922-entrant field in Event #39: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em, beating the former PocketFives World #1, Niklas Astedt, heads-up, to claim the bracelet and $216,213 in prize money.
It’s the first time a Welshman (or Welshwoman) has earned a bracelet. He becomes the ninth person to win the Triple crown since Gavin Griffin became the first to achieve the feat in 2008 (interestingly, four of the nine are from the British Isles, with only Northern Ireland missing from the radar).
Romanello’s victory in EPT Prague to his online bracelet win spans nine years and seven months making it the most extended wait for a Triple Crown of the nine. Jake Cody holds the speed freak record winning all three in a halcyon space of one year and four-months back in 2010/11.
Here are the final table results.
Event #39: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em
922-entrants
Results
Roberto Romanello – $216,213
Niklas Astedt – $156,905
Paul Barnes – $113,866
Aleksandr Trofimov – $82,633
Thomas Cazayous – $59,966
Hannes Speiser – $43,518
Ravali Krishna – $31,581
Orkhan Allahverdyiev – $22,918
Triple Crown Club
Gavin Griffin
Roland De Wolfe
Jake Cady
Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier
Davidi Kitai
Mohsin Charania
Harrison Gimbel
Niall Farrell
Roberto Romanello
The World Series of Poker (WSOP) Online Series has managed to ingratiate herself into our lives solidly for the past few weeks, but there is barely any air left in those hefty lungs of hers.
Two more bracelet wins to bring you up to speed on before she croaks, and we begin with a second sliver of gold for Nick ‘samadhi’ Binger. The poker coach won his first bracelet in 2011 after ousting 352-entrants over the rail in a $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo encounter.
Binger had to beat another bracelet winner, heads-up, to bag his brace. Ryan “Adopt_aDogg0” Leng won a 1,983-entrant $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Bounty event in 2018 for $272,765.
A third star shone brightly in this event with Matt ‘Berkey11_S4Y’ Berkey finishing seventh.
Nicholas ‘mrfinalt’ Kiley is the other bracelet winner after making fastidious work of the 2,155-entrant field in Event #25: $500 No Limit Hold’em Summer Saver. Kiley beat Guo Liang ‘Ct188’ Chen, heads-up, for the title, Berkey made his second final table appearance in the same number of days, finishing in the fifth position.
Here are the final table results.
Event #24: $400 No Limit Hold’em 8-Handed
2,408-entrants (1,590 unique, 818 re-entries)
Results
Nick ‘samadhi’ Binger – $133,413
Ryan ‘Adopt_aDogg0” Leng – $82,440
Philip ‘eric_shun’ Beesley – $60,161
Ian ‘aullululululu’ Waldron – $44,298
Mark ‘bansman’ Bansemar – $32,941
Norman ‘abnormality’ Michalek – $24,706
Matt ‘Berkey11_S4Y’ Berkey – $18,638
Christian ‘CalcFather’ Calcano – $14,217
Event #25: $500 No Limit Hold’em Summer Saver
2,155-entrants (1,484 unique, 671 re-entries)
Results
Nicholas ‘mrfinalt’ Kiley – $149,245
Guo Liang ‘Ct188’ Chen – $92,223
Weiyi ‘wymoney’ Mo – $67,301
Stephen ’S.Dot22’ Russo – $49,554
Matt ‘berkey11_s4y’ Berkey – $36,851
Kevin ‘SpecialK333’ Calenzo – $27,638
Richard ‘Daddyp69’ Perrin – $20,850
Michael ‘ha8me’ Policastro – $15,904
Two high stakes stars who followed a deep trajectory in this one were Joe McKeehen (57th) and Brian Rast (87th).
With most of us sat at home twiddling our thumbs, Poker Central has come to the rescue with a brand new concept for their direct to customer OTT subscription service PokerGO.
The newest kid in town goes by the name of ‘High Stakes Duel,’ and the first episode features two of the most eminent figures in the game; Mr Phil Hellmuth Jr. vs Antonio Esfandiari.
The pair have quibbled and squabbled throughout the years, but all in good fun. Only things are about to get a little more severe with each player investing $50,000 to compete against each other in a Round 1 match.
The match takes place at the PokerGO Studios at the ARIA Resort & Casino on July 30 at 9 pm ET/ 6 pm PT, and you can watch the action through the stained glass windows of PokerGO.
The winner advances to Round 2, where the loser gets the opportunity to invest in a rematch. The catch? It will cost them $100,000. According to the press release, the stakes double each round, meaning there will be $12.8m up for grabs in Round 8.
To win the lot, you have to take down three straight matches before Round 6 or 2 sequentially from Round 5 onwards. If the loser turns down the rematch, then a new challenger can step up. If there are no challengers within 30 days of the previous match, the most recent winner walks away victorious.
“For 10 years I’ve been challenging Phil to a heads-up match where the winner shoots the loser with a taser gun – so going head-to-head in ‘High Stakes Duel’ has been a long time coming,” said Esfandiari. “The idea that the winner has to go double-or-nothing at least two more times after the first match is brilliant; it will be interesting to see who will go for the challenge and who will turn it down when it gets to a certain point.”
“Antonio and I have a long history of playing poker together,” said Hellmuth.’ “From the time he came to my house as a young man and insisted we play heads up (he won), to the time we played televised cash games together (he won), to the NBC Heads Up Championship in 2005 – I won it all. Looking forward to this battle!”
A PokerGO subscription will set you back $10 per month, or $8.25 per month if you pay the annual cost of $99 upfront.
Poker Central Renews NBC Sports Deal
In other news, Poker Centrals’ deal with NBC Sports Group became watertight after the pair agreed to extend their partnership through 2022. The first deal came into fruition back in 2017.
“We want to continue to see our major tournaments and poker programming reach the greatest number of sports fans possible, globally,” said JR McCabe, Chief Business Officer of Poker Central. “Renewing our partnership with NBC Sports will allow us to further engage with both our passionate poker fans, as well as those who are entertained by the sport.”
Gary Quinn, Vice President, Programming & Owned Properties, NBC Sports added: “We’re excited to continue our partnership with Poker Central, which allows us to continue to engage with all poker fans, while also introducing the game to a wider audience.”
The broadcast schedules are still in abeyance.
The garden gate to a life of glamour and gladrags is blocked to the manic socialites of Las Vegas and New Jersey, but they still have the World Series of Poker (WSOP) – for a little while at least.
WSOP.com has six bracelet events left on the menu after Event #23: $500 No Limit Hold’em Knockout ended up in the record books. The bracelet and $93,776+$1,700 in prize money ended up on the person of one Raymond “avant9201” Avant.
Before this event, ‘Avant the Savant’ had never made money in a WSOP bracelet event, and his Hendon Mob wrap sheet…well… there isn’t one. The New Jersey native pistol-whipped Scott “intheblack14” Epstein in the final duel of an 11-hour this and that. Epstein has made three previous WSOP final tables including a 4/831 finish to Scott Fischman in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event in 2004.
Three more men are worthy of mention at the final table.
Ryan “im.sorry” Torgersen added a third to his second in Event #9: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Max, and his win in Event #10: $600 No Limit Hold’em Monster Stack.
Upeshka De Silva is a three-time bracelet winner with more than $3m in live tournament earnings. Last year, De Silva won a $600 No Limit Hold’em bracelet playing on WSOP.com.
Finally, one of the stars of the 2019 series also featured on the final table. Dan Zack made the money 14-times last year, including winning a Triple Draw bracelet.
Here are the final table results.
Event #23: $500 No Limit Hold’em Knockout
1,452-entrants
Results
Raymond “avant9201” Avant – $93,776+$1,700
Scott “intheblack14” Epstein – $58,074+$500
Ryan “im.sorry” Torgersen – $41,243+$1,100
Upeshka “gomezhamburg” De Silva – $29,690+$700
Byung Jun “YESUM1987” Kim – $21,693+$900
Zachary “kings702” Grech – $15,995+$900
Dilip Kumar “dogmai” Natarajan – $12,023+$2,900
Michael “mikeob81” O’Brien – $9,095+$400
Dan “pepperprince” Zack – $7,004+$400
Daniel Negreanu finished 25th.
I asked 18 high stakes poker players to name their top 3 movies. Some did this; others could only choose one or two. All found it a tough challenge.
(Full List Below)
Of the 36 movies selected, a top ten emerged, and the reasons why these movies still echoed around the hearts and minds of the high stakes players was incredible to hear.
Henrick Hecklen is one of Denmark’s top high stakes exports, and for him, science-fiction held a charm.
Here he is to explain why.
“I’d probably pick Interstellar, Arrival and The Matrix in no particular order,” said Hecklen. “They’re all somewhat different, yet they all make you ponder the great existential questions. “Can we survive as a species?” “Are we alone?” “Is this all a simulation?”
“These questions challenge you to think in ways you don’t think like in everyday life. As a funny side note, in the early days of my poker career, when I was feeling down because of a particularly bad session or a downswing, I’d always watch stuff about how the universe works to remind myself how small and an essentially non-meaningful thing it is to have a bad session of poker when you look at it from a perspective of how vast the cosmos is and what else is out there besides irrelevant monetary losses..”
Antonio Esfandiari liked movies that inspired him and singled out Braveheart and Forrest Gump in that regard.
“Braveheart was about sacrificing your life for the bigger cause, and that touched me,” said Esfandiari. “Forrest Gump has every aspect of life in a single story: love, fear, wealth, poverty, hatred – everything you could imagine. It’s a beautifully inspiring well-written story of how amazing and sad life can be.”
The former Super High Roller Bowl (SHRB) winner, Brian Rast, also picked Forrest Gump as one of his top movies.
“I learned a lot of lessons from it, despite it not being a Top 10 movie,” said Rast, “especially watching him overcome obstacles in life, and how naturally and effortlessly he did so. It’s easy to be cynical and jaded because of the way of the world, but it’s ok to be innocent. As long as you’re sincere and try your best, you can hold your head up high, and succeed.”
Rast wasn’t the only poker player whose choice of movie fits in with the flow of current political and cultural unrest. Daniel Negreanu chose two films that dealt with issues of racism.
“American History X is a powerful movie that had me in tears on repeated watches,” said Negreanu. “It was a raw look at race and how racism can be indoctrinated from a young age. I also love ‘Remember The Titans’. I love anything with Denzel Washington. Similarly to American History X, the movie dealt with race and proved that much of it comes from ignorance. If you out people together without the noise, they will find a lot more in common with each other than they may have previously thought.”
Negreanu’s third move choice, Good Will Hunting, left a permanent indention in his limbic system, because it reminded him of his childhood, and he wasn’t the only one whose younger life mirrored or was deeply affected by a movie.
Sosia Jiang is a confessed student of life, who plays high stakes poker when she has the time. Jiang chose ‘The Dead Poet’s Society’ as her favourite movie.
“I first saw Dead Poets Society as a young teen struggling to find my own identity,” said Jiang. “The themes of navigating pressures of conformity and parental expectations yet finding your way and “carpe diem” very much resonated with me at the time and I would say helped shape my attitude even in adulthood toward crucial life decisions.”
Sam Trickett selected ‘Gladiator’ as his classic underdog story, and ‘Rocketman’ as it drew similarities to his out of control hedonistic lifestyle at the peak of his poker powers. Still, it was another movie, seen in his youth, that would guide Trickett later in life.
“I’ve watched Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, more than any other film in my life,” said Trickett. “I had it on videotape and loved the idea of helping people without money. It inspired me as a young boy. I grew up 10-minutes from Sherwood Forest too. so I was always pretending to be Robin Hood in my childhood.”
Throw that man a pair of green tights.
Before I give you the rankings, here are some interesting insights.
Only one of the 18 players chose a poker movie as a favourite with ‘Rounders’ taking the honours. Still, a gambling movie did make the Top 10 with the Blackjack inspired’ 21′ surviving the bubble.
Of the four favourite protagonists that emerged from the data, three of them play poker (Edward Norton, Matt Damon and Leonardo Di Caprio), and two of them starred in Rounders.
While there was a lot of love for an epic motion picture, it seems our high stakes poker players are not fans of hobbits, dragons or superheroes.
Finally, only one poker player was that good; he could choose a movie named after him – Wiktor ‘limitless’ Malinowski selected ‘Limitless’ as his top pick.
