Category: My news, views and fun facts

Luke Schwartz is a hawk; a pigeon killer, but deep down, inside that fist-sized blob of matter that pumps 1.5 gallons of blood around his body, there is a romantic poker idealist.

There was a time when Schwartz would have discarded the bracelet like the dead skin of a snake, with the money pulling him in like the Millenium Falcon stuck in the Death Star’s tractor beam. To many, Schwartz was Darth Vadar, the ultimate bad guy; to others, he was Han Solo, a hero, albeit in the maverick sense of the word.

Today, he stands on top of the Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw world, hallucinogen dizzy, after conquering a 100-player field to win his first-ever bracelet.

“It’s a nice thing to have as a poker player.” Said Schwartz.

The 35-year-old rarely steps foot into a live tournament arena. As a decade-plus cash game grinder, he knows the suicide rates are high if you make that move, a cautionary tale heeded as this is his first victory in an open event.

Johannes Becker, a man that Schwartz claimed is the ‘best 2-7 player in the world,’ led the final 32 players at the end of Day 1, with Schwartz third in chips. George Wolff led the last nine at the end of Day 2, with Schwartz, the only other player with more than a million in chips.

And it would be those three: Becker, Wolff and Schwartz that would contest the bracelet at the end of Day 3.

But before we get there, let’s take a look at the nutshell action on Day 3.

Nutshell Action: From Nine to One.

Mike Gorodinsky eliminated the short-stacked Daniel Ospina. Both players drew two cards, and Gorodinsky’s 8x6x5x4x3x smashed the Kx7x5x3x2x of the Colombian, leaving him a $24,604 prize for his ninth-place finish.

Mark Gregorich eliminated Brian Hastings in eighth place when his Jx7x4x3x2x beat Jx8x7x4x3x, and we lost the former WSOP Player of the Year when Schwartz sent Gorodinsky to the rail with Tx7x6x5x2x beating 9x8x4x3x3x.

Schwartz then shot into the lead faster than snot flying out of an unclamped mouth suffering from a cold, when he eliminated the bracelet winner, Calvin Anderson in sixth place – 8x6x5x4x2x beating Tx8x7x6x5x.

Gregorich took his second scalp of the final table when he sent Yueqi Zhu to the cash desk earlier than he would have liked. Gregorich stood pat on 9x8x5x3x2x, forcing Zhu to break Tx9x7x6x5x, and the resulting AxKx was not the two card combo he wanted.

Schwartz then took a commanding lead into three-handed action after eliminating Gregorich – 8x6x5x4x2x beating 9x7x6x4x3x.

Schwartz – 2,750,000
Becker – 1,650,000
Wolff – 1,650,000

Schwartz never lost the chip lead in the three-handed war, and would take a 4,585,000 v 1,415,000 chip advantage into a heads-up duel with Wolff after eliminating Becker 8x7x6x4x2x > 8x7x6x5x3x.

Becker would later tell PokerNews that it was “the most intense three-handed battle ever.”

A pigeon killer of the highest calibre, this would be Schwartz’s first Wolff pelt. Schwartz threw it over his shoulder after both players patted on the last draw and Schwartz took the bracelet with 8x7x6x4x2x bettering the worse eight of his opponent.

The win moves Schwartz to $1.7m in live tournaments, in only his fifth-ever cash at the WSOP, his best performance, finishing 4/108 in the 2012 $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship for $406,736, a tournament that he will be hoping falls under his spell like this one did.

Final Table

1. Luke Schwartz – $273,336
2. George Wolff – $167,936
3. Johannes Becker – $116,236
4. Mark Gregorich – $81,635
5. Tueqi Zhu – $58,547
6. Calvin Anderson – $42,898

In a recent poll run by CardPlayer 61 high-stakes poker players chose the best poker player in the world, and Stephen Chidwick picked up more than 3x the votes of his nearest rival.

Chidwick is the most successful live tournament player in England with more than $24.7m in earnings, but until a few days ago, each time he had spun his fishing reel over the rich waters of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) he had never caught anything other than a few old boots.

All of that changed when Chidwick won the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, beating 278-entrants, to capture the $1,618,417 and his first gold bracelet. Ironically, after trying so hard to win one for so long. Chidwick, a new father, arrived at the WSOP late, after a family trip to Paris, and took down the bracelet in his first event, not even his strongest, after late-regging on Day 2.

It’s a well-deserved victory after 52 WSOP cashes and 13 final tables, and it comes three months after winning $1,128,685 for finishing runner-up to Jason Koon in an HK$ 1m No-Limit Hold’em event at the Triton Super High Roller Series in Jeju. It’s his 17th live tournament win and his sixth seven-figure score since March 2018.

While Chidwick is a No-Limit Hold’em genius, he’s not exactly rolling the dice when he has four cards in his hands. Chidwick won the $25,000 PLO event at the US Poker Open in February, beating a much smaller field of 39-entrants to claim the $351,000 first prize. He made the final table of a 78-entrant AUD 5,000 PLO event in the 2016 Aussie Millions, finishing eighth. And, in 2014, he finished 10/1128 in a $1,000 PLO event at the WSOP.

Chidwick beat James Chen, heads-up, to claim the bracelet. It was Chen’s third final table, and the closest he had come to claim one. The final table also housed the 12th place-finisher in the $50,000, Matthew Gonzales, four-time bracelet winner, Robert Mizrachi, the recent $10,000 Short-Deck winner, Alex Epstein, and the legend Erik Seidel.

A pivotal moment in the final table came when Chidwick took out Alex Epstein in the fifth position. Until that hand, only Epstein had led, outside of Chidwick, during the Day 4 shenanigans.

With blinds at 150k/300k, Epstein raised to 1,050,000 from under the gun, and Chidwick was the only caller from the small blind. The Dealer dunked As5d3s onto the table like the dregs of the deck, and Chidwick check-called a 1,200,000 Epstein c-bet. The 4d produced a dizzying array of draws on the turn, and after Chidwick checked, Epstein moved all-in for a smidgen more than 4 million, and Chidwick called. Epstein was chasing a flush draw with KsQcTc2s, and Chidwick was ahead and held with AdQdTs9c.

After that hand, Chidwick never surrendered the chip lead despite Chen pushing him all the way.

Final Table Results

1. Stephen Chidwick – $1,618,417
2. James Chen – $1,000,253
3. Matthew Gonzales – $699,364
4. Robert Mizrachi – $497,112
5. Alex Epstein – $359.320
6. Erik Seidel – $264,186
7. Wasim Korkis – $197,637
8. Ka Kwan Lau – $150,483

Three other stars of the game that pressed most of the right keystrokes in this one included online legend Ben Tollerene (11th), three-time bracelet winner, Paul Volpe (15th), and the incredible Sean Winter (16th).

Raising a child is one of the most complex tasks you will encounter before you become the pig on the spit. A question guaranteed to induce insomnia in the mindful is whether to give your children oars. It starts there, then goes deeper – do you show them how to handle them, how to row, and what direction? Do you jump in, tell them to shift-over, and start rowing?

It all boils down to attitude.

How do you cultivate the right attitude, and what does right even mean? It changes depending on the art of culture and how it’s spray painted over your world.

Let’s start with Daniel Negreanu.

Kid Poker is the face of poker. When David Rogier and Aaron Rasmussen considered who to choose to deliver a poker Masterclass Negreanu got the call. With more than $40m earned playing live tournaments, a place in the Poker Hall of Fame, Negreanu is mustard.

Negreanu is the most successful poker player the world has ever seen because he’s developed the right attitude. When it comes to the ingredients that make up a successful life, missing a ladle of ‘attitude’ is like making oxtail soup without the ox’s tail.

Most people focus on strategy, tactics and execution – as does Negreanu, but if the attitude that underpins these essential tools is missing, you have a body devoid of cartilage.

Before the weekend blew its nose, Negreanu lost to John Hennigan, heads-up, in Event #41: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship. It would have been Negreanu’s seventh bracelet. Instead, it’s Hennigan’s sixth.

It’s Negreanu’s eighth cash of the series, and his second final table after coming sixth in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty at the start of the summer. More notably, it’s his sixth runner-up finish since winning PokerStars’ Shark Cage in 2015, and his eighth since locking up his second World Series of Poker (WSOP) Player of the Year badge with a victory in the €25,600 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE).

If you think that’s more heartache than a child feels watching Bambi for the first time, then consider that Negreanu has lost eight-times, heads-up, for a bracelet.

2017: lost to Abe Mosseri in the $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo Championship
2014: lost to Daniel Colman in the $1m Big One for One Drop
2014: lost to Paul Volpe in the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball
2013: lost to Eli Elezra in the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball
2009: lost to Barry Shulman in the 2009 WSOPE Main Event
2009: lost to John Parker in the $2,500 Limit Hold’em Six-Handed
2003: lost to Phil Hellmuth in the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em
2002: lost to Mike Matusow in the $5,000 Omaha Hi/Lo Split

To come so close to the elation of victory only to step aside, suck it up and applaud while the man who got luckier than you, or played better than you, picks up the most coveted prize in poker, so many times – for that not to break you, you’re going to need the right attitude.

Final Table Results

1. John Hennigan – $245,451
2. Daniel Negreanu – $151,700
3. David “ODB” Baker – $104,416
4. Mikhail Semin – $73,810
5. David Singer – $53,621
6. Chris Tryba – $40,066
7. Frank Kassela – $30,817
8. Frankie O’Dell – $24,419

Three other ghosts gliding through poker tables deep in this one were bracelet winners Michael Mizrachi (9th), Paul Volpe (11th), and Scott Seiver (12th).

Wins For Mizrachi, Mueller and Cheong

A few days before Michael ‘The Grinder” Mizrachi racked up his first cash at the series with a ninth-place finish in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship, he had taken down his fifth bracelet in nine years making him the most successful bracelet winner of the decade. Mizrachi beat Robert Gray, heads-up, to win the $142,801 first prize in the 460-entrant Event #27: $1,500 Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better.

Negreanu couldn’t finish for the Canadians, but Greg Mueller could, winning his third bracelet and his first in a decade, after taking down the 172-entrant Event #29: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Mueller won $425,347 after beating the classy Colombian, Daniel Ospina, heads-up. The race to the bracelet became so hot in this one that the WSOP needed the burns unit nearby with the likes of Dario Sammartino (3rd), Phil Galfond (8th), Anthony Zinno (10th), Brian Hastings (12th), and Jennifer Harman (16th) all coming within a cough drop of winning.

Joseph Cheong took the tag of ‘one of the best players never to win a bracelet’, stitched it into the fabric of a wheelchair, boarded a plane to Gatwick, took a coach to the white cliffs of Dover, and then let it trundle over the edge.

Cheong defeated 6,214-entrants to capture the $687,782 first prize and first bracelet of his career in Event #34: $1,000 Double Stack No-Limit Hold’em after beating David Ivers, heads-up.

The PokerNews crew sticking a microphone in his mush shortly after his win trying to vacuum Cheong’s emotion after finally crossing the finishing line were disappointed with the response.

“I have been playing poker for so long; it was just another day at work.”

Before breaking his duck, Cheong had lost three-times when heads-up for the bracelet as well as coming third in the WSOP Main Event in 2010, a performance that made him a star.

2014: lost to Steven Wolansky in the $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball
2013: lost to Philipp Gruissem in an AUD 50,000 No-Limit High Roller at the WSOP-APAC
2012: lost to Aubin Cazals in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Mixed Max
2010: finished third in the 2010 WSOP Main Event

The former WSOPE Main Event Champion, Jack Sinclair, finished 27th in this one.

The Best of the Rest

Phil Hellmuth ran deep in Event #28 $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em finishing 16/2477, and Shaun Deeb finished 28th in the same event. Adrian Mateos finished 22nd, and Manig Loeser finished 27th in a 754-entrant, $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed. Shaun Deeb finished runner-up to Adam Friedman in the $10,000 Dealer’s Choice Championship. Friedman successfully defended his title in that one: Nick Schulman finished 6th, Jeff Lisandro was 10th, and Luke Schwartz finished 18th.

Andrew Lichtenberger finished 4/313 in the $3,000 No-Limit Shootout. Martin Zamani (9th), Justin Bonomo (10th), Dario Sammartino (11th), James Obst (13th), Rainer Kempe (16th), Byron Kaverman (23rd) and Kristen Bicknell (24th) also ran deep in that one.

Rainer Kempe finished 3/2403 in the $600 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em/Pot-Limit Omaha DeepStack Event with Calvin Anderson also finishing 11th in that one.

Loren Klein became only the third player to win four bracelets in four successive years when he topped the 218-entrant field in the $2,500 Mixed Big Bet Event. Mike Sexton (7th), David Benyamine (11th), Jeff Lisandro (15th), Chris Ferguson (20th), Alex Foxen (22nd) and Cary Katz (27th) ran deep in that one.

The high stakes world is changing faster than a torpedo fired from a submarine. The fliers of 5-10 years ago, contained different faces, and last week, two of them won World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets.

Isaac Baron was the first player to win the CardPlayer Magazine Online Poker Player of the Year, winning $1m in 2007 under the alias “WestmenloAA”. Back then, he was an absolute beast, printing money while sipping on cups of coffee, keys to his Maserati lying next to his mouse. 

Baron went on to experience success in the live realm, with his two most significant scores coming in European Poker Tour (EPT) events, finishing 3/1031 in the 2014 $10,300 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event for $1,207,599, and 4/842 in the €10,600 EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final in 2008 – yet he had never won a WSOP bracelet, until now. 

Baron took down a 1,832-entrant $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event for $407,739. It was his fourth live tournament win and took his all-time live tournament earnings to the $6.1m mark. 

If Baron is ‘old school’ then Cary Katz is the ‘new.’ Whereas the online and live poker rooms are responsible for creating the high rolling strata, people like Katz increased the depth. Katz created the ARIA High Rollers and then allowed the fans to see inside the box by creating Poker Central. Katz finished 6/917 in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout, won by Brett Apter. 

Erik Seidel is one of the few people who attended the ‘old’ and ‘new’ schools, and the New Yorker finished 27th in the Shootout for his third cash of the series. Seidel has won eight WSOP bracelets, but you have to trot back to 2007 to remember his last one. 

Eli Elezra is another face on one of those fliers, and last week he won a $1,500 Seven Card Stud bracelet, his fourth, and third in Stud. The Israeli defeated 285-entrants to capture the $93,766 first prize. Elezra beat Anthony Zinno, heads-up, and Scott Seiver finished eighth. 

There were near misses for Robert Mizrachi (3rd), David Benyamine (7th) and Shaun Deeb (9th) in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship. Frankie O’Dell took that one down for his third Omaha bracelet win. 

Jean-Robert Bellande blew a big chip lead to finish fifth in the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship. The event pulled in 91-entrants, and the former WSOP Main Event winner, Jim Bechtel, won the bracelet. Darren Elias (3rd), Prahlad Friedman (4th), Paul Volpe (7th), Dan Shak (12th), and Michael Watson (13th) cashed in that one.

Chris Klodnicki finished third in the $1,500 8 Game Mix 6-Handed, and Toby Lewis showed he’s not a servant to No-Limit Hold’em by finishing 17th. Rami Boukai took the title. 

Martin Zamani (4th) and Phil Galfond (5th) came close to winning an online bracelet. Josh Pollock took down the 652-entrant $600 Online Pot-Limit Omaha title, and Martin Kozlov experienced a deep run in the live $600 Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack event finishing 14th – Andre Donabedian won that one for $205,605.

A lot is going on in the world. Important stuff. Officials are closing down a care facility in Arizona after a patient found maggots wriggling around inside an open incision, and if you thought that was traumatic, then spare a thought for fans of the Big Mac in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight after seven restaurants were chosen to trial an extended breakfast menu until 11 am. 

And.

Yet.

People are doing nothing but playing poker 24/7 in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. It’s not that they don’t care about the world at this time of the year, they don’t even realise they are in a world. 

Ladies, and gentlemen, here is an update on high roller progress in the 50th Anniversary World Series of Poker without a maggot or McMuffin in sight. 

WSOP officials are adding a 90th bracelet to the menu after feedback from the high roller fraternity that the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em event happened too early in the competition. The $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em Final Fifty bracelet event takes place 8 -10 July, with Seth Palansky, VP of Corporate Communications for the WSOP saying that ‘player feedback’ played a pivotal role in the decision. Palansky also bemoaned the decision not to hold a $25,000 buy-in event, calling the omission a “goof.”  

Ben Heath won the first $50,000 buy-in event, beating Andrew Lichtenberger, heads-up, for close to $1.5m, and has since cashed in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em and $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event leaving him positioned as the highest ranking high roller in the WSOP Player of the Year rankings (8th).

Another Ben, Yu, sits in #13th position a year after finishing runner-up to Shaun Deeb. Yu has cashed in seven events, making two final tables (finishing seventh in the $1,500 Dealers Choice 6-Handed, and second in the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship).

Another high roller having a sterling 2019 WSOP is Anthony Zinno. The bracelet winner has four cashes, including finishing runner-up to Eli Elezra in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud, and tenth in the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E Championship. 

Ali Imsirovic is #28 in the POY rankings after cashing in three tournaments, making the final table of two of them including finishing runner-up to Brian Green in a $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Bounty event, and fourth in a $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event.

The reigning WSOP POY Shaun Deeb is going to have to flick a rubber band or two if he’s going to defend his title. Deeb has cashed six times but only made one final table, finishing ninth in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championships.

Other high roller performances worthy of note include Michael Watson finishing seventh in a $1,500 Dealer’s Choice and 13/91 in the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship, and Maria Ho finishing fifth in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em. Ho came into the WSOP on the back of a fourth-place finish in the CAD 10,000 High Roller at partypoker MILLIONS North America, and third in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Poker Showdown. Ho is second in the Female GPI World Rankings and Player of the Year Rankings behind Kristen Bicknell.

Pauli Ayras finished eighth in that $5,000 event. Ayras recently won the €25,000 NLHE High Roller at the Patrik Antonius Poker Challenge (PAPC) in Tallinn, April. 

Lastly, Chris Klodnicki finished fifth in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E, and third in the $1,500 8-Game Mix Six-Handed, and Jake Schindler, Kristen Bicknell and Mathias Eibinger all made it to the quarter-finals of the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship. It was Schindler’s only cash of the series but has made five final tables in ARIA High Rollers since May. It was Bicknell’s second cash since finishing third in the Merit Poker Classic Main Event, and it was Eibinger’s solitary cash despite making five final tables in ARIA High Rollers, including two wins. 

When Paul Phua stood on his Montenegrin stage, flanked by Triton Poker Super High Roller Series Champions, a flute punctuating the speech bubbles carrying his desire to make a difference in the world through a game he loves, those standing in the audience sensed something special was unfolding.

And it begins.

On the 1 August, the world’s greatest poker players, and wealthiest poker-loving business people will meet in the Grand Ballroom of London’s Park Lane Hilton to compete in the richest live poker tournament in history.

What a dance it will be.

The buy-in will be £1,050,000, beating the previous highest record buy-in of €1,000,000 set in 2016 when Elton Tsang beat 28-entrants to win the €11,111,111 first prize in the Monte Carlo One Drop Extravaganza, and the Triton Million: A Helping Hand For Charity will serve the £50,000 entry fees on charitable platters.

The Triton organisers are learning and evolving.

There have been four previous seven-figure plus buy-in events (USD) in history.

2012: $1m buy-in Big One for One Drop – Antonio Esfandiari ($18,346,673)
2014: $1m buy-in Big One for One Drop – Dan Colman ($15,306,668)
2016: €1m buy-in One Drop Extravaganza – Elton Tsang ($12,248,912)
2018: $1m buy-in Big One for One Drop – Justin Bonomo ($10,000,000)

The 2012 & 2014 events were so pro-heavy, the organisers banned professionals in 2016 (the lowest attended event of them all). The pros returned in 2018, and once again the balance shifted too far towards their side of the seesaw.

Triton has the answer.

The Triton Million: A Helping Hand for Charity, is an invite-only competition, with all invites going to non-professional poker players. Each invitee is allowed to invite a guest who could be a professional poker player, ensuring an even split of pros versus non-pros.

The seating arrangements separate the two player types into different fields throughout Day 1 (pros v pros and non-pros v non-pros), with clean segregation until the end of Level 6, after which time the tournament team continues to arrange seats with an even flux of pros v non-pros. Then on Day 2, both sets of players merge, and we see if people can ride on the back of sharks.

In addition to the innovative seat structure, Triton has banned apparel that covers the neck or face, including scarves, turtleneck sweaters, hoods and sunglasses, and will insist that the final nine players wear a formal suit. The only exception will be for sunglasses at the TV tables due to lighting and hats that do not hide any part of the face at any time, such as a backwards baseball cap.

Players have to take their seat ‘on time,’ and a committee decides the definition of a Recreational Player/Business Person or Guest Player/Professional. Invitation holders can deposit £50,000 to reserve their seat, and once a Guest Player/Professional is inked they too can do likewise. After making the deposit, players must complete registration payments to reach the total buy-in amount of £1,050,000 before the start of the Festival.

Pro players wishing to compete are advised to contact Triton so they can add their names to a list for registered business people. The £50,000 deposit is non-refundable, and Triton will donate it to Charity in case of a no-show.

So far, Triton has confirmed the following people competing in the event.

Paul Phua & Tom Dwan
Stanley Choi & David Peters
Wai Kin Yong & Rui Cao
Richard Yong
Bobby Baldwin
Ivan Leow
Rick Salomon
Rob Yong
Liang Yu
Sun Yaqi
Eddie Ting

Rick Salomon has finished in the money in the previous three Big One for One Drop events.

Here is a link to the structure – https://triton-series.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/TTPK_London_Structure-2-Triton-Million.jpg

A Helping Hand For Charity

The £50,000 entry fees will benefit the following three charities:

Caring For Children Foundation

A Hong-Kong based charity providing funds and programs for children rehabilitation projects, including foster care programs, educational programs, and help with disaster relief.

Raising for Effective Giving (REG)

The poker player run meta-charity that uses evidence and rationality to ensure the most significant impact with their philanthropy.

Healthy Hong Kong

A Hong-Kong based charity that provides funds and relief for the grassroots and elderly in Hong Kong.

The entire Triton Poker London Super High Roller Series runs 31 July – 8 August and contains seven events.

On Monday night, Celine Dion called time on her 16-year residency at Caesars’ Coliseum on the Las Vegas Strip. 

Great.

What do we do on a Saturday night, now?

You’re in luck because until July 16th you can play at the World Series of Poker (WSOP), a collection of poker tournaments involved a constellation of poker players ranging from T Tauri to those sparkling in the highest stakes in the business.

At Paul Phua Poker (PPP), we focus on the latter part of that equation, and, today, we run through the finishing order of Events #3 to #8 to see how those that ink the pages of high stakes fairy tales rated.

We’ll begin with a world record, after Event #3: BIG 50 – $500 No-Limit Hold’em attracted a field of 28,371-entrants, all vying for the $5m in guaranteed prize money, and a $1m guaranteed first prize, and not one high roller regular made either one of the 100 ITM spots. Femi Fashakin collected the $1,147,499 first prize after taking a machete to a final table bereft of experience. 

The same can’t be said for Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Li 8 or Better. Derek McMaster conquered 853-entrants to win the $228,228 first prize, and a few high rollers, past and present, finished ITM.

Last year, Ben Yu finished runner-up to Shaun Deeb in the WSOP Player of the Year stakes, and he’s started this year in the same fashion. The winner of last year’s $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, finished seventh in this one. 

Patrick Leonard has a love/hate relationship with high buy-in live events, and a little over a year ago decided to quench his thirst on the online poker grind, leaving big money live events behind. It was an excellent choice with Leonard currently sitting #3 in the PocketFives Online Poker World Rankings. Let’s hope he makes #1 soon so he can turn to high stakes live events as his next challenge. Leonard finished ninth to add to his side event win at MILLIONS South America earlier this year.

Step into a time machine and backpedal a decade and you’ll find David Benyamine and Eli Elezra competing in high stakes poker tournaments – the golden oldies finished 68th and 97th in this one.

James Obst and Alex Foxen Bag a Couple of ITM Finishes

A year ago, James Obst announced plans to leave poker to focus on playing tennis. The Australian, never competed in high roller tournaments, regularly, but he would flick it in the significant buy-in events at the WSOP and Aussie Millions, so he gets some finger time.

Obst finished 45/296 in Event #6: $2,500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw (an event that Dan Zack won, beating 296-entrants for $160,447), and also finished 167/2825 in the first online bracelet event of the summer ($400 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em). 

The former WSOP Player of the Year and high stakes cash game grinder, Mike Gorodinsky finished eighth in Event #6, and Phil Hellmuth Jr showed his ability to caress a mouse like a queen feels a pearl, making the final table of the online bracelet event. Hellmuth’s search for a 16th bracelet ended respectively in fifth (Yong “LuckySpewy1” Kwon would take the title).

Other players cashing in the online event, who like to swim in high stakes waters were Niall Farrell (27th), Alex Foxen (74th), Darren Elias (132nd), Chris Hunichen (243rd), and Pete Chen (332nd).

Global Poker Index (GPI) World #1, Alex Foxen, also made money in the inaugural Short-Deck event, finished twelfth. Alex Epstein conquered a field of 114-entrants to win the $296,227 in Event #8: $10,000 Short Deck. High rollers making money included Anson Tsang (3rd), Chance Kornuth (4th), Andrew Robl (7th), Justin Bonomo (11th) and Bill Perkins (17th).

Kane Kalas isn’t a reg on the high stakes scene, but the one time, Triton Poker Super High Roller Series commentator, who finished 15th in this event, deserves a shout thanks to this incredible pot against Jason Koon in the 2018 Triton Poker Super High Roller Series in Montenegro. 

Kalas, my man, I know you have a singing voice that can make cheeks wetter than a cut, so I thought you should know a spot has opened up at the Coliseum mate. 

The poker world should be talking about Ben Heath winning his first gold bracelet at the World Series of Poker (WSOP). It wasn’t any old bracelet. It was the one handed out for winning the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em, and it came in the same carrier bag as $1,484,085 in cash, but it’s become a secondary talking point.

Say what you like about Twitter (I think it’s a place where cowards play knock-a-door-run), but it does allow people to tell you how they feel, without the fear of getting punched in the face, and this leads to the slipping of a few masks. 

Take Ike Haxton, for example. 

During a crucial hand on the 50th Annual High Roller $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em final table, with the action four-handed, and the blinds at 100k/200k/200k, first to act, Sam Soverel raised to 400,000, Dmitry Yurasov shoved for 4,930,000, and then the action ground to a halt at the fingertips of Ben Heath in the big blind. 

Heath had a critical decision because he had AhQh. He asked Soverel for a count and received a reply. Then after a pause, Heath flicked a time extension chip towards the dealer. Soverel immediately looked at his cards, and then mucked out of turn, thinking Heath had made the call. 

The move outraged Yurasov because, with Soverel out of the way, Heath had an easier decision. Heath called, and his AhQh beat Yurasov’s AdTd to send the Russian to the rail in the fourth position, and Soverel earned an additional $182,786 due to the knockout. 

At the time, Soverel was extremely apologetic over his mistake, but it seems some of his peers, including Ike Haxton and Justin Bonomo, didn’t believe it was a mistake at all. 

Haxton vented on Twitter, declaring that after watching the replay, he was ’99% certain’ that Soverel intended to muck out of turn to give Heath an easier decision, even going as far as to say that Soverel has a ‘reputation’ for having less than stellar ethics when it comes to his behaviour at the table, a line that Bonomo backed up. Soverel, who went on to finish third for $640,924, is keeping his powder dry on this one.

The hand hasn’t only raised suspicions over Soverel’s morals, but it’s also created a debate on the efficacy of using time bank extension chips, as flicking one in the general direction of a dealer, is no different than someone throwing in a single chip to denote a call. 

Here’s the hand in question.

What’s your view?

And what are your thoughts on the use of time extension chips?

After Heath eliminated Soverel, the man from the U.K. went on to face Andrew Lichtenberger, heads-up, for the $1.48m first prize, and it was a short shrift affair with Heath coolering LuckyChewy AcJs>AdKh after flopping a Jack when all-in pre-flop for all the pigeon pellets. 

It’s the fourth live tournament win of Heath’s career and his first for two and a half years. Heath’s first seven-figure score takes his total live tournament earnings to $4,531,448, and Heath’s not playing life-raft poker, finishing 4/58 in a €50,000 at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Monte Carlo, and 7/521 in the partypoker MILLIONS North America.

Final Table Results

1. Ben Heath – $1,484,085
2. Andrew Lichtenberger – $917,232
3. Sam Soverel – $640,924
4. Dmitry Yurasov – $458,138
5. Nick Petrangelo – $335,181
6. Chance Kornuth – $251,128

The event attracted 110-entrants.

The tea candles will be lit at Chez Brian Green tonight after the Texan started his World Series of Poker (WSOP) adventure by taking down Event #1: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo. 

Green, who works in the used-car business and doesn’t consider himself a pro, is no stranger to the world of high stakes gambling. Three years ago, he borrowed $10,000 off a friend, sat down at the blackjack tables, ran it up to $113,000, and used the money to buy into the $111,111 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller for One Drop, finishing fifth for $1.1m.

The man got to keep 100% of those spoils, and there wasn’t a whine of a hungry dog in earshot as he ducked and weaved his way through a 204-entrant field to earn another $345,669, and his first gold bracelet.

Green had to overcome the incredible talents of Ali Imsirovic, heads-up, to claim the title. Imsirovic won the Global Poker Award (GPA) for 2018 Breakout Player of the Year, and the rush has continued into 2019, with this, his 13th final table, with all but one of them coming in $10k+ events. 

Green and Imsirovic weren’t the only high rollers to make it to the final table. At the first time of asking since breaking up with PokerStars and marrying Amanda Leatherman, Daniel Negreanu put in a solid performance to finish sixth, and Poker Central Founder, Cary Katz finished ninth. 

Speaking to PokerNews, Negreanu said it was great to start his run with a final table appearance, although he was quick to point out that as the stacks got shallower, and the blinds kept rising every 20-minutes, the person winning the flips was going to take it down. It was Negreanu’s 111th WSOP cash, although he hasn’t won a bracelet since 2013 when he took down the €25,600 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) to secure his second Player of the Year title. 

Thirty-one players finished in the money, and as you would expect in a $10,000 side event, few fleas leapt into those places. 

The World Poker Tour (WPT) Main Event legend Darren Elias finished 11th, recent Triton Poker Champ Ben Lamb finished 13th, the former $50k WSOP High Roller winner Ben Yu came 14th, the recent €25k winner at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Monte Carlo, Ben Pollak finished 15th, former Triton Poker Champs Nick Schulman and Manig Loeser finished 17th and 19th, WSOP bracelet winner Byron Kaverman finished 19th, old school legend David Benyamine finished 21st, one of the best non-pros in the high stakes world, Dan Shak exited in 22nd place, and the Poker Hall of Famer, Erik Seidel finished 25th. 

Final Table Results

1. Brian Green – $345,669
2. Ali Imsirovic – $213,644
3. Asher Conniff – $145,097
4. Loren Klein – $100,775
5. Ping Liu – $71,614
6. Daniel Negreanu – $52,099