Shari Geller

By Shari Geller
 
World Series of Poker Event #28, $1,500 No Limit Hold'Em started with an even 2,500 players, some well-known and some looking for their first tournament win. In the end, Andy Frankenberger emerged the winner.  He already had an impressive poker resume and with this win he is building quite a reputation as a dangerous tournament player.

By Shari Geller

Poker is a strange game and the World Seires of Poker has more than its share of strange stories. Here is the latest. The winner of Event #27, the $10,000 Limit Hold’em World Championship, came in second in this very event exactly a year earlier. Daniel Idema managed to win #378,642, his first gold bracelet and redemption by outlasting 152 of his fellow players over this three day event.

As with all the $10,000 championship events which lead up to the main event, while the field was small, it was packed with talent. Day One chip leader was Daniel Negreanu; Idema was in the middle of the pack, 55th of the 106 who were moving on to the second day. With a veritable who’s who in poker in the Day Two field, Idema drew a less noteworthy table assignment with just Liz Lieu, Dan Shak and, maybe, Alex Keating being known to the average poker fan.

By Shari Geller

World Series of Poker Event #26, Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em had 1,378 entrants vying for a share of the $3,134,950 prize pool. One hundred twenty-six finished in the money, but only one came out on top. The winner was Oleksii Kovalchuk, a 21-year-old from the Ukraine, who was making his first trip to Las Vegas. He’s had a pretty good WSOP so far, with three cashes. But nothing like the $689,739 he collects for his first place finish, along with the coveted gold bracelet.

By Shari Geller

Event #25, $1,500 Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split, had an opening field of 606 players, 56 who would end up in the money but only one who would come out on top with the gold bracelet and the $200,459 top prize. The winner was Chris Viox who beat out poker announcer and Hall of Famer Mike Sexton for the title. Though not as well known as his opponent, Viox is not a World Series of Poker novice. He has two prior final table appearances and a dozen prior money finishes. But this is the 35-year-old’s first gold bracelet.

By Shari Geller

World Series of Poker Event #24, $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout (2,000 Max) started with 387 players spread out across 40 tables.  The winner of each table came back for day two, where they broke into ten 4-person tables and the winner of each returned for the final table. In  the end, it was Canadian Mark Radoja who, by winning just three tables, will take home $436,568 and his first gold bracelet.

The final table has its share of tough competition with Scott Baumstein , Nicolas Fierrogottner, Sean Getzwiller, Jeffrey Gross, Adam Junglen, Nikita Lebedev, Tom Marchese, Mark Radoja, Daniel Smith, and Todd Terry vying for the title and it took eleven hours for Radoja to come out on top.

By Shari Geller

Two new bracelet winners were crowned on Day 16 of the World Series of Poker, in two non-Hold’em events.  First, the French went back-to-back with Elie Payan winning Event #22, $1,500 PLO, one day after his fellow countryman Bertrand Grospellier won a bracelet in the $10,000 7-Card Stud Championship.  Then, John Monnette, who had come close to a bracelet in 2009, finishing second to Phil Ivey in the No Limit 2-to-7 Draw, took down Event #23, the $2,500 8-Game Mix.

Event #22 – $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha

There was another record-breaking turnout, with 1,071 players entering Event #22 nearly 200 more than last year.  The winner was Elie Payan, a 27-year-old project manager from Orleans, France was had never before won a live tournament nor cashed at the WSOP.  He now has a gold bracelet and $292,825 spending money.  Nice way to start.

By Shari Geller

Event #20, $1,000 No Limit Hold’em, looked more like a cattle call than a poker tournament, with some 3,175 crowded together at The Rio.  Play was fast, furious and a bit reckless as many took the approach of chip up fast or make a quick exit.  By the end of the day, the field was cut by nearly 90%.  Who could survive such carnage, then come back for two real days of poker?  The answer is Jason Somerville, the 24-year-old poker pro from Long Island who takes home $493,091 and the gold bracelet.

By Shari Geller

Only 126 players plunked down the $10,000 to play WSOP Event #21, 7-Card Stud, down 16% from last year.  But while the numbers were lower, the star wattage was just as bright as ever and getting through this all-star field would be no easy task.  In the end, it was Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, the 32-year-old bleached blond from France who with that win went from the list of the greats who have yet to win a WSOP bracelet to a far more exclusive list – poker Triple Crown winner.

To get there, Grospellier had to navigate not only an extremely tough field but a brutal final table which included a four-hour slugfest heads up for the bracelet.  In the end, it was ElkY coming out on top and Steven Landfish the bridesmaid in 2nd place with $204,924.  In addition to the coveted gold bracelet, ElkY takes home the top prize of $331,639.

By Shari Geller

World Series of Poker Event #18, $1,500 No Limit Hold’em, drew a record 3,157 players for a prize pool of over $4 million, including a top prize of $735,400 for the skillful, and lucky, player who could survive the large field.  The winner was Foster Hays, a Dallas native by way of Yale.  Hays did not have an amazing first day, finishing with just 9700 chips.  But by the end of the next day, he was the chip leader and he stayed at or near the top to the sweet end.   

By Shari Geller

Event #19, $2,500 Limit Hold'em/Six Handed was one of the rare events this year to draw fewer players than last, starting with an opening field of 354, 30 fewer than 2010.  But it almost became a big story of the World Series of Poker when it looked like it may be won by a female, which would have broken a 3-year dry spell for women poker players in WSOP open events.  But Kim Nguyen fell one spot shy and the win instead went to British poker pro Darren Woods.  He won the top prize of $213,431 and the gold bracelet.