Canada’s Jonathan Duhamel leads the way to this November’s finale of the 2010 World Series of Poker main event.

 When the final table was established on July 18, Duhamel held 65,975,000 in chips, nearly 20 million ahead of his closest competitor, John Dolan, who had 46,250,000.

The biggest name remaining is Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, who is seventh with 14,450,000, and continuing his fabulous summer run at the WSOP. Other players making the final table from the massive starting field of 7,319 players include Joseph Cheong, John Racener, Matthew Jarvis, Filippo Candio, Soi Nguyen and Jason Centi. Each of these players has already received ninthplace money of $811,823, with the champion ultimately collecting a total payday of $8,944,138.

Kranich Takes WPT Season Opener

Germany’s Moritz Kranich added his name to the World Poker Tour’s championship roster by taking down July’s season opener in Las Vegas. Kranich fought off Justin Smith in a tough heads-up duel to win $875,150, with Smith pocketing $594,755 for second. Third place and $363,650 went to Phil Ivey, who fell short of the title here but extended his own record by reaching his ninth WPT finale. Other finalists were John Caridad (fourth, $237,902), Rob Akery (fifth, $169,930), and Eric Afriat (sixth, $118,950). Season IX’s opening event, with Mike Sexton and Vince Van Patten in their familiar role as commentators, and one-time WPT hostess Kimberly Lansing returning to the tour in a new “TV anchor” role. Additional WPT news included the naming of industry veteran Matt Savage as the WPT’s new Executive Tour Director.

Kassela Clinches Tie for 2010 WSOP Player of the Year

Frank Kassela’s double-bracelet effort at the 2010 WSOP made him an easy front-runner for 2010 POY honors, and as challenger after challenger was eliminated from the main event, only one name remained: Michael Mizrachi. Kassela made the money in the main event before exiting, enough to guarantee him a tie, and leaving Mizrachi needing to win the main event in November to match Kassela’s two-bracelet, six-cash effort.

WSOP Circuit Series Revamps Schedule 

Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. has overhauled its WSOP Circuit Series for the 2010-11 campaign, coming up with several new wrinkles designed to add cohesion and prestige to the tour. Among the new twists are cumulative rankings, a season-ending championship for the 100 top players, four regional Circuit $10,000 championships and standardized structures across all venues. Twelve stops for the 2010-11 tour were announced, with more possible. WSOP-C action begins August 19, 2010 at Horseshoe Council Bluffs (IA), with other stops including Horseshoe Southern Indiana, Horseshoe Hammond, South Africa (Emerald Casino), Biloxi, MS’s IP Casino Resort and Spa, Harvey’s Lake Tahoe, Harrah’s Atlantic City, Harrah’s Tunica, Caesars Atlantic City, Harrah’s Rincon, Harrah’s St. Louis, Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and Harrah’s New Orleans.