Author: elizabeth

If you’re looking for a way to pass the time in Europe before the World Series of Poker Europe events begin, look no further. Poker in the Park, Europe’s largest poker festival, will be held September 2nd and 3rd at Hanover Square in London. This new location is near the Oxford Circus Station, and this year’s event is absolutely free to anyone over the age of 18, so why not come out and play some poker and learn from the pros? Last year’s event drew 20,000 poker fans from all over the UK and elsewhere, with all the extras being added to this year’s lineup, the 2011 Poker in the Park will be the biggest yet!

Everything at the 2011 Poker in the Park is free (well, except for food and drinks), and the events that are planned for 2011 are definitely worth checking out. Unlike previous years, where players stood in long lines trying to get into the Poker Dome, a large tented area with sit-n-go action and space enough for 80 players, this year’s Poker in the Park has an extra two domes so that everyone can have a chance (or several) to play. The event is sponsored by PKR, Bluff, and Bodog Poker and has reached out to pubs across the UK to nab their best players, so expect to experience some real competition when you’re playing here.

If you’re wondering what kind of games you can play at Poker in the Park, we have your answer: in addition to the free tournaments that are running constantly in Poker Domes 1 and 2 during the event– there are a total of 10 on Friday and 18 on Saturday, starting every hour), you can take part in the Heads-up Marquee, where you compete on electronic poker tables in knockout tournaments for the title of Poker in the Park Heads-up Champion.

If you’re new to poker or you’re uneasy about taking your game against big names in poker just yet, fear not– Poker in the Park is more than equipped to help you learn the game or improve your playing. Swing by the Poker Pros’ Lecture Marquee for lectures (five on each day of the event) from famous poker players, or sit down with the pros at the Live Tuition Marquee and let them analyse your game and tell you what you’re doing wrong (or right!). Some of last year’s celebrity poker players included Annette Obrestad, Jamie Gold, Liv Boeree, and Peter Eastgate, and while the 2011 lineup isn’t announced yet, one thing is for certain– this experience could improve your poker game forever!

Also new in 2011 is the Poker in the Park Main Stage, which will house stand-up comics and live music, making this event something that the entire family can enjoy– even the non-poker players! If poker isn’t your thing and you instead fancy another type of game, the Mixed Game Marquee may be for you. This area will house a wide variety of games other than poker, including backgammon, rummy, and chess.

We’re now down to the November Nine here at the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event. This is the moment that everyone has been waiting for– the final table is set, and there will be, in four long months, a new WSOP champion. Because the action of the day has been so intense and every elimination counts as we moved from 22 remaining players to just nine, we’re going to give you a play-by-play of eliminations.

Lars Bonding was the first man out today, as the pocket aces he was holding met with the trip fours (two in the pocket and one on the flop) from Konstantinos Mamaliadis. He’ll go home with $302,005. Chris Moore, who started Day 8 short-stacked, was the next to hit the rail. He held pocket kings on his final hand against Makievskyi, but the flop gave the Russian a pair of aces, and the turn and river didn’t help Moore out any, sending him home with $302,005.

Mamaliadis made his second elimination of the day off Gionni Demers, who seemed simply to be tired of playing after losing some big pots early in the day. Demers went all-in on Ac5d against the South African’s pocket kings, and the 10c10h8d flop, 6s turn, and 7h river were of no use to him at all, sending him packing with $302,005. Meanwhile, one table over, another elimination was about to take place. Only two minutes after Demers fell, Aleksandr Mozhnyakov gave all his remaining chips to Sam Barnhart, who captured the pot with Ace high. Mozhnyakov, like the three players before him, went home with $302,005.

John Hewitt was responsible for the next man out– Kenny Shih failed to make a hand better than Hewitt’s once Hewitt made his flush draw, and Shih became the first person to hit the rail and take home the second prize level of $378,796. Sam Barnhart, who had already had a dazzling WSOP year as the winner of the WSOP circuit national championship as well as the Harrah’s Tunica Main Event, added another $378,796 to his wins this year as he exited the table in 17th place. Two minutes later, Ryan Lenaghan would head home with the same amount after Samuel Holden drew a flush that blew Lenaghan’s two pair out of the water.

Play began to slow after the break, with only the elimination of Andrey Pateychuk happening before ESPN called another break. With Pateychuk out, only 14 players remained, and Pius Heinz helped him on his way out with $478,174 when the German’s Jacks bested Pateychuk’s pocket AcQs when nothing useful came up on the board for either of them.

A little over an hour after the players returned, Scott Schwalich took a hit when Bryan Devonshire doubled off him (on a flop that came down as trip fours, no less), and it would cost him when he went head-to-head with chip leader O’Dea, whose Ace kicker took the pot (and the rest of Schwalich’s chips) when both players only came up with a pair of 10s. Schwalich goes home with $478,174.

O’Dea would go on to show the reason for his healthy chip lead again about an hour later, when he went up against Konstantinos Mamaliadis, who went all in with about 4 million chips with just an 8h2c in his hand. O’Dea held a pair of 7s, and when the board came up 5hJc9d6c8c, O’Dea got the straight that Mamaliadis wanted, sending the South African player home with $478,174 in 13th place. O’Dea was on a roll, though, and next, he sent Bryan Devonshire out in 12th place with $607,882, bringing his total chips up to over 39 million.

Forty minutes later, Khoa Nguyen would be the next player to hit the rail, as Martin Staszko was clearly tired of O’Dea monopolizing the eliminations. Staszko held pocket Kings while Nguyen held pocket 10s, and when the board came down with nothing to help either of them, Staszko went up to 30 million and Nguyen went home with $607,882.

It would be another five hours before the final table was determined, and it was once again O’Dea who was the determining factor at the table. John Hewitt had lost most of his chips to Badih Bounahra, and the Costa Rican, desperate to double up, went all in against O’Dea with just a pair of pocket threes. O’Dea managed to pull Broadway out of his hat, and with that, Hewitt was eliminated and went home with $607,882 and the final table was set.

The official chip counts for the November Nine are as follows:

1. Martin Staszko – 40,175,000
2. Eoghan O’Dea – 33,925,000
3. Matt Giannetti – 24,750,000
4. Phil Collins – 23,875,000
5. Ben Lamb – 20,875,000
6. Badih Bounahra – 19,700,000
7. Pius Heinz – 16,425,000
8. Anton Makievskyi – 13,825,000
9. Samuel Holden – 12,375,000

Stay tuned to Max Poker Bonus for more November Nine information!

Many of the professional players left in this year’s WSOP were eliminated on Day 7, but the remaining competitors are not short on talent. Hitting the felt on Day 7 were Sebastian Ruthenberg, JP Kelly, Erick Lindgren, Andrew Brokos, Tony Hachem, last-woman-standing Erika Moutinho, and Steve Brecher.

Eoghan O’Dea has quite a legacy to uphold– he’s the son of professional Irish poker player, 1998 bracelet winner, and former Olympic swimmer Donnacha O’Dea and grandson of actors Denis O’Dea and Siobhán McKenna– and he’s currently doing a good job of making quite a name for himself, as he sits in second place in chips with 19,050,000 after steadily climbing over the past few days of play. He made over 8 million of his chips in a single hand against Andrew Hinrichsen. The board ran out in all hearts and O’Dea held the Kh in his hand, while Hinrichsen’s AdKc was rendered useless, giving O’Dea the king-high flush and a big gain right in time for bagging.

Only one player is ahead of him– Anton Makievskyi holds the lead with 21,045,000 chips, many of which were gained in a single pot worth 20 million. He went head-to-head with Christopher Moore, who held trips, raising until all of Makievskyi’s money was in the middle; Makievskyi held a full house and took a large chunk of Moore’s money. Although Moore is still in the running for the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event bracelet, he’ll be starting Day 8 with only 3.04 million, the smallest stack remaining in the game. With Moore at the bottom of the list with stacks under 5 million are Sam Barnhart, winner of the WSOP circuit National Championship (4,935,000); Samuel Holden, the only Brit left in the tournament (4,740,000); Gionni Demers (4,655,000); Kenny Shih (4,530,000); Lars Bonding, who is on his fifth money finish at the WSOP this year and, until today, managed to stay near the lead (4,140,000); and Bounahra Badih (3,385,000).

Rounding out the top ten are Khoa Nguyen, Canada’s last hope for a WSOP Main Event bracelet this year, with 16.435 million chips; Russian Andrey Pateychuk, sitting strong with 16,245,000; Ben Lamb, who is currently in the lead for the 2011 WSOP Player of the Year race, having ousted Phil Hellmuth just two days earlier, with 14.69 million; Phil Collins, who is tired of being referred to as “not the guy from Genesis,” with 13,805,000; John Hewitt of Costa Rica, with 13.265 million chips; Day 6 leader Ryan Lenaghan, who has lost a couple million chips since yesterday and now rests with 10.415 million; Matt Giannetti, at 8.92 million; and Konstantinos Mamaliadis of South Africa, with 8.195 million.

Matt Giannetti was the topic of some talk early in Day 7 as he made considerable gains that would leave him in position 9 at the end of the day. Giannetti managed to take the chip lead at one point, thanks to Hilton Laborda, who allowed him a double up once, followed by a bust which gave Giannetti the rest of his chips. This isn’t the remarkable part, however. On both hands, Laborda held a decent hand– a flush. Both times, he was beaten by Giannetti, who managed to have a flush. Two hands that played out exactly the same way cost Laborda his spot and gave Giannetti some much-needed chips.

Once again, the chip leaders have changed drastically since the day previous. With only 22 players left in the running for the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event bracelet, the tables can’t turn too much more– but tune in tomorrow to see how the drama unfolds in Las Vegas.

Day 6 of the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event has been a nail-biter, offering up more excitement than any of the previous days during this event. We went from 142 players to 57 on this most recent day of action, and with these eliminations came several levels of increases in payouts– while the players who went home today may be disappointed that they didn’t nab the bracelet, most will be poud that they managed to make a substantial money finish in the world’s largest poker competition.

Ryan Lenaghan is now the chip leader (where did he come from?) with 12,865,000 chips, a healthy lead over the rest of the competition, although he wasn’t the first player to break 10 million during this event– that distinction goes to Phil Collins (again, not the frontman for Genesis), who dominated the action today and sent multiple players to the rail. His first victim was Giuseppe Pastura, who didn’t make his flush draw and gave Collins another 2.1 million. After defeating Matthew Mantman, Collins had almost 7 million and was ready to take down Joseph Cheong, who vaulted Collins to 8.5 million. Thirty minutes later (you would think that players would keep away from Collins at this point, but apparently not), Collins bested Lance Steinberg with a straight and hit the 10 million chip mark. At the end of the day, Collins settled into fifth place with 7,240,000 chips and a good chance to be one of the eight players who cashes at over a million dollars today.

Behind Lenaghan in the race for first is Ben Lamb with 9,980,000. Ben Lamb has captured first place in another race today– he’s officially overtaken Phil Hellmuth’s lead for the 2011 World Series of Poker Player of the Year race. The Poker Brat will have to head to WSOP Europe for the seven events held there later this year if he wants a shot at PoY this year– but no doubt Ben Lamb will be there, too, fighting just as hard. After Lamb are Matt Giannetti (7,940,000), Andrey Pateychuk (7,255,000), Phil Collins, who is surely tired of every media source commenting on his name for the last two days, Hilton Laborda (7,160,000), Nelson Robinson (6,420,000), Tri Hunyh (6,295,000), and Aleksandr Mozhnyakov, who once held a chip lead and is still holding out to round off the top nine with 6,070,000. If you’ve been following the WSOP action, you know that there have been a lot of changes to the chip leaders from day to day– only three of the players currently in the top ten were there yesterday.

After the dinner break, both Erick Lindgren and Ben Lamb came back to find that WSOP and ESPN had moved them to the featured table– when they counted their chips, both players believed that they were short. WSOP officials report watching the video to make sure that all the chips transferred correctly, but Lindgren was less than happy about the situation and tweeted that they shouldn’t move someone’s chips without the individual present.

Some impressive players hit the rail today, including two of the three remaining female players: Amanda Musumeci left with $130,997, and Claudia Crawford took home $76,146. Erika Moutinho is the one remaining female player with around 2.1 million chips, and she will head off against her boyfriend, David Sands, who holds 2.7 million chips at the end of Day 6. Other notables no longer in play are Jean-Robert Bellande and Allen Cunningham, who both left with $108,412, Sorel Mizzi ($64,531), and Eli Elezra, with $54,851.