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Card Player Player of the Year Update
1: Poorya Nazari — 3,000
2: Jude Ainsworth — 2,840
3: Cornel Cimpan — 2,730
4: Anthony Gregg — 2,500
5: Yevgeniy Timoshenko — 2,448
6: Pieter de Korver — 2,400
6: Constant Rijkenberg — 2,400
8: Martin Jacobson — 2,368
9: Steve Brecher — 2,340
10: Stewart Scott — 2,336
This Week in Poker
World Series of Poker – Event No. 2 ($40,000 no-limit hold’em)
Author’s Note: Tournament report courtesy of Julio Rodriguez
The 40th-annual World Series of Poker kicked off the first open event of the year in big fashion with the largest no-limit hold’em tournament ever hosted in the United States, featuring a $40,000 buy in. After the somewhat disappointing turnout for the $25,000 World Poker Tour Championship in April, many skeptics were predicting a disaster for the WSOP.
Instead, 201 players showed up for the high-stakes affair, generating a total prize pool of $7,718,400, just a few hundred thousand shy of Bellagio’s $8,196,500 tournament. The winner of the 40th-anniversary tournament will walk away with a $1,891,012 payday. Check out the full payouts here.
Needless to say, the field at the Rio was absolutely stacked with the world’s best players, at one point forming a table that included the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, Phil Ivey, Bertrand Grospellier, David Pham, Steve Billirakis, Scott Seiver, Alan Sass, and Brett Richey.
Despite the 120,000 in starting chips and hour-long levels, many familiar faces found themselves on the rail just a few rounds into the tournament. Daniel Negreanu, John Juanda, Tom Dwan, Jim Bechtel, Jonathan Little, and Steve Gross were all eliminated within the first three hours, among others.
Notables were being eliminated at a rapid pace, but not without benefiting many throughout the room. It’s not a surprise to see Antonio Esfandiari at the top of the leader board early in a tournament, and this time around he got there at Annie Duke’s expense.
On a flop of 10
Q
3, Antonio Esfandiari bet out, and Annie Duke called. The turn brought the 8
, and Esfandiari bet out again, getting called. The river was the 4, and Esfandiari put Duke all in for about 70,000. Duke thought for about two minutes before calling. Esfandiari turned over 3 3
, and Duke mucked A Q. The hand put Esfandiari well over the 400,000-mark, but he had trouble holding onto his chips late in the day, finishing with just over 200,000.
After showing up fashionably late, Phil Hellmuth proceeded to pick up a few healthy pots heading into the dinner break. Once the players returned, Hellmuth was caught making a move on a board reading 6 5 4 K Q. Alan Sass made the call with K 9, and Hellmuth frustratedly mucked his busted draw, leaving himself with a stack of just a dozen big blinds. He hung on for a couple more levels, but busted to Phil Ivey about an hour before play ended when his A-J failed to catch up against Ivey’s A-K.
2003 WSOP Champion Chris Moneymaker had a solid day and finished up with 805,000 in chips, good enough for second place. Leading the way is Bruno Fitoussi with 812,500.
After ten levels of play, day 1 came to end with just 89 players remaining. Those fortunate enough to survive will return Friday at 2 p.m. to play down to the money.
Here are the top 10 chip leaders:
1. Bruno Fitoussi – 812,500
2. Chris Moneymaker – 805,000
3. Emil Patel – 615,000
4. Lex Veldhuis – 606,500
5. Justin Bonomo – 570,000
6. Michael DeMichele – 550,000
7. Kyle Wilson – 520,000
8. Brian Townsend – 512,000
9. Alan Sass – 440,000
10. Matt Marafioti – 415,000
PokerStars ANZPT – Chris Levick Wins Melbourne Main Event
Author’s note: All monetary values are in Australian dollars (AUD).
The final table of the PokerStars Australia New Zealand Poker Tour crowned another season-one champion on Aug. 27 at the Melbourne main event at Crown Casino. The field consisted of 218 players who bought in for $2,700 and created a prize pool worth $545,000. Chris Levick took home the first-place prize worth $158,050 and 528 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. The three-day tournament welcomed nine players back for the final day of competition. Here is a look at the final table when play began:
Seat 1: Heath Chick — 283,000
Seat 2: Rodney Burles — 168,000
Seat 3: Sam Khouiss — 354,000
Seat 4: Chris Levick — 969,000
Seat 5: Jie Gao — 517,000
Seat 6: Ben Savage — 682,000
Seat 7: Gregory Shillig — 190,000
Seat 8: Peter Aristidou — 432,000
Seat 9: Kristian Lunardi — 713,000
Levick scored the first knockout punch at the final table when his pocket queens beat the pocket tens of Rodney Burles, who was eliminated in ninth place ($10,900). Ben Savage then fell in eighth place ($16,350) with A-10 in the hole, and Kristian Lunardi was eliminated in seventh place ($21,800). Lunardi’s pocket sevens fell when Gregory Shillig eliminated him with A-K thanks to some help from the board.
Levick then increased his chip lead even more when his pocket aces held up against the pocket fives of Jie Gao. Gao was eliminated in sixth place ($27,250), and Levick held more than 2 million in chips after the hand. Levick continued his tear and knocked out Sam Khoiss in fifth place ($38,150) and Peter Aristidou in fourth place ($49,050). Levick struck again when Shillig moved all in for 265,000 with K 9 in the hole. Levick held Q 10, and the board ran out Q Q 5 J 2. Shillig was eliminated in third place ($59,950), and action was down to heads up.
Thanks in large part to the six players he eliminated at the final table, Levick took a 50-to-1 chip lead into the final match against Heath Chick. Chick doubled up twice and fought back to almost even in the match when the final hand fell. Levick raised to 150,000, and Chick reraised to 300,000. Levick pushed all in, and Chick made the all-in call with Q Q. Levick flipped over A J, and the board ran out A 8 3 3 6. Chick was eliminated in second place ($103,550), and Levick was the champion of ANZPT Melbourne ($158,050).
Selected Tournament Results:
California State Poker Championship Main Event
Buy-in: $5,000
Number of Entries: 319
Total Prize Pool: $1,595,000
First-Place Prize: $327,714
Places Paid: 27
Final-Table Results:
1: Shane Rose — $327,714
2: Mario Esquerra — $179,678
3: Matt Affleck — $124,306
4: Ian Kim — $82,494
5: Raz Mael — $64,413
6: Daniel Alaei — $50,852
7: Kelly Hameed — $38,422
8: Darryll Fish — $28,251
9: G Xu — $20,341
Looking Ahead
40th Annual World Series of Poker
Binion’s Poker Classic
Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III
Caesars Mega Stack Series
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