2013 WSOP Updates (Pt. 2)

Ten more days of the 44th Annual World Series of Poker action is in the books!

READ 2013 WSOP Updates (Pt. 1)

In Event #9 Online legend Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy won his second WSOP Bracelet. Josephy is also one of the biggest stakers in the poker game -- half of "Bax and Sheets" fame. Event #9 was a $3000 No Limit Holdem Shoot Out with 477 entries. In Event #10 Chicago product Brent Wheeler beat a field of 645 players in this $1500 Limit Holdem match. Canada won another bracelet in Event #11 when Levi Berger won in the $2500 6 Max Holdem. Berger took down over $473K for the victory and defeated two-time bracelet winner Scott Clements heads-up for the win.
Through Friday's action (20 events) Canadians had won six gold WSOP bracelets.

Five-time WSOP bracelet winner Allen Cunningham was runner-up to Lev Rofman in Event #12, a $1500 Pot Limit Holdem event which fielded 535 entries Event #13 was a $5000 Seven Card Stud High Low event and Mike "The Mouth" Matusow won his fourth WSOP gold bracelet. Jonathan Taylor won Event #14 good for over $454,000 and 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider won his third WSOP bracelet in H.O.R.S.E. Event #15 defeating 862 players.

Canadian Mark Radoja won the $10K Heads-Up World Championship Event #16. In Event #17 Anthanasios Polychronopoulos won his second bracelet and twenty-four year old Tony Paur from California won Event #18 in his first WSOP cash ever. German Davidi Kitai won his second career bracelet in  Event # 19 a $5000 Pot Limit Omaha event.

Event #20 was won by a player I have met and played versus years ago -- Calen McNeil (right) from British Columbia. Calen is a funny guy, he won the sixth bracelet by Canadians this year and McNeil is an absolute pleasure to be around. Event #20 was a $1500 Omaha High Low Split that garnered a field of 1014 entrants. Twenty-two year old Martin Finger from Austria won Six Handed No Limit Holdem Event # 21 and took home over $500K for the effort. Matt Stout was runner-up to Martin Finger.

Notables that have made Final Tables this year include: Tom Marchese, Darryl Fish, Dan Kelly (2), Jared Hamby, Joe Cada (2) , Brent Hanks, Greg Mueller, Chris Tryba, Chris Klodnicki, Eric Crain (2), Mike Leah, Gavin Smith, Tomy Cousineau, Frankie O'Dell, Dan Heimiller, Justin Bonomo, Phil Galfond, Kyle Cartwright, Eugene Katchalov (2), and Todd Brunson.

2013 WSOP Player of the Year Standings

Tom Schneider Wins His Third

FROM ESPN 06/10/13

Every year at the WSOP, the $1,500 HORSE event manages to attract one of the largest no-limit fields of the summer. Most of the time, the field is packed with amateurs who like to play a variety of games, and most of the time, the pros enjoy exploiting that "dead money" as they roll toward victory. This year was no exception, as Tom Schneider outlasted a pro-heavy final table to win his third career WSOP bracelet and $258,960. This was the 53-year-old's first victory since his double-bracelet WSOP Player of the Year performance in 2007.

"It had been a while," said Schneider to the WSOP. "It's nice to know I can still play. There are a lot of good players now. The events are tougher than they've ever been. It's just nice to get some validation that I can still play with these younger kids."

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Matusow Wins Fourth Bracelet

FROM POKER NEWS DAILY.COM 06/08/13

20 players came back on Friday with a shot at taking down one of the bigger buy in non-No Limit events on the schedule, but only Mike Matusow would be left by the end of the evening to claim his fourth WSOP bracelet.

Within the first level of play, the field would be whittled down to thirteen players, with such notables as Timothy Finne, Joe Tehan, Brian Hastings and Eli Elezra taking the walk to the cash out cage. The 2011 champion of this tournament, Eric Rodawig, could not make the final table in succumbing in tenth place and, after Tuan Vo was eliminated by David “Bakes” Baker in ninth, the final table was set. At this point, Yuval Bronshtein was the chip leader, but the remainder of the leaderboard looked ominous. Baker, Matusow, Mike Leah, Tony Cousineau, Gavin Smith, Matthew Ashton and a short stacked Vladimir Shchemelev rounded out the field and, indicative of the skill level of the final table, they wasted little time getting down to business.

Shchemelev and Smith would depart within the first fifteen hands as Baker passed Bronshtein for the lead. It would get worse for Bronshtein as Matusow would bet action on every street except the last against him to rocket up to 555K in chips. Bronshtein, meanwhile, sunk down to 334K.

After a break for dinner, Cousineau and Bronshtein were eliminated quickly as Mike Leah mounted an assault on the top of the leaderboard. With his elimination of Baker, Leah cracked the 1.2 million chip mark, but Ashton would snag some chips from him to hold the lead three-handed. Matusow lurked within striking distance of the twosome and, when he struck, he did it quickly.

Matusow would bring the action to heads up by eliminating Leah in third place, but he was a 3:1 underdog as they started play. He would basically bring the match to even by getting Ashton to check-call every street when Matusow made a straight and a low to scoop the pot, then move into the lead when his two pair was better than Ashton and there was no low. On the final hand, Ashton rode a (4-2) 7-2-8-10 (8) to Seventh Street, but Matusow bested him with a (9-4) 9-2-K-5 (K) for two pair also to give “The Mouth” his fourth WSOP bracelet.

READ ABOUT ALLEN CUNNINGHAM'S RUNNER-UP FINISH IN EVENT #12

Prediction from 02/25/13 "My Ten Favorite Poker Players"

"A has-been? Washed up? I think not. Mike just won the 2013 National Heads-Up Poker Championship in January and Matusow plays good. He is old school and he admitted on The Scotty Clark Poker Show he is actually a nit. It's true. Mike understands what it takes to go deep and his record speaks for itself. The Mouth is back! He is un-sponsored, hungry, better than ever and playing on his own dime. If he "flies right", expect Michael to win again very soon." ~ Scotty Clark

Johnny Bax Wins His Second

FROM POKERNEWS.COM 06/06/13

Another day at the 2013 World Series of Poker is in the books. Two more champions earned bracelets on Thursday, including online poker legend Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy, who claimed victory in Event #9: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout to earn his first WSOP bracelet since 2005. The other winner was Brent Wheeler, who overcame a bumpy heads-up match to win Event #10: $1,500 Limit Hold'em.

Event #9: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout

A hard-hitting final table loaded with online poker superstars took place at the ESPN stage on Wednesday. When it was all over, online poker great Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy claimed his second WSOP bracelet and the top prize of $299,486. Josephy had to win three tables in the shootout format to land in the winner's circle. His final table included top pros Chris Klodnicki, Tim West, Steven Silverman, and two-time bracelet winners David "Bakes" Baker and Ryan Hughes. Josephy found himself heads-up with Evan Silverstein, a high-stakes cash games player from Pennsylvania, and disposed of him in 46 hands.

The final table began with 10 of the original 477 players who put up the $3,000 buy-in. Each began with similar starting stacks, allowing for a lot of play early on, but it took only 34 hands for the first knockout to occur. A short-stacked Simeon Naydenov moved all-in for less than 10 big blinds with ace-queen and lost a flip to Silverstein's pocket jacks, sending Naydenov out in 10th place. The next to go was Hughes, who lost his own race to David Baker, and then poker pro Chris Klodnicki exited in eighth place. Josephy raised to 28,000, Klodnicki three-bet to 65,000, and Josephy moved all in. Klodnicki called for 348,000 total and the cards went on their backs.

Klodnicki:
Josephy:

The board rolled out , giving Josephy two pair and the chip lead.

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2013 WSOP Updates (Pt. 1)

One week of action is in the books at the 44th Annual WSOP. Let's take a look at the results.

Chad Holloway kicked things off by winning the Casino Employees Event. Chad is a Senior Editor at PokerNews.com. That same day, Event #2 started with the debut of the $5000 Eight-Handed event. Canadian Trevor Pope won this inaugural event and the final table was stacked with young talent in the form of Darryll Fish (3rd), Jared Hamby (4th), Dan Kelly (6th) and David Peters (8th). Event #3 was a $1K Re-Entry Holdem event and Canadian Charles Sylvestre took it down. In Event #4, the Americans kept the Bracelet on native soil as John Beauprez from Avrada, Colororado won this $1500 Six-Handed event.

2006 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Cada finished fourth in Event #4, Chicago's Mike Mustafa finished fifth, and Keven Stammen finished sixth. In Event #5, a $2500 Omaha/7Card Stud Hi Low mix tournament, American Mike Gorodinsky beat Kristopher Tong for the Bracelet. And this brings us to Event #6, the "Millionaire Maker". Canadian Restaurant Manager Benny Chen beat 6,343 players and won $1,199,104. Dan Kelly made his second final table and finished fifth.

In Event #7 was a stacked final table. This event garnered a field of 1.837 players and was a $1,000 No Limit Holdem event. When the smoke cleared, standout Matthew Waxman won his first WSOP Bracelet, to go along with his WSOP Circuit Ring. Bracelet winner Eric Baldwin was the runner-up. Amit Makhija finished fourth, Bracelet winner Brent Hanks finished fifth, and Jason Koon finished ninth. In Event #8, the Canadians struck again, raising the total bracelet count to 3 for 8 for our friends up North. Michael Malm defeated a field of 338 players in the $2500 Eight-Game Mix. Canadian Bracelet winner Greg Mueller finished third and the "Pride of Murphysboro, Illinois", Eric Crain finished fourth.

So far, attendance at the WSOP at the Rio All Suites Las Vegas Hotel and Casino has been very good. From the news reports, there has been no scandals, or gaffes by Caesars Entertainment to speak of with the exceptions of long registration lines and players questioning the quality of the deal staff. Typical poker players!

Chad Holloway Wins Bracelet

FROM POKERNEWS.COM 05/31/13 Day 2 of the 44th Annual World Series of Poker saw the first bracelet winner of the summer crowned at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Event #1: $500 Employees No Limit Hold'em came to a close with PokerNews' own Chad Holloway winning the bracelet in front of dozens of friends inside the Amazon Room. Holloway, who is the senior news editor here at PokerNews, experienced the winner's interview from a different angle Friday morning after defeating a field of 898 players in Event #1.

Event #1: $500 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em
Day 2 began with 55 competing for a bracelet and a top prize of $85,000. Michael Trivett began the final day with a massive chip lead, but Team PokerNews members Chad Holloway and Josh Cahlik were still in the running.

Cahlik, who began Day 2 with 58,400 in chips, eclipsed the 100,000 mark early in the day and then took the chip lead after a massive hand against Wyatt Gibson. Cahlik raised to 8,500 preflop and action folded to Gibson, who re-raised from the small blind to 17,000. Cahlik called and the flop rolled out . Gibson bet around 55,000, Cahlik moved all-in for 126,000 and Gibson called. (Cahlik showed Jacks, Gibson showed Queens. Cahlik had come from behind by flopping a set of jacks, and the turn and river gave him the double up and the chip lead with more than 300,000.

Holloway "Hard At It"

Cahlik and Holloway were still going strong with 12 remaining, but Cahlik found himself short after running queens into kings. He got the last of his chips in preflop with and Trivett called with . The sent the PokerNews blogger to the rail in 12th place for $5,010. Troy Wilcoxon and Vince Petrino were eliminated in 11th and 10th place, respectively, setting up the first official final table of the 2013 WSOP. Holloway was third in chips at the start, but he took the lead after the eliminations of Hieu Le (9th place), Trivett (8th) and Tyrone Smith (7th). Holloway then sent Sean Smith to the rail in sixth place when his held up against Small's . Smith, who took third place at the WSOP-Circuit Council Bluffs Main Event this year, collected $13,868 for his sixth place finish.

Daniel Ellery (5th place) and Brian Pingel were the next to go, and Holloway then doubled through Bobby Rooney to claim the chip lead and cripple Rooney, who exited a few hands later in third place for ($33,903)

Holloway began heads-up play with a 2-to-1 chip advantage over Allan Kwong. The match went back-and forth for more than 90 minutes before Holloway was finally able to put it away. On the final hand, Kwong raised to 75,000 and Holloway called to see a flop of . Holloway checked and Kwong bet 85,000. Holloway reraised, and Kwong shoved all in. Holloway snap-called and showed for trips. Kwong tabled . The turn gave Kwong some outs to a straight, but the river sent the ESPN final table area into a frenzy as Holloway had secured his first WSOP bracelet....

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FTC Blocks Pinnacle/Ameristar Deal

Pinnacle's acquisition of Ameristar casino in jeopardy
FROM STLTODAY.COM 05/29/13

Pinnacle Entertainment’s $2.8 billion bid to buy Ameristar Casinos appears to be in jeopardy after the Federal Trade Commission announced that it would seek to block the deal. In a 17-page administrative complaint, the FTC on Wednesday said a merger of the Las Vegas-based rivals would reduce competition and hurt consumers in both the St. Louis area — Missouri’s biggest gaming market — and Lake Charles, La.

Pinnacle, the owner of River City in south St. Louis County and the Lumière Place casino on the St. Louis riverfront, announced in December that it would buy Ameristar, which owns a casino in St. Charles. The deal would double Pinnacle’s size as well as make it the dominant operator in St. Louis and Missouri. In St. Louis, the deal would give Pinnacle control of three of the area’s six casinos and nearly 60 percent of the area’s $1 billion gambling market. Including the Ameristar casino in Kansas City, the deal also would make Pinnacle the biggest player in Missouri gaming, with four of the six largest casinos.

Pinnacle’s chief executive, Anthony Sanfilppo, said in a statement that the company was disappointed by the FTC’s decision...

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