Phil Hellmuth is in contention for that ever-elusive(TM) first WPT title.
While
Phil Hellmuth may have 11 WSOP bracelets and a NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship title to his credit, he’s still never one a
World Poker Tour event.
Maybe that changes this week. Could the re-evaluation of his game that Daniel Negreanu tweeted about last week be working this quickly?
With 27 players remaining, Hellmuth is the chip leader at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star, stacked at 550,000. He’s followed by Hasan Habib, who is still alive, with 496,000.
Other notables remaining include Nick Schulman (381,500), a near shoe-in for WPT Player of the Year now Faraz Jaka (332,500), Chau Giang (307,500), and NAPT Venetian winner Thomas Marchese (117,500).
Get full chip counts here.
Tagged as: bay 101, Phil Hellmuth, Poker News, World Poker Tour
J.C. Tran (above) ended Day 1B at the WPT Bay 101 in a familiar spot: among the chip leader.
In total, the
WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star event brought in 333 players to create a first prize of $878,500. This is down from 391 last year and a $1,025,500 top prize. Damn you, The Economy
TM!
Day 1B ended with Eugene Katchalov as chip leader, stacked at 131,500. Other notable big stacks for the day include but are certainly not limited to Scotty Nguyen (99,000), Sorel Mizzi (97,600), and the spectacularly-breasted J.C. Tran (93,100).
Get full chip counts and follow Day 2 here.
Tagged as: bay 101, World Poker Tour
WPT Bay 101 chip leader Vanna Tea, a woman, likely has relatives who look like Nozomi Sasaki (above).
A total of 136 entered Day 1A of the
World Poker Tour’s Bay 101 Shooting Star event, with 56 making it to Day 2.
Vanessa Tea, a woman, ended the flight as chip leader, stacked at 143,900. She’s followed by Greg Mueller with 132,800.
Of the 17 “shooting starsTM” who started Monday, six survived (the aforementioned Mueller, Daniel Negreanu, Steve Brecher, half-man, half-amazing Freddy Deeb, Mike Matusow, and Yevgeniy Timoshenko). The aforementioned Timoshenko ended the day fourth in chips with 97,600. Scott Montgomery, who we thought quit, but maybe that was just blogging since he’s been grinding out some 2010 cashes, was fifth with 84,800.
Get full chip counts here.
Tagged as: Bay 101 Shooting Star, World Poker Tour
Annie Duke probably looked something like this when she defeated Erik Seidel for the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
Annie Duke, a woman, has won the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
The woman Duke defeated long-time friend Erik Seidel 2-1 for the title. She banks $500,000 for the win, boosting her career tourney earnings to over $2.1M. That number of course doesn’t include the $2M she took home for winning another made-for-TV event, the initial WSOP Tournament of Champions back in 2004.
For a recap of the match, go here.
Tagged as: 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Annie Duke, Erik Seidel, featured, Poker News
Doyle Brunson will have everyone pulling for him in the Elite 8.
The Elite 8 is set at the
2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
For most, the biggest shocker is probably Jerry Yang. Given he has exactly one cash since winning the 2007 WSOP Main Event–and that was in 2007–nobody had Yang advancing far in their brackets. Good for him though, as now he’ll earn an automatic invite back next year and won’t have to put the NBC HU officials in the weird spot of making him the first Main Event winner in the modern era without an invite.
For us though, the biggest Elite 8 shocker is Doyle Brunson. Texas Dolly wasn’t even going to play this tournament, but he keeps grinding away, and now would actually have to be considered among the favorites.
Here are the matches for Sunday:
Dennis Phillips vs. Doyle Brunson
Jerry Yang vs. Annie Duke
Jason Mercier vs. Scotty Nguyen
Peter Eastgate vs. Erik Seidel
UPDATE: Play starts at 11am PST. A few additional thoughts: 1) We’re pulling for The Shadow. Yep. The Shadow. We said it. One-time for “One…Mirron!” 2) We’ve been saying for awhile that there hasn’t been a break-out star for years in poker. The five or so biggest names before the boom (Negreanu, Hellmuth, Scotty Nguyen, Doyle, Ferguson, Duke, Moneymaker, etc.) are still the biggest names to the more mass poker audience. Could Jason Mercier make “the leap” by winning the event? Player of the Year…young guy…pretty good TV persona…meh, maybe. 3) While having two former WSOP ME champs on one hand is good…if the final is between Eastgate and Yang, what kind of a ratings would that pull? Would it make Face the Ace look like American Idol? 4) If the final comes down to Doyle and Seidel, and they end up tied after two matches, can the third match be determined by tweet-off?
UPDATE II: Seidel vs. Nguyen, Phillips vs. Duke in semis.
Tagged as: 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship
Unfortunately for us and Doyle, we won't be seeing any more of Kara Scott at the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
Not sure what’s up with this, but neither last year’s Official Pick to Win ItTM, Huck Seed, or this year’s OPTWI, Howard Lederer, will win the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
Defending champ Seed will NOT cash for the first time ever in the event, getting knocked out by Erik Seidel, who had never won a NBCHU match in five years. Lederer was defeated by Phil Hellmuth.
Some of the bigger surprises in Round 1 included: Don Cheadle def. J.P. Kelly, Phil Gordon def. Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, Chris Moneymaker def. Patrik Antonius, Jerry Yang def. Mike Matusow, and Doyle Brunson def. Brock Parker.
Go below the fold to see full Round 2 match-ups. Some highlights include: Phil Hellmuth vs. Annette Obrestad, Phil Ivey vs. Scotty Nguyen, Erick Lindgren vs. Peter Eastgate, and for some reason Darvin Moon vs. Annie Duke.
[click to continue…]
Tagged as: 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship
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