Given The EconomyTM, an impressive showing of 201 pros forked over $40,000 for 2009 WSOP Event #2, creating a first place prize of $1,891,012. By the end of the day, 88 remained.
Bruno Fitoussi closed out Day 1 play as chip leader, stacked at 812,500. Fitoussi is a high-stakes player who finished second to half-man, half-amazing Freddy Deeb at the 2007 WSOP $50k H.O.R.S.E. event.
Second overall is Chris Moneymaker with 805,000. Suffice to say, if Moneymaker can make a deep run (something we were a year off maybe on predicting, as we tabbed last year as his John Daly-esque resurgence), that would be good for poker. Justin Bonomo is third overall with 738,000. It’s just like high school. Evy Ng’s boyfriend Lex ‘RaSZi’ Veldhuis is fourth with 646,500. And Kyle ‘krisqueen’ Wilson is fifth, stacked at 611,500.
Other notable big stacks include Brian Townsend (609,000), Michael “Glambert” DeMichele (519,500), Andy Black (449,500), Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (443,000), Sorel Mizzi (431,000), Mark Seif (411,500), Ted Forrest (401,500), and Isaac Haxton (392,500).
On a side note, Haxton gets an honorary mention into our Top 5 New Poker Pro looks post. Thanks to FOWCP BJ Nemeth for the at left pic and notice. That Haxton kid cleans up well.
Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, the spectacularly-breasted J.C. Tran, and Huck Seed are all still alive as well. Get full chip counts here.
Tagged as: 2009 WSOP, Chris Moneymaker
Poker pro Brett Richey is really short on chips. Really short. On chips. He's among the many short stacks right now in the $40k event. Also among the short stacks are Phil Laak (55,000), Shawn Buchanan (37,000), and Michael Binger (28,000). With dinner break approaching, we're sure they'll really try to grow their stacks and survive into Day 2.
Not short are chip leaders Antonio Esfandiari (395,000) and Justin Bonomo (330,000). Get full chip counts at wsop.com here.
Tagged as: 2009 WSOP
There is nothing funny about the above photo.
A respectable 201 players entered 2009 WSOP Event #2 ($40,000 NLH), creating a first place prize of $1,891,012.
In probably the first "wtf" moment of the Series, Phil Laak was the early chip leaders. Then in not so shocking news, he lost just about all of his chips and is under the starting stack level.
Current chip leaders as of about 4:30pm PT include Ted Forrest (310,000), Antonio Esfandiari (no, seriously) (302,000), Justin Bonomo (275,000), and Jeffrey Lisandro (270,000).
Get full chip counts and updates at wsop.com here.
Tagged as: 2009 WSOP, Poker News
At post time this morning, Matthew Woodward has built on his overnight chip lead at the EPT Grand Final. He is currently stacked at 2,800,000.
Only 18 players remain. Unless you live near a fjord you probably don't know/don't care about the rest, except for perhaps Annette Obrestad, a woman, who is currently stackd at 1,400,000.
Follow the action live here.
Tagged as: Annette Obrestad, EPT Grand Final, Matthew Woodward, Poker News
Vanessa Claudio, a woman, is not among the many female chip leaders at the EPT Grand Final. However, she IS among the hottest girls we've ever seen come out of Mexico. Granted, that list is like five girls deep, but still, we'd gladly self-inflict ourselves with the swine flu for a romp with Claudio…if we were single. Love you honeys! View more Vanessa Claudio in Max Magazine here.
Some big stories are developing in Monte Carlo at the EPT Grand Final: 1) Can Annette Obrestad, a woman, capture her second major live tournament title in two years? 2) Can Sandra Naujoks, a woman, capture her second EPT title? 3) Did Phil Laak really make it to Day 3 of a major event? How did that happen? Phil Laak? 4) Seriously though, Phil Laak?
Of the 935 starting field, 149 remain after Day 2 wrapped. Marc Naaldenis overall chip leader, stacked at 770,000. Among other chip leaders are the aforementioned Annette Obrestad, a woman (600,000), the aforementioned Naujoks, also a woman (280,000), Ilari "ziigmund" Sahamies (200,000), Sorel Mizzi (170,000), Alexander Kravchenko(157,000), seriously wtf Phil Laak (150,000), Dennis Phillips (135,000), J.J. Liu, a woman (130,000), and "Salty" Joe Hachem (130,000).
Also still alive going into Day 3 is Phil Laak. Wait, what?
Get full chip counts here.
Phil Laak.
Tagged as: Annette Obrestad, EPT Grand Final, Phil Laak, Poker News
Yevgeniy Timoshenko with a brown wig? Maybe? Or Ukrainian model Olga Kurylenko?
As expected, Yevgeniy Timoshenko ran away from the field and captured the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Timoshenko caught our eye earlier in the tournament, although not necessarily for his poker skills. But the Russian Ukrainian a woman who now resides in Washington State has been killing it online for years. Now, he adds the WPT's top prize and another $2.1M+ to his bankroll.
Timoshenko defeated Ran Azor heads-up for the title, ensuring Joe Bartholdi's status as the most random WPT Championship winner for at least another year.
ElkY Grospellier finished third, wrapping up WPT Player of the Year honors and adding another $776,245 to his tournament earnings.
Christian Harder finished fourth ($571,965), followed by "Good for" Shannon Shorr ($408,550), and Scotty Nguyen ($285,985).
Get a full recap of the evening and interview with Timoshenko here.
Tagged as: ElkY Grospellier, Poker News, World Poker Tour, Yevgeniy Timoshenko
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