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Yevgeniy Timoshenko Wins WPT Championship; ElkY Secures Player of the Year Honors


Olga_kurylenko_5
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.

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WPT Championship: Handicapping The Final Table


Wpt-logo The WPT Championship final table is set.

Yevgeniy Timoshenko. Early on Day 2 of the event, we asked the WPT team if Yevgeniy Timoshenko, a woman, was a chick, because of this picture. Later we did a post on him. Come to find out the dude is SOLID. Most think he's the real deal. Plus, he's got the Russian thing going for him. After Slumdog Millionaire, Vivek Rajkumar's run, and Anoop Desai's early front-runner status on American Idol, we thought it was the Year of the IndianTM. But then Anoop flamed out, killing that theory. In poker, it's clearly the Year of the RussianTM, even if said Russian actually lives in Seattle. Whatever. Timoshenko is big stacked at 13,300,000. He's got the mojo. We've got him listed at 1:1.

Christian Harder. Who? What? Harder is second overall in chips with 7,425,000. He's played solid all week. Third place feels right. 6:1 odds.

ElkY Grospellier. ElkY could grab WPT Player of the Year honors with a fourth place finish, which we think he'll do, because he'll finish second. No non-Russian is hotter in poker right now. EklY is currently third overall with 5,955,000. Odds of winning: 3:1.

Scotty Nguyen. Nobody has more primetime poker experience at this final table than Nguyen. He's played great poker all week. He's been focused. It would be no shocker for him to make a run at this title, despite having a ways to go to catch up. A win would actually make Scotty tournament poker's all-time money winner, so there's some extra incentive if he cares about that kind of thing (like a Phil Hellmuth would, for example). Nguyen is fourth overall going into final table play with 3,275,000. Odds of winning: 5:1 just because he's Scotty Nguyen, baby.

Ran Azor: Who? What? Azor is fifth overall with 2,525,000. Odds of winning: 47:1.

Shannon Shorr: The common sentiment among most people upon hearing Shorr, the guy with the hot porn star sounding girl's name, made the final table has been, "Good for Shannon." The dude has been one of poker's most consistent performers and has been doing it the right way (except for this incident): building his bankroll on his own, no backers, still going to school, and just doing his thing. However, Shorr kind of has that "happy to be here" vibe. He's way short, with 1,130,000, although hopefully he'll cling on to a fifth place finish to milk just a little more TV time and maybe nab himself a deal with one of the online poker sites out there. Odds of winning: 10:1.

Final table play starts at 4pm PST.

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WPT Championship: Scotty Nguyen Adds Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of The Day To List of Accomplishments


A total of 32 poker titles. Five WSOP bracelets. One WPT title. One $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. title. One WSOP Main Event title. And now, finally, Scotty Nguyen can add a Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day to his long list of accomplishments.

With just 10 remaining, Nguyen holds the chip lead at the WPT Championship, stacked at 5,880,000. If Nguyen wins this tourney, he'll end up just a few hundred grand behind Jamie Gold as the all-time poker tournament money winner.

Nguyen is followed by Yevgeniy Timoshenko, a woman, with 5,105,000.

Also remaining is porn star Shannon Shorr with 3,155,000. Shorr has been one of the most consistent players on the circuit for the past few years, is always near the top of various Player of the Year standings, yet receives practically no pub. A WPT TV final table appearance at this championship would definitely change that…if people still watched the WPT on TV.

We keed. We keed.

Also still alive is ElkY Grospellier with 1,965,000. We get it ElkY, you're good. Enough already. Leave some tournament money for everyone else.

Full chip counts here.


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WPT Championship: Eugene Katchalov Leads After Day 4


Wpt-logo Day 4 is in the books at the WPT Championship. The field is down to 24 and Eugene Katchalov of Russia Brooklyn leads them all, stacked at 4,294,000.

Close behind him and third overall in chips is Victor/Victoria Yevgeniy Timoshenko with 2,613,000. Some of the big names remaining include Scotty Nguyen (1,823,000), half-man, half-amazing Freddy Deeb (1,575,000), Jeff Madsen (1,265,000), damn-this-guy-is-good ElkY Grospellier (1,230,000), damn-this-guy-is-good-too-and-has-a-hot-porn-star-name Shannon Shorr (1,200,000), Jennifer Harman, a woman (821,000),and Joe Sebok Zach Hyman Hyman Roth Matt Hyman (433,000).

Get full chip counts here.

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WPT Championship: Steve Billirakis Leads Day 3, Phil Ivey Lurking


Day 3 has wrapped at the WPT Championship with Steve Billirakis as the chip leader, stacked at 1,722,000. Billirakis you might remember as the youngest WSOP bracelet winner in history. Or you may not remember him. Either way, he's chip leader. Fuck off.

Billirakis is followed by Joe Sebok Zach Hyman Hyman Roth Matt Hyman with 1,663,000. Mark Seif is third for now until he gets too aggressive and spews off his 1,315,000 in chips. Nenad Medic will probably final table as he's fourth overall with 1,306,000. And David Singer is fifth with 1,116,000.

Only 62 remain. Plenty of notables, including but not limited to Phil Ivey (1,036,000), Jennifer Harman (828,000), Jeff Madsen (712,000), Scotty Nguyen (557,000), ElkY (378,000), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (338,000), and Mike Matusow (272,000).

Get full chip counts here.

In related news, for those of you in Vegas, you've noticed it's gotten really hot this week, which means the pools are kicking, which means hot girls in bikinis (see below).

Watch SpyOnVegas.com Hot 100 Launch Party with Arianny Celeste on RawVegas.tv

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