POKER ROUND-UP: RESULTS FROM BORGATA DEEPSTACK AND THE BARRIERE

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: THEHENDONMOB.com

Recent results from the Borgata Deepstacks in Atlantic City and the Barriere Poker Tour stop in Enghien-les-Bains in France.

BORGATA DEEPSTACK DOUBLE PLAY OPEN
The Borgata hosted the Deepstack Double Play Open last week. Alex Nepomnyaschiy was the big winner, collecting over 100K with the victory. The always entertaining and often controversial Eugene Todd collected his second PTPR Score of the season, finishing fourth in this event.

BARRIERE POKER TOUR ENGHIEN-LES-BAINS
Meanwhile, the Barriere Poker Tour made it's way to Enghien-les-Bains. Claude Metais earned the victory while EPT Deauville Champion Lucien Cohen (pictured) was the runner-up, posting his second PTPR Score of the 2011 season. Franck Pepe also earned points in the event.


PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Borgata Deepstack
NLH Double Play Open
July 17-20, 2011

Borgata Hotel Casino | Atlantic City
Buy-in: $1,000 | Prizepool: $428,000 | Entries: 418

FINAL RESULTS:
ALEX NEPOMNYASCHIY 35
JOSEPH CAPPELO 18
LAURENCE WOLF 10
EUGENE TODD 8
THOMAS BALLA 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Barriere Poker Tour Enghien-les-Bains
NLH Main Event
July 23-24, 2011

Casino Barriere Enghien-les-Bains | France
Buy-in: $1,940 | Prizepool: $331,330 | Entries: 179

FINAL RESULTS:
CLAUDE METAIS 35
LUCIEN COHEN 18
MOHAMED AISSANI 10
DJIGUI DIAKITE 8
FRANCK PEPE 5

APPT MELBOURNE: WILLCOCKS' MONSTER STACK HEADED TO FINAL TABLE

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

Phil Willcocks didn't stop accumulating chips on Day 3 of the APPT Melbourne Main Event. In fact, his chip lead grew and grew and now, he will be the dominant chip leader heading into final table play.

It took a little less than 9 hours to find our final 9 participants. Willcocks (pictured) will be joined at the final table by well-known veteran Van Marcus.

Two final table participants have PTPR Scores this season. Jackson Zheng earned 10 PTPR Points at a Aussie Millions Side Event (Event 6, NLH 6-Max) and Leo Boxell earned 8 PTPR Points at the ANZPT Gold Coast Main Event back in May.

Final Table Seat Draw/Chip Stacks:
Seat 1: Eddie Mascardi - 335,000
Seat 2: Van Marcus - 346,000
Seat 3: Will Jones - 730,000
Seat 4: Phil Willcocks - 2,317,000
Seat 5: Michael Frydman - 741,000
Seat 6: Steve Bouya - 910,000
Seat 7: Julius Colman - 513,000
Seat 8: Leo Boxell - 1,170,000
Seat 9: Jackson Zheng - 640,000

Final table play will begin at 2PM Melbourne time.


PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
Asian Pacific Poker Tour Melbourne
APPT Melbourne NLH Main Event
July 29-August 1, 2011

Crown Casino | Melbourne
Buy-in: $5,500 | Prizepool: $1,341,512 | Entries: 260

PTS AT STAKE:
1st position 102
2nd position 62
3rd position 37
4th position 27
5th position 20
6th position 12
7th position 10
8th position 7
9th position 7

PTS AT STAKE: KIWI PHIL WILLCOCKS LEADS AT APPT MELBOURNE

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

Day 3 play is set to begin in a few hours down under. The APPT Melbourne Main Event is in full swing and New Zealand's Phil Willcocks leads the final 37 players into today's play.

Willcocks will have a close to 2:1 chip lead over Aussie James Obst once play resumes at the Crown Casino later today. PokerStars Team Online player Keiran Harris is currently fourth in chips.

A prizepool of over 1 million dollars awaits the top 28 players (meaning that nine of the remaining players will be shoutout) - including a $330,000 top prize to the winner of APPT Melbourne.

Here are the payouts (in AUD):
1st $330,000
2nd $207,600
3rd $116,000
4th $88,600

5th $73,300
6th $58,000
7th $45,800
8th $36,700
9th $27,500
10th-12th $18,300
13th-16th $15,300
17th-20th $12,200
21st-24th $9,800
25th-28th $8,600

Here are the Top 10 chip counts:
Phillip Willcocks 774000
James Obst 454900
Koray Turker 424400
Keiran Harris 389000
Norah Greer 382000
Luke Edwards 356100
Marcus Lau 317400
Julius Colman 315400
Jackson Zheng 282000
Antonis Kambouroglou 272200


PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
Asian Pacific Poker Tour Melbourne
APPT Melbourne NLH Main Event
July 29-August 1, 2011

Crown Casino | Melbourne
Buy-in: $5,500 | Prizepool: $1,341,512 | Entries: 260

PTS AT STAKE:
1st position 102
2nd position 62
3rd position 37
4th position 27
5th position 20
6th position 12
7th position 10
8th position 7
9th position 7

PTPR POKER PLAYER PROFILE: MAXIM LYKOV

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: PTPR POKER, THEHENDONMOB.com, WIKIPEDIA.org

PLAYER VITALS
Name: Maxim Lykov | Born: 1987
Home: Moscow, Russia


TOURNAMENT WINNINGS
Lifetime: $2,583,845 | 2011(YTD): $1,606,780

MAJOR TITLES (2)
WSOP Bracelets: 1 | 2011 1K No Limit Hold'em
EPT Titles: 1 | 2009 EPT Kiev

2011 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 8th | PTPR Points: 274 | PTPR Scores: 7

2011 PTPR TOURNAMENT SCORES (7)
PCA EPT NLH 6-MAX BOUNTY, Bahamas (PTPR Prelim)
January 12-13, 2011 | Placed 9th, 17K | 5 PTPR Points

PCA EPT NLH 25K HIGH ROLLERS, Bahamas (PTPR Tier 3)
January 14-16, 2011 | Placed 3rd, 369K | 36 PTPR Points

WPT VENICE NLH MAIN EVENT, Italy (PTPR Premier)
Februray 3-8, 2011 | Placed 7th, 58K | 30 PTPR Points

EPT SAN REMO NLH MAIN EVENT, Italy (PTPR Premier)
April 27-May 3, 2011 | Placed 4th, 422K | 44 PTPR Points

EPT MADRID NLH 8-MAX 5K EVENT, Spain (PTPR Tier 3)
May 9-10, 2011 | Placed 9th, 17K | 6 PTPR Points

DEEPSTACK EXTRAVAGANZA NLH EVENT 15, Las Vegas (PTPR Challenger)
June 10-12, 2011 | Placed 4th, 36K | 8 PTPR Points

WSOP NLH EVENT 54, Las Vegas (PTPR Premier)
July 2-6, 2011 | Champion, 648K | 145 PTPR Points


2010 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: T-217th | PTPR Points: 98 | PTPR Scores: 3

SHOICHET WINS SIDE EVENT AT FLORIDA STATE POKER CHAMPIONSHIP

PHOTO: The Isle Pompano Park
SOURCE: THEHENDONMOB.com

The Florida State Poker Championship kicked off earlier this month and we have completed the first event that qualifies for PTPR Points.

Mark Shoichet has won the 1600K buy-in No Limit Hold'em Bounty event and collected 60K along the way!

John Dobson finished third in the event - collecting his second PTPR Score of the season - he cashed at the WPT Seminole Hard Rock Main Event in April.

PTPR Top 20 player Taylor von Kriegenbergh placed 8th in this event - however, he did not collect any PTPR Points.

Here are the Top 10 Money Finishers:
1st Mark Shoichet $60,000
2nd Carleen Heath $51,000
3rd John Dobson $35,490
4th Roger Goindoo $17,990
5th Andrew Touchette $12,850
6th Salman Jaddi $11,051
7th Chris Mcnamara $8,481
8th Taylor von Kriegenbergh $6,168
9th Steven Bucknew $5,911
10th Brenda Nelson $5,654


PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Florida State Poker Championship
NLH Bounty Event
July 22-24, 2011

Isle Casino Pompano Beach | Florida
Buy-in: $1,600 | Prizepool: $440,000 | Entries: 275

FINAL RESULTS:
MARK SHOICHET 35
CARLEEN HEATH 18
JOHN DOBSON 10
ROGER GOINDOO 8
ANDREW TOUCHETTE 5

GOULDER DEFEATS WSOP BRACELET WINNER TO WIN DTD THE MONTE CARLO

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: POKERPAGES.com

Alex Goulder captured his first PTPR Points of the season by picking up a win in the Dusk Till Dawn's The Monte Carlo Main Event in Nottingham.

Goulder defeated bracelet winner Matt Perrins heads up. Perrins (pictured) won his bracelet earlier this summer at the Series. Stuart Fox was third in the event.

Perrins wasn't the only big name player participating in the event. Fresh off his 26th place finish at the WSOP, JP Kelly - 48 hours after his send-off - was in the event. Other star players on hand included Roberto Romanello, Toby Lewis, Jake Cody, John Eames, James Keys, James Dempsey amongst others.


PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Dusk Till Dawn The Monte Carlo
NLH Main Event
July 21-24, 2011

Dusk Till Dawn | Nottingham
Buy-in: $1,565 | Prizepool: $362,500 | Entries: 252

FINAL RESULTS:
ALEX GOULDER 35
MATT PERRINS 18
STUART FOX 10
DANIEL LAMING 8
JAMES CLARKE 5

PTPR POKER PLAYER PROFILE: SAM STEIN

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: PTPR POKER, THEHENDONMOB.com, WIKIPEDIA.org

PLAYER VITALS
Name: Sam Stein | Born: 1988
Home: Henderson, Nevada, USA


TOURNAMENT WINNINGS
Lifetime: $2,921,925 | 2011(YTD): $1,778,379

MAJOR TITLES (1)
WSOP Bracelets: 1 | 2011 Pot Limit Omaha

2011 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 11th | PTPR Points: 228 | PTPR Scores: 3

2011 PTPR TOURNAMENT SCORES (3)
PCA EPT NLH MAIN EVENT (PTPR Premier)
January 8-14, 2011 | Placed 4th, 1M | 50 PTPR Points

WSOP POT LIMIT HOLD'EM CHAMPIONSHIP (PTPR Premier)
June 3-5, 2011 | Placed 3rd, 264K | 47 PTPR Points

WSOP EVENT 31 POT-LIMIT OMAHA (PTPR Premier)
June 17-19, 2011 | Champion, 420K | 131 PTPR Points


2010 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 43rd | PTPR Points: 182 | PTPR Scores: 4

PTPR POKER PLAYER PROFILE: BEN LAMB

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: PTPR POKER, THEHENDONMOB.com, WIKIPEDIA.org

PLAYER VITALS
Name: Ben Lamb | Born: 1985
Home: Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA


TOURNAMENT WINNINGS
Lifetime: $3,347,334 | 2011(YTD): $2,113,947

MAJOR TITLES (1)
WSOP Bracelets: 1 | 2011 10K PLO Championship

2011 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 1st | PTPR Points: 322 | PTPR Scores: 5

2011 PTPR TOURNAMENT SCORES (5)
WSOP EVENT 31 POT-LIMIT OMAHA (PTPR Premier)
June 17-19, 2011 | Placed 2nd, 259K | 81 PTPR Points

WSOP EVENT 42 PLO CHAMPIONSHIP (PTPR Premier)
June 24-27, 2011 | Champion, 814K | 128 PTPR Points

WSOP EVENT 46 NLH 6-MAX CHAMPIONSHIP (PTPR Premier)
June 27-29, 2011 | Placed 12th, 56K | 12 PTPR Points

WSOP 50K POKER PLAYER'S CHAMPIONSHIP (PTPR Grand Slam)
July 2-6, 2011 | Placed 8th, 201K | 46 PTPR Points

WSOP MAIN EVENT (PTPR Grand Slam)
July 7-November 7, 2011 | Currently 5th, TBA | Minimum 55 PTPR Points


2010 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 524th | PTPR Points: 54 | PTPR Scores: 2

POKER ROUND-UP: RESULTS FROM GERMANY, GREECE, AUSTRIA AND THE CAESARS MEGA STACKS MAIN

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: THEHENDONMOB.com

Results today take us to Germany for the German Championship of Poker, Greece for the Greek Poker Cup, Las Vegas for the Caesars Mega Stacks Main Event and to Austria for the CAPT Velden Open Main.

GERMAN CHAMPIONSHIP OF POKER
Kings Casino in Rozvadov hosted the German Championship of Poker. Janus Thosted was the eventual winner, besting Gerald Karlic heads up. Manfred Hammer earned his second PTPR Score in the event.

GREEK POKER CUP II
Christos Dikos captured the Greek Poker Cup II in Loutraki, Greece. Georgios Kapalas finished in fourth place.

CAESARS MEGA STACK
Adrien Braesco defeated a long list of opponents at the Caesars Mega Stack Main Event. Jacob Toole finshed third in the event, earning his second PTPR Score of the year. A total of 1610 participants entered the event!

CAPT VELDEN OPEN
Finally, it's Balazs Somodi who earns the honors at the Casinos Austria Poker Tour's CAPT Velden Open. Johann Fest finished second while third place finisher, Erich Kollmann (pictured), collected his third PTPR Score of the year.


PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
German Championship of Poker
No Limit Hold'em Main Event
July 1, 2011

Kings Casino | Germany
Buy-in: $1,580 | Prizepool: $300,070 | Entries: 222

FINAL RESULTS:
JANUS THORSTED 35
GERALD KARLIC 18
UNKNOWN 10
MANFRED HAMMER 8
UNKNOWN 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Greek Poker Cup II
No Limit Hold'em Main Event
July 6-10, 2011

Hotel Casino Loutraki | Greece
Buy-in: $1,435 | Prizepool: $392,060 | Entries: 270

FINAL RESULTS:
CHRISTOS DIKOS 35
ACHILLEVS THEODOSIOY 18
ALEXANDROS VLACHOS 10
GEORGIOS KAPALAS 8
DIMITRIOS VATAMIDIS 5

PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
Caesars Mega Stacks
No Limit Hold'em Main Event
July 11, 2011

Caesars Palace | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $1,060 | Prizepool: $1,561,700 | Entries: 1,610

FINAL RESULTS:
ADRIEN BRAESCO 116
TYLER VINYARD 76
JACOB TOOLE 51
WILLIAM MIETZ 41
BENJAMIN LE FEW 34
ROBERT GEORUTO 26
MAURI DORBEK 24
MARLON DELOSANTOS 21
DANIEL PAPKI 21

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
CAPT Velden Open
No Limit Hold'em Main Event
July 16-17, 2011

Casinos Austria Velden | Austria
Buy-in: $2,870 | Prizepool: $520,020 | Entries: 195

FINAL RESULTS:
BALAZS SOMODI 35
JOHANN FEST 18
ERICH KOLLMANN 10
THOMAS BRAUNER 8
UNKNOWN 5

BELLAGIO CUP WRAPS UP WITH O'DWYER WINNING THE 5K

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: THEHENDONMOB.com

The Bellagio Cup wrapped up earlier this week - no WPT bracelet for Main Event winner Elio Fox earlier this week but, still a good turnout for that event and the 5K NLH Event that followed it.

The 5K buy-in event was won by Steve O'Dwyer - who picks up his third PTPR Score of the 2011 season. O'Dwyer has scores at the NAPT Mohegan Sun Main and at a WPT Championship side event and now a win at this Bellagio Cup side event.

O'Dwyer defeated Martin Hanowski heads up while Byron Kaverman earned his third PTPR Score of the year with his 8th place finish.

Ray Qartomy, Michael Frazin and Joe Elpayaa were other notables who scored in the event.

David Williams, 2010 Card Player of the Year Thomas Marchese, Thor Hansen, Matt Stout and Hafiz Khan all cashed.


PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
Bellagio Cup VII
NLH 5K Event
July 18-19, 2011

Bellagio Hotel Casino | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $5,000 | Prizepool: $756,000 | Entries: 156

FINAL RESULTS:
STEPHEN O'DWYER 101
MARTIN HANOWSKI 61
YARON REUVEN 36
RAY QARTOMY 26
TOAN TRINH 19
ANDREW GAW 11
MICHAEL FRAZIN 9
BYRON KAVERMAN 6
JOE ELPAYAA 6

THE SUMMER SO FAR: BEN LAMB CAPTURES #1 OVERALL RANK

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com

Anytime I can reference anything Dave Matthews Band and I'm a happy man. The Summer So Far reminds me of the year 2000 and my Napster days, where I tried for days to download a bootleg copy of the then unreleased DMB album - know as the Lillywhite Sessions to most fans. Alright, onto poker!

The November 9 participants have been given 9th place PTPR Points - 55 points to be exact. Those points will count towards July's PTPR Player of the Month rankings. All additional points accumulated at the final table will be given away in November when a WSOP World Champion is crowned. Those points will go towards November's POM rankings.

With this, Ben Lamb's amazing summer continues! His 55 PTPR Points give him top spot on the 2011 PTPR Tournament Player of the Year Leaderboard - surpassing equally impressive Jason Mercier. Mercier sits 17 PTPR Points behind Lamb. Eugene Katchalov moves down to third while European stars Alessio Isaia and "ElkY" Bertrand Grospellier round-out the Top 5.

Finally, here is a look at the extra points that remain to be captured once a new WSOP Champion is crowned:

Bracelet Winner 115
Runner-Up 55
3rd place 40
4th place 30
5th place 25
6th place 20
7th place 15
8th place 10
9th place 0

WPT SLOVENIA: KORSAR CRASHES, TRAVNIK TAKES WPT BRACELET

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

It seemed like it was the Johannes Korsar Show today at WPT Slovenia. Korsar entered final day play as the chip leader, and, for most of the day, was simply crushing opponents.


All of a sudden, the Korsar Show started losing in the ratings (some upstart named Vincenzo Natale was on his heels). Korsar and Natale battled it out and, one misstep by Korsar and he never could recover - his show was cancelled and Johannes Korsar was our third place finisher in the event.

Funny enough, Natale himself wasn't able to go all the way. After some intense chip swings, it was Slovenia's own Miha Travnik who walked away with his first ever WPT Bracelet. Travnik earns his first major live poker victory as well as his first PTPR Points with the win.

Valentin Stroiescu and Thomas MacDonald both earned their second PTPR Scores of the 2011 season while Manuel Blaschke is another notable that earned PTPR Points in this event.

Next WPT Tour Main Event Final Table is set for August 30th - it's Legends of Poker time at the Bicycle Theatre near Los Angeles.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Poker Tour Slovenia Sponsored By GoldBet
WPT NLH Main Event
July 17-21, 2011

Grand Casino Portoroz | Slovenia
Buy-in: $4,645 | Prizepool: $654,945 | Entries: 141

POINTS AT STAKE:
MIHA TRAVNIK 126
VINCENZO NATALE 76
JOHANNES KORSAR 46
FERDI CIORABAI 36
GAETANO FORTUNGO 31
MARCELLO MARIGLIANO 26
HUGH COHEN 26
PATRIK HIRVONEN 11
MANUEL BLASCHKE 11
FLORIN PANDILICA 11
ILYA NIKIFOROV 11
VALENTIN STROIESCU 9
DAN HILA 9
THOMAS MACDONALD 9

WPT SLOVENIA: KORSAR LEADS WHILE TONY G, EAMES FIZZLE AS FT PLAY BEGINS

PHOTO: PARTYPOKER.com
SOURCE: WPT.com

Welcome to Day 4 - Final Table day at WPT Slovenia. And while we didn't have a ton of big names in the field, two notable players in particular held our attention for most of Wednesday's Day 3 play. Tony G and John Eames were hoping to grab themselves a WPT bracelet by hopefully surviving a smaller field. Unfortunately, that did not happen as both players were eliminated during Day 3 play.

After thirteen hours of play yesterday, Johannes Korsar was your chip leader.

Play has just begun in Portoroz, follow WPT.com for all the action.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Poker Tour Slovenia Sponsored By GoldBet
WPT NLH Main Event
July 17-21, 2011

Grand Casino Portoroz | Slovenia
Buy-in: $4,645 | Prizepool: $654,945 | Entries: 141

POINTS AT STAKE:
1st place 126
2nd place 76
3rd place 46
4th place 36
5th place 31
6-7th place 26
8th-9th 11
Florin Pandilica 11
Ilya Nikiforov 11
Valentin Stroiescu 9
Dan Ionet Hila 9
Thomas Macdonald 9

2011 WSOP: AND THEN THEY WERE NINE...

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

We have reached the end of the long and winding road towards the completion of the 2011 World Series of Poker ... well, that is, until November.

After almost two months of major tournaments, day-in and day-out, we've reached the final table of the WSOP - the November Nine!

And although we could have been headed to November with some pretty interesting storylines (boyfriend-girlfriend battle for example), what we're left with is nothing to spit at either.

Will we see the fourth non-American in the past 7 years to win the Main Event? The top 2 in chips, Martin Staszko and Eoghan O'Dea will sure do everything in their power to make this happen.

Will Matt Giannetti continue his late charge and win the big one?

Or will Ben Lamb conclude his ascension into poker stardom with a Main Event bracelet? Lamb has already had a storybook Series, his story could become the most amazing WSOP story of all-time.

Oh, and how many Phil Collins jokes, jabs, headlines and one-liners will we have to endure for the next four months? Over/under set at, let's say, 5000?

One thing if for sure, we're all set for what could be the best final table of all-time - some great stories and quite frankly, one of the most talented yet intriguing FT in quite some time ... No Grinder, No Ivey? No problem - I'll take Lamb, Collins and O'Dea any day (no pun intended).

November Nine Chip Counts:
Martin Staszko 4.01M
Eoghan O'Dea 3.39M
Matt Giannetti 2.47M
Phil Collins 2.38M
Ben Lamb 2.08M
Badih Bounahra 1.97M
Pius Heinz 1.64M
Anton Makievskyi 1.38M
Samuel Holden 1.23M


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker NLH Main Event
July 17-November, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $64,531.000 | Entries: 6,865

PTS AT STAKE:
Bracelet Winner 170
Runner-Up 110
3rd place 95
4th place 85
5th place 80
6th place 75
7th place 70
8th place 65
9th place 55
JOHN HEWITT 45
KHOA NGUYEN 40
BRYAN DEVONSHIRE 38
KONSTANTINOS MAMALIADIS 38
SCOTT SCHWALICH 38
ANDREY PATEYCHUK 35
RYAN LENAGHAN 35
SAM BARNHART 35
KENNY SHIH 32
ALEKSANDR MOZHNYAKOV 32
GIONNI DEMERS 32
CHRIS MOORE 28
LARS BONDING 28
ANDREW HINRICHSENB 28
GREGORY KAPLAN 25
JERRY VAN STRYDONCK 25
JP KELLY 25
KYLE JOHNSON 25

WPT SLOVENIA: SPERENZA LEADS, EAMES IN CONTENTION

Gianluca Sperenza is your chip leader following Day 2 play at WPT Slovenia. Sperenza is the only remaining player with over 400K in chips, leading the remaining 26 players heading into Wednesday's Day 3 action.

Many will have their eyes set on John Eames, who is looking for his 4th PTPR Score of the 2011 season - Eames is 7th in chips.

Casey Kastle and Tony G will also be looking to make a run on Wednesday.

Toby Lewis and PTPR favorite Dominik Nitsche werr not able to make it out of Day 2 - both were eliminated during today's play.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Poker Tour Slovenia Sponsored By GoldBet
WPT NLH Main Event
July 17-21, 2011

Grand Casino Portoroz | Slovenia
Buy-in: $4,645 | Prizepool: $654,945 | Entries: 141

POINTS AT STAKE:
1st place 126
2nd place 76
3rd place 46
4th place 36
5th place 31
6-7th place 26
8-11th place 11
12-14th place 9

ELIO FOX WINS BELLAGIO CUP VII

We start this post by first mentioning that we are experiencing technical difficulties with the site at the moment, please accept this condensed version of this post...

Elio Fox has won the Bellagio Cup Main Event, defeating Hafiz Khan heads up. Fox collects his second PTPR Score with the win, it's a third score for Khan.

William Thorsen finished third, collecting his fouth PTPR Score of the year.

2011 WSOP: LOVE IS IN THE AIR AS LOVE BIRDS SANDS/MOUTINHO IN THE BLINDS!

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

An amazing story is developing at the WSOP as we inch closer and closer to the November Nine.

Yesterday, David "Doc" Sands was moved to the ESPN feature table. As he entered the "arena", his girlfriend, Erika Moutinho was already seated at the table and, well, the two were forced to treat each other as adversaries for the time being.

Queue tonight and, well, things got a little more weird. Once again seated at that same ESPN feature table except, this time, they were seated one next to each other, battling blinds once an orbit. In one hand, Moutinho (sitting the Sands' right) raised Doc's big blind and took down the pot.

It could make for some very interesting TV as we get down in play - to add to the drama? Both are pretty low in chips so one may have to make a move on the other.

We are down to 32 players and Matt Giannetti is our chip leader. He picked up most of his chips off Brazilian Hilton Labroda - whom Phil Hellmuth lambasted for what the Poker Brat described as a terrible call.

Our main man Ben Lamb is still going strong - currently sits third in chips, one of four players with at least 13M chips.

Gregory Kaplan, JP Kelly, Lars Bonding, Phil Collins and Bryan Devonshire are all in the Top 10 - sure looks like we are going to be in for one entertaining November Nine!

Current notable chip stacks at the dinner break:
Matt Giannetti 14,360,000
Ben Lamb 13,035,000
Aleksandr Mozhnyakov 13,005,000
Gregory Kaplan 12,470,000
JP Kelly 10,250,000
Lars Bonding 8,445,000
Phil Collins 8,140,000
Bryan Devonshire 7,875,000
Eoghan O'Dea 5,500,000
Steve Brecher 4,925,000
Pius Heinz 4,550,000
Sam Barnhart 4,395,000
Kyle Johnson 3,185,000
John Esposito 1,965,000
David Sands 1,915,000
Erika Moutinho 1,775,000


It's a tough break for tonight's notable eliminations: Erick Lindgren, Tony Hachem, Mario Silvestri, Ruben Visser, David Bach, Feming Chan, Stefan Huber, Per Linde, Zohair Karim and Sebastien Ruthenberg.


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker NLH Main Event
July 17-November, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $64,531.000 | Entries: 6,865

PTS AT STAKE:
Bracelet Winner 170
Runner-Up 110
3rd place 95
4th place 85
5th place 80
6th place 75
7th place 70
8th place 65
9th place 55
10th place 45
11th place 40
12-14th place 38
15-17th place 35
18-20th place 32
21-23rd place 28
24-27th place 25

PTS AT STAKE: NITSCHE CONTINUES TO ROLL, THIS TIME AT WPT SLOVENIA

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: WPT.com

I enjoyed a Twitter conversation with Dominik Nitsche a few Sundays ago - he was commenting on the fact that I was describing his recent success on the circuit as "minor league results". I explained to Dominik that it wasn't meant as a insult, quite the opposite - the 20-year old pro was quick to mention that he was only poking fun at my comments - and was sure to make it clear that his age is the reason why he's not dominating on the WSOP felt at the Rio this summer ...

Funny enough, days later, Nitsche is in contention at WPT Slovenia - a MAJOR championship for sure - a WPT bracelet win would assure that everyone would know the name Dominik Nitsche, 11 months before he makes his way to Las Vegas and tackles the World Series of Poker.

Nitsche is the Day 1B chip leader after Monday's play - he sits third overall in chips, Day 1A chip leaders Johan Patrick Hirvonen and Salvatore Bianco are ahead of Nitsche.

Casey Kastle, Kyle Wilson, Toby Lewis, John Eames and Tony G are some of the other 84 players still alive coming into Tuesday's Day 2 play.

Here are the Top 10 Chip Counts:
Johan Patrick Hirvonen 148,000
Salvatore Bianco 123,675
Dominik Nitsche 120,250
Greger Aktell 103,025
Manuel Blaschke 102,200
Gianluca Speranza 102,125
Dan Murariu 98,150
Marcello Marigliano 97,950
Fabio Montrucchio 96,450
Gaetano Fortugno 96,000

Notable Day 1A and Day 1B player eliminations included: Dragan Galic, Filippo Candio, Sam El Sayed and Yann Dion.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Poker Tour Slovenia Sponsored By GoldBet
WPT NLH Main Event
July 17-21, 2011

Grand Casino Portoroz | Slovenia
Buy-in: $4,645 | Prizepool: $654,945 | Entries: 141

POINTS AT STAKE:
1st place 126
2nd place 76
3rd place 46
4th place 36
5th place 31
6-7th place 26
8-11th place 11
12-14th place 9

2011 WSOP: GROOVY KIND OF LOVE - COLLINS TAKES THE LEAD

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

It's time for the dinner break at the WSOP - once the remaining 90 players return, we'll have two more two-hour levels left for the night.

I would like to apologize to Phil Collins for the poor use of a article header but heck, I just couldn't help myself! Collins leads the way with 8.65M chips - he was actually at 10M for a bit earlier in the session.

Yawn, that guy Ben Lamb is at it again - Lamb stands at 7.44M in chips - the man is unstoppable!!

PokerStars German Team Pro Sebastien Ruthenberg is climbing up the charts as well, he's currently 7th in chips and looks to be trending, same goes for UK Team Pro JP Kelly, who's currently 9th overall.

Day 6 chip leader when the day started, David Bach, has lost chips today - and his lead in the process - he's down to 11th with 4.02M in chips, still in good shape.

Here is a list of notable players with at least 2M in chips...
Phil Collins 8,655,000
Ben Lamb 7,440,000
Bryan Devonshire 5,660,000
Aleksandr Mozhnyakov 5,400,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg 4,660,000
Kyle Johnson 4,400,000
JP Kelly 4,340,000
David Bach 4,020,000
Sam Barnhart 3,515,000
Per Linde 3,400,000
Pius Heinz 2,785,000
David Doc Sands 2,615,000
Erick Lindgren 2,525,000
Tony Hachem 2,120,000
Claudia Crawford 2,010,000

Notable eliminations so far today include: 2010 PTPR and Bluff Player of the Year Sorel Mizzi, Christian Harder, Ray Henson, Eli Elezra, Vladimir Geshkenbein, Joseph Cheong, Peter Feldman, Rupert Elder and Cory Albertson (last ginger standing).


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker NLH Main Event
July 17-November, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $64,531.000 | Entries: 6,865

PTS AT STAKE:
Bracelet Winner 170
Runner-Up 110
3rd place 95
4th place 85
5th place 80
6th place 75
7th place 70
8th place 65
9th place 55
10th place 45
11th place 40
12-14th place 38
15-17th place 35
18-20th place 32
21-23rd place 28
24-27th place 25

PTS AT STAKE: CANTU LEADS BELLAGIO CUP AFTER DAY 3

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: @kevmath (Twitter, Kevin Mathers)

It's been a while since we've seen Brandon Cantu in the winners' circle ... March 2010 was the last time to be exact - where Cantu won the 2010 Wynn Classic.


Well, it may be time for Cantu to pickup his next victory - but, there is still a ton of poker to play at the Bellagio Cup VII Main Event. This year's edition of the Bellagio Cup isn't part of the WPT tour schedule, which explains why numbers are down a bit.

But still, a whole lot of star players entered the six-day event - a total prizepool of 2.17M is up for grabs with a little over 669K going to the eventual champ - we're currently down to 22 players.

Nick Schulman currently sits third in chips and David Williams is fifth. Bryn Kenney, Hafiz Khan and Ted Forrest also appear on the Top 10 list.

Here are the notable chip counts:
BRANDON CANTU 802,500
NICHOLAS SCHULMAN 746,500
DAVID WILLIAMS 669,500
BRYN KENNEY 590,000
ELIO FOX 568,500
HAFIZ KHAN 496,000
TED FORREST 469,000
JUSTIN YOUNG 399,500
VITALY LUNKIN 223,000
THOMAS MARCHESE 185,000
LEE MARKHOLT 125,500
MICHAEL MCDONALD 120,500
NENAD MEDIC 101,500

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, David Benyamine and Isaac Haxton were amongst the last players eliminated at the end of the night on Saturday.


PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
Bellagio Cup VII
NLH Main Event
July 12-19, 2011

Bellagio Hotel Casino | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $2,172,800 | Entries: 224

POINTS AT STAKE:
1st place 102
2nd place 62
3rd place 37
4th place 27
5th place 20
6th place 12
7th place 10
8th place 7
9th place 7

ELPAYAA SURVIVES STRONG FT TO WIN VENETIAN DEEPSTACK III

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: POKERPAGES.com

It was a tough assignment for Adam Elpayaa - win a big event, collect your first big victory of your career oh, and try and defeat well known experienced pros along the way.


Well, Adam Elpayaa did just that, and did it in fine fashion - besting Jonathan Neckar heads up.

The chip leader heading into FT play was Tim Kahlmeyer - although things didn't go well for him, he wasn't able to grab control of the table and ended up in sixth position.

WSOPC New Orleans Regional runner-up Gary Friedlander was one of the favorites heading into final table play - he played a fine game, finishing third on the day.

Dan O'Brien had the twitter rail going - many of his friend hoping he could pull out a win - but alas, a respectful 5th place finish will have to do.

Both Friedlander and O'Brien have crossed the century mark in PTPR Points for the season.

William Reynolds, Sam Grizzle, Jonathan Little, Tony Cousineau, Matthew Waxman and Jennifer Tilly were some on the outside looking in, but, were still able to collect a little cash in the event.

Here are the final table payouts:
1 Adam Elpayaa $420,092
2 Jonathan Neckar $254,860
3 Gary Friedlander $170,665
4 Robert Zlatkiss $119,028
5 Daniel O'Brien $89,271
6 Tim Kahlmeyer $70,017
7 Dustin Graves $59,164
8 Anthony Gregg $49,012
9 Tony Sinishtaj $42,010


PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III
No Limit Hold'em Main Event
July 13-16, 2011

Venetian Hotel Casino | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $5,000 | Prizepool: $1,813,900 | Entries: 374

POINTS AT STAKE:
ADAM ELPAYAA 103
JONATHAN NECKAR 63
GARY FRIEDLANDER 38
ROBERT ZLATKISS 28
DANIEL O'BRIEN 21
TIM KAHLMEYER 13
DUSTIN GRAVES 11
ANTHONY GREGG 8
TONY SINISTAJ 8

2011 WSOP: LATE NIGHT SHOWDOWN GIVES BACH THE LEAD

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

It was a bloody affair when David Bach and Max Heinzelmann were all in late ... Bach holding kings, Heinzelmann aces - with his tournament life on the line.

Bach got there ... but he didn't hit a king, he actually drew four cards to hit a flush - terrible way for our Day 4 "player to keep an eye on" Max Heinzelmann - he goes from Top 10 to out of the tournament in a few hours.

Bach, the 2009 50K H.O.R.S.E. WSOP Championship (now known as the Poker Player's Championship), is looking to solidify his legacy on the poker circuit - he goes into today's Day 6 play with the chip lead.

We were introduced to Pius Heinz earlier on Day 5 - he had the chip lead going into the dinner break - and now sits second, only a few antes behind Bach.

Kyle Johnson's late surge has him third on the board, while Phil Collins and WSOP POY candidate - the red-hot - Ben Lamb is still in it to win, placing fifth after Day 5 play.

Here is a list of notable players with at least 1M in chips...
David Bach 4,706,000
Pius Heinz 4,699,000
Kyle Johnson 4,654,000
Phil Collins 4,109,000
Ben Lamb 4,032,000
Aleksandr Mozhnyakov 3,462,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg 3,354,000
Bryan Devonshire 3,292,000
Sam Barnhart 3,065,000
Per Linde 2,986,000
JP Kelly 2,664,000
Vladimir Geshkenbein 2,536,000
Tony Hachem 2,067,000
Joseph Cheong 1,988,000 888,000
Stefan Huber 1,789,000
Christian Harder 1,624,000
David Sands 1,620,000
Jean-Robert Bellande 1,230,000
Ruben Visser 1,127,000
Minh Nguyen 1,100,000

It wasn't all roses on Saturday - Kevin Saul, who had a serious chip stack for days now, wasn't able to keep the momentum going, he was eliminated prior to the dinner break on Saturday.

Also gone is the man who held the chip lead heading into Saturday's play, Manoj Viswanathan - didn't take long for him to lose the chip and suffer elimination. Popular pro Daniel Negreanu also bowed out on Saturday.

Other notable Day 5 eliminations included: Former WPT Tour Champion Martin DeKnijff, Garry Gates, Fernando Brito, Matt Stout, Aadam Daya, Jon Friedberg, Joe Tehan, Jonathan Depa, Peter Jetten, Carter King, David Vamplew, Collin Moshman, Marvin Rettenmeier, Jared Jaffe, David Levi, Jon Turner and Freddy Deeb.


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker NLH Main Event
July 17-November, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $64,531.000 | Entries: 6,865

PTS AT STAKE:
Bracelet Winner 170
Runner-Up 110
3rd place 95
4th place 85
5th place 80
6th place 75
7th place 70
8th place 65
9th place 55
10th place 45
11th place 40
12-14th place 38
15-17th place 35
18-20th place 32
21-23rd place 28
24-27th place 25

2011 WSOP: LET'S GRAB A BITE TO EAT - HEINZ, BACH, LAMB LEAD

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

It looks like we're going to be playing one final level tonight - but first, time to grab a bite to eat as the remaining 173 players are on dinner break at the Main Event.

You read that right, we're down to less than 180 runners! They have been falling like flies.

Relative unknown Pius Heinz had fought his way to the top and leads the WSOP late on Day 5. Heinz earned his first WSOP cash last month at the 1,500 NLH event - he finished 7th in the event that was won by Athanasios Polychronopoulos.

David Bach and Ben Lamb have both had tremendous success at this year's Series - and it looks like they're not ready to go away just yet - both have big chip stacks and both sit in the top 3, a few chips behind Heinz.

Max Heinzelmann, Bryan Devonshire, Sam Barnhart and Phil Collins (no, not THAT Phil Collins) are other notables currently with Top 10 chip stacks.

Here are the current Top 10 chip stacks:
1 Pius Heinz 4,040,000
2 David Bach 3,935,000
3 Ben Lamb 3,931,000
4 Lars Bonding 3,577,000
5 Max Heinzelmann 3,275,000
6 Alex Moore 3,150,000
7 Bryan Devonshire 2,930,000
8 Sam Barnhart 2,900,000
9 David Barter 2,863,000
10 Phil Collins 2,710,000

Sadly, we say goodbye to Mr. Good TV, Daniel Negreanu - what a boost we would have seen to November 9 ratings if Kid Poker would have been part of the final group - unfortunately, Negreanu left the tournament about two hours ago.

Matt Stout, Jon Friedberg and Joe Tehan are other notables that were recently eliminated.


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker NLH Main Event
July 17-November, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $64,531.000 | Entries: 6,865

PTS AT STAKE:
Bracelet Winner 170
Runner-Up 110
3rd place 95
4th place 85
5th place 80
6th place 75
7th place 70
8th place 65
9th place 55
10th place 45
11th place 40
12-14th place 38
15-17th place 35
18-20th place 32
21-23rd place 28
24-27th place 25

PTS AT STAKE: KAHLMEYER LEADS AS FT PLAY SET TO BEGIN AT DEEPSTACK MAIN

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: VENETIAN.com

We have reached final table play at the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III Main Event.

The tournament, which started with 374 runners each putting up 5K to play, has nine players remaining, all hoping to win the Championship, and collect over 400K in the process.


German pro Tim Kahlmeyer enters final table play with the chip lead - he has 1.7M in chips. Kahlmeyer (pictured) has been a very active pro these past few years, collecting many cashes around the world, however, he has yet to collect a big win on the circuit, this title would certainly help solidify his place in poker.

Gary Friedlander is fourth in chips - the WSOPC New Orleans 10K Regional runner-up player is looking for his first title of the season, while popular pro Dan O'Brien - fresh off two PTPR Scores at the WSOP (both in NLH six-handed events) - is looking to get things done early, he's a tad under the average chip count at 813K.

Here are the final table seat assignments/chip counts:
Seat 1 | Anthony Gregg 664K
Seat 2 | Tony Sinishtaj 753K
Seat 3 | Gary Friedlander 998K
Seat 4 | Johnny Neckar 670K
Seat 5 | Dustin Graves 1.6M
Seat 6 | Robert Zlatkiss 571K
Seat 7 | Adam Elpayaa 1.4M
Seat 8 | Tim Kahlmeyer 1.7M
Seat 9 | Daniel O'Brien 813K

Play is set to begin at 2PM Pacific Time.


PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III
No Limit Hold'em Main Event
July 13-16, 2011

Venetian Hotel Casino | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $5,000 | Prizepool: $1,813,900 | Entries: 374

POINTS AT STAKE:
1st place 103
2nd place 63
3rd place 38
4th place 28
5th place 21
6th place 13
7th place 11
8th place 8
9th place 8

2011 WSOP: BUBBLE BURSTS AS VISWANATHAN LEADS

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

Relatively unknown Manoj Viswanathan is your surprise chip leader as the bubble busted during Day 4 play at the WSOP Main Event.

Viswanathan's only known live cash was a 25th place finish at the LAPT's San Jose Tour stop back in May of 2008. Viswanathan is the only player with a chip count north of 2 million chips. All eyes will be on him on Saturday, as we see if this run is for real.

Kevin Saul and Ben Lamb, who had both been dominating for the past few days, both suffered a setback on Day 4 - Saul enters today's play in trouble with 690K in chips while Lamb is still close to the leaders, starting the day with 1.26M chips.

Max Heinzelmann, who sits T-25th on the PTPR Tournament Player of the Year Leaderboard, is one name to look at today. Heinzelmann has collected over 1.5M USD this season in two back-to-back runner-up finishes at EPT Berlin and EPT San Remo and has been trending up, collecting chips on Day 4 - he's currently 10th in chips.

We have 378 players remaining - coming back today at the Rio - here are the most notable top chip counts:

Manoj Viswanathan 2,115,000
Sam Barnhart 1,925,000
Max Heinzelmann 1,672,000
Bryan Devonshire 1,365,000
JP Kelly 1,332,000
Chris Bonita 1,300,000
Ben Lamb 1,268,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg 1,162,000
David Bach 1,142,000
Jean-Robert Bellande 1,134,000
Phil Collins 1,077,000
Amanda Musumeci 1,064,000
Per Linde 1,009,000
Joe Tehan 893,000 193,000
Joseph Cheong 862,000
Eli Elezra 779,000
Matt Stout 750,000

Other notables coming back today for Day 5 play include: Daniel Negreanu, Joseph Cheong, Tony Hachem, Jon Turner, David Diaz, Erick Lindgren, Allen Cunningham, Todd Brunson, Peter Jetten, Carter King and 2010 PTPR and Bluff Player of the Year Sorel Mizzi.

Notable Day 4 eliminations included: Sandra Naujoks, Mike Sowers, Randal Flowers, Bryan Micon, Thomas Fuller, Blair Hinkle, Jason Koon, Sam Simon, Vanessa Rousso, Joe Serock, Robert Varkonyi, Martin Hruby, Jake Cody, Mickey Appelman, Shannon Shorr, Dennis Phillips, Pim de Goede, Kristy Gazes, Lee Childs, Chris Viox, Andrew Chen, Berry Johnston, Phil Hellmuth, David Chiu, Jeff Madsen, Humberto Brenes, Jeffrey Lisandro and Aaron Overton.


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker NLH Main Event
July 17-November, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $64,531.000 | Entries: 6,865

PTS AT STAKE:
Bracelet Winner 170
Runner-Up 110
3rd place 95
4th place 85
5th place 80
6th place 75
7th place 70
8th place 65
9th place 55
10th place 45
11th place 40
12-14th place 38
15-17th place 35
18-20th place 32
21-23rd place 28
24-27th place 25

2011 WSOP: FORMER NOVEMBER NINER CHEONG TRENDING

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

November Niner Joseph Cheong was all the rage three-handed at the 2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table. Cheong seemed to be in control until one giant misstep - and Jonathan Duhamel never looked back.


Well, Cheong is back and is trying to make things right. He sits in the Top 25 in chips at the moment, a double-up away from the chip lead.

Kevin Saul is still near the top and although Ben Lamb has fallen a bit, he's still very much a threat as a little under 1,200 players remain in this year's Main Event.

Here are some of the top notable chip stacks (as of 8:47 Vegas time):
Guillaume Darcourt 948,400 (chip leader)
Daryl Jace 927,000
Christopher Bonita 887,100
Kevin Saul 679,500
Blair Hinkle 530,000
Rupert Elder 489,000
Ben Lamb 467,000
Joseph Cheong 427,000
Peter Jetten 405,000
Phil Collins 400,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg 400,000


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker NLH Main Event
July 17-November, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $64,531.000 | Entries: 6,865

PTS AT STAKE:
Bracelet Winner 170
Runner-Up 110
3rd place 95
4th place 85
5th place 80
6th place 75
7th place 70
8th place 65
9th place 55
10th place 45
11th place 40
12-14th place 38
15-17th place 35
18-20th place 32
21-23rd place 28
24-27th place 25

LAST CALL: THE LAST OF THE VENETIAN DEEPSTACK PRELIMS

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: THEHENDONMOB.com

While we wait for the final results over at the Venetian for the latest installment of their Deepstack Extravaganza, three more recently completed preliminary events have qualified for PTPR Scoring...

Alexandr Gnatenko earned his second PTPR Score at the Extravaganza, winning the event that started on July 7.

Benjamin Smith is back on the scoreboard, having won the event that started on July 9th. Mario Doria (pictured) scored PTPR Points earlier in the month at the WSOP's Event 54 - he clinched fifth place in this event.

Finally, Steven Tripp collected the win in the event that started July 11th.

Congratulations to all winners.


PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III
No Limit Hold'em Event
July 7-9, 2011

Venetian Hotel Casino | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $1,590 | Prizepool: $399,510 | Entries: 276

FINAL RESULTS:
ALEXANDR GNATENKO 35
IAN NELSON 18
MICHAEL KATZ 10
FLORENT LEPROVOST 8
NORSON SAHO 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III
No Limit Hold'em Event
July 9-11, 2011

Venetian Hotel Casino | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $1,070 | Prizepool: $218,090 | Entries: 226

FINAL RESULTS:
BENJAMIN SMITH 35
ANTHONY SCHUTTER 18
FELIX LAMBERTZ 10
PER STROM 8
MARIO DORIA 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III
No Limit Hold'em Event
July 11-13, 2011

Venetian Hotel Casino | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $1,070 | Prizepool: $239,320 | Entries: 248

FINAL RESULTS:
STEVEN TRIPP 35
SEAN NOLAN 18
FRANCOIS KEMP 10
LANCE YUEN 8
THONG TRAN 5

2011 WSOP: FINAL PUSH TOWARDS NOVEMBER NINE STARTS THURSDAY

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

Off day today at the Rio, the first off day in over six weeks! Let's take a close look at who's got the goods heading into Thursday's Day 3 play ...


Everyone comes together for day three - a little over 1,800 participants will battle it out for a spot in the November Nine.

If Larry David is running good (apparantely the balding star is dating the red-hot Eva Mendes!!) well, Ben Lamb is running really, really, really ... really good!

Lamb has been on a month-long heater that started here at the WSOP - a bracelet, four already impressive results at the WSOP, a PTPR Player of the Month selection for June - that all pales in comparison to his current form - after having the most chips at the end of Day 1B, Lamb is the current overall chip leader heading into Day 3 play on Thursday.

Kevin Saul held the chip lead for parts of the day on Day 2B - he's now only a few chips behind Lamb ... Day 2A chip leader Aleksandr Mozhnyakov is third in chips.

Poker superstar Patrik Antonius is in the hunt, sitting 12th in chips - many eyes will be on him on Thursday.


Here are the official Top 15 chip counts:
1 Ben Lamb 551,600
2 Kevin Saul 542,200
3 Aleksandr Mozhnyakov 478,600
4 Ryan D'Angelo 462,300
5 Tuan Vo 434,500
6 Guillaume Darcourt 410,500
7 Nicolas Fierro 405,000
8 Narendra Banwari 404,800
9 Stephane Albertini 400,100
10 Dong Yang Yan 383,400
11 Wilfried Haerig 366,000
12 Patrik Antonius 361,000
13 Joshua Gibson 355,100
14 Massimiliano Martinez 355,000
15 Joshua Weizer 349,600

We know one thing for sure, we will have a new World Champion crowned in November - 2010 Main Event champ Jonathan Duhamel was eliminated on Day 2B - same goes for former World Champs Jamie Gold and "pass the sugar" Joe Hachem.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker NLH Main Event
July 17-November, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $64,531.000 | Entries: 6,865

PTS AT STAKE:
Bracelet Winner 170
Runner-Up 110
3rd place 95
4th place 85
5th place 80
6th place 75
7th place 70
8th place 65
9th place 55
10th place 45
11th place 40
12-14th place 38
15-17th place 35
18-20th place 32
21-23rd place 28
24-27th place 25

2011 WSOP: SAUL, LAMB, ANTONIUS CONTEND ON DAY 2B

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

The final Day 2B is in full swing.

At press time, we have a little more than 2,800 runners still in it to win it. Among them are three known pros - all sitting in Day 2B's Top 10 in chips.

Chicago's Kevin Saul is looking to make history, he currently has the most chips. Superstar Patrick Antonius also resides on the Top 10 - he's looking to put a tough few months (with the Full Tilt controversy) behind him.

But all eyes are currently on Ben Lamb. The 2011 WSOP guru is in the hunt for the second straight day (he was chip leader on his Day 1) - we'll see if he can keep it up.

Here are the unofficial Top 10 chip counts (as of 6:30PT):
1 Kevin Saul 324,000
2 Ryan D'Angelo 287,000
3 Nicolas Fierro 287,000
4 Raul Pino 268,000
5 Arnaud Esquevin 255,000
6 Andrew Hinrichsen 245,000
7 Jeff Frerichs 242,000
8 Scott Shelley 230,000
9 Ben Lamb 225,000
10 Patrik Antonius 220,000

Notable Day 2B included: Mike Matusow, Dario Minieri, Jonathan Aguiar, Randy Dorfman, Phil Galfond, Daniel Alaei, Max Lykov, Liv Boeree, Barry Greenstein, Michael Benvenutu, Roland de Wolfe, Jeff Shulman, Eugene Katchalov, Shannon Elizabeth, Cliff Josephy, Brock Parker, Tony Dunst and Todd Terry.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker NLH Main Event
July 17-November, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $64,531.000 | Entries: 6,865

PTS AT STAKE:
Bracelet Winner 170
Runner-Up 110
3rd place 95
4th place 85
5th place 80
6th place 75
7th place 70
8th place 65
9th place 55
10th place 45
11th place 40
12-14th place 38
15-17th place 35
18-20th place 32
21-23rd place 28
24-27th place 25

PTS AT STAKE: WSOP MAIN EVENT CARRIES 64M PRIZEPOOL!

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

So much for the death of poker.

Just imagine if Pokerstars, Full Tilt and all other sites were still qualifying peeps from around the world on their sites ... what would we have for Main Event numbers? Over 10,000 players?

Well, we'll stick with this great 6,865 participant turnout, oh, and did we mention the $64,531.000 prizepool? Stunning numbers!

Pro Mike Sowers has emerged as one of the early Day 2A leaders (the second wave of Day 2 participants will hit the felt on Tuesday). Sowers has had a reasonably good start to 2011 - collecting three PTPR Scores - in side events at the PCA and WPT Shooting Star plus a score at the WSOP.

2011 bracelet winnner David Diaz also appears on the leaderboard ... although we have TONS of poker left to play ... a little over 4,000 players remain at the moment.


Here are the unofficial Top 10 chip counts (as of 6:30PT):
1 Ankush Mandavia 290,000
2 Don Nguyen 266,000
3 Wayne Hines 265,000
4 Geoff Rasmussen 255,000
5 Mike Sowers 236,000
6 Renato Almeida 235,000
7 Troy Quenneville 230,000
8 Daniel Sims 230,000
9 Juan Perez 226,500
10 David Diaz 226,000

Notable Day 2A eliminations have included: Phil Gordon, Bill Gazes, Bill Chen, Jimmy Fricke, George Danzer, Scotty Nguyen, Defending World Champ Jonathan Duhamel, Arnaud Mattern, Ram Vaswani, Matthew Waxman, Amanda Baker, Antonin Teisserie, Mario Ho, Pat Pezzin, Chris Moorman, Dutch Boyd, Eric Baldwin, Sammy Farha, Ladies Champ Marsha Wolak, Mitch Schock, Tatjana Pasalic, Allen Kessler, Action Dan Harrington, Glen Chorny and Mike Sica.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker NLH Main Event
July 17-November, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $64,531.000 | Entries: 6,865

PTS AT STAKE:
Bracelet Winner 170
Runner-Up 110
3rd place 95
4th place 85
5th place 80
6th place 75
7th place 70
8th place 65
9th place 55
10th place 45
11th place 40
12-14th place 38
15-17th place 35
18-20th place 32
21-23rd place 28
24-27th place 25

PTPR POKER PLAYER PROFILE: EUGENE KATCHALOV

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: PTPR POKER, THEHENDONMOB.com, WIKIPEDIA.org


PLAYER VITALS
Name: Eugene Katchalov | Born: 1981
Home: Brooklyn, New York, USA (Born in Kiev, Ukraine)

TOURNAMENT WINNINGS
Lifetime: $6,418,676 | 2011(YTD): $1,989,510

MAJOR TITLES (3)
WSOP Bracelets: 1 | 2011 Seven-Card Stud
WPT Titles: 1 | 2007 Doyle Brunson Classic
Other: 1 | 2011 PCA Super High-Roller

2011 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 2nd | PTPR Points: 299 | PTPR Scores: 5

2011 PTPR TOURNAMENT SCORES (5)
PCA 10K NLH 6-MAX TURBO (PTPR Tier 3)
January 16, 2011 | Placed 2nd, 131K | 60 PTPR Points

NAPT MOHEGAN SUN NLH HIGH ROLLERS BOUNTY SHOOTOUT (PTPR Tier 3)
April 12-14, 2011 | Placed 2nd, 68K | 60 PTPR Points

EPT MADRID GRAND FINAL (PTPR Grand Slam)
May 7-12, 2011 | Placed 27th, 51K | 11 PTPR Points

WSOP EVENT 5 SEVEN-CARD STUD (PTPR Premier)
June 2-4, 2011 | Champion, 122K | 128 PTPR Points

WSOP EVENT 41 LIMIT HOLD'EM SHOOTOUT (PTPR Premier)
June 24-26, 2011 | Placed 4th, 50K | 40 PTPR Points


2010 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: T-115th | PTPR Points: 132 | PTPR Scores: 6

PTPR PLAYER OF THE MONTH: BEN LAMB TOPS THE CHARTS IN JUNE!

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com

It's been one hell of a good month for Ben Lamb. Lamb has taken the WSOP by storm and trails only Phil Hellmuth for the WSOP POY title. Although Lamb has posted results for a few years now, he still came out of relative obscurity to take PTPR Player of the Month honours in June ... oh, and did we mention that he has one of the largest chip stacks heading into Day 2 at the Main Event - not to mention his 8th place finish at the Player's Championship? June has been very good to Benba and July has gotten off to a very good start!

Some big names were right up there in June as well ... Jason Mercier, ElkY, Sam Stein, Eugene Katchalov and Chris Moorman were right there at the top.


75 TOTAL TOURNAMENTS QUALIFIED FOR PTPR POINTS
Grand Slams - 0
Premier - 50
Tier 3 - 0
Prelim - 2
Challenger - 23


JUNE TOP 10

June Player of the Month:
Ben Lamb, 221 PTPR Points, 3 PTPR Scores

> WSOP Event 31 Pot-Limit Omaha (2nd) - 81 PTPR Points
> WSOP Event 42 PLO Championship (1st) - 128 PTPR Points
> WSOP Event 46 NLH 6-Handed (12th) - 12 PTPR Points

221 - BEN LAMB
203 - MITCH SCHOCK
194 - JASON MERCIER
186 - BERTRAND GROSPELLIER "ElkY"
178 - SAM STEIN
168 - EUGENE KATCHALOV
160 - MIKHAIL LAKHITOV
159 - CHRIS MOORMAN
158 - SEAN GETZWILLER
157 - MATTHEW MATROS


A total of 883 different players scored PTPR Points in June. Four different players earned four PTPR Scores during the month - Mitch Schock, Jason Mercier, Chris Moorman and Rami Boukai.

21 other runners hit the three PTPR Scores mark.

4 - MITCH SCHOCK
4 - JASON MERCIER
4 - CHRIS MOORMAN
4 - RAMI BOUKAI

3 - BEN LAMB, BERTRAND GROSPELLIER "ElkY", MATTHEW MATROS, JOHN MONNETTE, JONATHAN LANE, JONATHAN SPINKS, ADAM GEYER, GERARD RECHNITZER, TRAVIS PEARSON, ALI ESLAMI, MATT HAWRILENKO, SCOTT BOHLMAN, SHAUN DEEB, NICK SCHULMAN ``THE TAKEOVER``, RICHARD LYNDAKER, DANIEL SMITH, JACOBO FERNANDEZ, TOM DWAN "DURRR", ANTHONY LELLOUCHE, ANNAND "VICTOR" RAMDIN, MIKHAIL SMIRNOV

POKER ROUND-UP: EURO RESULTS FROM STOCKHOLM, ITALY AND PARIS!

SOURCE: THEHENDONMOB.com

Results from the Poker-SM 2011 in Stockholm, The Italian Series of Poker Nova Gorica and the Summer Series Deepstack at the famous Aviation Club de France in Paris.

POKER-SM 2011 NLH MAIN EVENT
Louis Nyberg won his first event of the season at the POKER-SM Main at the Casino Cosmopol. Karl Rudwall and Jesper Hoog both collected their second PTPR Scores of the 2011 season.

ITALIAN SERIES OF POKER NOVA GORICA NLH MAIN EVENT
The Italian Series of Poker's latest tour stop was at the Hit Casino Perla in Nova Gorica. Flavio Favilli bested Alessandro Scermino heads up.

SUMMER SERIES DEEPSTACK EVENT
Isabel Ortega survived the attack of 190 other runners to collect her first victory at the Summer Series Deepstack event at the Aviation Club.


PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
POKER-SM 2011
No Limit Hold'em Event
July 3-6, 2011

Casino Cosmopol | Stockholm
Buy-in: $1,560 | Prizepool: $436,344 | Entries: 272

FINAL RESULTS:
LOUIS NYBERG 35
FELIX WICTORIN 18
PETER KVISTHAMMAR 10
KARL RUDWALL 8
JESPER HOOG 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Italian Series of Poker Nova Gorica
ISOP No Limit Hold'em Event
June 9-12, 2011

Hit Casino Perla | Italy
Buy-in: $1,425 | Prizepool: $278,115 | Entries: 190

FINAL RESULTS:
FLAVIO FAVILLI 35
ALESSANDRO SCERMINO 18
ENZO SCIOLA 10
GUSTAVO COMI 8
EMANUELE MARI 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
2011 Summer Series
NLH Deepstack Event
July 1, 2011

Aviation Club de France | Paris
Buy-in: $1,425 | Prizepool: $250,857 | Entries: 191

FINAL RESULTS:
ISABEL ORTEGA 35
UNKNOWN 18
JEAN LUCAS 10
MOHAMED EL BAKKOURI 8
AMIR ISRAEL 5

POKER ROUND-UP: COOK, GLAZIER AND O'BRIAN WIN AT VENETIAN

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: THEHENDONMOB.com

There is another Vegas series about to be completed ... a little further down the strip ... at the Venetian - the Venetian Deepstack Series III is slowly winding down - the main event starting on Saturday.

Three more recently completed events qualified for PTPR Points ...



Adam Cook won the June 29 event. Cook collected his second PTPR Score of the year with the win, he is one point shy of 100 for the season.

Australian poker pro Jackie Glazier (pictured) picked up the win during the July 2nd event - Jonathan Clancy finished fifth in the event, earning his second PTPR Score of 2011 while Matthew O'Brian earned his first PTPR victory of the year, winning the July 4 event; Jannick Wrang was runner-up.


PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III
No Limit Hold'em Event
June 29, 2011

Venetian Hotel Casino | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $1,590 | Prizepool: $413,985 | Entries: 286

FINAL RESULTS:
ADAM COOK 35
ZOLTAN SZABO 18
JOAO NETO 10
KENNY SHIH 8
TODOR PLASEKI 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III
No Limit Hold'em Event
July 2, 2011

Venetian Hotel Casino | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $1,070 | Prizepool: $301,080 | Entries: 312

FINAL RESULTS:
JACKIE GLAZIER 35
MOHAMMED JAAFAR 18
JASON WHEELER 10
ALEXANDR GNATENKO 8
JONATHAN CLANCY 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza III
No Limit Hold'em Event
July 4, 2011

Venetian Hotel Casino | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $1,070 | Prizepool: $442,395 | Entries: 459

FINAL RESULTS:
MATTHEW O'BRIAN 35
JANNICK WRANG 18
GREGORY ROY 10
PAUL PRYBYLLA 8
DAVID VALENCE 5

2011 WSOP: THE END IS NEAR - ANTER, BINGER LAST PRELIM WINNERS

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

We're down to one event remaining at this year's World Series of Poker ... granted, it's THE biggest event on the poker calendar, but, the Main Event is the last shot at glory - and a gold bracelet in 2011.


Two events wrapped up in the last hour ...

EVENT 56 - NO LIMIT HOLD'EM
Hasan Anter wins with a royal flush! That's right, the ultimate nuts in hand, to win your first bracelet - I guess you can say you're running good when that happens, right? Anter scores his first PTPR Points of the season, defeating Nemer Haddad heads up. Added earns his second score of the year.

Ryan Goindoo, Bryn Kenney, 2010 bracelet winner Gavin Smith and Mike Meyers were others in the Top 18.


EVENT 57 - POT LIMIT OMAHA HI-LOW SPLIT 8 OR BETTER
Nick Binger (pictured) beat his brother to it! The fabulous Binger brothers have been terrorizing opponents for a few years now - and Nick reels in the first bracelet for the family! Binger earns his second PTPR Score of the season.

Binger bested 2009 WSOP Player's Champion (then the 50K H.O.R.S.E. World Championship) David Bach heads up. Bach earns his second Top 3 finish at this year's series.

Amongst the other players collecting PTPR Points is Doc Sands - who earns his fifth PTPR Score of the year (Jason Mercier and Max Lykov lead the way with seven).

Other notables included: Bryce Yockey, The Unabomber Phil Laak (who also qualifies for Epic Poker League play with this cash), The Takeover Nick Schulman, Bjorn Verbakel, The Chainsaw Allen Kessler (who suffered a tough bad beat on his way out), Brent Wheeler, Kirill Rabstov, Aleksandr Dovzhenko and Igor Sharaskin.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
Event 56 - No Limit Hold'em
July 5-8, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $1,500 | Prizepool: $4,575,150 | Entries: 3,389

FINAL RESULTS:
HASAN ANTER 145
NEMER HADDAD 95
ANDY PHILACHACK 65
SELIM OULMEKKI 55
JOHN BORZIO 50
JOHN HORVATICH 45
RAYAN NATHAN 45
RYAN GOINDOO 30
JAMES BOYLE 30
BRYN KENNEY 30
BRYAN PARIS 30
GAVIN SMITH 28
MIKE MEYERS 28
STEVE MICHAELIS 28
JANI MIKKOLA 28
YOONJUN PARK 25
BASSEL MOUSSA 25
JASON GRAVATT 25


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
Event 57 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8 or Better
July 5-8, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $5,000 | Prizepool: $1,654,400 | Entries: 352

FINAL RESULTS:
NICK BINGER 128
DAVID BACH 78
BRYCE YOCKEY 48
PHIL LAAK 38
TREVOR READER 33
PETER CHARALAMBOUS 28
NICK SCHULMAN 28
BJORN VERBAKEL 13
ALLEN KESSLER 13
BRENT WHEELER 13
KIRILL RABSTOV 13
AUSTIN MARKS 11
PETER LEVINE 11
DAVID DOC SANDS 11
ALEKSANDR DOVZHENKO 11
IGOR SHARASKIN 8
ANDERS TAYLOR 8
GRAYSON NICHOLS 8

2011 WSOP: A FINAL LOOK BACK AT THE PLAYER'S CHAMPIONSHIP

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

Love him or hate him, you simply cannot deny the star power of one Phillip Jerome Hellmuth Jr. Forget the antics, forget the hissy-fits, forget the tantrums, just look at his body of work and what he has accomplished in this his "comeback" season.

Like it or not, the man sure knows how to play poker ... and guess what? He can be humble in defeat - here is a tweet he posted a few hours ago ...

@phil_hellmuth
phil_hellmuth Congrats to Brian Rast, he played great, and all of the poker world truly loves him...Great guy...

This one really stings for Hellmuth though. He had a 17M to 2.4M chip lead but was unable to stop Brian Rast's charge, and, in the end, Rast picks up his second bracelet of the series.

Both players enter the PTPR Top 15 - Rast jumps all the way up 5th overall on the 2011 PTPR Tournament Player of the Year Leaderboard. Defending WPT World Champion Scott Seiver's and Owais Ahmed's performances also put them on the PTPR Leaderboard while Ben Lamb improved his position on the list, moving to 8th overall.

Other notables who scored PTPR Points in the event:
Matt Glantz, George Lind, Jason Lester, Vladimir Shchemelev, Jeff Lisandro, Yan Chen, Josh Arieh, Michael Binger, Barry Greenstein and Sebastien Ruthenberg.

Here are the payouts (in USD) for the final table participants:
1 Brian Rast 1,720,328
2 Phil Hellmuth 1,063,034
3 Minh Ly 665,763
4 Owais Ahmed 482,085
5 Matt Glantz 376,750
6 George Lind 300,441
7 Scott Seiver 243,978
8 Ben Lamb 201,338


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
50K Poker Player's Championship
July 2-6, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $50,000 | Prizepool: $6,144,000 | Entries: 128

FINAL RESULTS:
BRIAN RAST 151
PHIL HELLMUTH 91
MINH LY 76
OWAIS AHMED 66
MATTHEW GLANTZ 61
GEORGE LIND 56
SCOTT SEIVER 51
BEN LAMB 46
JASON LESTER 36
VLADIMIR SHCHEMELEV 26
JEFFREY LISANDRO 21
YAN CHEN 19
JOSH ARIEH 19
MICHAEL BINGER 19
BARRY GREENSTEIN 16
SEBASTIEN RUTHENBERG 16

2011 WSOP: HEARTBREAKER - HELLMUTH ONCE AGAIN THE BRIDESMAID

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

Congratulations to Brian Rast, winner of the 50K Poker Player's Championship down at the WSOP at the Rio.

Rast defeats Phil Hellmuth heads up, this is Hellmuth's third runner-up placing at this year's WSOP ... looks like the 12th bracelet will have to wait - unless Hellmuth performs Main Event magic once again!

We will have a full report and leaderboard analysis later tonight.

2011 WSOP: LYKOV EARNS 7TH PTPR SCORE, WINS FIRST BRACELET

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

Congratulations to Maxim Lykov for winning his first ever WSOP gold bracelet - besting over 4,500 players along the way!

What a great season it's been for Lykov. He joins Jason Mercier as the only two players to earn seven PTPR Scores in 2011 - he has accumulated close to 2 million dollars in tournament earnings this year - surprisingly, this is Lykov's first win this season.

Lykov's win places him 6th on the 2011 PTPR Tournament Player Leaderboard, seven points ahead Ben Lamb, who just registered 46 PTPR Points in the WSOP Poker Player's Championship.

Lykov's worldwide results this season are quite impressive - he secured his first points of the year back in January at the PCA in the Bahamas, then went onto WPT Venice, EPT San Remo, EPT Madrid, and the Venetian Deep Stacks and the WSOP in Vegas ... not a bad looking passport for 2011!

Other notables in the Top 18 included: Runner-up Dror Michaelo, Josh Evans, Sebastien Roy, Matthew Lagarde, Pierre Neuville, Aaron Overton and Mickael Morgousky.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
Event 54 - No Limit Hold'em
July 2-6, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $1,000 | Prizepool: $4,118,400 | Entries: 4,576

FINAL RESULTS:
MAXIM LYKOV 145
DROR MICHAELO 95
WARREN WOOLRIDGE 65
REN HO ZHANG 55
HARALD OLSEN 50
STANISLAV ALEHKIN 45
DOUGLAS MACKINNON 45
JOSHUA EVANS 30
SEBASTIEN ROY 30
MARIO DORIA 30
MATTHEW LAGARDE 30
TERRANCE EISCHENS 28
PIERRE NEUVILLE 28
AARON OVERTON 28
JASON BIGELOW 28
MATTHEW LEECY 25
JEFFREY MANZ 25
MICKAEL MORGOUSKY 25

2011 WSOP: WILL THE POKER BRAT GET THE LAST LAUGH?

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

Phil Hellmuth may be hours away from forcing a lot of people to eat crow. Many believed that Hellmuth was done, a has-been, a guy who simply could not adjust to the "new" ways of power poker.

Add to that the fact that most believed that Hellmuth could only rule in hold'em (granted, all of his 11 bracelets have come in hold'em events). But, Hellmuth has already cashed two runner-up finishes in non-hold'em events at this year's WSOP and, he's about to earn his third .. but this time, it's for all the marbles.

We won't get into the debate of which event is more presitigous here - the WSOP Main Event is known as the "Cadillac" event of the series but, the WSOP Poker Players Championship - which carries a 50K buy-in - trully finds the best overall poker player in the world - due to the fact that many different poker games are played in the tournament.

And that, gulp, may just be Phil Hellmuth! With five players remaining, Hellmuth has the table under control, this is his tournament to lose.

Even more frightning for Hellmuth's opponents? Once we hit the ESPN final table a couple of hours ago, the event converted into a NLH-only final table - let's just say the King of Hold'em has 'em right where he wants 'em - go get 'em Phil!

Chip counts (at 7:00PM Vegas time):
1 Phil Hellmuth 6,650,000
2 Brian Rast 4,950,000
3 Owais Ahmed 3,425,000
4 Minh Ly 2,650,000
5 Matt Glantz 1,350,000

U.S. viewers can currently log on to ESPN3.com and see the final table live.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
50K Poker Player's Championship
July 2-6, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $50,000 | Prizepool: $6,144,000 | Entries: 128

FINAL RESULTS:
Bracelet Winner 151
Runner-Up 91
3rd place 76
4th place 66
5th place 61
GEORGE LIND 56
SCOTT SEIVER 51
BEN LAMB 46
JASON LESTER 36
VLADIMIR SHCHEMELEV 26
JEFFREY LISANDRO 21
YAN CHEN 19
JOSH ARIEH 19
MICHAEL BINGER 19
BARRY GREENSTEIN 16
SEBASTIEN RUTHENBERG 16

2011 WSOP: WOLAK WINS ONE FOR THE LADIES

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

Many thought that a female poker player would have won a bracelet prior to Sunday - with so many top ladies in poker (Selbst, Obrestad, Rousso and Ho - to name a few) -unfortunately, it has not been the year of the woman at the WSOP.

Congratulations to Marsha Wolak for winning the Ladies Championship at this year's World Series of Poker.

Wolak had to defeat two people heads up ... well, sort of - the runner-up, well known poker veteran Karina Jett, is pregnant ... very, very pregnant!


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
Event 53 Ladies NLH Championship
July 1-3, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $1,000 | Prizepool: $949,500 | Entries: 1,055

FINAL RESULTS:
MARSHA WOLAK 75
KARINA JETT 40
CAROL TOMLINSON 25
VALERIE MCCOLLGAN 15
PEG LEDMAN 10
KATHERINE STAHL 8
JENNIFER COWAN 5
GENEVIEVE GLOUTNEZ 5
JONATHAN EPSTEIN 5

POKER ROUND-UP: RESULTS FROM THE MERIT SUMMER OPEN, THE PEOPLES PORTOMASO AND PARTOUCHE OOSTENDE

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: THEHENDONMOB.com

We have more results from Casinos from around the world.

Dominik Nitsche is a rising star on the poker circuit. Chosing to play primarly in the "minor leagues" to help his progression has proven to be a great decision for Nitsche the past few months. Nitsche collects his second Challenger Event win of the season - this time winning the Merit Summer Open Main Event.

The Peoples Poker Tour headed to the Casino Portomaso and crowned Treccarichi Walter as their tour stop champion, while Olivier Baeten recently captured the Partouche Poker Tour Oostende Main Event in Belgium.


PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Merit Summer Open
No Limit Hold'em Main Event
June 18-19, 2011

Merit Crystal Cove Hotel | Kyrenia

Buy-in: $2,500 | Prizepool: $488,281 | Entries: 210

FINAL RESULTS:
DOMINIK NITSCHE 35
JACK TORBAY 18
KEMELCAN BAKBAK 10
MATTI HANSKI 8
YIGIT AKTULGA 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Peoples Poker Tour Portomaso
No Limit Hold'em Main Event
June 18-19, 2011

Casino at Portomaso | Italy
Buy-in: $2,100 | Prizepool: $799,118 | Entries: 383

FINAL RESULTS:
TRECCARICHI WALTER 35
GAETANO PREITE 18
MARCO AVANZINO 10
ANDREA BENELLI 8
RICCARDO CORLEONE 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Partouche Poker Tour Oostende
No Limit Hold'em Main Event
June 25-26, 2011

Partouche Casino | Oostende, Belguim
Buy-in: $1,810 | Prizepool: $435,909 | Entries: 260

FINAL RESULTS:
OLIVIER BAETEN 35
LAURENT BADIN 18
PHILIPPE GASPARIS 10
STEPHANE ALLARD 8
EMMANUEL ROSETTA 5