2011 PTPR AWARDS: FAILLA IS WPT TOP PERFOMER FOR 2011

PHOTO: WPT.com
SOURCE: PTPR POKER, THEHENDONMOB.com

We begin our 2011 review of the various major tours on the circuit with the World Poker Tour - and it's top performer from 2011 > Will "The Thrill" Failla.

Failla collected three WPT scores in 2011 - including capturing the tournament win at the WPT Legends of Poker back in August. He also collected scores at the WPT Championship and the WPT Borgata Open.

NOTE: All qualifying Main Events, side events, National and Regional events were taken into account in order to determine the top PTPR WPT Performer for 2011.

43 WPT EVENTS QUALIFIED FOR PTPR POINTS
Grand Slams - 1
Premier - 19
Tier 3 - 11
Prelim - 8
Challenger - 4

WPT TOP PTPR POINTS EARNER OF 2011
Will Failla, 172 PTPR WPT Points, 3 PTPR WPT Scores

WPT TOP 10 PTPR POINTS EARNERS OF 2011
172 - WILL "THE THRILL" FAILLA164 - JAMES DEMPSEY160 - ALESSIO ISAIA152 - FARZAD "FREDDY" BONYADI 152 - SCOTT SEIVER142 - ALEXANDER KUZMIN139 - ALAN STERNBERG138 - BOBBY OBOODI136 - ANTHONY RUBERTO131 - GREGORY BROOKS
MOST WPT SCORES OF 2011
(TIE) Shannon Shorr and Matt Marfioti, 4 PTPR Scores

WPT TOP PTPR SCORERS OF 2011
4 - SHANNON SHORR
4 - MATTHEW (MATT) MARAFIOTI
3 - WILL "THE THRILL" FAILLA
3 - STEVEN KELLY
3 - VITOR COELHO
3 - ARNAUD MATTERN
3 - JAMES MACKEY
2 - 42 PLAYERS TIED

2011 PTPR AWARDS: WSOP POKER PLAYERS CHAMPIONSHIP NAMED TOURNAMENT OF 2011

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

Another great season on the poker circuit! So many great tournaments to chose from for Tournament of the Year but, in the end, it was down to a two-tournament race.

We were leaning very heavily on the first of the EPT San Remo Main Events of 2011 - where Rupert Elder won his first EPT title, leading the next generation of poker stars at the final table.

A who's who of who's next attempted to steal the win away from Elder. Maxim Lykov, Max Heinzelmann, Xuan Liu were the other big names at the final table - Andrew Teng and Joe Cada also made a nice run in San Remo.

Although we were seriously considered EPT San Remo for Tournament of the Year, we just couldn't overlook the star-studded affair that was the WSOP Poker Players Championship, which was played between July 2nd and 6th this past summer at the Rio in Las Vegas.

The 16 stars who cashed in the event surely deserved to be part of this Tournament of the Year distinction. Right off the bat, another 2nd place finish for Phil Hellmuth! Like him or not, Hellmuth is a genuine star in poker and winning the event would have been tremendous.

But Brian Rast decided to take the title away from the Brat. Matt Glantz was fifth, WPT Tour Champion Scott Seiver placed seventh, WSOP Player of the Year Ben Lamb was eighth ... Lester, Shchemelev, Lisandro, Arieh, Mike Binger and Greenstein all were part of the Top 16 - a spectacular lineup for our Tournament of the Year.

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

RELATED:
A FINAL LOOK BACK AT THE POKER PLAYER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
WILL THE POKER BRAT GET THE LAST LAUGH?

2011 PTPR AWARDS TRACKER
Rookie of the Year: Oleksii Kovalchuk | 2010: Thomas Marchese
Comeback Player: Phil Hellmuth Jr. | 2010: Michael Mizrachi
Breakthrough Player: Andrey Pateychuk | 2010: Vanessa Selbst
Future Watch: Dominik Nitsche | 2010: Pilgrim, Bjerkmann
Tournament of the Year: WSOP Poker Players Champ. | 2010: WPT Tour Champ.

Player of the Year: TBA | 2010: Sorel Mizzi
Most PTPR Scores: TBA | 2010: Sorel Mizzi
Moment of the Year: TBA

2011 PTPR AWARDS: COMING TO AMERICA - THE FUTURE IS NITSCHE

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

What did you accomplish by age 20? Chances are, not as much as Dominik Nitsche - our pick for the PTPR Future Watch Player - the one to watch in 2012 ...

Win a big tournament? Check. Collect 1M in lifetime live tournament earnings? Check. Travel the world with the goal to become one of the best? Check. Come to America and dominate the WSOP? In progress.

Nitsche's poker resume is impressive. He is not shy to travel the world - his wins in Argentina, Cyprus and Greece are proof of that. Nitsche is well known on the circuit and is about to invade America - and the World Series of Poker.

Nitsche will be 21 years old by the time the WSOP hits next summer, and that's why he is our pick for the Future Watch Award - a full summer at the Rio and Nitsche could very well be the next big poker player to come out of Germany.

So once again, we ask the question - what did you accomplish by age 20? Congratulations Dominik on a wonderful first few years, now keep it up!


PLAYER VITALS
Name: Dominik Nitsche
Home: Minden, Germany

LIVE TOURNAMENT WINNINGS
Lifetime: $1,264,672 | 2011(YTD): $432,030

CAREER TOURNAMENT TITLES (5)
Dec 2011 | Lebanese Championship Side Event | 66K (Details TBC)
Nov 2011 | EPT Loutraki Side Event | 47K
Jun 2011 | Merit Summer Open | 123K
Apr 2011 | Middle East Championship | 164K
Apr 2009 | LAPT Mar del Plata | 381K

2011 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 386th | PTPR Points: 70 | PTPR Scores: 2

2011 PTPR TOURNAMENT SCORES (2)
MERIT MIDDLE EAST CHAMPIONSHIP, Cyprus (PTPR Challenger Event)
Apr 16-18, 2011 | Champion, 164K | 35 PTPR Points

MERIT SUMMER OPEN, Cyprus (PTPR Challenger Event)
June 18-19, 2011 | Champion, 123K | 35 PTPR Points

FINAL 2010 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 580th | PTPR Points: 48 | PTPR Scores: 3

RELATED:
POKER ROUND-UP: NITSCHE WINS MERIT SUMMER OPEN
NITSCHE NETS VICTORY IN MIDDLE EAST!

2011 PTPR AWARDS TRACKER
Rookie of the Year: Oleksii Kovalchuk | 2010: Thomas Marchese
Comeback Player: Phil Hellmuth Jr. | 2010: Michael Mizrachi
Breakthrough Player: Andrey Pateychuk | 2010: Vanessa Selbst
Future Watch: Dominik Nitsche | 2010: Pilgrim, Bjerkmann

Player of the Year: TBA | 2010: Sorel Mizzi
Tournament of the Year: TBA | 2010: WPT Tour Championship
Most PTPR Scores: TBA | 2010: Sorel Mizzi
Moment of the Year: TBA

2011 PTPR AWARDS: PATEYCHUK BREAKS ON THROUGH TO 2012

PHOTO: WPT.com
SOURCE: PTPR POKER, THEHENDONMOB.com

Better late than never, Andrey! Andrey Pateychuk`s whirlwind end to 2011 earns him the PTPR Award for 2011 PTPR Breakthrough Player of the Year.

What did we know about Pateychuk prior to the WSOP Main Event this past summer? Well, other than a few small scores - including a Top 5 showing at the Merit Poker Open in May of 2010 - we didn't know jack about Andrey Pateychuk.

Just a few months later and he's the talk of the town. I am personally so impressed with Pateychuk's recent performance that I had to talk about him during my recent phone interview with @pkrgssp on the Jeff Walsh Show on Quad Jacks Radio.

In less than two months, Pateychuk has secured 2/3 of the Poker Triple Crown and the way things are going, we are not betting against a WSOP bracelet in the summer of 2012 for the Russian.

Pateychuk and fellow countryman Maxim Lykov are definitely the future - and the present - of poker in Russia. Look for Pateychuk to continue his ascension towards poker's elite in 2012.


PLAYER VITALS
Name: Andrey Pateychuk
Home: Moscow, Russia

LIVE TOURNAMENT WINNINGS
Lifetime: $2,127,794 | 2011(YTD): $2,085,014

TOURNAMENT TITLES (2)
Oct 2011 | EPT San Remo | 937K
Dec 2011 | WPT Prague | 599K

2011 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 7th | PTPR Points: 308 | PTPR Scores: 4

2011 PTPR TOURNAMENT SCORES (4)
WSOP MAIN EVENT, Las Vegas (PTPR Grand Slam Event)
July 7-Nov 8, 2011 | 15th Place, 478K | 35 PTPR Points

EPT SAN REMO, Italy (PTPR Premier Event)
Oct 21-27, 2011 | Champion, 937K | 133 PTPR Points

WPT PRAGUE, Czech Republic (PTPR Premier Event)
Dec 1-5, 2011 | Champion, 599K | 130 PTPR Points

EPT PRAGUE 10K NLH EVENT, Czech Republic (PTPR Tier 3 Event)
Dec 9-10, 2011 | 6th Place, 36K | 10 PTPR Points


FINAL 2010 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 2085th | PTPR Points: 8 | PTPR Scores: 1

RELATED:
SCORCHING-HOT PATEYCHUK WINS WPT PRAGUE
PATEYCHUK PTPR PLAYER OF THE MONTH FOR OCTOBER
MIRACLE MAN! PATEYCHUK WINS BIG AT SAN REMO

2011 PTPR AWARDS TRACKER
Rookie of the Year: Oleksii Kovalchuk | 2010: Thomas Marchese
Comeback Player: Phil Hellmuth Jr. | 2010: Michael Mizrachi
Breakthrough Player: Andrey Pateychuk | 2010: Vanessa Selbst

Player of the Year: TBA | 2010: Sorel Mizzi
The Next Big Thing: TBA | 2010: Pilgrim, Bjerkmann
Tournament of the Year: TBA | 2010: WPT Tour Championship
Most PTPR Scores: TBA | 2010: Sorel Mizzi
Moment of the Year: TBA

2011 PTPR AWARDS: WELCOME BACK TO THE PACK, POKER BRAT!

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

Let us start this latest post by saying one thing: the Poker Brat is back! Phil Hellmuth's tremendous run throughout the summer at the World Series of Poker as well as his good showing at WSOP Europe have earned him PTPR Comeback Player of the Year honours for 2011.

Now let's get one thing straight, Hellmuth wasn't out of poker in 2010 - in fact, he had a Top 100 finish on our 2010 PTPR Leaderboard. This award is more of a tip of the cap to Hellmuth for returning to poker's elite. The Poker Brat finished the season in the Top 20 in scoring, collecting four PTPR Scores in 2011 - three of the four in non-No Limit Hold'em events - the fourth being a NLH Six Handed event at WSOP Europe ... Hellmuth had three seperate second place finishes at the WSOP this summer, coming oh so close to another bracelet - let's hope Phil gets it done in 2012.

Hellmuth has his share of critics, but, it's hard to overlook his impressive stats, despite not playing a full schedule of events as other top pros do.

Congratulations, Phil!

PLAYER VITALS
Name: Phil Hellmuth, Jr.
Home: Palo Alto, California, USA

LIVE TOURNAMENT WINNINGS
Lifetime: $13,098,448 | 2011(YTD): $1,652,521

TOURNAMENT TITLES (0)
None

2011 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 18th | PTPR Points: 254 | PTPR Scores: 4

2011 PTPR TOURNAMENT SCORES (4)
WSOP POT LIMIT HOLDEM, Las Vegas (PTPR Premier Event)
June 9-11, 2011 | 2nd Place, 226K | 76 PTPR Points

WSOP SEVEN-STUD HI-LO SPLIT, Las Vegas (PTPR Premier Event)
June 18-20, 2011 | 2nd Place, 273K | 76 PTPR Points

WSOP PLAYER'S CHAMPIONSHIP, Las Vegas (PTPR Grand Slam Event)
July 2-6, 2011 | 2nd Place, 1.06M | 91 PTPR Points

WSOP EUROPE NLH SIX-HANDED, Cannes (PTPR Tier 3 Event)
Oct 7-9, 2011 | 7th Place, 32K | 11 PTPR Points


FINAL 2010 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 81st | PTPR Points: 152 | PTPR Scores: 5

RELATED:
HELLMUTH WATCH IS ON AT WSOP EUROPE
A FINAL LOOK BACK AT WSOP PLAYER'S CHAMPIONSHIP
PHIL-A-BUSTER! ROADWIG BEATS HELLMUTH
RAST, JUANDA PLAY SPOILERS AT WSOP

2011 PTPR AWARDS TRACKER
Rookie of the Year: Oleksii Kovalchuk | 2010: Thomas Marchese
Comeback Player: Phil Hellmuth Jr. | 2010: Michael Mizrachi

Player of the Year: TBA | 2010: Sorel Mizzi
Breakthrough Player: TBA | 2010: Vanessa Selbst
The Next Big Thing: TBA | 2010: Pilgrim, Bjerkmann
Tournament of the Year: TBA | 2010: WPT Tour Championship
Most PTPR Scores: TBA | 2010: Sorel Mizzi
Moment of the Year: TBA

2011 PTPR AWARDS: WELCOME TO THE CIRCUIT - KOVALCHUK NAMED ROOKIE OF THE YEAR

PHOTO: POKERSTARSBLOG.it
SOURCE: PTPR POKER, THEHENDONMOB.com

It's awards season time for the PTPR! Our first award goes out to the 2011 PTPR Rookie of the Year. This honour is awarded to the player who tallied the most PTPR Points this season without having any tournament results (or at least none in significant events) prior to the 2011 poker season.

Congratulations to Ukrainian Oleksii Kovalchuk who earns the nod as the 2011 PTPR Tournament Rookie Player of the Year.

Kovalchuk's first documented tournament cash of his career came back in February, where he beat over 230 players to capture the Russian Poker Tour Kiev Main Event Title. And from then on, Kovalchuk never looked back.

In June, Kovalchuk made his way to the WSOP - and picked up a bracelet! Almost a 690K score in the NLH Six Max event June 15-17 ... back in Europe, Kovalchuk earned the win at IPT Nova Gorica in September. Add to that a third place finish at the Partouche Poker Tour Grand Final and you can bet that Kovalchuk couldn't have dreamed of a better first season on tour.

PLAYER VITALS
Name: Oleksii Kovalchuk
Home: Kiev, Ukraine

LIVE TOURNAMENT WINNINGS
Lifetime: $1,600,782 | 2011(YTD): $1,600,782

TOURNAMENT TITLES (3)
Feb 2011 | Russian Poker Tour Kiev | 123K
Jun 2011 | WSOP 2.5K NLH Six Handed | 689K
Sep 2011 | Italian Poker Tour Nova Gorica | 217K

2011 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: 17th | PTPR Points: 258 | PTPR Scores: 4

2011 PTPR TOURNAMENT SCORES (4)
RUSSIAN POKER TOUR KIEV, Ukraine (PTPR Challenger Event)
Feb 6-10, 2011 | Winner, 217K | 35 PTPR Points

WSOP 2.5K NLH SIX-HANDED, Las Vegas (PTPR Premier Event)
June 15-17, 2011 | Winner, 689K | 138 PTPR Points

ITALIAN POKER TOUR NOVA GORICA, Italy (PTPR Challenger Event)
Sep 1-5, 2011 | Winner, 217K | 35 PTPR Points

PARTOUCHE POKER TOUR GRAND FINAL, Cannes (PTPR Premier Event)
Sep 11-Nov 12, 2011 | Placed 3rd, 518K | 50 PTPR Points


FINAL 2010 PTPR RATINGS
PTPR Ranking: n/a | PTPR Points: 0 | PTPR Scores: 0

RELATED:
THE HENDON MOB PLAYER PAGE
PARTOUCHE MAIN: TRICKETT TAKES ANOTHER MILLY
BRACELET WINNER KOVALCHUK WINS IPT NOVA GORICA
KOVALCHUK, IDEMA FRIDAY WINNERS AT WSOP

ONE LAST LOOK AT EPT PRAGUE: PATEYCHUK, GRUISSEM SCORE LATE

PHOTO: POKERSTARSBLOG.com
SOURCE: THEHENDONMOB.com

We have a late result from EPT Prague - the 10K No Limit Holdem event only had 42 participants (less than the 50 player minimum required to qualify for PTPR Points) - however - there were a total of (8) re-entries in the event thus qualifying as a Tier 3 event .. and a good thing this event did qualify!

Plenty of name players posted points in this event. John Andress picks up the win collecting his second PTPR Score of the year.

Canadians Mike McDonald (2nd) and Chris McClung (7th) both scored in the event, each collecting their third PTPR Scores of the season.

But the two names holding everyone's attention are Philipp Gruissem - who collects yet a gain a high buy-in event score - and the hottest player on tour, Andrey Pateychuk.

Gruissem's third place points place him 16th overall this season, only seven points behind Elio Fox ...

PTPR LEADERBOARD LIVE LOOK-IN:
14. Maxim Lykov, 274 PTPR Points
15. Elio Fox, 267
16. Philipp Gruissem, 260
17. Oleksii Kovalchuk, 258
18. Phil Hellmuth, 254
19. Galen Hall, 245
20. Andrew Badecker

As for Pateychuk (pictured), the news keeps on getting better for the man of the hour. The recent double tour winner (EPT San Remo + WPT Prague) picks up 10 more PTPR Points for the season, placing him sixth overall on the 2011 PTPR Poker Tournament Player of the Year Leaderboard.

Luke Schwratz and Kristijonas Andrulis round-out the Top 7.

TOP 7 PAYOUTS (IN EURO):
1st John Andress €176,400
2nd Mike McDonald €112,700
3rd Philipp Gruissem €68,600
4th Luke Schwartz €49,000
5th Kristijonas Andrulis €34,300
6th Andrey Pateychuk €26,950
7th Chris McClung €22,050

PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
European Poker Tour Prague
NLH 10K Event
December 9-10, 2011

Hilton Prague Hotel | Czech Republic
Buy-in: $13,430 | Prizepool: $656,071 | Entries: 50

FINAL RESULTS:
JOHN ANDRESS 100
MICHAEL MCDONALD 60
PHLIPP GRUISSEM 35
LUKE SCHRAWTZ 25
KRISTIJONAS ANDRULIS 18
ANDREY PATEYCHUK 10
CHRISTOPHER MCCLUNG 8

PTPR POKER ROUND-UP: PEOPLE'S TOUR FINAL, PALM BEACH CLASSIC

PHOTO: TOUR.PEOPLES.it
SOURCE: THEHENDONMOB.com

Let's make the trip to Italy and to Florida in the latest edition of the PTPR Round-Up!


PEOPLE'S POKER TOUR FINAL
After making it's way back from lovely Las Vegas, the People's Poker Tour ended their season with their Final Event - at Casino Campione in Cassin, Italy.

Arcangelo Anservino collected the victory in the event. Defending People's Tour Portomaso winner Walter Treccarichi was fifth.

TOP 10 PAYOUTS (EURO):
1st Arcangelo Anservino €151,020
2nd Dario Guarnuto €93,878
3rd Vincenzo Zoccali €62,041
4th Salvatore Biondi €45,714
5th Walter Treccarichi €36,082
6th Aniello Durante €28,163
7th Mauro Palazzo €21,310
8th Fausto Oioli €16,163
9th Giovanni Di Donato €12,163
10th Teodoro Attanasio €12,163

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
People's Poker Tour Final Event
PPT Final NLH Championship
December 8-12, 2011

Casino Campione | Italy
Buy-in: $2,150 | Prizepool: $939,982 | Entries: 482

FINAL RESULTS:
ARCANGELO ANSERVINO 35
DARIO GUARNUTO 18
VINCENZO ZOCCALI 10
SALVATORE BLONDI 8
WALTER TRECCARICHI 5


PALM BEACH CHRISTMAS CLASSIC
The Palm Beach Kennel Club hosted the first ever Palm Beach Christmas Classic series with the Championship Event taking place this past weekend.

Almost 400 players entered the event with Scott Zakheim picking up the biggest tournament score in his career - over 80K. Zakheim had a score at the WSOPC New Orleans Main Event back in May.

FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (USD):
1st Scott Zakheim $84,712
2nd Jason Mullen $52,353
3rd Robert Hume $38,255
4th Derek Ecenarro $28,404
5th Andrew Dakoski $21,419
6th Jeremiah Keane $16,393
7th Paul Ramkissoon $12,731
8th David MacDonald $10,028
9th Andrew Stringer $8,010
10th Robert Campbell $6,485

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Palm Beach Christmas Classic
NLH Main Event
December 16-18, 2011

Palm Beach Kennel Club | Florida
Buy-in: $1,080 | Prizepool: $385,090 | Entries: 397

FINAL RESULTS:
SCOTT ZAKHEIM 35
JASON MULLEN 18
ROBERT HUME 10
DEREK ECENARRO 8
ANDREW DAKOSKI 5

FIRST EVER RADIO APPEARANCE TONIGHT ON THE PKRGSSP SHOW!

Good evening folks! Just wanted to inform all of you that I will be making my first ever radio appearance tonight on The PKRGSSP Show on Quad Jacks Radio (quadjacks.com)

There is no hiding the fact that I've been a big PKRGSSP fan since the start and if you haven't caught Jeff's show yet (currently on a one-week pilot) then you must, David Tuckman was on Monday, Mike Johnson was on last night representing us up here in Canada!


Catch me tonight at 10PM PT as Jeff and I examine the highs and lows of the 2011 live tournament circuit as well as look forward to 2012 and who could be "the next big thing" in poker.

If you can't stay up that late (people on the East Coast, I understand!), the show will be up on the Quad Jacks site later.

Now I'm off to bed for a couple of hours, have a Midnight ET wakeup call coming soon!

Oh, and on a site note, huge congrats to @Kevmath for hitting 10,000 followers on twitter - great news Kevin, well played sir.

Thank you everyone for your continued support.

Eric
PTPR Poker
@ptprpoker
www.ptprpoker.com

LAST CALL: WHAT'S LEFT OF 2011 AT PTPR POKER

PHOTO/SOURCE: PTPRPOKER.com

The 2011 poker season is almost in the books and while we're gearing up for an exciting 2012 - we're busy crossing every t and dotting every i by reviewing all eligible events from 2011 - making sure we didn't forget anything along the way.




Other goings on at PTPR:

You may have noticed that we've finally acquired our own domain name (about time, I know, I know!) ... find PTPR at www.ptprpoker.com - site is still hosted by Blogger and will remain a "blog post" style of site.

It's also award season and we're currently working on our end of year awards from 2011 ... see who's taken over from the Mizzis, Selbts' and Pilgrims in 2012. We'll be releasing award winners every few days starting later this week ... first up, the 2011 PTPR Poker Tournament Rookie of the Year.

We're also currently working on historical data (going back to 1979 believe it or not - where the first poker tournament qualified under PTPR criteria)- who's the best live tournament poker player of all-time? We'll let you know sometime in the new year - and we'll have the stats to back it up!

Finally, who will it be? Who will become the 2011 PTPR Poker Tournament Player of the Year? Will it be Ben Lamb and his amazing WSOP run? Will Steve O'Dwyer's sick end to 2011 be enough to pull it off? We'll have our official winner in coming days!


Have a great end to 2011,
Eric

CODY, GOULDER COME CLOSE, BUT IT'S TOMLIN'S TIME AT DTD'S THE MONTE CARLO

PHOTO/SOURCE: DUSKTILLDAWNPOKERCLUB.com

The Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club in Nottingham hosted another successful event over the weekend as the latest edition of The Monte Carlo was played - with the winner being crowned moments ago, in the wee hours in Nottingham.

Colburn Tomlin defeated a game 288-entry field, winning for the first time of his career and collecting almost five times more than he has ever collected in a live tournament - over 89K won in the event.

Colburn did have a solid bunch of players to battle and defeat, including the man who won this event back in the summer, Alex Goulder (who finished fourth) and Triple Crown winner Jake Cody, who collected his fourth PTPR Score of the season with his third place finish ...

PTPR LEADERBOARD LIVE LOOK-IN:
40. David Boyaciyan, 185 PTPR Points
41. Taylor Von Kriegenbergh, 184
41. Anthony Ruberto, 184
41. Jake Cody, 184
44. Joseph Ebanks, 182
45. Michael Mizrachi, 180
46. John Eames, 178
47. Adrien Allain, 178
47. Randy Dorfman, 178

DTD THE MONTE CARLO TOP 10 PAYOUTS (IN GBP):
1- Colburn Tomlin £89,213
2- Paul Skipper £52,155
3- Jake Cody £31,293
4- Alex Goulder £21,960
5- William Dorey £16,470
6- Chin Chai Koh £12,353
7- Terry Plummer £9,608
8- Jerome Bradpiece £6,863
9- Mark Chantler £5,490
10- Andrew Wayman £3,843

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Dusk Till Dawn The Monte Carlo
The Monte Carlo NLH Main Event
December 17-19, 2011

Dusk Till Dawn Poker Club | Nottingham
Buy-in: $1,675 | Prizepool: $446,860 | Entries: 288

FINAL RESULTS:
COLBURN TOMLIN 35
PAUL SKIPPER 18
JAKE CODY 10
ALEX GOULDER 8
WILLIAM DOREY 5

BELGIAN GATHY WINS BPS GRAND FINAL

PHOTO/SOURCE: BELGIANPOKERSERIES.com

Michael Gathy has won one for his country! The Belgium man wrapped up the Belgian Poker Series Grand Final Championship on Sunday. Almost 600 players registered for the No Limit Holdem Grand Final.

2010 Grand Final winner Marcel Bjerkmann finished 24th in this year's event. Bjermann, who was selected as the PTPR's Future Watch/Next Big Thing at the end of 2010, has not had the type of year that many expected - after a sizzling end to 2010, this is the first time that Bjerkmann cashed live in 2011.

BPS GRAND FINAL FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (IN EURO):
1- GATHY Michaël € 175,000
2- JUNKAR Pascal € 105,000
3- BUZZO Stéphane € 63,250
4- D'ALESSIO Ferdinando € 46,502
5- CAMARDES Rolando € 35,500
6- ELHAMDI Mohamed € 27,500
7- BRISMEE Olivier € 20,500
8- VANSEER Carlo € 14,500
9- YILDIZ Diren € 10,300

PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
Belgian Poker Series Grand Final
BPS NLH Grand Final
December 10-18, 2011

Casino de Namur | Belgium
Buy-in: $2,210 | Prizepool: $1,050,550 | Entries: 538

FINAL RESULTS:
MICHAEL GATHY 105
PASCAL JUNKAR 65
STEPHANE BUZZO 40
FERDINANDO D'ALESSIO 30
ROLANDO CAMARDES 23
MOHAMED ELHAMDI 15
OLIVIER BRISMEE 13
CARLO VANSEER 10
DIREN YILDIZ 10

WPT VENICE: O SO CLOSE - O'DWYER SECOND IN VENICE, SECOND FOR 2011

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

What a thrill ride! Steve O'Dwyer took on all comers today at WPT Venice, in hopes of taking the title and, at the same time, overtake Ben Lamb atop the 2011 PTPR Poker Tournament Player of the Year Leaderboard.

O'Dwyer was well on his way to his first WPT title until he ran into eventual winner Edoardo Alescio heads up ... actually, O'Dwyer couldn't do much to prevent Alescio from taking command of the tournament. Alescio was hit by the deck hard for about a 30-minute stretch - and we mean real hard. Trips upon trips, pocket pair upon pocket pair - it certainly looked as though Alescio was unbeatable - and that was surely the case when all was said and done Sunday.

O'Dwyer does move into second overall on the PTPR Leaderboard which is still a very impressive feat - however - one can't begin to wonder what could have been should O'Dwyer have collected the WPT Venice win.

WPT VENICE FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (IN USD):
1- Edoardo Alescio $255,842
2- Steve O'Dwyer $125,740
3- Michele Caroli $86,990
4- Andrea Dato $56,822
5- Andrea Benelli $45,087
6- Aleksandr Dovzhenko $35,585

PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Poker Tour Venice
WPT Venice NLH Main Event
December 13-18, 2011

Casino Di Venezia | Venice
Buy-in: $4,295 | Prizepool: $841,345 | Entries: 213

FINAL RESULTS:
EDOARDO ALESCIO 127
STEVE O'DWYER 77
MICHELE CAROLI 47
ANDREA DATO 37
ANDREA BENELLI 32
ALEKSANDR DOVZHENKO 27
ALEJANDRO SANCHEZ 27
MARVIN RETTENMAIER 12
CHRISTOPHER CREUS 12
DARIO RUSCONI 12
ARNAUD MATTERN 12
FERNANDO CIMAGLIA 10
RONNIE BARDAH 10
WANNY PIAZZA 10
ROBERTO ROMANELLO 10
UMBERTO CALABRO 7
MASSIMILIANO ROSA 7
JOHAN GUILBERT 7

WPT VENICE: O'DWYER FIVE AWAY FROM MOVING UP TO #1

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

We have reached the Final Table of six players at WPT Venice and Steve O'Dwyer is the man of the hour.

O'Dwyer is five eliminations away from taking over from Ben Lamb on the 2011 PTPR Tournament Poker Player of the Year Leaderboard, and, with only a few other events remaining in 2011, more than likely win Player of the Year honours.

O'Dwyer has had a great 2011 - collecting PTPR Scores around the world ... Connecticut, Las Vegas, Barcelona, London, Cannes and here in Venice - the man has truly played on the World circuit this season.

O'Dwyer will enter Final Table play fourth in chips - the chip leader, Michele Caroli, holds about a 4:1 chip lead on the man who will enter the Top 5 on the PTPR Leaderboard on Sunday. A win and it's the #1 spot.

Sadly, we lost two key players today. Both Marvin Rettenmaier and Roberto Romanello are gone - neither player able to make it to Sunday play.

For Mad Marvin, it's a eight PTPR Score this season - the most by any player in 2011 (NOTE: Once O'Dwyer cashes in on Sunday, he will join Rettenmaier with number 8). Rettenmaier was our chip leader coming in but he just couldn't make it through Day 4 play.

For Romanello, the elimination is bitter sweet. Romanello will more than likely finish in the Top 10 this season but he cannot be happy with the way this ended - Romanello was the first one out today, surely, he was hoping for a much better result.

WPT VENICE FINAL TABLE SEAT ASSIGNMENTS/CHIP COUNTS:
Seat 1: Edoardo Alescio - 1,714,000
Seat 2: Michele Caroli - 2,097,000
Seat 3: Andrea Dato - 461,000
Seat 4: Andrea Benelli - 1,143,000
Seat 5: Steve O'Dwyer - 501,000
Seat 6: Alex Dovzhenko - 480,000

WPT VENICE FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (IN USD):
1- $255,842
2- $125,740
3- $86,990
4- $56,822
5- $45,087
6- $35,585

PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Poker Tour Venice
WPT Venice NLH Main Event
December 13-18, 2011

Casino Di Venezia | Venice
Buy-in: $4,295 | Prizepool: $841,345 | Entries: 213

PTS AT STAKE::
1st position 127
2nd position 77
3rd position 47
4th position 37
5th position 32
6th position 27
ALEJANDRO SANCHEZ 27
MARVIN RETTENMAIER 12
CHRISTOPHER CREUS 12
DARIO RUSCONI 12
ARNAUD MATTERN 12
FERNANDO CIMAGLIA 10
RONNIE BARDAH 10
WANNY PIAZZA 10
ROBERTO ROMANELLO 10
UMBERTO CALABRO 7
MASSIMILIANO ROSA 7
JOHAN GUILBERT 7

WPT VENICE: MAD MARVIN LEADS, ROMANELLO AND O'DWYER HANGING AROUND

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

We're down to 15 players at WPT Venice and everyone's eyes will be glued to their computer screens as we play down to the final table - with Marvin Rettenmaier, Roberto Romanello and Steve O'Dwyer stealing the headlines!

The one they call Mad Marvin is the man with most chips as we approach Saturday's play. Rettenmaier holds a small chip lead over Michele Caroli after Day 3 play.

Aleksandr Dovzhenko and Arnaud Mattern continue their strong play this season - both round-out the Top 4 chip counts. Mattern was at the WPT Marrakech Final Table with ElkY and Jonathan Duhamel last month.

But the main story continues to be about two men - Roberto Romanello and Steve O'Dwyer. Both players have a shot at taking over from Ben Lamb on the 2011 PTPR Player of the Year Leaderboard.

Neither player had a particularly good day, and both will need to pick up the pace early on Saturday in order to get back into contention. Although both players are near the bottom in chips, both still have enough chips to make things happen on Day 4.

WPT VENICE NOTABLE REMAINING CHIP COUNTS:
Marvin Rettenmaier 817,000
Alex Dovzhenko 730,000
Arnaud Mattern 519,000
Wanny Piazza 304,000 (Day 3 Chip Leader)
Ronnie Bardah 257,000
Roberto Romanello 237,000
Steve O'Dwyer 186,000

Sadly, we lost Taylor Von Kriegenbergh during Day 3 play. Von K - WPT Hard Rock Champion - had the opportunity to pickup valuable points in the event and move into the PTPR Top 15 Leaderboard with a strong showing.

WPT VENICE REMAINING PAYOUTS (IN USD):
1- $255,842
2- $125,740
3- $86,990
4- $56,822
5- $45,087
6- $35,585
7- $26,884
8- $19,770
9- $14,229
10-15- $9,885

PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Poker Tour Venice
WPT Venice NLH Main Event
December 13-18, 2011

Casino Di Venezia | Venice
Buy-in: $4,295 | Prizepool: $841,345 | Entries: 213

PTS AT STAKE::
1st position 127
2nd position 77
3rd position 47
4th position 37
5th position 32
6th position 27
7th position 27
8th position 12
9th position 12
10th position 12
11th position 12
12th position 10
13th position 10
14th position 10
15th position 10
UMBERTO CALABRO 7
MASSIMILIANO ROSA 7
JOHAN GUILBERT 7

PTPR POKER ROUND-UP: CLEMENTE WINS IN FLORIDA, VOCCIA RULES ATLANTIC CITY

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: THEHENDONMOB.com

Results are pouring - time for another PTPR Poker Round-Up!

WPT REGIONAL WINTER POKER OPEN
While they wait for their next WPT Tour Stop, the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel hosted a WPT Regional event that attracted over 450 players!

Dan Clemente earned the victory, defeating Darryll Fish heads up. For Fish, it's a fourth PTPR Score in 2011 - including a sixth place finish at the WPT LA Poker Classic.

Corey Burbick was third in the event, earning his third score of the year. Burbick has a victory in the State of Florida this season - picking up the Chad Brown Championship title earlier in the year. Burbick now has 140 PTPR Points on the season, cracking the Top 100 with that result.

FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (USD):
1st Dan Clemente $137,396
2nd Darryll Fish $80,458
3rd Corey Burbick $52,136
4th Harvey Vandeven $33,173
5th Shaun Henrickson $23,667
6th Andrew Kelsall $20,384
7th Matthew Sesso $15,631
8th Jason Goldman $11,368
9th Daniel MacDougald $10,878

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
World Poker Tour Regional Series Winter Poker Open
WPT Regional Florida NLH Championship
December 9-11, 2011

Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino | Florida
Buy-in: $2,250 | Prizepool: $490,000 | Entries: 459

FINAL RESULTS:
DAN CLEMENTE 35
DARRYLL FISH 18
COREY BURBICK 10
HARVEY VANDEVEN 8
SHAUN HENRICKSON 5


BORGATA DEEP STACK
Daniel Voccia picks up the big win at the Borgata Deep Stack Double Play Open. Voccia defeated a game Russell Crane heads up.

Crane has had a great 2011 - and seems to be at his best at Borgata. Crane has two wins at over 100K and has picked up close to 500K in tournament winnings from the Borgata cage in 2011 - a very impressive feat.

Joseph Liberta and Stan Jablonski also finished in the Top 5 - both men earning their second PTPR Scores on the season.

FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (USD):
1st Daniel Voccia $101,845
2nd Russell Crane $60,019
3rd Joseph Liberta $34,556
4th Stan Jablonski $28,009
5th Michael Adams $21,825
6th Steven Levy $18,188
7th Christopher Bolek $14,550
8th Mike Buttacavoli $10,913
9th Jeremy Maher $7,275

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Borgata Deep Stack Double Play Open
NLH Main Event
December 11-14, 2011

Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa | Atlantic City
Buy-in: $1,650 | Prizepool: $375,000 | Entries: 250

FINAL RESULTS:
DANIEL VOCCIA 35
RUSSELL CRANE 18
JOSEPH LIBERTA 10
STAN JABLONSKI 8
MICHAEL ADAMS 5

PTS AT STAKE: O'DWYER, ROMANELLO LOOKING OUT FOR NUMBER ONE ...

PHOTO: WPT.com, POKERSTARSBLOG.com
SOURCE: WPT.com

Down the stretch they come! WPT Venice is one of the last chances that players will get to collect PTPR Points in 2011 ... and Steve O'Dwyer and Roberto Romanello are certainly trying to make the best of it - and possibly steal the title of 2011 PTPR Poker Tournament Player of Year away from WSOP stand-out Ben Lamb.

Theoretically, fifteen players have a shot at becoming taking the 2011 PTPR POY honours - in all actuality, only a few players are still capable of accomplishing the feat as we dwindle down to the last few tournaments on the 2011 circuit.

Other that this WPT Venice Main Event, there are a few other tournaments holding our attention including the Epic Poker League 6-Max event taking place on Friday and Saturday, the Dusk Till Dawn Monte Carlo in Nottingham over the weekend and Saturday's High Rollers tournament here at WPT Venice.

Back to the matter at hand, looking at who is leading WPT Venice after Day 2 play, or actually, where O'Dwyer and Romanello stand as the Final 40 players return to Casino di Venezia on Friday.

O'Dwyer is 10th in chips after Day 2, which is actually a letdown for him, as O'Dwyer was Top 5 in chips for most of the tournament. Still, O'Dwyer is very much in contention - heck, a double-up and he's the chip leader! O'Dwyer MUST win WPT Venice in order to surpass Lamb atop the 2011 PTPR Leaderboard.

O'Dwyer has two tournament wins in 2011 - The Bellagio Cup and the Epic Pro/Am back in August.

As for fan favourite Romanello, he's only a few chips behind O'Dwyer and after a roller coaster Day 2 will be looking to settle things on Friday. Unlike O'Dwyer, a Top 2 finish is what Romanello is looking for in order to pickup POY honours.

Like O'Dwyer, Romanello has two wins on the season: WPT Bratislava and a EPT Barcelona Side Event.

Romanello burst onto the poker scene a year ago - almost to the day! - where he captured the title and our hearts at EPT Prague. Romanello couldn't hide his emotions as tears of joy were shed when he picked up the EPT trophy - it was very refreshing to see a poker player show that type of emotion after a victory.

Back to tournament action ... two players who were part of the Top 15 earlier this year are sitting second and third in chips and would more than likely finish the season inside the PTPR Top 15 Leaderboard with a win in Venice.

France Poker Series Finale winner Marvin Rettenmaier is 40K chip behind our leader while WPT Hard Rock champ Taylor Von Kriegenbergh right on Mad Marvin's heals.

WPT VENICE NOTABLE REMAINING CHIP COUNTS:
Wanny Piazza 373,500 (Chip Leader)
Marvin Rettenmaier 330,000
Taylor von Kriegenbergh 326,900
Ronnie Bardah 225,000
Steve O'Dwyer 197,900
Roberto Romanello 167,100
Alex Dovzhenko 85,000
Arnaud Mattern 70,000
Marco Figuccia 41,000

Notable Day 2 eliminations included:
Mustapha Kanit, Roger Hairabedian, Zimnan Ziyard, 2011 PTPR #4 Ranked Player Alessio Isaia and Dominik Nitsche.

WPT VENICE PAYOUTS (IN USD):
1- $255,842
2- $125,740
3- $86,990
4- $56,822
5- $45,087
6- $35,585
7- $26,884
8- $19,770
9- $14,229
10-18- $9,885
19-27- $7,509

PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Poker Tour Venice
WPT Venice NLH Main Event
December 13-18, 2011

Casino Di Venezia | Venice
Buy-in: $4,295 | Prizepool: $841,345 | Entries: 213

PTS AT STAKE::
1st position 127
2nd position 77
3rd position 47
4th position 37
5th position 32
6th position 27
7th position 27
8th position 12
9th position 12
10th position 12
11th position 12
12th position 10
13th position 10
14th position 10
15th position 10
16th position 7
17th position 7
18th position 7

PTPR POKER ROUND-UP: LATE SEASON WINS FOR EAMES, PERPER AND WHITE

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: THEHENDONMOB.com, POKERPAGES.com

We're inching closer and closer towards the end of the 2011 poker season on the circuit - results from Vegas, Prague and from Connecticut in this edition of the Round-Up!

WPT FIVE DIAMOND 5K SIDE EVENT
Dan Perper picked up the win in the 5K side event at the Five Diamond Classic. Ray Qartomy was second in the event, picking up his third PTPR Score of 2011. Joe Elpayaa also scored for the third time in 2011.

It was a second PTPR Score of the season for JohnnyBax and Josh Bergman. Al Melville and Amit Makhija were other notables at the final table.

FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (USD):
1st Dan Perper $133,238
2nd Ray Qartomy $133,230
3rd Hassan Tahsildar $57,240
4th Robert Stain $34,542
5th Cliff Josephy $25,906
6th Joe Elpayaa $20,972
7th Al Melville $16,037
8th Joshua Bergman $11,103
9th Amit Makhija $7,895

EPT PRAGUE 2K SIDE EVENT
John Eames continued his fine 2011 campaign by collecting his fifth PTPR Score of 2011 - winning the 2K NLH Side Event at EPT Prague.

Eames (pictured) outlasted Roberto Romanello heads up but Romanello does pickup enough point to jump to 9th overall on the 2011 PTPR Player of the Year Leaderboard, surpassing Chris Moorman and seven other players along the way - Romanello is still in contention for Player of the Year as the end of 2011 nears.

Ninth place finisher Marvin Rettenmaier crossed the 200 PTPR Point mark on the season.

FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (EURO):
1st John Eames €101,750
2nd Roberto Romanello €100,000
3rd Tolik Shkoyan €42,250
4th Mikhail Petrov €32,850
5th Alexios Zervos €25,800
6th Guy Gorelick €21,150
7th Thomas Frandsen €16,450
8th Pavel Gonchakov €11,750
9th Marvin Rettenmaier €9,390

FOXWOODS MEGA STACK CHALLENGE
Greg White took down the Mega Stack Challenge at the Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut. Notables David Stefanski and Salvatore Morello - who finished second and third - both have collected multiple PTPR Scores in 2011.

FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (USD):
1st Gregory White $59,087 (deal was made)
2nd David Stefanski $69,000 (deal was made)
3rd Salvatore Morello $30,376
4th Matthew Pierce $23,079
5th Monty Dennis $18,666
6th Stephen Rimer $15,273
7th Arthur Fera $12,727
8th Jeremy Barron $9,843
9th Scott Dorey $7,481


PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
World Poker Tour Five Diamond Poker Classic
2K NLH Side Event
December 8, 2011

Bellagio | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $5,180 | Prizepool: $493,450 | Entries: 107

FINAL RESULTS:
DAN PERPER 101
RAY QARTOMY 61
HASSAN TAHSILDAR 36
ROBERT STAIN 26
CLIFF JOSEPHY 19
JOE ELPAYAA 11
AL MELVILLE 9
JOSHUA BERGMAN 6
AMIT MAKHIJA 6

PTPR SIDE EVENT
European Poker Tour Prague
2K NLH Side Event
December 7, 2011

Hilton Prague Hotel | Czech Republic
Buy-in: $2,605 | Prizepool: $628,597 | Entries: 242

FINAL RESULTS:
JOHN EAMES 75
ROBERTO ROMANELLO 40
TOLIK SHKOYAN 25
MIKHAIL PETROV 15
ALEXIOS ZERVOS 10
GUY GORELICK 8
THOMAS FRANDSEN 5
PAVEL GONCHAKOV 5
MARVIN RETTENMAIER 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Foxwoods Mega Stack Challenge
NLH Mega Stack
December 10-11, 2011

Foxwoods Casino Resort | Connecticut
Buy-in: $1,200 | Prizepool: $339,393 | Entries: 321

FINAL RESULTS:
GREG WHITE 35
DAVID STEFANSKI 18
SALVATORE MORELLO 10
MATTHEW PIERCE 8
MONTY DENNIS 5

HE'S STILL ANDY FROM THE BLOCH - BLOCH WINS EPIC PRO/AM

PHOTO/SOURCE: EPICPOKER.com

After finishing third in the Epic Poker League Pro/Am back in August, Andy Bloch has secured his way into the Epic Main Event - for less than the 20K buy-in - way less!

Not only does Bloch freeroll into the Main Event, he also picked up close to 25K in cash for his worries - not bad for the 2-year carded Epic member.

Bloch earned his third PTPR Score of the season with the win ...

PTPR LEADERBOARD LIVE LOOK-IN:
469. Tommy Chen, 57 PTPR Points
469. William Reynolds, 57
471. Andy Bloch, 56
472. David Benyamine, 56
472. Aaron Overton, 56
472. Ted Forrest, 56
472. Andre Klebanov, 56
476. Alex Gomes, 56
477. Ryan Welch, 55

EPIC PRO/AM PAYOUTS (in USD):
1st: Andy Bloch - $24,085 plus Main Event Seat
2nd: Ryan Schmidt - $12,040 plus Main Event Seat
3rd: Marina Baroco - $7,150 plus Main Event Seat
4th: Chris DeMaci - $4,890 plus Main Event Seat
5th: Chris Woodbury - $3,390 plus Main Event Seat
6th: Tony Gargano - $2,630 plus Main Event Seat
7th: Ben Palmer - $1,880 plus Main Event Seat
8th: Joe Parille - $1,130 plus Main Event Seat
9th: Dwyte Pilgrim - Main Event Seat
10th: Jeremiah Vinsant - $3,760
11th: Chip Jett - $3,760
12th: Lee Markholt - $3,760
13th: Joe Kuether - $2,260
14th: Larry Ormson - $2,260
15th: Chance Kornuth - $2,260

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Epic Poker League
NLH Pro/Am Event
December 10-13, 2011

Palms Casino Resort | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $1,500 | Prizepool: $255,255 | Entries: 187

FINAL RESULTS:
ANDY BLOCH 35
RYAN SCHMIDT 18
MARINA BAROCO 10
CHRIS DEMACI 8
CHRIS WOODBURY 5

PTPR POKER ROUND-UP: PHAN WINS WSOP CIRCUIT AC, STEWART WINS INAUGURAL NACPT EVENT

PHOTO: POKERNEWS.com
SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com, CARDPLAYER.com

Visits to Atlantic City and Oklahoma in today's PTPR Round-Up!

WSOP CIRCUIT ATLANTIC CITY
The World Series of Poker Circuit hit it's last tour stop of 2011 over the weekend with the WSOPC Atlantic City Main Event. Harrah's AC was the host with over 600 players invading the tournament area.

Tuan Phan (pictured) won the event defeating Hao Le heads up.

FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (USD):
1st- Tuan Phan $188,830
2nd- Hao Le $116,796
3rd- Marc Andre Roy $85,405
4th- Larry Riggs $63,375
5th- Manh Nguyen $47,684
6th- Anthony Zinno $36,372
7th- Kevin Kaikko $28,127
8th- Denis Gnidash $22,048
9th- Mike Devinsky $17,516

NACPT CHOCTAW
The Choctaw Casino Resort in Oklahoma hosted the inaugural Native American Casino Poker Tour event this past weekend.

A total of 324 players made their way to Durant with Kirk Stewart taking it down.

FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (USD):
1- Kirk Stewart $68,310
2- Jason Simon $42,236
3- Brandon Vise $30,676
4- Reggi Trotter $22,659
5- Martin Tyson $17,011
6- Vartan Tonian $12,973
7- Brett Rager $10,049
8- Jeremy Vaughn $7,901
9- Sebastian Tejada $6,305


PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
World Series of Poker Circuit Atlantic City
WSOPC NLH Main Event
December 10-12, 2011

Harrah's Atlantic City | Atlantic City
Buy-in: $1,600 | Prizepool: $897,735 | Entries: 618

FINAL RESULTS:
TUAN PHAN 35
HAO LE 18
MARC ANDRE ROY 10
LARRY RIGGS 8
MAHN NGUYEN 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Native American Casino Poker Tour Choctaw
NACPT Choctaw NLH Main Event
December 10-11, 2011

Choctaw Casino Resort | Oklahoma
Buy-in: $1,000 | Prizepool: $290,681 | Entries: 324

FINAL RESULTS:
KIRK STEWART 35
JASON SIMON 18
BRANDON VISE 10
REGGI TROTTER 8
MARTIN TYSON 5

WPT FIVE DIAMOND: TOTAL GRIND - DEMPSEY CLAWS HIS WAY TO WPT TITLE

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

The World Poker Tour crowned it's last champion on American soil for 2011 (WPT Venice will close out 2011 for the WPT) as James Dempsey picked up the win.

It wasn't easy for Dempsey. While he entered final play as one of the chip leader and started heads up play basically even in chip, former November Niner Soi Nguyen took control of heads up play early - in what had the makings of a fast final six.

Nguyen had a 7:1 chip lead at one point heads up. But, Dempsey clawed his way back and picked up his third PTPR Score of 2011 with the victory.

The stage was set for a classic Final Table - with big names Esfandiari, Selbst and Lucky Chewy joining Dempsey and Nguyen.

Antonio was the first to leave, thus squashing any dreams of a back-to-back scenario (Esfandiari won this event last December), Lichtenberger wasn't far behind the magician and while Selbst did make a small run in order to get us to three-handed play, she was out fairly quickly.

Still, a very entertaining final group, for sure.

WPT FIVE DIAMOND FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS:
1-James Dempsey $821,612
2-Soi Nguyen $517,478
3-Vanessa Selbst $338,351
4-Andrew Lichtenberger $218,933
5-Vitor Coelho $159,224
6-Antonio Esfandiari $119,418

PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic
WPT Five Diamond NLH Main Event
December 6-11, 2011

Bellagio | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $10,300 | Prizepool: $4,006,100 | Entries: 413

FINAL RESULTS:
JAMES DEMPSEY 129
SOI NGUYEN 79
VANESSA SELBST 49
ANDREW LICHTENBERGER 39
VITOR COELHO 34
ANTONIO ESFANDIARI 29
LARRY WELLS 29
BRADEN HALL 14
ANTHONY YEH 14
DAVID WILLIAMS 14
RUDY MAAREK 14
KYLE JULIUS 12
WILLIAM REYNOLDS 12
BLAKE KELSO 12
MATT MARAFIOTI 12
TOMMY CHEN 9
TY REIMAN 9
TONY DUNST 9

AASMAA OUTLASTS HAIRABEDIAN TO WIN GSOP PRAGUE!

PHOTO/SOURCE: GSOPLIVE.com

Over 500 players decided to prolong their stay in the Czech Republic as the city of Prague hosted the third of three major poker events in less than a week - the Grand Series of Poker Prague Main Event.

A lot of name players tried their luck at the GSOP title. And, in the end, two name players battled it out for the 100K Euro top prize.

Raigo Aasmaa outdueled a game Roger Hairabedian to pickup the victory. Aasmaa scored at EPT Tallin earlier this season.

As for Hairabedian - the popular French pro - it was a fourth score in 2011 - he crosses the century mark in points for the season.

Kimmo Kurko's third PTPR Score earned him a third place finish in the event. Kurko won a side event at EPT San Remo in May.

That's it for the Czech Republic - well done, Prague!

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Grand Series of Poker Prague
GSOP Prague NLH Main Event
December 8-11, 2011

Corinthia Hotel Prague | Czech Republic
Buy-in: $2,210 | Prizepool: $712,800 | Entries: 500 (Estimated)

FINAL RESULTS:
RAIGO AASMAA 35
ROGER HAIRABEDIAN 18
KIMMO KURKO 10
PIOTR MADEJ 8
CHRS KIEFERT 5

WPT FIVE DIAMOND: MAGIC MAN COMETH - ESFANDIARI LOOKS FOR BACK-TO-BACK

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

The Magician Antonio Esfandiari holds most of the headlines of what should be one heck of a final table at the WPT Five Diamond Sunday at Bellagio.

Efandiari has a small mountain to climb, trailing the chip leader 4:1 in chips. Antonio won this very event last season and he's looking to join Vanessa Selbst and Jason Mercier as back-to-back champs this season - both Selbst and Mercier accomplished the feat earlier in the year at NAPT Mohegan Sun.

Speaking of Selbst, she has also found her to the final table. Selbst held the chip lead at one point in the tournament, it's actually been a little bit of a roller coaster ride for Selbst, sitting fourth in chips.

Leading the way is 2010 November Niner Soi Nguyen. The part-time poker player from California is low on total results in his career but, he surely knows where to show up to pickup some major dough! Nguyen is the only player over 4 million in chips, in fact, he's one 5K chip away from 5M!

The man in second place, Brighton's James Dempsey might not have the results in 2011 - but, his great run at the 2010 WSOP surely makes him ready for this moment, and he may very well be the overall favourite coming into today's play.

Take away the Heads Up Championship at the EPT Grand Final and you can consider 2011 as a quiet year for Andrew Lichtenberger. Lichtenberger will certainly be looking to redeem himself with a win later on today.

Rounding out the Final Six is Vitor Coelho. Coelho has a 15th and a 10th place finish at the last two WPT Southern Poker Championships - this is the deepest he's been at any major tournament - he comes to the final table with a very small chip stack, he will need to double play early in order to get back in this thing.

WPT FIVE DIAMOND FINAL TABLE IN-FOCUS:
105. Vanessa Selbst, 138 PTPR Points
516. Vitor Coelho, 50
571. Antonio Esfandiari, 45
2471. James Dempsey, 7

This is the first PTPR Score of 2011 for Lichtenberger and Nguyen.

WPT FIVE DIAMOND FINAL TABLE SEATING ASSIGNMENTS/CHIP COUNTS:
Seat 1. James Dempsey - 3,860,000 (64 BBs)
Seat 2. Vitor Coelho - 560,000 (9 BBs)
Seat 3. Antonio Esfandiari - 1,255,000 (20 BBs)
Seat 4. Andrew Lichtenberger - 3,605,000 (60 BBs)
Seat 5. Vanessa Selbst - 2,250,000 (37 BBs)
Seat 6. Soi Nguyen - 4,995,000 (83 BBs)

WPT FIVE DIAMOND FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS:
1- $821,612
2- $517,478
3- $338,351
4- $218,933
5- $159,224
6- $119,418

PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Poker Tour Five Diamond World Poker Classic
WPT Five Diamond NLH Main Event
December 6-11, 2011

Bellagio | Las Vegas
Buy-in: $10,300 | Prizepool: $4,006,100 | Entries: 413

PTS AT STAKE:
1st position 129
2nd position 79
3rd position 49
4th position 39
5th position 34
6th position 29
LARRY WELLS 29
BRADEN HALL 14
ANTHONY YEH 14
DAVID WILLIAMS 14
RUDY MAAREK 14
KYLE JULIUS 12
WILLIAM REYNOLDS 12
BLAKE KELSO 12
MATT MARAFIOTI 12
TOMMY CHEN 9
TY REIMAN 9
TONY DUNST 9

ANDY LEE WINS SUMMER SERIES IN SYDNEY, MONSTERDONG SCORES SEVENTH

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERMEDIA.com.au

Andy Lee is the latest champion on the poker circuit. Lee picked up his second PTPR Score of 2011 by winning the Star Poker Summer Series Main Event in Sydney, Australia.

Lee defeated 163 other players in the 1M guaranteed Main Event. There was actually an overlay in the event, making it one that all wanted to win badly.

Lee defeated Tom Rafferty heads up and crossed the century mark in PTPR Points for the season ...

2011 PTPR LEADERBOARD LIVE LOOK-IN:
169. Hafiz Khan, 112 PTPR Points
170. Steve Landfish, 112
171. Vincenzo Natale, 111
171. Andy Lee, 111
173. Leo Boxell, 110
173. Michel Leibgorin, 110
175. Martin Drewe, 110
175. Martin Staszko, 110

One of our favourite poker pros - xMONSTERxDONGx himself - Jonathan Karamalikis finished seventh in the event; surprisingly, his first PTPR Points of 2011.

Michael Kanaan earned his second PTPR Score of the season.

STAR POKER SUMMER SERIES FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (in AUD):
1- Andy Lee $270,000
2- Tom Rafferty $170,000
3- Matviy Bilenky $100,000
4- Peter Skouteris $80,000
5- Michael Kanaan $67,500
6- Mark Wright $55,000
7- Jonathan Karamalikis $45,000
8- Jay Malig $35,000
9- Dien Nguyen $27,500

PTPR TIER 3 EVENT
Star Poker Summer Series
NLH Main Event
December 7-10, 2011

The Star | Sydney
Buy-in: $5,115 | Prizepool: $1,023,400 | Entries: 164

FINAL RESULTS:
ANDY LEE 101
TOM RAFFERTY 61
MATVIY BILENKY 36
PETER SKOUTERIS 26
MICHAEL KANAAN 19
MARK WRIGHT 11
JONATHAN KARAMALIKIS 9
JAY MALIG 6
DIEN NGUYEN 6

EPT PRAGUE: FINGER ON THE TRIGGER - MARTIN FINGER WINS PRAGUE

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

After a couple of side event scores at EPT Berlin and EPT Barcelona, it's time for Martin Finger's moment in the sun!

Finger - who entered final table play with the chip lead - has won EPT Prague, and pockets over 1M US in the process in what was a monster event in the Capital of the Czech Republic.

Finger beat out a willing bunch of experienced players (all but one at the final table had at least one PTPR Score in 2011) that included second place finisher David Boyaciyan. Boyaciyan won the Dutch Open at the Master Classics in Amsterdam last month. Both Finger and Boyaciyan find themselves only a few points apart in the 2011 PTPR Player of the Year Race ...

PTPR LEADERBOARD LIVE LOOK-IN:
37. David Boyaciyan, 185 PTPR Points
38. Taylor Von Kriegenbergh, 184
39. Joseph Ebanks, 182
40. Michael Mizrachi, 180
41. Adrian Allain, 178
42. Mikhail Lakhitov, 177
43. Martin Finger, 177
44. Andrew Frankenberger, 176
45. Steve Billirakis, 175

EPT PRAGUE FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS:
1- Martin Finger 720,000
2- David Boyaciyan 535,000
3- Nicolas Levi 270,000
4- Guillem Usero 205,000
5- Denys Drobyna 160,000
6- Ari Engel 125,000
7- Andreas Wiese 90,000
8- Mads Wissing 66,700

PTPR PREMIER EVENT
European Poker Tour Prague
EPT Prague NLH Main Event
December 5-10, 2011

Hilton Prague Hotel | Czech Republic
Buy-in: $7,100 | Prizepool: $4,690,875 | Entries: 722

PTS AT STAKE:
MARTIN FINGER 132
DAVID BOYACIYAN 82
NICOLAS LEVI 52
GUILLEM USERO 42
DENYS DROBYNA 37
ARI ENGEL 32
ANDREAS WIESE 32
MADS WISSING 17
PATRICK RENKERS 17
IGNAT LIVIU 17
YANN BROSOLO 17
KIMON LEHMAN 15
PONTUS KHOSRAVI 15
JUDE AINSWORTH 15
CHRIS MOORMAN 15
VOJTECH RUZICKA 12
MICHAELA SMRCKOVA 12
MAURI DORBEK 12

EPT PRAGUE: MOORMAN COMES CLOSE BUT OUT AS FINAL TABLE IS SET

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERSTARSBLOG.com (Credit: Neil Stoddart)

Things certainly got interesting for a few days. Many eyes in the poker world were on Chris Moorman who had a great opportunity to surpass Ben Lamb at the top of the 2011 PTPR Player of the Year Race ... just days before the 2011 POY is crowned!

But alas, after contending for days, Moorman was ousted from EPT Prague earlier today and Lamb's lead is safe atop the leaderboard. Moorman was still able to move up four spot on the Leaderboard - moving into the Top 10 ...



PTPR LEADERBOARD LIVE LOOK-IN:
7. Andrey Pateychuk, 298 PTPR Points
8. Matthew Waxman, 289
9. Chris Moorman, 286
10. Brian Rast, 283
11. Ali Eslami, 281
12. Steve O'Dwyer 278

Moorman also becomes the eigth player to pickup his seventh PTPR Score of the 2011 season. He joins ElkY, Alessio Isaia, Jason Mercier, Will Failla, Matthew Waxman, Steve O'Dwyer and Maxim Lykov at seven. 2010 Player of the Year Sorel Mizzi had 10 PTPR Scores on the season.

It should be a very interesting final table nonetheless, even with Moorman's exclusion from Saturday's play.

Martin Finger will enter Saturday's play as the chip leader. Finger - who has scores at EPT Berlin and EPT Barcelona side events this year - has a very small lead on Nicolas Levi - who also has two PTPR Scores on the season (LAPC Side Event, WSOP).

Master Classics Dutch Open Champ David Boyaciyan hopes to continue his strong play of late while short stack Mads Wissing will hope to do better than he did at the Partouche Grand Final last month - Wissing was the first one out in Cannes.

PTPR FINAL TABLE IN-FOCUS:
195. Danyel Boyaciyan, 103 PTPR Points
250. Nicolas Levi, 88
560. Martin Finger, 45
1646. Ari Engel, 15
1646. Mads Wissing, 15
1831. Andreas Wiese, 12

This is the first PTPR Score of 2011 for Usero Cavallo and Denys Drobyna.

EPT PRAGUE FINAL TABLE SEAT ASSIGNMENTS/CHIP COUNTS:
Seat 1 - Mads Wissing, Denmark, 420,000
Seat 2 - Guillem Usero Cavallo, Spain, 1,405,000
Seat 3 - Nicolas Levi, France, 5,690,000
Seat 4 - Martin Finger, Germany, 5,800,000
Seat 5 - Andreas Wiese, Germany, 1,615,000
Seat 6 - Ari Engel, United States, 1,670,000
Seat 7 - Denys Drobyna, Ukraine, 1,180,000
Seat 8 - Danyel Boyaciyan, Netherlands , 3,770,000

PTPR PREMIER EVENT
European Poker Tour Prague
EPT Prague NLH Main Event
December 5-10, 2011

Hilton Prague Hotel | Czech Republic
Buy-in: $7,100 | Prizepool: $4,690,875 | Entries: 722

PTS AT STAKE:
1st position 132
2nd position 82
3rd position 52
4th position 42
5th position 37
6th position 32
7th position 32
8th position 17
PATRICK RENKERS 17
IGNAT LIVIU 17
YANN BROSOLO 17
KIMON LEHMAN 15
PONTUS KHOSRAVI 15
JUDE AINSWORTH 15
CHRIS MOORMAN 15
VOJTECH RUZICKA 12
MICHAELA SMRCKOVA 12
MAURI DORBEK 12

SCORCHING-HOT PATEYCHUK WINS WPT PRAGUE!

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

Understatement of the week? Possibly Andrey Pateychuk is red-hot on the poker circuit? Most definitely.

After a strong showing (Top 15 finish) at this summer's WSOP Main Event, Pateychuk picked up a big win at EPT San Remo in October. Well, you can now add a WPT title to the list - Pateychuk is now a WSOP bracelet away from joining Poker's Triple Crown Club.

Pateychuk's incredible finish to 2011 has led him right into the 2011 PTPR Poker Tournament Player of the Year race - his 298 PTPR Points place him seventh on the Top 15 Leaderboard, five points behind Will "The Thrill" Failla.

Pateychuk and second place finisher Adria Balaguer had a long heads up battle. Both holding the chip lead at times. Balaguer earned his second PTPR Score of 2011.

It was a third PTPR Score of 2011 for Benjamin Pollak and Sigurd Eskeland. Ninth place finisher Mike Watson also earned his third PTPR Score of the year, he now has 139 PTPR Points for the season ...

PTPR LEADERBOARD LIVE LOOK-IN:
95. Justin Cohen, 140 PTPR Points
96. Michael Turniec, 139
96. Michael Watson, 139
98. Alan Sternberg, 139
99. Darren Woods, 139
99. Russell Crane, 139
101. Allen Kessler, 138

WPT PRAGUE FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS:
1- Andrey Pateychuk $630,263
2- Adria Balaguer $320,381
3- Stanislaw Kretz $212,690
4- Benjamin Pollak $139,999
5- Sigurd Eskeland $107,691
6- Russell Carson $84,807

PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Poker Tour Prague
WPT Prague NLH Main Event
December 1-5, 2011

Corinthia Hotel Prague | Czech Republic
Buy-in: $4,690 | Prizepool: $2,360,050 | Entries: 568

PTS AT STAKE:
ANDREY PATEYCHUK 130
ADRIA BALAGUER 80
STANISLAW KRETZ 50
BENJAMIN POLLAK 40
SIGURD ESKELAND 35
RUSSELL CARSON 30
JAN BENDIK 30
THOMAS FRANDSEN 15
MIKE WATSON 15
ZACHARY KORIK 15
TOBIAS REINKENMEIER 15
DENIS PISAREV 13
PAUL PIRES TRIGO 13
THOMAS JORGENSEN 13
KAREN SARKISYAN 13
DOBROMIR NIKOV 10
DANIEL ERLANDSSON 10
MARTINS ADENIYA 10

QUOSS DEFEATS CODY HEADS UP TO WIN GUKPT GRAND FINAL

LOGO/SOURCE: GUKPT.com

Some of the big guns on the UK poker scene were out for blood at the GUKPT Grand Final this weekend, in hopes of capturing a six-figure paycheck. And two of those big boys met each other heads up for the title.

Triple Crown member Jake Cody was the chip leader heading into heads up play but Fabian Quoss was able to pick at Cody's chip stack and in the end, was able to capture all of the chips to become the GUKPT Grand Final Champion.

This is Quoss' second win on tour this season, Quoss picked up a German Championship of Poker (GCOP) tourney win back in August. Quoss also won the English Poker Open back in September of 2010.

For Cody, it's a third PTPR Score for the year. Cody is the defending WSOP 25K Heads Up Championship title holder ...

PTPR LEADERBOARD LIVE LOOK-IN
39. Michael Mizrachi, 180 PTPR Points
40. Adrien Allain, 178
41. Mikhail Lakhitov, 177
42. Andrew Frankenberger, 176
43. Steve Billirakis, 175
44. Anthony Ruberto, 174
44. Jake Cody, 174
46. David Diaz, 173
46. Athanasios Polychronopoulos, 173
48. Shaun Deeb, 172
49. Allen Bari, 172

2010 Irish Open Champion James Mitchell was fifth in the event while long time pro John Gale was seventh.

GUKPT GRAND FINAL TOP NINE PAYOUTS (in GBP):
1st Fabian Quoss £119,996
2nd Jake Cody £115,054
3rd Lalit Khajuria £59,700
4th Alexander Elias £36,550
5th James Mitchell £28,050
6th Tamer Kamel £23,150
7th John Gale £18,300
8th Nathan Watson £13,400
9th Jonas Ovestad £9,750

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Grosvenor UK Poker Tour Grand Final
GUKPT Grand Final NLH Main Event
December 1-4, 2011

Grosvenor Victoria Casino | London
Buy-in: $4,105 | Prizepool: $762,645 | Entries: 195

FINAL RESULTS:
FABIAN QUOSS 35
JAKE CODY 18
LALIT KHAJURIA 10
ALEXANDER ELIAS 8
JAMES MITCHELL 5

PTS AT STAKE: FAMILIAR NAMES FINAL TABLE WPT PRAGUE

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

We've always got time for a good festival! We're right in the middle of the Prague Poker Festival and with EPT Prague right on our doorstep, it's time to close out WPT Prague, where a few familiar faces finds themselves in contention as we're set for final table play later today.

It was a long, very long day on Sunday as we were going to find our final six players come hell or high water. Eugene Katchalov was unable to make it into the Top 18, thus, he was unable to make up any ground in the race for the PTPR Player of the Year, he remains second with only a few more opportunities left in December.

Our final six include EPT San Remo Champ - and PTPR Player of the Month for October 2011 - Andrey Pateychuk. Pateychuk finds himself third in chips heading into today's WPT Final Table. Pateychuk surely hopes that his experience at EPT San Remo this year will help him make up ground on the chip leader, Stanislav Kretz.

Kretz and Benjamin Pollak are the only two players with above average chip stacks.

Sigurd Eskeland, Adria Balaguer and Russell Carson round-out the final six, all three have PTPR Scores in 2011 and despite their somewhat modest chip stacks should not be overlooked as play begins in a little while.

WPT FINAL TABLE SEAT ASSIGNMENTS/CHIP COUNTS:
Seat 1: Adria Balaguer ~ 1,315,000
Seat 2: Andrey Pateychuk ~ 2,310,000
Seat 3: Benjamin Pollak ~ 4,865,000
Seat 4: Russell Carson ~ 725,000
Seat 5: Stanislav Kretz ~ 6,300,000
Seat 6: Sigurd Estelad ~ 1,575,000

Due to everyone working overtime on Sunday, final table play has been delayed by a bit. You can find the Final Table livestream on WPT.com later today - with Olivier Busquet and Jesse May describing the live action.

PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Poker Tour Prague
WPT Prague NLH Main Event
December 1-5, 2011

Corinthia Hotel Prague | Czech Republic
Buy-in: $4,690 | Prizepool: $2,360,050 | Entries: 568

PTS AT STAKE:
1st position 130
2nd position 80
3rd position 50
4th position 40
5th position 35
6th position 30
JAN BENDIK 30
THOMAS FRANDSEN 15
MIKE WATSON 15
ZACHARY KORIK 15
TOBIAS REINKENMEIER 15
DENIS PISAREV 13
PAUL PIRES TRIGO 13
THOMAS JORGENSEN 13
KAREN SARKISYAN 13
DOBROMIR NIKOV 10
DANIEL ERLANDSSON 10
MARTINS ADENIYA 10

HARKES LATEST UNIBET OPEN CHAMPION

PHOTO/SOURCE: UNIBETOPEN.com

It is Peter Harkes' time to shine! Harkes picked up the win earlier today at Unibet Open Riga in Latvia's capital city.

Harkes finished fifth at Unibet Open Dublin earlier this season.

Arkadiusz Olszowy was second in the event. Maksim Martynov, Jarkko Mammela and David Jansses round-up the Top 5.

UNIBET OPEN RIGA FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (in LVL):
Peter Harkes 62,828
Arkadiusz Olszowy 42,704
Maksim Martynov 29,186
Jarkko Mammela 21,506
David Janssen 16,897
Vytautas Milvydas 13,210
Loek Van Wely 10,753
Rytis Grunovas 9,524
Ricardo Klaassen 8,295

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Unibet Open Riga
Riga NLH Main Event
December 1-4, 2011

Royal Casino Spa & Hotel Resort | Latvia
Buy-in: $2,210 | Prizepool: $590,670 | Entries: 308

FINAL RESULTS:
PETER HARKES 35
ARKADIUSZ OLSZOWY 18
MAKSIM MARTYNOV 10
JARKKO MAMMELA 8
DAVID JANSSEN 5

ALLAIN, RUBERTO, ZIYARD SHARE PLAYER OF THE MONTH CROWN FOR NOVEMBER

PHOTO: WPT.com

It's a PTPR first! Three men have all combined to share Player of the Month honours for the month of November.

WPT Amneville winner Adrien Allain, WPT Jacksonville champ Anthony Ruberto (pictured) and Zimnan Ziyard - who picked up a win at EPT Loutraki - all collected 128 PTPR Points in November, good for first for the month.

WPT Marakech champ Mohamed Ali Houssam was a point behind the trio while WSOP champ Pius Heinz and Partouche Tour winner Sam Trickett were tied for fifth for the month.

31 TOTAL TOURNAMENTS QUALIFIED FOR PTPR POINTS
Grand Slams - 1 (Completion of November 9)
Premier - 5 (includes conclusion of Partouche Main)
Tier 3 - 5
Side - 0
Challenger - 20

NOVEMBER TOP 10

November Players of the Month:
Adrien Allain, 128 PTPR Points, 1 PTPR Score
> WPT Amneville (Champion) - 128 PTPR Points

Anthony Ruberto, 128 PTPR Points, 1 PTPR Score
> WPT Jacksonville (Champion) - 128 PTPR Points

Zimnan Ziyard, 128 PTPR Points, 1 PTPR Score
> EPT Loutraki (Champion) - 128 PTPR Points

128 ADRIEN ALLAIN
128 ANTHONY RUBERTO
128 ZIMNAN ZIYARD
127 MOHAMED ALI HOUSSAM
115 PIUS HEINZ
115 SAM TRICKETT
106 ANDREW BADECKER
105 RANDY LEW
104 DANILO DONNINI
104 RAJDEEP POONI

A total of 211 different players scored PTPR Points in November yet only three players collected points in two PTPR events during the month:

2 ARNAUD MATTERN
2 ALEXANDER VENOVSKI
2 NIKITA NIKOLAENKO

AT THIS POINT LAST SEASON
At this point in October 2010, Frank Kassela was surpassed by eventual Player of the Year Sorel Mizzi. Mizzi collected points at the EPT London High Rollers and the Foxwoods World Poker Finals during the month ... here is how the Top 10 looked like:

361 THOMAS MARCHESE
357 SOREL MIZZI
324 DAVID PETERS
316 FRANK KASSELA
299 VANESSA SELBST
292 CARLOS MORTENSEN
283 MICHAEL "THE GRINDER" MIZRACHI
283 JAKE CODY
269 TOMER BERDA
265 JOHN JUANA

Finally, here is a look at the Top 10 countries who visited PTPR Poker site in November:
1. USA, 2. Canada, 3. Germany, 4. Russia, 5. UK, 6. Netherlands, 7. India, 8. France, 9. Ukraine, 10. Greece