HPT MISSOURI: HEARTLAND HEARTTHROB - TOURNAMENT STUD "THE THRILL" WINS BIG IN STL

SOURCE: HEARTLAND POKER TOUR

The Thrill is ON! Reigning PTPR Poker Tournament Player of the Year, Will "The Thrill" Failla, has certainly picked up where he left off.

After a successful run at the Venetian Deepstack Extravaganza where he finished fourth, Failla has defeated 327 other players to win the 100th edition of the Heartland Poker Tour - the 100th event was played out of the River City Casino in St. Louis, Missouri.

Failla (2012 PTPR Rank: 92nd) was added the WPT Player of the Year title to his PTPR title, the WPT Legends of Poker Champ had a tremendous second half to 2011, looks like the first half of 2012 doesn't want to get outdone.

Failla has six live tournament cashes this season, this is his second cash worth over 100K USD.

Everyone's favourite tournament grinder, Allen Kessler, is the reason why Failla actually came to St. Louis to play in the event. Kessler suggested Failla join him for the 100th edition of the Heartland Poker Tour - good thing he did! Kessler (2012 PTPR Rank: NR) finished 10th in the event.

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FT PAYOUTS (USD) William Failla $199,064 Brian Nguyen $67,390 William Matula $42,863 Gary Lambert $36,910 Robin Parks $28,575 Henry Osterkamp $23,337 RELATED POSTS >> FAILLA PTPR POY >> PRESLEY WINS HPT OK >> VENETIAN DEEP STACK NEXT LIVE EVENT HPT Nevada Palms, Las Vegas April 6-15, 2012

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT Heartland Poker Tour Missouri HPT Missouri NLH Main Event March 8-12, 2012 River City Casino | St. Louis, MO Buy-in: $1,650 | Prizepool: $476,256 Entries: 268 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION WILL FAILLA "THE THRILL" 35 BRYAN NGUYEN 18 WILLIAM MITULA 10 DR. GARY LAMBERT 8 ROBIN PARKS 5

2011 WSOP: SUPERSTAR SATURDAY - RAST, JUANDA PLAY SPOILERS

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

The Superstars of Poker invaded the Rio's Amazon Room on Saturday night but only two left with bracelets!

Let's start with Event 15 - Pot Limit Hold'em. It was a thrilling final two with Brian Rast stopping fan favorite Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler in the end. Kessler's online rail was massive and most were disapointed when Rast finally pulled it off.

Also at the final table was Ali Eslami - the 32 PTPR Points collected moves him up one spot to 2nd overall on the 2011 PTPR Player of the Year Leaderboard - surpassing Eugene Katchalov in the process.

John Gordon, Ted Lawson, Ronald Lee and Christin Harder also collected PTPR Points in this event.


But the major buzz of the night came from Event 16 - Deuce to Seven Lowball World Championship - where Phil Hellmuth was momnets away from bracelet number twelve.

Alas, The Poker Brat was not able to finish off John Juanda when he had the opportunity. Hellmuth seemed to have control of the final table when we were down to five players but Juanda held him off, collecting his fifth bracelet.

It was a who's who of poker stars when we hit the money. Richard Ashby, Steve Sung, Nick Schulman, David "Bakes" Baker (who won the event last year), Hasan Habib, Joe Cassidy, Greg Raymer, ElkY, Johnny Chan, Brandon Cantu and Chino Rheem all finished in the money.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
Event 14 Pot Limit Hold'em
June 9-11, 2011

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

Buy-in: $1,500
Prizepool: $1,032,750
Entries: 765

FINAL RESULTS:
BRIAN RAST 132
ALLEN KESSLER 82
DAJUAN WHORLEY 52
DAISUKE ENDO 42
MIKE PAASONEN 37
ALI ESLAMI 32
JOHN GORDON 32
TED LAWSON 17
RONALD LEE 17
ANDREW COHEN 17
ELIAS BRUSSIANOS 17
JEREMY VAUGHN 15
TOMMY FELICE 15
ARIEL CELESTINO 15
NICK DAVIES 15
CHARLES RITCHIE 12
CHRISTIAN HARDER 12
DAVID MERCER 12

PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
Event 15 Deuce to Seven Lowball World Championship
June 9-11, 2011

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

Buy-in: $10,000
Prizepool: $1,184,400
Entries: 126

FINAL RESULTS:
JOHN JUANDA 126
PHIL HELLMUTH 76
RICHARD ASHBY 46
STEVE SUNG 36
NICK SCHULMAN 31
DAVID BAKER "BAKES" 26
HASAN HABIB 26
JOE CASSIDY 11
GREG RAYMER 11
BENJAMIN PARKER 11
BERTRAND GROSPELLIER "ElkY" 11
JOHNNY CHAN 9
BRANDON CANTU 9
CHINO RHEEM 9

HARMAN, CHAINSAW COME CLOSE

PHOTO CREDIT: WSOPPhotos.com

Jennifer Harman and Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler came dangerously close to a bracelet in the 10K Seven Card Stud World Championship last night ... unfortunately, they will have to settle for silver (Kessler) and bronze (Harman).

Harman caught fire with 14 players left sky-rocketing to the Top 3 in chips ... Kessler was actually the guy with a chip and a chair with 13 players left - yet, he buzzed his way up to second ... quite an impressive performance by both players for sure.

And what else can be said about Vladimir Shchemelev? Yet another final table performance - he's showing the world that he now one of the most dominant mixed games players in the world.

There were a bunch of other big names that made the Final 16 ... Steve Zolotow, John Juanda, Dario Minieri, Blair Rodman and Toto Leonidas.


2010 World Series of Poker
Event 15 : Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split 8+ World Championship
June 6-8, 2010

Rio Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada

Buy-in: $10,000
Prizepool: $1,598.000
Entries: 170

2009 Winner: Jeffrey Lisandro


2010 FINAL RESULTS
KASSELA FRANK - 126
KESSLER ALLEN "CHAINSAW" - 76
HARMAN JENNIFER - 46
ZOLOTOW STEVE - 36
JUANDA JOHN - 31
RABTSOV KIRILL - 26
SHCHEMELEV VLADIMIR - 26
MINIERI DARIO - 11
BENSON GARY - 11
LIND GEORGE - 11
ALTBREGIN SERGEY - 11
ISAIA ALESSIO - 9
JOHNSON MARCO - 9
GEORGE CHRISTOPHER - 9
RODMAN BLAIR - 9
LEONIDAS TOTO - 6