2012 WSOPE: SIMPLY THE BEST - HELLMUTH WINS WSOPE, 13TH BRACELET

Make it lucky #13 for Phil Hellmuth. 23 years after becoming the World Champion winning the 1989 WSOP Main Event, Hellmuth has captured the WSOP Europe Main Event, becoming the first player ever to win both events ... can Hellmuth make it a triple at the inaugural WSOP Asia Pacific next April? We'll soon find out.

Hellmuth sky-rockets to #3 overall on the 2012 QuadJacks Poker Player of the Year Leaderboard - powered by PTPRpoker.

Hellmuth befriended his heads-up opponent, Sergii Baranov (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: T-255th), through playing together during the tournament ... and although they were buddy-buddy sharing fist pump after fist pump during today's final table play.

Popular pro Joseph Cheong (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: 29th) was o-so close once again to his first major title but he just couldn't overtake the two big stacks (Hellmuth and Baranov) at the table, he will have to settle for a fourth place finish.

The man that many wanted to see make a comeback on Thursday, Jason Mercier (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: 222nd), was the first player out at the final table. Mercier started the day low in chips and he simply couldn't get things started.

It's certainly not the finish they were looking for, but, both Kyle Julius (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: 15th) and Timothy Adams (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: 17th) entered the Top 20 Player of the Year race.

The tandem each scored points at the WPT Grand Prix de Paris last month at the Aviation Club de France.

Christopher Brammer (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: 206th), Scott Seiver (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: 272nd), Steve Dannenmann (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: T-1,132nd), Toby Lewis (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: 210th), David Benyamine (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: 639th), Max Silver (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: T-1,901st), Curt Kohlberg (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: T-1,901st) and Liv Boeree (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: T-1,901st) all collected POY points in the event.

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TOP 32 PAYOUTS (EURO) 1st Phil Hellmuth 1,022,376 2nd Sergii Baranov 632,592 3rd Stephane Albertini 423,360 4th Joseph Cheong 292,320 5th Christopher Brammer 207,648 6th Paul Tedeschi 149,184 7th Stephane Girault 108,864 8th Jason Mercier 84,672 9th Timothy Adams 66,528 10th Scott Seiver 66,528 11th Nicolas Cardyn 52,416 12th Steve Dannenmann 52,416 13th Toby Lewis 40,320 14th Kyle Julius 40,320 15th David Benyamine 32,256 16th Max Silver 32,256 17th Curt Kohlberg 26,611 18th Liv Boeree 26,611 19th Joe McGowan 26,611 20th Sebastien Guinand 26,611 21st Vadzim Markushevski 26,611 22nd Andy Frankenberger 26,611 23rd Vladislav Varlashin 26,611 24th Joe Kuether 26,611 25th Bertrand Grospellier 22,982 26th Ben Roberts 22,982 27th Vladimir Troyanovskiy 22,982 28th Kitty Kuo 22,982 29th Philipp Gruissem 22,982 30th Steponas Venckus 22,982 31st Emil Patel 22,982 32nd Axel Pergolizzi 22,982 DEFENDING CHAMPION Elio Fox

PTPR PREMIER EVENT WORLD SERIES OF POKER EUROPE WSOP Europe NLH Main Event September 29-4, 2012 Hotel Majestic Barriere | Cannes Buy-in: $13,465 | Prizepool: $5,195,635 Entries: 420 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION PHIL HELLMUTH 129 SERGII BARANOV 79 STEPHANE ALBERTINI 49 JOSEPH CHEONG 39 CHRISTOPHER BRAMMER 34 PAUL TEDESCHI 29 STEPHANE GIRAULT 29 JASON MERCIER 14 TIMOTHY ADAMS 14 SCOTT SEIVER 14 NICOLAS CARDYN 14 STEVE DANNENMANN 12 TOBY LEWIS 12 KYLE JULIUS 12 DAVID BENYAMINE 12 MAX SILVER 9 CURT KOHLBERG 9 LIV BOEREE 9 RELATED POSTS > SIX IS ENOUGH FOR SIRWATTS > GET YOUR POPCORN READY, HELLMUTH LEADS WSOPE > WSOPE MAIN EVENT HEATING UP > A CHIPPY AFFAIR IN CANNES > DA COSTA SANTOS WINS BRACELET > ROSADONI WINS FIRST BRACELET > BIG WIN FOR BIG ROG! > THE YEAR OF ANTONIO > WE'RE OFF IN CANNES > SMOKROKFLOCK WINS WSOPE MAIN

2012 WSOP: DAY 35 RECAP - VILANDOS SHOWS THE KIDS HOW IT'S DONE

EVENT #50 |
5K NO-LIMIT HOLD'EM |
1,001 ENTRIES | 4.7M PRIZEPOOL

They needed one more day to take care of business in the 5K NLH event. Most predicted that Dan Smith (the #1 ranked poker player on the QuadJacks Player of the Year Leaderboard - powered by PTPRpoker) and Kyle Julius (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: 7th) would be battling for the title while the short stack, Panayote "Peter" Vilandos (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: 58th) would be on the outside looking in shortly after extra day play began.

Well, we were all so wrong as Vilandos got the best of the two young guns, winning the bracelet!

Julius would end up losing the heads-up battle, Smith finished third, adding to his already #1 total.

Thomas Conway (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: T-124th), Matt Giannetti (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: T-508th), Tommy Vedes (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: 10th) and Amir Lehavot (2012 QJ/PTPR Rank: T-688th) and made the final table.

Chamath Palihapitya, Andrea Dato, Daniel Perper, Konstantin Puchkov, Joseph Cheong, Jason Wheeler and Thiago Nishijima all finished in the Top 18.

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FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS (USD) Pete Vilandos $952,694 Kyle Julius $589,687 Dan Smith $368,943 Kevin Schulz $267,792 Derek Gregory $197,691 Thomas Conway $148,198 Matt Giannetti $112,725 Tommy Vedes $86,896 Amir Lehavot $67,889 RELATED POSTS > HOBSON EARNS THE BRACELET > HSUING DEFEATS HWANG FOR THE WIN > BEGINNER'S LUCK > GRINDHOUSE, PART 2 > WEISSMAN WINS > TO PALUMBO GOES THE BRACELET > HENRY LU WINS A BRACELET! > KOVALCHUK WINS AGAIN > HEARTBREAK FOR GLAZIER > EAST COAST REPRESENT! > DAVID BAKERS RULE! > GOOD GUY TRYBA WINS BIG > SHAKE AND BAKES! > NO ONE CAN GET CARTER! > SHULMAN SHOWS THE BOYS > CASSIDY-NGUYEN GO TO EXTRAS > HELLMUTH LEGEND GROWS, EARNS #12 > MAKE IT TWO FOR MONNETTE > CAZALS, MAD MARVIN MOVE UP > BLOCH WINS BRACELET

PTPR PREMIER EVENT 2012 World Series of Poker Event #50 : 5K No-Limit Hold'Em June 28-1, 2012 Rio All-Suite Hotel | Las Vegas Buy-in: $5,000 | Prizepool: $4,704,700 Entries: 1,001 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION PANAYOTE VILANDOS "PETER" 135 KYLE JULIUS 85 DANIEL SMITH "DAN" 55 KEVIN SCHULZ 45 DEREK GREGORY 40 THOMAS CONWAY 35 MATT GIANNETTI 35 TOMMY VEDES 20 AMIR LEHAVOT 20 ERIC AUDE 20 CHAMATH PALIHAPITIYA 20 ANDREA DATO 18 DANIEL PERPER 18 KONSTANTIN PUCHKOV 18 JOSEPH CHEONG 18 SAMUEL NGAI 15 JASON WHEELER 15 THIAGO NISHIJIMA 15

2012 PCA: AMATEUR DIBELLA BEATS THE PROS TO WIN FIRST PTPR GRAND SLAM OF 2012

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

It was amateur hour earlier this evening in the Bahamas ... except this time, it was quite a hell of a show put on by our first PTPR Grand Slam winner of the 2012 season, John Dibella, who survived a massive 1072-player field in order to win his first career tournament.

Dibella beat out a strong final table that included the likes of Kyle Julius, Faraz Jaka and Xuan Liu.

Jaka and Liu had our attention for most of this week - both players had a great showing for their first big event of the season.


FINAL TABLE PAYOUTS
1- John Dibella 1,775,000
2- Kyle Julius 1,500,000
3- Faraz Jaka 755,000
4- Xuan Liu 600,000
5- Mark Drover 468,000
6- Anthony Gregg 364,000
7- David Bernstein 260,000
8- Ruben Visser 156,400

RELATED POSTS:
FINAL TABLE FINALLY SET - JAKA, LIU AND JULIUS, OH MY!
JAKA BACK ON TOP - GREENSTEIN LAST ONE OUT ON WEDNESDAY
LOOK OUT BOYS, XUAN LIU IS TRENDING
FARAZ JAKA = WORLD DOMINATION
OVER 10 MILLION ON THE LINE AT THE PCA MAIN EVENT
ONE HALL OF A COMEBACK - GALEN HALL WINS 2010 PCA

PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
EPT PCA No Limit Holdem Main Event
January 7-13, 2011

Atlantis Resort and Casino | Bahamas
Buy-in: $10,300 | Prizepool: $10,398,400 | Entries: 1,072

FINAL RESULTS:
JOHN DIBELLA 160
KYLE JULIUS 100
FARAZ JAKA 85
XUAN LIU 75
MARK DROVER 70
ANTHONY GREGG 65
DAVID BERNSTEIN 60
RUBEN VISSER 55
LEE GOLDMAN 45
MARTIN JACOBSON 35
PHILIPPE D'AUTEUIL 30
DANIEL SHIFF 28
NIKOLAOS ALAFOGIANNIS 28
ALEX FITZGERALD 28
SAM GREENWOOD 25
DAVID GRANADOS 25
DANIEL SCHMIEDING 25
BYRON KAVERMAN 22
CHARLES FUREY 22
MAKSIM SEMISOSHENKO 22
COREY BURBICK 18
DAVID PETERS 18
ALEX VENOVSKI 18
DANNY CHEVALIER 15
BARRY GREENSTEIN 15
ROBERTO RIVERA 15
GABRIEL THOMAS PATRICK 15

2012 PCA: FINAL TABLE FINALLY SET - JAKA, LIU AND JULIUS, OH MY!

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

One single big blind seperates our big three as the Main Event Final Table is set at the PCA!

Faraz Jaka, Xuan Liu and Kyle Julius are neck and neck ... and neck as our final eight players have been determined and the big money is now on the line.

Jaka (2011 PTPR Rank: 2094th) has been at or near the top for almost all of this tournament and will be looking to use his experience to take command of final table play on Friday.

For Liu, it's been quite the journey. The EPT San Remo final table participant has been the "last woman standing" for a few days now ... frankly, we don't really like that term, we're just excited to see Liu (2011 PTPR Rank: 518th) get another opportunity at a major title.

Kyle Julius sure is having a strong end to the tournament. Julius (2011 PTPR Rank: 1960th), is looking to make his family proud. His brother just busted from the 25K High Rollers events.

FINAL TABLE SEAT ASSIGNMENTS
1- Mark Drover 1,430,000
2- Anthony Gregg 1,160,000
3- David Bernstein 1,960,000
4- Ruben Visser 4,400,000
5- Faraz Jaka 6,470,000
6- John Dibella 3,465,000
7- Xuan Liu 6,355,000
8- Kyle Julius 6,450,000


You can see the live final table stream (with a 40-minute delay) of this final table on Friday!!

LIVE UPDATES: POKERSTARSBLOG.com
PLAYER TWEETS: #PCA, #PCAMainEvent

RELATED POSTS:
JAKA BACK ON TOP - GREENSTEIN LAST ONE OUT ON WEDNESDAY
LOOK OUT BOYS, XUAN LIU IS TRENDING
FARAZ JAKA = WORLD DOMINATION
OVER 10 MILLION ON THE LINE AT THE PCA MAIN EVENT
ONE HALL OF A COMEBACK - GALEN HALL WINS 2010 PCA

PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
European Poker Tour PokerStars Caribbean Adventure
EPT PCA No Limit Holdem Main Event
January 7-13, 2011

Atlantis Resort and Casino | Bahamas
Buy-in: $10,300 | Prizepool: $10,398,400 | Entries: 1,072

PTS AT STAKE:
1st place 160
2nd place 100
3rd place 85
4th place 75
5th place 70
6th place 65
7th place 60
8th place 55
LEE GOLDMAN 45
MARTIN JACOBSON 35
PHILIPPE D'AUTEUIL 30
DANIEL SHIFF 28
NIKOLAOS ALAFOGIANNIS 28
ALEX FITZGERALD 28
SAM GREENWOOD 25
DAVID GRANADOS 25
DANIEL SCHMIEDING 25
BYRON KAVERMAN 22
CHARLES FUREY 22
MAKSIM SEMISOSHENKO 22
COREY BURBICK 18
DAVID PETERS 18
ALEX VENOVSKI 18
DANNY CHEVALIER 15
BARRY GREENSTEIN 15
ROBERTO RIVERA 15
27th place 15