EPT PRAGUE: OH SO CLOSE! MAD MARVIN WINS HR BUT NOT POY

It was going to take something close to a miracle for Dan Smith to lose his lead atop the 2012 QuadJacks Poker Player of the Year Leaderboard powered by PTPRpoker ... and despite just winning the High Rollers event at EPT Prague, Mad Marvin Rettenmaier falls 10 points short of a miracle and Smith maintains a small lead heading into the final moments of the 2012 poker season.


Rettenmaier cements his number 2 ranking on the season and collects his fourth win on tour this season.

Mad Marvin defeated fellow German Fabian Quoss heads-up. Quoss won the WPT Rendez-Vous a Paris HR title back in September.

Juha Helppi was third, Philippe Ktorza fourth and 2010 PTPRpoker Player of the Year Sorel Mizzi rounded-out the Top 5.

Marcin Wydrowski finished in sixth position, one week after capturing his first WPT title right here in Prague.

For the first time in his five-year poker career, it looks as if Jason Mercier will not cross the 1M USD in earnings mark in a season as his seventh place finish in this event wasn't enough to put him over.

Photo credit: European Poker Tour, Neil Stoddart

---

EVENT PAYOUTS (EUR) Marvin Rettenmaier €365,300 Fabian Quoss €210,300 Juha Helppi €121,800 Philippe Ktorza €96,900 Sorel Mizzi €74,800 Marcin Wydrowski €55,500 Jason Mercier €44,200 Andrey Gulyy €33,200 Aubin Cazals €27,700 Morten Klein €27,700 Gurgen Melkonyan €25,000 Eugene Katchalov €25,000 RELATED POSTS > PANAGIOTOU WINS EUREKA > RETTENMAIER WINS WPT CYPRUS > MAD MARVIN WPT CHAMPION DEFENDING CHAMPION John Andress € 176,400

PTPR TIER 3 EVENT EUROPEAN POKER TOUR EPT PRAGUE 10K NLH High Roller December 13-15, 2012 Hilton Prague Hotel | Prague Buy-in: $13,550 | Prizepool: $1,107,400 Total Entries: 113 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION MARVIN RETTENMAIER 101 FABIAN QUOSS 61 JUHA HELPPI 36 PHILIPPE KTORZA 26 SOREL MIZZI 19 MARCIN WYDROWKSI 11 JASON MERCIER 9 ANDREY GULYY 6 AUBIN CAZALS 6 NEXT EPT TOUR STOP 2013 PCA Festival Atlantis Resort Bahamas January 5-14, 2013

PTPRpokerLIVE: DANIEL NEGREANU'S FANTASY, CASINO EMPLOYEES KICKOFF THE WSOP

DANIEL NEGREANU 25K WSOP FANTASY DRAFT
It was an honour to cover Daniel Negreanu's 25K WSOP Fantasy Draft for QuadJacks this past Saturday.

Pokernews' Remko Rimkema and I dissected all the picks, one by one, as Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Eugene Katchalov (joined by ElkY), Sorel Mizzi, Josh Arieh and others bid on the who's who in poker, hoping to collect the 178K top prize once the WSOP Main Event reaches it's final nine.

Remko and I really liked the way Negreanu stuck to his strategy and we like the poker pros he has collected for his team. Team Bryn Kenney and Team Brian Hastings - who wasn't supposed to play signed up only a few minutes prior to draft time - are two other teams who seem to be "ones to watch" as the WSOP begins.

Negreanu provided most of the entertainment throughout the day including the "Alex Kuzmin controversy :)" where many of the participants were asking for a timeout because they didn't know who Kuzmin was, the Sorel Mizzi razzing - taking a few jabs at Mizzi's "internet poker" past when Mizzi's name was on the auction block and the now infamous Katchalov/ElkY math error - where Negreanu ended up with both Owais Ahmend and Alex Kostritsyn > Negreanu also ended up selecting young stars (and fellow PokerStars family members) Vanessa Selbst, Isildur1 and 2010 World Champion Jonathan Duhamel.

QuadJacks broadcasted the event live, to view a rebroadcast of the event, head on over to QUADJACKS.TV ... and keep it tuned to QuadJacks.tv for the remainder of the WSOP for daily video coverage.


CASINO EMPLOYEES EVENT KICKS OFF 2012 WSOP
I spent most of my Sunday (before having to fly back home) at the Rio, home of the 2012 World Series of Poker.

I witnessed the kickoff to the 2012 WSOP where casino employees made their way to the Amazon Room in hopes to pickup a bracelet and over 70K for first place.

Now I know that for most, the "official" start to the WSOP was on Monday - for the start of the 1.5K buy-in NLH Event #2 - but for most of the people present at the RIO on Sunday, this was their Main Event, the be-all and end-all.

The Rio is certainly ready to host the world, the Feature Table set looks absolutely amazing and, in case you were wondering, yes, pictures of previous Champions Russ Hamilton and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson do hang from the rafters, although, it's sort of curious how they are placed in the corners of the ESPN stage, hiding a bit from the general public.

Congratulations to Chiab Saechao who won the Casino Employees Event - Event #1 at the WSOP - and the 70K+ top prize! WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart was 19th in the event while notable poker player Annie LePage was 68th in the event.


Eric Danis
@PTPRpoker

@PTPRPOKER IN THE MEDIA! THE POKER PUB, WHERE GROWN MEN GIGGLE

PICTURE: QUADJACKS






"The Poker Pub" with Mizzi, Jarvis, Kessler, Kevmath, PTPRpoker, PKRGSSP, Agent Marco, Zekday0 OH MY! | QuadJacks Poker Radio Network March 29 2012
In case you missed it ... late, very late last Thursday, GSSP was wrapping up his show when all hell broke lose!

Sorel Mizzi, Kevmath refused to leave and Zac was up to no good! Did we prank call the Chainsaw - twice? Did Matt Jarvis and Sorel have a sleep over? Why did Marco go to the bathroom? Oh, and who the hell is Steve and why is he such a Kenny James fan?

Like to hear grown men giggle? The Poker Pub, where nobody knows GSSP's name!

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

EPT SAN REMO CHAMP PATEYCHUK BEST IN OCTOBER

PHOTO: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

EPT San Remo Champion Andrey Pateychuk claims PTPR Player of the Month honours for October.

Pateychuk edged WSOP Europe Champ Elio Fox by three points in order to become the October Player of the Month.

Germany's Philipp Gruissem was fourth for the month. After collecting the second of back-to-back EPT High Stakes titles, Gruissem also collected points at EPT San Remo, in the NLH Turbo Bounty side event.


36 TOTAL TOURNAMENTS QUALIFIED FOR PTPR POINTS
Grand Slams - 0
Premier - 3
Tier 3 - 10
Side - 7
Challenger - 16

OCTOBER TOP 10

October Player of the Month:
Andrey Pateychuck, 133 PTPR Points, 1 PTPR Score
> EPT San Remo (Champion) - 133 PTPR Points

133 ANDREY PATEYCHUK
130 ELIO FOX
126 DANIEL SANTORO
125 PHILIPP GRUISSEM
116 BOB CHOW
107 ANDREW HINRICHSEN
103 GUILLAUME HUMBERT
102 TRISTAN WADE
102 JUSTIN YOUNG
102 TRISTAN WADE

A total of 278 different players scored PTPR Points in October. Ten players were able to collect two PTPR Scores during the month:

2 PHILIPP GRUISSEM
2 SHAWN BUCHANAN
2 CHRIS MCCLUNG
2 MATTHEW GLANTZ
2 MAX SILVER
2 BERTRAND GROSPELLIER "ElkY"
2 ROBERTO ROMANELLO
2 SAM TRICKETT
2 ALEKSANDR DOVZHENKO
2 ANDREAS SAMUELSSON

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:

357 SOREL MIZZI
343 THOMAS MARCHESE
316 FRANK KASSELA
299 VANESSA SELBST
292 CARLOS MORTENSEN
283 JAKE CODY
278 MICHAEL MIZRACHI
269 TOMER BERDA
265 JOHN JUANDA
264 JOSE NACHO BARBERO

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

TOURNEY ROUND-UP: RSP KIEV, ESTRELLAS MALAGA, APT PHILIPPINES

Challenger event results are in from Russia, Spain and the Philippines.

The Russian Poker Tour's Kiev Main Event has declared a winner. Yurij Predybajlo was the man on top once all was said and done.

Antonio Dieguez Rodriguez (pictured) earns his second PTPR Score of the season following his Estrellas Poker Tour Malaga victory.

In Manila, Enrique Del Pardo secured his first PTPR Points of the season by winning the Asian Poker Tour Philippines Main Event. 2010 PTPR Tournament Player of the Year Sorel Mizzi cashed in the event but, he wasn't able to collect any PTPR Points.

Three more events recently wrapped up and we have the results!

All winners earn 35 PTPR Points with their victories.


PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Russian Poker Series Kiev
RPR Kiev NLH Main Event
March 31-3, 2011

Khreschatyk Club
Kiev, Ukraine

Buy-in: $1,100
Prizepool: $278,390
Entries: 295

FINAL RESULTS
YURIJ PREDYBAJLO 35
IGOR SHARASKIN 18
ALEKSEJ ALFJOROV 10
SERGUEY POMERANZEV 8
ANDREY LUBOVECKIY 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
PokerStars Estrellas Poker Tour Malaga
Estrallas Poker Tour Malaga NLH Main Event
March 31-3, 2011

Casino de Torrequebrada
Malaga, Spain

Buy-in: $1,440
Prizepool: $472,860
Entries: 375

FINAL RESULTS
ANTONIO DIEGUEZ RODRIGUEZ 35
MICHAEL CARTER 18
NATANAEL FERNANDEZ CRESPO 10
ANDREAS SCHILLINGER 8
DANIEL GOMEZ ANADON 5

PTPR CHALLENGER EVENT
Asian Poker Tour Philippines
APT Philippines NLH Main Event
March 30-1, 2011

Resorts World Manila
Manila, Philippines

Buy-in: $2,700
Prizepool: $577,500
Entries: 231

FINAL RESULTS
ENRIQUE DEL PARDO 35
ELTON TSANG 18
JOSE DRILON 10
KWON EUNHO 8
CHARLES REYES 5

BLOOD, GUTS AND GORR!!! AUSSIE CROWNS NEW CHAMP

PHOTO CREDIT: POKERNEWS.com

Hold your horses live event uber-pros and online super-studs, there are still a few tournaments to be had by wiley veterans - including the Aussie Millions Main Event!

Congrats to David Gorr - who outlasted 720 runners and picked up a cool 2 million dollar paycheck along the way! A great win for the veteran.

2010 PTPR Tournament Player of the Year Sorel Mizzi earned his first PTPR Score of the 2011 season with 9th place finish. Mizzi picked up 17 PTPR Points. Chris Moorman earned his second PTPR Score of the year.

Patrik Antonius (8th, 17 PTPR Points), Tobias Reinkemeier (17th, 12 PTPR Points) and Mark Vos (18th, 12 PTPR Points) were other notables that scored PTPR Points in the event.


Main Event payouts available at the end of this post...


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 Aussie Millions
Main Event
January 23-29, 2011

Crown Casino
Melbourne, Australia

Buy-in: $10,000
Prizepool: $7,210,000
Entries: 721

FINAL RESULTS
GORR DAVID 132
KEYS JAMES 82
ROSSITER JEFF 52
RYAN MICHAEL 42
DORFMAN RANDY 37
RAZAVI SAMAD 32
MOORMAN CHRIS 32
ANTONIUS PATRIK 17
MIZZI SOREL 17
LEW RANDY 17
SIGSBEE SHANE 17
MENZ DAVID 15
HEATH ELI 15
BONKOWKSI TYLER 15
STAVROPOULOS MANNY 15
LEE CLIFF 12
REINKEMEIER TOBIAS 12
VOS MARK 12


MAIN EVENT PAYOUTS...

1 David Gorr $1,992,532
2 James Keys $1,031,140
3 Jeffrey Rossiter $697,437
4 Michael Ryan $450,000
5 Randy Dorfman $323,587
6 Samad Razavi $224,022
7 Chris Moorman $174,244
8 Patrik Antonius $129,439
9 Sorel Mizzi $129,439
10 Randy Lew $99,583
11 Shane Sigsbee $99,583
12 David Menz $99,583
13 Eli Heath $69,708
14 Tyler Bonkowski $69,708
15 Manny Stavropoulos $69,708
16 Cliff Lee $69,708
17 Tobias Reinkemeier $69,708
18 Mark Vos $69,708

PREMIER UPDATES: WPT SOUTHERN, AUSSIE MAIN, EPT DEAUVILLE

PHOTO CREDIT: WPT.com

Updating the three PTPR Premier events we have on the go!


WPT SOUTHERN POKER CHAMPIONSHIP MAIN EVENT
We're down to four players at the WPT Main - 2009 Champion Allen Carter leads the way...

Seat 1. Alex Kuzmin - 1,033,000
Seat 3. Leif Force - 1,269,000
Seat 5. Shannon Shorr - 1,446,000
Seat 6. Allen Carter - 2,740,000


AUSSIE MILLIONS MAIN EVENT
14 players still alive down under. 2010 PTPR Player of the Year Sorel Mizzi sits 7th, he will score his first points of the year. Patrik Antonius is third in chips at last count ... here are the top 10 chip leaders...

1 Samad Razavi 2,350,000
2 Jeff Rossiter 2,160,000
3 Patrik Antonius 1,750,000
4 Chris Moorman 1,550,000
5 Randy Dorfman 1,100,000
6 James Keys 1,000,000
7 Sorel Mizzi 750,000
8 Michael Ryan 750,000
9 David Gorr 715,000
10 Tyler Bonkowski 510,000


EPT DEAUVILLE MAIN EVENT
We're done with Day 2 in France. 205 of the original 891 players are still alive ... here are the top 10 remaining runners - including frenchman Fabrice Soulier making a run ...

1 David Sonelin 438,900
2 Fabrice Soulier 390,700
3 Sergey Kislinskiy 390,200
4 Eric Sfez 369,000
5 Mathew Frankland 353,600
6 Martin Jacobson 343,600
7 Raphael Kroll 339,200
8 Fabian Holling 333,300
9 Anthony Hnatow 332,400
10 Laurent Lagreve 312,300

AUSSIE: DAY 2 ENDS WITH MIZZI, ANTONIUS, REINKEMEIER AND EDOG IN THE HUNT

PHOTO CREDIT: POKERNEWS.com

Well look who decided to make an appearance on a major tournament leaderboard again? That's right, 2010 PTPR Poker Tournament Player of the Year and 2010 Bluff Magazine Player of the Year Sorel Mizzi is back on everyone's radar.

After Day 2, Mizzi currently sits 5th in chips at the Aussie Millions Main Event. Mizzi is looking for his first PTPR Score of the 2011 season.

Mizzi posted the following on his Twitter account (@sorelmizzi) at the end of Day 2...

515k in aussie millions. last year ended day 2 with 480. deja-vu

Other notables include: Tobias Reinkemeier (142 PTPR Points in 2010) is third in chips, cash game mega-star Patrik Antonius sits 9th, while Edog Erick Lindgren is still alive - now sits 15th in chips. Carter Phillips is 14th.

Randy Dorfman has a small chip lead as Day 3 approaches. 76 players remain in the event.

Day 3 seating assignment and chip counts are available at the end of this post...

The winner of the event will receive 132 PTPR Points.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 Aussie Millions
Main Event
January 23-29, 2011

Crown Casino
Melbourne, Australia

Buy-in: $10,000
Prizepool: $7,210,000
Entries: 721

POINTS AT STAKE
1st place 132
2nd place 82
3rd place 52
4th place 42
5th place 37
6th place 32
7th place 32
8th place 17
9th place 17
10th place 17
11th place 17
12th place 15
13th place 15
14th place 15
15th place 15
16th place 12
17th place 12
18th place 12


DAY 3 SEATING ASSIGNMENTS AND CHIP COUNTS

Table | Seat | Name | Chip Count

10 1 PHILLIPS, WILLIAM C 307500
10 2 FARKAS, GABOR 121500
10 3 MAIALE, RENATO C 110000
10 4 KEEFE, OLIVER L 211500
10 5 LINDGREN, ERICK A 267000
10 6 SMITH, ELLIOT K 315500
10 7 ELLIS, RAYMOND R 56500
10 8 HEATH, ELI 108500

14 1 PENCIK, MARTIN 164500
14 2 FREYMANN, RENE 434000
14 3 VOS, MARK C 203000
14 4 RODRIGUES, MANUEL 386500
14 5 DALESSANDRI, JOHN 101000
14 6 ROSSITER, JEFFREY S 385000
14 7 HEALY, MICHAEL G 130500
14 8 PERKINS, JAMIE R 105500

19 1 KATCHALOV, EUGENE 61000
19 2 KIRK, MATTHEW ARTHUR 198500
19 3 BLACKMORE, BENJAMIN C 221000
19 4 EICHENDORF, SEAN L 79500
19 5 FOY, JOHN W 115500
19 6 RAZAVI, SAMAD 107000
19 7 SPARKS, CHRISTOPHER P 158500
19 8 MARCUS, VAN 50500

24 1 MO, JASON 102000
24 2 SEAL, EMANUEL 240000
24 3 SIGSBEE, SHANE M 141500
24 4 COCHRANE, GAVIN R 81000
24 5 CHARETTE, SIMON M 175500
24 6 DORFMAN, RANDY S 581000
24 7 LEE, CLIFFORD S 154000
24 8 GANG, STEVE 68500

25 1 INDRICH, HARALD 121000
25 2 ZOCH, ROMAN 128500
25 3 ANTONIUS, PATRIK 428500
25 4 GUTTMANN, MICHAEL 150500
25 5 MORRIS, SIMON A 41000
25 6 KARIB, YUSTINUS 42500
25 7 CHU, HAI B 431000
25 8 LUKASHAUGEN, TORE W 254000

27 1 BONKOWSKI, TYLER J 260500
27 2 RAYNER, GENE 138500
27 3 WONG, PETER 47000
27 4 KOVACS, ANDRAS 74500
27 5 VOLKOFF, TAMARA 57000
27 6 COLMAN, JULIUS 53500
27 7 DEEB, SEMON S 170000

28 1 REIJMER, DANIEL 204500
28 2 WHITE, MICHAEL W 120000
28 3 MOUNTENEY, CHRISTOPHER P 114000
28 4 REINKEMEIER, TOBIAS 533500
28 5 STAVROPOULOS, ARISTOMENIS 118000
28 6 RYAN, MICHAEL N 547500
28 7 MENZ, DAVID J 146000
28 8 JORSTEDT, MATTIAS O 79500

29 1 MIZZI, SOREL J 489000
29 2 MATTHEWS, MICHAEL A 175500
29 3 MOORMAN, CHRISTOPHER G 220000
29 4 LACKOVIC, NIKOLA 97000
29 5 NEWMAN, MICHAEL P 180500
29 6 LAUGESEN, SHANE 124000
29 7 PATEL, HIREN G 177000

31 1 GORR, SAMUEL D 223500
31 2 ALBERGO, ANDREW M 31500
31 3 KEYS, JAMES C 508000
31 4 SOWERS, MIKE 149000
31 5 LEW, RANDY 484000
31 6 LOGIUDICE, MICHAEL 88000
31 7 PATGORSKI, JOHN G 376500

32 1 RODRIGUEZ, SANCHEZ 85500
32 2 ROBERTS, EARL A 133000
32 3 INGRAM, LOUISE M 118000
32 4 LEDERER, HOWARD H 181500
32 5 CUSENZA, ADAM J 261500
32 6 CHOW, KUT F 97000
32 7 SMITH, ALEC F 120000

PTPR JANUARY LOOK-AHEAD: OFF-SEASON IS OVER, OFF TO PCA, AUSSIE MILLIONS, EPT DEAUVILLE AND SO MANY OTHERS

PHOTO CREDIT: POKERSTARS.com

Ain't no rest for the wicked. After a few weeks off for the holiday "off-season", the poker circuit opens up it's 2011 season with a boatload of events, including the first the first four PTPR Premier events of the new season.


PCA - POKERSTARS CARIBBEAN ADVENTURE (NAPT)
We start the season off with one of the crown jewels of poker, the Pokerstars Caribbean Advenute from the beautiful Atlantis Resort & Casino in the Bahamas. Both Harrison Gimbel and William Reynolds will look to defend major titles at the PCA.

AUSSIE MILLIONS
Once your PCA dreams are crushed, you may be heading down under for another big event of the season - the Aussie Millions. One of the only major events left that is not associated to any type of tour. Tyron Krost won last year's Main Event - the same event where Sorel Mizzi scored 52 points.

WPT SOUTHERN POKER CHAMPIONSHIP
The WPT opens it's 2011 season by visiting Biloxi, Mississippi where Hoyt Corkins will be defending his WPT Souther Poker Championship title.

EPT DEAUVILLE
The EPT will also name it's first champion of the season at EPT Deauville in France. Rising star Jake Cody, winner of this event as well as the WPT London event last year, will look to defend his title.

LAPC MILLION DOLLAR TOURNEY
The WPT Los Angeles Poker Championship won't name a Main Event winner until March BUT - the series' opening event guarantees a Million Dollar prize pool again this season and, with a buy-in under $400, it is sure to bring in an insane number of participants.

WSOP CIRCUIT CHOCTAW
Oklahoma will welcome the revamped World Series of Poker Circuit starting January 6. The udpated WSOPC has been a fair success early in it's rebirth.

OTHER TOURNAMENTS IN JANURAY
- Beautiful Niagara Falls will host the Fallsview Poker Classic - which featured Gavin Smith as one of it's event winners last season

- The Philippines will play host to the Asian Poker Tour Cebu stop

- Later this month, Chad Brown will host the No Limit Championship in Florida again this year, with a 5K Main Event

- The Partouche Poker Tour starts the year at le Lyon Vert in France

- Senegal will host the Dakar Poker Tour

- The Merit Poker Winterfest is back in Cyprus

- Poker Grand Prix Grand Final, Italy

- Marrakech Poker Open, Morocco

- CAPT Seefeld, UK

- Dom Classics, Netherlands (possible Marcel Bjerkmann sighting?)

- Ladbrokes Poker Cruise IV



Should be a great start to the season!

SOREL MIZZI WINS PTPR POY, GRINDER, SELSBT, BJERKMANN AMONGST OTHER WINNERS

PHOTO CREDIT: POKERNEWS.com


We close 2010 by handing out our awards for the past poker season.


2010 PTPR TOURNAMENT POKER PLAYER OF THE YEAR
SOREL MIZZI, 371 PTPR POINTS, 10 PTPR SCORES, 1st OVERALL

It was one crazy race for Tournament Player of the Year. Mizzi led for most of 2010 but Frank Kassela and Thomas Marchese both held the lead for a bit as well.

Everything went screwy on Haloween night when both points leaders, Mizzi and Marchese, were running deep at WPT Foxwoods - then we knew we had a race that would go right to the end ... and add to that Chris Bell's big score late in the season and it's a minor miracle that Mizzi was able to survive and win the title.


2010 PTPR TOURNAMENT COMEBACK PLAYER
MICHAEL MIZRACHI, 283 PTPR POINTS, 5 PTPR SCORES, 9th OVERALL

After a quiet (by his standards) 2009, The Grinder had one hell of a rough start to 2010. But Mizrachi took the WSOP by storm this season - making one of the most impressive comebacks to poker ever. Tip of the hat to Carlos Mortensen, who's 7th overall finish was only a great way to make sure that people haven't forgotten about El Matador!


2010 PTPR TOURNAMENT ROOKIE OF THE YEAR
THOMAS MARCHESE, 361 PTPR POINTS, 9 PTPR SCORES, 3rd OVERALL

Wow, Thomas Marchese earned his first EVER live cash in February at Borgata. 11 months later, Marchese was Card Player Player of the year and finished third overall on our PTPR Charts - quite a year for the young rookie.



2010 PTPR TOURNAMENT BREAKTHROUGH PLAYER OF THE YEAR
VANESSA SELBST, 299 PTPR POINTS, 4 PTPR SCORES, 6th OVERALL

While the world was a buzz for the conclusion of the WSOP November Nine, Vanessa Selbst was dominating the final table at Europe's own version of the November Nine - the Partouche Tour Grande Finale in Cannes. And we're not kidding, Selbst was a beast at Cannes, destroying her competitors one by one.

Not a bad year for the "part-time" tournament player. If Selbst would have played more at the start of the 2010 season, is there any doubt that she would have contended for the PTPR's #1 overall spot? Not in our books.



2010 PTPR TOURNAMENT FUTURE WATCH/THE NEXT BIG THING
(TIE) DWYTE PILGRIM, 245 PTPR POINTS, 6 PTPR SCORES, 18th OVERALL
(TIE) MARCEL BJERKMANN, 248 PTPR POINTS, 3 PTPR SCORES, 17th OVERALL

Dwyte Pilgrim, the first ever King of the Minor Leagues, could become a Top 5 player in 2011 if he continues climbing the poker ranks the way he has in 2010. Pilgrim had been dominating the WSOP Circuit events (before the new WSOPC came into place) when he won a WPT tour event later in the 2010 season. Look out for Pilgrim in 2011.

Marcel Bjerkmann is one heck of an interesting man. Here's a fact - when Bjerkmann is mentioned anywhere on this blog, Scandanavians light up our stats! Bjerkmann is by far the most popular player on this site ... and his winning two big European events (the Belgian Open and the Masters Classic in Holland), Bjerkmann is one EPT Main Event win away from becoming a household name around the world.



2010 PTPR TOURNAMENT OF THE YEAR
WPT TOUR CHAMPIONSHIP - FIVE STAR POKER CLASSIC
BELLAGIO HOTEL CASINO
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA, USA
APRIL 18-24, 2010

David Williams enjoyed his first major cash in a while, and, the other players in the Final 18 made this one of the toughest final fields of the season.

Williams beat Eric "Basebaldy" Baldwin heads up. Shawn Buchanan, Phil Hellmuth, JJ Liu, Scotty Nguyen, Olivier Busquet, David Benyamine, Faraz Jaka, JohnnyBax, Billy Baxter, Matt Stout, Tony Cousineau, Jason Lester, Josh Arieh were all players involved in the Top 18 - incredible field and amazing tournament!



MOST PTPR TOURNAMENT SCORES FOR 2010
SOREL MIZZI, 10 PTPR SCORES

Most PTPR Points and most PTPR Scores, enough said, this certainly was Mizzi's year.



Congratulaions to Sorel and the rest of the award winners from the 2010 season - here's hoping 2011 is even better!




Eric

EPT YEAR IN REVIEW: TOBY LEWIS TOPS PTPR'S EPT CHARTS

PHOTO CREDIT: POKERSTARSBLOG.com


Reviewing the major poker tours and handing individual honors for 2010.

We continue our 2010 season review with the European Poker Tour.


42 EPT EVENTS QUALIFIED FOR PTPR POINTS
Grand Slams - 1
Premier - 11
Tier 3 - 8
Prelim - 22
Challenger - 0


EPT TOP PTPR POINTS EARNER OF 2010
Toby Lewis, 203 EPT Points, 2 EPT Scores


EPT TOP 10 PTPR POINTS EARNERS OF 2010
LEWIS TOBY 203
BAEKKE ALLAN 190
BOEREE LIV 177
CHOUITY NICOLAS 173
ROMANELLO ROBERTO 159
CODY JAKE 157
MACPHEE KEVIN 149
WIGG ANTON 144
LIMONGI MICHELE 139
VAMPLEW DAVID 133


MOST EPT SCORES OF 2010
7 players tied including Sorel Mizzi and Allan Baekke, 3 PTPR Scores


EPT TOP PTPR SCORERS OF 2010
BAEKKE ALLAN 3
MIZZI SOREL 3
YACOUB DORI 3
KERIGNARD YORANE 3
CAINELLI LUCA 3
PANYAK MAKSIM 3
BERENDE PAUL 3
44 players tied with 2 PTPR Scores

COUNTDOWN TO WSOPC ATLANTIC CITY REGIONAL: KLODNICKI, BELL LEAD THE WAY

PHOTO CREDIT: POKERNEWS.com


The final table is set at the WSOPC Regional Championship in Atlantic City!

2010 PTPR Poker Tournament Player of the Year leader Sorel Mizzi, who was in the Top 15 in chip less than 24 hours ago, was one of the first players out as Day 3 began today. Mizzi conserves his slim lead atop the leaderboard but it will take a miracle from another player in order for Mizzi not to clinch the title.

Back to the final table - Chris Klodnicki (pictured) is your chip leader while PTPR Top 20 player Chris Bell sits second. Amazingly, Bell would be two PTPR Points shy of Mizzi should he win the WSOPC Regional title. However, he would surpass Tom Marchese for second place on the charts.

The latest six eliminated players have scored points...

WSOPC Atlantic City Main Event winner Matt Waxman was unable to win two majors in a row, he was our bubble boy. This is Waxman's third PTPR Score of the season. 15th place finisher Eugene Katchalov earned his sixth score of the PTPR Season and it was Brett Richey's fouth score of the year when his tournament ended with a 13th place finish.

Here are the chip counts and seating assignments heading into Final Table play...

Seat 1: Chris Bell – 706,000
Seat 2: Micah Raskin – 594,000
Seat 3: Ketan Pandya – 377,000
Seat 4: Nick Mitchell – 332,000
Seat 5: Todd Terry – 307,000
Seat 6: Andy Frankenberger – 230,000
Seat 7: Jason Burt – 579,000
Seat 8: Chris Klodnicki – 759,000
Seat 9: Seth Fischer – 219,000


For tournament payouts, see below.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Series of Poker Circuit Regional Championship
WSOPC Atlantic City Regional
December 19-22, 2010

Harrah's Atlantic City
Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Buy-in: $10,000
Prizepool: $1,279,624
Entries: 136


POINTS AT STAKE / UPDATED RESULTS
1st place 126
2nd place 76
3rd place 46
4th place 36
5th place 31
6th place 26
7th place 26
8th place 11
9th place 11
WAXMAN MATTHEW 11
SHAK BETH 11
RAMDIN ANNAND "VICTOR" 9
RICHEY BRETT 9
CALO FRANK 9
KATCHALOV EUGENE 9


Here are the official payouts for the event (in USD)... 15 players paid ...

1st place 358,295
2nd place 221,452
3rd place 159,851
4th place 117,457
5th place 87,808
6th place 66,758
7th place 51,607
8th place 40,538
9th place 32,362
WAXMAN MATTHEW 26,232
SHAK BETH 26,232
RAMDIN ANNAND "VICTOR" 26,232
RICHEY BRETT 21,600
CALO FRANK 21,600
KATCHALOV EUGENE 21,600

PTS AT STAKE: MIZZI WATCH CONTINUES AT WSOPC REGIONAL IN ATLANTIC CITY

PHOTO CREDIT: POKERNEWS.com


A little over 30 players are left at the World Series of Poker Circuit Regional Championship - Atlantic City. A disappointing 136 players signed up for the event. The proximity to Christmas probably explains why the event had a low turnout.

We're already down to 30-some players remaining late into Day 2 and one of the players currently atop the top 15 is PTPR Tournament Player of the Year points leader Sorel Mizzi. This could be Mizzi's chance to officially secure the title.

Other notables still alive include: Chris Bell, Eugene Katchalov, Matt Waxman, Victor Ramdin, Dan djk123 Kelly, Christian Harder, Brett Richey and Andy Frankenberger.

Day 1 chip leader Vanessa Selbst (pictured, who currently sits 5th on the PTPR charts) suffered a shocking elimination mid-way through Day 2.

Let's take a look at the official payouts for the event (in USD)... 15 players will be paid ...

1st place 358,295
2nd place 221,452
3rd place 159,851
4th place 117,457
5th place 87,808
6th place 66,758
7th place 51,607
8th place 40,538
9th place 32,362
10th place 26,232
11th place 26,232
12th place 26,232
13th place 21,600
14th place 21,600
15th place 21,600

For current chip stacks, see below.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
World Series of Poker Circuit Regional Championship
WSOPC Atlantic City Regional
December 19-22, 2010

Harrah's Atlantic City
Atlantic City, New Jersey, USA

Buy-in: $10,000
Prizepool: $1,279,624
Entries: 136


POINTS AT STAKE
1st place 126
2nd place 76
3rd place 46
4th place 36
5th place 31
6th place 26
7th place 26
8th place 11
9th place 11
10th place 11
11th place 11
12th place 9
13th place 9
14th place 9
15th place 9


UNOFFICIAL CHIP COUNTS AS OF 10:00PM ATLANTIC CITY TIME...

Seth Fischer 380,000
Chris Bell 268,000
Eugene Katchalov 200,000
Chris Klodnicki 190,000
Matthew Waxman 182,000
Victor Ramdin 175,000
Dan Kelly 175,000
Jay Nair 170,000
Christian Harder 162,000
Brett Richey 160,000
Ketan Pandya 152,000
Jason Burt 150,000
Sorel Mizzi 133,000
Micah Raskin 120,000
Andy Frankenberger 113,000
Dave Sands 110,000
Kenny Hicks 105,000
Bryn Kenney 105,000
Jared Jaffee 105,000
Chris Reslock 101,000
Nick Mitchell 94,000
Frank Calo 90,000
Bobby Wisiak 74,000
Duane Goodison 73,000
Beth Shak 68,000
Ronnie Bardah 65,000
Wooyang Lin 65,000
Jack Schanbacher 63,000
Eli Berg 53,000
Feming Chan 51,000
Jonathan Little 47,000
Lee Childs 45,000
Todd Terry 22,000

MAGIC MAN: ESFANDIARI WINS FIRST WPT TITLE IN 7 YEARS

PHOTO CREDIT: WPT.com


Antonio the Magician Esfandiari had pulled a disappearing act in the WPT Winners' Circle for the past seven years. Esfandiari last won a WPT event in 2004 - the L.A. Poker Classic - Season 2 of the WPT.

But Esfandiari decided to treat himself to a nice birthday gift, winning the Five Diamond World Poker Classic - and beat one hell of a field.

Sorel Mizzi, as reported on Tuesday, took over the #1 PTPR Poker Tournament Player of the Year rank from Thomas Marchese with his 10th PTPR Score of the season - he is the first to hit 10 scores.

Andrew Lichtenberger scored for the 5th time of the year while another Andy, Frankenberger, scored for the 4th time.

Vanessa Rousso who many thought had this tournament in the bag (or at least under control) and November Niner John Racener both scored for the 3rd time.

Scoring for the second time this season: Winner Esfandiari, Runner-up Andrew Robl, Kirk Morrison, Kianoosh Mohajeri, Ray Dehkharghani, Luis Velador, Chris Demaci, Daniel Fuhs and big papa, Doyle Brunson.

Racener's third score propelled him into the Top 50 on the PTPR List.


Here are the money winnings for the WPT TV Final Table participants:
1st: Antonio Esfandiari - $870,124
2nd: Andrew Robl - $549,003
3rd: Vanessa Rousso - $358,964
4th: John Racener - $232,271
5th: Kirk Morrison - $168,924
6th: Ted Lawson - $126,693



PTPR PREMIER EVENT
Five Diamond World Poker Classic
WPT Main Event
December 3-8, 2010

Bellagio Hotel Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,300
Prizepool: $4,248,600
Entries: 438


FINAL RESULTS
ESFANDIARI ANTONIO 129
ROBL ANDREW 79
ROUSSO VANESSA 49
RACENER JOHN 39
MORRISON KIRK 34
LAWSON TED 29
MOHAJERI KIANOOSH 29
LICHTENBERGER ANDREW 14
MIZZI SOREL 14
DEHKHARGHANI RAY 14
VELADOR LUIS 14
DEMACI CHRIS 12
MAKHIJA AMIT 12
CARIS CHARLES 12
FUHS DANIEL 12
FRANKENBERGER ANDY 9
LEE DOUG 9
BRUNSON DOYLE 9

PTPR UPDATE: MIZZI OUT IN 9TH AT FIVE DIAMOND, SURPASSES MARCHESE FOR PLAYER OF THE YEAR

PHOTO CREDIT: WORLDPOKERTOUR.com

Sorel Mizzi has been knocked out of the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic Main Event. His ninth place finish earns him 14 PTPR Points and officially moves him 10 PTPR Points ahead of Thomas Marchese in the PTPR Poker Tournament Player of the Year Race.


Vanessa Rousso leads the star-studded Final 8. Here are the updated chip counts and seating assignments as of 6:00 PM Vegas time ...

Seat 1. Antonio Esfandiari - 640,000 (16 bbs)
Seat 2. Vanessa Rousso - 4,250,000 (106 bbs)
Seat 3. Ted Lawson - 1,150,000 (29 bbs)
Seat 4. Kia Mohajeri - 2,200,000 (55 bbs)
Seat 5. Andrew Lichtenberger - 2,000,000 (50 bbs)
Seat 6. John Racener - 2,700,000 (68 bbs)
Seat 7. –empty-
Seat 8. Kirk Morrison - 3,500,000 (88 bbs)
Seat 9. –empty-
Seat 10. Andrew Robl - 1,300,000 (33 bbs)


UPDATED RESULTS
1st place 129
2nd place 79
3rd place 49
4th place 39
5th place 34
6th place 29
7th place 29
8th place 14
MIZZI SOREL 14
DEHKHARGHANI RAY 14
VELADOR LUIS 14
DEMACI CHRIS 12
MAKHIJA AMIT 12
CARIS CHARLES 12
FUHS DANIEL 12
FRANKENBERGER ANDY 9
LEE DOUG 9
BRUNSON DOYLE 9

BREAKING: MIZZI SET TO TAKEOVER #1 PTPR POKER TOURANMENT PLAYER OF THE YEAR RANK WITH DAYS TO GO IN THE RACE

PHOTO CREDIT: POKERNEWS.com

It's official. With Eugene Katchalov's elimination, we are down to the Final 18 players at the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

This also means that Sorel Mizzi, who is still alive in the tournament, will become the #1 player on the PTPR Poker Tournament Player of the Year list. Mizzi will pickup a minimum of 9 PTPR Points in this event and will take a minimum of a 5 point lead on Tom Marchese.

With only days left before the #1 Ranked player is crowned PTPR Poker Tournament Player of the Year, will this be enough for Mizzi to seal the deal?


Unofficial chip counts of the Final 18 at the Five Diamond...

Antonio Esfandiari 2,900,000
Andrew Robl 2,500,000
John Racener 1,731,000
Kirk Morrison 1,370,000
Andrew Lichtenberger 1,000,000
Amit Makhija 1,000,000
Luis Velador 960,000
Daniel Fuhs 880,000
Kia Mohajeri 870,000
Sorel Mizzi 730,000
Vanessa Rousso 545,000
Ray Dehkharghani 500,000
Chris DeMaci 415,000
Andy Frankenberger 375,000
Doug Lee 310,000
Doyle Brunson 290,000
Charles Caris 260,000
Ted Lawson 260,000

PTS AT STAKE: WPT FIVE DIAMOND - MIZZI ON THE PROWL

PHOTO CREDIT: WPT.com


We are in the money at the World Poker Tour Five Diamond Classic Main Event at the Bellagio in Las Vegas .. and the stars are out for sure! The current leaderboard reads as a who's who in poker ... Esfandiari, Lee, Kenney, Rousso (pictured), Brunson, Deeb, Morrison, Bakes, Koon, Racener, Shak, Lawson, Katchalov, Thor Hansen, Khan, Robl, and Phil Ivey all currently sit in the Top 30 in chips.

Also amongst the chip leaders is PTPR 2nd ranked player Sorel Mizzi. Mizzi's chips took a bit of a hit recently but, he is still above the chip average. Any spot in the Top 18 would give Mizzi the lead over recently eliminated Tom Marchese for PTPR Player of the Year race.


Here is the WPT Five Diamond prize pool (in USD) ...

1st: $870,124*
2nd: $549,003
3rd: $358,964
4th: $232,271
5th $168,924
6th: $126,693
7th: $97,131
8th: $67,570
9th:$59,123
10th: $50,677
11th-15th: $42,231
16th-20th: $33,785
21st-30th: $25,339
31st-40th: $21,116
41st-50th: $16,892
51st-70th: $13,725
71st-100th: $12,669
*Includes $25,500 Seat to WPT Championship in 2011


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
Five Diamond World Poker Classic
WPT Main Event
December 3-7, 2010

Bellagio Hotel Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,300
Prizepool: $4,248,600
Entries: 438


POINTS AT STAKE
1st place 129
2nd place 79
3rd place 49
4th place 39
5th place 34
6th place 29
7th place 29
8th place 14
9th place 14
10th place 14
11th place 14
12th place 12
13th place 12
14th place 12
15th place 12
16th place 9
17th place 9
18th place 9

PTS AT STAKE: MARCHESE, GRINDER CHASE PTPR #1 RANK AT NAPT BOUNTY SHOOTOUT

PHOTO CREDIT: POKERSTARSBLOG.com

Thomas Marchese is back on our radar! Marchese just won his table at the 5K NAPT Bounty Shootout, Los Angeles.

The Grinder, Michael Mizrachi is also on the prowl, having also won his table. Both players could overtake Sorel Mizzi as the #1 Ranked Player of the PTPR Player of the Year race.

Marchese currently sits second on the PTPR list, trailing Mizzi by 14 points. A top-4 or better finish at the final table would see Marchese take over the #1 spot.

Mizrachi (currently 8th on the PTPR list) could take over with a win. He will move up to at least 7th once the event is over.

Should Mizrachi win it, Marchese could still be the #1 ranked player should he lose head's up to the Grinder.

The PTPR race is coming down to the wire - and the NAPT LA series is certainly providing some exciting action!


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
Pokerstars.Net North American Poker Tour Los Angeles
NAPT Bounty Shootout
November 16-18, 2010

The Bicycle Casino
Bell Gardens, California

Buy-in: $5,000
Prizepool: $405,000
Entries: 81


POINTS AT STAKE
1st 100
2nd 60
3rd 35
4th 25
5th 18
6th 10
7th 8
8th 5
9th 5

SOREL SURPRISE, MARCHESE LEADS WPT FINAL TABLE

PHOTO CREDIT: WJMEDIA.net

Things seemed to be going very slow at the final table at Foxwoods. At about 3pm Foxwoods time, we still had 9 players alive, including Sorel Mizzi, with a good chip stack. By 5pm Foxwoods time, the WPT Final Table was set, and Sorel Mizzi was the bubble boy.

In what was supposed to be an epic battle between the #1 Ranked PTPR Player (Mizzi) and the #3 Ranked PTPR Player (Tom Marchese) instead ended with an unexpected exit for Sorel ... Sorel had this to say on his Twitter feed, minutes after being eliminated from the Main Event at the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals ...

Just @joesebok seventhboked WPT final table in kind of a gross way... I feel like I played really well tho so NP. Next stop NAPT!

Mizzi has still been able to pad his lead atop the PTPR standings. The 7th place finish (his 9th PTPR score of the season) earns him 27 PTPR Points. Sorel now has 357 PTPR Points this year.

Marchese will earn a minimum of 27 points for this event - should he finish 6th - no matter where he finishes, Marchese will jump to second place by the end of this event. Tom would need to finish either first or second in order to overtake Mizzi as the #1 PTPR Player for 2010.

Jason Mercier scored for the 4th time this season, finishing 11th, a 12th place finish gives Hoyt Corkins his 4th score of the season as well.

Here are the chip counts for the WPT Final Table .. which starts at 4PM ET Tuesday...

Seat 1. Nikolai Yakovenko - 624,000 (26 bb)
Seat 2. Jeff Forrest - 1,949,000 (81 bb)
Seat 3. Thomas Marchese - 3,022,000 (125 bb)
Seat 4. Dave Inselberg - 344,000 (14 bb)
Seat 5. Keven Stammen - 341,000 (14 bb)
Seat 6. Mohsin Charania - 1,024,000 (42 bb)



PTPR PREMIER EVENT
Foxwoods World Poker Finals
WPT Main Event
October 28-November 2, 2010

Foxwoods Resort Casino
Ledyard, Connecticut

Buy-in: $10,000
Prizepool: $2,276,978
Entries: 242


UP-TO-DATE RESULTS
1st 127
2nd 77
3rd 47
4th 37
5th 32
6th 27
MIZZI SOREL 27
ZIBA BESNIK 12
BONITA CHRISTOPHER 12
KLIER BENJAMIN 12
MERCIER JASON 12
CORKINS HOYT 10
MESKIN MIKE 10
BATKIN ANDREW 10
SPRINGER BRYON 10
HUNICHAN CHRIS 7
BARDAH RONNIE 7
YAZDI ARDAVAN 7