MAD MAN: RETTENMAIER CONTINUES TO ROLL, WINS WPT CHAMPIONSHIP

PHOTO: WORLD POKER TOUR

It has certainly been a good 18 months of so "Mad" Marvin Rettenmaier. Five tournament wins, 21 Top 10 finishes, over 2M in earnings ... Rettenmaier is the final winner of the World Poker Tour's 2011-12 season, winning the WPT World Championship - and just under 1.2M in the process.

Oh, and Mad Marvin signed on with PartyPoker last week to join their team of pro players ... let's just say that Mad Marvin in enjoying life at the moment.

It was a classic final table (a front-runner for PTPR Tournament of the Year for sure) as Rettenmaier had to dispose of Philippe Ktorza, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Nick "The Takeover" Schulman, Steve O'Dwyer and Trevor Pope in order to secure the World Championship.

Rettenmaier's win catapults him to second overall on the QuadJacks Poker Player of the Year Leaderboard presented by PTPRpoker, surpassing former #1 Jonathan Duhamel - right on time for the WSOP.

Mad Marvin wasn't the only one taking a stab at the player of the year race ... WPT Bay 101 Champ Moon Kim moves into 5th overall, WPT Lucky Hearts winner Matt Juttelstad is now 12th, WPT Venice Grand Prix Champ Rinat Bogdanov 15th, the aforementioned O'Dwyer not sits 28th while recently named WPT Player of the Year - Joseph Serock - is 29th overall.

Congratulations also go out to Thomas Marchese, who won the 100K Super High Rollers Event.

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FT PAYOUTS (USD) Marvin Rettenmaier $1,196,858 Philippe Ktorza $805,310 Michael Mizrachi $424,618 Nick Schulman $256,235 Steve O'Dwyer $192,176 Trevor Pope $155,571 DEFENDING CHAMPION Scott Seiver NEXT TOUR STOP WPT Merit Cyprus August 4-9, 2012 Merit Crystal Cove Hotel and Casino Cyprus RELATED POSTS > RETTENMAIER LEADS WPT CHAMPIONSHIP > MADNESS AT BELLAGIO > CUNIX WINS WPT JAX

PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT World Poker Tour World Championship WPT World Championship NLH Main Event May 19-26, 2012 Bellagio | Las Vegas Buy-in: $25,500 | Prizepool: $3,660,500 Entries: 152 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION MARVIN RETTENMAIER 151 PHILIPPE KTORZA 91 MICHAEL MIZRACHI 76 NICK SCHULMAN 66 STEVE O'DWYER 61 TREVOR POPE 56 MOON KIM 51 WIL WILKINSON 46 HAFIZ KHAN 36 JOE SEROCK 26 RON COURY 21 JOHN ESPOSITO 19 MATT JUTTELSTAD 19 TOM MCCORMICK 19 BARRY SHULMAN 16 RINAT BOGDANOV 16 FARZAD BONYADI 16 GUILLAUME DARCOURT 13

WPT CHAMPIONSHIP: LARGE AND IN CHARGE - MAD MARVIN IN TOTAL CONTROL

WORLD POKER TOUR

The Mad poker "scientist" has taken the WPT World Championship by storm! Marvin Rettenmaier entered Day 6 play as the chip leader ... only a few hours later, our WPT Final Table is set, and Rettenmaier holds a substantial chip lead at Bellagio.

At 6.7M, Rettenmaier is the only player that holds over 2.6M chips as we'll play to find the latest WPT World Champion in the event.

Two-time WPT Champion - Michael "The Grinder" Mizarachi - is one of two former WPT Champs remaining in the field ("The Takeover" Nick Schulman being the other) and sits second in chips with 2.56M.

Coming off an amazing past six months in Europe, Steve O'Dwyer's homecoming is complete, a trip to the WPT World Championship Final Table. O'Dwyer is the only other player with 2M+ chips heading into Final Table play.

The aforementioned Schulman, Trevor Pope and Philippe Ktorza round-out the Final Six.

The WPT final table bubble boy is WPT Bay 101 winner Moon Kim. Kim, who had an opportunity to catch Joe Serock for WPT Player of the Year, was unable to survive as his ace-queen lost to Rettenmaier's pocket nines.

FINAL TABLE CHIP COUNTS/SEAT ASSIGNMENTS:
Seat 1: Michael Mizrachi - 2,560,000 (43 BBs)
Seat 2: Marvin Rettenmaier - 6,715,000 (112 BBs)
Seat 3: Steve O'Dwyer - 2,035,000 (34 BBs)
Seat 4: Nick Schulman - 1,555,000 (26 BBs)
Seat 5: Trevor Pope - 1,480,000 (25 BBs)
Seat 6: Philippe Ktorza - 895,000 (15 BBs)

Thank you to WPT.com for this information

The final table players will be taking Friday off while the WPT films it's Super High Rollers Final Table ... the WPT Championship Final Table will begin Saturday at 4pm PT.

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FT PAYOUTS (USD) 1st: $1,196,858 2nd: $805,310 3rd: $424,618 4th: $256,235 5th: $192,176 6th: $155,571 DEFENDING CHAMPION Scott Seiver (Eliminated) LIVE UPDATES WORLD POKER TOUR RELATED POSTS > MADNESS AT BELLAGIO > CUNIX WINS WPT JAX

PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT World Poker Tour World Championship WPT World Championship NLH Main Event May 19-26, 2012 Bellagio | Las Vegas Buy-in: $25,500 | Prizepool: $3,660,500 Entries: 152 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION 1st place 151 2nd place 91 3rd place 76 4th place 66 5th place 61 6th place 56 MOON KIM 51 WIL WILKINSON 46 HAFIZ KHAN 36 JOE SEROCK 26 RON COURY 21 JOHN ESPOSITO 19 MATT JUTTELSTAD 19 TOM MCCORMICK 19 BARRY SHULMAN 16 RINAT BOGDANOV 16 FARZAD BONYADI 16 GUILLAUME DARCOURT 13

WPT CHAMPIONSHIP: MADNESS AT BELLAGIO - MAD MARVIN LEADS FINAL 9

WORLD POKER TOUR

It's a Mad rush to the final title of season as the 2011-12 WPT season is coming to a close - and "Mad" Marvin Rettenmaier is making sure that everyone knows that he's arrived in America, and he's ready for two months of work!

The Mad German leads the final nine players remaining at the WPT World Championship at Bellagio. The 25K buy-in event drew 152 players, many of them are already name players on tour including Rettenmaier, who flirted with the PTPR Player of the Year title early in 2011.

The Grinder, Michael Mizrachi, is second in chips, only Grinder and Rettenmaier hold chips stacks above 2M, in fact, they both have over 3M in chips.

Hafiz Khan, Steve O'Dwyer (making a triumphant return from Europe), "The Takeover" Nick Schulman and WPT Bay 101 winner Moon Kim highlight the other notables still alive at Bellagio.

CHIP COUNTS/SEAT ASSIGNMENTS:
Seat 1. Wil Wilkinson - 705,000 (14 BBs)
Seat 2. Michael Mizrachi - 3,124,000 (62 BBs)
Seat 3. Hafiz Khan - 1,641,000 (32 BBs)
Seat 4. Marvin Rettenmaier - 3,757,000 (75 BBs)
Seat 5. Steve O'Dwyer - 1,643,000 (32 BBs)
Seat 6. Nick Schulman - 1,350,000 (27 BBs)
Seat 7. Moon Kim - 1,139,000 (22 BBs)
Seat 8. Trevor Pope - 800,000 (16 BBs)
Seat 9. Philippe Ktorza - 977,000 (19 BBs)
Thank you to WPT.com for this information

The tournament will play down to the traditional WPT Final Table of six players later today and will reconvene on Saturday (day off tomorrow for the Super High Rollers TV taping) on the WPT Televison set and we'll play until we have a winner!

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FINAL 9 PAYOUTS (USD) 1st: $1,196,858 2nd: $805,310 3rd: $424,618 4th: $256,235 5th: $192,176 6th: $155,571 7th: $118,966 8th: $82,361 9th: $58,568 DEFENDING CHAMPION Scott Seiver (Eliminated) LIVE UPDATES WORLD POKER TOUR RELATED POSTS CUNIX WINS WPT JAX

PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT World Poker Tour World Championship WPT World Championship NLH Main Event May 19-26, 2012 Bellagio | Las Vegas Buy-in: $25,500 | Prizepool: $3,660,500 Entries: 152 PTPR POINTS DISTRIBUTION 1st place 151 2nd place 91 3rd place 76 4th place 66 5th place 61 6th place 56 7th place 51 8th place 46 9th place 36 JOE SEROCK 26 RON COURY 21 JOHN ESPOSITO 19 MATT JUTTELSTAD 19 TOM MCCORMICK 19 BARRY SHULMAN 16 RINAT BOGDANOV 16 FARZAD BONYADI 16 GUILLAUME DARCOURT 13

WPT CHAMPIONSHIP: SCOTT SEIVER LAST OF THE CHAMPIONS

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

Star player Scott Seiver survived what was by far the deepest and most dangerous field of the season and has been crowned WPT World Champion!

Seiver outlasted Farzad Bonyadi heads up - both collect a prize north of 1 million dollars! Bonyadi also scored in the 5K event, he's heating up just in time for the WSOP!



With his third place finish, Galen Hall has returned atop the 2011 PTPR Tournament Player of the Year Leaderboard, passing Ali Eslami and co. along the way. Bonyadi and Seiver also make their way to the PTPR Top 15 Leaderboard.

Here are the payouts for our final table participants:

1st: Scott Seiver - $1,618,344
2nd: Farzad Bonyadi - $1,061,900
3rd: Galen Hall - $589,355
4th: Roger Teska - $371,665
5th: Tony Gargano - $278,749
6th: Justin Young - $225,654

WPT SUPER HIGH ROLLERS 100K BUY-IN EVENT UPDATE: Erik Seidel's dream season continues. He has collected yet another +1 million dollar booty. Erick Lingdren and Daniel Negreanu finsished second and third respectively. No PTPR Points were awarded for the event as it did not mee the minimum 50 player rule.


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
World Poker Tour World Championship
WPT World Championship
May 14-20, 2011

Bellagio Hotel Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $25,500
Prizepool: $5,309,500
Entries: 220

Defending Champion: David Williams

POINTS AT STAKE:
SCOTT SEIVER 152
FARZAD BONYADI 92
GALEN HALL 77
ROGER TESKA 67
TONY GARGANO 62
JUSTIN YOUNG 57
DAVID PETERS 52
SAM EL SAYED 47
SHANNON SHORR 37
NENAD MEDIC 27
DANIEL ALAEI 22
ASHTON GRIFFIN 20
STEVEN KELLY 20
DAVID WILLIAMS 20
WILL FAILLA 17
JOSH BERGMAN 17
CHRISTIAN HARDER 17
TOM MCCORMICK 14
ABE MOSSERI 14
KWINSEE TRAN 14
HARALABOS VOULGARIS 10
DAVE "DEVILFISH" ULLIOTT 10
ALAN STERNBERG 10
DOYLE BRUSON 7
JONATHAN LAYANI 7
KENNY TRAN 7
MATT HYMAN 7

WPT CHAMPIONSHIP: GALEN HALL SET TO BECOME PTPR #1 RANKED PLAYER AGAIN

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

Not many people knew the name Galen Hall before the start of the 2011 poker season. Five month later and Hall is about to become (for the 2nd time this year) #1 on the 2011 PTPR Tournament Player of the Year Leaderboard.


Hall, who won the 2011 PCA back in January, was the first #1 ranked player of 2011. Hall then scored points at the Bay 101 Shooting Stars Main Event and most recently at the EPT Madrid High Rollers event.

Hall has 157 PTPR Points this year and is assured of a minimum of 57 points this event, this means he will finish this event with a minimum of 214 PTPR Points, 4 points ahead of current leader Ali Eslami.

Eslami had a great start to this event, but faded as the days went by.

Scott Seiver is right behind Hall, with 5.07M chips to Hall's 5.09M.

Final table play continues Friday. You can follow live updates on WPT.com.

Final table seating assignments/chip counts:

Seat 1. Galen Hall - 5,095,000 (84 BBs)
Seat 2. Justin Young - 1,750,000 (29 BBs)
Seat 3. Tony Gargano - 3,550,000 (59 BBs)
Seat 4. Roger Teska - 3,600,000 (60 BBs)
Seat 5. Scott Seiver - 5,075,000 (84 BBs)
Seat 6. Freddy Bonyadi - 2,470,000 (41 BBs)


WPT PLAYER OF THE YEAR UPDATE: Sam El Sayed was the dominant chip leader for the longest time on Wednesday, then, a big race was lost to Justin Young and El Sayed could not recover, finishing 8th. A fourth place or better finish and El Sayed would have become the 2010-11 WPT Player of the Year. Andy Frankenberger wins the honors.

WPT SUPER HIGH ROLLERS 100K BUY-IN EVENT UPDATE: We are in the money at the SHR 100K event - another High Rollers final table for Erik Seidel. He is joined by Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren and chip leader Vivek Rajkumar. Justin Bonomo was eliminated fifth, collecting over 224K in the process.


Tune into WPT.com for live tournament updates.


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
World Poker Tour World Championship
WPT World Championship
May 14-20, 2011

Bellagio Hotel Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $25,500
Prizepool: $5,309,500
Entries: 220

Defending Champion: David Williams

POINTS AT STAKE:
1st position 152
2nd position 92
3rd position 77
4th position 67
5th position 62
6th position 57
DAVID PETERS 52
SAM EL SAYED 47
SHANNON SHORR 37
NENAD MEDIC 27
DANIEL ALAEI 22
ASHTON GRIFFIN 20
STEVEN KELLY 20
DAVID WILLIAMS 20
WILL FAILLA 17
JOSH BERGMAN 17
CHRISTIAN HARDER 17
TOM MCCORMICK 14
ABE MOSSERI 14
KWINSEE TRAN 14
HARALABOS VOULGARIS 10
DAVE "DEVILFISH" ULLIOTT 10
ALAN STERNBERG 10
DOYLE BRUSON 7
JONATHAN LAYANI 7
KENNY TRAN 7
MATT HYMAN 7

WPT CHAMPIONSHIP: CRISIS AVERTED - TEXAS DOLLY ELIMINATES CONTROVERSIAL PLAYER AS WE HIT THE MONEY

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

There was a silent standing ovation at Bellagio earlier today as Ali Tekintamgac (right), who was caught in a cheating scandal back in November at the Partouche Grand Final - event won by Vanessa Selbst - there was a ton of controversy surrounding his inclusion in the WPT World Championship.

Tekintamgac automatically qualified for the event by winning the WPT Spanish Championship last May.

As we were going deep into play today - and inching closer and closer to the money - it looked as though the situation was about to become a little more murky, with Tekintamgac surviving but, about an hour before we hit the money, good old Texas Dolly himself, Doyle Brunson, decided to take matters into his own hands, crippling Tekintamgac in a pot that left Ali with 5k in chips - he was eliminated from the tournament the next hand.

A little while later, we burst the money bubble and Doyle had cashed at the WPT World Championship. Sadly, Doyle has since been eliminated, finishing 24th in the event.

Roger Teska, one of the few relatively unknown players left in the field, leads the tournament. PCA Champ Galen Hall, Scott Seiver, Day 1 chip leader Christian Harder and Shannon Shorr round-out the Top 5.

Defending champ David Williams is still alive, he has about 700k in chips at the moment.

Roger Teska 1,925,000
Galen Hall 1,850,000
Scott Seiver 1,700,000
Christian Harder 1,700,000
Shannon Shorr 1,500,000
Tony Gargano 1,445,000
Daniel Alaei 1,000,000
Ashton Griffin 1,000,000
Nenad Medic 990,000
Abe Mosseri 980,000
Sam El Sayed 970,000
Josh Bergman 910,000
Steven Kelly 900,000
Justin Young 800,000
David Williams 700,000
Kwinsee Tran 690,000
Freddy Bonyadi 600,000
David Peters 500,000
Haralabos Voulgaris 500,000
Tom McCormick 445,000
Dave Ulliott 410,000
Alan Sternberg 370,000
Will Failla 310,000

Some of today's notable eliminations include: Brunson, Tran, Khan, Lichtenberger, Romanello, Smith, Cheong, Chiu, Turner, Trickett, Frankenberger, Timoshenko, Dorfman, Kuzmin, Baxter, O'Dwyer and Bay 101 champ Alan Sternberg.

Tune into WPT.com for live tournament updates.


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
World Poker Tour World Championship
WPT World Championship
May 14-20, 2011

Bellagio Hotel Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $25,500
Prizepool: $5,309,500
Entries: 220

Defending Champion: David Williams

POINTS AT STAKE:
1st position 152
2nd position 92
3rd position 77
4th position 67
5th position 62
6th position 57
7th position 52
8th position 47
9th position 37
10th position 27
11th position 22
12-14th position 20
15-17th position 17
18-20th position 14
21-23rd position 10
DOYLE BRUNSON 7
JONATHAN LAYANI 7
KENNY TRAN 7
MATT HYMAN 7

WPT CHAMPIONSHIP: MONDAY MORNING AT THE WPT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

We're through two days at the WPT World Championship. Abe Mosseri maintains his chip lead while WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Champ Alan Sternberg moved up the charts on Day 2 and is currently second.


Here are the Top 20 Chip Counts heading into Day 3 play:

1 ABRAHAM MOSSERI 685,200
2 ALAN STERNBERG 606,400
3 STEVEN KELLY 566,500
4 ROGER TESKA 534,900
5 SCOTT SEIVER 461,300
6 JOSHUA BERGMAN 415,600
7 JUSTIN YOUNG 414,100
8 ROBERT MERCER 408,600
9 DAVID PETERS 401,400
10 DARREN ELIAS 342,900
11 ERIK SEIDEL 342,100
12 STEVEN GROSS 340,400
13 JEFFREY FORREST 333,300
14 CHRISTOPHER DEMACI 332,600
15 JOSEPH CHEONG 329,500
16 GALEN HALL 326,700
17 YEVGENIY TIMOSHENKO 315,800
18 ANDREW LICHTENBERGER 300,200
19 RANDALL FLOWERS 299,800
20 JAKE CODY 295,800

Tune into WPT.com for live tournament updates.


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
World Poker Tour World Championship
WPT World Championship
May 14-20, 2011

Bellagio Hotel Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $25,500
Prizepool: $5,309,500
Entries: 220

Defending Champion: David Williams

POINTS AT STAKE:
1st position 152
2nd position 92
3rd position 77
4th position 67
5th position 62
6th position 57
7th position 52
8th position 47
9th position 37
10th position 27
11th position 22
12-14th position 20
15-17th position 17
18-20th position 14
21-23rd position 10
24-27th position 7

PTS AT STAKE: FORMER WPT WORLD CHAMP STACKING SOME CHIPS

PHOTO/SOURCE: WPT.com

Former WPT World Champion Yevgeniy Timoshenko is trying to win this thing again! Timoshenko is currently third in chips behind Darren Elias and monster chip leader Abe Mosseri.

Timoshenko would love nothing more but to carry this momentum into Monday are really start putting pressure on his opponents - Timoshenko has been realtively quite on the felt for the last little while.

As expected, big names added their names to the field - taking advantage of the late registration process - as Tony G, Phil Hellmuth, Allen Cunningham and others made their way to the Bellagio Tournament floor for action.

One notable absence is Jason Mercier. Mercier had indicated that he was very much under the weather - unfortunately for Mercier, things didn't get better and instead of heading to the Bellagio, he checked into a hospital to make sure all is well ... Mercier tweeted the following earlier Sunday...

Can't believe I almost regged #WPTchamp. Have 102.9 fever and tonsilitis... Def sitting this one out

Speedy recovery Jason! Maybe an appearance at the Super High Rollers event later this week?

A total of 220 players registered for the WPT World Championship, 25 more players than last year's event that was won by David Williams.

The total prize pool is over 5 million dollars and the top 2 players will become millionaires - first place getting a little over 1.6M.

Here are the payouts:
1st: $1,618,344
2nd: $1,061,900
3rd: $589,355
4th: $361,665
5th: $278,749
6th: $225,654
7th: $172,559
8th: $119,464
9th: $84,952
10th - 12: $63,714
13th - 15th: $53,095
16th - 18th: $42,476
19th - 27th: $37,167

Here are the current unofficial Top 10 chip counts (which include three 2010-11 WPT Champions - Alan Sternberg (WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star), Randal Flowers (WPT Festa al Lago) and Jeff Forrest (WPT Foxwoods):

Abe Mosseri 675,000
Darren Elias 360,000
Yevgeniy Timoshenko 353,000
Steven Kelly 350,000
Justin Young 335,000
Alan Sternberg 330,000
Randal Flowers 320,000
Ryan D'Angelo 312,000
Brandon Steven 310,000
Jeff Forrest 297,000

Tune into WPT.com for live tournament updates.


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
World Poker Tour World Championship
WPT World Championship
May 14-20, 2011

Bellagio Hotel Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $25,500
Prizepool: $5,309,500
Entries: 220

Defending Champion: David Williams

POINTS AT STAKE:
1st position 152
2nd position 92
3rd position 77
4th position 67
5th position 62
6th position 57
7th position 52
8th position 47
9th position 37
10th position 27
11th position 22
12-14th position 20
15-17th position 17
18-20th position 14
21-23rd position 10
24-27th position 7

WPT CHAMPIONSHIP: PTPR LEADER ESLAMI RIGHT IN THE MIX

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

2011 PTPR Tournament Player of the Year leader Ali Eslami sits second after first day play at the WPT Championship. A solid result would only help Eslami pad his lead atop the leaderboard as we inch closer to the WSOP. Eslami leads Italian Alessio Isaia by 5 PTPR Points however Isaia won't be able to grad the lead back from Eslami, Isaia, the WPT Venice Champ, was one of the few casualties on Day 1 (the others were Somerville, Kassela, Tilly, Lawson, Mohajeri, Esfandiari, Mortensen, Froehlich and Benyamine).

Solid pro Christian Harder leads the way, he is looking for his first PTPR Score of the season.

The Godfather himself, Doyle Brunson is sixth in chips and will be looking to continue his strong play on Day 2, hoping to capture his first major championship in a few years.

The tournament is stocked with big name players, in fact, you can recognize almost every single runner in this field - it is, by far, the best field in a open event this season.

We currently have 188 registered into the event - players can still buy into the event for a few levels on Sunday - we're expecting a total field of over 200 - Tony G and Jason Mercier have already indicated that they will be making their way to the Bellagio for Day 2 play.

Here are the Top 10 chip leaders heading into Day 2:
1. Christian Harder - 249,975
2. Ali Eslami - 240,475
3. Kyle Julius - 237,675
4. Justin Young - 234,575
5. Alan Sternberg - 233,675
6. Doyle Brunson - 230,000
7. Kevin Saul - 229,975
8. Masaaki Kagawa - 229,500
9. Robert Mercer - 222,850
10. Curt Kohlberg - 216,925

Tune into WPT.com for live tournament updates.


PTPR GRAND SLAM EVENT
World Poker Tour World Championship
WPT World Championship
May 14-20, 2011

Bellagio Hotel Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $25,500
Prizepool: TBA
Entries: 188 (registration still open)

Defending Champion: David Williams