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  <title>UK Poker</title>
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  <copyright>Copyright 2013</copyright>
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      <title>The Week in Poker: O&#039;Dwyer, Babakhani, Clinkscales Big Winners</title>
      <description>The poker world is as busy as ever these days, with various tours starting to wind down in advance of the start of the 2013 World Series of Poker which kicks off in less than two weeks. The European Poker Tour has completed its ninth season, with the Grand Final in Monte Carlo highlighted by Steve O&#039;Dwyer&#039;s Main Event victory. The World Poker Tour is nearing the end of its Season XI, with Amir Babakhani claiming the latest title in Quebec. And the next-to-last stop of the 2012-13 WSOP Circuit saw Rex Clinkscales win the Main Event in Philadelphia. 

O&#039;Dwyer triumphs at EPT Grand Final 

Much attention was directed toward the Monte-Carlo Casino for this week&#039;s EPT Grand Final, highlighted by the €10,000 Main Event where Steve O&#039;Dwyer topped a field of 531 to earn the trophy and €1,224,000 first prize. Born in the U.S. and now residing in Dublin, O&#039;Dwyer has dual nationality although was designated as from Ireland for this event, thereby making his victory the first ever EPT championship for an Irish player.

After nearly a week&#039;s worth of poker, O&#039;Dwyer carried the chip lead to the especially stacked eight-handed final table with more than 4.45 million. Only Andrew Pantling was close with 4.18 million, with no one else having more than 1.65 million to start the final day of play.

Of course, with Jake Cody, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Lodden, Noah Schwartz, Jason Mercier, and Grant Levy occupying the other six seats, there was no assurance the chip leaders would be making it to heads-up without difficulty. But O&#039;Dwyer and Pantling did manage to do just that, and when Pantling eliminated Lodden in third he held a slight chip advantage over O&#039;Dwyer to start heads-up play.

The pair battled for a couple of hours, exchanging the lead a couple of times before O&#039;Dwyer finally pushed out to a nearly 3-to-1 advantage. That&#039;s when the two got the last of Pantling&#039;s chips in the middle on fourth street following a 8d-8s-Js flop and 4s turn.

O&#039;Dwyer had flopped trips with his 10c-8h, but Pantling had turned the flush with his Ks-5s and was a card away from evening the match. But the 8c dramatically fell on the river to improve O&#039;Dwyer to quads, giving him the title.

EPT Grand Final Monte-Carlo Main Event final table results:
1st:  Steve O&#039;Dwyer (Ireland) -- €1,224,000
2nd:  Andrew Pantling (Canada) -- €842,000
3rd:  Johnny Lodden (Norway) -- €467,000
4th:  Daniel Negreanu (Canada) -- €321,000
5th:  Jake Cody (United Kingdom) -- €251,000
6th:  Noah Schwartz (United States) -- €189,000
7th:  Jason Mercier (United States) -- €137,000
8th:  Grant Levy (Australia) -- €103,000

Among the other goings-on in Monaco this week was the €25,000 High Roller event which saw 121 entries (including 37 rebuys). Steven Silverman of the U.S. came away with the victory and €775,000 first prize, outlasting Anthony Gregg heads-up with Vanessa Selbst (4th) and Toby Lewis (5th) highlighting another tough final table.

Finally the €100,000 Super High Roller also earned considerable notice, with the German Max Altergott beating Jason Mercier heads-up to grab the win and €1,746,400 first prize, the largest of the series.

Babakhani binks WPT Canadian Spring Championship

The World Poker Tour made one last stop in Kahnawake, Quebec this week as it readies for its season-ending WPT World Championship at the Bellagio which gets underway tomorrow. Canada&#039;s own Amir Babakhani ended up on top of a field comprised of 735 entries for the C$3,000 tournament, earning a first prize of C$442,248 (worth about $430,000 USD).

It was an all-Canadian final table, in fact, at the Playground Poker Club as the last surviving American players, Christian Harder and Bryan Piccioli, were eliminated in seventh and eighth, respectively.

Babakhani enjoyed a big chip lead early on at the six-handed final table after eliminating both Jonathan Bardier in sixth and Martin Leblanc in fifth. Jason Duval then knocked out Bobby Liang in fourth, but Duval was himself soon eliminated by Babakhani in third, giving the latter a large chip lead to start heads-up play versus Barry Kruger.

Kruger battled for a while, though ultimately found himself all in on a 5c-5d-3d-2c board holding 5h-4h for trip fives and a straight draw. Alas for Kruger, Babakhani had 8c-5s for the same trips with a better kicker, and after fifth street brought the Qc, Babakhani had won.

WPT PartyPoker WPT Canadian Spring Championship final table results:
1st:  Amir Babakhani -- C$442,248
2nd:  Barry Kruger -- C$272,555 
3rd:  Jason Duval -- C$199,029
4th:  Tao Liang -- C$136,700
5th:  Martin Leblanc -- C$102,251
6th:  Jonathan Bardier -- C$81,767

The victory marks the biggest cash by far for Babakhani, as the Toronto resident hadn&#039;t even earned a five-figure score prior to his big win at the Playground.

Clinkscales climbs to the top at WSOP-C Philly

The 2012-13 edition of the WSOP Circuit is approaching its finale as well, with the 19th of 20 stops having just completed at Harrah&#039;s Philadelphia. Rex Clinkscales of Las Vegas emerged as the big winner there to earn his first ever WSOP-C ring and a $121,097 first prize in the $1,675 buy-in Main Event.

It was an all-American final table at the ME in Philadelphia, with Clinkscales surviving a long Day 3 that saw them play down from 14 to a winner. After several hours they finally reached the nine-handed final table, where Michael Assante began as the chip leader with Clinkscales all of the way down in eighth position.

Clinkscales soon began to improve his status, however, by knocking out the table&#039;s short stack and last woman standing Beverly Cheney in ninth. He then watched others fall including former leader Assante in fifth as Ken Silberstein took a commanding lead with four left.

Silberstein then knocked out Andrew Rudnik in fourth and had more than two-thirds of the chips while both Clinkscales and Mike Jukich sat with relative short stacks. However both Clinkscales and Jukich managed to double through the leader, then Jukich doubled again through Silberstein to take the lead himself. 

Silberstein slid some more, then Clinkscales knocked him out in third to set up heads-up play with he and Jukich being nearly dead-even to start their duel.  

Clinkscales soon edged out in front, however, then Jukich was all in before the flop with Kc-Qc against the 7h-7d of Clinkscales. The board ran out 10h-3s-10s-9c-Ah, and Clinkscales had won.

2012-13 WSOP-C Harrah&#039;s Philadelphia final table results:
1st:  Rex Clinkscales -- $121,097
2nd:  Mike Jukich -- $74,863
3rd:  Ken Silberstein -- $54,614
4th:  Andrew Rudnik -- $40,509
5th:  Michael Assante -- $30,516
6th:  Leonardo Palermo -- $23,340
7th:  Tony Natale -- $18,112
8th:  Jonas Wexler -- $14,258
9th:  Beverly Cheney -- $11,383

Also of note at the Harrah&#039;s Philadelphia stop was the performance of Chris Reslock who won two events, both in no-limit hold&#039;em. That gives Reslock seven WSOP-C rings altogether, earning him the all-time lead at the moment, one better than Alex Masek.

The WSOP-C now moves to Harrah&#039;s New Orleans for its 20th and last stop of the season, to be followed immediately by the WSOP National Championship, also in New Orleans.

Join Betfair Poker Now.</description>
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              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">News</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 16:21:00 +0100</pubDate>
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          <item>
      <title>Carnivale of Poker Returns to The Rio</title>
      <description>Each year, before the start of the World Series of Poker, members of the media take part in a conference call where they have the chance to put questions to the likes of WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart and WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel. </description>
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              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">News</category>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">WSOP</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 17 May 2013 13:38:00 +0100</pubDate>
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          <item>
      <title>Doyle Brunson Retires From WSOP Tournament Play</title>
      <description>The poker community was dealt a blow on Tuesday when the living legend that is Doyle Brunson announced he would no longer be competing in tournaments at the World Series of Poker. This is not the first time Brunson has retired from WSOP action, but this time he may stick to his guns.</description>
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              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">News</category>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">WSOP</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 16 May 2013 10:22:00 +0100</pubDate>
          </item>
          <item>
      <title>There&#039;s More to Las Vegas than The World Series of Poker</title>
      <description>In just two weeks&#039; time, the 2013 World Series of Poker (WSOP) will attract tens of thousands of poker players to Las Vegas each of who will each be hoping to secure themselves a coveted WSOP bracelet and a potentially life-changing sum of money.</description>
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            <link>http://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/theres-more-to-las-vegas-than-the-world-series-of-poker-140513-162.html</link>
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              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">WSOP</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 14 May 2013 15:18:00 +0100</pubDate>
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          <item>
      <title>Five tips to keep the tilt monster at bay</title>
      <description>Poker players tilt in many different ways. Some spew off chips like there is no tomorrow, while others bury their heads in the sand and play a passive, non-profitable style. Whatever you do when you go on tilt it costs you money. The immediate cost may not be evident at the time, but tilt will erode your bankroll eventually and leave you high and dry.  </description>
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            <link>http://betting.betfair.com/poker/strategy/five-tips-to-keep-the-tilt-monster-at-bay-130513-162.html</link>
      <guid>http://betting.betfair.com/poker/strategy/five-tips-to-keep-the-tilt-monster-at-bay-130513-162.html</guid>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Fixed Limit</category>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Live Poker</category>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">No Limit Holdem</category>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Pot Limit Omaha </category>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Strategy</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 13 May 2013 14:45:00 +0100</pubDate>
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          <item>
      <title>The Betfair Poker Interview: Mike Johnson and Adam Schwartz</title>
      <description>Not long ago I was listening to one of my favorite poker podcasts, the Two Plus Two Pokercast hosted by Mike Johnson and Adam Schwartz, when I heard them mention they had just celebrated their eighth anniversary producing shows together.

I remembered having listened to their previous podcast -- called &quot;Rounders, the Poker Show&quot; -- not too long after they had first gone on the air, and marveled a little to think not only had they been producing shows essentially without interruption ever since, but I still enjoyed listening as much as I did when I first discovered them.

I thought it would be interesting to speak with Mike and Adam about their poker podcasting odyssey, and so asked them if they&#039;d be willing to chat about their experiences. They were amenable, and not long ago -- just as they were preparing to record yet another episode, in fact -- we talked about their eight-plus years behind the microphones.

Short-Stacked Shamus:  So I heard you say you had reached your eighth anniversary as podcasters. Do you know the exact date of the first &quot;Rounders, The Poker Show&quot; podcast, the earlier version of what became the &quot;Two Plus Two Pokercast&quot;?

Mike Johnson:  Yeah, it was April 17, 2005. During the previous NHL lockout year, when they cancelled the entire season.

SSS:  I believe I picked up the show somewhere around early 2006. 

Adam Schwartz:  You want all those hours back?

SSS:  Haha, no way! Tell about how that first version of the show got started.

MJ:  I was already working for a Vancouver AM radio station doing a weekly talk show about hockey, and with the lockout that year we were kind of running out of hockey to talk about. Meanwhile poker had started to take over a lot of television programming in place of the missing hockey games, and so sports radio decided they would try to do the same thing. I went to them and said I had some friends who were players and I was starting to get into poker myself, and that&#039;s how a weekly poker show every Sunday night at 11 p.m. first began.

I actually hadn&#039;t known Adam for more than about a year then, but he was anxious to get the word out for his new rakeback venture, and he thought the show could be a vehicle to promote that. So he had ulterior motives, and so did I because I didn&#039;t want to talk about the lockout anymore and I was pretty excited to talk about poker.

SSS:  Those first episodes were just over the radio and not online, correct?

AS:  That&#039;s right. Early on when we were doing the show, somebody emailed us perhaps a month or two after we&#039;d begun and said we needed to podcast the show. I remember I had no idea what that meant. I had to Google what a &quot;podcast&quot; was!

MJ:  The CBC up here in Canada had an online network called Radio 3, and they were one of the first in the world to put their station online. We had a bunch of buddies who worked there, and they encouraged us to start podcasting our show early on. It didn&#039;t take long at all before we were having more people listening online than in Vancouver.

SSS:  My memory of &quot;Rounders, The Poker Show&quot; show was that episodes were primarily built around interviews, whereas the &quot;Two Plus Two Pokercast&quot; has opened up the format a bit. Am I remembering that correctly?

MJ:  Yeah, we started at two hours then ended up cutting back to one hour, and with commercials that would cut down the flexibility somewhat when it came to the format. It was still an AM talk show that was just being redistributed as a podcast, really.  I don&#039;t think it ever truly became a podcast until we moved to 2+2, although there was a short period at the end of 2007 when we&#039;d severed ties with the radio station and were, in fact, doing the show as a podcast only as we readied to make the move. So that&#039;s when we started doing longer shows and a more freeflowing format.

SSS:  How did that move over to 2+2 happen (at the start of 2008)?

AS:  I had been one of the first members on 2+2 from way back. I used to post a lot, both to solicit questions for the guest we were having on that week as well as to draw attention to the show a little. Nobody really cared about my advertising the show like that, as I was a big contributor to the site and posted in the strategy forums a lot. But eventually I guess Mason (Malmuth) got tired of it, and one day he banned me!

MJ:  Adam got Negreanu&#039;d!

AS:  When that happened I was just about to go to Las Vegas for some reason, and when I got there I went over to the 2+2 offices to meet up with Mat (Sklansky) and Mason and try to find out why I got banned. I went in and we ended up going to lunch and there I just kind of said &quot;Why don&#039;t we bring the show to Two Plus Two?&quot; At the time they were starting to think about getting into some sort of streaming TV station or something which never quite worked out, but they thought a podcast might fit with this whole new &quot;interactive&quot; venture.

MJ:  Yeah, Mason was setting up a separate company from the publishing called Two Plus Two Interactive, and they needed content for it.

SSS:  I recall some of that story from the very first 2+2 show (on January 2, 2008).  Mason was your first guest.

MJ:  I remember for that first show being kind of intimidated to talk to that audience (of 2+2 posters), both because they&#039;re such a savvy crowd and very knowledgeable about the game and because of how critical they are of so many things. Even though we&#039;d done the show for more than two years and I&#039;d been doing radio for a long time, talking to that particular audience was actually quite intimidating. And we knew we couldn&#039;t just keep doing the same thing, but had to take that audience into consideration.

SSS:  What&#039;s a favorite moment, or perhaps most unusual interview from the many years of podcasts?

AS:  Well, it&#039;s always fun to make fun of your co-host, so one moment comes to mind. We once did an interview with Jeffrey Pollack when he first came over from NASCAR to be the WSOP Commissioner. People were wondering how he&#039;d do coming from a non-poker background. Mike asked him a question where he started out saying something like &quot;Up here in Canada we are kind of wary of anyone coming over from a different sport to run a sport that we love....&quot;

Of course, he was making reference to Gary Bettman coming over to be the NHL commissioner after working in the NBA, and kind of screwing up the NHL in a lot of Canadians&#039; opinions. And Jeffrey goes, &quot;Gary Bettman&#039;s my brother.&quot;

SSS:  Haha, I remember that. He&#039;s his half-brother, right?

AS:  Right, right... half-brother. And I literally lost it laughing out loud because the look on Mike&#039;s face when he realized he&#039;d put his foot in his mouth right there was pretty priceless.

MJ:  There was also the time we interviewed Courtney Friel (hostess for the World Poker Tour&#039;s fourth season), and I called her Shana Hiatt twice during the interview.  

AS:  That was a good one, too!


The Two Plus Two Pokercast crew interviewing Padraig Parkinson at the Irish Open in 2012


MJ:  When I think of memorable moments I think about how our show has been around for so long now, it&#039;s almost evolved into a kind of history of online poker. I mean we cover the WSOP and live tournaments and we certainly spend a lot of time talking to live pros. But most of the biggest stories in poker have come from online, and we&#039;ve been there for a lot of its history -- with the different sites coming and going, the UIGEA, the Neteller fiasco, the Absolute Poker and UB scandals, right up to Black Friday and everything else. And when you look back you see that every few months or so, we&#039;ve had interviews with key people in all of those events. 

SSS:  That&#039;s true, when it comes to covering these stories over the last eight-plus years of online poker, there really aren&#039;t that many resources like your show. You can find information here and there, but the record is so fragmented. But you&#039;re right, your show has been there all along to report on all of it.

MJ:  That&#039;s the beauty of a podcast, too -- it&#039;s all archived. Any listener can go back and go through those different eras. It&#039;s interesting to go back and see who we talked to in 2005 and during those early years, for instance, and realize now a lot of them are long gone from the scene. 

Meanwhile, it&#039;s also interesting to go back and see stars emerge over time.  I mean when we started the show no one knew who &quot;ElkY&quot; was, right? Or Tom Dwan or &quot;Jungleman&quot; or Viktor Blom. I mean when we had Antonio Esfandiari on the show for the first time, he was literally a magician! And now he&#039;s one of the five most known poker players on the planet.

SSS:  And having been there for that history, possessing that sort of contextual knowledge is valuable, too, when it comes to reporting new events. When someone or something new does emerge, you guys have been around long enough to be able to put that new player or story in context.

MJ:  Yeah, like when we saw Greg Merson make his run in the WSOP last year, we definitely have the ability to look back and say, &quot;I remember when we interviewed Jeff Madsen (in 2006) when he won two bracelets and nearly a third within 10 days,&quot; and so on. So yeah, we can compare today&#039;s players to what we&#039;ve seen over the last eight years.

SSS:  I&#039;d definitely say you guys are important contributors when it comes to reporting on poker. What are your thoughts concerning the so-called &quot;poker media&quot; and how the game gets covered, generally speaking?

MJ:  Well, there&#039;s always that issue when it comes to poker media with the way advertisers tend to drive the reporting and thus create potential conflicts. It&#039;s not like other kinds of media since in poker a lot of times the subject of your story is also often the company that advertises with you. But on the flip side, there&#039;s such great passion among the poker media for the game, because 95% of them are players themselves and so have a unique relationship with the subject they cover.

AS:  Yeah, I would say the quality of poker media has gotten a lot better over the years. I think it is due in part to places like 2+2 and other forums that keep people who report on poker honest. You can&#039;t pull the wool over somebody&#039;s eyes when a large part of the community goes to the forums and posts their response. So if you are writing an article or doing a show and are just catering to a sponsor, you&#039;ll get called out pretty quickly and won&#039;t get much respect or much traffic.

SSS:  What are your plans going forward with the show?

AS:  We definitely will be continuing the show for the foreseeable future. We&#039;re just coming through a busy period here, with Mike working 50-60 hours a week at his business and just having a second child. We want to cut down the length of the shows a bit, which would cut down some on the prep and so forth. So the structure might change a little bit, but we&#039;re not going anywhere.

SSS:  Eight years is certainly an achievement. 

MJ:  It would be interesting to calculate the number of poker podcasts that have come and gone since we did our first show. It&#039;s probably 500 or so. It&#039;s definitely a commitment. A lot of people like the idea of doing a podcast, but to be dedicated to the audience and do a show every week, and to line up guests and do the research to cover stories from all angles -- that&#039;s where it gets hard for a lot of people.  

That&#039;s probably the one thing we take the most pride in -- to have listeners who have been loyal to the show and who appreciate what we&#039;ve done over all of these years. And that makes it easy for us to be loyal to the audience, too. 

Much thanks to Mike Johnson and Adam Schwartz for taking the time. Check out the latest episode of Two Plus Two Pokercast by clicking here, and check out those archives dating all of the way back to January 2008. 

Join Betfair Poker Now.</description>
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              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">News</category>
            <pubDate>Fri, 10 May 2013 03:14:00 +0100</pubDate>
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      <title>2013 World Series of Poker Predictions</title>
      <description>The 2013 World Series of Poker is almost upon us. In three weeks&#039; time, the first of 62 bracelet-awarding events kicks off when the $500 Casino Employees event and the $5,000 buy-in No Limit Hold&#039;em Eight Handed event kick off. </description>
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              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">WSOP</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 09 May 2013 17:07:00 +0100</pubDate>
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          <item>
      <title>Betfair Poker Ambassador Elisabeth Hille&#039;s Amazing WSOP Story</title>
      <description>The World Series of Poker is a magical festival. Every year that the WSOP rolls into town, it leaves us with a fantastic story. The 2012 WSOP was no different. The 2012 WSOP brought us the amazing story of Elisabeth Hille who went from a relatively unknown quantity to a Betfair Ambassador in the space of one week.</description>
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              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">News</category>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">WSOP</category>
            <pubDate>Mon, 06 May 2013 15:06:00 +0100</pubDate>
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          <item>
      <title>What do your chips say about you?</title>
      <description>Among the many difference between live and online poker are the chips we use to play. Everyone uses the same colourful ceramic discs so how is it possible that they could speak volumes about you or your opponents?</description>
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      <guid>http://betting.betfair.com/poker/strategy/what-do-your-chips-say-about-you-020513-162.html</guid>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Fixed Limit</category>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Live Poker</category>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">No Limit Holdem</category>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Pot Limit Omaha </category>
              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">Strategy</category>
            <pubDate>Thu, 02 May 2013 14:08:00 +0100</pubDate>
          </item>
          <item>
      <title>The Week in Poker: Pidun, Sbrissa, Linster Latest Champs</title>
      <description>Three major professional poker tours have crowned new champions within the last four days. On Saturday, Daniel Pidun of Germany took down the European Poker Tour Berlin Main Event. Then today two more major events concluded, with Victor Sbrissa winning the Latin American Poker Tour Brazil Main Event and Mike Linster winning the World Poker Tour bestbet Open in Jacksonville, Florida.

Pidun Powers Through at EPT Berlin

The European Poker Tour completed its Season 9 EPT Berlin stop over the weekend with the conclusion of the €5,000 buy-in Main Event and €10,000 buy-in High Roller. 
 
While the Canadian Griffin Benger triumphed over a 107-entry field in the High Roller, earning €429,000 for doing so, it was Germany&#039;s own Daniel Pidun claiming the trophy in the Main Event. Pidun topped a huge field of 912 to win the week-long tournament and take away a prize of €880,000 (worth more than $1.15 million USD). 
 
An especially long final-table bubble on Friday made for a short day on Saturday, as the final nine played for almost six hours before Dashgyn Aliev was finally eliminated in ninth, earning €56,000 for the finish.  

It was Robert Haigh of Germany who held the chip lead to start the final eight-handed table, with Pidun not far behind in second-position. The Russian Roman Korenev had a healthy stack as well to start play on Saturday, but lost a lot to a Pascal Vos double-up, then was knocked out by Alexander Helbig to finish eighth.

It took a while after that, but then eliminations came quickly as three Germans were ousted -- Julian Thomas in seventh, Roman Herold in sixth, and Alexander Helbig in fifth.

The Dutchman Vos was the next to go in fourth after his Ad-7s failed to improve versus Pidun&#039;s Ah-Qs. Then Pidun took out Denmark&#039;s Lasse Frost in third in a hand that saw the latter all in before the flop against both opponents, then only Pidun was left by the river as the board showed 5s-8d-Kc-3c-Jc. Frost had but 10h-9h while Pidun had made a flush with Ac-7c, and they were down to two.

Pidun enjoyed an enormous lead to start heads-up play with Haigh with 24.5 million versus Haigh&#039;s 2.8 million. Haigh would double-up once, but finally fell with As-Kh versus Pidun&#039;s 9s-8s when the board brought an eight.

EPT Berlin (€5,000) Main Event final table results:
1st:  Daniel Pidun (Germany) -- €880,000
2nd:  Robert Haigh (Germany) -- €531,000
3rd:  Lasse Frost (Denmark) -- €325,000
4th:  Pascal Vos (Netherlands) -- €255,000
5th:  Alexander Helbig (Germany) -- €202,200
6th:  Roman Herold (Germany) -- €155,000
7th:  Julian Thomas (Germany) -- €110,000
8th:  Roman Korenev (Russia) -- €77,000 

The victory was by far the biggest in Pidun&#039;s career, with both of his previous best cashes coming in the previous two EPT Berlin Main Events when he finished ninth in 2011 (for €45,000) and 17th in 2012 (for €20,000).

Sbrissa Soars at LAPT Brazil

Early Tuesday evening it was Brazil&#039;s own Victor Sbrissa topping a field of 753 in São Paulo to win the Latin American Poker Tour Brazil Main Event, earning a cool first prize of R$512,000 (worth a little over $250,000 USD).

Leo Fernandez began the final table as chip leader, but following the early exit of short-stacked Thiago Grigoletti in eighth, Fernandez lost nearly all of his chips to Daniel Murta in a preflop all-in confrontation, then saw Murta finish him off shortly thereafter to end in seventh.

Murta would also cripple Marcos Paulo Ximenes, claiming most of the latter&#039;s chips in two separate hands, then Sbrissa eliminated Ximenes thereafter in sixth. Not long after that, Andre Akkari lost most of his stack to Rafael Pardo before getting knocked out by Murta in fifth.

Sbrissa had assumed the chip lead with four left, and soon was claiming more chips after taking pocket eights up against an all-in Leonardo Brescia who held Kc-Qc, then drawing out quads to eliminate Brescia in fourth.  

Next Pardo was all in following a Qc-Tc-8d flop with Ad-Td (a pair of tens) versus Murta&#039;s Kc-2c (flush draw), and when the turn brought the 6c to complete Murta&#039;s flush, Pardo was drawing dead.

Sbrissa still led to start heads-up play, however, and soon chipped away at Murta&#039;s stack until a hand developed that saw Murta all in after a Jh-Qc-6c flop with As-Jh (jacks) versus Sbrissa&#039;s Qs-4s (queens). The turn was the Kd and river the 3s, and Sbrissa had won.

LAPT Brazil (R$4,000) Main Event final table results:
1st:  Victor Sbrissa (Brazil) -- R$512,100
2nd:  Daniel Murta (Brazil) -- R$334,000
3rd:  Rafael Pardo (Colombia) -- R$231,400
4th:  Leonardo Brescia (Brazil) -- R$171,000
5th:  Andre Akkari (Brazil) -- R$128,900
6th:  Marcos Paulo Ximenes (Brazil) -- $R94,700
7th:  Leo Fernandez (Argentina) -- $R68,400
8th:  Thiago Grigoletti (Brazil) -- R$52,600

The win marks Sbrissa&#039;s largest tourney score by far, his previous best being for R$32,650 for winning preliminary event at the 2011 Brazilian Series of Poker.

Linster Leaves Jacksonville a WPT Champ

Finally it was Michael Linster winning the World Poker Tour bestbet Open in Jacksonville, Florida on Tuesday. There were a total of 351 entries for the event (with re-entries), with Linster earning a handsome payday of $321,521 for the win.

Danny Schechter took a big chip lead to the six-handed final table with over 3.8 million when Linster was the closest competitor with 2.15 million. Meanwhile the short stacks were knocked out in short order at the start of play on Tuesday.  

First David Diaz was knocked out in sixth after running Qs-10d into Danny Schechter&#039;s pocket kings. Pete Tinnesz was eliminated in fifth after getting it all in on the flop versus Bell with ace-queen-high versus the latter&#039;s flopped two pair and not improving. Then Pete Chwala went out in fourth after his Kh-Jd failed to improve versus Linster&#039;s Ac-Qh.

With three left a big hand developed between Schechter and Bell that saw Schechter all in with Kd-Ks against Bell&#039;s Ad-As. The board came queen-high, and heads-up play began with Bell in front with 6.245 million to Linster&#039;s 4.3 million.

Both players were especially deep, however, and in fact it would take another three-plus hours for things to be decided. Bell took a commanding lead at one point, but Linster managed to claw back and after more than a hundred hands between them finally had Bell all in with 8d-6d versus Linster&#039;s Ah-Qc. The board brought no help for Bell, and Linster had won.

WPT bestbet Open ($5,000) final table results:
1st:  Michael Linster -- $321,521
2nd:  David Bell -- $175,712
3rd:  Danny Schechter -- $115,311
4th:  Pete Chwala -- $79,619
5th:  Pete Tinnesz -- $58,754
6th:  David Diaz -- $46,673

Linster had amassed over $450,000 worth of tourney winnings during the last five years prior to the win, but like this week&#039;s other winners Tuesday&#039;s victory marks the largest cash by far for him as well.

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              <category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category">News</category>
            <pubDate>Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:59:00 +0100</pubDate>
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