The Week in Poker: Tourney Triumphs, Millions Won in Macau, and Controversy in Cannes

It has been a lively time of late poker-wise, with several major events happening all over the world. In the recent days champions were crowned in California, Oklahoma, and Australia, a wild quarter-million-dollar-plus turbo tourney took place in Macau, and controversy erupted on the Partouche Poker Tour in Cannes, France.

Josh Hale Wins WPT Legends of Poker, $500K

Last week it was Josh Hale besting a field of 622 players including a final table full of highly-accomplished pros to earn his first major poker title in the $3,500 buy-in World Poker Tour Legends of Poker Main Event.

Hale began the sixth and final day of play with the chip lead, and managed to outlast Jeff Madsen, Greg Mueller, Ali Eslami, Raouf Malek, and finally Max Steinberg to win the title and nice $500,000 chunk of the tourney's $2,111,690 prize pool.

The final hand saw Hale win a race with Jh-Js against a short-stacked Steinberg's Ac-Ks, the board coming 9h-8d-8s-5s-Jc to give Hale a full house and the win.

Other notables making deep runs at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles this week included Jesse Martin (9th, $40,400), Sam Barnhart (15th, $23,800), Joseph Cheong (18th, $18,100), Jason Koon (19th, $13,400), Yevgeniy Timoshenko (25th, $13,400), and Jonathan Aguiar (27th, $13,400).

2012 WPT Legends of Poker final table payouts:
1. Josh Hale -- $500,000
2. Max Steinberg -- $293,490
3. Raouf Malek -- $192,400
4. Ali Eslami -- $133,700
5. Greg Mueller -- $97,100
6. Jeff Madsen -- $75,400

Big Win in Oklahoma for Aaron Massey

Meanwhile over in Thackerville, Oklahoma a tournament with a bigger field and larger prize pool just took place, the $2,000 buy-in WinStar World Casino's River Poker Series Main Event where Aaron Massey topped 1,396 entrants to win the title and more than $659K first prize.

The tourney featured a total prize pool of $2.788 million, exceeding the event's $2.5 million guarantee. Many of poker's top players traveled to America's midwest for the event, with David "Doc" Sands (20th, $18,122), Kurt Jewell (34th, $10,316), 2012 "Octo-Niner" Robert Salaburu (62nd, $5,381), and Chris Moneymaker (86th, $4,517) among the familiar faces making it to the cashier's cage.

Massey enjoyed a slight chip lead over Andy Robinson and Peter Zhmutski to start the nine-handed final table, and while Zhmutski would fall in fifth Robinson hung on to battle Massey heads-up. The pair were nearly even in chips to begin heads-up play, but Massey swiftly took the advantage, then won all of Robinson's chips on a preflop all-in in which Massey's Ah-10d held up against Robinson's Ac-9h.

The win marked the biggest by far for Massey, pushing his overall career tourney earnings up over the $1 million mark.

2012 WinStar World Casino River Poker Series Main Event final table payouts:
1. Aaron Massey -- $659,559
2. Andy Robinson -- $334,030
3. Matt Newcombe -- $195,160
4. Jay Merchant -- $139,400
5. Peter Zhmutski -- $111,520
6. Patricia Cardner -- $97,580
7. Cord Garcia -- $83,640
8. Chris Hooper -- $69,700
9. Matt Shepsky -- $62,730

Sam Razavi Victorious at APPT Melbourne

Moving to the other side of the globe it was Brighton's Sam Razavi earning a nifty $326,125 score (AUD) by taking down the Main Event of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour's stop at the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia. Razavi topped a field of 257 in that one, ultimately besting Aussie Keith Walker in a short heads-up battle to win.

2012 APPT Melbourne Main Event final table payouts (AUD):
1. Sam Razavi -- $326,125
2. Keith Walker -- $205,345
3. Tom Grigg -- $114,750
4. Wayne Bentley -- $87,575
5. Gary Benson -- $72,475
6. James Bills -- $57,375
7. Kristian Lunardi -- $45,300
8. Nigel Andrews -- $36,240
9. Brendon Rubie -- $27,175

Choi Earns $6.46 million Payday In Mammoth Macau SNG

Three decent-sized paydays, then, for the winners in California, Oklahoma, and Australia. Now to mention an event in which the numbers throw everything out-of-whack, that wild Macau High Stakes Challenge Super High Roller event that took place last Friday at the Star World Hotel & Casino in Macau.

The event featured a $2,000,000 (HKD) buy-in, the equivalent of about $257,854 in American dollars. Not only that, the one-day, turbo-structured no-limit hold'em tournament also offered the option to rebuy one time. A total of 73 players took part, with 21 of them ultimately rebuying, thereby creating a whopping total prize pool worth $23,511,128 (U.S.)!

Asian businessman Stanley Choi emerged as the winner. His first-place prize of $6,465,560 marking the 10th-biggest tourney prize ever awarded, with the other nine spots occupied by the last seven WSOP Main Event winners, the prospective 2012 WSOP Main Event winner, and Antonio Esfandiari for his win in the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop at this year's WSOP.

The top 12 spots paid in the event, with a few familiar names appearing among the cashers, including John Juanda, Sam Trickett, Phil Ivey, Philipp Gruissem, Di Dang, and J.P. Kelly. Meanwhile Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, Andrew Robl, and Erik Seidel were among those failing to make the money.

Here's a full list of the 12 who cashed (with their winnings designated in U.S. dollars)...

2012 Macau High Stakes Challenge Super High Roller payouts:
1. Stanley Choi -- $6,465,560
2. Zhu Fai -- $4,349,610
3. Nick Wong -- $3,291,506
4. Zheng Tang -- $2,233,531
5. John Juanda -- $1,645,753
6. Lap Chen -- $1,234,347
7. Sam Trickett -- $999,184
8. Phil Ivey -- $822,941
9. Alan Sass -- $705,360
10. Philipp Gruissem -- $587,778
11. Di Dang -- $587,778
12. J.P. Kelly -- $587,778

Controversy at the Partouche Poker Tour

Finally, the week in poker concluded with conflict and controversy at the Main Event of the Partouche Poker Tour in Cannes, France. The event drew a field of 573 players -- roughly even with the 579 who played in 2011 when Sam Trickett prevailed. That turnout meant a total prize pool of €4,264,580 for the €8,500 buy-in event, to be divided among the top 57 finishers with €1,000,000 of that due the winner.

However, when the final prize pool was announced much ire was caused as many players had been under the impression the event sported a €5 million guarantee. As tourney officials denied ever having promised such a guarantee, players produced evidence of such in various promotional materials online and in print.

Responding to the controversy and growing discontent, PPT CEO Patrick Partouche surprised many by announcing the PPT would not only not be honoring any €5 million guarantee, but the tour would be shutting down permanently after this year.

Day 3 then commenced, and the tourney played through the cash bubble with 46 players surviving to return on Day 4. But the primary story from Cannes continues to be the guarantee that wasn't and the sudden, acrimonious end of a popular tourney stop.

(UPDATE: The Partouche Poker Tour has apparently reversed course and decided to honor the €5 million guarantee after all, as announced at the start of play on Day 4. However, the decision to make this the last PPT has been reconfirmed.)

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