https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/2012/07/ en Copyright 2026 Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:49:00 +0100 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification While the 2012 World Series of Poker awaits the conclusion of this year's final table in late October, the schedule for the newest season of the increasingly popular WSOP Circuit has been announced. Filling the calendar from August to May, the 2012-13 WSOP-C includes 20 stops this time around, including new ones in Ohio, Connecticut, North Carolina, and Vancouver, Canada. Each of the 20 stops features a series of tournaments usually stretched over a week-and-a-half period. Stops include 12 official "ring" events among the tourneys on offer with buy-ins ranging from $365 to a $1,675 Main Event. Most ring events are no-limit hold'em, with a pot-limit Omaha event usually thrown into the mix as well. Also, the three-day Main Events will be played as "re-entry" tournaments, meaning those busting during the morning flight of Day 1 will be able to buy back in during an evening flight. The 2012-13 WSOP Circuit will culminate with a final stop at Harrah's New Orleans, followed by a WSOP National Championship that will also take place in New Orleans May 21-23, 2013 (just before the start of the 2013 WSOP). In other words, the 2012-13 WSOP National Championship will not take place in Las Vegas as did in 2011 and 2012. As in the past, the WSOP National Championship will be considered a bracelet event. This year the National Championship took place in Las Vegas at the end of the 2012 WSOP summer schedule, with Ryan Eriquezzo topping a field of 157 to win. In 2011 the National Championship played out at Caesars Palace in Vegas just prior to the start of the WSOP, with Sam Barnhart coming out on top. In addition to trying to win WSOP-C rings and cash prizes, players all year will be attempting to qualify for the National Championship which includes $1,000,000 added to the prize pool. There are different ways to earn a free seat in the National Championship. Winning a WSOP-C Main Event gets one an entry, as does being the "Casino Champion" at a given circuit location -- i.e., accumulating the most points in the 12 ring events at a particular stop. Also, players earning enough points over the course of the entire 2012-13 schedule to place in the top 60 overall will earn seats in the National Championship. In all, 100 players will earn free seats into the National Championship -- the 20 Main Event winners, the 20 Casino Champions, and the top 60 in the points standings. Players can only qualify once for a seat, however, and since there will likely be duplicates among those three groups, repeated names will be removed and the next-highest point-getters will earn the remaining seats. Additionally, the top 100 players in the WSOP Player of the Year world rankings over the past two years will be invited to participate in the National Championship, although must buy in for $10,000. In other words, the maximum number of participants in the National Championship will be 200 players, with the maximum possible prize pool being $2 million. Among the new stops, few were surprised to see the brand new Horseshoe Cleveland added to WSOP-C schedule. Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut has formerly been a World Poker Tour stop, and so is used to hosting major tournament series. Both the Vancouver and North Carolina stops are of particular interest. When the WSOP-C visits the River Rock Casino in Vancouver, Canada, that will mark the first time the Circuit will be played outside of the United States in nine seasons. Also, the stop at Harrah's Cherokee in Cherokee, North Carolina will mark the first major poker tournament series of any kind for the state which only passed legislation allowing live table games in June. In fact, Harrah's Cherokee does not currently spread live poker, and will only begin doing so next month -- plenty of time to ready for the WSOP-C's visit in April 2013. Here's a look at the full schedule: Aug. 9-20, 2012 -- IP Casino Resort & Spa (Biloxi, MS) Sept. 13-24, 2012 -- Horseshoe Bossier City (Lousiana) Sept. 27-Oct. 8, 2012 -- Horseshoe Southern Indiana Oct. 11-22, 2012 -- Horseshoe Hammond (Chicago) Oct. 27-Nov. 7, 2012 -- River Rock (Vancouver, Canada) Nov. 8-19, 2012 -- Harveys Lake Tahoe (Stateline, NV) Nov. 29-Dec. 10, 2012 -- Harrah's Atlantic City Dec. 6-17, 2012 -- Harrah's Rincon (San Diego area) Jan. 3-14, 2013-- The Bicycle Casino (Los Angeles) Jan. 10-21, 2013 -- Choctaw Durant (Dallas/Oklahoma) Jan. 24-Feb. 4, 2013-- Harrah's Tunica (MS) Feb. 7-18, 2013 -- Caesars Palace (Las Vegas) Feb. 14-25, 2013 -- Palm Beach Kennel Club (Florida) Feb. 28-Mar. 11, 2013 -- Caesars Atlantic City Mar. 14-25, 2013 -- Horseshoe Cleveland Mar. 27-Apr. 8, 2013 -- Foxwoods (CT) Apr. 4-15, 2013 -- Harrah's Cherokee (NC) Apr. 11-22, 2013 -- Horseshoe Council Bluffs (Iowa/Omaha) Apr. 25-May 6, 2013 -- Harrah's Philadelphia May 9-20, 2013 -- Harrah's New Orleans May 21-23, 2013 -- Harrah's New Orleans, National Championship Join Betfair Poker Now. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/wsop-circuit-announces-20-stops-for-2012-13-schedule-270712-77.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/wsop-circuit-announces-20-stops-for-2012-13-schedule-270712-77.html News WSOP Fri, 27 Jul 2012 14:49:00 +0100 After another summer in the desert, I am back home safe and sound after having once again spent several weeks covering the World Series of Poker. As Matthew Pitt reported earlier in the week, the WSOP Main Event has played down to a final nine with 26-year-old Jesse Sylvia the chip leader. After a more than three-month hiatus, the tournament will conclude at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino on October 28-30. Unlike last year when seven different countries were represented among the final nine players, this year's final table is dominated by Americans, with only Andras Koroknai of Hungary (currently in second position) representing a country other than the U.S. With 18 left there were still seven countries represented, with David Balkin (18th, Australia), Wilfried Harig (15th, Germany), Marc-Andre Ladouceur (13th, Canada), Elisabeth Hille (11th, Norway), and Gaëlle Baumann (10th, France) among the summer's final eliminations. Of course, the dramatic knockouts of Hille and Baumann at night's end -- the last two women standing out of the 211 who entered -- dominated everyone's thoughts as we left the Rio on Monday night. Never before had two women made it so far in a WSOP Main Event, the best previous showing having been in 2000 when Annie Duke finished 10th and Kathy Liebert 17th. And only once before had a woman made a WSOP Main Event final table, when Barbara Enright finished fifth in 1995. Since we'll have plenty of time to get to know Sylvia, Koroknai, and the rest of the "Octo-Nine," I thought I'd share a few thoughts about Hille and Baumann this week. Elisabeth Hille I finally had a chance to watch Hille play in the Main Event on Day 6. By then Hille had already amassed an above average stack, entering the day in the top 20 and by night's end moving into fifth position out of the final 27. By coincidence I'd known about Hille even before the Main Event began, thanks in part to having run into Betfair's own Dave Underwood while covering Event #59, the last of the $1,000 no-limit hold'em events. In that event, Betfair player Harald Olsen had outlasted over 4,000 players to make it to the final three tables, and Dave was there to cover him. At one point Dave told me an anecdote about how Olsen's girlfriend was also a poker player, and while he was making his deep run in Event #59, she was busy building an incredible stack in a $1/$3 NLHE cash game -- over $1,800 in fact! It wouldn't be until later that I'd put it together that the "Lizzie" to whom Dave was referring was in fact Hille. Click here and read through Dave's reports from the WSOP, which include some references to (and pictures of) both Olsen and Hille that provide further details of both Olsen's great Event #59 run in which he finished 22nd and Hille's cash game session. Olsen earned $20,499 for his finish in Event #59, and if I'm following the story correctly half of his winnings went to Hille, which in turn became her buy-in for the Main Event. And I believe half of what she won there for finishing 11th -- $590,442 -- will go to Olsen. Quite an exciting couple of weeks for a poker couple, wouldn't you say? Gaëlle Baumann As it happened, I also was somewhat familiar with Baumann prior to her emergence at this year's Main Event. As those who followed the ME closely know, Baumann ended Day 2 as the chip leader, the only player to build a stack of more than 500,000 during the first two days of play. Thus did the French player receive a lot of coverage from that point forward, especially since she managed to maintain a favorable position in the counts for the next three days, ending Day 3 in 46th (of 720), Day 4 in 24th (of 282), and Day 5 in eighth (of 97). Baumann would then end Day 6 of the Main Event in 20th position (of 27), but managed to battle with a short stack all of the way to her 10th-place finish. A couple of weeks before, I had covered Event #51, the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship, from start to finish. Baumann had fairly dominated the first two days of that event, ending both Days 1 and 2 as the chip leader. She'd ultimately finish 15th in that one, but after seeing her accumulate chips early then increase her stack through the middle stages of that tourney, it wasn't too surprising to see her do the same a week later in the Main Event. For Day 7 of the Main Event I primarily covered the secondary feature table, only moving over to the main stage once they'd gone to a single ten-handed table (where Baumann was the short stack). Baumann had begun Day 7 on that secondary table, but only played a few hands there before getting moved early in the day. Thus I didn't get to see a lot of either Hille or Baumann on that last day, and only really became aware that both were short-stacked when 11 players remained. That was when many of us began to talk about the possibility both might miss the final nine. Those last 15 hands at the ten-handed final table were among the most dramatic I've ever watched and/or reported on, with Baumann's double-up with pocket kings and subsequent elimination with Ad-9h against Koroknai's Ah-Js driving the large crowd into a near frenzy as each post-flop street was dealt. Prior to this year's WSOP, I appeared as a guest on the podcast Keep Flopping Aces with Lou Krieger and Shari Geller. One of the subjects we discussed was women's participation at the WSOP and how it could be increased, and I suggested that a woman making the ME final table could be a major catalyst for getting more women involved in poker. The near-misses of Baumann and Hille may well achieve a similar effect, given how their stories will surely be highlighted during ESPN's WSOP shows over the next three-plus months, most likely drawing in more women to watch the coverage and perhaps become interested in the game. In any event, while many were disappointed that Hille and Baumann "double-bubbled" the final table, their performances nonetheless made the summer portion of the 2012 WSOP Main Event especially memorable. Join Betfair Poker Now. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/hille-baumann-make-wsop-main-event-memorable-200712-77.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/hille-baumann-make-wsop-main-event-memorable-200712-77.html News WSOP Fri, 20 Jul 2012 14:38:00 +0100 That is it folks, the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event has been paused until October 28 after the nine-handed final table was decided earlier today. The man with poker's equivalent of cycling's yellow jersey is Jesse Sylvia and his monster stack of 43,875,000 chips. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/world-series-of-poker-main-event-final-table-set-jesse-sylvia-leads-by-145m-chips-170712-162.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/world-series-of-poker-main-event-final-table-set-jesse-sylvia-leads-by-145m-chips-170712-162.html News WSOP Tue, 17 Jul 2012 12:42:00 +0100 Day 6 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event has been completed after the 97 players who started the day were whittled down to just 27. Amongst those 27 survivors is the Betfair logo sporting Elisabeth Hille who is on course to take home a life-changing sum of money. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/just-27-remain-in-the-wsop-main-event-elisabeth-hille-in-top-5-160712-162.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/just-27-remain-in-the-wsop-main-event-elisabeth-hille-in-top-5-160712-162.html News WSOP Mon, 16 Jul 2012 11:00:00 +0100 The World Series of Poker Main Event dream is still well and truly alive for the friend of Betfair Poker Elisabeth Hille. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/wsop-main-event-dream-still-alive-for-elisabeth-hille-150712-162.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/wsop-main-event-dream-still-alive-for-elisabeth-hille-150712-162.html News WSOP Sun, 15 Jul 2012 19:29:00 +0100 When poker players win major tournaments they will often tell a take of how everything just seemed to fall into place for them, like the stars had all aligned perfectly to appease the poker gods. Here at Betfair Poker we feel those stars have aligned perfectly for one of our good friends, Elisabeth Hille. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/wsop-main-event-reaches-day-5-could-destiny-be-shining-on-elisabeth-hille-140712-162.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/wsop-main-event-reaches-day-5-could-destiny-be-shining-on-elisabeth-hille-140712-162.html News WSOP Sat, 14 Jul 2012 14:30:00 +0100 When most online poker sites award a package to the World Series of Poker the player walks away with a seat to a WSOP tournament, hotel accommodation and sometimes flights. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/team-betfair-at-the-wsop-another-amazing-experience-130712-162.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/team-betfair-at-the-wsop-another-amazing-experience-130712-162.html News WSOP Fri, 13 Jul 2012 21:11:00 +0100 Day 3 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event has been completed, after five 120-minute levels were played out in the vast tournament area of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/money-bubble-looming-in-the-wsop-main-event-130712-162.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/money-bubble-looming-in-the-wsop-main-event-130712-162.html News WSOP Fri, 13 Jul 2012 11:45:00 +0100 Team Betfair are currently out in Las Vegas for the 2012 World Series of Poker but it is not all riffling chips, running bluffs and winning pots for our heroes; as this article will show. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/team-betfair-in-las-vegas-pros-away-from-the-felt-120712-162.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/team-betfair-in-las-vegas-pros-away-from-the-felt-120712-162.html News WSOP Thu, 12 Jul 2012 19:38:00 +0100 The 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event has progressed to its official Day 3 where 1,765 of the original 6,598 players remain. These 1,765 survivors are currently being lead by Frenchwoman Galle Baumann and he gigantic 505,800 chip stack; can she hold onto that lead by the end of play on Day 3. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/wsop-main-event-reaches-day-3-europeans-flying-high-120712-162.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/wsop-main-event-reaches-day-3-europeans-flying-high-120712-162.html News WSOP Thu, 12 Jul 2012 18:48:00 +0100