https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/2013/04/ en Copyright 2026 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:47:00 +0100 http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification The 2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit has entered its final push with multiple stops overlapping during the month of April. Three have completed, with accomplished pro and online phenom Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul taking the Main Event title in Foxwoods, amateur John Bowman winning at Harrah's Cherokee in North Carolina, and Blair Hinkle winning for the second time in three years at Horseshoe Council Bluffs in Iowa. I had the opportunity to help cover the WSOP-C Main Events at both Foxwoods and Cherokee this month for PokerNews, and can thus attest first-hand the excitement starting to build regarding the 2012-13 season and in particular the points race that will help determine who will play in the season-ending WSOP National Championship at Harrah's New Orleans at the end of May. Here's a quick overview of how the last three WSOP-C Main Events played out -- the 16th, 17th, and 18th on the 20-stop 2012-13 schedule -- as well as information regarding the current WSOP Circuit Leaderboard. Saul soars at Foxwoods  The WSOP-C recently made its debut at the sprawling Foxwoods Resort Casino located in Mashantucket, Connecticut. The site of several World Poker Tour events in the past saw a big field of 615 entrants (including re-entries) come out for the $1,675 buy-in Main Event earlier this month, with Kevin "BeL0WaB0Ve" Saul ultimately triumphing to take away a handsome $194,178 first prize. Saul emerged as a favorite during the second half of play on Day 2 of the event, and even enjoyed a significant chip lead once they had played down to the last two tables. He'd suffer a setback near the end of play that night, however, after losing a big preflop all-in confrontation with Ben Reason.   In that hand, Reason had Jd-Jc and Saul Ah-Kh, and while a king came on the turn one of the two remaining jacks fell on the river, thus catapulting Reason to the top of the counts with 18 players left. From those 16 would make it to the third and final day of play, with Reason on top and Saul sitting in the middle of the pack. But Reason would come up short to finish in fifth while Saul chipped back into the lead, then eventually finished off Lall Bharat heads-up to win. Other notables at the final table included sixth-place finisher Bobby Corcione who took 21st at last summer's WSOP Main Event and fourth-place finisher Paul Snead who coincidentally also finished 21st at the 2006 WSOP ME. Meanwhile, Saul's victory represented a kind of return to prominence for the 32-year-old Illinois resident, despite the fact that he's been steadily collecting cashes over the last several years. The win marked the first major live victory for Saul since 2007 when he won the WPT Bellagio Cup for a whopping $1,342,320. 2012-13 WSOP-C Foxwoods final table results: 1st:  Kevin Saul -- $194,178 2nd:  Lall Bharat -- $119,742 3rd:  Cory Waaland -- $87,842 4th:  Paul Snead -- $65,096 5th:  Ben Reason -- $49,007 6th:  Bobby Corcione -- $37,356 7th:  Ethan Foulkes -- $28,664 8th:  Pete Campo -- $22,654 9th:  Stephen Dare -- $18,031 Bowman brings it at Cherokee The following weekend saw another WSOP-C debut take place at the Harrah's Cherokee resort located in the mountains of North Carolina. There were big turnouts throughout the series, which like at other WSOP-C stops featured 12 ring events plus numerous non-ring tourneys including ladies and seniors events. The Main Event ended up attracting 856 entries, making the Cherokee stop the fourth-largest on the WSOP-C this season. In the end it was the 30-year-old amateur John Bowman earning the title and $250,380 first prize after making the short trip from nearby Hickory, NC. We heard at the time that Bowman had only played his first big live tournament a few days before the Main Event, making his victory all the more remarkable. Bowman survived a tough and entertaining final table that was fairly dominated much of the way by 69-year-old Raymond Weaver. Weaver enjoyed the chip lead for much of that final day, and with three players left had a large advantage.   But after remaining quiet for much of that Day 3, Bowman soon doubled through Weaver then eventually knocked him out to set up heads-up play between himself and Daniel Weinman.   Weinman had shown himself to be a formidable player, knocking out Greg Raymer in 29th on Day 2 and looking like one of the late favorites along with Hugh Henderson who led everyone going into the last day. However, Bowman had a better than 3-to-1 chip lead on Weinman to start heads-up play that the latter ultimately couldn't overcome. As mentioned, the tourney was one of the first Bowman had ever played and thus he starts his career tourney résumé with a nifty quarter-million dollar score. Bowman also won himself a seat in the WSOP Main Event this summer, a special prize awarded at Cherokee. 2012-13 WSOP-C Harrah's Cherokee final table results: 1st:  John Bowman -- $250,380 2nd:  Daniel Weinman -- $154,722 3rd:  Raymond Weaver -- $113,968 4th:  Kory Kilpatrick -- $85,052 5th:  George Zinaty -- $64,303 6th:  James Kinney -- $49,241 7th:  Hugh Henderson -- $38,186 8th:  Jonathan Moseley -- $29,981 9th:  Jerry Monroe -- $23,831 Hinkle beats brother, others at Council Bluffs Finally on Monday of this week another WSOP-C Main Event finished at Horseshoe Council Bluffs in Iowa. Unlike at Cherokee, this one saw another well known player earn an ME title as WSOP bracelet holder Blair Hinkle triumphed over a smaller field made up of 367 entries to win a $121,177 first prize. The victory marked Hinkle's second WSOP-C Main Event title, the other having also come at Horseshoe Council Bluffs back at the start of the 2010-11 WSOP-C season. Also of note from the event was the fact that Hinkle's brother, Grant Hinkle, who also owns a WSOP bracelet, made a deep run as well to finish just shy of the final table in 11th place. Blair had an above-average stack to start the final table, in third position behind leader Sean Small and Brendan Waite. Those three would be the last players standing a few hours later, then Waite knocked Small in third to set up heads-up play. Waite had 4.35 million to Hinkle's 2.95 million to begin their battle, but Hinkle quickly took the advantage when a hand arose in which both players flopped trip sevens, but Hinkle's kicker was best. It wasn't an all-in hand, but Hinkle did get a couple of post-flop streets of value on it to push his stack up over 5 million. Waite would eventually retake the lead, then Hinkle wrestled it back as heads-up play lasted over three hours. Finally a final hand arose in which the pair bet back and forth as the board came Ks-5c-3d, then Kd, then 6s.  All in following fifth street, Waite showed 7c-6h for sixes, but Hinkle had 4h-2d for a straight to win. A Missouri native, Hinkle earned over half a million dollars back in 2008 when he won his WSOP bracelet in a $2,000 NLHE event. And while the field was relatively small at Horseshoe Council Bluffs this week, it was larger than the 251 entry-field Hinkle topped when he won his earlier WSOP-C ME ring in Iowa. 2012-13 WSOP-C Horseshoe Council Bluffs final table results: 1st:  Blair Hinkle -- $121,177 2nd:  Brendan Waite -- $74,881 3rd:  Sean Small -- $54,716 4th:  Mark Bonsack -- $40,627 5th:  Cord Garcia -- $30,635 6th:  Trevor Deeter -- $23,448 7th:  Sterling Savill -- $18,209 8th:  Ben Smith -- $14,343 9th:  Tim Hughes -- $11,457 2012-13 WSOP National Championship drawing near Saul, Bowman, and Hinkle -- like everyone who wins a WSOP-C Main Event -- earned automatic entries into the WSOP National Championship that will take place at Harrah's New Orleans from May 22-24, just before the 2013 World Series of Poker kicks off in Las Vegas. The WSOP National Championship features $1 million donated to the prize pool, with the winner also earning a WSOP gold bracelet. They are three of the 100 players who will earn seats into the event. All 20 of the WSOP-C Main Event champs get seats, as do the 20 "Casino Champions" at each stop -- that is, the players who earn the most points among the 12 ring events played at each WSOP-C series. The other 60 seats will then go to the players who accumulate the most points over the course of the entire 2012-13 schedule. No one can win two seats, so the ME winners or Casino Champions are taken out of the mix with the other top 60 performers on the WSOP-C leaderboard winning the entries. In addition to those 100 players, the top 100 players from the 2011 and 2012 WSOP and WSOPE will also be eligible to buy their way into the National Championship for $10,000. Thus it is possible for as many as 200 players to play in the event, with a potential for the total prize pool to add up to $2 million. Here's a look at the top of the WSOP-C National Leaderboard through the conclusion of the events at Horseshoe Council Bluffs and only the series at Harrah's Philadelphia and Harrah's New Orleans left to play out. 2012-13 WSOP-C National Leaderboard: 1.  Rex Clinkscales -- 287.5 pts. 2.  Ari Engel -- 235 pts. 3.  Pedro "Pete" Rios -- 217.5 pts. 4.  Aaron Massey -- 215 pts. 5-tie.  Yossi Azulay -- 192.5 pts. 5-tie.  Trevor Deeter -- 192.5 pts. 7.  Carter Myers -- 182.5 pts. 8.  David Nicholson -- 177.5 pts. 9.  Michael Sanders -- 172.5 pts. 10.  Ting Ho -- 170 pts. Read more about the World Series of Poker Circuit and how the National Championship works over at the WSOP site.   Join Betfair Poker Now. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/2012-13-wsop-circuit-draws-to-close-saul-bowman-hinkle-latest-me-winners-260413-77.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/news/2012-13-wsop-circuit-draws-to-close-saul-bowman-hinkle-latest-me-winners-260413-77.html News WSOP Fri, 26 Apr 2013 18:47:00 +0100 The first ever World Series of Poker Asia Pacific concluded yesterday with Daniel Negreanu topping a field of 405 to win the WSOP APAC Main Event and his fifth WSOP bracelet overall. Negreanu joined Aussie Aaron Lim as the last two bracelet winners down under, while Philip Gruissem took down the non-bracelet High Roller event and Team Europe winning the Caesars Cup. Aussie Aaron Lim Wins Event #4 (NLHE 6-max $5,000) After Americans claimed the first three bracelets in Melbourne, Aaron Lim finally won one for the home country by taking down Event #4, the $5,000 buy-in six-handed NLHE event (all dollar amounts AUD). Lim outlasted a field of 167 to win the gold, in what you might call a complete betting performance, in a final table entirely comprised of his fellow Aussies. The top 18 finishers were paid in Event #4, with Jason Gray (7th, $27,722), Dominik Nitsche (10th, $19,940), Jonathan Karamalikis (13th, $10,354), and Oleksii Kovalchuk (15th, $10,354) among those cashing but not quite reaching the final table. According to PokerListings' live updates, the final table took 81 hands, the last 50 of took place between Lim and Andy Lee in a lengthy heads-up battle.  Lee led to start their duel, though Lim earned an early double-up to seize the advantage and would extend his lead further before finally claiming the last of Lee's chips on a final all-in hand pitting Lee's As-Qd versus Lim's Kh-5h. The Js-6c-3s flop and 8d turn were okay for Lee, but the 5s river paired Lim to give him the win.   Event #4 ($5,000 NLHE 6-max.) final table results: 1st: Aaron Lim (Australia) -- $233,800 2nd: Andy Lee (Australia) -- $144,530 3rd: Jan Suchanek (Australia) -- $103,766 4th: Brendon Rubie (Australia) -- $74,590 5th: Sam Higgs (Australia) -- $53,615 6th: Billy Seri (Australia) -- $38,545 Negreanu Wins WSOP APAC Main Event #5 (NLHE $10,000) The five-day Main Event at WSOP APAC then finished up on Wednesday in dramatic fashion with a star-studded final table and victory by Daniel Negreanu. The win marked Negreanu's fifth WSOP bracelet and first $1 million-plus score since finishing second in the 2011 PCA $100K High Roller. The top 40 finishers from the 405 entrants made the money, with a number of well-known names among those cashing but not making the eight-handed final table, including Antonio Esfandiari who bubbled the final table to finish in ninth for a $65,408 cash. Others making the money included Tino Lechich (11th, $51,941), Raymond Rahme (17th, $25,778), Todd Terry (24th, $25,778), Oliver Gill (27th, $22,316), Minh Nguyen (31st, $22,316), Joseph Cheong (32nd, $22,316), Jeff Lisandro (35th, $20,392), and Erik Seidel (39th, $20,392).  PokerListings' hand-for-hand reports from the final table show it took 220 hands altogether for the final eight to play down to one.   Benny Spindler of Germany began the final table with the chip lead, with Negreanu next and the Aussie George Tsatis not far behind. But Spindler would fall in sixth and Tsatsis in fourth, and by the time Negreanu knocked out Winfred Yu in third, Negreanu had a better than 11-to-1 lead over Daniel Marton. Marton battled for 26 hands with "Kid Poker," surviving three all-ins by winning one and chopping two more. Finally Marton was all in again with As-7s against Negreanu's 2s-2h, and when the board came 6d-Js-Kh-Th-4d, Negreanu had won. Also of note from the WSOP APAC Main Event final table was the presence of Russell Thomas who finished eighth. Thomas also make the 2012 WSOP Final Table where the "Octo-Niner" took fourth. Event #5 ($10,000 NLHE Main Event) final table results: 1st: Daniel Negreanu (Canada) -- $1,038,825 2nd: Daniel Marton (Australia) -- $637,911 3rd: Winfred Yu (Hong Kong) -- $423,225 4th: George Tsatsis (Australia) -- $284,715 5th: Kahle Burns (Australia) -- $201,994 6th: Benny Spindler (Germany) -- $146,205 7th: Mikel Habib (Australia) -- $107,730 8th: Russell Thomas (United States) -- $82,721 Gruissem Gathers Another High Roller Win The German Philipp Gruissem earned himself yet another major High Roller win in Melbourne this week by topping a field of 44 entries to win the non-bracelet $50,000 High Roller NLHE event on Sunday. The win netted Gruissem a payday of $825,000 and marks his third High Roller victory after winning the High Roller events at both EPT/UKIPT London and the EPT Barcelona event, both in 2011. The official final table for this event was eight-handed, although only the top six spots made the cash. Gruissem and Elton Tsang occupied the top spots in the counts when the final table began. Kyle Cheong then went out in eighth, followed by Marvin Rettenmaier in seventh, both players falling in hands versus Joseph Cheong. Eventually Cheong and Gruissem would meet heads-up, and at one point Cheong enjoyed a better than 3-to-1 chip lead against the German.   But Gruissem won an all-in with Ac-Tc versus Cheong's Kh-8s after drawing a flush. Then not too long afterwards Cheong was all in and at risk with 7h-7s versus Gruissem's Qd-Jd, and when the board brought a queen and no sevens, Gruissem had won. $50,000 High Roller results: 1st: Philip Gruissem (Germany) -- $825,000 2nd: Joseph Cheong (United States) -- $511,000 3rd: Paul Phua (Macau) -- $325,000 4th: Lo Shing Fung (Macau) -- $225,000 5th: Elton Tsang (China) -- $155,000 6th: Tom Hall (England) -- $115,000 Team Europe Wins Caesars Cup Finally, it was Team Europe claiming the latest installment in the WSOP Caesars Cup by first defeating Team Asia Pacific, then Team Americas in the final in the non-bracelet, team-based event.  Team Europe was captained by Sam Trickett and consisted of Marvin Rettenmaier, Philip Gruissem, Dominik Nitsche, and Sam Holden. In the final, Trickett and Nitsche defeated Team Americas' Negreanu and Esfandiari in one doubles match, then Rettenmaier and Gruissem came back to beat Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth in the second to even the score. That set up a heads-up final between Holden and 2012 WSOP Main Event winner Greg Merson. Merson built a big lead in the match, but Holden managed to score multiple double-ups to grab the advantage, then used 8h-8d versus Merson's Qh-4c to clinch the win. Join Betfair Poker Now. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/negreanu-wins-main-event-5th-bracelet-as-wsop-apac-concludes-160413-77.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/negreanu-wins-main-event-5th-bracelet-as-wsop-apac-concludes-160413-77.html News WSOP Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:21:00 +0100 The World Series of Poker Asia Pacific is well underway with the first three of five bracelets having already been rewarded. Three Americans have won gold so far in Melbourne, Australia, with Bryan Piccioli and Jim Collopy winning the first two events, and Phil Ivey winning his ninth WSOP bracelet overall by taking down the 8-game mixed event on Wednesday. With the win, Ivey ties Johnny Moss on the WSOP bracelet leader board with nine bracelets. Ahead of Ivey now are Johnny Chan and Doyle Brunson with 10 bracelets each, and Phil Hellmuth in first with 13. Here's a rundown of how each of the first three events have played out at the WSOP APAC. Piccioli Wins Event #1 "Accumulator" (NLHE $1,100) The first ever WSOP bracelet awarded in Australia was won by the New Yorker Bryan Piccioli who earned the gold after prevailing over a total field of 1,085 entries in the unique "accumulator" no-limit hold'em event. The format presented a variation on re-entry tourneys, with players able to play one, two, or three Day 1 flights for $1,100 each. (All dollar amounts are AUD, worth approximately $1.05 USD.) Those busting from one flight could re-enter another, but also those surviving one flight with chips could play a second and even a third flight to collect more, then take all of the chips they accumulated to Day 2 when the field was consolidated. In Piccioli's case, he busted both Day 1a and 1b, but did buy in a third time and survived 1c, then had a great Day 2 to have the chip lead to enter the third and final day of play. In the end no player managed to collect chips on all three Day 1 flights, although 15 did end two Day 1 flights with chips. The top 90 finishers made the cash in this one. Among those making the money but falling shy of the final table were Antoine Saout (13th, $13,183), Phil Hellmuth (20th, $9,049), Dan Kelly (28th, $5,599), Jesse Sylvia (32nd, $4,883), Melanie Weisner (34th, $4,307), Jackie Glazier (36th, $4,307), Mike Watson (44th, $3,841), Russell Thomas (53rd, $3,461), Andrew Hinrichsen (58th, $3,147), and Barry Greenstein (75th, $2,669). While more than half of those cashing in the event hailed from Australia, only Jonathan Karamalikis was there to represent the home country at its first WSOP final table. Other notables among the final nine were 2010 WSOP Main Event Champion Jonathan Duhamel (who finished fourth) and 2012 Octo-Niner Jeremy Ausmus (who took fifth). Piccioli led to start the final table, and also had the advantage to begin heads-up play with just over 2 million chips to Karamalikis's stack of almost 1.25 million.   As live reporting from PokerListings chronicled, the pair played 28 hands altogether, with Piccioli keeping the lead throughout. The final hand saw Karamilikis commit with 10c-10h versus Piccioli's Ac-8d, and when the board ran out 9d-4h-3h-5d-2s Piccioli had rivered a wheel to win the bracelet. Event #1 ($1,100 NLH Accumulator) final table results: 1st: Bryan Piccioli (United States) -- $211,575 2nd: Jonathan Karamalikis (Australia) -- $130,743 3rd: Junzhong Loo (Malaysia) -- $96,305 4th: Jonathan Duhamel (Canada) -- $71,870 5th: Jeremy Ausmus (United States) -- $54,337 6th: Graeme Putt (New Zealand) -- $41,610 7th: Iori Yugo (Japan) -- $32,268 8th: Peter Kleugden (Germany) -- $25,335 9th: Ryan Otto (New Zealand) -- $20,138  Collopy Collects Bracelet in Event #2 (PLO $1,650) The second bracelet awarded at Crown Melbourne this week went to Jim Collopy of Washington, D.C. who topped a field of 172 to collect $69,662 and the title. A friend of Piccioli's, the pair both wore the same Washington Bullets hat (the old name for the current NBA franchise, now called the Wizards) at their respective final tables. Like Piccioli, this marked Collopy's first WSOP bracelet after having finished second once before in the £10,350 NLHE High Roller Heads-Up event at the WSOP Europe in 2010 where he lost in the finals to Gus Hansen.  Only those making the final two tables made the cash in this event, with Andrew Gaw (12th, $5,028), Jeff Lisandro (14th, $4,138), and Joe Hachem (17th, $3,460) among those coming up just short of the final nine. It was a relatively stacked final table featuring the likes of Marvin Rettenmaier, Mike Leah, and Dan Shak, although ultimately it would be Collopy and the Aussie Edison Nguyen making it to heads-up. Those two would battle over an hour before finally Collopy earned a huge double-up with Ad-Ac-9s-8h versus Nguyen's Ks-Kd-Qc-10s to cripple the latter, then "MrBigQueso" finished off Nguyen on the next hand. Event #2 ($1,650 PLO) final table results: 1st: Jim Collopy (United States) -- $69,662 2nd: Ming Nguyen (Australia) -- $43,050 3rd: Tino Lechich (Australia) -- $30,988 4th: Scott Reid (Australia) -- $22,712 5th: Dan Shak (United States) -- $16,940 6th: Paul Sharbanee (Australia) -- $12,856 7th: Mike Leah (Canada) -- $9,923 8th: Martin Kozlov (Australia) -- $7,784 9th: Marvin Rettenmaier (Germany) -- $6,207 Ivey Earns 9th Bracelet in Event #3 (Mixed Event $2,200) Finally the third event, the $2,200 buy-in 8-game "mixed event," finished up Wednesday with Phil Ivey earning that ninth WSOP bracelet. Of Ivey's previous WSOP wins, all eight happened in Las Vegas, with none in no-limit hold'em events. Only 81 played Event #3, meaning just the top nine finishers made the money.  Three Australian players finished in the cash while missing the final table -- Sam Khouiss (7th, $7,200), Billy "The Croc" Argyros (8th, $6,002), and Dale Townsend (9th, $5,518). The final table generated some extra buzz thanks to the presence of both Ivey and four-time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu. However, it was Brandon Wong who starred for most of the first part of final table by claiming the first four knockouts. After eliminating both Kevin Song in sixth and Robert Campbell in fifth, he then took the last of Negreanu's chips in a pot-limit Omaha hand to send "Kid Poker" railward in fourth. Then Wong took out a short-stacked Graeme Putt in third in a seven-card stud hand, setting the stage for an epic heads-up battle with Ivey. Wong had a slight edge to start their duel, with 256,000 to Ivey's 230,000. The pair would push back and forth for another 180 hands -- more than three hours -- with Wong increasing the lead and appearing as though he may clinch it, then Ivey battling back to even things and then take a big lead himself. The match evened up once more before Ivey again pushed ahead for good, finally taking the last of Wong's chips in the 2-7 triple draw round. The final hand saw Wong all in before the first draw in which both players took two cards, then Ivey stood pat as Wong drew two on each of the subsequent rounds as well. Ivey had drawn T-9-8-3-2 while Wong could only make Q-7-6-4-3, and Ivey had won. Event #3 ($2,200 Mixed Event) final table results: 1st:  Phil Ivey (United States) -- $51,840 2nd:  Brandon Wong (United States) -- $32,039 3rd:  Graeme Putt (New Zealand) -- $22,427 4th:  Daniel Negreanu (Canada) -- $16,336 5th:  Robert Campbell (Australia) -- $12,020 6th:  Kevin Song (United States) -- $8,978 Join Betfair Poker Now. https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/ivey-wins-9th-piccioli-collopy-also-collect-wsop-apac-bracelets-100413-77.html https://betting.betfair.com/poker/wsop/ivey-wins-9th-piccioli-collopy-also-collect-wsop-apac-bracelets-100413-77.html WSOP Wed, 10 Apr 2013 14:05:00 +0100