PokerTableRatings

Another week of events at the Rio All Suites and Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, crowned another 11 bracelets to winners at the World Series of Poker. Last week, we looked at the winners from Events 1-10. Here are the bracelet winners this week from events 11 through 21:

Event 11 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em – Simon Watt ($614,248)

Event 12 – $1,500 Limit Hold’em – Matthew Matros ($189,870)

Event 13 – $1,000 No Limit Hold’em – Steven Gee ($472,479)

Event 14 – $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball (No-Limit) – Yan Chen ($92,817)

Event 15 – $10,000 Seven Card Hi-Low Split Championship – Frank Kassela ($447,446)

Event 16 – $1,500 No Limit Hold’em (6-max) – Carter Phillips ($482,774)

Event 17 – $5,000 No Limit Hold’em – Jason Dewitt ($818,959)

Event 18 – $2,000 Limit Hold’em – Eric Buchman ($203,607)

Event 19 – $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship (No Limit) – David Baker ($294,321)

Event 20 – $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha – John “Tex” Barch ($256,000)

Event 21 – $1,500 Seven Card Stud – Richard Ashby ($140,467)

Probably the largest story of the week was the story of a non bracelet win. Tom ‘Durrrr’ Dwan fell 1 spot short of his first WSOP, finishing runner up to Simon Watt in Event #11. The side bets that Dwan has made with poker pro’s throughout Vegas about winning a bracelet at this World Series drew much more attention than the winnings of the tournament themselves. Giving action at around 3 to 1 according to most sources, Dwan apparently stood to gain anywhere between $8 and $12.5 million in side bets had he won the title. The rail at the final table included every name pro in the Vegas industry, who breathed great sighs of relief when he shipped in his final 1.65 million chips with Qd-6c, and Watts called with the 9d-9c. The two nines held, and the online sensation immediately left the Amazon room.

Other notable stories included the win of noted Full Tilt Pro and high stakes gamer Richard Ashby in the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Event. Ashby is often found playing at the nosebleed stakes and becomes the 3rd British WSOP Bracelet winner of this World Series, joining both Praz Bansi and James Dempsy. The two recent champs were there on his rail cheering vigorously until Ashby eliminated Christine Pietsch in 2nd place.

The player of the year race is in full force, and it’s a tight battle at the top as all eyes have been on the outstanding play of John Juanda, and Russian newcomer Vladamir Schmelev. Juanda made his 3rd final table of this WSOP this week, but has yet to take home his 5th bracelet. He has 4th place finishes in the $50k Players Championship and the $10k 2-7 Low Ball Championship, as well as a 5th place finish in the 7 Card Stud High-Low split 8 or Better World Championship. He sits in a tie with Dan Heimiller and Matthew Vance, all with 160 POY points.

But in the up and coming players, Russian Vladimir Schmelev has made quite a name for himself by making final tables as well. Schmelev finished runner up in the $50k Players Championship, and followed up that performance with another final table, bowing out in 7th of the $10k Seven Card Stud Championship, and then 7th again at the Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split 8 or Better Championship. His 155 POY points have him tied for 4th in the Player of the Year standings with David “Bakes” Baker. Baker has had his own impressive series, having just won his first bracelet in the $10k 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship. The win marked his 3rd cash of this World Series, and 2nd final table, as he also finished in 6th place at the $50k World Championship.

This week at the World Series, we’ll see champions in the Limit Hold’em World Championship, as well as the start of the much anticipated $10k Heads Up No Limit Hold’em Championship.

On Wednesday, the WSOP Academy announced that they would hold a single table No Limit Hold’em Freeroll to 9 players to determine the final seat to the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions Tournament. The event pitted Andy Bloch, Bretrand ‘ElKy’ Grospellier, Gus Hansen, Sorel Mizzi, Michael Mizrachi, Liv Boeree, and Paul Wassicka in the event, along with actor Don Cheadle. Tom Dwan was scheduled to participate, but opted out of the event in order to play in the 2-7 Lowball tournament, and was replaced by Gavin Smith. In the end, it was “ElKy” getting the best of “The Grinder” heads up, as Mizrachi’s Ah-6h fell to Grosspellier’s Ks-Tc. Grosspellier will compete as one of the 27 players playing for their piece of a $1 million prize pool, and the title of champion at the WSOP Tournament of Champions.

In news outside the World Series of Poker, Phil Laak completed the world record in dramatic fashion, smashing the previous record of the longest continuous poker game at 115 hours. The previous official mark was held at 72 hours. Laak has promised to donate half of the $6,766 in profit from the winning session to Camp Sunshine, a camp for children with life-threatening illness and their families.

And Finally, ESPN.com has released their June Edition of the “The Nuts,” a list which votes upon the best current players in the game of poker. Taking into account Online, Live Cash, and Live Tournament play, a staff of writers votes upon the top 10 players in the game, and ranks them. Here’s their most recent version:

1. Phil Ivey
2. Jason Mercier
3. Tom Dwan
4. Eric Baldwin
5. Sorel Mizzi
6. Patrik Antonius
7. Daniel Negreanu
8. Scott Seiver
9. Daniel Alaei
10. Michael Mizrachi

Who do you think belongs in the top 10?

This entry was posted on Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 9:09 am and is filed under Featured Articles, PTR News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.