WSOP $50,000 Players Championship: Michael Mizrachi Leads after Day 3

Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi is currently chip leader with an impressive 1.48 million in chips going into Day 4 of the Player’s Championship at the 2010 World Series of Poker. There are just 21 players left in the event which continues tomorrow at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Vladimir Schmelev isn’t far behind Mizrachi taking 1.43 million chips into the next day of the event.

Notables such as Phil Ivey, Doyle Brunson, Barry Greenstein, Scotty Nguyen, Scott Clements, Scott Siever, Jeffrey Lisandro and the defending HORSE champion David Bach were eliminated during the six levels of poker played during Day 3 of the event.

‘midjat’ wins SCOOP Low Buy-in Main Event

The PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) $100 Low Buy-in main event tempted an enormous field of 19,188 players but it was online player ‘midjat’ who outlasted them all to become the winner, receiving over $191,000 for his first place victory.

Team PokerStars Pro, Andre Akkari, made it to the final table but busted in 5th place earning $57,564. He had the best finish of any Team PokerStars Pro in all 3 of the SCOOP main events. Angel Guillen, another Team PokerStars Pro, managed a 15th place finish in the High Buy-in main event. Team PokerStars Pro, George ‘Jorj95’ Lind, earned the title of SCOOP Player of the Series just ahead of Francis ‘teacuppoker’ Cagney.

Theo Jorgensen Wins WPT Paris

Winning a WSOP bracelet and a WPT title was, only a few years ago, seen as the holy grail among poker players. Things have changed a little in recent times and while the WSOP retains a huge amount of kudos, the WPT has dropped down the “importance rankings” lately.

That doesn’t mean WPT events haven’t stopped attracting some of the biggest names in poker and the Paris leg, which concluded yesterday, was no different. It was Theo Jorgensen that came out on top in this one, though, following a tough head up battle against Antoine Amourette. Amourette had been towards the top of the chip counts for several days and was unlucky not to have taken the title in the French capital.

Antoine Amourette Leads WPT Paris into Day 3

The World Poker Tour continues to struggle on in the face of plenty of seemingly very popular tours, both in Europe and the United States. The latest leg of the WPT is at the Aviation Club de France in Paris and we’re already down to 48 players as Antoine Amourette tops the chip counts.

127 players went to the famous Parisian club yesterday with dreams of WPT glory. When the chips were bagged up for the night only 48 remained. Play continues today down to 27 players. With the bubble approaching and €633,902 on the line for first place it seems set to be tense day in the French capital.

New Date for Bellagio’s Five-Star World Poker Classic in 2011

The $25,000 Five-Star World Poker Classic, part of the WPT, will be moved to May in 2011 following the lowest turnout in the event, earlier this month, since Season 1 with just 195 players taking part.

The $25,000 no-limit hold’em World Poker Tour Championship event will run from May 21-27, 2011. The event ends just one day before the WSOP begins, so it appears the WPT are trying to capture some of the earlier arrivals in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker next year.

Bellagio tournament director Jack McClelland cited the EPT’s in San Remo and Monte Carlo as reasons for the low turn out. He said; “We have hosted this tournament in the same time slot for a number of years and they scheduled right on top of us. I couldn’t overcome it.”

David Williams Wins WPT Championship

A small field didn’t stop some of poker’s biggest names heading for The Bellagio and the World Poker Tour Championship event last week. A $25,000 buy-in and a volcanic ash cloud may have kept the numbers down but it didn’t stop the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Dave Ulliott and the eventual winner David Williams from taking a shot at the title.

Williams, a former WSOP main event runner up, has been pretty quiet on the tournament results front of late. Despite a few cashes at the 2009 WSOP, there have been few notable results on the Williams resume in the last couple of years. The $1.5 million pay day here, yesterday, just changed all that and proved Williams is still a force to be reckoned with in world poker.

Faraz Jaka Leads WPT Championship

While the dust settles over in Italy at the San Remo EPT, play continues at The Bellagio, in Las Vegas, for the WPT Championship event.

A poor turn out hasn’t deterred some of poker’s biggest names from taking their chances in this $25,000 buy in tournament. A quick glance down the remaining players list confirms that the WPT can still attract high profile poker “celebrities” if nothing else.

Right now it’s Faraz Jaka that leads the pack. Jaka picked up a monster pot in somewhat fortunate circumstances after his beat the of Heather Sue Mercer. Mercer was well stacked at the time so the pot of 3.4 million chips rocketed Faza to the top of the chip counts, much to the disgust of Mercer.

WPT Championship – Buchanan Leads into Day 4

Day 3 of the WPT Championship event ended at Bellagio yesterday with Shawn Buchanan leading the chip counts. The day began with 98 players taking their seats and by the time play ended for the day only 35 remained. Whilst that doesn’t sound like a problem, it does raise the question; “How are the WPT going to stretch the play out over the 4 remaining scheduled days?”

The answer to that one is unclear right now. Perhaps a day will be dropped? Perhaps play will only last a couple of hours on each day? Who knows! One thing is for sure, the WPT is in big trouble with player numbers tumbling rapidly.

WPT Championship Day 1 – Ivey and Benyamine in Contention

While most poker tournament fans have their attention focused on San Remo, Italy for the latest European Poker Tour event, the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas seems to have slipped under the radar.

The $25,000 buy-in event has also been ignored, to a degree, by most of the poker playing world too. Although low European player numbers may be down to the Icelandic ash cloud covering most of Europe and grounding flights right now. Around 200 players are expected to take part and, perhaps unsurprisingly for a big buy-in event, most of the names on the chip count list are very familiar!