Yorky Pud

The Poker Hall of Fame was created by Benny Binion back in 1979 and since then it has recognised and inducted some of the games key figures and legendary players. Johnny Moss,  “Puggy” Pearson, Doyle Brunson and David “Chip” Reese are just some of the names that have been inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame and now another two players are set to join them.

The public votes have been counted and the ten finalists are now public knowledge. These finalists will now be voted on by the 18 living Hall of Fame members, including last year's inductees Erik Seidel and Dan Harrington, along with a select 17-person panel made up of members of the poker media. The ten Poker Hall of Fame finalists are, in alphabetical order;

Annie Duke
Barry Greenstein
Jennifer Harman-Traniello
Linda Johnson
John Juanda
Marcel Luske
Jack McLelland,
Tom McEvoy
Scotty Nguyen
Huckleberry Seed

Each person must meet a number of criteria such as playing poker against acknowledged top competition, have played for high stakes and done so consistently well and have stood the test of time. For those non-players amongst in the selection they must have contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker.

Personally I would love to see Barry Greenstein inducted and I think he is almost certainly going to be. He has played in the highest cash games for years on end, won three World Series of Poker bracelets, two World Poker Tour main events and spends a lot of time, effort and money raising money for various charities.

The other shoe-in has to be Tom McEvoy, who has been touted as potential Hall of Fame member for as long as I can remember. Although he may not be as much of a force as he used to be, McEvoy has won four WSOP bracelets and has cashed 38 times in WSOP events. McEvoy was also instrumental in making all poker rooms and casinos in Las Vegas non-smoking, along with being the author of 14 poker strategy books.

The newest inductees into the Poker Hall of Fame will be unveiled at a ceremony in the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino on November 8.

“Your life can change in one second. The second you win the biggest poker event ever.” That is the punchline accompanying a video that is currently doing the rounds on poker forums around the world and has been tweeted and retweeted scores of times over the weekend.

This “biggest poker event ever” is meant to be taking place between May 10-12 at Wembley Stadium in London and has a supposed guaranteed prizepool of $30,000,000 but there are a few facts that do not seem to add up and forgive me for being sceptical but I think it is some sort of elaborate hoax or publicity stunt by International Stadiums Poker Tour. The video can be seen below.

*Super Turbo or Super High Roller?

The first thing that does not add up is the fact the company is guaranteeing $30,000,000 but the tournament is only going to run for two days. When you take into consideration that this years World Series of Poker Main Event had a prizepool of $64,531,000 and took 12 days of play to reach the final table. Either this new tournament is either going to have a ridiculously fast structure or is going to have to charge at least $100,000 or maybe more so that they can complete it within two days.

On the matter of entry fees, nowhere on the website does it mention the buy-in or where and when players can register for this tournament. Not to mention that the guarantee is $30,000,000. Why would they quote a prizepool in US dollars and not Great British pounds or the Euro? It just does not make sense at all.

Also, along with lack of buy-in information there are actually no details at all regarding the format of the event. The video seems to suggest players sat in the stands at Wembley Stadium playing poker on laptops (or watching poker on terminals) with a live final table in the centre of the pitch, but would that and could that work, especially considering the lack of power points around the seats at the stadium.

As you have seen, the video invites players to register but the only active parts of the website are the video and a Facebook “Like” button that does not actually link to a Facebook page.

*Wembley Stadium Deny Tournament Is Taking Place

But the biggest indication this will never happen is that a phone call to the stadium just five minutes before I typed this article out was answered by a receptionist who has never heard of International Stadiums Poker Tour and none of the facilities at Wembley have been booked for those dates.

Ironically, or maybe not, the man behind the potential purchase of the stricken former online poker giant that is Full Tilt Poker, Bernard Tapie, holds a 30% stake in International Stadiums Poker Tour. He revealed in an interview that once he has resurrected Full Tilt Poker he will only hold a 5-10% stake in the business but he will be passing this onto International Stadiums Poker Tour. Something does not quite add up and until I see something that suggests it is not a hoax I will be treating as just that.

The captains of Team Europe and Team Americas have named their final teams for the second edition of the Caesars Cup, due to be held on the penultimate day of the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe in Cannes, France. Neither captain has made any drastic changes from the last time this event took place in 2009, though the teams contain one player less than in the previous encounter.

Team Europe is headed by Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, a Triple Crown winner and one of the best tournament poker players in the world. ElkY has more than $8,400,000 in live tournament winnings and is certainly a worthy captain. As this year's Caesars Cup is going to be played in a heads up format it is no surprise that ElkY has chosen a team of heads up specialists to represent Europe, the easy winners from the previous battle.

Jake Cody, another Triple Crown winner, has been chosen and will be a formidable opponent at the felt. Cody completed his Triple Crown of titles by winning the $25,000 No Limit Hold'em World Championship at the recent World Series of Poker and is no stranger to one-on-one poker battles. Another heads-up champion joining Team Europe is Gus Hansen, the reigning WSOPE High Roller Heads Up Champion. Hansen has been very quiet on the tournament circuit this past year and will almost certainly have been hurt by the collapse of Full Tilt Poker, as he had been on a massive heater on the site since his bracelet win. ElkY's other picks come in the shape of Dario Minieri, a regular at the highest heads-up SNGs online, and Max Lykov, a Russian player who has put up some tremendous results over the past 18 months.

Eleven-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth is the team Americas captain and he has gone for experience in his selections, with the average age being 51-years old. Going into battle alongside Hellmuth will be Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Huck Seed. Team America is a very strong team in its own right but I fear they will be no match for the young-guns of Team Europe and Hellmuth dreams of taking the Caesars Cup back home with him to the USA are just that, dream.

One of the great properties of the game of poker is there are no physical requirements to play the game. It does not really matter if you are an extremely fit 19-year old or an overweight 65-year old, you can still sit down at the table or log in online and play poker with those around you.

It obviously helps to be physically fit if you plan on playing longer sessions, particularly in modern day live tournaments where players are often required to be in their seats for upwards, and sometimes in excess, of 12 hours per day for four or five consecutive days, but is a subject for another article.

As poker is not a sport as such, more of a mind game, coupled with the fact anyone can literally turn on their computer and be playing online poker in next to no time, under a minute if they already have an account with funds in it, the vast majority of poker players do not warm up, limber up, whatever you want to call it, before they play poker. You may think I have lost the plot but you should really try to warm up before a poker session and cool down afterwards, much like an athlete would do.

Before you start calling the men in white coats to come take me away actually think about it for a moment and you will probably see where I am coming from. The average poker player will play recreationally, meaning they most likely have a job and other such distractions in their lives and just plonking themselves in front of a computer and expecting to be able to immediately get into “poker mode” is a little far fetched for most.

Before each session you should look to mentally warm up so that when you do find a table to sit at you are reading to hit the ground running. If you have a mantra or poker related phrase that gets you into the mood for playing poker and into “the zone” then say it to yourself, if there is a certain song that psyches you up then stick it on full blast. Working in the poker industry, reading and writing about players means I am generally ready to play poker from the get go but sometimes I go through my Holdem Manager database and scan through some hands and look for any leaks or study the statistics on offer, that way when I sit down I already have poker on the mind not a meeting I just had with Joe Bloggs or the maths homework I had to help the kids out with.

The same can be said for cooling down after a session too. If you have had a big winning session then going through your hands or discussing poker with your friends is a great idea because you may find that although you played well you also ran really good and made quite a few mistakes. Being able to acknowledge this should help keep your feet firmly on the ground and prevent you from thinking you are better than you actually are. It is also great for when you have lost too because it gives you some closure on the session. You may discover you played terribly but then you can use this for your warm-up the next time you choose to play, or you may find the cards just were not on your side and that it is just a minor blip on your profit graph, either way it will let you calm down and step away from the game in a controlled manner so you can get on with real life.

It has been quite the year for 26-year old Matt Giannetti, not only has he reached the delayed final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event, but over the weekend he also took down the inaugural World Poker Tour Malta Main Event.

At the start of the fourth and final day there were eight players on the unofficial final table, with two eliminations needed for the official final table to take place. It took almost 90 minutes to lose a player, that dubious honour going to Mats Karlson. He was followed an hour later by Christofer Williamson and the official final table of WPT Malta was set.

WPT Malta Final Table Seat Draw

Seat 1: Cecilia Pescaglini: 2,245,000
Seat 2: Filippo Bianchini: 347,000
Seat 3: Fabien Sartoris: 264,000
Seat 4: Matt Gianetti: 1,930,000
Seat 5: Simon Trumper: 560,000
Seat 6: Tristan Clemencon: 1,840,000

The finale got off to an explosive start, with three players being sent to the rail within the first 19 hands! The first of which was Fabien Sartoris, who open-shoved the button with Kd9s and was looked up by fellow short stack, Simon Trumper, who held pocket fives. The final board ran out  8h-Js-4d-8d-Qd and Sartoris headed to the sidelines.

Next to go, just a few hands later, was Tristan Clemencom. On the 11th hand of play and with blinds of 15,000/30,000/5,000a, Simon Trumper opened from the button to 65,000, Clemencon cold-called in the small blind but Cecilia Pescaglini squeezed to 230,000 from the big blind. Trumper got out of the way but Clemencon was going nowhere, instead he moved all in! Pescaglini sighed, stood up and made the call, turning over AhKh in the process. Clemencon stayed seated and flipped over KsKd, which stayed ahead on a board reading Jd-10d-8c-3s but the river was the Ac and Pescaglini soared into a huge chiplead.

Just six hands later and Trumper , down to 480,000, open-shoved with black sevens and Pescaglini wasted little time in calling, with Ac8c, citing her reason for doing so as she was prepared to take a flip. The sevens stayed ahead on the 9s-6c-5h but a cruel Ah on the turn left the Brit drawing to two outs, neither of which landed on the river and the Main Event was down to just three players.

After the lightening quick start it looked as if the final table would be over in record time but poker is a funny old game and often throws up the unexpected. This event was no different as it took six hours, including breaks, for the next player to be busted out. On the 122nd hand of the final table, with blinds now 50,000/100,000/10,000a, Filippo Bianchini found himself down to just 300,000 and he moved all in from the button. Both Giannetti and Pescaglini called and the dealer put out the 7d-5d-2h flop. Giannetti lead out with a bet of 375,000 and Pescaglini called. Both players checked the arrival of the 5h on the turn, and again when the 2c made an appearance on the river. Pescaglini turned over Ah10d, Giannetti 6c6d, which beat both hands as Bianchini mucked his 4s3h.

Heads up only lasted 10 hands and it swung the way of the Texan. A raise and a call meant the duo saw a flop reading 10c-8h-2c, a flop that Pescaglini lead out with a bet of 550,000, Giannetti moved all in and Pescaglini made the call. The Italian held Qs10d and she found herself up against Giannetti's 9c7d. The dealer burned a card and put out the Js on the turn, completing Giannetti's straight  and when the river was the 2s Giannetti had won his first WPT title and Pescaglini, realising she had failed in he quest to become the first-ever female WPT event winner, shed a few tears.

Giannetti now goes into the WSOP Main Event final table third in chips and has the chance to win more than $8,900,000. Now that he has a WPT title behind him I would not bet against the cash game specialist taking down the “Big Dance” in November.

Final table payouts

1st: Matt Giannetti: €200,000
2nd: Cecilia Pescaglini: €116,700
3rd: Filippo Bianchini: €76,820
4th: Simon Trumper: €53,430
5th: Tristan Clemencon: €39,810
6th: Fabian Sartoris: €30,730

The name Bobby Oboodi may not be one that you are familiar with but if his performance at the final table of the record-breaking WPT Borgata Poker Open is anything to go by then you will soon be hearing it many times over the next few years.

He started the six-handed final table as the chipleader and at no point throughout proceedings did he relinquish that lead, was never all in at any point and was responsible for eliminating four of his five opponents, the sign of a great champion.

It only took 11 hands for the first player, Ricky Hale, to be sent to the cashier's cage. He started the day as the shortest stack and when he saw Oboodi raise to 340,000 from under the gun (blinds 80,000/160,000/20,000a), he looked down at Ac10s and decided that he would raise all in from the cutoff to 2,080,000. Oboodi quickly called and turned over a dominating AhKh. The Brit paired his ten on a flop reading 10d-9s-2d but the Ks on the turn improved Oboodi to a higher pair. The river was the Jd and the table lost its first player.

Another two hours passed before the fifth place finisher was decided and it was Oboodi who was once again the executioner. With blinds now at 120,000/240,000/30,000a, Darren Elias opened to 500,000 from the button and Oboodi clicked it back, from the big blind, making it 1,100,000 to play. Elias moved all in for a total of 2,750,000 and Oboodi made the call. Elias turned over pocket jacks but they were way behind the cowboys of Oboodi. There was no help from any of the five community cards and the five players became four.

Ninety minutes and 35 hands later Fred Goldberg exited the final table after a clash with, yes you have guessed it, Oboodi. The latter min-raised to 600,000 under the gun and Goldberg called in the big blind. The dealer put out the 9d-7s-6h flop, Oboodi bet 600,000 only to see Goldberg instantly move all in for a total of 3,300,000. Oboodi paused and then made the call, turning over Ah9h, nicely dominating the Td9c of his opponent. The turn and river were the 7c and Jc respectively and Goldberg was busted out.

Less than 15 minutes later and the tournament reach the heads up stages after Daniel Buzgon lost his stack to Jin Hwang. The blinds had increased to 200,000/400,000/40,000a and Oboodi opened to 800,000 from the button. Buzgon then three-bet all in for around 5,000,000 and then Hwang called the all in from the big blind. Oboodi folded and the players revealed their hands, Hwang held AhKh and was in a coinflop against the 7c7s of Buzgon. Hwang picked up outs to a straight draw when the flop came down Qc-10h-9c and he turned his straight when the Jc made an appearance. The river was the 7h but it was too little too late and Buzgon exited the final table and headed to pick up more than a third of a million dollars.

Going into heads up Oboodi held a 23,190,000 to 17,125,000 chip leader over Hwang and took just 18 hands to send his opponent home as the runner up. Oboodi opted to limp from the button and then call when Hwang raised it up to 1,250,000. The flop came down 7s-6s-6c and both players checked. The turn brought the Js into play and Hwang checked again. Oboodi made it 1,600,000 to play. Hwang then said, “Let's gamble, I'm all in,” and Oboodi called, turning over Qs2s for a flush draw, which was up against the KcJh of Hwang. The dealer burned a card and put out the 3s on the river, completing Oboodi's flush that eliminated Hwang and Oboodi had become the champion of WPT Borgata.

The World Poker Tour next stops at the Foxwoods Resort Casino for the World Poker Finals between October 27 – Nov 1, will Oboodi be there to try and become a double WPT winner? I would certainly think so.

Final table payouts

1st: Bobby Oboodi: $922,441
2nd: Jin Hwang: $554,303
3rd: Daniel Buzgon: $335,433
4th: Fred Goldberg: $280,925
5th: Darren Elias: $230,60
6th: Ricky Hale: $186,585

The World Poker Tour Malta Main Event has reached its final table after the 30 players who started on Day 3 were whittled down to the last eight. The chipleader when play resumes at 1300 CET is Tristan Clemencon who has a stack of 2,251,000 chips.

Of the 30 players who returned to the Casino at Portomaso, three of them knew they were going to leave empty handed, with nothing but memories to show for their efforts in Malta this past week. Shortly after the restart, Nesrine Kourdourli and Matt Giannetti entered a raising was on a Jc-5h-2h-Qs board that resulted in the last woman in the tournament being all in and at risk of elimination. The woman who recently finished tenth at WPT Grand Prix de Paris held AsQh but was in a whole world of pain as Giannetti turned over AcAh. No two outer on the river and Kourdourli was eliminated in 30th place.

She was followed out of the door first by Andras Fekete and then half hour later Giovanni Rizzo committed his stack with Ad9s on a 10s-9c-2h flop only to be called by the 10c9h of Christofer Williamson. The turn was the 3s, followed by a full house creating ten on the river and with that the bubble had burst and everyone with chips in front of them locked up at least €6,150.

As is usually the case, the bubble bursting caused a flurry of eliminations with Jean Marie Vanderborne (27th), Justin Bonomo (26th) and Tony G (25th) being the first few players to head to the cashier's cage. The next six hours after Tony G's demise saw the field reduced to just ten players and these were all seated together on an unofficial final table where they were told they would play two more hour-long levels or down to six players, whichever came sooner.

An hour and half into the ten-handed unofficial final table saw Salvatore Bianco eliminated when he was on the wrong side of an aces versus kings scenario with Tristan Clemencon, his KsKh no match for Clemencon's AcAd. Then ten minutes later Clemencon turned executioner again when he sent Manfred Sierke packing in ninth place. Then at just before 0215 in the morning, and with eight players remaining, Matt Savage called it a night and the players bagged up their chips and headed for some much needed sleep.

Thanks to his mini rush late in the day Clemencon has opened a substantial chip lead for himself. As mentioned, he starts with 2,215,000 chips and his nearest rival is Cecilia Prescaglini on 1,218,000. Third place going into the fourth and final day is Fabien Sartoris on 654,000 whilst Britain's Simon Trumper's 631,000 chips put him in fourth place. Mats Karlson starts the day with 452,000, Williamson on 510,000 whilst the two shortest stacks belong to November Nine member Matt Giannetti (309,000) and Filippo Bianchini (188,000).

Play resumes at 1300CET and will continue until the WPT Malta champion is crowned. The first player to be eliminated will pick up cash worth €16,760 but the eventual winner will take home €200,000, not bad for four days work!

Final table seat draw

Seat 1: Cecilia Prescaglini: 1,218,000
Seat 2: Filippo Bianchini: 188,000
Seat 3: Fabien Sartoris: 654,000
Seat 4: Matt Giannetti: 309,000
Seat 5: Mats Karlson: 452,000
Seat 6: Simon Trumper: 631,000
Seat 7: Tristan Clemencon: 2,215,000
Seat 8: Chrisofer Williamson: 510,000

The 2011 Borgata Poker Open has reached the final table after four long days of poker saw the record-breaking 1,313 crowd get whittled down until only six players remained. Leading the way going into the final table is Bobby Oboodi who has a stack of 11,140,000, around double the average.

Oboodi, known as “BigRedAK” in online poker circles, is best known for his victory in the “Battleships” tournament held at the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure where players took each other on in a heads-up format, on their laptops, whilst sitting directly opposite each other. This could be his and his five remaining opponents' best chance of a World Poker Tour title after some of the more well-known players were eliminated during the course of Day 4.

At the start of Day 4 there were 27 players, amongst them Vanessa Selbst, Brandon Schaefer, Matt Glantz and recent Legends of Poker winner, Will Failla. None of these players made it through to the fifth and final day, leaving the door open for one of the lesser-known but still extremely talented players to go on and win a coveted World Poker Tour title.

In Seat 1 is Jin Hwang with 2,205,000 chips. Hwang has live tournament winnings of almost $95,000, the bulk of which he won at the Borgata! His career best score is for $70,616, which he was awarded for his 12th place finish in this very event back in 2007.

Seat 2 is the home to Darren Elias of Los Angeles and he will start the day with 7,360,000 chips. Many believe that Elias is the man to take home the $922,441 first place prize as he has been on the verge of breaking through for the past few years. His two biggest scores are $195,335 for his second place finish in the $4,850 Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza in 2010 and he more recently won $153,975 when he finished as runner-up to Erik Seidel in the $25,100 High Roller event held as the LA Poker Classic.

Fred Goldberg and his 11,080,000 chips will be calling Seat 3 home for the rest of his tournament. He is a Florida-based player who had an exceptional 2006 and 2007 but has been very quiet ever since. In 2006 he bubbled the final table of the largest-ever World Series of Poker Main Event and won $1,154,527 and in the same year he finished 11th at the WPT Fifth Annual Fivce Diamond Poker Classic for an additional $84,570. In 2007 he won his first and only bracelet in the $1,500 Mixed Hold'em event before finishing fourth in the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic.

We have already covered Oboodi who is in Seat 4 but Seat 5 belongs to Dan Buzgon and his stack of 4,710,000 chips. He hails from New jersey and has live tournament winnings of $245,354. His largest score is for $96,500 and he won that by finishing 72nd in the WSOP Main Event in 2008. He seems to have a knack for large-field tournaments as he also finished 15th in one of the massive $1,500 No Limit Hold'em events at the 2010 WSOP.

Last but not least is Ricky Hale in Seat 6. The only information I could find on Mr Hale was that he will start the day with 2,320,000 chips, is from Cornwall in the UK and his only notable live score is a sixth place finish in the $350 Pot Limit Omaha event for $2,377 two weeks before this tournament so it looks as if he has parleyed his winnings into a ticket for the Main Event!

The final table gets under way at 1500 local time and play will continue until the Borgato Poker Open Champion is crowned. Who will it be? Check in later to find out!

Seat 1: Jin Hwang: 2,205,000 chips
Seat 2: Darren Elias: 7,360,000
Seat 3: Fred Goldberg: 11,080,000
Seat 4: Bobby Oboodi: 11,140,000
Seat 5: Dan Buzgon: 4,710,000
Seat 6: Ricky Hale: 2,320,000

The World Poker Tour is into its tenth season but there has never been a female winner of a WPT event (Natalya Nikitina won a WPT Regional tournament) though that could be all set to change as Cecilia Pescaglini leads WPT Malta with only 30 players remaining.

Pescaglini is a complete unknown in live poker circles, her only result on her Hendon Mob page is an outright victory in a €360 side event at the recent IPT Nova Gorica that netted the platinum-blonde Italian €36,000 and now she is in pole position to win the bankroll-boosting sum of €200,000 on offer to the eventual winner of WPT Malta. Her erratic style of play and her willingness to get her entire stack into the middle of the felt has worked wonders at the Casino at Portomaso as she goes into Day 3 of WPT Malta with a massive stack of 976,000 chips. To put her stack size into context, her nearest rival is “Mad” Marvin Rettenmaier with 415,000 chips and after him is Manfred Sierke on 383,000 and November Nine member Matt Giannetti with 370,000 chips.

Day 3 sees the 30 surviving players return to their seats knowing that only 27 of them will leave the casino having cashed in the Main Event. The plan was to play down to 27 during Day 2 but the excellent tournament director Matt Savage called an end to proceedings at around 0430am as the players and staff were growing increasingly tired. A min-cash is worth €6,150 and by the time Mr Savage pauses the tournament again there will only be six players remaining and they will have each locked up €30,730 for their efforts over the past week.

If Pescaglini is to become the first-ever female winner of a WPT event she has to first overcome a legitimate table of doom first. Seated with her are the likes of Nesrine Kourdourli, the aforementioned Giannetti and Rettenmair, Britain's Simon Trumper and the infamous Tony G. Also still in contention are Giovanni Rizzo, Justin Bonomo and Isaac Haxton so the six-handed final table could be extremely entertaining to say the least.

Join us over the weekend to see who makes it through to the final six and who takes down WPT Malta.

Back in 2008 Australian poker player David Saab had the world at his feet. He had just won the $2,500 event at the Asian Poker Tour for $280,000 and less than two month's later finished 46th in the World Series of Poker Main Event for a further $135,100. But today he is serving a 14-year prison term for drug smuggling.

Saab was arrested back in January, along with his two accomplices Darren Hughes and Robert Remeeus, and charged with attempting to smuggle 14.6 kilograms of cocaine into Australia. Customs and Australian Federal Police intercepted the air-cargo when it passed through Sydney, from Canada, and discovered the drugs concealed in the legs of agricultural equipment. They replaced the cocaine with another material and then monitored Hughes as he hired a van to bring the equipment to his home address, where it was smashed open to access what the trio still thought was cocaine. They were subsequently arrested and charged with drug smuggling.

Saab's barrister, Robert Richter QC, informed the court that his client, who was born in South Korea, had struggled with life in Australia and had been declared bankrupt at one point. He then discovered poker and in 2008 won big in the aforementioned tournaments and it was at this point that Saab aspired to lead a glamorous lifestyle with the rich and famous people of Australia.

Judge Liz Gaynor said that Saab was the ring leader in this particular operation and that he stood to be paid $110,000 for his part in the smuggling. For this reason she dealt him a 14-year jail term, of which he must serve a minimum of ten years. Hughes and Remeeus were sentenced to eight years each and will have to serve a minimum of five years before they are eligible for parole. Upon passing Saab's sentence Judge Gaynor said that Saab had “delusions of wealth” anf that the “illusory world” he had created for himself had been shattered when he was arrested.