Yorky Pud

One of the aspects of poker that used to hold back my progress was my seemingly inability to log any sort of volume. Those who I talk about the game to have always tried to get me to play more but for one reason or another their pleas have always fallen on deaf ears. That is until now.

Whilst I am still not putting in the volume of some players I have managed to play another 2,012 hands since I last updated this little piece of the internet, taking my total hands played for the month to 5,496 and putting me well on course for playing 20,000 hands this month, which would be a massive achievement for me and I would be as chuffed as a dog with two d**ks if I could reach that total.

After my mini-brag about running amazingly well for the first part of the month it was inevitable that the Poker Gods (amen) would eventually removed the golden horseshoe from my ass and make me actually play poker instead of just hoovering up $10 buy-ins like they were going out of fashion. The first session I played after writing Monday's blog post saw me lost $13.94 from 429 hands and although I ran slightly under expectation I deserved to lose as I didn't play well at all. The following day I played 643 hands and won $61.14, which was nice, then the day after the winning continued with $24.97 added to the coffers from 425 hands played.

But last night there was a minor blip on an otherwise picturesque landscape as I had my heaviest losing session of the month so far, leaving $34.41 at the virtual felt from 515 hands played. Despite dropping 3.5 buy-ins I actually have no complaints at all, in fact I am actually really pleased with how I played and how I reacted the beats that were being tossed my way by some of the by those in charge of dishing out the variance. The playing style that I have adopted this month is quite high variance and I'm more than happy to get my money in with just the slightest of advantages, which is fantastic when it goes your way but can become quite expensive when you start to miss draws.

I felt a bit like Hellmuth last night with the amount of draws I missed. I should really have gotten this hand in on the flop I reckon (http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/3485681) and the same probably goes for this one too (http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/3485682). Some will say getting it in pre with tens (http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/3485683) is lolbad but villain in this hand is playing 93/21/5 with a three-bet of 35% so I'd probably get it in with hands much worse than tens to be honest. Oh and this sucked balls too (http://www.pokerhandreplays.com/view.php/id/3485684). What impressed me the most about yesterday's losing session was the fact that I didn't even come close to tilting, OK I was a tiny bit narked with the AK vs KJ hand but I just swept it aside and carried on. I really feel like I have turned a corner in my mental game and that can only be a good thing for my actual playing, surely?

You may have noticed that I am playing NL10, which is hardly exciting to read about when you can find other bloggers bragging about taking down $50,000 pots but for the first time in a long long time, possibly ever in my poker “career” I feel like I am living up to the title of my blog, “Pud's Poker Progress.” I could deposit and play NL100 from the off but I'm in a really good place pokerwise at the moment and I want to progress through the various stakes on Betfair Poker and crush each and every one of them on the way up. You've heard it all before I know that, and I know many will say that I only feel like this because I have been winning but it is up to me to prove you all wrong and trust me, I will do just that.

As always, thanks for reading and best of luck at the tables!

Despite having just won $1,063,034 just hours ago, Phil Hellmuth will probably be the unhappiest man in Las Vegas, this despite the amount of money he won being his first-ever seven-figure score. This is because Hellmuth, the self-proclaimed “Poker Brat,” has just finished second in a 2011 World Series of Poker event for the third time, denying him his elusive 12th bracelet.

Each of Hellmuth's 11-WSOP bracelets have from Hold'em tournaments, leading many of his fellow pros and a large section of the poker community to mock Hellmuth and label him a one-trick pony, despite him having a number of top five finishes in non-Hold'em events. There are also many people who believe the modern game of poker has passed Hellmuth by but anyone who has thought like that in the past needs a complete rethink after his performances at this year's WSOP.

He came agonisingly close to winning his 12th bracelet in Event #16, the $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven Draw World Championship tournament but ultimately fell just short and finishing second to John Juanda. He then gave himself another crack at the whip when he found himself heads up against Eric Rodawig in Event #33, the $10,00 Seven-Card Stud Hi/Low Event, but again he lost in the one-on-one battle and added yet another second place finish to his already  extremely impressive résumé.

After these superb performances from Hellmuth it was no surprise the eyes of the poker world were fixated onto him once again as he found himself on the final table of the $50,000 Poker Players' Championship, the tournament that all of the pros dream of winning. Throughout the previous four days of play, 128 of the world's best poker players battled it out across eight different poker disciplines and during this time they were whittled down to just nine players. The plan was to play down until the final table of eight was reached but Day 4 ran though until 0500 and the players and tournament staff decided to call it a night. This meant that Day 5 started with an unofficial final table of nine but once Jason Lester had busted out during a Fixed Limit Hold'em round, the actual final table was reached and all play was switched to purely No Limit Hold'em.

Hellmuth started fifth in chips gradually it looked more and more likely he was going to make it heads up in his third WSOP event of the year. Ben Lamb was the first player eliminated and he was followed to the rail around an hour later by Scott Seiver. Seven became six with the elimination of George Lind before Matt Glantz finally lost all of his chips to be claim fifth spot. Owais Ahmed will go down in the history books as the fourth place finisher, whilst Minh Ly came third, despite holding a large chip lead at one point.

Ly's exit left Hellmuth to take a 10,015,000 to 9,185,000 lead over Brian Rast into the heads up stage of the match. It looked like it was going to be an extremely one-sided affair as Hellmuth picked up pot after pot to open what seemed like an unassailable lead of more than eight-to-one but in big bet games things can turn around quite dramatically as Rast was about to show.

Hand #210 of the final table was the turning point as it saw Rast fade a flush draw to double up to 5,260,000 chips. Just three hands later and he was back level pegging with Hellmuth after he again faded a flush draw, this time holding Ks7d against Tc8c with the money going in on a Jc-4d-Kc flop. Then amazingly, on hand #217 Hellmuth missed his third consecutive flush draw when and was eliminated in second place, a common occurrence at this year's series. The final hand saw Hellmuth raise to 400,000 on the button with 8d2s and Rast flat call with his KcQc. The flop came down Jd-9d-Ts and Rast lead out with his flopped nut straight. Hellmuth paused for a short while before announcing he was all in but he was going to need help as Rast said, “I'm sorry Phil, I have the nuts. I call,” before showing Hellmuth the bad news, though the flush draw did hold more than 36% equity. This was reduced to 20% with the arrival of the 5h on the turn and when the 8s landed on the river Hellmuth had gone from Hero to zero in just seven hands. Unbelievable. Almost as unbelievable is the fact that the $1,063,034 Hellmuth was awarded as his consolation prize is the largest of his career so far and his only score of seven-figures, this despite having lifetime winnings of more than $13,000,000.

This victory is Rast's second in a WSOP event, having won a $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em tournament earlier in the series. His win means that for the past 12 years there have been at least one double bracelet winner at the WSOP, though it was looking increasingly unlikely this year as the number of events still to be completed stands at just two!

Final table payouts

1st: Brian Rast: $1,720,238
2nd: Phil Hellmuth: $1,063,034
3rd: Minh Ly: $665,763
4th: Owais Ahmed: $482,085
5th: Matt Glantz: $376,750
6th: George Lind: $300,441
7th: Scoott Seiver: $243,978
8th: Ben Lamb: $201,338

Nine players returned to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino earlier today to play out the final table of Event #54, the $1,000 No Limit Hold'em tournament. Amongst them was Betfair Poker regular Harald Olsen, who was looking for his first World Series of Poker bracelet and the massive $648,880 first place prize that accompanied it.

For the first 90 minutes after the tournament resumed it looked like the players were trying to get a feel for one another but as soon as Sebastien Roy was eliminated in ninth place all hell broke loose. Roy was sent packing when Maxim Lykov raised to 125,000 from under the gun and Roy moved all in for around 700,000. Lykov made the call and showed KhQh, which was up against Roy's pocket eights. The Td-5s-2c flop looked safe enough but the Ad on the turn gave Lykov some outs to a Broadway straight. The Jh on the river completed Lykov's straight and the table was down to eight players.

Roy's demise triggered a whole host of eliminations as first Joshua Evans pushed his Jd9d straight down the throat of the pocket kings of Dror Michaelo and then 15 minutes later Douglas Mackinnon open shoved 12 big binds with Qs7d but could not suck out on Lykov's pair of sevens. Only 15 minutes passed before the table lost another player, this time it was 2008 WSOPE Main Event runner-up Stanislav Alekhin was was the player sent on his way to the cashier's cage, this half hour before the demise of our hero. The action folded around to Olsen in the small blind and he wasted no time in moving all in with Qd9h. Warren Wooldridge, the only British player on the final table, thought for 30 seconds before calling with AsJc, a bit of a slowroll but never mind. The final board ran out Tc-3d-7s-Td-5d and the Betfair Poker player was busted in fifth place, worth a bankroll boosting $159,134. Here's what one of Team Betfair's members posted on the Betfair forums:

Despite all of the excitement over at the $50k final table our attention was focussed on Betfair player Harald Olsen who was sat looking cool, calm and collected on his final table for the $1k event. His girlfriend (Elizabeth) was there again to rail him on and we stood alongside her watching as the cards were shuffled and the hands were dealt.  Elizabeth explained that she had also played in this event and they had planned to go halves on any winnings made. Harald eventually bust in 5th place taking home a sweet $159k. Whilst we were sad to see him bust he played an awesome game and was pleased with the outcome. The celebrations kicked off with a few bottles of champagne over at the Rio Casino and continued on to a delicious dinner at the amazing Nobu. Well played Harald, we hope you have a great time celebrating!

The very next hand four players became three after Ren Ho Zhang chose the worst possible time to try and bluff Lykov off his hand. With blinds now 40,000/80,000/10,000a, Lykov opened to 175,000 from the cutoff and only Zhang made the call. The 8h-7c-4c flop was met with a check from Zhang and then a call as Lykov continued his aggression with a 185,000 bet. It was a similar set of actions when the Ks landed on the turn except this time Lykov bet 285,000. The dealer put out the 8c on the river and Zhang sat for around a minute before moving all in but looked devastated as Lykov snap-called. Zhang turned over Ts9h for complete air, whilst Lykov flipped over Kc6c for the second nut flush!

This left Wooldridge, Lykov and Michaelo to fight it out for the bracelet and the ever-increasing prize money. Two and a half hours went by before the trio was reduced to the final two players and unfortunately for Wooldridge it was his tournament that was cut short. After raising to 300,000 (blinds 60,000/80,000/15,000a) with AcJd, Wooldridge saw Lykov come over the top of him and move all in. Wooldridge re-checked his cards and called off the rest of his chips. It looked like a great decision as Lykov held a dominated Ad9d but the Td-9d-7h flop put the Russian in the lead. This lead was extended when the 6d on the turn took away some of Wooldridge's out and when the 2s hit the river it was game over for the last surviving British player in this tournament.

Going into heads up Lykov held a 9,000,000 to 4,650,000 lead over Michaelo and it only took 20 minutes for his to press home this huge advantage. Michaelo raised to 250,000 and Lykov slid forward a pile of chips totalling 700,000. Michaelo then moved all in and was snapped off by Lykov, the latter holding AhKs to Michaelo's Kc5d. The Ac-Qc-Qd was pretty final and when the turn was the 9s, Michaelo was drawing completely dead. The meaningless 7s on the river completed Event #54 of the 2011 WSOP and Max Lykov of Moscow, Russia was announced as the champion.

Final table payouts

1st: Maxim Lykov: $648,880
2nd: Dror Michaelo: $401,296
3rd: Warren Wooldridge: $288,946
4th: Ren Ho Zhang: $213,539
5th: Harald Olsen: $159,134
6th: Stanislav Alekhin: $119,958
7th:Douglas MacKinnon: $90,604
8th: Joshua Evans: $69,230
9th: Sebastien Roy: $53,333

Almost every poker player on the planet dreams of reaching the final table of a World Series of Poker tournament then going on to win it, scooping a life-changing sum of money and a coveted gold bracelet. Most never realise this dream but one of our own has done just that as a Betfair Poker regular, Harald “MJAAAAAUUU” Olsen, has made it to the final nine of Event #54.

This particular tournament is the largest so far of this year's WSOP, with a staggering 4,576 players paying the $1,000 entry fee in exchange for 3,000 tournament chips. Our hero did not win his seat into this event, instead he bought in himself after splitting half of his action with his girlfriend, and fellow Betfair Poker regular, “Elsnikus.” It looks like it could be a great decision on both of their parts as Olsen, who will go into the final table of nine representing Team Betfair, is guaranteed to walk away with no less than $53,333 and he has a realistic chance of taking down the tournament, a result that would net him and his girlfriend a combined $648,880!

Olsen will return to his seat the the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino at 1430 Las Vegas time and will do so armed with 1,025,000 chips, placing him seventh from the nine final table members. Although he is one of the shorter stacks there are only 650,000 chips difference between him and third placed Josh Evans and with blinds now 30,000/60,000/5,000a that is only 11 big blinds.

Standing in between Olsen and his quest for glory is a mixture of professional players and rank amateurs. The best known face at the table is Max Lykov, an extremely talented Russian pro who has had a great 2011 so far. Since the start of the year Lykov has more than $950,000 helped massively by his third place finish in the $25,000 PCA High Roller event ($369,490) and more recently his fourth place finish at EPT San Remo (€290,000).

Although relatively unknown on the live tournament circuit, Olsen will have to also navigate his way around Dror Michaelo who finished fifth in a $1,500 event earlier in the series and Josh Evans who almost won his first bracelet in another $1,500 event but ultimately finished as runner-up to Andy Frankenberger. Should Olsen go on an win this event he will do so by disappointing a number of British supports as Warren Wooldridge has made it through the monster field to take a place at the final table. Wooldridge is primarily a cash game player, one who is a regular in the famous Vic games that Neil Channing, Nik Persaud and Victoria Coren are regulars and Coren was present on the rail, along with Peepshow star David Mitchell, to cheer the Blackbelt Poker CEO on from the rail.

Unless the tournament director decided to let the players redraw their seats before the final table resumes, they will be seated as follows:

Seat 1: Ren Ho Zhang: 785,000
Seat 2: Dror Michaelo: 1,980,000
Seat 3: Max Lykov: 3,875,000
Seat 4: Sebastein Roy: 1,400,000
Seat 5: Stanislav Alekhin: 820,000
Seat 6: Josh Evans: 1,670,000
Seat 7: Douglas Mackinnon: 1,160,000
Seat 8: Harald Olsen: 1,025,000
Seat 9: Warren Wooldridge: 1,030,000

The $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event begins this Thursday and we already know that Phil Ivey will not be participating after the Full Tilt Poker scandal but it now looks like one of poker's other living legends, Doyle Brunson, is going to follow in Ivey's footsteps but for completely different reasons.

After surviving another cancer scare back in March, which resulted in him revealing that “winning bracelets and poker tournaments aren't as important to me as they were a few weeks ago,” Brunson's usual jovial Twitter feed has been full of negative comments, but only when he has been Tweeting about poker tournaments he has been taking part in.

In April he got into a conversation with Daniel Negreanu where Negreanu joked that Brunson must have been bored to be needling him after he busted out of a major event. To which Brunson replied, “In your wildest imagination you can't believe how bored and useless I feel. I may never go bust in another tourny, guess why?” but when the Canadian quizzed Brunson about what his tweet meant he avoided the question entirely.

On Saturday 2 July 2011 the 10-time WSOP bracelet winner thanked one of his 383,000 Twitter followers for wishing him good luck in the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship but also said, “You might be watching my last tournament. If I don't play well (up my standards), I may retire from tournament poker.” “Texas Dolly” managed to make it through to Day 2 of the $50,000 event but the writing was on the wall from the start when he was seated on the posisbly one of the toughest tables ever assembled. Keeping him company on Table 365 were Steve Sung, Erick Lindgren, Barry Greenstein, Carlos Mortensen, Huck Seed, Bryn Kenney and Hoi Cheung. Needless to say Brunson busted out during Day 2, well away from the money and shortly afterwards he tweeted to his legion of fans, “No main event for me. Maybe the DOJ will stake me.”

Although Brunson has 10-WSOP bracelets to his name, including back-to-back victories in the 1976-77 Main Events, he has not won a WSOP event since 2005 and it was the previous year that he had his last cash in the Main Event. Personally I think it would be a real shame for him to bow out on a low note, having not cashed in this year's WSOP and having one last shot at Main Event glory would be a fitting way to end his tournament career.

It is not a common occurrence for a player making the final table of a poker tournament to be given more attention and coverage than the person who goes on to win the event but that is exactly what happened over the weekend as Jonathan Epstein reached the final table of Event #53 of the World Series of Poker, the $1,000 Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship.

The event attracted a bumper crowd of 1,055 players, most of whom were female but sadly there were some rather pathetic males who decided to gatecrash the tournament, most notably Shaun Deeb who even went as far as turning up in a dress, make-up and women's jewellery as to mock the fact there was a women-only tournament. The reason these sad individuals were allowed to enter despite being the wrong sex is down to anti-discrimination laws, which would make enforcing a women-only tournament illegal in the same way the WSOP could not host a white, black or Asian-only event.

Thankfully most the men, if we are to call them that, who entered the event failed to make it to the money but the aforementioned Mr Epstein not only made it into the top 117 places but to the final table of nine. Having a man on the final table was not well received by the vast majority of the poker community and event the WSOP announcer mocked Epstein during the final table bios by saying, “He's single an unemployed. No surprise on either count.”

He entered the final table seventh in chips but with only 10 big blinds in his stack and these found there way to the middle of the felt within the first 20 minutes. Everyone folded around to Marsha Wolak on the button and finding herself down to between 10-12 big blinds opted to move all in whilst holding a pair of black tens. Epstein, in the big blind, called off his remaining chips with AdQd and it was off to the races. The Kc-Jd-2d flop brought some drama but the Kh on the turn took away the imposter's outs to a straight and when the river came down the six of hearts the crowd erupted into voice as the tournament director announced, “Finally, welcome to THE Ladies Event!”

Wolak managed to put the chips she won from the scumbag to good use and eventually found herself heads up against Karina Jett, a well-known player who came fourth in the 2004 edition of this very tournament. The heads up stage of the tournament lasted precisely one hand, possibly the shortest heads up battle in WSOP history. In the hand Jett raised to 60,000 preflop and Wolak called. The dealer fanned out the Qd-Jd-8s flop, Wolak checked, Jett bet 70,000 and Wolak then check-raised all in. Jett briefly paused and announced call and turned over KsTd, which was up against the Qh9h of Wolak. The Tc improved Wolak to an unnecessary straight and when the 3d arrived on the river it was enough to send a pregnant Jett to the rail. A well deserved victory for Wolak who started the final table with just 90,000 chips, or 5.625 big blinds and a victory that sees her walk away with $192,334 in prize money.

No official word has come out of the WSOP camp regarding the men who entered this tournament but Communications Director Seth Palansky said in an interview with CardPlayer that they were considering suspending or banning those men who took part from other WSOP events. However, I believe that the same laws that allow these men to enter the ladies' event will also protect them from any disciplinary action, which probably also means Vanessa Rousso's suggestion of making it a $10,000 buy-in event but giving women a $9,000 discount would also be shunned.

Final table payouts

1st: Marsha Wolak: $192,344
2nd: Karina Jett: $119,010
3rd: Carol Tomlinson: $74,459
4th: Valarie Mccolligan: $54,045
5th: Peggy Ledman: $39,897
6th: Katherine Stahl: $29,909
7th: Jennifer Cowan: $22,750
8th: Gloutnez Genevine: $17,537
9th: Jonathan Epstein: $13,701

It appears that me trying out the six-max cash games on Betfair Poker has appeased the Poker Gods (amen) as they are allowing me to run like a weird hybrid consisting of Forrest Gump, the wind, Usain Bolt and God, which I am sure you will agree is a great combination.

Since my last update I have played an additional 2,300 or so hands and it feels great to be logging some decent volume for a change, and even better to be winning at a decent clip. From the 3,913 hands I have played since trying out the six-max cash tables, I have won a few cents over 10 buy-ins and ran more than four buy-ins over EV. I've got my money in badly quite a few times over the past few days but the RNG has been great to me and allowed me to put some monster beats on my fellow fish.

One example of how much I suck saw me get my stack in with Qs9h on a board reading 8c-9s-Qc-Ah only to find myself up against JcTd. Only having 9.1% equity is so underrated when you can bink the Qd on the river to boat up! Another saw a 40bb villain feel the wrath of the might pocket tens when he foolishly called a shove with 7c6c on a 3d-6d-7h-8h board. Didn't he know I could feel the 9c about to hit the river? Silly boy.

It's not all been suckouts and playing like a fish because I have, even if it is only me saying so, been playing the best poker I can remember. My view on this may be influenced by the run good and the fact it feels like I am getting dealt playable hands time after time but I am also reading players well and have won more than my fair share of pots without having to go to showdown. That said my non-showdown winnings, or the red-line as us geeks like to refer to it, are currently as minus three buy-ins but that is quite common at these stakes and with my playing style. That said I played terribly last night and got my money in with the worse of it three times when I should have gotten out of the way but I had been drinking wine which will not have helped.

The plan of action for this week is to take my total hands played to 10,000, which means playing around 6,100 hands over the next seven days or around 20 hours of playing time whilst sat at four tables. Once I reach the 10,000 hand milestone I'll probably go through all the stats in my Holdem Manager database and see if I am the world's worst player or not and either do another 10k at $0.05/$0.10 or move up to $0.10/$0.20 and see if it is just as fishy as NL10 is. So until next time, thanks for reading and best of luck at the tables!

Joe Ebanks was already one of online poker's millionaires, having won more than $3,000,000 from online tournaments and now he can say he is a live poker millionaire after he won the largest prize of the 2011 World Series of Poker so far, a cool $1,158,481 for taking down Event #46, the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Six-handed Championship.

The high buy-in and short-handed format was suited to the so-called internet generation of poker player so it was no surprise the online young guns made up a significant percentage of the 474 entrants and that all six members of the final table were all instantly recognisable faces.

Final table seat draw and chip counts

Seat 1: Mike “sowerss” Sowers: 1,445,000
Seat 2: Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier: 2,435,000
Seat 3: Joe “ender555” Ebanks: 3,100,000
Seat 4: Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade: 2,435,000
Seat 5: Chris “Moorman1” Moorman: 3,955,000
Seat 6: Taylor “taypaur” Paur: 830,000

It took four hours of play for the 22 players to be whittled down to the final table of six and a further 70 minutes for the table to lose its first player. The history books will show that Mike Sowers finished in sixth place and that he picked up $138,801 for his efforts over the three days of play. He finally came unstuck when he raised to 105,000 on the button (blinds 25,000/50,000/5,000a) and then called when Ebanks made it 275,000 to play from the big blind. The flop came down 5d-6d-9c, Ebanks lead out with a 275,000 bet and Sowers made the call. The turn saw the dealer put out the 3d and Ebanks elected to move all in for a huge overbet, a bet that covered Sowers' stack. After going into the tank, Sowers finally made the call and his As9h had the better of Ebanks' Kd7h, but only until the 9d landed on the river to complete Ebank's flush and send Sowers to the rail.

During the next hour of play two players lost all of their chips and with them the chance of their first WSOP bracelet. The first of the two was Taylor Paur who lost a vital coinflip with Ebanks. With blinds now 30,000/60,000/10,000 Paur open-raised from the button to 130,000 and when Ebanks re-raised to 290,000 in the big blind Paur decided the best course of action for his pocket fives was to move all in for a total of 1,700,000 chips. Ebanks made the call with AdQh and was instantly rewarded as the door card was the Qs, followed by 4d-4s. The 6h on the turn was just another nail in Paur's coffin and he was finally buried as the 8s fell on the river. Paur picked up $198,140 for his part in this superb event.

He was followed to the sidelines around 45 minutes later by Tristan Wade who was on the wrong side of a dominating ace when he entered a raising war with British pro and all round online poker legend, Chris Moorman. Wade opened to 155,000 from the small blind, which prompted Moorman to ask how many chips he had left behind. When he was informed that Wade had around 1,300,000 he quickly raised to 335,000 and then snap-called when Wade moved all in. Wade's As9h was in bad shape against the AdJc of Moorman and it became even worse as the dealer fanned out the Ac-7h-Qs flop, and when the turn and river were the 8s and Qc, Moorman's jack kicker came into play and it was enough to send Wade to the cashier's cage to pick up his $292,866 winnings.

Play remained three-handed for close to 90 minutes before Bertrand “ElKY” Grospellier's hopes of winning his second bracelet, and becoming the first person in poker history to win two $10,000 Championship events in the same year, were shattered by Ebanks. ElkY had started to open-shove since he dropped to 20 big blinds and a couple of people commented in the chatbox of the live stream that it was only a matter of time before the Frenchman ran into a big hand and whilst pocket eights are not a huge hand, they were certainly enough for Ebanks to call with when ElkY moved all in yet again, this time for 1,700,000 whilst holding KsTc. The 5s-9d-9s-3c-Qh board was safe for Ebanks and he sent a disappointed ElkY home in third place, worth $447,074.

ElkY's demise left it to Moorman and Ebanks to fight it out for the title, the coveted WSOP bracelet and the gargantuan first place prize money. The pair were quite evenly matched in terms of chips, Moorman holding a narrow 7,400,000 to 6,800,000 but Ebanks won a substantial pot early on in the one-on-one battle to take the lead. In the hand Ebanks limped and Moorman checked his option. The Kh-Qh-Jd flop was met with a 125,000 bet from Moorman, a 400,000 raise from Ebanks and a call from Moorman. The 6h on the turn slowed Moorman down as he check-called a 750,000 bet from his opponent, an action he mirrored after the arrival of the 4d on the river, though this time he called a massive 1,500,000 bet and quickly mucked as Ebanks showed Th9c for a flopped straight. This saw Ebanks jump to 9,800,000 and by the time the tournament was brought to an end after ten levels of play, he had extended this lead to 11,015,000 against Moorman's 3,215,000.

The players returned to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino at 1430 Las Vegas time in order to bring the tournament to a conclusion but anyone expecting to see an epic comeback were bitterly disappointed as everything was done and dusted within just 15 minutes of the restart. Moorman got the action started with a min-raise to 240,000 , a bet that Ebanks called. The dealer put out the 3d-Qs-Td and both players checked. The Kh on the turn saw Ebanks lead for 250,000 and Moorman move all in for what turned out to be 2,060,000. Ebanks rocked back in his chair and waited a few moments before calling and turning over Kd4d, ahead of the Jc7d of Moorman. The turn had to be a nine otherwise Moorman would be eliminated and it was a nine but the celebrations were cut short as it was the 9d, which also improved Ebanks to a diamond flush, more than enough to bust Moorman in second place.

This runner-up finish was Moorman's fifth cash and second final table of the current series, taking his winnings to $1,051,556 and gives him a realistic chance of winning the Player of the Year award. It surely cannot be long before Moorman, who has been badly effected by the recent Full Tilt Poker saga, wins his first WSOP bracelet.

Twenty-six year old Ebanks revealed that this win had seem him accomplish one of his goals and saw him realise a dream. “This is what it's all about. When  I first started playing poker seriously seven years ao, my goal was to get to this stage, and now I've achieved it.” Congratulations Joe Ebanks, enjoy the money and the glory!

Final table payouts

1st: Joe Ebanks: $1,158,481
2nd: Chris Moorman: $716,282
3rd: Bertand Grospellier: $447,074
4th: Tristan Wade: $292,866
5th: Taylor Paur: $198,400
6th: Mike Sowers: $138,801

After running like death for the last 100 or so heads up SNG, I decided to take a few days off from the online poker grind because the constant losing, despite getting my money in good, was really starting to get me down and I was going into games thinking I was going to lose. If that is your mindset then you are doomed from the start.

I logged onto Betfair Poker on Monday and instead of playing HUSNG I found myself sitting down at four six-max cash game tables, the first time I had sat in the new format since they were launched last week or the week before. The cash games on Betfair are generally full of donks but the old five-max format just did not appeal to me but I thought I would give the new six-handed games a try.

I know some of the mid-stakes guys have complained about the games tightening up with the extra player being involved but at the $0.05/$0.10 games where I have been splashing around I can confirm that they are as loose and full of fish as ever. Monday saw me play 704 hands, the most I have played in like forever. I actually only wanted to play for 20-30 minutes but finished up playing for a little over two hours because I was running well and the others at my table were so bad it was worth paying rake just to watch them!

There were villains calling shoves with Ts6c on a 2d-3h-4h-Kh board (I held AhAs BTW), in fact I have been in the right side of at least four pots for stacks where villain only has a gutshot. The play has been that horrible that I have managed to play 1,564 hands since Monday and you know what I am like for not being able to put in any sort of volume. That said I am miles behind John Tabatabai in the grinder stakes as he's played around 80,000 hands this month, but he 10-12 tables whilst I merely play four.

Apart from the shocking players I am quite impressed with the software. It has got a lot of negative press on various forums but the recently launched client seems much more stable and is not as resource intensive as the previous version. Now I can play four tables and have Holdem Manager running and my prehistoric laptop does not try and melt through my thighs! I'm impressed with the speed of the tables too as I'm averaging at 350 hands per hour whilst four-tabling and now that I have managed to figure out how to get my HUD to display properly I may be able to add some more tables and really rack up some hands. My major gripe, and one that you really need to sort out My Betfair Boss if you are listening, is BLOODY AUTO-TOP UP! Everywhere has it now and it is so tilting to have to continually top up my stack, which is quite often as I play quite a lot of hands, plus it highlights when things aren't going well for you as you know you have topped up half a dozen times after whiffing flops. Hopefully it'll come in the next couple of updates as it will certainly help anyone playing more than a single table.

I'm still hoping to play in some of the low by-in tournaments on Betfair but I had to withdraw a decent chunk of my bankroll for the house move so I am back playing just $0.05/$0.10 for the time being, hoping to grind back up towards $500, at which point I'll start to mix some MTTs in and will probably try my arm at HUSNG again in the near future too as I believe these are a great way to build a bankroll pretty quickly as again the players are very weak and you can rake quite a lot which is good for the old rakeback, sorry valueback.

Well I think that's enough for one day. As always, thanks for reading and best of luck at the tables!

Event #46, the $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Six-handed Championship is down to its final 22 players and Britain's Chris “Moorman1” Moorman finds himself well chipped up in second place and in with a very realistic chance of winning his first, and long overdue, World Series of Poker bracelet.

There are not going to be many weak spots in many $10,000 buy-in events, especially in the latter stages of one, but the surviving 22 players in this particular tournament mean the only word that will be close to being an accurate description is “sick.”

Leading the way is Mike “Sowerss” Sowers who has 1,468,000 chips to go back into battle with. Sowers is a talented individual who has over $2,200,000 in live tournament winnings and at least that from online tournaments and will certainly have a say on where the bracelet ends up. Hot on his heels is Moorman who has 1,458,000 chips and would be my personal favourite to win some gold and the massive $1,158,481 first place prize. Moorman has cashed in WSOP events previous to this one, including a third place finish in the recent $2,500 No Limit Hold'em event and he will certainly be looking to improve on that finish when play resumes at 1430 Las Vegas time (0030 UK time).

It is not going to be plain sailing for any of the 22 players still left in the field, especially when you consider Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Taylor Paur both have over 1,000,000 chips. ElkY is looking for his second WSOP bracelet of the current series and if he did manage to become this event's champion he would also become the first player to win two $10,000 Championship events in the same year.

Someone else who could also have that honour bestowed on them is Ben Lamb, who had to register late for this tournament after winning the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship a couple of days ago. Lamb finds himself sat atop of the Player of the year standings and will increase his 60 point lead wherever he finishes. Lamb returns to the felt armed with 501,000 chips, enough to see him start in 13th place.

Of all of the tournaments played so far at this year's WSOP, this is by far the most exciting conlusion to one and I cannot wait for the live stream of the final table, which should hopefully be reached later today. Best of luck to everyone still in with a shout, especially Moorman. Bring it home for the Brits sir!

Top ten chip counts going into Day 3

1.) Mike Sowers: 1,468,000
2.) Chris Moorman: 1,458,000
3.) Bertrand Grospellier: 1,409,000
4.) Taylor Paur: 1,005,000
5.) Joe Ebanks: 893,000
6.) Nick Grippo: 886,000
7.) Greg Dyer: 709,000
8.) William Thorson: 674,000
9.) Christopher DeMaci: 639,000
10.) David benefield: 622,000