Yorky Pud

Twenty-one players made their way back to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino earlier today all sharing one common goal, to win Event #45 of the World Series of Poker. The biggest name who was still in with a shout of winning the $455,346 first place prize and the gold WSOP bracelet that accompanied it was Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, a player with more than $4,500,000 in live tournament winnings and a winner of many major titles including a WSOP event and two World Poker Tour Events.

Three and a half hours into play and the 21 hopefuls had been reduced to just 10 players and these were all relocated onto an unofficial final table. Ten minutes into this final table and David Haiman became its first casualty. The action folded around to him in the small blind and he entered a raising war with Frenchman Jean Luc Marvais that resulted in Haiman's 420,000 stack being on the line with As4d. Marvais held Ah3d and it looked like a chop would be the most likely result but the final board ran out Ac-Jd-3c-9c-Qd to send Haiman to the rail in tenth and the official final table was reached.

Jeremiah Sigmund was eliminated in ninth place when his 9c9d could not suck out on Eric Baudry's black queens and he was followed out of the door just ten minutes later by Aaron Massey who must have thought all of his Christmas' had come at once when he saw Andrew Teng move all in over Massey's original raise because Massey held KjKs and looked set to double up through Teng, who held 6d6s. The Ad-Td-2d flop gave Teng some hope and when the 7d arrived on the turn, completing the Brits diamond flush, Massey was drawing dead. To rub salt into the wound the Kc fell on the turn but it was too little too late for Massey who realised a dream by making to a WSOP final table.

Down to seven players and finding himself with 2,000,000 in chips Esfandiari was the hot favourite to scoop his second WSOP bracelet but an amazingly he was on the rail less than an hour later! He first lost a huge percentage of his stack when he moved all in with Ad8d on a board reading Qs-As-9h-4s only to find a delighted Baudry sat there with AcAh for top set and leaving “The Magician” drawing dead. Then just a couple of hands later he saw Kenneth Griffin raise to 80,000 from under the gun and he decided to move all in for his last 625,000 whilst holding KsTs. Any other day this move would probably have seen him pick up some much needed chips uncontested but not today as Philip Hammerling woke up on the button with AsKh and re-shoved, forcing Griffin out of the pot. The five community cards read 9d-7c-4s-4c-3h and with that Esfandiari was eliminated from the tournament.

After Esfandiari's demise the tournament quickly turned into the Griffin show as the former US Marine blasted his way through opponents like there was no tomorrow. First to feel his wrath was Jonathan Lane and he was followed out of the door by Teng, yet another British player to make it to the final table. Teng's elimination hand saw him lose a massive coinflip with sixes against Griffin's ace-queen but the youngster cannot have too many complaints as he got very lucky with sixes earlier in proceedings.

Fourth place went to Baudry, against eliminated at the hands of Griffin and Mr Hammering went the same way to set up a heads up battle against Marvais, who was looking to become the fourth French bracelet winner of the series behind Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Fabrice Soulier and Elie Payan. However, his dreams of a bracelet were soon dashed as finally made a stand against the relentless aggression shown by Griffin but he could not have chosen a worse time to do so if he had tried. Already short stacked he moved all in preflop with Ks6d and after checking his cards Grififn rose from his seat and announced “Call!” before flipping over the best starting hand in Hold'em, a pair of aces! The dealer got to work on community cards and by the river they read Js-3c-Qs-8d-9c, which meant no suckout for the Frenchman and Griffin, a man who served in the Marines for 10 years, had become a WSOP champion!

Final table payouts

1st: Kenneth Griffin: $455,356
2nd: Jean Luc Marvais: $282,676
3rd: Philip Hammering: $199,366
4th: Eric Baudry: $143,991
5th: Andrew Teng: $105,262
6th: Jonathan Lane: $77,873
7th: Antonio Esfandiari: $58,288
8th: Aaron Massey: $44,138
9th: Jeremiah Siegmund: $22,813

The $1,000 and $1,500 No Limit Hold'em events at the World Series of Poker always attract bumper fields, leading the media and poker community to nickname them “donkaments.” Usually in these events, due to the sheer number of entrants, the latter stages are full of unknown players but Event #45 has one of poker's most recognisable faces in the crowd with just 21 players remaining, Antonio Esfandiari.

A staggering 2,890 players swapped $1,000 for 3,000 tournament chips on Day 1 and almost unbelievably all but 304 players were eliminated by the time ten hour-long levels had been played out. When play resumed earlier today all eyes were on Esfandiari and those that weren't were focussed on Phil Hellmuth who was in the running for WSOP bracelet number 12.

Hellmuth was his usual loud-mouthed self and couldn't help giving an unnamed opponent down despite doubling through him. In the hand the player in the small blind made a move and went all in with ace-three offsuit only to find “The Poker Brat” sitting there with bullets. The final board ran out Js-Qc-Th-5c-7h and Hellmuth's mouth exploded into action. “See, that's just what I do. I play super tight for two days, and then they move in on me when I have the aces,” exclaimed Hellmuth before adding, “I don't let people run me over.”

Just an hour from the end of play and with only 28 players remaining it looked as if a well chipped up Hellmuth was a serious contender for the title until he blew up in a style akin to Mike Matusow. With blinds at 4,000/8,000/1,000a, Hellmuth limped in from early position and the action folded around to Jonathan Driscoll in the big blind, who opted to check his option. The flop came down Qd-Ad-4s and Hellmuth checked, Driscoll bet 10,000 only to see Hellmuth min-raise to 20,000. Driscoll then made a min-raise of his own to 30,000 then called when Hellmuth decided to ship in his entire stack with what turned out to be Kd8d, which was up against the AcTs of his opponent. The ace of spades in the turn improved Driscoll to trip aces and the queen of spades in the river was enough to send Hellmuth to the rail. He instantly left his seat but returned shortly afterwards to shake Driscoll's hand, but whilst wishing him all the best he could not help but berate him on his play, before apologising, “It's not you, I'm just steaming right now. I just played perfectly for two straight days and lost it all.”

When play came to an end for the day only 21 players still had chips in front of them and they are being lead by Hellmuth's executioner, Driscoll who has 1,247,000 chips. Although an unknown quantity, Driscoll seems to specialise in large-field tournaments with him finishing 39th in the 2010 Main Event, 10/4,178 and 78/3,175 in two events this year. He is being closely followed by Kenneth Griffin on 1,133,000 and British pro Andrew Teng, a former GUKPT Champion in third with 723,000 chips in front of him.

Play resumes at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino at 1430 Las Vegas time (0030 UK time) and when it does it will be the man in fourth place, Esfandiari who will be main focal point. He already has a WSOP bracelet to his name but he won that seven years ago and one could say he is due another, especially as he is yet to cash at this year's series. Can the man known as “The Magician” win his second bracelet or will Teng be bringing home the bacon for the Brits? Only time will tell.

Ben Lamb is almost certainly the best poker player you have never heard of, but ensure you commit his name to memory as I am positive that the bracelet he won earlier today will certainly not be the last he places on his wrist.

Lamb is a 26-year old poker pro who currently resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. It is here that he is a regular in the highest stakes cash games where he is widely regarded as one of the best Pot Limit Omaha players in the world. Most of those who face Lamb at the felt on a daily basis are World Series of Poker bracelet winners themselves but now he not only has one of his own, his was earned in a $10,000 World Championship tournament, Event #42 to be exact, the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha World Championship.

Despite being a cash game pro Lamb has some impressive tournament results to his name, most notably his 14th place finish at the 2009 WSOP Main Event that netted him a cool $633,022. More recently he finished as runner-up to Sam Stein in the $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha event for a score of $259,918, which when added to the $814,436 he won in this event breaks the record for the most money earned in Pot Limit Omaha tournaments in a year.

There were 361 entrants taking part in this event, which made it the biggest Omaha tournament prizepool on record. Just under half of the field, 156, managed to survive the first day of play and these were whittled down to just 38 during Day 2. Play was paused late on Day 2, just two players before the money bubble, much to the annoyance of the players but the new “hard-stop” rule which pauses the action after players have completed ten levels of play for the day is being enforced by the floorstaff.

When the players returned for the third day of play they did not have to wait long until the 38th then 37th finishers were announced. The unfortunate bubble boy was Jyri Merivirta and his demise meant the 36 remaining players would all walk away with no less than $20,699. The first player to head to the cashier's cage to pick up their money was British veteran Surindar Sunar and he followed throughout the course of the day by the likes of Ludovic Lacey, Mike “Timex” McDonald, Max Pescatori and the recent bracelet winner Stein (mentioned above.)

The final table was reached quite late into proceedings of Day 3 but what a final table it was. Keeping Lamb company were the likes of Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro, Josh Tieman, Dario Alioto and the familiar site of two British players in the shape of John Shipley and the WSOP bracelet holding John Kabbaj. First to bust out of the final table was Hans Winzeler, a man who finished in second place to Jason Mercier in Event #35 and he was followed tot he rail by first Tieman and then the short-stacked Cory Wood.

Kabbaj was looking strong but winning his second WSOP bracelet will have to wait as he finished in sixth place, coming off worst after a clash with Lamb. From middle position Lamb made it 185,000 to play and when the action folded to Kabbaj he re-potted and before anyone had time to react he was all in and Lamb had called the 700,000 bet. Kabbaj turned over Ac-Kh-Ts-8d, which was up against Ad-As-Qc-Qd. It is rare to be a substantial favourite preflop in PLO but Kabbaj found himself to a 23/77 underdog in the hand, which worsened to a 9% chance with the arrival of a 9h-5s-2c flop. The 4c turn locked up the hand for Lamb and Kabbaj was eliminated in sixth place, worth $153,517.

Not long after Kabbaj's exit the table lost an other player, this time it was Alioto who lost all of his chips. The name Alioto should ring a bell as he won the £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event at the inaugural WSOPE back in 2007. Like Kabbaj he will have to wait for another event to try and win his second piece of poker jewellery. With Alioto out of the picture and the ten level rule looming over their heads, the players left the table and the action was paused for what would turn out to be the final time in this particular event.

Twenty minutes after the restart, Christopher King felt the wrath of Lamb to bust out in fourth place. King got him money in good with Ah-As-Ks-Qs against Kc-Kd-8d-4w but Lamb flopped the diamond flush to leave King drawing extremely thinly and was in fact drawing completely dead by the turn. This was King's first-ever WSOP cash and it was for a cool $273,575. Shortly after Britain's hopes of a fourth bracelet of the series were shattered as Shipley found himself all in with Ac-Kd-8c-5s against the Ks-Qh-Js-8d of Kelpuro and when the board ran out Qs-5h-Td-2s-7c it was game over for the Brit who picked up almost $370,000 for his efforts in this tournament and boosted British player's winnings at this year's WSOP past the $6,100,000 mark.

Shipley's exit left Kelopuro and Lamb to battle it out for the title and the huge first place prize of $814,436. Lamb held a 6,650,000 to 4,180,000 advantage and it proved to be too much for the Finn to overcome as Lamb applied constant pressure to put his opponent on the ropes. The final hand went down around 20 minutes after Shipley had busted in third place and saw Kelopuro make it 240,000 to play, Lamb made the call. The flop came down As-9h-3d and Lamb check-called a 275,000 bet. The Qs landed on the turn and again Lamb checked but this time when he faced a larger bet of 675,000 he raised the pot and then quickly called when Kelopuro moved all in.

Kelopuro: Ac-Qc-Kd-7d (for top two pair)
Lamb: 6s-5h-4s-2d (for a whole myriad of draws)

The dealer burned a card and dealt the river, 5d, which completed Lamb's straight and sent Kelopuro to the rail without a bracelet but with $503,173 reasons to be happy with his performance over the four days of play.

Lamb's victory pushes him past the $2,300,000 barrier in live tournament winnings and also catapults him to the top of the Player of the Year standings, knocking none other than Phil Hellmuth off his perch. Congratulations to Ben Lamb!

Final table payouts

1st: Ben Lamb: $814,436
2nd: Sami Kelopuro: $503,173
3rd: John Shipley: $369,575
4th: Christopher King: $273,575
5th: Dario Alioto: $203,113
6th: John Kabbaj: $153,517
7th: Cory Wood: $116,359
8th: Josh Tieman: $88,873
9th: Hans Winzeler: $68,410

Matthew Jarvis has become the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Six-handed Champion after outlasting a star-studded field of 732 to win his first World Series of Poker bracelet and boost Canada's haul to five wins at this year's WSOP.

Jarvis should be a familiar name to you poker aficionados and rightly so as just seven months ago he reached the final table of the $10,000 WSOP Main Event to become a “November Niner.” He eventually finished in eighth place, good for $1,045,743 but was still bitterly disappointed not to have really challenged for the bracelet but he has now more than made amends by winning one of the toughest live fields on record.

Seventy-two players made it to the money including Nenad Medic, Daniel Alaei, Shaun Deeb, Isaac Haxton, Faraz Jaka, Daniel Negreanu, Shane Schleger and reigning WSOP Main Event Champion, Jonathan Duhamel. A number of British players also made it into the money places, the one going the deepest being Martins Adeniya who was eliminated in 19th place, worth $24,942.

The six-handed final table was reached late into Day 3 after Dan O'Brien was eliminated in seventh place and the players were seated and chipped up as follows:

Seat 1: Matt Vengrin: 760,000
Seat 2: Wesley Pantling: 1,880,000
Seat 3: Robert Merulla: 2,550,000
Seat 4: Justin Flitz: 3,625,000
Seat 5: Matt Jarvis: 1,680,000
Seat 6: Tore Lukashaugen: 720,000

Matt Vengrin had taken a few hits to his stack from the start of the final table and was down to 250,000 chips and with blinds of 12,000/24,000/4,000a he looked down at QcJd and open-shoved from the cutoff. Wesley Pantling, on the button, made the call with As5d and it was off to the races, with Pantling holding the advantage. His lead was soon almost unassailable as the flop came down Ac-7s-8c and when the turn and river were the 4c and 8s respectively it was game over for Vengrin.

Shortly afterwards and Tore Lukashaugen was following Vengrin to the rail after clashing with Justin Flitz. The latter opened to 70,000 on the button (blinds had risen to 15,000/30,000/5a) and when the action was on Lukashaugen he moved all in for what turned out to be 530,000. Flitz made the call and turned over AhQs, which was up against the QhQd of Lukashaugen. The final board ran out 2s-As-3h-Td-9c, which meant Lukashaugen was eliminated in fifth place and Flitz continued to chip up.

The fourth place finisher was Robert Merulla who went from hero to zero in record time. At the time of Lukashaugen's elimination Merulla was the chip leader but after taking a few hits to his stack he found himself having to do battle with just 1,300,000 chips. He opened on the button to 70,000 and when Flitz three-bet to 195,000, Merulla moved all in for the rest of his stack. Flitz asked for a count and when he was informed of the amount he made the call. Merulla held Ah8s but Flitz had him crushed with a dominating AsQh. By the river the five community cards read 5s-9d-Js-7s-2s, gifting Flitz the nut flush and sending Merulla to the cashier's cage.

Pantling was the man who came third to leave Jarvis and Flitz to do battle heads up for the title. Pantling was down to 1,200,000, or 30 big blinds, and these found there way into the middle when he initially opened with a raise to 95,000 only to see Jarvis move all in afterwards. Pantling quickly called and revealed his AdJc, forcing a sheepish looking Jarvis to turn over Qd8d. The Kc-6h-5c flop failed to alter anything but the Qh on the turn propelled Jarvis into the lead. The 6s on the river was not what Pantling was looking for and he left the final table $317,136 richer than when he had started. Not a bad day in the office by anyone's standards.

Going into heads-up Jarvis lead by 7,105,000 to 3,795,000 and the stacks stayed the same for almost four hours. Then, towards the very end of play, the pair sprung into action and Flitz managed to double up with 9d9s against Jarvis' pocket fours and then even took a 2,500,000 chip lead, but a huge hand at the end of the night saw Jarvis catapulted back into a commanding lead. A preflop raising war broke out that saw the AsTh of Jarvis taking on the 7c7h of Flitz. The dealer burned and put out the 8d-Qh-Js flop, giving Jarvis outs to double gutshot straight. The dealer burned another card and put out the Td on the turn, improving Jarvis to a pair of tens. The river was the 3c and with that Jarvis had retaken the lead in emphatic style, a massive 8,150,000 to 2,750,000 lead.

The one-on-one battle had to be paused as ten-levels of play had been completed so the duo returned to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino on Sunday afternoon to finish their battle. Quite ironically it only lasted five hands before it was all over. With blinds now 50,000/100,000/10,000a Flitz open-shoved with Kd9d and Jarvis snap-called with As8h. Neither player improved as the board ran out 5h-3h-6d-2s-3d but Jarvis had the best hand thanks to his ace-kicker, and just seven months after falling at the last hurdle in the Main Event Jarvis had become a WSOP champion.

An overwhelmed Jarvis had this to say about scooping his first bracelet, “You dream of a moment like this from the first time you start playing poker. To win and event like this with as tough a field as this was, is an amazing feeling.”

Final table payouts

1.) Matthew Jarvis: $808,538
2.) Justin Flitz: $499,855
3.) Wesley Pantling: $317,136
4.) Robert Merulla: $208,281
5.) Tore Lukas haugen: $141,125
6.) Matt Vengrin: $98,567

The 2010 World Series of Poker was labelled the Year of the Brit after our boys and girls played out of their skins and ensured British players had their best WSOP on record. That year Brits won five bracelets, 23 final tables, 275 cashes and winnings of $8,679,918 but with 19 events and the Main Event still left to play at this year's series British players look set to smash that record.

At time of writing up to Event #38 has been completed and Brits are still running hot and playing even better. So far Jake Cody, Matthew Perrins and Darren Woods have won a bracelet and there have been a total of 18 final table appearances and a massive 136 cashes, for winnings of around $5,100,000! An amazing achievement and long may it continue.

Last night two more Brits came close to bringing home the bacon but fell just short after terrific runs. The first was Tom Middleton, a young online pro from Leeds who is currently ranked 62nd in the world for online poker tournaments. Online he has won more than $2,700,000. Before reaching the final table of Event #35, the $2,500 No Limit Hold'em event, Middleton's best cash was for £22,150, which he was awarded for winning the 2008 Gala Casinos Poker Tour final in Bristol. Now he has smashed that amount by winning $305,015 after finishing third this event.

He played superbly throughout the tournament and was unlucky to lose a vital coinflip to eliminate him, if he had won this particular hand there is no doubt he would have been brining home a bracelet. In the hand in question he got into a raising war preflop with eventual winner Mikhail Lakhitov that resulted in Middleton being all-in and at risk of elimination. His ThTd were in front of the AsKd of his Russian opponent but fell way behind as the flop came down 5d-Ks-9s. The Js gave Middleton extra outs to a gustshot straight but the 5s was not one of them and the Brit was sent to the rail where he was met by an army of drunken, boisterous supporters.

The second British player to make a WSOP final table last night was Paul Nash, better known as brummieboy when he is plying his trade as an online poker professional. Nash's biggest score of his career came in 2009 when he finished second in the PokerStars Sunday Million, a result that netted him $165,555. Despite winning close to $880,000 from online tournaments, Nash had not been able to reproduce the same form in the live arena, though he did have four cashes in UKIPT events prior to this result, his best being a sixth place finish in Manchester that scooped him £12,600.

Nash entered Event #38, the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em tournament, along with 2,191 others and after three long days and nights of poker found himself on the final table of nine, albeit seventh in chips. Unfortunately for Nash, and his legion of railbirds, he could not gain the momentum he needed to bring home a bracelet and was eliminated in fifth place. The final hand saw the flop come down 7s-3s-8h and with 250,000 already in the pot Nash bet 160,000. Arkadiy Tsinis raised to 365,000 and after a brief pause Nash moved all in for 970,000. Getting close to three-to-one pot odds Tsinis shrugged his shoulders and made the call, turning over Ac8d. Tsinis' pair of eights were the best hand as Nash revealed AdJs and in desperate need of help. The Qs on the turn gave him extra outs to the spade flush but they failed to materialise as the river was the Ah, sending the popular Brit to the rail disappointed to not win a bracelet but with $123,028 to console himself with.

By the time the weekend is done and dusted we could have a few more Brits on final tables and winning bracelets. The $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Six-handed event is down to the last 20 and both Jude Ainsworth (From the Republic of Ireland but we'll steal him) and Martins Adeniya are both still in with a shot at glory. Good luck ladies and gents!

Today I am feeling a little under the weather, green around the gills, sick as a dog and rough as a badger's behind. The reason for this is four measly pints of Stella. That is right, four pints. Not fourteen, four. I have turned into a complete wuss, or at least my body has.

I rarely drink lager when I am out and it is even more rare that when I do I choose Stella. Lager gasses me up and makes me pee a lot so I generally stick to proper ale, after all I am a Yorkshireman. Last night I fancied a change so faced with a choice of Fosters or Stella I chose the latter as I wouldn't use Fosters for anything other than putting out a BBQ. It's like piss. The decision was even easier when I discovered the Koala urine was £3.10 a pint, Lollerskates.

Anyway, the reason for me being in the pub was for a quiz night that is held there every Thursday and Sunday. My in-laws go most Thursdays and now that we have moved within five minutes walk from them they asked if I wanted to tag along. I accepted their offer, despite feeling absolutely shattered and not at all intellectual, and to cut a long story short we didn't win or even come close to it. Meh. I even lost at “Play Your Cards Right,” proving that anything to do with gambling I am **** in. The first card was an eight so I changed it and they gave me a three. Higher. It was a six, oh come on. Higher. An eight. FML. Lower? A seven. You're having a chuffing laugh mate. Higher. Four. F**k right off. I am destined to never win anything at cards I am sure of it now. So no win in the quiz, ripped off at play your cards right and hangover from hell to boot. Have I mentioned that I only had four pints?

Before I sauntered off to the pub I booked my flights so that I can go an work as the live blogger for the upcoming stop in Slovenia on the World Poker Tour. What a carry on that was too and I've run even worse with the flight times that I did guessing which cards were higher or lower. Last week I could book flights for £250 but I was completely peppermint so had to hang fire. I book them last night and they had gone up to £320. FML again. Not only that but the only way to keep the costs under £500-750 was to accept ridiculously early flight times so I am going to be like a bloody zombie by the time I actually get to Portoroz on Saturday 16 July.

My flight from Manchester leaves at 0650 so I will have to be at the airport for about 0450. The only way I can do this is to pay some numpty to drive me there because I can't be waking the kids up at 0330 to come with me so the Mrs isn't left without a car all week, or get the train. However, the only train I can catch that will get to to the airport in time is the one that arrives there at 0115. So a nice five hour 35 minute wait for me in the airport then. Oh and it gets better. My flight from Manchester actually only takes me as far as Munich, Germany where I sit around for another three hours before flying to, wait for this, Trieste in Northern Italy. I kid you not. From there I have to try and get a taxi, which will set me back about £100, to Portoroz in Slovenia. Good times will be had for sure. I can imagine myself falling asleep in the back of the cab and waking up in some dungeon where some uber-rich geek is about to hold a blowtorch to my Mr Lumps like in the Tarrantino film, Hostel. Oh I almost forgot, my return flights start at 0635 so I will finish work at about 2230 on Thursday night and have to be in Trieste airport at 0400! Can hardly wait guv.

The crappy travelling aside, I am actually quite looking forward to the tournament, though it will be the first time I cover a poker tournament by myself and there will be hardly any of the regular staff or players there due to fact the World Series of Poker Main Event will have kicked off. Fingers crossed that it goes well because if it does it could mean regular work with the WPT and that can never be a bad thing can it?

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

Jason Mercier is widely regarded as one of the best poker tournament players in the world and he has added extra weight to this statement by taking down his second World Series of Poker event, the inaugural $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Handed tournament.

Mercier exploded onto the live poker scene back in 2008 when an outright win in the EPT San Remo Main Event, which incidentally was his first major live cash, saw him walk away with €869,000. He cashed a further seven times during the year including making the final table of EPT Barcelona Main Event, the £5,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament at the WSOPE and an outright win in the £20,000 High Roller event at the European Poker Championships. By the time 2008 had come to an end he had won almost $2,800,000.

He proved that his success was not just a flash in a pan and during 2009 he won more than $1,300,000 from live tournaments and nearly $1,060,000 in 2010 and thanks to this latest in a long line of victories, Mercier has already earned close to $1,158,000 in the first half of this year.

Mercier always seems to do well at the WSOP, having cashed at least four times at each of the series since 2008 if you include the WSOPE. In 2009 he won his first bracelet in a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha event and this win in the $5,000 event was his fourth cash of the 20111 WSOP and was made all the more impressive by the fact it was quite possibly one of the toughest fields ever assembled.

He started the third and final day fifth in chips but got off to a great start when he eliminated both Peter Jetten and Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott in the same hand to take his stack past the 1,200,000 mark. In the hand Ulliott made it 25,000 to play from the button, Jetten three-bet to 110,000 in the small blind and both Mercier (big blind) and Ulliott made the calls. The dealer spread the 2d-Jd-8s flop and Jetten wasted no time in open-shoving for the rest of his stack. Mercier followed suit and Ulliott almost beat them all into the pot, a three way all in with Mercier covering his opponents.

Mercier: Qd-9d-Tc-6c (open-ended straight draw and flush draw)
Jetten: Ah-Ac-9s-5c (a pair of aces)
Ulliott: Jc-Jh-7d-7h (top set)

The dealer burned a card and put out the Qc on the turn, completing a straight for Mercier and leaving Jetten drawing dead but if the board paired Ulliot would have tripled up. But alas the river was the 4c, which did not please Ulliott who called Mercier, “the luckiest f****ng mother-f***er alive!” as he left the table. Mr Ulliott obviously needs to check out a poker odds calculator as Mercier was actually a narrow 48.44 to 46.66% favourite over Ulliott in the hand with Jetten holding the remaining 4.89% equity.

A chipped up Mercier is a dangerous opponent, a chipped up Mercier who is running well is almost impossible to play against so it was no surprise that as the players were gradually being eliminated it was he who found himself heads up against Hans Winzeler for the bracelet. It was quite an uneven match, with Winzeler having only $70,000 in live tournament winnings compared to Mercier's $5,700,000 so once Mercier snatched the chip lead there never looked like any other result apart from a victory for the Florida resident.

The final hand came around 90 minutes into heads up and saw Mercier raise to 160,000 preflop and then call Winzeler's three-bet to 480,000. The flop came down 9d-4s-3d, Mercier bet 90,000, Winzeler potted all-in and Mericer quickly called.

Mercier: Qc-6c-5d-3s
Winzeler: Ac-Kc-Kd-Js

Winzeler held an overpair but was actually slightly behind in the hand in terms of equity due to the nature of Omaha and the fact Mercier held a pair and an open-ended straight draw. None of Mercier's outs landed on the turn as it was the Tc but the 7h on the river completed Mercier's straight and was enough to eliminate Winzeler from the tournament for a well deserved $383,075 addition to his bankroll.

Final table payouts:

1st: Jason Mercier: $619,575
2nd: Hans Winzeler: $383,075
3rd: Steven Merrifield: $239,100
4th: David Chiu: $156,628
5th: Joseph Ressler $105,967
6th: Mike McDonald: $73,965

“Spiderman, Spiderman, does whatever a spider can,” proclaims the theme tune to the cartoon of the same name and it appears that Spiderman has been playing poker in an illegal high-stakes poker game, something that he is now being sued for.

A number of high-profile Hollywood celebrities including Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Ben Affleck and Spider-man star Tobey Maguire are alleged to have regularly taken part in underground cash games held in luxurious suites at the Beverly Hills hotel, Four Seasons and the Viper Room on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. The cash games were organised by Brad Ruderman, the CEO of Ruderman Capital Partners, and a man that the Federal Bureau of Investigation discovered had lost more than $25m of investors money in the bi-weekly $100,000 buy-in games. High-rollers were given passwords for the secret games and armed guards were employed due to the sheer amount of money at stake.

Ruderman is currently serving time in a Texas jail until 2018 after he was tried and convicted of two counts of wire fraud and two of investment advisor fraud. Ruderman embezzled investor funds and created a Ponzi scheme in order to pay off his astronomical debts to the various celebrities, and now some of Ruderman's duped investors have started legal proceedings in an attempt to claw some of their losses back, plenty of which have ended up in Maguire's pocket.

According to reports Maguire won $311,000 from Ruderman, including a $110,000 pot on on July 30, 2007 but an insider has also said that Maguire's spider-sense must have been tingling as he reportedly won as much as $1m a month whilst the games ran, which was for around three years. This would mean that Maguire could have snagged between $30 and $40m in his sticky fingers, though one would suggest that this number is somewhat inflated to make the story seem more interesting. Reports of him playing whilst stuck to the ceiling are unconfirmed.

Playing poker for money in underground clubs is illegal under Californian law but those taking part are rarely prosecuted and it is believed that none of the players involved are facing criminal charges, and only Maguire is being sued at present. Whether or not the investors will be able to cast their web and snag Maguire remains to be seen as it is highly anticipated he will strenuously denying any allegations about him and will argue that the game he participated in were not illegal.

Event #35 of the World Series of Poker is the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Six-handed tournament and two of the biggest names in British poker have made it to the last 15 places. Both Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott and Chris “Moorman1” Moorman will return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino at 1430 Las Vegas time to play for a coveted WSOP bracelet and the $$619,575 first place prize.

Day 1 saw 507 players take their seats in the vast Pavilion Room of the Rio for the inaugural six-handed PLO event and after the allotted 10 levels had been played only 105 of them remained. Not amongst them after busting out at various points during the day included Barry Greenstein, recent Triple Crown winner Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Daniel Negreanu. Amongst those who did make it through to the second day included Vanessa Selbst, who was the overnight chipleader, Shaun Deeb and Mike “Timex” McDonald, the latter playing in his first-ever series this year.

Of the 105 who made it through to Day 2, 57 of them would go home empty handed in terms of money won, the last of which being Matthew Ezrol who earned the unwanted title of “Bubble Boy” for his 49th place finish. One by one some of the best PLO players in the world started heading for the rail after losing their stacks in this crazy four-card game, amongst them WSOPE bracelet winner Jesper Hougaard, Hac “trex313” Dang, David “Raptor” Benefield, Isaac “WestMenloAA” Baron and British pro John Kabbaj.

When only 20 players remained the field was extremely pro-heavy but the eliminations of Emil “whitelime” Patel of Two Months Two Million fame (20th), Selbst (18th), Erick Lindgren (17th) and Tom “durrrr” Dwan (16th) made the route to a bracelet a little easier for those still in contention. That said, at the close of play the last 15 players still read like a who's who of poker with Gregory Brooks leading the way with 1,294,000 chips, David Chiu on 891,000 looking for bracelet number five and McDonald on 827,000 hoping to add a WSOP title to go with his EPT win a few years back. Also in the last 15 are Jared “Harrington10” Bleznick, a talented high-stakes cash game specialist, Jason Mercier and Peter Jetten, plus the aforementioned Ulliott and Moorman.

Ulliott won his first and only bracelet back in 1997 in a $2,000 Pot Limit Hold'em event and a win here would not only give the man from Hull a bankroll boost but may help to dispel claims by the poker community that the Devilfish is no more than a wet fish in today's modern game. On the other hand there is no doubting Moorman's ability in the high-octane world of modern poker and although he will start the day 13th from 15 in chips he knows all too well that an early double up would see him right back in contention of winning that, so far, elusive first WSOP bracelet.

It pains me to write this but Phil Hellmuth Jr is one of poker's true greats. There I have said it. It kind of stuck in my throat on the way out but I have to hold my hand up and admit that I may have been a little hasty in my negativity about “The Poker Brat.”

The problem with Hellmuth is that the image he has created for himself makes him a target, that and the fact he was a shill for the cancer of online poker that is Ultimate Bet for such a long time. In all walks of life people who constantly blow their own trumpet and come across as completely egotistical set themselves up for being the target of abuse. Look at how much stick someone like Cristiano Ronaldo gets for example. Whilst I find Hellmuth entertaining at times, some of the self-promotion he does, such as his ridiculous WSOP Main Event entrances, make me want to exact some violence on his face. That said you cannot argue with the man's results over the years, particularly at the World Series of Poker.

Anyone who has every read or heard anything to do with Hellmuth will know that he has won the most WSOP bracelet of any other player, with him owning 11 of them. Despite winning 11 bracelets, Hellmuth is still often teased about them all being in Hold'em disciplines and referred to as a great player against weak opponents, the type of player who frequents these large-field No Limit Hold'em events. However, this ridicule is complete unjust in my opinion and not just because of his performances in non-Hold'em events at this year's WSOP.

Last week Hellmuth finished second in the $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball (No Limit) event to John Juanda, arguably the best 2-7 player in the world. Then he once again narrowly missed out on bracelet number 12 yesterday when he finished as runner-up to Eric Rodawig in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo Championship. These two results alone have earned him 393.75 WSOP Player of the Year points, just enough to put him ahead of Sam Stein who has already won a bracelet and made the top three of a $10,000 event.

These two results, although great, are not clarification that Hellmuth is not a one-trick pony but a check of his Hendon Mob Database page shows that he has made no fewer than 17 final tables in non-Hold'em WSOP events, including four second place, two thirds and two fourths. Pretty amazing going. You also have to take into consideration the fact he has finished second in four Hold'em events too and he could quite easily have won 20 bracelets.

I got a little bit of stick myself for laughing at Hellmuth over on Twitter in the moments after his most recent second place finish and calling him a “complete and utter tool,” and although I stand by that statement due to the image he has created for himself and his affiliation with UB during the cheating scandal and his silence on the matter, I have to doft my cap (if I was wearing one) to Hellmuth and his remarkable record at the WSOP. Could you even find me rooting for him in future events, quite possibly. I never thought I'd hear myself say that.