Yorky Pud

Sam Stein's first recorded live tournament cash was for just $4,267 when he came 14th from 255 entrants in a $1,500 buy-in event at the 2009 LA Poker Classic. Little did the poker community know that this relatively small win would spark a string of results that even the very best in the game would be envious of.

You would be forgiven for having never heard of Stein but I assure you that you will be hearing much more about the talented 23-year old professional poker player. Just days after his first major live cash, Stein came second in a $1,000 tournament for $44,232 and a few months later he made the final table of the WPT Bellagio Cup V for an even larger score of $61,980. The following month he made another WPT final table, this won at the Legends of Poker, which saw him walk away with a $116,225 addition to his bankroll.

The rest of the year was cashless for Stein but he more than made up with it during 2010 with an amazing run of results. He started off the year by coming second in a $5,000 event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for a then career best score of $168,390 and then the month afterwards finished as runner-up to Tom Marchese in the NAPT Deep Stack Extravaganza for an even larger cash of $522,306. He spent the rest of 2010 cashing a further 10 times, eight of those being for at least five figures, and he ended with winnings for the year totalling more than $900,000.

However, the best was yet to come as Stein once again started the year in stunning form and again at the PCA. This time he finished fourth in the Main Event for a wallet-bursting $1,000,000 prize and just last week he came third in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship for $264,651. Now he has gone one better and won his first major title and a World Series of Poker bracelet by taking down the hotly contested $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament.

A total of 685 players entered this year's event and these were whittled down to just 25 by the time the third day of play began. It took four hours for these 25 to be reduced to the final table of nine, with Tex Barch being the final table bubble boy when his Ad-As-Td-7s lost to Christian Harder's Ac-Ah-8h-7h when the board ran out 2d-7c-Kc-3h-8s. And what a final table it was with the likes of double WSOP bracelet winner Brock Parker, Adam Junglen, Harder and high stakes cash game pro Ben Lamb all vying for the $420,802 first place prize and of course an elusive bracelet.

First to be sent to the rail was Diluan Kovachecv ($31,360) and he was followed onto the sidelines by Austin Scott ($40,748) in eighth place. Parker's dreams of becoming a triple bracelet winner ended when he was eliminated in seventh whilst Zimnan Ziyard finally lost his stack to finish in sixth spot, worth $71,548. Junglen was next to go, the youngster finishing in fifth place for the second time in a matter of days, mirroring his result in the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Shootout and when Warren Fund busted out in third there were only Stein and PLO expert Lamb to fight it out for the bracelet.

Stein held a substantial 4,245,000 to 1,920,000 chip lead over Lamb though it took him a couple of dozen hands to finally lead him to slaughter. In the final hand Stein opened with a raise to 120,000 and Lamb called, so both players saw the dealer put out the 3d-Kh-Jc flop. Lamb lead out with a 150,000 bet and Stein quickly called. The turn was the Tc and again Lamb bet out, this time for 255,000, sending Stein into the tank for over two minutes. When he eventually emerged he did so with a pot-size raise, which seemed to completely flummox Lamb who took a few moments before putting the rest of his 900,000 stack across the betting line and Stein called. Lamb turned over Qc-Js-9d-4h for the second nut-straight but Stein held Ac-Qh-Jh-6h for the nuts. The river had to be an ace and only an ace to split the pot and keep Lamb alive but it was the 2d and he was eliminated in second place, leaving Stein to pick up his first piece of poker jewellery and take his lifetime winnings past the $2,800,000 mark.

Final table payouts

1st: Sam Stein: $420,802
2nd: Ben Lamb: $259,918
3rd: Warren Fund: $184,368
4th: Christian Harder: $132,623
5th: Adam Junglen: $96,737
6th: Zimnan Ziyard: $71,548
7th: Brock Parker: $53,633
8th: Austin Scott: $40,748
9th: Dilyan Kovachev: $31,360

“One day you will run worse than you ever thought was possible.” I cannot remember where I heard or read that statement or even if it was made up in the recesses of my mind but one thing is for certain it is 100% true as I recently found out to my peril.

I actually find it quite funny that if I had written this blog entry on Thursday morning as I had initially planned to then it would be as different as different could be. You see, until Thursday I was quite literally crushing the $11 HUSNG on Betfair Poker and feeling great about my game. I had won 57.7% of my 130 games, had an ROI of 4.9% (before rakeback is taken into consideration) and I was running under EV too by a couple of buy-ins. I was feeling that confident about absolutely everything about how I was playing and approaching the game that I was making plans to start taking shots at the $22 games.

Then on Thursday everything went tits up, for want of a better expression. My session started badly with me losing my first three games but that didn't really bother me as I won my next four. Then I decided I felt comfortable taking a shot at the $22 games so registered for one and after a minute or so it filled and to cut a long story short I didn't play too good and deserved to lose. I then played another $22 game and managed to lose when I got my money in with a well disguised two pair only to find I had run into an even better disguised set of aces! Ooops! By the end of the night I had played 22 matches and only won 10 of them, which would usually be an almost break-even proposition but the fact I went 1/5 in my $22 games meant I booked a substantial loss, but for the most part I played well and just ran into hand after hand against the worst of players. All good fun and part of the game.

I decided not to play on Friday because I was pretty tired so had an early night but I hit the tables hard on Saturday, or should I say they hit me. I have never experienced anything like it since I started playing poker. Two wins in the $11 games were met with a run on nine consecutive losses, with two of those being $22 games. I simply couldn't do anything right. Have a set of threes and 82% equity on the turn and lose, some tool has 93o and beats my sixes all in pre, ace-nine lose to ace-seven all in pre and at least half a dozen vital flips. Oh and here's one with nearly 97% equity and one with 93%. [] skill game! The skills I learned from “The Mental Game of Poker” certainly helped me keep a level head but there is only so much reassuring yourself that you can do before even the most experienced of player starts to doubt themselves. From the 17 games I played on Saturday I actually ran 7.5 games below equity and I'm massively under EV for my sample of 169 games played so far.

On Sunday and Monday I stayed away from the tables because I couldn't get my head around how badly I was running and didn't want to risk playing whilst I was in the wrong frame of mind, which would only make matters worse, but I am hoping to play a few matches tonight and see what happens. All I can do is continue to get my money in good and make +EV plays and apparently it will all turn out for the best, or so they say. It's not all doom and gloom though because I ran like the wind when playing some PLO games, winning close to $90 from the 74 hands I played whilst quite possibly on tilt and self destruct mode. Oh the irony!

The bad run has actually come at quite a bad time too as I am almost certainly going to have to withdraw my bankroll or use a significant portion of it for life expenses. Moving house has been much more costly that I had anticipated and it has completely wiped me out. I would have been fine but the rear brakes on the car decided to fall apart and the brake cylinders started leaking so that cost me £220 and then all the £15 here and the £30 along with the fact I still have some invoices outstanding means I am on the bones of my arse at the moment, which isn't a good position to be in when you are a man who has no credit facilities.

The biggest life expense at the moment is flights to Italy because I have managed to secure a job as a live blogger for the upcoming WPT Slovenia, with a little help from Lee Davy. Although I will have my flights paid for me eventually, I have to buy them myself and charge back and the cheapest flights so far have been £280, £280 that I simply don't have right now. It looks like I will be getting the train to Manchester Airport, hanging around for five hours, flying to Munich, hanging around for an hour, flying to Trieste in Northern Italy and then getting a €100 taxi to Portoroz. Isn't live reporting just the most glamorous of jobs? I'm hoping it goes well because I have been told if it does then I will almost certainly be booked for the rest of the year, so fingers crossed.

I'll leave it there for now, congratulations if you have made it this far! Until next time, thanks for reading and good luck at the tables!

Back in December 2010, Rui “PepperoniF” Cao made it very clear that he wanted to take on Viktor Blom in his so-called SuperStar Showdown, a heads-up battle where Blom and an opponent sit down at four cash game tables with stakes of $50/$100 and play until 2,500 hands have been completed or someone has lost $150,000.

Cao made the request after Blom had lost to Isaac Haxton in the inaugural challenge but for reasons unknown the pair never got around to playing each other. However, that all changed on Sunday night when Cao and Blom sat down at two tables of No Limit Hold'em and two Pot Limit Omaha tables, both with blinds of $50/$100.

Blom's opponent was born in China but moved to Paris, France when he was just seven years old and is widely regarded as one of the best PLO players in the modern game, which is one of the reasons Blom would only play him across two tables of PLO and stipulated the pair also mix in some Hold'em into their session. The fact that Cao is a PLO specialist and the game is seen as Blom's weakest makes (he is down almost $900,000 at $25/$50 alone!) it all the more ironic that it was during the PLO elements of the challenge that Blom wiped the floor with Cao!

Within the first minute there was an all-in on Table 4, a PLO table. Blom looked down at Jc7d6c4d and decided it was good enough to raise to $300 with. Cao responded by three-betting to $900 with his KhQh9c4c and Blom elected to call. The Jd-9d-4s flop hit both players hard and Cao lead out with a $1,000 bet, Blom made it $3,400 and then called as Cao raised all in for a total of $9,100. Blom's two pair (jacks and fours) were ahead of Cao's two pair (nines and fours) but the enigmatic Swede fell behind as the Ks on the turn improved Cao to a higher two pair. But in true “Isildur1” style the river was the 8d, which completed Blom's diamond flush and the $20,000 found its way into Blom's stack.

A short time later and Blom won what turned out to be the largest pot of the night, topping the scales at $67,700! Blom got the action started by raising to $300, Cao made it $900 to play but instead of calling like in previous hands Blom bumped up the action and raised to $2,700, a bet Cao called. The flop came down 7c-8c-5s and with $5,400 already in the pot Cao bet $3,500 and Blom made the call. The Qs landed on the turn and Cao fired again, this time $12,400. Blom then raised to $49,600, enough to put Cao in and he called, turning over AcQdTc9h for top pair, an open-ended straight draw and the nut flush draw, whilst Blom revealed KcJh9c6h for a flopped straight.  The 7d was the river card, somehow missing Cao and the $67,700 pot was all Blom's.

Nothing Cao did seemed to work and although he did stage a comeback at one stage Blom was just too much for him to handle and it was no real surprise when Cao became only the second player to lose his entire $150,000 bankroll to Blom, the first being Daniel Negreanu back on 20th March. At least Cao managed to last 2,257 hands before going broke, unlike Negreanu who imploded in just 1,439 hands of the allocated 2,500. The final hand saw Cao raise to $300, Blom re-raise to $900 and Cao call. On a flop reading 7s-5d-2d Blom bet $1,300 and Cao made the call. The arrival of the Jh on the turn was met with a bet of $2,850, a raise all in of $11,988 from Cao and a call from Blom, who turned over 9s9c5c5s for a set of fives, much better than the KcJs8s7h of Cao who had two pair. The 9h on the river gave Blom a higher set and the outright victory.

Blom has now won $501,671 from his ten games, having won eight of them so far. His only defeats have some at the hands of Isaac Haxton ($41,701) and the rematch with Negreanu ($26,500) though he has struggled when playing for reduced stakes against online qualifiers. Nobody knows who will take on Blom in his SuperStar Challenge but whoever it is needs to be ready and willing to donate $150,000 to the Swede as he seems unstoppable at the moment, particularly in his own challenge.

This time last year Andy Frankenberger had just won the $2,000 buy-in Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza III for a cool $162,110 to kickstart what turned out to be an amazing year at the felt. Fast-forward to the present and Frankenberger has now added a World Series of Poker bracelet to his already impressive résumé after winning Event #28 over the weekend.

Frankenberger was a complete unknown until last year due to the fact he was not a professional poker player, instead he was a well-paid Equities Derivatives Trader on Wall Street, a job that he enjoyed thoroughly but he felt he needed a fresh challenge and decided to try and make it in the poker world. His decision was a brave one, especially as he is not a one of the game's young guns, instead he is 38-years old which would make him over the hill in many younger players' eyes.

Up until June 2010 Frankenberger's gamble looked like it was not fully paying off as he had only cashed for just under $41,000, which when you take into account the entry fees and the cost of living at these events probably means he was making a loss. But he did not panic as he believed in himself and his ability and stuck to the task in hand. His persistence was rewarded with the aforementioned win  for $162,110 and he then followed that up with a remarkable win in the $5,000 Main Event at the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker for a massive payout of $750,000. A couple of months later and he came sixth in another major WPT event, the Festa Al Lago, that added a further $161,200 to his bankroll. By the end of 2010 Frankenberger had cashed nine times, made four final tables, won two titles and earned more than $1,210,000 in the process.

This year has been a little slower for Frankenberger, who up to this weekend had only managed to make it to the money in two tournaments for a combined score of just over $10,000. However, like in 2010 he has stuck to his guns and has been rewarded handsomely by winning his first WSOP bracelet and the $599,163 that came with it. His win is made all the more impressive when you consider the fact the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event attracted a bumper field of 2,500 entrants, one of the largest fields of this year's series.

The 2,500 entrants were reduced to 349 on the first day of play and these survivors were further whittled down to just 28 during Day 2. These 28 returned to their seats at The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino knowing they all had almost $14,000 locked up but they also had a realistic chance of writing themselves into the WSOP history books. One by one they fell by the wayside, the prize money and prestige increasing with every player's demise until the final table of nine was set.

Bret Hruby was the first to be eliminated after around an hour's worth of play and he was joined on the rail by Sidney Hasson and Thao Nguyen during the next level. Steven Merrifield will go into the record books as being the sixth place finisher, whilst Tyler Kenney, the brother of Bryn Kenney, was sent packing in fifth place just ten minutes after Merrifield had left the table.

The biggest threat to Frankenberger at this point was Owen Crowe, one of the highly rated online poker tournament players of his generation and a player who has made four WSOP final tables in as many years and all in events with huge fields. Crowe is still looking for his first win in a WSOP event and he will have to wait a little longer as he was eliminated in fourth place when his Ad4c came a cropper against the As9c of Frankenberger when the board ran out 9d-Qc-Ac-Jh-Kc.

Once amateur Robert Shortway busted out in third place Frankenberger and Josh Evans locked horns heads up and played out for one of the most prestigious titles in the game. Frankenberger trailed by 4,700,000 to 6,500,000 chips but won a huge hand about an hour into the one-on-one encounter that turned the tie on its head. In the hand Evans raised to 125,000, Frankenberger made it 375,000 to play and then instantly called when Evand opted to push all in. Evans turned over AcTh but was way behind the AdKc of the current World Poker Tour Player of the Year. He fell further behind as the flop came down Qd-Ts-Jh giving Frankenberger the nut straight and when the turn and river were the 8h and Jd respectively Frankenber was catapulted into a 7,700,000 to 3,600,000 lead.

It took him just 20 minutes to press this advantage home with the help of a cooler hand. On a 5d-7h-Jh flop Frankenberger check-raised Evans' 180,000 bet to 600,000 and then snap-called when Evans moved all in for around 2,500,000. Evans flipped over JdTd for top pair, a strong hand heads up but nowhere near as powerful as the two pair that Frankenberger had made with his Js7d. No help from the turn or river for Evans and he was eliminated in second place.

Straight after being crowned a WSOP champion, Frankenberger was asked what this particular victory meant to him and he replied, “For me, it’s so important for me to get this win. When I won the Legends and I won the Venetian, poker was very new to me. I had not invested that much into it in terms of time or energy. At this point, I have been playing all year. I have been traveling all over the world. This is my first big win of 2011, so I can’t even begin to tell you how much this win means to me right now.” I am sure this will not be the last we see of Mr Frankenberger in 2011 and in future years also.

Final table results

1st: Andy Frankenberger: $599,153
2nd: Joshua Evans: $372,498
3rd: Robert Shortway: $263,655
4th: Owen Crowe: $190,147
5th: Tyler Kenney: $138,847
6th: Steven Merrifield: $102,600
7th: Thaeo Nguyen: $76,747
8th: Sidney Hasson: $58,083
9th: Bret Hruby: $44,482

Chris Moorman is going to have to wait a little longer to get his hands on a coveted World Series of Poker bracelet after he crashed out of Event #26 in third place, narrowly missing out on the glory that he will inevitably one day revel in.

A total of 1,378 players exchanged $2,500 for 7,500 chips in the Six Handed No Limit Hold'em tournament and these were whittled down to just 22 over two days. These 22 players took their seats in The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino over the weekend to play out for the title of WSOP Champion. Many saw this as Moorman's tournament to lose as the short-handed format is perfect for his relentless aggression.

This trademark aggression was on show throughout the day and especially in a hand that took place just as the final two tables had been reached. On a flop reading Qs-4s-5c Moorman lead out with a bet of 125,000 only to see Anthony Ruberto quickly make it 315,000 to play. Moorman checked his cards, paused for a moment before announcing he was all in for around an extra 360,000 chips. Ruberto rocked back on his chair, clearly anguished about his situation and after a minute of so he relinquished his hand. As he did Moorman turned over As8d for just ace-high, nice hand sir.

Moorman was in his element and looked on course to become the fourth British bracelet winner of the current WSOP but just after Eric Hettinga's elimination in eighth place happened, disaster struck for the online poker legend. Moorman made it 45,000 to play from under the gun and the action folded to Ruberto in the small blind and he made the call. Next to act was the Ukranian Oleksii Kovalchuk in the big blind and he squeezed to 125,000. With the action back on Moorman he wasted no time in raising to 250,000, which was enough to fold out Ruberto but Kovalchuk moved all in. Moorman made the call and turned over AhQc, which caused Kovalchuk to wince as he discovered his Ac2d was in really bad shape. However, poker is a funny old game and Kovalchuk went from zero to hero as the flop came down 5h-4h-3d giving him a straight! The 6c on the turn meant any deuce or seven would split the pot but alas it was the Jc and with that Moorman plummeted to 380,000 whilst his Ukranian opponent soared to 2,140,000.

Not long afterwards Kovalchuk was at it again, this time getting his money in with 4s4d against the JsJc of Ruberto on a board reading 4c-Jd-Ac-Ts only to spike a one outer on the river to increase his stack to a massive 4,200,000, some of which he donated back to Moorman as the Brit doubled up with AdKd versus AhQh, though the Ukranian would go on to have the last laugh.

After the eliminations of Will “The Thrill” Failla, Ruberto, Mazin Khoury and Dan O'Brien play was three-handed and although Moorman was the shortest stack of the three he was also the best player of the trio and the most experienced in these short-handed situations. All that skill and experience is completely useless against an opponent who is running hotter than the sun, as Moorman knows all too well as he exited to yet another piece of good fortune for Kovalchuk. The man with more than $7,000,000 in online winnings got his last 1,100,000 into the middle of the felt with KcJs and found himself in a prime position to double through Kovalchuk who held a dominated Kh9s. But by the river the board read Td-5c-Qh-7d-Jh to give Kovalchuk a winning straight destroy Moorman's dreams of winning a WSOP bracelet.

Kovalchuk held a large 8,000,000 to 2,300,000 chip lead over Ionel Anton but the Romanian, who came third in the PCA Main Event earlier this year for $1,300,000, managed to level things up and even take the lead at one point but the run-good of Kovalchuk was too much for him to overcome. In the final hand of the tournament, with blinds of 25,000/50,000/5,000a, Kovalchuk made it 150,000 to play and then snap-called when Anton raised all in for around 1,500,000. The Ukrainian held 7c7h and was up against the Ac6s of the Romanian and when the flop came down 9s-5h-7d, giving Kovalchuk a set of sevens, Anton was drawing very thinly. The Th on the turn kept things as they were but the Td on the river fill up Kovalchuk to an unnecessary full house, winning him his first and the Ukraine's second-ever bracelet.

Final table results

1st: Oleksii Kovalchuk: $689,739
2nd: Ionel Anton: $428,140
3rd: Chris Moorman: $271,800
4th: Dan O'Brien: $179,162
5th: Mazin Khoury: $121,416
6th: Anthony Ruberto: $84,549

The name Chris Moorman is one that is synonymous with online poker tournaments but also a name that has so far struggled to reproduce his form at the virtual felt in the live arena. But that all looks set to change as he returns to the Blue section of the Amazon Room at the Rio later today second in chips with only 22 players remaining in the $2,500 No Limit Hold'em Six Handed event.

A bumper crowd of 1,278 players entered Event #26 and by the time the play came to an end on Day 1 only 189 of them still had tournament chips in front of them. These 189 players retook their seats for Day 2 knowing that only 126 of them would be reaching the payout places. As with every poker tournament there has to be a “bubble boy” and this one was no different, the dubious honour going to Paul Dewald.

Whilst play was hand-for-hand Dewald found himself all in against Eric Hettinga holding AsKc against the latter's QdQc. The board ran out 8d-4h-3h-Td-7s and when the stacks were counted it turned out Dewald had covered his opponent by just 1,800 chips, enough for one big blind and an ante. Dewald put the rest of his money in the very next hand with 5c3c and found himself up against the AdTs of Melanie Weisner. A final board reading Th-8d-7d-Kd-Ac was enough to send Dewald to the rail and lock up at least $5,235 for everyone else still in the tournament.

Moorman was one of the chipleaders as the bubble burst and became the overwhelming leader after winning the biggest pot of the tournament thus far. In the hand the action folded around to Andrew Owens on the button and he opened the betting with a raise. Moorman defended his blind with a three-bet, which started a raising war between the two that resulted in Owens five-bet shoving all in and Moorman making the call. Owens held a slender advantage, his QsQd ever so slightly in front of the AdKh of the Brit but the 7s-Ks-6c flop completely changed that. The turn and river were the 2h and 4c respectively and with that Moorman was catapulted past the 1,000,000 chip mark. Moorman immediately informed his legions of fans of his major coup via his Twitter page, “Wow just won over a million chip race ak v qq blinds are 2.5k/5k siiiiick” Sick indeed.

The man known as “Moorman1” online, where he has won more than $7,000,000 from tournaments was denied being the overnight chipleader after a huge pot went down not long before play concluded for the day. In this monster hand the action folded around to EPT Snowfest runner-up Kevin Vandersmissen on the button and he moved all in for his last 70,000 chips whilst holding KdTc. Next to act, in the small blind, was Anthony Ruberto and he looked down at 8s8d and moved all in to isolate the short-stacked Belgian. However, he did not bank on Tuan Le waking up with AdKc in the big blind and making the call. The dealer put out a rather decisive 8c-4s-Ts, increasing Ruberto's equity in the hand from 45% up to an almost unbeatable 97%! The 4d on the turn locked up the hand for Ruberto and when the meaningless 2h landed on the river, Ruberto was left stacking up what turned out to be 1,200,000 in chips.

This cash is Moorman's tenth at the WSOP and his third of this particular series. His best finish at the WSOP to date came last year when he finished 16/256 in the $10,000 Heads Up No Limit Hold'em event for $38,424. This means that finishing in tenth place or above would beat his largest cash at the WSOP but finding himself well stacked up and in a short-handed format that suits his aggressive style perfectly, anything other than an outright victory, worth $689,739, would probably be a major disappointment for online poker legend.

Top six chip counts

1.) Anthony Ruberto: 1,550,000
2.) Chris Moorman: 1,210,000
3.) Anthony Lellouche: 844,000
4.) Christian Stricker Kohl: 530,000
5.) Michael Finstein: 524,000
6.) Oleksii Kovalchuk: 509,000

On May 16, 2011 the Sahara Hotel and Casino closed its door for the last time after 58 years of business. SBE Entertainment, the casino's owners since 2007, said the Sahara was not “economically viable” to keep open and they made the decision to cease trading.

The Sahara was used in the 1960s version of Ocean's Eleven and quickly became an iconic casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The last remaining “Rat Pack” casino's closure meant that only the Tropicana, Flamingo and Riviera are originally from the post World War II era.

Although the fate of the building has yet to be decided the future of the fixtures, fittings and furnishings certainly have, they are all for sale. With the exception of the items in the famous NASCAR Cafe, which are to be relocated, absolutely everything inside the Sahara is available to purchase in a liquidation sale that is expected to take four months to be completed.

Certain items, such as glassware, is available for just $1 and if people are feeling more flush they can buy the money counter that was once used in the casino's count room for $22,500. The company in charge of the liquidation sale, National Content Liquidators say that each of the 1,720 guestrooms have an average of 25 items in each of them and that there are a staggering 600,000 items listed as being available. They have promised to completely strip the inside of the Sahara with Don Hayes, the man overseeing the sale on behalf of National Content Liquidators, saying, “even it it's nailed down, we'll sell it!”

Items such as dice, playing cards and casino chips are expected to head out of the door quickly, as are the gaming tables and other Sahara-branded items as people look to secure their piece of casino history. The sale started yesterday and until Monday there will be an admission charge of $10 but from Monday onwards the sale is free of charge to enter. For those of you who are out in “Sin City” right now for the World Series of Poker and fancy grabbing some famous casino memorabilia then the sale is open Monday to Saturday 1000 until 1700 and from 1200 to 1700 on a Sunday.

For the past five years Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier has returned from his World Series of Poker adventures relatively empty handed. Despite winning cash the one thing that eluded him was a gold WSOP bracelet, something he and every other poker player on the planet want to win so badly. Now ElkY has realised his dream after winning Event #21 the $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship.

A quick scan down ElkY's Hendon Mob page and you can quickly see that he specialises in No Limit Hold'em tournaments, in fact until last week all but one of his live tournament cashes had come from Hold'em and the one that did not was a Pot Limit Omaha/Pot Limit Hold'em split event at the 2009 WSOP. Having already won the 2008 PCA (a then European Poker Tour stop) and the 2008 WPT Festa al Lago, ElkY has been one of a few people who would win the Triple Crown of titles if he won a WSOP bracelet.

Realising that his chances of WSOP glory would be greater in non-Hold'em events where the fields are naturally smaller, ElkY has begun to try his arm at new poker variants and it has certainly paid off. Last week he came 11th from 126 runners in the $10,000 Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball that was eventually won by John Juanda and now he has outlasted a field of the exact same size in the Seven-Card Stud Championship event.

The top 14 players reached the money in Event #21 and they read like a who's who of poker. The included Matt Hawrilenko, Matthew Glantz, Jason Mercier, Ville Wahlbeck, Sorel Mizzi, Men Nguyen, Nick Shulman, Chad Brown, Alexander Kostritsyn and John Hennigan, making ElkY's acheivement ever the more impressive, though not as impressive as his performance when heads up.

Going into the final stages of the tournament he trailed Steve Landfish by 2,260,000 to 1,520,000 chips but fell even further behind after 90 minutes when the Frenchman found himself down to just 250,000 chips, which was around four big blinds! But in true ElkY style he ran better than Usain Bolt and managed to turn it around and level the match up. He and Landfish then swapped the chip lead but the cards were with ElkY and he ultimately triumphed when made a full house by the river, whilst Landfish only improved to a lowly pair of fours.

Before he headed off to bed, ElkY wrote on his Twitter page, “So sick! Finally did it after five years of WSOP! Thanks so much for the support and best wishes!” ElkY's latest gong means that he joins Gavin Griffin, Roland De Wolfe and the recent addition, Jake Cody into the elite group of players who have won EPT, WPT and WSOP titles. Congratulations Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier!

Back on December 14, 2010 a man pulled up on a motorcycle outside the Bellagio hotel and casino, Las Vegas, Nevada walked inside the casino and made his way to the craps table. When he arrived here, still donning his motorcycle helmet, he produced a handgun and made off with $1,500,000 worth of casino chips.

A couple of months later and Anthony Michael Gennaro, the 29-year old son of Las Vegas Municipal Judge George Assad was arrested after an undercover police operation that saw Carleo sell a total of 14 “cranberry” $25,000 denomination chips for prices varying between $7,000 and $10,000.

Carleo was in court yesterday to answer a number of charges related to the heist and unsurprisingly pleaded guilty after negotiating a deal with the state. Carleo told District Judge Michelle Leavitt, “I went into the casino. Went to the craps table, took chips and ran out.” He also admitted pointing his gun at a valet worker who attempted to prevent Carleo's escape and also guilty to armed robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. As part of his negotiated plea, Carleo is having eight felony charges against him completely dropped, including three counts of robbery and no charges will sought for potential drugs and weapons offences that were being investigated. 

This particular case has been adjourned until August 23, at which point Carleo will be sentenced and will receive a custodial sentence of between three and 36 years. The defendant is also expected to plead guilty to robbing the Suncoast of $18,000 on December 9 and could again face a prison term of up to 36 years for that particular offence. He will be in court on Thursday 16 June to face those particular charges.

The local authorities revealed that they have recovered a total of $1,200,000 of the stolen chips but estimate that at last $300,000 are still unaccounted for. Shortly after the heist, the Bellagio discontinued the use of the $25,000 chips and gave anyone who had them in their possession until April 22 to cash them in.

Carleo's case also seems to have had repercussions in the lives of his family members as Assad, an 11-year judge, last week lost his bid for another term on the bench. Many of those who voted against his stay stated that Carleo's arrest had influenced their decision.

I am writing this entry surrounded by piles of clothes, half a dozen large cardboard boxes and looking at walls that have had most of the wallpaper removed but still have the majority of the backing paper glued well in place. Yes folks, I have moved house yet again.

People don't believe me when I say I hate moving, really hate it, because I have moved on average once a year since I moved out of my mum and dad's when I was 20! That's 10 house moves, not bad for someone who claims to despise the act of moving house. My hatred for moving house stems from the whole process of moving house combining a number of things I don't like doing.

The first is I cannot stand DIY. Although my dad is a good painter and decorator I am complete dog turd at it and I get absolutely no enjoyment out of anything to do with it. Although I have a picture in my head of how I want things to turn out something happens between my brain and my arms that prevents it from happening so I always finish up disappointed with the results. If I could afford it then I would just hire someone to come in and do it all for me but they are so expensive it is not even funny.

The second is spending money on overpriced items, with paint and carpets being the main culprits. I don't mind paying for technology and services but sometimes it winds me up how Dulex and company have the bare-faced cheek to charge you £15 for a couple of litres of paint when they are producing thousands of gallons a day of the sticky, horrible slime. As then Carpet Right or however you spell it charge through the teeth for low quality floor coverings that they produce and buy by the mile. When I went in and spent close to £1,000 last week I should have just pulled my strides down and asked him to give me a rogering, it would have been far less painful and I may have had some dignity left.

Then there is the actual moving. First the packing of all your stuff into boxes (thankfully the Mrs did all of this) including all the **** you have not used for four years and move it to your new house where you cannot find anywhere to put it so keep it in a box for another four year. Plus everything is so frigging heavy. This time I paid a removal firm to do the vast majority of it for us, cost £300 for 4.5 hours of their time but at least I still have skin on my knuckles and my toes are still three dimensional.

Thankfully we are already getting sorted here despite only moving in literally 24 hours this rant was published. Virgin Media, who are usually completely useless toss bags managed to send an engineer around this morning at 0830 and I now have 10MB Broadband again, which is better than hijacking the neighbours unsecured connection. Seriously, who doesn't password protect their wireless router in this day and age? Sky are coming on Friday morning to sort the television out as we don't even have Freeview at the minute due to there being no aerial and the cooker is being installed tonight so no more takeaway dinners, even a fat sod like me crave broccoli and carrots from time to time!

On the poker front I haven't played since the 11th and even then I only played, and won, a single HUSNG. Now that I have a stable connection I'm going to really grind out some games as I was pretty high in the Rake The Rake $15,000 leaderboard they are running on Betfair but I have really slipped back out of the money places now due to my complete lack of volume. I've won 56.1% of my 107 games so far and I am happy with my progress and will be delighted when I push that up to the 60% mark over decent sample size, which is possible here I can tell you because the players are bloody awful. But before I can get my grind on I need to done some boyfriendly tasks such as putting a second coat of overpriced paint on the kitchen walls and rebuild the kiddies' trampoline.