Yorky Pud

Last week we had the story of Matt Perrins' good fortune when he entered the $1,500 2-7 Draw Lowball on a whim and ended up taking it down to win his first World Series of Poker bracelet. This week it is the turn of Brian Rast to win a bracelet after almost not entering the tournament in the first place.

Rast, better known as "tsarrast" in online poker circles where he is mainly a nosebleed-stakes cash game player, only returned to his Las Vegas condo on Thursday 9 June after a two-month vacation in Brazil with his partner. Upon his arrival at his home he got into a discussion with friend and fellow professional player, Antonio Esfandiari and when "The Magician" discovered Rast had no intention of playing in the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold'em event he offered to buy him into it in exchange for a percentage of his action. Rast took Esfandiari up on his offer and four days later he emerged victorious after besting a 765 strong field.

Going into the final table Rast held more than 30% of the chips in play and always looked in control of his own destiny. First to head for the rail was Andrew Cohen, who ran his AdQd into the QcQs of John Gordon on a Qh-5h-3s flop. Cohen's departure in tenth place meant the official final table was set. Just five minutes after Cohen's demise the table lost another player, this time it was the turn of the 2010 WSOPE Main Event third place finisher Roland Lee to lose his chips and he was followed to the rail 15 minutes later by Ted Lawson, the only former WSOP winner in the final nine.

John Gordon run came to an end two hours later before Rast sent Ali Eslami and Mike Paasonen to the cashier's cage within two minutes of each other. Daisuke Endo exited in fourth place just a few minutes later before Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler found aces at the right time to bust Dajuan ****ly in third place and set up an exciting heads up battle with Rast.

The duo began pretty even in chips and exchanged the chip lead on a number of occasions but it was Kessler who would finish as the bridesmaid for the third time at the WSOP, having finished second in the 2010 Seven-Card Stud Split Championship and again second in the $2,500 Omaha Split tournament back in 2005. The final hand saw Rast open to 90,000 from the button and Kessler make the call. The flop came down Ah-3h-5h and Kessler tapped the tabled and checked. Rast made a continuation bet of 90,000 only to see Kessler check-raise to 200,000. Rast waited a few moments before putting in a raise of his own, making it 500,000 to play. Kessler wasted no time in moving all in for 1,440,000 but knew he was in trouble when Rast snap-called. Kessler turned over 5c3c for two-pair but was behind the Kh9h of Rast, that had made the second nut-flush. The 7h on the turn failed to alter anything and when the 7d fell on the river it was game over for Kessler and Rast had won his first WSOP bracelet.

Final table payouts

1st: Brian Rast: $227,232
2nd: Allen Kessler: $140,309
3rd: Dajuan Whorley: $91,212
4th: Daisuke Endo: $66,994
5th: Mika Paasonen: $49,902
6th: Ali Eslami: $37,654
7th: John Gordon: $28,741
8th: Ted Lawson: $22,183
9th: Roland Lee: $17,298

Sorry for my lack of updates to my little blog, each time I have planned to sit down and type it out something has cropped up that has either taken me away from my laptop or tied me up for a couple of hours.

Things are pretty hectic around here as me and the Mrs got the keys to a new house on Tuesday, which is great as it allows us to get away from the Clampits who live next door but it also means that we have to move on Monday 13 June! Usually this would not be a problem, just a little stressful, but the new place is a complete mess. The decorating, if you can call it that, is disgusting an filthy so I have been spending almost all of my time painting the woodwork and ceilings, both of which needed two coats just to cover the nicotine staining and could probably do with another coat if I am entirely honest.

Then yesterday I decided to buy a steamer so that I could remove the living room “wallpaper” quicker and it took me nearly seven hours and it is still not 100% complete. Everything is just taking longer than expected and isn't helped that I am absolutely shattered and feeling pretty demoralised by the fact it doesn't look much better than when I started but that will all change when I put the first coast of paint on the walls. Anyway, enough about my aching body and upcoming house move as this is a poker blog, or at least it is meant to be.

A few entries ago I highlighted plans to see if I could improve my Pocket Fives tournament ranking so it will come as no surprise to you that I have not played a single MTT in that time! One form of poker I have been playing though is a game that I have always done well at but then always dropped like a hot potato when times got hard, Heads Up Sit 'n' Go (HUSNG). I honestly cannot remember why I decided to play then on Betfair Poker, especially as they have 10% rake which is ridiculous in HUSNG but I have so far played 87 of them this month, which considering I have been out of the house from 0930 until 2200 every day for the past week is some achievement.

The one good thing about the stupid 10% rake is that it keeps decent regulars away and out of the 87 matches I have only come across one winning player and he was the only one who gave me any trouble. I have managed to cash in 56.3% of my games, which equates to a 2.4% ROI, which won't let me retire but it is a start. My ROI was much, much better until last night when I stupidly decided to play five games before I went to bed despite knowing 100% in my mind I was going to play terribly because I was so tired. And I was correct as I only won one of the five matchs which lowered my profit for the month by $35.

I am disappointed with myself for sitting down and playing despite telling myself not to. Since reading the Mental Game of Poker I have been more in control of everything to do with my poker game so this little slip up is disappointing but I will learn for next time. The book has given me the skills to be able to see past the short-term results, something I put into practice when I ran like death in only my second session. Usually I would say sod it and play something else but I reassured myself that it was only variance and managed to turn matters around. To see how badly I am running but how well I am obviously crushing, my adjusted EV says my ROI should be 9.7%, which is partly down to hands where I raise with Jh8h and get called by villain. The flop comes down 8s-8d-7s villain checks and I overbet shove knowing he is calling with almost all of his hands because he's slack as a bag of spanners and he does indeed call with 7c5c and I am a 96.7% favourite. That is until the turn and river are the 9h and 6s respectively to give him a very unlikely straight. But that is poker I guess, you have to take the rough with the smooth.

I'm not sure how many games I will be able to play over the coming days as the house move builds up to its finale but I really want to try and fit some time in because I was on the Rake The Rake leaderboard at one point but have dropped off due to lack of playing. Oh, and I may have some exciting news about more live tournament reporting but I need to wait until I have all the details available to me. Watch this space.

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

Event #8 of the World Series of Poker was the $1,000 No Limit Hold'em event that poker players and the poker media dubbed The Donkament due to the sheer number of people taking part in it. This particular tournament attracted 4,178 hopefuls but after five gruelling days of poker it is Sean Getzwiller who gets to call himself a champion.

Of the 4,178 players who entered over the course of two official Day 1s, 624 survived to make it through to Day 2. These players returned to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino knowing that 200 of them would go home empty handed, whilst the rest of them would take home at least $1,880 and be in with a chance of the $611,185 on offer to the eventual winner. As is always the case in poker tournaments there was an unfortunate bubble boy and in this event it was 424th place finisher Nick Gibson. He raised to 2,700 preflop and then called when David Rood three-bet enough to put him all in. Gibson held a pair of nines, which was up against the Big Slick of Rood and the nines stayed ahead when the flop came down 6x-6x-2x but a king on both the turn and river burst the bubble and sent Gibson home empty handed.

Day 2 ended with 60 players and they returned to Day 3 where they were expected to play down to a winner but the action had to be paused when three-handed due to the new time rules put in place to aid the players, floorstaff and media. The final table was reached at around midnight on Wednesday and there was a real flurry of eliminations right from the off.

Just ten minutes into the nine-handed final a player was eliminated, this dubious honour going to Odette Tremblay who was the last woman standing. She was followed to the rail by Daniel Haglund arounf half hour later when his As5c fell foul of Max Weinberg's Ah4h when the latter spiked a four on the river. Ouch. Twenty minutes later and seven became six as Hunter Frey became the hunted and was sent packing when Jon “PearlJammer” Turner's KsJd out-flopped his AsTs, then 30 minutes later Turner was responsible for busting Lawrence Riley in sixth spot when Turner's jacks held against Riley's ace-king with the money going in preflop.

The action really slowed down after Riley's demise and it took two hours for the table to lose another player and it was one of Betfair Poker's loyal customers who was eliminated. Stefan Raffey raised preflop, Sadan Turker three-bet shoved and Raffey snap-called and proudly turned over QdQs, which were in fantastic shape against the 9s9h of his young, British opponent. That was until the flop came down 9c-9d-8s to leave him drawing to running queens. No such luck for the Dane as the turn and river were the Jd and 4h respectively to send out hero home in fifth place, a finish worth $149,392. We are hoping to catch up with Raffey in the next couple of days.

Just five minutes later and Weinberg three-bet shoved over the top of another Turker raise and when the latter called it was off to the races, Weinberg's KhQc needing to catch up against the Ad8c of Turker. The final board ran out 5s-Ah-Td-4d-9d and Weinberg's hopes of winning a WSOP bracelet laid in tatters. Play continued three-handed for a short period before the tournament director paused the tournament and the players returned to their seats at around 1600 Las Vegas time and all eyes were on Turner as he had been amongst the leaders in this tournament start to finish and was by far the most experienced player at the table but his quest to win a WSOP bracelet will have to wait until his next event as he was the first player of the three to head for the cashier's cage after play resumed.

Only ten minutes after the cards were back in the air was Turner eliminated. Getzwiller folded on the button, Turker moved all-in and the relatively short-stacked Turner made the call. Turker looked shocked and unhappy that he had to turn over Qs4d, especially when Turner flipped over 8h8s. The Ad-2c-Jc flop was safe for the online tournament specialist but the Qc spelled disaster for his as it left him drawing to two outs. The dealer put the 9d on the river, which busted Turner and took the tie to the heads up stage.

Going into the one-on-one battle the pair were almost even on chips, Turker holding a narrow 6,335,000 to 6,200,000 lead of Getzwiller but after a massive five hours of play Turker had almost 10,000,000 to his opponent's 2,500,000. However, the blinds had risen to a gargantuan 100,000/200,000 and the contest had become a push-or-fold one, and the poker gods shone down on Getzwiller. First he doubled up with As6h against Turker's Kc4c then a massive hand took place that saw Turker's AdKc flop top pair on a Ks-8d-Td flop only to be crushed by Getzwiller's set of tens. This left Turker with just 750,000 but he did managed to run this up to almost 4,000,000 before committing them preflop with Ah9s and was up against the 5h5d of Getzwiller. The final board read Jd-5c-4d-8c-Kh and with that the young Brit narrowly missed out on being the third British bracelet winner of the summer so far and Getzwiller had become champion of The Donkament.

Final table payouts

1st: Sean Getzwiller: $611,185
2nd: Sadan Turker: $377,411
3rd: Jon Turner: $274,005
4th: Max Weinberg: $201,433
5th: Stefan Raffey: $149,392
6th: Lawrence Riley: $111,753
7th: Hunter Frey: $84,341
8th: Daniel Haglund: $64,186
9th: Odette Tremblay: $49,258

Usually the $1,500 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball would only stir up the interests of the most die-hard of poker fans but not this time around as a crowd of around 40 supporters chanted, cheered and heckled throughout the final table. These railbirds were there for one reason and one reason only, to see Matt Perrins bring home the bacon for the Brits.

Up until Saturday Perrins had never played a single hand of Deuce-to Seven Lowball but thought it would be a good idea to pay $1,500 and take part in a World Series of Poker event, as you do. He studied around half an hour of YouTube footage before declaring himself ready to take on the world. Now he is a WSOP bracelet winner in this event after besting a talented field of 274 fellow players.

Perrins may not be a household name as yet but he is highly rated amongst the British poker players. Known as “pez102” in online circles, where he usually plays $3/$6 heads up cash games and has won almost $580,000 in tournaments, Perrins often travels to events with the likes of Toby Lewis, Chris Moorman and his best friend Jake Cody. Although primarily an online player, Perrins has some remarkable results in the live tournament arena, having one close to $600,000 from them, including an outright victory in the €2,000 IPT Venezia Main Event in 2009, which is still his largest cash to date.

As mentioned, 275 players took part in this event, creating a prizepool of $371,250. This was shared out amongst the top 28 players, which included the likes of Tom Franklin, Eli Elezra, British pro Stuart Rutter and Greg Mueller. The final table was also a star-studded affair, being the home to the likes of Jason Mercier, Josh Brikis, Bernard Lee and Perrins' heads-up opponent, Chris Bjorin.

Bjorin is one of the most under-rated players to have ever played the game. A Swedish national who now resides in London, Bjorin has two WSOP bracelets to his name and over $5,000,000 in live tournament winnings, helped by 59 cashes in WSOP events, ranking him joint fifth with Humberto Brenes and Berry Johnston. Although Bjorin only trailed Perrins by a narrow margin at the start of heads up he soon found himself down by a staggering 11-to-1!

The final hand took place during Level 21 with blinds of 6,000/12,000/3,000a and saw Perrins open-shove from the button for 1,150,000 chips. Bjorin made the call and turned over Tx7x6x3x which was trailing the 8x6x5x3x (the aim of the game is to make the lowest hand possible with 7x5x4x3x2x being the nuts). Bjoring asked Perrins, “Can you draw first so I know what I need to beat? I could be drawing dead.” Perrins obliged and drew a 2x, which locked up the hand and meant Bjorin was indeed drawing dead. He drew a meaningless 10x and with that the 40-strong rail of Perrins' British supports erutped and flocked to congratulate their hero.

Perrins said in an interview that he may play in the $10,000 Deuce-to Seven Lowball Championship later in the series he enjoyed this tournament that much. Perrins' success proves there is always room in a player's repertoire t learn new poker variants.

Final table payouts

1st: Matt Perrins: $102,105
2nd: Chris Bjorin: $63,112
3rd: Robin Rightmare: $41,643
4th: Bernard Lee: $28,422
5th: Thomas Fuller: $19,906
6th: John Brikis: $14,296
7th: Jason Mercier: $10,524

The first $10,000 Championship of the 2011 World Series of Poker is done and dusted and it is Amir Lehavot who has emerged victorious to win his first bracelet and $573,456 but the tournament will also be remembered for the fact another three British players went deep and another bracelet for one of our boys cannot be far away.

This year's $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship attracted 249 players, slightly down on the 268 of last year but still enough to create a prizepool of $2,340,600. Of the 249 who started Day 1 with high hopes only 129 survived the day with their chip stacks intact and they returned to the felt on Sunday and were whittled down to the final 27 players, which incidentally is how many players were paid out.

The final 27 was a star-studded affair with the likes of Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Owen Crowe, Nenad Medic, McLean Karr and Steve “gboro780” Gross. However, as in the $25,000 Heads Up event that Jake Cody won a huge crowd gathered on the rail once word spread that Toby Lewis, Chris Moorman and Stephen Chidwick had made it into the money and were in with a real chance of winning a coveted gold bracelet.

Moorman was the first British player to be sent to the rail, his 18th place finish worth $25,348 and then five and a half hours after the tournament started Lewis' luck ran out. The EPT Vilamoura winner opened to 43,000 from the button, Lehavot made it 110,000 to play from the big blind and then called when Lewis re-raised all in. The Brit's JhJc was narrowly ahead of his opponent's AdQd but he was soon a massive underdog as the flop came down 4d-9d-2d giving Lehavot the nut flush. The 6c on the turn ended Lewis' tournament and when the meaningless 3c arrived on the river Lewis was eliminated in 11th place, worth $40,890.

This left Chidwick as the lone British player left in the tournament and when Michael Benvenuti, Karr and Eric Cloutier all busted out with 15 minutes of each other, Chidwick only had five more players to outlast to scoop the title. Those five became four as Nicolas Levi, a Frenchman who resides in the UK exited in sixth place when his 7d7h was beaten by the AsQd of Lehavot and just five minutes later Tommy Vinas ran into a real cooler of a hand to see him eliminated in fifth place. Vinas got into a raising war with Jarred Solomon on a 9s-Qs-7s flop which resulted in the former being all in at risk. He proudly turned over 7c7d for bottom set but was devastated when Solomon turned over 9c9d for a higher set. The turn and river were the 8h and 8c respectively and play was now four-handed.

The support for Chidwick was second to none but it was not enough as the man known as “Stevie444” in online circles was eliminated in fourth place> He managed to get his money in good with Ah9c against the KcJh of Lehavot but Lehavot was running hotter than the sun that even when the flop came down 9d-Ac-Ts the rail knew a suckout could be on the cards. The turn was the 8h, which kept Chidwick in front but gave Lehavot an open-ended straight draw, and that was completed when the Qs landed on the river. A valiant performance from Chidwick who took away $198,927 for his efforts over the three days, nice work if you can get it.

Five minutes later and the tournament reached the heads up stages as Sam Stein ran his As6d straight down the throat of the AcKs of, yes you guessed it, Lehavot. Neither player made a pair but Lehavot's king-kicker came into play and it was time for a one-on-one encounter to decide the title. Lehavot lead Solomon by 5,415,000 to 2,160,000 and it did not take him long to reduce his opponent to just a few hundred thousand chips. Then about an hour and 20 minutes into the encounter the final hand took place.

With blinds now 25,000/50,000 (there are no antes in pot limit games) Solomon made it 100,000 to play. Lehavot re-popped the action to 265,000 then quickly called as Solomon put in the rest of his stack. Solomon's AhJs would usuall be a very strong hand in heads up but not when his opponent held AsQh! The Qs-Qd-Tc flop gave Lehavot trip queens but also gave Solomon an open-ended straight but any hopes of hitting that were soon made redundant as the Td on the turn improved Lehavot to an unbeatable full house, so when the meaningless 2d hit the river it was already game over, Lehavot had become the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship winner.

This is the second large cash in just a few months for Lehavot as he finished fourth in the recent WPT LA Poker Classic for a cool $421,680, meaning this latest score has made him a poker millionaire!

Final table payouts

1st: Amir Lehavot: $573,456
2nd: Jarred Solomon: $354,460
3rd: Sam Stein: $264,651
4th: Stephen Chidwick: $198,927
5th: Tommy Vinas: $150,453
6th: Nicolas Levi: $114,525
7th: Eric Cloutier: $87,702
8th: McLean Karr: $67,596
9th: Michael Benvenuti: $52,406

Jake Cody has become only the third person in the history of poker to win a coveted Triple Crown of titles after he won the $25,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em Championship event at the World Series of Poker. Cody joins Gavin Griffin and Roland De Wolfe in an elite group of players who have won an EPT, WPT and WSOP title, though the 22-year old is the youngest to do so and did it in the quickest time, 18-months after winning the first part of the crown.

Back in January 2010 Cody won the EPT Deauville Main Event and managed to follow that up a few months later with an outright win at WPT London. Now, in only his second-ever WSOP event he has won the most-sought after piece of poker jewellery, a WSOP bracelet. Cody had planned to play many events at last year's WSOP but had bad feeling about travelling and when his taxi, which was taking him to the airport for his flight to Las Vegas, hit a deer he took it as an omen and cancelled his planned schedule. He did fly out for the 2010 WSOP Main Event but failed to make it to the money, needless to say he is looking forward to this year's series with more positivity!

Cody's route to the final was far from easy, with him having to take care of Brandon Adams in his opening match and then 2010 WSOP Player of the Year, Frank Kassela in the following round. His task did not become any easier when he faced Dani Stern in the third round, nor when he locked horns with Jonathan Jaffe in round four. Anthony Guetti was the next to feel the wrath of Cody, which set up an exciting semi-final encounter with Gus Hansen, a player who had won 12 consecutive WSOP Heads Up matches, including the £10,000 Heads-Up High Roller event at last year's World Series of Poker Europe.

It turned out to be unlucky number 13 for the man known as “The Great Dane” as he was completely annihilated by the former psychology student from Rochdale. Instead of a best-of-three format this year's event was played as a triple chance, not that it mattered to Cody as he used just one bullet to take care of Hansen, who used up all three of his live. The Dane simply did not have an answer for Cody's aggressive and many different styles of play that he threw at him.

Hansen's departure set up a mouth-watering final match against Yevgeniy Timoshenko, better known as “Jovial Gent” in online poker circles. A 40-strong crowd was railing Cody throughout the Hansen match and they were even more vocal in the Timoshenko tie. They turned the final table into a scene that would not have been out of place at a Premiership football match and some of the chants brought smiles to the faces of both players on several occasions. The rowdy rail must have been spurring Cody on as he walked all over Timoshenko and stacked him three times in less than three hours. Both players opted to sit with 1,600,000 each and have a further 3,200,000 in racks beside them. Just as in the Hansen match Cody would not need his though his opponent would go through all three bullets. 

Timoshenko lost his first stack around an hour into play when he raised preflop and then called a Cody shove with Ac4d. Cody's 6c6s held the advantage and the sixes stayed in front as the board ran out 3s-Kc-9s-9c-8h to make it one-nil to the well-supported Brit. The Ukraine-born American lost his second bullet an hour later when Cody made it 245,000 to play from the button (blinds now 60,000/120,000), Timoshenko shoved and Cody called, turning over Ad3h which was up against JcTs. Cody held a slight advantage preflop and this was extended as the flop came down Ks-Kc-4h. His lead was extended further with the arrival of the 7s on the turn and when the As fell on the river it was 2-0 to Cody and Timoshenko reloaded one last time.

With the blinds being so high Timoshenko's last reload left him quite short-stacked and Cody used this to his advantage by constantly raising and re-raising his opponent, putting him under maximum pressure. The final hand came two hours 45 minutes after they had begun and saw Timoshenko limp, Cody move all in and Timoshenko quickly call. Cody's Kc9c would need some help against the Ac5s of Timoshenko and it arrived as the door card was the Kh, followed by Qd and 4h. The turn was the 6h and when the river was the 4d Timoshenko was eliminated from the tournament and an emotional Cody stood and smiled as his friends cheered “Triple Crown! Triple Crown!” at him. This latest win was worth $851,192 and takes the young Brit's lifetime live tournament winnings past the $2,600,000 mark.

Back in April we brought you the news that at this year's World Series of Poker there were going to be three rematches of historical WSOP heads-up encounters. Johnny Chan was to take on Phil Hellmuth, Chris Moneymaker would face Sammy Farha and the public voted for Chan to have a rematch with Erik Seidel. Two of these rematches took place yesterday but the Chan versus Seidel has had to be postponed due to the fact the latter was deep in Event #3 the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 of Better tournament at the scheduled start time.

Johnny Chan versus Phil Hellmuth

The original meet between these two players was back in 1989 where a fresh-faced Phil Hellmuth locked horns with one of his idols, Johnny Chan in the final stages of the Main Event. Chan was looking to become the first-ever player to win three consecutive Main Events whilst Hellmuth had the chance to write his name in the WSOP record books by being the youngest-ever Main Event Champion. Hellmuth emerged victorious on that day, his 9c9s beating Chan's As7s when the board ran out Kc-Th-Kd-Qs-6s but who would win in the rematch.

The pair, who have 21-WSOP bracelet between them, met at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and sat down armed with 890,000 chips and played with blinds of 5,000/10,000/1,000a to a 30-minute clock. Both players began quite passively but Chan then ramped up the aggression, with one hand in particular showing that he was in control of the man known as “The Poker Brat.”

Chan raised on the button to 32,000 and Hellmuth made the call. The dealer put out the Kc-Jd-6h flop and both players elected to check their option to bet. Rather uncharacteristically, Hellmuth decided to make a bet of 32,000 in the dark, before the turn card had been dealt. When the 7d was put out on the turn Chan wasted no time in moving all in, which prompted a fold from Hellmuth who was then shown QdTc for just an open-ended straight draw.

By the time they had played for an hour Hellmuth found himself down to just 155,000 chips but after doubling up with 5c4c against Chan's 8s2c when the money went in on a 8c-6c-2s and Hellmuth turned a flush, The Poker Brat went on a real heater and even managed to take a 2-to-1 lead over Chan! This comeback was rather short-lived however and Chan once again put his foot firmly on the gas. He rode his luck by getting his money in with 4s3d on a Ad-4d-2h-Ts board against Hellmuth's Td9d and spiking the 5c on the river and from then on always looked like the man in control.

Then, after two hours of play the final hand took place. Hellmuth, down to 125,000 or three big blinds, moved all in with KsTc and was snap-called by Chan and his 8h8d. No king or ten for Hellmuth on a 3h-5s-9s-Jc-9c board and with that Chan had exacted revenge for his defeat 22 years previously!

Chris Moneymaker versus Sammy Farha

The second of the three encounters was a rematch of what is arguably the most important heads-up battle in poker history. When Chris Moneymaker, an accountant by trade, entered a $33 satellite tournament online he had no idea that the poker gods had decided that he would go on to win the 2003 WSOP Main Event, the $2,500,000 first place prize and spark what is now known as the “poker boom.” Since Moneymaker's unlikely win, the WSOP has increased in size each and every year as poker hopefuls travel to Las Vegas hoping to emulate his success.

This particular rematch was played to a best-of-three format, with the first round starting with exact chip counts as they were back in 2003, Moneymaker leading 5,490,000 to 2,900,000 and blinds of 20,000/40,000/5,000a. Round 1 last slightly less than an hour and went the way of Moneymaker after Farha, trailing by more than 3-to-1 in chips, moved all in preflop with AhTs and was called by the Ac8d of Moneymaker. The 5h-Qd-5c flop changed nothing at all but the 8c on the turn put the ball firmly in Moneymaker's court and there it stayed as the Qs on the river completed the hand and made it 1-0 to Moneymaker.

The second round of saw the original chip counts reversed and Farha was able to take advantage of this, though he needed a suckout of his own to level up proceedings. On a flop reading 6d-7h-6c Moneymaker  lead out with a bet of 375,000 and Farha, like he had done on numerous previous occasions moved all in. Moneymaker called and turned over 8s8c, nicely in front of Farha's As7d. The 4d on the turn kept Moneymaker in the lead but the Ah on the river saw the chips shipped to Mr Farha and a deciding match, with even stacks, would need to be played.

Half hour into this final encounter a huge hand took place that shifted the momentum Moneymaker's way. On a flop that read Jh-2h-Td both players entered a raising war that saw Moneymaker all in and at risk of elimination. He turned oer Js2d but was in a whole world of trouble as Farha held JcTh, which quite ironically was his holding in the final hand of the 2003 meet. The 8s on the turn put another nail in the Moneymaker coffin but the 2c rescued him with the kiss of life, much to the disappointment of Farha's fans and Moneymaker's haters.

Just ten minutes later and it was all over. Moneymaker raised on the button to 200,000 then called Farha's 1,500,000 three-bet shove. Moneymaker tabled KcJh and it was up against Farha's KhTc. The board ran out 7d-3c-7h-6h-2d and Moneymaker won by two games to one.

As mentioned at the start of this article the third and final WSOP rematch has been postponed as Erik Seidel, who was due to face Chan in a remake of their 1988 match, was deep in Event #3 but he busted earlier this morning in 32nd place so they could potentially play their televised game at any point.

Amidst the drama bombs being dropped by Phil Ivey and Full Tilt Poker it is easy to forget that the 2011 World Series of Poker is up and running but one man who will be putting non-playing matters to the back of his mind is Gus Hansen, who finds himself down to the last eight players in Event #2, better-known as the $25,000 No Limit Hold'em Heads-Up Championship.

Hansen is looking for his second bracelet having won his first in the £10,000 Heads-Up High-Roller at last year's WSOPE. That victory, which also netted him £288,409, sparked a huge header that has lasted almost a year. Before his bracelet win, Hansen was better known for being more than $9,000,000 in the red but since then he has won almost $6,000,000 in online cash games along with $1,000,000 when he won the Poker Million IX live tournament.

The man known as "The Great Dane" came into the series on the back of winning $809,000 from online cash games, which puts him up by $3,941,703 for the year, the most of any online poker player. His route to the final eight has not been easy by any stretch of the imagination with him having to beat Jason Mercier, recent WPT winner Gregory Brooks, Daniel Alaei and finally Tom "durrrr" Dwan.

Hansen's opponent in the next round is Matt Marafioti, who many will know as "ADZ124." Marafioti is a fearless and extremely talented cash game player and will be a formidable opponent of the on-form Dane. At the 2009 WSOP Marafioti was ejected from the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino by the tournament staff after he became extremely drunk thanks to a prop bet with Dwan. Marafioti accepted a $5,000 bet that he could drink 10 shots of Patron within 15 minutes but he became extremely loud and rowdy shortly after shot number seven and was asked to leave! Hansen will be hoping Marafioti is in the mood for a drink when play resumes later today.

The other matches taking place see Yengeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko take on David Paredes, Eric Froehlich play Nikolay Endakov and Anthony Guetti face Britain's Jake Cody, the latter able to complete the "Triple Crown" of live tournaments having already won EPT Deauville and WPT London last year.

Play resumes at 1500 Las Vegas time and will continue until only the final four players remain.

Ever since April 15, which will forever be known to the online poker community as “Black Friday,” there have been discussions about whether or not any of the Team Full Tilt players would make an appearance at the 42nd Annual World Series of Poker that kicked off yesterday afternoon.

With Full Tilt Poker yet to process any withdrawals from their now-banned American customers many players argued the 14-strong group should not participate in any of the WSOP events as it would be akin to rubbing salt into the wounds of those customers who still have inaccessible funds tied up on the site.

Some of the players, Erik Seidel in particular, mentioned via Twitter that he planned to play in less events than usual at this WSOP but the majority of Team Full Tilt, and the marketing arm of Full Tilt Poker, Tiltware, have been unusually quiet about the recent developments in the United States of America, that is until now.

One of the original members of Full Tilt Poker and the biggest name linked to the company, Phil Ivey, issued a statement on his Facebook page just as the 2011 World Series of Poker was in its opening stages, informing his legions of fans that he is boycotting this year's WSOP and is suing those behind Full Tilt Poker. Initially it was believed Ivey's Facebook page had either been hacked or did not belong to Ivey but the excellent Wicked Chops Poker confirmed, via Ivey's manager, that this particular Facebook page was indeed legitimate.

Although it was not needed, further weight was given to the statement when it appeared on Ivey's recently launched website. The statement, in full, reads:

For many years, I have been proud to call myself a poker player. This great sport has taken me to places I only imagined going and I have been blessed with much success. It is therefore with deep regret that I believe I am compelled to release the following statement.

I am deeply disappointed and embarrassed that Full Tilt players have not been paid money they are owed. I am equally embarrassed that as a result many players cannot compete in tournaments and have suffered economic harm. I am not playing in the World Series of Poker as I do not believe it is fair that I compete when others cannot. I am doing everything I can to seek a solution to the problem as quickly as possible.

My name and reputation have been dragged through the mud, through the inactivity and indecision of others and on behalf of all poker players I refuse to remain silent any longer. I have electronically filed a lawsuit against Tiltware related to the unsettled player accounts. As I am sure the public can imagine, this was not an easy decision for me.

I whole heartedly refuse to accept non-action as to repayment of players funds and I am angered that people who have supported me throughout my career have been treated so poorly.

I sincerely hope this statement will ignite those capable of resolving the problems into immediate action and would like to clarify that until a solution is reached that cements the security of all players, both US and International, I will, as I have for the last six weeks, dedicate the entirety of my time and efforts to finding a solution for those who have been wronged by the painfully slow process of repayment. 

To say this has come as a surprise is an understatement and the damage this could potentially do to the already damaged image of Full Tilt Poker is immense. Ivey is regarded as the best poker player in the world and I would argue that a rather large percentage of the company's customers, not only the American-based players, would have signed up and deposited funds just because he endorsed and played on the site.

At first glance it appears that none of Ivey's peers knew about his intentions to take such drastic action, indeed the superb Betfair Poker columnist Martin “Short Stacked Shamus” Harris wrote on his personal blog that Barry Greenstein had used up the bulk of his points allowance to “purchase” Ivey in the $25,000 buy-in Fantasy Draft that a number of the top pros are taking part in (Harris covered that here), indicating at least he was in the dark about Ivey and his impeding lawsuit.

The rest of Ivey's Team Full Tilt team-mates, or former team-mates as the case may be, have maintained their silence on the matter but Tom “durrrr” Dwan, a relatively recent addition to the official team, wrote on his Twitter feed, “Yo @philivey poker isn't a sport... Rest of your statement is awesome though”

This latest development is a major blow to Full Tilt Poker and could make competing in the WSOP a daunting task for the rest of Team Full Tilt. Already John Juanda has been involved in an altercation with reigning WSOPE Main Event champion, James Bord with a number of insults and threats been made that resulted in Juanda being escorted out of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino by security. The initial altercation was reported here by the PokerNews live reporting team.

At the moments there are still many questions that need answering and as soon as they come to light we will reveal them on these every pages. We will strive to bring you any updates we receive and information that we discover. Until then grab yourself some popcorn and enjoy the fireworks!

The World Series of Poker starts tomorrow and I'm as excited as a a dog with two knobs despite the fact the only bits of it I will see are via the PokerNews live reporting page and the live streams of the final tables. For any poker player the WSOP is an amazing time, a time where the very best players in the world battle it out with rank amateurs, all sharing a common goal of winning s bracelet and a shed-load of money.

I was asked about my availability to work the WSOP as a blogger for PokerNews and although I said I could work the entire series they decided to go with the more experienced bloggers and then when “Black Friday” happened it had a major effect on the number of bloggers travelling to Las Vegas so I ultimately missed out. I'm obviously massively disappointed but I have to accept the management's decisions, and I do, and enjoy the WSOP via other means. Maybe I should try and actually qualify for one of the events next year?

Yesterday me and the Mrs went to watch the Hangover 2, after really enjoying the first film they made. Like the previous film this one was really funny but I felt they were going over old ground and should really have just done the one film. Don't get me wrong, I laughed at a lot of it and when it comes out on Sky I'll watch it again but it certainly wasn't as epic as some of the reviews had made out, that is for certain.

After the movie we headed to the Kashmir restaurant for some grub, the first time Mrs P has been there. The food is very nice and extremely cheap but when you get inside it is obvious why. The restaurant opened in 1947 and was one of the first of its kind to do so in Bradford and I would put money on the fact they are still using the same plates, bowls and cutlery from the day it opened! The décor is rank but at the same time it is quite authentic and I usually go there a couple of times a month. Pickle tray, a massive mixed starter, lamb dopiaza and chippatis for £7.80 is certainly not to be sniffed at, the only problem with the authenticness (is that even a word?) is that it plays havoc with my arse, but it's worth it in my book. If you're in the area try them out, I'm sure you won't be disappointed.

On the way to cinema yesterday we saw one of those plastic policemen, you know the community officer do-dahs or whatever they are called, stood outside a house very close to where we live. Then when we returned some six hours later there was another one stood in the exact same spot which lead me to wonder WTF was going on. A quick search of the net reveals that four people have been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after a woman was bundled into a large cardboard box and driven to some nearby woods. How she escaped four people I don't know but she was found by a driver in a “dishevelled state.” Scary **** on your own doorstep I'm sure you'll agree. The BBC have it covered here.

Now here is some poker advice for you that I want you to pay attention to, do not come play the five-max turbo SNG on Betfair Poker because they are not really easy, they are not full of fish and you will not win money from them. Thanks. Actually, that's a lie, they are a complete fish-fest. Why did nobody tell me about these before? Now the blind structure is awful and the payout is 70/30 but Jesus Christ the players in them are awful. I only played eight of them over the weekend, which I know is no sample size, but the stuff I saw in these games was worth the entry fee for entertainment value. I shove nine big blinds with KdQd on the button and get snapped off by the SB who puts his tournament life at risk, on the bubble, with Js2s! He of course gets there when the board runs out 3h-5h-4s-6d-Ah to cripple me then I got some pillock to call my shove with 8s4h whilst I held tens, seriously, and he got there too as the RNG thought it would be fun to display 2d-3s-Ah-5d-Jh on my screen! Four second places and a win have seen me lose money but these things should be a gold mine, that is if I can keep my head straight through all the variance I will obviously have to endure.

This blog has gone on for a little longer than I had initially planned so I will leave it there for now. Until next time, thanks for reading and all the best at the tables!