Yorky Pud

Fear not gentle reader but I have not completely lost the plot and started to make up ridiculous headlines just to make you read my musings, the World Series of Poker, for this year at least, will have an official footwear sponsor. I kid you not.

Over the past few years the WSOP has had a number of different sponsors some of which have been heavily linked to poker and others maybe not so much. For example, Milwaukee Light beer was quite an apt sponsor, as was the All In energy drink. Then came other companies that were not as synonymous with playing poker such as Jack Links Beef Jerky and Levitra, an erectile dysfunction medicine! Now Ty Stewart, vice president of the WSOP, has decided that poker's biggest festival needs a footwear sponsor and Dearfoams Slippers will be it.

Now I will admit I have never heard of Dearfoams Slippers but  after a little bit of research I have discovered they have been around since 1947 after being founded by Florence Melton and since then they have sold more than a billion pair of slippers ranging from $20 to $50. But how does a pair of slippers, or any footwear for that matter, link back to either online or live poker? Stewart took care of that one, referring to the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel's sporting flip-flops at the final table.

Stewart said “Our champion last year won nearly $9 million while wearing flip-flops, so we know poker players covet comfort in their pursuit of glory. But let’s face it, flip-flops aren’t so comfortable. So we have partnered with Dearfoams – who makes the world’s most comfortable slippers – so players can now feel truly comfy as they pursue their dreams of winning the WSOP and going on to live a life of leisure where it will be appropriate to wear Dearfoams slippers 24/7.”

A pair of Dearfoams will be given to every single entrant in this year's $10,000 Main Event and the Ladies-only Event and they will also be giving away entry to the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event via a competition on their website. Mark Zobel, the vice president of R.G. Barry Corporation, the parent company of Dreamfoams, had this to say of the new partnership, “This is an exciting opportunity for us and a unique way for Dearfoams to reach a broader male audience, who may not be as familiar with our brand as women. They’re the perfect pair whether at a poker table, running errands, heading to class, or just kicking back at home.”

I will admit that I have already looked on the Dreamfoams website and have considered ordering myself a pair of slippers as I am in the house most of the time and wear slippers all day long. I guess their marketting campaign has already suckered one poker player in then, one-nil to Dreamfoams and the WSOP.

Since the €1,000 Barcelona Open back on September 18, 2004, Thomas Kremser and his team of floor staff and poker dealers have been omnipresent at each and every single European Poker Tour, all the way up to the Grand Final of Season 7 held in Madrid just a few weeks ago.

Kremser, the founder of TK Poker Events, is one of the most-respected tournament directors in the game but he and his team will no longer be the authoritative figures at any future European Poker Tour events after a press release from TK Poker Events revealed he has broken ties with the EPTs sponsor, PokerStars, after seven years of working together.

The decision has come as a shock to the players who are regulars on the EPT circuit, including members of the media who have worked alongside Kremser and his excellent staff over the seven seasons the EPT has been running. Kremser explained his decision to bring his reign to an end by saying, “The time is right to explore new adventures and also to adjust our business model to emphasize closer cooperation with licensed casino operators.”

According to the press release Kremser contacted PokerStars “several weeks ago” as he needed “to review the nature of their relationship” which suggests, when coupled with his explanation above, that “Black Friday” has Kremser and his staff spooked, though he has spelled it out in as many words. It appears that any negotiations have now broken down and TK Poker Events will no long be associated with the European Poker Tour.

Kremser has been the face of the EPT for the past seven years but was optimistic and looking forward to the future, “I am excited about exploring new vistas and growing treasured relationships with casinos that have come to rely on TK as the face of professionalism, integrity and exceptional service in poker tournament operations and consulting matters.”

The departure of Kremser and his team is a huge blow to the European Poker Tour, who had seen increased attendances during the early parts of Season 7 but these dwindled during the latter stops. Where this leaves the EPT is unknown and rumours are already circulating as to how PokerStars will find a team of tournament directors and dealers within a couple of months, when Season 8 is pencilled in to begin.

To say thank you to the players who have taken part in the various EPTs over the years, TK Poker Events have uploaded a video to You Tube, which you can watch by clicking here.

Back at the 1988 World Series of Poker the Main event had been whittled down from 167 entrants until just the final two players remained, Johnny Chan and the then unknown Erik Seidel. Although television coverage of poker tournaments was nothing like the grand scale productions we have become accustomed to today, there is still some footage of the famous final hand if you search on the internet.

The heads-up encounter was the grand master taking on the rank amateur as Chan had already won the Main Event the previous year and this result represented Seidel's first cash in a major tournament. The final hand was immortalised in the Hollywood poker film, Rounders, and saw both players limp into the pot and the dealer put out the Qs-8d-Th flop. Seidel initially checked, Chan bet 40,000 and Seidel check-raised to 90,000. Chan made the call and both players checked the 2s on the turn. The river saw the 6d make an appearance and Seidel quickly moved all in with his Qc7h that had made top pair but was crushed as Chan held Jc-9c and had flopped the nut straight.

Since then both Chan and Seidel have gone onto win another eight WSOP bracelets and both have more than $24,000,000 in combined live tournament winnings, and are true legends of the game. Most online poker players will not have had the opportunity to watch these two Goliath's the first time around but they will be able to watch them play each other in a rematch on June 2 at the 42nd Annual World Series of Poker.

Harrah's Entertainment, the owners of the World Series of Poker brand, announced a couple of months ago that they were going to host three rematches of famous encounters throughout WSOP history. Two had already been decided, those being Phil Hellmuth versus Johnny Chan (1989) and Chris Moneymaker versus Sammy Farha (2003) but the third match was to be chosen by a public vote. Over the past couple of months poker fans have been visiting the WSOP's Facebook page and voting on which heads-up match they would like to see brought back to life in modern times. Voters could choose from the Chan versus Seidel match described above, Greg Raymer versus David Williams (2004), Jamie Gold versus Paul Wasicka (2006) and Jonathan Duhamel versus John Racener (2010).

The voting closed on Tuesday night and although the news is yet to appear on the WSOP website, they did announced via their Twitter feed that Seidel versus Chan was the easy winner in the vote. All three matches will take place at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino on June 2 starting at 1300 Las Vegas time. Hellmuth versus Chan will be a single match-up, whilst Moneymaker and Farha will play a best of three match that starts with each player having the same number of chips as they did in their first encounter eight years ago. The stacks will then be reversed and if a third match is needed the pair will start with even stacks. The full details of Chan versus Seidel are yet to emerge.

All three matches should be extremely entertaining and I am predicting Chan will beat Hellmuth, Farha will beat Moneymaker 2-0 and Seidel will beat Chan in the final match. Stay tuned to find out if I am correct or horribly wrong![;)]

The 2010 World Series of Poker was dubbed by the European and some American media outlets as “The Year of the Brit” after British poker players won five bracelets, made 20 final tables and cashed 275 times for combined prize money of $8,679,918. Although last year's accomplishments were absolutely superb I honestly believe that 2011 will be an even better year for British poker players at the WSOP.

Last year we cheered and applauded as Steve Jelinek, Richard Ashby, James Dempsey, Mike Ellis and Praz Bansi all won coveted WSOP bracelets, with Bansi winning his second piece of poker jewellery. We railed both online and via live reporting feeds the likes of Sam Trickett and Paul Foltyn as they made final tables but ultimate fell just short. This year we will be doing even more of that.

A number of British players are absolutely bang on form right now and are going to cause a major stir on American soil. One of the players already mentioned, Paul Foltyn, had the perfect preparation for the WSOP by winning the $2,100 SCOOP event for $188,100 and somehow followed that up with a third place in the $1,050 rebuy for another $73,320 score! He has not cashed in a live tournament this year but he will more than make up for that in Las Vegas.

Another on-form player is Toby Lewis, known online as “810ofclubs.” Lewis burst onto the live poker scene back in 2010 when he won EPT Vilamoura, finished third in the PartyPoker World Open VI and then won a £1,000 tournament at EPT London. This will be Lewis' first World Series of Poker and I am sure it is going to be one to remember. Lewis is also heading out to Sin City after a big online score, his was for $167,200 for his sixth place finish in the $10,300 SCOOP Main Event.

My personal pock for glory in Vegas is John Eames, known in online poker circles as “johne147” or to his friends as “Steady Eddie.” Eames made a name for himself online and has won more than $1,500,000 from online poker tournaments but he has managed to make the transition to the live arena almost seamlessly. In the past year he has managed to cash three times at the Aussie Millions, finish third in the EPT Copenhagen Main Event, reach the final table of the Irish Open and cash twice in other major tournaments. His consistency is baffling and I would be surprised if he does not come away with some major honours once the 42nd Annual World Series of Poker is over and done with.

Of course this is just a very select few players who are heading to Las Vegas to seek fame and fortune. When you add names such as Roberto Romanello (who is looking for a Triple Crown), Jack Ellwood, Chris Moorman, James Keys, Trickett, James Akenhead, I could go on for another page and a half, it is easy to see why Brits are going to crush even harder this time around.

All together now, “God save our gracious Queen.......”

When I first started playing poker and I discovered the PocketFives rankings I had dreams and aspirations of logging on and finding myself sat on or near the top of them. I guess I wanted to be regarded as one of the best online poker tournament players in the world but then a few things happened.

The first was that I was not good enough. As simple as that. I still aren't good enough to be ranked amongst the world's best, absolutely nowhere near. The second was that although I wanted to find myself high up in the rankings I never put in enough volume in qualifying tournaments to ever receive any points. A check of my results shows that since 2007 I have only played in 111 tournaments that were not MTTSNG, which equates to an average of half a tournament per week!

After reading The Mental Game of Poker a couple of times something really struck a chord with me and that was co-author Barry Carter's story. I won't relay it word for word but he discusses when he first spoke to Jared Tendler and was asked what his image of a winning poker player was and Barry says that the image he thinks of is a poker player sat behind a huge pile of chips, proudly showing off their winning hand having won a major tournament. But the problem was that Barry was not playing in many tournaments so how could he ever become, in his own eyes, a winning poker player.

When I read that I was thought they had got into my own mind and were writing about me. I think it is a common problem with poker players who work in the media because most of their time is spent writing about players winning major tournaments and reporting live on the various tours around the world. Behind every poker writer and blogger is a frustrated poker player, trust me on that one. Working on the three EPT Main Events has made me want to play in some major live events but even if I won a satellite into one of them I would almost certainly be eaten alive due to my lack of experience in MTTs.

There have been other factors that have come into play regarding why I have essentially stood still for so long including the fact I was basically nuts for a while and was drinking heavily but now everything seems in place for giving tournament poker a proper shot. My life is much more stable in terms of my mentality and finances and now the kids are of an age where they go to bed and stay there until morning, meaning I wouldn't have any distractions on that front. And I have cut down on drinking a lot, mainly because I am trying to lose weight (I've dropped 6.75lbs in two weeks) and alcohol is just empty calories so I don't really have an excuse not to play tournaments.

Looking at my PocketFives profile reveals that the total tracked money that I have won is $962.07, my largest cash is for $477.50 back in March 2010 and my most recent cash was for $49.35 in July 2010. This places me a very disappointing 36 out of 38 of Leeds-based PocketFives members and a woeful 1,544 from 1,625 UK-based players. My goal is to try an move up the rankings during the rest of the year. I'm aiming to move up to the top 20 in Leeds players and the top 1,000 in UK players and whatever happens from there only time will tell. Whilst many will be thinking this is just another one of Pud's phases I can assure you that it is not and from now until the New year at least you will find me grinding out a number of MTTs in an attempt to push my sorry-ass figures up the rankings.

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

If you only place one bet during 2011 then make sure you put it on Erik Seidel to win a World Series of Poker bracelet at the upcoming series as the man is simply unstoppable right now, especially in high buy-in events. So far this year Seidel has won no fewer than four major titles and made nine final tables, results that have earned him $5,590,166 and now means he has a staggering $15,945,180 in live tournament winnings in his career so far.

When he entered the first ever World Poker Tour Super High Roller Event, a $100,000 buy-in tournament held at the Bellagio as a curtain closer to Season 9 of the WPT, many joked that they should just give Seidel the win and save everyone the time and effort. They should not have mocked though because I am now typing up this report of Seidel doing just that, adding $1,092,000 to his already gargantuan bankroll.

Seidel and his heads-up opponents, Erick "E-Dog" Lindgren restarted their one-on-one battle at just before 1250 Las Vegas time, having chosen to get a night's sleep in before completing the tournament. Just three hands into the restart and Lindgren managed to double up to turn the tie on its head. With blinds of 40,000/80,000, Lindgren raised to 200,000 and Seidel flat-called, meaning both players saw the Kd-6d-3d flop be dealt. Seidel checked, Lindgren bet 225,000 only to see Seidel check-raise to 550,000. Lindgren responded by making it 1,400,000 to play but Seidel wasted no time in moving all in. Two minutes later Lindgren made the call and was at risk of elimination. This risk was extremely high as his two pair, made with Kh6h, was way behind the Jd2d for a diamond flush of Seidel. However, the 6c on the turn improved Lindgren to a full house, rendering the 7d on the river meaningless.

Five hands later and the pair got their money in preflop, Seidel having the best of it when his QsQh stayed ahead of Lindgren's AhTc when the board ran out Kd-9c-5s-Td-2c to essentially even matters up once again. From this point on Seidel never looked back and 32 hands later he had won every single 29,000,000 chips that were in play to win his fourth title of the year so far.

On hand 326 of the final table, Seidel limped in on the button and Lindgren checked his option in the big blind. The flop came down Ac-4c-2c and Lindgren checked then moved all in for just over 1,000,000 when Seidel fired out a bet of 125,000. Seidel called and turned over Ah5h for top pair, which needed to fade a few cards as Lindgren held Jc3h for a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw. The 9d on the turn failed to alter anything and neither did the 2s on the river and with that Seidel was announced as champion, an all too familiar site at the moment!

Final table payouts

1st: Erik Seidel: $1,092,000
2nd Erick Lindgren: $700,500
3rd: Daniel Negreanu: $448,320
4th: Vivek Rajkumar: $336,240
5th: Justin Bonomo: $224,160

The popular Scott Seiver already had a World Series of Poker bracelet to his name and more than $2,200,000 in live tournament winnings and now he has a World Poker Tour titles after winning the star-studded WPT World Championship Main Event,a  result that also sees him pick up the $1,618,344 first place prize.

Seiver went into the six-handed final table second in chips, albeit just 20,000 behind leader Galen Hall, and once he took the lead he never relinquished it. Usually at these WPT final tables there is a couple of early eliminations but the railbirds had to wait until the 45th hand, or two hours into play, to see someone lose all of their chips and head to the cashier's cage to pick up the $225,654 awarded for finishing in sixth place.

With blinds at 50,000/100,000/10,000a Galen Hall opened with a raise to 205,000 from the button only to see Justin Young defend his small blind by three-betting to 550,000. The big blind folded but Hall moved all in after a rough count of Young's chips. Fifteen seconds later and the final table had its first all in confrontation as Young called. Hall revealed AhKc, which was dominating the AdJh of Young and when the final board ran out 5s-4h-3c-Th-6d the final table had lost its first player.

Amazingly another player busted out the very next hand, Tony Gargano busting out in fifth place foe a career best score of $278,749. In this hand Seiver min-raised to 200,000 under the gun and then quickly called when Gargano three-bet shoved all in for around 2,000,000 chips. Seiver found himself in a similar position as Hall was in the previous hand, his AdKd dominating Gargano's KhJh and when the five community cards read As-8h-3s-6s-4c, it was game over for Gargano whos prize money here is five times more than his previous best of $43,800.

Just twelve hands later and Roger Teska was heading for the exits after a clash with Hall. The action folded around to Hall, winner of the 2011 PCA Main Event, and he moved all in for what turned out to be 4,295,000 and it looked like he had made a mistake when Teska called and the former was forced to turn over Js9s which was in pretty bad shape against Teska's AdTd. However, Hall has been running well in live tournaments this year and this run-good continued as the flop came down Jh-5s-2d and when the turn and river were the 5d and 4c Teska was eliminated in fourth place, which netted him a career-best score of $371,665.

They played three-handed for just over 90 minutes until Hall's luck finally ran out for him. With blinds now starting to bite at 80,000/160,000/15,000a, Farzad Bonyadi folded the button and Hall checked his cards and moved all in for 2,400,000. Seiver doubled checked the amount to call before doing just that and turning over KsTh, which was in front of the Jd7d of his opponent. Seiver's lead was extended as the flop came down Kd-Kh-Qd but Hall picked up a few more outs with the arrival of the 9s on the turn. The river was the 6c and with it Hall was eliminated in third place and the tie went into the heads-up stage.

Seiver lead by 16,305,000 to 5,695,000 going into heads-up and it only took him 41 hands to take care of the triple WSOP bracelet holder, Bonyadi. In the final hand, the 154th of the final table, Seiver min-raised to 400,000 and Bonyadi opted to call. Both players checked down to the board that read Tc-6d-2s-Qc and when the Ks arrived on the river Bonyadi once against checked but Seiver was in no mood for more passivity and he bet 600,000. Bonyadi responded by check-raising to 1,600,000. Fifteen seconds later and Seiver moved all in, sending Bonyadi into the tank. Three minutes later and he emerged with a call for his tournament life, turning over QsTh for two-pair but unfortunately for him Seiver held Js9d for a tournament winning straight.

Final table payouts

1st: Scott Seiver: $1,618,344
2nd: Farzad Bonyadi: $1,061,900
3rd: Galen Hall: $589,355
4th: Roger Teska: $371,665
5th: Tony Gargano: $278,749
6th: Justin Young: $225,654

I first heard of Jared Tendler when I saw him in an article in what I think was WPT Magazine quite a while ago and I will admit that I never read a single word that was printed in his article. Why? Because to me self-help type columns are generally full of total rubbish and they often pray on the weak and vulnerable and I guess I see them as exploiting the weaker minds amongst us.

Over the next few months I saw his name banded around everywhere I looked, but still I took relatively little notice. Then one of life's strange little coincidences took place around the time of the 2010 World Series of Poker. Out of the blue I received a message on Facebook from Barry Carter, someone who I “knew” through his blog and I was aware he was involved in the UK arm of PokerNews. Anyway, long story short he put me in touch with the live reporting team of PokerNews and I was given a freelance job reporting on the European Poker Tour. Barry had also done the same for Lee Davy and it was Mr Davy that made me realise how much of a **** I had been for dismissing Jared's work.

Most of you will never meet Lee but he is one of those people who calls a spade a spade, if he doesn't like something he will tell you straight and vice versa so when we worked together in Barcelona the conversation naturally progressed to our own poker playing and Jared cropped up in conversation as Lee had done a few sessions with him. Initially I was sceptical but Lee spoke so highly of Jared that he had to be the real deal as I honestly did not see someone like Lee falling for any old gubbins so I started to do some research into Jared and the whole aspect of poker that I struggled with, the mental game of poker.

Again as if by a massive coincidence I googled that exact term and came across a book that was being written by Jared and co-authored by a certain Barry Carter. Another long story short Barry put me in touch with Jared and the latter offered me a free 35-45 minute session, which seemed like a bargain considering Jared's usual hourly rate. I turned up for our Skype session fashionably late, not on purpose may I add, and we got down to business. I wrote a blog entry about that particular session here so I won't cover old ground and will jump straight into the book, but for those of you who don't want to read that particular entry let me tell you I instantly became a fan of Jared's quite obvious Jedi mind tricks! The man is a genius.

Quite simply it is the only book you will ever need regarding the mental side of poker. Everything is so simple yet so effective that I challenge you to read it and not sit there grinning like the village idiot whilst bobbing your head in agreement like a nodding dog. I joked with Jared that I was going to sue him for a repetitive strain injury in my neck from all of the nodding I was doing.

One area I was apprehensive about was how they were going to transfer Jared's personality from spoken word into text. As someone who writes a lot I know first hand how difficult it is to do just that but they have managed it. Having spoken to Jared I could hear him saying these simply but massively effective concepts such as the Adult Learning Model and the Inchworm, both of which are at the very beginning of the book and are a great foundation for the rest of the amazing text. These two concepts hit home so hard for me that I had one of those light-bulb moments, sadly it made me realise what a fish I really am but that's another story.

During the third chapter it is clearly and effectively explained how emotions work and the various different ways in how emotions begin to build up and become over-powering for your brain then as if by magic the fourth chapter gives you ways to deal with a malfunctioning brain, which is what happens when you are going on tilt / are on tilt. There I not one point where Jared, or Barry for that matter, say if symptom A is present do fix B and you will no longer tilt simply because it does not work like that. Instead they give you the tools and knowledge so you can delve into your psyche and find out what is causing your mental game problems so that you can then go about using proven techniques to fix these problems yourself.

As you would expect the largest chapter, number five, is the largest as it covers the seven different types of tilt that Jared has identified and yes, I have suffered and do suffer from all seven. I told you I was a fish. But after reading this chapter I now know what I suffer from these different types of tilt and I have started to take steps to prevent them in future. When I read the title of chapter six, Fear, I though WTF is that doing in here, how can someone be scared of poker but after reading I realised that there are a number of aspects in my own game that I actually fear. Certain little things such start as uncertainties and they progress to anxiety and eventually a phobia. I'm not going to list them here as they can be used against me at the tables but it really opened my eyes to how much work I have got to do if I want to be anything other than a micro-stakes fish for the rest of my days.

On a closing note I would like to add that I believe that a person of average intelligence could use this book to help themselves in other walks of life. I know Barry has used it to help him get into shape and I have already applied to to other areas of my life, admittedly with differing results, but I honestly believe that anyone who reads The Mental game of Poker will come away having done so with something they can take out of it. 100% of people regardless of who you are, OK, maybe not Ivey but is he even real?

The only fault I can pick with the book is the fact my copy was a PDF file (no you can't have it) and when I printed it onto A4 paper (no you can't have that either) I ended up with a he pile of paper that is getting on the Mrs' nerves. Despite my freebie I will still be forking out $50 for the book so make of that what you will. Either Jared and Barry have used some subliminal messages to force me to do that or they have completely changed the views of one of the most sceptical people on the planet, I would side on the second of those two statements. Buy the book, you will not be disappointed and if you are then you I would love to meet you because you are either going to be a so intelligent you are on a completely different level to us mere mortals or you are an absolute numpty. Either way you'll be an interesting individual!

Erik Seidel is on the mother of all heaters at the moment and it seems to have continued to the $100,000 Super High Roller being spread by the World Poker Tour at the Bellagio, Las Vegas, Nevada where he finds himself heads-up against Erick “E-Dog” Lindgren for the $1,092,780 first place prize.

A rather impressive 29 players paid the huge $100,000 entry fee, which surprised even the organisers as they were only expecting around half that number participating, and by the end of the first day only 17 had chips remaining in their stack. Day 1 casualties included Daniel “jungleman12” Cates, Antanas “Tony G” Guoga and Thomas Marchese.

Day 2 saw a flurry of early eliminations, in fact seven players were eliminated in the first two hours which prompted the tournament director to merge the two tables into one ten-handed table. Within four hands the players has a little more space to stretch out in when Rick Salomon got into a raising war with Seidel on a Kc-3c-3h flop whilst holding AhKh. Of course “Seiborg” was sat there with Ad3d for by far the best hand and when the turn and river were the 9h and Tc resepectively the tournament was down to the final nine players.

The 27th hand of the final table will always be fondly remembered by Daniel Negreanu as he made his first-ever royal flush. With blinds at 8,000/16,000/2,000a Negreanu opened with a bet of 36,000 from the small blind and Seidel came along for the ride. Both players checked the Kh-Qh-Jh flop but Negreanu came out betting 55,000 when the Th landed on the turn. Seidel called and both players saw the 8s hit the river. Negreanu bet a little smaller this time, 52,000, and Seidel called. “I have a royal flush,” exclaimed Negreanu, “It is my first one ever. Seriously.” before he turned over Ah9h causing Seidel to muck.

Negreanu then busted Sam Trickett in eighth place before Seidel took care of Randy Dorfman in seventh place when the latter called an all in bet with pocket jacks, which held against Dorfman's eights. Then came one of the biggest money bubbles in tournament history and it was Cory Katz who was the unfortunate soul to burst it. On hand 108 of the final table the action folded to Vivek Rajkumar in the small blind and he wasted no time in moving all in against his short-stacked opponent. Katz snap-called and turned over AsQs which was nicely in front of Rajkumar's Ks2d. And it stayed ahead as the board ran out Th-8h-4c-5h but a cruel 2h on the river was enough to ship the pot to Rajkumar and Katz exited the table one place short of picking up $224,160.

Shortly after Katz's demise Justin Bonomo headed for the rail after being eliminated in fifth place by Lindgren but then it took almost three hours for the next bust out to occur and when it did it was a real bad beat. With blinds now 25,000/50,000/5,000a Rajkumar opened to 125,000 from under the gun and when the action folded to Lindgren in the bib blind he made it 400,000 to play. Rajkumar, also known as “Pysduck” put in a further raise, this one to 760,000 only to see Lindgren move all in. Rajkumar instantly called off his remaining 2,300,000 and looked on course for a double-up as his AsAh was way ahead of the Jd9s of Lindgren and it stayed that was as the flop came down 6d-3c-2d but the turn and river were the 9d and Js giving Lindgren a most unlikely winning hand and sent a devistated Rajkumar to the rail, albeit with $336,240 to console himself with.

Another two hours past and it was Negreanu who felt the wrath of Lindgren to exit stage left in third place. Negreanu, who only decided to enter the tournament at the last minute, three-bet shoved over Lindgren's opening raise of 160,000 and when “E-Dog” called it was a typical race scenario, Lindgren holding Ah6h against his Canadian opponent's 4s4h. The very first card on the flop was an ace and when the final board ran out Ac-Kh-3d-9c-7h Negreanu was eliminated in fourth place, a finish worth $448,320.

This left Seidel and Lindgren heads-up with the latter holding a narrow 6,295,000 to 5,305,000 lead. Seidel managed to edge in front to a 7,120,000 to 4,480,000 lead but when the the 20th level of play came to an end the tournament director gave the players the choice of finishing the match or returning tomorrow (today) at 1230pm Las Vegas time. The duo decided they would rather complete the match after some sleep so the tournament was paused for a final time.

When the pair return to the felt later today they will do so knowing they will pick up no less than $700,500 for their efforts and are only one elimination away from the $1,092,780 first place prize.

The season-ending $25,500 World Poker Tour World Championship has reached its final table of six players and it is Galen Hall and Scott Seiver who find themselves at the very top of the chip counts going into it. Hall holds a narrow 20,000 chip advantage over Seiver but that will count for very little when play resumes on Friday afternoon.

Fifteen players returned to the Bellagio yesterday knowing they were only nine eliminations away from reaching a WPT Main Event final table and giving themselves a very realistic shot at the $1,618,344 first place prize. One man who soon had to make other plans was Will Failla who lasted an hour before becoming the first casualty of the day when his pocket tens were no match for the AsJs of Roger Teska when the final board ran out Ac-Ad-6h-Jh-Th.

He was followed to the rail soon after by a former WPT Champion in David Williams and they were soon being kept company by Steven Kelly and Ashton Griffin, the latter becoming more famous for his $1,000,000 prop bet with Hasseb Qureshi then his amazing poker talent. Griffin did not hang around on the rail for long, instead he took the $63,714 he earned for his twelfth place finish and used it to enter the $100,000 Super High Roller event that was taking place one table away.

When Daniel Alaei busted out in eleventh place the 10 surviving players all relocated and played ten-handed on an unofficial final table but after just one hand on this table another player was eliminated. Nenad Medic raised to 63,000 from under the gun with blinds at 15,000/30,000/4,000a and the action folded to Teska in the hijack seat. He checked his cards and announced he was all in for around 1,400,000 and when the action folded back to Medic he quickly called but looked devastated when he discovered his QhQd were up against the powerhouse that pocket aces. The 7c-3h-2d-2c-9h board saw Teska's American Airlines fly safely home and sent Medic to the rail.

Less than 10 minutes later and Shannon Shorr's tournament came to an abrupt end when he tried to make a squeeze play with QsJh but was called by Justin Young and his dominating AhQd. An ace on the flop was more than enough to win the hand for Young and Shorr became the ninth place finisher, a reuslt that saw him pick up $84,952 for his efforts over the past five days of high-octane poker.

It took another five hours before the table lost another player and it was Sam El Sayed who became that player on the 100th hand of the unofficial final table. Finding himself down to six big blind he moved all in when first to act in the cutoff with a pair of black fives and found a caller in the shape of Hall seated on the button. Both blinds folded and the entire table was amazed to see the flop come down Th-Td-Tc to give Hall quad tens and leave El Sayed drawing completely dead! The meaningless 4h fell on the turn and the Qh on the river completed the hand and left the tournament just one elimination away from the official final table.

The railbirds did not have to wait long either as just four hands after El Sayed's untimely demise David Peters squeezed with a pair of tens but was eventually called by Seiver's KsQh and it was off to the races, a race that Peters fell behind in when the flop came down Kd-9d-7d. The 8c on the turn gave Peters an open-ended straight draw but a third king on the river for Seiver sent Peters home in seventh place, worth $172,559.

Peters' exit meant the final table of six had been reached and the tournament was paused for one last time and will remain paused until Friday afternoon after the final tablists were given a day off on Thursday. Each of the players who will return to the Bellagio on Friday will be doing so safe in the knowledge that they are all now $225,654 richer and that they are now in with a chance of winning some real life-changing sums of money.

Seat draw and chip counts

Seat 1: Galen Hall: 5,095,000
Seat 2: Justin Young: 1,750,000
Seat 3: Tony Gargano: 3,550,000
Seat 4: Roger Teska: 3,600,000
Seat 5: Scott Seiver: 5,075,000
Seat 6: Freddy Bonyadi: 2,470,000