Yorky Pud

The MGM Resorts International flagship hotel and casino, the Bellagio has issued a statement that it intends to withdraw all $25,000 chips from circulation and issue new ones in their place. Gamblers fortunate enough to have any of these red chips with a grey inlay have until April 22 to cash them in, otherwise they will become almost worthless.

Discontinuing chips is nothing new to Las Vegas casinos, even high value chips, though they are usually commemorative chips to mark boxing matches, anniversary’s and other landmark events. The Bellagio's reasons are different though, they are withdrawing the chips after a robbery on December 14.

At 0350 on December 14, a man pulled up on a motorcycle outside the Bellagio, entered the luxurious venue and made his way to a craps table, where he produced a handgun and eventually made off with casino chips with the value of $1,500,000. According to reports, the chip denominations ranged from $100 up to $25,000, with as many as 60 of them being the high-value chips.

Although the local police department have been working tirelessly to track down the gunman they have so far had very little in the way of leads of success. Now it looks like the Bellagio is taking steps to lure out the criminal by making the highest value chips stolen obsolete.

Alan Feldman, a spokesman for MGM Resorts informed members of the press that chips within the casino had been switched out within an hour and that the Bellagio had immediately filed to discontinue the chips. Under Nevada state law, casino operators can discontinue any chips they see fit but must serve notice, file a plan with the regulatory committee and give gamblers adequate time to cash in their chips.

Feldman told The Associated Press, “Obviously, anyone walking with one of the old series is going to be subject to a certain amount of questioning as to how they obtained them.” He suggested the Bellagio generally personally knows the high-rollers who use the $25,000 chips as he added, “It's pretty unusual for someone we don't know to come strolling up with a handful of $25,000 chips.”

Should you be lucky enough to have a bagful of these chips under your bed from a trip to Sin City then it would be a good idea to contact the Bellagio and make arrangements to cash them in before they are only worth the clay they are cast in!

The poker world is not one where you can afford to be complacent otherwise you will quickly realise how volatile it can be. Unfortunately for me, I have become rather complacent and it is time to up my game in all areas, not just my playing of the game.

Readers of this blog will know that I have been lucky enough to work with the PokerNews team for the last two European Poker Tour Main Events and it has been a great experience for me, eye-opening in fact, especially when it comes to the standard of my work. I have been able to work alongside some extremely talented writes and it has made me question my own ability in this industry.

When I first started writing about poker I really enjoyed it and worked very hard to produce good content but recently my interest has waned a little. I don't think it helps that I have taken some contracts on where the standard of writing isn't actually of massive importance, its all been about volume and I think that has crept into everything I do. Working with the likes of Dana Immanuel, Jen Mason and Lee Davy has really opened my eyes as far as writing goes. Lee for example is so passionate about being the best writer he can and does write everyday and produces great content, go visit his blog and its fantastic.

He reminds me of myself when I had my old blog on blogspot, the one where people to this day wish was still alive. I think most still want it because I was a bit of a mess and didn't care what I wrote and it was often very close to the bone on a number of subjects. Now I keep my blog on Betfair it has had to be massively toned down for obvious reasons but I can't use that as an excuse to stop being fun, witty and sometimes controversial. When writing the Pudding Abroad entries on here recently I felt like an old part of me had come alive again, a part of me that loves writing and sharing with you the readers. I do have my own unique style of writing, its not something you would ever be taught in a classroom, it is just how I see the world but that's been missing of late. I've basically got complacent with the fact I still pick up a wage at the end of each month, that complacency has got to stop.

We are almost at the start of a new year so now is the perfect time to give myself a big kick up the arse and start producing the goods again when it comes to writing. I guess it is good that I have noticed and started to take action on it myself with the powers that be carrying on at me though. So here's hoping you notice a vast improvement in my future entries, that I can start to aim a little higher, have a little more self belief and get back to where I once belonged!

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

It is that time of year again when every man and his dog sit down and make a list of goals for the year ahead. New Year's resolutions are, for the most part, a load of tripe and completely pointless and are broken within a day or two of them being set. However, that should not put you off setting yourself some poker related goals for 2011.

The main reason that you should set goals in poker is to give you something to strive for to keep you focussed on the task in hand. Grinding out thousands of hands per week or 50-60 tournaments each and every day can turn what is an amazing game into something extremely boring very quickly. By setting goals you can see if your game is developing or not and you can then make amendments to suit.

One of the biggest mistakes made when setting goals is to aspire to make a certain amount of money, something you should try and avoid if you can. The main problem of setting monetary goals is that you have very little control over how much money you earn. We all know too well that you can play perfect poker and still lose and in reality you could play the best poker anyone ever has during 2011 and still finish the year in the red. If you do have to set money goals then keep break the amount down into smaller amounts, so instead of saying you want to make $25,000 in 2011, set yourself a goal of reaching $5,000 then $10,000 and so on. Doing this will allow you to bask in some glory at some point during the year, otherwise you may feel disappointed if you don't reach $25,000.

Another common mistake made when setting goals is to set a target of number of hands played or tournaments played. Whilst you should be looking to play as much as possible, setting goals based on this can often distract you from your usual game and result in you playing sub-optimally. We have all been guilty of wanting to play 30,000 hands in a month and been nowhere near it in the last week so have started playing 15 tables instead of our usual six, which generally is not good for your win rate in the long term!

If you really have to set monetary or volume based goals try not to make them your number one priority for the year, instead aim to set goals that are going to help you improve as a player and therefore your volume and win rate will probably naturally increase as a result. Goals such as spending a specific amount of time discussing hands with like minded individuals, ensuring you finish each playing session with a review of your play or simply getting through a session without tilting once.

Whatever goals you decide to set yourself I wish you the every best of luck in 2011

I've never really been into music, it's just something I've never really gotten into. It's strange really because my mum always had music playing in the house and some of my friends always had tunes on but it just never really gripped me.

At high school everyone followed the trends, you had to like Oasis or risk becoming a social outcast. A few people dared to be different, mainly girls who decided Green Day were the best thing since sliced bread but for the most part everyone listened to the same music. However, I was slightly different, always have been, and the first single CD I bought, aged 15, was Block Rockin' Beats by The Chemical Brothers. I just liked the tune, so I bought it. A few months later I bought OK Computer by Radiohead, one of the best albums ever made according to the various lists compiled every few years. I just liked how it wasn't Oasis.

Upon leaving school I got into dance music, mainly Hard House, Funky House and other various genres that I could get off my face to. Some will argue it's not really music but I loved it. The problem is I am now rapidly approaching 30 and having some rave tunes pumping out of my stereo doesn't seem right. Don't get me wrong, I still blast out some old school dance music in my car but I think it's about time I broadened my musical tastes.

I've never listened to music whilst I work but over the past month or so I have started to do so. I've never been able to work in complete silence, which is probably why office jobs are such a grind, even as a kid I'd have to do my homework in the living room with the TV on because I couldn't sit in silence. Silence is for when you're going to sleep. I've started working from my bedroom and sitting upstairs on my todd gets boring so I have been listening to various bands on Spotify and the time has flown by but I have got bored of the same two or three songs from recent mainstream artists so I have now decided to listen to each and every album in NME's Top 100 Albums of All Time chart and then Rolling Stone's Top 500.

Ironically, the number one album according to NME is Definitely Maybe by none other than Oasis, which has just been played to completion moments ago and now I have Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles blaring out in my earphones. It's weird but I am like a kid in a sweetshop, almost 30 and I have just discovered music, all these different emotions it can bring to you. It's weird. Don't get me wrong, I'm not some musical retard that hasn't a clue who anyone is, I've heard dozens of bands before, even been to see REM live but I've never listened properly to music or had it been a part of my life. After this album the next up is going to be Revolver by The Beatles, followed by OK Computer by Radiohead, (What's The Story) Morning Glory by Oasis then Nevermind by Nirvana. I'm looking forward to the ride.

I know this is meant to be a poker blog but I've hardly played. I've been full of cold and now I am suffering with the wrist I broke twice in a few years, though it seems to be subsiding now. Plus, music is a major part of playing poker anyway. Working the EPTs has shown me about half of the field are sat with iPod's etc switched on, whilst the blogging teams often lock themselves away behind a screen of music when they have articles and work they just have to get finished. I guess you just can't get away from the music so I might as well jump on the bandwagon. Any suggestions for listening material is greatly appreciated, regardless of the genre or age.

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

When Patrik Antonius announced he was going to be the first player to take up Tom “durrrr” Dwan's offer of three-to-one odds on being able to beat him over 50,000 hands of heads-up poker the poker community literally went mad with anticipation of seeing two of poker's Goliath's battling it out for $1,500,000.

However, the first instalment of the so-called “Durrrr Challenge” has been nothing short of disappointing, in fact calling it disappointing is an injustice, it has been terrible. The online poker community expected a grand firework display, what they have received is one of those boxes you can buy from the supermarket for less than £10. Whilst we have to accept that these players have other commitments, not playing a single hand since August 3 is unacceptable. Rumours are rife that Dwan and Antonius have done a deal behind closed doors and that seems likely with Dwan holding a seemingly unassailable lead of $2,059,719.50 over the Finn with under 11,000 hands left to play.

To boost interest, or some will say attempting to flog a dead horse, Dwan opened the challenge again and online superstar Daniel “jungleman12” Cates took him up on the offer and it looked as if the online railbirds were going to get their wish of two of poker's best heads-up players lock horns for a couple of weeks and plough through the 50,000 hands. How wrong they were. Despite firing off 10,000 hands very quickly, the pair have only logged an extra 4,000 or so hands in the next 13 sessions, the last being played on December 16.

Now it looks as if fans of both players are going to have a long wait to see their heroes back in action at the $200/$400 No Limit Hold'em tables if Cates' recent chat with Dani “Ansky” Stern is anything to go by. Stern asked Cates, “Are you and Tom playing any time soon?” To which Cates, who leads Dwan by just over $500,000, replied, “idk. Seems like there will be a big hiatus. Tom is hard to work with.”

These revelations have been met with mixed feeling by the poker community, some calling it a disgrace, others being more supportive of Dwan. Some are upset that Dwan seems to have announced this challenge twice and both times failed to keep up with his end of the deal, but others realise Dwan has a hectic schedule and plays live poker more and more, something seen more recently in his trip to Macau where he won a reported $9,000,000 in high stakes cash games.

My guess would be you will not see the Dwan versus Antonius challenge resume ever but I can see Cates pushing for his version to be completed quickly into the New Year, especially as he perceives he has a decent edge over his opponent. Once the multi-millionaire twenty-somethings have partied the festive season away I am sure we will see them lock horns once again.

Last night, after donking off a stack to my opponent at NL50 I made the decision to play a couple of tournaments on Betfair Poker and I am glad I did as they were a real roller coaster affair.

I've only played a couple of hundred hands of short-handed NL50 but I had been doing pretty well, up around three-quarters of a stack. Last night I initially planned to play an hour or so cash but one hand occurred that made me angry with how I had played it, and it would come back to haunt me later in the night. Basically, the guy to my direct right was making a real nuisance of himself, so much so that I was going to move tables.

Anyway, he raises his button for the eighth time in a row and I re-pop him with ace-jack offsuit, not the best hand at all but way in front of his range. He calls and we both see a flop reading 3c-4d-5s, I continuation bet, he then clicks it back and I'm like WTF? I'd seen him do this dozens of times in the past 30 minutes so decided that I'd shove on him as even if I was called I still have outs. I shove, he snap-calls and turns over 6d7d for a flopped straight, FML! So with that I left the table and looked in the lobby for any tournaments that were just starting and found a couple that were due to begin pretty close to each other.

I've only ever played two MTTs on the new Betfair Poker software and I came 38/899 in that one so I was hoping to follow in that vein and make it deep. The first tournament was an $11 buy-in with a $4k guarantee attracting 463 players, paying the top 80 I believe. I never got going in this one and ended up open pushing king ten offsuit from the hijack and running into the king-queen of the big blind, which held, busting me in 151st place. Not exactly great.

I also played in a $5.50 MTT with a $5k guarantee that saw 1,184 players register for it. Now I prefer fields of 200-400 if I am honest but the occasional big MTT is fine so I got down to business. Nothing much happened until level four when I rivered a straight and got paid off and then had jacks hold against nines all-in on a 6h-5d-3s-7c board to put me in a decent position. Level five saw me add another 2,000to my stack when my queens held up all-in preflop against jack-ten offsuit and it looked like I was on course to make it to the money.

For the next few levels my stack basically dwindled until I found myself down to around 15 big blinds with pocket aces in my hand, hoping for someone to shove all-in on me. Thankfully the guy under the gun shoved for 12bb with pocket tens and I was back in business. Then the defining moment of the tournament. With blinds at 200/400/50a and me in the big blind with AsKs I saw one player open limp then another shove for around 7,500, the action folded to me and I decided to re-shove for about 11k. The limper folds but villain shows TdTs, much stronger than I had hoped. Not to worry though as the board ran out 7c-3s-2s-7s-6d, skill game!

After surviving a scary AK vs AK moment all-in pre where the flop was all clubs and fishy had a club I then won another race with TT vs KQ when KQ open-shoved for six bigs and I was in with a real chance of winning the entire tournament for $960 and change. I then found myself second in chips with around 40 left when the following two hand happened in quick succession. Hand one saw me all-in with AdQs on a As-Ks-2s flop against what turned out to be 7s4s. Luckily I knew the Ts was coming on the river! The ten of spades saved my ass again in the next level after I fell for the over-sized preflop raise trick. Dude makes it 8x to play and I shove with TdTc and he snaps me off with bullets and he seemed smug until I hit a set on the river! Boom!

Then my final hand happened and I should have gotten away from it. Eight handed and with blinds of 2,000/4,000/400a I opened to 8,250 holding black aces after two players folded and only the small blind called, no reads on him. The flop comes down Qc-Kc-5d and I reckon I'm definitely in front here, so when he checks I bet 19,220 into the 22,500 pot but he spoils the party and makes it 48,000 to play. I reckon that I'm about two-third favourite against his range and shove for another 79,516 and puke as he insta-calls and flips over 5h5s for bottom set. He boats up on the turn and the Ts appears on the river, though this time its of no help and I bust out 24,1,184 for thirty odd dollars whilst the guy I paid off came fifth for closer to $270. Nice hand sir, his play is a loser long term but whatever, I can hardly complain when I ran like Jesus to get into that position.

So, four Betfair tournaments, two cashes and two deep cashes at that, I really should play more! I probably won't play tonight as its Christmas Eve in case you hadn't noticed and playing time will be limited over the next few days but I'm really looking forward to 2011, but that is for my next entry.

As always, thanks for reading, best of luck at the tables and have a very Merry Christmas!

Everyone loves to bluff in poker. Those who say they never bluff are lying or are losing players. You see, in order to succeed in poker you will have to bluff at some point, and under certain circumstances the game becomes more of a game of bluffing where the cards are not important, though that situation is for a different article.

In a world of continuation betting, three-betting, re-stealing and more recently triple range merging (seriously WTF?), bluffing out-dates them all. Even none poker players bluff, in fact they do it all the time, even your nan. All bluffing is, if you strip it down to its core components is lying and we all love a little white lie don't we?

One of the main reasons bluffing is so fun is that when you get one through you feel like you have done something naughty, not to mention nothing gets the heart pumping and adrenalin flowing like running a huge bluff. That said, one of the main downfalls of bluffing is it is like a Class A drug, highly addictive and the more you do it the less rush you get from it, leading you to playing like a complete donkey just to get a hit. The following tips should help you stop bluffing habitually and therefore become a better bluffer.

The first piece of advice is to not even bother attempting a bluff at the start of a tournament or if you have just joined a table. If the tournament has just started then the risk/reward ratio is so heavily stacked against you that you are better off not bluffing and just playing relatively straight forward. The thinking behind not bluffing when you are new to a table, or an opponent is new to the table, is because when you're bluffing you're telling a story and if you or your target does not know enough about you then the story you are telling will fall on deaf ears.

You should also choose your bluffing victim carefully too, as some people are simply asking to be bluffed whilst others will call you with any two cards, rendering your move useless. Never bluff a player who can't and won't fold top pair, instead target the aggressive players who nobody has dared to play back at, or those weak-passive players who are looking for an excuse to fold and see monsters under the bed.

If you have plenty of self confidence then your bluff stands a better chance of getting through. This may sound absurd but if you have belief that your move will work then your body language will mirror that, as will any actions such as putting chips into the pot and you are more likely to be believed. Something that will help with this is to be consistent with you actions at all times, basically become a robot. Take the same time to act whether you are planning on folding, calling or raising and make sure that you act the same when strong as when weak.

The be all and end all though is to use some common sense, is your bluff actually believable? Put yourself in your opponent's shoes and see if what you are being told makes sense. Is it possible to represent the hand you are trying to, on the board in front of you. Be honest with yourself (funny we're talking about lying and you have to be honest here) and if your line smells fishy then don't be afraid to ditch your hand, but if you think it could succeed you sometimes have to be prepared to bluff all three streets, just make sure you have at least one out won't you?!

Just over eleven months ago an online poker pro who was known simply as “kingsofcards” entered the $3,300 No Limit Hold'em Championship Event of the 2010 Borgata Winter Open along with 765 other hopefuls. Six days later he finished third behind Sirous Jamshidi and Jeff Madsen for $190,027 but nobody really took any notice.

A month later the same player, now known by his birth name, Thomas Marchese, took part in the inaugural NAPT Deep Stack Extravaganza at The Venetian and outlasted 871 opponents to win the $5,000 event and the $827,648 first place prize and people were starting to take notice of this newcomer.

Since those two victories, Marchese has cashed a further 14 times, making nine more final tables and winning another tournament, a $1,000 side event at the 2010 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic. His results have simply been amazing, reaching final tables of World Poker Tour events, European Poker Tour events and World Series of Poker events, which have helped him win $2,114,491 in 2010 alone! Everyone is at risk when Marchese decides to exchange his cash for tournament chips.

This amazing run has helped Marchese accumulate 6,738 points in the CardPlayer Player of the Year race, more than 1,100 more than second place finisher Dwyte Pilgrim, who has the unofficial moniker of the best player you have probably never heard of! Pilgrim plays a lot of live tournaments, in fact almost any US based tournament with a buy-in of $200 up to $10,000 and his record is very impressive. In 2010 he has cashed 20 times, made 15 final tables and has seven outright wins, totalling $1,181,419. His best result of the year was back in September when he won the $3,300 Borgata Poker Open for $733,802 and he would be a good bet with your local bookie for getting a bracelet at the 2011 WSOP as they simply won't have heard of him!

Making up the top five, and deserving of some adoration and applause are former Betfair Poker sponsored pro Sorel Mizzi, Vanessa Selbst and November Nine member, John Racener. Everyone who made it into the top five, or even won a single point should give themselves a pat on the back but when you have finished loving yourself please stand for the 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year, Thomas “kingsofcards” Marchese!

One of the best films about poker, well coming to think of it probably the only film I have ever seen that involved poker in a realistic fashion, Rounders, is about to have its long awaited sequel filmed and should hit the silver screen sometime in 2012.

Miramax Films are once again teaming up with Weinstein Company to create sequels to some box office hits and Rounders 2 is most certainly on the cards, pardon the pun. The original rounders was released in 1998, well before the so-called Moneymaker boom, and is seen as the reason why poker became popular and fashionable towards the year 2000. Warning, spoilers in the next couple of paragraphs if you have not seen the original.

For those of you who haven't seen the film it depicts Matt Damon's character, Mike McDermott in his quest to win back all of his money in a high-stakes cash game from a Bond-esque villain Teddy KGB, played by the excellent John Malkovich. McDermott loses everything he owns to the dodgy Russian early in the film so he and Lester "Worm" Murphy, played by Edward Norton, play in various home games and casinos in an attempt to raise enough money to take on Teddy KGB again.

McDermott manages to win enough money to take on his nemesis and finds the most ridiculous tell on Teddy KGB (it is Hollywood afterall) which he uses to put his opponent on tilt by laying down top two pair on the flop and informing his opponent he knows he has a straight. The next hand he slowplays 9s8s on a 6d-7s-Th-2c-As board and stacks Teddy KGB and the film ends shortly after.

Fans of the film, myself included, have always wondered what happened to McDermott, did he get out of the underground poker club alive? Did he get his girl back? What sort of shenanigans did the degenerate that is "Worm" get up to? Well now it appears we are going to find out. According to reports both Damon and Norton have signed up for Rounders 2, as has original director John Dahl but there is no confirmation that Malkovich or John Tururro, who played grinder Joey Knish, have put pen to paper.

Knowing a good poker film is on the horizon should be a breath of fresh air for poker fans across the globe as we have been subjected to some real garbage over the past few years including the God-awful last hand of the Bond film Casino Royale, which was horrific (search on YouTube if you have to see it). Poker is going through an indifferent time at present so some good Hollywood footage could help kickstart another boom of sorts.

Just remember, as McDermott says during Rounders, "If you can't spot the sucker at the table in the first half hour then you ARE the sucker." Educational as well as entertaining!

The Prague stop of the European Poker Tour is in the bag and the new Main Event champion is none other than the charismatic Welshman, Roberto Romanello. He outlasted a star-studded field of 562 fellow players to claim his first major tournament win and the €640,000 first place prize.

Romanello, who's win puts him third in the Welsh all-time money listings, has been looking for a major title since he turned pro in back in 2005. He has eight WSOP cashes, and four EPT cashes, but now he can add to his already impressive set of results an EPT title.

Since he played on Day 1b Romanello was always amongst the chip leaders and there was a feeling among those in the media that this tournament could be the one that put him on the map. However, he started the final table of eight, fifth in chips but he never let that faze him and he played superbly throughout and thoroughly deserved the title.

There were a flurry of eliminations from the off, first Roberto Nulli moved all in from under the gun with AhTc and found a caller in the cutoff seat in the shape of Team PokerStars pro Marcin Horecki, who held QhQs. The final board ran out Th-Qd-3h-4d-Jc, eliminating the 35-year old Italian in eighth place, worth €54,500.

Almost immediately after, Franch pro Manuel Bevand found himself without any chips and on his way to pick up the €71,000 on offer for seventh place. He had been crippled just before Nulli's elimination when he ran king-queen into ace-six. With blinds at 25,000/50,000/5,000a he moved all in for 300,000 with Kd2d but was in a whole host of trouble when Romanello made the call with TcTd. The 8s-7h-3c flop did not help Bevand at all and when the turn and river came Ad and 7s respectively, the tournament was down to six players.

The oldest player at the table at 46-years old, Jan Bendik, was the next to go. Having raised to 150,000 preflop, he then called when Peter Skripka, the youngest at the table at 24-years, raised enough to put the Slovakian all in. Bendik turned over AcKd, which was trailing the 9c9h of his opponent, though he did take the lead on a flop reading Jc-Kh-Tc. However, poker can be a cruel game and the deal er put out the 9d on the turn, improving Skripka to a set, and when the 4s peeled on the river Bendik was eliminated and was awarded €100,000 for his fifth place finish.

It took almost four hours until the tournament lost another player, Marco Leonzio, another Italian player. He made some very questionable plays during his time at the final table, including snap-calling an all in bet from Horecki holding just QdJc and ultimately losing to As3d to leave him with just a few big blinds. A couple of hands later Skripka raised to 250,000 preflop and Romanello reraised to 725,000. Two folds later and Leonzio called off the rest of his stack, with what turned out to be Js3s, which was behind to Romanello's Qd4d. The five community cards ran out 8c-4s-7d-6s-2d and play became four handed.

The overly aggressive Skripka was the next to leave, again after an dubious call when facing an all-in bet. The action folded to Horecki in the small blind, who looked at his cards and announced he was all in. Skripka thought for less than 30 seconds before making the call. Horecki turned over KsTs and was way in front of the Kh7c of his opponent. The Tc-Th-2s flop almost locked the hand up for Horecki and the turn and river came down Ad and Jh, to send Skripka to the rail with €163,000 to console himself with.

Horecki was the next player to go, at the hands of a bad beat dished out by Emilliano Bono, without a doubt the weakest player at the table. Horecki moved all in from the button for 1,550,000 and when Romanello got out of the way, Bono instantly called as Horecki was at risk, though his AhKc was nicely in front of Bono's AcJd. Horecki stayed in front on a board reading 8h-Ad-Tc-2h but a nasty looking Js on the river sent the Polish pro to the rail and took the tournament to the heads up stage.

Going into heads-up Romanello held a 10,600,000 to 6,300,000 chip lead and it didn't take long for him to press the chip and skill advantage home. At one point Romanello won five pots in a row before the final hand of EPT Prague Main Event took place. With blinds now at a colossal 100,00/200,000, Romanello raised to 575,000, Bono reraised to 2,475,000 and then called as Romanello announced he was all in. Romanello turned over TsTc, racing against Bono's AdJc. The flop is often a defining moment in Hold'em and this was no different as it came down Td-4c-4d to give Romanello a full house and left Bono drawing extremely thin. The 5h on the river meant Bono was drawing dead and when the 4h showed up on the river Romanello was champion and so emotional that he had to leave the tournament area to compose himself.

When he returned to the tournament area he was greeted with a massive standing ovation from everyone in the room, and there were dozens of railbirds, tournament staff and media folk having to wipe their eyes. It was an emotional set of events, and everyone there knew how much the win meant to Romanello, it wasn't just the money it was the fact he had won a major event. He said in his speech that he felt like everyone wanted him to win and that is the feeling I got in the media room, a thoroughly deserved result from one of poker's nice guys. Congratulations Roberto Romanello!