July 28th, 2008
The best tournament poker action in Vegas is still at the Bellagio. There are daily $540 no limit holdem tournaments, except on Friday when it’s a $1080 entry fee; plus a wide variety of smaller stakes events running every day. The MGM Grand has daily $60 no limit tournaments, and $125 no limit holdem events on Sunday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
The Venetian has $125 re-buy events on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday. On Wednesday it’s a $145 event, and Saturday is the big $540 no limit holdem event. Mandalay Bay has smaller tournaments ranging from $40 to $65 every day, plus a $157 dollar event on Thursday.
All these poker rooms will have special events on top of all these regular scheduled tournaments. Check out the casino websites for special events that may be going on. And get to the registration times early, as these events fill up fast.
July 21st, 2008
1. Scotty Nguyen wins the 2008 $50,000 HORSE event for his fifth WSOP bracelet.
2. Two brothers, Grant and Blair Hinkle, each won their first bracelet at the WSOP.
3. John Phan wins two WSOP bracelets in less than a week - the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball and the $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em.
4. Vanessa Selbst wins the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event for her first bracelet.
5. Layne Flack wins his sixth WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha w/re-buys.
6. David Benyamine won his first WSOP bracelet at the $10,000 World Championship Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better.
7. Barry Greenstein wins his third WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 Seven Card Razz event.
8. Mike Matusow won his third WSOP bracelet in the $5,000 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball w/Re-Buys.
9. Daniel Negreanu won his fourth WSOP bracelet in the $2000 limit holdem event.
10. J.C. Tran wins his first WSOP bracelet.
July 14th, 2008
23-year-old online poker player Dario Minieri won his first bracelet at the 2008 WSOP.
2008 was a big year for internet players getting more press and attention. Online poker rooms are giving more sponsorship deals to successful internet players, banking that these players will do well in the live tournaments. Since 2003, amateur players have made a big splash at the WSOP. But that didn’t work very well this year. The professional players made a comeback, with 11 big-name pros winning bracelets, and most events having one or two big names at the final tables.
Dario Minieri was one bright spot for the big-name internet players. He won his first bracelet in the $2500 No-Limit Holdem 6-handed event. Most players at the WSOP are internet players to some degree, but the big-name internet players were not a force at the biggest poker tournament in the world. I guess the new generation of player isn’dt ready to dominate yet.
July 7th, 2008
Don Cheadle and poker pro Annie Duke hosted their second annual Ante Up for Africa charity tournament last Wednesday, hoping to repeat the success of last year’s event. They had 88 players turn out, each of them buying in for $5000. All money raised will be used to increase awareness of the humanitarian issues currently occurring in war-torn Darfur.
Final results of the 2008 tournament are:
John Hennigan $136,860
Michael Degusta $85,536
Dan Shak $54,529
Phil Hellmuth $38,491
Matt Calhoun $31,006
Jerry Cantrell $25,660
Jordanna Schutz $21,384
Ray Romano $18,176
Casey Affleck $16,038
The top finishing players are asked to donate half of their winnings to the cause, and this year they all donated 100%. Proceeds specifically go to the Not On Our Watch (NOOW) project, the group founded by Cheadle, George Clooney, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt to focus attention on stopping atrocities that are committed worldwide.
