This year’s WSOP, the 43rd edition, kicks off on May 27 at The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino with the $500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event that is only open to casino employees. In this event last year Sean Drake outlasted a bumper field of 850 to walk away with $82,292. This year’s first open event begins at 12:00 on May 28, a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event that is expected to attract upwards of 2,000 runners.

It appears that the management team at the WSOP have realised there is less money in the poker community after Black Friday and have lowered the buy-ins for the vast majority of the events on the schedule. Gone is the $25,000 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up Championship that Jake Cody won last year, in its place is a $10,000 version. In total, including the Main Event, there are only seven so-called $10,000 Championship events but 23 of the 61 events in total have a $1,500 price tag.

Two tournaments that are certainly much more than the most popular $1,500 are the Poker Players Championship and The Big One for One Drop, event numbers 45 and 55 respectively. The Poker Players Championship, won by Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi last year costs an eye-watering $50,000 to enter but if you think that amount is ridiculous then what words cross your mind when you see the $1,000,000 buy-in associated with The Big One for One Drop! That is correct, a $1 million buy-in tournament, the biggest ever in the history of the game.

This special one-off event takes place at 1:11 on July 1 and sees 11.1% of the buy-in, or $111,111, taken out and given to the One Drop charity. Just how many people will participate is still anyone’s guess but rumours circulating suggest at least 15 players will be sitting down in this unbelievable tournament.

Although the focus of the media will be fixated on the $1,000,000 buy-in event the tournament everyone wants to win is Event #61, the much more modestly priced $10,000 No Limit Hold’em World Championship, better known as the Main Event. This year there are only three starting days thanks partly to the Rio creating more space that can accommodate a further 92 tables meaning they can fit in up to 4,700 players each day! Last year’s Main Event was the second largest in the history of the WSOP with 6,865 runners, can the 2012 edition at least match that or could it even surpass the 8,773 of 2006? We will wait with baited breath to find out.

The tournament, dubbed “The Big One for One Drop,” will take place at the 2012 World Series of Poker and will be both a bracelet awarding event and a charity tournament rolled into one. One-ninth of the buy-in, equivalent to $111,111, will be taken from each buy-in and donated to the charity known as ONE DROP, of which the billionaire founder of the Cirque du Soleil Guy Laliberte is Chairman. ONE DROP’s mission statement reads, “To fight poverty by providing access to water and raising awareness among individuals and communities about the need for mobilization in order to make safe water accessible to all, in sufficient quantity, today and tomorrow.”

At time of writing the tournament has 22 players signed up, which is exactly the number of entrants needed for the tournament to be considered a bracelet event, but the organisers are hopeful of reaching the 48-player cap before July 1 when the tournament kicks off. The payout structure has not been announced yet but it is widely expected to pay out the top 20% of the field, twice the industry standard, due to the astronomical sums of money involved.

The players signed up to play are, in no particular order, Guy Laliberte, Bobby Baldwin, Phil Ruffin (owner of Treasure Island Resort of Las Vegas), Andy Beal, Patrik Antonius, Gus Hansen, Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan, Tom Dwan, Tony G, Jonathan Duhamel, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Dan Shak and four seats that have been reserved for various satellites that will be running in the build up to the massive tournament.

Entry is still open to absolutely anyone in the world who can afford to pay the $1,000,000 entry fee but anyone wanting to participate has to transfer the money 14-days before the event starts.

Heinz went into the three-handed finale of the November Nine final table as the chip leader but within three hands he was trailing the Czech Republic’s Martin Staszko who had started the day third from three in chips. On the very first hand Staszko doubled up when Ben Lamb raised from the small blind to 3,000,000 and then moved all in when Staszko three-bet to 7,500,000. Staszko made the call and showed 7c7s to Lamb’s KhJd and when the board ran out 9s-3h-2d-3s-10c Staszko doubled to 85,600,000 leaving Lamb with 12,700,000 with blinds at 600,000/1,200,000/200,000a.

The very next hand Staszko found pocket kings and won a large pot when Heinz tried to bluff-raise on the river of a board reading 9h-Ac-6c-9d-Jc with just king-queen then two hands later Staszko was facing an all in bet of 10,900,000 from Ben Lamb and looked down to find a pair of jacks. He called and was up against Qs6h, and held, to send Lamb to the rail in third place and to open a 117,300,000 to 88,600,000 chip advantage over Heinz.

The heads-up battle was nothing short of epic and for those who missed the live streaming they will be in for a treat when it is eventually shown on terrestrial television. First Heinz caught up to Staszko before taking the lead himself, only to see Staszko fight back himself and regain the advantage. Then a massive hand took place that essentially handed Heinz the victory.

Staszko open-limped then called when Heinz raised to 7,900,000. Both players loved the flop because Heinz continued with a bet of 8,200,000 only to see Staszko raise to 17,500,000. Heinz took his time before moving all in for around 70,000,000 chips and Staszko made the call, creating the biggest pot of the entire tournament. Staszko showed Qc9c for a flush draw and was against the AhQh of Heinz who had the best hand. The 3h on the turn was no help to either player and neither was the 6s on the river, propelling Heinz into a massive 161,500,000 to 44,400,000 lead.

Just eight hands later and it was all over. With blinds now 1,200,000/2,400,000/300,000a, Staszko moved all in with 10c7c for 39,500,000 and Heinz made the call with AsKc. The final board ran out 5c-2d-9s-Jh-4d eliminating Staszko in second place and sending Heinz’s army of fans into a frenzy!

So that concludes the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event. It all starts again in a little under seven months with rumours that the November Nine will be quashed. Whether or not that is true remains to be seen but this writer cannot wait until the 2012 WSOP Main Event, that is for certain.

WSOP Final Table Results

1st: Pius Heinz: $8,715,638
2nd: Martin Staszko: $5,433,086
3rd: Ben Lamb: $4,021,138
4th: Matt Giannetti: $3,012,700
5th: Phil Collins: $2,269,599
6th: Eoghan O’Dea: $1,720,831
7th: Bob Bounahra: $1,314,097
8th: Anton Makiievskyi: $1,010,015
9th: Sam Holden: $782,115

Heinz started the nine-handed final table seventh in chips but when play resumes later today he will be the overwhelming favourite to become the 12th German to win a WSOP bracelet and the first-ever German Main Event winner. Heinz, who recently signed up as a PokerStars Pro, won a huge pot around two hours into play that saw him propelled into second place and allowed him to exert pressure on his opponents.

In the hand in question he opened to 1,300,000 from middle position, one seat over Ben Lamb called but when the action folded to O’Dea in the small blind he squeezed to 4,100,000. Heinz called but Lamb got out of the way. The flop came down 8c-8d-4c and O’Dea made a continuation bet of 4,600,000 and Heinz called. The was the 2c and O’Dea almost doubled his bet to 8,200,000 sending Heinz into the tank. Several minutes later he emerged with an all in bet and his Irish opponent instantly folded his hand, which turned out to the AhQd. Heinz held pocket queens.

From that moment Heinz never looked back and constantly pocked up chips to end the day with a monster stack of 107,800,000. His nearest rival when play resumes is Lamb on 55,400,000 chips. Lamb has had an amazing WSOP winning his first bracelet in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha event, finishing second in a $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha event, going deep in the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max tournament and reaching the final table of the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship. A Main Event win would be the crowing jewel for sure.

Third place currently belongs to the Czech Republic’s Martin Staszko who was essentially unknown until the Main Event. Previous to this event his best score was for €35,000 which he was awarded for his 11th place finish at EPT Deauville. However, that has now been dwarfed as he is guaranteed at least $4,021,138 in this tournament but could pick up as much as $8,715,638.

Who do you think will win the WSOP Main Event? Tune in tomorrow to discover if you are correct or not in your predictions!

Though the World Series of Poker made its official debut in 1970, the idea of the Horseshoe Casino’s annual tournament was actually conceived more than two decades earlier. In the summer of 1949, as the story goes, inveterate gambler Nicholas “Nick the Greek” Dandolos approached Benny Binion with an unusual request – to challenge the best in a high-stakes poker marathon. Binion agreed to set up a match between Dandolos and the legendary Johnny Moss, with the stipulation the game be viewed in public.

During the course of the marathon, which lasted five months with breaks only for sleep, the two men played every form of poker imaginable. Moss ultimately won “the biggest game in town” and an estimated $2 million. When the Greek lost his last pot, he arose from his chair, bowed slightly, and uttered the now-famous words, “Mr. Moss, I have to let you go.” Dandolos then went upstairs to bed.

Though significant in its own way as a chapter in poker history, the five-month marathon took on added importance to Benny Binion. He noted that the public had gathered outside the casino each day to watch the game with the fervor of dedicated sports fans, and he was amazed at the attention the event had attracted. But it wasn’t until 1970 that Binion decided to re-create this excitement and stage a battle of poker giants – dubbed the “World Series Of Poker” – to determine who would be worthy of the title “World Champion.” Some of the best players in the country were assembled, and Johnny Moss came out on top. The decision was democratic in that the champion was decided by popular vote.

The following year, the winner was determined by a freeze-out competition, with players being systematically eliminated until one player had all the chips. Moss again became the World Champion. In 1972, when Thomas “Amarillo Slim” Preston won the title and went on the talk-show circuit, the WSOP began to gain a wider following.

It was a year later that Binion participated in the Oral History Project at the University of Nevada-Reno and discussed the World Series of Poker (WSOP) with interviewer Mary Ellen Glass. “This poker game here gets us a lot of attention,” he told Glass. “We had seven players last year, and this year we had 13. I look to have better than 20 next year. It’s even liable to get up to be 50, might get up to be more than that.” Binion then paused, and as if gazing into the future, prophesied, “It will eventually.”

In the early 1980s, with the introduction of preliminary satellite competitions with lower buy-ins, Binion’s prophecy came to fruition and the popularity of the World Series of Poker soared. (A satellite is a tournament whose prize is an entry into another tournament). But even Benny Binion, who passed away on Christmas Day of 1989, would have had difficulty foreseeing the enormous growth the Horseshoe’s annual tournament has experienced since. In 1982, nine years after Mr. Binion participated in UNR’s Oral History Project, the tournament drew a total of 1,253 entrants across all its events. A decade later, there were 7,593 entries and 2008’s WSOP attracted 58,720 entrants. The prize money has increased exponentially as well. In 1982, a total of $2,607,700 was awarded, while in 2008 a staggering $180,676,248 was won. Whereas only 12 events, mostly Texas Hold’em and Seven-Card Stud, were scheduled as recently as 1988, the 2009 tournament offers 57 competitions that feature a wide variety of games.

Today, the legacy Benny Binion left the poker community ranks as the oldest, largest, most prestigious, and most media hyped gaming competition in the world, and no doubt it holds the promise of an even brighter future. But equally important, the World Series of Poker has touched thousands of lives over the years, affording talented players the opportunity to follow their dreams, reach for the stars, and perhaps one day achieve greatness in their chosen endeavor.

In order for a person to be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame they must fulfil a number of crtieria, which are:

 They must have played poker against acknowledged top opposition
 They must have played for high stakes
 They must have played consistently well, gaining the respect of their peer
 They must have stood the test of time
 They must be over the age of 40

That last rule is commonly referred to as the “Chip Reese Rule,” as he was, and still is, the youngest player to be inducted into the Poker hall of Fame and many wanted to preserve this fact with Reese sadly passing away in 2007.

None poker players can also be inducted but for this to happen they must have contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker and their efforts must have had indelible positive and last effects. One such person who was inducted via this method was Henry Orenstein, the inventor of the “Hole Card Cam.”

Greenstein has long been touted for a place in the famous hall, after all, he does have three World Series of Poker bracelets, two World Poker Tour titles and over $7,500,000 in live tournament winnings, along with being regarded as one of the toughest cash game players on the planet. He is also an extremely charitable man who is affectionately known as “The Robin Hood of Poker” due to him giving large percentages of his winnings to charities.

Johnson may not be a name that the younger generation of poker players are familiar with but she is held in high regards amongst the “old school.” Fellow Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton gave her the nickname “The First Lady of Poker,” which is true as there were not many female players of the game back in the 1980s. Johnson, who quit her job to become a poker pro, won a WSOP bracelet back in 1997 in a $1,500 Razz event. She was the publisher of CardPlayer Magazine for eight years, helped develop the World Poker Industry Conference, World Poker Players Conference and the Tournament Directors Association and is now heavily involved in the Ladies International Poker Series and the Poker Players Alliance.

Both Greenstein and Johnson will be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame on November 7 inside the Penn & Teller theatre, just before the conclusion of the World Series of Poker Main Event final table.

Whilst there may not be any so-called big named players there are some extremely talented individuals in the final nine and it should make compelling viewing when they return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino on November 5. The most in-form of the November Nine is without a doubt Ben Lamb, the man is quite simply on fire. Including the $782,115 he will pick up for reaching the WSOP Final Table, Lamb will have won a staggering $2,113,947 from this year’s WSOP alone and he is surely the favourite to go on and take “The Big Dance” down when it restarts.

Lamb’s quest for his second bracelet of the summer will not be an easy one as he will have to contend with the likes of Matt Giannetti, Phil “USCPhildo” Collins, British pro Samuel Holden and Eoghan O’Dea, the son of the renowned Donnacha O’Dea. It was O’Dea who won the final hand of the tournament so far, the hand that resulted in the elimination of John Hewitt in tenth place and form the November Nine.

Hewitt found himself down to 3,875,000 chips after a couple of very loose calls in all in pots did not go well for him and he got the last of these chips, worth around nine big blinds, into the middle of the felt when he three-bet all in over the top of O’Dea’s open to 1,100,000. O’Dea quickly called and showed an offsuit king-jack. The final board ran out Qc-Td-7s-Ah-Kd and with it Hewitt was busted out in tenth place, worth $607,882 but I am certain he will see it as $8,711,956 lost.

Play resumes on November 5 when the nine players will take their seats and play down to two players. At this point the tournament will be paused for the final time and the two survivors will play for the title and the ridiculous sums of money on November 7.

Seating plan for WSOP Final Table

Seat 1: Matt Giannetti: 24,750,000
Seat 2: Badih Bounahra: 19,700,000
Seat 3: Eoghan O’Dea: 33,925,000
Seat 4: Phil Collins: 23,875,000
Seat 5: Anton Makiievskyi: 13,825,000
Seat 6: Samuel Holden: 12,375,000
Seat 7: Pius Heinz: 16,425,000
Seat 8: Ben Lamb: 20,875,000
Seat 9: Martin Staszko: 40,175,000

The 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event Championship, known to all as the biggest and most prestigious poker tournament on this planet, started on July 7th in the Rio-All-Suite Hotel & Casino, Las Vegas. 6,865 players from all around the world paid $10,000 to participate in the third largest poker event ever and after eight days and more than half a million hands, the final nine have at last been reached.

paddypowerpoker.com sponsored player Eoghan O’Dea is one of these lucky finalists; O’Dea is a 26-year-old poker player from Dublin, Ireland. Already a well known and respected player, he cashed in the WSOP five times, pocketed $260,000 in the 2008 Poker Million, and placed 3rd in the 2009 WPT Marrakesh for $378,227 but to name a few. The son of recognized Irish poker player Donnacha O’Dea, Eoghan and his father are the first father and son pair to make the WSOP Main Event final table. Donnacha made the WSOP final table in 1983 and again in 1991.

“I’m so happy to have made it this far; I haven’t had a great year to date in poker but this more than makes up for it” said a tired but overjoyed Eoghan O’Dea.

The 2011 World Series of Poker finalists, know now as the ‘November Nine’, will return to Las Vegas this November to play out the final table. Each player is guaranteed at least $782,115 which will be awarded to ninth place, however all will be returning with their eye on the first prize payout of $8,711,956. The winner will also be presented with the game’s most coveted prize – a custom-designed WSOP gold and diamond bracelet.

In the meantime, each of the finalists will return home for three months to enjoy the incredible experience that awaits them. They can expect instant fame, plenty of media attention and celebrity treatment in the coming months; but most importantly they have some time to catch up on their sleep and work on their game plan for November!

This year’s November Nine finalists are as follows:

Martin Staszko (Trinec, Czech Republic) – 40,175,000 in chips
Eoghan O’Dea (Dublin, Ireland) – 33,925,000 in chips
Matt Giannetti (Las Vegas, NV) – 24,750,000 in chips
Phil Collins (Las Vegas, NV) – 23,875,000 in chips
Ben Lamb (Tulsa, OK) – 20,875,000 in chips
Badih Bounahra (Belize City, Belize) – 19,700,000 in chips
Pius Heinz (Cologne, Germany) – 16,425,000 in chips
Anton Makiievskyi (Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) – 13,825,000 in chips
Sam Holden (Sussex, UK) – 12,375,000 in chips

story courtesy of cardplayer.com

Most poker players would be more than content with winning just a single World Series of Poker bracelet during their careers but JP Kelly is not like most poker players and he is actually looking for the third piece of WSOP bling of his relatively short career.

Kelly won his first bracelet back in 2009 when he won the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event in Las Vegas and then became the first British player to win a WSOP and WSOPE event when he took down the £1,000 No Limit Hold’em event in London in the same year. He almost won his third bracelet in the same £1,000 event the following year but he finished as runner-up to Scott Shelley after an epic heads-up battle.

Now Kelly has his another chance of more WSOP glory when he returns to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino later today, where he finds himself down to the last 57 players of the WSOP Main Event. He returns to Seat 4 on Table 314 armed with 3,750,000 chips, which is round about an average stack, knowing that he is guaranteed at least $130,977 for his efforts in this event but I guarantee he will not be thinking of this money, he will want the $8,711,956 first place prize and that elusive third bracelet.

Standing between our hero and the gargantuan first place prize are 56 players, including current chip leader Ryan Lenaghan (12,865,000 chips) and a certain Ben Lamb (9,980,000). Lamb is a well-known face in the Las Vegas cash games but he is fast becoming a world wide name after his exploits at this year’s WSOP. He came second in the $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha event at the start of the WSOP and followed this up with an outright victory in the $10,000 PLO World Championship. Not content with these amazing results he went on to enter the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Six-handed event and finished 12th, before making it to the final table of the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship. His deep run in this latest event means he tops the Player of the Year standings, having toppled Phil Hellmuth from top spot.

Play resumes at 1200 Las Vegas time and will play down to the final 18 players. Stay tuned to find out who makes it there and who falls by the wayside.

The 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event is in full swing with each of the four official starting days now completed. At the start of the WSOP there were many questions being asked by the poker community, one of which was how many players would take part in the Main Event. Many expected less than 5,000 as the after-effects of Black Friday continue to reshape the online poker industry but that number has been smashed as a total of 6,865 players have parted company with $10,000 to take part in the 2011 WSOP Main Event.

According to “CrysQ” of the PokerNews Live Reporting team, Day 1a accounts for 17% of the total field so when only 897 hopefuls turned up at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino hopes a complete field in the region of 5,276 was to be expected. The attendance of Day 1b was not much better either, “just” 985 players entering the longest-running poker tournament of all-time, but the troops really came out in force for Days 1c and 1d with a combined 4,983 players walking through the doors of the Rio, taking the total number of entrants for the 2011 Main Event to 6,865, the third-largest WSOP Main Event ever!

This massive crowd have created a prizepool of $64,531,000 and a first place prize of $8,711,956! The winner’s prize money is so great that the recipient of the huge sum would instantly claim 17th place in the Hendon Mob Database’s All-time money listings and only Jamie Gold ($12,000,000) and Jonathan Duhamel ($8,944,310) would have won more then them in a single tournament.

The surviving players from Day 1a and Day 1b will return to their seats later today to play out Day 2a, with Tuesday seeing those from Day 1b and Day 1d. Amongst the 2,301 who will play Day 2a are the 2007 WSOPE Main Event winner Annette Obrestad, Johnny Chan, 2009 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Cada and “The Poker Brat” himself, Phil Hellmuth, though the latter will sit down with only 11,800 chips with blinds at 250/500.

There is still an awful long way to go until the money places, which start at 693 this year, and they probably will not be reached until the back end of Day 3 or even Day 4 but we will continue to being you all the news, views and gossip from poker’s biggest tournament, the World Series of Poker Main Event.