Dempsey went into the star-studded six-handed final table second in chips, his 3,725,000 stack trailing just former November Nine member Soi Nguyen’s 4,925,000 and narrowly in front of Andrew “LuckyChewy” Lichtenberger’s 3,595,000. The final table lost two players within the first 12 hands of play, last year’s winner Antonio Esfandiari the first to be eliminated when his Ah10s was outdrawn by the Ad4h of Dempsey during the tenth hand of play. Two hands later and Vitor Coelho was sent to the rail leaving the final table to be played four-handed.

Lichtenberger is no stranger to going deep in WPT Main Events having a 13th, eighth and fourth place finish in recent years and many were hoping this would be the WPT that he took down. But it was not to be the case as he became the fourth place finisher during hand 35 when his pocket eights could not improve against the pocket nines of Nguyen to reduce the final table to three-handed.

It reached the heads-up stages just six hands later, Vanessa Selbst four-bet shoving her Kc9s into Dempsey’s Ah9c and not managing to suck out but any hopes of an early finish were soon dashed as the one-on-one battle took 85 hands to complete. Both Nguyen and Dempsey started with 104 and 102 big blinds respectively so it was always going to be a long drawn out encounter but according to the live updates provided by the WPT it was an epic fight that saw the chip lead exchange hands on numerous occasions and it could have been anyone’s tournament right up to the final hand, the 126th of the final table.

The final hand saw Dempsey min-raise to 300,000 with KhQc and then call when Nguyen moved all in for 3,600,000 with KcJd. The Jc-9h6c propelled Nguyen into the lead and the 4h on the turn kept him there. But just as it looked like Nguyen was about to double up the 10d landed on the river to improve Dempsey to a tournament winning straight, much to the delight of his army of fans on the rail including Chris Moorman and Sam Trickett.

This latest win takes Dempey’s lifetime winnings from live tournaments past the $1,700,000 barrier.

WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Final Table Results

1st: James Dempsey: $821,612
2nd: Soi Nguyen: $517,478
3rd: Vanessa Selbst: $338,351
4th: Andrew Litchenberger: $218,933
5th: Vitor Coelho: $159,224
6th: Antonio Esfandiari: $119,418

Pateychuk has live tournament results dating back to May 2010 and whilst two of those were for $10,000 or more they were not the kind of results that would set tongues wagging in the poker world. However, since the 2011 World Series of Poker, where he finished in 15th place in the Main Event for a score of $478,174 he has been talked about as one of the hottest properties in poker.

After his deep run in the WSOP Main Event he travelled to Italy to take part in the €4,600 EPT San Remo Main Event and after a week of intense poker action he outlasted 836 other players to be crowned EPT San Remo champion, picking up €680,000 in the process. Now he is on course to become Russia’s first Triple Crown winner after taking down the World Poker Tour Main Event in Prague, adding a further €468,200 to the Russian’s already swollen bankroll.

What made Pateychuk’s win all the more impressive was the fact he was trailing his heads up opponent, Adria Balageur of Spain, by 15:1 at one point but still never gave up hope of winning his first WPT title and becoming the first-ever Russian WPT Main Event winner. During the final table Pateychuk did get lucky on numerous occasions but the humble youngster will be the first to admit that very fact. He paired the ace of his Ah6d on the river to bust Stanislaw Kretz after the German had three-bet shoved over the top of his with a pair of red nines to send the tie into heads up.

Finding himself down to just 1,500,000 chips and his opponent holding the remaining 15,630,000 Pateychuk moved all in with KcJc and was called by just the Td9s of Balageur. This gave the Moscow-based pro the chance to claw himself back into the tournament and that is exactly what he did. The turning point came when Pateychuk moved all in with As6c and was called by the dominating AhJc of his Spanish opponent but he caught a six on the flop to put the ball firly in Pateychuk’s court.

Shortly afterwards Balaguer moved all in with pocket queens and Pateychuk made the call with Ah5s. The board ran out 9s-7s-4s-3h-2c gifting Pateychuk a hand and tournament winning straight, sending his army of fans on the rail into rapturous applause, chanting and cheering!

The World Poker Tour’s next European stop is in Venice in a little over one week’s time. Will Pateychuk be there to defend his title? We would bet good money on him doing just that.

WPT Prague Final Table Results

1st: Andrey Pateychuk: €468,200
2nd: Adria Bagaleur: €238,000
3rd: Stanislaw Kretz: €158,000
4th: Benjamin Pollak: €104,000
5th: Sigurd Eskeland: €80,000
6th: Russell Carson: €63,000

Last night’s chip leader, Joseph Cheong, who came third in the 2010 WSOP Main Event for $4.1 million and was runner-up in the Season 7 EPT London High Roller Turbo, is now in fourth place with 833,000.

All four Team PokerStars Pros who started the day are still in: Johnny Lodden, Lex Veldhuis, two-time NAPT Mohegan Sun champion Vanessa Selbst and John Duthie. Among the other big names still in contention for the €800,000 first prize are EPT Dortmund champion Mike McDonald, EPT Berlin winner Kevin MacPhee, WSOPE champion Elio Fox, Italian Poker Tour Player of the Year and IPT Nova Gorica champion Mustapha Kanit and IPT Female Player of the Year Carla Solinas.

Sam topped the table with 240.35 points, fending off a tough chasing pack that included serial casher Rupinder Bedi, double finalist Chris Dowling, and Edinburgh Champion Fintan Gavin.

Despite being an online cash game pro, Sam secured victory with four in-the-money finishes totalling an impressive $108,754. These included cashes in Nottingham, Manchester, Edinburgh and Cork, where he left with the title in hand, thus giving Black Belt Poker its second Champion to date after Jamie Burland won Season 1′s Brighton leg.

The final results were as follows:

1st Sam Razavi — 240.35
2nd Rupinder Bedi — 220.9
3rd Chris Dowling — 206.95
4th Paul Nash — 194.7
5th Nick Abou Risk — 192.3
6th Mike Hill — 178.8
7th Fintan Gavin — 167.5
8th Richard Lawlor — 165.25
9th Richard Haile — 165.1
10th Sam MacDonald — 164

Fellow Black Belt Poker pros Jamie Burland and Kevin Williams finished 14th and 19th respectively with a combined five cashes.

A former thespian from Brighton, Sam was a product of the Black Belt Poker Grading, which led him to Sidney where he final-tabled the Aussie Millions Main Event for A$225,000. His sixth place finish awarded him enough Prize Points to join Neil Channing and Richard Ashby as one of three Black Belts earning $10,000 a month in live tournament backing.
“Although I have a long way to go to cement a name for myself in tournament poker,” commented a jubilant Sam, “I’ve enjoyed consistently deep runs throughout 2011. I only decided to put my foot into tournament poker at the start of this year, so to then go and top the UKIPT leaderboard is the icing on the cake. It should put a temporary ‘cork’ into the mouths of those people who think I just sit around all day waiting for fish without working on my game.”

“With regards to Season 3 of the UK,” he continued, “and in the words of Tony G: ”I’m going to destroy you. I’m going to send you all home. Go on. On your bike!””

Before Season 3, however, Sam will be busy with the Champion of Champions, which is due to be filmed prior to the opening leg.

SAN REMO PARTY The EPT San Remo Welcome Party is at 9pm on October 27 (final day) at the Victory Morgana Bay yacht club.

TEAM POKERSTARS PROS More than 20 members of Team PokerStars Pro are attending EPT San Remo this week, including EPT founder John Duthie (who just finished 18th at WSOPE in Cannes) and Arnaud Mattern who finished tenth in Cannes alongside EPT6 San Remo champion Liv Boeree, Italian Poker Tour San Remo winner Luca Pagano, world champion Jonathan Duhamel, PCA High Roller champions Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Eugene Katchalov.

Steve Billirakis is a highly rated poker player who has had some tremendous results including winning the $5,000 World Championship Mixed Hold’em event at the 2007 World Series of Poker and now he has added another win and another bracelet to his already impressive resume by winning the €5,300 Pot Limit Omaha event at the World Series of Poker Europe.

Since his first result in a tracked tournament back in 2004 Billirakis has won three major tournaments and reached a total of nine final tables, which have helped him to win more than $2,110,000 in live tournament winnings. However, this latest result may be the Chicago residents best performance when you consider who entered the tournament and who made it to the final table with him.

David Benyamine, Shawn Buchanan, Jason Mercier and Oleksii Kovalchuk all made it to the money place, whilst Billirakis was kept company on the final table by November Nine member Eoghan O’Dea, WSOP-C winner Sam Chartier, Jerome Bradpeice, Sam Trickett and Ramzi Jelassi so his victory was most certainly well deserved.

Billirakis went into the heads up encounter with Michele Di Lauro with a slight chip lead but he won a massive 1,000,000 chip pot on the very first hand that gave him a five-to-one chip advantage. All the chips went into the middle during the very next hand when Di Lauro raised to 44,000 then called Billirakis’ 130,000 three-bet. A flop reading As-Kd-7c was greeted a 70,000 continuation bet from Billirakis and all in shove from Di Lauro and a very quick call. The players turned over their hands:

Billirakis: Ac-Kh-Qd-3h for top two pair
Di Lauro: Ah-Jh-10c-4h for top pair with a gutshot straight draw.

The turn and river were the 3s and 9c respectively and with that Di Lauro became the runner-up and Billirakis the latest WSOPE champion. Almost immediately after the tournament had finished Billirakis entered the €10,300 split event that is currently taking place, where Day 1 is played nine-handed, Day 2 six-handed and Day 3 in a heads up format! It has attracted some of the biggest names in the business.

Final table payouts

1st: Steve Billirakis – €238,140
2nd: Michele Di Lauro – €147,171
3rd: Ramzi Jelassi – €105,937
4th: Sam Trickett – €77,642
5th: Jerome Bradpiece – €57,912
6th: Konstantin Uspenskiy – €43,950
7th: Erich Kollmann – €33,922
8th: Sam Chartier – €26,610
9th: Eoghan O’Dea – €21,221

Dublin Ireland (April 15, 2011)- Full Tilt Poker is saddened by today’s charges against its CEO Raymond Bitar and offers its full support to Mr. Bitar and Nelson Burtnick.

Online poker is a game of skill enjoyed by tens of millions of people in the United States and across the world. And, Full Tilt Poker remains as committed as ever to preserving the rights of those players to play the game they love online.

Mr. Bitar and Full Tilt Poker believe online poker is legal – a position also taken by some of the best legal minds in the United States. Full Tilt Poker is, and has always been committed to preserving the integrity of the game and abiding by the law.

“I am surprised and disappointed by the government’s decision to bring these charges. I look forward to Mr. Burtnick’s and my exoneration,” said Mr. Bitar.

Unfortunately, as a result of this action, Full Tilt Poker has decided that it must suspend “real money” play in the United States until this case is resolved. However, Full Tilt Poker will continue to provide peer-to-peer online poker services outside of the United States.

Chris Hewitt returns for a brand new episode of Gameshock TV. The show that brings the latest games to your screens and puts them to the test.
With the results from this years Gaming BAFTAs as well as features on THQ’s eagerly awaited Homefront and Marvel vs Capcom this show promises to keep you at the cutting edge of console gaming.
We also take a look at what you can look forward to in the next 12 months and we even look back at some of the games you may have missed that you REALLY need to play.
With Competitions galore Gameshock TV is definitely a show you wont want to miss.

It premiers on The Poker Channel this Thursday at 22.30 and you can catch online from then as well as watch the last episode here.