Poker

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Final table players got a nice break in Event #34-H. After 10 hands of play on the final table, Day 1 ended and players got a 13-hour break. After a good night's -- or day's, depending on global location -- rest, players came back at 2pm ET and Akademnuk was crowned champion. Akademnuk defeated a field of 171 players who created prize pool of $342,000. Among those players were Team PokerStars Online Naoya "nkeyno" Kihara, George "jorj95" Lind III and Adrienne "talonchick" Rowsome. Also donning the red spade were Team PokerStars Pros George Danzer, Eugene Katchalov and Jose Ignacio Barbero. Current SCOOP leader, Shaun Deeb, was also in the field. Deeb made a deep run and scored a few more points after finishing 12th for $5,985.00. It was a good run, but Deeb finished just short of the... The final table Seat 1: Just F0LD it -- 238,891 Seat 2: römpsä -- 136,098 Seat 3: kirbynator -- 64,579 Seat 4: 2mark -- 56,165 Seat 5: bedias -- 115,496 Seat 6: plplaya -- 30,205 Seat 7: kuhns89 -- 101,808 Seat 8: KallApelsin -- 39,328 Seat 9: Akademnuk -- 72,430 The final table burst but there was only a few minutes of play left in the day. We were able to get through 10 hands and plplaya doubled up in the process. With 1K/2K blinds, plplaya raised to 6,000 from the small blind and kuhns89 called, bringing a [9c][3h][8s] flop. plplaya bet the pot and kuhns89 re-potted to 24,000. plplaya called all-in and showed [ad][9c][6s][5c] to kuhns89's [7h][5d][4h][2d]. The turn brought a [2c] and the [4s] fell on the river. plplaya hit an [5][4][3][2][a] and a two-to-six straight. plplaya was up to 56,410 while kuhns89 dipped to 76,603. Then play stopped and the final table was put on hold for about 13 hours. While the final table contestants rested up, their seating arrangement was mixed up a bit. Friday Players came back at 14:00 ET today to the following arrangement: Seat 1: kirbynator -- 70,779 Seat 2: KallApelsin -- 36,328 Seat 3: römpsä -- 136,098 Seat 4: Just F0LD it -- 216,191 Seat 5: 2mark -- 60,165 Seat 6: bedias -- 115,496 Seat 7: plplaya -- 56,410 Seat 8: Akademnuk -- 87,930 Seat 9: kuhns89 -- 75,603 When play resumed Friday afternoon, 2mark started an online, written cover of Rebecca Black's "Friday." kirbynator joined in and plplaya asked a lot of questions. The performance exceeded expectations and was arguably better than the original. The KallApelsin was elminated. Blinds were 1.25K/2.5K and Akademnuk raised to 5,000 from the hijack. KallApelsin re-raised to 17,500 from the small blind and Akademnuk called. There was a [qd][2s][3d] flop and KallApelsin moved all-in for 18,828. Akademnuk called and showed [ah][8h][7c][3s] to KallApelsin's [as][10s][7s][2d]. A [3c] came on the turn and the river brought a [10h]. There was no low hand and Akademnuk took the pot with three threes. KallApelsin was out in 9th and earned $6,840.00. Just lost it Just F0LD it started the final table and Day 2 with the lead, but then passed it over after doubling up kirbynator. Just F0LD it raised to 5,250 from early position and kuhns89 and kirbynator called from the blinds. kuhns89 and kirbynator checked the [9s][4c][10s] flop and Just F0LD it bet 10,237. kuhns89 folded and kirbynator called. The [5d] came on the turn and Just F0LD it bet 36,224. kirbynator moved all-in for 52,792. Just F0LD it called and showed [as][ks][jd][3h] to kirbynator's [9c][8c][6s][4s]. An [ac] came on the river and kirbynator scooped the pot with [8][6][5][4][a] and nines and fours. kirbynator was up to 141 and Just F0LD it dipped to 129,011. Rapid fire Play slowed down for a bit but then we got two back-to-back eliminations. The first one was courtesy of Just F0LD it, who regained the lead a few hands earlier: Blinds were up to 2K/4K and plplaya had slowly chipped down during Day 2. plplaya managed to double up once but wouldn't be so lucky on the second all-in. plplaya raised to 14,000 from middle position and Just F0LD it re-raised to 44,400.

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This is the ninth year in a row we've made the trip to Las Vegas and let's just say we've learned a thing or two about how to maneuver in Sin City. This year we'll be covering a selection of the biggest and best WSOP bracelet events leading up to the $10,000 World Championship. And during the Main Event we'll be shipping daily video interviews and updates straight from the floor of the Rio Hotel and Casino. But we won't be doing it alone. We've brought in a crack team of poker media veterans including Alex Villegas, Marc Convey, Allen Rash and Dave Behr to help. And you can head straight to our WSOP 2013 Section to see it all in one place. Follow the Chips for 12 Feature WSOP Bracelet Events For this year's World Series of Poker we've handpicked a dozen tournaments that run the gamut from the $1k Millionaire Maker to the $111k One Drop High Roller. We'll be pulling compelling stories out of the crowd for the entire WSOP.   “With over 60 bracelet events at the WSOP it can be tough for fans to keep track of everything that's going on,” said PokerListings Editor in Chief Matt Showell. “That's why we're focusing in on the most compelling stories and characters to give you a richer WSOP experience that goes beyond bracelet winners and chip counts.” And to do it PokerListings will be using a new coverage format we call “Follow the Chips”. Instead of a mash-up of individual hands from across the tournament floor we'll be zooming in and covering one compelling personality at a time. And when they lose a pot to another compelling personality, we follow the chips. By the time the tournament's over we'll have connected that first stack all the way to the winner, and told a long line of great stories along the way. Here's a look at the selection of feature events we'll be covering: June 1, 2013: Event 6 - $1,000 Millionaire Maker June 4, 2013: Event 11 - $2,500 Six-Max No-Limit Hold'em June 7, 2013: Event 16 - $10,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em June 11, 2013: Event 21 - $3,000 Six-Max No-Limit Hold'em June 14, 2013: Event 27 - $3,000 Mixed Max June 18, 2013: Event 32 - $5,000 Six-Max No-Limit Hold'em June 19, 2013: Event 35 - $3,000 Pot-Limit Omah June 22, 2013: Event 41 - $5,000 Six-Max Pot-Limit Omaha June 26, 2013: Event 47 - One Drop High Roller June 28, 2013: Event 52 - $25,000 Six-Max No-Limit Hold'em June 30, 2013: Event 55 - $50,000 Players Championship July 6, 2013: $10,000 World Championship Main Event Daily Video Interviews from 2013 Main Event During the 2013 Main Event the PokerListings video crew will touch down in Las Vegas to catch the WSOP's most interesting people on camera. Expect interviews with all the biggest poker pros as well as sports stars, celebrities and successful people from all walks of life. As the Main Event field gets narrowed down we'll turn our attention to the tournament, interviewing all the big stacks and getting to know the people who will have a chance at becoming the next world champion of poker. To get you in the mood here's one of our favorites from the 2012 WSOP: Visit www.pokerlistings.com

TheLandlord1 went into the final table with the chip lead but quickly found the competition to be quite tough. It took some tenacity and the skill to find the right spots to pick up chips in order to maneuver through the opponents. And patience was key during the heads-up match, as waiting for the right time to score a double-up was the proper path to victory. ***** Event 34 (medium level buy-in) offered players the chance to earn a bracelet in the ever-popular Pot Limit Omaha, albeit of the Hi/Lo variation. The two-day tournament started with a substantial field that nearly doubled the guarantee. Players: 943 Guarantee: $100,000.00 Prize pool: $188,600.00 Paid players: 126 Team PokerStars was once again well represented with the likes of Marcel Luske, Henrique Pinho, David Williams, George Danzer, Nacho Barbero, Richard Toth, George Lind, Bertrand Grospellier, Naoya Kihara, Chad Brown, Andre Akkari, Mickey Petersen and Fredy Torres all joining the field but failing to reach the money. Adrienne Rowsome was another who got awfully close, falling in 138th place, just a dozen places short of the min-cash. When the bubble burst on Australian Onadownswing, the remaining 126 had locked in a profit with at least $339.48 returning to their cashier. SCOOP crusher Shaun Deeb (84th - $414.92), Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki (60th - $528.08) and SCOOP Event #3-M winner Adam Levy (57th - $528.08) were some of the notables to cash on Day 1 before play wrapped up after 30 levels of play. Play stopped with TheLandlord1 of Canada atop the leaderboard with 790,745 chips. followed by paomala of Costa Rica with 662,150, and phil694 was on the shortest of the ten remaining stacks with 215,728 chips. Day 2 It only took a few tries during hand-for-hand play to find the first elimination of the day. On the final table bubble, phil694 raised preflop from the button, and luk45zp called from the big blind to see a [3h][5s][Jd] flop. Luk45zp bet, and phil694 called all-in with [2d][9c][6c][Ad]. Luk45zp showed [9d][As][6s][Jc], and the board ran out with [Qs] and [5c]. That eliminated phil694 in tenth place with $1,886.00. The Landlord1 holds the lease The final table began in Level 31 with blinds of 12,500/30,000, and a few hands into the action, the chip counts were as follows: Seat 1: UlDuffer (285,103 in chips) Seat 2: TheLandlord1 (865,843 in chips) Seat 3: luk45zp (470,095 in chips) Seat 4: EdoTK (182,356 in chips) Seat 5: Fresh_oO_D (494,869 in chips) Seat 6: Liquid_PLO (243,114 in chips) Seat 7: henrikx (720,021 in chips) Seat 8: paomala (762,150 in chips) Seat 9: Obamapoker88 (691,449 in chips) Henrikx started strong at the final table, and with the collection of a 615K-chip pot from Fresh_oO_D, henrikx took over the chip lead with a count of more than 1.2 million. That led to a hand in which luk45zp moved all-in preflop with [9d][AH][Ks][2h] against the [5d][9c][Ad][Ac] of henrikx. The board of [3d][Js][Qd][9h][6c] only gave luk45zp a pair of nines, which wasn't enough to beat aces. Luk45zp exited in ninth place with $2,263.20. Fresh_oO_D risked it all against TheLandlord1 but stayed alive by splitting the low half of the pot. Then a split pot with paomala kept Fresh_oO_D in action again. But a bit later, a full double through paomala was a positive sign, and even another double through henrikx got Fresh_oO_D off the short stack. Meanwhile, EdoTK, who finished fourth in just days ago in Event 19M, got involved with UIDuffer to see a raised flop of [6c][3d][6h]. UIDuffer pushed all-in with [Ac][5s][2s][7s], and EdoTK called all-in with [8h][Qc][2d][Ah]. The [2c] and [7c] finished the hand, giving the high and low to UIDuffer and leaving EdoTK out in eighth place with $3,772.00. Liquid_PLO was ready for action and raised from middle position with [6c][8h][Td][9h]. Paomala reraised from the small blind with [6h][Ah][2c][8c]. Obamapoker88 reraised all-in with [Ac][3c][2s][Qc], and Liquid_PLO called all-in. Paomala c

From the moment registration closed, we had a feeling this would be an odd one. Thirty seconds with a calculator revealed that this particular two-day event had a strong chance of hitting the final table before the end of Day 1 and finishing up the following afternoon. As it turned out, that's exactly what happened. The first forty levels of play took this field all the way down to five players, and after a lengthy deal negotiation at the top of Day 2, they needed only 31 hands to find a champion. Romania's bogdaniel111 pulled out the win after mounting a remarkable late charge, but ended up banking $5,500 less than third-place finisher matt86ck thanks to the five-handed chip chop. 3,719 players came out to scoop, split, and quarter, creating a $91,305.45 prize pool. 495 of them earned a share of it with first place set to earn $14,336.58. Of the 15 Red Spades in the field, four cashed: Fredy "sirfreddy83" Torres (490th), Marcin Horecki (397th), Henrique Pinho (378th), and George "Jorj95" Lind III (376th). With less than an hour of play remaining on Day 1, the field reached its final ten players. Stevie "stevie444" Chidwick had already dodged a few bullets during hand-for-hand play, and pulled the trigger again when fellow short stack loreh87 opened for a min-raise to 240,000. Stevie444 moved in for 717,848 with [4d][5s][6s][Qd] and loreh87 called with [Ah][2h][7d][Js], having him slightly covered. Stevie444 caught absolutely nothing on the [Jh][9d][8s][Tc][Th] board while loreh87 turned a jack-high straight to send him to the rail on the final table bubble. Final table chip counts Seat 1: farrider63 (721,058 in chips) Seat 2: loreh87 (1,649,796 in chips) Seat 3: toomaskoomas (1,209,224 in chips) Seat 4: Teminem (1,979,110 in chips) Seat 5: royeapoker (951,319 in chips) Seat 6: bogdaniel111 (2,496,159 in chips) Seat 7: matt86ck (5,914,231 in chips) Seat 8: HnumTheGreat (2,188,191 in chips) Seat 9: ibluffgold (1,485,912 in chips) Two down 13 minutes remained in Level 38 when the final table began and play was scheduled to continue through the end of Level 40 before breaking for the night. Another 25 minutes passed before the first elimination. After failing to get any traction at the final table, loreh87 finally found a hand to go with in [Ac][As][2s][5h] and open-shoved for his last 305,000. HnumTheGreat called from the small blind with [Ah][3c][9d][Jc]. Loreh87's aces kept the lead on the [Kh][Qh][2h] flop, but the [4d] turn gave HnumTheGreat the nut low draw to go with his gutshot. HnumTheGreat filled it on the river with the [Ts] and loreh87 hit the rail in ninth place, earning $730.41 for the day's work. Three hands later, roveapoker picked up [Ac][3c][4c][7h] and moved in for 385,000 from UTG. Teminem called from the big blind with [Jd][Js][Ts][6c] and hit top set on the [Jh][9s][8c] flop. Aces on the turn and river improved Teminem to a full house and roveapoker went out in eighth place, banking $1,141.26. matt86ck takes a commanding chip lead Three hands later, farrider63 opened for 356,000 and with over 5 million behind, matt86ck three-bet to 1,228,000. Farrider63 moved all-in for 1.58 million and matt86ck called, his [Kh][Kd][6s][6c] up against [Ad][Ac][Ks][Qc]. Farrider63's aces up were good through the turn, the board reading [9s][8h][2s][2d], but the poker gods delivered matt86ck the case king on the river to end farrider63's run in seventh. The next deal saw matt86ck send a few of those newfound chips toomaskoomas's way. On a [Jc][8d][8s] flop, toomaskoomas moved al-in for 1.8 million and matt86ck called. toomaskoomas [Ah][5h][6d][Js] matt86ck [Kd][Qc][3d][2h] Toomaskoomas led with two pair, but the [8h] turn left them both playing the trip eights on board, toomaskoomas winning the kicker war. The river was the [Kc] and toomaskoomas moved into safer territory with 1.72 million. Matt86ck rebounded a short time later, cutting HnumTheGreat's stack in half. Matt86ck moved up to

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Any suggestions for a future 3-Bet, drop a link in the comments and we'll check it out for a future post. Today in the 3-Bet we find Daniel Negreanu narrowing down his recent success to a few key reasons, Gus Hansen blowing through his recent profits online and Dan "Jungleman12" Cates biting on Jason Mercier's bracelet-bet offer. 1) Negreanu: "It's Luck, Secret Edge and Choice Center" So everyone knows Daniel Negreanu has crushed his last few tournaments (three consecutive main event final tables is truly sick), but the reason, Negreanu says in his latest video rant, is a combination of three things. Reason #1 is luck or variance, he says, with key flips/pots in key situations simply going his way. Reason #3 is the swag/confidence he has from going through the Choice Center Leadership training. Reason #2 though? Negreanu says a "new trend among the younger guys" he finds "really exploitable." Interesting, no? He's not gonna tell us what it is, but given his results it's hard not to believe he's on to something. Check his latest rant out below: If you want a shot at 1% of his WSOP action btw, enter his FCP Fantasy Poker pool here. 2) Hansen Upswing Painfully Short-Lived Things not so good for Gustav.   So, remember the nice upswing Gus Hansen had last week that clawed back about $1.6 million of his mutli-million dollar losses online over the last few years? Yeah. That was short-lived. According to Highstakesdb Hansen set fire to another $1m+ yesterday, losing a ton to cottonseed1 in FLO8 plus a bunch to Kyle "KPR16" Ray and Seb86. Looking at Hansen's graph since 2007, hsdb has him down $9.3 million over roughly 1.3 million hands. $9.3 million! Much of that, of course, might have been "not-real" Full Tilt money but either way it's a gross number. Even more painful Hansen had erased about $6 million of that in less than six months in early 2011 but since play resumed on FTP he's donated every penny of that back. Get well soon, Gus. Check his results out here. 3) Cates Wants in on Mercier Action It didn't take long for action to come in on that proposed 3-1 bet on winning a bracelet Jason Mercier offered yesterday. @jasonmercier I want to bet against you on winning bracelet 3:1 (not saying you arent good, just think the line is not 3:1). How to do this? — Daniel Cates (@junglemandan) May 24, 2013Visit www.pokerlistings.com

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Life is good. I am on a downswing, actually, which isn't great, but otherwise all is going brilliantly. So far this year I've played a number of live tournaments as well as cash games online, and while things haven't been going too well in either, such downswings always provide lots of opportunities to work on one's game and improve a lot. When you're winning you rarely go back and think about hands you've misplayed or weaknesses you might have shown. People tend to attribute their successes to their skill only, but the fact is that usually isn't the case. Some also tend to attribute losing to bad luck only, but if you're serious about your game and understand that you really aren't the master of variance, you can look more closely to see what you might be doing wrong (in addition to probably running bad). When I am on a downswing I usually don't feel like grinding a lot, and so actually that works out well because by playing less I give myself additional time to do the sort of analysis I'm describing. Another thing that often happens when players are on a downswing is they begin to doubt themselves. That, too, isn't necessarily bad because it invites you to question certain areas of your game and in that way perhaps discover leaks. Poker definitely rewards those who put in the work of self-study. It could be compared to what professional athletes experience, who are also often having to work on their games, with even the top performers sometimes having to go back to the basics. Tiger Woods springs to mind as a good example of someone who struggled with a big downswing over the last couple of years and now he's back on top of the golf world again after having put in the work to reassess and improve. Another example from a little further back is Andre Agassi. I used to play tennis a lot when I was younger, back when Boris Becker and Agassi were having their battles. What I find really inspiring about Agassi was how he had been the number one player in the world, then fell all of the way down to 141st in the world rankings, then climbed all of the way back to become No. 1 again in the late 1990s! Such a comeback is kind of amazing if you think about it -- kind of like Doyle Brunson going broke and grinding $1/$2 games at your local casino all of the way back to legend status again. In truth there are few in poker who are able to make it all the way back after hitting bottom like that -- fewer than in sports, anyway. But the stories of those who do can be inspiring to those of us enduring relatively smaller downswings and trying to climb out of them. Downswings can provide serious challenges when it comes to tilt control and emotional control and bankroll management. But while they're obviously not a lot of fun, they provide opportunities that can prove especially rewarding in the long term. Jan Heitmann is a member of Team PokerStars Pro