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June 18, 2010 at 9:05 pm | Poker News | | Written by: spenda
Las Vegas has been crawling with poker players this month as the 41st annual World Series of Poker is taking place at the Rio Las Vegas Hotel & Casino. Some of the biggest events of the series began and ended this past week as the world’s best poker players congregated just off the strip in hopes of gold bracelets and big pay days. The Rio has been buzzing lately with prop bet talk surrounding poker wunderkind Tom “Durrrr” Dwan who nearly won a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament last week which would have pocketed him much more than the $600,000 first place check. The first estimates had Durrrr with $7,000,000 in action on his ability to win a bracelet but before was all said and done it was reported he had nearly $12,000,000 riding on his final table success. Unfortunately for Dwan (and fortunately for the poker world) he failed to connect last week but still has plenty of tournaments left to cash in big time.
As the WSOP has expanded and grown there have been many different events added to the schedule including a large amount of non-Hold’em games. Taking advantage of one of those events was the charismatic Sammy Farha who took down the $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo Split Championship for $488,237 on Monday. Farha is a businessman and high-stakes Omaha professional who is best known for his 2nd place finish to Chris Moneymaker in the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event. In fact, Farha could be credited with the poker boom as the poker world saw a huge increase in participation in both live series such as the WSOP and online action due to Moneymaker qualifying through a $40 PokerStars satellite. Farha is also a regular on the GSN television show “High Stakes Poker” where he battles with the likes of Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, and Patrik Antonius.
Other non-Hold’em events taking place this week included Event #19 $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball, Event #20 $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, Event #21 $1,500 Seven Card Stud, Event #27 $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, and Event #28 $2,500 Pot-Limit Omaha. As you can see there are tournaments for just about any type of poker player at this years WSOP. A few events are currently underway including the $1,000 Seniors Championship and the $10,000 Heads-Up NL Championship which begins today.
Another big name earning a bracelet this week is the mercurial Dutch Boyd who won Event #23 $2,500 Limit Hold’em 6-max for $234,065. Boyd, along with a few other young players who called themselves “The Crew”, busted onto the poker scene in 2003 with a deep run in the Main Event where he eventually finished 12th. Boyd’s first bracelet came back in 2006 where he bested WSOP Main Event champion Joe Hachem heads-up to win the $2,500 NL Short-Handed tournament. It appears Boyd thrives in 6-max play as he once again took down a 6-handed tournament besting Brian Meinders heads-up late Monday night.
Two other notable players winning bracelets this past week were John “Tex” Barch who was at Hachem’s final table win in 2005 finishing in 3rd place for $2,500,000. Barch bested a tough filed in Event #20 $1,500 PLO to win his first bracelet and $256,919. Joining Barch in the winners circle was famed online professional Richard “CHUFTY” Ashby who took down the next event on the schedule, the $1,500 Seven Card Stud tourmanet for $140,467. Ashby is a FullTilt sponsored professional who makes his money in high-stakes PLO and mixed games on the world’s second biggest poker site.
Speaking of online poker, the WSOP has put a dent in online tournament attendance. A lot of tournaments, especially the Sunday majors, have been falling well short of their guarantees forcing both PokerStars and FullTilt to pony up a bunch of overlay the past few weekends. While this may be bad for the poker sites it is great for those playing as they’re getting a great price on their money. If you aren’t at the Rio this weekend grinding WSOP tournaments check out the online majors where you can satellite into most events using player points or for as little as $1!
As always, be sure to check back here next week for more WSOP results and other online poker news.
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