« « Earn Your Way to the WSOP Through Bodog | A Lot Going on at PokerStars » »
July 3, 2010 at 8:56 pm | Poker News | | Written by: spenda
The July 4th weekend is proving to be one of the more exciting few days for the 2010 World Series of Poker as a few of the more prestigious events are slated to finish today and tomorrow. The $10,000 PLO World Championship, $25,000 6-max Championship, Tournament of Champions, and $5,000 Ante Up for Africa Charity Event are all up and running at the Rio Casino and Hotel in Las Vegas. These three events alone should have some of the best fields of the series highlighted by poker professionals as well as celebrities.
The Ante up for Africa tournament carries a $5,000 buy-in and the understanding that players will donate a significant portion of their winnings to charity. Celebrities such as Matt Damon, Don Cheadle, Ben Affleck, and Brad Garrett headline an event that was mired it a bit of online controversy last year. One of the tournament’s co-chairs, Annie Duke, got into a spat with a final table member who withheld his donation until he could receive proof of the legitimacy of the charity. The situation was eventually resolved but it provided some nice entertainment for the online poker community. The tournament will begin Saturday July 3rd and is one of just a few events that ESPN will televise this year.
The $25,000 NL 6-Max Championship might just have the toughest field of any poker tournament this year. A bevy of experienced live pros faced off with a large contingent on online cash game professionals for a $1,315,518. The final table was set yesterday is a short session and play will resume early this evening. A few big names just missed out on the final table including Daniel Negreanu (11th), Isaac “Ike” Haxton (9th), and Brynn Kenney who took the chip lead into day 3. Only six remain including chip leader Dan “djk123″ Kelly who is a well known online tournament grinder who has more than $3,000,000 in cashes on PokerStars alone including a $643,200 cash in the WCOOP ME last year.
The $10,000 PLO Championship is down to the final 33 players and one name, Tom “Durrrr” Dwan, is sticking out above the rest. Dwan, with more than just the $780,559 first-place prize on the line, take a big chip lead into Day 3 against the likes of Phil Hellmuth, David “devilfish” Ulliot, Daniel Alaei, and Jason Mercier. Dwan, who has a reported $12,000,000+ in bracelet bets as this years series, nearly won the $1,500 buy-in Event #11 last month before falling heads-up to Simon Watt. With a strong field standing in his way it will certainly be a challenge for Dwan but I doubt you’ll find anyone willing to bet against one of the world’s best.
After a short hiatus the 2010 WSOP Tournament of Champions is set to resume. The 27-player field was a veritable “who’s who” of the poker world including Mike Matusow, Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greensetin, Phil Hellmuth, and many more. The tournament started earlier this week and was set to resume July 4th but with more players remaining than originally projected the tournament could see a restart on the 3rd. The only wrench in this plan is if any of the 17 players left are in the $25k NLHE or $10k PLO then the tournament will not be able to resume. A quick glance reveals Phi Hellmuth still alive in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship and for those unfamiliar with his game he certainly knows how to nurse a short stack. It will be interesting to see how things play out as I’m sure a lot of the ToC participants would also want to play in the Ante Up for Africa because of the lack of TV exposure this year.
If you still haven’t checked out the Main Event satellites on Bodog, PokerStars, or FullTilt you are missing out on a lot of value. Even if you cannot attend the 2010 WSOP you will be able to convert most tickets into cash or tournament dollars. Satellites are running around the clock so pop open some lobbies and check out some of the softest fields in recent online tournament history!!
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
