2018 WSOP Fantasy poker league..

[MintTrav]

Event 55: $1,000 Tag Team No Limit Hold'em

Winner	Giuseppe Pantaleo & Nikita Luther
Runners	1032
Paid	155
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Ryan Laplante	28	1
David Peters	35	1
Erik Seidel	72	1
Mohsin Charania	85	1
Chris Moorman	106	1
Chris Ferguson	110	1
Benny Glaser	121	1
Rep Porter	122	1
Barry Greenstein	143	1

Selector	Points		Selector	Points
Barrie 2	3		Chris H 1	1
John 1	3		Chris H 2	1
Brian	2		Craig 1	1
Chris B	2		Craig 2	1
Chris K	2		Debbie	1
Dave	2		Gareth	1
Del	2		Glenn 1	1
English Tom 2	2		Irish Tom 1	1
Joe	2		Irish Tom 2	1
Jon	2		Jake	1
Luca 2	2		James 1	1
Nic 1	2		James 2	1
Paxo 1	2		Jo 1	1
Paxo 2	2		Jo 2	1
Stuart	2		John 2	1
Tommy	2		Justin	1
Adam	1		Paul	1
Barrie 1	1		Simon L	1
Carl 1	1		Suzanne	1
Carl 2	1		Vince 2	1

Albert Daher and Aylar Lie combined in a Dream Team with Natasha Mercier and Felipe Ramos.

Some other interesting combinations:

Jonathan Tomato - Joe McKeehen
Jason Wheeler - Ludovic Geilich
Allen Kessler - Lena Evans - Roland Israelashvili - Jeremiah Degreef
Rainer Kempe - Maria Ho - Alpheus Chan - Toby Lewis


Oh Nikita, you will never know

[MintTrav]

Event 56: $10,000 Razz Championship

Winner	Calvin Anderson
Runners	119
Paid	18
Final Table	8

Player	Position	Points
Calvin Anderson	1	25
Mike Leah	4	12
John Hennigan	7	6
Dzmitry Urbanovich	8	4
Ismael Bojang	10	1
Paul Volpe	11	1
James Obst	16	1
Scott Seiver	17	1

Selector	Points		Selector	Points
Luca 1	27		James 1	12
Chris K	14		Nathan	12
English Tom 1	14		Nic 1	12
Jake	14		Paxo 2	12
Jo 1	14		Richard	12
Jo 2	14		Vince 1	12
Jordan	14		Craig 1	8
Paul	14		Stephen 2	6
Adam	13		Carl 2	2
Barrie 2	13		Luca 2	2
Carl 1	13		Barrie 1	1
Chris H 1	13		Chris B	1
Chris H 2	13		Craig 2	1
James 2	13		Dave	1
Rob	13		Debbie	1
Simon B	13		John 1	1
Stephen 1	13		John 2	1
Tommy	13		Paxo 1	1
Del	12		Simon L	1
Gareth	12		Vince 2	1
Glenn 2	12

Another loaded final table for a $10k event. Would Urbanovich get his bracelet? Another chance, so soon after being runner-up in #50. Jerry Wong has also been knocking on the door, including finishing 4th in #49. Would Martini or Hennigan win their second of the year or would Anderson, Kassela or Leah add to their stock?

After his win, Anderson shared his delusions at some length about how he is helped by positive thinking, the Law of Attraction and "a lot of other universal and spiritual truths". Despite all that, he still won.

A lot of people have Leah but, despite all the finalists we had, there weren't any major points breakthroughs, though Luca made up a bit of ground with Anderson.

[MintTrav]

Event 57: $1,000/$10,000 Ladies No Limit Hold'em Championship

Winner	Jessica Dawley
Runners	696
Paid	105
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Natasha Mercier	34	1

Selector	Points
Karen	1

''I can't even put into words" said Jessica Dawley, before doing just that at some length. She does have very good teeth though.

[MintTrav]

Event 59: $1,000 No Limit Hold'em Super Turbo Bounty

Winner	Mike Takayama
Runners	2065
Paid	310
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Shaun Deeb	172	1

Selector	Points		Selector	Points
Adam	1		Jo 2	1
Barrie 1	1		Jordan	1
Carl 2	1		Nathan	1
Chris H 2	1		Paxo 1	1
Chris K	1		Simon L	1
Debbie	1		Vince 1	1
Derek	1		Vince 2	1
English Tom 2	1

Some events don't seem to attract many professionals. This was won by former billiards pro Mike 'The Lightning Kid' Takayama, who lived up to his name by blitzing the final table, arriving with nine bounties and finishing the tournament, less than 50 hands later, with sixteen.

Steve Jelinek won a bracelet some years ago but I haven't heard of him for quite a while, but he has come back and finished 4th in this.

[MintTrav]

Event 61: $1,000 WSOP.com Online No Limit Hold'em Championship

Winner	Ryan Tosoc
Runners	1635
Paid	180
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
John Racener	36	1
Ryan Riess	50	1
Shaun Deeb	96	1
Natasha Mercier	120	1
Anthony Zinno	155	1

Selector	Points		Selector	Points
Barrie 1	3		English Tom 1	1
Adam	2		English Tom 2	1
Chris H 2	2		Glenn 1	1
Debbie	2		Jake	1
Jo 1	2		Jo 2	1
Karen	2		Jon	1
Paxo 1	2		Jordan	1
Richard	2		Luca 1	1
Brian	1		Nathan	1
Carl 2	1		Simon L	1
Chris H 1	1		Stephen 1	1
Chris K	1		Tommy	1
Craig 1	1		Vince 1	1
Del	1		Vince 2	1
Derek	1

Tosoc won $1.1m for being runner-up in the Vegas WPT Main Event in 2016. In 2017, he won the title and $1.9m.

He nabbed sixth place in the $25k PLO HR last week and has now secured a bracelet and two $200k+ results in a week, along with two-thirds of a triple-crown in seven months.

And that's all I have to say about this.


Toosick under pressure on the final table of the $25k PLO, plus a bonus feature of some familiar backs of heads

[MintTrav]

Points after 61 events (without #6, #11, #58 & #60)

Selector	Points		Selector	Points
Craig 1	244		Nic 1	162
Barrie 1	229		Carl 1	159
Paxo 1	227		Stephen 2	154
Jo 1	226		Rob	148
Chris H 2	224		Derek	143
Carl 2	218		James 2	143
Adam	216		Richard	143
Jake	216		Stuart	140
Jo 2	215		Jon	138
Vince 1	211		Vince 2	138
Jordan	206		James 1	136
Chris K	202		Craig 2	132
Glenn 1	197		John 1	131
Paul	197		Aneurin	127
Luca 1	195		Joe	126
Nathan	195		Gareth	124
Simon L	184		Suzanne	123
Simon B	183		Chris B	122
English Tom 1	182		Karen	121
English Tom 2	181		John 2	116
Tommy	181		Paxo 2	103
Stephen 1	176		Brian	101
Luca 2	175		Justin	88
Chris H 1	174		Irish Tom 2	80
Del	174		Nic 2	80
Debbie	170		Dave	79
Barrie 2	166		Irish Tom 1	64
Glenn 2	164

Craig consistently notches points, but the large group behind keeps inching closer. Whatever about first, it's going to be a helluva scrap for second and third. There are no big points to come for #58, but Marco Johnson is on the FT of #60.

[MintTrav]

Event 58: $5,000 No Limit Hold'em 6-Handed

Winner	Jean-Robert Bellande
Runners	621
Paid	94
Final Table	6

Player	Position	Points
Andre Akkari	28	1
Conor Beresford	49	1
Martin Jacobson	83	1

Selector	Points
Jon	1
Karen	1
Suzanne	1

JRB spent part of the final table debating with his rail whether his $400 bottle of Chateau Margaux 2013 Premier Grand Cru Classé was better than the 2009 Chateau Margaux he had the previous day. That's what he does.

[MintTrav]

Event 60: $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

Winner	Phil Galfond
Runners	237
Paid	36
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Marco Johnson	6	8
David "ODB" Baker	7	6
Brandon Shack-Harris	28	1
Chris Ferguson	49	1
Randy Ohel	83	1
Cliff Josephy	0	1
Nick Schulman	0	1

Selector	Points		Selector	Points
Luca 2	16		Irish Tom 2	1
Craig 2	9		Jake	1
Stephen 1	8		James 1	1
Barrie 1	7		James 2	1
Chris B	7		Jo 1	1
Del	7		Joe	1
Luca 1	7		John 1	1
Carl 2	6		John 2	1
Paxo 2	6		Nic 1	1
Chris K	1		Paxo 1	1
Craig 1	1		Rob	1
English Tom 2	1		Simon L	1
Gareth	1		Stuart	1
Irish Tom 1	1		Tommy	1

Yeah, Galfond won. Whatever.

That's $568k to add to his riches, which should please him as he told us last year that he doesn't care about bracelets and only plays for he money.

On the other hand, his wife tweeted:
 
Farah Galfond
 ✔  @Farah_Galfond 

"Ok but is it really a millionaire maker tournament when you're already a millionaire"

Classy pair.

[MintTrav]

LA Lakers CEO Frank Mariani reached the final table of the Tag Team, linking up with ex tennis pro and current poker pro Saleh Avner Levy and Colossus bracelet-winner Cord Garcia. Looks like Mariani was in for most of the play, certainly on the final table.


Frank Mariani (back row, second left) with David Chiu and friends

[MintTrav]

Event 6: $365 Giant No Limit Hold'em

Winner	Jeremy Perrin
Runners	8920
Paid	1268
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Hugh Cairnie	109
Adam Owen	338	1
Audrey Sheardown	649
Chris Ferguson	792	1
Lucy Amos	891

Selector	Points		Selector	Points
Simon L	2		Jake	1
Aneurin	1		James 1	1
Barrie 1	1		Jo 1	1
Barrie 2	1		Jo 2	1
Carl 1	1		Joe	1
Carl 2	1		John 1	1
Chris B	1		John 2	1
Chris H 1	1		Luca 2	1
Craig 2	1		Nic 1	1
Del	1		Paul	1
English Tom 2	1		Paxo 1	1
Glenn 1	1		Stephen 2	1
Glenn 2	1		Stuart	1
Irish Tom 1	1		Tommy	1
Irish Tom 2	1

Cashing in the Giant, with nearly 9,000 entrants, is equivalent in numbers to doing so in the Main Event, so huge congratulations to Shug, Audrey and Juicy Lucy for their achievement.   


Jeremy Perrin shows that he had a good hand



The two-hour queue to register on the final Day 1 of the Giant

[MintTrav]

Event 63: $3,200 WSOP.com Online No Limit Hold'em High Roller

Winner	Chance Kornuth
Runners	480
Paid	63
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
John Hennigan	16	1
Jason Koon	18	1
Mohsin Charania	19	1
Chris Moorman	24	1
Jeff Gross	29	1
Anthony Zinno	61	1

Selector	Points		Selector	Points
Brian	2		Craig 1	1
Jon	2		Gareth	1
Barrie 1	1		Paxo 2	1
Glenn 2	1		Stephen 1	1
Jo 1	1		Chris H 2	1
Joe	1		Dave	1
John 1	1		Debbie	1
Nic 1	1		Karen	1
Paxo 1	1		Nathan	1
Stuart	1		Richard	1
Tommy	1

[MintTrav]

It's the Main Event!

In previous years, the Main was the last tournament and we could just focus on that, which worked quite well from our point of view, but this time there are still lots more events to run alongside and even after the Main has finished, so we'll see how that goes.

795 players took part in Day1A yesterday and only 134 were eliminated, but they included three former ME Champions - Qui Nguyen, Jerry Yang and defending champion Scott Blumstein. Previous winners who did get through were Joe Hachem, Scotty Nguyen and Joe McKeehen.

Chidwick, Ramos, Rast and Kornuth also bombed.

 

[MintTrav]

Event 11: $365 Giant Pot Limit Omaha

Winner	Timothy Andrew
Runners	3250
Paid	464
Final Table	9

Player	Position	Points
Michael Mizrachi	5	10
Dzmitry Urbanovich	19	1
Linda Iwaniak	35
Dominik Nitsche	111	1
Rajiv Sakaria	272
Ben Yu	401	1

Selector	Points		Selector	Points
Carl 1	10		Jo 1	1
Debbie	10		Jo 2	1
Irish Tom 2	10		John 1	1
Nathan	10		John 2	1
Adam	1		Jordan	1
Aneurin	1		Karen	1
Barrie 1	1		Nic 1	1
Chris H 1	1		Paul	1
Chris H 2	1		Paxo 1	1
Dave	1		Simon B	1
Derek	1		Simon L	1
English Tom 1	1		Stephen 2	1
Glenn 1	1		Suzanne	1
Glenn 2	1		Tommy	1
Jake	1		Vince 1	1

She's only gone and done it again. Linda Iwaniak got her third WSOP cash of the year, finishing 35th out of 3,250 players this time. Hot damn!

APAT Champion Rajiv Sakaria also cashed.


Rajiv Sakaria

Srinivas Balasubramanian started the final table as chip leader with 18½m, compared with 11m for the second-placed player - and finished ninth just over half an hour later! First Srinivas had a player all-in on the Flop, with two outs, but one of them came and he dropped 6m. A couple of minutes later he doubled up a second player and lost 5m. He won 3½m from Mizrachi, but then doubled him up for 7½m, so a net loss of 4m. Before long he lost his last 4m to yet another player and was eliminated first.

Tim Andrew, playing in his first WSOP tournament, started 4th in chips but slept late and missed the start. They started at the crack of 2pm so I guess it was understandable. He arrived at the table just in time to see Balasubramanian's elimination. After the tournament, he came up with a never-to-be forgotten insight into why he won: "I love playing poker".

[MintTrav]

Event 62: $888 Crazy Eights No Limit Hold'em 8-Handed

Winner	Galen Hall
Runners	8598
Paid	1218
Final Table	8

Player	Position	Points
Andrey Zaichenko	4	12
Chris Moorman	23	1
Mohsin Charania	101	1
Ismael Bojang	103	1
Ryan Riess	139	1
Mike Leah	227	1
Maurice Hawkins	269	1
Martin Jacobson	272	1
Conor Beresford	284	1
Alex Foxen	482	1
Kenny Hallaert	635	1
Cliff Josephy	666	1
David Bach	914	1
Jonathan Walker	994

Selector	Points		Selector	Points
Jordan	14		Carl 2	1
Jo 1	3		Chris H 1	1
Jo 2	3		Chris H 2	1
Jon	3		Debbie	1
Simon B	3		Del	1
Adam	2		Glenn 2	1
Barrie 2	2		Irish Tom 1	1
Brian	2		Irish Tom 2	1
Chris K	2		James 1	1
English Tom 1	2		Joe	1
Gareth	2		John 1	1
Jake	2		John 2	1
James 2	2		Karen	1
Nic 1	2		Luca 2	1
Paxo 2	2		Nathan	1
Richard	2		Paul	1
Stephen 1	2		Rob	1
Tommy	2		Suzanne	1
Carl 1	1		Vince 1	1

Galen Hall is a full-time hedge fund manager as well as a part-time poker pro and has only been able to play a limited number of events, going back and forth to work, popping in at lunchtime to bust a tournament and so on.

A nice score from Zaichenko brings Jordan into contention.

And another cash for Jon Walker.



Congratulations Mr and Mrs Hall. Would you like to keep the bracelet or go for the washer-dryer?

[MintTrav]

Event 64: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

Winner	Dan Matsuzuki
Runners	141
Paid	22
Final Table	8

Player	Position	Points
Christopher Vitch	4	12
Jesse Martin	13	1
Daniel Negreanu	20	1

Selector	Points		Selector	Points
Paxo 2	12		James 2	1
English Tom 2	2		Jo 1	1
Adam	1		Jo 2	1
Aneurin	1		Joe	1
Barrie 1	1		John 1	1
Barrie 2	1		John 2	1
Brian	1		Karen	1
Carl 2	1		Luca 1	1
Chris B	1		Luca 2	1
Chris H 1	1		Nathan	1
Chris H 2	1		Nic 1	1
Craig 1	1		Paul	1
Craig 2	1		Paxo 1	1
Dave	1		Richard	1
Debbie	1		Rob	1
Del	1		Simon B	1
Derek	1		Simon L	1
Gareth	1		Stephen 1	1
Glenn 1	1		Stephen 2	1
Glenn 2	1		Stuart	1
Irish Tom 1	1		Tommy	1
Jake	1		Vince 1	1
James 1	1		Vince 2	1

Almost a second bracelet for Player of the Year contender Scott Bohlman, who lost heads-up. Third-placed Ken Aldridge has worn his only bracelet every day since he won it in 2009, so it might be just as well he didn't get another one.


Ken Aldridge, Dan Matsuzuki, Scott Bohlman, Giuseppe Maggisano, Stuart Ward