| Event 62: $50,000 Poker Players Championship (6-handed) |
| Winner | Elior Sion |
| Runners | 100 |
| Paid | 15 |
| Final Table | 6 |
| Player | Position | Points |
| Daniel Negreanu | 5 | 10 |
| Paul Volpe | 6 | 8 |
| Shaun Deeb | 7 | 1 |
| Ian Johns | 10 | 1 |
| James Obst | 15 | 1 |
| Selector | Points |
| Adam | 20 |
| English Tom | 20 |
| Jo | 19 |
| Chris H | 18 |
| Glenn | 18 |
| Luca | 18 |
| Paul R | 18 |
| Paxo | 18 |
| Richard | 18 |
| Barrie | 11 |
| Debbie | 11 |
| Simon B | 11 |
| Vince | 11 |
| Craig | 10 |
| Gareth | 10 |
| Karen | 10 |
| Leigh | 10 |
| Scottish Tom | 10 |
| Simon L | 10 |
| Stephen | 10 |
| Carl | 8 |
| Chris B | 8 |
| John | 1 |
Well, that was something. This event was more like a soap opera than a poker tournament. Wall-to-wall big-name players, plus the best mixed-game players and a selection of less-well-known but highly successful online players for this high-profile event, next only to the Main (before the Main in some eyes). This is the event that tests players' breadth of skill more than any - 8-Game deep-stacked across five days.
The occasion got to some of the players more than you would expect. Maybe it was the prestige of the event or the pressure staying on for so long. Hellmuth tweeted at the start "Hold it together for 5 gruelling days, through exhaustion & adversity", which seemed ridiculously OTT, but some players visibly struggled to stay in control in the final couple of days. As his tournament was falling apart, Matusow threatened Becker, who had delivered a bad beat (not even to him) "You do that to me, you won't be walkin' outta here." Negreanu's emotions were on show throughout, as he soared high but then crashed, and he let it out on Twitter, particularly his views on the POY points. Ike Haxton cast himself as a baddie, saying he wsan't interested in the title, bracelet etc - he was only here for the money. Shut up Haxton, if you have so little respect for the event and the other players - no-one believes you anyway when you say that.
The evil Isaac Haxton - no child-catching todayThough it wasn't in the script, the most memorable player for me was Johannes Becker. I can't remember seeing a player ship so much open criticism of his play from the other pro players so deep in a tournament. He made a series of horrible decisions that got lucky on Day 4. Matusow, in particular, laid into him several times "I'll lay 200-to-one he doesn't make the final table. I've got 200,000 chips [Becker had 1.4m] and I've probably got the same odds as him.". He was mocked by Seiver for saying his A987956 was a pair of nines and a low. He called a Turn bet with A943 on on 6KT4 board in O8 and won with two pair with a rivered 9, leading to Johns expressing exasperation and Matusow issuing his threat. Negreanu also criticised his Stud play on the FT, after another hand that Becker ended up winning from behind, while Donev told him "Seven-stud is not your game". There were several other suck-outs, though the most valuable - AIPF in NLHE with TT v Seiver's JJ, which lifted him from mid-pack to a big lead when a T came, was probably the least questionable play. Throughout, he sat there and weathered the storm of criticism, piling up chips while looking thorouhly miserable the whole time.
When the tournament got to three-handed, Sion was the only experienced mixed-games player remaining (he was ninth in this last year), though he was third in chips. Haxton had the lead, having dominated the FT, and looked the likely winner, but lost most of his stack with KK against Becker's AA. It is interesting that, out of that field, it was two high-stakes onliners who went head-to-head. Becker had a big lead at the start but the chips swung violently between them several times until Sion clinched another British victory.
