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Everyone who has played poker knows the feeling: the feeling when you want to jump over the table and knock the other guy’s teeth in.

I don’t get that feeling often. Actually, I haven’t got it in years. But when I started playing poker it was very different.

One of the surest ways of putting me on tilt was to win a massive pot as a big underdog and then somehow behave like you deserved it. You know the type of player who gets insanely lucky and then goes like, “That’s it. In your face! In your face!”

It used to annoy me like nothing else. Like going to a prison for a decade would probably be worth it if I could just drill my car keys to that guys eyeballs. That’s about how much it annoyed me.

These days, I don’t care anymore. I have seen it too often. And since I now have kids, I can’t really go to a prison for a decade. Maybe for two years or so, but not more.

After playing poker for a long time you get stoic about what happens on the table. You kind of have to. It is mentally too exhausting to rave about what happens; the beats you take or the beats you put on someone else. The cards come as they come, and that’s it. Nothing you can do about it.

This doesn’t mean I would be immune to tilt. Far from it. I still get emotional, and I still hate losing. And taking too many beats or coolers definitely affects my game more than it should.

And I still get affected by other players behavior occasionally. I don’t mind someone gloating or whining. Usually it is just comic or sort of sad. Especially when it is done by someone who has played poker for years and still hasn’t learned that everyone takes bad beats.

What really puts me off is someone abusing other players or dealers. The dealer abuse is surprisingly common. As if the dealer would be at fault for someone being unlucky. And I have seen some pretty nasty incidents.

Probably one of the worst came from a 30-something American player around six years ago at a WSOP tourney. The dealer at our table–an older lady–made a small mistake and this player started insulting her. He went on and on, blurting insults like “Your husband must be the most miserable man on Earth.”

Finally the floor came and this player was penalized for one round. Just one round. And it was not even for the insults. It was because at some point he had said the f-word (This was when the WSOP had the ridiculous rule of a one-round penalty for the use of F-word.) Personally, I think the rules should be way more strict to prevent dealer abuse.

Excessive celebration is another thing. I don’t really like it. I do love winning. No question about that, but every time you win a pot, there is someone else who lost it. Winning is fun, but excessive celebration looks like you are just rubbing it in. The other guy is packing his gear and leaving the table with his head down, and you are there making dance moves.

But then again, revenge is a sweet thing. I won’t gloat if I manage to bust the guy who earlier won a big pot from me with an ugly suck-out, but I will look to see if he’s still smirking.

So you’re sitting at home, enjoying a relaxing tournament of poker. Let’s use PartyPoker’s Guaranteed Sunday as an example. Well, for most of us that’s where it stops being relaxing. Potential bad beats, tough decisions, life changing prize money and hours of full concentration take their toll.

Take It Easy

Thank god there’s music. We put on our favorite tune, lean back, take a deep breath and … bam … we’re back in the game. Now that’s only one reason why so many of us enjoy music during poker.
To show you how much music and poker are tied together, we even have an own category with various poker playlists on the PartyPoker Blog.

Why No Music?

There are players who think that listening to music is a bad idea, as it may prevent you from noticing important patterns or tells. Others complain, that players with headphones often miss important actions at the live table and therefor take much longer to make their own move (as they need to check with the dealer about previous action).

We actually did an interview with several players regarding music at the tables at one of the WPT events.

Is It Actually Allowed?

In general, there isn’t any rule that forbids music at the poker table.
“Wait a second, that’s not true. What about televised and final tables?” you might add. If you do so, you’re not only a good enough player to know major tournament final table rules, you’re also a smart-ass.

Then again, you’re absolutely right. Almost all tables with TV cameras don’t allow you to use headphones (or any other digital device for what it’s worth).

There’s several reasons for that. For once, the production team wants everything to look as good as possible and someone concentrating on their music rather than the table just doesn’t fit the picture. A TV production is not just about poker, it’s a show. Imagine Tony G wearing headphones. There wouldn’t be much trash-talk going on there right?

Another reason is the remote possibility to cheat. As hole cards are visible to the TV crew, someone may use this information and transmit it to a player at the table. Honestly, I can’t recall an instance where that actually happened. Better safe than sorry I guess.

Look No Headphones!

Enough With All The Theory

Let’s turn our head away from everything above and get into something more practical. If you’ve ever been at a major live tournament, you sure noticed that seemingly everybody is listening to music at one point or another. As the good old ghettoblaster isn’t the smartest device to use at a poker table, headphones are people’s first choice. But which ones are young kids using these days?

What’s The Most Popular Choice?

With Apple celebrating a huge success with their iPhones (and iPods), those typical white earbuds are what you see most at the tables. It makes sense. They don’t take much room and you have them on you anyway. But be aware: in case you want to make it through a whole music listening day without your ears hurting, you shouldn’t go with earbuds.

Then again, there’s a big advantage to them. It’s no problem to put in just one earbud. That way you can still hear everything going on at the table, while getting some much needed energy from Survivor’s ‘Eye Of The Tiger’.

Here’s a one-sided iBuds user

Let Me Rephrase This: What’s The No. 1 REAL Headphones?

Now we’re talking! Or arguing. As with everything, this is a matter of taste.

Nowadays, Beats by Dr. Dre seem to be the most popular choice. As the producer Beats Electronics was founded in 2009, we have to see if their popularity will hold over time.
They do look stylish though! Players emphasize the light weight and great sound (latter is subject to many and loud arguments), as well as the possibility to fold them.

Other popular choices include well-established brands like Bose or Sennheiser. Reasons to go for them is superior sound quality and wearing comfort.

What Would We Pick?

Personally, I think headphones at the table are overrated. I probably just think so ’cause music distracts me a lot. To calm down after a horrible beat some random earbuds are all I need. They work against over social neighbors as well.

Should I be forced to wear headphones (you know, one of those crazy hypothetical scenarios), I would go for AKGs. I’ve been using them for years and don’t have a single complaint. Even wearing them for several hours in a row isn’t a problem.

What Would You Pick?

So what are you using? Or what would you use? Or do you think that wearing headphones during live poker is the dumbest thing one can do? Tell us in the comments (we even want to read if you’re all oldschool and still own a working Sony Walkman with original headphones).

The WPT Prague Final Table is over and what a week in poker it’s been for us. But stay tuned as we have even more for you lucky poker lovers! For the first time ever in WPT history we’re showing back to back final tables. And next up is the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic live from fabulous Las Vegas. Stay tuned we’re expecting the cards to be in the air around 4:30pt so stay tuned!

Are you at the event now or have you been following it? Well make sure tell us your thoughts in the comments below and remember to follow on Twitter for even more poker greatness.

What a week! I got back to Italy a couple of days ago but I’ve been sleeping so much that it feels like I’ve been home only a few hours! Working on the WSOP final table for ESPN was an amazing experience again. I really love being part of that incredible crew of people, both behind the cameras and in front.

I have a lot of hours of live TV behind me after working on the UK-based Sky Poker channel and also the very oldschool Poker Night Live but there’s something about working for the flagship ESPN channel that makes me really have to raise my game and wow, was it ever fun.

Loved The Final Table

From a poker point of view, I loved the final table. I was able to meet up with all of the players (aside from Andras, although I did speak to him through his manager/friend/translator) a couple of days before the final table played out and I can genuinely say that I liked all of them. They were a really varied group of people but each of them was interesting, incredibly likeable and a real pleasure to interview. It was my favourite final table ever and I can’t wait to see how far each of the players goes from here.

A Kind Of Marathon

The two day final table turned into a kind of marathon and when 3 handed play lasted over 11 hours, a lot of people on the crew and in the media were starting to get really nervous about missing their flights home in the morning. We were all pretty exhausted when it finally finished around 6am but I found it a lot easier to stay full of energy and focussed this year.

This was in part because of how incredible the crowd was – they roared and shouted and danced without a break the ENTIRE time. It was also due in part to a friend of mine, Deyl Kearin, who was actually running a REAL marathon at the time. And not just one marathon. Six of them, in 6 days through the Sahara Desert. He left for the Sahara a few days before I arrived in Vegas and ESPN did an interview with him and I’ve been keeping updated on his blog

Any time I felt tired, I thought about him slogging through sand dunes to raise money for charity and then the fact that I was a little bit sleepy just seemed silly. It’s amazing what the human body can do and I’m really proud of him.

The final table of the WSOP is right around the corner so naturally, the eyes of the poker world are upon it. Nine guys fighting it out for the right to be forever called “World Champion” of poker – to say nothing of the over $ 8M that goes to this years champion.

Old Players

I have an unusual interest in this particular final table. It’s strictly a financial interest. Last spring, I was at a WPT event surrounded by some excellent young players and they were knocking the ‘old players’. Well, one thing led to another, and some proposition bets came up. The first bet was that I would take Phil Hellmuth to win a bracelet at the 2012 WSOP against anyone (and as many guys that they wanted) if they laid me 13-10 per bet on the money. Well, they jumped on that and started making up a list of players to bet against Hellmuth. They ended up picking eight players and laid me $ 13k-$ 10k per man. Later, I took bets from other guys who picked two and three more players against Hellmuth. (I wouldn’t take duplicate bets on any players.) So, altogether I had Hellmuth against 13 different players in a must-win bracelet bet at this years WSOP in Las Vegas. (If both won, there was no action and if neither won, there was no action.)

They Think I Was Crazy

Many guys thought I was crazy taking Hellmuth against these guys, but I loved my bet(s) as I figured I could maybe lose $ 20-$ 30k max if two or three of their men won bracelets and Hellmuth didn’t, but if Hellmuth won one, I could win maybe 10-12 bets. Well, when the smoke cleared, Hellmuth won a bracelet and none of their choices won any. I scooped the pot.

The Hellmuth Bets

After making the “Hellmuth bets“, I came up with another proposition for the ‘young guns’. I asked, “What do you think the price is for someone over 40 winning the main event of the WSOP?” They all thought it was a huge price. Some said 20-1, some said 15-1 and a couple said 10 or 12 to 1. I then announced I would take 10-1 on someone 40 or older winning the main event of the 2012 WSOP. One guy bet me $ 50k-$ 5k. While playing in a poker game a short while later, I mentioned this bet to the table and a younger player then said, “I love his side of that. I’d like to lay 10-1 on that as well.” I said, “OK. How much do you want it for?” He said, “I’ll take it for $ 200k-$ 20k.” I told him he had a bet.

It’s 5.6-1.

I then contacted an expert math guy who plays poker and is a sports betting expert and asked him what he thought the price of someone over 40 was winning the main event of the WSOP. After calculating for ten minutes, he said, “It’s 5.6-1.” I couldn’t believe it. Five point six to one. Who would ever come up with that number? I then asked him if he’d like a bet where I’d lay him seven and half to one, $ 150k to $ 20k on that proposition. He said, “Yes and I’ll take all you can get me at 8-1.” So, I gave him 7.5 to 1 on a bet I was getting 10-1 on, thus freerolling for $ 50k. Later, another guy laid me $ 100k-$ 10k on the same bet, and I gave it to my man for $ 80k-$ 10k. On those two bets, I’m freerolling for $ 70k! How sweet it is! Life is great, huh?

That guy was Doyle Brunson

Word travels fast in the high stakes poker world, and soon others were betting on this proposition as well. Incredibly, one ‘old guy’ I thought would like the 10-1 on the ‘over 40 guys’, bet on the young guys, laying $ 100k-$ 10k. That guy was Doyle Brunson. But a number of older players liked my side and bet my way, including Barry Greenstein, Billy Baxter, and Layne Flack.

Two are over 40

In case you don’t know, there are two guys at the final table that are over 40 – Steven Gee (56) of Sacramento, CA and Michael Esposito (43) of Seaford, NY. They are sitting in 5th and 6th chip position. Obviously, I’m pulling for the “old geezers”. Gee is a former bracelet winner (2010 NLHE event) and Esposito has some experience under his belt as well. They might not win, but it will be a fun sweat.

So how do you think it’s going to play out for Mike Sexton? Let us know in the comments below and remember to follow us on Twitter for more poker greatness.

After being in the driver’s seat for a WCOOP win last month with five to go and walking away in fourth place with a lot of cash but no bracelet, Vzsolt800 would hang around in tonight’s $ 500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up just long enough to take home a Sunday Major title after outlasting 3,449 players tonight.

Halfway through the seventh hour found two players with Red Spades next their name sharing a table with under 120 players to go. Newly minted member of Team Online Caio Pessagno was looking to add a Sunday Major to his $ 1.8 million in tournament earnings here at PokerStars. The other was Team PokerStars Pro Alex Kravchenko but more on him in a bit as Pessagno found a spot with the blinds at 5K/10K ante 1K to shove 214,550 chips over the top of a min-raise from HTH666. Holding pocket eights [8d][8s] HTH666 covered and called to flip against Pessagno’s suited [Ac][Tc]. Zero spades, aces, and tens on the [4h] [7h] [Ks] [Kd] [4s] board ended the Brazilian’s evening 116th place ($ 896.74) as Alex’s night would extend much longer.

Down to two tables play would quickly go from 18 to 16 players thanks to a three-way all-in. With the blinds at 30K/60K ante 6K Wombatox would call a short-stacked shove from D3NB0SCH073 as it folded around to former Sunday Million champ Soren Kongsgaard who would press 743,649 chips into the middle with pocket queens [Qs][Qh] from the big blind. Wombatox snap called with aces [As][Ah] and hit a flopped set which was VERY necessary with a queen coming off on the turn [9h] [Ad] [Th] [Qc] [7c]. Kongsgaard and D3NB0SCH073 both earned $ 2,069.40 in 17th and 18th place respectively.

At the eighth hourly break, 13 players still held chips in line for the $ 108,299.68 first place prize, including Alex Kravchenko sitting on a short stack of 430,948 with blinds moving up to 40K/80K ante 8K.

After u.RuGwaI showed Wombatox to the door in 13th place, Alex would try to double up his short stack. With the blinds moving up to 50K/100K ante 10K, nikov would min-raise from the cutoff as the Russian Pro would shove 386,948 holding [Ah][Qs]. Folded back to nikov holding [9d][Ks] and only owing 186,948 the Swede would make the math call. Immediately, Alex jumped to a big lead hitting his queen on the flop [3c][Qc][Jd]. [6h] turn was clean, but the [Tc] was not, as nikov’s straight draw hit and Team PokerStars Pro was given $ 4,138.80 in 12th place.

 

Another Russian, fuskov59, would follow Alex to the door in 11th place ($ 4,138.80) setting up the final table bubble. The blinds would hold steady at 50K/100K ante 10K as NANDO368 open shoved from the small blind for 1.02 million holding a decent pair of jacks [Jd][Jh]. Also, holding good cards was Vzsolt800 with [9d][Ac] who made the call out of the big blind. The ace wasted no time hitting the middle of the flop [6c] [Ah] [Td] [5h] [6h] as NANDO368 at least got paid for this bubble finish, as the Portuguese rounder suffered a brutal money bubble finish in Event #53 of the 2011 WCOOP.

 

Seat 1: !Mp!yavv (5668421 in chips)

Seat 2: u.RuGwaI (5377646 in chips)

Seat 3: AzEsmTzar (2054266 in chips)

Seat 4: shodek (3705869 in chips)

Seat 5: Vzsolt800 (2436959 in chips)

Seat 6: LexaLucky666 (3481376 in chips)

Seat 7: thopfl (2115268 in chips)

Seat 8: nikov (2832005 in chips)

Seat 9: elmerixx (6818190 in chips)
Plenty of chips moving but no one leaving

Several all-ins would cap a tremulous 65K/130K ante 13K level but all nine players would survive. However, early on in the next 80K/160K ante 16K level we would lose two players in rapid succession. First, u.RuGwaI would apply pressure from the small blind opening for amount that covered AzEsmTzar’s stack in the big blind. Holding pocket fives AzEsmTzar decided to call for 1.01 million as u.RuGwaI flipped up [Qc][Jh]. Everything would go u.RuGwaI’s way as four broadway cards hit the [Kd] [Td] [2s] [Jc] [Ah] to give u.RuGwaI the straight as AzEsmTzar would be regulated to ruling the rail in ninth place ($ 5,518.40).

Three hands later u.RuGwaI was at it again opening for a min-raise from middle position as LexaLucky666 devilishly shoved from the small blind for 1.66 million. Having zero fear u.RuGwaI made the call with [Ac][Qd] as LexaLucky666′s [3h][Kc] trailed. The Belarus player’s hand got much worse after an ace flopped, but found four outs with a turned wheel draw [7s] [As] [5s] [2c]. The [2s] river however closed the not-so-lucky LexaLucky666′s night in eighth place ($ 8,622.50). A little more lucky then in the 2012 WCOOP Event #12 after coming into the second-day of the two day event second in chips, and finishing outside of the final table.
Action round

After a fairly mute opening blind level and the subsequent one, the 80K/160K ante 16K level would chop 1/3rd of our final table population. Five hands after u.RuGwaI’s second elimination, !Mp!yavv and nikov would knot up for a near eight million chip pot. Check out the results in the video below:

 

This hand would hold a little more drama than the preflop cards showed. Pocket queens [Qd][Qh] for !Mp!yavv and [Ks][Qs] for nikov. Two spades on the flop made it interesting, but the board blanked out [3s] [5c] [6s] [Qc] [9h] handing the 7.995 million chip pot to !Mp!yavv and ending nikov’s night in seventh place ($ 15,520.50).
Rixxing the table of two players

What started off as an innocent poaching of a very small stack ended up as the largest preflop pot of the tournament. Immediately after elmerixx faded a pair and flush draw of shodek leaving the Finn with just 293,470 chips a 17 million chip pot would change the landscape of the final table.

With the blinds at 100K/200K ante 20K u.RuGwaI would lead with a min-raise as shodek tossed in the scraps as it folded to elmerixx in the small blind who three-bet to 1.01 million. u.RuGwaI shot back a four-bet to 2.345 million and elmerixx ended the raising with a shove to 9.3 million. Holding 5.86 million behind, u.RuGwaI made the call with pocket queens [Qc][Qh]. The ladies would need a lot of assistance overcoming elmerixx’s kings [Kh][Ks] as shodek meeked showed [Jh][8c]. Number of the beast hit the flop, and ran clean from there [6d] [6s] [6h] [2h] [Tc] to cut our final table quickly from six to four as shodek earned $ 22,418.50 in sixth place, and u.RuGwaI $ 29,316.50 for fifth place.
Thop goes the semi-bluff

Flopped draws to the nuts are ripe for shoving people off the current better hand. With the blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K !Mp!yavv would min-raise from the button as thopfl made the call in the big blind. [Qh][7s][Jd] flop got a check from thopfl as !Mp!yavv followed through with another 500,000 chip bet. thopfl went for a check-raise all-in totaling 3.8 million as !Mp!yavv made the call with top pair [Qs][4d]. A slight favorite over the straight draw and overcard of thopfl [Kc][Tc]. It became a 100% favorite after the [Js] and [Td] fell on the turn and river to close out thopfl’s tournament in fourth place ($ 39,663.50).
Saving the best for the end

For the most part, to win a poker tournament a player only needs to eliminate one player. As the blinds moved up to 150K/300K ante 30K our tournament champion would finally step into the spotlight. Check out the video below of the 19.1 million chip pot between Vzsolt800 and elmerixx (with a cameo appearance by !Mp!yavv):

After a flop of [2h][7h][As] !Mp!yavv tried to steal the three-way pot by leading out for 776,100 chips after both the other players checked. A rare double-check raise ended with !Mp!yavv ducking for cover and all of elmerixx’s chips in the middle holding a straight flush draw [4h][3h]. Slightly better was Vzsolt800′s neatly disguised set of aces [Ad][Ah]. Despite the multitude of outs, the turned [7c] chopped them down to one. The river was a heart but not the five [Kh] as elmerixx took home $ 56,908.50 in third place. Another big cash for the Finn after claiming seventh place in Event #50 of the recent WCOOP series for $ 38K.
The closer

Vzsolt800′s elimination of elmerixx would give the Hungarian a 22.6 million to 11.8 chip lead going into heads-up play after not taking out one player the either final table. In just four minutes and two knockouts later, Vzsolt800 would wrap up the Sunday Warm-Up title. With the blinds at 150K/300K ante 30K Vzsolt800 min-raised from the button as !Mp!yavv shoved for 9.29 million holding pocket sixes [6d][6c]. Pocket eights [8c][8h] for the title, as Vzsolt800 made the call and watch the [Kd] [5h] [9s] [5s] [8d] produce a big ending to furious finish as Vzsolt800 became this week’s Sunday Warm-Up champion claiming the entire $ 108,299.68 first place prize! Not the first time the Hungarian has made big money here at PokerStars after chopping Event # 23 in the 2012 WCOOP for $ 221,851.23

$ 500,000 guaranteed Sunday Warm-Up results (10-21-12):

Players Entered: 3,449

Places Paid: 495

Buy-In: $ 215.00

Prize Pool: $ 689,800.00

First Place: $ 108,299.68

1. Vzsolt800 (Hungary) $ 108,299.68

2. !Mp!yavv (Thailand) $ 80,706.60

3. elmerixx (Finland) $ 56,908.50

4. thopfl (Germany) $ 39,663.50

5. u.RuGwaI (Russia) $ 29,316.50

6. shodek (Finland) $ 22,418.50

7. nikov (Sweden) $ 15,520.50

8. LexaLucky666 (Belarus) $ 8,622.50

9. AzEsmTzar (Russia) $ 5,518.40
David Aydt is a freelance contributor from Minnesota

The 2012 Macau poker Cup Championship began on Wednesday and saw 270 players pony up HK$ 20,000 over two Day 1 flights, creating a prize pool HK$ 4,818,960.

After four massive days of poker, the field has been whittled down to just nine players, with the below players set to fight it out on Sunday for the HK$ 1,108,500 first-place prize.

Let’s take a closer look at the final table of 2012 MPCC Main Event.

Seat 1: Ryan Hong (Melbourne, Australia) – 425,000 chips

Their are two Australians who have made the final table, one of which is Ryan Hong. The 25-year old university student has been playing poker for eight years, with many accomplishments over that time. In a very successful 2012, Hong finished third in both the Melbourne Championships Main Event, and the APT Manila Main Event, collecting almost US$ 100,000 for those scores alone. Hong started Day 3 as the chip leader with 430,000 in chips and brings just a small less than that into the final table.

Away from poker, Hong enjoys getting away for a holiday and enters the final table in seventh chip position.

Seat 2: Sunny Jung (Seoul, Korea) – 888,000 in chips

Originating from Seoul, Korea, Sunny Jung has been playing poker for 18 years, taking it up professionally in 2005. Normally a cash game player, it was a last minute decision to stay in Macau and play the MPCC Main Event, after originally planning to leave on Thursday.

After a solid third day, Jung was the first man to reach the one million chip mark. He said that a bluff against Ryan Hong early on gave him the momentum to accumulate a big stack. When he’s not playing poker, Jung enjoys eading and traveling to get his mind away from the game. He will come into the final table in second chip position.

Seat 3: Kevin Kung (Los Angeles, USA) – 469,000 in chips

Making the trek from Los Angeles in the Unted States, Kevin Kung has gone by in this tournament fairly unnoticed, but thanks to handy double up in the late stages of Day 3 – where he won a flip holding A-Q vs his opponents pocket eights – he has secured himself a spot on the final table.

With numerous cashes throughout the USA, including multiple WSOP cashes, this 28 year old, is looking to add a major tournament title to his growing poker resume.

Seat 4: Yosuke Sekiya (Matuyama, Japan) – 624,000 chips

Yosuke Sekiya is certainly no stranger to Macau Poker Cup events. Earlier this year Sekiya beat out a field of 236 players in the $ 2,250 Knockout Bounty event on the Macau Poker Cup: Red Dragon schedule. That win was good for HK$ 94,600 – which interestingly enough is slightly less than what he is already guaranteed for making the final table of the 2012 MPCC Main Event. That isn’t the only claim to fame for Sekiya though, with a career spanning four years seeing him earn over $ 100,000 in tournament winnings. It’s a good thing Sekiya says that he got started in poker because he “wanted to make money.”

While Sekiya says that he got “lucky” to make it to the final table, he has certainly shown during this event and in the past that he has what it takes to play tough poker. Interestingly, if Sekiya finishes second or better at the final table, he will move to the top of the Asia Player of the Year leader board, while a third place would see him virtually tied with the current leader, Nicky Tao Jin.

Seat 5: Jessica Ngu (Pennsylvania, USA) – 461,000 in chips

One of two females at the final table, Jessica Ngu has made a name for herself here in Macau, with numerous impressive scores over the last few years. The 28 year old has only been playing poker for three years, but in that time has made two major final tables, placing third in APPT Macau’s HK$ 10,000 No Limit Hold’em event back in 2010, and then seventh in last years HK$ 11,000 No Limit Hold’em Red Dragon Event during the Macau Poker Cup.

With a double up towards the end of Day 3, holding aces against her opponent’s pocket kings, Ngu will be looking to close in on that maiden Macau title.

Seat 6: Lisi Wei (Beijing, China) – 713,000 chips

The second of two ladies in the field, Lisi Wei has played tough poker over the last few days and has proven she deserves a spot in the final nine. Having only played poker for one year, Wei began playing with friends in a Beijing poker club and here she is now at the final table of one of the biggest events in Macau.

A defining moment in Wei’s tournament was perhaps when she held pocket aces and managed to eliminate Victor Chong, who held pocket jacks. Regardless of what happens at the final table, this will become Wei’s largest tournament score to date.

Seat 7: Robert Streatfeild (Perth, Australia) – 159,000 chips

Every year the Western Australia Poker League (WAPL) brings a team of players to Macau to take part in the MPCC. Robert Streatfeild has proudly worn a WAPL shirt throughout the entire tournament and will surely wear it with pride at the final table. Perhaps the best part of the 57-year old’s tournament is the fact that he even got to play at all. After some international banking errors, Streatfeild was having trouble withdrawing the HKD needed to enter the tournament. Scrambling around for an ATM and doing multiple long distance cash transfers, eventually Streatfeild was able to enter the tournament with just 20 minutes left in late registration. Better late than never!

Streatfeild will start the final table as the short stack, but will be looking to use all that he has learned from fellow poker friends Frank Maley and Michaele “The Butcher” Catalano to make his way to a victory.

Seat 8: Rui Chen (Anhui, China) – 1,325,000 chips

Rui Chen became the hero of his remaining eight competitors when he managed to deal a double elimination at the end of Day 3, ushering in the final table. With that massive hand giving Chen the final table chip lead, it’s hard to argue that there could be any bigger turning point for a player in a tournament. However, Chen says that there was no real defining moment in his tournament as he never had to commit more than one third of his chip stack.

The 37-year old from the Anhui province in China will be looking to use his chip lead to catapult himself into the record books as a Macau Poker Cup Championship victor.

Seat 9: Wenlong Jin (Shanghai, China) – 184,000

It’s been a rollercoaster ride for 36 year old Wenlong Jin from China. After building a sizable stack early on Day 3, a table change saw him battle it out with Sunny Jung during the final two levels, to drop him to the second smallest stack.

Not shy of big occasions, Jin has cashed in countless WSOP events over the last 4 years, and also placed second in a PokerStars Sunday Millions. Jin will come into the final table in eighth chip position.

Seven and a half weeks of exciting poker tournament action have come to an end in Las Vegas. Out of a starting field of 6,598, only nine players remain in contention for the gold bracelet and a $ 8,527,982 first prize in 2012 World Series of Poker Event 61: $ 10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event.

The final table, which will see action in October, includes eight Americans and one player from Hungary. The chipleader is 26-year-old Jesse Sylvia, who has a comfortable lead with his stack of 43,875,000 chips. Following him is 30-year-old Hungarian Andras Koroknai with 29,375,000 chips.

Hopes of seeing one, or two women at the final table faded when Norwegian Elisabeth Hille was eliminated in 11th place and French player Gaelle Baumann was eliminated in 10th place. There hasn’t been a woman sitting at the WSOP Main Event final table since Barbara Enright finished in 5th place in 1995.

Action on Day 7 began with 27 players remaining. Chipleader at the start of the day was Canadian Marc Ladouceur, but he eventually would be eliminated in 13th place.

The October Nine players who will return to contend for the WSOP Main Event title are:

Position	Country	Country	Age	Chips
1	Jesse Sylvia	United States	26	43,875,000
2	Andras Koroknai	Hungary	30	29,375,000
3	Greg Merson	United States	24	28,725,000
4	Russell Thomas	United States	24	24,800,000
5	Steven Gee	United States	56	16,860,000
6	Michael Esposito	United States	43	16,260,000
7	Robert Salaburu	United States	27	15,155,000
8	Jacob Balsiger	United States	21	13,115,000
9	Jeremy Ausmus	United States	32	9,805,000

Mad Marvin Rettenmaier leads WPT Championship Final Table on debut as Team PartyPoker.com pro. Marvin is huge chip leader on a final table at the elite event that also includes Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi, the in-form Steve O’Dwyer, Nick Schulman, Trevor Pope and Philippe Ktorza. All are vying for a first-place prize of nearly $ 1.2 million.

Only this week, Marvin joined the likes of Tony G, Kara Scott, Mike Sexton, Bodo Sbrzesny and Tomeu ‘Amatos’ Gomila in the Team PartyPoker.com ranks. “This is amazing, I couldn’t have asked for a better start to my new deal,” said Marvin. “I am just focused on Saturday now and using the great position I am in. Thanks for the support!”

The final table gets underway at 4pm PT on Saturday. Live streaming of the event, complete with hole cards and commentary from Tony Dunst and Dan O’Brien begins at 4:30pm PT. (Sunday 1.30am CET, 12.30am BST). Before that there will also be streamed coverage of the superstar packed $ 100,000 buy-in WPT Super High Roller at Bellagio on Friday at 4.30pm PT (Saturday 1.30am CET, 12.30am BST). Both live streams will feature exclusive PartyPoker.com offers and you can watch at PartyPoker.com Blog.

WPT Super High Roller:

• Seat 1: Bill Klein – 620,000
• Seat 2: John Juanda – 1,875,000
• Seat 3: Tom Marchese – 2,235,000
• Seat 4: Daniel Perper – 3,415,000
• Seat 5: Justin Bonomo – 2,105,000
• Seat 6: Andrew Robl – 3,355,000

WPT Championship:

• Seat 1: Michael Mizrachi – 2,560,000
• Seat 2: Marvin Rettenmaier – 6,715,000
• Seat 3: Steve O’Dwyer – 2,035,000
• Seat 4: Nick Schulman – 1,555,000
• Seat 5: Trevor Pope – 1,480,000
• Seat 6: Philippe Ktorza – 895,000

 

Back for some more perfect poker talk,  and this time we’re catching up with Bryan Piccioli aka enterthewu19 who recently cashed for $ 34k in our $ 100K High Roller Tournament.

DW: Hey Bryan thanks a lot for taking some time to speak to us.

BP: No problem Dany… I’d love to answer some questions and be on the blog.

DW: So first things first how’d you get started in poker?

BP: Well my dad always played at least once a week when I was growing up, so I was always around the game. I first started playing seriously when I was 16 years old with a few friends from high school.

DW: What’s your ‘usual’ so to speak cash, tourney, what kind of stakes do you go in for?

BP: I play only tournaments, very very rarely will I dabble in cash games.  I’ll play pretty much any stakes tourney. For online, I’ll play something as small as a $ 5 or $ 10 turbo up to whatever freezeouts are running.  For live, I’ve played probably 10 to 12 $ 10k buyins in my life, and will grind as low as like a $ 200 buyin live. I would definitely consider myself mainly an online player, but I enjoy traveling and the live grind as well. I like switching it up between the two every few months.

 

Lights, Action, Poker!

DW: Tell us about your live poker escapades, seems like you’ve done well from them right?

BP: Yes, I’ve played in a bunch of WPT/EPT/WSOP events. I have one WPT cash at Foxwoods, two EPT cashes at PCA main event and EPT grand final in Monte Carlo both in 2010, and 3 small WSOP cashes. Unfortunately no final tables in any big live events yet.

Music Non Stop

DW: Okay so outside of poker what’s Bryan do for kicks?

BP: I am big into music and sports. I am almost always listening to music while I play (both live and online).

DW: I’m guessing this is a full time gig right? You don’t have a regular 9-5 office job you’re not telling us about right?

BP: No, I don’t have a day job.  I dropped out of college after 2 1/2 years to play poker professionally. I won satellites to two EPT’s within a few days so had to take the remainder of a semester off, then I just never went back. But even before then, I was always playing semi-professionally. I’ve been playing full-time since early 2010.

DW: Pro’s name a few and what you really think about them

BP: I think most of the “TV pros” are pretty overrated and not too difficult to play against. I’ve played with my fair share of them, and I would much rather prefer having one of them at my table than an experienced online high-stakes MTT player, with a few exceptions like Ivey, Antonius, etc.

Winning Big….

DW: My favorite question of course, so you win big, I mean really big. Go on what do you do?

BP: If I won a big live event, probably the first thing I would do would be to buy a nice house somewhere. Then I would definitely get some nice gifts for my parents and my sister.

Preparation?

DW: Nice, alright then do you play this tournament  regularly? How’d you prep for it?

BP: The $ 530 high roller on Party is part of my normal Sunday schedule, I play it almost every Sunday.  I am normally playing tons of tables, especially on Sunday, and sometimes will be on up to 20 or more tables at once, so I wasn’t really focusing too much on this tournament until it reached the money bubble. Once we got ITM I was on fewer tables and able to concentrate more the deeper the tournament got, and got lucky enough to come out with a win.

DW: Taking it all in your stride I see, alright then did you celebrate a decent payday like that?

BP: I didn’t really do anything to celebrate my victory, but something pretty cool about the tournament was that I got heads-up with one of my roommates, Chris aka PAGE_UP_V on PartyPoker. I had a big chip lead 3 handed then Chris knocked out the other guy in 3rd, so after that we just chopped according to our stacks. I think I got $ 34k and he got $ 32k. Chris, myself, and 2 other guys live together down here in Cabo, Mexico, and we all put in pretty high volume at tournaments, so I’d say I’m at the same table as one of my roommates at least 2-3 times a day. We get used to playing against each other and it’s fun to try and run some crazy bluffs on someone when you are sitting at the same table just a few feet away from them.

Welp that’s it. I hope I did ok, probably not my best effort considering I just got done playing like a 10 hour session and I’m pretty burnt out at the moment.

Next up on the Live Circuit!

DW: You did just fine, I’ll let you get some well earned rest I guess. So for those at home wanting to taste the live action thrill of poker remember the WPT Vienna is the next big stop on the international tour, with online satellites currently running on PartyPoker.

And as well as that the Premier League Poker will also be heading to Vienna, with $ 13,000 trip packages up for grabs at PartyPoker for you to join the likes of Tony G, Patrik Antonius, Vanessa Selbst, and Erik Seidel in one of the world’s biggest buy-in poker tournament!