Lee Davy brings you a round up of all the weekly poker news including his despair at Daniel Negreanu failing to make the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event, Sean Winter winning the latest incarnation of the Bellagio Cup and much more.
Do you remember the time that Dexter’s sister told him that she was in love with him? You remember the scene right? It was the time a great fucking show turned into a terrible fucking show. I mean you watched it. You had to watch it; like constipation. It hurts, but you have to get to the end. Well that’s how I feel about the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event now that Daniel Negreanu is out.
Fucking scriptwriters.
If it hurts for me, then imagine how much it must hurt for him. I mean it’s not about the money. What difference does another $7.6m make? No, for Negreanu it was all about the glory, his legacy. One minute he is walking down the corridor of poker immortality, candles blowing as he walks by, stained glass windows showing stars of a bygone era, and then nothing. The queen jumps in front of him and says I need that, before ripping his heart out of his chest. One minute it was filled with poetry, and the next it was gone.
For seven days I watched with furious glee hoping that I had a reason to watch the November Nine. I had never watched one before. Curious when you consider I am a poker writer. Even more curious when you consider I am dragging my poor eyes through the early stages of True Detective 2.
And now there is nothing.
The dream is dead.
“There is always next year.” Negreanu tweeted.
Not unless you have a slice of luck of Mark Newhouse proportions mate.
Whatever.
That was the biggest story of the week. Joseph McKeehen, a young man who has won eight tournaments in the past 15-months, eliminated Daniel Negreanu in 11th place. Now that’s what I call a man in the midst of the glory of his life.
Here are the seat assignments for the Nov 8 final.
Seat 1: Zvi Stern – 29,800,000 (74 bb)
Seat 2: Pierre Neuville – 21,075,000 (52 bb)
Seat 3: Joshua Beckley – 11,800,000 (27 bb)
Seat 4: Max Steinberg – 20,200,000 (50 bb)
Seat 5: Thomas Cannuli – 12,250,000 (30 bb)
Seat 6: Joe McKeehen – 63,100,000 (160 bb)
Seat 7: Patrick Chan – 6,225,000 (15 bb)
Seat 8: Federico Butteroni – 6,200,000 (15 bb)
Seat 9: Neil Blumenfield – 22,000,000 (55 bb)
In other news…beep…beep…beep…beep.
Sean Winter is walking around with a divining rod in his pants after winning over half a million scoobies in the $10,400 Bellagio Cup XI this week.
After eliminating Fabrizisio Gonzalez in fifth place he looked around at the rest of the gladiators left in the arena and thought, “fuck that for a laugh.” He wasn’t alone. Dominik Nitsche, Byron Kaverman, and Nick Petrangelo were thinking the same thing.
Here are the final results after the four way chop.
Final Table Results
1st. Sean Winter – $562,772
2nd. Dominik Nitsche – $479,732
3rd. Byron Kaverman – $409,219
4th. Nicholas Petrangelo – $321,994
5th. Fabrizio Gonzalez – $156,204
6th. Joseph Cheong – $124,087
7th. Keith Tilston – $94,890
8th. Eddy Sabat – $68,613
9th. Myro Garcia – $49,635
10th. Bobby Oboodi – $37,956
Another hot piece of news this week was the announcement from Alexander Dreyfus that his company Mediarex Sports & Entertainment had raised $4.9m in Series A funding in his continued bid to Sportify poker.
The Han Solo of the poker world told me that he will use the money to solidify what he believes to be an industry that is too fragmented, and the Global Poker League (GPL) will be the glue that binds it all together.
Dreyfus has spent a lot of time in the Far East and believes poker has a lot to learn from the Asian eSports industry. He also wants to follow in the footsteps of the UFC where he has seen the marketing of the fighters lead to a more engaged fan experience. Dreyfus wants the GPL to be built around the characters. He wants story. He wants life.
We will end the weekly round up on a charitable note.
Partypoker and the World Poker Tour (WPT) announced plans to host a charity event in aid of the DT38 Foundation this week. The charity was established by the parents of former West Ham footballer Dylan Tombides, whose life was tragically cut down by testicular cancer at the age of 20. The event will take place at Aspers in Stratford on Wed, Jul 29, and will precede the £600 WPT National Accumulator that will begin the next day.
Raising for Effective Giving (REG) were also in the news this week when they inked a deal to host their first-ever tournament series at the Kings Casino in Rozvadov. The star attractions will be a €250 buy-in Main Event and a €10,600 High Roller. All the rake will go towards the charities that REG support and expect to see the likes of Igor Kurganov, Max Altergott, Philipp Gruissem and Liv Boeree participating in the series due to be held 12th – 17th August.
Time Ladies & Gentlemen please.
Someone has just called the clock.
