Lee Davy takes a look through the 2016 archives to capture what he believes to be the highlights of the live poker scene in 2016.
There will always be a place in my heart for the World Poker Tour (WPT). It’s right up there with my Commodore 64, Kindle and Mac. It was the first poker show that was so good I used to tape every episode. And when I started working for them I curtseyed when I first met Mike Sexton.
So the highlight of the 2016 live tournament scene has to be Sexton’s victory in the C$3,500 buy-in WPT Montreal Main Event. I am sure this meant more to him than a barrow load of World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelets. It was a sublime moment for a man who has done as much as anyone to attract fresh fish into poker than anyone else alive or dead.
Back in the day, the WPT was THE tour when it came to the big money prizes. The European Poker Tour (EPT) has dominated in that regard in recent years, but there were two reminders of the power of the WPT both in the Philippines and the USA during 2016.
Fedor Holz began his CRAZY year by winning the biggest prize in WPT history when he topped a 52 entrant field in the $200,000 buy-in Super Triton Super High Roller as part of the World Poker Tour National (WPTN) stop in the Philippines. The German banked $3,463,500.
And more recently, James Romero came from nowhere to win the $10,000 buy-in WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $1.9m. The event attracted 791 entrants, tying the record for a $10k WPT field.
I Love a Good Rocky Story
I love watching a complete nobody come from nowhere and beat the best players in the world, and two stories stick in my mind during 2016.
The first was the incredible rise to fame by a restaurant owner from Amsterdam called Farid Yachou. In 2015, Yachou entered the €3,300 buy-in WPT Main Event in Amsterdam. It was his first time in a casino, and he only plucked up the courage to play because he had seen the WPT on TV. Yachou defeated 341 entrants to capture the €201,000 first prize.
The fairytale didn’t end in Amsterdam.
For winning the Amsterdam Main Event Yachou also earned a seat in the inaugural Tournament of Champions in Florida, and he won that as well taking home another $381,600 and a host of prizes that included a Corvette. And he nearly didn’t turn up because he has a fear of flying.
The other fairytale that sticks in my mind is the one starring Troy Quenneville. The Canadian surprised everyone when he made it to the heads-up phase of the $4,560 buy-in WPT Caribbean Main Event in Punta Cana losing to the eventual winner Niall Farrell.
After banking $220,000 in prize money, Quenneville thought he would late reg the $2,500 partypoker MILLIONS and promptly disposed of 526 entrants, including his countryman Erik Cajelais in heads-up action to take the $400,000 first prize.
Not bad for a man with only two live cashes to his name totalling $600.
The European Poker Tour – The End of an Era
2016 was the year that we waved bye-bye to the EPT.
PokerStars decision to consolidate their worldwide poker tours underneath the PokerStars Championship and Festivals umbrellas is a smart move. But it does mean the end of a tour many believe to be the most prestigious of the lot.
The final EPT Main Event title went to Jasper van Putten who defeated a record 1,192 entrants at EPT Prague to capture the €699,300 first prize after beating a final table that included the likes of David Peters and Sam Cohen.
The EPT signed off in style after breaching the €1 billion prize barrier for all EPT competitions. The Main Events attracted 76,414 players and created €432m in the 13-years post-John Duthie’s brainwave.
The World Series of Poker
But the World Series of Poker (WSOP) is still the event where all the main stories emerge from and this year was no different.
The star of the show and one of the stars of live poker in 2016 was Jason Mercier. Fuelled by a desire to win $1.8m from Vanessa Selbst if he could win three WSOP bracelets, Mercier pushed his physical and mental powers to the limit as he played in as many events as possible.
Mercier didn’t win that $1.8m, but he came mightily close, winning two bracelets and making two more final tables including a runner-up spot. The PokerStars Team Pro did pick up the not too shabby consolation prize of being crowned the WSOP Player of the Year.
The 47th Annual WSOP was also the year of the bad boys. Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson made his first appearances since the Full Tilt scandal. Contrary to popular belief nobody spat in his face, punched him or tried to steal his hat. He was left mostly alone, and it was like he had never been away, cashing 10-times and making one final table.
And it was also the year that Will Kassouf divided opinion.
Was he a bad boy?
Was he good for poker?
Was he just a pain in the ass?
One thing for sure, the man with more catchphrases than Michael Barrymore was the star of the ESPN coverage of the Main Event climaxing in his incredible bust out hand against Griffin Benger.
Here is that hand.
And just to prove that Kassouf’s run in the WSOP Main Event wasn’t a flash in the pan, he won the final €10k High Roller event at EPT Prague for half a million euros, and nobody punched him in the face while he was doing so.
Griffin Benger went on to finish seventh at the Main Event before being killed by Negan during a game of pool.
2016 was also a year that saw the profile of the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) increase. Not only did Maurice Hawkins create a spot of history by becoming the first man to win three WSOPC Main Events in a calendar year, and only the second behind that man Jesus, to breach the million dollars in cashes. But the WSOPC continued their global expansion with a visit to Brazil that saw over 1,000 entrants play in the Main Event and 2,000+ for one of the side events.
And the One Drop returned in 2016, albeit in a slightly different form than in previous years. The founder, Guy Laliberte, moved the game to Monte Carlo, called it the One Drop Extravaganza and barred professional poker players from entering.
That decision resulted in the smallest field since the event was born (28 entrants), but it did create the largest first prize of the year with Elton Tsang banking €11,111,111 after beating Anatoly Gurtovy in heads-up action. Pamela Anderson’s former husband, Rick Salomon and Cary Katz made the final table for the second time in three years.
The Global Poker League
The Global Poker League (GPL) also deserves a special mention. Who would have thought that one day we would see the world’s best poker players playing heads-up on their feet while inside a big box?
Well, it happened.
The Montreal Nationals beat the Berlin Bears to win the inaugural event held in Las Vegas, and we even got to see Breaking Bad star Aaron Paul beating Fabrice Soulier.
