In this week’s Calling The Clock the World Series of Poker sees Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson return to action after a five-year absence, Aaron Paul stars in the opening match of the Global Poker League Summer Series, and Chris Moorman signs for 888Poker.
It’s June, and that means one thing: The World Series of Poker (WSOP), and here are the highlights of the first week.
The organisers of the world’s greatest festival of poker have so far handed out six bracelets and one million dollar prize. That bad boy is now sitting in the bank account of Benjamin Keeline, 30, who managed to turn a single $500 chip, with blinds at $1,500/$3,000 ante $500, into a $1m first prize after outlasting 21,613 in the Colossus II.
WSOP officials pulled out all the stops in the hope that this would be a record breaker, and it was. Unfortunately, the record for highest number of players cashing in a single event (3,245) was not what they expected. It was supposed to be the largest live tournament ever, and instead, it never managed to overhaul the enormity of Colossus I.
Under normal circumstances, Keeline’s victory would have been the talk of The Rio, but, remarkably, it wasn’t. Instead, most tongues were wagging over the return to the tables of a particular Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson. The disgraced Full Tilt Director appeared in the $10,000 Stud World Championships, and then the $1,500 Dealers Choice, cashing in the latter, his first since 2010.
As far as I can tell Ferguson left The Rio with all of his body parts intact, and I don’t even believe his ear got a thorough bending. Now Ferguson has braved the masses, expect to see Howard Lederer make an appearance any day now.
Back to the bracelet hunt and Robert Mizrachi now owns more than his little Grinder of a brother after winning the $10,000 Stud World Championships for $242,662. It’s Mizrachi Senior’s fourth bracelet. Mike Jr. has three. Mizrachi topped a final table that included Matt Grapenthien, George Danzer, Ted Forrest, David Benyamine, Bill Chen, and Calvin Anderson.
Kyle Julius won the first-ever $1,000 buy-in Top Up Turbo No-Limit Hold’em event for $142,972. Lawrence Berg won the $1,500 Dealers Choice Six-Handed for $125,466. Ryan D’Angelo won the $1,500 buy-in 2-7 Draw Lowball for $92,338. Christopher Sand won the $565 buy-in Casino Employee Event for $75,157.
Aaron Paul Kicks Off The Global Poker League Summer Series
The Global Poker League (GPL) Summer Series began in fabulous fashion after the two-time Emmy Award winner, Aaron Paul, defeated Fabrice Soulier in heads-up action by 2-1.
It was the first time Paul had competed since signing for the LA Sunset a few months ago; the first time anyone had competed in The Cube, and the first cross-conference matchup.
Paul showed that he didn’t join the GPL just to act as a promotional puppet. He demonstrated that he can play a bit, and added to the Paris Aviator’s Team Manager’s woes, as he continues his awful start to the GPL campaign with only two points earned in five outings.
The Cube also saw Jonathan Jaffee of the San Francisco Rush beating Dzmitry Urbanovich of the Moscow Wolverines by 2-1, and Scott Ball from the Las Vegas Moneymakers beating Chris Moorman of the London Royals by 2-1.
Here are the current standings:
Americas Standings
1st. Montreal Nationals – 106 pts.
2nd. LA Sunset – 101 pts.
3rd. New York Rounders – 87 pts.
4th. Sao Paulo Mets – 82 pts.
5th. San Francisco Rush – 75 pts.
6th. Las Vegas Moneymakers – 71 pts.
Eurasia Standings
1st. London Royals – 100 pts.
2nd. Moscow Wolverines – 95 pts.
3rd. Hong Kong Stars – 91 pts.
4th. Paris Aviators – 89 pts.
5th. Berlin Bears – 74 pts.
6th. Rome Emperors – 63 pts.
888 Poker Team Changes
888Ppoker has parted ways with their longest standing ambassador, Jackie Glazier.
The Australian leaves after three years on the team, and will now focus on improving the grassroots game in her home country, as well as doing everything in her power to attract more female poker players into the game.
Glazier’s departure frees up a little pocket money, and 888Poker has decided to spend it on two fantastic signings. The biggest news story is the signing of the most prolific online tournament player in the history of the game. The GPL London Royal’s Chris Moorman has won over $13 million in online tournament earnings, and he will be wearing the 888Poker patch throughout the WSOP and beyond. The second signing is Jeff Gross. The Berlin Bear will represent 888Poker throughout the WSOP.
PokerStars Launch App on Steam; Pull DUEL From Market
From the second largest online poker room in the world to the first and PokerStars has followed in the footsteps of their sister company Full Tilt by launching a free to play app on the Steam Platform.
With Full Tilt heading the way of the dodo PokerStars has taken the decision to replace the Full Tilt Poker app with PokerStars Jackpot Poker in the summer.
One PokerStars app that will not be appearing on Steam is DUEL. The innovative heads-up app was launched in beta phase earlier this year, and the Amaya owned company has decided to withdraw it from the market after determining that it’s ‘not commercially viable at scale.”
Stateside News
The move to implement a fully regulated, and legal, online poker offering in California and New York took some snail-like movements north this week. California gaming attorney, David Fried, amended Adam Gray’s Californian Bill AB 2863, in an attempt to lower the barriers that are currently preventing PokerStars from hurdling into the action.
The bill changes the cutoff date for ‘bad actors’ to Dec 31, 2011, instead of the previously problematic Dec 31, 2006. There is also wordage that allows applicants to become licensed material if they can prove that the bad guys held in employment at the time of their rule breaking no longer have a relationship with the company. There were also some economic changes with the price of an online license rising to $12.5m and varying rates of gross gaming revenues changing.
Over in The Big Apple and the State Senate Finance Committee approved Sen. John Bonacic’s S5302 bill meaning the Senate can vote on it at any time in the calendar as long as it’s before June 16. So there is not much hope there then. Meanwhile, MGM Resorts, the new owners of The Borgata in Atlantic City, gave the Senate an official pat on the back, for the move.
Individual Honours
There was some poker played outside of the WSOP. Kiat Lee won the Grosvenor United Kingdom Poker Tour (GUKPT) for £34,850, and Vinicius Lima won the Poker Night in America event at Golden Nugget for $56,366.
Take ladies and gentlemen, please.
Someone has just called the clock.
