Another round-up of weekly poker news including Joe Cada making his second World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table, Phil Hellmuth capping off a stressful week with bracelet #15, and much more.
To win on World Series of Poker (WSOP), Main Event is a minor miracle. To win two, you would need a billion epiphanies to come together. It’s a Big Bang moment. More of a Pagani Huayra than a Lada, and yet that’s what might happen to one Joe Cada.
In 2009, 21-year-old, Joe Cada became the youngest player to win the WSOP Main Event, when he overcame a final table that included James Akenhead, Antoine Saout and a certain Phil Ivey.
Cada won $8,546,435 on that day.
Since then, he has won $2.3m more, and two more bracelets including the $3,000 No-Limit Shootout in only the third event of this series. And by the time this has gone to print he will start the final table of the 2018 WSOP Main Event 6th in chips.
Here are the chip counts:
1. Nicolas Manion – 112,775,000
2. Michael Dyer – 109,175,000
3. Tony Miles – 42,750,000
4. John Cynn – 37,075,000
5. Alex Lynskey – 25,925,000
6. Joe Cada – 23,675,000
7. Aram Zobian – 18,875,000
8. Artem Metalidi – 15,475,000
9. Antoine Labat – 8,050,000
The Cada storyline is an improvement on the rest of the plotlines this week. First, we had a racial abuse narrative when the Russian Sorin Lovin told the 11-time World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) winner, Maurice Hawkins, to shut up n*****.
The Floorperson on duty handed Lovin a one round penalty, before Hawkins’ complaint got picked up on social media, and the WSOP Tournament Director, Jack Effel, was in no mood for Lovin as he frogmarched him out of the Rio and promptly banned him from the tournament.
And then Phil Hellmuth got up to his old antics throwing a couple of F-bombs in the direction of a firefighter called James Campbell when the pair clashed on the feature table in the Main Event.
Hellmuth’s tirade came after Campbell moved all-in chasing a flush draw. Hellmuth hurled abuse at Campbell giving off the weakness of his hand with another person to act. Numerous pros called Hellmuth out for his behaviour, including Shaun Deeb and Justin Bonomo. The whole affair exploded, and when Hellmuth was finally eliminated, news of his demise prompted some sections of the Rio to burst into cheer.
How did the 14-time World Champion deal with the heat?
Campbell received a belated apology, a $10,000 free entry into the 2019 Main Event, and Hellmuth went on to win a record 15th bracelet in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event, beating Steve Wolansky, heads-up, to bank the half a million dollar first prize.
What a man, what a man, what a mighty good man.
Hellmuth’s score wasn’t the most significant of the week. That honour went to the former PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event winner, Galen Hall, who won the $888,888 first prize after beating 8,598 entrants in the $888 No-Limit Hold’em Crazy Eights event.
Other bracelet winners this week include Dan Matsuzuki beating 141 entrants to take down the $364,387 first prize in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship. Longshen Tan dominating the 1,351 entrant $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event for $323,472. Anderson Ireland winning the $141,161 first prize in the 833 entrant $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Bounty (it was his first-ever ITM finish). Finally, Ronald Keijzer, beat 901 entrants to win the $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed event for $475,033.
The WSOP Player of the Week had to be Scott Bohlman. The man who won the $2,500 Mixed Big Bet earlier in the series for his first bracelet, finished second in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-lo Championship, and third in the $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed event.
Here are the WSOP Player of the Year Rankings:
1. John Hennigan – 3,181.35
2. Shaun Deeb – 3,111,64
3. Scott Bohlman – 2,916.50
4. Eric Baldwin – 2,516.30
5. Mike Leah – 2,294.28
The Best of the Rest
PokerStars rolled out their newest schedule for the forthcoming MicroMillions 14, and introduced the event to the European Shared Liquidity Pool for the first time since Spain, France and Portugal became one.
England may have failed to win the World Cup, but at least they won the 888Poker 8-Team promotion at the WSOP (sort of). Chris Moorman captained Team UK, featuring wingman Niall Farrell and an online qualifier, and thanks to Moorman’s 273rd finish in the Main Event, he gathered enough points to edge out Team Russia.
There’s only one problem.
The purpose of the 8-Team Promotion is to provide a once in a lifetime opportunity for a recreational player.
The online qualifier?
Billy Chattaway, a brilliant pro with close to $4.5m in cashes and a variety of top online festival scores on his resume including finishing fourth in a $10,000 World Championship of Poker (WCOOP) High Roller on Stars for a quarter of a million dollars.
A leak that needs filling, methinks.
In other 888Poker news, Ana Marquez officially joined the team as an ambassador and will oversee the online poker rooms move into the European Shared Liquidity market alongside Fernando Pons and Marti Roca.
Winamax plans to open their tables up to the Spaniards later this month. Blockchain Poker switched to Bitcoin Cash (BCH), after feeling that Bitcoin (BTC) had moved too far from the original dreams of Satoshi Nakamoto. And Ali Fazelli pleaded guilty on a variety of different charges related to his $6.2m sports tickets scam that involved Zach Clark, Erik Seidel and John Juanda.
It’s believed the plea will lead to the beak handing Fazelli a lenient sentence.
Time ladies and gentlemen, please.
Someone has just called the clock.
