Jessica Welman Blog

Baldwin has already cashed more than a dozen times this year

The tournament circuit may be quiet this week, but it isn’t silent. Thanks to tournament series in Los Angeles and Las Vegas, there are a few more opportunities for US players to sharpen their game before the World Series of Poker gets underway. Caesars Palace, Commerce in LA, and Bellagio have all been active this week. We’ve got the highlights and biggest winners from those series in this edition of Tournament Tracker:

The WPT Championship doesn’t get underway until Saturday, but the Bellagio has been bustling for over a week. Eric Baldwin can fill you in on what’s been happening at the Las Vegas casino–he’s spent basically every day at one final table or another. So far this series, Baldwin has posted two firsts, two ninths, and a fifteenth place showing for more than $30,000. Baldwin’s two ninth place finishes came in two of the bigger $1,000 prelim events.

In one of those $1,000 events, Jason Berilgen prevailed over the rest of a 96-player field to bank a win and a more than $30,000. In the other, it was Jake Nguyen who defeated BLUFF POY contender Joe Kuether for top honors and more than $27,000.  The $1,500 buy-in No Limit Bellagio event saw Kirill Kruglov battle it out against Sam Stein heads-up. Kruglov prevailed to earn the biggest payday of the prelims so far–$51,488. The $5,000 prelim event started on Thursday and there will be two $5,000 postlim Bellagio events too, so expect even bigger paydays on the horizon.

Thursday also marked the start of the $2,080 buy-in Main Event of the Cal State Poker Championship at Commerce. One player in the field of that event is Adam Weinraub, who earned a seat thanks to a heads-up deal in the $1,070 event. Weinraub earned just shy of $17,000,  a Cal State Main Event seat, and the golden bear trophy while the runner-up finisher Marc Lebowitz picked up a comparable payday of $18,000. That final table was a stacked one and also included Jerry Yang (3rd), Amit Makhija (4th), and Gavin Griffin (6th).

The results from the Main Event at Commerce and more Bellagio side event action will be available in next week’s edition of Tournament Tracker. Until then, here are the final table results from the major events from this busy week of West Coast poker action:

Bellagio Five Star World Poker Classic $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Event
Prize Pool: $151,320
Entrants: 104

1st: Kirill Kruglov – $51,448
2nd: Sam Stein – $34,804
3rd: Blake Kelso – $21,941
4th: Daryl Katz – $12,106
5th: Frank Rusnak – $9,836
6th: Sameer Aljanedi – $7,566
7th: Ignacio Aiza – $5,296
8th: Steven Goldberg – $4,540
9th: Thomas Erlanger – $3,783

Bellagio Five Star World Poker Classic $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Event
Prize Pool: $93,120
Entrants: 96

1st: Jason Berilgen – $31,660
2nd: Michael Dyer – $21,418
3rd: Ngoc Bul – $13,502
4th: Tim Chauser – $7,450
5th: Scott Epstein – $6,053
6th: Sargon Shiba – $4,656
7th: Joshua Skaggs – $3,259
8th: Mike Landers – $2,794
9th: Eric Baldwin – $2,328

Bellagio Five Star World Poker Classic $1,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Event
Prize Pool: $79,540
Entrants: 82

1st: Jake Nguyen – $27,044
2nd: Joe Kuether – $18,294
3rd: Michael Hunsucker – $11,533
4th: Adam Ross – $6,363
5th: Gary Haglund – $5,170
6th Paul Lieu – $3,977
7th: Tim Bullard – $2,784
8th: Stan Fulton – $2,386
9th: Eric Baldwin – $1,989

Commerce Casino Cal State Poker Championships $1,070 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Event
Prize Pool: $59,170
Entrants: 61

1st: Adam Weinraub – $16,910 + $2,080 Main Event seat*
2nd: Marc Lebowitz – $18,000*
3rd: Jerry Yang – $7,990
4th: Amit Makhija – $5,620
5th: Timothy Stearns – $4,440
6th: Gavin Griffin – $3,550
7th: Andy Bick – $2,660

* denotes a heads-up deal

Comment

The final event of the landmark tenth season of the World Poker Tour isn’t quite finished yet, but the WPT is already looking ahead to an even bigger Season XI. Just a couple of days before the start of the WPT Championship at Bellagio, the tour revealed the fall portion of next season’s schedule, which includes some new stops and some old stomping grounds getting bumped from the list of stops.

The past few seasons, the WPT Spanish Championship in Barcelona kicked off the season, but this year, the WPT Merit Cyprus Classic will be doing the honors. The Merit-Grand Casino in Cyprus will serve as the launching point for Season XI with a $4,400 buy-in Main Event. The Cyprus event will feature a re-entry component, as will every event on the Season XI schedule, save for the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio in December.

The Five Diamond is one of several events returning to the schedule, along with the Legends of Poker at the Bike (August 24-29), the Grand Prix de Paris (September 10-15), WPT Malta (September 16-20), the Borgata Poker Open (September 16-21), Jacksonville bestbet Fall Series (November 9-13), and WPT Prague (December 3-9). While those events make a triumphant return, Barcelona and Amneville are off the schedule, as is the Foxwoods World Poker Finals. This is the first time in the tour’s history that the Connecticut casino will not have a WPT stop on the calendar.

The first half of Season XI will feature some new events. Stateside, the East Coasters may not be making a trek to Foxwoods, but they will have a chance to play at the new Parx Open Poker Classic at the Parx Casino near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. That event kicks off the US schedule and will be filmed for television. The new international stops on the tour include a trip to Copenhagen in and Mazagan, Morocco in November. The Mazagan event is replacing the previous Moroccan stop on the schedule, WPT Marrakech.

“World Poker Tour is committed to extending its global reach,” said Steve Heller, WPT CEO. “Not only will Season XI feature new stops in the US and abroad, but World Poker Tour is also widely expanding our Regional and National Series to deliver the WPT experience to as many players and fans as possible.”

The Regional and National schedules are indeed expanding. The first half of the season will feature nine regional events at casinos across the US and four National series tournaments in Madrid, Mazagan, Venice, and Barcelona.

Here is a look at the complete schedule for the first half of Season XI of the World Poker Tour. A detailed schedule can be found on the official WPT site. Televised events are denoted with (TV), while non-televised events are denoted with (NTV):

8/4-8/9: WPT Merit Cyprus Classic (NTV) – $4,400 buy-in w/ re-entry

8/10-8/15: WPT Parx Open Poker Classic (TV) – $3,500 buy-in w/ re-entry

8/24-8/29: Legends of Poker at the Bike (TV) – $3,700 buy-in w/ re-entry

9/10-9/15: WPT Grand Prix de Paris (TV) – €7,500 buy-in w/ re-entry

9/16-9/20: WPT Malta (NTV) – €3,300 buy-in w/ re-entry

9/16-9/21: Borgata Poker Open (TV) – $3,500 buy-in w/ re-entry

11/9-11/13: Jacksonville bestbet Fall Series (NTV) – $3,500 buy-in w/ re-entry

11/12-11/17: WPT Copenhagen (NTV) – 26,250DKK buy-in w/ re-entry

11/26-12/1: WPT Mazagan (NTV) – €3,500 buy-in w/ re-entry

12/3-12/9: WPT Prague (NTV) – €3,300 buy-in (10% withheld) w/ re-entry

12/17-12/22: Five Diamond World Poker Classic at Bellagio (TV) – $10,000 buy-in, no re-entry

Comment

Kuether already has 12 cashes this year

The past week or two, the live tournament circuit has been relatively quiet while a big group of the poker population has been hunkered down in Canada, Mexico, Europe, or elsewhere grinding the Spring Championship of Online Poker. There have been some small buy-in events runnings in New Orleans for the last WSOPC stop of the season and in Bellagio in preparation for the WPT Championship next week, but most of the big players in this year’s BLUFF Player of the Year race are taking some time off before the summer grind begins.

As a result, the top twenty remained stagnant this week.  Jonathan Duhamel remains out front with Oliver Speidel slowly but surely narrowing the gap between first and second place. One of the players currently at Bellagio grinding away is Joe Kuether, who recently took second in a $1,000 prelim event. There were not enough players in the field for it to qualify for POY points, but if he keeps posting the results he’s posted this year in the larger prelim events, you can expect to see him move up from 15th into the top ten.

Next week, the big buy-in Bellagio prelim results will be in and the $25,000 Championship Event will be underway, so while this week may have been a quiet one, next week the standings should get shaken up again.

Here are the latest top twenty in the 2012 BLUFF Player of the Year race, brought to you by Aria Resort and Casino:

1. (-) Jonathan Duhamel – 713.30
2. (-) Oliver Speidel – 669.81
3. (-) Dan Smith – 664.26
4. (-) Andrew Chen – 503.37
5. (-)Will Failla – 457.35
6. (-) Dan Kelly – 453.35
7. (-) John Dibella – 450.75
8. (-) John Dolan – 444.50
9. (-) Sean Jazayeri – 441.88
10. (-) Daniel Negreanu – 438.50
11. (-) Mohsin Charania – 430.35
12. (-) Ruben Visser – 422.00
13. (-) Justin Bonomo – 415.82
14. (-) Faraz Jaka – 403.03
15. (-) Joe Kuether – 383.62
16. (-) Bruno Lopes – 382.10
17. (-) Bertrand Grospellier – 369.45
18. (-) Tommy Vedes – 350.63
19. (-) Vadim Kursevich – 345.10
20. (-) Kevin Vandersmissen – 342.42

Comment

Serock has over $600,000 in earnings so far this year

His name has been all over the news the past couple of months, but believe it or not, it took Joe Serock until this week to notch his first live tournament victory. We’ve got the news on Serock’s Caribbean cash, highlights from the IPT Grand Final in San Remo and more in this edition of Tournament Tracker:

Serock notched a live win at the first-ever PPC Aruba Main Event, but the payday actually paled in comparison to his recent third place finishes in $10,000 WPT events.  The $3,000 buy-in event in Aruba didn’t draw the largest crowd, so Serock bested a field of just 31 players to pick up the win and a $40,000 check.

While the turnout in Aruba was relatively small, the Grand Final of the Italian Poker Tour (IPT) drew quite a crowd with 418 players taking part in the €2,200 buy-in Main Event.  The €810,000 prize pool equated to more than $1 million US dollars. The biggest payday went to that of winner Davide Biscardi, who pocketed €200,000 for his win. American Scott Baumstein also made the final table, finishing sixth.

Another American fared well in the IPT High Roller event. Faraz Jaka picked up another score in San Remo, taking fourth in the €5,000 High Roller event. While the event does not give Jaka any BLUF POY points, the €19,900 payday marks his eighth cash so far this year.  Borge Dypvik booked the win in the High Roller, picking up €73,500 for his efforts.

The IPT Grand Final wasn’t the only show in Europe this week either. The latest Unibet sponsored live event in Paris drew nearly 440 players for its €1,500 buy-in event. Jaroslaw Barglik bagged the win in the event not to mention over €140,000. EPT winner Kent Lundmark took second for a healthy €98,051 payday.

Down under, the ANZPT continued its season with a visit to Perth for an AUD1,100 event. Mathew Carlsson conquered the 310 player field to earn the trophy and AUD78,275.

Next week there will be some major prelim action from the Bellagio as the Las Vegas casino revs up for the WPT Championship. We’ll have the results from the big buy-in Bellagio tournaments and other results next week. until then, here are the latest final table results from around the circuit:

IPT San Remo €2,200 buy-in Main Event
Prize Pool: €810,920
Entrants: 418

1st: Davide Biscardi – €200,000
2nd: Philippe Clerc – €130,000
3rd: Jakub Michalak – €81,200
4th: Mirko Schiano Di Tunnariello – €60,800
5th: Christer Lagerstrom – €40,500
6th: Scott Baumstein – €32,500
7th: Pasquale Braco – €24,300
8th: Alessandro Longobardi – €16,220

IPT San Remo €5,000 buy-in High Roller Event
Prize Pool: €205,000
Entrants: 41

1st: Borge Dypvik – €73,500
2nd: Mustapha Kanit – €47,700
3rd: Carlo Savinelli – €27,800
4th: Faraz Jaka – €19,900
5th: Pier Paolo Fabretti – €15,900
6th: Rocco Palumbo – €14,050

Unibet Paris €1,500 buy-in Main Event
Prize Pool: €653,673
Entrants: 439

1st: Jaroslaw Barglik – €140,539
2nd: Kent Lundmark – €98,051
3rd: Daniel Pastor – €70,596
4th: Giorgio La Iacona – €54,908
5th: Quentin Lecomte – €39,220
6th: David Lichentin – €2,873
7th: Dan Murariu – €21,048
8th: Franck Tzafa – €16,342
9th: Tarek Bouchama – €13,073

ANZPT Perth AUD1,100 buy-in Main Event
Prize Pool: AUD310,000
Entrants: 310

1st: Mathew Carlsson – AUD78,275
2nd: Anthony Marenko – AUD49,600
3rd: Anthony Aston – AUD27,590
4th: Jon Curtis – AUD21,545
5th: David Lloyd – AUD17,050
6th: Didier Guerin – AUD13,950
7th: John Shin – AUD11,160
8th: Paul Satzke – AUD8,835
9th: Lucas Mierzwa – AUD6,510

PPC Aruba $3,000 buy-in Main Event
Prize Pool: $90,210
Entrants: 31

1st: Joe Serock – $40,594
2nd: Jesse Chinni – $24,357
3rd: Dave Poces – $15,336
4th: Steve Karp – $9,923

Comment

The World Series of Poker is just about three weeks away and the excitement about the 43rd annual series just keeps building. The doors to the Rio will be opening soon, but those hoping to watch all the action on ESPN won’t have to wait too much longer either. The network recently announced the broadcast schedule for the 2012 WSOP with the television coverage kicking off on July 3rd.

This year’s coverage plan includes 29 one-hour episodes of three different bracelet events. The WSOPC National Championship, the Big One for One Drop, and the Main Event will all be featured. The million dollar buy-in Big One event will kick off the 2012 television season with four episodes of coverage spread over two weeks. That will be followed by one week of National Championship coverage with two one-hour episodes.

The Main Event coverage begins on August 14th and will run two hours of coverage each week until October 23rd. On October 30th, the final able will air live with hole cards on ESPN with a fifteen-minute delay. Lon McEachern, Norman Chad, and Kara Scott will be back as the broadcasting team for the season.

The only other event that will get the live treatment on ESPN is the final table of One Drop, which will be shown on ESPN3 on July 3rd. Unlike last year, where there was extensive live Main Event coverage, this year only the final table will get such treatment and the rest of the action will only be shown in the packaged programs airing on Tuesdays. In the WSOP conference call on Tuesday, WSOP Vice President Ty Stewart indicated that there was concern the live coverage was cannibalizing viewers of the packaged show.

While ESPN will be cutting back on live coverage, don’t think you won’t be able to watch the bracelet action in real time. Thursday the WSOP announced plans to stream the remainder of the bracelet events on WSOP.com. The two camera coverage with audio of the tournament director calling the action will be used for most of the non-flop games, while the WSOP will be stepping up their livestreaming game for the No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha action.

The new “primary” stream will feature a six camera setup as well as commentary on all the action. David Tuchman will be serving as the anchor on the primary stream and will be joined by a rotating panel of guest commentators.

The final table for the primary stream will be housed on the Amazon Room Main Stage, while the secondary and, in some cases, tertiary tables, will be set up on the Pavilion Stage and Amazon Press Box respectively. Most days there will be two streams running, but in some instances there will be three final tables going in order to accommodate all the bracelet action.

“It doesn’t get bigger or better than the World Series of Poker,” said Tuchman. “I am excited and humbled to be working with the WSOP to bring the live stream to a hungry and growing audience.”

The livestream will premiere on Memorial Day, May 28th, with the $500 buy-in Casino Employees Event.

Here is a look at the ESPN broadcast schedule for the 2012 WSOP. All times listed are ET:

Tue, July 3

3 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: The Big One for One Drop Live on ESPN3

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: The Big One for One Drop on ESPN

Tue, July 31

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: The Big One for One Drop on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: The Big One for One Drop on ESPN

Tue, Aug 7

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: WSOP National Championship on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: WSOP National Championship on ESPN

Tue, Aug 14

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Aug 21

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Aug 28

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Wed, Sep 5

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Sep 11

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Sep 18

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Sep 25

8 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Oct 2

9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
10 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Oct 9

9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event ESPN
10 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event ESPN

Tue, Oct 16

9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
10 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Oct 23

9 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN
10 pm – 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event on ESPN

Tue, Oct 30

9 pm - 2012 World Series of Poker: Main Event Final Table Live on ESPN

Comment

It was only a year ago that the Harrahs Philadelphia Casino joined the list of properties playing host to a WSOP Circuit event. Now, Pennsylvania is one of the growing poker markets in the United States and the crop of players are just getting better.

Case in point: Christopher Bonn, who just took down the WSOPC Main Event at Philadelphia, besting a field of 312 in the $1,600 buy-in event to take home a payday of $109,760. The field size was up 11% over last year’s debut event and the line-up of players included several notable names like Dennis Phillips, Bryan Devonshire, Andy Frankenberger, Todd Terry, Kyle Cartwright, Ari Engel, and Amanda Musumeci.

Bonn was one of 33 players who cashed in the event. Some of the other names that cashed were Cartwright (25th), Aaron Overton (24th), and Joshua Weizer (12th). The final table included some interesting characters as well, such as ninth place finisher Georgia Robinson, the last woman standing in the event, and eighth place finisher Tuan Phan, who was looking for his second WSOPC Main Event ring of the season.

In the end, Bonn prevailed to take the title though. Even though he’s only played poker in a casino for a matter of months, the 49 year old radiology assistant from East Landsdowne, PA battled his way through the field to win the ring and a seat in the WSOP National Championship freeroll coming up in July. Kevin McColgan will be joining him there, as he is the Harrah’s Philadelphia Casino Champ.

On May 18th, the final WSOPC Main Event of the season will get going in New Orleans. The preliminary events of the NOLA series get started on Thursday.

Here are the final table results from the WSOPC Chester Main Event:

1st: Christopher Bonn – $109,760
2nd: Ken Silverstein – $67,863
3rd: Pete Kaemmerlen – $49,288
4th: Cory Mascagni – $36,407
5th: John Mitchell – $27,332
6th: Eugene Fouksman – $20,845
7th: Mike Linster – $16,146
8th: Tuan Phan – $12,695
9th: Georgia Robinson – $10,130

Comment

Negreanu is sitting in tenth place after a productive EPT Grand Final

The top twenty in the BLUFF Player of the Year race is starting to get overrun with some of the biggest names in the game. After a string of high buy-in events with stacked final tables at the PokerStars and Monte Carlo Casino EPT Grand Final, we have even more new names near the top of the ranks and you’ve certainly heard of at least a couple of our new contenders.

This past week was a busy one and, as a result, only two players remained in the same spot in the top twenty ranks. Jonathan Duhamel continues to lead and Oliver Speidel is holding on to second place, but they might want to watch out for Dan Smith. With three victories in EPT Grand Final side events, Smith is now up third in the ranks and only five points separate Smith and Speidel.

The other big move of the week belongs to the current BLUFF Magazine cover boy Will Failla. His sixth place finish at his second WPT final table of the season pushed him up to fifth in the race, his highest position of the year.

The bottom half of the top twenty is where you can find some of the most notable names in the ranks. Daniel Negreanu is sitting pretty in tenth place after his runner-up finish in the EPT High Roller event worth €598,600. The score is his third six-figure payday this year, all of which have come in High Roller and Super High Roller events. His streak in these events bodes well for Negreanu, as the WPT $100,000 Super High Roller is just a couple of weeks away.

Justin Bonomo also final tabled the EPT Grand Final High Roller event, finishing in fourth place. It was his third cash of the Monte Carlo series, along with a run in the Main Event and a win in the €100,000 Super High Roller event. With $2.5 million in winnings and three cashes, Bonomo is now up to 13th in the ranks.

The only other player to move up to the top twenty was Joe Kuether, who posted his 11th qualifying cash of the year by final tabling the Main Event of the MGM Grand series.

With Bellagio results from prelim events starting to pour in, plus the IPT San Remo Grand Final and the latest from the Unibet series, there could be more changes next week. What will really be interesting is to see just how much the WPT Championship at Bellagio affects the ranks as players rev up for the WSOP.

Here are the latest top twenty in the BLUFF Player of the Year race, brought to you by Aria Resort and Casino:

1. (-) Jonathan Duhamel – 713.30
2. (-) Oliver Speidel – 669.81
3. (+5) Dan Smith – 664.26
4. (-1) Andrew Chen – 503.37
5. (+8) Will Failla – 457.35
6. (-2) Dan Kelly – 453.35
7. (-2) John Dibella – 450.75
8. (-2) John Dolan – 444.50
9. (-2) Sean Jazayeri – 441.88
10. (NR) Daniel Negreanu – 438.50
11. (-2) Mohsin Charania – 430.35
12. (-2) Ruben Visser – 422.00
13. (NR) Justin Bonomo – 415.82
14. (-3) Faraz Jaka – 395.88
15. (+1) Joe Kuether – 383.62
16. (-4) Bruno Lopes – 382.10
17. (-3) Bertrand Grospellier – 369.45
18. (-3) Tommy Vedes – 350.63
19. (-2) Vadim Kursevich – 345.10
20. (-2) Kevin Vandersmissen – 342.42

Dropped from ranks: Jannick Wrang, Eric Sfez

Comment

The poker world is full of facts, figures, stats and records. With so many numbers being crunched day in and day out, sometimes it is tough to see what they all add up to. That is why BLUFF brings you some of the more interesting numbers related to the big tournaments, big stories, and big personalities in the poker world. Some are factual, some are fun, some are both. In this edition, we take a look at the penultimate WPT stop of the year, the Jacksonville bestbet Open , by the numbers:

2 Number of open events played by WPT host Vince Van Patten. Yes, Van Patten has played in the WPT Invitational in the past like his fellow WPT on camera personalities, the only time he played in an open event was the LA Poker Classic one year. He decided to take a shot in Jacksonville, but busted Day 1A and opted not to re-enter. Van Patten’s co-worker, Tony Dunst, fared much better, making the final table and finishing in fifth place.

3 Number of players at the final table making their second final table appearance of Season X. Will Failla was looking to follow up his Legends of Poker win with a second title, while Daniel Buzgon and Darren Elias were reunited after taking third and fifth respectively in the Borgata Poker Open Main Event.

6 Number of players under the age of 21 in the field at the event. Florida is one of the only places in the US that allows 18+ gambling. The WPT always offers a last longer for the under 21 year old set, but for the first time it was really a contest with five of the six making Day 2 and two of the six making the money. Robert Gorodetsky made it all the way to 17th place before busting and collecting a custom surfboard.

8 Number of days Joe Serock got to relish being the WPT Player of the Year frontrunner before Will Failla took his lead back. Failla was in the driver’s seat for over 250 days after taking first at Legends of Poker in LA then finishing 11th at the Borgata Poker Open. He lost the lead after Serock logged his second third place finish at Seminole Hard Rock, but took it back just a week later.

16 Number of cashes so far this year for Jacksonville fourth place finisher Daniel Buzgon. The New Jersey poker pro has been a cashing machine this year, but his final table appearance in Florida was his biggest cash so far at $94,624. The rest have been for less than $25,000, but he has still raked in a more than respectable $173,000 in winnings this year.

17 Percentage chance that Matt Marafioti and his pocket sevens would prevail in a four way all-in that was one of the most talked about hands of the tournament. Marafioti was up against pocket aces, pocket kings, pocket queens, and David Paredes claimed to fold ace-king suited, but Marafioti managed to turn a seven to take the pot and more than quintuple up.

57 Number of days the Jacksonville bestbet Poker Room was open before a WPT event graced its felt. The previous Jacksonville event was held at the Orange Park Kennel Club, which includes a poker room within the greyhound track facility. The new room, which is located in a building that used to be a Garden Ridge store, is owned and operated by the same group, but is located closer to the heart of Jacksonville.

5,000 Dollars in the buy-in for this WPT event. It is the only US event on the Season X schedule to feature such a buy-in level. All of the other events were either $3,500 buy-ins with re-entries or $10,000. The tournament also featured a re-entry option and easily surpassed the $1 million guarantee with a $1.5 million prize pool and 320 entries.

1,222,676 Career earnings for the latest WPT Champ Shawn Cunix. His $400,000 win in Jacksonville pushed him into million-dollar territory. While Cunix is technically a recreational player and his career is actually that of an entrepeneur in Ohio, he has a long list of results including a previous WPT final table appearance at Festa al Lago at Bellagio in 2009, where he finished in sixth.

1,873,219 Earnings since January 1st, 2011 for current BLUFF cover boy Will Failla. In the past 16 months, Failla has racked up as much in earnings as he did between 2005 and 2010. The Thrill has been unstoppable the past two years, and his confidence is at an all-time high. On Day 1 of the Jacksonville event he assured he would take his POY lead back. He also guaranteed he’d make the money at the WPT Championship when it gets underway at the Bellagio in two weeks.

Comment

The poker world is full of facts, figures, stats and records. With so many numbers being crunched day in and day out, sometimes it is tough to see what they all add up to. That is why BLUFF brings you some of the more interesting numbers related to the big tournaments, big stories, and big personalities in the poker world. Some are factual, some are fun, some are both. In this edition, we take a look at the European Poker Tour’s premier event of the season, the PokerStars and Monte Carlo Casino EPT Grand Final, by the numbers:

3 Number of side event victories for Dan Smith. Smith and Justin Bonomo were the talk of the Series as the two kept putting together deep run after deep run. While Bonomo dominated the High Roller action, Smith didn’t fare poorly at all in the €5,000 buy-in events. Smith won three of them, the Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em, the Turbo Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em, and the large field No Limit Hold’em event.

4 Number of cashes in six-figure buy-in events for Daniel Negreanu. The pro has a second, a third, a fifth, and a sixth to his credit now after finishing sixth in the Grand Final Super High Roller event for €310,000. He also took second in the €25,000 High Roller event for another €600,000, making for quite a profitable trip.

10 The best finishing position for a woman in the EPT Grand Final prior to this year. Isabelle Mercier got as close to the final table as any lady had when she set the bar at 10th in Season 1. Now Lucille Cailly is the top performing woman, finishing second to Mohsin Charania.

11 Number of cashes this season for EPT Season 8 Player of the Year Ondrej Vinklarek. He kicked off the season with a win in a €1,000 side event at EPT Barcelona. Later in the season, Vinklarek picked up a trio of final tables at EPT Prague, including a second win. Throw in four more final tables before the season wrapped and you have the makings of the latest EPT POY.

25 Average number of big blinds at the start of the EPT Grand Final Main Event final table. The final table bubble lasted for a good five hours. With the blinds steadily rising, that made for some shallow stacks at the final table. The start of the final table was slow goings as a result with players taking a cautious approach to their play in order to protect their shrinking stacks.

51 Best finish for a past EPT winner in this year’s EPT Grand Final Main Event. For eight seasons now, we still have not seen a two-time EPT winner and this event there wasn’t even a sweat as Sandra Naujoks was the best finisher of the Champions, making the money but coming nowhere close to the final table.

35,000 Value in Euroes of Christophe Benzimra’s Tournament of Champions first place prize. Benzimra won the EPT Warsaw Main Event back in 2009 and was one of 40 players to take part in the freeroll event. He now has €35,000 in EPT Season 9 buy-ins. Runner-up Zimnan Ziyard earned €25,000 for the runner-up finish. Jake Cody, Arnaud Matter, Frederik Jensin, and Mohsin Charania also made the money.

104,741 Largest live cash for Mohsin Charania prior to winning the EPT Grand Final. The online pro has a long list of online results, but he has long been seeking that breakout live score. His only six-figure score prior to this event was a sixth place finish at the WPT’s Foxwoods World Poker Finals Main Event back in 2010. Now his career store is more than 15 times that size thanks to his marquee win.

2,105,933 Lifetime earnings for Igor Kurganov in EPT High Roller events. The recent winner of the €25,000 EPT Grand Final High Roller event may not be a household name, but he has been cleaning up in the High Roller side action for the past 18 months. He took second in last year’s €10,000 Turbo High Roller at last year’s Grand Final, took second in the EPT London High Roller, and now has a victory to his credit.

2,538,878 Earnings in dollars for Justin Bonomo at this year’s EPT Grand Final. The poker pro, who is now based in Malta, managed to cash in the Main Event, final table the High Roller, and win the Super High roller to leave Monaco with a payday bigger than that of even the EPT Grand Final winner, Mohsin Charania.

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Smith has $1.77 million in earnings so far this year

The eighth season of the European Poker Tour wrapped up with a bang at the PokerStars and Monte Carlo EPT Grand Final. The Main Event and the High Roller tournaments drummed up most of the headlines, but something equally compelling was happening in the side event action: namely, Dan Smith was cleaning up.

Smith is the star of this week’s Tournament Tracker report after winning three different EPT Grand Final side events, each with buy-ins of €5,000. The trifecta of victories launched Smith into the top five in the BLUFF Player of the Year race, not to mention netted him more than €500,000. Smith’s biggest win came in the €5,250 buy-in No Limit Hold’em side event. The tournament drew a crowd of talented young players and the final table included EPT regulars JP Kelly and Govert Metaal. Smith topped the 175 player field and earned over €250,000.

If that weren’t enough, Smith also took down the €5,250 Turbo Six-Handed No Limit Event for another €150,000 at a final table that also featured Kelly as well as Eric Sfez. Then he wrapped up his visit with a heads-up chop with Toby Lewis in the €5,250 Six-Handed No Limit Event. Smith won the heads-up battle and Smith took home €118,000 to Lewis’ €129,118, but it was Smith who earned the winner’s spot.

Smith’s unreal run dominated the side event headlines, but there were other winners in Monte Carlo as well. The €5,250 Heads-Up event finals were an all-female affair as Vicky Coren defeated Melanie Weisner to earn the top payday of €58,900. Jonathan Roy earned a similar amount for his win the €2,000 No Limit side event. Jussi Nevanlinna picked up €80,800 for a win in the €5,250 buy-in six-Handed PLO event and Talai Shakerchi earned one of the biggest paydays of the side events with his €223,000 victory in the €10,000 Turbo No Limit event.

Monte Carlo was the site of the big action, but it was not the only place tournaments were running this week. The APPT was in action in Cebu with the Main Event drawing 246 players and generating a prize pool of more than $500,000. Hoang anh Do took the title in Cebu along with a $140,000 payday.

In Oklahoma, AP Phahurat also earned a six-figure payday for his win in the Chad Brown Poker Challenge at the Choctaw Casino.  There were plenty of notables in attendance and some familiar names made it to the final table as well, including runner-up Seneca Easley and Jared Jaffee.

In Vegas, the local grinders turned up to support Tournament Director Matt Savage and the MGM Grand for the Main Event of the Grand Challenge poker series. That tournament wrapped up Thursday with Michael Delvecchio picking up over $50,000.

Next week, stay tuned from results from everywhere from Bellagio to ANZPT Perth to IPT san Remo. Until then, here are the latest final table results from around the circuit:

EPT Monte Carlo €5,250 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Side Event
Prize Pool: €875,000
Entrants: 175

1st: Dan Smith – €250,500
2nd: Martin Kabrhel – €142,300
3rd: Vladislav Varlashin – €82,800
4th: JP Kelly – €62,000
5th: Raoul Refos – €50,900
6th: Zachary Korik – €39,950
7th: Dmitry Grinenko – €31,400
8th: Govert Metaal – €22,900

EPT Monte Carlo €5,250 buy-in Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em Turbo
Prize Pool: €489,850
Entrants: 101

1st: Dan Smith – €152,980
2nd: Roger Suter – €79,878
3rd: Vyacheslav Igin – €75,793
4th: Thomas Wolff – €42,850
5th: Eric Sfez – €33,050
6th: JP Kelly – €24,500

EPT Monte Carlo €5,250 buy-in Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em Event
Prize Pool: €490,000
Entrants: 98

1st: Dan Smith – €118,000*
2nd: Toby Lewis – €129,118*
3rd: Oleg Bichkov – €52,300
4th: Thomas Gabriel – €41,600
5th: Matt Perrins – €32,100
6th: Christopher Brammer – €23,800
7th: Dmitry Grinenko – €19,000
8th: Isaac Haxton – €14,300

*denotes heads-up deal

EPT Monte Carlo €10,000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em Turbo
Prize Pool: €637,000
Entrants: 65

1st: Talal Shakerchi – €223,000
2nd: Kevin MacPhee – €140,100
3rd: Tony Gregg – €82,800
4th: Dominykas Karmazinas – €60,500
5th: Samuel Chartier – €44,600
6th: Max Lehmanski – €31,800
7th: Viktor Blom – €28,700
8th: Mike McDonald – €25,500

EPT Monte Carlo €5,250 buy-in Six Handed Turbo Pot Limit Omaha Side Event
Prize Pool: €218,250
Entrants: 45

1st: Jussi Nevanlinna – €80,800
2nd: William Thorson – €52,400
3rd: Johnny Lodden – €30,500
4th: Andrei-Robert Pescaru – €21,800
5th: Roger Hairabedian – €17,500
6th: Dario Alioto – €15,250

EPT Monte Carloe €5,250 buy-in Heads Up No Limit Hold’em Side Event
Prize Pool: €130,950
Entrants: 27

1st: Vicky Coren – €58,900
2nd: Melanie Weisner – €39,250
T-3rd: Mark Teltscher – €16,400
T-3rd: Dori Jacoub – €16,400

EPT Monte Carlo €2,150 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Side Event
Prize Pool: €415,160
Entrants: 214

1st: Marvin Rettenmaier - €118,300
2nd: Xavier Caruggi – €65,800
3rd: Arno Curto – €38,400
4th: Merhej Chady – €29,500
5th: Richard Abou – €34,110
6th: Rob Shields – €19,100
7th: Vojtech Ruzicka – €14,530
8th: Jean-Jacques Ichai – €10,800

EPT Monte Carlo €2,100 buy-in Turbo Bounty Side Event
Prize Pool: €210,000
Entrants: 210

1st: Jonathan Roy – €58,000
2nd: Aneris Adomkevicius – €32,500
3rd: Vasile Paul Plastoi – €18,850
4th: Jacques Torbey – €14,450
5th: Kevin Vandersmissen – €11,800
6th: Scott Baumstein – €9,370
7th: Simnan Ziyard – €7,130
8th: Jon Turner – €5,300

APPT Cebu PHP100,000 ($2,144) buy0in Main Event
Prize Pool:$519,586
Entrants: 246

1st: Hoang anh Do – $140,284
2nd: Nick Wong – $88,331
3rd: Alistair Duff – $49,372
4th: Michael Kanaan – $37,680
5th: Amit Varma – $31,171
6th: Sameeer Rattonsey – $24,686
7th: Jacky Wang – $19,479
8th: Kyung Slim – $15,585
9th: Antoine Amourette – $11,692

Parx Spring Showdown $1,500 buy-in Main Event
Prize Pool: $285,180
Entrants: 195

1st: Joseph Wertz – $65,588
2nd: Marvin Siegel – $45,629
3rd: Lee Childs – $34,222
4th: Steve Zhang – $25,666
5th: Jeffrey Wicker – $19,250
6th: Ryan D’Angelo – $14,972
7th: Matthew Burnitz – $11,407
8th: Vitaly Kovyazin – $9,268
9th: Brian Lemke – $7,842

WPT National Series Mauritius €1,100 buy-in Main Event
Prize Pool: €303,050
Entrants: 243 entrants with 47 rebuys

1st” Gary Lentin – €70,000
2nd:Ricci Fabrice – €42,000
3rd: Ayaz Manj – €29,000
4th: Stephane Albertini – €20,000
5th: Christophe Pereira – €16,000
6th: Laurent Ciup – €14,000
7th: Bruno Lopes – €12,000
8th: Dan Carter – €10,250
9th: Brian Bower – €8,500

WPT National Series €3,700 buy-in High Roller Event
Prize Pool: €112,046
Entrants: 32

1st: Jean-Philippe Rohr – €30,000
2nd: Darren Kramer – €22,000
3rd: Ravish Tulsidas – €15,600
4th: Bodo Zbrzesny – €10,000
5th: Mihails Morozoys – €6,000

Chad Brown Poker Challenge $1,900 buy-in Main Event
Prize Pool: $475,494
Entrans: 258

1st: AP Phahurat – $116,492
2nd: Seneca Easley – $71,980
3rd: Nghia Truong – $52,005
4th: Phounsavath Philachack – $38,273
5th: Jared Jaffee – $28,672
6th: Bahman Jahanguiri – $21,849
7th: Mark Dunavin – $16,928
8th: Val Wood -$13,328
9th: Jeffrey Watterworth – $10,661

MGM Grand Challenge $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Main Event
Prize Pool: $155,685
Entrants: 107

1st: Michael Delvecchio – $51,377
2nd: John Zentner – $29,580
3rd: Dimitrii Vlouev – $19,461
4th: Daniel Collinge – $13,233
5th: Mark Schmid – $10,509
6th: Frank Calo – $8,173
7th: Joe Kuether – $6,617
8th: Eugene Castro – $5,060
9th: Jason Armburger – $3,503

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Cunix started the day as chip leader and ended as a WPT champ

Shawn Cunix always tries to teach his kids that with a passion for something, anything is possible. The recreational player has always been a family man. In fact, he played this event with his arm in a sling because he saved his son from an oncoming four wheeler. Now he has followed up saving his son’s life with an important life lesson: having passion does pay off and, in this instance, it pays over $400,000.

Cunix came into the final table of the World Poker Tour’s Jacksonville bestbet Open as the chip leader and came out the champion thanks to aggressive play, a couple of lucky spots, and, of course, passion. When the final table first got underway, Cunix only increased his lead while most of the other players at the table struggled to pick up chips.

Will Failla was the first player to hit the rail. He got short early, then flopped a big draw against Cunix’s top pair. They got it all-in and Failla whiffed, exiting in sixth place. From that point, the current WPT Player of the Year frontrunner could only watch and wait to see where Daniel Buzgon finished, as he could tie Failla with a second and take the lead with a win.

Buzgon would not catch Failla in the race though. After Tony Dunst exited in fifth place, Buzgon followed. The New Jersey poker pro managed to double up a couple of times after starting the day as the table’s short stack, but his luck ran out when his KQ couldn’t best James Calderaro’s AJ.

Three-handed, Cunix saw his chip lead dissipate as Darren Elias started winning pot after pot. The pro looked poised to take down his first major title, but a spell of bad luck and cold decks ended in a lost coinfip that sent Elias to the rail in third place.

That left Calderaro and Cunix heads-up for the title with Calderaro holding the chip lead. Cunix quickly erased the deficit though and eventually pulled out to a lead of his own. In the end, Calderaro ended up in all-in or fold mode when he got it all-in preflop holding JT to Cunix’s pocket treys. Cunix flopped a set, Calderaro couldn’t draw out, and the match ended with a Cunix victory.

The win is the biggest score of Cunix’s career and all he wanted to do to celebrate was get home to his wife and kids so the entire family can revel in Dad’s success.

The WPT has one more event before Season X wraps up for good. The $25,000 WPT Championship at Bellagio gets underway in just a couple of weeks, kicking off on May 19th.

Here are the final table results from the WPT Jacksonville event:

1st: Shawn Cunix – $400,600 (includes $25,500 WPT World Championship seat)
2nd: James Calderaro – $236,560
3rd: Darren Elias – $147,850
4th: Daniel Buzgon – $94,624
5th: Tony Dunst – $66,532
6th: Will Failla – $54,704

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Elias started the day second to last in chips, but rallied to make the final table

It is rare for a player to make two World Poker Tour final tables in a season, so what is happening in Jacksonville on Wednesday is really remarkable when you think about it, as there will be three players making their second WPT final table appearance of Season X.

Will Failla is the one grabbing the headlines as he regained control of the WPT Player of the Year race by locking up at least a sixth place finish in this event. He is actually not the only one at the final table who can still take the lead though. If Failla finishes fifth or sixth in Jacksonville, Borgata Poker Open third place finisher Daniel Buzgon can take the lead or tie for the lead if he pulls out a win.

You’ve also got Darren Elias in the mix at this final table, who final tabled the Borgata Poker Open this season, finishing in fifth place. While these three have experience on their side, they are a little short on chips. Buzgon will be the short stack at the table with 570,000, Elias is fifth in chips with 1,280,000, and Failla is the best off with 1,535,000, good for third in the counts.

This final table has another history maker at it too, as Tony Dunst joins Mike Sexton as the second member of the WPT broadcast team to make a final table. Dunst was supposed to be in the booth doing commentary on the live stream of this event, but instead James Dempsey and Darryll Fish will be calling the action while Dunst, who is fourth in chips with 1,310,000, will be trying to best Sexton’s sixth place finish at Bay 101 back in 2011.

Shawn Cunix may not be making his second WPT final table of the season, but the chip leader is making his second career WPT final appearance in Jacksonville. Cunix will begin the day with 2.7 million chips, many of which previously belonged to Matt Marafioti, who finished in ninth place. In one of the more talked about hands of the day, Marafioti moved all-in for more than three times the size of the pot on an A92 board holding A-Q only to run into Cunix’s 2-2 for bottom set.

Rounding out the final table line-up is James Calderaro, who is the only player with more than 2 million chips. This is his first WPT final table appearance.

These final six were part of the 16 players who started Day 4 of the Jacksonville bestbet Open. The players who failed to survive to the televised final table included Marafioti and Byron Kaverman, who bubbled the final table in seventh place.

Here are the chip counts and seat assignments for Wednesday’s final table. When play resumes, blinds will be at 15,000/30,000 ante 5,000:

Seat 1: James Calderaro – 2,110,000
Seat 2: Daniel Buzgon – 570,000
Seat 3: Will Failla – 1,535,000
Seat 4: Tony Dunst – 1,315,000
Seat 5: Shawn Cunix – 2,770,000
Seat 6: Darren Elias – 1,280,000

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Naz Alkhatib won the first six-figure payday in MN (Photo courtesy of the Heartland Poker Tour)

For this third time this month, the Heartland Poker Tour has held a record breaking event. This busy leg of their season, which started in Vegas two weeks ago and continued in Colorado last week, wrapped up at Cantebury Park in Minnesota on Monday with the largest prize pool in the state’s history.

The $1,500 buy-in event drew 333 players, generating the record prize pool of $473,928. The field included a couple of notables local to the area like past November Niner Jason Senti and Mike Schneider. Senti just missed out on the money, while Schneider finished in 30th place with the top 33 players earning a payday.

The final table was populated with recreational players and tour regulars, like Gary Lambert, who followed up his fourth place finish in the HPT St Louis event from March with a runner-up showing at Cantebury. He may not have won the title, but the finish earned him more than $67,000 as well as the lead in the HPT Player of the Year race.

The winner in Minnesota was 29 year old student Naz Alkhatib, who earned $118,482 for defeating Lambert heads-up. Alkhatib came into the final table with a substantial chip lead and it was only a matter of hours before he locked up the victory. It is not his first win at Cantebury Park either. He previously took down the 2008 Fall Classic Main Event there for over $84,000.

After back-to-back-to-back events, the HPT crew will get a little breather before the tour is back in action in Gary, Indiana on May 18th for a $1,650 buy-in event at the Majestic Star Casino.

Here are the final table results from the HPT Cantebury Park Event:

1. Naz Alkhatib – $118,482
2. Gary Lambert – $67,061
3. Eric Worre – $42,654
4. Ed Janezich – $36,729
5. Paul Ratajczyk – $28,436
6. Daniel Conway – $23,222

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Smith already has three six-figure wins in 2012

The European Poker Tour’s trip to Monte Carlo isn’t even over yet, but the BLUFF Player of the Year top twenty got an overhaul thanks to the Poker Stars and Monte Carlo Carlo Casino’s EPT Grand Final. We’ve got five players entering the top twenty this week. Some are names that have made appearances before and are back near the top. There are also two players in the top ten making their presence known for the first time this year.

The two players making a big splash this week came in at ninth and tenth in the ranks. Dan Smith sits in ninth after a pair of EPT side event victories in €5,000 buy-in events worth a combined €400,000. Those two scores propelled him into the top ten and gave him a nice bankroll to bring with him to Vegas for the WSOP.

Mohsin Charania shouldn’t have any bankroll problems any time soon either, what with his win in the EPT Grand Final Main Event on Monday. The strength of that score and one other small cash puts Charania in the top ten, but he will need to follow up the win with something else this summer if he wants a shot at the title and ousting Jonathan Duhamel from the top spot.

In the bottom half of the ranks, we saw the return of some familiar names thanks to strong showings in Monaco. Bertrand Grospellier’s win in the EPT Berlin High Roller event and third place finish in the Grand Final Super High Roller helped him to debut in 14th, not to mention pick up over €850,000. Kevin Vandersmissen managed to creep his way back into the top twenty after a final table appearance in a €1,000 side event in Monte Carlo. Eric Sfez claimed the 20th slot in the ranks after a final table appearance of his own, finishing fifth in the same Turbo Six-Handed event won by Smith.

With all these new faces, the top twenty bid farewell to some players who have been lurking there all year, including Phil Ivey. You might see Ivey back next week though, as he is one of the 14 players who made the money in the ongoing EPT Grand Final High Roller event.

Here are the latest top twenty in the BLUFF Player of the Year race, brought to you by Aria Resort and Casino:

1. (-) Jonathan Duhamel – 713.30
2. (-) Oliver Speidel – 669.81
3. (-) Andrew Chen – 468.37
4. (-) Dan Kelly – 453.35
5. (-) John Dibella – 450.75
6. (-) John Dolan – 444.50
7. (-) Sean Jazayeri – 441.88
8. (NR) Dan Smith – 440.30
9. (NR) Mohsin Charania – 430.35
10. (-2) Ruben Visser – 422.00
11. (-2) Faraz Jaka – 395.88
12. (-2) Bruno Lopes – 382.10
13. (-2) Will Failla – 378.15
14. (NR) Bertrand Grospellier – 369.45
15. (-3) Tommy Vedes – 350.63
16. (-3) Joe Kuether – 348.29
17. (+3) Vadzim Kursevich – 345.10
18. (NR) Kevin Vandersmissen – 342.42
19. (-5) Jannick Wrang – 340.15
20. (NR) Eric Sfez – 325.52

Dropped from ranks: Frederik Jensen, Davidi Kitai, Viktor Blom, Phil Ivey, Joe Serock

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Failla is eight eliminations away from retaking the WPT POY lead

At the end of Day 1A of the World Poker Tour’s Jacksonville bestbet Open Main Event, Will Failla called his shot. He said he was taking his WPT Player of the Year lead back from Joe Serock, which would require an eighth place finish or better in the Florida event. Well, it looks like Failla wasn’t kidding around, because he is chip leader with just 16 players remaining in the field.

Day 3 of the event got underway outside of the money bubble with 55 players remaining, but over the span of one level, the field quickly got down near 36 players. Along the way, players like Andy Frankenberger, Danny Shiff, and Taylor von Kriegenbergh all hit the rail empty-handed.

Before the bubble could even get started, it was over. Right as Brian Haas busted in 38th place on one table, James Dempsey was busting in 37th on another. Dempsey started the day near the top of the counts, but had a rough day at the tables, culminating in being on the wrong end of a coin flip against Matt Schulte to exit just shy of the money.

Once the bubble burst, the eliminations continued with the exits of Brian Hastings (35th), Allen Kessler (34th), Darryll Fish (24th), Matt Giannetti (22nd), Fred Goldberg (20th), and Robert Gorodetsky, who earned a surfboard in addition to his $16,263 payday since he was the last player under the age of 21 left in the field.

When play ended Failla was on top. Failla clashed with the start of day chip leader Farid Jattin on a couple of occasions, including a million-chip pot that sent Failla up to the top of the counts. He finished the day with 1,360,000, which puts him just in front of Peter Campo, who bagged up 1,269,000. Daniel Buzgon rounds out the top three with 900,000, which is all the more impressive considering he came back from dinner break with just over 100,000 chips and the blinds at 3,000/6,000.

Some of the other notables still alive in the field include Byron Kaverman (815,000), Matt Marafioti (617,000), Tony Dunst (459,000), James Calderaro (423,000), and Darren Elias (262,000). Play will reusme at 2pm ET on Tuesday and will continue until the six-handed final table is set. When play resumes, blinds will be at 5,000/10,000 ante 1,000.

Here is a look at the top ten chip counts from the end of Day 3:

1. Will Failla – 1,360,000
2. Peter Campo – 1,269,000
3. Daniel Buzgon – 900,000
4. Byron Kaverman – 815,000
5. David Tuthill – 687,000
6. Amelio Amato – 666,000
7. Farid Jattin – 618,000
8. Matt Marafioti – 617,000
9. Shawn Cunix – 555,000
10. Tony Dunst – 459,000

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