The new relationship between the World Poker Tour and Fox Sports Net seems to have taken another step forward.

The WPT announced today that the two have teamed up to produce a new show that will feature six amateurs playing each week who have qualified online and the branding will be built around ClubWPT.com, the subscription-based online poker room that shares a network with ClubBLUFF.com.

“Poker is the only sport that allows the everyday Joe to go up against the professionals and win life-changing money and celebrity status,” said Steve Lipscomb, WPT Founder, President and CEO.  “And we all want to be in that seat, but most of us don’t have the opportunity to invest the time or money to be a pro and play in big casinos games.”

Players will play for cash prizes on the shows that will be hosted by FSN sportscaster Barry Tompkins and “Live at the Bike” announcer Bart Hansen. To add some sizzle to the show former Playboy cover girl Alison Waite will be the show’s hostess.

When Day 2 began at the 2008 World Series of Poker-Europe there were two names on the tips of everybody’s tongue. Justin “BoostedJ” Smith and Daniel Negreanu had each put together an impressive performance on their respective Day 1s and the two players shared the spotlight as chipleaders.

But lying in the weeds was none other than Andy Bloch. The man who has made the most WSOP final tables without posting a win is now the man to beat as the tournament heads to Day 3. Bloch ran through Day 2 to end up with 321,600 - he is the only player above the 300,000 mark.

Right behind Bloch is Brian Townsend with 290,100. The cash game killer known online as “Sbrugby” finds himself just ahead of two of tournament poker’s best; Erik Seidel (282,300) and John Juanda (252,200). The top non-American is the United Kingdom’s Christopher Elliott, who sits in sixth with 231,900. American-based players hold eight of the top ten places.

Negreanu wound up with 203,700, good enough for ninth just behind Smith who finished with 217,700. But not all the big names made it through the day. Two players, holding 21 total bracelets, saw their run end. Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth will both have to wait another year to try and capture another bracelet.

The field at the start of the day was 179 but eight levels of play at the Casino at the Empire left only 62 players standing. Those players will return to the felt Tuesday afternoon at 1 pm London time. Live updates and chip counts will be available as the action happens at WorldSeriesofPoker.com.

Across the board the numbers were down in all of Sunday’s major online poker tournaments. The biggest of them all, the $1.5 Million guaranteed PokerStars Sunday Million, had only 7,133 players giving players an overlay of $73,400. Taking advantage of that overlay was “Tuffy Cat” who came out on top to record a $184,500 payday.

Making the biggest move on the Online Player-of-the-Year race was Jon “PearlJammer” Turner. With two top five finishes Sunday Turner scored 6,015 OPOY points which may be enough to put him atop the leaderboard when new standings are released Tuesday. Here’s how all of the Sunday Majors finished:

Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed ($200 + $16, 3,454 entrants)

1.       waffle1215 - $132,787.50
2.       DukeTheDude - $80,250
3.       TheCloserX5 - $52,500
4.       WhitneyHouston1 - $41,400
5.       Dubbydub2002 - $31,050
6.       Baumerball - $23,025
7.       Reinders - $17,250
8.       flymaxx - $13,500
9.       bigtoe2227 - $10,050

Note: $9,200 overlay

Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan ($200 + $16, 970 entrants)

1.       ferdilicious - $45,000
2.       ITG777 - $29,000
3.       GimmeFiction - $21,500
4.       HisXLNC - $16,500
5.       OnlyPlayRagz - $12,500
6.       bestdayever - $9,000
7.       bearw8 - $6,000
8.       4us0306 - $4,500
9.       rusostreet - $43,200

Note: $6,000 overlay

Full Tilt Poker Sunday Brawl ($240 + $16, 1,781 entrants)

1.       RookieITB - $73,377.20
2.       Skitzo33 - $48,443.20
3.       Buttheyrsuited2 - $35,976.20
4.       Colt216- $28,139.40
5.       shooting star 2 - $21,105.80
6.       martins22 - $14,604.20
7.       meskastar - $8,905.00
8.       JustLuck1337 - $6,055.40
9.       amontobin99 - $4,274.00

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up ($200 + $15, 3,328 players)

Note: $84,400 overlay

PokerStars Sunday Million ($200 + $15, 7,133 players)

1.       Tuffy Cat - $184,500

2.       AceBonG - $124,950

3.       londanuk - $84,000

4.       SantiagoRain - $69,000

5.       Assassinato - $54,000

6.       hustln_ps - $39,000

7.       agiletto - $26,250

8.       WatchOutSir - $17,250

9.       amichaiKK - $10,500

Note: $73,400 overlay

PokerStars Sunday Second Chance ($200 + $15, 1,235 players)

1.       wat-dee - $54,750

2.       Pipedream17 - $39,870

3.       PapaGreggio - $30,000

4.       Alphafoil - $22,500

5.       Being - $15,750

6.       chalie d - $12,750

7.       WhooooKidd - $9,750

8.       Bingoman24 - $6,750

9.       RiverBgood - $4,200

Note: $53,000 overlay

UltimateBet $200,000 Guaranteed ($200 + $15, 776 players)

1.       soxnation83 - $46,000

2.       negativeROI - $28,000

3.       ub_player04 - $18,500

4.       PearlJammed - $13,000

5.       thewood04 - $11,000

6.       jbladerunner - $9,000

7.       ryanbluf - $7,000

8.       orionhigh - $5,000

9.       sachdaddy $3,500

Note: $ 44,800 overlay

The second of two starting days for the Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker-Europe featured a familiar face doing what he does best. Daniel Negreanu took his starting stack of 20,000 chips and built it up throughout the day to finish with 154,050.

Unlike Justin Smith, Day 1a’s chipleader, though, Negreanu has company at the top. Jamie Rosen isn’t that far behind Negreanu with 139,225 and David Benefield sits in third with 126,775. Smith finished Day 1a with 158,925 but his nearest competitor was 60,175 chips behind.

The second starting day produced a field of 203 players putting the total field at 362 - the exact same number as 2007. The total purse of £3,620,000 ($6,925,442 US) means the winner will walk away with £868,800 ($1,662,101 US).

Negreanu and Smith are position to take home that first place money and the last available WSOP bracelet for 2008 but there were a number of players sent to the rail on Day 1b. Included in that group of players is the reigning champion, Annette Obrestad. With the eyes of the poker world upon her the 20-year-old phenom was unable to match her performance from last year.

She was joined on the outside looking in by Gus Hansen, Sorel Mizzi, Josh “JJProdigy” Field and Gavin Smith. A total of 93 players made it through the day and those players will be combined with the 86 players from Day 1a Monday.

The 179 players left in the field will resume play at 1 pm London time and play eight levels.

This time last year an online poker phenom made mincemeat of the field at the inaugural World Series of Poker-Europe Main Event. At just 18 years old Annette “Annette_15″ Obrestad showed the entire world that her amazing results online would translate to the live game.

Fast forward one year and that same storyline is playing out. Justin Smith, known online as “BoostedJ”, ended the first day of play with an astonishing 150,000 in chips and has 51,250 more than the next closest player, Erik Sagstrom.

And while the youngster was climbing his way up the leaderboard some of the best players in the world were being dropped from it. Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine and Freddy Deeb all failed to make it through the end of the day. Of the 165 players who ponied up the £10,000 ($19,131 US) entry fee, only 94 players survived.

Chasing down Smith will not be easy though. Sagstrom’s 98,750 is the closest, but Andy Bloch (90,175), Jani Vilmumen (90,000), Scott Montgomery (80,000) and Andy Black (78,000) all had brilliant starts to the Main Event and may benefit from being in the shadows of Smith.

Day 1b is expected to the busier of the two starting days and will include the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Dennis Phillips, David Williams and Erick Lindgren. Play gets underway at 1pm London time and live updates will be available throughout the day at WorldSeriesofPoker.com.

Theo Jorgensen earns just under $500,000 USD!

Theo Jorgensen started the day with a stack of chips and ended the day with the bracelet after steamrolling through an extremely tough final table in Event #3 ($5.000 Pot Limit Omaha). The 36-year-old Danish poker pro outlasted the likes of Chris Ferguson, Jason Mercier, Max Pescatori and finally Sorel Mizzi to take home the €218,626 ($402,403 US) first place prize.

When the final table began Jorgensen was the chipleader and other than a setback when heads-up with Mizzi, he carried that through the entire day. During the 90-minute heads-up battle Mizzi, with the chip lead at the time, had Jorgensen all-in on the turn. Mizzi held a straight while Jorgensen was behind with two pair. When the board paired it gave Jorgensen and full house and turned the momentum in Jorgensen’s favor for good.

Finnish chess champion Tomi Nyback was eliminated in ninth place just over two hours after the day began. That hand tripled Mizzi up and set-up his deep run. The next player to go was Mercier and he would be the first of back-to-back eliminations by Jorgensen. The American online poker pro, who has shown good results on the live circuit the past six months, was eliminated in eighth and Ferguson went out on the very next hand in seventh. Pescatori then forced David Penly to the rail in sixth and then Jorgensen went back to work.

His third victim of the day was Pescatori who moved all-in with his short stack and was called by both Jorgensen and Mizzi. The two players checked it down and Jorgensen revealed the winning hand. Mizzi then sent Sweden’s Erik Friberg out of the Empire Casino with £66,000 and a fourth place finish. The London crowd then suffered another bad beat in a string of week-long heartbreaks.

In seemingly every event so far in London at least one English player has gotten close enough to taste the victory only to have it swiped out of their mouth by the eventual champion. Eric Dalby suffered that fate Friday in London as Jorgensen claimed his penultimate scalp of the day.

When heads-up play began Jorgensen held 2.4 Million chips to Mizzi’s 865,000. The next 90-minutes saw Mizzi climb all the way back only to have Jorgensen hit his four-outer to reclaim the chip lead and move on to the eventual title.

Mizzi’s second place finish, his highest in a land-based event, earned him €132,000 ($243,000 US).

The second incarnation of the Bodog Poker Open starts Sunday with two tournaments and culminates a week later with the $300,000 Guaranteed BPO II Main Event.

The BPO II consists of a total of 14 events, eight of which have been dubbed “Championship” events and another six which will feature Team Bodog Pros and Featured Players as bounties.

The first event, schedule for Sunday 2pm ET, is a $100 + $9 No Limit Hold’em tournament with champions from BPO I returning as bounties. Any player who knocks out “3pounder“, “PckAces“, “foldpreflop85“, “bigcatfish” “phatcat” or any of the following Team Bodog Featured Players “ari“, “nevertilt22” and “head2782” will earn T$109 to be used in any BPO II Main Event satellite.

The first “Championship” event, $50 + $5 No Limit Hold’em (w/rebuys), is Sunday at 4pm and will replace the usual $100,000 Guaranteed tournament. Players start with 2,000 chips and Bodog is adding $10,000 to the prize pool. For the Main Event, on October 5, players will start with 10,000 chips and the prize pool is guaranteed to be at least $300,000.

Complete Bodog Poker Open II Schedule

Sept. 28 2pm Bounty Tournament #1 ($100 + $9 No Limit Hold’em) $5,000 added
Sept. 28 4pm Championship Event #1 ($50 + $5 No Limit Hold’em w/rebuys) $10,000 added
Sept. 28 8:30pm Championship Event #2 ($200 + $15 No Limit Hold’em) $30,000 Guaranteed
Sept. 29 8pm Championship Event #3 ($250 + $20 No Limit Hold’em) $75,000 Guaranteed
Sept. 29 9pm Bounty Tournament #2 (Turbo Bounty Tournament $30 + $3) $15,000 Guaranteed
Sept. 30 8pm Championship Event #4 ($300 + $25 Six-handed No Limit Hold’em) $60,000 Guaranteed
Sept. 30 9pm Bounty Tournament #3 ($20 + $2 Pot Limit Hold’em) $5,000 Guaranteed
Oct. 1 8pm Championship Event #5 ($200 + $15 Pot Limit Hold’em) $30,000 Guaranteed
Oct. 1 9pm Bounty Tournament #4 ($15 + $1.50 Fixed Limit  Hold’em) $4,000 Guaranteed
Oct. 2 8pm Championship Event #6 ($100 + $10 No Limit Hold’em w/rebuys) $75,000 Guaranteed
Oct. 2 9pm Bounty Tournament #5 ($33 + 3 Six-handed No Limit Hold’em) $15,000 Guaranteed
Oct. 3 8pm Championship Event #7 ($150 + $12 Fixed Limit Hold’em) $20,000 Guaranteed
Oct. 3 9pm Bounty Tournament #6 ($25 + $2.50 No Limit Hold’em) $10,000 Guaranteed
Oct. 5 4pm BPO II Main Event ($470 + $30 No Limit Hold’em) $300,000 Guaranteed

Halfway through the 2008 World Series of Poker-Europe schedule and the country of Afghanistan finally has a bracelet. All joking aside, the winner of Event #2 (¤2500 H.O.R.S.E.) was all too proud to dedicate his win to his countrymen - most of whom don’t play poker.

“This is for the people of Afghanistan,” Sherkhan Farnood said after he eliminated Ivo Donev to capture the win. ”Because (I won), all the people of my country have a gold bracelet with me.”

Farnood came out on top of a final table that included Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Mark Gregorich and Jeffrey Lisandro. The day started with 11 players vying for the title but Spain’s Raul Paez, American Yuval Bronshtein and Sweden’s Erik Albinsson were all eliminated in short order at the start of the day setting up the stacked final table. Each player at the final table had made a WSOP final table at some point in their careers.

Spencer Lawrence was the first player eliminated from the final table and Lisandro, who started with the second largest chip stack behind Lederer, went out in seventh. The biggest shock came when Ivey went out in sixth place. With millions riding on his ability to win a bracelet in 2008 many felt that Ivey would make good on his bet. But his chip stack slowly decreased throughout the night and he was forced to settle for sixth.

Gregorich, a Las Vegas poker pro, was the next to hit the rail and was the first player that Farnood eliminated. London’s own Jeff Duvall would break the hearts of the locals after running into Lederer during a round of Omaha Eight-or-better. After failing to win either the High or Low he was out in fourth.

But Lederer’s night didn’t last much longer and he was out in third setting up the heads-up dual between Farnood and Donev. When play between the two began Donev held a 3:2 but after 90 minutes of play it was Farnood who had all the chips, the ¤76,999 ($192,894) first place prize and the WSOP bracelet.

Only 11 players are all that are left from a field of 110 in the second event at the 2008 World Series of Poker-Europe and even the most novice poker fan will recognize the names at the top.

Howard Lederer will come back Wednesday morning to find nearly 20% of the chips in play at his disposal. Not having won a bracelet since 2001 the 43-year-old Lederer has come close as recently as this summer when he record a sixth place finish, a ninth place finish and a twelfth place showing.

But if he’s to come away from London with a new piece of wrist jewelry, he’s going to have get past 10 players including Sherkhan Farnood, Phil Ivey, Mark Gregorich and Jeffrey Lisandro. Farnood made the final table of Event #2 (£5,000 Pot Limit Omaha) at last year’s WSOP-Europe and with 141,500 is the biggest thread to Lederer’s lead.

But it’s Ivey that has poker players on both sides of the Atlantic holding their breath. Known for being an action junkie, Ivey is rumored to have a seven figure sum riding on his ability to win a bracelet in 2008. There remains some debate over whether or not the wager includes the four events in Europe, but that won’t deter Ivey, who has 114,500 chips. He’ll return to the felt to find play five or six-handed at his table and will be licking his chops regardless of table draw.

Phil Hellmuth lost his shot at history though when he busted in 12th place just before the night ended. The “poker brat” had a chance at his 12th WSOP bracelet and first one outside of the Hold’em games he’s mastered. Also busting out of the tournament on Tuesday were Isaac Haxton, Daniel Negreanu, Marc Goodwin, and David Williams.

Play resumes at 2:30 pm London time with live updates and chip counts available at WorldSeriesofPoker.com.

WSOP-Europe Event #2 Chip Counts

1.     Howard Lederer - 208,500
2.     Sherkhan Farnood - 141,500
3.     Yuval Bronshtein - 133,500
4.     Phil Ivey - 114,500
5.     Jeff Duvall - 112,000
6.     Spencer Lawrence - 88,500
7.     Jeffrey Lisandro - 82,500
8.     Ivo Donev - 78,000

9.     Mark Gregorich - 62,500

10.   Erik Albinsson - 43,000

11.   Raul Paez - 17,500

This Saturday DoylesRoom.com will be hosting a $250,000 Guaranteed Tournament, complete with ten $1,000 bounties on some of poker’s biggest names. Making it even more impressive is the exclusive 10 seat tournament available only to BLUFF readers for only $5.50 this Thursday.

Getting into the game with Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Shannon Elizabeth, Hoyt Corkins and TJ Cloutier has never been easier. The $5.50 buy-in tournament is scheduled for Thursday night at 9 pm ET and will award 10 seats to the $150 + $15 buy-in $250,000 Guaranteed tournament on Saturday at 4 pm ET.

Registering takes only five steps:

1.       Sign-up for DoylesRoom.com via THIS LINK
2.       Make a deposit to your account
3.       Click on “Scheduled Tournaments”
4.       Check the “Private” option on the right and look for the “Bluff $250K 10 Seat”
5.       Click “Register” and use the password “BLUFF”

Registration is $5 + $0.50 and the top ten finishers will all earn seats to Saturday’s $250,000 Guaranteed - a $165 value!

Sign-up now using THIS LINK to be eligible for this promotion.

If Kentucky governor Steve Beshear has his way he’ll soon be in control of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, DoylesRoom and Bodog. Don’t be fooled though, this isnt’ a major merger of some of online poker’s biggest operators, but rather a hostile takeover of the domain names - all in the name of protecting “Kentucky’s thoroughbred racing industry, our lottery and charitable gaming activities”.

Beshear, a Democrat, filed a civil suit asking a Franklin County Circuit Court to award control of gambling website domain names to the government. The total list has 141 domain names on it including online poker sites FullTiltPoker.com, BodogLife.com, AbsolutePoker.com, PokerStars.com, UltimateBet.com, CakePoker.com, DoylesRoom.com and MicroGaming.com.

The governor claims that those sites are violating Kentucky law by offering their services to Kentucky citizens. The state is asking the court to award control of the domain names to Kentucky state government to prevent those companies from doing business with Kentuckians.

“(These sites) siphon off money from regulated and legal games such as Kentucky’s thoroughbred racing industry, our lottery and charitable gaming activities,” said Beshear. A hearing is scheduled for Thursday with Judge Thomas Wingate set to preside.

The state is asking the court to award control of the domain names to Kentucky state government to prevent those companies from doing business with Kentucky citizens.

John Pappas, executive director the Poker Players Alliance issued a statement Tuesday afternoon denouncing the actions of Beshear.

“The Poker Players Alliance is outraged at the actions taken by Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear and the Franklin County Circuit Court to seize the domain names of Internet gambling websites.  We believe this action not only unduly restricts the freedom of Kentucky residents to play games of skill, such as poker, online, but sets a precedent for censorship of the Internet by force.

“Many of Governor Beshear’s arguments - that online poker is illegal, unregulated and without a mechanism to capture tax revenue - are false. Online poker is not illegal under Kentucky law, is regulated in its home jurisdiction and the Commonwealth of Kentucky chose not to license and regulate poker websites.”

Currently gamblers in Kentucky have access to state-regulated online horse betting, lotteries and bingo. Beshear went as far as to describe online gaming sites, specifically those whose domain name he’s after as “leeches on our communities.”

The 2008 PokerStars.com World Championship of Online Poker is in the books and Carter “ckingusc” King is the Main Event champion after a grueling two-day event to capture the largest prize on the online poker calendar. The 22-year-old from Columbia, SC was one of only two players to take home a seven-figure payday from the event.

With a guaranteed prize pool of $10 million and a buy-in of $5,000 the event attracted the best of the best in the online poker world. The total prize pool exceeded the guarantee with 2,185 players pushing the purse to $10,925,000, a record for an online poker tournament. A total of 324 players made the money, but in the end only ckingusc could claim the title of WCOOP Main Event champion.

First place was scheduled to pay $1,775,312.50 but the final five players agreed to a chop with “liberace“, the chip leader at the time, taking home the biggest chunk. After some negotiation the final five agreed to split the prize pool with $200,000 and the WCOOP bracelet left to play for.

The final score for ckingusc was $1,265,432 while liberace earned $1,375,249. Coming in third place was Alex “AJKHoosier1″ Kamberis for $782,542. Ranked fourth in the BLUFF Magazine Online-Player-of-the-Year race AJKHoosier1 also earned 19,353.03 OPOY points for his finish and may move into third when new rankings are released Wednesday morning as “shaundeeb” failed to earn any points in this event.

The two players at the top of the OPOY race, “Moorman1” and “PearlJammer“, failed to make the money, finishing 1,273rd and 1101st respectively. But PearlJammer had himself an excellent WCOOP, recording 10 cashes in 33 events to tie with Stuart “thedonator” Paterson for most cashes.

The entire WCOOP series generated a total prize pool of $39,958,000, which beats the 2007 prize pool by more than $3 million.

WCOOP Main Event Final Table Results

1.       ckingusc - $1,065,432
2.       liberace - $1,375,249
3.       AJKHoosier1 - $782,542
4.       Markush13 - $961,718
5.       ShoesRDurrty - $801,153
6.       Sumpas - $415,150
7.       Klslcz - $305,900
8.       BOLLPOKER - $196,650
9.       Kovi99 - $121,267.50

Poker fans in London almost had their fairytale ending to Event #1 (£1,500 No Limit Hold’em) as the 2008 World Series of Poker-Europe kicked off. Sadly though Jesper Hougaard got in the way and in the process became a part of WSOP-Europe history. 

When the final table began, shortly after 1 pm London time, the shortest stack at the table was London’s own Fuad Serhan. With only 61,000 chips he was in a massive hole as he looked at chipleader Adam Junglen, who had 795,000. But then the cards went in the air and everything changed.

After doubling up through Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Serhan watched as Daniel Nutt went out in ninth, losing with Kc-Qc against the pocket nines of none other than Timoshenko. Ian Woodley then found his day cut short with an eighth place finish when his Ah-Qc was unable to outrun the pocket sixes of Hougaard.

That’s when Serhan turned his day around with a double-up courtesy of Junglen. Serhan moved all-in over the top of Junglen’s preflop raise. When Junglen called with pocket fives he discovered the bad news; Serhan had pocket aces. The board ran out without a five and Serhan seemed to find a comfort level. He eliminated Linda Lee in seventh, drawing out with Qd-9d after short-stacked Lee moved in with Ks-5c.

Then, as if fate was backing him in the tournament, Serhan doubled up again, this time through fellow Brit Neil Channing. Holding pocket queens Ferhan called Channing’s pre-flop all in move and won when the As-Kh of Channing missed.

Junglen then left the table with a disappointing sixth place finish. Considering how impressive Junglen was in getting to the final table, he left some observers in shock as he pushed his last 74,000 into the middle holding Ac-5c and was outmatched by the pocket fives of John Dwyer. Unable to improve, the player who held the chip lead since Day 1b was out of WSOP-Europe’s largest event ever.

Another double-up was just around the corner for Serhan, this time through Timoshenko. The never-say-die spirit of Serhan was becoming fairly obvious, especially to the reporters providing live coverage for WorldSeriesofPoker.com:

“With the action folding around to Fuad Serhan in the small blind, the Londoner swiftly announces all in and slides his entire stack across the line. Yevgeniy Timmshenko peels back the corner of his cards, shrugs, and makes the call. Timoshenko = Qs-Js Serhan = Ah-5s Board = 6d-2h-9s-5h-Ad. And Serhan doubles up yet again. He’s like limescale this guy, you just can’t get rid of him.”

Timoshenko then used pocket kings to eliminate Dwyer after both players got it all-in before the flop. That’s when Hougaard went to work. First up was Channing who called an all-in bet from Hougaard, who held Ah-6c, with pocket eights. After the board ran out Jc-Jd-10d-10s-5c and gave Hougaard two pair with an ace kicker, it meant that Serhan was London’s only hope.

But when three-handed play began Serhan was in familiar territory; shortstacked. With only 275,000 chips he had only 20% of what chipleader Hougaard held. Over the next few hands Timoshenko and Hougaard kept doubling through each other while Serhan managed one double-up courtesy of Hougaard.

Upon returning from dinner break Serhan quickly doubled-up again, this time thanks to Timoshenko. Not long after that Timoshenko finally found a hand worth calling the all-in of Hougaard, who had been pushing his big stack around since the dinner break ended. But pocket fours were unable to outrace the Ad-Jd of Hougaard and for the third time the Danish poker pro had eliminated a player.

While the highly partisan crowd was behind Serhan it was only a matter of time before Hougaard collected his fourth scalp of the day. Facing a 5:1 chip count deficit Serhan was unable to keep his highly improbable run at the title alive. Only five hands into heads-up play Serhan’s run was over and it was courtesy of a bad beat. Serhan raised and Hougaard moved all-in and Serhan called.

Holding Ac-Kc Serhan must have felt a tinge of delight when Hougaard flipped over Ad-Jd. But the flop brought all diamonds and Serhan was suddenly dead, guaranteed of a second place finish and Hougaard was champion.

For finishing in second place Serhan takes home the hearts of Londoners and £89,175. Hougaard, who won his first WSOP bracelet this summer in Las Vegas, became the first person to win a bracelet on each side of the Atlantic. He also takes home £144,218.

Mike Matusow is one of poker’s lovable losers and this week’s Poker After Dark looks to exploit just that. Matusow, whose level of bad luck was featured in this month’s BLUFF Magazine, is 0-8 in is appearances on NBC’s Poker After Dark. He’ll be looking to break that streak this week though in what show producers are calling “Mission Impossible” week.

The other five players who hope to have a hand in continuing Matusow’s cold streak are Phil Laak, Phil Hellmuth, David Williams, Clonie Gowen, and Gavin Smith. The six players each paid $20,000 to enter the winner take all tournament.

The biggest threat to Matusow may be Gowen. Coming into this week’s tournament she has won two of her four matches. Should she emerge with the victory, she’ll join Johnny Chan and Hellmuth as the only three-time winners in PAD history. Hellmuth has won three times, including Heads-Up week, but his overall record is 3-7.

Smith won his initial appearance on the show but busted in fourth place in his only other time on the show. Laak is 1-3 in PAD appearances and Williams is batting .500 after winning “Jam-Up Week”.

The match will begin airing on NBC late night Monday at 2:05 a.m., September 22, and will continue for five consecutive nights in the same time slot.  A special program called the “Director’s Cut” will air late night Saturday, September 27, at 1:00 a.m

The World Championship of Online Poker Main Event may have stolen the online poker headlines on Sunday, but the other Sunday Majors all went off. Both the UltimateBet $200,000 Guaranteed and Bodog $100,000 Guaranteed went of with five figure overlays attached. Full Tilt Poker held their quarterly $500 buy-in $1 Million Guarantee and had 2,239 players push the total prize pool to $1,119,500.

1.       OneEyedWilly_1 - $205,372.28
2.       All Golfer - $126,055.70
3.       spazsoldier - $82,507.15
4.       DMill90 - $65,826.60
5.       bobeads - $49,817.75
6.       JOHNCL - $35,824.00
7.       Pjer - $26,308.25
8.       fyrtuk - $20,598.80
9.       LIAMWAIN - $15,673.00

Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan ($200 + $16, 1,104 entrants)

1.       mugam - $49,680.00
2.       laserist - $31,464.00
3.       jcasper432 - $23,294.40
4.       mgw21 - $18,216.00
5.       e2202 - $13,800.00
6.       thebirdman84 - $9,936.00
7.       KillerIntent - $6,624.00
8.       skeptix - $4,968.00
9.       THEROBBOB20 - $3,532.80

Full Tilt Poker Sunday Brawl ($240 + $16, 1,791 entrants)

1.       xxxmaxprophetxx - $73,789.20
2.       titantom32 - $48,715.20
3.       79Piranha - $36,178.20
4.       kkabouterflop - $28,297.80
5.       apestyles - $21,133.80
6.       BKBaddog - $14,686.20
7.       sircall - $8,955.00
8.       forlive - $6,089.40
9.       ahhhhhsht - $4,298.40

1.       Ghoost1 - $74,066.40
2.       natseet - $53,721.00
3.       MacChuck - $37,947.60
4.       DHUSTLER15 - $25,603.20
5.       GIGI LUCA - $21,031.20
6.       domingo32 - $16,459.20
7.       Ubsolute - $11,887.20
8.       fridhem - $8,229.60
9.       Normalforce - $4,938.48

PokerStars WCOOP Second Chance ($1,000 + $50, 816 entrants)

1.       GASSIT - $150,960.00
2.       Gabfield - $109,344.00
3.       Snake8484 - $81,600.00
4.       BriDge2PaiN - $61,200
5.       Comandr_Cool - $42,840.00
6.       PiKappRaider - $34,840.00
7.       Hasn82 - $26,520.00
8.       THEPIRAT - $18,360.00
9.       Philosofic - $11,424.00

1.       Yardmaster - $23,600
2.       grandmabodog - $13,600
3.       quietwinner - $9,100
4.       Justin58 - $7,000
5.       A49ERGIANT - $5,700
6.       chappie21 - $4,500
7.       Uwillbepunkd - $3,300
8.       35thcorvette - $2,200
9.       Connman23 - $1,300

Note: $38,000 overlay. View complete results here.

UltimateBet $200,000 Guaranteed ($200 + $15, 816 entrants)

1.       AngeIica - $45,000
2.       Ibiteurace - $27,000
3.       1spoiledbrat1 - $18,500
4.       shipaholic - $13,000
5.       laughatthis - $11,000
6.       BEATBOXED - $9,000
7.       POKERPRO33 - $7,000
8.       PiKappStoner - $5,000
9.       bob1preston - $3,500