Like a Ric Flair match from the 80s the Sunday Majors this week were all about the chops. In the PokerStars Sunday Million the final five players all agreed to divy up the prize money based on chip count with “CesarSPA” coming out with the winners share of $208,845.93 and “angiebug4″ coming out with the title and a cool $126,921.72.

David “BodogMaven” Chicotsky, the 2008 Bluff Magazine Online Player of the Year, held the chip lead with 24 players remaining but was unable to hang on to his chips and busted on the final table bubble in 10th place.

Over at the Full Tilt Poker $750,000 the final four players came to an agreement but unlike the Sunday Million, the eventual winner walked away with the most cake. “ADCampbell” banked $104,929.51 for winning the tournament while the runner-up, “ypma” pocketed only $62,660. Eventual third place finisher “mich_alumni” walked away with $98,967.

PokerStars Sunday Million ($200 + 15 NLHE)
Entrants: 8,993
Prizepool: 1,798,600

1. angiebug4 - $126,921.72
2. CesarSPA - $208,845.93
3. BigBradley - $173,454.74
4. siggen001 - $131,719.96
5. suckabig1 - $100,530.55
6. gboro780 - $53,958.01
7. SebiXXXX - $35,972.01
8. Whitfield74 - $19,784.61
9. Spoli4tor - $12,590.21

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up ($200 + 15 NLHE)
Entrants: 4,100
Prizepool: $820,000

1. CuCbKu - $122,986.37
2. Jarfish  - $101,693.63
3. apestyles  - $67,650.00
4. heißtercamp - $47,150.00
5. J0hnny_Dr@m@ - $34,850.00
6. Monterpol - $26,650.00
7. Morph2oo6 - $18,450.00
8. MarcMcFly - $10,250.00
9. gargamelesp - $6,560.00

PokerStars Sunday Second Chance ($200 + 15 NLHE)
Entrants: 1,386
Prizepool: $277,200

1. The-Toilet 0 - $50,117.76
2. th’Kick - $36,313.20
3. BgsaPnaples - $27,720
4. acewipe3 - $20,790
5. 1gr8ride - $14,553
6. calamitas - $11,781
7. kjell - $9,009
8. BillieD - $6,237
9. qexx42 - $3,880.80

Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed ($200 + $16)
Entrants: 4,144
Prizepool: $828,800

1. ADCampbell - $104,929.51
2. ypma - $62,660
3. mich_alumni - $98,967
4. clotilda - $72,000
5. zsunset - $34,229.44
6. kenneoin - $25,361.28
7. quivan96 - $19,062.40
8. shhhant - $14,918.40
9. PatrickJ89 - $11,105.92

Full Tilt Poker Sunday Brawl ($240 + $16)
Entrants: 2,394
Prizepool: $478,800

1. PoutsoKefalos - $97,651.26
2. Jims619 - $63,201.60
3. HellaStacks_ - $46,922.40
4. white_chocko - $35,431.20
5. Javatinii - $24,897.60
6. kennl - $16,279.20
7. mightyscv - $11,012.40
8. blackjustin77 - $7,660.80
9. OneUponAStar - $5,745.60

Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan ($200 + $16)
Entrants: 1,261
Prizepool: $252,200

1. PAPAROACH4EVA - $55,484
2. berdugo21 - $35,308
3. DecanoBR - $225,976.60
4. locoenlacabeza - $20,491.25
5. uuhhhicall - $15,762.50
6. meerkoet - $11,349
7. JBlaze20 - $7,566
8. xtiltx - $5,764.50
9. Pot Odds 3 - $4,035.20

You can call it the luck of the Irish all you want but Dermot Blain would rather you just call him champion after he captured the Asia-Pacific Poker Tour Macau Main Event Sunday night.

Mike Kim was the final player eliminated by Blain on his way to the title and the $541,089 first place prize money. When heads-up play began Blain had a nearly 8-1 advantage after being responsible for the first two eliminations of the night and the elimination of local favorite Daoxing Chen in third place. Only 11 minutes later Blain collected his fourth scalp of the night when he sent Kim out as runner-up. Kim collected $384,999 while Chen walked away with $239,327.

APPT Macau Main Event Final Table Payouts

1. Dermot Blain - $541,089
2. Mike Kim - $384,999
3. Daoxing Chen - $239,327
4. Darkhan Botabayev - $166,497
5. Pontus Kers - $114,464
6. Jicheng Su - $74,923
7. Dbinder Singh - $52,033
8. Brandon Demes - $41,621
9. Stefan Hjorthall - $31,222

But while the Main Event was wrapping up one of the biggest stories in APPT history was taking place at the final table of the High Rollers event. With a buy-in of$11,000 the event attracted some of the biggest names in poker but none bigger than two-time WSOP Main Event champion Johnny Chan. The player dubbed “the Orient Express” nearly took down the 64-player event but was bested by Russia’s Vladimir Geshkenbein in heads-up play. Chan collected $154,400 wile Geshkenbein walked away with $266,690.

APPT Macau High Rollers Final Table Payouts

1. Vladimir Geshkenbein - $266,690
2. Johnny Chan - 154,400
3. Neil Arce - $84,218
4. Danny Huynh - $63,164
5. Grant Levy - $49,127
6. In Wook Choi - $35,091
7. Young Kim - $28,073
8. Nicholas Wong - $21,055

It’s been a long week at the Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino in Macau, and the end is now clearly in sight. The penultimate day at the APPT Macau Main Event saw the remaining field of 42 players whittled down to a final table of just nine.

Several high-profile players started the day but were unable to survive as the blinds climbed higher. Team PokerStars Asia player Daniel “rekrul” Schreiber couldn’t turn a short stack into a contender, leaving in 40th place just after play began for the day. Van Marcus, the 2008 APPT Manila champion, became the first player to cash in four APPT main events when he busted in 32nd place. And 2008 WPT Championship winner David Chiu fell one table short of making a title run, finishing in 16th place.

American Brandon Demes was the first player to crack the one million chip mark, and it looked like he might be preparing to run away with the tournament when he got involved in a pot worth 1,150,000 with Kazakhstan’s Darkhan Botabayev. Demes’ T T was ahead through the turn, but Botabayev’s A Q won the pot when the A hit the river. Botabayev used that momentum to finish the day third in chips, while Demes recovered enough to hold on and also make the final table.

One of the more interesting stories of the day was that of local player Daoxing Chen, who started the day short of the top 10. Chen found himself the shortest stack in the tournament when just 16 players remained, but after that point he found himself being smacked in the face by the deck. He won coin flips and cracked aces with equal ease, vaulting himself into the top spot. However, Chen also milked every second possible making all of his decisions throughout the day, slowing down the pace of play and driving the blinds up in the process. As a result, the tournament director gave him a permanent one minute time limit for deciding on all his actions shortly before the end of the night.

Chen holds the chip advantage over the rest of the table going into tomorrow’s final table, but as he well knows, a tournament can change on the turn of a single card.

APPT Macau Main Event Final Table Chip Counts

Daoxing Chen (China) 1,747,000
Mike Kim (South Korea) 1,653,000
Darkhan Botabayev (Kazakhstan) 1,450,000
Jicheng Su (China) 778,000
Dbinder Singh (Canada) 696,000
Brandon Demes (United States) 578,000
Dermot Blain (Ireland) 507,000
Pontus Kers (Sweden) 491,000
Stefan Hjorthall (Sweden) 454,000

While the main event played down to the final table, the High Rollers event was getting started on the other end of the Grand Lisboa poker room. A total of 64 players put up the HKD $88,800 entry fee, creating a prize pool of HKD $5,440,000 (USD $701,817) and a first prize of HKD $2,067,200 (USD $266,690).

The high-profile field saw the eliminations of the likes of Vivek Rajkumar, Theo Tran, J.C. Tran, and Team PokerStars Pro members Joe Hachem, Lee Nelson, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. Also on the outs in the early going was David Steicke, who had his bid for a third consecutive APPT Macau High Roller final table dashed when he lost to Masa Kagawa’s flopped set of tens and became the first elimination of the tournament.

Vladimir Geshkebein of Switzerland walked away the chip leader, but given the strength of the field he’s going to have a fight on his hands for the title. Among those with whom he’ll have to contend on Day 2 are 2008 APT Macau and 2009 WPT Championship winner Yevgeniy Timoshenko, 2007 APPT Grand Final champion Grant Levy, two-time WSOP Main Event winner Johnny Chan, and accomplished tournament pros Joanne “J.J.” Liu and Terrence Chan.

APPT Macau High Rollers Event Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Vladimir Geshkenbein 478,000
2. Jonathan Karamalikis 448,500
3. JJ Liu 406,000
4. Yevgeniy Timoshenko 356,000
5. Gap Young Kim 339,000
6. Daniel Chan 318,000
7. Inwook Choi 307,500
8. Choon Siang Tan 291,000
9. Gia Dang Trinh 250,000
10. Grant Levy 236,000

After three opening day flights, Friday saw the APPT Macau main event combine into one field and begin playing to a final table. Only 196 of the tournament’s 429 starters survived to play Day 2, and with many of them short-stacked as play began there was no doubt there would be plenty of action.

All that action led to carnage for some of the field’s more accomplished players. Former world champion Joe Hachem and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, both Team PokerStars Pro players, found their way to the rail during the day’s eight levels of play. David Steicke, the Hong Kong-based Aussie who has made Macau events his own personal ATM since 2007, also busted out in the early going despite having ended his Day 1 flight near the top of the leaderboard.

Things went a little better for some of the other players who began the day in good shape. Day 1A chip leader Brandon Demes doubled his chips over the course of the day to finish in the top 20 chip counts. Darkhan Botabayev, the Day 1B top five finisher from Kazakhstan, turned in another solid performance and sat in 14th place as play ended for the night. Day 1B leader Kristoffer Myrhe is still in contention as well, sitting in 25th place despite having actually lost chips over the course of the day.

The pace of play eventually slowed to a crawl as the bubble drew near, resulting in 40 minutes of hand-for-hand play. The tension was popped when Sweden’s David Paananen was sent home in particularly cruel fashion. He got his entire stack in the middle holding pocket threes for bottom set on a T 8 3 board, and things were looking good for him against the A 5 of online qualifier Sunny Bhayana. But then the turn and river came 2 4 to give Bhayana the wheel straight and Paananen a nasty bad beat story to share with his friends back home.

A small handful of players grabbed some cash before the end of the day, leaving 42 in the field for the start of Day 3 play tomorrow. Among those who still have a shot at the final table are 2008 WPT Championship winner David Chiu (5th in chips), 2007 Mandalay Bay WPT winner Shawn Buchanan (22nd), Team PokerStars Asia member Daniel “rekrul” Schreiber (30th), 2008 APPT Manila winner Van Marcus (38th), and Theo Tran (41st). The quest for the final table - and beyond it the first-place prize of HKD $4,194,000 (USD $541,100) - begins at 12:15 p.m. local time on Saturday.

APPT Macau Main Event Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Suen Kit “Kyle” Cheong (Australia) 577,500
2. Preetinder “Sunny” Bhayana (Canada)*  507,000
3. Tom Hall (UK)  424,000
4. Tom Nicholas Rafferty (Australia) 395,500
5. David Chiu (USA) 391,000
6. “King” Wally Sombero (Philippines) 361,000
7. Daniel Hansson (Sweden) * 324,000
8. Wing Leung “Andrew” Chung (Hong Kong) 309,000
9. Ang Pang Leng (Singapore) 301,000
10. Tony Makasovski (Australia) 278,500

*- indicates PokerStars online qualifier

As the TV table of the 2009 Legends of Poker Main Event began last night, all eyes were on November Niner Kevin Schaffel. Still on hiatus from the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, the semi-retired Floridian entered the night with the chip lead and a chance to add a WPT title to his resume before making a run at the biggest tournament title in poker.

Despite having the biggest chip stack, Schaffel’s path was certain from the beginning to be a difficult one. Standing between him and the title were five professional players with combined live tournament earnings of $5.89 million, including two WSOP bracelets from the days before they showed hole cards on television. With such a skilled lineup at the final table, a win would be as much about good timing as poker chops.

The TV table began with a bang when Sam “KingKobeMVP” Stein, the youngest player at the table at 21, doubled through veteran pro Mike Krescanko. Stein moved all-in holding A K for ace-high on a Q 8 5 flop, and Krescanko snap-called with Q T for top pair. The kid caught a break when the turn and river came diamonds to give him a flush and the 1.51-million-chip pot, while Krescanko dropped to last position with 466,000. A few hands later Krescanko’s A Q would fall to Prahlad Friedman’s K K, sending him home in sixth place ($89,220).

After the quick start, things would slow down for another 57 hands as Schaffel and Friedman slowly chipped away at their opponents. Stein was unable to get anything going despite chipping up so early, though, and he would find himself in a coin flip for his tournament life once the blinds reached 30K-60K. After an opening raise to 150K by Schaffel, Stein shipped his stack holding K Q; Schaffel considered and finally called holding 7 7. The 8 7 3 flop left Stein drawing dead, and he finished in fifth place ($116,225).

Four-handed play would last for another 30 hands or so, with Schaffel and Friedman again dominating the proceedings. Toto Leonidas would eventually bow out in fourth place ($144,600), missing the nut flush draw against Friedman’s top pair and giving Friedman the chip lead for the first time. Friedman then extended his advantage 11 hands later by taking out Todd Terry in third place ($231,300) with A Q to Terry’s 4 4.

Friedman began the heads-up match with a chip lead of better than 3-to-1 and all the momentum, but Schaffel brought things back very close to even just five hands in. He shoved on a A Q 3 flop holding Q 3 for two pair, and Friedman called with J 4; with no flush card on the turn or river, Friedman was suddenly ahead by less than seven big blinds. But the veteran held his composure. After pulling a little further ahead, Friedman played back-and-forth with Schaffel before getting the opportunity he’d been waiting for.

With the big blind at 120K, Schaffel opened on the button for 300K and Friedman reraised to 800K. Schaffel then moved all-in for about 3.5 million total and put Friedman to a decision. He eventually found a call with AQ and was ahead of Schaffel’s K J. The board ran out T 3 2 4 9 to crown Friedman the champion after 127 hands.

The win, Friedman’s first on the WPT, was worth $1,009,000. Meanwhile Schaffel adds $471,670 to his retirement fund, enough to keep him busy playing major tournaments until his shot at the WSOP Main Event title rolls around in November.

For the second time in a week, Macau is in the midst of a major international poker tournament.

Wednesday saw the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker Tour complete Day 1B of its $5,000 Macau main event. 125 players showed up for the second of three scheduled Day 1 flights at the Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino. The field was diverse, with players from nearly every continent taking to the felt. At the end of the day only 55 of them remained in contention for an APPT title and what is sure to be a substantial winner’s purse.

Leading the way after seven levels of play was Norway’s Kristoffer Myhre. The Norwegian piled up 183,400 chips, standing more than 40K ahead of his closest competitor at the end of play. Myhre and four other players on Day 1B managed to amass larger stacks than Day 1A chip leader Brandon Demes had acquired on Tuesday.

Among those players was Darkhan Botabayev of Kazakhstan. He ended the day in fifth place with 124,500, thanks in part to a confrontation with 2003 WSOP Main Event winner Chris Moneymaker. The champ’s A-4 couldn’t crack the Kazakh’s pocket queens late in the day with his stack on the line, sending him to the rail and Botabayev to the head of the pack.

Looking further down the chip counts, the first two players to bust from the final table of last week’s APT Macau event, Winfred Yu and Casey Kastle, are both still going after Day 1B at the Grand Lisboa. Also in the hunt are tournament pro Young Phan, 2007 APPT Macau runner-up Ivan Tan, and 2008 APPT Manila champion Van Marcus.

Day 1 play at APPT Macau continues at 12:15 p.m. local time on Thursday with a third and final starting flight, while Friday will see the remaining players from all three Day 1 fields combine and begin playing down to a final table. While you wait, here’s a look at the top of the leaderboard from Day 1B:

APPT Macau Day 1B Top 10 Chip Counts

Kristoffer Myhre (Norway) 183,400
Peter Nielsen (Denmark) 141,500
Roel Pijpers (Netherlands) * 125,500
Darkhan Botabayev (Kazakhstan) 124,500
Suen Kit Cheong (Australia) 118,300
Aditya Agarwal (India) 93,300
Justin Ostrowski (United States)* 80,500
Terry Fan (Taiwan) 75,900
Tu Thanh Le (Australia) 67,700
Sean Wilson (Canada)* 67,000

* - indicates PokerStars online qualifier

Kevin Schaffel was supposed to be months away from his first televised final table experience. As a member of the 2009 November Nine Schaffel has the chance of a lifetime to win the World Series of Poker Main Event. Schaffel has other plans though which include his first World Poker Tour final table Wednesday night at the Legends of Poker event in Los Angeles.

Schaffel has the chip lead as the final six players return to the felt Wednesday at 4 pm PT to play for the $1,034,500 first place prize. Schaffel’s 2,234,000 chips put him just ahead of Todd Terry who sits in second with 2,219,000. The final table includes some names that poker fans will know fairly well.

Sitting in third and making his WPT final table debut is Prahlad Friedman. Known by his online moniker “Spirit Rock”, Friedman was part of the first generation of online poker superstars and is rumored to be one of the biggest victims of UltimateBet superuser Russ Hamilton. WSOP fans may remember Friedman for his confrontation with Jeff Lisandro at the feature table of the 2006 Main Event over a supposed missed ante or his “poker is fun” rap video.

The shortest stack at the table is Toto Leonidas with 580,000. Having spent the better part of the week in the top ten in chips Leonidas is still a threat to win the tournament. Fans may remember Leonidas for being the catalyst of a Phil Hellmuth blow up at the 2003 United States Poker Championship.

Mike Kerscanko has 1,209,000, good enough for fourth, while Sam Stein, who finished ninth at the Bellagio Cup V Main Event in July, sits fifth with 743,000.

Another November Nine member, Steven Begleiter, made the final table but busted out in ninth - three spots before the TV final table of six players.

1. Kevin Schaffel - 2,234,000 
2. Todd Terry - 2,219,000 
3. Prahlad Friedman  1,476,000
4. Mike Krescanko - 1,209,000 
5. Sam Stein - 743,000 
6. Toto Leonidas - 580,000 

This is getting out of hand. Pretty soon people will start to think that Phil Ivey isn’t the only credible poker player in the November Nine. That’s because Kevin Schaffel and Steven Begleiter are sitting second in third after the third day of play at the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker event in Los Angeles.

Begleiter, who held the chip lead after Day 1 and Day 2, sits in third place with 617,000 while Schaffel sits in second with 728,000. Both players trail the overall leader, Todd Terry, who has 850,000.

Play ended late Monday with only 24 of the original 297 players remaining. The money bubble burst during the fifth level of play when Men “the Master” Nguyen went out in 28th place. A total of 49 players were sent to the rail on Monday including Lee Markholt, Scotty Nguyen, Billy Baxter and Daniel Negreanu. The most gut-wrenching elimination of the day was that of Bryan Devonshire.

With 27 players left in the tournamnet Devonshire held the chip lead but after flopping a flush against Terry the two players got all their chips in the middle. Devonshire tabled T 8 but Terry showed A 7 for the nut flush and Devonshire’s run was over with a 26th place showing.

Other players still in contention include former Phil Hellmuth nemesis Toto Leonidas, World Series of Poker bracelet winner James Mackey and Prahlad Friedman. Play will resume at 3 pm PT Tuesday at the Bicycle Casino.

WPT Legends of Poker Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Todd Terry - 850,000 
2. Kevin Schaffel - 728,000 
3. Steven Begleiter - 617,000 
4. James Mackey - 608,000 
5. Eugene Katchalov - 592,000 
6. Bob Lauria - 534,000 
7. Toto Leonidas - 456,000 
8. Sam Stein - 452,000 
9. Prahlad Friedman - 451,000 
10. Matt Marafioti - 388,000 

World Poker Tour Enterprises, the parent company of the World Poker Tour, announced today that a subsidiary of PartyGaming will purchase the vast majority WPTE’s assets in a deal worth $12.3 million.

Today’s announcement of the sale of WPTE assets is the second such statement issued in less than a month. In early August the company announced it would be selling off its assets to privately-owned investment company Gamynia Limited for $9.08 million. But the proposal from PartyGaming subsidiary Peerless Media Ltd. offered 25% more cash upfront, as well as an ongoing 5% participation in gaming and other revenues generated by the assets. That was enough for WPTE’s Board of Directors to scrap the old deal and go with PartyGaming.

“PartyGaming has been an important partner for a number of years and we are confident that they will be an excellent manager of our brands in the future,” said Steve Lipscomb, President and CEO of WPT Enterprises. “The Board of Directors has determined that PartyGaming’s acquisition proposal is financially superior and we look forward to working with one of the pioneers and leaders in the poker and online gaming markets to provide a strong vehicle for the WPT brand to continue its global expansion and return to online gaming.”

The deal will see WPTE unload its television library and all related intellectual property rights, brand names, and trade names, while retaining its cash certain financial assets, and future license revenues from an existing sponsorship deal with PokerStars for Season Seven of the World Poker Tour.

The sale still has to be approved by WPTE stockholders before taking effect, but WPTE says that the holders of 39% of the company’s common stock have already agreed to vote in favor of the deal. The company plans to use the cash from its asset sale to start up a new business outside of the poker industry.

Normally a chop in any of the Sunday Majors involves the final two, or sometimes three, players agreeing to split up the remaining prize pool and ensure they all get a healthy payday. Sunday night though the final six players in the PokerStars Sunday Million chopped up the money and nearly each of them walked away with six figures.

Coming out on top once all was said and done was “tysonduke23″ who cashed for $117,009.38 after the chop. The Sunday Million featured an overlay of $13,800 after only 7,431 players registered for the event. In the other  PokerStars events, Barry Greenstein managed to pull off a final table appearance finishing seventh in the Sunday Second Chance, an event that saw SlippyJacks return to the winners circle.

Here are the final table payouts for all of the Sunday Majors:

PokerStars Sunday Million
Players: 7,431
Prizepool: $1,500,000 ($13,800 overlay)

1. tysonduke23 - $117,009.38
2. Faraday - $119,401.59
3. shawry5 - $146,483.00
4. rmpvieira - $122,947.31
5. dmytro1 - $92,818.62
6. DDfromDS - $99,395.10
7. jornxx - $32,250.00
8. Sheeeeep - $18,000.00
9. Specialk66 - $11,625.00

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up
Players: 3,911
Prizepool: $782,200

1. calvo1989 - $106,970.47
2. Payacan - $107,352.35
3. Dsavo - $64,531.51
4. Blue Knight1 - $44,976.51
5. El Tiltor - $33,243.51
6. saufar - $25,421.51
7. kiehndk - $17,599.51
8. Colombian80% - $9,777.51
9. Prezidento - $6,257.61

PokerStars Sunday Second Chance
Players: 1,319
Prizepool: $263,800

1. SlippyJacks - $41,363.84
2. acehighdro - $41,363.84
3. snake555 - $26,380.00
4. VSGPoker - $19,785.00
5. chapmoney - $13,849.50
6. IveGotToejam - $11,211.50
7. barryg1 - $8,573.50
8. looshle - $5,935.50
9. Gorrioncillo - $3,693.20

Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed
Players: 4,040
Prizepool: $808,000

1. kuhnboy5 - $100,985.14
2. shuriken555 - $82,607.37
3. techie_sims - $102,027.41
4. AshTheDonkey - $44,440
5. Jims619 - $33,370.40
6. FlogMyLog - $24,724.80
7. Psychoswir - $18,584
8. SMTM17 - $14,544
9. LEOMUSICA - $10,827.20

Full Tilt Poker Sunday Brawl
Players: 2,255
Prizepool: $451,000

1. lcky4leafclover - $91,981.45
2. PJShark - $59,532
3. Kakafoni - $44,198
4. IM_ICM - $33,374
5. GPTBigGuy - $23,452
6. Sir_DonaldRM - $15,334
7. Alphaq1 - $10,373
8. JanglingJack - $7,216
9. All4non - $5,412

Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan
Players: 1,215
Prizepool: $243,000

1. Smerks - $53,460
2. bunkapul - $34,020
3. Lee Watkinson - $25,029
4. SMOKE A LUUU - $19,743.75
5. LOL_COLLUDAMENT - $15,187.50
6. yeagohead - $10,935
7. banaaane - $7,290
8. Zonnywhoop - $5,467.50
9. DevilRaise666 - $3,888

Steven Begleiter refuses to let up. The November Niner stormed out to a huge chip lead on Day 1 of the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker and when Day 2 came, he carried the momentum through the entire day. Begleiter leads the field after Day 2 with 426,100.

The group right behind Begleiter though is full of top shelf players, including at least a couple of World Series of Poker bracelet winners and a true poker legend. His closest competitor is Prahlad Friedman with 382,700. Bryan Devonshire, looking to make his second WPT final table, sits in fifth with 230,200. Right behind him is James Mackey (230,200) and Billy Baxter (209,300).

The event might be called the Legends of Poker but that doesn’t mean the game’s best are guaranteed a good run. David Oppenheim and Mark Seif both started the day in contention for the title but were eliminated during the final level of the night. Kenny Tran, Kenna James, Vanessa Rousso, Scott Clements and Allen Cunningham were also among the 110 players sent to the rail on Sunday.

Action continues Monday at 3pm PT and it is expected that the money bubble will burst sometime during the later stages of the day. The top 27 players will be paid with first place paying $1,000,000.

WPT Legends of Poker Day 2 Chip Counts

1. Steven Begleiter - 426,100
2. Prahlad Friedman - 382,700
3. Thuy Doan - 254,400
4. Mike Krescanko - 248,500
5. Bryan Devonshire - 230,200
6. James Mackey - 212,500
7. Billy Baxter - 209,300
8. Sergei Veytser - 207,200
9. Toto Leonidas - 195,300
10. Gary Klionski - 181,100

Inwook Choi held the chip lead with 934,000 as play at the final table began at the Asian Poker Tour Macau main event. That put him almost 60,000 ahead of David Steicke, who was fresh off a victory in the APT Macau High Roller event. The two men held a considerable advantage over the rest of the field - the next closest player was Adrien “zlatan35″ Allain of France with 482,000 - but as Yogi Berra once said, “it ain’t over ’til it’s over.”

It was over for four players within the first 20 minutes of play, not an unexpected turn of events given that five of the nine players entered play with stacks worth less than 15 big blinds. Casey Kastle was the first to go, exiting in ninth place ($16,966) when his pocket kings failed to hold up against Allain’s pocket nines. Five minutes later Choi’s K-Q would catch up to Winfred Yu’s A-7 and bounce Yu in eighth place ($26,112).

Crister Hallbrook continued the trend of short-stacked players getting in ahead when he shoved with 8 8 on a board of A 4 3, but he fell short in seventh place ($39,167) when Allain called holding 5 4 and caught the wheel straight on the turn. Allain’s K-K then finished off Michael Woo’s Q6 to send Woo home in sixth place ($52,223).

Now over 800,000 after taking out three of the first four players, Allain settled in to a groove and traded pots with Choi, Tran, Steicke, and Chris Chau for the next hour. Chau would eventually find himself the odd man out when he got his last 81,000 in the middle and got calls from both Choi and Allain; the two checked down through the river, and Choi showed T-3 for two pair on a board of T 7 3 6 3. Chau mucked his cards and exited in fifth place ($65,279).

Down to just four dee-stacked players, the pace of eliminations would stay slow again but the action would stay steady. That would benefit Allain the most, as he made use of his chip stack and fearless aggression to stay well ahead of his opponents. But Choi would pull close again an hour after the previous elimination when he and Steicke got into a raising war that saw Steicke’s entire 518,000 stack go in the middle preflop with 9-9 against Choi’s K-K. The board ran out A 3 3 3 K, and Steicke out in fourth place ($91,378).

Even as the short stack three-handed, JC Tran had a solid shot at getting himself in a position to win the tournament. But after an hour or so of struggling to get back in the game against two opponents who had him outchipped, Tran moved all-in on the button for 160,000 holding A-8 and got calls from both of his opponents. The A J T 9x 8x board gave him two pair, but Allain’s A-Q made a straight to send Tran home in third place with $117,470.

Allain held a 2-to-1 chip advantage when he began heads-up play with Choi. The Frenchman started things off extending his lead, but about 25 minutes in Choi had begun to turn things around. He even got his money in ahead on the final hand, holding A-Q to Allain’s A-3 in a pre-flop confrontation, but a trey on the flop was all it took to end the tournament. For his second place finish, Choi received $214,158. Allain, meanwhile, joins the ranks of APT champions with a healthy haul of $391,556.

The APT schedule has drawn to a close for the year, but Macau isn’t done with poker yet - the Asia Pacific Poker Tour’s next season starts there on Tuesday.

Moving the first PokerStars.net European Poker Tour event in the former Soviet Union from Moscow, Russia to Kiev, Ukraine didn’t stand in the way of a Russian poker player coming out on top. Twenty-one year old Maxim Lykov outlasted a field of 296 players to win the €330,000 ($475,000 US) first place prize.

Lykov was the chipleader at the end of each of the final three days of the event. On the final hand of the night Lykov eliminated hometown hero Alexander Dovzhenko to claim the title.

“On days two and three, I really felt quite confident that I would make the final. I am very proud to win this tournament. It was a hard contest but I believed I could do it,” said Lykov following his win. Dozhenko, the only Ukrainian player at the final table, walked away with €220,000 ($316,000 US) for his runner-up performance.

The eight-handed final table included three Russians, a Belarussian, a Ukrainian as well as one player each from Poland, Holland and Germany. The highest finish by an American player was the 13th place showing from Andrew Malott.

The event was originally scheduled to take place in Moscow but following the Russian government’s decision to remove the sport designation from poker, PokerStars.net decided to move the event to Ukraine.

The next EPT stop is in Barcelona beginning September 4.

ETP kieve Final Table Payouts

1. Maxim Lykov - €330,000
2. Alexander Dovzhenko - €220,000
3. Vitaly Tolokonnikov - €140,000
4. Arthur Simonyan - €100,000
5. Lucasz Plichta - €80,000  
6. Ad Schaap - €60,000
7. Torsten Tent - €45,000  
8. Vadim Markushevski   €30,000

It appears that at least one member of the November Nine can’t wait until November to make some waves in the poker world. Steven Begleiter, the former Bear Sterns executive who sits third in chips in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event, is leading the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker event after Day 1 in Los Angeles.

Begleiter ended the first day of play with 235,275 chips and is nearly 100,000 chips ahead of his nearest competitor, Alex Golshanara. A total of 279 players in the field make this the smallest $10,000 buy-in Legends of Poker Main Event in history. Despite the low turnout tournament organizers managed to build a prize structure that sees first place pay a cool $1 million.

The average chip count after the first day is 46,500. Golshanara finished the day with 135,025. He’s followed closely by Tommy Vedes (124,725), Eugene Katchalov (124,725) and Sam Stein (112,250).

Some of the bigger names in contention after the first day are Nick Schulman (88,000), Jonathan Little (81,100), Billy Baxter (74,375) and David Pham (68,900). Players who made the trip to the Bicycle Casino for the event but saw their tournament end on Day 1 include David Williams, Barry Greenstein, Carlos Mortensen, Michael Binger, Jimmy Fricke and Kevin Saul.

Only 180 players survived the action on Day 1 and will return to the felt on Day 2 at 3 pm PT. 

WPT Legends of Poker Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts

1. Steven Begleiter  235,275 
2. Alex Golshanara  135,025 
3. Tommy Vedes - 124,725 
4. Eugene Katchalov - 124,150 
5. Sam Stein - 112,250 
6. Markus Gonsalves - 108,600 
7. Matt Marafioti - 107,500 
8. Eddie Ngo - 105,000 
9. Mike Krescanko - 104,950 
10. Toto Leonidas - 90,525

The Asian Poker Tour’s Macau stop is proving to be a popular tournament.

Today’s second Day 1 flight drew 188 starters, topping the previous day’s number of 138. Plenty of high profile players were in action, though not all of them enjoyed much success. Original November Niner David “Chino” Rheem hit the rail in the early going when his opponent spiked a two-outer, while 2009 November Nine member James Akenhead of the United Kingdom worked a short stack as far as he could before eventually bowing out. Liz Lieu, Chau Giang, John Juanda, Vivek Rajkumar, and Liv Boeree also found themselves on the outside looking in as the day progressed.

On more than a few occasions throughout the day, accomplished players found themselves relying on a little bit of luck to keep them going. Stewart Scott, the 2009 Aussie Millions champ, got all-in before the flop with A K against pocket kings but spiked the A to double his stack. Tournament steamroller JC Tran also found himself in with the worst of it just after the dinner break, getting his chips in the middle with A 3 against A T and A J. But that 3 helped make a seven-high straight when all the cards were out, keeping Tran in the game. He finished the day with 47,000, good for 23rd place on the leaderboard, while Scott ended the day in second place with 90,700.

With both starting days complete, the tournament’s official Day 2 will begin tomorrow with 88 players still in contention. Eugene Teh holds the chip lead with 93,500, followed closely by Stewart Scott. Some well-known players who still have a shot at taking home $391,556 and an APT title when play resumes tomorrow are Day 1A chip leader David Steicke (5th in chips), 10-time WSOP bracelet winner Johnny Chan (23rd), Steve Sung (55th), David Chiu (63rd), Steve Wong (74th), and Casey Kastle (84th).

Play is set to resume at noon local time on Saturday, with the plan being to play all the way down to a final table. Until then, here’s a look at the top 10 chip counts.

APT Macau Day 1 Top 10 Chip Counts

1. Eugene Teh - 93,500
2. Stewart Scott - 90,700
3. Michael Lipari - 87,800
4. Rumi Boukai - 86,300
5. David Steicke - 86,200
6. Don Carmona - 84,900
7. Nick Wong - 79,700
8. Ian Frazer - 67,900
9. Michael Woo - 63,000
10. Jay Kinkade - 62,600