County Employee Fired for Personal Hobby
If one person in the world has a gambling problem, well it’s likely that everyone who has ever sat at a poker table does right? That’s the impression that was recently given by the Stark County Treasurer’s office in Canton Ohio.
It seems that the county hired a man by the name of William “Brian” Ross a few weeks ago. Just two weeks after he was originally hired.
Ross wasn’t fired because of poor attendance, or bad math skills. He wasn’t fired due to anything at all that had to do with his job.
In fact, it looks as though Ross was let go because he dealt poker for charity events in his own free time. If there’s more to it than that, well we may never know. The county isn’t going for transparency on this, all they’ve got to say on the subject is that Ross left his brand new job by way of mutual agreement.
PokerStars Announces Preliminary Schedule for 2010 WCOOP
PokerStars has announced the preliminary schedule for the upcoming 2010 World Championship of Online Poker. This year’s series will feature more events than last year’s series and hopefully even larger guaranteed prize pools.
Last year the series had forty five tournaments take place and over $50 million in guaranteed prize money. This year the series is going to have sixty two events and even though the guarantees have yet to be released, one would imagine they would be worth over $50 million since there are more events this year than last year.
The series is set to begin on September 5th and the first day will see three events taking place. The first event is the $215 no limit hold’em six max event and next will be the $10,300 no limit hold’em high roller tournament. The last event of the day will be the $215 two day event.
The WCOOP tournament series is expected to have a large variety of games and formats in the various tournaments for players to enjoy. These games include: Five Card Draw, Omaha, Razz, Eight Game, Badugi, HORSE, Single Draw and Triple Draw.
The main event is set to take place on September 26th at 17:00 ET and have a buy-in of $5,200. The main event is one of the highlights of the series and many top pros will be trying their hand at winning the event. Last year the event was won by Yevgeniy Timoshenko and he earned $1.7 million for winning the tournament.
Below is a list of the preliminary schedule. Changes can be made in the future and the guarantees are expected to be released soon:
Sunday, September 5th
13:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max
15:00 ET: $10,300 No Limit Hold’em High Roller
17:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day
Monday, September 6th
14:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Omaha
17:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Shootout Six-Max
20:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Turbo with Rebuys
Tuesday, September 7th
14:00 ET: $215 Pot Limit Five Card Draw
17:00 ET: $215 TBD
20:00 ET: $1,050 No Limit Hold’em 15-Minute Levels
Wednesday, September 8th
12:00 ET: $265 Pot Limit Omaha Knockout
14:00 ET: $320 No Limit Hold’em Ante Up
17:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up Two-Day
Thursday, September 9th
12:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em
14:00 ET: $265 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max Knockout
17:00 ET: $215 Razz
Friday, September 10th
14:00 ET: $215 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max
17:00 ET: $215 No Limit Single Draw
20:00 ET: $109 Eight-Game 10-Minute Levels
Saturday, September 11th
13:00 ET: $109 No Limit Hold’em 10-Minute Levels
17:00 ET: $215 Limit Hold’em
Sunday, September 12th
13:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em
17:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day
Monday, September 13th
14:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Four-Max
17:00 ET: $320 Stud
20:00 ET: $215 Pot Limit Omaha Turbo Cubed
Tuesday, September 14th
14:00 ET: $320 Mixed Hold’em Six-Max
17:00 ET: $320 Limit Badugi
20:00 ET: $1050 No Limit Hold’em 15-Minute Levels
Wednesday, September 15th
12:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Cubed
14:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em Triple Shootout 10-Max
17:00 ET: $320 Eight-Game
Thursday, September 16th
12:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Six-Max
14:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max Cubed
17:00 ET: $320 Limit Triple Draw 2-7
Friday, September 17th
14:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys
17:00 ET: $530 Limit Omaha High/Low
20:00 ET: $320 No Limit Hold’em 10-Minute Levels
Saturday, September 18th
13:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up Two-Day
15:00 ET: $25,500 No Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads-Up Two-Day
17:00 ET: $320 HORSE
Sunday, September 19th
13:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em
17:00 ET: $1,050 No Limit Hold’em Two-Day
Monday, September 20th
14:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max with Rebuys
17:00 ET: $320 No Limit Hold’em 2X Chance
20:00 ET: $265 No Limit Hold’em Turbo Knockout
Tuesday, September 21st
14:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha
17:00 ET: $530 Stud High/Low
20:00 ET: $1,050 No Limit Hold’em 15-Minute Levels
Wednesday, September 22nd
12:00 ET: $215 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max
14:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Big Antes
17:00 ET: $320 Pot Limit Omaha High/Low
Thursday, September 23rd
12:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em Turbo
14:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys
17:00 ET: $2,100 Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max
Friday, September 24th
14:00 ET: $530 No Limit Hold’em Cubed
17:00 ET: $1,050 Limit Hold’em Six-Max
20:00 ET: $215 No Limit Omaha High/Low 10-Minute Levels
Saturday, September 25th
13:00 ET: $530 Pot Limit Omaha Heads-Up Match Play
17:00 ET: $2,100 HORSE
Sunday, September 26th
13:00 ET: $215 No Limit Hold’em
15:00 ET: $10,300 Eight-Game High Roller
17:00 ET: $5,200 Main Event Two-Day
Online Interactive Poker School Launched by WSOP Academy
The World Series of Poker has their official poker school which is called the WSOP Academy. The WSOP Academy recently announced they have been working on a new online interactive poker school and they have now launched the beta version of the new school.
The new online school was created to help the beginner poker player as well as the occasional player improve their game play. The online poker school will use footage that is exclusive to the WSOP of game play that is combined with an interface and instruction from the top poker pros in the business.
Phil Hellmuth commented: “The WSOP Academy Online is unlike any other training site. It gives players a clear training roadmap, with a tested protocol that improves confidence and ensures your game is getting better each time you train. We teach players with real hands from real tournaments with exclusive WSOP content, giving them our first-hand view of every flop, turn and river. This is the place where the next generation will learn to become champions.”
The beta period of the new site will run from now until September 1st. players will not have to pay a set up fee. The only required fee is a $14.95 a month during the beta period to access to the site. The site has the best poker players as instructors which include: Annie Duke, Greg Raymer, Mark Gregorich, Gavin Griffin, Phil Hellmuth and Mark Seif.
A few features of the new school are: Training Roadmap, Certification Course, Bracelet Winners Corner, Hellmuth’s Home Game and Navarro’s Poker Tells Center. The Training Roadmap is a section of the school that teaches knowledge of the game as well as expanding on each skill that is learned. This section is dividing into twelve sections and live feedback is offered after each session.
The Certification Course section is a live certification class that trains and gives certification to players from the best in the industry. The Bracelet Winners Corner is a thirty minute module where players will learn directly from the best poker players in the world.
Hellmuth’s Home Game is where players can sit down with Phil himself and watch a weekly online television show that will teach poker strategy. Navarro’s Poker Tells Center is a section where players can learn from Joe Navarro who spends twenty five years in the FBI as an interrogator. Players will learn how to spot body tells as well as how to hide their own.
Overall the online poker school sounds like a great option for players to learn and become an overall better poker player. The beta phase does not cost a ton of money so every type of player can afford to try out the new poker school.
Full Tilt Poker Announces FTOPS XVII
Full Tilt Poker is one of the most popular online poker sites on the internet today. Thousands of players log on to Full Tilt Poker everyday to enjoy the various poker games and tournaments that the site has to offer. One of the most popular options that Full Tilt offers is their Full Tilt Online Poker Series. The Series is about to start again and Full Tilt has announced the schedule of events.
This year the Full Tilt Online Poker Series XVII will begin on August 4th. The tournament will continue until August 15th and have thirty four events taking place. The total guaranteed prize money up for grabs will be $19 million but hopefully so many players will sign up to compete that the prize money for each tournament will surpass its guarantee!
Included on the schedule are six Rush Poker tournaments as well as knockout and shootout tournaments. There will also be a Bouncebackability Free roll which will be for those who end up being Bubble Boys. If you just miss the cash bubble in an event then you will be entered into the free roll. You will then have the chance to win a seat to the FTOPS XVII Main Event.
Even though the schedule has been announced it has not been told as to who will be hosting each event. I’m sure Full Tilt is still figuring out which star will host which event so we should find out in the near future who will be hosting the events.
The online poker series will kick off with a $200 plus $16 No Limit Hold’em event which will have a guaranteed prize pool of $750,000. Next up will be a $240 plus $16 Pot limit Omaha hi/lo knockout rush tournament which will have a $200,000 guaranteed prize pool.
The events with the larger prize pools are the $300 plus $22 no limit hold’em event which takes place on the 8th. This event has a $1,250,000 prize pool as well as the $1,000 plus $60 no limit hold’em tournament which has the same guaranteed prize pool. This event takes place on the 9th.
There is also going to be a $2,000 plus $100 no limit hold’em tournament ante from start which is a two day six max event. This tournament will have a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million dollars. And of course no one could forget the main event. The main event will have a buy-in of $600 plus $40 and be a no limit hold’em tournament with a guaranteed prize pool of $3,000,000.
Of course if you don’t want to pay the buy-in you can try your hand at satellites that Full Tilt will be holding. Players can earn their seat to the tournament events by participating in the various satellites with varying buy-ins to earn their seat to a FTOPS XVII Event. Players can check out the FTOPS XVII page at Full Tilt to check out the full schedule of events.
Ryan Welch Wins 2010 WSOP Event #51
Event #51 of the 2010 World Series of Poker has finished up and the winner of the event was Ryan Welch. The event had a buy-in of $3,000 and had 965 players competing which created a prize pool of just over $2.6 million dollars.
The event was a no limit hold’em triple chance tournament and when the final day of play began it would be twelve players returning to the table to play down to the bracelet winner. It would take about two hours for the table to be narrowed down to the final nine players and the competition would be tough.
The first player to be eliminated would be Tad Jurgens when he went all in and was called by Noel Scruggs as well as Guillaume Darcourt. Jurgens held pocket Queens while Scruggs held A-Q and Darcourt held pocket 7s. The board ran out 9-7-3-2-4 and Darcourt would eliminate both players. So Jurgens would be out in ninth and Scruggs would go out in eighth.
Tommy Vedes would go out in seventh place after he went all in and was called by Sergey Lebedev. Vedes held A-9 while Lebedev held pocket eights. The board would run out 5-5-3-5-J and Vedes would not get the cards he needed to win the hand and he would be out in seventh place.
Sixth place would go to Sergey Lebedev when he went all in and was called by Darcourt. Lebedev held A-J while Darcourt held A-K. the board fell 10-10-9-10-K and Darcourt’s King would help him win the hand and Lebedev would be out in sixth place.
Bradley Craig would be eliminated in fifth place after going all in preflop. Craig was called by Darcourt who held pocket nines and Craig held A-8. The board fell J-8-4-6-7 so with the larger pair, Darcourt would win the hand and Craig would be eliminated.
Fourth place would go to Will Failla when he went all in against Ryan Welch. Failla went all in preflop and Welch called. Failla held A-7 while Welch held A-J. the board ran out K-Q-2-5-6 and Failla would be out in fourth place.
Third would go to Darcourt when he went all in and was called by Jon Eaton. Darcourt held 8-6 while Eaton held 7-4. The board showed 9-6-5-8-9 and Darcourt would be eliminated as Eaton got his straight flush.
This would leave Ryan Welch and Jon Eaton in heads up play. On the final hand Welch would have the chip lead. Welch would raise preflop and Eaton would call. The flop showed 9-7-6 and both players would check. The turn showed a 10 and Eaton would bet. Welch called and the river showed a King. Eaton would bet again and Welch came back with an all in which forced Eaton to push all his chips in as well.
After a little deliberation, Eaton was all in and Welch turned over his cards to show Q-J which was a nut straight and it gave him the win which was his first WSOP bracelet of his career.
Final Results:
1. Ryan Welch — $559,371
2. Jon Eaton — $344,830
3. Guillaume Darcourt — $223,459
4. Will Failla — $163,532
5. Bradley Craig — $121,451
6. Sergey Lebedev — $91,407
7. Tommy Vedes — $69,647
8. Noel Scruggs — $53,694
9. Tad Jurgens — $41,842
