Poker-Bug Poker News

John Juanda currently holds the chip lead at the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship. (Courtesy Larry Kang at flickr.com)

 

In a bid to become the official bread of the World Series of Poker, the World Poker Tour has deftly placed itself on either end of the biggest poker tournament in the world, essentially creating a WSOP sammich (that’s "sandwich" with street cred). With the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship right before and the Bellagio Cup III immediately after, the WPT is in position to capitalize on Vegas becoming the center of the poker world for the next two months.

The bottom slice of bread in the sandwich - otherwise known as the WPT Mandalay Bay Poker Championship $10,000 championship event - got underway yesterday with 227 entrants looking to polish their tournament skills and possibly walk away with the $768,775 first-place prize. The field was narrowed down to 110 by end of play yesterday with several big names still in contention.

Three-time WSOP bracelet winner John Juanda (112,325 in chips) sits atop the leader board with feared high-stakes cash game player David Benyamine (110,375) stacked in second place. Other notable pros still in contention include Phil Laak (47,000), Antonio Esfandiari (40,000), Jennifer Tilly (36,000), Erica Shoenberg (girlfriend of Benyamine at 32,000) and current CardPlayer “Player of the Year” point leader, J.C. Tran (10,000).

Among the players looking good away from the table is Brandi Hawbaker, and we feel more than a little uncomfortable saying that. The narcissistic, penis-on-her-back, ex-pageant girl poker player claims in an interview with PokerWire that she’s managed to roll $1,000 into $200,000 playing cash games while trying to avoid media attention for awhile. Did we mention she’s narcissistic? Check out the video:

 

Stay tuned to Bodog Beat for updates on all the parts of the “sammich”. And, if you are hungry for some action, head over to the Bodog Poker room where there is still time to win a $12,000 WSOP prize package.

Jeff Kimber, widely known as "Jaffacake", has won the WHUPC in Barcelona, defeating fellow English youngster Daniel Carter in what turned out to be a great event for British players.

Qualifying for the biggest events in Europe has never been easy. Of course you can simply buy in directly, but for those of us with shallower pockets super satellites online are the way to go. If the EPT is your fancy then CelebPoker

With the inaugural WSOP Europe debuting in London later this year and more and more players coming from overseas to play the World Series of Poker every year, Harrah’s has announced the creation of its first International Players Advisory Council ("IPAC").  According to WSOP commish Jeffrey Pollack, the purpose of the group is to "better address the unique needs of our global players."

The members of the first council are as follows: former WSOP Main Event Champ Joe Hachem (Australia), Andy Black (Ireland), Ben Roberts (UK), Donnacha O’Dea (Ireland), Gus Hansen (Denmark), Isabelle Mercier (Canada), Marcel Luske (Netherlands) and Willie Tann (UK).  

Poker player Wendeen Eolis has agreed to come aboard as the chairwoman and Pollack will serve as executive chairman.

The first event of the 2007 WSOP gets underway at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Vegas on June 1, and the $10,000 Main Event is just over a month away. There is still time to win a $12,000 WSOP prize package from Bodog.com where WSOP qualifiers are going on daily for as little as $1.50.

Erica Schoenberg beat out a field of 118 players to win the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship.

 

Erica "The Poker Babe" Schoenberg faced down Anna "The Poker Pixie" Wroblewski over the weekend in a heads-up battle to win the $2,500 buy-in preliminary event at the Mandalay Bay Poker Championship. Both ladies cat-fought their way through a field of 118 mostly-male players to find themselves in position to take home the $105,875 first-place prize. Wroblewski would eventually go down to Schoenberg’s superior play.

No stranger to deep finishes at major poker tournaments, the 29-year-old Schoenberg, who currently dates the much older (at least in appearance) poker pro, David Benyamine, previously notched a 16th-place finish at the 2006 World Poker Tour World Championship and finished fourth in the 2006 WPT Ladies’ Night Out.

Wroblewski, on the other hand, burst onto the poker scene just last month at the Bellagio Five Star World Poker Classic, winning the $3,000 buy-in event, finishing 16th in the $2,000 event and making a run to 70th place in the $10,000 championship event. She also won the Ladies Event at the WSOP Circuit event at Caesars Palace to finish out the month of April. She takes home $71,540 for her second place finish at Mandalay Bay, making her six-week total of poker tournament earnings a whopping $481,303, which, to put it into perspective, equals about 800 pairs of really expensive shoes.

Also of note, WPT Mirage Poker Showdown champ Jonathan Little finished in ninth-place adding to his increasingly impressive bankroll.

The WSOP Pillow Fight Ladies Event is just around the corner. Head over to Bodog.com where there is still a chance to win one of six guaranteed weekly $12,000 WSOP prize packages.

Jen Mason, an institute on the Blondepoker forum, has took down the Green Joker Poker Festival Main Event in Drogheda, Ireland. The second GJP Festival took place at the newly opened Drogheda Card Club

Even on a holiday weekend in the US, online poker players did not take a vacation from the action in the Bodog Poker room. The Sunday $100,000 Guaranteed online poker tournament drew 751 entrants yesterday to battle it out for the guaranteed $25,000 first-place prize.

With two first-place finishes in the $50,000 guaranteed tournament within the last week already chalked up, Bodog regular "head2782" continued his dominating ways last night. Entering the final table with the chip lead, he never relinquished control and rode that advantage to victory disposing of "Johnny Mojo" in just five minutes of heads-up play.

The win gives the Bodog pros’ arch-nemesis (he keeps ending their TLB winning streaks) enough points to knock "nevertilt22" out of the top spot in the weekly and yearly TLB standings while solidifying his grip on May’s TLB.

Here are the rest of the final table results and payouts:

1) head2782 - $25,000

2) Johnny Mojo - $14,300

3) clmtgrinder - $9,200

4) quietwinner - $6,900

5) amak316 - $5,500

6) MICADOO - $4,500

7) TheComeback2120 - $3,500

8) Doc Nol - $2,500

9) CardXFactor - $1,600

Get into one of the daily satellites in the Bodog Poker room for as little as a dollar and win a seat into the Bodog Sunday $100,000 Guaranteed online poker tournament and your shot the $25,000 first-place prize.

All eyes were on the fascinating match up between Dave "Devilfish" Ulliot and young Daniel Carter at the World Heads Up Poker Championships in Barcelona yesterday.

There is less than five weeks to go before the unique, totally free-to-enter, UK Poker News Caribbean Poker Cruise Freeroll takes place! Grab your ticket to a 10-day holiday in the Caribbean sun, playing poker with the European greats!

Bodog.com is giving online poker players even more chances to qualify for the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event. Beginning this Sunday, May 27, the online poker powerhouse is holding three "Main Event Semifinal" tournaments each and every week, with two $12,000 WSOP prize packages guaranteed per tournament. The "Main Event Semifinal" tournaments are held Sundays at 2:20pm ET, Mondays at 9:15pm and Thursdays at 9:15pm.

The buy-in for these tournaments is $270, but players can satellite their way to a seat for as little as $1.50, and Bodog.com has also amped up the number of satellite qualifiers into the "Main Event Semifinal" tournaments with the addition of two $29 buy-in "Main Event Last Chance" tournaments that guarantee at least three seats into the Semifinal, with the possibility of up to five seats depending on the number of entrants.

Players who want to use their Bodog Poker Points have the option to enter the twice-daily "Main Event PTS Quarterfinal", which previously paid out T$250 for every 17 players entered but now pays out T$270 for every 10, all for the same buy-in of 1,000 PTS. The T$270 buys you directly into a "Main Event Semifinal" tournament.

This amped up schedule only runs through June 18 when all WSOP qualifying at Bodog.com will end, so get started now and hopefully we’ll see you in Vegas when the 2007 World Series of Poker Main Event kicks off July 6 at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino.