Britain's got talent, Everybody loves Raymond

Event 45 - $10,000 Pot Limit Hold'em World Championship

One more day has passed in Vegas and we have some more new stuff to share with you guys. British John Kabbaj had to overcome some difficulties in his way to his very first bracelet. And I'm not just talking about the tough competition he had to face, with Gerasimov, Isaac Haxton, Jason Lester and Eric Baldwin trying to take down the PLHE championship! The structure of the tournament was kinda sucky. Reports from the WSOP say that when the action was 7handed the average chipstack was just 14 big blinds. Yeah, I don't know about you, but when I read that I imagined something like those SuperTurbo heads-up from CDPoker, in which every minraise meant an all-in move.

Anyway, British John Kabbaj wanted nothing to do with it, so he just picked his spots well and put himself in good position to take the title. Also, luck was definitely on his side whenever he needed it at the final table. On the very final hand, luck smiled to Kabbaj once again, as he found himself in amazing shape against Gerasimov, holding Aces against Kings. Unfortunately for the Russian the board ran dry for him, which meant he finished in 2nd place. Kabbaj earned $633,335 for his victory. Gerasimov cashes $391,369, so I'm sure he is not entirely sad. It's the third time Gerasimov has a runner-up finish at the WSOP. He still chases his first bracelet, so better luck next time!

Payouts and standings:

1. John Kabbaj – $633,335
2. Kirill Gerasimov – $391,369
3. Eric Baldwin – $259,534
4. Davidi Kitai – $183,638
5. Juan Carlos Alvarado – $138,375
6. Jason Lester – $110,431
7. Eugene Todd – $93,085
8. Isaac Haxton – $82,688
9. Darryll Fish – $77,136

Event 46 - $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Lo

Event 46 was just one of the maaany tournaments that couldn’t keep up with the schedule at this year’s WSOP. American Derek Raymond was 9/23 in chips when the final day started. It took 14 grueling hours for him to finally claim his first gold bracelet. Although before that happened he had to face some strong opposition, with Mike Matusow, Mark Gregorich, John Monnette and others trying to win the $2,500 PLO8 event.

We can say that Raymond’s road to the title was like a rollercoaster. “I was up to 1 million (today), hit a rough patch and was down to 120,000, (but) you can’t give up.” Raymond said about his day. Eventually he managed to climb his way back and defeat Mark Tenner in the heads-up. Raymond won the heads-up match with the perfect PLO8 hand: A2345 for both High and Low pots. Besides winning his first bracelet, Raymond collected nearly $230,000 in prize money.

Payouts and standings:

1. Derek Raymond – $229,192
2. Mark Tenner – $141,647
3. Scott Bohlman – $93,199
4. Fabio Coppola – $65,094
5. Josh Schlein – $48,028
6. Sirous Jamshidi – $37,350
7. Michael Keiner – $30,562
8. Mark Gregorich – $26,213
9. Pat Poels – $23,541

$50K HORSE EVENT

Yay! One of the most anticipated events of the whole WSOP has just started. If you are looking for a list of active "poker greats", you will come close to it if you check the chip counts of this tournament. Since it's a limit event and the players startout with a huge stack, the tournament will probably last for 5 days.

There will be no LPers in this year's event. If you took a look at the chip counts, you'll notice that our hero Corwin Mackey, aka Mig the Mignator, is not there. He decided to not play this event this year.

The WSOP organization has announced the prizepool and payouts of the tournament:

Prizepool - $4,560,000

Payouts: 1st $1,276,802, 2nd $789,199 3rd $522,394 4th $368,813 5th $276,610 6th $219,655 7th $184,087 8th $162,382 9th $123,895 10th $123,895 11th $99,590 12th $99,590 13th $83,630 14th $83,630 15th $72,914 16th $72,914


Check back tomorrow for more information on the $50k HORSE event!

By: Raidern