Coming from more than two dozen different nations, 156 players paid a £10,000 entry fee to compete in the first of two starting flights for the WSOP Europe Main Event.  The £10,000 (GBP) entry fee is equal to about $16,000 (USD).   Brian Powell from Louisville, Kentucky, USA came away from the day as the early chip leader after Day One’s 12 hours of play.

Poker Pro Jeffrey Lisandro was awarded his prize for winning the 2009 World Series of Poker “Player of the Year” by WSOP President and Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack during a break in the action.  Lisandro received a gigantic gift valued at more than $30,000 in the form of three buy-ins into future WSOP Main Events for his record-tying three gold bracelet wins in Las Vegas earlier this year.  Courtesy of Harrah’s entertainment, Lisandro will freeroll the 2010, 2011, and 2012 World Poker Championships.

Jani Vilmunen , from Helsinki, Finland received his first gold bracelet in a special ceremony a short time after Lisandro was awarded his POY prize.  Only the second Finnish Player in history to win a WSOP title, Vilmunen took the honor when he won the Pot Limit Holdem championship the previous day and claimed $330,000 for first place.  Vilmunen’s ceremony was the final such observance of the year.  2009 was the beginning of gold bracelet winners being honored with a ceremony and is now expected to become a WSOP tradition.
 
Doyle Brunson performed the traditional “Shuffle Up and Deal” honors.  Jeffrey Pollack introduced Brunson with, “Doyle was there in Las Vegas at the very start of the WSOP forty years ago.  Doyle was also with us when we started WSOP Europe three years ago in London.  And, we are proud to have him with us today.”  Players and spectators gave Brunson a standing ovation.   

Phil Hellmuth arrived clad in the full regalia of a Roman gladiator, in a chariot drawn by a white horse, riding through Leicester Square in Central London.  He was surrounded by concubines in white dresses and muscled centurions.  The 11-time WSOP gold bracelet winner had this to say, “It’s great to be me.”  The thousands of people around London’s theatre district witnessing Hellmuth’s arrival were obviously quite impressed as some of them laughed, gasped, and stared in bewilderment.
 
As Hellmuth entered Empire Casino, trumpets blared, an army of faux Roman soldiers stood erect, and pretty girls stood at attention as he took his seat at the televised feature table.  Doyle Brunson, his back to Hellmuth’s entrance, was at the same feature table and managed a half smile as he shook his head.
 
Notable players who survived day one included – Chris Bjorin, Farzad Bonyadi, Nick Schulmann, Chad Brown, Doyle Brunson,  Scott Montgomery, Todd Brunson, Brandon Cantu, Liz Lieu, Tony Cousineau, Eric Friberg, Peter Gould, Phil Hellmuth, John Kabbaj, Alex Kravchenko, Erik Seidel, Mike Matusow, Jason Mercier, Men “the Master” Nguyen, Barry Shulman, Phil Tom, and Marco Traniello.
 
Notable players who did not survive day one included – Jeff Madsen, Hoyt Corkins, Robert Mizrachi, Dario Alioto, Max Pescatori, Roland de Wolfe, Huck Seed, Vanessa Rousso, David Pham, Phil Ivey, Barny Boatman, Dario Minieri, and Andy Bloch.
 
Players still wanting to play the main event may register as late as the end of Level 2, day two, Sunday the 27th.  

The winner of the second event of the 2009 WSOPE is Erik Cajelais. The World Series of Poker Europe, which runs in London each year, is a four event poker series that started off with two milestones in the first event, which boasted the largest London playing field and the first time a UK resident won a WOSPE event. The second event, a £2,500 pot-limit hold’em/pot-limit Omaha event, was won by Canadian poker player Erik Cajelais, who picked up the top prize of £104,677 by defeating the 158 player tourney field.

The Borgata Poker Open changed. A long-time stop on the World Poker Tour, the Borgata recognized the impact of the American recession on everything, including poker. In January of 2009, the well-known Atlantic City casino attempted to lower the buy-in in an effort to be more inclusive and affordable for the poker-playing masses. It worked, and when the WPT Borgata Poker Open started on September 19, it did so with the lowest buy-in on the WPT circuit at $3,500 and a $2 million guaranteed prize pool.

Day 1A brought 326 players to the felt, and that group included players like Kenna James, Chino Rheem, Ray Henson, Matt Matros, Jonathan Little, Kathy Liebert, Theo Tran, Eric Baldwin, Dwyte Pilgrim, Alex Bolotin, Soheil Shamseddin, Nancy Todd Tyner, Steve Brecher, and Cornel Andrew Cimpan. When the day ended, the exact chip counts or chip leaders were not known but it was reported that Ray Henson was among the leaders.

Day 1B added another 692 players, making for a total of 1,018 in the tournament and proving to be the largest field ever at a World Poker Tour event. The prize pool came to $3,359,400 with a first prize of just over $925K, but only the top 100 players were to be paid. The second starting day’s action found itself with a number of recognizable faces, like Gavin Smith, Roy Winston, Bill Gazes, Ted Lawson, Chris Bell, Allen Kessler, Bernard Lee, Brian Lemke, Lacey Jones, and John D’Agostino.  Again, no exact chip counts for the day were noted.

Day 2 started with 570 players who survived their first days, but only 167 would make it through the second day. Among the survivors were Bill Gazes, Kathy Liebert, Jonathan Little, Michael Binger, and Lee Childs. But atop the leaderboard was Olivier Busquet with 524,600, followed by Tony Moussa and Danny Illingworth.

Day 3 found players moving quickly toward the money bubble, and in only a few hours, it hit when Paul Georges was eliminated in 101st place through unknown action. The last 100 players would leave with a minimum payout of $4,704, and some of the notable cashes included Jason Dewitt in 81st place, Soheil Shamseddin in 71st, Matt Brady in 66th, and Kathy Liebert in 29th. With 27 players remaining, play ended with Yanick Brodeur in the lead with 3,016,000, followed by Frank Calo and Ray Henson.

Day 4 would work the field down to the final table, with Ofir Mor leading the way by busting in 27th place. Other significant eliminations throughout the day were Bobby Suer in 25th place, Chris Reslock in 11th, Steve Brecher in tenth, and Ray Henson in ninth. Ultimately, with seven players left and one to go before the final table was set, it was Michael Brown who pushed all-in with a little over one million chips with pocket eights, and Jeremy Brown was the caller holding A♥-K♣. the board came Q♣-10♠-7♥-J♥-6♦ to give Jeremy Brown the straight and leave Michael Brown on the rail with $117,579 for seventh place.

The final table was set for the following day with seating assignments and chip counts:

Seat 1:    Yanick Brodeur          5,780,000
Seat 2:    Keith Crowder          2,750,000
Seat 3:    Jeremy Brown          5,480,000
Seat 4:    Olivier Busquet        10,350,000
Seat 5:    Kenny Nguyen             600,000
Seat 6:    Ivan Mamuzic          5,655,000

The action started off with the extreme short-stacked player ready to move. Nguyen did that on the third hand of the night with pocket eights, but he was up against the pocket kings of Busquet. The board came A♣-J♦-2♥-10♦-7♣, and Kenny Nguyen was eliminated in sixth place with $156,212.

Crowder had been losing traction from the start of the table and made his push on the 18th hand of the table. Crowder moved all-in with 10♠-4♠ from the small blind, but Brown woke up with pocket eights in the big blind. The dealer brought hope for Crowder with the 4♦-2♥-2♠ flop, but the 5♣ turn and J♦ river ended the tournament for Keith Crowder, who walked away with $188,126 for fifth place.

Play then slowed quite a bit, and no big pots occurred until Brown surged ahead. It was in a 7.7 million-chip pot versus Busquet that Brown won to jump into the lead. Aggressive in the game and verbally, Brown had climbed to the top.

Meanwhile, Brodeur was chipped down and finally raised all-in from the big blind with A♥-K♦. Brown came over the top all-in with A♣-Q♥, and Brodeur called for his tournament life. The innocent flop came 9♥-8♣-6♥, but the Q♦ on the turn gave the advantage to Brown. A 4♦ on the river ended Yanick Brodeur’s run in fourth place with $216,681.

Three-handed action saw Ivan Mamuzic as the short stack, and he pushed all-in from the big blind for his last 2.8 million. Brown was the caller with pocket sixes, and they dominated the pocket threes of Mamuzic. The board came Q♣-9♥-6♦-10♦-10♠, and Brown improved to a full house while Mamuzic took to the rail with $251,955 for third place.

Heads-up action began with the following counts on the 69th hand of the evening:

Jeremy Brown    22,640,000
Olivier Busquet      7,965,000

Brown continued his aggressive style and chipped away at Busquet for more than 20 hands. Finally, the opportunity arose for Busquet to double through Brown with J-7 over Q-9 when a jack came on the turn. Six hands later, Busquet doubled again with pocket queens.

Busquet found his stride and accumulated chips, even doubling again about 20 hands later. Seven hands later, Busquet took a pot worth more than 7 million when he called Brown’s bluff, and the chip advantage was finally on the side of Busquet.

Brown did win a large pot to take back the chip lead once more, but Busquet was clearly not giving up. Busquet took the lead for the last time, then won a monster pot to jump over the 20 million-chip mark and leave Brown with less than 10 million.

Two hands later, it was over. Brown raised preflop and Busquet called to see a 4♠-4♣-3♣ flop. Brown pushed all-in with 5♠-2♠ for the straight draw, but Busquet called with A♠-4♦ for trips. The 7♠ came on the turn to give Brown the flush draw, but the 5♣ hit on the river to leave Brown with a second place finish and $453,519.

Olivier Busquet made a comeback that reporters on the scene said must see when it airs on Fox Sports to be believed. It was sheer tenacity and calm that won the tournament for Busquet, who took home a WPT bracelet and $925,514 for the feat.

Eugene Katchalov added a PokerStars WCOOP title to his growing resume this weekend.The hits keep coming for pros in the 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker.

Both 2008 WPT Five Diamond winner Eugene “MyRabbiFoo” Katchalov and WPT and WSOP final tablist Jonathan “Iftarii” Jaffe managed to win heads-up events this weekend.

Katchalov had to go through 11 players to win the $530 No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up event and grabbed $140,000 for his efforts.

The event offered a significant overlay from PokerStars, which originally offered a guaranteed prize pool of $1 million, but came short when only 1,564 players registered. Undaunted PokerStars threw in the extra $218,000 and the players who cashed picked up some extra value.

Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson came painfully close to winning the event, but was eventually sent to the rail in fifth place during the ninth round.

Instead Katchalov dispatched online player JakusKhan in last match of the tournament. In the final hand JakusKhan made an ill-timed all-in shove and Katchalov called him down with two-pair.

In the meantime, Jaffe won the epic $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up event and taking a tidy sum of $415,000 with the victory.

The event drew 36 players including big-name pros like Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Peter Eastgate, Sorel Mizzi, Brian Hastings, Barry Greenstein, Ashton Griffin, Bertrand Grospellier and many others.

Eastgate outlasted all of his Team PokerStars peers before eventually crashing out during the quarterfinal round against Adonis112.

Adonis112 would go on to lose to Sifosis in the final four while Jaffe beat Mizzi to guarantee his spot in the final round.

Heads up for the title, Sifosis quickly jumped to a 2.5 to 1 chip lead, but Jaffe managed to battle back and eventually take charge.

In the deciding hand of the tournament Jaffe flopped a trip fives while Sifosis nailed two-pair. All the chips went in the middle and Jaffe’s hand held giving him the prestigious $25,000 WCOOP Heads-Up title.

This is the final week of WCOOP action and it’s all leading up to the $10 million guaranteed two-day Main Event, which will take place this coming Sunday Sept. 20 at 4:30 ET.

Online poker room PokerStars hosted a charity event on Saturday to raise money for Kent Senter. Senter was the recipient of a gift from the poker room this summer when he and his family were flown to Las Vegas from Pittsburgh to play in the main event of the World Series of Poker. Senter, who suffers from a terminal form of cancer, dreamed of playing in the event and the poker room helped make that dream come true. The event held on Saturday was a $10 rebuy tournament that raised money to help with medical and other expenses for Senter.

News about the UltimateBet scandal had been relatively non-existent since the Fall of 2008. After the Kahnawake Gaming Commission released its initial findings in September of 2008 and pointed to Russ Hamilton as the primary alleged criminal in the cheating incidences, the industry spent a short time abuzz about the former World Series of Poker Main Event champion before going mostly silent on the issue. But on September 11, 2009, the KGC made public its final decision in the case, putting the KGC’s part in the matter to rest.

In the original decision released by the KGC, it was noted that there were 19 accounts and 88 usernames used to cheat players, and Russ Hamilton was the primary person connected to the cheating incidents. Sanctions against UltimateBet were announced, as well as the fact that UB had reimbursed $6.1 million to players and was still in the process of issuing more repayments. Clearly, those numbers were premature, and when the case was closed in the KGC books on September 11, 2009, most statistics had changed and more information was made public.

The document was entitled “In the Matter of Tokwiro Enterprises ENRG [owner of UltimateBet and Absolute Poker], Carrying on Business as UltimateBet Investigation Regarding Complaints of Cheating” and began by stating that the KGC completed its investigation but has no authority to determine criminal culpability or civil liability. After giving an overview of the scandal since it came to light in early 2008, it announced the following findings (summarized):

1.  Cheating occurred on UB between June 2003 and December 2007.
2.  The cheating was initiated by one or more individuals associated with UB prior to Tokwiro’s purchase of it.
3.  The alleged cheaters currently have no association with UB or Tokwiro.
4.  The cheating was done by manipulating the software.
5.  Tokwiro was not aware of the software glitches until after the cheating was discovered.
6.  Tokwiro cooperated with the KGC to identify perpetrators and reimburse victimized players.

UB met the following conditions during the course of the investigation:

1.  Tokwiro ridded itself of any “unsuitable” people in its ownership, management, and operations.
2.  Tokwiro modified its entire control system by February 2008 to remove faulty software and prevent further incidences.
3.  Tokwiro refunded $22,054,351.91 to players adversely affected by the cheating.
4.  Tokwiro paid a $1.5 million fine, plus investigation costs, to the KGC.

In order to keep its license, Ultimate Bet was issued additional conditions to follow:

1.  The KGC will be allowed to test Tokwiro’s control systems whenever it deems necessary.
2.  Any changes or upgrades to the system must meet or exceed industry best practices as determined by the KGC.
3.  Tokwiro must provide all details of daily operations for a one-year period.
4.  Tokwiro must maintain three sets of web and game logs, one of which will be on a server at the KGC facilities.
5.  Tokwiro must complete a compliance policy update and review within 90 days of the decision to ensure it is meeting industry best practices.
6.  Tokwiro must file an application within 30 days of the decision for licensing of any person associated with Tokwiro as an officer, director, key person, or shareholder.
7.  Tokwiro must file an application within 30 days of the decision for any person associated with Tokwiro or terminate that employment or relationship.
8.  KGC has the right to request an application from anyone with a beneficial interest in Tokwiro.
9.  All applicants must be available to the KGC for interviews.

The final decision included a complete list of all accounts and usernames associated with the cheating scandal, of which there were 23 accounts and 117 usernames. The names of perpetrators associated with each name were not released.

With respect to the perpetrators, it was concluded that Russ Hamilton, who previously had an association with eWorld Holdings Group, was “primarily responsible for and benefitted from the multiple cheating incidences. The vast majority of the computer devices and IP addresses used by the cheating accounts were directly associated with Russell Hamilton. The vast majority of the cheating accounts transferred money through Russell Hamilton’s player accounts.”

It was also reported that there were 31 individuals thought to have been associated with Hamilton. When Chuck Barnett, member of the Board of Supervisors of Mohawk Internet Technologies was asked about the release of those names, he responded that it was thoroughly discussed with a legal team and with law enforcement authorities before determining that the release of the names to the public would be detrimental to the case. Since some of the 31 names may have varying degrees of culpability – some may not have even known they were participating in the scandal at all – the civil liability of releasing that information might result in a legal backlash for the KGC.

The KGC has turned over all results of the investigation, including the names of Hamilton and his 31 alleged co-conspirators, to the proper authorities who have expressed an interest in pursuing criminal charges against them. Barnett would not divulge whether the authorities were in Canada or the United States, but he was confident that there would be a criminal pursuit undertaken.

With that, KGC Chairman Dean Montour noted, “Despite the unfortunate circumstances that resulted in this cheating, we are satisfied that the actions taken by the Commission provided an equitable result for affected players – our first priority. We remain optimistic that this experience and the lessons learned from it will result in a higher standard of gaming regulation for companies licensed and regulated within the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake and elsewhere.”

Lots of players drift in and out of the high-stakes games. Some are mid-stakes players taking a shot, some are the much-beloved rich fish and some are players simply playing outside of their bankroll and gambling. These players tend to come and go, but there are some who have stuck around to rule the high-stakes roost

THE NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK

Ziigmund
Ilari Sahamies is arguably the biggest character in the high-stakes games with a fondness for hilarious trash talking (often at the expense of Gus Hansen) and some serious gambling – he once flipped for over $200,000 with Phil Ivey. The 26-year-old Finn is a fast-living, hard drinking almost comical figure.

durrrr
Tom Dwan is considered to be the best player online who isn’t called Phil Ivey, and has an almost mythical reputation. He plays a uniquely aggressive style of poker, playing hands and situations unlike most other high-stakes pros. He also has a seemingly unquenchable appetite for high-stakes gambling.

urindanger & trex313
The Dang brothers are two 
of the high-stakes world’s most feared characters. The duo from near Washington DC rose quickly up the 
online ranks by playing on one account with a shared bankroll under the name urindanger. Hac Dang is 
the younger of the pair at 23 and now plays as 
trex313. Di Dang is 24 and retains the urindanger name.

OMGCLAYAIKEN
Phil Galfond is one of the most feared and respected high-stakes names. He has a less mathematical and more psychological approach to the game, and is known as one of the most thinking and analytical players in the game. He is a close friend of Tom Dwan and the Dang brothers.

LarsLuzak
Finnish pro Sami Kelopuro is one of the most feared heads-up no-limit specialists. He doesn’t post on forums or blog but is a favourite for railbirds as he will play anyone for any stakes.

THE BIG NAMES

Phil Ivey
Despite being a relative latecomer to the world of online cash games, Ivey has shown just what an incredible poker player he is by rapidly becoming one of the biggest online winners across all games.

Gus Hansen
The big games come alive whenever Gus takes a seat. He seems to be regarded as something of a fish by the fellow high-stakes players and his tables usually have a waiting list. But Hansen seems to be having the last laugh with some huge wins.

Patrick Antonius
(luigi66369, I_Knockout_U)
Antonius is without question one of the best online cash game players alive and consistently puts in the results to prove it. Very few players will take on Antonius heads-up, but Dwan, Ivey and others will.

Guy Laliberte
The quintessential action starter. The founder of the Cirque De Soleil is a billionaire with a fondness for high-stakes poker, despite being the worst player at the table on almost all occasions. If one of Guy’s many reputed aliases are to be found at a table, the other five seats will usually be occupied.

David Benyamine
(MR B 2 U SON)
The famous Frenchman has been quiet of late on the high-stakes tables, but he is known for putting in a monster volume online, playing several tables. He is another player who gets the action started.

THE SUPPORTING CAST

_fullflush1_
Brit Luke Schwartz has been the biggest winner in the no-limit hold’em games of late. Just as famous for his trash talking and his rivalry with durrrr.

Krantz
(pr1nnyraid)
Jay Rosenkrantz was the biggest winner in the no-limit games during 2007, but has been relatively quiet of late.

Whitelime
Emil Patel is the flatmate of Krantz and another regular in the high-stakes games. Like Krantz he is a professional instructor on DeucesCracked.

muckemsayuh
Considered by many to be the best heads-up no-limit player online, Cole South is an enigmatic figure fond of snowboarding and travelling when not killing the games.

David Benefield
(aaron73)
Initially better known as durrrr’s housemate, Benefield is one of the 
rising stars of online 
poker and a regular in the bigger games.

INTERNETPOKERS
Another newcomer to the high-stakes limelight, although a long-term high stakes player. Haseeb Qureshi is also a member of Team CardRunners. He is one to watch in the big games.

To read more about the internet’s high stakes cash games and the original icons of online nosebleeds check out The New Big Game article.