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The 2013 WSOP Main Event kicks off on July 6. It is the event that generates maximum interest and maximum speculation. Over the last few years the Main Event bracelet has been won by unknown players and the poker fraternity is waiting for a big one to win the big one.

The online betting site bwin.com, which also operates a popular poker room, has posted odds for the 2013 WSOP Main Event winner. The list is headed by Daniel Negreanu with odds of 40/1. Negreanu is one of the leading earners on the live poker tournament circuit and his meager tally of 5 bracelets does not reflect his stature or ability. Negreanu is definitely due for a WSOP Main Event win.

There are three players at 50/1. Phil Hellmuth is the leading WSOP bracelet winner with 13 in his trophy room. Johnny Chan is next with 10 bracelets. His last major success was the back to back Main Event wins in 1987 and 1988, but has failed to live up to expectations since then. The third player at 50/1 is Phil Ivey. When he burst on the poker scene he was rated as a wonder boy. He has raced to 9 WSOP bracelets probably faster than anyone else and is the only player to seriously challenge Hellmuth’s 13. But Full Tilt trouble and wife trouble has put Ivey out of action for a while. May be he comes back with a bang by winning this year’s Main Event.

The complete list of odds at bwin.com is as follows.
Daniel Negreanu (CAN) 40/1
Phil Ivey (USA) 50/1
Phil Hellmuth (USA) 50/1
Johnny Chan (CHN) 50/1
Allen Cunningham (USA) 66/1
Jeremy Ausmus (USA) 66/1
Bryan Piccoli (USA) 66/1
Chris Ferguson (USA) 66/1
Jonathan Duhamel (CAN) 66/1
Tom Dwan (USA) 80/1
Erik Seidel (USA) 80/1
Doyle Brunson (USA) 80/1
Aaron Lim (AUS) 100/1
Jesse Sylvia (USA) 100/1
Vitaly Lunkin (RUS) 100/1
Michael Mizrachi (USA) 100/1
Jason Mercier (USA) 100/1
Patrik Antonius (FIN) 100/1
Pius Heinz (GER) 100/1
Russell Thomas (USA) 100/1

Previous Main event winners in this list are Hellmuth, Chan, Ferguson, Duhamel and Doyle, Brunson.

Poker player Mike Matusow has been nicknamed “The Mouth” by his peers because of the preposterous statements that he makes from time to time. But professional poker watchers feel that Matusow has gone overboard with his latest claim that he is the second best poker tournament player in the world, Carlos Mortensen probably being the best.
The standard criterion for ranking poker tournament players has been the life time live tournament earnings. There are a few data bases available on this listing and by and large they are in agreement. By this standard criteria, Antonio Esfandiari is on top with $24 million plus. Mortensen is No 16 with almost $11 million and Matusow is No 25 with almost $9 million. Hence, in order to justify his claim The Mouth evolved another criterion. He said, “They are tournament players. They travel the tournament circuit. I play my three or four tournaments, and I win them.” His criterion for ranking is prize money won per tournament played. He added, “I don’t play many of them. It’s quality, not quantity.”
It is not that Matusow does not have a point. It is natural for players who have been around longer to gather more prize [...] Continue Reading…

The first open event of 2013 WSOP, the $5,000 Eight-Handed No Limit Hold’em, ended with a win for Trevor Pope. But before that 18-time Olympic gold medal winning swimmer and amateur poker player Michael Phelps made his WSOP debut. Phelps has been known to play cash games with the likes of Doyle Brunson in between his Olympic stints.
Phelps came to Las Vegas just to take a look and catch up with his poker friends. Antonio Esfandiari and Jeff Gross convinced him to “throw in a buy-in” and see what happens at his first WSOP event and Phelps went along. In due course he landed up against Vanessa Selbst, arguably one of the greatest female poker players from the current lot. He ended up getting knocked out in the 178th place. After going bust Phelps Tweeted, “Ha ha come on we had a blast! Until you took the beat of course.” The event had a starting field of 481 players, which meant that Phelps finished well into the top half. This was not all that bad for a debut performance.
Pope took home his first ever WSOP bracelet and a top prize of $553,906. He entered the final table with a [...] Continue Reading…

With WSOP beginning on May 29 the famed bracelets are bound to be in the news. But there are two items that feature the bracelet with a twist.
Jamie Gold the 2006 WSOP Main Event winner has announced that he will auction his bracelet. The process will be conducted by Heritage Auctions, which bills itself as “The World’s Largest Collectibles Auctioneer.” The auction will take place on July 13, the date on which the 2013 WSOP Main Event will begin. The description of the bracelet given by Heritage Auctions is as follows: “The bracelet features 259 stones including over seven carats of diamonds and 120 grams of white and yellow gold. Rubies are inset to create the red of the heart and diamond suits, while a sapphire represents the spade and three black diamonds the clubs.” Gold is the biggest WSOP winner of all time. In 2006 he took home a $12 million cash prize for winning the Main Event. He exactly did not take all of it home because he was compelled to share half of that amount with one Crispin Leyser, with whom he had an agreement prior to the event.
Gold was not the first WSOP winner to [...] Continue Reading…

The Ultimate Bet (UB.com) Super User scandal refuses to fade away. Just when good things have happened in the online poker space, the scandal has resurfaced. Travis Makar, Russ Hamilton’s personal assistant, released audio tapes of secretly recorded meetings between Ultimate Bet founders and lawyers. The reveal a frank and free admission of wrong doings. The scandal revolved around a feature in the software known as AuditMonster that allowed those in possession of a code to see the pocket cards of the players.
The tapes have Russ Hamilton admitting that he took the money. Hamilton tries to exonerate himself by saying he used a part of that money to prop up Ultimate Bet, which otherwise would have to close down. He however refused to provide any funds to pay back the victims.
The most shocking revelations concern well known and reputed poker professionals Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth. Both were long standing brand ambassadors at Ultimate Bet, who quit just before the scandal broke, giving rise to some rumors about their involvement. These tapes reveal that both these poker players were actually part owners of the online poker room. Though they do not appear as participants, they were discussed by Hamilton [...] Continue Reading…