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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 massive chip lead. He had almost half the chips in play and six times as many as the next man. And he finished off his competitors with a ruthless efficiency that a strong position enables. One of Pope’s supporters on the rails was a dog named Revis. He was Joey Weissman’s mascot last year and this year Revis did the trick for Pope. The Rio hallway allows canines and 2013 WSOP may see many more of them now.
EPT winner David Vamplew lost in the heads up to Pope and won a packet of $342,450. The only previous bracelet winner in the final table was Dan Kelly, who finished in 6th place. The total prize pool for this event was $2,260,700. The top 56 players finished in the money. Some of the more well known players to do so included Bryan Piccioli, Antonio Esfandiari, Brandon Cantu, Jesse Sylvia, Jeremy Ausmus, David Sands, Brian Rast and Tom Marchese.

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 and his coterie.
Annie Duke had gone on record claiming that she had no knowledge of the AuditMonster feature. However, in the tapes Hamilton says that on multiple occasions Annie had actually used the tool on a “15 minute delay”. He stated that she had her own copy of the tool, implying that she was in the know and had the opportunity to use the tool. Annie has responded to these allegations through Twitter. She claims that she had access to the delayed viewing of cards only for a few Ultimate Bet tournament events where she was a radio commentator. She added that this is standard practice for WSOP commentators for live events also. Her final Tweet was, “Sad a few folks making accusations and assumptions without fully appreciating this.” The interesting part is that during one of the tournaments in which Annie used the tool her then boyfriend, a novice player, won over $200,000.
Hellmuth comes out almost unscathed. The coterie discussed him and concluded that he was not suitable to be brought into the loop. Attorney Daniel Friedberg said, “Phil is the absolute worst possible person on the planet to ever be even remotely close to this. He can be controlled”. Hellmuth has expressed his disgust after listening to the tapes.

The PokerStars and Monte-Carlo Casino EPT Grand Final is one of the most reputed events in the live tournament poker circuit. The final table for this season’s event was set late last week and was billed as the best final table ever. This is heartening news for the poker fraternity, because of late final tables have often been devoid of star power. This final table included Jake Cody, Jason Mercier, Andrew Pantling, Grant Levy, Steve O’Dwyer, Daniel Negreanu, Noah Schwartz and Johhny Lodden.
O’Dwyer defeated Pantling in the heads up to win the €1,224,000 first prize from the €5,310,000 prize pool. O’Dwyer also won a stunning watch worth €9,000 from luxury Swiss brand Slyde, the Official Watch Sponsor for the event. This was O’Dwyer’s fourth EPT final table in 18 months, which include two at the ETP London. O’Dwyer said that he is still in shock at winning such a tough final table. “At the start of the final, I knew I needed to get lucky to win because these guys are so good.” Dwyer’s live tournament winnings now exceed $4 million.
Pantling won €842,000 for coming second. The biggest name on the final table was Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu. He finished fourth for €321,000. Negreanu’s total live tournament winnings have reached nearly $18 million. Jason Mercier was another star on the final table, having won the EPT San Remo event. Mercier was eliminated in seventh place for €137,000.
The action in Monte Carlo is not yet over. All eyes are now on the €100,000 Super High Roller event. O’Dwyer has announced his participation in that event. “It’s very satisfying to finally have that title. I will play the €100k Super High Roller tomorrow, and then on to Season 10, and the race to see who can win two EPT titles.” O’Dwyer is currently sixth in the ETP 9 Player of the Year leader board with 1,650 points. Jan Bendik is leader board topper with 2,745 points. Bendik’s most recent wins were at €1,000 No Limit Hold’em Turbo event in Monte Carlo and in the same event in EPT UK & Ireland.

The Asia Pacific leg of the World Series of Poker, termed as WSOP APAC, is currently running. Some big ticket events have been completed while the Main Event is in the final stage. The final table for this event was set on Sunday and is as follows.
Seat 1: George Tsatsis (Australia) – 2,321,000
Seat 2: Benny Spindler (Germany) – 2,931,000
Seat 3: Mikel Habb (Australia) – 551,000
Seat 4: Winfred Yu (Hong Kong) – 367,000
Seat 5: Russell Thomas (USA) – 490,000
Seat 6: Daniel Marton (Australia) – 2,160,000
Seat 7: Kahle Burns (Australia) – 905,000
Seat 8: Daniel Negreanu (Canada) – 2,437,000
It is great to see so many players from the Asia Pacific region in the last eight, because it is after all their event. However, all eyes will be on Poker Kid Daniel Negreanu. The WSOP write-up describes Negreanu thus: “This poker icon is one of the most liked players of all time, with his charismatic persona only equaled by his tournament results.” Since the start of the final table Poker Kid has taken his chip count to over 4 million. At the time of writing no one had bust. Earlier Antonio Esfandiari was a strong contender to make it to the final table, but was eliminated in the 9th place.
WSOP APAC also featured the Caesars Cup, which is played between intercontinental teams. Phil Ivey led the American team consisting of big names like Antonio Esfandiari, Daniel Negreanu, Greg Merson and Phil Hellmuth. The European team was led by Sam Trickett and included Marvin Rettenmaier, Phil Gruissem, Dominik Nitsche and Sam Holden. Joe Hachem acted as captain for Team Australia. Trickett and company won. This is the second Caesars Cup win for Europe, the first one being in 2009 at WSOP Europe, when Annette Oberstad was captain.
Poker pro Phil Ivey won his 9th WSOP bracelet in the $2,200 Mixed Event of WSOP APAC, fending off challenge from Negreanu. His 8th bracelet had come eons back in WSOP 2010. Ivey is now tied for 4th place with Johnny Moss Those ahead of him are Phil Hellmuth with 13 bracelets and Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan with 10 bracelets each.

America remembers the recently deceased Dr. Jerry Buss as the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers. Not many people recall his passion for the poker game Seven Card Stud. It has been reported that the WSOP administration would like to honor Dr. Buss in this year’s tournament. At the appropriate time they would seek permission from the family and acknowledge Dr. Buss’ contribution by either naming the WSOP Seven Card Stud Championship after him or awarding the victor a special perpetual trophy in his honor.
From the early 1990s Buss was active on the tournament poker circuit. His first cash was in a WSOP Seven Card Stud tournament. Over the next 20 years, Buss earned 38 cashes in various card rooms across the Southwest. His largest win came in 2005 at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. Buss was also known for playing the biggest cash games in America and around the world. His passion for poker was so great that he would often forgo crucial games of his basketball team in order to play poker. One such event remembered by his poker colleagues was in 2009. He was playing poker as the Lakers were winning their fifteenth NBA World Championship.
Doyle Brunson, the grand old man of poker, is always the first to stand up for old timers. He Tweeted, “Nobody mentions Jerry Buss’ contribution to Poker Nation. He helped many struggling poker players.” But he was not the only one. Many voices have been raised acknowledging De Buss’ contribution to poker. Former Victory Poker CEO, poker player and entrepreneur Dan Fleyshman said that Jerry Buss loved the Lakers, the city of Los Angeles, poker and life. He affected many people’s lives in a positive way and will be missed. The 2013 National Heads Up Poker Champion Mike Matusow expressed his gratitude at having met Buss and becoming friends with him.
Dr. Buss will not be the first poker professional to be honored this way. Chip Reese, the winner of the inaugural $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. World Championship in 2006, passed away untimely in 2007. WSOP has honored Reese by naming the event’s trophy after him. Along with the bracelet and prize money, winners of the event, now called the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, are awarded the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy.