Champion of Poker

In Las Vegas the preparations are ongoing for the 2010 World Series of Poker extravaganza. Poker dealers are being intensively trained and hundreds of poker tables shipped to the casinos in anticipation of large player pools for each tournament. Poker players from around the world are practising their poker games and planning which events they are going to enter. Day dreaming is abounding throughout the world with every player hoping and praying that this is the year they win some life changing cash prizes as a result of winning a bracelet. With buy-ins starting at $1,000 the WSOP is the place for big swings of fortune and bankroll.

In this article we are going to take a look back at the 2009 World Series of Poker and some of the stories that emerged from it.

Multi Bracelet Series

Incredibly one poker player won three bracelets at last years WSOP and a few players won two bracelets. Phil Ivey, regarded as the finest poker player in the world, entered many events and won two of them. Phil won event 8, the $2,500 2-7 Draw Lowball and event 25 the $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low-8 or Better. He then made the November nine and was hotly tipped to become the main event champion. That was not to be but Phil capped a marvellous series where his image as the world’s best poker player was enhanced. Brock Parker also won two bracelets winning event 14, the $2,500 Limit Hold’em Short Handed and he won event 19, the $2,500 Limit Hold’em Short Handed.

The star of the WSOP was undoubtedly Jeff Lisandro who won the triple crown of Stud events winning event 16, the $1,500 Seven Card Stud, event 37, the $10,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better and event 44 the $2,500 Razz. Although he had to have had some luck this goes down in history as one of the finest ever WSOP performances.

Notable UK Performances

James Akenhead showed that his runners-up position at the 2008 WSOP event 2 was no fluke as he made the November nine eventually finishing in 9th place. He also finished in 9th place in the WSOPE main event and won the Full Tilt Poker Million for $500,000. He is surely to have another chance at a bracelet and is regarded by some players to have talent in the mould of flawed poker genius Stu Ungar.

Roland De Wolfe won another bracelet winning event 27, the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better beating Brett “Getcrunk” Richey into second place. John Kabbaj also won a WSOP bracelet winning event 45, the $10,000 World Championship Pot Limit Hold’em for $633,335. It was a great year for UK poker at the World Series of Poker 2009.

The Main Event

6,494 players contested the $10,000 main event with many more turned away amid a controversial start to the tournament. Phil Ivey, Jeff Shulman and James Akenhead were big names that made the November nine final table. 21 year old Joe Cada beat self-employed tree logger Darvin Moon when things eventually got to heads up into second place and claimed a first prize of $8,547,042. For second place Darvin took home $5,182,601 and thousands of new fans who appreciated his play and dignity in defeat.

Download the poker software at bwin.com and practise your poker tournament game before heading to the WSOP. You will need to be sharp, be able to concentrate for long periods of time and be able to play well under pressure. You can learn all of these things at bwin.com and possibly become one of the stories of this years World Series of Poker 2010.

By Malcolm Clarke