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

The games played by these professionals are Texas Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha in a variety of short-handed, full ring and heads up matches.

Tom “Durrrr” Dwan

After taking a massive battering in the now infamous “Durrrr v Isildur1″ matches in November 2009 there was questions raised as to whether Tom Dwan was spent as a poker force. How wrong they were! Since the beginning of January he is up around $4 million and is yet again the man to beat. He managed to win $1.5 million back from Isildur1 recently to go some way towards avenging his large defeat from last year. 2010 looks like being a great year for Tom, certainly if he can keep anything like his current win rate intact it will be.

Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom

His identity is now being publicly referred to as Viktor Blom, so we will do likewise. After his $4 million loss to Brian Hastings, he returned in February and has been attempting to get back into profit. Isildur1 beat Di Dang for $531,000 then lost another $1.5 million to Brian Hastings. He is loved by the public for his degenerate refusal to accept he is not the PLO expert he thinks. At the $500/$1000 PLO Heads up tables he has a massive deficit of $4.2 million yet he continues to swing massively in the game. Little wonder his opponents usually say in the chat they “feel like playing PLO” when Isildur1 challenges them to a match. Blom is down a total of $2.2 million according to the high stakes tracking website poker table ratings.

Patrik Antonius

Patrik Antonius is no stranger to big swings. He had a winning day of $2 million on November 20th 2009 then a $1.6 million loss only five days later. He has so far endured a torrid 2010 losing around $3 million since the start of the year. Patrik shows no sign of reducing his stakes or playing time and continues to battle with the likes of Di Dang, Durrrr and Blom to regain his bankroll. He has posted a win of $133,000 in the last couple of days and hopes this will be the start of a long overdue upswing for him. In the Durrrr challenge, recent play sees him facing another $500,000 loss if he cannot overturn the current deficit to Durrrr of $1,986,418.00 with only 16697 hands remaining in the challenge. It is not a good time for Patrik at the poker tables at the moment.

Whilst we marvel at the massive pots contested by these and other players, why not use what you learn from observing them at bwin.com where you have a multitude of tables and limits to choose from. If you prefer poker tournaments bwin.com has a large selection of tournaments in a variety of buy-in and structure to suit all poker players. Check out their site and sign up for a free account today.

Look out for more updates on the high stakes games in the near future.

By Malcolm Clarke

Until he was 21, he continued to play in Indian Casinos only, but when he was allowed to venture into the regular card rooms at age 21, he proceeded to do so. At first he was not successful, but with further study and his friendships with Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Layne Flack, and John Juanda, he picked up skills necessary to be successful in the game.

1999 was his first truly successful year as he took several titles around California, including two titles at the 1999 Legends of Poker. Later that year he would win the $500 7 Card Stud event at the United States Poker Championships. The 2000 World Series of Poker would see Cunningham cash 5 times during the event, including a runner up finish in the $5,000 Omaha 8 or Better Event.

2001 brought Cunningham his first bracelet at the WSOP, when he won the $5,000 Seven Card Stud event. He would cash 3 other times in the series, including the Main Event. He would cash 5 times in the 2002 series and take his 2nd WSOP bracelet, this time in the $5,000 NL 2-7 Lowball event.

From 2005 to 2007, Cunningham went on an amazing streak winning at least one bracelet each year. This differed from years past when players would win bracelets in consecutive years because by 2005, the event field had started to become massive, so navigating through these mammoth fields took more skill than in the past. Cunningham took the 2005 $1,500 No Limit event, the 2006 $1,000 NL with Rebuys and then the 2007 $5,000 Pot Limit Holdem Event.

Cunningham has had a decent amount of success on the World Poker Tour as well, cashing in 11 WPT events and making 2 final tables. His two final tables was a 3rd place finish in Euro Finals of Poker in 2003 and a 4th place finish in the World Poker Finals in 2005.

Cunningham also has numerous wins around the poker world including the 2007 Vegas Open, and preliminary events of the 2004 Five Star World Poker Classic, the 2001 Legends of Poker, and the 2003 United States Poker Championships. He also holds one WSOP Circuit Championship ring and two circuit rings overall. In total, he has over $10.3 Million, which ranks him 5th all-time in lifetime tournament earnings.

Allen Cunningham is a threat in any event he takes place in. Amazingly enough, this man is only 31 years old, which means that he will continue to be a dominating force for many years to come. With 5 WSOP bracelets under his belt, he is on track to catch and even pass Phil Hellmuth for the all-time lead. Allen Cunningham has all the makings of an all-time great in poker, and only time will tell us how great he will become.

This would be the start for an improbably journey for the TN accountant. The 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event was the first live tournament that Moneymaker ever played in. He was admittedly nervous and claimed that he played somewhat poorly the first day. After surviving to Day 2, he made the decision that he would play his game and take his shot.

The next day he was able to eliminate one of his heroes of poker when he knocked Johnny Chan out of the event. This gave Moneymaker the confidence that he needed to make a run at the final table. One hand made all the difference near the end and a different card at the end may have changed history forever. With 10 players left, Moneymaker and Phil Ivey were involved in a hand that saw Moneymaker flop trip queens when holding A-Q. Ivey had pocket nines. The turn fell a 9 and Ivey had a full house. All the money went in the middle and Moneymaker needed help. A miracle ace hit the river and Phil Ivey was eliminated. All of a sudden, Moneymaker went into the final with the chip lead. If not for that miracle river card, it is hard to say how the event would have ended up.

Eventually, the final table would be played down to Sam Farha and Chris Moneymaker went heads up. Moneymaker offered an even chop of the prize pool to Farha but he declined and the two played it out. The final hand saw Moneymaker flop two pair with his 5-4 when Farha flopped top pair with his J-10. The two pair held up and Moneymaker did the unthinkable, becoming the first player ever to win the World Series of Poker after qualifying via an online satellite. He took home the gold bracelet and the $2.5 Million prize.

Moneymaker’s win helped to usher in the current poker boom that the industry is in the middle of. Players from all walks of life started to play this game that they saw this virtual nobody win. Poker has truly never been the same. But what has Moneymaker done since his win?

The answer is, not much. He finished 2nd at a WPT final table in 2004 and bubbled the final table of the $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event of the 2004 WSOP and beyond that, he really hasn’t done much else. He has only had 2 cashes at the WSOP since then and only 9 professional cashes overall. His last cash was in December of 2007 for $21,748.

While Moneymaker still plays on the tournament circuit, Moneymaker’s two primary jobs today involve running his business, Moneymaker Gaming and his sponsorship duties with PokerStars.com. After winning the 2003 WSOP, Moneymaker was given an endorsement deal with the site which continues to this day.

Chris Moneymaker is the story of a person that went on a fantastic run to become a poker champion. Only time will tell whether Moneymaker can improve his skills and find a way back to the top of the poker world. Regardless of what happens, Moneymaker still has what is arguably the greatest story in the history of poker.

Bechtel started making a splash in the poker world in 1979 when he was runner-up in the $1,500 NL Event at the World Series of Poker, where he took $38,250. He made final tables in the same even in 1983 and 1984, finishing 4th and 9th respectively. In 1986, 1988, and 1989 he made the money of the Main Event. He finished 6th in the 1988 Main Event.

He didn’t record his next cash in tournament poker until 1992 but it was an impressive one. He took first in the Hall of Fame poker classic, which netted him $214,000. The next year saw Bechtel record his greatest poker accomplishment. The 1993 World Series of Poker saw 220 players put up $10,000 each to take their shot at the Main Event. The event became three handed between Jim Bechtel, Glenn Cozen, and John Bonetti. Glenn Cozen was severely short stacked and looked headed to a strong 3rd place finish until a huge hand between Bechtel and Bonetti. On a flop of 6-K-8 both players check. Bonetti had A-K and Bechtel 6-6. Each likely thought they were trapping the other. On the turn of a 5, all of the money went into the middle and when the cards were flipped the river card 10 was meaningless and Bechtel had nearly a 100 to 1 chip lead over Cozen. It didn’t take long and Jim Bechtel won the 1993 World Series of Poker Main Event and the top prize of $1 Million.

Bechtel would have numerous cashes after the 1993 WSOP but never came close to repeating that same success until 2006. In 2006, Jim Bechtel made the final table of the first ever $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. Event at the World Series of Poker. That table is considered the strongest final table in the history of the WSOP including legends such as Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Dewey Tomko, and the eventual winner, the late Chip Reese. Bechtel finished a strong 4th in the event for $549,120. The 50k H.O.R.S.E. event was the highlight of his 2006 WSOP, where he had 6 WSOP cashes.

For his career, Bechtel has over $2.5 Million in earnings. For the most part, Bechtel only plays larger tournaments, staying away from the grind of the regular circuit. He also keeps to him, not putting himself on public display like many past champions have. He prefers to quietly go about his business. His hard work has paid off for him as a farmer and as a poker player. He may not be flashy like many past champions, but his quiet workman like ethic has paid off and has made him a poker champion.