WSOP-C REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL TABLE  FINISHED
05.23.11

AJ JEJELOWO'S FAVORITE HAND NOT AJ:   We assume it's the A9 he won the tournament with against the AK of Gary Friedlander.  The two Houston, Texas area commuters, Friedlander from Bellaire and Jejelowo from Rice University, got it in with the chip leader way behind.  It got worse as Friedlander's AK of diamonds found two more diamonds on a Q65 flop.  An ace on the turn didn't change anything, but the 9 of spades on the river was the jello for Jejelowo.  AJ is pictured above being bit by the head that fed him all that cash.

AJ Jejelowo is a Nigerian immigrant studying medical research at Rice University.  Third place Harry Cullen was also from the Houston area making it a Texas threesome.  Jejelowo's Circuit ring came with 235k.  Friedlander earned 145k, and Cullen 95k.

Allie Prescott finished fourth for 66k.  Another Texan, on a table loaded with them was Scott Lipshutz who made 48k for fifth.  Allen Kessler turned his short stack into 37,7k for finishing 6th.  Matt Waxman of Parkland, Florida won 30k for seventh.  Kunal Patel from... you guessed it Texas, by way of Friendswood was 8th winning 26.4k.  GCP blogger Jeremy Gaubert of Lockport went out 9th.  Turns out they decided to pay ninth as he's credited with winning 12k.  Great job guys!

CEREUS-LY QUIET:  UB/AB, Cereus, or shell company name of your choice, or conduit for Scott Tom steal your money has lost 83% of its traffic since Black Friday.  Tom who was allegedly* last seen chop-blocking a nun, and cheating 10 year olds at Monopoly, is wanted for questioning by many, many justice departments.   Credit to Poker-King for the info, to read more go here.  *Okay, nuns don't play football but if they did we are fairly sure Scott Tom would chop block them.

NATIONAL WSOP-C CHAMPIONSHIP FREEROLL:  Did you know the WSOP-C took money out of every prize pool to pay for this?  So is it really a free roll?  Wonder if they took out more money than a million if that would go back to the players?  Hmmmm...  Anyway, this event is Friday.  Here are some of the locals that have made their way into it: te four Texans from the Regional Championship; Jejelowo, Friedlander, Cullen and Patel, join the rest of the final table in scooping invites.  That means Allie Prescott, Allen Kessler, and Jeremy Gaubert are invited too.

On our locals list, Gaubert makes it four GCP bloggers joining GCPers; Shannon Shorr, Will "Poker Monkey" Souther, and Scotty Clark (though it's hard to figure out the WSOP page to confirm that Scotty is in).  Also we will be rooting for Jonathan Poche, Captain Tom Franklin, former Gulf Breeze native Brandon Adams, whose blog is linked on our blogs page, Bobbie Talbot, a Facebook buddy and IP Biloxi Champion, and Brian Walsingham, the New Orleans Casino Champion.  So, hopefully the Gulf Coast will leave the freeroll with a few of the bigger chunks of prize money.  We'll be updating here and on our Facebook page this weekend (speaking of Facebook make sure you "like" us while you got the time).

WSOP-C REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL TABLE SET

05.22.11

THE CHEMIST CONTINUES TO CLIMB; NINE TO RETURN TODAY (ASSUMING NOBODY GOT RAPTURED):   If you track the chip totals over the last few days, "thechemist83" Jeremy Gaubert seems to just survive and advance.  Never been the big stack and never been eliminated.  Allen Kessler (pictured) has for the most part managed to do the same except he's usually just been the short stack.  Gaubert has at least risen to the middle of things a few times.  Somehow reputed min-casher Kessler has figured out how to play poker from behind, especially in New Orleans where he's already won a big tournament. 

Gaubert's style definitely is not the same as Kessler's but both players have demonstrated over the last couple of days tournament poker isn't about having the biggest stack it's just having a stack.  As the final table is set those two are the shortest stacks but that doesn't necessarily mean they'll be the first two out.  Kessler is the only player under 100k with 85k.  Gaubert sits on 121k.

Gaubert and Allie Prescott are a couple of rooting interests with local ties, Though, Prescott seen in his Tulane sweatshirt often through the tournament has had the wilder ride.  He's gone from an almost negligible chip chip count, a real chip and a chair type comeback to one of the top three.  Prescott rose to TV fame for a prop bet he made with Gavin Smith in an old telecast from New Orleans, so it's fitting that with TV's return to the tournament Prescott is near the top; third with 353k. 

They are looking up at AJ Jejelowo first with 489k and Gary Friedlander, second with 469k.  Scott Lipshutz is 4th with 237k.  Matt Waxman, Harry Cullen, and Kunal Patel are the other final tablists.  Jejelowo would do well to remember the fates of the other Chip-leaders, with Day 1 leader Brandon Adams not making day 2, and Day 2 leader Brian Senie not making Day 3.  Fortunately for Jejelowo nobody will make day 5 but he's hoping to leave later rather than sooner.

Only eight players get paid but all nine qualify for the million dollar National Championship free roll.  Those nine are there because Shannon Shorr got coolered by Prescott when his pocket kings found pocket Aces and couldn't "set" up.  This was Shorr's second final table bubble in just four days.  At the WPT Championship he at least got some pocket change for his effort.  Since Shorr has already qualified for the the free roll the bubble was slightly less harsh for him and his elimination meant the world to the other nine players who hadn't qualified. 

Incidentally, there are a slew of local players/bloggers/friends of the site who will be in that, including one player recently okayed by the higher ups.  We'll do a feature on just who we'll be pulling for early next week. Today one unlucky player will go home with just the buy-in to the free roll but that's better than nothing.   That's assuming none of them made the Rapture's short-list.  By the way, if you were that kook scaring people why not just say everybody is so sinful nobody made the short-list and the rapture did happen yesterday?

FLY TO DC?  The PPA wants to organize a rally on Tuesday.  We've mentioned it before, and though the PPA has received some criticism since Black Friday, some of it from us, this is a positive step.  We'd guess players that had more of their bankrolls on Full Tilt or UB/AB will be more likely to attend, if they can afford the flights. 

POKER RESULTS ARE ALL THAT MATTER

05.21.11

SHANNON SHORR SECOND IN CHIPS AT WSOP-C REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP, CHEMIST LURKING:  Brian Senie is first with 291k, Shannon Shorr second with 242.5k.  Steve Brecher not far behind with 161.8k.  With just 18 players left, and 8 of them to get paid 10 players will leave day three very disappointed. 

Actually make that 9, because ninth place wins a seat in the National Championship free roll and makes the Versus telecast, despite bubbling  the money.  We hope the early eliminations do not include Shorr, fellow GCP blogger Jeremy "thechemist83" Gaubert (pictured), or Allie Prescott who rode the roller coaster yesterday going from 1.3k to 107k at days end.  Allen Kessler is hanging in there with 41.5k, and survived longer than day 1 chip leader Brandon Adams who was last out yesterday.  Adam Levy and Prince Gaspard are also short but still alive.  

ERIK SEIDEL WINS DEBATE OVER WHETHER THERE IS A "C" IN ERICK:   Actually, Seidel just dispatched Erick Lindgren to win the WPT High rollers tournament but if anybody in poker can decide how a name is spelled it's ERIK Seidel because money talks.  The $1.092 million win gives Seidel 5.5 million dollars in cashes this year alone. To put that in perspective, Seidel has earned more this year than the career totals for Gavin Smith, Hoyt Corkins, Antonio Esfandiari, Andy Bloch,  Annie Duke, Chau Giang, Mike Sexton and others. 

His total this year is also within hailing distance of the career totals of Doyle Brunson, Howard Lederer, and Dan Harrington.  Seidel's lifetime total is now just under 16 million and extends his lead on Daniel Negreanu (2nd $14.573 million) and Phil Ivey (3rd $13.869 million) on the all time money winner's list,  Go here to watch Seidel's thoughts on winning.   

SCOTT SEIVER WINS WPT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP:  Galen Hall does not, may be the bigger story as Hall had the chance to do something nobody had done in one calendar year (win two thirds of one of poker's nebulous triple crowns: PCA, WPT Championship, and WSOP Main Event).  Scott Seiver won $1.6 million for first.  Farzad Bonyadi 1.06 million for second, and Galen Hall 589k for third.  Roger Teska, Tony Gargano, and Justin Young went 4 through 6.

WSOP-C RESULTS

05.20.11

JONATHAN POCHE AND BOBBY TOYE GO 1-2 IN WSOP-C MAIN EVENT:  The Main Event which precedes the 10k Regional Championship went to Jonathan Poche.  We've featured shots of Lafayette native Poche winning a big check at our favorite charity tournament the Acadiana Series of Poker (who says that's a crap shoot despite it's blinds increasing at an exponential rate) and Baton Rouge's own Bobby Toye blogs for us, so both were familiar faces to our crack editorial staff.  We hope to see Toye's own account of the final table as it sounded like a fun ride until the heads up play.  Poche won 121k, Toye 74k. 

The rest of the top 9 were third Josh Evans (54k), fourth Springfield, LA native Todd Wood (40k), fifth Scott Zakheim (30k), sixth Jacob Bazeley (23k), seventh William Payne (18k), eighth Matt Waxman (14k) and ninth James McBride (11k).  Just outside the final table were Michael Benton and Sam Bailey who both who 7.6k for 13th and 14th place respectively.  Corrie Wunstel of Baton Rouge pocketed 5.3k for 20th.   

Congrats to all the players in the money especially Jonathan and Bobby, great job guys! 

BRANDON ADAMS IS THE CHIP LEADER AT THE REGIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP:  With 44 players left out of 70, though registration continues today, Adams sits on 136k.  In the top ten are Kido Pham (103k) and Shannon Shorr (73k).  Interesting storyline could develop for Shorr and Adams as the both made the final table of the first regional championship (which had over 200 runners).  Shorr also caught a late flight after just missing the WPT World Championship final table.  John Dolan, the local November Niner, is 10th with 61.99k. 

Chad Brown, Dan Heimiller, Allie Prescott, Steve Brecher, GCP blogger Jeremy Gaubert, David Diaz, Allen Kessler, and Joe Cheong all return for today's play.  Gaubert will be on the chip-leaders right but only Allen Kessler at his table will have less chips.  The Bust--outs include: Dwyte Pilgrim, David Singer, Jared Ingles, David Williams,  Todd Terry and John Cernuto. 

Some big questions remain, like how many players will hear about the low turnout and fly in with the extra bonus of the National freeroll on the line to play today?  All they'd have to do is make the final table to qualify and with 44 players left and a nine player final table, they'd have great odds to get there.  Will we get another 1-2 gulf coast finish?  And will the WSOP-C continue in this format or has it lost too much steam through the year?  Is Black Firday to blame for the decline in numbers or other factors?  Maybe the rest of the poker world is just scared of the prowess of the Gulf Coast players?

WPT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

05.20.11

ERIK SEIDEL IS A HIGH STAKES SEIBORG:  Pictured in his cameo on an HBO show, the Seiborg (check our archives for video), is busy winning all of poker's bankrolls (How good is this guy running, with the impending rapture there he is hanging with Jesus).  After two days of action in the WPT 100k High Roller Tournament Erik Seidel finds himself in familiar territory heads up for a huge score and another big buy-in victory.

 Seidel holds and almost 3 million chip advantage over fellow Full Tilt pro (and owner?) Erick Lindgren (~7 million to 4 million).  Daniel Negreanu went out third to win $448k .  Vivek Rajkumar finished 4th for $336k, and Justin Bonomo couldn't extend his Day one chip lead into a victory squeaking into the money with a fifth place finish and $224k.  The winner gets a million and second place 700k.  Local Tyler Smith tried the 100k but went out 14th on day two. 

GALEN HALL GALLOPS INTO THE FINAL TABLE WITH CIP LEAD:  Scott Seiver got to within 20k of the chip leader and both are sitting on 84 BBs.  Justin Young, Tony Gargano, Roger Teska, and Fredy Bonyadi round out the final table.  First place wins a million.  To tell you how good a year Seidel is having, even if Hall pulls off an impressive double he'll still trail Seidel for earnings on the year.  Shannon Shorr won 85k for ninth place.  Sam El Sayed won 119k for 8th but neither finished high enough to supplant Andy Frankenberger as WPT player of the year.  Daniel Alaei, Aston Griffin and David Williams also cashed by making the top 15.

TUSCALOOSA TUESDAY: WPT AND WSOPC UPDATES

05.18.11

-Our thoughts have been with the good people of Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and the other southern states struck by the Tornados recently.  Tuscaloosa as we've all seen was one of the worst hit.  Lives were lost and many were destroyed.  A few local boys doing good in poker tournaments won't change any of that, but hopefully for the poker fans there this spate of run good for local players has at the very least been a small distraction from the destruction.

SHORR SEEKING MORE WPT GLORY:  Crimson Tidal Wave Shannon Shorr is among the chip leaders with 15 left in the WPT World Championship.   Shorr sits in fifth place with 1.78 million chips.  Players are already guaranteed 53k but everybody is angling for a WPT final table and at least 6th place.  That pays 225k.  First is a hefty 1.6 million dollar prize. 

Shorr also is in contention to join his good friend Jonathan Little as a WPT player of the year.  He can tie for POY, in this the final WPT event, if he finishes fifth.  If he finishes fourth it's his alone.  The only variable is Sam El Sayed is in the exact same situation.  Therefore if both finish fourth or higher the player that outlasts the other will claim the crown.  You can follow Shorr's twitter feed (and other local pros) in our left hand column.  Let us know if we should be featuring your twitter feed, too.

Right now the chip leader is Galen Hall who was last seen folding a monster hand on his way to a PCA title and 2.3 million dollars.  Hall takes this down he'd have only the WSOP Main Event left in the most exclusive triple crown in poker.   Scot Siever, Freddy Bonyadi, Daniel Alaei, David Williams, Ashton Griffin, Steven Kelly and Scott Seiver are also in contention.

BJ MCBRAYER AND BRIAN HEPTINSTALL COME OH SO CLOSE AT WSOP-C MAIN EVENT:  McBrayer, a Tuscaloosa native, and Heptinstall, a former University of Alabama student, finished yesterday in the money.  Heptinstall departed in 19th place making 5.33k.  McBrayer almost made the top ten winning 9.2k for 11th.  His death knell was getting pocket kings snapped by by pocket queens two hands earlier.  Had it held McBrayer would have been top three in chips at the final table.

Jared Ingles finished 17th for 6.325k, as the Baton Rouge native shared an unlucky table, with McBrayer and Heptinstall.  Still in contention are GCP's own Bobby Toye and Jonathon Poche.  Toye pictured above and Poche pictured left.  Those two will be battling it out for the 121k prize for first.  Good luck guys.

THE REST OF THE POKER WORLD KEEPS TRUDGING  ON LINKS:

05.18.11

LIV BOEREE PLAYS POKER AND DOES PHOTO SHOOTS:  She wears hats, she poses without playing cards, and looks really good.  No real news here other than a link to the rest of the photos for all you Boeree fans.

FULL TILT UPDATE:  Wicked Chops has reported that Howard Lederer and Jesus Ferguson are no longer members of the PPA board.  In the same article they suggest Howard Lederer's Vegas dream home is also up for sale (or it isn't?).  As "unnamed" principals may be leaving the country.  Our reading comprehension isn't so good.  Decide for yourself here.

Meanwhile, Tony G keeps talking about Full Tilt, since Full Tilt isn't saying too much, we should be grateful it seems.  However, after FT announced players should keep patiently waiting for their funds Tony G followed up by saying players should keep patiently waiting for their funds (at least for two weeks):

"I would like to ask everyone to give FTP 2 weeks of grace to sort out the situation. Any more talk or pressure will not help anymore."

and...

"I have information that leads me to believe that the FTP, and TEAM FTP are working harder than ever to ensure all players get paid."

but here's a promising and worthwhile nugget...

"I understand the FTP teams personal assets are on the line and they will liquidate own assets to pay the players out."

Poker-King has more of Tony G's thoughts here.

JASON MERCIER WINS FREEROLL OVER GALEN HALL IN HEADS UP PLAY:  The PokerStars European Poker Tour gave Mercier 50k Euro in EPT buy-ins for the win and Hall 25k.  We'll be mentioning more about Hall's 2011 haul shortly.  Kid is on fire Erik Seidel style.  Mercier astutely and humbly remarked after his win that he "runs better than most."  You'll notice in the write up of the event here, that Mercier is one American PokerStar that is still patched up. 

The fact that so much of Mercier's early success, and most recent success, came in Europe, and he's Jason Mercier probably gives him a leg up on most every other American in battling for the precious few spots out there of sponsorships.  Having buy-ins to EPT events probably will help his cause now too.

ARIA BEATS UP A BULLY:  Charles Oakley was known for being an enforcer in the NBA.  In a recent lawsuit he alleges he faced a threat scarier than PJ Brown or the two headed monster Alonzo Mourning attached with a Jeff Van Gundy knee pad, when the Aria Security gave him a beat-down.  He's suing because of injuries which you can see here.  

LOCAL PLAYERS ATOP LEADERBOARDS, WSOP-C MAIN EVENT DAY 1 RESULTS AND WPT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

05.17.11

BRIAN HEPTINSTALL TOP FIVE IN CHIPS:  GCP's own Brian "Floppin' Aces" Heptinstall only has a few names above him on the leader board.  Heptinstall had a terrific day one finishing fourth in chips with 214k .  Allie Prescott is one of those names hovering above Heptinstall; Prescott has 304k. 

Mario Silvestri with 371.5k is first in chips.  Right in the mix are Jacob Bazeley 196k, BJ McBrayer 187.7k, and Jared Ingles 182.2k.  Dwyte Pilgrim and Mike Beasley are both around 150k.  Michael Hallen, Jonathon Poche, Corrie Wunstel, GCPer Bobby Toye, and Adam Levy also survived Day 1. 

SHANNON SHORR 6th IN CHIPS AT WPT CHAMPIONSHIP:  Shorr has 819k.  The Chip leader is Sam El Sayed at over 1.1 million with Nenad Medic in second at 1.098 million.  Joe Cheong is at 418k, Justin Smith 384k, Doyle Brunson 250k, Alex Kuzmin 218k (pictured right winning the WPT event at the Beau), accused cheater (see Scotty's blog) Ali Tekintamgac 155k, and local Tyler Smith 135k. 

Jonathan Little was a late elimination yesterday (btw Brian Heptinstall is rumored to have read Little's book on his trip down to New Orleans and it might have something to do with his ascension up the leader board).

LOUISIANA STATE POKER CHAMPIONSHIP RESULTS

05.15.11

MAIN EVENT $1060.00 NLH BUY IN:  The Main event had a prize pool of close to $130k with 129 entries and won by Jon Walker for over $38k...The rest of the winners are below:

2. Hamilton McGowan, $23,220
3. Gregory Diaz,             $15,480
4. Jerome Moon,          $10,965
5. James Hornbeck,     $8,385
6. Thomas Helo,            $7,095
7. Gregory Benoit,         $5,805
8. Forrest Vlahogeorge, $4,515
9. Chad Pelton,             $3,870
10. Richard Barkew,    $3,225
11. David Altemus,      $2,580
12. Bao Dang,            $2,580
13. Stephen Shugart, $2,580

EVENT #5 $335 NLH BUY IN:  Prize pool of close to $38k with 121runners and was won by Joe McMurtrey for over $10k...The rest of the winners are below:

2. Todd LeBlanc          $6,534
3. Gregory Benoit        $4,356
4. Jason Brice            $3,085.50
5. Denise Blanton       $2,359.50
6. Darrell Thompson  $1,996.50
7. Danny Garza          $1,633.50
8. James Doolittle      $1,270.50
9. Russell Wright      $1,089
10. Juan Salinas       $907.50
11. David Altemus     $726
12. Mark Baker          $726
13. Samuel Kennedy  $726

EVENT #4 $335 PLO BUY IN:  Prize pool of close to $30k with over 100 runners and won by Brent Trosclair for over $9k...The rest of the winners are below:

2. Cesar Villagran     $5,562
3. Jonathan Brown   $3,708
4. Todd McKellar     $2,626.50
5. Michael Catt       $2,008.50
6. Agim Halili            $1,699.50
7. Ty Mullins           $1,390.50
8. Lawrence Lazar $1,081.50
9. Joseph Vitable   $927
10. Ross White      $772.50
11. Arnold Johnson $618
12. Santos Martinez $618
13. Mike Dinh          $618

MORE aPOKERlypse NOW NEWS

05.11.11

MORE FALLOUT AT UB:  It's starting to look like UB/Absolute are the black hole and your money is an asteroid and it gobbled up weeks ago.  Despite an agreement Blanca Games made with the DOJ many are skeptical of ever seeing a yellow or black cent.  Blanca Games said the recent raids in Costa Rica had nothing to do with the DOJ's indictments rather they were related to a separate incident of money laundering by the principals including Scott Tom.  That's supposed to make us feel better about UB?  Good to know there are allegations Tom didn't just steal from his customers and investors (allegedly) but also his employees (allegedly). 

Speaking of Scott Tom, now on the lamb, he was recently sighted double parking to cuss at an old lady and to throw a stick into the spokes of her husband's wheelchair.  This comes a few days after calling his mother on mother's day to ask her if her Fridge was running, telling her she better chase it, giggling like a little girl and then hanging up (allegedly). 

Meanwhile Joe Sebok or Seebs finally speaks... go to Poker Road to read his blog.  Admits that when the dust settles we'll have a better idea of how naive he was....  hmmm, we have to wait until the dust settles to determine that?  Other interesting tidbits in there too.  Read and make your own judgments.   

GCP BLOGGER AND AUTHOR JONATHAN LITTLE HAS POSTED HIS THOUGHTS ON BLACK FRIDAY:  Scan left and click the link.

READYING ASSETS, NEVADA BASED IGT AND OTHERS POISED TO ENTER THE VACUUM:  International Game Technology just purchased Entraction Holding (a Swedish gaming company) that operates the 12th largest Internet Poker Network.  Wall Street is bullish on the move because they figure the U.S. market is going to open soon and with all the competition cleared out there should be windfall for anybody with a good relationship with Congressmen.

...Meanwhile Harry Reid is lunching with Democratic leaders and casino executives to probably talk about online poker (Pokerati).  This comes on the Heels of the American Gaming Association presser to try and to push a new bill on online gaming.  Boyd Gaming, Ameristar Casinos and Isle of Capris were all there. 

THE STARCROSSED PPA TRIES TO REMAIN RELEVANT:  Think a million poker players will march on DC?  Probably not.  Like Isaac Haxton and Justin Bonomo many may be mulling moves overseas.  Still the PPA wants you to go to DC and be heard.  If you want to learn more about the PPA DC Fly-in 2011 google PPA, but be careful.  First you'll get the stock price of  PowerShares Aerospace & Defense, then a link to the Professional Photographers of America, and then there is our PPA (theppa.org) which narrowly beats out the Philadelphia Parking Authority.