A star-studded final table had been assembled, including the $50k Player's Championship winner Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and the runner-up of that event, Russian Vladimir Schmelev.

The big story going into the final was Mizrachi attempting to win his second Championship event in a row - his red-hot form making him the front runner for the WSOP Player of the Year title.

The Grinder never got going however, crashing out in sixth place and come the early hours of the morning, it was Nguyen and Brandon Adams who were the last men standing. Following a largely one-sided heads-up game, Nguyen overcame his opponent to collect the bracelet and the $394,800 first prize money.

"This is a very big moment for me," said Nguyen afterward. "This is my game - the Stud."

The final moments of the tournament were dramatic and unique in WSOP history.

Men Nguyen had been drinking heavily throughout the final, and clearly inebriated he was betting blind and winning pot after pot from his bemused opponent.

Finally, Nguyen persuaded the short-stacked Adams to flip blind for the bracelet, and with no answer to Nguyen's run of good cards, Adams agreed.

Adams made a pair of queens by seventh, leaving Nguyen needing to turn over a queen or king on seventh street to take the title.

The Master milked the moment for maximum exposure, peeking at the card and revealing paint before slamming over the K♦ - enough to secure the bracelet.

Once regarded as the hottest property in poker, Nguyen had seen his stock fall somewhat over the last few years - his last bracelet won back in 2003. Nguyen gave several reasons why in recent times he may not have been the dominant force he once was.

"When the Series moved to the Rio, it was very hard to win," said The Master. "I like Binions. I'm superstitious!"

Men also referred to the influx of young internet players as an obstacle he had found tough to overcome.

"A lot of new people have come into our world. It's not like it used to be."

Nguyen made a point of paying tribute to America for making him into the player he is today. "I want to thank America for bringing me into this country with open arms," he said.

Although he has had a few lean years, Nguyen is chasing Phil Hellmuth's record of 76 WSOP cashes, now just eight behind Hellmuth with 68 cashes himself. He clearly has designs on catching up and overtaking the Poker Brat's record.

"In the future I will pass him. I'm younger than Phil Hellmuth!"

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The Challenge seemed to be out of gas after over a month without a single session but that changed dramatically last night when the two played 1,184 hands of PLO in five hours.

Antonius was the ultimate winner of the session and made significant strides towards closing the gap between himself and Tom Dwan.

It helped that the session saw 10 hands worth over $100k, including the largest of the night worth $205,595.

That particular pot saw Antonius lead from start to finish, his hand of A♠ A♦ K♣ Q♣ was in the lead with his pair of aces alone, but hitting a third ace on the turn locked it up.

By the time the smoke had cleared Antonius won $346,437, cutting Dwan's lead to $1,468,655.

At present, there is a discrepancy between the numbers provided by PokerListings own durrrr Challenge tracking software and those that appear on Full Tilt's website for last night's session.

According to Full Tilt, the two played just 221 hands with Patrik Antonius booking a $74,215 win in just over one hour.

The durrrr Challenge wasn't the only good news for Antonius as he recorded 3,800 hands in 48 hours and is now within $400k of being even for 2010 after initially falling behind by $3 million.

durrrr Challenge by the numbers:

313,193,943 Total amount wagered 8,546435: First place prize at the 2009 WSOP (Won by Joe Cada) 1,468,655: Amount durrrr is ahead 385,000: First place prize at the 1980 WSOP (Won by Stu Ungar) 346,437: Amount made by Antonius in the last session 37,366: Hands played overall 30,000: First place prize at the first WSOP (Won by Johnny Moss) 123: Hours played in the challenge 75: Percentage of challenge completed

Below are the three largest hands from the session. For more hand replays, head to our online poker stats page.

 

 

 

 

 

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But while years of statistics make it hard to argue, Hansen has kept himself in the black for the majority of 2010.

His weekend began with a couple of $300/$400 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha sessions, ending the day up over $121k. Then, after taking Saturday off, Sunday saw Hansen sit at $500/$1,000 with Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin, making $61,504 in a short 65-hand session.

With $3,000 more profits earned today, it appears Hansen has made it through the weekend up $186,118, bringing his profits up to more than $266k on the year.

2010 has been a different story for last year's biggest winner, Patrik Antonius. The Finn has been unable to find his footing this year, losing money almost every time he sits in the game.

Despite winning the biggest pot of the weekend on Full Tilt, worth $101,185, Antonius was only able to come out of yesterday's $200/$400 PLO session up $38k.

The pot itself saw four players ship it all-in preflop, none holding a huge advantage on the field. It appeared all the money would have gone in regardless, after all four players connected with the 6♣ 5♦ J♦ flop.

However, Antonius was the only player with diamonds and flopped the nut flush draw with top pair.

Luckexpress10 flopped bottom set with a pair of fives and Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro flopped top pair with a wrap straight draw and a backdoor flush draw while SxMxF held the case jack for top pair.

The turn brought the 4♠, completing Kelopuro's straight, but the 7♦ on the river gave Antonius the nuts and the $101k pot.

Unfortunately, the Finnish pro lost over $102k on Friday night playing the $200/$400 Cap-PLO game, and ended the weekend with a total loss of $64,723.

Below are the three largest pots from the weekend; to see more hand replays head to our online poker stats page.

 

 

 

 

 

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Not only did Mortensen's third WPT title in four final table appearances bring him $393,820 in prize money, it also put him in a tie with Gus Hansen for the most WPT titles and helped him surpass Daniel Negreanu as the WPT's all-time money winner with more than $5.75 million in career earnings on the tour.

With more than $9.6 million in career earnings overall, Mortensen also has two World Series of Poker bracelets and remains the only player in poker history to have won both the WSOP Main Event (2001) and the WPT World Championship (2007).

The 37-year-old Spanish Full Tilt pro headed into Lawrenceburg on a bit of a hot streak, having won a prelim at the L.A. Poker Classic and narrowly missed his fourth WPT final table appearance with a ninth-place finish in the main event there.  

And by the time the field of 144 was whittled down to a final table of six in Lawrenceburg, Mortensen found himself with a healthy chip lead.

Short stack Jerry Payne was the first to exit the final table stage Wednesday, running Q♦ T♣ into Mike Mustafa's A♣ K♠ and failing to improve.

He was soon followed by Ravi Raghavan, whose fives lost to Frank Calo's kings.

Chris Bell then said goodbye fourth, losing a flip with A♠ 9♦ against Mortensen's pocket fours.

Calo got it in ahead with top two on a 5♣ 4♣ 2♦ board against Mortensen's pocket threes, but a three on the river sent him to the rail and Mortensen into heads up with Mustafa holding a slight lead.

Although he fell behind, Mortensen took a commanding lead when he flopped the nut straight against Mustafa's top two and all the money went in.

Mustafa managed to double twice afterwards, but bowed out second when he lost a flip with sixes against Mortensen's K♣ T♦ in the final hand.

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"I would definitely do it again if the opportunity arose," he told PokerListings. "I feel like I play the cash games as well as any good high-stakes player.

"Obviously $400/$800 is not my normal game, but I don't feel like I was playing like scared money. I was able to shove $210,000 in on a semi-bluff."

After two episodes of the popular GSN show where he did not get involved in very many hands, Mercier's exit from the High Stakes stage came during an episode that aired this past Sunday in a hand with arguably poker's greatest player, Phil Ivey.

Gus Hansen raised to $4,200 under the gun and Eli Elezra and Ivey both made the call before Mercier tried a three-bet squeeze to $22,100 with A♥ 4♥ from the small blind.

"Normally I would probably just call in this situation," Mercier said. "We're over 250 big blinds deep and it's fine to call here. I don't really like folding, especially with how deep we are and the players in the hand. I felt like it was a really good spot to squeeze. I can put in like 10 % of my stack and there's like $16k out there that I can pick up if it works.

"I was really expecting to get re-raised or everyone to fold. My image was really tight and I figured that they would put me on a big pair, maybe ace-king, and they really wouldn't want to mess with me at this point."

Hansen and Elezra gave up, but not Ivey, who made the call before the dealer revealed a 7♥ 3♦ 2♠ flop.

"He called without even thinking about it," Mercier said. "From watching the last couple of episodes I know that he was really active, but I wasn't really aware of how active at the time. I know he did have over $800k and when he called, I really felt like he had a middle pair, like fives through tens."

Mercier continuation bet $28,700, Ivey raised it up $50k more and almost instantly, Mercier pushed in for another $110K.

"I was not necessarily expecting him to fold to one bullet, but I didn't expect him to raise ever," he said. "There's almost no hand he should be raising with on that flop. I expected him to call and depending on what came on the turn, I may double barrel.

"The thing is, I hadn't really been involved in any big pots, so I felt like he was going to give me credit for an overpair at this point. I was 100 % sure he didn't have a set and I really felt like he was just trying to see where he was at with a pair.

"As soon as he raised, I knew I was going all in."

Ivey made a reluctant looking call with pocket nines, the turn and river were no help to Mercier and with his $200k buy-in gone, he left the game.

"I knew that if I shoved it was going to look like I had aces, kings or queens and if he can't beat that, how can he call? That was my rational," Mercier said. "Plus I had an over card, the gutshot and the back-door flush draw."

But despite losing more than $200,000 in a single hand to the legendary Ivey, Mercier said there's not much he would do differently.

"I feel like I played my best," he said. "Hopefully I didn't say anything in the interview afterwards that was too bad. I might have said Phil Ivey played his hand badly.

"I mean, I don't think he's going to be saying, 'I owned that kid.' I don't think that's the optimal way to play nines against me, but what can I say? he's Phil Ivey.

"He's one of the best in the world, if not the best in the world. But if I had to play the hand again, I don't think I could do anything else."

In a game featuring the greatest players in the world, a 23-year-old Mercier may seem overmatched on paper.

But the World Series of Poker and European Poker Tour title holder, with more than $4 million in career live tournament earnings in just the past two years and millions of hands in online cash-game experience, doesn't seem to think so.

"I thought it was a good opportunity," he said. "I read the line-up and I felt like I could have an advantage. I feel like I would have an advantage in almost any line-up. Plus, it's also good exposure.

"When I got there, unfortunately it was a pretty tough line-up. But some of them have their leaks. I still think I would have an edge in that line-up any day of the week."

Unfortunately for Mercier, not that day of the week.

"I went in there not just trying to survive and make like $20k," he said. "I was going to take advantage of whatever circumstances I could, whatever hands I was dealt, spots I was given and just try to make some cash."

If he has one regret from his four hours in the game, it's from his first hand at the table, where he raised with deuces and folded to a Tom "durrrr" Dwan three bet.

"I probably should have shoved it down durrrr's throat," he said. "I would have been considered a legend probably. But I really didn't want to go broke on the first hand.

"I think you have to play tighter when durrrr's at the table. You definitely have to change the way you play, but I felt like I was doing a good job of that. I feel like durrrr's a little tougher to play against than Ivey because he's so crazy. You can't really put him on anything."

But regardless of how things turned out, Mercier said the experience was definitely worth it.

"I was kind of nervous at first," he said. "But it was definitely fun."

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"It feels excellent," Koroknai said through an interpreter. "I'm going to spend the money. All of it."

Koroknai started with the lead and although he gave it up midway through the final six, by the time heads up rolled around, he was clearly in charge.

Short stack Michael Kamran was happy to be through to his first WPT Final table after making seventh at WPT Bay 101 last year.

However, the L.A. local's time did not last long as he ran T♦ 7♦ into Koroknai's ace-jack in the early going.

Despite flopping an open-ended straight draw and turning a pair, Kamran was done in by an ace on the river railing him sixth.

J.C. Moussa took fifth when he shoved ace-nine into Tri Huynh's ace-queen and failed to improve and fourth belonged to George Kasabyan, who called Huynh's shove with a pair of aces only to find Huynh with aces-up.

Three-handed play was a relatively tight affair until Raymond Dolan and Koroknai got in a major battle.

Both paired their ace on an A♣ Q♦ 2♦ flop and after the money went in, Koroknai's jack kicker played over Dolan's six to give the Hungarian a commanding chip lead.

That lead got even bigger when Koroknai busted Huynh in a classic race with ace-king beating jacks after a king on the flop.

Heads up started with Koroknai holding 13.4 million chips to Dolan's 1.4 million and it was over fast.

On the first hand, Koroknai shoved with Q♥ 8♥ and Dolan called with Q♣ 4♥.

A four in the window made it look like Dolan would double, but Korknai picked up an open ender to go with a flush draw on the turn and when the K♥ fell on the river giving him the flush, the L.A. Poker Classic title and almost $1.8 million was his.

 

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"It feels really great," Seiver told PokerListings. "It sounds silly to say how good it feels to win, but it feels really good. It's such a rush, it's just so exciting."

Seiver came into the six-man final table with a slight chip lead over respected pro Daniel Alaei.

But Alaei immediately chipped up when the final table started at Commerce Casino just after 1 p.m. Tuesday.

First he sent short stack Will Molson home sixth before his tens held against Tommy Vedes' K♣ 3♣ to rail him fifth.

Soon after, Alaei doubled through Seiver to take a commanding lead when he got it all in and turned a full house to crack Seiver's flopped trips.

Alaei's grip on the title looked even tighter when he busted Lee Markholt fourth, but Seiver soon picked up a few more chips and a little bit of momentum.

Seiver busted Jason Mercier third and when heads-up began, he had moved into the chip lead once again.

Despite being deep-stacked compared to the blinds, Alaei lost a massive pot when Seiver made a full house against him just a few hands into the match and soon shoved in with Q♦ J♦ facing a Seiver three-bet with A♠ J♠.

Seiver made the call and although the flop gave Alaei both a gutshot and a flush draw, he bricked out handing Seiver the title and $425,334 first-place prize.

"I don't know if I can stand up here and say I'm the best at these, but I like to think of myself as one of the better players," Seiver said, explaining his recent success in High Roller events. "It's always about walking a fine line between confidence and hubris.

"It's very tough in the poker world to know where you stand compared to other people. I try to accurately gage how good, or not, I am and I feel like I'm good enough to play in these events.

"Clearly these are some of the best players in the world, but I like to think I at least rank somewhere up there with them."

The event began Sunday with 41 of the biggest names in poker, including Season 7 WPT Player of the Year Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, 2008 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Erick Lindgren and Ashton Griffin, who won the NAPT's $25k Bounty Shootout in Las Vegas last week.

Seiver, who moved up to just under $2 million in career tournament winnings with the victory, said it was a particular thrill to take on an esteemed player like Alaei heads-up.

"Daniel Alaei is my hero," he said. "He's one of the best in the world and to beat him heads up just felt so great."

The World Poker Tour's L.A. Poker Classic continues through March 4. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

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The 2006 WSOP Main Event second place finisher took first in the WSOP Circuit Tunica Championship Event Wednesday, banking $139,422 and a seat in this year's Main Event.

"This is something that I've been searching for, for a very long time," he said. "This is just awesome, it was always about the money, but now it was about just taking one down."

Wasicka, who did win the 2007 NBC National Heads-Up Championship to follow up his $6 million second-place finish in 2006, says he was affected by the success he found at such a young age.

"It's weird experiencing that much success that young in your career," he said. "It toys with you a bit; you lose motivation and question why you're playing."

Now, the 28-year-old pro says he is solely focused on poker and will continue playing high-stakes tournaments wherever he can find them.

"It's not going to stop for the next month," he said. "Heading to L.A. now and then I'm going to hit the Circuits."

The final table in Tunica began just after 12 p.m. ET with Wasicka holding a big chip lead.

Alabama's Jerry Saucier was the first player to exit, taking ninth when he bluffed into a Carter Phillips set of kings.

Robert Thornhill ran eights into Larry Gurney's kings to bust eighth before PokerListings blogger Matt Stout's back-to-back Tunica final table appearances came to a close.

He ran A♥ T♦ into Wasicka's ace-king to bust seventh and was sent to the rail by the man he'd travelled to Tunica with.

2009 WSOPC killer Dwyte Pilgrim got sucked out on by Gurney to leave him short and busted sixth soon after, running queen-nine into Richard Robb's aces. Robb flopped quads to leave no doubt.

Phillips, who took the title at EPT Barcelona in the fall, was the next to go, putting sixes up against Gurney's jacks and failing to improve.

Wasicka then made flush in a battle of ace-ten suited hands to send Shane Zell out fourth and just a few hands later, Robb's ace-jack fell to Gurney's ace-nine to set up the heads-up match.

Wasicka and Gurney began about even, but after winning a 270,000 pot right at the outset, Wasicka took a lead he would never relinquish.

He eventually built up more than a 5-1 chip lead before Gurney shoved with pocket fours on a 9♥ 8♠ 6♣ flop. Wasicka called with 9♦ 8♦ for top two and the title was his.

The next stop on the WSOP Circuit begins Feb. 18 at Horseshoe Council Bluffs in Iowa.

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23-year-old Tyron Krost won a $640 online satellite to get into the main event at the Crown Casino and walked away AUD$2 million richer after besting a field of 746 this week.

"It feels like a dream and I don't want to wake up," he said moments after the win. "$2 million, it's amazing."

After a fairly lengthy feeling-out process, fellow Aussie Steven Shelley was the first player to get his walking papers from the final eight Saturday, running sevens into Krost's jacks.

But it wasn't long before he was joined on the rail by online superstar and 2007 World Series of Poker Europe champ Annette Obrestad.

The Betfair pro got into a flip for her stack with ace-jack against the PartyPoker qualifier's sevens and would have liked the straight draw she picked up on the flop if that same flop didn't give Krost a set.

The turn and river bricked out and Obrestad was sent back to Norway seventh.

Strangely, pocket sevens were involved in the next elimination as well, with Reno, Nevada's Steve Friedlander running them into Aussie Kostas Varoxis' big slick.

A king on the flop and another on the turn did the lone American at the final table in and play went five handed.

It stayed five-handed for quite a while until Canadian Peter Jetten appeared to implode, shipping it in with K♦ 5♦ against Krost's tens on a move and failing to improve.

Once the massive chip leader, Sorel Mizzi's downfall began soon after when he doubled up Frederik Jensen and before the Betfair Poker pro knew what had hit him, Krost had suddenly moved into the lead.

A few desperations shoves from Varoxis were next on the agenda, and although the first couple worked, his luck eventually ran out when he couldn't beat Jensen's deuces with A♥ 6♣.

Mizzi's downfall ended three-handed when he ran pocket sevens into Krost's ace-king and could not hold, leaving the two PartyPoker qualifiers to battle it out heads up.

Krost began heads up with better than 2:1 chip lead over Jensen and the Aussie began applying pressure on the Dane right from the outset, pounding him into submission before getting him all in dominated to book the win.

A humble Krost seemed to have the all big hands when he needed them throughout the final, beating some of the best young players in the game while following up Stewart Scott's 2009 win to become only the second Aussie to keep the title on home soil in Aussie Millions history.

"I just ran really well and got really lucky," he said. "I had a lot of big hands."

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“It feels amazing,” the Jupiter, Florida resident said moments after the win. “This is what I’ve dreamed of. I’ve always wanted to win a big major tournament and luckily I accomplished it on one of my very first ones.”

There was action from the outset in Monday’s final eight with Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo giving up the chip lead when he lost a massive race holding jacks against Gimbel’s A♠ K♠.

Ty Reiman then leapfrogged Gimbel, sending 26-year-old Chicago, Illinois online pro Tom Koral to the rail in eighth when his aces held against Koral’s queens.

21-year-old New Yorker Zac Goldberg was the next to go when his pocket tens failed to hold against Aage Ravn’s A♠ Q♠.

But Ravn failed to capitalize on the University of Arizona student’s misfortune, busting sixth when the Norwegian online qualifier re-shipped with A♣ Q♣ facing a Ben Zamani push.

Gimbel went all in behind with jacks, and although Zamani flopped a set of eights to win the hand and triple up, Gimbel’s jacks held to scoop the side-pot and rail Ravn.

Zamani then ran A♦ J♦ into Barry Shulman’s A♠ K♥ and looked to be out fifth before a diamond on the flop, turn and river spared him.

Left as the short stack after the hand, Shulman doubled through Gimbel to stay alive and it was actually start-of-day-chip-leader D’Angelo who exited fifth.

The double WCOOP winner shoved with jacks against a Zamani raise and Reiman re-raise and after Zamani folded, Reiman made the call with A♠ K♥.

A king on the river sent the 24-year-old New Yorker out and suddenly Reiman had built a massive chip lead that looked insurmountable.

Play moved down to three-handed when Zamani put his tournament life on the line with A♥ T♦ against Gimbel’s 8♥ 8♣.

Gimbel flopped a set and although the 23-year-old Floridian online pro turned some outs, the river blanked to end his hopes.

Heads-up began when 2009 World Series of Poker Europe champ Barry Shulman took third place, running Q♣ T♠ into Gimbel’s A♥ 9♦ and failing to improve.

And although Reiman actually held an 11-million-chip lead with 45 million in play to start, it wasn’t long before Gimbel moved in front, catching cards and getting Reiman to pay him off.

Gimbel won every key pot heads-up until he had built a 4:1 chip lead and before long, Reiman shoved with eights and he made the call with tens.

Gimbel flopped a set and despite the fact Reiman turned one of his own, the river blanked to give Gimbel the title.

“I felt my opponents were really good,” said Gimbel, whose previous poker accoplishments include a PokerStars Sunday Million final table appearance and a win in the 2009 Florida State Poker Championships. “A lot of these players were really good, but I had a lot of confidence in myself coming into today and it really showed.

“I used to wrestle in high school and my coach always said 'envision something and it’ll come true.' Not that it’ll come true, but it’ll happen.”

After six long days of poker in the Caribbean, the last man standing from a record field of 1,529 is now hoping to make a few things happen with the massive $2.2 million first-place prize.

“I’m going through all the stuff I can buy right now,” Gimbel said. “A new car, maybe a nice apartment or a house.”

To read a full recap of Gimbel’s historic win and the entire 2010 PCA, click through to PokerListings’ Live Updates.

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