Johnson (playing as CPCruise) remained in the chat box to wish everyone luck at the final table, and stayed through the heads up play as well.  She would exit the event in 13^th place after getting short stacked, and getting it in during a 3 way pot that she was outdrawn in.  Many thanks to Linda for hosting the event and engaging everyone in the chat box throughout the duration of the event.

TPT Live Show hosts cprpoker (@cprpoker) and fleapid (@coolwhipflea) finished in 7^th and 6^th places respectively to bubble the event, and send the remaining 5 players into the cash and earning crucial points for the TPTCS Player of The Series Leaderboard.  With a 6^th place finish, this was fleapid’s 2^nd consecutive bubble performance in TPTCS events.

Short stacked, BAABU1 earned his first TPTCS cash, as he was eliminated in 5^th place, and after having sat out and still surviving 5 all in situations, sos41 was finally eliminated in 4^th place.  Finally the last short stack, SNutizzle found the rail in 3^rd and snooperjuke and micvanbob, the two big stacks began a heads up duel that lasted just short of 1 hour.  After several swings back and forth, micvanbob would emerge with all of the chips and claim the next spot in the TPTCS Tournament of Champions Event.  Here’s how the final five paid out:

1. micvanbob – $76.00
2. snooperjuke – $47.50
3. SNutizzle – $30.40
4. sos41 – $20.90
5. BAABU1 – $15.20

The win also gave micvanbob 106.04 leaderboard points to move him into second place on the Player of the Series Leaderboard, where LessonsRXtra (@MarieLizette) maintained her lead after her Event #3 victory.

Thursday Night will be Event #6, a $5+1 No Limit Hold’em event hosted by Full Tilt Poker Red Pro David Bradley at 9pm EST.  Also, joining us on the TPT Live Show will be Tim West (@TheTMay) to talk about his recent win at the Wynn Poker Classic in a long heads up duel with Annette Obrestad (@Annette_15), and his  runner-up performance in the $10k World Series of Poker Circuit Regional Championship to Ali Eslami (@indigoAE).  Make sure to join us for the TPTCS Event #6 and the TPT Live Show.

Congratulations again to Event #5 winner, micvanbob!

Article posted from: Twitter Poker Tour

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With Rossi eliminated in 9^th, the 8-handed final table began and Astro_pup (@TracyJSnell) was eliminated in 8^th place after nursing the short stack for some time.  With 7 players left t the largest pot of the tournament occurred just a few hands later.  A 4 way all-in commenced on 6^th street which sent chubby, JosephShowdown, and fleapid (@coolwhipflea) all to the rail on the same hand when Liamkg made a nut flush on 5^th street that held to KO the other 3 players.  The 31k pot was for almost half the chips in play, and gave Liamkg a commanding chip lead as the bubble burst in that one giant hand.

Jepulator was eliminated in 4^th place just a few hands later, and Liamkg, xtremepedro01, and ptparty found themselves 3 handed.  As play wound on for nearly an hour, the trio saw the chip stacks even out as the blinds went up, and the players agreed to chop the prize money.  But they left $2 in the pot so that they could play down to a winner.

ptparty was eliminated in 3^rd place, and the heads-up duel between xtremepedro01and Liamkg didn’t last long, as Liamkg emerged victorious to add the $26 Step 2 Ticket to his prize winnings, in addition to winning a seat into the TPTCS Tournament of Champions Event.   Here’s how the final four paid out:

1. Liamkg (@liamkg) – $102.53*
2. Xtremepedro01 (@xtremepedro01) – $73.47*
3. Ptparty – $70*
4. Jepulator – $30

(* – Denotes adjusted total from chop)

The win also earned Liamkg 100.54 leaderboard points for the Player of The Series race, moving into second place on the leaderboard, with everyone trailing LessonsRXtra (@MarieLizzete) who still leads after her win in Event #3.

Tuesday is TPTCS Event #5, a $5+.50 7-Card Razz event hosted by the First Lady of Poker, Linda Johnson.  Congratulations again to Event #4 Champion, Liamkg (@liamkg).

Article posted from: Twitter Poker Tour

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3. bertman19 Claims the First TPTCS Win!

By virtue of having more chips, Literary Hack wins event #2 with a chop.

The Twitter Poker Tour Championship Series concluded event #2 on Tuesday evening with a $2+1 No Limit Hold’em Event with Rebuys, with the top place being decided based on a chip-chop.  Literary Hack (@literaryhack) would end the night with the most chips after chopping heads up with Street 3 (@street3) as the duo survived the 44 player field that saw a total of 146 rebuys and 35 add-ons, en route to generating a $450 prize pool.  While the pair had a practically even money split, it was Literary Hack that received the Tournament’s top prize by virtue of having more chips when the chop was agreed upon, and will move onto the TPTCS Tournament of Champions.

The event was hosted on Full Tilt Poker by 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event November Niner Kelly Kim (@KK_Poker) who ran up a big stack early.  But shortly after the add-on period, Kim was eliminated in a hand where he 4-bet shoved his pocket-jacks from the cutoff into the KK of fleapid (@coolwhipflea) in the small blind, and busted in 33^rd place.  Many thanks again to Kelly for hosting and playing with us.

Play continued for the next 2 hours until the bubble was reached, and with 6 players left it was ptparty who was fighting the shortest stack. With only 3 big blinds left ptparty was in the big blind when Street 3 opened the button enough to cover ptparty who made the call with Ac-7h.  ptparty needed some help against Street 3’s Jc-Js, and the flop gave a little sweat when it came Ts-9h-8d, giving ptparty an up and down straight draw.  But the turn 5c and the river 3s offered no improvement, and ptparty was eliminated in 6^th place on the bubble.

Just two hands later, MC70 opened to 4800 and received a call from Literary Hack in the big blind.  The flop of Jc-Js-2d was checked by Literary Hack, and MC70 moved all in for 17k.  Literary Hack quickly called with Ah-Jh having flopped trips and leaving MC70 in peril with Ad-Kd.  The 3h on the turn ended things and MC70 was eliminated in 5^th place earning $40.50 as well as 40 points for the Player of The Series Leaderboard.

Literary Hack provided the next knock out as well, when RuntCake (@mattcwaldron) moved in for his last 10k with Qc-5c, and Literary Hack made the call with 6s-6d.  The flop came out Td-Ac-8h and the 6’s of Literary Hack were well in the lead.   But RuntCake hit his 3 outter on the turn with the Qd to claim lead heading to just the river card.  The lead was short lived however, as the river dealt the 6h, making a set for Literary Hack and eliminating RuntCake in 4^th place ($54).

With 3 players remaining, it was fleapid (@coolwhipflea) that opened the button with a min-raise, and Street 3 defended from the Big Blind.  The flop came out Qs-8s-2h and Street 3 checked.  Fleapid made a 4k continuation bet and Street 3 check-raised all in for 76k total, putting fleapid to the test.   Fleapid made the call with a flush draw showing Ks-6s while Street 3 turned over Qh-9h.  The turn was the 4d and the river the Jd, and the top pair of Q’s held for Street 3, eliminating fleapid in 3^rd place ($72).

Heads up play lasted only a few hands before Street 3 and Literary Hack agreed to the deal. The two chopped the remaining prize pool with Literary Hack ($142.87) taking slightly more than Street 3 ($140.63) based on a slight chip lead, and the match was over.  Based on Literary Hack having more chips at the end of play, he was deemed the winner of event #2 and earned a seat in the TPTCS Tournament of Champions Freeroll event.  Here’s how the final money was paid out:

1^st – Literary Hack ($142.87*)

2^nd – Street 3 ($140.63*)

3^rd – fleapid ($72)

4^th – RuntCake ($54)

5^th – MC70 ($40.50)

(* – denotes that players agreed to a chop)

Event #3 is this Thursday, a $5+1 double stack No Limit Hold’em event, as the TPT Live Show will be on air with a special guest (to be announced soon).  Players will be competing for a chance to become the 3^rd TPTCS Champion and gain entry to the Tournament of Champions event as well as accumulate points for the TPTCS Player of the Series Leaderboard.  Congratulations again to Literary Hack (@LiteraryHack) and Street 3 (@Street3) for the big wins tonight.  We’ll see you again on Thursday.

Article posted from: Twitter Poker Tour

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bertman19 finished the event with the most chips and claimed the first TPTCS Victory

The Twitter Poker Tour Championship Series kicked off its very first event today with 23 players in a $10+1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi tournament, with each player looking to be crowned the very first series champion and get their hands on the extra bonus cash added to the prize pool.  It was also an opportunity to get a head start on the Player of the Series leaderboard.  The event was hosted on Full Tilt Poker by Red Pro Aaron Bartley (@gambleAB).  Bartley has been on a tear on the online poker tables recently, booking 5 cashes in the MiniFTOPS events, a win in the Omaha High/Low $8k Guarantee, and a runner up in the $21k Guarantee No-Limit Hold’em event.  Bartley joined the Full Tilt Poker Pro Chat and fielded questions during the event while running deep in the TPTCS Tournament, finally finishing in 5^th place.  Many thanks to Aaron for hosting the first ever TPTCS, and congrats on the recent great play.

The event was also joined by Full Tilt Red Pro Pascal Perrault, who finished the event in 16th place.

After Bartley was eliminated in 5^th place, the remaining 4 players agreed to take some money off of first and second place to pay 4 places.  Shortly thereafter, on a flop of 8s-3s-8d, BAABU1 got the rest of his chips in with Kh-9h-Ks-7h vs. Barnum who held Ah-4c-2d-As.  The board ran out with the 9s on the turn, and the 4h on the river to give Barnum the better 2 pair and eliminate BAABU1 just short of the leaderboard points.

With three players left, JosephShowdown fought back to get virtually even stacked with bertman19, but the two got all of their chips in on a flop of As-4h-7c.  JosephShowdown showed Ks-Jd-6s-Kd, but bertman19 was way ahead with Ad-Kc-3h-Qh.  The Qc gave JosephShowdown a few more outs with a broadway straight draw, but the river was the 8d, and JosephShowdown was left with just 228 chips.  Not enough to post a small blind, he was eliminated on the next hand.

Heads up play began with Barnum holding a 2.5 to 1 chip lead over bertman19, but battling the short stack, bertman19 launched a furious comeback and eventually claimed all the chips, and the victory in the first TPTCS Event, and also became the first player to qualify for the TPTCS Tournament of Champions Freeroll event.  Bertman19 not only booked $105 for the first place prize money, but also added a $26 Step 3 Token, valid for any $26 buy in tournament on Full Tilt Poker, and claimed the top spot on the “Player of the Series” leaderboard, with a shot at winning another $216 Tournament ticket and a DeepStacks Live Training Course.

Event #2 kicks off at 9pm EST This Tuesday on Full Tilt Poker and is a $2+1 No-Limit Hold’em event with Rebuys for the first 6 levels, and will be hosted by 2008 November Niner and Full Tilt Red Pro Kelly Kim. Check the TPTCS Tournament Information Page here for full information on each of the 25 remaining events.  Registration is open now!

Article posted from: Twitter Poker Tour

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Have a listen to the show from last night using the player above. @Coolwhipflea was out at the LA Poker Classic and was able to join us at various points through the TPT Live show. I was on the 1′s and 2′s and was joined by @DeputySD, @MattCWaldron and @street3. We covered pretty much everything and nothing at all, have a listen.

We should have some exciting news about the TPT to announce in the coming days, be sure you are following @cprpoker, @coolwhipflea and @tptpoker for more details.

Event #1 Final Table Results

March 2011 Leaderboard Prizes

The total points accumulated for all 5 events this month will determine the winners of the leaderboard prizes from our great sponsors:

• 1st Place: Two-month subscription to DeucesCracked ($60 value)
• 2nd Place: One-month subscription to DeucesCracked ($30 value)
• 3rd Place: One-year subscription to Poker Pro Magazine ($24.95 value)

Article posted from: Twitter Poker Tour

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3. March 2011

We lost some of the big names in the field early with Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Barry Greenstein, and Erik Seidel all making relatively early exits.  But their star-power didn’t really affect the level of solid players remaining in the field.  As play wound on past midnight, and we approached the bubble, every table had at least 2 recognizable poker stars, as well as a few that had 4 or 5.  A little after midnight, Jason Mercier put 18 big blinds in from the small blind with A-8, and found a caller in the big blind with A-T and ended his day in 69th place.  It was the first time that I’d seen Mercier be visibly tilted at a tournament.  He’d had a verbal scuffle with one of the dealers who not only couldn’t speak English, but apparently couldn’t count either as it took several attempts to count out a 2,900 chip bet.  He also got a little spewy in doubling up Shannon Shorr with K4 on a 6-4-3 flop (Shorr had a set of 6′s.).

But from that elimination, play slowed to an absolute crawl, including 19 hands of hand-for-hand play before Hoyt Corkins got in two Queens against two Kings to be eliminated at about 1:45am….a far cry from the scheduled 8:30pm end of the day.

As play resumes, we will play down form the 63 remaining players (who are all in the money) to 18 players…again…for however long that takes.  Our chip leader is Jason DeWitt who is the only player of the 1 million chip mark.  I expect another long day at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.  Feel free to follow my updates on Twitter (@coolwhipflea).

Article posted from: Twitter Poker Tour

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Hellmuth

Matusow

Greenstein

Mortensen

Seidel

Just a few of the more than 200 players that survived Day 2 of the World Poker Tour Los Angeles Poker Classic Main Event.  The list of players from the “Old Guard” that are still remaining in the field is impressive to say the least.   And when I wandered the tables for five levels, I couldn’t help but bump into the biggest names in the game (and who says that poker isn’t a skill game?).  Phil Ivey (@philivey), Phil Hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth), Mike Matusow (@themouthmatusow), Barry Greenstein (@barrygreenstein), Carlos Mortensen, and Erik Seidel (@erik_seidel) were the headliners that survived day 2 and will return for action on day 3, looking to add to their impressive historical resumes.

It was a long five levels of play on day two as registration closed just before the start of play on the day, and around 30 or so players bought in to see their first action of the day.  One of them was Russian Full Tilt Pro Nikolay Evdakov who has had a remarkable year at the LAPC, with wins in both the $1,065 Pot Limit Omaha – Six Handed event and the $2,100 No Limit Hold’em – Iron Man Event.  He didn’t waste any time getting out of the gates, chipping up early and then bagging up 213,000 chips at the end of play, good for a top 10 chip stack. Evdakov is attempting to add a third LAPC Title to his mantle, and the Remington Trophy would be the best one of the group.

Evdakov isn’t the only player that runs well in Los Angeles, as 2005 LAPC Main Event Champion Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi (@thegrinder44) had a remarkable run of cards to finish with 227,600.  As I walked around to his table, Grinder tossed over two Aces to win another pot, and the guy on his left asked the dealer for a seat change.  Grinder says to me “Get this, first I flop the nuts, then I get Kings, then I flop a set, and I get paid each time.”  “Is this your first time running good?” I ask.  Laughs abound at the table as the Grinder just added more chips to his stack.

Mizrachi wasn’t the only 2010 WSOP Main Event November Niner to accumulate a large stack as Jason Senti (@pbjaxx) finished the day with 258,200 chips.  In a late pot, he held pocket 8’s vs. Kh-Jh on a Js-8h-5h flop.  The money got all in and the set held vaulting Senti towards the top of the chip counts on the day.  I stopped by his table several times, and his stack was up and down like a yo-yo, but he always seemed to rebound whenever he lost a big pot.  “I’m just running good.  That’s all I do,” Senti said to me at one point.  Also still alive from the 2010 November Nine is Soi Nguyen (@soinguyen) has 98,600 and runner up John Racener (@racener) finished with 30,900, as they both eye getting to the money today.

Everyone however will be chasing the chip leader Joe DeNiro, who as near as I can tell, isn’t related to Robert.  Joe finished the day with 366,700 chips, which is more than 100k than 2^nd place James Carroll who finished with 264,800.  Joe is looking to go wire-to-wire with the chip lead and if he continues to play the way that he did on the first two days, it will be hard to catch him.

Counting chips for some of the best players for me resulted in me finding out just how much I need to work on that skill.  As I was leaning in and counting the stack of Daniel Negreanu (@realkidpoker), he asks “How much do you think I have?”  I said “I’m not sure about the quarters (T-25 chips), but I think it’s about 20k?”  Daniel replies “Wow, you’re WAY off.  Look, here’s 20k right here…it’s 24,500.”  I laughed it off as I sent the tweet, but Phil Ivey (@philivey) did the exact same thing to me late in the day.  When he asked me how much as he saw me counting, I guessed “About a 100k.”  Ivey responds with “Wow, you’re really bad at this.” As he counts out his stack it was at 86,000.  To be fair, he didn’t exactly have great stacking….but when I’m off by 10 big blinds…I guess that is a lot.  I enjoyed watching Ivey throughout the course of his day as he navigated a tough table with David Oppenheim two seats to his right, and multi-phone action as he was consistently on one of 4 different cell phones throughout the day.

The field is still full of plenty of younger and accomplished players looking at becoming a WPT Champion, and laying claim to the more than $1.6 million first place prize.  Players like Vivek Rajkumar, Bryn Kenney,  David “Bakes” Baker (@dmbakes), Tom Marchese, Amit Makhija (@amak316), Chad Batista (@lilholdem), and David “DocSands” Sands (@doc_sands) are all still in the running, along with about 200 hopefuls.  Play will resume today at Noon at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, and we’ll either play 5 levels or until we hit the money which is with 63 players remaining.  The overall thought is that we’ll likely be playing more than 5 levels, because its unlikely that we’ll felt 140 players in just 5 levels….but anything is possible.

Feel free to follow me on twitter (@coolwhipflea) for all the updates live from the floor, and feel free to message me if you’re looking for something specific.  I’m happy to as much information as I can.

Article posted from: Twitter Poker Tour

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Outside of that story, there were very few notables that mixed it up early.   My day was comprised for the most part of snapping photos of the approximately 650 names that graced the ballroom doors to pony up the entry fee and compete for the WPT Title. That, and rounding up interviews for Poker News Daily, who had hired me for the day for that purpose.  I was able to wrangle up interviews with the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Eric Lindgren, Dwyte Pilgrim, and about a dozen other names.

Late arrivals included the likes of Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth and Joe Hachem, and even Johnny Chan put away the cash games downstairs to play a tournament for once.  But I was surprised at the large number of Full Tilt Pro’s that decided to not join in on the action.  I had heard that a message was sent out by the poker rooms asking players to not participate in a pseudo boycott of the Commerce Casino because of their vocal opposition of the Reid Online Poker Bill at the end of the last congressional session.  All of the Southern California Casino’s are opposed to a national program for online poker as the California Casino’s are looking more toward an intra-state piece of legislation which would provide greater benefit and residuals to the California Casino’s.  I can understand how they hold this opinion, but it doesn’t really speak very well for the game of poker on a global scale and is very short-sighted.  And being that it doesn’t really benefit the major online poker rooms, Full Tilt and PokerStars have encouraged players to join them in their stance against the L.A. Casino’s.  As such, a lot of the top brass of Full Tilt who is very pro-Poker Players Alliance, decided to skip the event altogether.

There were some casualties in the day including the likes of Phil Laak, who moved the rest of his stack in on the turn, and was immediately called by his opponent.  Laak said “Wow!  I’m drawing dead,” and mucked his hand, leaving the table and the room before the river card was even dealt.  We also lost Rob Mizrachi, and late in the day saw Joe Sebok go broke in a 3-way all in for the rest of his chips.

As play resumes today, we’ll wade through another Five 90-minute levels of play to further trim the field.  Registration will be open until the start of play today, so we’ll have final numbers of entries, prize pools, and places paid when that all happens.  For the rest information, just follow me live on my twitter feed of @coolwhipflea, as I’ll be sending out information live from the floor.  If you’re looking for a player and their information, let me know and I’ll be sure to look them up and get you information as quickly as I can.

Article posted from: Twitter Poker Tour

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That final push at the end of the month was not enough to crack the into the prize pool positions as they would finish in 5th and 6th place on the February leaderboard respectively.

February Prizes

Here are the prizes for the finishes above, please contact @cprpoker or @coolwhipflea with your email address so we can organize your prizes.

• 1st Place: Two-month subscription to DeucesCracked ($60 value)
• 2nd Place: One-month subscription to DeucesCracked ($30 value)
• 3rd Place: One-month subscription to GrinderSchool ($20 value)
• 4th Place: One-year subscription to Poker Pro Magazine ($24.95 value)

Player Reactions

Article posted from: Twitter Poker Tour

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What’s at Stake

With the end of a month upon us, we have some great prizes to hand out and tonight’s event will go a long way in determining the prize distribution. The top 4 places on the overall leaderboard for February will take home these prizes:

• 1st Place: Two-month subscription to DeucesCracked ($60 value)
• 2nd Place: One-month subscription to DeucesCracked ($30 value)
• 3rd Place: One-month subscription to GrinderSchool ($20 value)
• 4th Place: One-year subscription to Poker Pro Magazine ($24.95 value)

In addition to the prizes above, we will be giving away a one year subscription to Bluff Magazine during the event!

Article posted from: Twitter Poker Tour

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