7,557 entrants took part in the Poker Stars Sunday Million Tournament on August 24, 2008. They drove the prize pool up to $1,511,400 – only $11,400 more than the new and improved guarantee. A deal wasn’t struck until the final two players reached heads-up play. NFrost_10 and es_dame decided on a chop of $140,901 each with $30k left for the eventual winner, which turned out to be NFrost_10.

These are the final standings:

1) NFrost_10 — $170,901
2) es_dame — $140,901
3) karelli — $84,638
4) Duffs#1fan — $69,524
5) SonnyInMtl — $54,410
6) lecharentais — $39,296
7) kidkanda99 — $26,450
8) hidden1s — $17,381
9) afiopeneyes2 — $10,580

There’s still time to qualify for the WCOOP. Visit PokerStars now and find out how!

79 players remained as Day 3 began at the 2008 WPT Legends of Poker Main Event. They would stay until the final three tables were set. The action was difficult as the big dogs became railbirds very quickly. David Chiu eliminated the first two players of the day. November Nine member Kelly Kim, who has the shortest stack at the WSOP final table when it recommences in a little over two months, took the long walk to the rail a few minutes before Kathy Liebert did. Soon after, Gabe Kaplan and Daniel Negreanu are eliminated from the competition.

En route to the money bubble, Barry Greenstein, Antonio Esfandiari, Mark Seif, Toto Leonidas and Robert Cheung were also eliminated. The final two women remaining when play got down to five tables were Maria Ho and Van Nguyen, wife of Men “The  Master” Nguyen and reigning WPT Celebrity Invitational champion. The ladies were seated at the same table, right next to each other. Nguyen’s stack was around 100k while Ho’s was nearing 300k.

Trong Nguyen takes out Erick Lingren, who was holding pocket kings, and Tuan Le, with a Q,10 in the hole, with a pair of sevens, after making a set on the flop. Ouch!

David Chiu, Mark Seif and former chip leader Ali Eslami finish right before the money bubble burst. Eslami actually took 37th place, giving him the official bubble boy title. Van Nguyen finished in 36th position, being the first person to earn money in the event and leaving Maria Ho alone as the only women in the event. She earned $14,085 as did the rest of the eliminated players for the remainder of the night.

As the players bagged their chips, Paul Smith had the chip lead with 946,000. Layne Flack, Matt Keikoan and Allen Cunningham were not too far behind. Marco Johnson and John Phan are still in the thick of the action while Maria Ho has 158,000 chips left to play with.

David Chiu is the reigning WPT Season 6 Champion! Join him at Full Tilt Poker’s Heads-Up PLO championship on September 6 & 7th. We’ve got the details for you here!

248 players took to the felt for the second day of play at the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker Main Event. Each of the remaining players has his/her eyes on the $1.1 million first-place prize. A fortunate 36 will make some money at least. The blinds began at 200/400 so there was plenty of time to play. However, the eliminations continued at a rapid pace.

Ali Eslami began the day with the chip lead and continued building his stack, adding significantly to his numbers when he tussled with another big stack named John Smith. Last year’s winner, Dan Harrington busted out early in the day, meaning there’d be no repeat champion. Other notable bust outs included Vanessa Rousso, Phil Laak, Brandon Cantu and Peter “Nordberg” Feldman.

One of the biggest stories of the day was the ladies. Maria Ho, Kathy Liebert and Esther Taylor all landed at Table 14 at one point and they owned the felt. They collected the majority of the chips over there and made it to Day 3 with healthy stacks. Adam Weinraub, who held the chip lead at the end of Day 1A, emerged as the chip leader at the end of Day 2 with nearly 462,000 chips.

Matt Keikoan, winner of a WSOP bracelet this summer, was also among the chip leaders at the end of Day 2. Still in the mix were WPT Season 6 champ David Chiu, Matt’s brother, Todd Keikoan, Gabe Kaplan, Allen Cunningham and Tuan Le among others.

Watch Allen Cunningham make a phenomenal call at the 2007 WSOP against Jamie Gold:

The British Columbia Lottery Corporation (BCLC) held its 3rd Annual Pacific Poker Shootout earlier this month at the Cascades Casino in Langley, British Columbia. Three events were held during this mini-series of Texas Hold’em. A total of 684 players took part in all the tourneys and generated a collective prize pool of more than $316,000.

In the first event, David Chu Ming Ao from Vancouver won $20,000 in the sold-out No-Limit Bounty Hold’em Shootout. Ao would go on to win an additional $2,920 in the Main Event on the third day. Douglas Merrier, a resident of Surrey, B.C., earned $20k in the second NLHE shootout. He defeated 239 other players in that event.

However, Dean Jackson took down the biggest prize. 143 players – the smallest field of the three-day tournament series – put up their $1,100 to play in the two-day NLHE Shootout Main Event. Jackson, who lives in Victoria with his wife and son, won $40,500 in the tournament. As he said, “I’ve played in many poker tournaments, but this is the largest poker prize I’ve ever won. I can’t wait to go home and share this with my family.”

Darryl Schiewe, the BCLC’s VP of Casino and Community and Gaming, gave his “congratulations to all the winners,” and mentioned that he was “extremely happy with the growing popularity of the Pacific Poker Shootout” and that the Corporation looks “forward to offering many more exciting poker tournaments.”

Want your chance to play poker in Canada? You can qualify for the North American Poker Championships right now at PartyPoker.com. Click here for all the details!

Some people think Phil “OMGClayAiken” is a great poker player. Others think he’s a donk. Despite the fact that he has a WSOP bracelet and hundreds of thousands of online tournament earnings (more in cash games), they seems to believe that his erratic behavior from GSN’s High Stakes Poker is the norm.

Truth is – Galfond is a rare breed. He’s got the math skills. He can manage his bankroll. He can take the hits without going on tilt and more. We’re not saying he’s a poker superhero, but he’s got the chops and skills to hang with the big guys, which is more than most of us could ever hope to do.

In this hand, he takes more than $327k off of MrSmokey1.

7750645055 TABLE : RailHeaven (6 max) $500/$1000 - No Limit Hold'em - Fri Aug 22nd 2008 - 5:56am ET

Table Setup

Seat 1: OMGClayAiken ($205,382)
Seat 2: MrSmokey1 ($162,981)
Seat 5: Urindanger ($138,869)
Seat 6: SteveSung ($178,175)

Urindanger posts the small blind of $500
SteveSung posts the big blind of $1,000
The button is in seat #2

Pre-flop

OMGClayAiken raises to $3,500
MrSmokey1 calls $3,500
Urindanger folds
SteveSung folds

Flop: [8, 3, K]

OMGClayAiken has 15 seconds left to act
OMGClayAiken bets $5,500
MrSmokey1 has 15 seconds left to act
MrSmokey1 calls $5,500

Turn: [8, 3, K][5]

OMGClayAiken has 15 seconds left to act
OMGClayAiken bets $16,000
MrSmokey1 has 15 seconds left to act
MrSmokey1 calls $16,000

River: [8, 3, K][5][Q]

GulahPapyrus sits down
GulahPapyrus stands up
OMGClayAiken has 15 seconds left to act
OMGClayAiken has requested TIME
Urindanger has been disconnected
OMGClayAiken bets $43,000
Urindanger has reconnected
MrSmokey1 has 15 seconds left to act
MrSmokey1 raises to $137,981, and is all in
OMGClayAiken has 15 seconds left to act
OMGClayAiken has requested TIME
OMGClayAiken calls $94,981

Showdown

MrSmokey1 shows [2, 3] a pair of Threes
OMGClayAiken shows [K, Q]
OMGClayAiken wins the pot ($327,460) with two pair, Kings and Queens
MrSmokey1 is sitting out

Summary

Total pot $327,462 | Rake $2
Board: [8, 3, K, 5, Q]
Seat 1: OMGClayAiken showed [K, Q] and won ($327,460) with two pair, Kings and Queens
Seat 2: MrSmokey1 (button) showed [2, 3] and lost with a pair of Threes
Seat 5: Urindanger (small blind) folded before the Flop
Seat 6: SteveSung (big blind) folded before the Flop

In this clip, Galfond chats after winning the $5k PLO Bracelet:

212 players showed up for Day 1b of the WPT’s Legends of Poekr Tournament at the Bicycle Casino, making the total number of competitors for the event 373, about 100 less than last year. In the mix for Day 1b were some big names like Freddy Deeb, Kathy Liebert, Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein and Daniel Negreanu. Ivey, however, lasted about 30 minutes before busting out of the event. He went all-in with a 3,2 off-suit against the pocket kings of Brian Rast.

Ivey was the first elimination of the day. Ouch!

A bunch of pros followed Ivey to the rail on Day 1b including Jean-Robert Bellande, Jennifer Tilly, Justin Bonomo, Amir Vahedi and Gavin Griffin. Ali Eslami, who helped Tilly’s beau defeat Polaris in ’07 in the first man vs. machine battle, was looking at the chip lead as the day ended. He held about 165k of the big ones. Breathing down his neck were Maria Ho, Mark Seif and Freddy Deeb, who made quite the comeback considering he spent ten minutes in the tank for dropping the f-bomb.

Nearly 250 players will return for Day 2 action.

Fancy a World Poker Tour type of experience online. Join ClupWPT where you earn points, gear and even tournament tix!

Mike Sexton is one of the best known and most beloved names in the world of poker. The World Series of Bracelet holder – he earned his in seven card stud back in the 90s – also holds a Tournament of Champions title. The big-hearted former gymnast and army paratrooper, who served in Vietnam, is known as “The Ambassador of Poker” and has given much of his tournament earnings to charity.

Sexton has become quite well known in recent years as a poker commentator, working with Vince Van Patten on the World Poker Tour broadcasts, seen in millions of homes across the United States and in several geographical locations across the world.

Now, Sexton can add ‘daddy’ to his impressive resume. The 60 year old poker player and his lovely wife Karen became parents to a little boy they named Ty Michael Sexton. He was born on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at Mountain View Hospital in Las Vegas, NV. He’s a healthy 8 lbs 6 oz. Apparently, mom and the baby are doing great and dad is over the moon with joy. Pal, Doyle Brunson said on his blog that “We need another Mike Sexton in the world and we finally got him.”

High praise, indeed.

Well, watch the elder Sexton talk to Kimberly Lansing – he needs some ‘baby shoe money’:

The Legends of Poker Tournament began with less than a bang this year as only 161 players paid the $10,000 buy-in. However, that turnout was chock-full of talent including Erick Lindgren, David “The Dragon” Pham, Men “The Master” Nguyen and eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel. Online rounders also came out of the woodwork in droves including Matt Vengrin (Plattsburgh), Isaac Baron, aka WestmenloAA, and Alec “Traheho” Torelli.

With 30k in starting chips and 90 minute levels, the action was slow going for a while. However, Joe Sebok, Jonathan Little and Roy “The Oracle” Winston soon found themselves watching the Beijing Olympics from the rail instead of their seats.

As the day ended, former World Poker Tour champion, Adam Weinraub – he took down $125k for winning the 2007 Celebrity Invitational, which is also held at the Bike – had the chip lead with nearly 150,000 chips.

Now that Full Tilt has finished the ninth installment of its online poker series (FTOPS) we can announce the winner of the leaderboard competition. For each FTOPS event, 200 points were awarded to the winner, with incrementally less points awarded to each slot below the top all the way down to the 72nd position, which equaled 1 point. So, in essence, a player who didn’t win any events could take away the top spot on the leaderboard....if he or she finished high enough in as many of the 25 events as possible.

At the end of the series, that’s exactly what happened. GetPWN3D, aka Kevin Saul, who may be better known to online players as BeL0WaB0Ve, earned that top spot with 500 points, more than 60 points ahead of yuvee04. Yuval Bronshtein took down two events at the FTOPS, back to back. However, that was not enough for him to defeat Saul according to the leaderboard math (and we thought calculus was hard!).

Nick “CapTinBisKuit” Blumenthal took the third position with 385 points. Other big name players who sat on the leaderboard included Teledonk (8th place), hAAydon (27th) and IWEARGOGGLES (87th). Ram “CrazyHorse” Vaswani was the top Full Tilt Poker finisher with 289 points. He held the tenth slot. Other Full Tilt players on the board included David Chiu (22nd place), Scott Clements (58th place) and Robert Williamson III (118th).

For more information on the FTOPS, visit Full Tilt Poker now!

In this clip, Kevin Saul talks with Amanda Leatherman after winning the World Poker Tour’s Bellagio Cup III:

Michael Phelps has won eight gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Add this to the seven he won in 2004 at the Olympic Games in Athens. The 23 year old swimmer has made history and is the most decorated Olympian like, ever. Apparently, Phelps also likes to play a bit of poker. His fellow USA teammates have said he plays online for hours at a time. In a Canadian newspaper, people who frequent a casino in Windsor, Ontario mention how Phelps regularly crushes the $1/$2 games there.

The man himself even mentioned how he’d like to play in the World Series of Poker someday. Well, Phelps may get his chance to play poker with the big names of the game much sooner than he ever anticipated. The long-limbed Olympian, who has been named World Swimmer of the Year in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007, has received a bona fide invitation to play in the Asian Poker Tour (APT) event in Macau from August 27 – 31, 2008.

Here’s the open letter from the APT’s Marketing Director to Michael Phelps:

Dear Michael,

First of all, congratulations on your eight gold medals and world record breaking feats - what a supreme sporting achievement and I hope superstardom treats you well. However, I write this open letter to you to say that I am in a position to add weight to the argument that you should be crowned history's ultimate sportsman.

I noticed recently that you have told your local newspaper that you were a big fan of poker and look forward to playing again. By a strange twist of fate, I represent the Asian Poker Tour and we are running Asia's largest ever guaranteed tournament NEXT WEEK in Macau.

It starts on the 27th and runs until the 31st and guarantees a prize pool of $1,500,000 and a first prize of $500,000.

This is the biggest prize pool ever offered in Asia! While you are already in China, why don't you give it a go? It would be our pleasure to fly you in, organize your accommodation and buy-you in to the tournament!

Some have said you are a 'human dolphin' but we're keen to know if history's greatest swimmer is really a fish. You may have feet that can reach angles others cannot to give you the ultimate swimming technique but just you wait until you've got sharks like Vegas poker legend Doyle Brunson chasing you. We'll see how fast you really are then when they smell blood - get some flippers on those size 14's!

Don't bring your goggles, bring a pair of sunglasses - dive in at the deep end and we would love it if you showed us your hand. You've almost certainly got more chance of making good money from our $1,500,000 prize pool than securing any commercial deals! Your homecoming to a delirious country can wait.

Go all-in Michael! We'll even get some special one-on-one lessons for you from poker's greatest players. If it makes you happier we'll even bring in Mark Spitz too and you can play heads-up! Some have campaigned for poker to become an Olympic sport. The fact that you are a 'human dolphin' doesn't mean you will necessary get a gold medal for Texas Hold'em!

In all seriousness, come join us, you may as well while you are there! We'll definitely show you a good time and would be honored with your presence. Get the closing ceremony over and done with first though!
Best Wishes,

Jeff Mann
The Asian Poker Tour

The APT Macau takes place at the Galaxy StarWorld Hotel & Casino Resort and features a guaranteed prize pool of $1.5 million. First place is schedule to take home $500,000. In addition to Doyle Brunson, JC Tran, Nam Le, John Juanda and APT Manila champ David Saab are expected to attend this event.

Fancy a bit of Chinese poker? You can play it online at PokerRoom.com!