This has been a simply huge couple of days in the tournament scene, with big names frequenting the high buy in preliminary events at the Five-Star World Poker Classic at the Bellagio, while we near the end of the road at the Foxwoods Poker Classic.
The EPT San Remo just wrapped up this past weekend, with American Jason Mercier besting a final table that included Italian favorite Dario Mineri. Jason took home 1.3 million U.S. for his win in San Remo. As I’ve said before, this is the second to last EPT event in their fourth season. The Poker Stars sponsored series will be in Monte Carlo, on April 12th. Look for this to be one of the most sought after titles of the year, as the high buy-in and exotic location attract gamblers from all over the world. The EPT Grand Final will run until April 17th, and has a cap of 1000 players.
In Indiana at the Worlds Series of Poker circuit stop, it’s being more or less quiet thus far. The fifth event was a $500, and was won by Tim Vance. Some might remember him as the winner of the recent EPT Scandinavian Open. He beat out 429 other players, and for his efforts he was rewarded with $61k. All of the events are just a precursor for the $5k Main Event that begins on Sunday, the 13th.
With no buy-in under $2k, it’s no surprise that the preliminaries at the Five-Star World Poker Classic have attracted a wealth of pros. The five events that have finished thus far have been filled with well-known players. Event 1, a $2k event featured Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, James “mig.com” Mackey, and David “Bakes” Baker at the final table. Event 2 was a $2.5 k event, and was won by Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin for almost $149k. Jon Kalmar, who final tabled the World Series of Poker Main Event last summer, took third for $36,675. The final table also included David Levi, Peter “#1 Pen” Neff, Thayer Rasmussen, Shannon Shorr, and John Murphy. Event 4 was a huge one, a $5k event. Jeff “yellowsub86” Williams came in with the chip lead, but petered out in 4th for $34,205. The eventual winner should be no surprise as he’s been crushing tournaments in the past year, as Scott Clements took it down for $206k. The preliminaries run until April 19th, when the $25k WPT Main Event goes down.
Lastly, the Foxwoods Poker Classic is nearing an end, as they will be going into Day 5 tomorrow. This tournament could possibly take less time, but they space their days out farther than some tourneys would, giving players shorter days, and more rest. There are nine players remaining, going into tomorrow. Only six will get a spot at the WPT Televised final table, and you can bet the remaining players will be hungry for the coveted spots. Heading the charge is Erik Seidel, with over 2.4 million in chips. With the blinds still at 10k/20k, with a 3k ante, he has an enormous stack to abuse the other players with. However, Ted Forrest is still there with 1.6 million, and Adam “akat11” Katz has 2.1 million, along with Allen Bari holding 500k. The final table will be on Wednesday, with almost 1 million going to the winner!
Keep posted to FTR Blogs for your live tournament reports!