Things appear to be quiet on the tournament front, but looming in the distance is the monster known as the World Series of Poker. The 39th Annual World Series of Poker is set to kick off on May 30th – three weeks from now – with a $10,000 World Championship Pot-Limit Hold ‘Em event. In no time, there will be a flurry of money being won, and new names being made famous. However, there are a few big series coming up, and a few big tournaments have gone down recently.
The first ever Latin American Poker Tour event has come and gone, as the Poker Stars sponsored event attracted 314 players, each putting up $2,500 for a shot at money and glory. After beating out the field, Julien Nuitjen claimed first place, and $228k for his great work. Julien is only 19 years old, and played a great game en route to taking down the inaugural LAPT tournament in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Julien came into the final table as the chip leader, and left as the champion. He joins the growing list of former Magic: The Gathering players who have found great success in poker. The next LAPT event will be from May 22nd to May 24th, in San Jose, Costa Rica and will be a $2,500 event as well.
The 888.com $3 Million World Poker Crown came to a close today, as two Canadians remained, with $1.4 million dollars to be won between the both of them. Michael Lawson, known as miko77q online, came into heads-up play with a nearly 4-1 chip deficit. He quickly came close to even, but the bitter end came soon after, as he ran pocket tens into Jack Hinchey’s KQ on a King hi flop. Lawson went home with $397,800, while Jack Hinchey won an amazing $1,000,000. Quite the interesting tournament, with the first 2200 players being thinned out online, while the final table was played live in Barcelona, Spain. 888.com definitely put on a great tournament.
Looming in the near future is the World Series of Poker Circuit Event in New Orleans and the World Poker Tour Spanish Championship. The Circuit stop in New Orleans started today with a $500 No Limit Hold ‘Em event, and will run until May 19th, when the $5k championship begins, which will wrap up on the 21st at the final table.
The WPT stop in Barcelona, Spain, will be a roughly $8.3k event. It will be a bit of a long one, starting on May 21st, with the final table going down on May 27th. This will be the last big tournament before the World Series of Poker begins, which will then become the center of everyone’s attention until July 15th when the series culminates, with the Main Event final table going down in November.
That’s all for this week, keep posted to FTR Blogs in May as we are in the homestretch leading to the World Series of Poker!