Ross Johnson Wins British Masters Poker Leeds

Ross Johnson of Gateshead has taken down the second leg of the Coral.co.uk British Poker masters in Leeds.

With the World Cup in South Africa and the World Series on in Las Vegas, there were plenty of distractions from the UK’s poker tables. But 69 players kept their poker heads on to play in the £500 No Limit Hold’em main event, leaving a tough field field for Johnson to beat.

Johnson dominated the final stretch of the two day event, knocking out Steve Chadwick in fourth (who took home £3,100), Ash Hussain in third (for £4,830) before sending Paul “Swampy” Gardner out in second place for £7,240.

Brits Near Final Table Event #17: $5,000 NL Hold’em, Liv Boeree Plays For TOC Seat

British poker players Paul Foltyn and Samuel Trickett are close to making the final table of event #17 $5,000 No Limit Hold’em at the World Series Of Poker in Las Vegas.

With 12 players remaining (at time of this post) Foltyn currently sits in 7th and Trickett 9th, in a great opportunity to take a third title for Great Britain.

The British pair, who are both GUKPT champions, are guaranteed a payday of $49,024 in the worst case scenario of going out in 12th. But both players will have their eyes on the first prize of $818,959 and a coveted World Series bracelet.

In play chip count:

1. Jason DeWitt: 2,000,000
2. Amit Makhija: 1,300,000
3. Jeff Williams: 1,190,000
4. Peter Gilmore: 1,120,000
5. David Benefield: 1,090,000
6. James Carroll: 1,080,000
7. Paul Foltyn: 960,000
8. Antonio Esfandiari: 850,000
9. Samuel Trickett: 660,000
10. Perry Friedman: 540,000

Boeree Plays For TOC Seat

James Dempsey Wins WSOP Event #9 $1,500 PL Hold’em

James ‘Flushy’ Dempsey of Brighton has won the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em at the World Series Of Poker in Las Vegas, taking down $197,470 and winning Britain’s second bracelet of the 2010 WSOP.

Dempsey’s win means the $1,500 PLH has been won by a Briton two years in a row, after JP Kelly’s victory last year.

Despite arriving late on Day 1, Dempsey finished the day in chip lead. He held the lead until the end of Day 2 when his eventual heads up opponent Steve Chanthabouasy took control, going into the final table just 5000 in front of Dempsey.

As the final table formed, God Save The Queen was playing for Praz Bansi’s bracelet ceremony, an omen for what was to come.

Praz Bansi Wins WSOP Event #5: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em

British poker pro Praz Bansi has won event #5: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas.

Bansi defeated Canadian Vincent Jacques heads up to win his second WSOP bracelet, the first British bracelet this year, and $515,501 in prize money.

Bansi stayed in the lead pack throughout the tournament, consistently one step ahead of the majority of the field of 2092 players. On the final day of the tournament Bansi took the chip lead as the 23 remaining players were whittled down to a final nine. Bansi’s lead was diminished as he went into heads up against Jacques almost even on chips.

Dusk Till Dawn WSOP Satellites

With the World Series Of Poker getting under way in Las Vegas tomorrow, Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham are offering a great last chance package to get out there and get a piece of the action.

Their £500+50 Live Club Satellite takes place on Bank Holiday Monday at 3pm, with 10 guaranteed packages worth £8,300 up for grabs. Each package includes seven nights at the 5* MGM Grand from 5th-12th July, $10,000 cash, £1,000 flight expenses with airport pick-up, VIP check-in and VIP access.

There’s still a chance to qualify for the Live Club Satellite through a last chance Live Super Satellite taking place at DTD on Sunday at 3pm.

Stuart Rutter Rules In Coventry

Stuart Rutter of Birmingham has defeated a field of 142 at the GUKPT Coventry Leg 5 main event.

The Oxford mathematics graduate, 27, wins the first prize of £41,910 and qualifies for the end of season £150,000 Champion of Champions trophy.

Now a professional player for GCasino.com, Rutter won his record equalling fourth GUKPT final table.

After knocking out Darren Grosvenor in third place, Rutter went into heads up against Danny Toffel with a 6-1 chip lead. Toffel made it hard work for the Oxford grad cum poker pro, providing two hours of competition before the final hand was settled with Rutter’s pocket nines defeating Toffel’s pocket fours.

UK Player Faces Extradition Over Murder

A UK poker player is moving closer to extradition to the United States to face murder charges after a judge rejected his arguments against the move.

Marcus Bebb-Jones is accused of murdering and then burying his American wife Sabrina in a Colorado national park in 1997.

The case has been sent to the Home Secretary for a final decision on his extradition.

The judge rejected the defendant’s calls that the sentence imposed would breach Mr Bebb-Jones’ human rights.

American prosecutors claim that Mr Bebb-Jones, 46, murdered his wife and then spent a ‘playboy’ weekend in Las Vegas.

WSOPE £1,000 No Limit Hold’em – Day 1a & 1b

Day 1a

Day 1a saw 295 players take their seats at The Casino at the Empire card room. With just 3,000 starting chips there was plenty of action and early all ins which resulted in several quick exits from the game. ‘Poker Brat’ Phil Hellmuth was quickly eliminated from the tournament after shoving all of his chips into the middle with an open ended straight draw versus his opponent’s pocket Kings. Hellmuth wasn’t lucky enough to hit the straight and found himself out of the game after just one round of play.

Hellmuth was soon followed to the rail by several other big names such as: John Duthie, Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott, Erik Seidel, Neil Channing, Barry Greenstein and Willie Tann. Neil Channing fell victim to young British pro Richard Kellet, one of the big chip leaders of the day. Kellet continued to stay about the top all day and knocked out another big stack, Cristiano Blanco, to keep his position.

WSOP 2009: 172 UK Players make Day 2

After four opening days of the WSOP Main Event there are 1,816 players out of the 6,494 entrants that have made it through to Day 2 of the event. 172 of the remaining players are from the UK.

Holding the largest UK stack is Jon Kalmar (pictured) with 135,050 chips closely followed by Asa Smith with 134,275. Dwayne Stacey, Charles Clark, Simeon Zacharias, Karl Fenton, Andy Ward, Neil Lusher and Jeff Kimber all have over 100k in chips. Stuart Rutter and Joe Beevers are nearly there with stacks of 96,200 and 92,625 respectively.