Top News – Major Poker Tours in Action and Hall of Fame Nominees

So another week of poker is coming to an end and we've got plenty to tell you about. Two of three major poker tournaments taking place this week have already finished and one is still underway. Blair Hinkle is the new WSOP-C Council Bluffs winner, Toby Lewis has taken down EPT Vilamoura and WPT London is in its Day 4 with just 18 players remaining at the tables and Italian PartyPoker.it pro Giovanni Safina leading in chips.

In other news we continue with the major live poker tours and tell you all about the WPT's new broadcast and promotional agreement with FSN. And the last is the list of this year's Top10 nominees for the 2010 Poker Hall of Fame, wanna know who made it into the list? Keep reading!

The British Owned EPT Vilamoura

So the second event of EPT season 7 has finished yesterday in the sunny Vilamoura resort in Portugal and it was the guy from the British isles Toby Lewis who took home the title along with almost half a million Euros for the first place.

The EPT Vilamoura final table started with as many as three British players – Toby Lewis, Sam Trickett and Teddy Sheringham accompanied by Martin Jacobson from Sweden, the American Jason Lee, Denmark's Frederik Jensen, Rob Hollink from the Netherlands, and Portugal's own Sergio Coutinho.

Because the legislation in Portugal does not allow any filming or photo-taking inside the casinos our good friends from the PokerNews live reporting team had to give up their habit sticking the mike into everyone's face just after they leave the table and wait for the players to come outside. Because of the same reasons they had to use their talents to show you what was going on inside the casino. Here's an example of the fine art, called “EPT Vilamoura Final”:



Before the start of the final table the British crew were holding all of the top3 positions, however, when it all came down to the moment of truth, not all three were able to hold on to their leadership. Martin Jacobson (6th before the FT) and Jason Lee (4th before the FT) overcame the ex-football star Teddy Sheringham and Sam Trickett leaving them in 5th and 4th place respectively.

However, the last Brit standing – Toby Lewis maintained his position as the chip leader and battled-through to become the new champion of EPT Vilamoura. He collected €467,835 along with the shiny EPT trophy and the title.

Here are the final standings of EPT Vilamoura 2010:

1. Toby Lewis – €467,835
2. Martin Jacobson – €297,984
3. Jason Lee – €186,240
4. Sam Trickett – €139,680
5. Teddy Sheringham – €93,120
6. Frederik Jensen – €74,496
7. Rob Hollink – €55,872
8. Sergio Coutinho – €37,248

Hinkle Wins WSOP-C Council Bluffs

The winner of this season's inaugural World Series of Poker Circuit event got “only” $88,555 in cash for his first place finish, but that wasn't the main goal of winning the WSOP-C event held at the Horseshoe Casino in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The other reason why 251 players have decided to give up $1,500 for the chance at the WSOP-C ring and title was the new tournament system which allows the tournament champion to enter the $1 million guaranteed National Championship event and play for the actual WSOP bracelet.

And the big winner after three days of play was Blair Hinkle – the player who already owns a WSOP bracelet won at the $2,000 No-Limit Hold'em event in 2008. However, to claim the WSOP-C title and a seat at the bracelet event he had to beat the three-time Circuit-ring winner – Dwyte Pilgrim, who finished in third place.

In comparison to the last year's event, the 2010 WSOP-C Horseshoe Council Bluffs was a real success and not only because of the new system. Only 46 players took a shot at the Council Bluffs title in 2009 $5,000 buy-in event. The much lower buy-in along with the chance of getting into the National Championship and play for the bracelet were the two main reasons of the so much bigger field.

And so here are the standings after the Council Bluffs final table:

1. Blair Hinkle - $88,555
2. Shiva Dudani - $54,715
3. Dwyte Pilgrim - $39,531
4. Matt Lawrence - $29,092
5. Charles Moore - $21,795
6. Jack Do - $16,608
7. John Wakeen - $12,867
8. Daniel Biddle - $10,131
9. Kevin Calenzo - $8,103

Safina Leads WPT London

Day 3 of the World Poker Tour event in London saw the field of title contenders go down from 38 to 18. Although the list of remaining players does not include big poker names, some of those to hit the rail after Day 1 and Day 2 were Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Huck Seed, Luke Schwartz, Roland de Wolfe, Tony G, Frank Kassela, Barry Shulman, and Freddy Deeb.

So after the Day 3 its the Italian PartyPoker pro Giovanni Safina who leads in chips with the stack of 1,271,000 followed by Fabian Quoss in 2nd place with 720,000 and Kristoffer Thorsson in 3rd with 685,000 in chips.

Here are the top 10 WPT London 2010 players heading into the final Day 4:

1. Giovanni Safina – 1,271,000
2. Fabian Quoss – 720,000
3. Kristoffer Thorsson – 685,000
4. Jake Cody – 538,000
5. Gareth Teatum – 520,000
6. John Dwyer – 386,000
7. Barkatul Mohammed – 367,000
8. Sandiep Khosa – 363,000
9. Philip Patrick – 356,000
10. Nichlas Mattsson Saarisilta – 295,000

World Poker Tour London saw plenty of poker celebrities. The WPT reporter Tatjana Pasalic caught up with Tony G to talk about some of the poker issues, and like most of the times with Tony, the interview was totally unpredictable, check it out:

WPT on FSN

World Poker Tour have decided to continue their cooperation with the Fox Sports Net or simply FSN for three more seasons. The broadcast and promotional agreement has been signed for seasons 9, 10 and 11 with prime time national air times of 8:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on Sundays, plus additional broadcasts throughout the rest of the week.

“FSN is excited to remain the home for The World Poker Tour, which continues to deliver great ratings for our affiliates,” said David Sussin, FSN Vice President of Programming. “WPT is one of the most respected brands in poker and will only grow stronger with the tremendous innovations they are bringing to the show in the new season. Our network has long been a showcase for the best poker on television, and we are very happy WPT will continue that tradition.”

The WPT President Adam Pliska had this to say: “As a leader in sports programming, FSN has been a great champion of the WPT and we are thrilled to make this long-term commitment as we celebrate a new day for the WPT. The better airtimes, improved promotion and the increased number of repeat episodes promise to be a boon for fans and the perfect showcase for the exciting changes coming to the WPT starting in Season 9.”

The WPT season 9 on FSN kicks-off in January with Kimberly Lansing back on the show. Some of the other news for next season is the new segment called “The Raw Deal” and the Royal Flush Girls.

Poker Hall of Fame

And the last news for the week is the 2010 Poker Hall of Fame nominations being announced. For more than two months internet users had the chance to nominate their favorite players and poker personalities into the Hall of Fame and after the poll had been closed, 10 people to get the most votes were revealed.

Now the Poker Hall of Fame Governing Council will review the list and select the players who meet the requirements for being introduced into the POH and will then put it for the vote before the 16 Hall of Fame members and 17 representatives of the poker media.

The new members of the Poker Hall of Fame will be announced in November as a part of the WSOP final table. And while we wait, take a look at the 10 Poker Hall of Fame 2010 nominees (the players are listed in alphabetical order):

1. Chris Ferguson
2. Barry Greenstein
3. Jennifer Harman-Traniello
4. Dan Harrington
5. Phil Ivey
6. Linda Johnson
7. Tom McEvoy
8. Daniel Negreanu
9. Scotty Nguyen
10. Erik Seidel

And that's all we had for you this week. Join us next time to find out who concurred London for the World Poker Tour title as well as to learn all about the other top poker news of the week.

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