Top News – Poker Hall of Fame Ballot and WSOP Main Event Take Off

Top News is back to OnlinePoker10 after another week of poker action in Vegas, online poker rooms and other places where poker is played. This time we've got some more of the latest (and the last ones) World Series of poker results with all the winners, top 10 players of each of the events and all the payouts. We will also tell you about the latest poker pro signings with the online poker rooms and some of the celebrities who have joined the online poker community as well.

Top News will also tell you about the nominations for the 2010 Poker Hall of Fame as well as the conclusion of the EPT Berlin robbery. And finally, we will take a look at the 2010 WSOP Main Event which has started just a few days ago and will finish only in November and will also give you this year's Top10 WSOP cash performances and will take a look at the Player of the Year race.

Pros and Celebrities Join Online Poker Sites

Last week PokerStars have announced the signing of one of the biggest poker comebacks of the year – Vanessa Selbst. A 2008 World Series of Poker bracelet winner was out of sight for some time, but had a major comeback when she won the PokerStars.net NAPT Mohegan Sun Main Event this April and cashed $750,000. Another pro addition to the Team PokerStars is David Williams. According to his agent at PokerRoaylty.com, the player who has in the recent years become the face of the other online poker room – Bodog Poker, has now decided to join PokerStars. Williams had reminded about himself to the wide poker audience earlier this year when he finished first in the WPT season-ending $25,000 World Championship event and collected $1,530,537 as the main prize.

Online poker rooms are also known to sign sponsorship deals with all kinds of celebrities as well. Carbon Poker have proudly introduced the latest addition to their family, a world-famous actress and model – Shannon Elizabeth. She will both represent the site when playing live poker events and keep blogging on Carbon Poker.

Another celebrity to join an online poker site is the all-mighty boxer and Boxing Hall of Famer Evander “the Real Deal” Holyfield. The multiple world champion is now the face of RealDealPoker.com – very impressive. The not so well-known poker site is hoping to increase their numbers with the addition of the boxing superstar.

Along with Evander poker fans will also find real cards being dealt at RealDealPoker which is a unique feature in an online poker room. “Real cards being dealt online – why didn’t someone think of this sooner? If I’m playing poker, I like to know I am playing with real cards and not just a computer. RealDealPoker.com is a poker room I’m very proud to be associated with,” said the world boxing champion.

Want to play with the stars? Join PokerStars today and face your idols.

Poker Hall of Fame Voting

The ballot for this year's Poker Hall of Fame has been officially opened and all poker fans are welcome to add their favorites. To contribute to the vote you must visit the online ballot at WSOP.com and fill-in the nomination form. On September 1, 10 people to get the most votes will be announced and the Poker Hall of Fame governing council will then review the list and decide whether any changes are needed. Then, on September 13 all the current hall of Famers and some reputable members of poker media will vote to determine the two new members of the Poker Hall of Fame.

So if you know someone who's not on the wall yet and believe that they most definitely should be, register your favorite to the competition and hope they'll get voted by the other fans as well. However, there are some rules you must follow when contributing a nominee. First they must have played poker against acknowledged top competition and played for high stakes. It is also important that they have performed consistently well at the poker tables, gaining the respect of peers and have stood the test of time.

People who don't play poker can also be nominated under the condition that they have contributed to the overall growth and success of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.

EPT Berlin Robbers Convicted

German court has finally convicted four criminals who have committed one of the biggest robberies in the history of poker. Back in March they have stolen €242,000 in an armed robbery at the PokerStars European Poker Tour Berlin, during which, luckily no one was seriously injured. In a few weeks time after the assault all of the suspects were arrested and put into custody. All four had confessed of the crime which has played the role in shortening their sentences.

The 21-year-old group leader knows as Vedat S, who was arrested first and then named his fellow robbers, allowing the authorities to issue warrants in the case got three years and nine months in prison. The rest of the offenders aged 19 to 20, Ahmad el-Awayti, Mustafa Ucarkus and Jihad Chetwie were all sentenced for three-and-a-half-years in juvenile detention.

Although all of the suspects were captured and convicted, the stolen money was never found. The robbers refused to give up its whereabouts and only €4,000 has been recovered.

WSOP Wrap-ups

So the 2010 World Series of Poker had reached its final stage as the Event #57: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship a.k.a. the Main Event took off on Monday. Since last week, seven more events along with the $5,000 Ante Up For Africa Poker Tournament charity event and WSOP Tournament of Champions have seen their final hands and the winners were announced. OnlinePoker10 gives you all the WSOP Top10's and the payouts.

Event #50: $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha

1. Chance Kornuth – $508,090
2. Kevin Boudreau – $313,792
3. Danny Smith – $226,923
4. Edward Martin – $165,825
5. Scott Mandel – $122,455
6. Julian Gardner – $91,387
7. Eric Liu – $68,902
8. Robert Mizrachi – $52,471
9. Jose Nacho Barbero – $40,364
10. Ran Azor – $31,448

Event #51: $3,000 Triple Chance No Limit Holdem

1. Ryan Welch – $559,371
2. Jon Eaton – $344,830
3. Guillaume Darcourt – $223,459
4. Will Failla – $163,532
5. Bradley Craig – $121,451
6. Sergey Lebedev – $91,407
7. Tommy Vedes – $69,647
8. Noel Scruggs – $53,694
9. Tad Jurgens – $41,842
10. Koen de Bakker – $33,026

Event #52: $25,000 No Limit Holdem Six-handed

1. Dan Kelly – $1,315,518
2. Shawn Buchanan – $812,941
3. Frank Kassela – $556,053
4. Jason Somerville – $386,125
5. Mikael Thuritz – $272,084
6. Eugene Katchalov – $194,559
7. Sam Trickett – $141,168
8. Bryn Kenney – $141,168
9. Isaac Haxton – $104,651
10. Brian Hodhod – $104,651

Event #53: Limit Holdem Shootout

1. Brendan Taylor – $184,950
2. Ben Yu – $114,484
3. Jonathan Little – $73,218
4. Joseph McGowan – $48,546
5. Brian Tate – $33,276
6. Michael Schneider – $23,563
7. Sijbrand Maal – $17,215
8. Terrence Chan – $12,961
9. Feming Chan – $4,135
10. Matthew Kelly – $4,135

Event #54: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em

1. Marcel Vonk – $570,960
2. David Peters – $350,803
3. Paul Kerr – $255,076
4. Nathan Jessen – $186,818
5. Henrik Tollefsen – $138,107
6. Matthew Lupton – $103,061
7. Mehul Chaudhari – $77,633
8. Espen Moen – $59,020
9. Dustin Dorrance-Bowman – $45,286
10. Johnny Kitchens – $35,045

Event #55: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship

1. Daniel Alaei – $780,599
2. Miguel Proulx – $482,265
3. Ville Mattila – $354,218
4. Ludovic Lacay – $262,208
5. Trevor Uyesugi – $195,631
6. Stephen Pierson – $147,138
7. Dmitry Stelmak – $111,524
8. Alexander Kravchenko – $85,180
9. Matthew Wheat – $65,568
10. Jason Mercier – $50,867

Event #56: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em

1. Tomer Berda – $825,976
2. Vladimir Kochelaevskiy – $510,939
3. Bryan Porter – $353,260
4. Salvatore Bonavena – $254,777
5. Mike Wattel – $186,250
6. Hungcheng Hung – $137,946
7. Ali Alawadhi – $103,527
8. Joseph Curcio – $78,705
9. Alfonso Amendola – $60,580
10. James Mackey – $47,232

$5,000 Ante Up For Africa Poker Tournament

1. Phil Gordon – $130,641
2. Shannon Elizabeth – $80,737
3. Alex Filatov – $56,516
4. Carter Phillips – $41,166
5. Erik Seidel – $30,287
6. Jerome Bettis – $22,624
7. Barry Hartheimer – $18,146
8. Kyle Carlston – $15,125
9. Claire Renaut – $12,998

WSOP Tournament of Champions

1. Huck Seed – $500,000
2. Howard Lederer – $250,000
3. Johnny Chan – $100,000
4. Joe Hachem – $25,000
5. Barry Greenstein – $25,000
6. Daniel Negreanu – $25,000
7. Jennifer Harman – $25,000
8. Annie Duke – $25,000
9. TJ Cloutier – $25,000

2010 WSOP Main Event

This year's World Series of Poker is coming to an end and there's only one event left. And although its winner will only be determined in November, in just a couple of days we will know the last nine contenders to the title.

Despite the fact that the WSOP Main Event gathers much more fish than any other poker event in the world and the pros say that at its starting stage it's by far the easiest tournament they've ever played, it still remains the most prestigious poker event and generates the biggest prizepool. In 2008, 6,844 players contributed a pot of $64,333,600 and although the numbers have dropped a bit in 2009 to 6,494 players and $61,043,600 prizepool, the year 2010 is expected to be much better. This year the World Series had attracted 20 percent more players than in 2009 and the Main Event should see the increased number of participants as well.

Here's a video of Gloria Balding telling you all about this Year's Main Event:



And while we wait for the November Nine to come-up let's take a look at some of this year's best performances so far. First is the Top 10 of the most successful (if success is to be measured in cash) 2010 WSOP players:

1. Michael Mizrachi – $1,684,051
2. Dan Kelly – $1,338,609
3. Frank Kassela – $1,233,987
4. Vladimir Shchemelev – $1,144,617
5. Jeffrey Papola – $1,061,302
6. Daniel Alaei – $1,001,704
7. Tomer Berda – $943,392
8. Shawn Buchanan – $874,951
9. Jason Dewitt – $828,914
10. Men Nguyen – $817,759

Another Top 10 we want you to take a look at is the WSOP player of the year race which is now led by Frank Kassela with 285 points – the only player to win two bracelets in 2010 WSOP. Will he be the one to receive the player of the year honors? We'll just have to wait and see.

#	Name	Points	Bracelets	Cashes	Earnings
1	Frank Kassela	285 pts	2	5	$1,233,987
2	John Juanda	225 pts	0	5	$745,296
3	Vladimir Shchemelev	210 pts	0	4	$1,144,617
4	Dan Heimiller	205 pts	0	7	$271,687
5	Michael Mizrachi	190 pts	1	4	$1,684,051
6	James Dempsey	185 pts	1	4	$511,866
7	Jeffrey Papola	180 pts	1	3	$1,061,302
8	Men Nguyen	180 pts	1	3	$817,759
9	Richard Ashby	180 pts	1	3	$524,964
10	Allen Kessler	175 pts	0	8	$373,733
10	Miguel Proulx	175 pts	1	2	$797,576

So that's all we had for you today, visit us next week for more Top Poker News from the World Series and some of the other interesting places.

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