1.
World Series of Poker
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The World Series of Poker is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas and, since 2005, sponsored by Caesars Entertainment Corporation. The winner of each event receives a World Series of Poker bracelet, over the years, the tournament has grown in both the number of events and in the number of participants. Each year, the WSOP culminates with the $10,000 no-limit holdem Main Event, the victor receives a multi-million dollar cash prize and a bracelet, which has become the most coveted award a poker player can win. The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event is considered to be the World Champion of Poker, as of 2014, the WSOP consists of 65 events, with most major poker variants featured. However, in recent years, over half of the events have been variants of Texas hold em, Events traditionally take place during one day or over several consecutive days during the series in June and July. However, starting in 2008, the Main Event final table was delayed until November, the 2012 Main Event final table commenced in October because of the United States presidential election. Since 1971, all WSOP events have been tournaments with cash prizes, in 1973, a five-card stud event was added. Since then, new events have added and removed. Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP, later on, the tournament grew slowly for over a decade, reaching 52 participants in 1982. In the early 1980s, satellite tournaments were introduced, allowing people to win their way into the various events, by 1987, there were over 2,100 entrants in the entire series. At the 2006 World Series of Poker, there were 45 events, participation in the Main Event peaked that year, with 8,773 players. Currently, Texas hold em, Omaha hold em and Seven-card stud, H. O. R. S. E. has been played in the past and returned in 2006. Also, S. H. O. E. has been played in the past, other events played in the past include Chinese poker, Five card stud, and many others. Like most tournaments, the sponsoring casino takes a fee and distributes the rest. In the 2005 Main Event, US$52,818,610 in prize money was distributed among 560 players, with US$7.5 million as the first prize. The 2006 Main Event, won by Jamie Gold, is the largest single poker tournament by prize pool or by entrant numbers in history, in July 2010, it was announced that the winner of the 2010 Main Event would receive just under US$9 million. 11% of the went to Lalibertés charity, the One Drop Foundation. At the time of the announcement,15 of the maximum 48 seats had been taken
2.
World Series of Poker bracelet
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The World Series of Poker bracelet is considered the most coveted non-monetary prize a poker player can win. Since 1976, a bracelet has been awarded to the winner of every event at the annual WSOP, even if the victory occurred before 1976, WSOP championships are now counted as bracelets. During the first years of the WSOP only a handful of bracelets were awarded each year, in 1990, there were only 14 bracelet events. By 2000, that increased to 24. As the popularity of poker has increased during the 2000s, the number of events has likewise increased, in 2011,58 bracelets were awarded at the WSOP, seven at the World Series of Poker Europe, and one to the WSOP National Circuit Champion. This brought the number of bracelets awarded up to 959. Five additional bracelets were awarded for the first time in April 2013 at the inaugural World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific in Melbourne, Australia. Since Chris Moneymaker won the 2003 Main Event, only two players have won and followed it up with a win in another event, Jonathan Duhamel. The 1976 bracelet looked like gold nuggets kind of hammered flat, the bracelet in 1976 cost approximately $500. In the 1980s, Las Vegas jeweler Mordechai Yerushalmi became the manufacturer of WSOP bracelets until Harrahs Entertainment bought the rights to the WSOP in 2004. According to 2003 WSOP Champion Chris Moneymaker, the design of the bracelet remained relatively unchanged under Yerushalmi, in 2005, Gold and Diamond International based in Memphis, TN won the bid from Harrahs Entertainment to manufacture the 2005 World Series of Poker bracelets. The company also manufactures the WSOP circuit rings, in 2006, Frederick Goldman, Inc. made the WSOP bracelets while luxury watch maker Corum introduced some commemorative watches as part of the prize package. In 2006, the Champions bracelet had 259 stones including 7.2 carats of diamonds,120 grams of white and it also used rubies to represent the heart and diamond suits, a sapphire to represent the spade and three black diamonds to represent the clubs. In 2007, Corum became the official bracelet manufacturer for the WSOP, some of the 2007 World Series of Poker champions received both a watch and a bracelet from Corum. Corum designed four variations for the 2007 World Series of Poker Bracelets, the standard version that is presented to 53 winners features 53 diamonds. The Ladies World Champion receives a bracelet that is adorned with four black diamonds, the $50,000 HORSE Champion Bracelet has 91 black diamonds and two rubies. The World Series of Poker Main Event Bracelet has 120 diamonds on 136 grams of 18 carat white gold, the value of the 2007 bracelets have not been released, but the typical price of a Corum watch ranges from $1, 500–$30, 000+. In 2008, the Main Event Bracelet had 291 diamonds, totalling 2.81 carats set in 168 grams of 18kt white gold, the other 54 event bracelets consisted of 55 diamonds, totalling 0.25 carats set in 80 grams of 14kt yellow gold
3.
2008 World Series of Poker
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The 2008 World Series of Poker was the 39th annual World Series of Poker. Held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino, the series began on May 30,2008, and featured 55 poker championships in several variants. All events but the $10,000 World Championship No Limit Texas hold em Main Event, the most prestigious of the WSOP events, ended by July 15. As has been the WSOP custom since 1976, each of the event winners received a championship bracelet in addition to that events prize money, which ranged from $87,929 to $9,119,517. Highlights of the 2008 series include the selection of Erick Lindgren, nikolay Evdakov led all players with a record 10 money finishes, and Phil Hellmuth set a WSOP record of 41 career final tables. This year was the first in which the Main Event was suspended in this fashion, in a stunning statistical improbability, Justin Phillips knocked out Motoyuki Mabuchi in the Main Event. Phillips held a Royal Flush and Mabuchi held quad aces, one of the broadcasters, Lon McEachern, mentioned on air that the chances of such a showdown occurring were 1,2.7 billion. Ray Romano had just sat down at the table when this hand played itself out, nikolay Evdakov set a WSOP record for most cashes at a single World Series with 10. The previous record of eight was held by five players, Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Humberto Brenes, Michael Binger, evdakovs achievement also represents the most cashes by a player at one WSOP without reaching a single final table. Hellmuth, who made two final tables, established a new WSOP career record of 41 final tables, two more than T. J. Cloutier. Scotty Nguyen became the first player to both a Main Event and a $50,000 H. O. R. S. E World Championship bracelet. Several nationals were the first from their country to win bracelets, brazilian Alexandre Gomes won Event 48 to become the first South American player to win a WSOP bracelet since Ecuadorian-born Carlos Mortensen won the 2001 Main Event. Rob Hollink won Event 30, becoming the first Dutch WSOP bracelet winner, the 2008 Main Event final table took 15 hours and 28 minutes to play, beating the previous record of 14 hours and 2 minutes in 2005. The $10,000 World Championship No Limit Texas Hold em Main Event began on July 3 with the first of four starting days, after reaching the final table of nine players on July 14, the final table was delayed until November 9. This change in schedule was made to allow ESPN to broadcast the final table on November 11, All final table players were paid ninth place prize money in July, with the remaining prize pool distributed in November. Instead of the Amazon Room, aka the Poker Room, where all of the events were held, on November 9, players played down from nine to two and the winner was decided the next night. The final table consisted of 274 hands in total, after a large decrease in Main Event participants in 2007 compared to 2006, the number increased slightly in 2008 but was still far from the 2006 number. As in 2007, the structure is flatter than in 2006 and before, with the lowest payouts at $21,230
4.
World Poker Tour
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The World Poker Tour is a series of international poker tournaments and associated television series broadcasting the final table of each tournament. It was started in 2002 in the United States by attorney/television producer Steven Lipscomb, who served as CEO of WPT Enterprises, in 2008, the WPT started offering bracelets to its event champions. Players who won a title prior to the release of the WPT Bracelet were given one retroactively, in November 2009, PartyGaming announced its acquisition of the World Poker Tour from WPTE for $12.3 million. In December 2014, World Poker Tour announced an alliance with Ourgame, agreeing to license products, in June 2015, The World Poker Tour announced that it was acquired by Ourgame International Holdings Ltd. for a price of $35 million in cash. The year-round WPT television show, building on the annual broadcast of the World Series of Poker, has contributed to the Poker boom in American homes, in casino poker rooms. The key sponsors of the WPT are casinos and online poker sites, the WPT television show, which is syndicated internationally, features commentary and analysis by World Series of Poker bracelet winner Mike Sexton and actor Vince Van Patten. Interviews and sideline reporting are provided by a female host, shana Hiatt served as the show host and sideline reporter in its first three seasons. Courtney Friel took over the host role for the fourth season, layla Kayleigh and Kimberly Lansing began serving as hostesses in season six. Poker player and reporter Amanda Leatherman was the host for season seven, Kimberly Lansing returned as anchor for seasons nine through eleven. Lynn Gilmartin assumed the role for season twelve and remains the current anchor for season thirteen. Following the November 2009 acquisition of the World Poker Tour by PartyGaming plc and this series has, to date, focused on televising the European stops of the WPT. Mike Sexton continues to provide commentary, though he is partnered with Denmark-based American commentator Jesse May rather than Vince Van Patten, the role of female show host and sideline reporter has been served by a number of personalities, often from the country where the event is held. One exception is Canadian born poker player Kara Scott, who has served as host for a number of the Party Poker branded telecasts of these European WPT events. In 2014, the World Poker Tour launched a high roller tournament series, WPT Alpha8, the series originally featured commentary and analysis by Ali Nejad and Olivier Busquet, with Lynn Gilmartin serving as anchor. In later seasons, Vince Van Patten and Tony Dunst replaced Nejad, the tour had its debut season in the latter part of 2002 and early part of 2003, climaxing with the WPT Championship in April 2003 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada. The first season aired on the Travel Channel on American cable television in the spring of 2003, the show made its network debut on February 1,2004 on NBC with a special Battle of Champions tournament, which aired against CBS coverage of the Super Bowl XXXVIII pre-game show. The Travel Channel aired the first five seasons of the Tour, in April 2007, WPTE announced that the series would move to GSN for its sixth season in the spring of 2008. The first WPT tournament to air on GSN, the Mirage Poker Showdown, in July 2008, WPTE announced that the series would move to Fox Sports Net for its seventh season
5.
Santa Monica, California
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Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, United States. The Census Bureau population for Santa Monica in 2010 was 89,736, due in part to an agreeable climate, Santa Monica became a famed resort town by the early 20th century. The city has experienced a boom since the late 1980s through the revitalization of its core, significant job growth. The Santa Monica Pier remains a popular and iconic destination, Santa Monica was long inhabited by the Tongva people. Santa Monica was called Kecheek in the Tongva language, the first non-indigenous group to set foot in the area was the party of explorer Gaspar de Portolà, who camped near the present-day intersection of Barrington and Ohio Avenues on August 3,1769. Named after the Christian saint Monica, there are two different accounts of how the name came to be. One says it was named in honor of the feast day of Saint Monica, another version says it was named by Juan Crespí on account of a pair of springs, the Kuruvungna Springs, that were reminiscent of the tears Saint Monica shed over her sons early impiety. In Los Angeles, several battles were fought by the Californios, following the Mexican–American War, Mexico signed the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which gave Mexicans and Californios living in state certain unalienable rights. US government sovereignty in California began on February 2,1848, in the 1870s the Los Angeles and Independence Railroad, connected Santa Monica with Los Angeles, and a wharf out into the bay. The first town hall was a modest 1873 brick building, later a beer hall and it is Santa Monicas oldest extant structure. By 1885, the towns first hotel was the Santa Monica Hotel, around the start of the 20th century, a growing population of Asian Americans lived in and around Santa Monica and Venice. A Japanese fishing village was near the Long Wharf while small numbers of Chinese lived or worked in Santa Monica, the two ethnic minorities were often viewed differently by White Americans who were often well-disposed towards the Japanese but condescending towards the Chinese. The Japanese village fishermen were an economic part of the Santa Monica Bay community. Donald Wills Douglas, Sr. built a plant in 1922 at Clover Field for the Douglas Aircraft Company, in 1924, four Douglas-built planes took off from Clover Field to attempt the first aerial circumnavigation of the world. Two planes returned after covering 27,553 miles in 175 days, the Douglas Company kept facilities in the city until the 1960s. The Great Depression hit Santa Monica deeply, one report gives citywide employment in 1933 of just 1,000. Hotels and office building owners went bankrupt, in the 1930s, corruption infected Santa Monica. The federal Works Project Administration helped build several buildings, most notably City Hall, the main Post Office and Barnum Hall were also among other WPA projects
6.
2006 World Series of Poker
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All events were held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, which marked the first time that a casino other than Binions Horseshoe hosted the final table of the main event. Six days reserved for the first two rounds of play for the event were established by Harrahs Entertainment, which has run the annual event since its purchase from the Binion family in 2004. The first prize in the event was $12 million, at that time the richest prize for the winner of any sports or television event in history. The top 12 players became millionaires, the record prize was surpassed at the 2012 WSOP, when the winner of the $1 million buy-in Big One for One Drop, Antonio Esfandiari, received a first-place prize $18.3 million. The 2006 World Series featured a much-anticipated HORSE tournament with a $50,000 buy-in, humberto Brenes, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, and Alex Jacob tied for the most number of cashes during the WSOP, with eight cashes each. Jeff Madsen, who won two events and made two final tables, was named the 2006 WSOP Player of the Year. He barely edged Hellmuth, who made four final tables. The 2006 Main Event remains the largest tournament in history by prize pool with a total prize pool of $82,512,162. The tournament, like every WSOP Main Event, is a $10,000 No-Limit Texas Holdem event, due to the 8, 773-player field, there were 4 separate starting days, each playing down to 800 people. They were later combined into one set of separate days before becoming one whole group. The field was whittled down to 9 players on August 8, the final table of the Main Event was offered live on Pay-Per-View, but unlike ESPN telecasts, viewers at home could not see the hole cards of the players unless the player turned their cards over. Along with the usual $10,000 chip stacks, a new feature to the WSOP was the All-In button, Tournament directors have informed the participants that the coin could be used in lieu of pushing all of one’s chips into the pot. The beige $50,000 chips that were used in 2005 were not used in 2006, instead, tangerine and yellow $25,000 chips, in the design of the current $25 chips, were used. And for the first time in World Series of Poker History, the chips were mint green with black edge spots in the design of the current yellow/black $1,000 chip. NB, This list is restricted to top 30 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry, day 1, Dan Harrington, Phil Hellmuth Jr. Both Davis and Erna finished in the money, coming in 579th and 713th places respectively, unknowingly, the rest of the players assumed that this stack was someone elses who was late and blinded off the stack. Eventually a player noticed that the stack was Mirza Nagjis chips, players estimate that out of the extra 120,000 in chips that were put into play, around 10, 000–11,000 in chips had already been blinded off from the empty stack. Many poker players who entered into the HORSE event discovered that the cards they were playing with were marked or easily markable
7.
Los Angeles
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Los Angeles, officially the City of Los Angeles and often known by its initials L. A. is the cultural, financial, and commercial center of Southern California. With a census-estimated 2015 population of 3,971,883, it is the second-most populous city in the United States, Los Angeles is also the seat of Los Angeles County, the most populated county in the United States. The citys inhabitants are referred to as Angelenos, historically home to the Chumash and Tongva, Los Angeles was claimed by Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo for Spain in 1542 along with the rest of what would become Alta California. The city was founded on September 4,1781, by Spanish governor Felipe de Neve. It became a part of Mexico in 1821 following the Mexican War of Independence, in 1848, at the end of the Mexican–American War, Los Angeles and the rest of California were purchased as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, thereby becoming part of the United States. Los Angeles was incorporated as a municipality on April 4,1850, the discovery of oil in the 1890s brought rapid growth to the city. The completion of the Los Angeles Aqueduct in 1913, delivering water from Eastern California, nicknamed the City of Angels, Los Angeles is known for its Mediterranean climate, ethnic diversity, and sprawling metropolis. Los Angeles also has an economy in culture, media, fashion, science, sports, technology, education, medicine. A global city, it has been ranked 6th in the Global Cities Index, the city is home to renowned institutions covering a broad range of professional and cultural fields, and is one of the most substantial economic engines within the United States. The Los Angeles combined statistical area has a gross metropolitan product of $831 billion, making it the third-largest in the world, after the Greater Tokyo and New York metropolitan areas. The city has hosted the Summer Olympic Games in 1932 and 1984 and is bidding to host the 2024 Summer Olympics and thus become the second city after London to have hosted the Games three times. The Los Angeles area also hosted the 1994 FIFA mens World Cup final match as well as the 1999 FIFA womens World Cup final match, the mens event was watched on television by over 700 million people worldwide. The Los Angeles coastal area was first settled by the Tongva, a Gabrielino settlement in the area was called iyáangẚ, meaning poison oak place. Gaspar de Portolà and Franciscan missionary Juan Crespí, reached the present site of Los Angeles on August 2,1769, in 1771, Franciscan friar Junípero Serra directed the building of the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel, the first mission in the area. The Queen of the Angels is an honorific of the Virgin Mary, two-thirds of the settlers were mestizo or mulatto with a mixture of African, indigenous and European ancestry. The settlement remained a small town for decades, but by 1820. Today, the pueblo is commemorated in the district of Los Angeles Pueblo Plaza and Olvera Street. New Spain achieved its independence from the Spanish Empire in 1821, during Mexican rule, Governor Pío Pico made Los Angeles Alta Californias regional capital
8.
University of California, Santa Barbara
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The University of California, Santa Barbara is a public research university and one of the 10 campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a 1, 022-acre site near Goleta, California, tracing its roots back to 1891 as an independent teachers college, UCSB joined the University of California system in 1944 and is the third-oldest general-education campus in the system. UCSB is one of Americas Public Ivy universities, which recognizes top public universities in the United States. The university is a doctoral university and is organized into five colleges. UCSB was ranked 37th among National Universities, 8th among U. S. public universities, the university was also ranked 48th worldwide for 2016-17 by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings and 42nd worldwide by the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2016. UC Santa Barbara is a high activity research university with twelve national research centers. UCSB was the No.3 host on the ARPAnet and was elected to the Association of American Universities in 1995, the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos compete in the Big West Conference of the NCAA Division I. The Gauchos have won NCAA national championships in soccer and mens water polo. UCSB traces its origins back to the Anna Blake School which was founded in 1891 and offered training in home economics and industrial arts. The Anna Blake School was taken over by the state in 1909 and became the Santa Barbara State Normal School, the State College system sued to stop the takeover, but the Governor did not support the suit. A state initiative was passed, however, in 1946 to stop subsequent conversions of State Colleges to University of California campuses, from 1944 to 1958 the school was known as Santa Barbara College of the University of California, before taking on its current name. When the vacated Marine Corps training station in Goleta was purchased for the growing college. Originally, the Regents envisioned a small, several thousand-student liberal arts college, chronologically, UCSB is the third general-education campus of the University of California, after Berkeley and UCLA. The original campus the Regents acquired in Santa Barbara was located on only 100 acres of largely unusable land on a seaside mesa, all of this change was done in accordance with the California Master Plan for Higher Education. In 1959, UCSB professor Douwe Stuurman hosted the English writer Aldous Huxley as the universitys first visiting professor, Huxley delivered a lectures series called The Human Situation. In the late 1960s and early 1970s UCSB became nationally known as a hotbed of anti-Vietnam War activity, a bombing at the schools faculty club in 1969 killed the caretaker, Dover Sharp. UCSBs anti-Vietnam activity impelled then Governor Ronald Reagan to impose a curfew, weapon-carrying guardsmen were a common sight on campus and in Isla Vista during this time. On May 23,2014, a killing spree occurred in Isla Vista, California, all six people killed during the rampage were students at UCSB
9.
Las Vegas Valley
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The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area located in the southern part of the U. S. state of Nevada. The largest urban agglomeration in the state, it is the heart of the Las Vegas–Paradise-Henderson, the Valley is largely defined by the Las Vegas Valley landform, a 600 sq mi basin area surrounded by mountains to the north, south, east and west of the metropolitan area. The Valley is home to the three largest incorporated cities in Nevada, Las Vegas, Henderson and North Las Vegas, six unincorporated towns governed by the Clark County government are part of the Las Vegas Township and constitute the largest community in the state of Nevada. Since the 1990s the Las Vegas Valley has seen exponential growth, in 2014, a record breaking 41 million visited the Las Vegas area, producing a gross metropolitan product of more than $100 billion. The first reported non-Native American visitor to the Las Vegas Valley was the Mexican scout Rafael Rivera in 1829. Las Vegas was named by Mexicans in the Antonio Armijo party, including Rivera, in the 19th century, areas of the valley contained artesian wells that supported extensive green areas, or meadows, hence the name Las Vegas. The area was settled by Mormon farmers in 1854 and later became the site of a United States Army fort in 1864. Since the 1930s, Las Vegas has generally been identified as a center as well as a resort destination. Nellis Air Force Base is located in the northeast corner of the valley, the ranges that the Nellis pilots use and various other land areas used by various federal agencies, limit growth of the valley in terms of geographic area. Businessman Howard Hughes arrived in the late 1960s and purchased many casino hotels, as well as television, legitimate corporations began to purchase casino hotels as well, and the mob was run out by the federal government over the next several years. The constant stream of tourist dollars from the hotels and casinos was augmented by a new source of money from the establishment of what is now Nellis Air Force Base. The influx of personnel and casino job-hunters helped start a land building boom which is now leveling off. The Las Vegas area remains one of the top entertainment destinations. The valley is contained in the Las Vegas Valley landform and this includes the cities of Las Vegas, North Las Vegas, and Henderson, and the unincorporated towns of Paradise, Spring Valley, Sunrise Manor, Enterprise, Winchester, and Whitney. The valley is located within the larger metropolitan area, as the metropolitan area covers all of Clark County -including parts that do not fall within the valley. The government of Clark County has an Urban Planning Area of Las Vegas and this definition is a roughly rectangular area, about 20 mi from east to west and 30 miles from north to south. Notable exclusions from the Urban Planning Area include Red Rock, Blue Diamond, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is the largest police department in the valley and the state and exercises jurisdiction in the entire county. The department does not exercise jurisdiction in areas with separate police forces such as North Las Vegas, Henderson, Boulder City, Nellis Air Force Base
10.
Betting in poker
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In the game of poker, the play largely centers on the act of betting, and as such, a protocol has been developed to speed up play, lessen confusion, and increase security while playing. Players in a poker game act in turn, in clockwise rotation, until the first bet is made each player in turn may check, which is to not place a bet, or open, which is to make the first bet. A player may fold by surrendering her cards, a player may check by tapping the table or making any similar motion. All other bets are made by placing chips in front of the player, in general, the person to the left of the dealer acts first and action proceeds in a clockwise fashion. If any player has folded earlier, action proceeds to next player, in games with blinds, the first round of betting begins with the player to the left of the blinds. In stud games action begins with the showing the strongest cards and proceeds clockwise. If there is a bring-in, the first round of betting begins with the player obliged to post the bring-in. If no one has yet opened the round, a player may pass or check. In games played with blinds, players may not check on the round because the blinds are live bets. A player who has posted the big blind has the right to raise on the first round, called the option, if no player has raised. If all players check, the round is over with no additional money placed in the pot. A common way to signify checking is to tap the table, either with a fist, knuckles, some poker variations have special rules about opening a round that may not apply to other bets. For example, a game may have a structure that specifies different allowable amounts for opening than for other bets. Normally, a player makes a bet by placing the chips they wish to wager into the pot, to raise is to increase the size of an existing bet in the same betting round. A player making the second or subsequent raise of a round is said to re-raise. A player making a raise after previously checking in the betting round is said to check-raise. A bluff is when a player bets or raises when it is likely they do not have the best hand, it is often done in hopes that opponent will fold mediocre yet stronger hands. When a player bets or raises with a hand that has a chance of improvement on a later betting round
11.
Texas hold 'em
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Texas hold em is a variation of the card game of poker. Two cards, known as the cards, are dealt face down to each player. The stages consist of a series of three cards, later a single card and a final card. Each player seeks the best five card poker hand from the combination of the community cards, if a players best five card poker hand consists only of the five community cards and none of the players hole cards, it is called playing the board. Players have betting options to check, call, raise or fold, rounds of betting take place before the flop is dealt, and after each subsequent deal. Texas hold em is the H game featured in H. O. R. S. E, in Texas hold em, as in all variants of poker, individuals compete for an amount of money or chips contributed by the players themselves. The game is divided into a series of hands, at the conclusion of each hand, the objective of winning players is not to win every individual hand, but rather to make mathematically and psychologically better decisions regarding when and how much to bet, raise, call—or fold. Ones pattern of betting may encourage opponents to bet or to fold, the winning poker players know how to enhance their opponents betting and maximize their own expected gain on each round of betting, to thereby increase their long-term winnings. Although little is known about the invention of Texas hold em, after the game spread throughout Texas, hold em was introduced to Las Vegas in 1967 by a group of Texan gamblers and card players, including Crandell Addington, Doyle Brunson, and Amarillo Slim. This is when ace high was changed from the form in which aces were low. Addington said the first time he saw the game was in 1959 and they didnt call it Texas hold em at the time, they just called it hold em. … I thought then that if it were to catch on, it would become the game. Draw poker, you bet only twice, hold em, you bet four times and that meant you could play strategically. This was more of a mans game. For several years the Golden Nugget Casino in Downtown Las Vegas was the only casino in Las Vegas to offer the game, at that time, the Golden Nuggets poker room was truly a sawdust joint, with…oiled sawdust covering the floors. Because of its location and decor, this room did not receive many rich drop-in clients. In 1969, the Las Vegas professionals were invited to play Texas hold em at the entrance of the now-demolished Dunes Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. This prominent location, and the inexperience of poker players with Texas hold em. After a failed attempt to establish a Gambling Fraternity Convention, Tom Moore added the first ever poker tournament to the Second Annual Gambling Fraternity Convention held in 1969 and this tournament featured several games including Texas hold em
12.
Eric Froehlich
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Eric Froehlich is an American professional poker player, professional Magic, The Gathering player, and member of the Magic, The Gathering Hall of Fame. He lives in Las Vegas, Nevada, with his wife, Magic, as of 2009, Froehlichs total live poker tournament winnings exceed $1,300,000. His 16 cashes at the WSOP account for $867,783 of those winnings, Froehlich began playing poker in high school and got involved in online poker at the age of 18. He dropped out of the University of Virginia around April 2005 to become a poker player. In the first year, he was eligible to enter a World Series of Poker tournament, Froehlich won a bracelet in the $1,500 limit Texas hold em event, at the time, this made him the youngest player to ever win a bracelet. Froehlich won a bracelet at the 2006 WSOP tournament in the $1,500 pot limit Omaha w/rebuys event. In the final hand, his Q♦ 7♦ 7♥ 6♠ defeated Sherkhan Farnoods K♥ K♦ 6♣ 3♥ on a board of 10♣ 7♥ 5♣ J♦ J♥, in addition to playing poker, Froehlich is also a prominent player of the Magic, The Gathering trading card game. Froehlich was a sports player when younger, involved in baseball, basketball and football. He has made the Top 8 of four Pro Tours and fourteen Grand Prix events, in 2015, Froehlich was voted into the Magic, The Gathering Hall of Fame. PokerSourceOnline article PokerListings. com interview Hendon Mob tournament results
13.
Steve Billirakis
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Steve Billirakis is an American professional poker player. Billirakis won $536,287 and became the then youngest WSOP bracelet winner in history, the previous record holder was Jeff Madsen, who had set the record only the year before. Billirakis record was broken on the 10 September 2007 when Annette Obrestad won the event of the World Series of Poker Europe where the age limit was only 18 years. Prior to signing up for this mixed holdem event, Billirakis had never played limit holdem and his friends gave him a crash course in the days leading up to the event. On one key hand when they were heads up, Mueller had made top pair against Billirakiss trips, when Billirakis raised on the river, Mueller made a feint of putting chips into the pot to attempt to get a read on whether Billirakis wanted him to call. While not a breach of the rules, ESPN commentator Norman Chad opined that such plays aint kosher according to poker etiquette. A short-stacked Mueller later called the big blind with 5♦ 4♦, Billirakis raised Mueller all-in with K♠ 2♦. The board came down J♦ Q♥ 2♠ 8♥ Q♠, giving Billirakis the winning hand with two queens and deuces. In November 2008, Billirakis won a WSOP Circuit Event - Horseshoe Hammond, $5,150 Championship, as of 2014, Billirakiss total live tournament winnings exceed $2,625,000. His 21 cashes at the WSOP account for $1,675,026 of those winnings, an E following a year denotes bracelet won at the World Series of Poker Europe
14.
Annette Obrestad
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Annette Obrestad is a Norwegian poker player. Obrestad is the youngest person to win a World Series of Poker bracelet. Annette Obrestad started her poker career online when she was fifteen years old using the online screen-name Annette_15. She claims she never had to deposit money on any online poker site, between September 2006 and February 2007, she won over $500,000 on Pokerstars, $200,000 on UltimateBet, and $136,000 on Full Tilt Poker. Pocketfives. com, a site that tracks online poker, ranked her number 51 in 2008 and she also has been the sites top-ranked player in the past. In July 2007, Obrestad won a $4 buy-in 180 person online sit-and-go where she claims to have played almost the entire tournament without looking at her cards and she claims she peeked at her cards once during the tournament, when she was faced with an all-in bet. She did this to show just how important it is to play position, on 2 March 2008 she won first place and $20,000 in the Stars Sunday Hundred Grand, a tournament with a buy-in of only $11 but with a field of 20,000 players. On 8 June 2008, she won first place and $35,000 in the Betfair Sunday $125k GTD Event, in December 2008 she won first place in the Ultimate Bet $100k GTD tournament. In May 2010, she won the Sunday 500 for $87,400, oberstad previously allied with the Betfair poker room and Full Tilt Poker. On 24 April 2012, Obrestad signed with Lock Poker, on 17 September 2007 Obrestad won the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe Main Event the day before her 19th birthday. Prior to the 2007 WSOPE, Obrestad had only cashed in four other live poker tournaments, Obrestad currently holds second place among Norwegian poker players in the all-time money list in live tournaments. Annette was a Lock Poker sponsored player, until they ran out of money, there are significant numbers of players who are not able to cash out their winnings due to the fact the company had withdrawal issues. She was still representing the site with the knowledge of this, as of 2014, her total live tournament winnings exceed $3.9 million. com European Poker Tour Dublin event to Reuben Peters, after holding the chip lead throughout most of the final table
15.
World Series of Poker Europe
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The World Series of Poker Europe is the first expansion effort of World Series of Poker-branded poker tournaments outside the United States. Since 1970, participants had to travel to Las Vegas if they wanted to compete in the World Series of Poker, although the WSOP held circuit events in other locations, the main tournaments, which awarded bracelets to the winners, were exclusively held in Las Vegas. The inaugural WSOPE, held in 2007, marked the first time that a WSOP bracelet was awarded outside of Las Vegas, in 2004, Harrahs Casinos purchased the rights to the WSOP label. Harrahs later purchased London Clubs International, LCI operates three casinos in the London area—Fifty, Leicester Square, and The Sportsman. After the purchase of these casinos, Harrahs decided to expand its WSOP label into Europe, so dont be surprised if we require participants to wear blazers at the tables. If James Bond were hosting a tournament it may look like the World Series of Poker Europe. The WSOPE was entering a field as many major poker tournaments were already established in Europe. Pollack, however, believed that recognition of the WSOP. In marketing the WSOPE, Harrahs Casino did not rely upon the reputation of Harrahs or the WSOP alone, on July 5,2007, Harrahs announced its alliance with England-based Betfair, one of the largest online gaming companies in the world. The agreement builds on Betfairs European reputation in advertising the WSOPE while creating the largest agreement between a web-based and brick-and-mortar casinos, due to changes in U. S. laws, effective in 2007, the WSOP could no longer accept money from online gambling companies. This prevented the WSOP from acknowledging WSOP qualifiers from online events, the WSOPE is not bound by this limitation. The United Kingdom Gambling Act of 2005 allows for legal regulated online poker sites, furthermore, as the laws that govern the age of gambling differ in England than the U. S. the WSOPE admits younger players. In 2007, four of the five finalists at the first event of the WSOPE had won bracelets, thomas Bihl, however, outlasted each of them to claim the first-ever WSOPE bracelet. No previous bracelet winners played at the final table, Dario Alioto won the bracelet. Annette Annette_15 Obrestad, became the youngest player to win a WSOP bracelet event at age 18 years,364 days in the event of the tournament. In 2008, the WSOPE added an event and was held at the Casino at the Empire in Leicester Square. The 2008 WSOPE was particularly notable, as Jesper Hougaard became the first person to win a bracelet at both the WSOP and WSOPE, let alone winning both in a single year. The WSOPE Main Event included several big name stars including Ivan Demidov, John Juanda, demidovs appearance at the WSOPE final table was of particular interest
16.
Omaha hold 'em
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Omaha uses a 52-card French deck. Limit Omaha hold em 8-or-better is the O game featured in H. O. R. S. E, both limit Omaha/8 and pot limit Omaha high are featured in the 8-Game. Omaha Holdem gets its name from two types of games, in the original Omaha poker game, players were only dealt two hole cards and had to use both to make a hand combined with community cards. This version of Omaha is defined in the glossary of Super/System as being interchangeable with Tight Holdem, across all the variations of the game, the requirement of using exactly two hole cards is the only consistent rule. The Omaha part of the name represents this aspect of the game, Holdem refers to a game using community cards that are shared by all players. In North American casinos, the term Omaha can refer to several poker games, the original game is also commonly known as Omaha high. A high-low split version called Omaha Hi-Lo, or sometimes Omaha eight-or-better or Omaha/8, is also played, in Europe, Omaha still typically refers to the high version of the game, usually played pot-limit. Pot-limit Omaha is often abbreviated as PLO, Pot-limit and no-limit Omaha eight-or-better can be found in some casinos and online, though no-limit is rarer. It is often said that Omaha is a game of the nuts, i. e. the best possible high or low hand, because it frequently takes the nuts to win a showdown. It is also a game where between the cards in his hand and the community cards a player may have drawing possibilities to multiple different types of holdings, for example, a player may have both a draw to a flush and a full house using different combinations of cards. At times, even seasoned players may need time to figure what draws are possible for their hand. The basic differences between Omaha and Texas hold em are these, first, each player is dealt four cards instead of two. The betting rounds and layout of community cards are identical, at showdown, each players hand is the best five-card hand made from exactly three of the five cards on the board, plus exactly two of the players own cards. Unlike Texas hold em, a player cannot play four or five of the cards on the board with fewer than two of his own, nor can a player use three or four cards to disguise a strong hand. A player with 2♠ 3♠ K♦ J♦ can play the spade flush, the same thing applies to straights. In Omaha, a player use only one hole card. For example, with a board of 5♠ 6♥ 7♦ 8♥ A♠, a player with J♦ J♠ 4♦ 9♠ or J♦ J♠ 9♦ 9♠ cannot play a straight. But a player with J♦ J♠ 4♦ 3♠ can play a straight from 3 to 7, a player with J♣ 2♣ 9♠ 10♠ can use his J-9 to play the full house J♠ J♦ J♣ 9♠ 9♦
17.
Full Tilt Poker
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Full Tilt Poker is an Irish online poker card room and online casino that opened in June 2004. A statement by Amaya said the takeover would not affect the activities of Full Tilt Poker, the deal was closed on August 1,2014. Just prior to the close of the purchase, Full Tilt Poker redirected and rebranded its domains from FullTiltPoker. com and FullTiltPoker. eu to FullTilt. com and FullTilt. eu. A company spokesperson stated the change reflected the fact Full Tilt had expanded to offer a range of single, Full Tilt has gaming licenses in Malta and the Isle of Man. Full Tilt offers both play and real money games and tournaments. Freeroll, satellite, sit-n-go, and multi-table tournaments take place throughout the day, the site offers the following poker variations in limit, pot-limit, and no-limit, Texas Holdem, Omaha, and Omaha 8 or Better. The site also offers limit Razz, Stud, Stud 8 or better, Draw poker variants, stakes offers ranged from $0. 01/$0.02 blinds to $500/1000 blinds in big bet games and up to $2000/4000 limits in limit games. In early 2010, Full Tilt introduced a new variation called Rush Poker designed to increase the number of hands a player can play per hour. In Rush Poker players do not remain at a specific table, instead, they join a pool with hundreds of other players. Whenever they fold their hand, they are transferred to a new table. Full Tilt Poker also launched Rush Poker Mobile for iOS and Android devices, the Full Tilt Online Poker Series is Full Tilts premier tournament series. It was established in August 2006 and is approximately every three months. The FTOPS consisted of multiple tournaments in a variety of different poker games and formats, throughout the series, Full Tilt offered a number of challenges and prizes that rewarded players for accomplishing certain feats. Full Tilt also sponsored a Mini FTOPS, which place one month later. Full Tilt Poker initially opened as a poker card room with the involvement of poker professionals Howard Lederer, Phil Ivey, Andy Bloch, Mike Matusow, Jennifer Harman. Full Tilt Poker was launched by parent company TiltWare, LLC in June 2004, the license of Full Tilt Poker was suspended by the Alderney Gambling Control Commission on June 29,2011 and revoked on September 29,2011. The previous Tiltware ownership group was involved in legal disputes. In late 2008, Full Tilt was sued in Nevada by Clonie Gowen, prominent poker professional and she claimed that during Full Tilts formative year of 2004, she was offered a 1% ownership in the company in exchange for her promotional efforts
18.
Santa Ynez, California
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Santa Ynez is a census-designated place in the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County, California. The town of Santa Ynez is one of the communities of the Santa Ynez Valley and it features the Santa Ynez Airport for general aviation, with a paved 2804 x 75 foot runway. The population was 4,418 at the 2010 census, down from 4,584 at the 2000 census and it is named after Saint Agnes, Santa Ynez in the Spanish language. Santa Ynez is located at 34°36′43″N 120°5′18″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 5.1 square miles,99. 86% of it land, and 0. 14% of it covered by water. Santa Ynez is located about 40 miles north of Santa Barbara, California and this region experiences warm and dry summers, with no average monthly temperatures above 71.6 °F. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Santa Ynez has a warm-summer Mediterranean climate, the 2010 United States Census reported that Santa Ynez had a population of 4,418. The population density was 859.0 people per square mile, the racial makeup of Santa Ynez was 3,797 White,12 African American,234 Native American,51 Asian,4 Pacific Islander,147 from other races, and 173 from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 639 persons, the Census reported that 4,418 people lived in households,0 lived in non-institutionalized group quarters, and 0 were institutionalized. There were 82 unmarried opposite-sex partnerships, and 18 same-sex married couples or partnerships,367 households were made up of individuals and 186 had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54, there were 1,270 families, the average family size was 2.91. The median age was 47.8 years, for every 100 females there were 96.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 91.7 males, there were 1,886 housing units at an average density of 366.7 per square mile, of which 1,327 were owner-occupied, and 414 were occupied by renters. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1. 3%, the vacancy rate was 11. 3%. 3,434 people lived in owner-occupied housing units and 984 people lived in housing units. As of the census of 2000, there were 4,584 people,1,627 households, the population density was 586.7 people per square mile. There were 1,670 housing units at a density of 213.7 per square mile. The racial makeup of the CDP was 91. 84% White,0. 17% African American,1. 22% Native American,1. 29% Asian,0. 02% Pacific Islander,3. 08% from other races, and 2. 38% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 9. 21% of the population,15. 5% of all households were made up of individuals and 7. 0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older
19.
Wayback Machine
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The Internet Archive launched the Wayback Machine in October 2001. It was set up by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat, and is maintained with content from Alexa Internet, the service enables users to see archived versions of web pages across time, which the archive calls a three dimensional index. Since 1996, the Wayback Machine has been archiving cached pages of websites onto its large cluster of Linux nodes and it revisits sites every few weeks or months and archives a new version. Sites can also be captured on the fly by visitors who enter the sites URL into a search box, the intent is to capture and archive content that otherwise would be lost whenever a site is changed or closed down. The overall vision of the machines creators is to archive the entire Internet, the name Wayback Machine was chosen as a reference to the WABAC machine, a time-traveling device used by the characters Mr. Peabody and Sherman in The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show, an animated cartoon. These crawlers also respect the robots exclusion standard for websites whose owners opt for them not to appear in search results or be cached, to overcome inconsistencies in partially cached websites, Archive-It. Information had been kept on digital tape for five years, with Kahle occasionally allowing researchers, when the archive reached its fifth anniversary, it was unveiled and opened to the public in a ceremony at the University of California, Berkeley. Snapshots usually become more than six months after they are archived or, in some cases, even later. The frequency of snapshots is variable, so not all tracked website updates are recorded, Sometimes there are intervals of several weeks or years between snapshots. After August 2008 sites had to be listed on the Open Directory in order to be included. As of 2009, the Wayback Machine contained approximately three petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of 100 terabytes each month, the growth rate reported in 2003 was 12 terabytes/month, the data is stored on PetaBox rack systems manufactured by Capricorn Technologies. In 2009, the Internet Archive migrated its customized storage architecture to Sun Open Storage, in 2011 a new, improved version of the Wayback Machine, with an updated interface and fresher index of archived content, was made available for public testing. The index driving the classic Wayback Machine only has a bit of material past 2008. In January 2013, the company announced a ground-breaking milestone of 240 billion URLs, in October 2013, the company announced the Save a Page feature which allows any Internet user to archive the contents of a URL. This became a threat of abuse by the service for hosting malicious binaries, as of December 2014, the Wayback Machine contained almost nine petabytes of data and was growing at a rate of about 20 terabytes each week. Between October 2013 and March 2015 the websites global Alexa rank changed from 162 to 208, in a 2009 case, Netbula, LLC v. Chordiant Software Inc. defendant Chordiant filed a motion to compel Netbula to disable the robots. Netbula objected to the motion on the ground that defendants were asking to alter Netbulas website, in an October 2004 case, Telewizja Polska USA, Inc. v. Echostar Satellite, No.02 C3293,65 Fed. 673, a litigant attempted to use the Wayback Machine archives as a source of admissible evidence, Telewizja Polska is the provider of TVP Polonia and EchoStar operates the Dish Network
20.
Daniel Negreanu
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Daniel Negreanu is a Canadian professional poker player who has won six World Series of Poker bracelets and two World Poker Tour championship titles. The independent poker ranking service Global Poker Index recognised Negreanu as the best poker player of the decade in 2014. Since his second place finish in the Big One For One Drop 2014 tournament, he is the biggest live tournament poker winner of all time, having accumulated over $32,600,000 in prize money. He was named the WSOP Player of the Year in 2004 and again in 2013 and he was also the 2004-05 WPT Player of the Year. He is the first player to make a table at each of the three WSOP bracelet-awarding locations and the first to win a bracelet at each. In 2014, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, Negreanu was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1974, seven years after his parents, Annie and Constantin, emigrated from Romania. The Negreanus had hoped to start a new life in the United States, but ended up settling in Toronto, Daniel is five years younger than his brother Mike. Even at an age, Negreanu was extremely ambitious, stating in a 2009 interview From the age of four. I told my mom I’d build an out of Popsicle sticks. He attended Pineway public middle school in North York, where the principal complained to his mother about Daniels poor manners or behavior, while nursing dreams of a career as a professional snooker player, the then 15-year-old learned how to play poker. By 16, he was spending time in pool halls, hustling, sports betting, while in Toronto, he met and began dating Evelyn Ng, who would also become a well-known professional poker player. After building up his bankroll, he left for Las Vegas at the age of 22 to pursue his dream of becoming a poker player. However, The Strip got the better of him and he was forced to back home to Toronto to rebuild his bankroll. In August 2005, he married Lori Lin Weber, they separated in November 2007, Negreanu has a blog at Full Contact Poker where he posts his thoughts and feelings about life, politics, and the poker world. He is also a heavy National Hockey League fan, once claiming on Poker After Dark at the table he was thinking of declining the offer because the tournament was in the middle of hockey season. He is often seen wearing NHL jerseys of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Daniel became a vegetarian in 2000 and has been vegan since 2006. After many years living in the United States, he received his green card on July 15,2009, on November 23,2009, his mother died in her sleep after being ill for many months. Negreanu has a history of philanthropy, the first annual Big Swing event was held on June 25,2009 at the Harrah’s Rio Secco Golf Club
21.
Allen Cunningham
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Allen Cunningham is an American professional poker player who has won five World Series of Poker bracelets. Cunningham studied civil engineering at UCLA before dropping out of school to play poker professionally, at the age of 18, he began playing at Indian casinos. Previously a Full Tilt sponsored pro, he became a member of Team Full Tilt in October 2006. Cunningham earned the title 2005 ESPN/Toyota Player of the Year and came close to winning it again in 2006 and he was also voted by fellow professional poker players the Best All Around Player under 35. Cunninghams single largest tournament payout occurred at the 2006 World Series of Poker when he finished in place in the Main Event. Frequently during the tournament, when players tried to take on Cunningham, ESPNs Norman Chad would respond with comments such as. Cunningham joined a short list of players who have won a World Series of Poker Bracelet in three years after winning his fifth bracelet in 2007. Others to accomplish this include Johnny Moss, Bill Boyd, Doyle Brunson, Gary Berland, Cunningham won the $300,000 Mega Match on Poker After Dark that aired the week of October 8,2007. On December 7,2007, Cunningham won the $15,000 buy-in inaugural National Poker League Vegas Open Championship Main Event after defeating David Singer during heads-up play, winning over $325,000. On May 1,2008, Cunningham won the 2008 World Series of Poker Circuit event at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas, earning $499,162. In the 2008 World Series of Poker Cunningham made another run in the Main Event, finishing 117th place out of 6844 players. As of 2014, his live tournament winnings exceed $11,500,000. As of August 2014, his 55 cashes including his five bracelets have netted him $7,097,407 in WSOP earnings and he resides in Las Vegas with girlfriend Melissa Hayden and their dog. ALL IN Magazine 2006 Poker Player of the Year Official website PokerListings. com interview
22.
2005 World Series of Poker
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The 2005 World Series of Poker opened play on June 2, continuing through the Main Event No Limit World Championship starting on July 7. The conclusion of the Main Event on July 15 marked the close of play, eSPNs broadcast began July 19 with coverage of WSOP Circuit Tournaments, and coverage of the Main Event began October 11 and ended November 15. All events were held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino with the exception of the two days of the Main Event which were held at Binions Horseshoe. This marked the last time the Main Event final table was held at Binions Horseshoe, there were 5,619 entrants to the main event. Each paid $10,000 to enter what was the largest poker tournament ever played in a brick, many entrants won their seat in online poker tournaments. NB, This list is restricted to top 30 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry
23.
Tom Schneider
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Tom Schneider is a professional poker player from Phoenix, Arizona. Schneider was a public accountant and former president and chief financial officer for three Arizona companies before beginning his poker career in 2002. He is the author of the book Oops, I Won Too Much Money, Winning Wisdom from the Boardroom to the Poker Table which provides lessons for both poker and business. Tom is also the co-host of the popular poker podcast, Beyond The Table, along with Karridy Askenasy and Dan Michalski, creator and head blogger at Pokerati, where Tom is a contributing columnist. At the 2007 World Series of Poker Schneider won his first two WSOP bracelets, one in Omaha Hi/Lo 8 or Better/Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo and the second in Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo. He also made the table of the $2,500 H. O. R. S. E. These finishes earned him the 2007 WSOP Player of the Year award, on September 16,2008, Schneider won the event #24 of the World Championship of Online Poker, a $530 buyin No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw tournament. Schneider, who uses the name luvgamble on PokerStars, bested a field of 308 to win the $42,000 first prize, Schneider won his third bracelet in the $1,500 H. O. R. S. E. Event at the 2013 World Series of Poker, defeating Owais Ahmed heads-up to win $259,960 and he then won his fourth bracelet in the $5,000 H. O. R. S. E. With that win, he became the first person in WSOP history to win multiple mixed game bracelets in the same WSOP, as of 2011, his total live tournament winnings exceed $1,600,000. His 18 cashes at the WSOP account for $851,597 of those winnings
24.
2007 World Series of Poker
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The 2007 World Series of Poker began on June 1,2007. The $10,000 no-limit Texas hold em Main Event began on July 6 and was completed on the morning of July 18. All events were held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada by Harrahs Entertainment, for the first time players began each event with double the amount of chips as the buy-in. This means that players in the Main Event started with 20,000 chips, the blind structure has also been increased and some blind levels removed but slowed to allow for more play. In addition to the $50,000 H. O. R. S. E, Event, which was first played at the 2006 World Series of Poker, this year there were two additional H. O. R. S. E. Tom Schneider, who won two events and made one final table, won the Player of the Year Award. Michael Binger and Chad Brown led all players with eight money finishes. The annual celebrity event was changed this year, as it became a pro and celeb event called Ante Up for Africa, hosted by actor Don Cheadle and poker pro Annie Duke. The final two players, Dan Shak and Brandon Moran, agreed to share first place and donate all prize money to charities in Darfur, the last woman standing of the 2007 Main Event was Maria Ho who finished in 38th place. Also this year, KEM Plastic Playing Cards were once used for the events, rather than Copag brand plastic playing cards. Steve Billirakis became the youngest person to win a WSOP bracelet at 21 years and 11 days. This record was three months later at the World Series of Poker Europe by Annette Obrestad, aged 18 years,364 days. Phil Hellmuth became the first player to win 11 bracelets, Phil Hellmuth set a record of 63 all-time WSOP cashes. June 9 was the busiest WSOP day ever, with 3,009 participants starting in two events on the same day, the largest non-WSOP Main Event tournament record was broken. The $1500 Buy In No Limit Holdem Event #49 attracted a record 3151 players for the noon start and this event broke the single busiest start date set on June 9. Annie Duke set the record with 33 WSOP cashes. 1,286 women set a new record for number of participants in an all womens poker tournament, the 2007 WSOP also boasted the largest number of total registrants in history, with 54,288 registrations for all of the events. Michael Binger and Chad Brown tied Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, the $10,000 No Limit Holdem Main Event began on July 6 with the first of four separate starting days
25.
Erick Lindgren
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Erick A. Lindgren is an American professional poker player. He has won two World Poker Tour titles, two World Series of Poker bracelets, and more than nine million dollars in tournament earnings during his poker career, as of August 2014 he is 28th in the All time money list of poker. He won his first major tournament at the Bellagio in 2002, six months later, he won the WPT PartyPoker Million III cruise, where he walked away with the million dollar top prize. In January 2005, he finished 2nd in the World Series of Poker Circuit Event in Atlantic City, in February, he finished 5th in the WPT LA Poker Classic and just a week later, he won the second Professional Poker Tour tournament, also in LA. In January 2006, he made another WPT final table, finishing 3rd at the 2006 Borgata Winter Poker Open. In June 2006, Lindgren won the $600,000 first prize in the FullTiltPoker. net Poker Pro Showdown event, outlasting Mike Matusow, Clonie Gowen, Erik Seidel, John Juanda, Chris Ferguson, and Phil Ivey. Lindgrens winning hand came in the first hand of heads-up play when his A♣ K♣ defeated Matusows A♥ J♣ on a board of 6♠ 6♣ 9♦ A♠ 3♠. In January 2007, Lindgren won A$1 million after beating 17 other players in the $100,000 buy-in Holdem event at the Aussie Millions, Lindgren is the author of the book, World Poker Tour, Making the Final Table, which covers strategy for poker tournaments. Both the first name Erick and the family name Lindgren are Swedish names and he is a former member of Team Full Tilt at Full Tilt Poker. In February 2008, Lindgren hosted FTOPS Event #9, part of Full Tilts series of large buy-in tournaments, the tournament had over 5,600 entrants, and had a prize pool of over $1.65 million. Lindgren won the tournament becoming the first Full Tilt pro to win an FTOPS event that they hosted, as of September 2012, according to Howard Lederers interview, Erick has a loan of $4,000,000 to FullTilt. On June 27,2007, Erick won a $350,000 prop bet with Gavin Smith, Phil Ivey, to win the bet, Erick had to play four consecutive rounds of golf at Las Vegas Bears Best golf course between sunrise and sunset. He had to carry his own bags and shoot under 100 in each of the four rounds, temperatures reached 106 degrees and symptoms of heat exhaustion set in, but Erick won the bet. He said on a PokerListings interview that he lost 12 pounds during the bet, in May 2013, Erick finished second in the WPT championship for $700,000 As of August 2014, his total live tournament winnings exceed $9,900,000. His 40 cashes at the WSOP account for $3,120,803 of those winnings, in 2008, he was named WSOP Player of the Year. With five total cashes, he earned $1,348,528 in prize money, on May 29,2011, Erick married fellow poker player Erica Schoenberg. Lindgren and Schoenberg divorced in March 2014, as a sponsored professional, Lindgren had been receiving a monthly paycheck from Full Tilt Poker, but he lost that income when Black Friday struck on April 15,2011. An avid sports bettor, he himself with sizable gambling debts he could not repay
26.
Jeff Lisandro
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Jeffrey Lisandro is an Italo-Australian professional poker player, now residing in Salerno, Italy. Lisandro is known as a cash game specialist, but he also often in the poker tournament circuit and is regarded as one of the premier Seven Card Stud players in the world. Growing up near Salerno, Italy, Lisandros mother taught him how to play poker at the age of five, in December 2004, Lisandro won the $25,000 limit holdem heads-up tournament, defeating Howard Lederer in the final to take home the $194,000 grand prize. In May 2005, he won the $10,000 no limit holdem World Series of Poker circuit event at Lake Tahoe, defeating Phil Ivey in the final heads-up confrontation to win the $542,360 prize. Lisandro has said that he considers this to be one of his greatest achievements, Lisandro finished 17th in the 2006 World Series of Poker Main Event, winning $659,730. He was also noted for an incident with Prahlad Friedman during the event, Friedman brought it up constantly through the hand, with the dealer telling him to stop bringing it up. Friedman would not stop, and called Lisandro a thief, Lisandro was very upset to hear that, and argued with Friedman, telling him he would take his head off. Friedman tried to settle things with Lisandro afterwards during play, Lisandro asked him, Can you take him with you. He won his first World Series of Poker bracelet in 2007 in the $2,000 Seven-Card Stud event beating a final table that included Daniel Negreanu, Lisandro plays online at PokerStars and is a good friend of Jean-Robert Bellande. He is known for chewing gum at the table to reduce tells. He placed 2nd in the World Championship Pot Limit Holdem in 2007 and he won $294,620 as the runner-up to Allen Cunningham. At the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia Pacific, Lisandro won his 6th bracelet in Event #3, A$1,650 Pot Limit Omaha, as of 2014, his total live tournament winnings exceed $5,400,000. His 56 cashes at the WSOP account for $4,151,222 of those winnings, in 2009, Lisandro won the World Series of Poker Player of the Year award. In addition to his residence in Salerno, he owns a property in Santa Barbara
27.
2009 World Series of Poker
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The 2009 World Series of Poker was the 40th annual World Series of Poker. It was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, there were 57 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No-Limit Holdem Main Event. The November Nine concept returned for the year, with the finalists of the Main Event returning to finish the tournament on November 7. The $10,000 World Championship No Limit Texas Hold em Main Event began on July 3 with the first of four starting days, after reaching the final table of nine players on July 15, the final table was once again delayed until November 7. According to news reports, as many as 500 players, including Patrik Antonius, T. J. Cloutier, Layne Flack, players started with 30,000 chips, up from 20,000 in previous Main Events. NB, This list is restricted to top 30 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry, as in 2008, the final nine players returned on November 7 to complete the event. These players were as follows, *Career statistics prior to the beginning of the 2009 Main Event, harrahs deposited the remaining prizepool of $15,847,250 into a risk-free interest-bearing account back on July 16,2009 up until November 2,2009. This was the money left over in the prize pool after each member of the November Nine was paid out ninth-place money. The remaining money accrued $1,321 in interest and was distributed throughout the payouts, the 2009 final table lasted for 364 hands, including 88 hands of heads up play. Jeff Lisandro became the first player to win a bracelet in each of the Stud disciplines in the same World Series, in doing so, Lisandro was the first player to win three WSOP bracelets in the same year since Phil Ivey achieved this feat in 2002. In addition to Lisandro, Ivey, Brock Parker and Greg Mueller won multiple bracelets during the series, ville Wahlbeck, who won Event 12, became the first Finnish player to win a bracelet. Peter Traply, who won Event 41, became the first Hungarian player to win a bracelet
28.
Frank Kassela
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Frank R. Kassela is an American professional poker player from Germantown, Tennessee now residing in Las Vegas, who is a two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner. He won both of his bracelets at the 2010 World Series of Poker, first in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship event and second in the $2,500 Razz event. And earned the 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Award, at the World Series of Poker, Kassela has won two bracelets, cashed twelve times, and made four final tables. Along with the bracelet he also earned the first place prize of $447,446, Kassela also finished in third place in the 2010 WSOP $25,000 No-Limit Hold Em Six-Handed event for $556,053. He also cashed in the 2010 WSOP Main Event finishing 674th place, as of 2010, his total live tournament winnings exceed $2,200,000. On October 28,2013, Kassela filed papers with the Federal Election Commission to run for congress in Nevadas 3rd congressional district, on November 25,2013, Kassela withdrawn his candidacy and endorsed Erin Bilbray for Congress on his Twitter account. Official website Frank Kassela on Facebook Frank Kassela on Twitter
29.
2010 World Series of Poker
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The 2010 World Series of Poker was the 41st annual World Series of Poker, held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Paradise, Nevada, and ran from May 28 to July 17. There were 57 bracelet events, culminating in the $10,000 No Limit Holdem Championship that began on July 5, the November Nine concept returned for the third year, with the Main Event finalists returning on November 6. A notable change from 2009 was the revamping of the $50,000 buy-in tournament, from its inception in 2006 through 2009, it had been a H. O. R. S. E. Event in which play rotated between Texas hold em, Omaha 8-or-better, Razz, stud, and stud 8-or-better, all played with a betting structure. In 2010, it became an 8-game tournament, rotating between the five H. O. R. S. E, games followed by rounds of no-limit hold em, pot-limit Omaha, and limit 2–7 triple draw. Once the final table was reached, play switched exclusively to no-limit hold em, the tournament, now known as The Poker Players Championship, was moved to the second spot on the WSOP schedule, preceded only by the restricted $500 Casino Employees No Limit Holdem event. Thus, the 2010 WSOP open events started with The Poker Players Championship, in 1995, Howard Lederer and Annie Duke made the final table in a pot-limit Holdem event and in 2002, Ross and Barny Boatman made it to the final table in a pot-limit Omaha event. While the event is called the Ladies Championship, the WSOP cannot ban men from participating. ”Robert and they and their brothers Eric and Donny became the first set of four siblings ever to cash in the same Main Event. Breeze Zuckerman won the 2010 Last Woman Standing Cup in the Main Event, finishing 121st, the $10,000 No Limit Texas Hold em Championship Main Event began on July 5 with the first of four starting days. Each of the participants at the 2010 WSOP Main Event received 30,000 in tournament chips for the $10,000 buy-in event, after reaching the final table of nine players on July 17, the final table was delayed until November 6. The total number of entrants in the 2010 Main Event was 7,319 with a pool of $68,798,600 with the winner receiving $8,944,138 for first place. The payout bubble was reached during Day 4 at 747 players, the bubble finisher was Tim McDonald, a professional angler and recreational poker player from Lexington, Kentucky, he received the consolation prize of a guaranteed seat in the 2011 Main Event. Matt Affleck, with his 15th-place finish in this year’s championship combined with an 80th-place in 2009, outlasted 13,718 players in back-to-back years, NB, This list is restricted to top 30 finishers with an existing Wikipedia entry. *Career statistics prior to the beginning of the 2010 Main Event, american jewelry designer Steve Soffa was chosen by the World Series of Poker to design and manufacture the entire set of bracelets for the 2010 World Series of Poker
30.
Ben Lamb
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Benjamin Ben Lamb is an American professional poker player. Lamb is the 2011 World Series of Poker Player of the Year and he was also a member of the 2011 November Nine, finishing in third place. He currently has one World Series of Poker bracelet and four career World Series of Poker final tables and he was the winner of the 2011 Card Player Player of the Year Award. He has had at least three in the finishes in each of the last three World Series of Poker. He also has a United States Poker Championship and a Spring Championship of Online Poker championship, Lamb became a professional poker player in 2004. On September 23,2006, he won the 2006 United States Poker Championship $500 No Limit hold em 400-player event for a prize of $60,000. Another notable championship was his victory in the May 11,2010 Spring Championship of Online Poker $109 No Limit hold em event and he outlasted a field of 4,204 competitors for a prize of $66,003.97. In 2011, he dominated the World Series of Poker on his way to the Card Player Player of the Year Award and his best WSOP main event finish prior to 2011 came in 2009, when he finished 14th in the 6494-player event for a prize of $633,022. At the 2011 WSOP Main Event, Lamb was chip leader after Day 1-B and he amassed 188,925 chips from a starting stack of 30,000. He was also the overall chip leader after Day 2-B, entering Day 3 with 551,600 chips, on Day 6, he overtook Phil Hellmuth in the Player of the Year race and finished the day in second place in chips out of 57 remaining players. On Day 8, he qualified for the 2011 November Nine in fifth place with 20,875,000 chips, Lamb went on to finish in third place, earning $4,021,138. Although several online poker databases list Lamb as being from Las Vegas, Nevada, his residence is listed as Tulsa, Lamb attended Jenks High School in Tulsa, graduating in 2004. He briefly attended Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas and he is a former dealer at Tulsas Cherokee Casino, which is now the Hard Rock Casino. Lamb at Hendonmob. com Lamb at Bluff Magazine Lamb at Card Player Lamb at WSOP. com Lamb at benlambpoker. com
31.
2011 World Series of Poker
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The 2011 World Series of Poker was the 42nd annual World Series of Poker. The WSOP is the most prestigious tournament in the world with the winner of the Main Event considered to be the World Champion. It was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, there were 59 bracelet events, beginning with the WSOP National Circuit Championship and culminating in the $10,000 No Limit Holdem Championship. The November Nine concept returned for a consecutive year, with the Main Event finalists returning on November 6. The 2011 WSOP marked the first time that event at the WSOP was covered nearly live. Because of the nature of the competition, live coverage was not allowed by the Nevada Gaming Commission, WSOP. com streamed 55 gold bracelet events on a 5-minute delay via the internet. ESPN3 streamed the $25K Heads Up, $50K Poker Players Championship, ESPN also doubled the airtime given to the WSOP from prior years. For the first time ever, television coverage of the WSOP Main Event was live with a 30-minute delay, the final table of the Main Event was televised in its entirety on ESPN. As per Nevada Gaming Commission stipulations, play was broadcast with a 15-minute delay, since 1970, the WSOP was held exclusively in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2004, Harrahs Entertainment purchased the rights to the WSOP, after the purchase, Harrahs introduced Circuit Events around the country. These events were intended to build up hype for the WSOP, in 2011, they introduced WSOP Circuit National Championship. The WSOP Circuit National Championship was a tournament, limited to 100 players who qualified through the circuit events. The winner of the championship was awarded a WSOP bracelet, the event, which took place from May 27 through May 29, was won by amateur player Sam Barnhart. Through the first 57 events, the 2011 WSOP, awarded $127,468,010 in prize money, had representation from all 50 U. S. states. Had a male participation percentage of 94. 7%, the Main Event, had 6,865 entrants. Had representation from all 50 U. S. states, had a male participation percentage of 96. 5%. Had 4,604 participants from the U. S. had 2,265 participants from other countries, the $10,000 No Limit Holdem Championship began on July 7 with the first of four starting days. After reaching the table of nine players on July 19
