June 4, 2012
One of the top online poker players during the poker boom has just been accused of stealing nearly $30,000 from one of the top online poker players in today’s game: Brad “YukonBrad” Booth has been accused on the 2+2 poker forum by Douglas “WCGrider” Polk of not living up to his end of a money transfer, and owing him nearly $28,000. According to Polk, Booth has turned off his phone and left the country after giving him a sob story about being broke. [more]

June 3, 2012
It’s been a long road for Andy Bloch, the former member of the MIT card-counting ring turned poker pro. Bloch has spent the better part of the last 25 years chasing a World Series of poker bracelet and he finally managed to track-down the elusive trophy on Saturday night when he won the $1,500 Stud 8 tournament at the 2012 WSOP. [more]

June 2, 2012
Zeidman picked up $201,559 for seeing off the London-based Bjorin in the $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better to end the third and final day of the tournament as champion – so ending the 55-year-old Swede’s dream of collecting a third WSOP bracelet, at least for now.

The original field of 622 players field created a prize pool of $839,700, but it was Florida’s Zeidman who left the Amazon Room at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino as the champion to leave Bjorin disappointed but still $124,838 richer as the runner-up. [more]

June 1, 2012

Brent Hanks has won the WSOP Event #2, $1,500 NLHE, after outlasting a field of 2,101 players on his way to capturing a bracelet, and the $517,725 first place prize.

Brent has already proved that he can play by winning $2,689,128 online under the screen name “bhanks11 which led to Jason Mercier staking Hanks’ live tournament buy-ins. With his WSOP Event#2 victory, Hanks has now won a total of $1,115,914 in live play, and talking about their relationship, Mercier said:

“He’s been close to a big win a bunch of times, so seeing him here is pretty awesome. I’ve been rooting for him not just because I have a financial interest in how he does, but also because I want to see him succeed. We talk poker all the time. I’m really happy that he’s able to fulfill his dreams.”

Brent Hanks’ eliminated JP Kelly (J-4) when he called Hanks’ As-Qs shove to exit the event in 8th ($49,621), followed by Abdyl Konjuhi in 6th ($87,231), who moved all-in pre-flop with Ah-2h into Hanks’ A-K.

After Brent Hanks (Q-Q) knocked out Andrew Badecker (10-10) in 3rd ($224,029), heads-up began with the players pretty even in chip stacks, and it wasn’t until two hours later that the tournament had its winner. Bazeley had been severely crippled after losing an A-8 versus pocket nines race, and the next hand Bazeley was all-in holding 10-4 against Hanks’ Ah-10h. The board then ran out J-10-2-6-J.
The final table payouts were as follows:

1. Brent Hanks – $517,725
2. Jacob Bazeley – $322,294
3. Andrew Badecker – $224,029
4. Vanessa Selbst – $161,345
5. Ryan Schmidt – $117,921
6. Abdyl Konjuhi – $87,231
7. Michael Kaufman – $65,377
8. JP Kelly – $49,621
9. Richard Park – $38,106

By Jmac

May 31, 2012
Brent Hanks has made fellow pro Jason Mercier “really happy” after producing an amazing display to win event #2 at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas.

Hanks collected $517,725 for taking down the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino – but will have to share half of that with the Team PokerStars Pro from Hollywood, who has been backing the Vegas-based former online professional for almost four years. [more]