Event #4, $1500 Limit Hold'em, finished on Saturday night. Unlike the past two, this final table was surprisingly not littered with big-name professionals. Kianoush Abolfathi took down the win, earning the fourth bracelet of the 2006 World Series of Poker and $335,289.

Top nine finishers and their prize money were:

1. Kianoush Abolfathi $335,289
2. Eric Buchman $174,938
3. Josh Schlein $101,318
4. Michele Lewis $72,891
5. Vipul Kothavi $58,313
6. Hank Sparks $51,024
7. Patrick Maloney $43,735
8. Lars Hansen $36,446
9. Matthew Elsby $32,801

Don't forget to check out the following people who are live in Vegas covering the events:

Pauly at Tao of Poker
Otis at the Official PokerStars Blog
Jason Kirk at Bluff Magazine
Amy Calistri and Jen Leo at Breakfast Club Poker
CardPlayer
PokerWire

Continuing with my look at the winners so far at this year's World Series of Poker, Event #3 - $1500 Pot Limit Hold'em -  finished on Friday night. Rafe Furst, who is probably best known as Phil Gordon's closest friend, was also the guy who busted out first in the 2004 World Series of Poker Main Event. However, he seemed to get it together for this event and claimed the first place prize of $345,984 and the 3rd bracelet at the 2006 WSOP.

Top nine finishers and their prize money were:

1. Rafe Furst $345984
2. Rocky Enciso $180508
3. Eric Lynch $104544
4. George Bronstein $75252
5. Burt Boutin $60169
6. Can Kim Hua $52648
7. Richard Chase $45127
8. John Juanda $37606
9. Alan Gilbert $33854

Don't forget to check out the following people who are live in Vegas covering the events:

Pauly at Tao of Poker
Otis at the Official PokerStars Blog
Jason Kirk at Bluff Magazine
Amy Calistri and Jen Leo at Breakfast Club Poker
CardPlayer
PokerWire

As I mentioned in my last post, I have had internet problems over the past few days so I am going to do a quick run through of the winners so far at this year's World Series of Poker.

Event #2 Results: Though Carlos Mortensen was one of the strongest stacks throughout the tournament, it seems he couldn't place higher than ninth on the final day. Since that was worth more than $70,000, it still can't be a bad day for him. Brandon Cantu was the eventual winner though, and will took home $757,839 and the second bracelet of the 2006 World Series.

Top nine finishers and their prize money were:

1. Brandon Cantu $757,839
2. Phong Ly $416,816
3. Drew Rubin $226,597
4. Lee Padilla $176,579
5. Brent Roberts $151,570
6. Don Zewin $126,940
7. Ron Stanley $107,614
8. Mark Swartz $88,668
9. Juan Carlos Mortensen $71,617

Don't forget to check out the following people who are live in Vegas covering the events:

Pauly at Tao of Poker
Otis at the Official PokerStars Blog
Jason Kirk at Bluff Magazine
Amy Calistri and Jen Leo at Breakfast Club Poker
CardPlayer
PokerWire

First of all - Happy Fourth of July to all the Americans!  Hope everyone has a great day. Sorry for the delay in posting, I have had some Internet connection issues this past weekend. I seem to be back up and running now though, so I'm going to take a quick look at what has happened at the World Series in recent events, but first - here is what is starting today:

Event #9 Overview:

The ninth event of the 2006 World Series of Poker, $5000 No Limit Hold'em, began at noon Vegas time today. Last year Erik Seidel beat Cyndy Violette for the championship, winning $611,795 and the bracelet.

Players will begin today with 1500 in tournament chips and each level will last one hour, with the exception of the final table where each level will run for 90 minutes. The event is scheduled to run until the completion of level 10 today, and will play out until the final table is reached tomorrow. The final nine players will compete against each other on Thursday, July 6th.

If you had plans to play in any of the World Poker Tour Season Five events, you might want to check out the schedule changes below. Not only have they changed the dates on some, they have also added more tournaments.

Revised schedule:

05/14/06 - 05/17/06  Mirage Poker Showdown in Las Vegas
06/04/06 - 06/08/06  Mandalay Bay Poker Championship
06/12/06 - 06/16/06  Grand Prix de Paris at Aviation Club de France
08/26/06 - 08/30/06  Legends of Poker at The Bicycle Casino
09/15/06 - 09/19/06  Borgata Poker Open at the Borgata, Atlantic City
10/15/06 - 10/19/06  Festa Al Lago at the Bellagio
10/22/06 - 10/24/06  WPT Canadian Poker Open
10/25/06 - 10/29/06  North American Poker Championship
11/12/06 - 11/16/06  World Poker Finals at Foxwoods
12/14/06 - 12/19/06  Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic
01/06/07 - 01/13/07  PokerStars.com Caribbean Poker Adventure
01/21/07 - 01/25/07  World Poker Open at the Gold Strike in Tunica
01/26/07 - 01/30/07  Borgata Poker Classic
02/24/07 - 03/01/07  L.A. Poker Classic at the Commerce Casino
03/03/07 - 03/05/07  WPT Celebrity Invitational at Commerce
03/12/07 - 03/16/07  Bay 101 Shooting Star in San Jose, California
03/25/07 - 03/28/07  World Poker Challenge at the Reno Hilton
04/01/07 - 04/04/07  Foxwoods Poker Classic at Foxwoods
04/21/07 - 04/27/07  WPT World Championship at the Bellagio

Event #4 overview, as per WorldSeriesOfPoker.com:

The fourth event of the 2006 World Series of Poker, $1500 Limit Hold'em, is scheduled to begin at noon today. Last year Eric Froehlich emerged as the winner and collected $361,000 after outlasting a field of 1049 players.

Players will begin today with 1500 in tournament chips and each level will last one hour, with the exception of the final table where each level will run for 90 minutes. The event is scheduled to run until the completion of level 10 today, and will play out until the final table is reached tomorrow. The final nine players will compete against each other on Saturday, July 1st.

The second day of Event #2, $1500 No Limit Hold'em, completed last night and they are now down to the final table. The nine players who will compete on Thursday for the bracelet, with chip counts, are as follows:

1  Brandon Cantu 753,000
1  Lee Padilla 753,000
2  Drew Rubin 573,000
3  Mark Ly 516,000
4  Mark Swartz 359,000
5  Don Zewin 342,000
6  Carlos Mortensen 337,000
7  Ron Stanley 283,000
8  Brent Roberts 260,000

(Source: CardPlayer.com)

Thanks again to all those who are covering the World Series of Poker live. It is great being able to log onto the computer and follow the action. Doesn't compare to being there in person, but hey - I'll take what I can get. Here is a brief summary of what I have found out regarding Event #2:

Carlos Mortensen was ahead in chips for the better part of the day yesterday, and will begin Day 2 of the event as chip leader with T127,000. The next closest stack is Ali Zargari with T101,000.

The tournament is down to 122 competitors and they are scheduled to play down to the final nine today.

Don't forget to check out the following people who are live in Vegas covering the events:

Pauly at Tao of Poker
Otis at the Official PokerStars Blog
And, I just found out that Jen Leo and Amy Calistri will be blogging at Breakfast Club Poker

Chris Gros was the first person to win a bracelet at the 2006 World Series of Poker in the $500 buy-in Casino Employees event. He outlasted a field of 1231 to win the title and $127,496 cash.

Top 9 players and their prize money were as follows:
1  Chris Gros $127496
2  Bryan Devonshire $66528
3  R.J. Wright $38531
4  Scott Clark $27720
5  Christopher Himmenger $22176
6  Craig Federspiel $19404
7  David Wortham $16632
8  Marsha Waggoner $13860
9  Barry Goldberg $12474

(Source: CardPlayer.com)

Event #3 overview, as per WorldSeriesOfPoker.com:

The third event of the 2006 World Series of Poker, $1500 Pot-Limit Hold'em, is scheduled to begin at noon today. Last year, Event #3 was won by Thomm Wethmann who beat 1071 other entrants to take home $369,535.

Players will begin today with 1500 in tournament chips and each level will last one hour, with the exception of the final table where each level will run for 90 minutes. The event is scheduled to run until the completion of level 10 today, and will play out until the final table is reached tomorrow. The final nine players will compete against each other on Friday, June 30th.

Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi has joined the ranks of professional poker players who are representing online poker rooms. Absolute Poker managed to snag him which I find kind of surprising - he is a pretty hot commodity these days and I would have thought Stars or FullTilt may get him first, however that is just my opinion.

Absolute will be featuring a new table aptly named 'The Grinder' where players can lose their shirts play against Mizrachi at a $10/25 No Limit Hold'em level.

LIPS (Ladies International Poker Series) is running satellite tournaments for the Ladies Event at this year's World Series of Poker. The sats will be held at the Gold Coast Casino (which is located across the street from the Rio) on Friday, July 7th at 7pm.

Entry is $100 plus $25 (yes, heavy on the juice) and one seat in the Ladies Event will be awarded to every ten players. They do have a maximum of 200 entrants, so if you are interested plan to get there early for registration. For more information, you can visit the LIPS Tour website.

Just a quick reminder to all those interested, the WWdN tournament will be held tonight, Tuesday, June 27th at 8:30 ET (that is 5:30 for all the left-coasters) over at PokerStars.

The tournament is No Limit Hold'em and is open to anyone who wants to play. Buy-in is $10 plus 1 and it can be found under the private tourney tab.

I'm unsure if I will be able to play yet, but I'm trying to work my schedule around it. Hope to see you all there!

Early this morning, Mike Sexton became the winner of the 2006 Tournament of Champions after beating Daniel Negreanu in a heads-up finale that lasted over 6 hours. He has earned $1,000,000 in prize money, as well as the title of champion.

Mike Sexton hardly needs an introduction, he is well known to poker players through his role as co-host of the World Poker Tour, along with Vince Van Patten. In addition, he is the spokesman for Party Poker and is featured on their commercials and print ads. People often seem surprised when they see him sitting at a poker table though, even though he has been playing successfully for decades.

Before poker, Mike was a gymnast, had joined the Army, worked as a sales rep and taught ballroom dance before he moved to Nevada in 1985 to pursue poker full-time.

In 1989, Mike won a bracelet at the World Series of Poker in the $1500 Seven-Card Stud Split event, collecting $104,400. He has consistently played at the Series since and barely has a year where he didn't make at least one final table. Most recently, Sexton placed 5th out of 64 entrants in the 2005 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, as well as 10th place in the $2000 Pot-Limit Hold'em event at the 2005 World Series.

Earlier this year, Mike Sexton was named 'Top Poker Ambassador' at the Card Player Player of the Year Awards Gala.

About the Tournament of Champions
       

Event #2 breakdown, as per WorldSeriesOfPoker.com:

The second event of the 2006 World Series of Poker, $1500 No Limit Hold'em, is scheduled to begin at noon today. Last year, Event #2 was won by Allen Cunningham who beat 2304 other entrants to take home $725,405.

Players will begin today with 1500 in tournament chips and each level will last one hour, with the exception of the final table where each level will run for 90 minutes. The event is scheduled to run until the completion of level 10 today, and will play out until the final table is reached tomorrow. The final nine players will compete against each other on Thursday, June 29th.