Main event of the World Series of Poker

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a series of poker tournaments held annually in Las Vegas since 1970. The winner of each event receives a World Series of Poker bracelet and a monetary prize based on the number of entrants and buy-in amounts. 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 hold'em "Main Event," which, since 2004, has attracted entrants numbering in the thousands. The winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event is considered the World Champion of Poker. This year, the Main Event had 6,598 entrants from all over the world. The cast on the final table was finalized last Tuesday and they are : Russell Thomas ,Jacob Balsiger, Jeremy Aismus,Steven Gee, Greg Merson ,Jesse Sylvia (the chip leader with 43,875,000), Robert Salaburu, Andras Koronai and Michael Esposito . Due to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, the 2012 WSOP final table will be delayed until October 28. It was the hopes and dreams of many that this would be the year that a female would make it to the final table, but alas, those dreams faded with a 10th and 11th place finishes . Elisabeth Hille of France placed 11th and Gaelle Baumann of Norway was also eliminated in 10th place The all-time leader is currently Antonio Esfandiari, who has not won a Main Event. He collected a record-breaking first prize of $18.3 million two weeks ago when he won the Big One for One Drop, a charitable WSOP event with a $1 million buy-in. There have been many memorable moments during the main events, including Jack Straus 1982 comeback win after discovering he had one $500 chip left when he thought he was out of the tournament. I am taking note of this as the same thing almost happened to me. Last Tuesday, I played a tournament at the Metro. With 14 players left( out of the original 40), I went all-in and lost almost all my chips. I had only 300 chips when the blinds were 1200/2400. But lo and behold! What is fascinating about poker is that I made the final table and by the time there were only 5 players left, I was the tournament chip leader with over 120,000! If I had won the event, it would have been probably the biggest comeback in local poker history. Wesley So finished 3rd in the World Chess Open held in Philadelphia last weekend. He had 4 wins and 5 draws in a performance that was not unexpected as he was the second highest rated player in the tournament. He just had too many draws against much lower rated opponents. So took third place honors with a superior tie break over GMs Giorgi Kacheishvili of Georgia, Aleksander Lenderman, Alexander Evdokimov, Ray Robson, Yuri Shulman, and Mark Tyler Arnold of the USA. GM Ivan Sokolov of the Netherlands defeated fellow seven-pointer GM Alexander Shabalov of the USA in an Armageddon game to win the coveted chess title. Deep Blue “Ronald Ganzon and Richard Natividad finished tied with five wins and two draws to be the highest scorers in the DeepBlue Open Chess Tournament held in SM Cebu last July 14-15. Ganzon had drawn his game with Natividad. But with a higher tiebreak score , Ganzon took home the trophy. Half a point behind the duo winners was Joel Pacuribot . The tournament, sponsored by DeepBlue ,was attended by 41 players, including a number of kiddie and junior players “-KC Morala, kiddie chess player and contributing journalist.. Announcement .The July tournament of Cepca will be held in Deep Blue on July 29 starting at 1pm. Format will be Rapid and 7 rounds Swiss. Registration is P150. boypestano@gmail.com,www.chessmoso.blogspot.com