This Week in Tournament Poker: September 5-11, 2010
Plenty of action came across our radar this past week on the live tournament scene. Asia, Europe and North America all had some marquee events wrapping up, and some new names have emerged with pockets full of cash.
The six events we’ll be taking a look at this week are the PokerStars Balkan Festival in Bulgaria; Macau Red Dragon Cup in Macau; Gulf Coast Poker Championship in Biloxi, Mississippi; Grand Series of Poker in London; Commerce Hold’em Series in Los Angeles; and Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City. As you can see, once again, events happened all over the globe.
In Bulgaria, the PokerStars Balkan Festival drew 151 entries and created a prize pool of €135,896. Yavor Tutev bested everyone to win the €36,693 first-place prize.
PokerStars Balkan Festival
| Buy-in | Entries | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| €900 + €90 | 151 | €135,896 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Yavor Tutev | €36,693 |
| 2 | Kiril Kochev | €24,462 |
| 3 | Ivelin Spasov | €14,949 |
| 4 | Atanas Ardashev | €10,872 |
| 5 | Hristo Genov | €7,474 |
| 6 | Lubomir Stoianov | €5,436 |
| 7 | Rumen Rashkov | €4,077 |
| 8 | Sorin Achitei | €3,397 |
At the Macau Red Dragon Cup, a sizable field of 314 showed up at the Grand Lisboa Hotel & Casino to give it a go, and when play ended, James McCarty emerged victorious. Nam Le and Kenny Shih finished in the money, as well.
Macau Red Dragon Cup
| Buy-in | Entries | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| HK$10,000 | 314 | HK$2,859,912 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | James McCarty | HK$643,000 |
| 2 | Wai Keong | HK$443,000 |
| 3 | Fan Liu | HK$263,000 |
| 4 | Masashi Minowa | HK$207,000 |
| 5 | Wai Wong | HK$165,000 |
| 6 | Michael Mariakis | HK$136,000 |
| 7 | Rathi Shashank | HK$107,000 |
| 8 | Makoto Yoshimichi | HK$79,000 |
| 9 | Dean Holt | HK$64,012 |
| 10 | Sachin Daswani | HK$50,000 |
Notable Finishes: Nam Le (25th – HK$22,900), Kenny Shih (31st – HK$17,200)
In London, the Grand Series of Poker held another event. This one was won by Richard Gryko who bested a field of 52 in the £750 Main Event to claim the £11,700 first-place prize.
GSOP 2010
| Buy-in | Entries | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| £750 | 52 | £39,000 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| *1 | Richard Gryko | £11,700 |
| *2 | Andy Achillea | £6,143 |
| *3 | Paul Romain | £6,143 |
| 4 | Oliver Price | £3,900 |
| 5 | Patryk Slusarek | £3,120 |
| 6 | Kirit Patel | £2,535 |
| 7 | Lisa Edwards | £2,145 |
| 8 | Jamie Lillywhite | £1,755 |
| 9 | Ian Woodley | £ 1,560 |
Three events took place in the United States. The $4,800 Gulf Coast Poker Championship event in Biloxi, Mississippi, was won by Mark Rose. The event drew 109 entrants and had a final table that included Kai Landry, Will “Monkey” Souther and Chad Brown.
Gulf Coast Poker Championship
| Buy-in | Entries | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $4,800 + $200 | 109 | $492,710 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Rose | $177,386 |
| 2 | Kai Landry | $93,621 |
| 3 | Will “Monkey” Souther | $59,129 |
| 4 | Chad Brown | $39,419 |
| 5 | Jonathan Stanton | $34,492 |
| 6 | Mike Bradford | $29,534 |
| 7 | Ricky Bennett | $24,637 |
| 8 | Ben Chen | $19,710 |
| 9 | Ronald Romano | $14,782 |
At the Borgata Poker Open in Atlantic City, which always pulls big numbers because it is the premier establishment on the East Coast for poker tournaments, the opening $350 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack event drew a whopping 964 entries and created a prize pool worth $337,400. William Patteron took home the top prize worth over $73,000.
Borgata Poker Open
| Buy-in | Entries | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $350 + $50 | 964 | $337,400 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | William Patterson | $73,638 |
| 2 | Mitchell Wilson | $43,364 |
| 3 | Benjamin Butler | $26,182 |
| 4 | Andrew DeGeorge | $21,928 |
| 5 | Brian Munshower | $18,000 |
| 6 | John Delio | $14,564 |
| 7 | Joe Miranda | $11,618 |
| 8 | Daniel Shapiro | $8,837 |
| 9 | Gregory Scarpa | $6,055 |
Last, but not least, we have the opening event from the Commerce Hold’em Series, which is currently running. Much like the Borgata is on the East Coast, Commerce Casino is the juggernaut poker venue on the West Coast. The first event of the series was a $200 buy-in with a massive $500,000 guarantee! The event was won by Jorge Lara who took home over $100,000 for his microinvestment of $200.
Commerce Hold’em Series
| Buy-in | Entries | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|
| $200 | 2,637 | $501,030 |
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jorge Lara | $104,230 |
| 2 | Michael Demerit | $58,800 |
| 3 | Thung Huynh | $33,600 |
| 4 | L.D. Gray | $26,800 |
| 5 | Derek Gomez | $20,000 |
| 6 | Brian Han | $16,000 |
| 7 | Binh Nguyen | $12,000 |
| 8 | Wade Edwards | $8,000 |
| 9 | Ong Khounphithack | $5,600 |
Notable Finishes: Kenny Tran (117th - $700), Gioi Luong (123rd - $600), Joe Tehan (130th - $600)
* - Denotes a chop.
This wraps up another installment of This Week in Tournament Poker. There will be plenty of action to come next week. Don’t forget that if you happen to live close to the Borgata or Commerce Casino, those events are still running and have very nice schedules that should make most poker players happy.
If you like big tournament action online, there is still time to qualify for this weeks $20,000 William Hill Pay Day, exclusive to PokerNews.
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