Posts Tagged 'Kristen Bicknell'
The American Poker Awards Are Back
The Global Poker Index, which honors the best and brightest in the poker world, will once again be handing out the coveted hardware for the fourth straight year. As American Poker Awards President, Alexandre Dreyfus, said, "We are very excited to return to the Los Angeles area for a fourth year to reward the most deserving poker players, industry leaders and media members in the business".
"As always, Dreyus continued, there will be several already-confirmed winners: the top male and top female player on the GPI's points ranking system, along with the American Player of the Year. This year, Adrian Mateos and Kristen Bicknell will take home the male and female honors, respectfully, although the Spaniard Mateos will collect his award at the European Poker Awards if he isn't in California for the American version."
The ceremony, to be held at Andaz West Hollywood rather than at SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills as before, has been scheduled for Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. If you feel motivated to attend the event, please follow this link. More details will certainly follow and we'll keep you posted.
Send me your thoughts, comments or questions!
Tags: Adrian Mateos, Alexandre Dreyfus, American Poker Awards, Andaz West Hollywood, Global Poker Index, Kristen Bicknell, PokerNews, SLS Hotel
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More From the 47th Annual World Series of Poker. Who Will Be 2016 WSOP Champion?
In the four days since our last report, another 10 Events have taken place at the 47th Annual WSOP, with the winners collecting almost four million dollars of first prize money.
Mitchell Towner won the 'Monster Stack" when he ended up as the last man standing at Event #41: $1500 MONSTER Stack No-Limit Hold'em and collected a huge $1,120,196. That's not too shabby for a $1,500 investment after playing for four days and three nights and conquering a field of 6,927 eager players.
Event #42: $3000 Shootout No-Limit Hold'em consisted of only 400 players and 399 of them fell short when Phillip McAllister, a young 22-year-old from the UK, walked off with the gold bracelet and a first prize check for $267,720 a nice return on his investment of $3,000 and three days of his time.
Event #43: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Split-8 or Better Championship gave George Danzer his fourth gold bracelet after taking it all away from from a final table that included eight out of ten players with prior WSOP titles and bracelets … and I'm certain he was smiling and danzing all the way to the bank to collect $338,646 for this, his latest win.
Steven Wolansky pushed all his chips in from the button to take down Event #44: $1000 No-Limit Hold'em. Wolansky was holding a pair of Snowmen and was snap called by Wenlong Jin with Queen-Jack off suit. The flop showed a third Snowman with no help for Jin, then the turn sealed the deal with a fourth Snowman giving Wolansky four little Snowmen (quad eights) dancing on the table. He collected $298,849 along with his second WSOP gold bracelet.
Event #45: $1500 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha Loren Klein picked up his first gold bracelet defeating a field of 919 players, each and every one of them – including Klein, had their eye on the gold, but only Klein ended up with the gold bracelet wrapped around his wrist and a sweet $241,427 in prize money.
The first woman to win in this 2016 WSOP series, Kristen Bicknell, took down Event #46: $1500 BOUNTY No-Limit Hold'em and walked away with her second gold bracelet and a lot of dollars, in fact the biggest amount of her young poker career amounting to $290,768.
Event #47: $10,000 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship It's always thrilling to win your first gold bracelet, and the thrill is never gone, even after taking down 14; just ask Phil Hellmuth. And Johnny "World" Hennigan can attest to that after winning his fourth cherished WSOP gold bracelet. Hennigan walked of with the Champion title, his fourth gold and a much appreciated $320,103 to add to his ever-growing bank account.
Event #48: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em (30-minute levels) with a rather small field of only 524 entries was championed by Ankush Mandavia, receiving his first gold bracelet, a killer $548,139 and the total satisfaction of outlasting 523 players who had their eyes glued on the prize. Mandavia stated "So, it's really gratifying to win. It feels really good." No kidding Ankush; it must feel really really good.
No stranger at the poker tables, Shaun Deeb, from Troy, NY, ran away with Event #49: $1500 Seven Card Stud. In a field of only 331 players, Deeb easily made off with the gold bracelet plus $111,101 bucks, marking his 35th cash at the WSOP and his third Championship title.
Event #50: $1500 Shootout No-Limit Hold'em brought the second female 2016 WSOP champion, Safiya Umerova from Los Angeles, CA, when she outlasted a field of 1,050 to capture her first WSOP gold bracelet and a very satisfying $264,046. Not bad when you consider that she's only been playing professionally for about 18 months but as she said, "I wouldn't be here if I didn't work hard on my game."
So there you have it, 50 events out of 69 events completed, more than four million paid out, and that's just to the first place winners of these ten events, and there are still 18 more events to go before the much anticipated 2016 World Series of Poker Main Event. Do any of y'all have any idea who will take the biggest and most prestigious title of Main Event Champion? If you do, click here to leave your comments and we hope to see you at the Rio Hotel and Casino to see who makes the Final Nine.
Tags: Ankush Mandavia, George Danzer, Johnny "World" Hennigan, Kristen Bicknell, Loren Klein, Mitchell Towner, Phil Hellmuth, Phillip McAllister, poker tables, Safiya Umerova, Shaun Deeb, Steven Wolansky, Wenlong Jin, World Series of Poker, WSOP
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Busy Weekend In Las Vegas At the 44th Annual WSOP – Five More Bracelets And Millions of Dollars More Are Awarded…You Get Any?
The weekend was jammed with winners, losers and spectators crowding around the rails of the 44th Annual World Series of Poker at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The excitement over at the "One Drop" tourney quickly got intense when it looked, for a moment, like Antonio Esfandiari was going to take it again. Then the noise from the rails became deafening when instead of Esfandiari, it was 26-year-old poker pro Anthony Gregg who raked in all the poker chips. Gregg, who is no stranger in the High-Roller world-wide circuits, walked off with the win plus his first WSOP gold bracelet and the crazy payout of $4,830,619 after quickly stomping through the final four players, including Esfandiari who finished 4th.
At the other end of the spectrum playing out at the Rio on Saturday was Brandon Wong, a 38-year-old poker professional from Fresno, California. Wong has been honing his skills for more than 10 years by making the rounds at cash games throughout California and Nevada. Finally all that grinding has led to his first WSOP title, gold bracelet and a payday of $220,061. He outlasted a field of 372 players in event 50, a $2,200 10-Game Mix Six-Handed tournament.
58-year-old Barney Boatman finally floats to victory in event 49, a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em tournament. Boatman has been around the WSOP for a long time and has cashed more than 20 times, but the championship title and bracelet have always been out of reach. That is until early Sunday morning, when he found himself at the final table heads-up against a considerable opponent, Brian O'Donoghue. Boatman could smell the win but it took 276 hands to finally take O'Donoghue out with trip tens and win his first gold bracelet and $546,080.
The Canadians marked yet another win when Kristen Bicknell, from St. Catherines, Ontario, picked up her first gold bracelet by taking down a field of 954 players in event 51 $10,000 buy-in Ladies No-Limit Hold'em tournament.. 26-year-old Bicknell took home the championship title, the bracelet and a sweet purse of $173,922.
And finally, in the wee hours this morning, as many of the still-awake players were yawning, 28-year-old Steve Sung was probably singing "We Are The Champions" or something like that. Sung won his second WSOP gold medal a full four years after the first one. This time he held strong and outlasted 173 players to go heads-up with Phil Galfond in event 52, a notable $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Handed event at the 44th Annual World Series of Poker. Sung not only takes home his second gold bracelet and WSOP championship title but he also pockets more than a million bucks . . . $1,205,324 dollars to be exact.
Tags: 44th Annual World Series of Poker, Anthony Gregg, Antonio Esfandiari, Barney Boatman, Brandon Wong, Brian O'Donoghue, Kristen Bicknell, One Drop, Phil Galfond, Poker Chips, Rio Hotel and Casino, Steve Sung
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