Today we’ll update you on WSOP results, Brian Townsend resigns as CardRunners’ lead instructor, French gaming authorities get ready to start issuing licenses, and UB.com looks for the craziest WSOP bet.
Hello, I’m Sean Gibson and welcome to the Daily Deal by Poker News Daily.
The WSOP is officially in full swing. The Mizrachi brothers made history by commanding the Player’s Championship final table, with “The Grinder” wining his first bracelet along with the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy. The first of six one-thousand dollar No Limit Hold’em events was taken by Canadian Aadam Daya, who overcame a field of four thousand three hundred and forty-five players and won six hundred and twenty five thousand dollars. The star-studded five thousand dollar No Limit Holdem Shootout had high-caliber contenders such as Tom Dwan, Andy Bloch, and Chris Ferguson, but… no big name players were able to crack the final table. Notable finishes include Blair Hinkle in 11th place and David “Chino” Rheem in 13th, both of whom won a little over sixteen thousand dollars for their efforts. Today will see the continuation of three events which started earlier this week as well as the start of two new events including the ten-thousand dollar Stud championship.
Brian Townsend revealed on his blog yesterday that he’ll be stepping down as the lead instructor of CardRunners to focus on playing poker. His parting words were: “CardRunners is still a great business, but it is one that is much more time consuming than I would have imagined. I value the friendships I have created here immensely, but over the previous months, I have started to realize that it is time for me to move on and devote my time to playing poker.”
We suppose he means live poker because he also announced he will no longer be a Full Tilt Red Pro. Instead, he’ll return to playing under his “sbrugby” moniker.
With the two thousand and ten World Cup approaching, France is hurrying to issue online gaming licenses in time to get a piece of the betting action. The new French regulatory authority for online gaming, ARJEL, will issue thirty licenses before that deadline. Bwin and Betclic have already applied for several licenses, while Betfair and William Hill found the licensing conditions to be too restrictive and have barred French action from their sites.
The WSOP would not complete without some degenerate madness, and this year it will be sponsored by UB.com. The “Craziest Last Longer Bet” promotion will allow UB players to submit videos explaining their crazy prop bets. Videos can be submitted until June eighth, when the top ten will be put up for public vote. The winners for the sickest bets will receive a W S O P VIP prize package including two seats in one of the one-thousand dollar No Limit Hold’em events. The loser will, of course, be expected to fulfill their obligations, a la get a tattoo of Gavin Smith’s face… and no I still dont know what Joe Sebok was thinking but We ALL look forward to someone topping that one.
Thanks for joining me on The Daily Deal. Check back in with us all day long at PokerNewsDaily.com and be sure to follow us at Twitter.com/PokerNewsDaily for the latest in poker news. This is Sean Gibson, and I’ll see you tomorrow!
