While the Brasilia Room in the Rio Convention Center is far from a glamorous setting it served as the stage for yesterday’s 2nd Annual Ante Up For Africa charity poker tournament. The event, co-hosted by Annie Duke and actor Don Cheadle drew a number of famous faces from both the poker world and Hollywood. Notable pros in attendance included Phil Hellmuth, Greg Raymer, Erik Seidel, and Howard Lederer and some of the non-poker celebrities included Ray Romano, Adam Sandler, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Charles Barkley, and Jason Alexander.
In addition to playing, Hellmuth also provided some running commentary on the event. Phil started his emcee gig with a bang when he made a joke or two regarding Barkley’s reported problems with gambling debts that have been in the news the past couple of months. He quickly apologized to his friend for making a joke at his expense and then began to sing Barkley’s praises for his generosity.
Since Nevada gaming laws prevented the tournament from taking any money out of the prize pool to go directly to the charity, the hosts of the events had to rely on the generous spirit of the 87 participants to agree to donate a portion of their winnings to the Not On Our Watch Project. The winner of the event was poker pro John Hennigan while one of last year’s winners, Dan Shak, came in third.
Yesterday the bracelet winner of WSOP Event #52, the final $1,500 No Limit Hold Em event of the series, was determined as well. Live tournament pro David Daneshgar defeated internet player Scott Sitron when the two got it all-in preflop with Sitron holding A-8 to Daneshgars’s pocket tens. The tens held, earning Daneshgar the bracelet in addition to the $625,443 first prize.
The final preliminary event of the WSOP, the $1,500 Limit Shoot Out kicked off at 2pm yesterday. Players who advanced to the second round played through four levels last night and picked up where they left off. It took nearly six hours for the final table to be determined, but by 9pm the final nine were set. Survivor alum and known pro Jean Robert Bellande, Danny Wong, and internet pro Matt “mattg1983” Graham were among those who made the final table, which did not get started until shortly after 10pm.
Play went on for over four hours before the table lost a player and at several points in the night Bellande tried to persuade the floor and the other players to quit for the evening and return tomorrow. While the floor staff was alright with the idea, several players decided they wanted to stick around and tough it out, so play continued on into the morning.
Shortly after 5am, they were left with only two, Bellande and Graham, with Bellande holding a nearly 8-1 chip lead over his opponent. Graham was no stranger to the underdog role though. During Round 2 of play, Matt Graham had been down to just one big bet, but managed to fight his way back to win his table. His 2nd round table was actually the last table to finish, so after playing for nearly 7 hours during Round 2, he had only an hour break before returning for the lengthy final table.
His long day paid off for him though as he chipped away at Bellande, eventually taking the chip lead. On the last hand of play, the two got it all-in preflop with Graham holding A-8 to Bellande’s 7-9. The board ran out K-4-3-K-Q, shipping the bracelet and $278,180 first prize Graham’s way at 7:30am this morning. This was Graham’s first WSOP final table.