Since the airing on television of the 2008 WSOP 50K HORSE event there has been a great degree of controversy over the bevaviour of eventual winner Scotty Nguyen at the final table.

Scotty was seen faily inebriated, demanding more cocktails, and swearing and baiting his opponents.   None of this behaviour is really acceptable, but no action was taken by the tournament director to penalize him.  Erick Lindgren was so incensed that he said at the table that he’ll never be on “Team Scotty”, a reference refering to the fact that he’s not a great fan and wont be cheering him to win.    As he busted out of the event in a very credible 3rd, he was heard saying that he hoped “the kid” wins, a reference to Michael DeMichelle.

At first sight the lack of penalty smells a little of favouritism of a big poker name, but I think some of the media attention following the airing of the event has been slightly sensationalist.  Yes he was a bit over the top, but we all know Scotty talks to get into the heads of opponents more than almost anyone of the top pros, perhaps Tony G notwithstanding.

The network showing the coverage inevitably chases the ratings and they therefore are quite naturally selective over the most dynamic footage.  The effect this can have is that often soundbites are played a little out of context with a lot of “before” and “after” missing.  We cant really criticize the network, as the footage is there to be utilized, but I think it is more likely that the reason the tournament directors didnt take any action is that when seen in context the coffee-housing wasnt really viewed as that much of an issue.

Scotty has apologized following the shown coverage, but really this is a media frenzy gone bananas rather than a true reflection of one of the game’s great eccentrics.

The PokerStars Sunday Million picked up an impressive 7557 entrants this week, meaning the $1.5 million guaranteed prizepool was met with no overlays

After over 10 hours of poker NFrost_10 took it down.   There was a 2-way chop of $140K each and then NFront_10 scooped the extra $30K left on the table

1st NFrost_10 United States  $170,900.91
2nd es_dame  Denmark $140,900.91
3rd karelli  Poland $84,638.40
4th Duffs#1fan United States $69,524.40
5th SonnyInMtl Canada $54,410.40
6th lecharentais Poland $39,296.40
7th kidkanda99 Canada $26,449.50
8th hidden1s United States $17,381.10
9th afiopeneyes2 United States $10,579.80 

 4880 players showed up for the Main Event of FTOPS IX on Full Tilt, each paying $535 for the privaledge.   12 hours of top class poker saw dubbeemin take down over $400K and the title

1. dubbeemin - $432,400
2. valleyho - $262,500
3. TheTotalPkg - $170,000
4. Pokerguru19 - $132,500
5. sckilla - $100,000
6. hemlock1313 - $75,000
7. tvcsa - $57,500
8. aaaFRANCESCOzzz - $43,750
9. TiltinShoes - $32,500

Notable finish for B_O_K_E in 23rd

The PokerStars Sunday Million picked up 7651 entrants this week.  The tournament took 8 hours 44 mins to complete, with Gunslinger3 emerging the victor.

 Result

1. Gunslinger3 - $140,921.00
2. M.nosbocaJ - $89,013.00
3. OCTAGONS - $88,441.00
4. RBC* - $121,197.00
5. bastinho06 - $88,441.00
6. x-13 - $39,020.10
7. Neab - $26,778.50
8. exomil - $17,597.30
9. Octavian_C - $10,711.40

There was a 5-way chop this week

With the guarantee for the PokerStars Sunday Million going up to $1.5 million, there was a lot of cash on offer in this week’s tournament.  8236 players entered, looking for their slice.

What happened at the final table was nothing short of miraculous.  With the blinds at 150K/300K with a 30K ante, shortstack ziggy47 looked doomed to a very early exit, with basically a couple of big blinds remaining.

Here are the chip counts are the beginning of the final table:

Seat 1:- WSODice (11,975,400)
Seat 2:- ziggy47 (881,147)
Seat 3:- YrrsiNN (12,714,714)
Seat 4:- Foggsy (6,038,604)
Seat 5:- okidokiclub (5,543,549)
Seat 6:- ohhaaahhh (23,343,672)
Seat 7:- j.thaddeus (9,409,657)
Seat 8:- puntnko (10,016,289)
Seat 9:- lissem (2,436,968)

After a somewhat dramatic comeback, Ziggy47 found himself heads-up sat on around 52 million.   He raised to 1.9 million and puntnko reraised to 6.4 million. ziggy47 launched all-in  and puntnko called.

ziggy47 showed Ac Js
puntnko showed Ad 9h

Flop:- 8c Ah 2d
Turn:- 7c
River:- 5h

The monumental comeback was complete and ziggy47 was crowned the Sunday Million winner

Here is the full result (there was a 2-way chop before they played on for the title)

1. ziggy47 (Unted States) $182,438.77
2. puntnko (Australia) $151,283.95
3. j.thaddeus (Ireland) $91,419.60
4. ohhaaahhh (Unted States) $74,124.00
5. okidokiclub (Netherlands) $57,652.00
6. YrrsiNN (Switzerland) $41,180.00
7. Foggsy (Unted Kingdom) $28,826.00
8. WSODice (Unted States) $18,942.80
9. lissem (Norway) $11,530.40