7906 Players entered this weeks Sunday Million on PokerStars.  After around 11 hours of play it was taken down by ckingusc (aka Zachary “Carter” King).  King from South Carolina as we all remember won the WCOOP 2008 Main Event, so this win really stamps his mark down as being one of the top poker tournament players.  

Sunday Million Result for 22nd March 2009

1st: ckingusc ($193,697.00)
2nd: *xen ($130,607.12)
3rd: bbs99 ($88,547.20)
4th: reef2287 ($71,944.60)
5th: Liqqa ($56,132.60)
6th: 1GENERAL_TAO ($40,320.60)
7th: bigsexyKN ($27,671.00)
8th: Rabbiej ($18,183.80)
9th: tpreston ($11,068.40)

Carter King has also found himself in the news in other places recently, being photographed as involved in the Michael Phelps “Bong” scandal.

Just for the reconrd ckingusc’s win in the WCOOP ME was for $1,265,432

Featured Hand: ckingusc commits in blind battle with around 80 players left

This hand caught my attention from earlier in the tournament with Extra_AK making an unusal fold to ckingusc:

 PokerStars Game #26261260055: Tournament #147104125, $200+$15 Hold’em No Limit - Level XXV (15000/30000) - 2009/03/23 0:14:43 ET
Table ‘147104125 734′ 9-max Seat #4 is the button
Seat 1: farfalla7 (719170 in chips)
Seat 2: RalfTh (196368 in chips)
Seat 3: craftyasafox (2490504 in chips)
Seat 4: ckingusc (493467 in chips)
Seat 5: Extra_AK (398080 in chips)
Seat 6: Calico Rock (498511 in chips)
Seat 8: patzoui13 (600740 in chips)
Seat 9: Porkys16 (1041797 in chips)
farfalla7: posts the ante 3000
RalfTh: posts the ante 3000
craftyasafox: posts the ante 3000
ckingusc: posts the ante 3000
Extra_AK: posts the ante 3000
Calico Rock: posts the ante 3000
patzoui13: posts the ante 3000
Porkys16: posts the ante 3000
Extra_AK: posts small blind 15000
Calico Rock: posts big blind 30000
*** HOLE CARDS ***
patzoui13: folds
Porkys16: folds
farfalla7: folds
RalfTh: folds
craftyasafox: folds
stoianluc is connected
ckingusc: raises 42450 to 72450
Extra_AK: raises 77550 to 150000
Calico Rock: folds
ckingusc: raises 340467 to 490467 and is all-in
Extra_AK: folds
Uncalled bet (340467) returned to ckingusc
ckingusc collected 354000 from pot
ckingusc: doesn’t show hand
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 354000 | Rake 0
Seat 1: farfalla7 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 2: RalfTh folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 3: craftyasafox folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 4: ckingusc (button) collected (354000)
Seat 5: Extra_AK (small blind) folded before Flop
Seat 6: Calico Rock (big blind) folded before Flop
Seat 8: patzoui13 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)
Seat 9: Porkys16 folded before Flop (didn’t bet)

This interesting hand just came up on Full Tilt Poker between Gus Hansen and OMGClayAiken (Phil Galfond).   After some pre-flop raising, Hansen spiked a set on the flop, and checked to OMGClayAiken, who had no other sensible other option than to launch with AAxx.  Hansen’s set of 6’s held, and he took down a $135K pot. Here is the hand:

Full Tilt Poker Game #11174846716: Table Hansen Knockout - $500/$1000 - Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 17:22:28 ET - 2009/03/16
Seat 1: Gus Hansen ($67,188.50)
Seat 2: OMGClayAiken ($132,789.50)
OMGClayAiken posts the small blind of $500
Gus Hansen posts the big blind of $1,000
The button is in seat #2
*** HOLE CARDS ***
OMGClayAiken raises to $3,000
Gus Hansen raises to $9,000
OMGClayAiken has 15 seconds left to act
OMGClayAiken raises to $27,000
Gus Hansen calls $18,000
*** FLOP *** [Jc 6c 7s]
Gus Hansen has 15 seconds left to act
Gus Hansen checks
OMGClayAiken has 15 seconds left to act
OMGClayAiken bets $54,000
Gus Hansen calls $40,188.50, and is all in
OMGClayAiken shows [Ks As Ad 8s]
Gus Hansen shows [6s 6d 8c 7c]
Uncalled bet of $13,811.50 returned to OMGClayAiken
*** TURN *** [Jc 6c 7s] [4c]
*** RIVER *** [Jc 6c 7s 4c] [Tc]
OMGClayAiken shows a pair of Aces
Gus Hansen shows a flush, Jack high
Gus Hansen wins the pot ($134,376.50) with a flush, Jack high
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $134,377 | Rake $0.50
Board: [Jc 6c 7s 4c Tc]
Seat 1: Gus Hansen (big blind) showed [6s 6d 8c 7c] and won ($134,376.50) with a flush, Jack high
Seat 2: OMGClayAiken (small blind) showed [Ks As Ad 8s] and lost with a pair of Aces

I was watching the Sunday Million final table on replay from 8th March, and when the chop was reached there was seemingly an error made by the PokerStars staff member.

Immediately after apestyles busted in 5th the players started to talk about a chop.  After a short time they agreed to see the numbers. 

Play was paused with the following chip numbers at the table:

steakstud (25,342,228 in chips)
kuzman89 (14,710,985 in chips)
Kürschner (27,836,495 in chips)
TheGoingRate (13,290,292 in chips)

The total number of chips at the table were approx 81.18 million. The total cash total up for grabs for 1st through to 4th was $497,794
(1st:$198,891; 2nd:$134,109; 3rd:$90,921; 4th:$73,871)

Setting aside $30K for the winner, this leaves the choppable amount at $467,794

StaffBryan chopped that amount to these totals based on chip count:

steakstud = $127,661.43
kuzman89  = $105,097.14
Kürschner  = $132,955.39
TheGoingRate  = $102,081.79

So the grand totals is fine, but the percentages are not

steakstud should have a chip-chop of around $146K
kuzman89 should have a chip-chop of around $85K
Kürschner should have a chip-chop of around $160K
TheGoingRate should have a chip-chop of around $76K

Essentially steakstud and Kurschner were shorted on the chop, and kuzman89 and TheGoingRate got more than they should have on the chop

Kurschner should have had around 28K more, steakstud around 19K more, kuzman89 around 20K less, and TheGoingRate around 26K less.

Funnilly enough I conducted extensive searches over the internet I have seen no other mention of this anywhere. Kurschner and steakstud can certainly feel somewhat aggrieved by the situation, but as they actually agreed to the chip-chop numbers presented, there doesnt really seem much chance of re-course.

2009 NBC National Heads-up championship

Former WSOP Main Event winner Huck Seed has added another elustrious title to his belt.   He beat Vanessa Rousso in the final match-up of the NBC National Heads-up Championship.

A notable mention also to Bertrand Grospellier (Elky on PokerStars) who, it is safe to say, has established himself as easily one the best heads-up players in the world over the last few years.

The buy-in was $20,000 and there were 64 entrants.

1 $ 500,000 Huck Seed  
2 $ 250,000 Vanessa Rousso  
3 $ 125,000 Sam Farha  
4 $ 125,000 Bertrand Grospellier  
5 $ 75,000 Daniel Negreanu  
6 $ 75,000 Phil Hellmuth  
7 $ 75,000 David Oppenheim  
8 $ 75,000 David Williams  
9 $ 25,000 John Juanda  
10 $ 25,000 Paul Wasicka  
11 $ 25,000 Scotty Nguyen  
12 $ 25,000 Tom Dwan  
13 $ 25,000 Kenny Tran  
14 $ 25,000 Erick Lindgren  
15 $ 25,000 John Phan  
16 $ 25,000 Glen Chorny

2009 LA Poker Classic

Andrew Cimpan outlasted Binh Nguyen in an epic heads-up battle.

Baby-faced Binh kept on getting the chips in good, but the cards really werent running for him.  

In the final hand the players were all in pre-flop with Cimpan on Kc 5c and Nguyen on Ad 9d, but the board played out 5h 3s Tc Td 4s, to give Cimpan the win.

Buy-in $9,600 + $400.  696 Entrants

1 $ 1,686,260 Cornel Andrew Cimpan  
2 $ 935,424 Binh Nguyen  
3 $ 654,797 Mike Sowers  
4 $ 430,963 Chris Karagulleyan  
5 $ 310,694 Pat Walsh  
6 $ 240,538 Chris Ferguson  
7 $ 180,403 Blake Cahail  
8 $ 133,632 Payman Arjang  
9 $ 96,883 Mark Bryan  
10 $ 64,477 Tam Ly  
11 $ 64,477 Donald D’Auria  
12 $ 64,477 Zach Hyman  
13 $ 57,796 Jeremy Kottler  
14 $ 57,796 Peter Feldman  
15 $ 57,796 Dan Lu  
16 $ 51,114 Teddy Monroe  
17 $ 51,114 Nick Schulman  
18 $ 51,114 Xuan Nguyen