The months when it’s actually pleasant to live in northern Europe are precisely those during which the sprawling mega-series known as the WSOP rolls into town in Las Vegas, Nevada, drawing huge crowds for events ranging from Hold’em to Razz, triple draw and Omaha 8/b. The temptation of playing one’s favourite niche game against eye-opening fields for big money is too great for a lot of European players, and they swap golden beaches, sunny city parks and country retreats back home for the singeing desert sun alternated with high-level air conditioning in the Rio casino for nearly two months of intensive poker. At the end of the day the prizes everyone’s eyes are fixed on are the WSOP bracelets; and 57 of them will be awarded by the time the party’s over mid-July.
There has been a huge buzz this year around Europe’s best bets for bracelet glory (huge posters of Annette Obrestad, for example, adorn the hallways), and despite being overwhelmingly outnumbered there have been some impressive paydays for visiting players already, and we’re only half way through. There’s so much going on at the Series that it’s well nigh impossible to keep an eye on everything, so here are some highlights from the events so far, with an especial glance at the movers and shakers from across the pond:
The World Series has taken in recent years to starting off with a bang – a huge $50k buyin ‘Poker Players’ 
Championship’ event which attracts every magazine-cover-gracing poker star who can stump up the cash or whose sponsor fancies giving the biggest of the big games a punt. This year headlines were grabbed by the brothers Mizrachi, with both Michael and Robert making the final. Michael Mizrachi took the title in the end (right), and over $1.5 million, while Robert had to settle for 5th, behind stalwarts of the game Vladimir Schmelev, David Oppenheim, and John Juanda.
May ended and June began with the rotating mix of super-large-field $1,000 and $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournaments mingling with the $10,000 buy-in Championship Events in every discipline imaginable, as well as a surprising number of mixed-game tournaments which seem to grow in popularity every year.
In one of the first of the $1,500 events, the UK’s Praz Bansi took down his second bracelet and over half a million dollars, drawing an excitable rail and a lot of support from the British contingent. The very next day they had another reason to cheer, as two UK players made the final of the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout event – the gregarious Neil Channing and Stuart Rutter (who’s been on a bit of a heater in recent months). However they had to content themselves with second and third place respectively, as Joshua Tieman went on to take the title and the $441,692 which came with it. France’s Nicolas Levi also made that final, finishing 5th behind Joseph Elpayaa.
The European turbo-start to the 2010 Series was confirmed when the next event, the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball, was won by Peter Gelencser from Hungary (left), who won over $180k and was the only non-north American to cash in this event, which, in fairness, isn’t found too often outside of this continent. He was followed to the winners’ podium by Brit James Dempsey, who took down the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event (the same won by his friend JP Kelly last year) after several hours of trying to concentrate while the most rowdy crowd seen so far cheered him on, despite being occasionally thinned as a couple were thrown out by security. The decision in the wee hours of the morning to stop serving them alcohol was probably the only thing which kept any of them in there…
Back to the World Championships, and two $10k buy-in Stud events drew big names galore in the hunt for a bracelet in a shorter field. Men ‘the Master’ Nguyen won the 7-Card Stud Championship (there were 150 entries in this event) beating Brandon Adams heads up, while yet again Michael Mizrachi’s name pops up on a final (he finished 6th). In the running for player of the year, the Grinder is cementing himself as a true all-rounder. The 7-Card Hi-Low Split 8/better Championship drew 20 more runner than the high-only version, and this time it was Frank Kassela who emerged on top winning just under half a million dollars and pipping the permanent residents of the late stages of the niche games like Allen Kessler, Jennifer Harman, and John Juanda. The Americans might still be dominating in this field, but cashers hailing from beyond the States included Kirill Rabtsov, Vladimir Shchemelev, Dario Minieri, Sergey Altbregin, and Alessio Isaia.
The next World Championship up for grabs was the $10k Deuce-to-Seven No Limit Lowball, and this fell to David Baker, with Eric Cloutier 2nd and Germany’s George Danzer in third. Although a very highly rated player he’s yet to make a proper splash over at the WSOP, but he’s one of the young players I would tip to be a sleeper hit (or the poker equivalent) this year. The other is Sam Trickett, who was pipped to a bracelet of his own in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event by the USA’s Jason Dewitt, who captured the title and $818,959. The 792-strong field in this event was tough, and the young Englishman (who final tabled the same event in 2008, coming 4th) bettered his previous result but still couldn’t get his hands on the jewellery just yet. Still, two of the lesser known names to watch out for in the second half of the Series…
Well known names everyone’s already watching out for include, of course, Phil Ivey (right), who picked up his eighth 
bracelet this week in the $3,000 HORSE event. Playing five (limit) games (Hold’em, Omaha high-low 8/b, Razz, 7-card Stud, and Stud high-low 8/b) is widely regarded as a true test of general poker mastery, and Ivey was only one of several veteran players of all variants to make the hugely popular final table. Bill Chen was his last rival, after John Juanda had another close call, finishing in 3rd, and last year’s WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro had also hit the rail. The rumoured bracelet bets between Ivey and Tom Dwan (who earlier finished second to Simon Watt in a $1,500 NL event) have the media guessing, but Ivey would only comment that he was currently, “In the lead,” on that score…
Returning to the European theme, and it was France’s Vanessa Hellebuyck who won the $1,000 Ladies Event, beating over 1000 competitors to take her first bracelet. Almost simultaneously, Richard ‘Chufty’ Ashby was winning the $1,500 7-card Stud event for $140,467. He might more regularly frequent the nosebleed PLO cash games online, but the Omaha events this year have been dominated by Americans, with John Barch winning the $1,500 and Canada’s Miguel Proulx taking down the $2,500 (although the UK’s Michael Greco came 3rd and there was a 5th-6th double for Germany thanks to Joerg Engels and Karl Gal). The $10k Omaha High-low 8/b World Championship went to Sammy Farha (again!) but look who nearly made it an early double – James Dempsey finished second to rapturous applause from the British crowd.
Other highlights included yet another bracelet for the UK courtesy of Mike Ellis, who ground down Christopher Gonzales to take $581,851 for first place having seen off over 2300 runners in another $1,500 No Limit event. The Limit Hold’em World Championship was another hard-fought battle, giving Matt Keikoan the win over a tough final table which included last year’s phenom Brock Parker and, yet again, Michael Mizrachi. To finish off, the Heads Up No Limit $10k Championship event was won by Ayaz Mahmood (left), who beat his final opponent Ernst Schmejkal of Germany in a best-of-three to win $625,674 and the bracelet. Finishing in the top ten in this popular event were Jason Somerville, Alexander Kostritsyn, Vanessa Rousso, Faraz Jaka, and Ludovic Lacay, while there were cashes for the French star Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier and online pro Chris Moorman.
Of course it’s all still full-swing here in Las Vegas, and the Big One is yet to come, the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Championship running from the 5th to the 17th of July. Four start days, thousands of competitors, and a final table of millionnaires – despite the slightly dropped numbers for some of the early events this year, this one is going to be huge. I’ll be keeping an eye on Europe’s best hopes, as well as the host of pros descending on the mammoth Pavilion room here at the Rio. Viva Las Vegas.
