2010 Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic

Posted by Poker Videos on August 22nd, 2010

Perica Bukara came out victorious in the $25,000 High Roller Freeze-Out event at the 2010 Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic and walked away with a cool $373,207 in prize money at just past 5:30 a.m. in Cyprus (10:30 p.m. EST).

David Benyamine led the Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic High Roller event at the end of day one.1

By end of day two, however, Bukara had taken over, having been dominant with big pre and post flop bets.2 With the group down to nine players and only the top five spots getting paid, here is how things looked going into day three:

Chip Counts for day 3 of the $25,000 High Roller Freeze-Out:
1 Perica Bukara 951,700
2 Ori Miller 546,000
3 John Dolan 455,500
4 Carter Phillips 401,600
5 David Benyamine 400,300
6 Andrew Feldman 356,000
7 Jon Turner 197,700
8 Sam Trickett 188,200
9 Ziv Caspi 103,500

Seats for day 3 of the $25,000 High Roller Freeze-Out:

Seat 1: Ziv Caspi – 103,500
Seat 2: David Benyamine – 400,300
Seat 3: John Dolan – 455,500
Seat 4: Perica Bukara – 951,700
Seat 5: Andrew Feldman – 356,000
Seat 6: Sam Trickett – 188,200
Seat 7: Ori Miller – 546,000
Seat 8: Jon Turner – 197,700
Seat 9: Carter Phillips – 401,600

On day three, Bukara rode his stack through the day and went on to win the event. The night of Friday, August 20, action whittled down to Bukara,3 Ori Miller,4 and Andrew Feldman.5 Bukara, a native of Serbia who now lives in Germany, lost the lead only once, when play was down to just him and Ori Miller. There was interesting action late between the relatively unknown Miller and Londoner Feldman (a Full Tilt pro). While only three players remained, Miller and Feldman traded places on consecutive hands. Later, Feldman was down to a very small stack and tripled, then doubled up twice. He wasn’t able to hang in there though and was eventually eliminated by Miller.

Miller took his only lead on a fold by Bukara at 9 p.m. EST. Shortly thereafter, the two remaining players came dead even at 10:21 p.m. EST. But by 10:30 p.m. (5:30 a.m. Cyprus time), it was all over. Bukara had eliminated Miller to win the $25,000 High Roller Freeze-Out event.

Final Payouts:

1. Perica Bukara $373,207

2. Ori Miller $207,337

3. Andrew Feldman $124,402

4. David Benyamine $82,935

5. Jon Turner $41,467

A look ahead to the Full Tilt Merit Cyprus Classic Main Event:

On day 1A of the Main Event (Friday, August 20), over 100 players showed up to try their hands at the tables, which made day one more popular than last year’s entire event. Notable players who made it to day one included Nicolas, Chouity, Chip Jett, Dave Colclough, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Tommy Vedes, Chino Rheem, Van Marcus, Kelly Kim, Huseyin Yilmaz, and Julian Gardner. Vedes, Gardner, and Yilmaz were eliminated on day one, the other notables mentioned continued on to the next round of play.

At the end of day 1A, the top chip stacks were:
1 Nicolas Chouity 119,600
2 Alexey Rybin 104,325
3 Hulya Pehlivanlar 95,000
4 Nanos Koustantinos 94,650
5 Aineas Protopapas 82,000
6 Chip Jett 80,750
7 Tamer Ustaoglu 78,250
8 Musa Gunay 78,025
9 Iliodoros Kamatakis 76,175
10 Kevin O’Donnell 74,650

Top chip stacks from day 1B (Saturday, August 21):
1 John Dolan 95,400
2 Manig Loeser 91,550
3 Sorel Mizzi 90,225
4 Sam Trickett 70,000
5 Rob Peltecki 60,000
6 Karina Jett 58,000
7 Andrew Feldman 57,000
8 Andrew Gulyy 52,000
9 Ori Miller 50,000
10 Jeff Hakim 49,000

Action continues on Sunday, August 22 at 2 p.m. Cyprus time (7 a.m. EST) when the remaining 140 players will battle for a place at the Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Classic Main Event final table.

Play Online Poker
Play Online Poker
Poker Blog Copyright 2008 Just add chips LLC

Subscribe to PokerBloggs.com

Featured November 9 finalist Filippo Candio

Posted by Poker Videos on August 21st, 2010

Filippo Candio - 2010 WSOP Event #57

Filippo Candio is an Italian born professional poker player, Candio is 26 years old and part of November nine in the 2010 World Series of Poker Championship in Las Vegas. Candio got his start in live tournament action because it’s the only way legally in his country. Filippo Candio is actually considered a villain by some as he enters the finals, in fact one online site would not even sponsor him because of excessive table celebrations and his proud Italian exclamations angering some players and fans. Candio at times does not seem to care about etiquette and sportsmanship and folks always let him know about it. He has reason to be proud though he is the first player from Italy to make it to to the final table making history.



Filippo Candio currently wearing Full Tilt Poker gear obviously impressed the online poker site enough to represent them. Candio does not have a ton of credentials coming up to November 9 being a relative unknown, Candio has most of his experience in Italy hardly the same competition he will face in live American tournament play going against veterans who have the advantage of playing online and at live table games.

Filippo Cardio is strictly a No-Limit Hold-em player and somewhat successful career in the Italian arena and some EPT entries. His biggest win was at the Camianto Italiano in 2009 taking first place in the $2 648 No-limit Hold’em main event and came away with $185,271. Later in 2009 almost was able to double his buy in with $1 200, 18th place in the Italian Rounders Poker-Tour Champion while adding a further $11 139 for a 2nd place in the IPT San Remo.

Cardio entered his first World Series of Poker in 2010, and once again doubled his money when placing 157th in a $1 500 NLH event to score $3,460. Filippo Cardio’s live Tournament Earnings hover around $250,000, it would be an understatement to argue he was and is a huge underdog in the 2010 World Series of Poker.

Now that the final table is set for November 9 slated to begin November 6 at the Rio in Las Vegas what will Filippo Candio do to get himself ready for a shot of a lifetime?

Play Online Poker
Play Online Poker

Subscribe to PokerBloggs.com

Cuong Soi Nguyen of the November Nine

Posted by Poker Videos on August 20th, 2010

Featured November Nine Player Cuong Soi Nguyen

Soi Nguyen - 2010 WSOP Event #57

Cuong “Soi” Nguyen is an amateur poker player and the oldest of the November 9 finalist at the 2010 World Series of Poker. The 37 year old native of Santa Ana California has managed to take a seat nobody expected. Nguyen is medical supplies distributor, and has friends who play on tour and learned from them and playing with regular joe’s. Cuong Soi Nguyen is going to the finals with little to no experience, but that doesn’t mean he will lay down for the party, he intends to crash it. Many would argue it’s bad for poker to have him here, but he earned it so the sponsors and everybody will just have to accept it.



Mr. Nguyen has only 4 live tournament experiences under his belt, but he certainly has the soft underbelly of the beast. Cuong Soi Nguyen’s 2010 World Series of Poker performance has many observers scratching there heads, wondering how a guy with so little experience could be at a table with a Mizrachi or even a Joseph Cheong at November 9, however with that said this year’s finals does lack star status only Michael Mizrachi owns a bracelet.

Cuong Soi Nguyen’s ride to November 9 is now well documented especially in the style that he dropped people out of the chance at the final table. Nguyen left his mark on the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event with an attacking style and being able to pick up on other players weakness. Nguyen built his stack with big stack plays pressuring his opponents like an NFL defense might do. Nguyen amazed the crowds on day 7 to take the overall chip lead after winning the biggest pot of that point in the tournament, breezing past day 6 chip leader Theo Jorgensen.

Going in to the hand in the top five in chips with slightly over nine million, Nguyen check-raised a bet of 525,000 to 1.5 million in a threesome pot holding Kh-Jc with the board at Kc-5-h-9-c. Jorgenson wanting to bully his way to to the pot, pushed the action with a raise to four million, leaving Nguyen with a decision, one that would decide his tournament fate.

Nguyen went for it thinking K-J was the best hand and went all in for his remaining 7.62 million.

Jorgensen called and turned his nut flush draw with the Ac-3c and the two players itching to see the two most important cards of there lives. the dealer then proceeded to complete the action with the Td on the turn and the 3d on the river and with that the 19.52 million pot went to Nguyen and cementing him in the lead with 42 entrants left in the 2010 WSOP.

Cuong “Soi” Nguyen well arrive and take his place in November at the Rio in Las Vegas attempting to complete the unthinkable, an amateur winning the Super Bowl of Poker.

The odds say he won’t do it, but don’t tell Nguyen that he doesn’t no any better.

Play Online Poker
Play Online Poker

Subscribe to PokerBloggs.com

FTOPS XVII coverage

Posted by Poker Videos on August 14th, 2010

This year’s Full Tilt Online Poker Series began August 3, 2010 and has been progressing electrically since. This year’s tournament is the 17th such tournament by the folks at Full Tilt, with the first FTOPS taking place in August 2006, with just eight events and a combined guaranteed prize pool of a little more than one million dollars. The preceding tournament, FTOPS XVI, awarded over $18 million in thirty events that ended in April, 2010. The current event, FTOPS XVII tops all previous tournaments and includes thirty-four events for a combined $19 million in prize money to be awarded.
FTOPS XVII includes a variety of tournament styles, including knockout, turbo and super turbo, and shootout events. Games included are Hold ‘Em, Stud, Omaha, 7-Game, PLO, Rush, and Stud. These games feature different style options at each event, with limit or no-limit games, combining to make a wide swath of specialized events in this year’s tournament. Players also can win seats through satellite tournaments, which allow winnings to be accrued toward buy-ins for the FTOPS XVII events.
The FTOPS XVII will conclude with the Two-Day Event (beginning on Saturday, August 14th) with a guaranteed prize pool of $2 million and the Main Event (Sunday August 15), for a guaranteed pool of $3 million. Additional prizes include FTOPS jackets, gold jerseys, and gold jersey avatars for their online appearances on Full Tilt. The first place finisher on the FTOPS XVII Leaderboard will win a custom Full Tilt avatar and entry to every event of the next tournament, FTOPS XVIII (worth about ten grand in entries).
Players are excited about FTOPS XVII’s six Rush Poker tournament events, including two yet to come- Event 27 with a $200 +$16 Limit Hold ‘em Rush, guaranteed at $150,000 and Event 33 with a $150 + $13 NLH Rush Rebuy game with $750,000 guarantee.
The FTOPS XVII overall chip leader currently is Mike “chapmoney” Chappus with 418 chips and a combined $117, 537.90 from his two wins. In Event 3 (the $300 Six-Handed Turbo No Limit Hold’em Shootout) and Event 24 (). Chappus is followed in second place by THAY3R with 359 points, followed closely by jdpc27 in third place with 358, bruc-lee with 357. Aguskb rounds out the top five of the leaderboard with 334 points.
Among the more recognized players in the FTOPS XVII are Brandon Adams, (chip leader) Mike Chappus “chapmoney” , Aaron Gustavson “Aguskb”, Geoff Rasmussen “GeoffRas22″, RPM Poker pro Brent Roberts “Broberts85″ (who won the FTOPS I), and Jason Wheeler “jdpc27″. Although many Full Tilt Poker Red Pros have played in FTOPS XVII, Jeff Madsen is the only Full Tilt pro to make his way to a final table, where Madsen took third place in Thursday, August 5th’s $300 Six-Handed Turbo No Limit Hold’em Shootout for $28,460.
Sixth place in that event was a cause for controversy, won by a player with the screen name FTOPS XVII HERO. This player’s name and in-game chatting lead to speculation on 2+21 and Pocketfives2 that the player might be multi-accounting or could be a known player using an assumed name to throw off those familiar with his play.

The biggest prizes won so far are:
Event 16: yahoo33 – $301,400
Event 13: andinista – $209,606.83
Event 1: Brent “Broberts85″ Roberts – $164,357.80
Event 22: Kyle “KJulius10″ Julius – $159,243.21
Event 9: Andrew “SkillVille” Weisner – $110,669.03

The results so far in this year’s tournament:
Event 1: Brent “Broberts85″ Roberts – $164,357.80
Event 2: nolez7 – $50,850
Event 3: Mike “chapmoney” Chappus – $68,040
Event 4: BacoPride – $41,931.59
Event 5: FlopeDeNuts – $131,308.64
Event 6: Geoff “GeoffRas22″ Rasmussen – $94,776.40
Event 7: EasyPots – $23,085.19
Event 8: Jason “jdpc27″ Wheeler – $85,613.50
Event 9: Andrew “SkillVille” Weisner – $110,669.03
Event 10: Aaron “Aguskb” Gustavson – $81,205.20
Event 11: FM2T – $141,776
Event 12: Mark “xqsays” Radoja – $89,088
Event 13: andinista – $209,606.83
Event 14: Brandon Adams – $39,790
Event 15: chessaszhole1 – $60,375
Event 16: yahoo33 – $301,400

Event 17: KILOHAILI – $46,120.20
Event 18: Getty “gettym” Mattingsley – $94,999.91
Event 19: Jeremy “JBurleson” Burleson – $76,545
Event 20: crazyjjm – $33,295.80
Event 21: Dk4884 – $75,988.04
Event 22: Kyle “KJulius10″ Julius – $159.243.21
Event 23: DE KID – $40,000.00
Event 24: Mike “chapmoney” Chappus – $49,497.90
Event 25: bugstud – $23,700.00

For more information and up to the minute results, please visit Full Tilt’s FTOPS XVII site:
FTOPS XVII

Play Online Poker
Play Online Poker

Subscribe to PokerBloggs.com


Copyright © 2007 Poker Blog. All rights reserved.