Return to the tables

I returned to the tables on Tuesday night for a quick session on PokerStars. I checked OPR and it had actually been 10 days since I've played last, and before that it was another 7 days ... so I've played twice in the last 17 days ... ouch!

Its not that I haven't wanted to play, I've just been busy with plenty of other stuff going on. I had a quick trip to Darwin for work, my full-time employee has been in hospital, I had a date Friday night and most importantly I've been working on a business proposal for Two Plus Two (tell you more about it if it goes ahead).

While I haven't been playing of late, I have been following the WCOOP quite closely. None of my guys have had any scores of note but the most well-known pro to take one down was Jason Mercier who won a 2 day $1050 buy-in event, taking home just under half a million dollars. Like Shaun Deeb who I mentioned last week, Mercier got the win despite being short-stack with 8 or 9 players on the final table.

So, back to me ... September started very much like August did ... not well. I put in a decent session back on the 2nd, mostly playing the $6.50 45 mans and blanked all but one. I played 22 games that night so the bankroll took a substantial hit. My last 4 sessions have all been profitable, but not enough to dig myself out of the early hole I've found myself in. This is what happened last month so hopefully I get some time on the tables over the next week to try and bring back some respectability.

Shaun F'ing Deeb

Although he retired from grinding tournaments like he did for from 2006 to the end of 2009, Shaun Deeb stills plays poker. He's played a number of live events over the last few months and warmed-up online prior to the WCOOP.

I logged on to PokerStars yesterday afternoon to see him deep in the 2 day event 28. At the time he was struggling as a short-stack, sitting 14th out of the final 15 players. He waited, and waited and his break came when he got it in against 2 others holding queens. One had 6's and another had jacks, the flop brought a 6 but with the flop all hearts, Deeb had the only heart, although he wouldn't need it when a queen came on the turn tripling him up and putting him right back in the tournament.

From there Deeb did as Deeb does ...

WCOOP Day 11: Shaun Deeb Wins His Second WCOOP Bracelet | PokerNews

Another day of the 2010 World Championship of Online Poker at PokerStars, another big name winning a bracelet. The biggest event of the day, the conclusion of the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em two-day, did not disappoint as several big names navigated through the field to meet at the final table. WCOOP all-star Greg 'DuckU' Hobson was there, along with Shawn 'buck21' Buchanan, but in the end, it was Shaun Deeb who emerged victorious. He earned $243,610 and his second WCOOP bracelet, having previously won his first in 2008. ROMES_HOME and Brryann also took down events on Day 11, both earning their first bracelets.

PokerStars WCOOP 28 - $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Two Day

Buy-in	Entrants	Prize Pool
$1,000+$50	1,433	$1,433,000

Place	Player	Prize
1	Shaun "shaundeeb" Deeb	$243,610
2	Tjollerboy	$179,125
3	Iulian-Georgian "Ruxandescu" Ruxandescu	$135,991.70
4	Shawn "buck21" Buchanan	$97,444
5	Maximilian “HotKarlMC” Heinzelmann	$70,933.50
6	Vladimir "VLs85s" Vorobiev	$56,603.50
7	Greg "DuckU" Hobson	$42,273.50
8	insanocut	$27,943.50
9	Jin "jhwang21" Hwang	$15,476.40

2009 WCOOP: Sick! ElkY scores 2nd bracelet in Event #43, $215 NLHE - PokerStars Poker Blog

I've been taking an interest in the WCOOP this year as I get more and more involved in the poker world. With work not being overly busy all the time, I log on to PokerStars during the day just to rail some of the big name players. I tend to watch the big name pros such as Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem, Chris Moneymaker plus some of the bigger name online players such as Shaun Deeb, Tony Dunst and Alex Fitzgerald.

As the work day was winding down, I ended up watching Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier take down his 2nd bracelet of the series. As we speak, he's down to the final 12 of a second chance event where the first prize is over $130,000. Run better ...

Here's the story of how he got his 2nd bracelet, click on the title to read the full story.

2009 WCOOP: Sick! ElkY scores 2nd bracelet in Event #43, $215 NLHE - PokerStars Poker Blog

Event #43, the last of the $215 buy-in no-limit hold'em events in this year's WCOOP series, drew a whopping 9,220 entrants, making for a $1,844,000 prize pool. That was well beyond the $1 million guarantee, and the eighth time during the series we've seen a prize pool of greater than $1.5 million. (There'd be one more WCOOP event with at least a $1.5 million prize pool, of course -- the Main Event, with more than $10 million up for grabs!) The top 1,350 finishers would be cashing in this one, with first place scheduled to earn a nifty $263,323.20.

After nine-and-a-half hours of play, the field had been whittled down to 250 players, with Team PokerStars pros Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier in 12th, Victor Ramdin in 22nd, and Barry 'barryg1' Greenstein in 90th. At that point, 0926ricsi held the chip lead with 683,105, followed closely by LakersGTD, kezug, ångvälten, and HN Kakaroto.

At the 11-and-a-half hour mark, they were down to 100 players. Greenstein had departed in 203rd, followed by Team PokerStars Holland Pro Lex 'RaSZi' Veldhuis in 152nd. But Ramdin was still there in 42nd, and Grospellier had chipped all of the way up to second place, just behind LakersGTD who was nearing the 200,000 mark.

ElkY would soon overtake LakersGTD and claim the chip lead. With five cashes already this WCOOP and a bracelet in Event #38 (NLHE $530 + 1R1A), the London-based French pro appeared to be gearing up for yet another deep run in an WCOOP event. (Click here to read ElkY's reflection on his WCOOP win for the PokerStars blog.)