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The lineup is set for the final table in the $50k H.O.R.S.E. World Championship, and after four days of grinding, Bach is amongst the chip leaders.

The “Gunslinger” spent most of Day 4 trading the chip lead back and forth with Erik Sagstrom, who goes into the final table as the chip leader with 3,675,000 chips.

Vitaly Lunkin ended the day second in chips with 2,490,000, while Bach’s got the third-highest stack at 2,345,000.

“It’s grueling, said Bach. “It takes a lot of focus.”

“You have to pay attention to all of the up cards. But it’s also enjoyable. I enjoy all of the games so it’s a challenge.”

Bach is no stranger to final tables at the WSOP. This is his fifth final table appearance, and he’s made one final table in each of the last five years at the WSOP.

With a final table that includes Lunkin, internet phenom Sagstrom, eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel and four-time bracelet winner Huck Seed, it won’t be an easy road for whoever takes the Chip Reese Memorial Award.

“There’s still a lot of work to do,” Bach said. “I really want to win this.”

“This is far and away the best poker tournament in the world. It takes most of the luck out of tournament poker,” said Bach.

“In No-Limit no matter how well you play, certain hands can come up where you’re just going to go broke.”

Spectators crowded the rail to watch the final two tables play down to the final eight.

Bach, Sagstrom and Lunkin were the only players that stayed comfortably ahead of elimination throughout Day 4.

When the final two tables were then re-drawn to one, Mike Wattel and Gus Hansen were barely hanging on.

Wattel’s all-star entourage of Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Shawn Sheikhan and Cyndy Violette wasn’t enough to get him to the final table, as Wattel went out in 10th place.

Crowd favorite Gus Hansen was the victim of the final table bubble, his short stack finally evaporating in an Omaha hand against Chau Giang. Hansen takes $123,895 in cash but falls short of the final table appearance.

So the final table is set, with Sagstrom, Lunkin, Bach, John Hanson, Seed, Giang, Seidel and Ville Wahlbeck playing for the bracelet Tuesday.

The Russian pro Lunkin began the WSOP by winning Event #1, the $40k No Limit Hold’em commemorative event, while Wahlbeck is chasing Jeffrey Lisandro for Player of the Year honors.

The final table commences at 2 p.m. Tuesday at the ESPN feature table. Click through to follow all the action in our WSOP Live Update section.

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Bach riding high at $50k H.O.R.S.E. finale

2009 might be forever remembered as the summer of multiple bracelets. Although every year since 2000 has seen one player with two bracelets, there’s never been a year quite like this.

First, Brock Parker (infamous on PokerStars under the handle t_soprano) won a pair by taking down bracelets in back-to-back six-handed Hold’em events.

After winning his first bracelet of 2009, Phil Ivey shocked the poker world by claiming he would win a second in under two weeks. He accepted any bet players were willing to throw at him then made good on his claim, winning his second just 10 days after the first.

If you hadn’t heard the name Lisandro before the 2009 WSOP, you’ve heard it now. Not only was Jeffrey “The Stud King” Lisandro the third player to win a second bracelet in 2009, he became the first to win a third. All three of his bracelets have come from 7-Card variations.

Finally, the latest player to double down was Full Tilt Pro Greg “FBT” Mueller. Mueller, whose nickname is an acronym for “Full Blown Tilt,” has managed to keep his tilt under control, making 2009 the year he won both his first and second WSOP bracelets.

The Dominance of the U.S and A

When it comes to the race for bracelets by country, the USA has absolutely decimated the rest of the globe. With 33 won so far, the USA has almost double the number of bracelets than the rest of the world combined.

Note: Last year 19 of the 59 gold bracelet events were won by non-Americans.

Year of the Pro

Most likely due to the increased starting stack sizes and added blind levels, 2009 has seen the poker professionals dominating over the amateurs. Out of the 51 bracelets awarded this year, 37 have been won by professionals and 7 by semi-professionals.

More WSOP 2009 By the Numbers (Note: all following stats exclude event #49):

Most Cashes:

Most Final Table Appearances:

Day 2 of Event #53, $1,500 Seven-Card Stud Hi/Lo, started with 143 players looking to navigate…

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2009 WSOP: Swinford Tops #53 Stud/8; Christensen Heads NLHE #54; Ewenstein Leads #55 2-7

Professional poker player Carsten Joh gave Germany its first World Series of Poker champion since Sebastian Ruthenberg’s 2008 win, when he won the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Event (#51) Monday evening. Joh outlasted a field of 2,781 to earn his first gold bracelet and $664,426.

Much like many of the previous $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournaments at the 2009 WSOP, this final table included no former WSOP gold bracelet winners. Joh claimed his first when he defeated Canadian Andrew Chen for the title.

An accomplished backgammon player, Joh competed in international backgammon tournaments and played in various clubs for many years. One of Joh’s friends from the backgammon tournaments was Danish poker player Gus Hansen. With Monday’s victory he now has one more WSOP bracelet than the prominent poker superstar.

“The bracelet means a lot because you have it for the rest of your life”, Joh said afterward. “Whatever you’ve got later on, you can always say you won a bracelet. Even if you stop playing poker – you just have it. If you come second, you really have nothing. You have the money. But nobody talks about that. It is just like that in sports. Everyone remembers the winner.”

At 45 years of age, Joh was the oldest player at the final table. Six of the nine players were age 27 and younger, and the youngest was 21-year-old Chen. Joh sent him home as the runner-up when Chen moved his remaining chips into the middle with after Joh raised from the button. Joh quickly called and flipped over pocket sixes. The flop didn’t give much hope to Chen but the on the turn gave him a flush draw. Joh then ended things when the fell on the river, giving him a set to eliminate Chen in 2nd place for $412,426.

On winning the tournament as the oldest player, Joh said: “Normally, the older players like me do not win the bracelet. You see every final table with six, seven, or eight players in their 20s. It is more difficult for an older player to win it. I have a lot of respect for the older players because you have to play ten levels and you might be here 13 or 14 hours each day.”

Here are the final results from Event #51:

1. Carsten Joh - $664,426
2. Andrew Chen - $412,632
3. David Walasinksi - $272,405
4. Steven Levy - $192,650
5. Owen Crowe - $145,199
6. Thibaut Durand - $115,817
7. Georgios Kapalas - $97,634
8. Jason Helder - $86,702
9. Nathan Page - $80,894

The $50,000 HORSE event reached its final table Monday evening as the aforementioned Gus Hansen was sent home in 9th place. A short-stacked Hansen was eliminated in the Omaha-8 round when he got his last 30,000 chips in on the flop against Chau Giang:

Flop:

Hansen:
Giang:

Hansen was drawing to a three to make a full house but the river was a blank and he left the Rio with $123,895. The remaining eight players, which make up a tremendous final table, will return at 2:00 p.m. Vegas time Tuesday and play until a champion is crowned. The winner will receive the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy and $ 1,276,802. The seating arrangement will look like this:

Seat 1: Ville Wahlbeck - 645,000
Seat 2: Erik “Erik123” Sagstrom - 3,675,000
Seat 3: John Hanson - 1,700,000
Seat 4: Huck Seed - 1,380,000
Seat 5: Vitaly Lunkin - 2,490,000
Seat 6: David Bach - 2,345,000
Seat 7: Erik Seidel - 965,000
Seat 8: Chau Giang - 1,075,000

Meanwhile, two more events will award bracelet Tuesday, making for a busy day of poker. The $3,000 Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em event is still loaded with talent as Jason “TheMasterJ33” DeWitt takes the chip lead into the final day. Other notables among the 16 players still in contention include An “The Boss” Tran, Max Greenwood, and online stars Jason “Jcarver” Somerville and Eric “Rizen” Lynch. Play will resume at 1:00 p.m. and finish when a winner is handed a gold bracelet and $506,800.

The other event coming to a close is the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo event. Brian Swinford has the lead with 14 players returning at 2:00 p.m. but PokerStars Team Pro Chad Brown is close behind. Others vying for the title are Allie Prescott and famed poker tournament director Matt Savage. The champion will earn $159,390 for his three days of work.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for updates on all of today’s events at the World Series of Poker.

More here:
Carsten Joh Wins WSOP Event #52; $50,000 HORSE Reaches Final Table

The 22-year-old Floridian has torn up the live tournament circuit since his victory last year at EPT4 San Remo, amassing $3.3 million in winnings in a little over a year.

Mercier picked up his first World Series of Poker bracelet earlier this summer and now continues his meteoric rise to success by joining forces with one of the biggest names in poker.

“It feels great,” Mercier told PokerListings.com. “It feels like it’s been a long time coming.

“Over the last fifteen months it’s just like each thing I’ve done I’ve gotten one step closer. Winning the bracelet I guess was the last thing I needed to do.”

As a Team Pro, Mercier will wear the PokerStars logo at many of the world’s most prestigious tournaments, including European Poker Tour and WSOP events.

“I’m looking forward to going to Barcelona and London this year,” Mercier said. “Before the deal I wasn’t sure if I was going to go.”

He’ll also play online at PokerStars.com, where fans will be able to test their skills against the young hotshot.

“I have to play a certain amount of online hours whereas I wasn’t playing online as much over the last six months,” he said. “I’m going to have to get back to the online grind.”

Mercier told PokerListings the partnership with PokerStars was a natural fit.

“I’m friends with a decent amount of the team pros already and I’m friends with a bunch of people who work for PokerStars, so I’m really looking forward to developing those friendships more as well as travelling and making new friends,” he said.

The EPT London High-Roller champ also said he looks forward to the security he gains from the deal, but that he doesn’t think it will change much at the tables.

“Maybe more people will know who I am, but as a player I don’t think it changes anything about the way that I play or the respect that I get,” he said.

PokerStars also announced it has signed Dutch pro Marcel Luske as another new member of Team PokerStars Pro.

You can join Mercier and Luske at PokerStars by signing up for an account via PokerListings.com. Do so here.

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Read more from the original source here:
Jason Mercier joins Team PokerStars Pro

After receiving the proposed legislation of online gaming that the nation of Belgium planned to enact, the European Commission yesterday rejected their plan due to language in the proposed laws that appears to be a nationalization plan rather than acceptable regulation and legislation.

According to the European Gaming and Betting Association (EBGA), the European Commission was correct in their decision to prohibit Belgium from putting the new laws into effect. The Belgian plan, which was sent to the EC as well as the other Member Nations – which comprise much of the European continent – on March 27th, looked to put into place laws which restricted the online gaming and betting market to operators solely established in Belgium. This is a violation of the European Union treaty that allows for free trade practices between its Member Nations.

Several areas of the proposed Belgian laws were pointed out by the European Commission to be in violation. They included such language as required the operators of online gaming and poker sites to be based in Belgium, limitation of available licenses, criminal prosecution of customers that would play on non-sanctioned sites and restriction of services from outside nations. Belgium was also looking to use ISP blocking software to prohibit its citizens from playing on other licensed European Union sites, something that the EC was strongly against.

The Director for Regulatory Affairs of the EGBA, Maarten Haijer, was in agreement with the European Commission’s decision to disallow the drafted legislation. “The requirement for operators to be established in Belgium is one of the clearest violations of EC Treaty provisions”, Haijer stated during the EGBA’s announcement of the decision. “It wrongly denies that many online gaming operators are effectively regulated, licensed and controlled elsewhere in the EU. As several jurisdictions in the EU already prove, it is possible to guarantee a high level of consumer protection and have a well regulated and competitive online gaming and betting market at the same time.”

The ruling by the European Commission prevents Belgium from enacting their plan and offers them an opportunity to present an acceptable plan by July 30th. If Belgium proceeds forward and implements the legislation, the EC has stated that they will also proceed with infringement proceedings of the European Union treaty, which could result in trade restrictions within the EU.

The recent refusal to accept Belgium’s plan for regulation of the online gaming and poker industry is in step with previous rulings from the European Commission regarding the subject. On June 8th, the EC rejected a similar proposal from France, whose proposed legislation had many of the same components as the Belgian plan. The French have until August to present an acceptable proposal.

Although the European Commission has been rejecting these proposals from Belgium and France, there is still a great deal of conflict over the issue throughout Europe. Back in March, the European Union was unable to come to any concrete agreement that would allow for the legislation of online gaming and poker and would provide for freedom of trade between its Member Nations. Without such comprehensive legislation, many nations have attempted to nationalize their online gaming industries, which is against the EU Treaty. Until the EU is able to have its Member Nations agree to a comprehensive plan, the conflict over internet gaming and poker will continue to provide problems.

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European Commission Rejects Belgium’s Online Gaming Nationalization Plan

Day 2 of Event #52, $3,000 Triple Chance No-Limit Hold’em, saw the return of 149 players Monday afternoon…

Read more here:
2009 WSOP: Dewitt Tops Final 16 in Triple Chance #52

From nineteen to eight. That’s all the ground covered in Event #49, $50,000 World Championship HORSE…

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2009 WSOP: Sagstrom Leads Final Table of HORSE #49

After almost ten hours of play, the final nine of the PokerStars Sunday Million were set and the majority of the $1,600,000 prize pool was still to play for. Compared to the rest of the tournament the final table flew by in less than an hour when Sleire beat BeechSquad heads-up to take home $228,000.

Read more here:
Sleire Wins $228k In PokerStars Sunday Million.

Even though the $10,000 No-Limit Hold ‘em Main Event is the most famous tournament at the World Series of Poker, the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. carries with it the most prestige and truly establishes poker’s king.

Continued here:
$50k HORSE Broadcast Exclusive to PKR