The Final Table

The final table started out with Sam Tricket, who is known to have used the pokerstars marketing code, in the lead. As things progressed, five of the nine remaining players were eliminated before a bit of break in the game. The final table then proceeded forward, and as the eliminations took place, only four players were left. Of course, a few moments later, they were at it again. The player to be eliminated on fourth was Ilan Boujenah who will receive a nice €300,000, and shortly right after, Oleskii Kovalchuk followed Bouhenah out the door with €379,760 and only Salman Behbehani and Sam Trickett were left to proceed to the heads up play, with Behbehani leading in chip count.

The Heads Up Play

When the heads up play started, Trickett had a pretty sizeable disadvantage over his opponent. While Sam Trickett only had around 5.8 million chips, his opponent, Salman Behbehani had over 11.5 million. Of course, patience really is a key factor in the game and Trickett slowly but surely built his stack up a bit, up until he then had the advantage over Behbehani. As things progressed forward, the final hand eventually came about. It was when Behbehani went all in with his A-J. Unfortunately for Behbehani, Trickett already had pocket 10’s and the board gave no improvements to either player’s hands. Trickett then was crowned the champion and was rewarded the €1 million for his efforts.

The Final Rankings

On the number one spot is UK’s favourite player, Sam Trickett with €1,000,000, who is now considered to be the most successful British poker player. On second with a pretty good €600,000 is Salman Behbehani. Right on third is Oleskii Kovalchuk with a total of €379,760 in winnings. Ilan Bouhenah settles in on at the fourth spot with a nice €300,000 as Roger Hairabedian sits on the fifth spot with €230,000. Right on sixth is Mustapha Kanit, with a total of €190,000. Alexander Dovzhenko sits at the seventh spot with a pretty good €160,000. Right on the eighth spot is Alexander Coussy with €130,000 and lastly, we have MAds Wissing, with €100,000 in winnings.

Looking for Trustworthy Rooms

First of all, new online poker players are sometimes fooled into registering to an untrustworthy online poker room. Around 45% of the websites in the UK that deal with poker are not registered, and should not be considered trustworthy. These unregistered online casinos and poker rooms should not be trusted as they are not regulated and monitored for quality and fairness. Legal or trustworthy online destinations for poker or casino games are that regulated have a system to keep things in check and well balanced. Remember what happened during April 15 in the US poker industry when the US Department of Justice shut down a number of big names of online poker due to run ins with the law. To this day, Full Tilt Poker, one of those shut down, still has not paid back its players of their funds.

Education is Key

It is now becoming a problem in the UK, in terms of the newer batch of online poker players and online gamblers, as more than five million of them do not check whether the online destination is trustworthy or not. They are then exposing themselves to the danger of having their personal information stolen, as well as endangering their funds by depositing them into rogue sites. The UK government is now starting a campaign to educate the newer groups of online gamblers and poker players. The number of online casinos with operating licenses in white listed jurisdictions totals to more than a thousand. In short, online poker players or online gamblers will have no problem of choosing the destination in terms of playing their favourite casino or poker games. So if ever you are a new face in the world of online casino gaming and poker, you really should make the good choice and go for the trustworthy ones, like Poker stars,  regardless of the bonus and promotions they offer.

Erik Seidel Down One Spot

Over the past three weeks, Erik Seidel has maintained a steady position at the top. This week, however, his reign has come to a end. Now, although Seidel has played consistently well recently, his decline in Global Poker Index points is due to the performance during the late 2008 up to the early months of 2009. Also, considering that the Global Poker Index takes note of consistency of the player’s performance over his past number of years, this means that Seidel’s 19th place at the 2008 WSOPE main event is no longer into account. This is one of the major reasons for his drop in the rankings on to number 2 ad Mercier’s climb onto the top spot.

Bertrand Grospellier Climbs One Spot

Yet another noticeable change in the top rankings is between Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Eugene Katchalov. Much like Mercier’s case, Grospellier did not exactly climb up a spot due to an increase in Global Poker Index Points. The thing is that Eugene Katchalov dropped from third place on to fourth due to his Global Poker Index Points declining. Katchalov finished third during the 2009 EPT London High Roller Event, but his placing third in the event is moving further into the past. He’ll need to come up with something in the present time if he wants to climb back up his spot.

New Faces

Of course, as the list of the top 300 players is updated every week, you can expect to find new names on the list. One of the most impressive entries into the list is Daniel Colman’s, as he was shot straight up to 149th place. Another player worthy of attention is Jeff Madsen, who went straight right to the 194th spot. Also, Daniel Buzgon was able to go for the 257th spot without any difficulty. For the complete list of the top 300 players, visit the Global Poker Index main site.

Who’s Out

There were a number of big name poker players who were seen in the second day. Things however did not go all too well for them as they got eliminated much like the rest of the players. Prominent poker players were seen at the WSOP Europe day 2 including Daniel Negreany, Vanessa Selbst, Scot Siever, John Racener, and Bryn Kenney. Of course, there were players who, although got eliminated, still cashed out as they have made it into the rankings. Such players include Shawn Buchanan, Peter Jetten, Martins Adeniya, and Freddy Deeb.

Player of the Year Rankings

So far, Hellmuth is doing well. Also, in terms of the Player of the Year standings, Phil Hellmuth is on the lead, however, following him closely from behind is Player Ben Lamb, who is just 50 points behind Hellmuth. Considering Lamb is among the November Nine Set and that he will be returning to the World Series of Poker’s Main Event, Hellmuth will at least need a decent finish, or to win the event just to be sure. Lamb, on the other hand, will need to at least make it to a good rank and rack up some WSOPE points if he wants to overtake Hellmuth.

The Final Rankings

As the second day of the WSOP Europe has come to a conclusion, it was Guillaume Humbert who stepped on the role as the chip leader on to the third day, with a total of 541,000 chips. Phil Hellmuth, however, is more than 141k apart, but still has a chance of winning the event for yet another bracelet. On third place is Azusa Maeda, who plays online poker at pokerstars, with a good 295k chips for the third day. On fourth is David Benyamine with 253k chips. On fifth is Marton Czuczor with a good 210k in chip holdings. Matan Krakow sits on sixth place with a total of 20.k chips to be used for the next day, but Anton Wigg is close by with 201k chips. On eighth is Alexander Salabaschew with a pretty good 183k chips, as the ninth spot belongs to Adrien Allain until the next day with 125k. On tenth is Casey Kastle with a nice 119k chips followed by Bruno Benveniste with 102.5k chips. Lastly, we have Robert Finlay, who will be the shortstack on day 3 with 72k chips.