Poker News Headlines

We sat down with Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin recently to discuss his new UB deal, the NBC National Heads-up Championship, and more.

Early on Wednesday morning, Floridian John Riordan became the youngest champion ever of a World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit Event. Riordan won the Main Event of the most recent stop in Palm Beach, Florida at age 19.

For the first time ever, the WSOP Circuit stepped outside of its traditional casino venues by setting up shop at the Palm Beach Kennel Club, one of the preeminent greyhound racing tracks in Florida. Poker players came out in full force, setting attendance records for several events before the $1,500 Main Event began on Sunday afternoon. The numbers that came out for the WSOP Circuit Main Event required two starting days to accommodate the large contingent of players.

By the end of the second starting day, a total of 712 runners had come to the line and built a prize pool totaling $1,035,960. This was a record for the largest purse ever to be offered for a poker tournament in Florida. Among those in attendance were two former World Champions, Greg Raymer (2004) and Jerry Yang (2007), although they would not be among the 72 players who cashed.

When the final table began on Tuesday evening, Riordan was a dominant chip leader, holding 4.5 million. His closest competitor, Mike Morton, faced a deficit of over 2-1, as he sat with two million in chips, and Jon Brody held the third slot with 1.5 million. With the deep stacks, it would take nearly two hours before anyone would be ushered from the final table.

Jerry Timmons began the final table as the third shortest stack and battled through the first two hours. Once he picked up pocket queens, however, he decided to make a stand. Thomas Aprea decided to look him up with a suited A-J and found himself way behind. Once jacks hit on the flop and river, Aprea knocked out Timmons in ninth place.

The second day chip leader, Jesse Okonczak, could never find any traction upon entering the final table fight. He bled chips from the onset and, from the small blind, decided to make a move with an innocuous Q-3. Riordan, in the big blind, looked down at his hole cards to find K-Q and made an immediate call. When the board ran out dry for Okonczak, he was eliminated in eighth place.

One of the most interesting stories at the final table was Brody. Arguably the most accomplished player at the final table – he has cashed at the WSOP in Las Vegas an astounding 19 times and earned over $400,000 in his tournament poker career – Brody hasn’t been a part of the tournament poker scene for some time, preferring his new role as a businessman and father. The WSOP Circuit Main Event marked a return to the game of sorts for Brody and his performance didn’t disappoint. After a few bad beats at the final table, he departed in sixth place.

Riordan, for his part, continued his strong play. He dumped Austin Buchanan from the event in fourth place and Aprea in third. By the time he reached heads-up play against Morton, however, he had fallen slightly behind in chips.

The heads-up battle between Riordan and Morton was subdued in the early going until Riordan was able to make an excellent read against his opponent. Facing an all-in from Morton with the board showing 6-5-3-3, Riordan put his tournament life on the line with pocket tens. Morton mustered 6-4 for a worse two pair, but had the possibility of an open-ended straight draw or another six saving him. The river blanked with an eight, however, and a few hands later, Riordan took down the WSOP Circuit Florida championship:

1. John Riordan – $210,180
2. Mike Morton – $130,057
3. Thomas Aprea – $95,392
4, Austin Buchanan – $70,939
5. Ryan Lenaghan – $53,468
6. Jon Brody – $40,837
7. David MacDonald – $31,599
8. Jesse Okonczak – $24,771
9. Jerry Timmons – $19,665

Although he won the title, Riordan will not be able to take part in the WSOP Circuit National Championship event in May. The minimum age to play poker under Florida’s laws is 18; at only 19, Riordan cannot legally enter a Las Vegas casino until he’s 21.

2010 November Nine member Matt Jarvis visits us to discuss life after the World Series of Poker Main Event and how things have changed for this talented poker player. Jarvis had some bad luck at the final table and ended up finishing in 8th place for just over $1 million.

In this interview, Jarvis discusses life after the November Nine. When asked (jokingly) if he’ll be wearing a new hat that has a bullseye on it, Jarvis said, “Ha, kind of! It seems like in tournaments now there are a few guys that are looking to 4bet or 5bet me pretty light, but it makes it more fun for me so I like it.”

Jarvis was asked to talk about how things might have calmed down after the hoopla of the Main Event. Jarvis responded, “Ya things have calmed down a little bit. I’ve been traveling all this year so far and it’s been Bahamas, Australia, Boston, New York … I think I’ve been back for probably five days total this year.”

Jarvis, who hails form British Columbia, is an avid snowboarder. Unfortunately, with all the poker traveling, he has yet to hit the slopes. “I haven’t snowboarded yet, Im right by Whistler but I haven’t been home so in April I’ll find some time to do that.”

Another passion of Jarvis is his love of his hometown Vancouver Canucks of the NHL, who are having an outstanding season and are picked by many to finally win their first Stanley Cup. When asked to comment on their chances, Jarvis said, “I think (Roberto Luongo) is going to pull through this year and he’s worked on his game. I actually had a pretty big prop bet on the Montreal Habs vs Vancouver Canucks game I went to on Tuesday and they didn’t pull through so I lost some money to my boy Pascal.”

Matt Jarvis is a sponsored pro at Full Tilt Poker.

Carlos Mortensen has racked up several impressive distinctions as a player. He’s the only person ever to win the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event and the World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship. He’s the WPT’s all-time money leader at $5.7 million and, on Thursday, he’ll have a chance to extend that mark. Mortensen will enter the final table of the WPT L.A. Poker Classic as its chip leader with 5.24 million.

Mortensen holds a slight lead over the 5.19 million in chips belonging to former WPT Borgata Poker Open champion Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar. Mortensen is gunning for what would be a record-setting fourth WPT title and is appearing at his fifth final table on the longstanding tour.

Mortensen told WPT hostess Kimberly Lansing, “The best incentive I have is the money. Of course, one more title is sweet.” On his current state of mind, Mortensen revealed, “Right now, all that’s in my head are the players at the table. I can’t dream about things before it’s done, so I just want to concentrate on the game and get the job done.”

Mortensen’s chip lead was fueled in part by a double elimination to trim the field to single-digits. Shannon Shorr was all-in with pocket aces and James Carroll was also committed with pocket kings. Mortensen had them both covered, but was well behind with pocket queens until the board ran out all spades. Mortensen held the only spade of the group and nearly hit a royal flush to take out his two opponents.

At the same time as Mortensen’s double knockout, Jesse Yaginuma was sent packing at the other table in action to create a unique three-way tie for tenth place. Each player took home $60,000.

David “Bakes” Baker’s elimination in seventh place set up the six-handed finale of the L.A. Poker Classic. Baker was all-in after a 4bet before the flop with pocket kings and received a taker in Rajkumar, who tabled A-10 of diamonds. The flop came A-J-8, giving Rajkumar top pair, and a 10 on the turn gave Baker a gutshot straight draw to a queen. However, he bricked on the river and was relegated to the rails with $176,000 in tow.

The L.A. Poker Classic Main Event’s final 18 players that took to the felts on Tuesday included several of the game’s greats, including Full Tilt Poker pro Allen Cunningham. He ultimately landed in eighth place and pocketed $130,000 after committing his stack before the flop with A-10. Amir Lehavot tabled Q-10 of diamonds and was behind until turning a flush. Cunningham held the nut flush draw by the river, but a black five hit to send him home.

2010 WSOP bracelet winner Jason DeWitt was the tournament’s ninth place finisher. He was in a race for his tournament life with K-10 of spades against Mortensen’s pocket sevens. The board filled out A-5-3-4-3 and that was all she wrote for DeWitt, whose victory in a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em event at last year’s WSOP was worth over $800,000.

Here are the six players who will take to the felts for Thursday’s L.A. Poker Classic finale:

1. Carlos Mortensen – 5,235,000 (105 big blinds)
2. Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar – 5,185,000 (104 big blinds)
3. Amir Lehavot – 4,115,000 (82 big blinds)
4. Gregory Brooks – 2,300,000 (46 big blinds)
5. Darryll “DFish” Fish – 2,275,000 (46 big blinds)
6. Steve “gboro780” Gross – 1,320,000 (26 big blinds)

The blinds will stand at 25,00-50,000 with an ante of 5,000 when play picks back up tomorrow. In the meantime, today marks the final table of the WPT Celebrity Invitational, whose six survivors include bracelet winners Davidi Kitai and Dan Heimiller.

Insiders predict another year of economic struggles for Las Vegas, the Hard Rock Hotel changed ownership, and Chinese investors broke ground on a huge casino complex in the Bahamas.