On May 2, 2010, RaketheRake.com wrote: 

World Team Poker is set to be one of the most entertaining poker tournaments in the world since teams from all around the globe are gathering to compete in this international event.  And many of the teams that will play in the event have finished selecting their team members.

Read more>>>

Close to 5,500 runners formed a massive prize pool of $540,000 in Scoop 8 Medium, $109 NLHE. In the end, Tipsy came out on top collecting over $84,000. Tipsy recently won the $100 Rebuy on PokerStars to the tune of $10k. PokerStars pro Grant Levy was a shining star for Team Pro. Levy made the final table and finished in seventh place. Levy rose to fame by winning an APPT Season 1 event for over $750,000.

PokerStars SCOOP Event 8 – Medium (NLHE)
Buy-in: $100 + $9
Prize Pool: $540,300
Entrants: 5,403

1.) Tipsy – $84,506.30
2.) FUTBOLCHE – $62,944.95
3.) badplyr99 – $44,493.70
4.) one-up man – $30,526.95
5.) jomanda1963 – $22,962.75
6.) Jacks_h21 – $17,559.75
7.) Grant Levy – $12,156.75
8.) prenmelbs – $6,753.75
9.) binder673 – $4,322.40

George Stephanopoulos played poker at Harrah's Atlantic City against Team USA pros Annie Duke and Phil Helmuth as part of Good Morning America's 'Living The Dream' segment to air Wednesday, May 5th, 2010.

First, Stephanopoulos got some poker pointers from Annie Duke, who was teaching a World Series of Poker Academy at Harrah’s over the weekend. Then, according to ABC, Stephanopoulos faced off against Duke, Hellmuth, Steven Beigletter and Jason "Jaspuduf" Lee in a special game, to be commentated by Ali Nejad. 

It was a battle-of-the-sexes theme again on NBC's Poker After Dark as three men and three women competed to win the $120,000 winner-take-all first prize. At the table were Erica Schoenberg, Jean-Robert Bellande, David Grey, Team Vietnam’s Karina Jett, and Team USA’s Mike Matusow, and Annie Duke. 

 

By Day 5, the game was down to Jet, Duke and Matusow - - all World Team Poker members who will be playing at the May 19th Inaugural Event at the Golden Nugget. Duke departed in 3rd place courtesy of Jett, who spiked a deuce on the river holding A© 2§ against Duke's A§ 10©.

 

Heads-up play was between Jett and Matusow with Jett holding a 3 to 1 chip lead. On the final hand of the game, Jett open-raised to 2400 with A§ 5¨ and Matusow called with 9© 7©. The flop came 7ª 5§ 5ª giving Jett trip fives and Matusow 7's up. Matusow checked, Jett bet, and Matusow moved all. Jett snap-called and the board bricked out. Jett won her first Poker After Dark title in her very first appearance.

 

Congratulations to Team Vietnam’s Karina Jett for the impressive showing!

In an article written for TheHendonMob.com on March 23, 2010, Allen Cunningham wrote:

 

Many players' first exposure to poker comes from watching WSOP and WPT tournaments on TV, and I think that's great. It's entertaining and you'll see some interesting plays, but viewers have to understand that they shouldn't model their games based on the action they see on TV.

 

Why? The answer is simple - what you're seeing is unrealistic and edited for television. Players in these televised tournaments often start with very deep stacks (sometimes 10,000 chips or more) and, most of the time, all you'll see on the broadcast is action from the final table where the blinds are high and play is fast. In contrast, the majority of the low buy-in ($1 to $20) tournaments you'll encounter online usually start with stacks of 1,500 and blinds of 10/20....

 Read more of Allen's strategy>>>

Men "The Master" Nguyen and Van Nguyen will be appearing and playing at The Bicycle Casino for The 2010 OC Hillel Celebrity Charity Poker Tournament on  April 25, 2010 in the luxurious Event Center at The Bicycle Casino.

Updated Chip Counts: Level 26: 40,000-80,000, 10,000 ante

Here are the approximate chip counts for the final seven players:

Seat 2.  Phil Hellmuth  -  1,900,000  (23 bb)
Seat 4.  John O'Shea  -  1,700,000  (21 bb)
Seat 5.  Billy Baxter  -  1,350,000  (16 bb)
Seat 6.  Eric Baldwin  -  4,400,000  (55 bb)
Seat 7.  David Williams  -  2,350,000  (29 bb)
Seat 8.  David Benyamine  -  5,500,000  (68 bb)
Seat 9.  Shawn Buchanan  -  2,045,000  (25 bb)

 

Phil Hellmuth Folded A-K Preflop to Eric Baldwin

Phil Hellmuth Stole Three Blinds in a Row

Hand #149  -  Phil Hellmuth raised from the button to 200,000, winning the blinds and antes.
Hand #150  -  Phil Hellmuth raised from the cutoff to 200,000, winning the blinds and antes.
Hand #151  -  Phil Hellmuth raised from late position to 225,000, winning the blinds and antes.

Hand #145: Level 26: 40,000-80,000, 10,000 ante

Scotty Nguyen (Team Vietnam) raised from middle position to 260,000, and David Benyamine called from the big blind. Both players checked the flop of Jh, 10d, 6d. Benyamine bet 350,000 when the 8d hit the turn, and Nguyen raised to 1,150,000.  After spending some time in the think tank, Benyamine moved all in.

 

Nguyen called off the last of his chips with 8c, 8d.  Benyamine turned over 10h, 10s. It was poker players nightmare, set over set! Nguyen needed to catch a one-outer on the river to stay alive, but the last card was the 7d, and David Benyamine won the pot.  One has to wonder if Scotty waited to the river to shove, if Benyamine would have laid down the best hand...

 

David Benyamine  -  6,000,000  (75 bb)
Scotty Nguyen  -  Out in 8th Place ($105,823)

 

Congrats to Team China's for Scotty Nguyen for his amazing showing at the World Poker Tour Championships!

The World Poker Tour World Championship concluded Day 5 on April 22, 2010 .  Emerging at the top and bottom of the chip counts were Scotty Nguyen and Phill Hellmuth, respectively.

 

Scotty Nguyen (Team Vietnam) started the day in ninth position and ended the day in second place. Nguyen had a huge double-up through David Williams, when Williams shoved with pocket 10's and a gutshot on the 9h, 8c,6d rainblow flop in response to Nguyen's re-raise  with pocket 9s.   Nguyen snap called for the rest of his chips and board bricked out.  Nguyen's set held up, and he was catapulted to second place, ultimately ending the day with 2,637,000.

 

Phil Hellmuth (Team USA) is the short stack. Hellmuth and Eric Baldwin battled it out late in the day's action when Hellmuth flopped broadway at the same time Baldwin had flopped a spade flush.  The chips were all in on the turn but Hellmuth was drawing dead.  The loss dropped Hellmuth to 10th place.

 

The seat order and chip counts for Day 6 are:

Seat 1. Scotty Nguyen - 2,637,000
Seat 2. Phil Hellmuth - 839,000
Seat 3. Nikolay Evdakov - 922,000
Seat 4. John O'Shea - 3,174,000
Seat 5. Billy Baxter - 2,429,000
Seat 6. Eric Baldwin - 2,130,000
Seat 7. David Williams - 2,454,000
Seat 8. David Benyamine - 2,561,000
Seat 9. Shawn Buchanan - 1,087,000
Seat 10. Cliff Josephy - 1,269,000

 

Play resumes at noon on April 23, 2010 in at the Bellagio, Las Vegas where the schedule is to play until the final six are determined.