The six players to exit Sunday and their respective winnings are:

4th Matt Giannetti $3,011,655
5th Phil Collins $2,268,909
6th Eoghan O’Dea $1,720,396
7th Badih Bounahra $1,313,851
8th Anton Makiievskyi $1,009,910
9th Sam Holden $782,115

That left Pius Heinz, Martin Staszko and Ben Lamb left from the starting field of 6,865 players to fight it out for the title on Tuesday night.

It didn’t take long for the fireworks to begin. On hand #1, Ben Lamb on the short stack, pushed all in with KJ off suit and was called by Staszko’s pocket sevens. The sevens held up and Lamb is crippled with just 10 big blinds left.  On hand #4 Lamb has little choice but to shove with Q6 off and is called again by Staszko’s pocket pair, this time jacks. They hold up and Lamb finishes in third.

Heads up between the 22 year old Heinz and the 35 year old Staszko then begins on hand #5 with the blinds at $800,000/$1,600,000 and a $200,000 ante. Heinz, the more aggressive of the two is looking to become the 2nd youngest player to win the WSOP main event. (Joe Cada age 21 in 2009)

Heinz had trouble making hands in heads up play and fell behind to Staszko but the aggressive Heinz hung in and eventually pulled ahead.

The final hand saw Staszko,  down to just over $44,000,000 in chips, pushing all in with 10c-7c  against the As-Kc of Heinz. When neither player hit a pair, Heinz was the champion, winning $8,715,618. Staszko collected $5,433,086 for second.

The 41st annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) is set to begin on Thursday, May 27, 2010. As every poker fan knows the WSOP is
an annual event that began back in 1970.

That year, Johnny Moss was awarded the championship by votes of the other players in the event. It became the freeze-out event that it is today in 1971 and Moss won again.

Today the fields are considerably larger and the number of events have grown over the years to the current total of 57, with a gold bracelet being awarded to the winner of each event.

This year’s events will run from May 27 to July 17, 2010. The World Series of Poker will have the following events and more;  limit, pot-limit and no-limit hold ‘em, seven-card stud, pot-limit Omaha, Omaha high-low split eight-or-better, seven card stud high-low eight or better, 2-7 triple draw, HORSE, Razz and of course, the main event which will be held from July 5 to
July 17, 2010.

The main event will not conclude on July 17, but it’s expected that on that date the final table will be determined, at which time play is halted and the players who make up the final nine (now known as the “November Nine”) will be brought back together in early November to play for the championship.

What do you need to be able to play in an event? Twenty-one or more years on your age meter and of course, the buy-in. If you don’t have the full amount you need for the buy-in, you could always try to satellite your way in. What do you need to win a bracelet? All of the above and a lot of skill, focus, determination and endurance. And oh, yes, a little more than an
average amount of luck.

If you’re even a little serious about poker, then winning one of the many gold bracelets that are awarded each year has to be at the top of your poker wish/want list, so if you decide to play in one of this year’s events, good luck! And if you can’t get to Vegas, you can always watch the events on ESPN with the rest of us.

Drop in on their home page and you will see a list of all of the top online poker sites. You also will find a wealth of information including the number of cash players playing on these sites at this very moment. Poker Scout’s home page also includes information on some of the high-stakes online games that are currently in progress and which sites they’re on at this moment. Included in this information is the type of game, stakes, and even how many players are at that table right now.

Their StarFinder page tells you which pros are online playing at this moment and which sites they are playing on. Also included is the pro’s screen name and the type of game they are in along with the limits. You can also find a list of many of the pros from Poker Stars and Full Tilt Poker along with their screen names and when they were last spotted playing.

The also have one of the most complete and current list of poker rooms (more than 500 sites) on the Internet with over 300 poker site reviews submitted by the players themselves. Poker Scout also has a list of online poker sites that allow U.S. players.

Their GameFinder software allows you to find a game by type, betting structure, limit/blinds, table size, and/or U.S. policy. Looking for a more uncommon game, like 5-Card Draw, Razz, 5-Card Stud, Triple-Draw Lowball A-5 or others, they have a page listing those too!

All this and online poker news from around the world. Next time you need virtually any type of poker information, check out Poker Scout.com