The chip leader, Jonathan Duhamel (65.9 million in chips) is a 22-year-old from Montreal who finished 10th last December in EPT Prague.

Next is John Dolan (46.2 million in chips) who is a 24-year-old from Bonita Springs, Fla. He is in great position to win, especially considering that starting Day 8, he had only 2 million in chips and was 24th out of 27 players.

In third place is Joseph Cheong (23.5 million in chips) and another young full-time player who is only 24 years of age. Joseph said he has played over 10,000 poker tournaments the last few years and feels this experience plays to his advantage. He says, “There are a lot of solid guys here, but I think I’m going to win this tournament.”

In fourth place is John Racener (19.0 million in chips) has been traveling the poker circuit for the past few years and has already had success, including  11 WSOP cashes (including this main event)

Fifth place is occupied by Matt Jarvis (17.6 million in chips) a 25-year-old Canadian, who’s been making his living online and has only one five-figure cash in live play to his credit, but is still confident about his chances at the final table.

In sixth is Filippo Candio (16.4 million in chips) who is a 26 year old well-respected pro from Sardinia, Italy. He plays in a number of events and he won the Italian Poker Tour Campionato Italiano in 2009.

Seventh place is held by Michael Mizrachi (14.4 million in chips) who is a Miami native and one of the best known players in the world, with more than $8.8 million in live tournament earnings. Michael has already had a great 2010 WSOP by virtue of his winning the $50,000 Players’ Championship.

In eighth place is Soi Nguyen (9.6 million in chips) who is a 37-year-old amateur from Santa Ana, Calif. This is only his fourth live tournament and he is soaking up the experience.

The final seat is occupied by Jason Senti (7.6 million in chips) is a 28 year old Minneapolis native who has been playing poker professionally for three years.

Congratulations to all nine.

Here is the 2010 November Nine Seating Chart with Chip Counts followed by the Payouts:

Seat 1: Jason Senti — 7,625,000
Seat 2: Joseph Cheong — 23,525,000
Seat 3: John Dolan — 46,250,000
Seat 4: Jonathan Duhamel — 65,975,000
Seat 5: Michael Mizrachi — 14,450,000
Seat 6: Matthew Jarvis — 16,700,000
Seat 7: John Racener — 19,050,000
Seat 8: Filippo Candio — 16,400,000
Seat 9: Soi Nguyen — 9,650,000

Main Event Final-Table Payout:

1: $8,944,138
2: $5,545,855
3: $4,129,979
4: $3,092,497
5: $2,332,960
6: $1,772,939
7: $1,356,708
8: $1,045,738
9: $811,823

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.

Their poker school covers everything from poker lingo to poker rules, as well as hand rankings and strategies.  Cool Hand Poker even has a section regarding the best starting hands to play for those new to the game.

Cool Hand Poker’s section on Top 10 Poker Tips won’t help you win every hand, but should certainly reduce your number of losses.  Because the better you play, the more poker becomes more about  skill and less about gambling.

Their site offers play in the following games:
Texas Hold ’em and Omaha is offered in both cash games and tournaments while 7 Card Stud and 5 Card Stud is offered only in tournament play.

They also have a $2,500 Guaranteed Sunday Fun-Day Tournament. The $20 + 2 buy-in gets you 1500 chips to start with re-buys only $5.00. And, Cool Hand Poker is giving away 3 golden tickets away to the winners of the main event in the Sunday Fun-day Tournaments for July, August and September, which qualifies the holder for an exciting opportunity to win €1,000,000.

Along with all of this, they offer additional promotions to add to the fun. You’ll have the opportunity to be playing regularly for such prizes as;

• MP3 player
• Music vouchers
• Gaming consoles
• Laptops
• Online shopping vouchers
• Trips to your favorite destinations
• Land tournament entries
• And more!

They also have a rather unique sign-up bonus. While most sites match only your initial deposit, Cool Hand Poker will match the first $350 even if it takes several deposits to get to the $350 total. The minimum deposit amount is $20 so they make it easy to get started. Once you’ve made your purchase, simply start playing and they’ll release your bonus to you in $10 increments every time you play 100 raked hands.

Please see Cool Hand Poker for full details. If you have any questions they have live chat to go along with normal email service.

BetFred.com offers a $250,000 Freezeout tournament every Sunday with a buy-in of $300 + $20 and a $50,000 guaranteed tournament every Saturday with a buy-in of $100 + $9. Every Friday brings a $150,000 guaranteed tournament with the same buy-in ($100+$9) but this one has unlimited rebuys.

If you can’t wait for the weekend you can play in their daily (Monday – Thursday) $50,000 guaranteed tournament for only a buy-in of $50 + $5. And the best news is, you can satellite your way into any of these great poker tournaments.

If you’re short of cash, why not try the $1,000 Freeroll Bounty Tournament? This is a weekly bounty tournament that’s now even bigger because Betfred Poker has doubled the guaranteed prize of this event from $500 to $1,000! This unique event offers players the opportunity to play as the bounty player. In order to do so, you simply need to eliminate the designated bounty player of the previous week. See their site for full details.

BetFred Poker is very user friendly and offers a great deal of information on how to play. Information about hand rankings, what hands to play, rake information, etiquette and a poker glossary can all be found on their site.

You can also find a strategy guide where articles on luck vs. skill and how to go from playing for play chips to real money are available. Of course, they also have information regarding basic strategy, position, knowing your opponents, bluffing, chip stack sizes, blind stealing and more!

BetFred Poker offers Hold ‘em, Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo and Seven Card Stud that come in the form cash games, sit “n” go’s, multi-table tournaments, satellites, heads-up play and freerolls. And, they’ll match your very first deposit up to a maximum of $600 (or currency equivalent) payable in bonus dollars. (Again please see their site for details)

Their $75 Invite-a-Friend bonus earns you a $50 bonus for friends you invite while they earn a $25 bonus at the same time!

Three professional players all call BetFred Poker home: Rasmus H Nielsen, Paul Zimbler and Lynne Beaumont.

Betfred Poker is dedicated to giving their players the best customer service available, that’s why their support teams operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

So if you’re looking for a new place to play online poker, why not check out BetFred Poker?

If you’re not familiar with the challenge, check out the “durrrr” online Poker Challenge that I posted previously that explains many of the rules and details of the challenge.

As of today, there have now been 12,956 hands played of the 50,000 hands to be played as part of the challenge and even though Tom has won more hands than Patrik (6,835 to 6,078) he is down $162,558.00.  Of course, this is not much when you consider that the total bet so far is over $78,644,000.

The total time played up to this point over the 22 sessions is 1 day, 17hours and 14 minutes.

They are playing on four tables at once and you can follow the online poker action here.

Whichever player is ahead at the conclusion of the 50,000th hand played, even if it’s by by just one dollar, wins the challenge. So, if Dwan wins, he keeps any money he won during the contest and the challenger’s $500,000. If his opponent wins, they keep their winnings and the $1.5 million that Tom has put up.

Here are the rules for the players who accept the “durrrr” Challenge:

• The game type must be No-Limit Hold ‘em or Pot-Limit Omaha
• The stakes must be a minimum of $200/$400
• Once the stakes have been decided upon, they must stay the same for the entire challenge
• Players must reload if their stack falls below 75 big blinds at any time

Patrik Antonius accepts the “durrrr” Challenge
With Dwan giving three-to-one odds to the entire poker world for the “durrrr” Challenge, it’s not surprising that some of the world’s best poker players have already taken him up on his offer. High-stakes player Patrik Antonius was the first to accept Dwan’s challenge with other high stakes players such as Phil Ivey and David Benyamine already in line to accept the challenge too.

Dwan and Antonius will play this challenge out on the digital felt and you can watch on Full Tilt Poker. Full Tilt has set up four special “durrrr” Challenge tables in the Omaha Hi game lobby. Action on these tables is expected to be explosive.

Check out the latest online poker results and live stats tracking updates of Dwan vs. Antonius, along with recaps of the biggest hands that have taken place. As of today, there have been 20 sessions played which has accounted for 12,114 of the 50,000 hands to be played with total bets of over $71,332,000.

If you’re looking for a new place to play poker, check out bwin Poker. They have a very active site with over 26,000 players online even early on a Monday morning.

You can play by downloading their software or “play instantly” simply by registering. You’ll especially like this site if you’re a new or novice player because they offer an in-depth poker school.

The bwin poker school provides all the information you need to play. They have an interactive tutorial where you click through each step of a poker hand as you sit at a practice table with instructions explaining each step, individual videos explaining the game, sections on poker terms and hand nicknames, hand rankings, poker strategy and more!

One very unique item is their EV (which is short for Expected Value) calculator a statistical measurement that essentially reflects the average value of something – for instance, a poker starting hand. The numbers show average winnings with regard to big bets per hand.

Flight Tournaments
Their “Flight” tournaments are another unique concept that enables players to play multi-day events on bwin Poker. Players can choose a straight flight tournament which is a tournament starts at a scheduled time, breaks after a set number of hours and continues at the same time the next day or they can play a forked flight tournament.

This tournament starts on several separate times and dates. A player can choose which flight suits them best and then, just like in a straight flight, play a set number of hours before the tournament breaks. All players who still remain in all the different starting flights then merge into a final flight played at a separate time. This enables huge fields to enter the same event without the event dragging on for days.

And if you’re looking for regular poker tournaments, they have plenty.  Beginning with their “Euro Daily 50+4” which starts at 20:00 GMT every weekday (Mon-Fri), with a guaranteed prize pool of   $10, 000. You can also qualify for the Euro Daily by winning any of the $7+$1 daily qualifier sit & go tournaments.

They also have a “Canadian Daily 50+4” with essentially the same structure as their Euro Daily, which starts at 01:00 GMT, Monday to Friday and has a guaranteed prize pool of $13, 000.

bwin Poker’s “Cannonball” tournament combines the best of two worlds as it provides the kick-start thrill of a turbo tournament, while still allowing for a more normally paced finish. The first six levels are played at 3 minutes per level, then one 6 minutes long level, before moving to the regular 12 minutes per level. Of course they also offer a host of freeroll tournaments.

The bottom line is, if you’re looking to play online poker at a popular online poker site that has it all, check out bwin Poker.

Be sure to read below to find out how to play for $100,000 each week at Littlewoods Poker with just Frequent Player Points!

Littlewoods Poker is another great place to play free online poker or for real money. They also offer a lot of help to the new or novice player with an online poker school with a complete dictionary, a poker hand ranking section as well as sections covering ring games and tournaments. You can play a number of different types of poker games on Littlewoods Poker, from Texas Hold ‘em poker, to Omaha High and Hi/Lo to Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo. Unfortunately, it’s not open to U.S. players yet, but that may change in the future.

Play for $100k each week with just FPPs!
For a limited time, you can win your seat to the $100,000 Deep Stack Challenge simply by accruing Frequent Player Points. (FPPs) All you have to do is earn 100 FPPs from Friday to Wednesday in any given week and you’ll be eligible for the ‘FPP Freeroll Challenge’ the following Friday where ten $100,000 Deep Stack Challenge seats are up for grabs.

Promotions
Littlewoods offers a number of promotions on a regular basis. they have a First Depositors’ Freeroll, opportunities to win a $17,000 WSOP package, a $20,000 Guaranteed tournament from Monday to Saturday and much more!

Referral and sign up programs
Littlewoods Poker offers a 100% welcome bonus up to £200. They pay 25% of your welcome bonus instantly before you even sit down at your first table. The other 75% of your bonus is pending and easy to clear by accumulating bonus points.

When you sign on to Littlewoods poker, a voice greets you with, “Welcome to Littlewoods Poker, good luck!” You then move to the lobby and then to an interface that is fun to play on with really nice graphics, a choice of avatars (or none if you like) and an easy to maneuver lobby so you can find the game or tournament you want, quickly.

The blind countdown clock is at the table (which I like) instead of the tournament lobby. There’s also a “Your Best Hand” window helpful for players new to the game. You can even set the sound to have a dealer tell you when the flop, turn and river is being dealt. It all wraps up nicely when you sign out and hear, “Join us again at Littlewoods Poker.”

Littlewoods Poker Quick Review:

Full screen: Yes
Changeable avatars: Yes
Hand history in graphic form or text: Graphic and in movie form
Can change the color of the deck: Yes
Can change the layout: Yes
Four color deck alternative:  Yes
Freerolls: Yes
Easy to work betting controls Yes
At this moment:  2089 players
Toll free number for contact support: Yes as well as live chat and email

Be sure to read below to find out about Pacific Poker’s $20,000 Guaranteed poker tournament that runs six days a week.

Pacific Poker is another great place to play free online poker or for real money. If you’re trying to improve your poker game, Pacific Poker offers a lot of help. They have a complete How to Play section covering whichever brand of poker is your favorite game. From Texas Holdem poker, to Omaha High and Hi/Lo to Seven Card Stud and Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo, they cover it all.

Pacific Poker also has sections offering instruction on how to play no limit and pot limit games as well as how to play in a tournament. And they have a complete Terminology section.

$20,000 Guaranteed Tournament
This tournament runs six days a week with a guaranteed prize pool of $20,000 and the buy-in is only $50 + $5, making it one the lowest buy-ins online for such a prize pool. If that’s not good enough, daily satellites to the $20,000 Guaranteed are available from only $2 + 20¢.

Pacific Poker also has a lot of other great promotions that they’re always running, such as 100,000 Deep Stack Challenge Sundays where you can buy in for $140 or satellite your way in from as little as $1.20+ 10¢. And this is just scratching the surface.

Referral and sign up programs
Real money players can take advantage of a 100% sign up bonus on their initial deposits up to $400. Pacific Poker also pays you $50 for each new real money player you refer and that player will receive a $25 bonus of his or her own.

The interface is fun to play on with great graphics, a choice of avatars (or none if you like) and an easy to maneuver lobby so you can find the game or tournament you want, quickly.

One thing I like is having the blind countdown clock (telling you what the blinds are now, when they will change and what they will change to) at the table. They’re usually in the lobby, but I like to be able to see it at a glance. There is also a nice “Your Best Hand” window helpful for players new to the game.

Pacific Poker Quick Review:

Full screen: Yes
Changeable avatars: Yes
Hand history in graphic form or text: Graphic and in movie form
Can change the color of the deck: Yes
Can change the layout: Yes
Four color deck alternative:  Yes
Freeroll for real money:  Yes
Pro Players: Shane Warne
Easy to work betting controls Yes
At this moment:  4589 players
Toll free number for contact support: Yes and live chat

As of September, 2008:

1. Which poker player has made the most WPT final tables?

2. Which player has the most WPT wins?

3. Who has won the most money at World poker Tour Events?

Please scroll down for the answers.

1. Phil Ivey holds the record of final table appearances with eight.

2. Gus Hansen leads all players with three WPT titles.

3. Daniel Negreanu has won the most money in World Poker Tour events with $5,527,510 won, to date.