Online Poker Digest

With the passing of another summer day, two more poker players have reached the plateau for poker’s elite. Steven Kelly and Frank Kassela scored a pair of huge paydays to go along with coveted World Series of Poker bracelet. Steven Kelly, the winner of Event 39 ($1,500 No Limit Hold’em Shootout) will be taking home $381,000 for his efforts. This was only the second major score in a poker tournament for Kelly. His first major cash came earlier in the WSOP when he cashed in Event #16. In his second deep run of this year’s series Kelly outlasted experienced poker pros J.C. Tran, Annette Obrestad and Jeff King.

In event 40, a $2,500 Seven Card Razz tourney, online poker star, Frank Kassela became the first player of this year’s World Series of Poker to win a second title. Kassela’s first win came back in event #15 (($10,000 seven card stud 8 or better championship) where he won more than $447,000. However, with this victory Kassela only wins $214,000 for beating notable poker players Chris Bjorin, Jen Harman and Vladimir Shchemelev.

Three events are still ongoing today. Event #41 ($1,500 Pot Limit Omaha 8 or Better) drew 847 Players, and enters day 2 of competition. With a prize pool of $1.14 Million the winner of this event will be taking more a nice payday of $245,000. Other events getting started on June 23 include Event #42 ($1,500 No Limit Hold’em) and Event #43 ($10,000 HORSE Championship). Both events will hold their final tables on June 25th while Event #41 will wrap up play on the 24th.

Given the large number of expected participants, it has two starting days (Day 1A and Day 1B) and may take four playing days and five calendar days to complete.

Players begin with 3,000 in Tournament Chips. The field will be split between Days 1A and 1B and they will play ten levels. On Day 2, the field will be combined and play will resume at 2:30 p.m. They will again play ten levels. Day 3 will also begin at 2:30 p.m. and they will play ten levels unless a winner is declared. Day 4, if needed, will start at 2:30 p.m. and will continue until someone wins. The tournament director has the option to suspend play after ten levels on Day 4 and resume the following day.

All levels will last an hour. There will be a 20 minute break after every two levels. Players will have a 90 minute dinner break on the first day of play after six levels and there will be a 60 minute break after four levels on subsequent playing days.
The blinds start out at 25-25 and will grow to 400-800 by the end of the first day. Players will be required to ante starting with level 6. They will be asked to remove a certain amount of chips following levels 9, 15, 17, and 24.

There were 6,012 entrants into the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament last year. It was won by internet betting star, Steve Sung, a South Korean professional poker player. He walked away with $771,106 and his first WSOP bracelet.