Online Poker Sites Toplists & Reviews

The World Series of Poker understandably overshadows much of the other action going on during the summer, but with the biggest series of the year all but over we take a look at some of the biggest tournaments to happen outside of the WSOP. Most of the action was still confined to Las Vegas and some of the other tournament series’, especially the Venetian Deepstacks, but there was at least one East Coast event on our radar as well.

The Main Event of the Venetian Deepstacks was the biggest side attraction of the summer of 2012 by far. With almost 400 entries into the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament, they built a prizepool of over $1.8 million and put together a final table that rivaled some of the toughest fields at the WSOP. Tim West came out on top of a final table that also included Shannon Shorr (4th), William Reynolds (5th), and Kevin Saul (8th). West walked away with a first place prize of over $444,000.

There were a number of big names who succeeded throughout the Venetian’s summer poker series, but two events stand out in particular. Maxime Conte won over $133,000 in a $1,600 side event, one in which Mazin Khoury finished third just before his deep WSOP Main Event run. Event 11, a $2,500 No Limit Hold’em event, drew a number of familiar faces as Ryan Welch (2nd), Toby Lewis (4th), Daniel Buzgon (5th) and Ali Alwadhi (6th) each made a run at that title.

Two other Vegas tournament series’ were also able to boast first place prizes of over $250,000. Bellagio Cup VIII, formerly a WPT event, did it with a $10,000 buy-in and 126 players, with Jesse Yawitz, Kristijonas Andrulis, and Eric Panayiotou flattening it out up top to guarantee themselves over $200,000 each. Sean Jazayeri (6th), Aaron Been (8th) and Lee Markholt (9th) also made that final table. The Caesars Mega Stack Series did it with sheer field size, as over 1,600 players put up the $1,000 buy-in for their Main Event, with Jonas Lauck getting $260,765 and 220 Player of the Year points for his efforts. David Levi took eighth.

Not to forget the folks in the northeast. The Borgata held another of its successful Deep Stack tournaments with a $250,000 guarantee during the summer and more than doubled their expectation. Cuong Phung was the biggest winner there, taking home $140,214 for besting the field of over 600.

Stay tuned for next week’s tournament tracker with action from Florida, Europe, and a number of other tournament hotspots around the world.

Venetian Deepstack $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event
Prize Pool: $1,850,700
Entrants: 398

1. Tim West – $444,165
2. Caio Cesar Pimenta1 – $269,462
3. Dmitry Nemirovsky – $180,443
4. Shannon Shorr – $125,848
5. William Reynolds – $94,386
6. Matt Salsberg – $74,028
7. Slaven Popov – $62,554
8. Kevin Saul – $51,820
9. Vladislav Varlashin – $44,417

Bellagio Cup VIII $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event
Prize Pool: $1,222,200
Entrants: 126

1. Jess Yawitz – $291,505
2. Kristijonas Andrulis – $290,185
3. Eracles (Eric) Panayiotou – $228,845
4. Alain Emile Bernard Roy – $83,769
5. Steve Silverman – $62,827
6. Sean Jazayeri – $50,860
7. Kory Kilpatrick – $38,893
8. Aaron Been – $26,926
9. Lee Markholt – $19,147

Caesars Mega Stack Series $1,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event
Prize Pool: $1,553,940
Entrants: 1,602

1. Jonas Lauck – $260,765
2. Gennady Kalin – $184,608
3. Michael Linster – $132,240
4. Michael Hahn – $95,101
5. Robert Georato – $68,995
6. Joseph Morneau – $50,658
7. Jonathan Dull – $37,761
8. David Levi – $28,639
9. Petr Bartagov – $22,066

Borgata $250,000 Guaranteed Deep Stack Double Play ($1,000 No Limit Hold’em)
Prize Pool: $583,940
Entrants: 602

1. Cuong Phung – $140,214
2. Matthew Burnitz – $78,832
3. Charles Hook – $49,635
4. Sachin Ramrakhani – $40,292
5. Sardor Gaziev – $32,117
6. Wendy Rubin – $26,569
7. Julien Chamoun – $21,314
8. Juan Catala – $16,058
9. Barry Leventhal – $11,095

Venetian Deepstack Event 45 $1,600 No Limit Hold’em
Prize Pool: $583,940
Entrants: 385

1. Maxime Conte – $133,794
2. Joseph Brand – $81,169
3. Mazin Khoury – $54,354
4. William Childs – $37,909
5. Leandro Csome – $28,431
6. Ryan Spittles – $22,299
7. Louise Duffy – $18,843
8. Pasquale Vinci – $15,609
9. Sergey Petrov – $13,380

Venetian Deepstack Event 11 $2,500 No Limit Hold’em
Prize Pool: $475,475
Entrants: 209

1. Mikhail Glushankov – $114,118
2. Ryan Welch – $70,370
3. Brian Hawkins – $47,548
4. Toby Lewis – $33,759
5. Daniel Buzgon – $26,151
6. Ali Alawadhi – $21,396
7. Griffin Abel – $17,830
8. Rhys Jones – $14,977
9. Patrick Mahoney – $12,362