Spindler will be looking to add a third seven-figure score to his poker resume, and would love to add a WSOPE bracelet to his 2011 EPT London Main Event victory. Regardless of where he finishes in the WSOPE Main Event, Spindler’s lifetime tournament earnings will exceed $4 million.

Nitsche is WSOP bracelet winner (Nitsche won a $1k NLHE tournament in 2012) as well as having won an LAPT and WPT tournament. His lifetime live tournament earnings are already over $2.4 million.

Soulier is another WSOP bracelet winner, having won the prestigious $10k HORSE tournament at the 2011 WSOP. With over $4 million in career tournament earnings, ranking Soulier 4^th on the Hendon Mob’s all-time money list for French players.

The WSOPE Main Event final table participants will have a well-deserved day-off on Thursday –so all eyes can be on the WSOPE High-Roller final table, which will have a major role in the WSOP Player of the Year race—before returning to the casino on Friday to determine the next WSOPE Main Event Champion.

Here is a look at the final table seating assignments and chip counts from the WSOP.com website:

• Seat 1: Benny Spindler -Germany- 1,748,000 chips
• Seat 2: Fabrice Soulier –France- 1,871,000 chips
• Seat 3: Dominik Nitsche -Germany- 2,354,000 chips
• Seat 4: Adrian Mateos –Spain- 3,781,000 chips
• Seat 5: Ravi Raghavan -USA- 898,000 chips
• Seat 6: Jerome Huge –France- 637,000 chips

And here is a look at the list of past WSOPE Champions one of these players will join (which is quite a list of names in its own right):

• 2007 WSOPE Champion: Annette Obrestad
• 2008 WSOPE Champion: John Juanda
• 2009 WSOPE Champion: Barry Shulman
• 2010 WSOPE Champion: James Bord
• 2011WSOPE Champion: Elio Fox
• 2012 WSOPE Champion: Phil Hellmuth

So what are the final six players for? Here is a look at the remaining payouts from the prize-pool:

• 1^st — €1,000,000
• 2^nd — €610,000
• 3^rd — €400,000
• 4^th — €251,000
• 5^th — €176,000
• 6^th — €126,000

*Resources: www.thehendonmob.com, www.wikipedia.org, www.wsop.com

Event #1: €1,100 Ladies Championship – 65 entries

It was a small field, but the cream still rose to the top as poker pro Jackie Glazier picked-up her first career WSOP bracelet in the Ladies Championship. Glazier was denied a bracelet in 2012, when she finished second in a NLHE tournament, and made a super deep run in the 2013 WSOP Main Event before bowing out in 31^st place as the Last Woman Standing.

1. Jackie Glazier – €21,850
2. Maryline Valente – €13,500
3. Laurie Bismuth – €8,950
4. Celine Bastian – €6,330
5. Nathalie Odet – €4,770
6. Sherry Lindsey – €3,800
7. Gaelle Baumann – €3,200

Event #2: €1,100 NLHE Reentry – 659 entries

Of the first four events, Event #2 was the only final table that didn’t boast a handful of well-known names, but then again that is what the WSOP is all about: Creating Superstars! We’ll have to wait and see if that is the case with Henrick Johansson of Sweden.

1. Henrik Johansson — €129,700
2. Adriano Torregrossa — €80,250
3. Yaniv Botbol — €58,860
4. Daniel Weinman — €43,772
5. Serge Ekert — €32,992
6. Daniel Laidlaw — €25,190
7. Jose Obadia — €19,498
8. Jean-Philippe Tuffery — €15,285
9. Andrei Konopelko — €12,134

Event #3: €5,300 Holdem Mix Max – 135 entries

In Event #3 it was little known Darko Stojanovich who triumphed over the pro-heavy final table that included Shannon Schorr, Noah Schwartz, Dan O’Brien, and Joe Kuether.  Stojanovich was on the ropes to Dan O’Brien in the heads-up battle, but overcame a 3-1 chip disadvantage to deny the poker pro his first bracelet, and collect France’s first WSOP bracelet of the year.

1. Darko Stojanovic — €188,160
2. Dan O’Brien — €116,280
3. Jason Mann — €62,770
4. Noah Schwartz — €62,770
5. Shannon Shorr — €30,695
6. Jeremy Joseph — €30,695
7. Jake Schwartz — €30,695
8. Joe Kuether — €30,695
9. Ville Mattila — €14,905

Event #4: €1,650 PLO – 184 entries

Former October-Niner Jeremy Ausmus won his first World Series of Poker bracelet on Thursday, doing so in the €1,650 buy-in PLO tournament title against some very stiff competition that included a final table of Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier and Juha Helppi.

1. Jeremy Ausmus – €70,324
2. Juha Helppi – €43,441
3. Jan-Peter Jachtmann – €31,367
4. Jason Mercier –€23,036
5. Martin Koslov –€17,210
6. Michael Schwartz –€13,077

*Results from the www.wsop.com website

The Online Championship will feature nine events, including a $100k Freeroll on October 25 that will kick-off the tournament series, with buy-ins ranging from $25 up to $200 for the Main Event. Each day of the series will see the tournaments’ buy-in increase as well as the added prize-money from WSOP.com.

Here is a look at the complete schedule for the WSOP.com Online Championship:

The Online Nine

At the end of the series the nine champions will also participate in an online Sit & Go tournament with a further $100,000 in prize-money on the line (50k for 1^st place, $30k for 2^nd place, and $20k for 3^rd place) at the Rio All Suites Hotel on November 4^th with the final three returning on November 5^th to battle it out right before the WSOP Main Event November Nine take their seats.

The WSOP.com’s Marketing

With the launch of their site Caesars made it very clear that they would forego signing professional poker players as brand ambassadors (the usual norm for online poker rooms) and instead use that money for promotions and direct giveaways to their players.

While it’s unreasonable to expect the site to shell out $500k in added prize-money for every promotion, the Online Championship is a good indication of the way the WSOP.com will use  the money usually set aside for sponsored players.

For more information on the WSOP.com Online Championships you can visit the WSOP.com website.

This will be the first year the WSOPE is held in Paris (actually on the outskirts of the city at the Barriere Casino in Enghien-les-Bains, France) after sending the past two years in Cannes, France, and before that in London, England. The WSOP brass has announced that the home of the WSOPE will likely continue to move around as they intend to live up to the series name of WSOP EUROPE.

The official sponsor of the WSOPE will be 888 –which also sponsored the 2013 WSOP APAC and 2013 WSOP series—and the site has announced they will offer live online streaming of the WSOPE for the first time.

The key events on the 2013 WSOPE schedule will be the €25k High-Roller tournament, and of course the €10,000 buy-in Main Event. If you were so inclined, you could enter every bracelet event at the 2013 WSOPE for a mere €48,500 plus €2,150 in tournament fees.

Here is a look at the schedule for the 2013 World Series of Poker Europe tournament series from the WSOP.com website:

In addition to the bracelet events, the series will feature 46 side events, with buy-ins measured in hundreds of Euros instead of thousands.

Following the WSOP APAC coverage tonight (July 23^rd) ESPN will move on to the WSOP Circuit Series National Championship next week, with two more 1-hour episodes dedicated to the final table.

Beginning on August 6^th ESPN’s coverage of the WSOP will then switch straight to the WSOP Main Event, with coverage picking-up the action on Day 3 of the tournament. A full 22 episodes will be dedicated to the WSOP Main Event, with at least four-hours of coverage of each day (Day 7 of the tournament will feature six hours of coverage) leading up to the November Nine final table on November 4^th and 5^th.

Once again the final table of the Main Event will be shown on a live stream, with ESPN2 handling the coverage on November 4^th, where the final nine players will play down to just three before calling it a night. On November 5^th the three remaining players will return to the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio to play down to a champion, with the live stream being broadcast by ESPN.

Here is a look at the full television schedule of the 2013 WSOP from ESPN.com:

courtesy of www.wsop.com

After the elimination of 21001 WSOP Main Event Champion in 10^th place the 2013 World Series of Poker final table is now officially set. In this series I will take a look at each of the November Nine, and offer up my thoughts on what their winning the WSOP Main Event would mean to poker.

1. JC Tran — 38,000,000
2. Amir Lehavot — 29,700,000
3. Marc McLaughlin — 26,525,000
4. Jay Farber — 25,975,000
5. Ryan Riess — 25,875,000
6. Sylvain Loosli — 19,600,000
7. Michiel Brummelhuis — 11,275,000
8. Mark Newhouse — 7,350,000
9. David Benefield — 6,375,000

JC Tran

The chip-leader heading into November’s final table tilt is also the best-known and most-accomplished player in the field, Justin Coung Van Tran, better known as JC Tran. Tran built up a sizable chip-lead during Monday’s action and will take an 8.3 million chip-lead into the final table. Still, the trail-pack (5 players have 19.6 million or more chips) is close enough on his heels to make this one of the most tightly contested final tables in recent memory.

The 36 year-old Californian (Tran was born in Vietnam) is considered by virtually all of his peers as a pro’s pro, and will likely have one of the biggest cheering sections in recent memory.

Career Accomplishments

Tran is a two-time WSOP bracelet winner, a WPT Champion, the Season 5 WPT Player of the Year, the 2006 PokerStars WCOOP Main Event winner, and has over $9 million in career tournament earnings –good for 32^nd on the all-time money-list.

Here is a look at some of Tran’s career highlights:

• Won the $1,500 No Limit Holdem tournament at the 2008 WSOP — $631,170
• Won the $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament at the 2009 WSOP — $235,685
• 2006 WCOOP Main Event Winner — $670,000
• Won the 2007 Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Poker Classic $5k tournament — $523,075
• Party Poker Premier League III Winner — $300,000
• Runner-Up at the 2007 WPT LA Poker Classic — $1,177,010
• 2007 WPT World Poker Challenge Champion — $683,473
• Eight career Top 7 finishes on the WPT
• WPT Season 5 Player of the Year

What a JC Tran Victory Would Mean for Poker

Tran is a well-liked and well-respected poker pro, so a victory in the WSOP Main Event would be a welcome outcome. Unfortunately, the same things that make JC a well-liked player would also hinder him as a poker ambassador, as he’s a relatively quiet and humble guy. Still, of all the remaining players there is nobody I would rather see as the winner of the Main Event, with his maturity and demeanor serving as the perfect model for future poker players.

*Resources: www.thehendonmob.com, www.wikipedia.org

Thomas “Srsly Sirius” Keeling Bluff Interviews

Thomas “Srsly Sirius” Keeling, better known for his satirical poker songs on YouTube, was hired as the Bluff Magazine Multimedia Director prior to the 2013 WSOP and in that role he developed one of the most interesting interview formats I’ve seen. Basically, during the editing process Keeling eliminates all questions and the interview turns into a monologue of sorts for the interviewee.

What really made these videos standout was the decision to let some of the most polarizing people in the game speak their mind; from Chino Rheem, to Dutch Boyd, to Matt Marifioti.

You can watch all of Keeling’s videos here: http://www.bluff.com/news/author/thomas-keeling/

Doyle Brunson cashes in the Main Event

If you’re going to announce your retirement and then come back the least you can do is perform at a high level, and that is precisely what Doyle Brunson did in the 2013 WSOP Main Event. Brunson cashed in the Main Event for the xx time in his career, and now has cashed in the tournament in each of the last five decades.

PokerNews.com’s MyStack App

The MyStack App allows players to update their chip counts to PokerNews.com on their own. This was extremely helpful in getting correct chip-counts for the players who used it, and as more and more players start to use MyStack it should ease the burden of tournament reporters, allowing them to focus on other things instead of constantly updating chip counts.

You can download the MyStack App here: http://www.pokernews.com/mystack/

Nolan Dalla’s blogs

Nolan Dalla has been blogging on his website for a while now, but during the WSOP his blog really came to the attention of the poker community and Dalla seemed to be a bit more prolific with his writings. There are some absolute gems on Dalla’s blog, ranging from everyday rants to backroom poker stories.

I highly recommend visiting Nolan’s blog at http://www.pokernews.com/mystack/

Ladies prove 2012 wasn’t a fluke

After a really slow start the ladies picked-up the pace at the 2013 WSOP following the Ladies Tournament, winning two open-event bracelets for the first time since 2004, and as I write this Jackie Glazier is in 12^th place with 68 players remaining in the WSOP Main Event. It was good to see women poker players build on their 2012 success at the WSOP.

Prediction #1: Phil Hellmuth will make two final tables but wins ZERO bracelets

Through 61 tournaments Phil has three cashes and a single final table.

I was off a bit on this one as I believed Phil was going to have a strong WSOP without winning a bracelet. It turns out Phil had his worst WSOP tournament series since 2002, when he cashed twice and made two final tables.

Prediction #2: Germany will win at least three bracelets

Another prediction that almost got there (although I still have three Germans alive with about 30 runners to go in the $10k PLO tournament) as we have seen two German bracelet winners in 2013:

• Martin Finger in Event #21, the $3,000 No Limit Holdem tournament
• Nikolaus Teichert in Event #56, the $2,500 No Limit Holdem tournament

Prediction #3: Two open bracelets will be won by women

With virtually every tournament now in the books the ladies have one open-event win, which belongs to Dana Castaneda who won Event #54, a $1,000 No Limit Holdem tournament. We still have the Main Event, but after last year’s slew of final tables, 10^th and 11^th place showings in the Main Event, and wins in an open-event and the Seniors Tournament, this has to be seen as a disappointing year for the ladies at the WSOP.

*Late update: Loni Harwood won Event #60, making my prediction come to fruition. Harwood was easily the top-performing female of the series with three final tables and one win.

Prediction #4: A recent (2003-now) WSOP Main Event Champion will win a bracelet

We had some close calls with this one; most recently Jonathan Duhamel’s 8^th place finish in the $50k Poker Players Championship, but it looks like WSOP Main Event champions will once again be shutout from bracelet ceremonies, unless Duhamel can pull off a win in Event #61, where he is near the top of the leader-board with just over 30 players remaining.

Prediction #5: The WSOP Main Event attendance will be 6,022.

Still not there yet, but I don’t have a very good feeling about this prediction as the 2013 WSOP has been well-attended from start to finish. Even though Day 1a attendance was down a touch from 2012, I still think this is looking more like a 7,000 player filed now.

With his run in the Poker players Championship Ashton was appearing at his fourth final table of the 2013 WSOP, and already had a 2^nd and a 3^rd place finish to his credit (along with a 7^th place showing) before winning the Poker Players Championship on Thursday night. Overall, Ashton has seven Top 10 finishes over the last three years at the WSOP.

The victory also propelled Ashton to the top of the WSOP Player of the Year race, jumping over Daniel Negreanu and David “Bakes” Baker, and over the magical 500-point threshold needed to win the award (the Main Event winner receives 500 points):

1. Matthew Ashton — 649.75
2. Daniel Negreanu — 475.84
3. David (Bakes) Baker — 475.35
4. Donald Nguyen — 466.13
5. Marco Johnson — 439.38
6. Tom Schneider — 438.51
7. Chris Klodnicki — 400.80
8. Jared Hamby — 395.73
9. Anthony Gregg — 390.00
10. Steve Sung — 369.50

*Leader-board powered by BLUFF Magazine

Ashton also became the youngest winner of the Poker Players Championship at 25, and was the first non-US player to win the tournament. Ashton now joins the following list of players to have won the tournament, and since 2008 hoist the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy:

• 2012: Mike Mizrachi
• 2011: Brian Rast
• 2010: Mike Mizrachi
• 2009: David Bach
• 2008: Scotty Nguyen
• 2007: David “Chip” Reese

The Poker Players Championship saw a bit of resurgence this year, as the tournament attracted the biggest field since 2008 (which was the largest in the seven year history of the tournament), pulling in 132 entries, a huge jump from last year’s 108, and just 16 off the all-time mark of 148.

• 2013: 132 players
• 2012: 108 players
• 2011: 128 players
• 2010: 116 players
• 2009: 95 players
• 2008: 148 players
• 2007: 143 players

Here is a look at the final table payouts from the tournament:

1. Matthew Ashton – $1,774,089
2. Don Nguyen – $1,096,254
3. John Hennigan – $686,568
4. David Benyamine – $497,122
5. George Danzer – $388,523
6. Minh Ly ��� $309,830
7. Mike Wattel – $251,602
8. Jonathan Duhamel – $207,630

*Resources: www.wsop.com, www.thehendonmob.com, www.wikipedia.org

While you can conceivably nominate anyone you like, there are certain restrictions on who can eventually become one of the official nominees –who will then be voted on by a preselected panel that includes poker media and the living Hall of Fame members. The criterion for selection includes:

• A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
• Played for high stakes
• Be a minimum of 40 years old at time of nomination
• Played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers
• Stood the test of time
• Or, for non-players, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.

You can make your nomination for the 2013 Poker Hall of Fame here: http://www.wsop.com/phof/

Last year saw the induction of Eric Drache and Sailor Roberts made the cut, and the recent trend has been toward older players and pioneers, with Linda Johnson and Mike Sexton added to the Poker Hall of Fame rolls in 2011.

My list hasn’t changed very much from last year (since none of my choices were inducted) but I have removed some of the younger players who are eligible that I feel can wait their turn, so here are my Top 10 picks for the 2013 Poker Hall of Fame:

1. Barry Shulman
2. Terry Rogers
3. Marcel Luske
4. Nolan Dalla
5. Jack McClelland
6. John Duthie
7. Mike Caro
8. Titanic Thompson
9. Andy Glazer
10. James McManus

Some other deserving people include Carlos Mortensen, Jennifer Harman, Ted Forrest, David Sklansky, Antanas “Tony G” Guoga, Gabe Kaplan, Lucy Rockah, Lee Jones, Al Alvarez, Bob Stupak, Bruno Fitoussi, and David Chiu.

And here is a look at the current members of the Poker Hall of Fame:

• Johnny Moss
• Nick “The Greek” Dandolos
• Felton “Corky” McCorquodale
• Red Winn
• Sid Wyman
• James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok
• Edmond Hoyle
• Blondie Forbes
• Bill Boyd
• Tom Abdo
• Joe Bernstein
• Murph Harrold
• Red Hodges
• Henry Green
• Walter Clyde “Puggy” Pearson
• Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson
• Jack “Treetop” Straus
• Fred “Sarge” Ferris
• Benny Binion
• David “Chip” Reese
• Thomas “Amarillo Slim” Preston
• Jack Keller
• Julius Oral Popwell
• Roger Moore
• Stu “The Kid” Ungar
• Lyle Berman
• Johnny “The Orient Express” Chan
• Bobby “The Owl” Baldwin
• Berry Johnston
• Jack Binion
• Crandell “Dandy” Addington
• T.J. Cloutier
• Billy Baxter
• Barbara Enright
• Phil Hellmuth
• Dewey Tomko
• Henry Orenstein
• Mike Sexton
• Dan Harrington
• Erik Seidel
• Linda Johnson
• Barry Greenstein
• Eric Drache
• Brian “Sailor” Roberts