Speedyfold Poker Blog

Pius Heinz became the first German to win the WSOP Main Event. His aggressive play throughout the final table earned him a worthy victory. Martin Staszko from the Czech Republic likewise played some excellent poker and finished in 2nd place. The golden boy of the 2011 WSOP, Ben Lamb, finished a very decent third to cement his WSOP Player of the Year standing.

1 Pius Heinz $8,715,638
2 Martin Staszko $5,433,086
3 Ben Lamb $4,021,138

Pius has become a member of Team Pokerstars, so no doubt we’ll be seeing a lot more of him over the coming months and years.

With the WSOP Novemer Nine commencing in just a couple of days, all eyes (and money) seem to be on Ben Lamb and Phil Collins. Lamb in particular had a superb WSOP, and largely due to that has the most tounrament winnings of all the players at the final table. Staszko is the chip leader and cant be discounted, but can he close it out against a very agressive table? Sam Holden is the short stack. From interviews over the last few months he seems like a good guy, so it would be nice to see him secure a little more money. No one wants that dreaded 9th place as it means no more money on top of what they’ve already been paid. Expect some pretty tight play at the start for largely this reason alone.

Here is the table seat draw and chip counts:

1 Matt Giannetti 24,750,000
2 Bob Bounahra 19,700,000
3 Eoghan O’Dea 33,925,000
4 Phil Collins 23,875,000
5 Anton Makiievskyi 13,825,000
6 Sam Holden 12,375,000
7 Pius Heinz 16,425,000
8 Ben Lamb 20,875,000
9 Martin Staszko 40,175,000

The WSOP Main Event as always was full with lots of drama. Phil Hellmuth no showing and having his hotel room door broken into by security to wake him up. Ben Lamb continuing an amazing run. And a boyfriend/girlfriend couple both making it all the way through to the top 30 (Doc Sands and Erika Moutinho). To name but a few.

Following the events of Black Friday there was widespread belief that the field size of the main event would be smaller this year. Well it was, but not by much at all. In fact it was the 3rd largest main event field ever with 6865 runners.

Some of the notable deep finishes were:

JP Kelly: Out in 26th
Tony Hachem: Out in 37th
Erick Lindgren: Out in 43rd
David Bach: Out in 45th
Sebastian Ruthenberg: Out in 55th
Jean-Robert Bellande: Out in 65th
Allen Cunningham: Out in 69th
Daryl Jace: Out in 89th
Sorel Mizzi: Out in 95th
Eli ElezraL Out in 107th
Joseph Cheong: Out in 114th
Daniel Negreanu: Out in 211th

After 8 days of intense play we finally had the field down to 9 players, the November Nine no less. And here they are, with their chip stacks:

1 Martin Staszko 40,175,000 chips
2 Eoghan O’Dea 33,925,000 chips
3 Matt Giannetti 24,750,000 chips
4 Phil Collins 23,875,000 chips
5 Ben Lamb 20,875,000 chips
6 Badih Bounahra 19,700,000 chips
7 Pius Heinz 16,425,000 chips
8 Anton Makiievskyi 13,825,000 chips
9 Samuel Holden 12,375,000 chips

In November they will be competeting for a first prize of over $8 million. But for the time being they each have $782,115 secured and paid out:

1st $8,711,956
2nd $5,430,928
3rd $4,019,635
4th $3,011,661
5th $2,268,909
6th $1,720,396
7th $1,313,851
8th $1,009,910
9th $782,115