Sam Trickett

After having started the final table as the chipleader, Sam Trickett from Team Titan finally finishes in 4th position of this prestigious omaha event of the World Series Of Poker Europe where 180 players took part.

For his performance, our english member of Team Titan pro will bring back home a cheque of € 77,642.
For his last hand, Sam Trickett and the italian player Michele Di Lauro were all-in on a flop fell 5♣ 7♠ 2♦

Sam Trickett: K♥ 10♦ 10♠ J♠
Michele Di Lauro: Q♣ 3♣ 7♥ 2♥

The turn came A♣, the river 9♦ and the dream of winning a first bracelet was suddenly gone.

Final results:

Winner:  Steve Billirakis 238,140
2nd: Michele Di Lauro 147,171
3rd: Ramzi Jelassi 105,937
4th: Sam Trickett 77,642 – Team Titan Pro
5th: Jerome Bradpiece 57,912
6th: Konstantin Uspenskiy 43,950
7th: Erich Kollmann 33,922
8th: Sam Chartier 26,610
9th: Eoghan O’Dea 21,221
10th: Oleksii Kovalchuk 17,190
11th: David Callaghan 17,190
12th: Jason Mercier 17,190
13th: Michel Abecassis 14,147
14th: Shawn Buchanan 14,147
15th: Sean Dempsey 14,147
16th: Dimitry Motorov 11,828
17th: Elie Payan 11,828
18th: David Benyamine 11,828

The main event championship (€ 10,400 NLH) will take off on saturday 15th and three members of the Team will be in, Marvin Rettenmaier, Christophe Benzimra and Sam Trickett.

NEKOTYAN, who is rumored to be Russian pro Vladimir Schmelev, donated a total of $489k to the game in just 358 hands.

With the win Antonius jumps up the 2011 cash leaderboard and is now in third with $835k earned this year.

Di “Urindanger” Dang, who won $174k playing Gus Hansen at $500/$1,000 Cap PLO, is still first with $936k. Dang has the potential to be the first player to crack $1 million in online poker this year.

Antonius’ frequent rival Kagome Kagome (formerly IHateJuice) managed to avoid the Finn this weekend and actually picked up $185k.

Some of the other big earners this weekend included Also11 (+$131k), URnotINdanger2 (+$103k) and davin77 (+$83k).

Of course NEKOTYAN led the losing contingent, dropping nearly $500k but Phil Ivey also had a bad weekend.

Ivey lost $182k last night and is already down $555k this year. Ivey has never recorded a losing year in online poker.

RealAndyBeal (-$182k) Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies (-$134k) and harrington25 (-$134k) also had regrettable weekends.

For more information about the high stakes games these past few days be sure to check out our online poker stats section.

First off are some changes to our PLO and PLO H/L guarantees.  We have tried a few things to get these games going but so far we have had mixed results.  After going through all the feedback we have received from players, we are making a few changes that we hope will appeal to more players and will help us build a stronger audience so we can continue to add more and bigger Omaha guarantees.

The first changes are to the weekly $75 rebuy PLO H/L and PLO tournaments that were running on the weekends .  We received a lot of feedback from players telling us they didn’t like the rebuy format, and asking for something more affordable that would let less serious players take shots at a PLO and/or PLO H/L guaranteed event.  Starting this weekend we will be making a switch so that the PLO H/L on Saturday at 15:30 ET will become a $75 +7.50 2 X (Second Chance) tournament with a $6K Guarantee.  The PLO on Sunday at 16:30 is being changed to a $75+7.50 freezeout with a $6K Guarantee as well.

There were a lot of requests to add some small to mid range buy in guarantees in PLO and PLO H/L as well, so we are starting things off with a few small events that we hope to build and add to in coming weeks.  These new guarantees are:

Saturdays, 17:30 ET, $1K Guaranteed PLO H/L , $20+ 2 with rebuys

Sundays, 18:30 ET, $1K Guaranteed PLO, $20+2 with rebuys

Daily, 16:20 ET, $500 Guaranteed 2 X (Second Chance) PLO H/L, $10+1

Daily, 17:20 ET, $500 Guaranteed 2 X (Second Chance) PLO, $10+1

Daily, 19:30 ET, $1K Guaranteed PLO H/L, $20+2

Daily, 20:30 ET, $1K Guaranteed PLO, $20+2

On the downside, we have had to lower the guarantees on a few tournaments that haven’t been doing that well lately.  Naturally we would always prefer not to have to lower any guarantees, and we remain committed to trying to increase the guarantee amounts and number of guaranteed tournaments on our schedule.  There is more good news coming as far as the tournament schedule, so please stay tuned for updates.  The tournaments that will have their guarantees lowered this week are:

The $8K Guaranteed, $50+5 that runs at 15:00 ET on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday is being changed to $7K Guaranteed.

The $10K Guaranteed $50+5 at 15:00 ET on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday is being changed to a $7K Guaranteed on Wednesday and Saturday, and an $8K Guaranteed for Sunday.

The daily $4K, $50+5 at 11:00 ET is being changed to a $3500 Guaranteed.

The $120+10 Sniper tournaments at 21:00 ET on Thursday and Friday are being changed to $20K GTD  and Sunday is being changed to $30K Guaranteed (formerly $25K on Thursday and Friday and $35K on Sunday).

The $2K Guaranteed, $20+2  on Sunday at 16:00 ET has been cancelled.  This tournament didn’t seem to make much sense in the midst of the other guarantees that were running on Sundays around that time, so we are looking at other options to replace it.

Thanks to everyone who has been sending in their feedback and suggestions.  We will keep working to improve our schedule and provide our players with the type of tournament schedule they most want.  Future blogs will address some of our ongoing tournament scheduling projects, including addressing player feedback to continue improving our afternoon schedule, adding more tournaments at midstakes buy-ins, adding more turbo tournaments, and several other requests that players have been sending in.

Good luck at the tables !

Since the first of April, he has absolutely crushed the 7-Game tables on Full Tilt, having made over $1.6 million in the last 27 days.

With the 7-Game action almost non-existent last night, Antonius turned to the nosebleed $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tables to play Sahamies heads-up.

The match only lasted 30 minutes, but Antonius still managed to take Sahamies for $384,488. Out of the 88 hands dealt, three pots came in at over $100k, Antonius winning all three.

The largest pot of the day saw Antonius drag $251,995 after he spiked a full house on the river holding Aces and Queens.

Since Sahamies hand was mucked and unknown, it's possible Antonius was ahead with aces all along, but judging by the action, it's also reasonable to assume Antonius needed the queen on the river.

With last night's loss added to his totals, Sahamies has squandered almost all of his profit on the year, leaving himself up just $71k so far in 2010.

Down only $590k on the year now, Antonius may be just one session away from digging himself out of the hole. And one can only hope that will bring about an ending to the ever-going durrrr Challenge before the end of the year.

Below are the three largest pots between Antonius and Sahamies. For more hand replays, head to our online poker stats page.

Now, after a whirlwind year that saw him deal with the burden of fame perhaps more than he played poker, a 22-year-old Cada is looking forward to playing a few more tournaments in the lead up to defending his title at the 2010 Main Event.

"I think I just want to play my best poker really, and stay focused," he said. "It's a long time out in Nevada."

For starters, the World Champion says he'll play more Omaha events this year than last. Plus, the one-time online heads-up No-Limit Hold'em specialist says he may even enter a few mixed game events.

"I'm not really super satisfied with how I play mixed games yet," he said. "It's something I need to put more hands in at. But you can get a lot of practice in online poker - thousands of hands a day. So I'm not ruling it out for this year."

Obviously, Cada is looking forward to the opportunity to defend his title in Las Vegas, but the Michigan native finds himself on the other side of the Atlantic in Monte Carlo this week, playing for the glory of a European Poker Tour title in the PokerStars EPT Grand Final.

Having had the experience playing in a few EPT events this year, the American has had some experience playing against Europeans and is careful not to stereotype any opponent.

"Some Europeans play differently," he explained. "You may have one tight Italian and you may have one very tough Italian. I guess it's your job as a player at the table to class everyone as what type of player they are.

"The majority of Swedes may be more aggressive, but you just can't say all of them are. Just like you can't say all Italians are going to play the same. There are so many great poker players: Younger, older, different nationalities and different styles. I guess you just hope to match up good against the line up you get."

Travelling to events across the globe has been a big part of Cada's reign as the World Champion, as has dealing with a new found fame.

Of both, he says there are good and bad sides.

"It's different to say the least," he said. "There's been a lot more travelling than I did before and fame and being recognized, especially around the poker world.

"There are pros and there are cons of it all. It's not like I was excited to win the Main Event because it was going to make me famous. It just kind of comes with the territory. I'm not really mad about it, or really happy about it, it just kinds of comes with it.

"Everything I do is looked at under a magnifying glass now, which is a bit of a problem. And a lot of people feel the need to criticize me for no reason now. But it's not a bad thing. People see the final table and judge on one airing how you play poker. But regardless, I'm grateful for the situation I'm in."

Despite the ups and downs, Cada seems focused on another successful World Series, a deep run in Monaco and perhaps even playing more EPT events next season.

"Hopefully I'll play more EPT's next season," he said. "I'm going to try to. Balancing everything is hard right now. Just balancing my life in general is tough right now."

The EPT Grand Final continues through Apr. 30 in Monte Carlo. For comprehensive coverage live from Monte Carlo tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

- With files from Dirk Oetzmann

The two squared off for 256 hands, over which Schulman took just over $57k.

After Schulman left, his seat was filled by an absolutely unknown player named cityboy8.

With this being cityboy8's first ever session of online poker on record, the most plausible explanation is it's the new account of an old player on the site.

Regardless of who cityboy8 might be, he lost the largest pot of the match, worth $73k, resulting in a total loss of $48,830 in his first session on Full Tilt.

Odonkor1, down $8,500, moved on to the $200/$400 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha game where he proceeded to lose another $30k before logging off for a 40 minute break.

On his return he found his next opponent in Lichtenberger, settling in for a lengthy $100/$200 NLHE match with the well-known online pro. Lichtenberger just made a deep run at the ongoing WPT Championship but finished out of the money.

Over the next 1,695 hands Odonkor1's night went from bad to terrible, losing an $85k pot after having his aces cracked near the end of the session, culminating in a total loss of $282,759.

Adding this loss to his losses from earlier in the day, Odonkor1 dropped a total of $321,620 yesterday, bringing his profits for the year down to $288k.

Below are Odonkor1's three largest pots from yesterday. To see more hands head to our online poker stats page.

Patrik Antonius has struggled to turn a profit in any session he plays, forcing him to keep his game to lower-stakes in an attempt to stem the bleeding.

Phil Ivey has been little more than a ghost, playing just a handful of sessions all year.

Isildur1 seems to have stepped down from the big games and, for the first few months of the year, Dwan was still trying to work his way out of the massive hole he dug himself at the end of 2009.

All that was left were Sahamies and some CardRunners pros not known to spark sick action at the nosebleeds.

Dwan, already up over $5.5 million on the year, began yesterday's session with Odonkor1 at $100/$200 No-Limit Hold'em, beating the Swedish pro rumored to be Joel Nordkvist out of $225,048.

After completing the four-hour battle, Dwan took five hours off before returning to Full Tilt to sit at the $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Ivey Thunderdome, to play the man himself heads-up.

As has been his style this year, Phil Ivey only stuck around for 11 hands, leaving the game down $30k.

After another three and a half hour break, Dwan returned to the $500/$1,000 PLO tables, this time sitting across from Sahamies.

This match was absolutely brimming with action, with over a dozen pots worth more than $200k. The largest pot rang in at a sick $557,994, marking the fourth biggest played all year.

Dwan came out on top of all three of the largest pots, all worth over $400k, and by the end of the session, he had made over $1.2 million from Sahamies, putting him at around $7.1 million in profit for the year.

He's now officially out of the 2009 hole he built and well on his way to another massive year online.

Below are the three largest pots from the match. Head to our online poker stats page to watch more, including Sahamies biggest win of the night worth $399,999.