Seizing the chip lead in the first level alone, Pagano most notably pillaged the chip stack of Day 3 leader Samphane Phomveha in a huge hand to distance himself from the field.

Pagano flopped a set with sixes, filled up on the turn and got big calls from Phomveha, who held trip aces, all the way down.

When the dust settled, Pagano bagged up 3,561,000 in chips to grab the outright lead heading into Day 5 and a one million-chip advantage over second-place Olivier Rogez (2,688,000).

Pagano had already secured a record 20th EPT cash and is now in pole position to make yet another EPT final-table appearance.

Brammer, Inizan Still Lurking in Final 24

With just 54 players to start the day and a target of 24, things moved quickly on Day 4.

Brit Chris “NigDawG” Brammer, who began the day in third with just over a million chips, tread water for most of the day but still finished up in 8th with 1,262,000.

Fellow Brit Martins Adeniya, also in the top five to begin the day, wasn’t so lucky as he busted fairly early.

France’s Yorane Kerignard (1,124,000) and Marc Inizan (481,000), two of the more established players in a local-heavy field, are also still in contention.

Play Down to Final Table Begins

Play is scheduled to resume tomorrow at noon in France with a final table of eight the target number.

Remaining players have assured themselves of at least €23,000 with six-figures guaranteed for making the final seven.

A solid €875,000 is reserved for the winner.

The top 10 and their chip counts, care of the PokerStars blog.

1. Luca Pagano 3,561,000

2. Olivier Rogez 2,668,000

3. Vadzim Kursevich 1,815,000

4. Paul Guichard 1,700,000

5. Andre Corredoira 1,316,000

6. Ignat Liviu 1,303,000

7. Christian Togsverd 1,271,000

8. Chris Brammer 1,262,000

9. Artem Litvinov 1,193,000

10. Yorane Kerignard 1,124,000

Main Event Action

The schedule for the 2012 World Series of Poker has yet to be announced but already one important detail about the Main Event has been leaked to the media.

“A few hints on WSOP schedule coming tomorrow…you won’t find the November Nine returning.”

This was the tweet sent out by @WSOP, the official source for World Series of Poker updates and news.

The November Nine was a term that referred to the Main Event’s Final Table being staged in November, a few months after the Main Event had played and its field narrowed down to just nine players.

The original intention of staging the Final Table in November was to increase the suspense for the television audience. Critics claimed, however, that the November event did not increase public interest in the event. The extended break also crushed hopes of players “on a run” to continue all the way through the early stages of the tournament to the coveted WSOP bracelet.

@WSOP also tweeted:

“The WSOP Main Event this year will be 3 days shorter without compromising structure at all.”

And:

“Another good change coming to WSOP in 2012…no off day during Main Event.”

And:

“The 43rd Annual WSOP will take place from May 27 to July 16, 2012.”

The full schedule of the 2012 World Series of Poker is due to be released later today.

Today in the 3-Bet we find High Stakes Poker notable Alan Meltzer showing his generosity, Jimmy Fricke helping his anxiety at the poker table and the new king of poker Tweeters.

1) Meltzer Leaves $1 Million to Chauffeur, $500k to Doorman

Watching Alan Meltzer on High Stakes Poker and Poker After Dark, it always seemed like he was a guy who knew exactly who he was.

A former pretzel vendor who made millions in music as the owner of Wind-Up Records, Meltzer just seemed to get a true kick out of playing high-stakes poker with the best in the world.

Meltzer passed away in October last year but the New York Post reported today that he gave a fair share of his estate to two close employees – his chauffeur Jean Laborde, whom he left $1 million, and his doorman, Chamil Demiraj, whom he left $500,000.

Said Laborde:

“He was always joking. He never looked down on anybody. He was such a nice guy. He left me money, but it’s not a good deal for me because it means he’s no longer here.”

His ex-wife, who got nothing? She wasn't so generous with her soundbite:

"He can leave it to whoever he wants to. I'm doing fine. I could care less. If he wants to give it to the bums, he can give it to the bums. He could f--k a nun. I couldn't give a s--t. He can give his money to whoever he wants. We're divorced. The man is dead."

Nice lady.

Meltzer also wasn’t too shabby of a player, either, even if he needed to bink a straight to win a $400k pot off durrrr every now and then:

2) Fricke Brings Oscar to the Table

Oscar at the table. Photo: Will Souther.

 

Fans of Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke are likely familiar with his Daschund, Oscar.

And to say Fricke is a proud dog dad would be an understatement.

He tweets about him regularly, a picture of Oscar is his online poker avatar, he’s done interviews with Oscar on camera with him, etc.

Pretty much where Fricke goes, Oscar goes – and now that includes the poker table.

Fricke surprised a few tablemates over the weekend when he showed up at the WSOP-C main event at Caesars in Las Vegas with Oscar at the table with him.

As Fricke explained in a forum post in December, Oscar has gone through training to become a service dog to help Fricke with panic attacks:

“I have some anxiety/depression issues and my psychiatrist wrote me a letter of necessity since Oscar is usually the only thing that can calm me down instantly during a panic attack”

Unfortunately for Fricke, it didn’t help him stay in this particular tournament as he busted short of the money (not to mention a final 15 that includes Sean Getzwiller, Dutch Boyd and Jeff Madsen btw).

3) The New King of Poker Tweeters – @Adzizzy

You decide. Or don't

 

Some prefer the gentle comedy stylings of @erik_seidel. Some like the self-aggrandizing name dropping of @phil_hellmuth.

Others lean to the heart-on-sleeve musings of @RealKidPoker.

If you prefer ballsy, call-it-like-he-sees-it poker banter, dispatches from the baller lifestyle and the occassional Twitter war, however, Matt “@Adzizzy” Marafioti is your new favorite Tweeter.

What you'll get, according to his account bio:

"A very successful high stakes poker player also known as ADZ124. Some say I am funny, brash and entertaining. You decide! Or don't."

A sample:

@codyespeseth That must be why I am up 3 million playing cash on Stars overall! Also why I've won 28 live cash sessions in a row +200k!#Dolt

Can't wait 2 start playing cash after where I can think on the level of a person and not that of amateur tards playing on other ppls dollar.

Yep. @Adzizzy ftw. Follow him here.

4) PA Eats Three Big Macs for Australian Open Final Tickets

This video's already been kicking around for a few days, but it's still worth a view to watch ultra-fit demi-god Patrik Antonius sully his digestive system with three Big Macs.

Long story short, Crown Casino PR legend Natasha Stipanov had tickets for the Australian Open final with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic if PA ate the McDs.

He did, and got to see one of the greatest Grand Slam finals ever.

For the record we would have done it just for the free Big Macs.

Read on for the rundown on the week’s biggest online poker tournaments.

David "Betudontbet" Emmons Wins TCOOP Main Event

The Turbo Championship of Online Poker is over and David “Betudontbet” Emmons has distinguished himself as the biggest winner of the series.

Emmons outlasted a mammoth 3,667-player field in the $700 buy-in main event and walked away with $382,855. That’s more than twice what this week’s Sunday Million winner pocketed, and it took Emmons less than half the time to do it.

In little more than five hours just Emmons and Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver remained, and in true turbo fashion the heads-up match lasted just one hand. The money went in preflop with A-5 for Emmons winning out over Oliver’s K-7.

Chris Oliver took second in the TCOOP main event for over $285k.

 

Oliver is a poker pro from Florida who is currently playing from Costa Rica. He finished second in the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event, earning $1.8 million.

This main event had a guarantee of $1.5 million but by the time registration closed there was $2,438,855 in the pot to be distributed among the top 495 places.

Here are the full final table payouts for the 2012 TCOOP main event:

1. David "Betudontbet" Emmons (Mexico) $382,855.67 2. Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver (Costa Rica) $285,310.93 3. Didak04 (Australia) $201,180.78 4. Gala_Terry (United Kingdom) $140,216.91 5. mmbittencour (Brazil) $103,638.59 6. DimaDima13 (Russia) $79,253.03 7. swissman29 (Luxembourg) $45,867.48 8. zyxel888 (Russia) $30,481.93 9. MON3Y$HOT (Australia) $19,508.44

TCOOP High Roller Triples its Guarantee

The $2,100 TCOOP High Roller event smashed its $500k guarantee, attracting 814 players and putting $1,628,000 up for grabs.

It took only two hours and 20 minutes to reach the money with Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet bubbling in 109th. Outlasting Van Fleet and finding a spot in the money were known pros Ville Wahlbeck (55th), Mattias “mattidm” de Meulder (31st), Caio Cesar “caio_pimenta” Pimenta (20th), and Maxim Lykov (15th).

The tournament was ultimately decided by a four-way chop which saw Denmark’s AlexKP take the biggest prize, although he ended up finishing second to Icallany of Norway.

Here are the final table payouts for the TCOOP High Roller, adjusted to reflect the deal:

1. lcallany (Norway) $210,259.47* 2. AlexKP (Denmark) $239,104.29* 3. Madridcash (Spain) $167,761.76* 4. Serkules (Germany) $166,756.48* 5. RuiNF (Portugal) $83,842 6. kenny05 (Costa Rica) $67,562 7. rUbEnhEnAo92 (Columbia) $51,282 8. davidv1213 (United Kingdom) $35,978.80 9. Vinkyy (Czech Republic) $20,838.40

Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari finishes 25th in this week's Sunday Million.

 

Three-Way Chop Decides Sunday Million

Even with all the excitement of the Turbo Championship of Online Poker, the Sunday Million still managed to post big numbers with 7,302 players turning up.

$1.46 million was in the prize pool and after roughly 12 hours, the final three players were able to agree on a chop. Chile’s curiplop took the biggest share, $181,080, while eventual winner CharlesTY. of Brazil pocketed $168,000.

Plenty of big names got themselves a piece of the cash this Sunday, including Andre Akkari (25th), Jim “Mr_BigQueso” Collopy (30th), Jose Ignacio Barbero (104th), azn_baller3 (119th), Keven “Stammdog” Stamen (144th) and Angel Guillen (550th).

Here are the full final table payouts for this week’s Sunday Million, adjusted to reflect the three-way deal:

1: CharlesTY. (Brazil) $168,000.00* 2: curiplop (Chile) $181,080.74* 3: hownorez (Czech Republic) $148,000.00* 4: bas0r (Germany) $77,401.20 5: K0VAK (Bulgaria) $59,876.40 6: Chikakaa (Finland) $45,272.40 7: Meewams (United Kingdom) $31,398.60 8: Joroy70 (Canada) $17,524.80 9: rasputoon (Germany) $11,318.10

Read on for the rundown on the week’s biggest online poker tournaments.

David "Betudontbet" Emmons Wins TCOOP Main Event

The Turbo Championship of Online Poker is over and David “Betudontbet” Emmons has distinguished himself as the biggest winner of the series.

Emmons outlasted a mammoth 3,667-player field in the $700 buy-in main event and walked away with $382,855. That’s more than twice what this week’s Sunday Million winner pocketed, and it took Emmons less than half the time to do it.

In little more than five hours just Emmons and Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver remained, and in true turbo fashion the heads-up match lasted just one hand. The money went in preflop with A-5 for Emmons winning out over Oliver’s K-7.

Chris Oliver took second in the TCOOP main event for over $285k.

 

Oliver is a poker pro from Florida who is currently playing from Costa Rica. He finished second in the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event, earning $1.8 million.

This main event had a guarantee of $1.5 million but by the time registration closed there was $2,438,855 in the pot to be distributed among the top 495 places.

Here are the full final table payouts for the 2012 TCOOP main event:

1. David "Betudontbet" Emmons (Mexico) $382,855.67 2. Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver (Costa Rica) $285,310.93 3. Didak04 (Australia) $201,180.78 4. Gala_Terry (United Kingdom) $140,216.91 5. mmbittencour (Brazil) $103,638.59 6. DimaDima13 (Russia) $79,253.03 7. swissman29 (Luxembourg) $45,867.48 8. zyxel888 (Russia) $30,481.93 9. MON3Y$HOT (Australia) $19,508.44

TCOOP High Roller Triples its Guarantee

The $2,100 TCOOP High Roller event smashed its $500k guarantee, attracting 814 players and putting $1,628,000 up for grabs.

It took only two hours and 20 minutes to reach the money with Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet bubbling in 109th. Outlasting Van Fleet and finding a spot in the money were known pros Ville Wahlbeck (55th), Mattias “mattidm” de Meulder (31st), Caio Cesar “caio_pimenta” Pimenta (20th), and Maxim Lykov (15th).

The tournament was ultimately decided by a four-way chop which saw Denmark’s AlexKP take the biggest prize, although he ended up finishing second to Icallany of Norway.

Here are the final table payouts for the TCOOP High Roller, adjusted to reflect the deal:

1. lcallany (Norway) $210,259.47* 2. AlexKP (Denmark) $239,104.29* 3. Madridcash (Spain) $167,761.76* 4. Serkules (Germany) $166,756.48* 5. RuiNF (Portugal) $83,842 6. kenny05 (Costa Rica) $67,562 7. rUbEnhEnAo92 (Columbia) $51,282 8. davidv1213 (United Kingdom) $35,978.80 9. Vinkyy (Czech Republic) $20,838.40

Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari finishes 25th in this week's Sunday Million.

 

Three-Way Chop Decides Sunday Million

Even with all the excitement of the Turbo Championship of Online Poker, the Sunday Million still managed to post big numbers with 7,302 players turning up.

$1.46 million was in the prize pool and after roughly 12 hours, the final three players were able to agree on a chop. Chile’s curiplop took the biggest share, $181,080, while eventual winner CharlesTY. of Brazil pocketed $168,000.

Plenty of big names got themselves a piece of the cash this Sunday, including Andre Akkari (25th), Jim “Mr_BigQueso” Collopy (30th), Jose Ignacio Barbero (104th), azn_baller3 (119th), Keven “Stammdog” Stamen (144th) and Angel Guillen (550th).

Here are the full final table payouts for this week’s Sunday Million, adjusted to reflect the three-way deal:

1: CharlesTY. (Brazil) $168,000.00* 2: curiplop (Chile) $181,080.74* 3: hownorez (Czech Republic) $148,000.00* 4: bas0r (Germany) $77,401.20 5: K0VAK (Bulgaria) $59,876.40 6: Chikakaa (Finland) $45,272.40 7: Meewams (United Kingdom) $31,398.60 8: Joroy70 (Canada) $17,524.80 9: rasputoon (Germany) $11,318.10

Speidel finished the tournament in style picking up pocket aces in the final hand to bust heads-up opponent Ken Wong.

The Melbourne local started playing poker five years ago and the Crown Casino is the first place he ever played live poker.

Speidel has been on quite a run at the Aussie Millions as he made two final tables in the preliminary events. 

“I had a great week,” said Speidel. “To win this is just ridiculous. I’m really happy.”

The 26-year-old entered the seven-player final table second in chips and from the first hand seemed destined to win the event.

He busted five of his six opponents at a rapid-fire final table that took less than six hours of play to find a winner.

Hong Kong-native Bjorn Li entered the final table as the chip leader and one of the favorites considering his significant experience in online poker.

Instead Li never really got anything going and ended up crashing out in sixth place when he lost a coin flip against Mohamad Kowssarie.

Kowssarie, who used to play online as Fast_Freddie and TerrorOfSweden, entered the final table as the short stack but was one of the more dangerous players at the final table eventually finishing in fourth place with A-3 to Speidel’s pocket kings.

The other well-known online player Yann Dion, who plays online as yadio, was actually the first player to bust when he shoved with pocket sevens and got called down by Speidel with pocket queens.

The dynamic of the 2012 Aussie Millions changed dramatically yesterday when world-renowned poker player Phil Ivey busted in 10th place.

When one of the world’s best poker players busts, most players are relieved but Speidel admitted he was slightly disappointed by the professional’s absence.

“It would have been cool to have him at the final table,” he said. “He’s an amazing poker player and it was great to play against him. I was a bit relieved though, because he is really damn good.”

Speidel is the fourth consecutive player from Australia to win the Aussie Millions and will be keeping the trophy in Melbourne.

Here’s a complete look at the final table payouts:

1. Oliver Speidel – $1,600,000 2. Kenneth Wong – $1,000,000 3. Mile Krstanoski – $610,000 4. Mohamad Kowssarie – $405,000 5. Patrick Healy – $300,000 6. Bjorn Li – $230,000 7. Yann Dion – $170,000

Day 4 was not a good one for Ivey as the former Full Tilt pro was bleeding chips.

Ivey had the misfortune of losing set over set to Karim Jomeen and never really seemed to fully recover.

He eventually finished with 699,000 chips, which puts him in last place. On the plus side the iconic pro still has 34 big blinds to work with so he could still make a late charge to the final table.

It was the opposite for Yann Dion, who crushes online poker as yadio. Dion caught fire in the last level of play and shot up to 2.6 million in chips.

Mohamad Kowssarie, who used to play online as Fast_Freddie and TerrorOfSweden, also had an exceptional day. The Swede won several massive pots and built a stack of 2.2 million chips.

As far as interestingly storylines Lee Nelson would certainly be up there. The 2006 Aussie Millions winner finished with 1.6 million chips and will have shot at becoming the first repeat champ.

Also still in play is recent WSOP bracelet winner Dan Idema who built a stack of 1.8 million.

To say play has been swingy at the 2012 Aussie Millions would be an understatement.

Matt Turk, who won a tournament-leading 2.6 million-chip pot against Jason Koon to end Day 3, was one of the final eliminations on Day 4.

Turk was bleeding chips all day and eventually shipped his last 570,000 chips with pocket tens and got called down by Yann Dion who had pocket kings.

Day 5 begins tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. It's unclear how many eliminations will be needed to set the final table as the usual number of players at the final table seven but in years past they’ve stopped at eight to accommodate star players such as Patrik Antonius and Barny Boatman.

Here’s a complete look at the chip counts at the end of play:

Yann Dionn – 2,670,000 Bjorn Li – 2,471,000 Mohamad Kowssarie – 2,300,000 Karim Jomeen – 2,063,000 Dan Idema – 1,840,000 Lee Nelson – 1,651,000 Patrick Healy – 1,565,000 Janis Lesinkskis – 1,501,000 Kenneth Wong – 1,498,000 Oliver Speidel – 809,000 Mile Krstanoski – 755,000 Phil Ivey – 699,000

The West Virginian had over one million chips midway though Day 3 of the 2012 Aussie Millions and was looking dangerous in almost every hand he played.

Despite some close calls over the years, Koon has never won a major live tournament and while he was reluctant to say he was due he did mention he was ready to win in terms of ability, preparation and mindset.

“I do have the ability to dominate this tournament and I’m looking forward to playing the best that I can and going as deep as I can,” he said.

It’s been a life-changing 12 months for Koon who saw his ability to play online poker in the USA disappear with Black Friday. He also had a substantial amount of money stuck on Full Tilt Poker.

“It was a big hit financially and in terms of lifestyle,” he said. “I was back home in West Virginia hanging out with some friends and making a pretty great living grinding four or five days a week.”

Like many online pros Koon opted to move to poker player haven Vancouver, Canada, so that he could continue to ply his trade online.

At first the adjustment of moving from the USA was difficult but Koon eventually got into the rhythm of it.

“Vancouver’s a beautiful city and I lived in Coal Harbor and Yaletown, which are both nice areas,” he said.

Despite his good experiences in Vancouver, Koon is once again on the move and plans on living in Cyprus with Chris Moorman for the next while.

“I’ve been bouncing all over the place and it’s been a lot of fun,” he said.

Earlier this year Koon Tweeted that 2012 would be his year and so far he’s lived up to his promise.

At the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Koon made the final table of the $25,000 High Rollers event and ended up finishing in fourth place to take down $271,950.

The final table was no walk in the park with pros Jonathan Duahamel, Isaac Haxton and Randy Lew all competing for first place.

“I was first in chips heading into the final table I was obviously not completely satisfied with fourth but getting fourth in one of the toughest tournaments in the world is never a bad thing,” he said.

Right now Koon is firmly set on making a deep run in the 2012 Aussie Millions. He had nothing but good things to say about the signature Australian event.

“The value is good and the structure is great,” he said. “This is a fantastic tournament.”