Wsop Updates : June 4, 2011

Written on 6/4/11 : Jake Cody is shaping up to be a major poker star
 
The 22-year-old Brit online and live tournament player Jake Cody proved yet again that he is a formidable opponent when he took down the World Series of Poker $25 000 buy-in Heads Up NLHE Championship event, besting a some 128 top players culminating in runner up Yevgeniy Timoshenko.
 
The young Brit's latest victory, which gave him a WSOP gold bracelet and $851 192 in cash, means he has achieved poker's Triple Crown – a EPT victory in France and a major WPT triumph in London last year…and now a WSOP title.
 
Before facing off against Timoshenko, Cody easily polished off Brandon Adams, Frank Kassela, Dani Stern, Jonathan Jaffe, Anothony Guetti and Gus Hansen in the semi-final.
 
It is a notable achievement for any poker player, placing Cody among the most dangerous and underestimated players at this year's WSOP.
 
Timoshenko's second placing was worth $525 980.
 
Also concluding Friday was the $1500 buy-in Omaha Hi Lo Split 8 or Better event, which InfoPowa left on Thursday with Francesco Barbaro in the chip lead, just ahead of Matt Waxman.  Friday saw the duo continue to fight it out in the 925 entry, $1.25 million prize pool competition.
 
Kostas Kalathakis entered the picture as play progressed, proving himself to be a player to watch as he made his way through the steadily diminishing field.  In the end it was not Waxman facing the dominant Barbaro in the heads up, but Kalathakis, with Waxman busting out at third.
 
Barbaro continued to stamp his control on the game with a significant chip lead to finally vanquish Kalathakis and claim the bracelet and main prize of $262 283, leaving the runner up's check for $161 675 to his opponent.
 
Friday was also Day 2 of the $5 000 NLHE event, which attracted 865 players, with only 243 of them surviving into the second day.
 
When InfoPowa went to press in the early hours of Saturday morning Vegas time the field was down to 54, with Ricky Fohrenbach holding a significant chip lead over his closest rival and play cracking along at a brisk pace.
 
Friday's big disappointment was the postponement of the last of the new Grudge Matches. The recreation of the 1988 Main Event classic clash between Johnny Chan and Erik Seidel had been much anticipated, but had to be delayed due to Seidel still being locked into the $1 500 Omaha Hi Lo competition.
 
Meanwhile, two more WSOP events launched; the $1 500 Limit Hold'em and the $10 000 Pot Limit Hold'em World Championship.
 
675 players ponied up the $1 500 buy-in for the former, and by early Saturday morning the field was down to only 135, led convincingly by Chris Tryba.
 
The host of big name players who entered the event included Daniel Negreanu, Jeff Schulman, Phil Gordon, Bill Chen, Brock Parker, Tony Dunst, Tom Schneider, Matt Matros, Chino Rheem, Jennifer Harman and J.J. Liu.
 
Those that did not survive the day included Daniel Negreanu, Jean-Robert Bellande, Allen Cunningham, Joe Sebok, Steve Billirakis, and Phil Gordon.
 
The latter made the quote of the day during play, observing that US enforcement action against online poker in a nation that offered every other kind of gambling was:  "…kinda like Prohibition, when you're only banning vodka, but gin, whiskey and rum are all fine."
 
The $10 000 Pot Limit Hold'em World Championship also attracted a star-studded entry field of 249, which was lower than last year's 268 entries but still developed a prize pool worth $2.34 million.
 
Among the recognisable names were:
 
Andrew Robl
Isaac Haxton
Praz Bansi
Annette Obrestad
Dwight Pilgrim
Jason Somerville
Kathy Liebert
David Singer
Olivier Busquet
Andy Frankenberger
Justin Young
Lee Watkinson
David "Devilfish" Ulliott
Shannon Shorr
Dan Shak
Beth Shak
Jeffrey Lisandro
Nikolay Evdakov
Barry Greenstein
Thomas Keller
Todd Terry
David Benyamine
Men "The Master" Ngueyn
David Chiu
Justin Bonomo
Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier
Frank Kassela
Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy
Kunimaro Kojo
Jonathan Duhamel and
Vitaly Lunkin
 
By early Saturday morning local time the field had thinned to 171 with McLean Karr leading comfortably.