WPT Final and WSOPC NOLA Underway, Gold Sells Gold

WPT Championship Begins

The final tournament of the World Poker Tour’s Season 11 began on May 18 with 113 players in action, though only 93 survived the first day of the WPT World Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Many of the season’s champions were in the field with their courtesy entries, and others like Daniel Negreanu and Scotty Nguyen bought in for $25,500. Registration was open for new players and those purchasing their single reentry throughout the night and remained open until the end of Level 8 on Day 2.

Day 1 ended with Will Failla as the chip leader with 276K, followed by Jonathan Kamhazi with 273,300 and Michael Linster with 269K chips.

Day 2 saw some late entries, including Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth. When registration closed, there were 146 entries in total and a $3,540,500 prize pool. The final 15 players would be paid with more than $1.1 million set aside for the winner. Play was set to continue for another couple levels before ending for the night.

Updates provided by WPT Live Updates team.

WSOP Circuit New Orleans Begins Main Event

The last stop on the current season of the World Series of Poker Circuit started on May 9 with several gold ring events at Harrah’s in New Orleans, Louisiana. The $1,675 buy-in Main Event, however, began on May 17 with two starting days and reentry allowed once per flight.

Day 1A brought in 316 players, and another 446 entries were added on Day 1B to make a total field of 762 entries. That created a prize pool of $1,143,000, enough to pay out the top 81 players and reserve $228,600 of that for the winner.

Only 51 players survived Day 1A with Ben Mintz as the chip leader (313,000), and there were 74 remaining after Day 1B with Rahul Deevara as the top contender (446,000).

Day 2 brought the remaining 125 players together, and it didn’t take long to get into the money. Rob Salaburu was the first to make the money, cashing for $2,846 in 81^st place. Some who followed included Aaron Massey, Adam Teasdale, and Jonathan Tamayo. Play was scheduled to continue until 10 levels were complete or the final table was reached.

Jamie Gold Auctioning WSOP Bracelet

Heritage Auctions revealed two items up for bid on its website that might be interesting to poker players: his 2006 World Series of Poker Championship bracelet and 2006 WSOP Corum wristwatch. Both items were won by Jamie Gold when he became the WSOP Main Event champion in 2006 and captured the $12 million first place prize, some of which was contested in a lawsuit in the months that followed.

The bidding may begin on July 13 and run through August 1, though the previews are available now as Heritage seeks expert opinions on worth and verifies authentication.

There has been no word from Gold about the reason for the auction.