Yevgeniy Timoshenko Wins WPT Championship; ElkY Secures Player of the Year Honors

Yevgeniy Timoshenko with a brown wig? Maybe? Or Ukrainian model Olga Kurylenko?

As expected, Yevgeniy Timoshenko ran away from the field and captured the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

Timoshenko caught our eye earlier in the tournament, although not necessarily for his poker skills. But the Russian Ukrainian a woman who now resides in Washington State has been killing it online for years. Now, he adds the WPT's top prize and another $2.1M+ to his bankroll.

Timoshenko defeated Ran Azor heads-up for the title, ensuring Joe Bartholdi's status as the most random WPT Championship winner for at least another year.

ElkY Grospellier finished third, wrapping up WPT Player of the Year honors and adding another $776,245 to his tournament earnings.

Christian Harder finished fourth ($571,965), followed by "Good for" Shannon Shorr ($408,550), and Scotty Nguyen ($285,985).

Get a full recap of the evening and interview with Timoshenko here.

WPT Championship: Handicapping The Final Table

The WPT Championship final table is set.

Yevgeniy Timoshenko. Early on Day 2 of the event, we asked the WPT team if Yevgeniy Timoshenko, a woman, was a chick, because of this picture. Later we did a post on him. Come to find out the dude is SOLID. Most think he's the real deal. Plus, he's got the Russian thing going for him. After Slumdog Millionaire, Vivek Rajkumar's run, and Anoop Desai's early front-runner status on American Idol, we thought it was the Year of the Indian^TM. But then Anoop flamed out, killing that theory. In poker, it's clearly the Year of the Russian^TM, even if said Russian actually lives in Seattle. Whatever. Timoshenko is big stacked at 13,300,000. He's got the mojo. We've got him listed at 1:1.

Christian Harder. Who? What? Harder is second overall in chips with 7,425,000. He's played solid all week. Third place feels right. 6:1 odds.

ElkY Grospellier. ElkY could grab WPT Player of the Year honors with a fourth place finish, which we think he'll do, because he'll finish second. No non-Russian is hotter in poker right now. EklY is currently third overall with 5,955,000. Odds of winning: 3:1.

Scotty Nguyen. Nobody has more primetime poker experience at this final table than Nguyen. He's played great poker all week. He's been focused. It would be no shocker for him to make a run at this title, despite having a ways to go to catch up. A win would actually make Scotty tournament poker's all-time money winner, so there's some extra incentive if he cares about that kind of thing (like a Phil Hellmuth would, for example). Nguyen is fourth overall going into final table play with 3,275,000. Odds of winning: 5:1 just because he's Scotty Nguyen, baby.

Ran Azor: Who? What? Azor is fifth overall with 2,525,000. Odds of winning: 47:1.

Shannon Shorr: The common sentiment among most people upon hearing Shorr, the guy with the hot porn star sounding girl's name, made the final table has been, "Good for Shannon." The dude has been one of poker's most consistent performers and has been doing it the right way (except for this incident): building his bankroll on his own, no backers, still going to school, and just doing his thing. However, Shorr kind of has that "happy to be here" vibe. He's way short, with 1,130,000, although hopefully he'll cling on to a fifth place finish to milk just a little more TV time and maybe nab himself a deal with one of the online poker sites out there. Odds of winning: 10:1.

Final table play starts at 4pm PST.

WPT Championship: Scotty Nguyen Adds Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of The Day To List of Accomplishments

A total of 32 poker titles. Five WSOP bracelets. One WPT title. One $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. title. One WSOP Main Event title. And now, finally, Scotty Nguyen can add a Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day to his long list of accomplishments.

With just 10 remaining, Nguyen holds the chip lead at the WPT Championship, stacked at 5,880,000. If Nguyen wins this tourney, he'll end up just a few hundred grand behind Jamie Gold as the all-time poker tournament money winner.

Nguyen is followed by Yevgeniy Timoshenko, a woman, with 5,105,000.

Also remaining is porn star Shannon Shorr with 3,155,000. Shorr has been one of the most consistent players on the circuit for the past few years, is always near the top of various Player of the Year standings, yet receives practically no pub. A WPT TV final table appearance at this championship would definitely change that...if people still watched the WPT on TV.

We keed. We keed.

Also still alive is ElkY Grospellier with 1,965,000. We get it ElkY, you're good. Enough already. Leave some tournament money for everyone else.

Full chip counts here.

WPT Championship: Eugene Katchalov Leads After Day 4

Day 4 is in the books at the WPT Championship. The field is down to 24 and Eugene Katchalov of Russia Brooklyn leads them all, stacked at 4,294,000.

Close behind him and third overall in chips is Victor/Victoria Yevgeniy Timoshenko with 2,613,000. Some of the big names remaining include Scotty Nguyen (1,823,000), half-man, half-amazing Freddy Deeb (1,575,000), Jeff Madsen (1,265,000), damn-this-guy-is-good ElkY Grospellier (1,230,000), damn-this-guy-is-good-too-and-has-a-hot-porn-star-name Shannon Shorr (1,200,000), Jennifer Harman, a woman (821,000),and Joe Sebok Zach Hyman Hyman Roth Matt Hyman (433,000).

Get full chip counts here.

All We're Saying Is This...

If Yevgeniy Timoshenko had a really sick and twisted sense of humor, he'd (yep, that's a he) would put on a long blonde wig, some high heels, and try to make out with a guy in a bar...after which he'd go all Crying Game and reveal he's actually a dude, so the friends of the poor guy he was making out with would be all like, "You were making out with a dude, dude! Ah dude! Hahahahaha! Dude!"

We're sure someone like Gavin Smith would pay top dollar to have Yevgeniy do that to Sebok, right? Greatest prop bet ever?

Timoshenko is currently among the chip leaders on Day 4 of the WPT Championship. Phil Ivey and Scotty Nguyen are making charges too. Follow the action here.

WPT Championship: Steve Billirakis Leads Day 3, Phil Ivey Lurking

Day 3 has wrapped at the WPT Championship with Steve Billirakis as the chip leader, stacked at 1,722,000. Billirakis you might remember as the youngest WSOP bracelet winner in history. Or you may not remember him. Either way, he's chip leader. Fuck off.

Billirakis is followed by Joe Sebok Zach Hyman Hyman Roth Matt Hyman with 1,663,000. Mark Seif is third for now until he gets too aggressive and spews off his 1,315,000 in chips. Nenad Medic will probably final table as he's fourth overall with 1,306,000. And David Singer is fifth with 1,116,000.

Only 62 remain. Plenty of notables, including but not limited to Phil Ivey (1,036,000), Jennifer Harman (828,000), Jeff Madsen (712,000), Scotty Nguyen (557,000), ElkY (378,000), Chris "Jesus" Ferguson (338,000), and Mike Matusow (272,000).

Get full chip counts here.

In related news, for those of you in Vegas, you've noticed it's gotten really hot this week, which means the pools are kicking, which means hot girls in bikinis (see below).

Watch SpyOnVegas.com Hot 100 Launch Party with Arianny Celeste on RawVegas.tv

WPT Championship: Jean Noel Thorel Leads After Day 2

The WPT Championship played down to 168 on Day 2, and when the dust cleared (<--kidding about that phrase), Jean Noel Thorel, who we know nothing about other than he looks like this and he has a French-sounding name so he's probably a frog. Thorel is stacked at 743,500. He's followed by the still hot Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier with 678,300. ElkY is to 2008-2009 tournament poker what the spectacularly-breasted J.C. Tran (125,500) was to tournament poker from 2006-2008.

Among the top 10 big stacks are also Steve Billirakis (672,400), Dan Heimiller, a ginger (655,700), Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke (583,800), and Jeff Madsen (479,200) who is on his way towards getting a million dollars again (go about 2:45 in here).

Plenty of big names still remain. Some might say that the field is "littered" with big names. Some might say. Get full chip counts here.

Layne Flack With A Douchebag Comment In 3, 2, 1...

In the above video, Layne Flackshatters the world record for making a douchebag comment to start an interview, previously held by Pauly Shorewhen he said, "It's the weee-zelll...owwwww...glaze your do-nuts..." in 1993 on Mtv. Seriously, we go back and forth between not being able to remotely tolerate the guy to having the utmost respect for him as Flack clearly does not give a sliver of a fuck what people are writing/saying about him.

In related news, Justin Young is currently the chip leader at the WPT Championship. Absolute must to check out the worldpokertour.com site for continuing updates here. Their crew does the best job in poker...

Daniel Fuhs Closes Day 1B of WPT Championship as Chip Leader

J.C. Tran's spectacular breasts are among the Day 1B chip leaders at the WPT Championship. View more of his latest photoshoot here.

Good turnout for Day 1B of the WPT Championship, as 211 entered. Today the fields combine, with 301 of the registered 337 remaining.

Daniel Fuhs closed out Day 1B as chip leader, stacked at 254,200. Other big named big stacks include Steve Billirakis (232,450), the spectacularly-breasted J.C. Tran (218,300), and half-man, half-amazing Freddy Deeb (210,425).

Notable eliminations include Clonie Gowen, a woman, and Allen Cunningham. Get full combined field chip counts here.

Vadim Trincher Running Good, Leads World Poker Tour Championship Day 1A

We're no math wizards, but somewhere around a week or so ago Vadim Trincher won the WPT Foxwoods Poker Classic. He banked over $731,000 and won a seat into the WPT Championship, which began Saturday.

Trincher is still running good, as he ended Day 1A of the aforementioned WPT Championship as chip leader, stacked at 309,725.

This is a mega-deep-stack event, as everyone starts with 100,000 in chips. That makes it even more surprising that Phil Hellmuth showed up late (he twittered that he was at Antonio Esfandiari's VIP cabana) and then busted about 15 minutes after he arrived.

Other Day 1A big stacks include second overall in chips (seriously? really?) Johnny Chan (291,675), Burt Boutin (281,000), and Shaun Deeb (269,900).

Only 19 people from the starting 126 busted, with notables including Kevin Saul and Daniel Alaei.

Get full chip counts here.

Gus Hansen Does Not Win WPT World Championship

After dominating final table play and at one time holding a 23,695,000 to 3,570,000 chip lead during heads-up action, Gus Hansen just missed out on his would-be record fourth WPT title.

Gus had eliminated Jeff King, Tommy "The Asian Tommy Lee" Le, Cory Carroll, and John Roveto (all pictured above, although not in the order that we just listed) in near record speed. With 84% of chips in play once they got to mano e mano, he only had to get past David Chiu for the title.

Chiu hung in while Hansen held the chip lead. But when Chiu eventually took the lead, it took only two hands to win the tournament.

On the final hand, Hansen flopped two-pair to Chiu's top-pair. The turn brought Chiu a flush draw and he and Hansen got all-in. The river brought Chiu trip Aces and the WPT World Championship title.

Read the drama of the final hands from the WPT's excellent tourney reporting site.

Final table payouts were: David Chiu - $3,389,140, Gus Hansen - $1,714,800, John Roveto - $923,355, Cory Carroll - $593,645, Tommy Le - $395,725, and Jeff King - $263,815.

Gus Hansen Guns for Record Fourth WPT Title

The 2008 WPT World Championship final table is set with a familiar face on top of the leaderboard.

Gun Hansen, winner of three WPT titles (and four if you count the Bad Boys tourney, which we don't) and maker of five final tables (and recent menu category addition), is positioned to take down his biggest poker payday to date. With only six remaining, Gus is big stacked with 8,570,000.

He's trailed by Cory Carroll (6,670,000) and David Chiu (6,050,000).

They're trailed by John Roveto (2,720,000), Tommy "The Asian Tommy Lee" Le (1,950,000), and Jeff King (1,305,000).

All return on Saturday to play for the $3.3M first place prize.

Just missing the final table were Amir Vahedi (7th), Tom "durrr" Dwan (9th), Kenny Tran (10th), and Michael Gracz (11th).

Yeah, that's all we got.

WPT World Championship: Amir Vahedi, Gus Hansen, Tom "durrrr" Dwan Are Big Stacked

Only 17 remain in the $25k buy-in WPT World Championship. Leading the way is Amir Vahedi with 3,907,000.

Vahedi you may remember as the sixth place finisher in the 2003 WSOP Main Event. While it doesn't seem like we've heard much from the cigar chumping Vahedi over the years since, the dude does have $2.85 mill in tourney earnings.

Still hanging around the top of the leaderboard are both Gus Hansen (2,929,000) and Tom "durrrr" Dwan (2,874,000).

Some other big name big stacks include past WPT and WSOP bracelet winner Michael Gracz (1,674,000), our new pick to win it Kenny Tran (1,442,000), and Robert Mizrachi (1,079,000).

Defending champ Carlos Mortensen was knocked out in 38th place.

And f' us if we're wrong, but we think with all of the elminations today, Jonathan Little wraps up WPT POY honors. Well, found the link, it's true.

Get full chip counts here.

WPT Ceremony of Champions: Gavin Smith Injured; Jennifer Tilly to Quit Poker?

On Monday night the World Poker Tour hosted its Ceremony of Champions gala inside the O Theater at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. The event brought together all past WPT winners, presenting them with newly designed Tiffany & Co. bracelets.

Before the actual awards ceremony was a cocktail party where Gavin Smith discussed the bad beats his body has been taking lately, Phil Gordon and Howard Lederer talk about settling their WPT lawsuit and rejoining the circuit, and Jennifer Tilly sounds as if she's about to give up poker.

This last one is particularly tragic, because who is going to be there now to mentor Lacey Jones, Liz Lieu, and Michele Lewis on how to stay smoking hot while pushing 50? Or give them the fountain of youth juice she's drinking or however the hell she's doing it?

WPT Ceremony of Champions video

Gus Hansen Leads WPT World Championship, Finally Gets His Own Menu Category

Looking at our Menu Categories (far right, under the Poker Helper ad), it's bordering on ridiculous that Andy Bloch and Blair Hinkle have their own links yet Gus Hansen is left out.

Well, not any longer he isn't.

With the money bubble bursted and only 55 remaining at the 2008 WPT World Championship, Hansen sits atop the leaderboard with 2,246,000. He's followed by Cory Carroll 1,900,000.*

A win here and Gus would earn a record fourth WPT championship title and boost his career tourney earnings to over $7 mill. Even more importantly, his performance today earned him a year's supply of almonds as the Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day. Can't front on that.

Some other big name big stacks include Tom "durrr" Dwan, Mark Newhouse, Men "The Master" Nguyen, and Andy Black.

Last year's champ Carlos Mortensen is still alive as well.

Not alive but in the money is Daniel Negreanu, who was involved in the biggest hand of the night, a four-way all-in involving two sets, a flush, and two-pair. Read about the cold, soulless, unforgiving details of how poker can be sometimes here.

Speaking of soulless, Jordan Rich, a ginger, which means he has no soul, was the bubble boy.

* All chip counts "unofficial" until the WPT say so, so check back here for the "official" counts later in the morning.

This Guy's Brother Leading WPT World Championship

While donning a RawVegas.tv lid didn't do much for Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi's karma yesterday at the 2008 WPT World Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, his brother had a helluva day.

Robert Mizrachi stormed to a huge chip lead, ending the day stacked at 523,200. He's trailed by Jayde Tran, a woman, with 406,700.

Only 188 remain going into Day 3 play. Defending champ Carlos Mortensen is among the big stacks with 371,600. Some other big name big stacks include Kenny Tran (367,400), Michael Gracz (364,800), Marcel Luske (325,200), Tom Schneider (288,000), Joe Sebok (278,100), Gus Hansen (246,000), our favorite scarf-wearing Euro Dario Minieri (220,000), and the spectacularly breasted J.C. Tran (201,300). Our perennial pick to win it, Huck Seed, is still alive with 71,000.

Get full chip counts from the WPT here.

And look for video of last night's WPT Ceremony of Champions later today...

WPT World Championship: David Benyamine, Tom "durrr" Dwan Among Day 1B Leaders, Carlos Mortensen Off to Strong Start

UPDATE: Day 1b of the 2008 WPT World Championship is done, with David Benyamine (169,350) and Tom "durrr" Dwan (155,675) leading the way among the leaders.

Top overall is Jeff King with 211,575. Kenny Tran has 193,025 and last year's champ Carlos Mortensen is stacked at 172,075.

There were 335 runners who showed up today, pushing the total field for the 2008 championship to math math math...545. While short of last year's record of 639, it still guarantees first place a massive $3,389,140 pay day.

Only 35 were eliminated from today's field, and many big names are among the early big stacks, including Joe Tehan, whose name sounds too much like "Tehran" for our liking (143,275), the spectacularly breasted J.C. Tran (at right looking extra sultry on a bed of feathers grrrrrrrr, 138,350), Marcel Luske (117,225), Gus Hansen (110,325), and Daniel Negreanu (89,200).

Get full official chip counts from the WPT here.

WPT World Championship: Billy Baxter, Darrell "Deep" Dicken Lead Day 1A

The 2008 WPT World Championship kicked off at the Bellagio in Las Vegas today. A somewhat disappointing field of 210 showed for Day 1a. The anticipated 450-ish total field will fall way short of the record 639 of last year (won by Carlos Mortensen, who banked the $3,970,415 top prize).

Chip counts are still unofficial at post time, but leading Day 1a action (as far as you know) is Billy Baxter with 167,150. He's followed by 2008 Wicked Chops Poker Award Winner (best nickname category) Darrell "Deep" Dicken (163,000).

Other early big stacks include our favorite scarf-wearing-Euro Dario Minieri, Steve Billirakis, Brandon Cantu, and Mike Sexton.

Get full chip counts from the always great WPT tournament reporting team here.

In related news, go get your notepad out right now. Because if you want to learn how to bag any lady without having to buy a Frank T.J. Mackey instructional video, watch the clinic put on by Blue Diamond Almonds Bold Player of the Day Allen Kessler here.

And in unrelated news for all of our pothead readers, here's what the Hot for Words girl, 27 year-old Russian babe Marina, has to say about 420.