World Series Of Poker Europe

Playing through a long night and early into this morning, John Juanda took down a strong final table and won the main event of the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe. Russian Stanislav Alekhin finished second after he and Juanda battled for over seven hours and 241 hands heads up. John Juanda was down to a final river card on hand #399 but he caught a miracle straight to stay alive.

This WSOPE final table took 484 hands (a WSOP record for most hands at a final table) and 22 hours (including dinner and other scheduled and unscheduled breaks) finishing after 10 AM local time in London.

Fellow Russian Ivan Demidov finished in third place, Demidov is one of the "November Nine" who will be playing for the WSOP main event championship next month.

Here is how the final nine finished:

1 £ 868,800 John Juanda
2 £ 533,950 Stanislav Alekhin
3 £ 334,850 Ivan Demidov
4 £ 271,500 Bengt Sonnert
5 £ 217,200 Daniel Negreanu
6 £ 171,950 Scott Fischman
7 £ 135,750 Robin Keston
8 £ 108,600 Toni Hiltunen
9 £ 81,450 Chris Elliott

They are down to the final nine in London at the World Series of Poker Europe. Daniel Negreanu is there as is John Juanda. The most interesting player to notice is Ivan Demidov. Why? Because Ivan has another final table to play next month in Las Vegas. Ivan Demidov is one of the November Nine, still in the running for the 2008 WSOP main event bracelet. Now wouldn't this be a double win that would be talked about for a long, long time.

Seat 1: Robin Keston 849,000
Seat 2: Daniel Negreanu 1,002,000
Seat 3: Chris Elliott 281,000
Seat 4: Bengt Sonnert 385,000
Seat 5: John Juanda 1,349,000
Seat 6: Ivan Demidov 1,006,000
Seat 7: Toni Hiltunen 386,000
Seat 8: Scott Fischman 732,000
Seat 9: Stanislav Alekhin 1,278,000

They are down to 24 players in the main event of the World Series of Poker Europe. Still a fair number of big names in the hunt with John Juanda leading the field into Day Four. They will play down from 24 to 9 tomorrow.

Here are the survivors:

Juanda, John - Las Vegas 657,500
Negreanu, Daniel - Las Vegas 653,000
Smith, Justin - Kissimmee, FL 624,500
Rouas, Phillippe - San Francisco, CA 573,000
Lodden, Johnny - Orpezano Italy 478,000
Townsend, Brian - Santa Barbara, CA 424,500
Sonnert, Ben - Linkoping Sweden 346,500
Hiltunen, Toni - Lahti Finland 321,500
Kongsgaard, Soren - Aarhus Denmark 316,500
Demidov, Ivan - Moscow Russia 316,000
Bloch, Andy - Las Vegas 301,000
Fischman, Scott - Las Vegas 298,000
Bergius, Perttu - Espoo Finland 261,000
Judah, Mel - London 254,000
Shakerchi, Talal - London 225,000
Alekhin, Stanislav - Moscow Russia 215,000
Neff, Peter - Los Angeles 213,500
Adams, Brandon - Miami, FL 212,000
Elliott, Christopher - Alloa UK 181,500
Matusow, Mike - Las Vegas 147,500
Seidel, Eric - Las Vegas 85,000
Torsvik, Kim-Andre - Bergen Norway 78,500
Keston, Robin - London 74,000
West, Tim - Los Altos, CA 63,500

The World Series of Poker Europe main event is down to 62 players from the starting field of 362. With so few starting runners compared to the thousands in the Las Vegas WSOP, it is not surprising that the leader board is still full of big name professionals. Here are the players at the top entering day three.

1 Bloch, Andy - Las Vegas 321,600
2 Townsend, Brian - Santa Barbara, CA 290,100
3 Seidel, Erik - Las Vegas 282,300
4 Juanda, John - Las Vegas 252,500
5 Rouas, Phillippe - San Francisco 233,300
6 Elliott, Christopher - Alloa UK 231,900
7 Moorman, Christopher - Brighton UK 219,500
8 Smith, Justin - Kissimmee, FL 217,700
9 Negreanu, Daniel - Las Vegas 203,700
10 Adams, Brandon - Miami, FL 190,000
11 Sointula, Jani - Helsinki Finland 184,800
12 Sonnert, Ben - Linkoping Sweden 184,600
13 Matusow, Mike - Las Vegas 180,300
14 Demidov, Ivan - Moscow Russia 176,200
15 Moreira, Tome - Porto Portugal 165,800
16 Alekhin, Stanislav - Moscow Russia 164,000
17 Williamsson, Christofer - Gothenberg Sweden 163,500
18 Fischman, Scott - Las Vegas 152,800

The 2008 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) announced it will be hosting its event under one roof at the Casino at the Empire, LCI's newest club in the heart of London at Leicester Square.

Now if you are not a poker insider, you may not remember that last year the inaugural World Series of Poker Europe was played at three different London casinos to accommodate all the players. The "under one roof" is just one of the improvements we can expect from the WSOPE now in its second year.

The event to be held from September 19 to October 2, 2008, will feature four bracelet events, which is an addition of one event from last year. Cash games, satellites and more non-bracelet tournaments will also be increased over last year's offerings.

September 19th , 2008 - Event #1 - £1,500 – No-Limit Hold'em Day 1A (3-day event/2 opening days)
September 22nd , 2008 - Event #2 - £2,500 – H.O.R.S.E. (3-day event)
September 24th , 2008 - Event #3 - £5,000 – Pot Limit Omaha (3-day event)
September 27th , 2008 - Event #4 - £10,000 – World Championship No-Limit Hold'em (5-day event)

The final table participants from the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, the "November Nine" were all invited and incentivized, we are told. Thus far three have indicated they will travel to London to play: Ivan Demidov, Peter Eastgate and David Rheem.

For full details of the tournaments and other events here.