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2011 World Series of Poker Day 39: Binger and Anter Take Final Preliminary Bracelets

Day 39 of the 2011 World Series of Poker saw the final two preliminary bracelets of the Series awarded in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event and the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event. Also, another large field descended upon the Rio for Day 1b of the Main Event and one of the featured members of the 2010 November Nine made an early exit.

Event #56: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em

Three players returned on Friday to battle for the final $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em bracelet of the Series. Hassan Anter began as the chip leader with 8.38 million, followed by Nemer Haddad with 3.44 million and Andy Philachack was the short-stack with 3.23 million.

Haddad and Philachack both took hits to their stacks early and Anter quickly extended his lead to 11.2 million. Philachack was the first to fall in a hand that consolidated the short stacks. After Haddad limped from the button, Philachack shoved from the small blind for around 1 million. Haddad made the call and found his  racing with Philachack's pocket threes. A flop of  put Hadad in the lead and Philachack was looking for either a three or running spades. The turn brought the  and gave Philachack 11 outs for the win. Haddad faded those outs when the  fell on the river and Haddad moved up to around 4 million in chips.

Heads-up play between Hassan Anter and Nemer Haddad started with Anter leading with around 12 million in chips to Haddad's 4 million. The heads-up battle started with Haddad picking up a few chips and then giving them right back to Anter. Haddad managed a comeback and took the chip lead briefly when he was able to double up with pocket sixes against Anter's {Ad3c}.

The Weekly Turbo: Poker Hall of Fame, Full Tilt Poker News, and More

If you missed any of the top poker news stories of the week, don't worry, we've got a backup. In this week's edition of the Weekly Turbo, you'll get the details on how to nominate someone for the Poker Hall of Fame, some Full Tilt Poker news, and more.

Nominate Away

According to WSOP communications director Seth Palansky in a press release, the public nomination process is now open for the 2011 Poker Hall of Fame is now open.

After the public nomination process ends, the list will be forwarded to the nominating committee, which will review the submissions and make a list of eligible candidates for the 2011 HoF class. That list will be announced around Sept. 15 and will be voted on by the current members of the Poker Hall of Fame and selected media members.

Criteria for the Poker Hall of Fame

• A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
• Be a minimum of 40 years old at time of nomination [to be known as the “Chip Reese” rule, adopted in 2011, 20 years after Reese’s induction at age 40]
• Played for high stakes

2011 World Series of Poker Day 40: Hellmuth Arrives to the Main Event

With the preliminaries of the 2011 World Series of Poker finally out of the way, everyone's focus is exclusively on the Main Event. Annie Duke, Brad Garrett, and Ray Romano welcomed everyone to the Rio and kicked off Day 1c on Saturday. Day 1c was by far the largest field of the Main Event thus far as 2,181 players turned out to begin their journey toward poker's Holy Grail.

Day 1c also proved to be the day that a sizable number of notable players turned out for their Main Event run. Some of those players included Allen Bari, Jason Somervile, James Akenhead, Chad Brown, David Benyamine, Hoyt Corkins, Karina Jett, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Leigh, Chris Viox, Marco Traniello, Kirill Rabstov, Bernard Lee, Dennis Phillips, Jason Mercier, Andy Bloch, and Daniel Negreanu.

Phil Hellmuth chose Day 1c to make his grand entrance to the Main Event. However, this year his entrance was somewhat toned down. Instead of his typical, nearly circus-style entrance of the past, he showed up to the Rio in a suit and holding an ESPN microphone. ESPN had Hellmuth film some lead-ins for their World Series of Poker broadcast. Hellmuth is no stranger to being on ESPN since he has done commentary for the network in the past. Once his bits with ESPN had been filmed, he was free to focus on poker. Hellmuth had a rough day at the table. His stack fell all the way down to 5,000 chips at one point before he managed a double-up to stay alive. Hellmuth survived Day 1c, but with only 11,800 chips.

A Day in the Life of Vanessa Rousso

The 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event is in full swing and we've decided to follow Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso as she competes on Day 1d of the Main Event. Rousso, a French-American duel citizen born in New York, became interested in game theory while studying at Duke University.

Her first big live tournament cash came in April 2006 when he took seventh in the World Poker Tour $25,000 No-Limit Championship for $263,625. Only a few months later, she won the WPT Borgata Open $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em for $285,450. She has continued to dominate the live tournament circuit, finishing second in the 2009 NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship for $250,000, third in the 2010 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $358,964, and fifth in the 2011 European Poker Tour Madrid High Roller event for $148,423. Her lifetime live tournament winnings exceed $3 million.

We're bringing you an inside look at her day and show you what it's like to compete in the world's biggest live poker tournament.

PokerStars.net NAPT Los Angeles Day 3: Jason Mercier Third in Chips with 19 Players Remaining

At the start of the Day 3, 81 players returned for the 2010 PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour Los Angeles Main Event at the Bicycle Casino. All players were in the money but looking to navigate the field and make the last final table of NAPT Season 1. By night’s end only 19 players remained, with Christopher DeMaci emerging as the Day 3 chip leader with 3.783 million.

DeMaci’s chips seemed to steadily rise throughout the day in a number of big confrontations. In one hand, Jimmie Guinther raised to 30,000 from middle position and DeMaci reraised to 84,000 from the cutoff. Paul Kuzmich then moved all-in for a little over 400,000 on the button. Guinther got out of the way and DeMaci made the quick call.

DeMaci: 
Kuzmich: 

The board ran out  and DeMaci won the pot to move up to 1.325 million. Later in the day, another big hand developed when Al Grimes raised to 50,000 from middle position, Mike Leah reraised to 116,000 from the hijack and DeMaci four-bet to 225,000 on the button. Grimes folded and then Leah tanked for a little bit before moving all-in for over 500,000. DeMaci quickly called.