Matt Graham managed to overturn a 13:1 chip deficit to take the $10,000 World Championship of Pot-Limit Omaha title. Graham is no stranger to winning a WSOP bracelet the hard way, last year he fought his way back from being 8:1 behind to win the $1,500 Limit Holdem Shootout. 

The final table included players such as, Barry Greenstein, Vitaly Lunkin, David Williams,  Josh Arieh and 2009 WSOP  $5,000 winner Richard Austin. Matt Graham held a small going into the final table and still had a small lead when he reached the heads-up stage against Vitaly Lunkin. A monster pot decimated Graham’s chipstack and all but handed the win to Lunkin. But Graham even though down to just $600,000,  would not give up without a fight and three double ups later, he had managed to regain the chiplead.

Thirty minutes after having his stack crippled, Matt Graham hit a set of tens that would seal the win. Lunkin took home $419,832 for his second place finish, while Graham collected the top prize of $679,379 and his second WSOP bracelet.

The $5,000 pot-limit Omaha tournament was decided on the third day when Richard Austin took the bracelet with a surprise double elimination in the last hand, knocking out both Cliff Josephy and Sorel Mizzi.

Day 1 started with 363 players starting the event, partly due to the elimination of rebuys from the 2009 WSOP. Among the players at the tables were Omaha specialists like Erik Seidel, Barry Greenstein, John Juanda and Erik Lindgren.

 Defending Champion  Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond would not be reclaiming his title, as he was busted on the first day. The final hand proved something of an anti-climax as Sore Mizzi, Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy and Richard Austin were at the three handed stage. Mizzi and Josephy were both all-in on a flop of  Kc-9d-3c. Josephy had hit top set, but Austin holding Qh-Js-8c-5c, only needed a ten or a club to take pot and the tournament. The turn showed a harmless 8s, but the 7c on the river gave Austin his flush and the title.  At first the tournament director was about to award a split pot between Josephy and Mizzi, before realising that Austin had the better hand and was now the tournament winner. Austin collected $409,484 for the win and the WSOP gold bracelet.

Tom “durrrr” Dwan had managed to cut Patrik Antonius’s lead during the last challenge session, but last night he managed not just only to overturn the Finn’s lead, but to blast into an even bigger lead himself. The session lasted for an amazing fifteen hours and the pair managed to play over 4,500 hands and at the end of play Dwan had taken a lead of $726,000.

With a session like this there was always going to be a lot of big pots to be won, the largest of the session going to Antonius. Dwan got all his money in on the turn with a 6 over 9s full house, only to see it beaten by antonius’s Qs over 6s full and the Finn took the $477,556 pot. But even with that loss it did not stop Dwan retaking the lead of the challenge, as he managed to collect 7 of the 10 biggest pots of the session, giving him a $764,000 profit.

Seems that things are going Tom Dwan ’s way at the moment, not only has he managed to gain a big lead in the challenge, but he has also reduced the losses he suffered at the cash tables earlier in the year. Will he top this run of success off with a WSOP gold bracelet?.

JC Tran won his second gold bracelet of this years WSOP by taking the $2,500 pot-limit Omaha tournament. He came into the final table fourth in the leaderboard, which was lead by the Hendon Mob’s Ross Boatman. Tran fought his way through the final table and actually eliminated five of his last eight opponents.

Dane Theo Jorgensen was Tran’s victim, when he missed his flush draw and Tran made his straight draw on the river. Tran’s pair of kings then bust out Chad Layne in seventh place. While holding the chip lead Tran lost a size able amount of chips when he was involved in a three way pot which saw Jean- Phillipe Leandri triple his stack and Rami Boukai bust out.

Boatman’s better two pair was no good as Tran hit a runner-runner flush with a spade on a river, and he went out in fourth.  Leandri was next to go leaving Tran and Jeff Kimber face each other heads-up. Tran went into the heds-up stage with a 2-1 chiplead and within less than half an hour he had increased it to 5-1. The final hand saw Kimber drawing dead against Tran’s eight over sevens full house.

Although all the top poker players are in Vegas at the moment, it seems a few players are giving more attention to the big high stakes online and in the casinos. Gus Hansen has only entered one event so far, Tom Dwan and Sam Kelopuro have entered two each and Patrik Antonius has so far still not entered a tournament, though Phil Ivey is having a great WSOP this year with two gold bracelets so far.

On Monday Gus Hansen was entertaining Brian Hastings at the ” Hansen Knockout”  table on Full Tilt Poker, playing heads-up $500/$1000 pot-limit Omaha. Hastings did not have the best of sessions, losing all of the six biggest pots. When he did make a hand, he came up against Hansen hitting big draws and taking the pots. After little over fifty hands Hastings was already $350,000 down.

On the same night, there were several games of short-handed $500/$1000 PLO playing at the Full Tilt tables. The lineup included Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Patrik Antonius, Hac “trex313″ Dang, his brother Di “Urindanger” Dang, Gus Hansen, “Bomberman” and Sami “LarsLuzack” Kelopuro. It was the two Finns Antonius and Kelopuro who profited the most with wins of over $400,000.  Dane Gus Hansen also came away with a good profit. While at the other end of the scale it was Bomberman who seemed to supply a few of the winning players with their chips.

Roland de Wolfe won the World Series Of Poker $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tournament and in doing so completed a historic hattrick of wins. It was not only his first WSOP bracelet, but he is only the second man to complete the ”Triple Crown” of  WPT, EPT and WSOP wins.

De Wolfe beat Brett Richey in heads up play to take the title, but faced some very tough opposition to get there. Scott Clements went into the final table as chipleader and it did not take him long to eliminate his first opponent Anthony Lellouche, who started the day in second place in the leaderboard.

Andy Black, who was also chasing his first WSOP bracelet, was knocked out in sixth place by Robert Campbell. Alex Kravchenko was the next player to fall to Scott Clements, going out in fifth place. Campbell had started the day as the shortest stack, but managed to stay in the tournament long enough to get eliminated by the eventual winner in fourth place.

With the table now three handed, De Wolfe managed to get the chiplead, before eliminating the tournament favourite Scott Clements. With a 4-1 chiplead over Brett Richey, it did not take long for De Wolfe to claim the title. Richey collected $152,618 for his second place. Roland de Wolfe took home $246,616, the WSOP gold bracelet and his place in poker history.

Going into the second day of $5,000 pot-limit Omaha hi/lo tournament, 59 players started and by the end of the 3 am deadline, the final table had been set.  Scott Clements holds the chiplead, with Anthony Lellouche some way behind him.

Of the 59 that started Day 2, only 18 would reach the money with Mickey Appleman being the unlucky player to go out in 19th place. A few other notables were eliminated short of the money as well including, Jason Mercier, Chris Reslock, Michael Binger, Eli Elezra and Phil Ivey.

Scott Clements is hoping to collect his third WSOP gold bracelet, but has some tough competition in the final with players like, Andy Black, Roland de Wolfe, Anthony Lellouche and Alex Kravchenko.

After a short session earlier in the week, lasting only an hour in which they played 200 hands, Tom Dwan managed to pull back $36,000 from Patrik Antonius’s lead. But that was small change compared to the challenge session that was played out last night.

After being over $450K in profit, Patrik Antonius found his lead cut to just $36,594 as Tom Dwan stormed back during the 786 hands that were played. Dwan managed to profit to the tune of $376,000, winning all of the five biggest pots of the session. The largest pot of the night saw both players money in the middle on the turn, Antonius’s flush being the favourite over Dwan set of Jacks.  The river paired the board giving Dwan a full house and the $230,000 pot.

So, after 16,000 hands being played, and the durrrr challenge is almost back to square one, it looks like there will be plenty of  challenge action to come despite the distraction of the World Series Of Poker.

Event #18 of the World Series Of Poker saw Daniel Alaei win his second Bracelet by overcoming tough opposition in the $10,000 World Championship of Omaha Hi/Lo tournament. Seventeen competitors started on the last day, but players including Alex Kravchenko, Sam Khouiss and Ville Wahlbeck all went out before the nine handed final table was set.

Scott Clements was chipleader going into the final table, Jonh Monnette was his closest competitor. Also seated at the final table were Annie Duke and Daniel Negreanu. Duke was eliminated in eigth place and Negreanu, who was in his second final table of the WSOP so far, was knocked out in fourth.

Ben Boyd was out in third place, which left Clements and Alaei to battle it out heads-up. Alaei had the chip lead going heads-up play and in the second hand dealt  he finished Clements off.  Clements took home $275,946 for his second place finish and Alaei came away with the winners bracelet and $445,898.

The online high stakes cash games are still making headlines even though the World Series Of Poker is now in it’s second week. As far as Omaha is concerned, it is still Tom”durrrr”Dwan who is at the forefront of the action.  On Sunday night Dwan was not only playing Heads-up $500/$1000 PLO against Gus Hansen, but also took on now six times bracelet winner, Phil Ivey.

Against Hansen, Dwan managed to find himself down to the tune of $1.2 million before overturning the losses and even making a small profit. Dwan went behind very early in the session when he lost two big pots, giving Hansen the momentum to build his lead. But you can never count Dwan out and he started to fight back and wipe out the deficit and make a $4,000 profit. The biggest hand of the session saw Dwan hit a seven high straight flush against Hansen’s King high flush, winning Dwan a huge $672,352 pot.

Phil Ivey ended up down by nearly $500K by the end of their heads-up session.  Again there was plenty of big pots at stake, and again it was Dwan who walked away with the biggest, flopping two pairs, tens and twos and that was enough to beat Ivey’s two pairs of fours and twos. The last two cars improved neither players hand and Dwan took the huge $421,000.

If you want to follow the High Stakes action for yourself, go to Full Tilt Poker .