Poker pros have been dominating the tournament trail all year, and over the past week some of the biggest names in poker have been racking up wins from Las Vegas, to South Africa, to PokerStars. Here is a look at a few of the wins notched by the game’s elite recently:
Ari Engel wins fourth WSOPC Ring
Ari Engel is now just a single WSOPC ring away from the all-time leaders, Mark Smith and Kyle Cartwright (Cartwright won his fifth ring earlier this year), after defeating the 222 player field at the $1,125 event at the WSOPC Hammond series.
1. Ari Engel — $55,503
2. Darren Rabinowitz — $34,303
3. Corey Burbick — $24,966
4. Jeffery Winchell — $18,464
5. Gregory Jennings — $13,868
6. Matthew Colvin — $10,578
7. Joel Casper — $8,192
8. Ngoc Nguyen — $6,438
9. Corrie Wunstel — $5,135
Melanie Weisner wins side event in South Africa
The poker world has been waiting for Melanie Weisner to breakthrough with a big win on the live tournament trail for quite some time, and even though the $1k side-event at the WPT Emperors Palace Poker Classic in South Africa isn’t quite a major win, it was enough to get the monkey off her back and pick-up her first live win. Weisner defeated 133 players to win the 6-max event and pocket over $40,000.
1. Melanie Weisner — $41,289
2. Lucien Cohen — $23,866
3. Edward Pastoll — $15,481
4. Eric Brand — $10,643
5. Bennie Lengenfelder — $8,192
6. Jarred Solomon — $6,385
Vanessa Selbst wins $5k at Festa al Lago
Apparently dropping out of the Top 10 on the Global Poker Index lit a fire under Vanessa Selbst who defeated a very tough final table to take down a $5k side-event at the 2012 Festa al Lago.
1. Vanessa Selbst — $90,693
2. Justin Young — $61,353
3. Daniel Negreanu — $38,679
4. Dana Kellstrom — $21,340
5. Daniel Shak — $17,339
6. Chris Bjorin — $13,338
7. Andrew Lichtenberger — $9,336
8. Gregory Back — $8,003
9. Rodger Johnson — $6,669
Tom Marchese wins Festa al Lago side event
Another winner at the Festa al Lago was 2010 Cardplayer Magazine Player of the Year Tom Marchese, who won the $2,500 NLHE event at the popular tournament series. Marchese beat a small field of just 37 players, including Doc Sands who finished in 4th place.
1. Thomas Marchese — $34,993
2. Jarrod Klein — $22,431
3. Shawn Presley — $10,767
4. David Sands — $14,356
5. Aurangzeb Sheikh — $7,178
Dan Smith wins the Sunday Million… with a twist
Dan Smith pulled of a rare feat this weekend, not by winning the Sunday Million, but by working an equity chop deal that saw him pocket more than first-place money!
Here is the deal the final five players worked out, leaving $20,000 for the winner:
1. Dan ‘Danny98765’ Smith: $199,504.25
2. tulipaner: $115,841.91
3. Karger222: $102,993.24
4. AMELPADRINO: $89,991.04
5. yurabond: $85,000.00
Smith won the event, bringing his total tally to $219,504.25, which was $8,000 more than the announced first-place prize-money.
