Super Senior Poker Tournament Las Vegas

[Karri Pretty]

I feel great, it's always been on my bucket list. Hopefully I'll win a bracelet in an open event, too, but man, this is a dream come true," replied an elated Jazayeri when he was asked how he was feeling.

"No, I hate playing short stack but it's the easiest way to play. You either shove or you fold, and I was very lucky with a couple of hands like when I had ace-five against kings. Super, super lucky. Then I won a race with ace-queen against jacks, so it all worked out. Luck is a part of this game,".

"It was pretty standard, I mean in a few hands I got very lucky, in a few hands I got very unlucky. That's poker," Jazayeri responded with when asked how the initial days of the tournament went for him.

"That's a good question. For one thing, there are less pros in them, and people tend to be a little less aggressive. You get some amateurs in the game so I would confess it's an easier field than most poker fields but still pretty tough to beat over three-thousand players,".

"I've already qualified for the Main Event so I'm going to play that on 5th July. Maybe there's some online tournaments in the next few days and of course the [bracelet] ceremony, other than that, I'm going to play the Main [Event]," were Jazayeri's final words on what's next for him at this year's WSOP.

The day started with eleven hopefuls looking to ladder up the payouts and get their hands on the bracelet but it was a short day for one as Philip Muller was eliminated in the opening level by Eminoglu.

When the unofficial final table got underway, Eminoglu held a sizable chip lead over the field with almost a third of the chips in play, and way over double the stack of Jazayeri who was second at the time.

Buck Bucceri was sent to the rail in ninth and fan favorite Kevin Song followed in eighth when his king-ten was cracked by the king-seven of Manelic Minaya. Song already sits at the top of South Korea's all-time money list and extends his lead at the summit to nearly two-million dollars.

A pivotal moment of the final table came next when Felix Barriga, who was second in chips at the table, clashed in a pot with the chip leader Eminoglu. Barriga limp-shoved from the small blind over Eminoglu's raise from the big blind and found himself flipping with king-queen against the Turkish player's pocket jacks. A jack on the flop sealed the pot to Eminoglu which saw him hold over half of the chips in play, while Barriga was eliminated in sixth.

Play wasn't five-handed for long as the UK's Gary Fisher was the next player to feel the force of Eminoglu's run-good after the two got the chips in preflop. Fisher held ace-jack and held the lead until the river card gave Eminoglu a straight with his queen-nine. Fisher's payday of $101,606 is a career-best score for the British player and saw him move up thirty-nine spots on his country's all-time money list.

Jazayeri was then on the brink of elimination after he committed his stack with ace-five and was way behind the pocket kings of Runge. As if by magic, two fives fell on the flop which improved Jazayeri to trips and brought him back into contention for the bracelet.

It was Minaya who fell just short of the podium places after he flopped top pair with king-eight but was way behind to the pocket kings of Runge, who had top set. Despite picking up both flush and straight draws on the turn, the river bricked out which meant Minaya was eliminated in fourth.

Runge had Jazayeri at risk during three-handed play but his ten-nine suited wasn't able to improve against the winner's ace-king. Not long after that, Runge was sent to the rail after he got the chips in on the flop with a straight draw and couldn't beat the flopped pair of Eminoglu.

Eminoglu held an over two-to-one chip lead going into heads-up play and extended that lead early on to an over three-to-one lead. With all of the momentum, it seemed certain that Eminoglu was just moments away from being crowned the victor but Jazayeri had other ideas and the comeback began.

The roles had been fully reversed not long after as Jazayeri won pot after pot and eventually gained the chip lead for the first time when he check-shoved the river and forced a fold from his opponent.

Luckily for Jazayeri, that decision would not come back to haunt him as in the final hand of the tournament, Jazayeri had shoved with ace-ten and Eminoglu made the call holding ace-eight. The board ran clean for Jazayeri which meant he was crowned the winner, and Eminoglu had to settle for second. The journey home may be a bittersweet one for Eminoglu but the payday of $238,748 will certainly help ease the pain.

Poker structures are constantly evolving and one of the important ways, at the WSOP at least, is that no-limit tournaments have antes from the first level. This makes the early levels important and coming in late like in the old days, when the early levels with small blinds were relatively meaningless, is a mistake. The advantage held by good players in tournaments is getting the chips from the live amateurs before they get broke (more on this in another post).

Sure enough, they got broke (actually, these guys went broke!), mostly at the hands of new players to the table. After the dinner break with two one-hour levels left to play, I was back to around my 20k starting stack. At this point, my stack was in Kill Phil all-in stage, so I started successfully moving in aggressively, picking up significant blinds and antes.

I agree, great read, there is nothing more frustrating than watching idiots burn chips and you get zero decent hands to challenge them, of course my luck dictates that when I call the burners they got trips or a flush. Las Vegas is all about the senior line being 60, and as a 61 year old I appreciate that, weird that the WSOP Senior event was ever 65. And the ending bad beat story is familiar, recently I showed down with pocket Queens vs pocket Tens, of course the river was a Queen to give my opponent a straight..

Blair I can only imagine what was going thru your mind and the feeling you had when you saw that window card being a King and having been dealt pocket Kings. Only to lose the pot on the turn, that sucks for sure. For your opponent to have made the all-in call pre-flop holding pocket Tens how more did he have in chips? Was it just a little more in chips and the player needed to make a move or did the player have more than double or triple your stack?

The last time I played poker with people a fist fight almost happened between me and another guy where many curse words were spoken after the hand, this guys wife was playing at the table as well and she and I were involved in the hand that triggered the event. It was a crazy scene.

Since im in facebook jail for another 9 days, dont know if this will get printed, but i loved your article! The seniors and the super seniors are my favorite events but this year i had to pass. Thanks for your view. Im ready for the super duber senios with 70 as the starting age! Whos with me!?

First, this weekend, "Molly's Game," the latest poker movie du jour based on a true story of the underground poker world, was released in theaters across the U.S. The initial buzz surrounding the movie is extremely positive; thus, the poker world hopes to have a new favorite Hollywood poker movie.

In recent weeks, PokerStars announced its Players Championship in 2019 in which it will add at least $8 million into the prize pool and an additional $1 million more to the winner. The online poker site will give away at least 300 seats to the $25,000 buy-in event throughout their 2018 season, creating a monstrous event to kick off the 2019 year at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Finally, the 2018 World Series of Poker schedule was just released, which revealed that this year will have 78 bracelet events during the summer series -- including the return of the $1 million Big One For One Drop. Once again held at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino, the 2018 WSOP plans on being the biggest and best poker tournament series ever.

The poker year traditionally kicks off down in the warm weather of the Bahamas at the Atlantis Casino Resort. Thousands of players from around the world gather to play in this PokerStars extravaganza. With dozens of tournaments, the buy-ins were affordable for all types of players, ranging from $110 all the way up to the $100,000 Super High Roller.

Throughout the year, many A-list celebrities, including athletes, actors and actresses, tried their hand on the felt. To kick off 2017, actor and comedian extraordinaire Kevin Hart registered for the high-roller and main event at the PokerStars Championship Bahamas. He joked with the players throughout the entire event, and most players had only kind words to say about the affable megastar.

Overall, Hart helped increase the visibility and popularity of the game of poker. During the year, he also participated in a hilarious PokerStars campaign with eight-time Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt and six-time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu.

As the tour entered its 16th season, the World Poker Tour had never had a female champion in an open event. In 2008, Van Nguyen won the WPT Celebrity Invitational, no woman had ever won one of the main tour events that was fully open to the public. Over the initial decade and a half, several women have made televised final tables. One such player was Ema Zajmovic, who made the final table in November 2016 at her hometown casino, the Playground Poker Room in Montreal. At that final table, longtime WPT host Mike Sexton won on home turf by beating a stellar final table to become a WPT champion .

As the WPT returned to Montreal in February this year, Zajmovic had one goal in mind: to win the title that had eluded her the previous November. Amazingly, she once again made the final table, and this time she accomplished her objective -- lifting the championship belt over her head and taking home just more than $200,000 to break that unlikely drought.

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