Sit back and enjoy some of the best of his verbal syphilis. Caution: your laughter may ripple so far down into your gut that you might toss up your TV dinner.

• “When I watch myself on TV, I am a bit compelling..”
• “I am the Jack Nicklaus of poker, the Tiger Woods of poker, the Mozart of poker.”
• “Let me complain–it’s good for television.”
• “Honey, I was supposed to go broke on that hand. But they forgot one thing: I can dodge bullets baby!”
• “Come on Sam, you know my heart is pure.”
• “If there weren’t luck involved, I would win every time.”
• “It’s like I can look into their souls.”
• “What’s my name? Am I Phil Hellmuth? Is that ace-king? That’s gotta be good.”
• “Poker is 100% skill and 50% luck.”
• Random Guy – “I’ve seen a lot worse.”
  Hellmuth – “Not from me buddy–nine-time world champion!”
• “This donk puts it 1500 with a jack-king?! You’ll never see me put my tournament life on with jack-king.”
• “This fricking donkey stuffs $15,000 in with king-jack. I mean, the guy can’t even spell ’poker’.”
• “He called a raise with queen-ten, honey.”
• “Idiot player…”
• “How are these players still in this tournament?”
• “It’s just so sick.”
• “They have no concept of poker.”
• “Idiot players calling with queen-ten…they don’t even know how to spell poker.”
• “He called me with five-seven…idiot from Northern Europe.”
• “God, do I ever catch a break?”
• “Honey–I hope he doesn’t have aces.”
• “Wow,**** ****ing guy reraised me and then **** didn’t think he’d reraise me with ace ****ing ten, couldn’t ****ing put him on that ****ing hand, ace ****ing ten, couldn’t put him on that mother***ing hand. He reraised me, I knew he was ****ing weak before the flop, that’s all I knew. Wow, they ****ing destroyed me so far these mother****ers, they have no ****ing clue in these ****ing pots either, it’s ****ing sick. Good hand, Daniel! Good betting!”
• “What a ****ing sucker.”
• “Beautiful game, boys.”
• “That’s why I’m the best player in the world, because I can talk people into stuff.”
• “I’m just in patient mode, just waiting for you guys to give me money.”
• “You look ridiculous to the pros…that’s all I’m saying. I don’t even think you know that.”
• “What the hell is going on here in this fricken game?”
• “I got the sucker totally setup again–they found a freakin jack.”
• “I mean, they play so bad. How can they freaking punish me?”
• “Can you get the shuffling machine going or what? I can’t take this.”
• “I need a White Russian please. Make it a double.”
• “It’s not like poker anymore. It’s like, it’s like the Worldwide Wrestling Federation.”
• “Nice hand, buddy.”
• “I was rooting for you to move in so I could snap call, you know?”
• “How could she call a raise with a king-queen?”
• “You might have aces. This is sick.”
• “This idiot guy over here…”
• “He’s just a crazy guy trying to go broke.”
• “This is how I lose my money, to some idiot
• “Buddy, you’re an idiot. That’s what you are.”
• “Did you see what this idiot just did?”
• “You’re the worst player around.”
• “You won’t last 10 minutes tomorrow.”
• “To you, it’s poker man. To me, this is my life.”
• “I’ve made $20 million on my reading abilities”
• “I trapped her four times and she finally went for it.”
• “Son, you’re the sucker.”
• “We’ll see if you’re even around in five years.”
• “Of course I played the hand like a ****ing genius. That’s what I do.”
• “Come on, lay it down. Let’s go.”
• “This freaking punk. He sticks 15,000 with king-jack.”
• “Learn how to fold a hand.”
• “Some of the worst players in the world…I can’t believe this is the World Series of Poker.”
• “That maniac put all that money all-in with two sevens, honey.”
• “That’s about the worst hour of poker I’ve ever had in my life.”
• “Goddamn worst players in the world around here.”
• “I wish you’d lay me four and a half to one against these ****ing guys the rest of my life. What a ****ing idiot.”
• “Well, I mean, come on, I’ve been card dead all day. I’m still in there because I play so far about the rim against these guys.”
• “It’s like they don’t even understand poker.”
• “There’s about three people in the world that could dodge that hand.”
• “I think I should throw up. What are they thinking?”
• “What, he thinks king-eight is gonna be good? I’ve been playing super tight. That’s why I’m the best hold’em player in the world, by far.”
• “There’s the rest of the world, then there’s me.”

The $1 million payday was his third largest cash to date, trailing behind his Five-Diamond World Poker Classic II and Borgata Poker Open WPT wins for $1,770,218 and $1,117,400, respectively.  From the turn of the century ESPN broadcasts showing his mom making him lunch to his eventual $14,131,104 in tourney winnings he’s accumulated over his lifetime, Negreanu has come a long way.

The four-time bracelet winner and poker natural has made dents across all major tourney circuits not seen in size since cannonballs hit the USS Constitution, with deep finishes riddled throughout the WSOP, the WSOP Circuit, the World Poker Tour (WPT), and the European Poker Tour. He saw his banner year in 2004-2005 when he received not one but three Player of the Year accolades from the WSOP, Card Player Magazine, and  WPT. With books, video games (it’s plural because only two people bought Stacked on the Xbox), and endorsements so far up his ass he’s breathing dollar bills, Kid Poker could live the rest of his life off of royalties alone. But his career hasn’t all been smiles and memories.

If I may piss on Negreanu’s parade here for just a moment, for a man who seems like he has won it all during his tenure on and off the felt, he has a severe Achilles’ heel: cash games. He is down close to $2 million dollars across the six seasons of High Stakes Poker, an astronomical amount considering he’s playing the game he built his empire on. If you waltzed on out of a cave and knew nothing about him, you would never be able to tell the difference between him playing and the producers giving a Vegas vagrant a $200k bankroll to squander. While cash tables are certainly a different mentality than tourney tables, the greats of the game are capable of sustaining themselves across the adversities of both. Albeit he still has millions of dollars to show, it is safe to assume that he has blown considerable amounts off the television cameras as well and that his chip stack hemorrhaging would be cause for concern if it weren’t somebody who wasn’t so well-received, well-endorsed, and the face of every product branded with the livelihood of poker.

All things considered when comparing Negreanu to the track record of the man he just recently inched passed, Ivey still sits higher on a grander scale, up tens of millions of dollars across all aspects of his play. But at the end of the end, and for the time being, Negreanu can toot his own horn as he rides the Tourney Express to Cashmoneyville.

It was a stunning story when T.J. Cloutier christened the year in January with the auction of his 2005 $5,000 No-Limit Hold’Em event bracelet. The once illustrious gatekeeper of the felt had apparently fallen upon hard times, as speculation swirled around the poker community as to what exactly had become of Cloutier when his bracelet appeared on the chopping block for a Vegas pawn shop’s eBay listing. All signs pointed to the craps tables as the culprit, an unrelenting addiction which had helped his fortune and fame diminish faster than drugs and alcohol combined. A man, who at the pinnacle of his career earned himself the title of having the most WSOP cashes, would see his bracelet sell for $4,006, a mere spec in the sun of the empire he had squandered.

The stigma surrounding Cloutier wore off quickly though when it was realized the he was just the beginning of the latest trend befalling the poker industry. We looked previously at the auctions of Paul “Eskimo” Clark’s 1997 $1,500 Razz bracelet (selling for $4,050) and the 1999 Pot-Limit Omaha bracelet of Hassan Kamoei (which received no bids at the close of the 10-day auction and the $3,800 starting price). It is interesting to note that Kamoei won his bracelet by outlasting a table that included Clouter. While Doyle Brunson is known as the “Godfather of Poker” for his influence on the game, in light of this year’s overwhelming display of busto and his apparently deep roots at the center of it all, Cloutier can now be referred to as “The Godfather of Broke.”

Peter Eastgate’s 2007 Main Event bracelet was the only auction from 2010 not sold for financial gain and was a news headline in of itself. Earlier in the year, he announced his retirement from poker, and his bracelet auction was a way to help further remove himself from a lifestyle that had grinded him into the ground. All the proceeds of his auction went on to benefit UNICEF, in what turned out to be a noble swan song for Eastgate from the felt.

What better way to close out the year but with another bracelet for sale on eBay, this time belonging to Brad Daugherty. As the year has progressed, the names of the owners behind these auctions has grown increasingly more obscure, highlighted by Kamoei and now Daugherty, which is sad considering he is a previous Main Event champion. Not just any Main Event: he is the first ever winner of a Main Event prize worth $1 million. Considering the names of other winners and their staying power from the same 10-year span (Mortensen, Ferguson, Seed, Nguyen), it was a victory that would only serve to shadow him for the rest of a career highlighted by comparably insignificant grinding that brought in winnings at a decimal and a fraction of that life-changing score.

The bracelet, inscribed with the bulbous name “BRAD” on the front, was made from 96 grams of 14K gold at a time when bracelets knew nothing of diamonds, a scrap value of $2,484.50 at current exchange rates. All things considered, it would go on to reach $30,100 by auction’s end, a modest amount that wasn’t enough to trigger Daughtery’s reserve price. For a man down and out and a piece of jewelry adorned with an inscribed name that sticks out like a cold sore, you’d think holding high standard would be the last thing somebody would be doing.

The stunning influx of all these auctions in the past year has almost become comical to the point where it’s insulting to the legacy of the WSOP and the achievement of taking down an event. There is nothing admirable about having worked your entire life to achieve the status of “bracelet winner” then frivilously spending all your winnings and putting yourself in a position to be nil back at square one. The saying “that’s poker” doesn’t apply here, because it isn’t as much of an issue of a coin flip as it is just common sense and personal restraint. Here’s to hoping 2010 was both the beginning and the end to the eBay trend and that bracelets will be staying on wrists and in trophy cases where they belong.

Watching his performance all these years later still makes me want to go out and stab the first vagrant I see. Khan defines the word “obnoxious”–bolded, italicized, and underlined–with the full-body seizures he called his post-hand celebrating. His “oohs” and “aahs” as he mimicked a gorilla, or yelling “BULLLLLLLDOOOOZZZZEERRRRRR” then doing his tubby little mad man shuffle, saw me clenching my fists harder than I would have around my door handles staring down the impending head-on collision of a Mac truck. If the Mississippi River was the line for this self-proclaimed funny man’s behavior, Khan crossed it into Alaska. It was arguably the most egregious table display of any televised poker broadcast and a perfect example of how sometimes, people aren’t laughing with you but at you.

His behavior was so notorious that a new rule was enacted the following year to prevent copycat douchebaggery:

“Excessive celebration through extended theatrics, inappropriate behavior, or physical actions, gestures, or conduct may be subject to penalty. Any player that engages a member of the tournament staff during the celebration or utilizes any property of Harrah’s will be penalized in accordance with Rules No. 31 and/or 51. Harrah’s property includes but is not limited to chairs, tournament tables, and stanchions.”

One of his random tablemates said it best: “Just act normal, OK?” Let’s find a nice, soft patch of land behind the ol’ tool shed, right next to where Old Yeller resides, and toss Khan’s 15 minutes of fame deep down into a hole to never be heard from again.

Scotty Nguyen during the 2008 $50k H.O.R.S.E. World Championship

A man whom many pros considered to be one of the greatest to play the game, Chip Reese died on December 4, 2007 due complications with pneumonia. It seemed only fitting that a year after winning the inaugural $50k H.O.R.S.E. tourney just months before his untimely passing, the event was renamed in his honor and the “David ‘Chip’ Reese Memorial Trophy” was to be presented to the winner (the trophy is now handed out at the $50k Poker Player’s Championship after the sudden decline of the H.O.R.S.E. event).

What better way to honor one of your well-respected and beloved peers in the wake of his absence? Make a complete ass of yourself as you drunkenly belittle the remaining players at the final table and defecate on his memory in the process. While not so much obnoxious as it was graceless and an atrocious display of character and tact, Scotty Nguyen, the “Prince of Poker”, looked more like a serf tending to the horse’s stables. It was a performance that would have even seen the words “ridiculous” and “embarrassing” stop returning his calls.

It all started with a spark, provided when young gun Michael DeMichele irked all the old poker pro gatekeepers with his giddy demeanor, excessive celebrating, and questionable plays which made more enemies than friends when it looked like he slow-played Barry Greenstein and misread his winning flush against Huck Seed, telling him he had two pair. While his youthful exuberance was certainly trying on the patience of all that played witness, even it could not prepare us for Nguyen’s televised train wreck.

The compound interest of a botched 11th place finish in the 2007 Main Event, fleeting luck in his hands, a few too many cocktails, and DeMichele’s behavior turned that spark into a structural fire that would go on to burn down 10 city blocks, when Nguyen proceeded to turn his anger on the twentysomething, with a bombardment like a verbal Pearl Harbor. But it didn’t end there.

Nguyen, who saw his luck turn in several hands with well-respected Erick Lindgren, then turned the onslaught in his direction, continuing his drunken Jekyll and Hyde act and further shaming the glistening legacy of Chip Reese.

His classiest moment came when he finally shut up after winning the event, the $1,989,120, and the Chip Reese trophy, which immediately needed to be washed and polished to remove the tarnish from Nguyen’s shame. While the nearly $2 million was certainly undeserved, onlookers could take solace in the fact that it was just the steep price Nguyen paid for his televised personality suicide. If I was DeMichele or Lindgren though, I would have grabbed him by his Jerry curls in the parking lot and put his face all-in through the pavement.

“I knew him for 35 years, I never saw him get mad or raise his voice,” said Doyle Brunson to The Associated Press following Reese’s passing. “He had the most even disposition of anyone I’ve ever met. He’s certainly the best poker player that ever lived.”

Touching sentiment that makes this somehow even harder to watch:

Phil Hellmuth during anything

The name speaks for itself. One part accomplished no-limit hold’em player, one part 12-year-old temper tantrum, and all narcissist,  his antics are that laughable, pathetic, “make you feel better about yourself” sort of  disgraceful. His lack of respect for other players, for the game, and for himself have produced a highlight reel of some of humanity’s worst moments. The rants about Europeans, the progressively awful entrances at the WSOP Main Event, the insults about people not even being able to spell “poker”–Hellmuth knowns no bounds and makes everyone around him feel better about themselves every time he speaks. It’s all been said and done about “The Poker Brat”, a horse that’s been beaten so many times that if I went in depth about his antics again, PETA may begin to publicly boycott this blog.

Nobody knows poker like  Phil Hellmuth, who would be the first and only person to tell you that. He also knows overweening, shame, and self-importance better than anyone else, too.

Paul “Eskimo” Clark is a name that hasn’t been muttered since the WSOP broadcasts back in 2002-2003. He is a three-time bracelet winner, with victories held in the 1997 $5000 Stud Limit 7 Card Stud, the 1999 $1500 Razz, and the 2002 $1500 Limit 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo events. With $2,695,439 in tourney winnings over the decades of his pro status, words like “how?” and “why?” are all that you’re left with looking back at his career.

The eBay auction is a listing for his Razz bracelet, which he bested a field of 141 players to gain. The item’s current location is Ireland, a magical, far away land that apparently saw Eskimo placing his gold in the pot at the end of the rainbow rather than taking it. From this alone, we can deduce that the bracelet is likely years removed from his ownership and that the seller is of no obvious relation.

As is evidenced by its incredibly underwhelming presentability, the bracelet was years before the poker boom created a monster and had respectable jewelry to match the now universally accepted Vegas accomplishment. A side-by-side comparison of eBay auctions with Eastgate’s Main Event bracelet to Eskimo’s Razz is like comparing a Picasso to a child’s Paint by Number. Albeit wins of different calibers, it’s amazing what a difference a couple years make.

Aside from his three bracelets and first and second place finishes at World Poker Tour events, Eskimo’s real claim to fame is his introduction of Badugi to American poker, a three card draw lowball variant. Heavily popular in Korea and Vietnam, Eskimo took the premise with him back to the high stakes Las Vegas card rooms after discovering it while enlisted in the military. It isn’t known when exactly the mixed-game was invented, but it has never been refuted that its introduction to western culture is due wholly to Eskimo.

Sadly though, there’s a thin line between “donating to charity” and “flat broke”. Actually, scratch that–there’s a line the size of a swelling fire hose between the two, and it’s safe to assume that a name as faded as the Goo Goo Dolls is just another pro down on his luck. Eskimo is in all likelihood another T.J. Cloutier story, that of a man who’s vices away from the felt in a town that chews up credit lines was spit out soulless and face down in the gutter. As soon as the savings account reaches meth head status, the kneejerk reaction is to pawn off your valuables to fuel your fix, which is sad when it’s something as prestigious as a WSOP bracelet. Some people will go their entire lives falling short of attaining one, but to Eskimo, it was just another item with a price .

In a blog entry from November 17th, Tony announced his plans to be the winning bidder for Peter Eastgate’s WSOP Main Event bracelet eBay auction. The illustrious, diamond-studded wristwear of a champion will now become the lavish address collar for a dog. Not just any dog–Tony’s German Shepherd Zasko.

“What am I going to do with Peter’s bracelet? Well, the plan is to get it adapted into a special collar for my trusted German Shepherd Zasko. The ultimate dog bling – as my gladiator and protector he deserves to be kitted out in such style. You may not think I am serious, but I am deadly serious – my dog is going to be wearing the Great Dane Eastgate’s bracelet – mark my words.”

It only took a couple of days for bids to exceed Tony’s initial maximum of $17,500 and for the proverbial lid to come off. As a man that never backs down–on the table or off–what Tony wants, Tony gets.

“I have just looked at e-bay [sic] and seen the price has dramatically risen from $17,500 to $50,000. Didn’t I tell you to not touch my blinds, don’t touch my bling and under no circumstances never ever mess with Zasko? Do you listen? Do you want me to call the clock on you all now? Carry on bidding, this bracelet is going to go for six figures. I respect Zasko too much to not pay what it takes but I do have limits. For $2 million I could buy him his own private jet!”

As we had previously posted, Eastgate is auctioning off his 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event bracelet for UNICEF, a United Nations charity aimed at helping feed and educate underprivileged children. It is a noble decision that helps further remove Eastgate from his poker lifestyle, having declared his retirement from the game earlier this year.

“Zasko and I spoke to the Great Dane Peter Eastgate on the phone and the only thing I would really like with the bracelet is for Zasko to become a global UNICEF ambassador. He can join the likes of Roger Moore, David Beckham, Roger Federer and Lionel Messi. Hell, even Ricky Martin is an ambassador so if he can, Zasko can.”

The auction (seen here) is already at $56,700, and with over three days left, is sure to climb well into six-figures, a price tag Tony’s swelling pride is sure to afford and one that puts cats eating out of crystal glasses in Fancy Feast commercials to shame.

The 2010 Main Event Final Table was the most profound display of loose, frivolous, spewy poker coupled with some of the most ridiculous beats for such insanely high stakes in recent memory. Words like “tight” and “calculated” were as far away from these remaining nine as was gun powder to the cavemen, at a final table headlined predominantly by will power and suckouts. As per usual, ESPN’s broadcast was deduced to essentially the major all-ins, with a leaderboard showcasing just how segmented the coverage truly is with constantly changing stacks and positions that go unaccounted for. As a purist, you will be left scratching your head. As an action junkie, grab your popcorn for the replays of the broadcast.

ESPN featured Duhamel’s player profile halfway through the broadcast, which delved into his notorious JJ vs AA hand against Affleck. You know, the one that changed the tides of the tourney, knocked Affleck out in 15th in tears, and propelled Duhamel into title contention? His expose went something like this:

“Blah blah blah like, I thought after he re-raised me he had totally like nothing. Blah blah blah when I won all those chips, I realized I could win! Blah blah blah the sky is blue and there’s a sun in the sky!”

Definitely not aggravating to hear the inane ramblings of a complete idiot who regurgitates the obvious and just won more money than you will ever see in a lifetime!?! Regardless, the fact that Duhamel came back from the brink with 10 chips to win is an incredibly monumental feat, one worthy of all the praise it will justifiably receive.

Duhamel’s other notable knockout came when he played executioner to Michale Mizrachi in a blind-on-blind battle. His coy limp with AA enticed the eventual all-in of “The Grinder” and his flopped top pair. He would fail to improve and his improbable run, which culminated a career defining year of WSOP accomplishments, would see him leaving in 5th place.

Duhamel isn’t the only winner of this year’s Main Event. Joseph Cheong has won the coveted “Ray Finkle’s Retard of the Final Table” award for his massive blow up and donation of an over 170+ million chip pot to Duhamel (the largest in WSOP poker history) when he shoved A7 over the champ’s QQ. The move essentially secured John Racener’s spot in the David versus Goliath heads-up battle, who sat as a giddy spectator with his shortstack through most of the broadcast, as Duhamel and Cheong ate the meat from the bones before dog ate dog. Wave good bye to millions of dollars, Cheong.

The final standings for the 2010 Main Event were as follows:

1. Jonathan Duhamel — $8,944,138
2. John Racener — $5,545,855
3. Joseph Cheong — $4,129,979
4. Filippo Candio — $3,092,497
5. Michael Mizrachi — $2,332,960
6. John Dolan — $1,772,939
7. Jason Senti — $1,356,708
8. Matt Jarvis — $1,045,738
9. Soi Nguyen — $811,823

The payouts are as follows:

• 1st place – $8,944,138
• 2nd place – $5,545,855
• 3rd place – $4,129,979
• 4th place – $3,092,497
• 5th place – $2,442,960
• 6th place – $1,772,939
• 7th place – $1,356,708
• 8th place – $1,045,738
• 9th place – $811,823

Every year, the players who traverse the largest field in poker never cease to amaze me, with one always seemingly being luckier than anyone should ever be allowed to be in life and somehow managing to outdo the Jamie Golds and Jerry Yangs and Joe Cadas of poker. Potential candidates included Soi Nguyen, who is playing in only his forth tourney and didn’t know what “the button” was until a dealer explained it to him. There’s Filippo Candio, who made a terrible play into pocket aces and ran runner runner straight for his tourney life to earn himself 20 million in chips at the time. But this year, that glaring luckbox who exceedingly defies all logic with his unbelievable ability to win with the worst of it is Jonathan Duhamel.

Duhamel is a Canadian pro that was down to 10 big blinds. You could tell by the sounds of both Norman Chad and Lon McEachern”s voices when they showed him short-stacked and all-in earlier in the tourney that it wouldn’t be the last time you saw him in front of this year’s cameras. He now sits atop a throne of just under 66 million chips he has built with crushed souls while defying all laws of logic and reason in the process. Below are the chip counts for him and his tablemates:

1. Jonathan Duhamel – 65,975,000
2. John Dolan – 46,250,000
3. Joseph Cheong – 23,525,000
4. John Racener – 19,050,000
5. Matthew Jarvis – 16,700,000
6. Filippo Candio – 16,400,000
7. Michael Mizrachi – 14,450,000
8. Soi Nguyen – 9,650,000
9. Jason Senti – 7,625,000

In what was easily the grossest (and the largest) beat of the entire tourney, top contender Matt Affleck’s pocket aces were cracked by the pocket jacks of Duhamel for an over 42 million chip pot, after calling Affleck’s all-in on a 10-7-9-Q board. Television cameras condensed the hand down into the span of a minute, but Duhamel’s decision alone to call the all-in on the turn took him in upwards of five minutes to call before it reached the editing room. Those of you familiar with 2009′s coverage will remember Affleck domineering his way into a commanding chip lead early on in the tourney, maintaining steady momentum up until his monumental implosion and stacking off to a bluff gone bad in 80th place. He returned this year only to see another fantastically deep run snuffed out before his eyes in 15th place when the 8 came on the river. I almost wanted to cry for him.

From left: Jason Senti, Joseph Cheong, John Dolan, Jonathan Duhamel, Michael Mizrachi, Jack Effel--WSOP Tournament Director, Matthew Jarvis, John Racener, Filippo Candio, Soi Nguyen

The main theme though of this year’s WSOP can be summed up with one word: Mizrachi. After winning his first bracelet at the WSOP Player’s Championship along with the illustrious first place prize of $1,559,046, “The Grinder” would go on to final table both the $10,000 WSOP 7 Card Stud and the  Limit Hold’em Championships. Making history with his three brothers–Eric Mizrachi, Daniel Mizrachi, and Robert Mizrachi–in being the first family to collectively make the money bubble at the Main Event, Michael then goes on to final table it, pushing back from the brink of elimination multiple times in last night’s broadcast. Sitting currently in 7th, a win will tie him with current 2010 Player of the Year front runner Frank Kasella, as well as earn him the most impressive feat to ever be accomplished in the history of the WSOP.

Play resumes this Saturday (November 6th) at the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and will continue until heads-up play has been decided. The two finalists will then reconvene on Tuesday (November 9th) to determine the 2010 WSOP Main Event Champion. Coverage will air later that evening on ESPN after hours of play are whittled down into a few major hands. Check your local listings.

Like somebody still wearing a Member’s Only jacket, it’s a rare to see somebody’s name that isn’t Phil Ivey reaching incredible heights in the pokersphere. This year, two people were a product of World Series of Poker (WSOP) greatness: Michael Mizrachi and Frank Kassela.

After an early start to 2010 that saw IRS woes for “The Grinder”, he made up for his over $300,000 in back taxes like their auditing department had a gun to his head and said, “Play for your life.”

Someone who is no stranger to top finishes, 2010 will undoubtedly be the crowning year of poker in Mizrachi’s lifetime. A man that made his name and millions of dollars on the World Poker Tour has spent 2010 breaking out of his WSOP tournament shell.

To beat a dead horse, after he headlined and the final table of the $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship event with brother Robert–which as I had previously reported was only the third time siblings made the same final tables–he would go on to final table three other events after his $1,559,046 victory. He placed 6th at the $10,000 7 Stud Championship and 8th at the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship. All of these cashes are but a speck in the sun with the money he stands to win when the Main Event resumes in November.

On top of his November Nine finish, this is the first time in WSOP history that an entire family cashed the Main Event. Brother’s Robert, Eric, and Danny would place 116th, 718th, and 345th, respectively. Michael’s fate has yet to be told, as he currently sits in 7th place with 14,450,000 in chips.

It has taken Mizrachi a lifetime to achieve all he has this year and it may take him another lifetime to do it again. What’s sick is that after all of it, he still has to WIN the Main Event to tie Frank Kassela as 2010 WSOP Player of the Year.

Kassela was a virtual unknown before he took a sledgehammer to the obscurity at this year’s WSOP. He won his first two bracelets in the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship and the $2,500 Razz Seven Card events. As if winning two bracelets in a year wasn’t enough, Kassela would go on to place third at the $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six- Handed and cash 36th in the $2,500 Mixed Game event, 10th at the $2,500 Limit Hold’em event, and 674th in the Main Event. All told, he has won $1,255,314 in 2010 and shot so hard for the stars he landed on the moon, with the odds in his favor and Mizrachi playing catchup to his Player of the Year standings.

Will Mizrachi do the inconceivable, winning the Main Event, the Poker Player’s Championship, and the Player of the Year all in 2010?  Only November knows the answer.

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A name synomous with the World Poker Tour (WPT) earned the recognition it deserved on Saturday. Kathy Liebert played in her 100th WPT tourney over the weekend at the 2010 Legends of Poker event at the Bicycle Casino in L.A. Liebert becomes the second player to join the 100 tourney milestone, an achievement christened by Erik Seidel last month at the Bellagio Cup. It is certainly not one for the weak of heart (or bankroll).

The Bike has been a momentous destination for Liebert’s career, having been both the home of her first WPT final table and her first WPT tournament. It’s only fitting that she returns back during an event titled “Legends of Poker” to claim the 100th notch on her belt, having made six WPT final tables, 15 WPT cashes, and having accumulated $1,727,443 in career WPT winnings.

Aside from the WPT, Liebert is poker’s winningest lady, having won $5,339,173 over the course of her career. To her credit, she has won one World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet–a 2004 $1,500 limit hold’em shootout–has 30 WSOP cashes, and has finished 17th in the Main Event in both 1998 and 2000. In a game dominated by males, Liebert has broken down barriers with her raising hand, then bench pressed the rubble.

The best part about this 42-year-old? She’s single. Eat your heart out Paula Poundstone.

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