Tournament: 2009 World Series of Poker news and notes

With the conclusion of all the preliminary events at this year’s World Series of Poker, the tournament the entire poker world waits for every year has finally begun. Here is a wrap-up of the stories that came out of the earlier events:

• Australian poker pro Jeffrey Lisandro leads the World Series of Poker Player of the Year standings with 355 points. His three bracelets and three other cashes have netted him a total of over US$800,000 in winnings.

• Poker pro Phil Ivey got off to a strong start with two early bracelets as well as three other cash finishes. He is currently third in the Player of the Year rankings and has earned almost US$357,000 in prize money.

• Another famous poker pro, Canadian-turned-Las Vegan Daniel Negreanu, is tied with David Baker for the most cash finishes at this year’s Series with eight. Although Negreanu did not win a championship bracelet this year, he made two final tables, including a second-place finish at the US$2,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em Six Handed event. His total winnings this year are over US$330,000.

• The big-money winner so far this year is Russian pro Vitaly Lunkin. His win at the 40th Anniversary US$40,000 buy-in event, along with two other final tables and a fourth finish in the money, have netted the Moscow native nearly US$2.7 million for the year. Five other players have also surpassed the US$1 million mark thus far.

• Online poker pro Alex Bolotin won the US$5,000 buy-in Ante Up for Africa charity tournament, the last one before the Main Event. As is tradition with these charity events, Bolotin donated a portion of his winnings to charities that deal with caring for refugees in Darfur. Other notable pros that made the final table at this event were Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Gordon, Erik Seidel and Jennifer Harman-Traniello.

As the Main Event progresses, we will have daily updates on who’s in, who’s out and who’s going to walk away with the greatest prize in poker!

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