Tag: scott ball

CardsChat Presents: Big Winners of the WSOP (Nov. 12 – 18)

While the Main Event boiled down from 6,650 to the final nine, a dozen more bracelets were won. Brian Hastings continues to show the poker world that he’s an elite player by winning his fifth WSOP bracelet, while three players from France found their strides during the series’ final week.

But as the WSOP rolls to a close — the last live tournament of the series begins today — the real Big Winners are poker fans who got to watch these compelling people go for poker glory. All of us at CardsChat are already looking forward to the 2022 WSOP that begins in May.

We’re wondering how the new Main Event champion, Koray Aldemir, is going to fit all of that cash into his wallet. (Image: WSOP)

Koray Aldemir

$10K Main Event Championship
$8 million

It took 54 hands of heads-up play for the German-born pro (living in Austria) to defeat the amateur from Atlanta, Georgia, and claim the most-coveted title in poker, along with a hefty $8 million bankroll boost.

Scott Ball

$1,111 NLHE Little One for One Drop
$396,445

Winning his second bracelet of the Series, and his second overall, Ball bested a field of 3,797 entrants who anted up for a shot at poker glory and to help the One Drop foundation, which helps provide clean water to people around the world.

Jermaine Reid

$1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better
$113,459

Snatching his first bracelet, the Bronx resident outlasted 371 and beat a final table that included John Monnette, John Racener, and Carol Fuchs.

Davis Moses

$888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold’em, Eight-handed
$888,888

The man known as Ruetama claimed his first bracelet while playing the part of the Grinch to the 5,251 other players who tried for the $888,888 guaranteed first-place prize.

Mourad Amokrane

$1,500 PLO Eight-Handed
$132,844

Amokrane’s win makes him the second player to win a WSOP bracelet this year while also booking the biggest tournament score of his poker career.

Motoyoshi Okamura

$1,500 Mixed No-Limit Hold’em, PLO Eight-Handed
$209,716

The man from Japan won his first bracelet in this two-game mix tournament, outlasting 845 and a truly international final table with players representing Brazil, Chile, Israel, the Philippines, Germany, the US, and Canada.

Brain Hastings

$10K Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo
$352,958

Hastings reestablished his position as one of the game’s elite players, joining names like Allen Cunningham, Michael Mizrachi, and Shaun Deeb in the WSOP’s five-timer’s club by being the last man standing out of 144 entrants in this split pot event.

Denis Strebkov

$2,500 Mixed Big Bet Event
$117,898

Showing his skills in games ranging from Big O to No-Limit Hold’em, No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw, Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, No-Limit 5-Card Draw High, Pot-Limit Omaha, and Pot-Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw, Strebkov bested a field of 212 players to claim the title and push his lifetime WSOP winnings to more than $500K.

Chad Himmelspach

$1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout
$270,877

Making his eighth WSOP cash — and fifth of this year’s series — count, Himmelspach won his first WSOP bracelet by being the last of 1,191 standing.

Romain Lewis

$10K Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout
$463,885

The Winamax-sponsored poker pro won his first bracelet — and the third for France this year — in the event that attracted 307.

Paulo Joanello

$1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
$321,917

The Brazilian with $13K in career tournament winnings before this event, won his first bracelet in the “Fifty Stack” tourney, where players start with 50K chips and play 30-minute blinds.

Aleksejs Ponakovs

$7,777 Online No-Limit Hold’em High Roller
$432,491

The online pro from Latvia pushed his WSOP winnings over the $1.5 million mark by winning his first bracelet in the online Lucky 7s event, which attracted 183.

Yuliyan Kolev

$777 Online No-Limit Hold’em
$146,163

The man from Sofia, Bulgaria won his first bracelet in the online event that saw 732 punters going for the Sunday online bracelet.

Photos by Melissa Haereiti, Alec Rome, Haley Hotchstetler, and Katerina Lukina, courtesy of the WSOP.

November 19, 2021
CardsChat Presents … Big Winners of the WSOP (Oct. 15 – 21)

Say what you want about him, but Phil Hellmuth never fails to impress — or cause controversy — at the WSOP. Over the past week, Hellmuth won his 16th career bracelet and came just one spot away from claiming #17 just a few days later. His performance has put him in the lead for the WSOP Player of the Year award, but that doesn’t mean he has the spotlight all to himself, as a number of other players had strong weeks — and impressive performances of their own — on the felt. Here’s a quick look at the players who distinguished themselves as the Big Winners at the WSOP for the week ending Oct. 21.

Phil Hellmuth won his record-setting 16th WSOP bracelet this week, while others grabbed their first. (Image: WSOP)

Scott Ball

$5,000 Six-handed No-Limit Hold’em
$562,667

Outlasting 577 players, Ball won his first WSOP bracelet, beating Galen Hall heads up with a run of cards so good that it included flopping a straight flush.

Anthony Zinno

$1,500 HORSE
$160,636

The Player of the Year contender took down his second bracelet of the 2021 WSOP and his fourth overall, beating 593 other mixed-game aficionados.

Dylan Weisman

$1,000 PLO 8-Handed
$166,461

With his fifth WSOP cash, Weisman won his first bracelet by surviving a field of 1,069.

Chance Kornuth

$10K Short Deck No-Limit Hold’em
$194,670

The Las Vegas-based poker coach beat out a small field of 65 players to win his third WSOP bracelet.

Michael Noori

$1,500 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout
$610,347

Working his way through a massive 3,250-player field, Noori beat 2021 bracelet winner Ryan Long heads-up for his first WSOP bracelet.

Phil Hellmuth

$1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw
$84,951

Hellmuth extended his WSOP bracelet record to 16 by winning this event. It’s his first bracelet in No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw, something he said he’s wanted since he first started playing in the WSOP.

Jim Collopy

$3,000 HORSE
$173,823

The man known as Mr. Big Queso made his 66th cash a good one by winning his second career WSOP bracelet.

Ran Koller

$800 Eight-handed No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack
$269,478

The Israeli won the first bracelet of his career when he outlasted 2,777 players for his 31st WSOP cash.

David Baker

$1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw
$87,837

“Bakes” won his third WSOP bracelet by being the last player of 285. He’s cashed five times this series.

Anthony Koutsos

$500 No-Limit Hold’em Freezeout
$167,272

The poker player from San Fransisco made his first WSOP cash count when he outlasted 2,930 players to win a bracelet.

Adam Friedman

$10k Dealers Choice Six-Handed
$248,350

Friedman won his third consecutive dealer’s choice bracelet while, at the same time, denying Hellmuth his 17th career bracelet, and the second of the past week.

Karolis Sereika

$1,500 Super Turbo Bounty No-Limit Hold’em
$195,310

The Lithuanian poker player scored his 16th WSOP cash and won his first bracelet by outlasting 1,440 players in this turbo event.

Ryan Stoker

$888 WSOP.com PLO Crazy 8’s
$95,338

Pushing his WSOP winnings to more than $230K, Stoker won his first bracelet in this online event.

Michael Addamo

$50K High Rollers NLH 8-Handed
$1,132,968

The big winner of the week, Addamo won his third WSOP bracelet by beating a final table of killers including Justin Bonomo, Eric Seidel, and Sam “Smoke Your Top” Soverel.

Photos by Danny Maxwell and Hayley Hochstetler, courtesy of WSOP.com.

October 22, 2021
A Tale of Two Bracelets

In the wee hours of the morning on Oct. 16, two players won bracelets just minutes apart. Both winners were well known in the poker world though with very different stories.

Scott Ball and his rail praying for a good run-out. (Image: Chris Wallace)

The first winner was Anthony Zinno, who took down the $1,500 HORSE event. Zinno bested a field of 594 players to win $160,636 and his fourth bracelet. Even more amazing; this was Zinno’s second bracelet in a week after winning the $10K Seven-Card Stud event. The two wins, and two more cashes, puts Zinno in a strong position in the Player of The Year race.

Popular win for poker favorite Zinno

A large rail cheered for Zinno and posed with him in his official bracelet photos, holding up four fingers to celebrate the fourth win. His girlfriend, a massage therapist working at the Rio during the WSOP, posed on his lap with the bracelet, and a crowd of happy people surrounded him. A host of world-class players offered congratulations as the cameras flashed.

Zinno is pleasant, friendly, and well-liked in the poker world. He was the target of a Phil Hellmuth blow-up at the final table of the stud event he won a week ago, which sent poker Twitter into a tizzy with many people asking why the WSOP had different rules for Hellmuth when other players would have been penalized for such behavior. But Zinno, as he is known to do, took it all with class, and had nothing bad to say about Hellmuth after the rant.

A celebration with friends for bracelet number four. (Image: Chris Wallace)

Zinno has amassed more than $10M in tournament poker winnings and is a regular in big cash games as well. Known for dressing well and offering a big smile for the cameras, Zinno is a star on the rise.

The second bracelet of the night, won just minutes later, went to Scott Ball of Oceanside, California. And a few in the room were not so happy about Ball’s victory. Once heralded as the creator of Twitch Poker, Ball was the head of poker streaming at the company for a few years until leaving in 2018 to start his own business, End Game Talent. After winning awards and accolades for bringing poker to Twitch and starting a new era of poker broadcasting, Ball focused on his business and working on his own poker skills.

Rumors and outright accusations

But soon, rumors began to spread that Ball had colluded in a private online game hosted by Phil Hellmuth and won more than $700,000 in games that were not fair. In January, Mike Matusow came out with stunning accusations on his podcast, claiming that not only had Ball cheated Hellmuth and others in the game, but also that he had taken more than $1 million from Hellmuth to start his company and gambled much of that money away.

While Matusow’s rants are often dismissable, soon other players such as Doug Polk and Parker Talbot offered their own scathing criticism of Ball. No big names came to his defense initially, but the story wasn’t big enough to garner serious attention and Hellmuth had nothing to say about it. Some took his lack of willingness to defend Ball to mean that Matusow’s accusations were true. Others believed that with no confirmation, there wasn’t enough evidence for the allegations to stick.

Ball faded from the spotlight for a while, playing smaller events without a big score for a few years. His biggest win before his bracelet was less than $30,000, and his lifetime earnings were just over $100,000.

Overcome with emotion after the final card, Ball had to sit down for a moment while his rail went nuts. (Image: Chris Wallace)

Then, Scott Ball won a bracelet

That is, until the early morning of Oct. 16 when he won Event #25, the $5,000 6 max No-Limit Hold’em tournament that many consider one of the toughest fields in all of poker. Ball defeated Galen Hall, a pro who has amassed more than $5.5M in winnings. including a bracelet in the 888 event in 2018 for $888,888, and a win in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event for more than two million dollars. The two embraced after the final cards were dealt and Hall even stayed for the televised interview.

Ball won $562,667 and the gold bracelet after a long heads-up battle; a sum worth more than five times his previous lifetime tournament earnings. A group cheered from the rail and hugged him when he won. Shouts of “Let’s Go Scott!” rang through the room, and Ball sat down on the edge of a step, overwhelmed for a moment after the last card fell to seal his victory.

But some pros in the room saw no cause for celebration and expressed displeasure at watching his victory, echoing Matusow, Polk, and other pros claiming his less-than-upstanding reputation was well-deserved.

I call @mikethemouth93 out on a lot of bullshit but what he says about recent bracelet winner Scott Ball in this video is spot on. Be wary in the scammer/scumbag streets boys & girls. https://t.co/gMkHJv9DM1

— Danielle Andersen (@dmoongirl) October 16, 2021

While Zinno’s bracelet celebration was a party filled with smiles and congratulations, Ball celebrated with his close friends and appeared to wipe tears from his eyes at one point, overcome with emotion after the victory. Further investigation into the accusations leave more questions than answers, with no one willing to go on the record, but many big names coming out in favor of Ball in off-the-record interviews and a few continuing to express their displeasure.

Given the fact that Hellmuth stopped by the final table to share a hug with Ball and Zinno appeared to be very happy for him, accusations that he stole from Hellmuth appear to be without merit. We suspect this controversy isn’t over, and if Ball keeps winning, as he believes he will, then there is more story to be written.

October 17, 2021