March 29 2011, Donnie Peters

Day 3 of the West Regional Championship at the 2010-2011 World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s Rincon concluded on Tuesday. Just two tables of nine players each returned to action and when the day was all said and done, half of them remained. Leading the final table is Tim West with 843,000 in chips.

There was plenty of firepower left in the field when the day began. One of the most notable names in poker, Daniel Negreanu, was still alive and entered the day with 173,800 in chips. That was right in the middle of the pack, but his day ended short of the money after being eliminated by Tim West.

In Negreanu’s elimination hand, there was a three-way pot with about 20,000 in it when the PokerNews Live Reporting Team walked up to the table. The flop was . The first two players checked to Negreanu, and he bet 12,500. From the small blind, West check-raised to 33,900 to get heads up, and Negreanu three-bet all in for his last 80,000. West quickly called, and Negreanu was at risk as the cards were turned up.

Negreanu:
West:

The on the turn was a disaster for Negreanu as West found the spade to fill his unbeatable flush. The river was a mere formality, and Negreanu wished his table luck, signed a few autographs for the spectators, and headed out of the room with a camera trailing him.

Full Tilt Poker Red Pro and former World Series of Poker November Niner Scott Montgomery also fell short of the money, as did Todd Terry and Kyle Bowker. Bowker was the actual bubble boy of the tournament on a crazy suck-resuck hand against Dana Kellstrom.

Bowker moved all in for 72,000 and Kellstrom called, turning over the . Bowker held and began making his way out the door. Bowker was about halfway to the door of the tournament room when the flop came down and a few of the players called him back. Bowker came back to the table and needed to sweat the last two cards.

The turn brought the and that wasn’t the ace Kellstrom was looking for. The river delivered though, and in a big way. The hit the felt and Kellstrom cheered loudly with a big clap of his hands, having resucked to send Bowker to the rail in 13th place. This time, Bowker hit the exit and didn’t so much as turn his head back.

With Bowker out the door, everyone left in the event was guaranteed a minimum of $19,653 and just three more eliminations away from the final table along with a guaranteed seat in the $1,000,000 National Championship Freeroll at the end of the season. Joe Parker was eliminated in 12th place and then Alejandro Garcia fell in 11th place.

With the field down to 10, the remaining players redrew to one table. Dwyte Pilgrim was leading the way at the time with 451,000, while Ali Eslami held 420,000 and West held 400,000 to round out the top three. The short stack at the “unofficial” final table was Miller Dao with 98,500.

The last player to be eliminated on the day was Kwinsee Tran, who started the day as the chip leader. Tran and West got all the money in on the flop of . Tran held the and West the . Tran was unable to find help on the turn or the river and bubbled the official final table. He took home $19,653 for his finish.

Final Table Seating Assignments and Chip Counts

West will be leading the final table as he continues his hot month of March. Pilgrim, the man with three WSOP Circuit gold rings, is sitting third in chips and Eslami is in fourth. Full Tilt Poker will be represented by Steve Brecher and he’s sixth in chips.

Everyone left has locked up a seat in the $1,000,000 National Championship, but there’s still plenty of money up for grabs including a $282,242 first-place prize. Play kicks off at 12:00 p.m. PDT (1900 GMT) at Harrah’s Rincon and the final table will be filmed. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all the live updates as only our Live Reporting Team can bring it to you!

In the meantime, you should follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook to keep up with news from all around the poker world!

March 29 2011, Elaine Chaivarlis

It feels like a Friday to us, and we can’t believe that bodes well for the rest of the week. In any case, we’re getting straight to the point and bringing you the top poker news stories of the day, so we can go veg out on the couch and grind online a little. What we won’t be partaking in is the PokerStars 60 billionth hand celebration – that already happened. We’ll tell you about that, how Mike Sowers double final tabled the Full Tilt Poker $1K Monday and more.

In Case You Missed It

The World Series of Poker Circuit is in Rincon for the West Regional Championship and the total field of 98 was whittled to 18 on Day 2. To find out who’s still in the running for the National Championship seat, check out the WSOP-C recap.

We figured it was about time to lay down the Twitter law. Here are our ten rules for poker players to follow when tweeting.

If you want to broaden your gaming industry knowledge, we’ve got just the scoop for you to read. Inside Gaming is back this week with news on the PokerListings and Cake alliance, fourth-quarter results for some Las Vegas properties, and more.

Gus Hansen is still doing his thing at the high-stakes online poker tables on Full Tilt Poker. He recently took on Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond and we’ve got a recap of some of the action in the Online Railbird Report.

Celebrating 60 Billion

PokerStars celebrated its 60 billionth hand Tuesday at 9:35 a.m. EDT (1335 GMT). The hand was dealt at the $5/$10 limit hold’em table called Isa II, where six players were seated. The players were guaranteed $500 and then any extra prize money would be based on the number of VIP Player Points they had picked up over the previous 50 hands at the table. The winner of the hand was guaranteed at least $60,000.

The players were told, “The winner of the hand will have their prize money doubled. On top of that, they will receive an extra $60,000. And you can’t win a hand by folding.”

It was “Pogo650″ who ended up winning the hand with on a board. When everything was tallied, Pogo650 added $102,090 to his bankroll. Four players at the table pocked $21,045, while the sixth added $11,040 to his bankroll.

“I’m possibly the biggest luckbox alive over the last week or so. Two losing sessions ended in milestone hands,” Pogo650 said.

Head on over to the PokerStars Blog for a replay of the hand.

Sowers’ Double Double

It’s Double Guarantees Week at Full Tilt Poker and there’s over $30 million in guaranteed prize pools up for grabs. On Monday, Mike Sowers took advantage of that and the fact that all guaranteed tournaments were converted to Multi-Entry tournaments.

Sowers finished in both first and ninth place in the $1K Monday. How’d he do that? Well, he bought in for the maximum six entries and he still had two of his entries left when the final table was reached, therefore merging his two stacks. For his smallest stack, Sowers received ninth-place money and kept his momentum going throughout the tournament to finish in first place, pocketing $490,295 — taking home over $500,000 total for the tournament.

Want to double final table an event of your own? Sign up for a Full Tilt Poker account, and to find out more on Sowers’ win, check out Poker-King.com.

Gromov Wins WPT Vienna

After four days of play, the World Poker Tour stop in Vienna has crowned a winner. The final table started Tuesday with Dmitry Gromov at the top of the chip counts and when all was said and done, he topped the pack, taking home €447,840 in first-place prize money. The final table was streamed live, complete with hole cards and commentary by Mike Sexton and Jesse May.

WPT Vienna Results

If you want to check out how the action went down, head on over to the PartyPoker Blog.

Live the Dream with UB

UB wants to get you a seat at the World Series of Poker. All you have to do is win your way to the Main Event freeroll by playing in a series of freerolls. One lucky player will win a $12,000 WSOP prize package.

“One of the most tried and true traditions in online poker is winning your seat to the WSOP Main Event on UB. We have so many ways to do so, even starting with freerolls that a player would be crazy not to get in there and snag their seat. We are so excited to fill the Rio this summer,” Team UB Pro Joe Sebok said.

All you have to do is make it through four rounds of play. Round 1 freerolls are already under way and run six times a day. The top 100 players from those will qualify for the Round 2 freeroll which takes place on Sundays. If you finish in the top 150 of that, you’ll be entered into the Round 3 monthly freeroll and the top 150 from that make their way to the WSOP Main Event freeroll where they’ll have a shot at the $12,000 prize package.

The only way to get your start, is by signing up for a UB account. Good luck!

Negreanu Talks SuperStar Showdown

Kristy Arnett caught up with Daniel Negreanu on Monday at the World Series of Poker Circuit West Regional Championship at Harrah’s Rincon. Negreanu discussed his match against Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom in the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown and whether there will be another rematch.

Follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.

If you have the skills, we have $55,000 in added prizes. The PokerNews Skills Challenge at Full Tilt Poker is a series of money added tournaments every Wednesday night, which culminates in a $20,000 freeroll.