October 29 2011, Brett Collson

Day 1 of the World Poker Tour World Poker Finals at Foxwoods saw 185 players pony up $10,000 to compete in one of the most celebrated stops on the World Poker Tour. Only 144 players managed to survive the opening day, but four more players took advantage of the late registration on Day 2 to generate a total field of 189, and a prize pool of $1,778,300. A top prize of just under $450,000 will go to the winner, and 27 players will earn a minimum payday of $19,916.

The leaders heading into Day 3 include Dan Colpoys and reigning WPT Player of the Year Andy Frankenberger, who is second among the 66 players who survived Day 2. Others taking healthy stacks into Day 3 are Peter Politano, Chris Klodnicki, Steven Brackesy, Christian Harder and Thomas Schreiber, all of whom will take more than 100 big blinds into Saturday.

Colpoys finished Day 2 as the leader with 246,000 chips, but it wasn’t an easy path to the top. In one of the largest pots of the day, Colpoys got just under 80,000 chips in the middle holding on a board of . His opponent, Jack Kashishian, called with for two pair, but the fell on the river to give Colpoys a set of aces and a double-up.

Frankenberger began the day fourth in chips and continued his climb by picking off a pair of bluffs with just ace-high. According to the World Poker Tour Live Updates Team, Frankenberger called a double-barrel bluff on a board with just and then checked the on the river to win a pot worth more than 26,000. Then, Frankenberger had the same two cards and called a river bluff on a ten-high paired board to scoop a pot of more than 62,000, putting him among the overall leaders.

Christian Harder had a roller coaster day but still managed to finish sixth overall when play ended Friday night. After tripling his starting stack early in the day, Harder lost a 200,000-chip pot to Darren Elias to send him back where he started at just under 50,000. Harder cold-four-bet with pocket aces preflop and Elias and Kyle Loman called to see a flop of . Loman checked, and Harder moved all-in, having both players covered. Elias called instantly and, after Loman got out of the way, tabled for middle set. Harder had two outs for the win but came up empty, giving Elias a massive double-up. Elias, however, lost nearly half his stack before the end of the day.

Others still alive entering Day 3 include Kathy Liebert, David Sands, Allen Kessler, Jason Mercier, Bernard Lee, Dwight Pilgrim, Matt Glantz, Erik Seidel, and former WPT Finals champions Hoyt Corkins, Cornel Cimpan, Jonathan Little and Jeff Forrest. Among the notables exiting on Day 2 were Dan Shak, David Williams, Cliff Josephy, Todd Terry, Steve Brecher, Tony Dunst, and current WPT Player of the Year leader Will Failla.

On Saturday, play will resume at 1200 EDT (1600 GMT) and conclude after five levels of action. Here’s a look at the top 10 stacks entering Day 3:

Top 10 End of Day 1 Chip Counts

*Photo courtesy of the World Poker Tour.

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October 28 2011, Brett Collson

Depending on who you ask, the Philadelphia Eagles have either been running poorly or performing horrendously on the football field this season. Eagles Pro Bowlers Asante Samuel and DeSean Jackson are set to showcase the opposite at the poker table next month, and we’ll give you all the details in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

The World Poker Tour Foxwoods World Poker Finals kicked off Thursday with its $10,000 buy-in Main Event. Get all the details from Day 1 in our daily recap.

How was the high-stakes action at the PokerStars tables this week? Read the Online Railbird Report to find out the week’s biggest winners and losers.

Sunday is almost here and that means football. Find out which teams are good, bad and ugly this week in the latest Pigskin Diaries.

Poker Royalty’s Brian Balsbaugh is one of the most influential figures in the poker industry. Read about what Balsbaugh had to say about Donald Trump and the future of online poker in the latest edition of The Insiders.

Miss anything this week? Kristy Arnett and Laura Cornelius get you caught up on the latest news, views and gossip in the PokerNews Weekly.

*Photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated

Poker Not Protected by First Amendment

A defunct poker club in Wallkill, N.Y., received some unfortunate news from the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday. The court rejected arguments that the poker club’s activities were protected under the First Amendment, and agreed with a lower court ruling that the poker club’s lawsuit against the town of Wallkill should be dismissed.

The AK Tournament Play club alleged that by interfering with their Texas hold’em tournaments, the town of Wallkill violated their first amendment right to “Freedom of Association.”

It claimed that the town unsuccessfully tried to condemn a portion of the commercial space it occupied in 2007 and engaged in additional “threatening and coercive conduct.” The club, which at one point had 130 members, discontinued its activities after its membership dwindled following the town’s legal action.

“Even assuming arguendo that there might be some circumstances under which a poker club’s activities could involve sufficiently expressive or political content to merit protection under the First Amendment, plaintiff’s conclusory and vague complaint fails to set out facts from which a court could draw that conclusion here,” the appellate court found, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.

More on this story can be found at the Wall Street Journal.

Play Poker with the NFL’s “Dream Team”

Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Asante Samuel is offering fans a chance to play poker with him in a charity poker tournament on Tuesday, Nov. 15. The event will be held at the Whisper nightclub in Philadelphia and proceeds will benefit the Bring It Home Single Moms Foundation.

Samuel will join Eagles wide receiver DeSean Jackson, tight end Brent Celek and longsnapper Jon Dorenbos at the event, which will run from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. NBA players Udonis Haslem and Keyon Dooling will also participate in the charity tournament. Tickets range from $100 to the elite level of $1,000, which will guarantee you a seat at the table with a professional athlete.

Samuel, a two-time Super Bowl champ, founded the Bring It Home Single Moms Foundation this year. In May, he made a $25,000 donation to the Habitat for Humanity office in Miami and did some of the physical labor on a new home for a single mother with two children. Samuel created the foundation as a tribute to his mother, who raised him as a single mother in Miami.

Read more on the charity tournament at the event’s Facebook page.

CEREUS Network Proposes Plan to Reimburse Players

The Kahnawake Gaming Commission released a statement Thursday saying that the CEREUS Network has proposed a plan to the U.S. Department of Justice to allow the reimbursement of all of players from Absolute Poker and UB. Blanca Games, which acquired the CEREUS Network in August 2010, has purportedly been in “close and regular discussions” with the KGC about a solution to facilitate the payments, a process that’s been ongoing since Black Friday

The CEREUS Network has been virtually silent since it came to an alleged agreement with the Department of Justice on May 10. However, with a deadline of Oct. 31 to respond to the amended civil complaint filed last month, it was only a matter of time before we heard from the embattled company.

Read the full release at the KGC’s website.

Support Cerebral Palsy at the All-In for CP Charity Event

The Fourth Annual All-In for CP charity tournament will take place on Dec. 9, 2011, at the Venetian in Las Vegas. The event, which attracts many top poker pros and several celebrities, will raise funds to ease the lives of those with cerebral palsy.

The All-In for CP will feature a buy-in of $540 with unlimited rebuys for the first 90 minutes. Among the celebrities and poker pros expected to attend are Sam Simon, Jennifer Tilly, Shannon Elizabeth, Montel Williams, and Mekhi Phifer. Antonio Esfandiari, Dan Fleyshman, Dennis Phillips, Phil Laak, and Barry Greenstein.

Get more on this story at PokerNews.com.

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