August 15 2012, Donnie Peters

Day 4 of the World Poker Tour Parx Open Poker Classic saw 16 players return with Tony Gregg holding a big lead over the rest of the field. At the end of play, only six players remained, all at the official WPT televised final table, and all guaranteed at least $61,619. Stephen Reynolds was clinging to the chip lead with a stack of 4.035 million.

Reynolds is coming off a decent World Series of Poker where he made two deep runs. Both times, he placed 11th. His first deep run of the summer was in Event #9: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Re-Entry for over $46,000 and the second was in Event #46: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em for over $38,000.

The action didn’t disappoint early on, and the chips were flying minutes after the first cards were dealt. Kevin Calenzo and Vinny Pahuja found themselves with all the chips in the middle, a confrontation that resulted in Calenzo’s elimination in 16th place. According to the WPT Live Reporting Blog, Calenzo moved all in preflop with the and was up against the for Pahuja. The flop put Pahuja in the lead when a jack spiked, and he held from there as the board ran out .

Next out the door was Brent Roberts, who fell at the hands of Gregg when his pocket eights ran into the start-of-the-day chip leader’s pocket aces. Timothy Chang then fell in 14th and Pahuja in 13th. It seemed Pahuja had used up all of his luck when he busted Calenzo by coming from behind as he was busted holding the best hand. All-in preflop, Pahuja held the to Joseph Wertz’s . Although Pahuja stayed in front on the flop, the turn was the and catapulted Wertz to the lead. The river landed with the and Pahuja was off to the payout desk. After the hand Pahuja said on Twitter, “Guess I deserved that after getting it in bad twice.”

Following the bust outs of Alan Kraut in 12th place and Athanasios Polychronopoulos in 11th place, the remaining 10 players were seated at one table. Robert Pyne then fell in 10th place and Tommy Miller headed to the rail in ninth place. With eight players left, Wertz was next to go to put the tournament on the official final table bubble.

Wertz went out during Level 24 with the blinds at 12,000/24,000/4,000. He raised from under the gun to 50,000 and Gregg reraised to 124,000 from the small blind. Action went back to Wertz and he shoved for 460,000. Gregg called holding . Wertz, with , was at risk and looking to double. On the flop, Wertz missed and was down to just two more cards. The turn was the , though, and put the final dagger through Wertz’s heart and leaving him officially drawing dead. The river completed the board with the .

Level 24 ended around 1850 EDT (2350 BST) and the final seven players went on a 75-minute dinner break. At that break, Reynolds was on top with 3.205 million in chips. Bringing up the rear and in need of food to fuel his post-dinner comeback attempt was Andre Nyffeler with 534,000.

Roughly 90 minutes after the players’ return from dinner, the final hand of the day came up. Nyffeler was the shortest stack returning from dinner and at the most risk, but he was able to stick around and watch Joey Couden be eliminated.

With the blinds at 15,000/30,000/5,000, Couden min-raised from middle position to 60,000 and action folded to Gregg in the small blind. He reraised all-in. Play got back to Couden and he called to put himself at risk for 550,000. He held the and was in front of the for Gregg. After a flop, turn and river of ran out, Couden finished second best to Gregg’s full house.

With Couden’s elimination, six players remained, all officially at the WPT televised final table. Reynolds proved to be the man to catch with over 4 million while Gregg finished on 3.6 million. You will find the seat draw for Wednesday’s final table below.

The final table is scheduled to kick off at 1600 EDT (2100 BST) on Wednesday and things won’t end until a winner is crowned. There’s $416,127 up top and everyone left is licking their chops. Following the completion of play, PokerNews will bring you a complete recap.

*Hands and Data courtesy of the WPT Live Reporting Blog.

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August 14 2012, Brett Collson

Who deserves induction into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2012? It’s up to you, the poker fan, to make your nominations. We’ll cover that story, plus Viktor Blom’s departure from Team PokerStars, in this edition of the Nightly Turbo.

In Case You Missed It

Only 16 players advanced to Day 4 of the World Poker Tour Parx Open Poker Classic. Anthony Gregg led the way, but some notables still had their eyes on the title.

How did PokerNews‘ Chad Holloway fare in the 2012 ESPN Fantasy Poker League? Holloway took a look back at the results.

Last week, Marvin Rettenmaier made history by winning back-to-back titles on the World Poker Tour. Rich Ryan gives his take on the accomplishment in his latest Five Thoughts piece.

Poker Hall of Fame

It’s that time of year again. The World Series of Poker has opened nominations for the Poker Hall of Fame Class of 2012, giving fans a chance to nominate their favorite players for induction into the group of poker’s elite.

The Poker Hall of Fame traditionally elects one or two members annually and inducts the chosen members in November as part of the WSOP Main Event Final Table festivities. This year’s final table will take place in October because of a conflict with this year’s U.S. presidential election.

Among those already inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame are Johnny Moss, Puggy Pearson, Doyle Brunson, Jack Strauss, Benny Binion, David “Chip” Reese, Thomas Austin “Amarillo Slim” Preston, Stu Ungar, and Phil Hellmuth. Last year, Barry Greenstein and Linda Johnson were added to the prestigious club.

The main criteria for the Poker Hall of Fame are as follows:

• A player must have played poker against acknowledged top competition
• Be a minimum of 40 years old at time of nomination (the “Chip Reese” rule)
• Played for high stakes
• Played consistently well, gaining the respect of peers
• Stood the test of time
• Or, for nonplayers, contributed to the overall growth and success of the game of poker, with indelible positive and lasting results.

Once the list of nominated individuals is complete, a committee of media members will review all nominations and determine which candidates are most eligible for induction. Last year’s nominees who didn’t make the Class of 2011 were Annie Duke, Jen Harman, John Juanda, Macel Luske, Jack McClelland, Tom McEvoy, Scotty Nguyen and Huck Seed.

To submit your nominations, visit WSOP.com.

PokerStars, Viktor Blom Part Ways

PokerNews learned Tuesday that Viktor “Isildur1″ Blom has parted ways with PokerStars and is no longer a member of Team PokerStars Pro.

Eric Hollreiser, PokerStars’ head of corporate communications, told PokerNews that Blom and the company mutually agreed not to renew the Swede’s expired sponsorship agreement. Said Hollreiser: “In his short time as a poker player, Viktor has played against the biggest names in poker at the highest stakes in the toughest games. It’s hard to recall a player who has kept the poker world so riveted at such an early stage of his career. We’ll be watching with great interest and we wish him nothing but success.”

Blom joined PokerStars in 2011 after exploding onto the scene by playing the highest stakes available at Full Tilt Poker. His heads-up battles against pros like Tom Dwan, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius and Brian Hastings instantly changed the landscape of high-stakes poker on the internet. Since joining PokerStars, one of Blom’s shining achievements was winning 11 of his 14 matches in the PokerStars SuperStar Showdown, earning more than $1 million in the process. He also won the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller for $1,254,000.

“I’ve enjoyed my time as a Team Pro and I wish everyone at PokerStars the best,” Blom said about his departure from PokerStars. “Now I just want to concentrate on playing poker.”

Read the breaking story at PokerNews.com.

DOJ Seeks Help

Full Tilt Poker customers in the U.S. may be waiting awhile to make a claim for the funds frozen in their accounts.

The Department of Justice is seeking a third-party payment processor to help facilitate the remission process for FTP players located in the U.S. An employment notice listed on the DOJ website calls for a claims administrator to “design and execute a process to solicit, receive and evaluate claims, and to process payments, for losses incurred by U.S. victims that are attributable to the fraud alleged in the above complaint.”

The deadline to apply for the position is Aug. 31, meaning players may be forced to wait several more weeks before information about the remission process is made public.

The remission process has been a bit of a concern for U.S. players, even more so after a Forbes article questioned whether the government will actually repay players in full. Forbes writer Nathan Vardi also suggested that the government may pay out the money deposited by players on the site, rather than the actual funds in their account.

Meanwhile, PokerStars still intends to repay all non-U.S. Full Tilt Poker customers by Nov. 6. As part of the agreement with the Department of Justice last month, the company promised to refund players within 90 days of the formal closing of the deal to acquire Full Tilt Poker. The deal was finalized last week when PokerStars made its initial $225 million forfeiture payment to the government.

Read more at PokerNews.com.

PokerStars Mobile, Eh?

Following successful launches in Europe and Austral-Asia, the PokerStars Mobile App is now available in Canada. The popular app is available for download on Apple’s iPhone, iPad and iPad Touch, and on many Android phones and tablet computers.

PokerStars Mobile offers real-money games in varieties like Texas hold’em, Omaha and Omaha hi-lo, and players can participate in the same tournaments, sit-and-gos and ring games they would on their laptops or desktop computers.

Some of the features on the mobile app include multitabling (up to five tables on the iPad), player and tournament search, lobby filters, chat, and hand histories. The fast-paced Zoom Poker is also available on all devices.

For more information, visit pokerstars.com.

Watch and Win on ESPN

ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker Main Event begins tonight, and viewers of the telecast will have an exciting opportunity to win a $12,500 package for next year’s WSOP Main Event.

In the first hour of each two-hour telecast, viewers will see a promotional spot providing an overview of the sweepstakes with a mention to keep watching for the night’s unique code. Once it is revealed, viewers can log into WSOP.com, register for an account at the WSOP’s free-to-play poker software, and enter the code.

There will be one winner chosen for each of the next 11 weeks of ESPN’s coverage. The final winner will be selected after the broadcast on Oct. 23.

“This officially becomes the first way to qualify for the 2013 WSOP Main Event,” joked WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. “For ten consecutive years, WSOP telecasts have showcased that in Vegas everyone can play and anyone can win. This is our way of thanking loyal viewers and giving them a chance to go from their couch to the championship in 2013.”

For official rules of the sweepstakes, visit WSOP.com.

A teaser for tonight’s Main Event coverage can be found at ESPN.com.

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