It took a while, but 21-year-old online phenom Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko won the 2009 Five-Star World Poker Classic WPT Championship late Saturday night. The feat took eight days and thousands of hands, but in the end, the young gun got it done, besting a stacked final table that included Scotty Nguyen, Shannon Shorr, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Christian Harder, and eventual runner-up Ran Azor.

This was Timoshenko’s third live victory of his very short career, after claiming wins at the Irish Poker Open and at the APT Macau main event. Timoshenko had previously had four six-figure cashes on his poker résumé, but the $2,149,960 he pocketed for first place here by far eclipsed his largest score since joining the tour.

With his third-place finish, Bertrand Grospellier overtook John Phan to become the World Poker Tour Player of the Year. Grospellier joins an elite group of pros that includes Jonathan Little, Daniel Negreanu, Erick Lindgren, Howard Lederer, Gavin Smith, and J.C. Tran.

Credit: Carplayer.com

This years television schedule will include only 4 events (down from 7 last year); one is a freeroll (Tournament of Champions style), another is a charity event, and all are NLHE.

• $40,000 40th Anniversary NLHE, will air July 28th
• WSOP Champions Invitational, will air August 4th
• $5,000 Ante Up for Africa, will air August 11th
• $10,000 Main Event, see schedule below

Conspicuously missing is the $50,000 HORSE event. Rumor has it, Scotty Nguyens mouth and behavior kept the ESPN editors so busy they decided to cancel the event. I don’t really understand this logic,since a drunk player could end up at the final table of any event, and cause the same problems.

The main Event coverage will start August 18th. Each of the four starting days will receive its own two hour block of coverage over four consecutive weeks. Each of the remaining days of play in the 2009 WSOP Main Event will play out over the course of one week, culminating in the final table, which will air on Tuesday, November 10th.

Credit: pokerforums.org

Eric Haber is the winner of the World Series of Poker Circuit event that attracted 277 players to Caesars Palace Atlantic City over the weekend. He won $431,136, a Circuit ring, and entry into this year’s WSOP main event.

The players generated a prize pool of more than $1.3 million during this $5,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event. This is Haber’s largest cash. The online player known as “sheets” has cashed into the six-figures online, but because the 41-year-old has two kids, he says he can’t play in as many live events as he would like.

“I really cherish the opportunity to play in live tournaments. I am married with kids, and I do not get the opportunity to play in as many events as some others, so I really have to make the most of it when I play live with real people,” Haber said. “To be able to grind it out day after day after day at one of these major events and then make it all the way to the final table is something really special. This is what it is all about for me.”

The top nine finishers and their payouts:

Eric “Sheets” Haber (Syosset, New York) — $431,136
Dan Hicks (Tampa, Florida) — $237,124
Sumeet Batra (Lubbock, Texas) — $121,257
Soheil Shamseddin (Houston, Texas) — $94,311
Steven Greenberg (Flanders, New York) — $80,838
Nick Binger (Las Vegas, Nevada) — $67,365
Scott Blackman (Rochester, New York) — $53,892
Steven Merrifield (Fairmont, West Virginia) — $40,419
Marc Morris (Woolrich Township, New Jersey) — $26,946

The next Circuit series takes place at Caesars Palace in Indiana March 30-April 14.

Credit: Cardplayer.com

There was even a guy at a table yesterday that didn’t know what “chasing” mean, you really cant make this stuff up.

Michael Martin, who has more than $600,000 in tournament winnings since August 2006, is the chip leader with 214,500. Bernard Lee, who has more than $1.2 million in tournament winnings, is close behind him with 155,500.

The chip counts of the others in the top nine follow:

• Ben Hock — 122,000
• Samuel Shamburg — 117,000
• Keith Murrell — 116,500
• Dan Jensen — 83,500
• Nicholas Manganaro — 75,000
• Howard Wolper — 63,000
• Ron Koenemann — 43,000

This Circuit event attracted 99 players who put up $5,000 to try for the circuit ring. The winner of the event will take home almost $170,000. The final table starts at 2 p.m. CT.

Credit: Cardplayer.com

Good job im up over $20 today so I can laugh at this tool.

Today in the Champions League I have a 4 team parlay with :-

Arsenal

Man Utd

Barcelona

Fenerbache

That pays around 17 to 1

I also did

Barcelona to be winning at half time at +160

Arsenal to be drawing at half time +110

Fenervache/Sevilla under 2 1/2 goals -135

Lets get some WINNARZZZ!!!