Join RankingHero at the Aria for the WPT500 $1,000,000 Guaranteed, July 4-9th!

RankingHero, poker’s own social network, is proud and happy to be a part of one of the most exciting events this summer - the WPT500 $1,000,000 Guaranteed at the @ARIA Resort & Casino, July 4-9th. Starting today, watch out for our two beautiful twin hostesses and our special ambassadors to Vegas - RankingHero co-founders @Nicolas Levi and @Pedro Canali!

The $1,000,000 guaranteed prizepool, the well thought-out schedule which doesn’t interfere with WSOP Main Event entry (five flights starting today and one entry allowed per flight), and the legendary Vegas cardroom are sure to attract thousands of entrants. #WPT500 is going to be a fantastic poker experience of which RankingHero simply had to be a part!

RankingHero is adding a special Last Longer Contest during the #WPT500Aria Main Event. All you need to do is sign up on RankingHero, accept our simple terms&conditions, and wear our logo. Hundreds of our smart branded caps and patches will be available and distributed at the Aria by the unmissable twin hostesses. The participating player who outlasts all others on Day 2, July 9th, will win back their buy-in!

Grab a patch from our smiling twin hostesses at the Aria and help us spread the word about the RankingHero community!

Big Changes in Poker Rankings after Big One for One Drop

Even if the 2014 Big One for One Drop turnout was a disappointment -  down to 42 entries from 48 in 2012, instead of the expected increase to 56 - the enormous $37,333,338 prizepool was certain to result in significant movements in the rankings. @Daniel Negreanu overtook @Antonio Esfandiari as the poker world's new Number One by all-time earnings. Here are just some of the other major changes:

Top 5, worlwide, last 6 months:

The German Top Earners:

The biggest #OneDrop movers:

@Daniel Colman moved up 171 places to No. 5 in the US ranking and No. 1 worldwide in the past 6 months; @Christoph Vogelsang climbed to No. 6 in the German top earners list, and @Rick Salomon shot up an amazing 2658 places to No. 159 in the national live earnings ranking.

More on #Big1for1drop :

Daniel Negreanu on Top of the World

Rick Salomon Finishes 4th in Big One for One Drop

Sam Trickett Takes Out Vanessa Selbst in All-In Action Thriller in Big One for One Drop

New Big Names in the $1 Million Buy-In Big One for One Drop List

Daniel Negreanu on Top of the World

He may not have won the Big One for One Drop but @Daniel Negreanu's runner-up prize of $8,288,001 just made him No. 1 on the worldwide all-time earnings ranking!

Congrats to a great player and poker ambassador!

And while the winner @Daniel Colman apparently declined interviews and photo sessions, Daniel Negreanu immediately expressed his respect and admiration for his opponent and thanked his fans in his usual courteous and good-natured way:

You can vote for his induction in the Poker Hall of Fame by joining this group on Facebook - Daniel Negreanu to Poker Hall of Fame N.O.W.!!!  :)

Rick Salomon Finishes 4th in Big One for One Drop

If you look up @Rick Salomon - No. 4 among the eight Big One for #OneDrop finalists - on imdb, you will find him listed as a producer, actor and cinematographer; the Wikipedia entry descibes him as:

a celebutante* mostly known for his relationships with various female celebrities, including E.G. Daily, Shannen Doherty, Paris Hilton, and Pamela Anderson

*

If, however, you are more interested in his performance as a poker player, you will look him up on RankingHero to find out that:

His live tournament winnings amount to $249,132 since 2005;

His earliest recorded cash dates back to 2005, when he finished 43rd and won $2,710 in a NLHE tournament at the @Bellagio;

His latest ITM finish was at the 2011 PCA - 8th place for $11,325 in a $1,000 buy-in NLHE.

2012, Big One for One Drop	2014, Big One for One Drop

Rick Salomon was one of the 48 entrants in the inaugural Big One for One Drop in 2012, when he busted on Day 2. This year he was the Day 2 chipleader and ultimately finished 4th for $2,800,000. It looks like he has come back with quite a few lessons learned and maybe from now he will be introduced as a poker player rather than 'celebutante' :) GG!

Terrible Day for AA in Big One for One Drop with Two Bad Beat Eliminations

First there was the unbelievable elimination of $25k satellite qualifier @Connor Drinan holding AA vs @Cary Katz with... AA. As bad beats go, this one comes straight out of a poker player's worst nightmare:

Katz, UTG, A♥ A♠  raised to 225,000

Drinan, BB, A♦ A♣ three-bet to 580,000

Katz, four-bet to 2 million

Drinan, all-in, 5.79 million

Katz, call

Flop: 2♦ K♥ 5♥ 

Turn: 4♥ 

River:2♥ 

Connor Drinan finished 11th in the 2013 WSOP One Drop High Rollers and has had four minor cashes so far in #WSOP2014 

After watching this #PokerHand, Sam Trickett tweeted: "Just witnessed one of the worst bad beats in the history of the game ...AA vs AA in the @onedrop". Little did he know then that the poker gods had one in store for him, too...

He finished Day 1 in high spirits as the chip leader but on Day 2 the #OneDrop tweets of the Everest ambassador were marked by increasing frustration: "horrible start", "running horribly today", "getting extremely frustrated", and the final one:

"Literally the most painful day of poker in my life !!!"

Here is the PokerNews account of the hand:

Hand #31: Daniel Negreanu raised to 360,000 from early position. Sam Trickett reraised to 800,000 out of the small blind, and action moved back to Negreanu. He called, and the flop came down 9♠ 6♣ 5♦. Trickett was first and checked. Negreanu checked behind.

The turn was the 10♥, and Trickett bet 1.2 million. Negreanu called, and the pot swelled to 4.32 million in chips before the dealer completed the board with the 9♣. Trickett moved all in, and Negreanu immediately asked for a count from the dealer. He was informed the shove was for 3.865 million. According to the stat tracker screen, Negreanu had 3.915 million left in his stack at the time of Trickett's shove, so calling would mean putting nearly all of his chips at risk.

After about a minute, Negreanu called, and Trickett tabled the A♦ A♣ for two pair, aces and nines. Negreanu had him beat, though, as he showed the J♦ 9♦ for trip nines to win the pot and sent Trickett out the door in 15th place.

Sam Trickett finished runner-up in the inaugural Big One for One Drop in 2012, winning $10,112,001 and cementing his position as UK's No. 1 player by live poker earnings.

Sam Trickett Takes Out Vanessa Selbst in All-In Action Thriller in Big One for One Drop

Once it's up on YouTube that video is certain to be a hit among poker fans. Just imagine the No. 1 UK player, @Sam Trickett, and the No.1 female player in the world, @Vanessa Selbst, playing for their tournament life in an all-in with an 8-million chip pot. And not just any event but The One -  the $1 million Big One for One Drop!

Photos: Melissa Haereiti, PokerNews

Here is the pre-flop action, as reported by PokerNews:

Selbst raises to 65,000 from the cutoff: A♣ K♠ 

Trickett three-bets from the button to 205,000: K♣ K♥ 

Selbst, four-bets to 520,000

Trickett:, five-bets to 820,000

Selbst, all-in for $3.9 million

Trickett; "I do not see how I can ever fold this. Why did you go all in so fast? I've got a very big hand." and calls.

Flop: A♥ 9♦ 6♠ 

Trickett: "No!"

Turn: K♦

River: 3♥ 

Selbst: Out of the #OneDrop  

Trickett: "This is the first time I've ever celebrated a hand"

Sam Trickett ultimately finished Day 1 as the chip leader, with 13,400,000 in chips. Here are the other 30 #Big1for1drop survivors whom we'll see on Day 2:

Millionaires Made at the Bellagio in 100K Super High Roller, Dan Smith Second Only to Ivey in 2014

This weekend, while @Phil Ivey was battling for his 10th bracelet, the ladies were flocking into the Rio for the WSOP Ladies Championship, and the Monster Stack was breaking attendance records, a few dozen high rollers quietly slipped off to the @Bellagio for a $100,000 buy-in event. The top four finishers in the #SuperHighRoller made a chop deal and ended up scoring their biggest career wins:

It was meant to be a 10k event, but was changed to a $100,000 buy-in as there appeared to be greater interest in  a super high roller. Indeed, 66 players entered and 21 re-entered so the resulting prizepool soared to $8,613,000. Among those who paid up but failed to get into the paid places were @Phil Hellmuth and @Phil Galfond, as well as some of the top German players who are in Vegas for the WSOP (and notably The Big One for One Drop) - @Philipp Gruissem and @Fabian Quoss.

Chopping was reportedly first discussed when the field was down to five but @Douglas Polk backed out and ironically ended up the next one to leave the final  table, for $602,910. The deal was quickly worked out among the remaining four: @Jason Somerville @Tom Marchese @Jason Mercier and @Dan Smith. With his $2,044,000 prize Dan Smith shot up to number 2 in the US 2014 earnings ranking, second only to Phil Ivey:

On Sunday Dan used one of his newly earned millions to enter The Big One for One Drop where he was eliminated at the end of Day 1, just like Jason Mercier... As Jason Somerville never entered, the only one of the Bellagio super highrollers still in the #OneDrop game is Doug Polk, who will start Day2 14th  in chips among the 31 survivors.

Johannes Strassman Missed Dearly by the Poker Community

The poker community is mourning one of its own - 29-year-old @Johannes Strassmann was confirmed dead on Saturday. A DNA test determined that the dead body found in a river in Ljubljana was indeed that of the young German poker player Johannes Strassman, who had been missing for a week.

Johannes disappeared on Saturday, June 21st and Slovenian police carried out a massive nationwide search, complete with helicopters and police dogs. He was apparently in the Slovenian capital to visit with friends and play some high-stakes poker. Here is the message posted on Saturday in the Facebook group created to help search for the missing Strassman:

Rest in Peace, Johannes.

Weekly RankingHero Highlights

The Poker Players Championship drew lots of attention this week, with its $4,896,000 prizepool and star-studded field of 102 entrants who paid the $50,000 buy-in. Melissa Burr, whom we've been following in the past weeks, made history by becoming the first woman to cash AND make the final table. @Brandon Shack-Harris shone with another brilliant performance and his FOURTH final table this summer. Finally, the winner, John Hennigan, cemented his reputation as the most successful player in this tournament in the past years; won his third bracelet; the special Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, and shot up to No. 1 in the #WSOP2014 leaderboard, with 3 ITM and $1,843,826 in earnings!

In other WSOP news, Davide Suriano won the first bracelet for Italy and Robert Mizrachi, one of the famous four Mizrachi brothers and co-founder of the Mizrachi Dealer Academy, won the inaugural Dealer's Choice Event!

We extend our special welcome to the Pokersphere Bordeaux Club and @Yann Roudaut , as well as to  @Edison Shields @Ludovic Catteau @Anosh Patel and all the new members who joined the RankingHero community in the past week!

Many thanks to @SuitedAce and @tablerase.fr for the interesting links they have been posting and to @Kingfishing and all the members sharing their high and low poker moments with us!

Don't forget to visit us on Facebook and check out the fantastic new feature - WSOP 2014 Live Updates.

You can always check what news you may have missed with the #RKHweekly hashtag :)

Yours truly,

@Annie RKH 

Phil Ivey Playing for 10th Bracelet in WSOP Event 50

After an uneventful #WSOP summer, where he has been largely inconspicuous (two small cashes so far), Ivey finally makes a deep run and comes back into the spotlight in #WSOP50. The Eight Game Mix, is down to four from 485 and Day 3 notable eliminations include Daniel Negreanu (busting 9th) and Stephen Chidwick (5th):

Here are the four remaining players:

@Aaron Steury 

@Dan Heimiller 

@Bruce Yamron 

@Phil Ivey 

Watch the live stream now on wsop.com!