When we first heard news a poker sites founders were facing jail time we had our fingers crossed it was Russ Hamilton and others from Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker. However, it was some site we never heard of. Martin Graham Tyson Sr. and his son; Martin Tyson Jr. are both facing security fraud charges as a result of their involvement with letspoker.com.

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As players returned to the Rio for the final day of 2009 WSOP Event 6, $10,000 buy-in Stud Hi/Lo championship its unlikely many were in the audience to cheer on 74 year old amateur player Freddy Ellis. This is especially true considering his opponents included Daniel Negreanu, Jeff Lisandro, Greg FBT Mueller, Hasan Habib, Max Pescatori and Tim Phan. However, as the morning hours approached it was Ellis who would survive them all coming out on top. In his post match interview we learned a bit more about Ellis and I’m sure there were quite a few players at the Rio who were glad that he won.

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In a fourteen month career on the tournament circuit Jason Mercier has been on fire. Last night he added a WSOP bracelet to his long list of accomplishments which already included an EPT title in EPT title in San Remo, a High Rollers event win in London and a final table in Barcelona. Today his win came in WSOP Event #5, $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha (PLO).

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With the economy showing signs of trouble, Harrah’s and the World Series of Poker introduced a $1,000 buy-in bracelet this year and called it the ‘Stimulus Special’. To call this event a success is an understatement as the number of entrant shattered the previous record for a non-Main Event tournament previously set in 2008 WSOP Event 2 (won by Grant Hinkle) which had 3929 entrants. When it came to the final day there were two new comers of which one was playing in his first ever poker tournament, a WPT and WSOP final table veteran with no victories, two former WSOP bracelet winners, and a couple of cash game pros battling it out for the coveted gold bracelet and over $771K first place prize. In the end it was Steve Sung who accomplished this after 5 days of play beating out a field of 6,012 participants.

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This summer, the most anticipated tournament was the 2009 WSOP Champions invitational which invited all former WSOP Main Event winners to compete in a MTT freeroll. While there was no money on the line, first prize was a trophy presented by Jack Binion in honor of his father who started the WSOP called the Binions cup and a 1970 corvette. In the end it was the man who told all his friends he wanted this victory more than anyone else, 1983 Main Event winner Tom McEvoy who stood Champion of the Champions.

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Sweet Thang, Thang Luu has done it again successfully defending his 2008 WSOP Omaha Hi/Lo title by winning the event again in 2009. This is the same event he finished runner up in at the 2007 Series. Could Thang be the best Omaha Hi/Lo player in the world? While this one might be up for debate, there is no question his victory last night was one for the record books.

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Step aside Alex Kravchenko and Alexander Kostritsyn and make room for the newest Russian poker sensation. After all, it’s hard to top what Vitaly Lunkin did last night. After winning a WSOP bracelet only days after arriving in Vegas for a vacation last year, he came back once again from Moscow and won another. This however was no ordinary bracelet; this one was won in the unprecedented $40K buy-in WSOP NLHE tournament which attracted the biggest names in the world. Congrats Lunkin, and if this trend continues TonyG might need to ditch the – bring more Russians – verbiage from his table banter.

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