To get a piece of the $10,000 that’s awarded every month, all you have to do is place somewhere within the top 25 players on the SNG Leaderboard.  The amount of money you earn will of course depend on where you finish in the top 25, but as long as you’re in one of these spots you will be getting paid.

The great thing is that the $10,000 isn’t the only money given out through the SNG Leaderboard since another $2,000 will be given away based on your streak bonus.  If you’re able to string together several sit and go wins, your leaderboard prize money will be multiplied based on your best win streak of the month.

Obviously, not all SNG’s are going to be equal when deciding who lands in the top 25 so allow me to explain how the points system works.  Every time you finish in the money in a sit and go, you will earn points towards the leaderboard.  The higher your placing and the higher the buy-in of the tournament, the more points you’ll receive.  For instance, a $20 + $2 SNG is going to award a lot more points than a $5 + $0.50 SNG considering the places are the same.

So the basic formula for figuring your SNG points is: √buy-in X your final placing bonus.  To illustrate this formula at work, let’s say you finished first in a $10 + $1 sit and go (√100 X 12).  Using this formula, you would earn 120 points on the SNG Leaderboard and be that much closer to grabbing a share of the $10,000.  Simply put: you need to play in sit and go’s and place well to win major cash.

The $420 + $40 buy in tournament brought in 33 players, including some of Carbon’s best players. There were numerous seat winners in attendance, including a stacked final table.

In the final 11 players we had heavy hitters like:

LTUFlawless – 2nd (Aus Mills, WSOP)

bullitpete – 5th (WSOP – EPT – Aus Mills)

vader46 – 6th (Aus Mills – MTT LB winner)

foxyuk – 10th (Aus Mills – EPT – WSOP)

1GOLDENBEAR1 – 11th (Aus Mills)

DrextheTex – 12th – (Aus Mills – WSOP)

All of them had already won a live seat through Carbon Poker tournaments, and many of them have done it more than once.

LTUFlawless won $952 in second place.

Congrats to mesut5400. We’ll be sending more players to represent CarbonPoker at the WSOP, so don’t miss out on your chance to hit the tables and come out with a $12,500 prize.

Lunkin really stepped his game up this year after earning $2,743,441 and a second World Series of Poker bracelet.  The Russian player cashed a total of six times in the 2009 WSOP, and highlighted his incredible performance with a win in the $40,000 No-Limit Hold’em 40th Anniversary event.  Before 2009, Vitaly’s previous best year was in 08’ when he won his first WSOP bracelet and earned $629,714 in live winnings.  He wasn’t as involved before 2008 since he was primarily known as a backgammon and Renju player.

Other awards given out at the 2009 European Poker Awards included Internet Player of the Year (Patrik Antonius), Rookie of the Year (Antoine Saout), Europe’s Leading Lady (Sandra Naujoks), Poker Staff Person of the Year (Edgar Stuchly), and Outstanding Tournament Performance of the Year (Jeff Lisandro).

Lisandro figured to be Lunkin’s closest competition to see who would be named the European Poker Player of the Year after he captured 3 different WSOP bracelets and won the WSOP Player of the Year.  Lisandro also became the first person to win a WSOP bracelet in all 3 Stud variations at the same Series. However, Lunkin’s all-around finishes, which included a couple of high EPT cashes, helped him to earn the title in 2009.

AWESOME UPDATE: in the past 12 months, CarbonPoker has paid out $2,833,938.01 to our Bad Beat Jackpot winners and losers.

Just as the famous Carbon Poker Bad Beat Jackpot hit $300,000, five lucky winners brought it right back down.

On the flop, medman08 had 4 Aces and WizAlex0 had 3 9s. The Turn completed WizAlex0’s 4 of a kind (9s), and both players were obviously all-in. The pot was a paltry $277, but the payout was extreme. WizAlex0 took down $105,723 as the hand’s loser and medman08 won $52,862.

Let’s not forget about the three others at the table who won $17,621 for their troubles (folding).

For those of you that don’t know, the Carbon Poker Bad Bead Jackpot goes off when a hand of Quad 7s or higher gets beaten — keep in mind that this is the lowest qualifier online.

Payout:

• WizAlex0 Wins $105,723.46 (Bad Beat Loser)
• medman08 Wins $52,861.73 (Bad Beat Winner)
• RMaroni Wins $17,620.57 (Bad Beat Other)
• Market6226 Wins $17,620.57  (Bad Beat Other)
• OneFatDog Wins $17,620.57 (Bad Beat Other)

Full Hand History after the jump:

RMaroni is the Dealer

Shuffling Cards

Market6226 Posted Small Blind $2.00

WizAlex0 Posted Big Blind $4.00

Dealing Cards

OneFatDog Folds

medman08 Raised to $10.00

RMaroni Folds

Market6226 Folds

WizAlex0 Raised to $40.00

medman08 All In

WizAlex0 All In

Dealing Flop (Ac,Ah,9s)

Dealing Turn (9h)

Dealing River (Ks)

medman08 Shows (Ad,As)

WizAlex0 Shows (9d,9c)

$76.15 Returned to medman08 from Pot 2

medman08 Wins $201.10 from Pot 1 with : Four of a Kind, Aces

RMaroni Wins $17,620.57 from the Bad Beat Jackpot (Bad Beat Other)

Market6226 Wins $17,620.57 from the Bad Beat Jackpot (Bad Beat Other)

WizAlex0 Wins $105,723.46 from the Bad Beat Jackpot (Bad Beat Loser)

OneFatDog Wins $17,620.57 from the Bad Beat Jackpot (Bad Beat Other)

medman08 Wins $52,861.73 from the Bad Beat Jackpot (Bad Beat Winner)

Mershon spoke about his new song by saying, “It’s just my way of saying ‘thank you’ to those fans who like my new song.”  Mershon continued by saying, “I wrote the song to humorously tell what it’s really like being a professional poker player, the sarcastic attitudes of many professional poker players, and the monotony of actually playing poker for a living and grinding out the long hours in a casino card room.”

And while the tone of Jason Mershon’s song may not be serious, the actual song itself is definitely getting some good praise from players and poker insiders who say it’s the best poker song in years.  Mershon has spent most of his working career in the entertainment industry, and he has already put out a hit song called “Rock and Roll Heaven”, which won two awards at the 2006 Los Angeles Music Awards.

Since winning the awards for Rock and Roll Heaven, Mershon has put much of his focus towards his professional poker career.  Jason commented on his poker abilities by saying, “I probably spend 90% of my time playing in cash games, but I’m also considered a pretty good tournament player as well.  So, I don’t want people to think I’m dead money in the World Series of Poker.”

Mershon finished summing up his chances at making a run in the 2010 WSOP by saying, “I think I’ve got as good a chance as any in making the Final Table.  I used to play with World Series of Poker champ Jerry Yang on a regular basis in California before he won the Main Event in 2006, and I’ve also held my own with many of the other well-known pros in tournaments and cash games alike.  I think the past few years have proven that almost anyone has a chance in The Main Event.”

“It’s a great accomplishment, for shizzle. Mo cheddah tha beddah, am I right!?! I’m an awesome poker player and you’re an awesome writer. High five!”

While this interview didn’t take place outside of my head, what is real is the tremendous force Phil Ivey has evolved into.  The poker juggernaut finished 7th last year in the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event AFTER winning bracelets in both the $2,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball and $2,500 Omaha Hi/Lo / 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo events. All of these accomplishments can be added to a long laundry list of tourney clinics he has run, including:

•         2005 – 1st – $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha for $635,603
•         2005 – 1st – Monte Carlo Millions for $1 million
•         2002 – 1st – $1,500 7 Card Stud for $132,000
•         2002 – 1st – $2,000 S.H.O.E. for $107,540
•         2002 – 1st – $2,500 7 Card Stud Hi/Lo for $118,440
•         2000 – 1st – $2,500 Pot Limit Omaha for $195,000
•         A record eight World Poker Tour final tables

While the bracelets and their prestige are certainly part of any man’s motivation, the more substantial force propelling Ivey to compete at his highest level are the prop bets he places on himself.  As some sort of sick degen’s placeholder on one’s own confidence and ability, prop bets stand to lose the average Joe more money than he’s worth when their pride fails them. When you’re Ivey good, it’s just another day at the office.

Depending on which story you choose to believe, it is estimated that his win last year in the No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball event has made him somewhere between $3  to $12 million, making his $96,367 cash look like a spot on the moon. Major implications were also in place if he finished first in the Main Event, where he stood to win millions more from the likes of pros Andy Bloch, Phil Gordan, and Tom “durrr” Dwan.

They say the sky is the limit, but at this rate, Ivey is on course to shoot straight into the sun. Years behind Helmuth and Brunson and Chan in age, he’s well on course to be the all-time leading bracelet winner atop the Mt. Olympus of the poker who’s who. What’s next for the world’s greatest poker player? Only time will tell.

Tyron Krost, a Bondi, Australia resident, took down the Main Event of the Aussie Millions after a week of intensely played poker.

Krost is 23 years old and beat a field of 746 players en route to the $2Million AUD victory Down Under. He qualified for the event through online satellites (that could be you!) and spent about $700 in the process – by my math, that’s a pretty solid investment.

That was Krost’s first major tournament victory; he previously cashed in two events at the 2008 WSOP. This showing at the Crown Casino was certainly the highlight of his growing career.

Tyron likened the win to a dream that he didn’t want to wake up from. He went on to say that he’s more interested in poker than the family furniture business… I think that’s a no brainer.

Krost’s play turned dominant in the final day of competition as he knocked out 5 players, including second place Frederik Jensen.

Aussie Million Main Event Final Table Results:

1st: Tyron Krost – $2,000,000
2nd: Frederik Jensen – $1,100,000
3rd: Sorel Mizzi – $715,000
4th: Kosta Varoxis – $450,000
5th: Peter Jetten – $350,000
6th: Steve Friedlander – $250,000
7th: Annette Obrestad – $175,000
8th: Stephen Shelly – $125,000

In a heads-up Grand Slam format, they duked it out for 5 hours, 6minutes and 21 seconds on the No Limit Hold’em tables. This capped of our successful 2009 Thanksgiving promo. It was banner month for SitNGos and players.

Each player came into the tourney with a unique starting stack, based on how they placed in the Leaderboard. As you will see below, whether you started with a big stack or a smaller one the most important part is getting into the event. Second place only started out with 5,731 chips — which was 42nd to begin with.

Congrats to the Top 8 players, who all pulled down $1K+ for their effort. Here is the list:

Top Finishers

yoyojen – $3,691.35 (24,416 Starting Chips)

Pius35 – $2,605. 59 (5,731 Starting Chips)

desertkitty – $1,628.49 (17,729 Starting Chips)

tlopeztlopez – $1,628.49 (3,562 Starting Chips)

buschmaqb – $1,085.66 (7,453 Starting Chips)

Jestersgirl – $1,085.66 (3,899 Starting Chips)

mazokie – $1,085.66 (42,445 Starting Chips)

vader46 – $1,085.66 (10,631 Starting Chips)

Greg Sessler was the latest man to benefit from such a move as he took down a WSOP Circuit Event in Lake Tahoe.  The tournament was called the “Lake Tahoe Ladies Championship” and it was a $340 event.  96 players entered the tourney, and Sessler was one of them after he claimed he wanted to participate because he had the day off, and was looking for somewhere to play poker.

Sessler definitely picked a good time to take the day off since he ended up winning the Ladies Championship, and he earned a $9,900 payday for doing so.  The crowd was definitely against Sessler as they were cheering every time a male was eliminated from the supposed ladies-only tournament.  However, he was able to come through and take the victory despite the crowd being against him.

With Sessler’s victory, and Abraham Korotki winning a Ladies No-Limit Hold’em event in September, many people are starting to question the appearance of men in women’s events.  The WSOP covered themselves on this issue by saying, “The WSOP isn’t a political organization and can’t be expected to get involved in debates about sexism, discrimination, or other polarizing issues which may be applicable to poker tournaments.”  Even with this statement, many will still be questioning why Korotki, Sessler, and others are allowed to play in these female tournaments.

The Final Table was the longest in the event’s history – logging over 17.5 hours of play until only two remained.

Joe Cada was the eventual winner – beating out Darvin Moon in heads up action last night.

Here’s the breakdown of the Final Table Winners:

Joe Cada – $8.55Million

Darvin Moon – $5.18Million

Antoine Saout – $3.48Million

Eric Buchman – $2.5Million

Jeff Shulman – $1.95Million

Steven Begleiter – $1.59Million

Phil Ivey – $1.4Million

Kevin Schaffel – $1.3Million

James Akenhead – $1.2Million