Grand National Entries: 57 remain in contention for Aintree glory

"The latest raft of defections means that runs are guaranteed for the likes of Wyck Hill, Chicago Grey... and The Rainbow Hunter."

The weights for the 2013 John Smith's Grand National could be set to go up as several of those towards the head of the weights were withdrawn at the latest forfeit stage.

Of the top five on the racecard, only What A Friend looks a probable runner at this stage, with Albertas Run, Quito de La Roque and Katenko among 16 defections on Tuesday. Imperial Commander, 1 lb ahead of What A Friend, remains among the entries but a combination of lingering injury concerns and an alternative engagement in the Bowl mean he's far from a certain starter.

Among the more fancied runners that were pulled out were Bobbyjo Chase winner Roi du Mee and Badger Ales Trophy winner The Package, the latter of which was pulled up at the Cheltenham Festival last week. 

The others to be withdrawn on Tuesday were Calgary Bay, Midnight Chase, Planet of Sound, Jessies Dream, Problema Tic, Frisco Depot, Alfie Sherrin, Matuhi, Tartak, Summery Justice and Odysseas.

The latest raft of defections means that runs are guaranteed for the likes of Wyck Hill, Chicago Grey (now Timeform top-rated following his win in the Red Mills Chase) and The Rainbow Hunter. Mr Moonshine, runner-up to Cape Tribulation in the Rowland Meyrick over Christmas, is now in the dreaded forty-first position with less than three weeks to go before the race.

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Scott Baumstein Leads WPT Bay 101 As Only 20 Players Remain

Poker News / Matthew Pitt / 08 March 2012 / Leave a Comment

Scott Baumstein (Photo: WPT / Francesco Rizzo)

Baumsteim, like his fellow Americans, lost his right to play online poker in the aftermath of Black Friday and was forced to turn his attention to live poker and so far it seems to be working out more than okay for him

One of the most popular stops on the World Poker Tour is without a shadow of a doubt the Bay 101 Shooting Stars Main Event in San Jose. The tournament is always one of the best attended each season, which means it has some huge prizes on offer but its unique format makes it fun and exciting to both watch and participate in.

Each year a number of prominent poker players are selected to become Shooting Stars for the duration of the event and each of these so-called Shooting Stars has a $5,000 bounty placed on their head. Whoever eliminates a Shooting Stars picks up their $5,000 bounty and a personalised T-shirt. It is all good fun and has always been received well. Along with these bounties the chip leaders from Day 1a and Day 1b also receive a $10,000 bonus which means it can be quite a profitable trip even if a player does not make it into the money.

Yesterday saw 149 players and 19 shooting stars return to their seats in the Bay 101 Casino in San Jose, California for Day 2 of the Main Event and by the time the tournament director Matt Savage called time on proceedings only 20 players has chips to bag up, amongst them just two Shooting Stars. They were JC Tran who bagged and tagged 145,000 and former World Series of Poker Main Event champion Jonathan Duhamel who ended the day with a much healthier looking stack of 751,000 chips. However, both bounty-laden players were massively outchipped by Scott Baumstein who will start Day 3 later today armed with little ceramic discs worth 1,301,000.

Who wants to be a millionaire

Baumstein was one of only three players to end the Day 2 with more than one millions chips, the others being Andrew Badecker (1,106,000) and Moon Kim (1,016,000), and he is now in pole position to take down this tournament. Baumstein may not be a household name just yet but he is an extremely talented poker player indeed and it is only a matter of time before he becomes better known in the live poker world; maybe this could be his springboard to stardom?

The American is a high-stakes heads-up sit 'n' go specialist and like some of his peers, Olivier Busquet springs to mind, he has been able to transfer his online skills into the live arena. Baumsteim, like his fellow Americans, lost his right to play online poker in the aftermath of Black Friday and was forced to turn his attention to live poker and so far it seems to be working out more than okay for him. In 2011 he cashed twice at the World Series of Poker including reaching the final table of the $5,000 Shootout event, he also finished fourth at WPT Amneville where he busted out in fourth place and in November he won a star-studded €10,000 buy-in High Roller event at the Amsterdam Masters for a career best score of €129,500. In total Baumstein has won just under $745,000 from live poker tournaments but that amount will be dwarfed if he goes all the way in this event as there is $960,900 awaiting the eventual winner, plus the possibility of two $5,000 bounties of course.

Standing between Baumstein and the win are the aforementioned players but also a sprinkling of talented and famous players including WSOPE bracelet winner Erik Cajelais, former WPT champion Taylor von Kriegenbergh and WSOP bracelet winner Amir Lehavot. Play resumes at 12:00 Pacific Time (20:00GMT) and we believe the plan is to play down to the six-handed final table. At which point each player will be guaranteed $128,200 and will be just five eliminations away from becoming a World Poker Tour champion.

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Tuan Phan Leads, Ivey Bubbles WPT L.A. Poker Classic; 54 Remain

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 27 February 2012 / Leave a Comment

Phil Ivey hadn't played a U.S. tourney since March 2011, but returned to play the WPT LAPC event which he won in 2008 (Photo: World Poker Tour)

Current chip leader Tuan Phan will return to a stack of 1.14 million when play resumes on Monday, with Jason Somerville his nearest competitor with 860,000 and Joe Tehan third with 831,500.

After three days of play at the World Poker Tour Los Angeles Poker Classic, just 54 players remain with Tuan Phan the only one among them with more than 1 million chips. Meanwhile, because of his elimination Sunday night in 55th place, Phil Ivey bubbled the event as the last player to be eliminated before the cash.

Of the 549 who entered the $10,000 buy-in event, 182 had made it through to Day 3, and it would take seven 90-minute levels of poker on Sunday for the field to be trimmed to 54.

Current chip leader Tuan Phan is on a roll, having just won the World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah's Atlantic City Main Event in December for which he claimed a $188,190 first prize. Phan returns to a stack of 1.14 million chips, with Jason Somerville his nearest competitor with 860,000 and Joe Tehan third with 831,500.

Among the late-day bustouts on Sunday were several notables, including J.C. Tran, Phil Collins, Nick Schulman, Matt Stout, and Phil Hellmuth. As action wound down in Level 17 (500/2,500/5,000), Bryan Piccioli was knocked out in 57th and Sam Barnhardt in 56th, meaning they were one away from the cash.

Phil Ivey had around 200,000 chips at that point, but lost two-thirds of his stack to A.J. Jejelowo in an all-in confrontation in which the latter's 6s-6d held versus Ivey's Ad-10s.

Not long after that Ivey open-pushed for about 65,000 with pocket sixes and was called by David Baker who held K-K. The kings held, and Ivey -- playing in his first major tournament in the U.S. since the spring of 2011 -- was out in 55th.

Here's how the top of the counts look heading into Monday's Day 4, with a number of familiar names among them:

1. Tuan Phan -- 1,140,000
2. Jason Somerville -- 860,000
3. Joe Tehan -- 831,500
4. Casey Stewart -- 791,000
5. Lawrence Greenberg -- 707,000
6. Noah Schwartz -- 685,000
7. Larry Lipman -- 571,000
8. Tom Marchese -- 530,000
9. Badih Bouhahra -- 469,500
10. Doc Sands -- 463,500

Also returning to above-average stacks are Dan Idema (11th), Dan Kelly (14th), Nick Binger (16th), David Pham (19th), and David Baker (22nd). Among those in the lower half of the counts are Joe Hachem (38th), Sorel Mizzi (43rd), and Christian Harder (50th).

The first players eliminated on Monday will earn $21,080 -- a little over twice their buy-ins -- although all will be eyeing the whopping $1,370,240 first prize reserved for the winner. Players will play down to 18 on Monday, with those returning to play down to a six-handed final table on Tuesday.

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Latest Derby Odds: Carlton's price settles but doubts remain

Ante-Post Betting / Joe Dyer / 01 June 2011 / Leave a Comment

Carlton House (right) may not even make it to Epsom

"Our market now suggests that he is odds-against to line up on Saturday."

Carlton House price stabilises at [4.5] but will he even remain favourite on ante-post market?

Carlton House, still as short as [2.38] elsewhere, looks to have found his "true" price at [4.5] on Betfair for the Derby.

Betfair spokesman Tony Calvin said: "Comments from John Warren today certainly seemed more hopeful than confident, and the Betfair market has responded.

"He is now [4.5] and, if anything, I can see the horse drifting further. And maybe it is even possible that he will lose favouritism on the Betfair ante-post market before tomorrow's declaration stage at 10am.

"Because, unfortunately, our market now suggests that he is odds-against to line up on Saturday."

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French 2000 Guineas Betting: Bassett to remain unbeaten in Poulains

World Racing / Timeform / 14 May 2011 / Leave a Comment

Wootton Bassett leads the British charge.

"After Dream Ahead’s withdrawal, the British challenge is spearheaded by Richard Fahey’s Wootton Bassett."

It's just over two weeks since Frankel's demolition job in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket and, on Sunday, Longchamp stages the French equivalent, the Poule d'Essai des Poulains. Timeform's Paul Robson looks at the main contenders, including a strong contingent aiming to bring the crown back across the English Channel.

After Dream Ahead's withdrawal, the British challenge is spearheaded by Richard Fahey's Wootton Bassett, the unbeaten colt who gave the North Yorkshire trainer his first Group 1 success when winning the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp last October. This will be Wootton Bassett's first run as a 3-y-o after being scratched from the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket due to a lacklustre workout on the gallops, however, reports suggest the trainer is delighted with how his star has worked of late and he has a very real chance of emulating Shamardal, the last winner to be trained in Britain.

Godolphin were responsible for the aforementioned Shamardal and this year they are sending over Wood Ditton winner Midsummer Fair. It's surely a sign of the regard in which Midsummer Fair is held that he's going from a newcomers race at Newmarket to a classic, but he's undoubtedly got to improve a lot and is clearly short on experience.

The sole Irish contender is David Wachman's Imperial Rome. He's done nothing but progress in a four-race career, completing a hat-trick at the Curragh at the start of the month, and there's a good chance he could be overlooked in the betting.

The Prix de Fontainebleau is often the best trial for the Poulains and a good number from the latest renewal of that race will be heading back to Longchamp on Sunday. However, the fact that less than three lengths separated the front seven in the Fontainebleu suggests there is not a star French three-year-old miler in the ranks just yet.

That said, the one to take out of the race, could be Salto, who struggled to quicken off of a false pace that day and eventually did well to finish sixth, just 1¼ lengths behind winner Glaswegian. A faster gallop on Sunday may well see Freddie Head celebrating his first Poulains as a trainer after winning it six times as a jockey.

Andre Fabre has won the Poulains five times in the past, including with Lope de Vega last year, and his Godolphin-owned representative Modern History is a horse on the upgrade. Two wins from as many runs this season, this listed-winner could be a threat in the hands of rising star Mikael Barzalona.

Finally, like Head, Pascal Bary has never won the Poulains, but his aforementioned Glaswegian has to be respected even though defeated in heavy going by Modern History on his penultimate start.

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