The amount of player traffic a site gets can be very important.  At the end of the day biggest is often the best in the online poker world, because more action means more money and more game choice.  With that in mind here are the biggest poker sites/networks for European and American players.

4 biggest poker sites for European Players

PokerStars
Full Tilt
Party Poker
iPoker Network (eg Titan Poker)

4 biggest poker sites for American Players

Pokerstars
Full Tilt
Cereus Network (eg Ultimate Poker)
Cake Network (eg Cake Poker and Doyles Room)

Here are the names and chip counts of the players who made it all the way through to the WSOP Main Event Final Table. The so-called “November Nine” will meet again in November to play it out down to a winner:

1 Jonathan Duhamel  65,975,000
2 John Dolan  46,250,000
3 Joseph Cheong  23,525,000
4 John Racener  19,050,000
5 Matthew Jarvis  16,700,000
6 Filippo Candio  16,400,000
7 Michael Mizrachi  14,450,000
8 Soi Nguyen  9,650,000
9 Jason Senti  7,625,000

Some notable finish positions of others
Adam Levy: 12th
Hasan Habib: 14th
Scott Clements: 18th
William Thorson: 22nd
Johnny Lodden: 27th

After 6 days of play of the WSOP Main Event there are just 78 players left.  Out of those there are plenty of notables still left in, including:

Michael Mizrachi on 7,535,000
William Thorson on 6,525,000
Alexander Kostritsyn on 5,715,000
Eric Baldwin on 2,135,000  
Johnny Lodden on 2,105,000
David Assouline on 1,710,000 
Adam Levy on 1,685,000 
Tony Dunst on 1,550,000  
David Benyamine on 1,540,000    
Hasan Habib  on 1,165,000    
Scott Clements  on  1,085,000 
Jean-Robert Bellande on 700,000 

Here is the full list of all 78 players in order:

Theo Jorgensen   9,300,000 
Michael Mizrachi   7,535,000  
John Racener   7,200,000   
Jonathan Driscoll  6,570,000 
William Thorson   6,525,000  
Matthew Jarvis   6,125,000  
Edward Ochana  5,950,000  
Alexander Kostritsyn   5,715,000  
Cuong Nguyen   5,650,000   
Joseph Cheong   5,555,000   
Patrick Eskandar   5,540,000 
Matthew Berkey   5,450,000 
Filippo Candio   5,385,000  
Matt Affleck  5,315,000 
Evgeny Shnayder   4,790,000 
Gabe Costner   4,635,000   
Bill Melvin   4,515,000  
Jonathan Duhamel   4,295,000   
Duy Le    4,100,000 
Bryn Kenney    3,830,000 
Michal Wywrot   3,815,000 
Robert Pisano    3,735,000  
Matthew Bucaric   3,595,000   
John Dolan   3,470,000  
John Armbrust   3,295,000 
James Fennell  3,225,000  
Michael Skender    2,980,000 
Benjamin Statz   2,910,000  
Evan Lamprea  2,910,000  
Jerry Payne  2,765,000   
Meenaskshi Subramaniam   2,690,000  
Corey Emery   2,640,000 
Brandon Steven   2,330,000  
Gianni Direnzo   2,280,000  
Rudy Miller   2,250,000 
Redmond Lee    2,220,000 
Michiel Sijpkens    2,160,000 
Denis Pisarev   2,140,000 
Eric Baldwin   2,135,000  
Johnny Lodden    2,105,000 
Mads Wissing  2,025,000 
Jakob Toestesen   2,010,000  
Pascal LeFrancois   1,950,000  
Niklas Toorell   1,945,000 
Damien Luis   1,850,000  
Mark Meloche    1,780,000  
David Assouline    1,710,000   
Christopher Bolt   1,690,000 
Adam Levy   1,685,000  
Richard Morgan   1,680,000  
David Baker   1,635,000   
Josh Brikis   1,610,000  
Jim McCrink   1,600,000  
Tony Dunst   1,550,000 
David Benyamine   1,540,000 
Ismail Erkenov   1,530,000   
Dag Palovic   1,375,000  
Jared Ingles    1,370,000  
Ronnie Bardah   1,265,000  
James Manning    1,265,000   
Nicolas Babel     1,220,000   
Eduardo Parras    1,220,000   
Hasan Habib   1,165,000  
Brock Bourne   1,150,000  
Gabriel Nassif   1,125,000  
Scott Clements   1,085,000  
Marcel Cole   1,075,000  
Habib Khanis     1,065,000  
Sergey Rybachenko   1,010,000  
Jason Senti    970,000  
Matt Harris   965,000  
Gary Dishongh   800,000  
Adam Etter     765,000 
Jacobo Fernandez   705,000 
Jean-Robert Bellande     700,000  
Peter Jetten    675,000  
Pierre Canali   655,000   
Jeff Banghart   645,000 

Here are the top prizes they are all competing for:

1   $8,944,138
2   $5,545,855
3   $4,129,979
4   $3,092,497
5   $2,332,960
6   $1,772,939
7   $1,356,708
8   $1,045,738
9   $811,823

All 78 players are guaranteed at least $94,942

After 4 days of play the WSOP Main Event is down to just 574 players, and they are all in the money.

Bond18 leads the way.  Here is the top 10 chip counts:

1 Tony Dunst   1546000 (Bond18) 
2 Duy Le   1460000
3 Garrett Adelstein   1440000
4 Matt Affleck   1395000
5 Phil Galfond   1392000 
6 Matthew Jarvis   1373000
7 Theo Jorgensen   1343000 
8 Benjamin Statz   1283000
9 Bryan Pellegrino   1240000 
10 Matthew Brown   1203000 

Plenty of notable others stil in, lead by 10-time bracelet winner Johnny Chan, and Adam “Roothlus” Levy:

13 Johnny Chan   1159000 
20 Adam Levy   1054000  
35 Hasan Habib   875000
36 Jesper Hougaard   871000 
42 Scott Clements   828000  
52 Johnny Lodden  766000 
75 Juha Helppi   693000 
85 Praz Bansi   660000 
94 Scotty Nguyen   632000 
115 Hoyt Corkins   572000 
160 Shannon Shorr   482000 
194 Danny Mizrachi   437000  
220 Matt Matros   405000  
227 Steve Billirakis   400000
229 Jason Mercier  398000 
231 Vanessa Selbst 397000
239 Robert Mizrachi   381000
246 Sammy Farha   377000 
261 Jean-Robert Bellande   356000
275 David Benyamine   329000  
345 Isaac Baron   256000
364 Michael Mizrachi   241000 
367 Todd Witteles   239000 
409 Brandon Cantu   196000
423 Padraig Parkinson   185000
444 Cole South   164000
455 Evelyn Ng   156000
489 Vitaly Lunkin   130000
524 Yevgeniy Timoshenko   102000 
548 Karina Jett   80000

Johnny Lodden and Johnny Chan are in the lead pack after Day 3 of the WSOP Main Event.

Here is the official top 10:

1 James Carroll   803000
2 Imari Love   741100
3 Gerasimos Deres   733700 
4 Filippo Candio   727300
5 Max Casal   687200
6 Arie Kliper   666200  
7 Andrew Brown   657700 
8 Johnny Lodden  656400 
9 Johnny Chan   636000 
10 Josh Brikis   616900

There are 1203 players left overall (out of 7319).  Here are some notable names we will be keeping an eye of for the rest of the Main Event:

Position - Name - Chip count

37 Jesper Hougaard   480500
40 Cole South   478600
48 Scott Clements   459900 
88 Shannon Shorr   401500 
144 Robert Mizrachi   342800 
164 Vanessa Selbst  331500
169 Praz Bansi   328700  
184 Steve Billirakis   318400
216 Isaac Baron   298700  
225 Sammy Farha   289100 
227 Brandon Cantu   287000 
247 Karina Jett   273700  
260 Matt Matros   265200
271 David Benyamine   259300  
276 Barry Shulman   257400  
307 Phil Galfond   244300  
329 Juha Helppi   231200 
331 Frank Kassela   229800 
349 Padraig Parkinson   221700 
377 Corwin Cole   212500 
392 Humberto Brenes 204600  
515 Hasan Habib   166200 
534 Jason Mercier  160300 
540 Hoyt Corkins   159300 
554 Robert Varkonyi   156500 
576 Todd Witteles   152400 
585 Dan Harrington   151200  
691 Danny Mizrachi   128600
698 Erica Schoenberg   127700 
774 Jean-Robert Bellande   113900 
775 Annie Duke   113800
820 Yevgeniy Timoshenko   105400  
867 Eric Mizrachi   95800 
888 Allen Cunningham   91900
890 Michael Mizrachi   91700 
897 Kyle Bowker   90400  
904 Dewey Tomko   89300
926 Barry Greenstein 83200
942 Vitaly Lunkin   80600
951 David Colclough   79000 
997 Evelyn Ng   70000
1049 Barny Boatman   60500
1089 Blair Rodman   52400 
1117 Scotty Nguyen   47800
1141 Kathy Liebert   43000   
1143 Gavin Smith   42500

The WSOP Main Event attrated 7319 entrants this year, the second highest ever in it’s history.   After the conclusion of Day 1, Corwin Cole leads the way with 228K chips.   Big names amongst the chip leaders include Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billiraki, and Johnny Chan.

Here are the chip leaders in order:

Corwin Cole   228,200 
James Danielson   201,050
Dwyen Ringbauer   191,125   
Steve Billirakis   187,150  
Khamsy Nuanmanee   170,525  
Steven Tabb   170,275
Mathieu Sauriol   169,900
Filippo Candio   167,300     
Julien Foussard   166,175 
Johnny Chan   163,700  
Nestor Martinez   158,825  
Roger Pruzansky   155,700 
Andrew Liporace   155,350
Robert Miller   155,225 
Josef Monro   153,350   
Daniel Springfield   150,100 

Here are the chip counts of some selected big names:

Barny Boatman   144,050 
Michael Mizrachi   142,650 
David Benyamine   130,800
Hoyt Corkins   129,150 
Vanessa Rousso 111,050 
Chris Moneymaker 107,425  
Josh Arieh   103,650 
Roland De Wolfe   96,600  
Lex Veldhuis  91,925 
Jason Mercier 90,525  
Robert Mizrachi   89,400 
Frank Kassela   87,000  
Kyle Bowker   81,150  
Kenny Tran   80,425    
Darvin Moon   78,400  
Bill Chen 72,600    
Brandon Cantu   65,025 
Johnny Lodden  64,475  
Humberto Brenes  64,200 
Jon Turner   63,825  
Gavin Smith   62,275 
Freddy Deeb   54,850  
Barry Greenstein 53,625
Doyle Brunson   52,425   
Vanessa Selbst 52,275  
Dewey Tomko   50,725 
Ryan Daut   45,050  
Ross Boatman   44,675  
J.C. Tran   44,650
Phil Ivey   27,875   
Daniel Negreanu 24,475 

With 43 events gone at this year’s WSOP it’s time for a bit of a summary so far.

It has largely been the year of the unknown players with several notable exceptions.   Some of the more familiar names to win bracelets are:

Event 2: Michael Mizrachi
Event 5: Praz Bansi
Event 10: Men “The Master” Nguyen
Event 11: Matt Matros
Event 21: Richard Ashby
Event 23: Dutch Boyd
Event 24: Sammy Farha
Event 37: Phil Ivey
Event 38: Scott Montgomery

Some of the guys have gone close include Neil Channing (2nd in Event 6), Brandon Adams (2nd in Event 10), Tom Dwan (2nd in Event 11), Men Nguyen (2nd in Event 32), Bill Chen (2nd in Event 37), Richard Ashby (2nd in Event 43)

With 14 events left to play let us see if any other big names can hit a big score.

Phil Laak is going to attempt to break the World Record for a continuous poker session.   The current record is held by Paul Zimbler and stands at 78 hours.   When Zimbler got that record he ended the 78 hours as a hallucinogenic zombie, so god knows how Laak will be looking if he gets to his targeted 80 hours.

The attempt is going to start on the 2nd June at the Bellagio Poker Room in Las Vegas.   Good luck Phil, you nutter.

There are 6 events of the European Championship of Online Poker (ECOOP) remaining.  The Main Event takes on the 6th June and has a guaranteed prizepool of $1.5 million dollars!  Not bad. 

If you are interested in taking a shot at this tournament then join Titan Poker and receive a bonus up to $525.00

615 entrants paid the $10,300 entry fee to play the SCOOP Main Event on Pokerstars.  The winner was toetagU who won over one million dollars

1st toetagU $1,162,350
2nd Sumpas $851,775
3rd BradL $627,300
4th DuckU $473,550
5th cpfactor $332,100
6th BongBob $261,375
7th siola $199,875
8th jpmetalman $138,375
9th delaney_kid $94,095

After DuckU busted there was some discussion about a possible deal.  At first toetagU was reluctant to even see the numbers.  Then when they did agree to see the numbers it was actually Sumpas (in 3rd place in chips at the time) who refused to accept them and wanted to play on.   After a long 3 way battle, and a long heads-up battle toetagU eventually emerged the winner.

To play similar big tournaments to this register to play holdem at Pokerstars