PokerStars has announced the addition of two more pros to Team PokerStars; Marcel Luske and Jason Mercier.

Luske, a long-time pro, is known for his quirky table behavior, which includes wearing a suit, upside down sunglasses, an inside out "rally cap", and serenading his opposition with his almost passable singing voice. That said, the popular Dutch player is also a force to be reckoned with at the poker tables; and is one of the more popular European players.


Mercier has burst on to the poker scene in the past year or so. In that time the Floridian has racked up over $3 million in tournament winnings. Including two EPT wins, and his first WSOP bracelet. The 22 year old has made a Stu Ungar like entrance into the poker world; no wonder PokerStars snatched him up.

What do a former Main Event Champion; an 8-time Bracelet winner; one of the games top cash players; the current #2 on the Player of the Year board; and the $40k NLHE tournament winner have in common? Easy, they are all at the final table of the $50k H.O.R.S.E. tournament!

The star-studded final table has 18 bracelets and 168 WSOP cashes between them!

Chip leader Eric Sagstrom will have his work cut out for him fending off his 7 opponents; especially when you consider 8th place receives $162,000; and 1st place pays $1,276,000.

The lesser known players also come equipped with quite a resume:

David Bach has quietly amassed 10 WSOP cashes, and has won over $1 million in tournaments.

John Hanson, another poker tournament millionaire's club member, finished 3rd in this event in 2007.

And chip-leader Sagstrom is no stranger to high-pressure tournaments himself.

When the 2009 WSOP got underway in late May it looked as though poker was 'recession proof'. With multiple events selling out, and a respectable 201 entrants in the $40k NLHE tournament, it appeared the 2009 WSOP Main Event would be the second most attended of all-time (2006 being number1).

However, as the WSOP has dragged on, tournament numbers have dwindled; culminating in yesterday's disappointing 95 entrants in the $50k H.O.R.S.E. Championship, a tournament that consistently drew close to 150 entrants since its inception in 2005.

Another disappointing turnout happened in the $5k NLHE Shootout Tournament; the WSOP capped the field at 1,000 entrants, but the actual number of participants fell far short of this number: The final tally was 280 players.

Of course, the Main Event will be the true measuring stick of the 2009 WSOP's success. Hopefully the turnout for the Main Event returns to the great numbers seen during the first week of the WSOP, and doesn't continue the recent downward trend.

In an amazing feat not seen since Phil Ivey first burst onto the poker scene in 2002, Jeff "Iceman" Lisandro has won his third bracelet of this year's WSOP after defeating a field of 315 in Event #44, $2.5k 7-Card Razz.

This $190k victory not only gives him a third bracelet of this year's WSOP and rockets him clear to the top of the Player of the Year rankings alongside Ville Wahlbeck, but means he is even more of a force to be reckoned with in any Stud game - his bracelets are in Stud Hi, Stud Hi/Lo and Razz. His previous WSOP bracelet also came in a Stud game when he won the $2,000 Stud Hi event in 2007.


Lisandro defeated Michael Craig, author of best-selling poker book The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King which details the Andy Beal saga. Craig could only make a KJ low in the final hand after pairing an Ace whereas Lisandro's T9 low scooped the pot, the bracelet, the joint record and eternal prestige.

Lisandro's winnings for this WSOP are now over $600,000 including three bracelets. He has 255 PotY points but Ville Wahlback and Phil Ivey are hot on his heels with several events left to play.

Most players prefer a certain form of poker over others, and are usually marginally more proficient in their preferred arena. Then there are players like Jeff Lisandro and Thang Luu, who are able to decimate their opponents --and plow through large field tournaments-- in their chosen game.



Lisandro, who has 3 WSOP bracelets --all in Stud variants-- is at yet another final table, and holds a commanding chip lead; this time in Razz. Lisandro is putting in a performance for the ages at the 2009 WSOP: If he manages to capture the Razz bracelet he'll have his third this year. Even more impressive he will pull off the Stud trifecta, as his previous wins were in 7-Card-Stud, and 7-Card-Stud hi/lo.



Luu, prefers Omaha 8, and his results prove it. He won the $1,500 Limit Omaha 8 bracelet the past two years, and finished 2nd the year before in the $2,000 buy-in Omaha 8 event. It's still early in the $2,500 Omaha 8 event (there are still 196 players remaining of the original 425), but Luu is once again among the chip leaders.

These two poker players are definitely specialists!