The title of the article basically says it all, so here are my choices for the 15 craziest, zaniest, mind-boggling stories from the world of poker over the past year. So in no particular order here are #’s 11-15:

Andrew Li hits Supernova Elite in February!

2011 started with a number of major accomplishments and highlights, but as soon as Black Friday hit it seems that anything that took place prior to April 15th was forgotten. This is probably the reason why Andrew “AznTracker” Li’s Supernova Elite record isn’t getting as much love as it should. Li hit Supernova Elite at PokerStars in just 59 days at the beginning of the year; a feat made all the more impressive by him taking 9 days off in that span!

Bottom Line: Li plays entirely too much poker!

Ashton Griffin runs 70 miles….. In ONE DAY!

Ahhh, the prop bet of 2011! The specifics of this one came courtesy of Haseeb Qureshi (who is making his second appearance on this list) who wrote a lengthy blog about a prop bet between himself and Ashton Griffin. The specifics were that Ashton would run 70 miles on a treadmill in a 24-hour span, and hundreds of thousands of dollars were on the line.

Despite being hung-over and sleeping partway through the bet, Ashton managed to accomplish the feat and win the bet.

Bottom Line: Don’t bet against Ashton Griffin!

The Big One for One Drop

At the 2011 WSOP we learned of the creation of a $1 million buy-in poker tournament (because apparently $250,000 buy-in tournaments are for the plebeians) that would take place at the 2012 WSOP. Part of each buy-in (11.11%) would be set aside for Guy Laliberte’s charity One Drop, and if 22 or more players registered the tournament would be an official bracelet event.

Well, it turns out the tournament already has at least 22 entrants, including Billionaire poker players like Laliberte and Andy Beal.

Bottom Line: I will not be playing in this tournament, nor could I afford a $100,000 satellite into the tournament!

Vanessa Rousso runs really bad

Vanessa Rousso ran really bad in 2011! First there was the questionable play by David Bach who eliminated Rousso deep into the 2011 WSOP on an open-ended straight draw when “Lady Maverick had a set, but this was nothing when compared to the horrible beat Vanessa took on the bubble of the recent Epic Poker League Main Event at the hands of Joe Tehan.

Tehan’s double elimination of Rousso (who had Pocket Queens) and a short-stacked Faraz Jaka (who had Pocket Aces) with 2/4 off-suit was just sick. A board of 9-6-4-4-T locked up the hand for Tehan and eliminated Rousso on the money bubble which was worth $50,000!

Bottom Line: ALWAYS get into a raising war pre-flop with 2/4 off-suit!

The ridiculously high number of fireplace “poker” beatings and murders

This one comes courtesy of Google News Alerts: I never would have imagined the sheer number of assaults, accidents, and deaths involving fireplace pokers!

Bottom Line: It seems a long hunk of metal used to jostle logs in a smoldering hot fire makes a handy weapon in a pinch!

READ PART 1 HERE

READ PART 2 HERE

Tags: Andrew Li, Andy Beal, Ashton, Bet, Billionaire, Black Friday, Bottom Line, Griffin, Guy Laliberte, Hundreds Of Thousands, Plebeians, poker players, poker tournament, PokerStars, Qureshi, Specifics, Thousands Of Dollars, Treadmill, World Of Poker, WSOP

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 31st, 2011 at 8:36 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.