Weekly Flop: Newhouse Ninth Again, Lederer at HOF Ceremony, Elias' WPT Record

One year after being crushed by his ninth-place finish in the WSOP Main Event, Mark Newhouse got a second chance at poker glory. Unfortunately, the result was the same and even more heartbreaking...

Howard Lederer has wisely kept a low profile in the three and a half years after Black Friday. But he made a surprising appearance at the 2014 Poker Hall of Fame ceremony...

It's hard to keep up with the WPT, considering all of the Main Event final table hoopla. But it's worth discussing how Darren Elias set a big WPT record in this edition of the Weekly Flop.

Newhouse bows out first on big bluff

Many say that Mark Newhouse making back-to-back Main Event final tables is one of the greatest accomplishments in poker history. After all, he had to overcome fields of 6,352 and 6,683 players to make consecutive final tables. And one thing that Newhouse vowed after making it back: "Not f--king finishing ninth again."

Unfortunately for him, not even the third biggest chip stack and plenty of experience was enough to help him fufil this declaration. Sitting with pocket tens on the river of a double-paired board, Newhouse bluffed to take down a pot worth 22 million chips. William Tonking looked him up with pocket queens, and Newhouse was relegated to his second straight ninth-place effort.

An obviously devastated Newhouse didn't have much to say to the media after picking up a $730,725 score. "I don't know, I'll go back to my room, I guess....I'll figure that out in about an hour." Newhouse also drew some boos from the Rio crowd when, in a pre-taped interview, he said, "It's a softer field this year." It's a good bet that many of these people weren't feeling too sorry for the North Carolina-based poker pro when he busted out first.

Howard at HOF Ceremony

Daniel Negreanu and Jack McClelland recently had the honor of being inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame. McClelland is one of the most influential poker tournament directors in history, having spread the game to many different parts of the globe. And Negreanu was obviously inducted due to his incredible playing accomplishments, including $29.8 million in tournament winnings.

Many big-time poker personalities were on hand during the ceremony, including Phil Hellmuth, who gave a speech for McClelland. Also in attendance at Binion's Horseshoe Casino was Howard Lederer, a spectator at the event. We don't see much of Howard in the poker world since he's been ostracized for his work with Full Tilt. So his attendance was almost as big a story as the actual inductions.

Aside from the HOF ceremony, Lederer is also occasionally seen at Bobby's Room in Las Vegas. While most of the poker community despises him, Howard can still find some comfort playing with his high stakes buddies.

Darren Elias sets record with consecutive WPT Wins

Darren Elias has been a solid poker player for years, but his results have really stepped up recently. He took down the 2014 WPT Borgata Open along with $843,744 back in September, and followed this up with a victory last week at WPT St. Maarten ($127,680). These wins now push his live winnings over $2.7 million.

Just as interesting is that Elias becomes the first player in history to win back-to-back WPT titles in the same season (XIII). Marvin Rettenmaier also won consecutive WPT tournaments a couple of years ago, however, his came at the end of Season X and the beginning of XI. Aside from Elias' record, he's easily the early favorite to win Season XIII Player of the Year honors.