Legal Notice: PokerStop.com (c) 2012. All Rights Reserved.http://www.PokerStop.com/rss/rss_news.xmlNews rss feed on PokerStop.comen-USFri, 03 Feb 2012 21:41:37 GMTPokerStop.com News13085http://www.PokerStop.comhttp://www.PokerStop.com/images/rss.jpghttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-poker-grapevine-hacker-takes-negreanus-pokerstars-account-for-a-spin-1888With the Aussie Millions stealing the show and with several of the nosebleed stakes online poker regulars on an apparent hiatus, the online poker tables barely saw any noteworthy high stakes action last week. That is not to say though that the week went down eventless. On Monday and on Tuesday, Daniel Negreanu saw quite a bit of action. He showed up quite surprisingly at the $50/$100 and $100/$200 NL Holdem tables and he finished the day as the biggest loser. The one to profit off his woes was wobbly_au, who finished the day with a rather impressive profit of $138k, most of which came from Negreanu. The biggest pot of the day was a $108k whooper which ended up in wobbly_au’s pockets at a 6-handed table. Negreanu was the one who ran an A,Ko into wobbly_au’s pocket rockets after he caught a pair of As on the flop.

Negreanu was playing quite heretically through the day and he managed to drop several other monster pots. In the end, he was about $98k down, having locked up the title of the biggest loser of the day. It wasn’t all gloom and doom for him though: he returned the following day and recovered around $50k of those losses.
It later turned out that the person behind the curiously heretic play wasn’t Negreanu at all. As a matter of fact, Kid Poker was on a plane home as the above said events unfolded. Upon landing, he tweeted that his email account as well as his PokerStars account had been hacked and taken on a joyride by an unknown assailant.
PokerStars are currently investigating the incident, which has put yet another dent into image of the online poker industry. Luckily for everyone, the problem was discovered and addressed in an efficient and timely manner indeed. Exactly how Negreanu shall recover the approximately $46k currently missing from his account, remains to be seen.

]]>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 21:41:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/will-ex-full-tilt-pros-block-gbt-deal-1887About a week ago we got word that ex-Full Tilt pro and owner, Chris Ferguson had allegedly threatened to block the Groupe Bernard Tapie deal, which would make it possible for Full Tilt’s players to recover the monies they had stuck at the site. While Ferguson’s move would indeed willingly jeopardize the deal, other Full Tilt Pros may pitch into the dismantling of the much-publicized deal too, more or less unwillingly. The list includes the names of Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Erick Lindgren and David Benyamine. According to GBT lawyer Behnam Dayanim, the above named players owe around $10-20 million to FTP. We can’t help but wonder whether or not it was pure coincidence that seemingly the exact same players vanished from the face of the earth immediately after Black Friday, for some of them to resurface almost a full year later.
The discovery of the above detailed missing funds was made when GBT accountants sifted through paperwork in order to clarify FTP’s financial situation before the takeover.

According to Dayanim, the development is indeed a serious snag in the path of the deal, because it would leave GBT with two options: either to go ahead with the takeover and litigate with the above named parties later – a course of action they’re reportedly keen on avoiding – or recovering the debt before the takeover. Negotiations in this respect have reportedly already started but thus far nothing positive became of them.
According to the GBT people, the above said debt issue isn’t the only liability problem linked to FTP. The online poker site has had much deeper liability issues than GBT’s investigators had hoped. While the investigations have definitely rung an alarm bell, players shouldn’t hit the panic button just yet: according to sources inside GBT, the takeover is still very much on track and likely to be completed by the end of this month.

]]>Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:57:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-wsop-schedule-1886When it comes to the WSOP, it’s never too early to start thinking about the action. There are online poker rooms out there which already feature 2012 WSOP qualifiers, and although it may seem early to some we’ve managed to get our hands on a pre-release version of the schedule, which – albeit subject to change – will clue in the die-hard WSOP maniacs to what they should prepare for this year.
The first event of the 2012 Series is the $500 Casino Employees NL Holdem event, which kicks off on May 27 and wraps up on May 28. A $1,500 NL Holdem event will be the first open event of the 2012 Series. It kicks off on May 28.
The third event is the $3k Heads-up NL Holdem/PLO event. As far as World Championship events are concerned, the first one kicks off on June 5. The event is the $10k Heads-up NL Holdem event, which features a maximum player cap of 512.
The second $10k World Championship event is the PL Holdem event, which kicks off on June 8. Also on June 8, there’s a $2.5k Seven Card Razz event, which is likely to feature a smaller starting field and thus increased individual odds for players.
The event of the true poker pros, the $10k HORSE championship event kicks off on June 16. The Pot Limit Omaha World Championship event is scheduled for June 21.
Another major landmark which draws droves of railbirds and which generates immense online interest is the $50k Players’ Championship event. This year, the event that used to be the largest buy-in WSOP event kicks off on June 24 and it’s expected to last all the way to June 28.
The Ladies $1k championship event is scheduled for July 1. The biggest buy-in WSOP event is the $1 million Big One for One Drop event, which gets going on July 1.
The $10k NL Holdem Main Event, also known as the Big Dance starts on July 16. When it’ll wrap up is not yet known.
Here’s the full schedule:

Sunday, May 27, 2012 to Monday, May 28, 2012 Event #1: Casino Employees No-Limit Hold'em ($500)

Monday, May 28, 2012 to Wednesday, May 30, 2012 Event #2: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,500)

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 to Thursday, May 31, 2012 Event #3: Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em / Pot-Limit Omaha (512 player max) ($3,000)

Tuesday, May 29, 2012 to Thursday, May 31, 2012 Event #4: Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better ($1,500)

Wednesday, May 30, 2012 to Friday, June 01, 2012 Event #5: Pot-Limit Hold'em ($1,500)

Thursday, May 31, 2012 to Sunday, June 03, 2012 Event #6: No-Limit Hold'em Mixed Max ($5,000)

Thursday, May 31, 2012 to Saturday, June 02, 2012 Event #7: Seven Card Stud ($1,500)

Friday, June 01, 2012 to Sunday, June 03, 2012 Event #8: Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better ($1,500)

Saturday, June 02, 2012 to Wednesday, June 06, 2012 Event #9A: No-Limit Hold'em Re-entry ($1,500)

Sunday, June 03, 2012 to Thursday, June 07, 2012 Event #9B: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,500)

Sunday, June 03, 2012 to Tuesday, June 05, 2012 Event #10: Seven Card Stud ($5,000)

Monday, June 04, 2012 to Wednesday, June 06, 2012 Event #11: Pot-Limit Omaha ($1,500)

Tuesday, June 05, 2012 to Friday, June 08, 2012 Event #12: Heads Up No-Limit Hold'em (512 player max) ($10,000)

Tuesday, June 05, 2012 to Thursday, June 07, 2012 Event #13: Limit Hold'em ($1,500)

Wednesday, June 06, 2012 to Friday, June 08, 2012 Event #14: No-Limit Hold'em Shootout (2,000 player max) ($1,500)

Wednesday, June 06, 2012 to Friday, June 08, 2012 Event #15: Seven Card Stud Hi-Low Split-8 or Better ($5,000)

Thursday, June 07, 2012 to Saturday, June 09, 2012 Event #16: No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed ($1,500)

Friday, June 08, 2012 to Sunday, June 10, 2012 Event #17: Pot-Limit Hold'em ($10,000)

Friday, June 08, 2012 to Sunday, June 10, 2012 Event #18: Seven Card Razz ($2,500)

Saturday, June 09, 2012 to Monday, June 11, 2012 Event #19: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,500)

Saturday, June 09, 2012 to Monday, June 11, 2012 Event #20: Limit Hold'em ($5,000)

Sunday, June 10, 2012 to Tuesday, June 12, 2012 Event #21: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,000)

Sunday, June 10, 2012 to Tuesday, June 12, 2012 Event #22: 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) ($2,500)

Monday, June 11, 2012 to Wednesday, June 13, 2012 Event #23: No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed ($3,000)

Monday, June 11, 2012 to Wednesday, June 13, 2012 Event #24: Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better ($5,000)

Tuesday, June 12, 2012 to Thursday, June 14, 2012 Event #25: Limit Hold'em Shootout ($1,500)

Tuesday, June 12, 2012 to Thursday, June 14, 2012 Event #26: Pot-Limit Omaha ($3,000)

Wednesday, June 13, 2012 to Friday, June 15, 2012 Event #27: H.O.R.S.E. ($1,500)

Thursday, June 14, 2012 to Saturday, June 16, 2012 Event #28: No-Limit Hold'em / Four Handed ($2,500)

Friday, June 15, 2012 to Sunday, June 17, 2012 Event #29: Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship ($1,000)

Friday, June 15, 2012 to Sunday, June 17, 2012 Event #30: 2-7 Draw Lowball (No-Limit) ($1,500)

Saturday, June 16, 2012 to Monday, June 18, 2012 Event #31: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,500)

Saturday, June 16, 2012 to Monday, June 18, 2012 Event #32: H.O.R.S.E. ($10,000)

Sunday, June 17, 2012 to Tuesday, June 19, 2012 Event #33: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,000)

Monday, June 18, 2012 to Wednesday, June 20, 2012 Event #34: Pot-Limit Omaha / Six Handed ($5,000)

Monday, June 18, 2012 to Wednesday, June 20, 2012 Event #35: Mixed Hold'em (Limit/No-Limit) ($2,500)

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 to Thursday, June 21, 2012 Event #36: No-Limit Hold'em Shootout (2,000 player max) ($3,000)

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 to Thursday, June 21, 2012 Event #37: Eight Game Mix ($2,500)

Wednesday, June 20, 2012 to Friday, June 22, 2012 Event #38: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,500)

Thursday, June 21, 2012 to Saturday, June 23, 2012 Event #39: Pot-Limit Omaha ($10,000)

Thursday, June 21, 2012 to Saturday, June 23, 2012 Event #40: Limit Hold'em / Six-Handed ($2,500)

Friday, June 22, 2012 to Sunday, June 24, 2012 Event #41: No-Limit Hold'em ($3,000)

Friday, June 22, 2012 to Sunday, June 24, 2012 Event #42: Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low 8 or Better ($2,500)

Saturday, June 23, 2012 to Monday, June 25, 2012 Event #43: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,500)

Sunday, June 24, 2012 to Tuesday, June 26, 2012 Event #44: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,000)

Sunday, June 24, 2012 to Thursday, June 28, 2012 Event #45: The Poker Players Championship ($50,000)

Monday, June 25, 2012 to Wednesday, June 27, 2012 Event #46: No-Limit Hold'em ($2,500)

Tuesday, June 26, 2012 to Thursday, June 28, 2012 Event #47: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better ($1,500)

Tuesday, June 26, 2012 to Thursday, June 28, 2012 Event #48: Limit Hold'em ($3,000)

Wednesday, June 27, 2012 to Friday, June 29, 2012 Event #49: Ante Only No-Limit Hold'em ($1,500)

Thursday, June 28, 2012 to Saturday, June 30, 2012 Event #50: No-Limit Hold'em ($5,000)

Friday, June 29, 2012 to Sunday, July 01, 2012 Event #51: Ladies No-Limit Hold'em Championship ($1,000)

Friday, June 29, 2012 to Sunday, July 01, 2012 Event #52: 10-Game Mix / Six Handed ($2,500)

Saturday, June 30, 2012 to Monday, July 02, 2012 Event #53: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,500)

Sunday, July 01, 2012 to Tuesday, July 03, 2012 Event #54: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,000)

Sunday, July 01, 2012 to Tuesday, July 03, 2012 Event #55: The Big One for One Drop - No-Limit Hold'em ($1,000,000)

Monday, July 02, 2012 to Wednesday, July 04, 2012 Event #56: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,500)

Tuesday, July 03, 2012 to Thursday, July 05, 2012 Event #57: No-Limit Hold'em / Six Handed ($10,000)

Tuesday, July 03, 2012 to Thursday, July 05, 2012 Event #58: Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better ($3,000)

Wednesday, July 04, 2012 to Saturday, July 07, 2012 Event #59A: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,000)

Thursday, July 05, 2012 to Sunday, July 08, 2012 Event #59B: No-Limit Hold'em ($1,000)

Thursday, July 05, 2012 to Saturday, July 07, 2012 Event #60: 2-7 Draw Lowball (No-Limit) ($10,000)

Saturday, July 07, 2012 to Monday, July 16, 2012 Event #61A: No-Limit Hold'em Main Event ($10,000)

Friday, June 15, 2012 to Friday, June 15, 2012 Seniors Second Chance No-Limit Hold'em ($560)

Saturday, June 30, 2012 to Saturday, June 30, 2012 Doubles No-Limit Hold'em ($560)

Friday, July 06, 2012 to Friday, July 06, 2012 Bracelet Bounty No-Limit Hold'em ($560)

]]>Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:36:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/full-tilt-doj-agree-on-forfeiture-1885In what may well go down as the most significant online poker news of the first month of 2012, Full Tilt Poker has announced that its owners had agreed to the terms of the forfeiture of the operation’s assets to the US DoJ, an important first step in the brand’s transfer to French investment company Groupe Bernard Tapie. There’s nothing more and nothing less at stake here than the full repayment of each and every one of Full Tilt Poker’s real money players, left high and dry in the wake of the Black Friday indictments by the questionable financial moves the site had engaged in for years.

The above said agreement effectively opens the path for the French firm to pay $80 million to the DoJ in exchange for the said assets and the Full Tilt Poker brand. According to Laurent Tapie, GBT’s managing director, the actual completion of the Full Tilt Poker deal is still quite a bit away. GBT have nurtured hopes of launching the revived operation by March 1 2012, but there are still a few hurdles to overcome before there can even be talk of the re-launch. The Alderney Gambling Control Commission, the regulating entity which had issued Full Tilt its license has revoked same when the site’s financial woes were uncovered. GBT will need that license revived before it can get on with its business.

News of the agreement between GBT and the US DoJ has first surfaced in November 2011. Progress in the case has been tedious at best since, often exasperating the online poker community which is hoping for the full return of player funds. If the deal goes through, GBT will repay about $150 million to Full Tilt’s non-US players. US-based players will receive about $150 million from the US DoJ. As part of the deal, the DoJ will also dismiss the civil forfeiture procedure it has launched against FTP.

]]>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:18:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-online-poker-weekend-patrik-antonius-turns-to-junk-food-1884When one thinks about Patrik Antonius, chances are he/she won’t associate the Finn poker pro with junk food on any level. After all, Antonius looks healthy and fit and he obviously has an image to uphold which he’s quite adept at. One would much rather think of him as the face of a gym than that of a fast food chain and yet the notoriously healthy eater isn’t temptation-free either when it comes to Big Macs. He isn’t tempted by the fatty goodness though, but rather by what he can get his hands on by accepting a burger-eating challenge.

The Crown Casino is Melbourne managed to secure two tickets to the Djokovic-Nadal Australian Open final and when Antonius heard about them, he immediately inquired about what it would take him to get those coveted ticks. Natasha Stipanov, the media manager of the Crown Casino and temporary possessor of the said tickets, being aware of Antonius keen feeding habits, told him he could get them in exchange for gobbling down 3 Big Macs. Unable to resist the temptation, Antonius made quick work of the 3 hamburgers, jokingly stating that he would’ve been up to ingesting 2 more of the fat-dripping fast-food monstrosities without problems.
His taste-buds thusly tickled, Antonius may take to eating burgers on a regular basis yet, but we wouldn’t bet a rusty nickel on it nonetheless.

In other news: PokerStars’ 72 billionth hand has barely been surpassed and the site is already looking ahead to the promotions and special offers surrounding its 75 billionth hand. The site has projected the milestone hand for the next two weeks. What’s already known about the eventual winner of the hand is that he/she will be at least $20k richer when it’s all said and done.
Around $1 million shall be given away in various prizes during the promotions which will mark the 75 billionth hand and there will be about 300 winners.

]]>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:16:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-19-wrap-up-1883The 2012 Aussie Millions has finally wrapped up after the 19th day of green felt hostilities wound down. The series included no fewer than 26 events, which produced some highlight-reel worthy moments, like Phil Ivey’s deep Main Event run, his $250k High Roller win and Tom Dwan’s emergence from ‘hiding’. All in all, the Aussie Millions was a resounding success this year, having attracted impressive starting fields and having awarded more than impressive prizes. The 19th and final day of the Series was a relatively quiet one. With the Main Event gleaming in the sunshine of hindsight, two side-events wrapped up the deal: event #25, the $550 Australian Poker Hall of Fame Classic and event #26, the $10.5k 8-Game Mixed event.

The Australian Poker Hall of Fame Classic drew a starting field of 132 players. Each and every participating Hall of Fame member had a $1k bounty on his/her head, so the action was rather juicy as players were cashing left and right from the get go. Hall of Famers were the primary target of course, but two of them managed to sneak through to the final table regardless.
Eventually, the title went to Roy Agresta, who picked up $16k for his efforts, after he bested Evan Cramp heads-up. Cramp’s second place was worth $10.4k. The top two players were the only 5-figure winners. 3rd place man Mario Ljubicic picked up $8.5k.

The $10.5k 8-Game Mixed Event drew a starting field rife with high profile professional competitors. Van Marcus, Jeff Lisandro, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Barry Greenstein, and David Bach all played.
Tom Koral was the one who won the last event of the 2012 Aussie Millions, after he disposed of Jan Suchanek heads-up. Koral picked up $75k for his efforts, while Suchanek pocketed $50k for his second place. The final hand of the poker tournament was a PLO one, in which Koral hit a flush on the river to score the knockout.

]]>Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:12:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-poker-grapevine-hawaii-considering-legal-online-poker-1882Experts have repeatedly stated after the December flip-flop of the DoJ in regards to the 1961 Wire Act, that federal legislators would have to move fast legalizing online gambling and online poker in order to provide a framework in which controlling underage and problem gambling as well as keeping the operators in check would be much easier than on a state-by-state basis. Experts have warned that unless a federal law was passed soon, states would take matters into their own hands. Nevada and DC have already passed online poker and gambling bills, and New Jersey is reportedly also considering a similar move.

Add a new state to the list of jurisdictions considering legalizing online gambling and poker: Hawaii. Hawaii is a rather unlikely presence on the list of states toying with the idea of legal online gambling, given the fact that there hasn’t really ever been any sort of gambling there.
The proposed Hawaii bill would create a state lottery which would operate online. The same operator would also offer online gambling and online poker services for residents of the state.
According to the bill’s language, its goal is to protect the residents of the state who gamble online, by offering them a safe-haven where they can place wagers in a secure, legal and responsible way. The sole beneficiary of the revenue generated by the proposed operation would be the state of Hawaii. The online poker/gambling operator would be accountable to the state and the Hawaii public and its operation would feature maximum transparency, safeguarded by regular audits and public reports.

In other news: on Wednesday evening, in the famous Aviation Club de Paris, the best European poker players were honored at the European Poker Awards. Several poker players left with awards, among them Sam Trickett, Bertrand Grospellier, Pius Heinz, Jake Cody and Eugene Katchalov.
Sam Trickett – currently playing down under in the Aussie Millions – was the recipient of the “Player of the Year” award.

]]>Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:01:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-poker-grapevine-chris-fergusons-bank-accounts-1881Chris Ferguson was one of the most respected and highly thought-of poker professionals before Full Tilt Poker’s Black Friday fiasco, which uncovered quite a bit of dirty laundry behind the stages of the world’s second most popular on line poker operation. Ferguson was heavily involved with the site, and as new details emerge about the scale of the site’s financial woes, it becomes more and more obvious that he has never been one of the good guys.

According to the latest reports, Ferguson was actively involved in the funneling away of funds from the site’s coffers, which does explain why Full Tilt hasn’t been able to repay any of its players to this day. The online poker community has long known about the shareholders’ mishandling of funds, however no one was quite able to pin actual numbers on the allegations, not until now that is.
According to an article made public by one of the most trusted poker news sources, Feguson had siphoned $60 million into various secret accounts, money which came entirely from the site’s coffers. While he has made $14 million of that money available to Full Tilt Poker after Black Friday, Ferguson has also withdrawn and spent about $45 million. Apparently, he does intend to get the $14 million back as well, as he’s threatened through his lawyer to block the Groupe Bernard Tapie takeover if the funds are not returned to his account.

The attention of the authorities and the public first focused on Ferguson after the DoJ added him, Ray Bitar, Howard Lederer and Rafe Furst to its Black Friday complaint, alleging that the board members defrauded Full Tilt’s players. The accused have recently picked up another extension to issue a response to the above said civil complaint. This extension is the third one granted to the group by US Attorney Preet Bharara. Those named in the complaint will have to respond till March 12 2012.

]]>Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:58:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-18-report-1880Day 18 of the 2012 Aussie Millions was quite a day indeed. The $10k Main Event has finally played down to a winner and it possibly set a new record as the shortest final table of a major live poker tournament: it lasted a mere 7 hours. The local crowd was certainly proud to see one of their own rise to the top as Oliver Speidel clinched the title, together with the $1.6 million top prize. 7 players returned to action on the final day of the event. The first victim of the day was Yann Dion, who shoved all-in holding pocket 7s and got called by Oliver Speidel who had pocket Qs.
The next elimination was the result of a textbook coin-flip. Bjorn Li got it all-in with an A,Qo and was called by Mohamad Kowssarie, who had pocket 3s. The board sided with Kowssarie and Li was history. Patrick Healy was the next player to bite the dust, at the hands of Speidel, who was just starting to get hot at that stage.

With 4 players remaining in the running, Speidel had a massive chip lead over the rest of the field. Kowssarie was keen on trying to take some of those chips away from him, and all the trying ended up costing him his tournament life. Mike Krstanoski followed him to the rail, his elimination setting up the heads-up stage of the action.
Speidel started the heads-up stage with a massive lead over Kenneth Wong. The final hand of the event saw Wong shove all-in with pocket 9s against Speidel’s pocket rockets. Wong picked up a handsome $1 million for his second place.

The $25k NL Holdem Semi Shootout kicked off on Saturday, with 20 players coughing up the buy-in. The event successfully played down to its 6-handed final table in short order, but given the relatively low number of registrants, only the top 4 finishers would get paid. Dominykas Karmazinas walked away with the title in the end.

]]>Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:56:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-super-high-roller-phil-ivey-wins-1879The 2012 Aussie Millions’ $250k (yes, you read that right) Super High Roller event attracted a starting field of 16 players, which - given the size of the buy-in -was a pretty hefty one indeed. The $2 million first prize ended up in Phil Ivey’s possession, after he defeated Patrik Antonius heads-up.
Given the number of participants, only the top 3 places would end up as paying positions, all the other players would have to go home empty-handed. The starting field was a stellar one indeed. Erik Seidel was there, together with Sorel Mizzi, John Juanda, Jason Mercier, Sam Trickett and Tom Dwan. Besides the pros, a handful of money and action-hungry businessmen played too.

Tom Dwan was the first victim of the poker tournament. Gus Hansen was the one responsible for Dwan’s demise. The New Jersey Wonderkid was followed to the rail by Nick Wong and Erik Seidel. Seidel’s luck thus far this year in the various high roller events in which he played hasn’t been impressive at all.
Seidel shoved all-in on pocket 8s against Dan Smith’s pocket Jacks and he couldn’t overcome the odds.
Sorel Mizzi made it all the way to 5th place, but the money bubble was as far as he would reach in the event. Once he was out of the way, the largest bubble of the year was reached, with 4 players battling for 3 paying spots. Besides Ivey and Antonius, Hansen and Daniel Negreanu had made the cut too. Negreanu turned out to be the bubble-boy: he got his last chips into the middle holding A,8o and he was called by Patrik Antonius, who had pocket Js. The board ran out a bunch of blanks and the bubble was history.

Gus Hansen picked up $800k for his 3rd place. At the beginning of the heads-up stage, Ivey had a marginal lead over his opponent, a lead to which he managed to add significantly about 45 minutes into the confrontation. The final hand saw Ivey’s A,Q get the better of Antonius’ K,3. The Finn picked up $1.2 million for his efforts.

]]>Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:42:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-17-report-1878The 2012 Aussie Millions is slowly but surely entering its final stretch. Day 17 of the series saw the $10k Main Event reach its final table and with Phil Ivey still in the mix, all eyes were on the 5th day’s action of the Main Event of course. Unfortunately for those hoping that Ivey would win this one to mark his return to active status through a real accomplishment, he was bounced in 12th place. He did pick up a more than decent prize though and undeterred by the setback, he bought right into the $250k Super High Roller, which he won for $2 million.
Ivey was only one of the interesting “name” players battling it out for a final table berth on day 5 though. The other guy to watch was Lee Nelson, whose ship ran ashore in 9th place as he too missed the final table.
Being the official short-stack at the beginning of Day 5, Ivey was subjected to quite a bit of pressure from the get-go. As soon as he picked up an A,Qo, he got into a raising give and take with Yann Dion, who had A,Ko. The board was a bunch of bricks and Ivey was done.

Nelson bit the dust a tad later, when his A,K lost a classic coin-flip against Oliver Speidel’s pocket 8s. Nelson’s elimination set the stage for the final table bubble. Daniel Idema was the one who succumbed in 8th place, going home as the official final table bubble-boy of the poker tournament. Idema’s A,Q fell to Bjorn Li’s A,K.
The $5.3k Heads-up event drew 32 players. Greg Ronaldson won the event, taking home the $80k top prize. Ronaldson defeated Sorel Mizzi heads-up. Mizzi took home $40k for his efforts. Yasuhiro Waki finished 3rd for $20k, followed by Sam Vakili in 4th, who picked up $20k too. Jim Collopy won event #18, the $2.5k PLO one for a reward of $59.7k.

]]>Sun, 29 Jan 2012 21:38:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-poker-grapevine-dc-online-poker-law-on-hold-1877Online poker and online gambling became legal in the District of Columbia in April 2011, making it the first US jurisdiction to legalize the above said online activities. The way the law was passed was reminiscent of the way lawmakers snuck the UIGEA through in 2006: the vehicle for the DC law was a budget bill, into which a councilman successfully inserted provisions which essentially made online gambling and online poker legal within the state limits. For 30 days, Congress could file objections in regards to the language of the said bill, but the period passed without any such incidents, thus the bill has effectively been turned into law.
Even with the legal framework set though, there’s hesitation among the ranks of the government in regards to actually launching an online poker operation. Lottery officials in DC have expressed their willingness and interest to launch an online poker operation within the next 30 days, test-running and fine tuning it to prepare it for full operation. According to Councilman Jack Evans however, the government is in no rush to take any concrete steps in the matter. In addition to DC, Nevada is the only US jurisdiction where online poker and online gambling have been made legal, however the DC law could still be amended thanks to a repeal motion filed by Councilman Tommy Wells.

In other news: 35 of the 50 PokerStars TCOOP events are in the book as the series shifts into high gear over its final stretch. Several winners were crowned on Thursday again. The event featuring the smallest buy-in of the TCOOP generated immense interest. 16,951 players coughed up the $5.5 buy-in in the NLH 3x Turbo with Rebuys event, generating a prize-pool of $429,065. A player known by the online moniker “i.love.ri” won the event, taking down the $50,196 top prize.
The $33 Razz event was won by Wintyara who took home $9.5k for his efforts.
The NLH 2x Chance event and the PLO 4-Max event played down to their winners too.

]]>Sat, 28 Jan 2012 17:16:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/online-poker-action-kyllonen-dominates-1876His first major live poker title in his pocket, Viktor Blom returned to the online poker tables at PokerStars with a vengeance, and sure enough, he broke another record: he took down his biggest ever PokerStars pot.
Despite the hot Aussie Millions action keeping the cream of the crop of the online poker world busy in Melbourne, there was no shortage of excitement at the online tables either these last few days. Patpatman had finished last week as the biggest winner and he kept the pedal to the metal this week too. He logged 5,442 hands and took down $459k thus far. He nearly managed to clinch the biggest winner of the week title yet again, unfortunately for him though, Jens Kyllonen had different plans: he beat him to the finish line by a measly $247. He played loads more hands than his rival too: he logged 13,419 hands. The other winners of the week were Ronny Kaiser, Davin Georgi and Rafi Amit. Phil Galfond, another major winner last week, tried his best to get onto the winners’ list too, but this time his best just wasn’t enough. He dropped $678.4k, becoming the biggest loser of the week. His small disaster made him the biggest aggregate loser of the year too.

While he didn’t exactly make the biggest winners of the week list, Niklaus Heineckerragen dominated the NL Holdem action on Thursday. He found a great opponent in Sander Berdsen, whom he fleeced of about $200k in about 1k hands. Needless to say, the largest pots of the confrontation ended up in Heineckerragen’s possession, and that included the two largest pots of the session.
Blom swung into action on Sunday, taking about $251k from VietRussian. The above mentioned record setting pot came from 1Il|1Il|1il|, who dropped a $355,195 monster to the Swede.
Sander Berndsen and Fake Love888 (thought to be Patrik Antonius) joined Galfond on the losers’ list, together with VietRussian.

]]>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:37:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-16-report-1875Day 16 of the Aussie Millions saw the 4th day of the $10k Main Event complete. 26 players returned to the tables at the beginning of the day and all eyes were on Phil Ivey. He did not disappoint. The field played down to the final 12 and when the action was called, Ivey was still in the mix, albeit with a much-reduced short-stack. Ivey began the day with a little over 1.1 million chips to his name, but the day’s hostilities took quite a toll on his poker tournament life-blood and he finished with just 699k, becoming the official short-stack going into day 5.

The field didn’t fool around at the beginning of the day. The chips flew into the middle often and during the first level alone, 2 players were sent packing. David Steicke was the first victim of the day. He ran his pocket Ks into an opponent’s pocket rockets and failed to improve. Ioannis Makris was the other guy who failed to survive the first level. Andrew Mellado followed him to the rail, followed in turn by Louie Srour and Tim O’Shea. Indeed, the day 2 chip leader managed to wreck what was once a monster stack.
Yann Dion was the one who finished the day with the largest stack. In the end, two tables worth of players remained, among them – besides Ivey and Dion – Oliver Speidel and Lee Nelson.

The Main Event has overshadowed all the other Aussie Millions events for the last few days, but there was plenty going on away from the spotlight too. Several preliminary events played down to their respective winners. The $550 NL Holdem event wrapped up too. Luke Tsapazis won that one, taking home a $21,265 reward. Adam Peck ended up in second place. Peck picked up $15.5k for his efforts. The last 5-figure finisher was Duncan Kink, who ended up in 3rd place for a $12.2k haul.

]]>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:35:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-15-report-1874Proceedings at the 2012 Aussie Millions $10k Main Event were slower than organizers had initially anticipated, thus they were forced to compensate, making two major announcements on Day 15 of the Series. The first one was about the $10k Main Event’s final table, which was pushed back to Sunday. The start of the $250k Challenge event was pushed back too, to Saturday.
On day 15, the Main Event rumbled on, adding a third day of hostilities to its tally. Phil Ivey played yet again and he did well again.
75 players returned to the tables at the beginning of the day, among them Ivey. Originally, day 3 was supposed to be comprised of 5 levels of action, but the 75 survivors wasted little time playing down to the final 26, so in order to stick to the newly announced schedule, the action was called after 3 levels.

The highlight of the day was the money bubble. Set for 72nd place, the bubble was expected to arrive early and it did. Bursting was a different matter though. With nobody keen on going home as the last empty-handed competitor, the bubble dragged on for about 2 hours. Eventually, Frank Paul was forced to shove his last two BBs into the middle, holding A,Jo. Kenna James called him with an 8,5o and managed to catch a 5 on the turn for a flimsy low pair to finally burst the bubble and speed the action back up.
Tom Grigg was among those who were bounced immediately after the bubble had burst. Billy Argyros, Michael Tureniec and Michael Pedley followed him to the rail. Andrew Hinrichsen was eliminated too, after he ran his pocket Qs into an opponent’s pocket Ks.
While others fought for their poker tournament lives, Phil Ivey was thriving close to the top of the pops. He eventually finished the day with a little more than 1.1 million chips.
Matthew Turk finished the day in the lead.

]]>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:42:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-poker-grapevine-senate-hearing-on-online-poker-set-1873The DoJ’s new position regarding the provisions of the 1961 Wire Act and the possible consequences of that on the legal status of on line poker and gambling have certainly set the stage for something big this year. Already, something is afoot in the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. A new hearing regarding online poker has been scheduled for February 9, the second of the sort in a relatively short span of time. Another similar hearing took place on November 17, which was basically an opportunity for the tribes to assess their position in a world where online poker and online gambling was legal. PPA Chairman Alfonse D’Amato was one of those who testified at that hearing.
Rich Muny of the PPA was quick to take credit for this new hearing, and he was probably right too: the PPA’s efforts have resulted in these continued hearings which have managed to keep the online poker problem on lawmakers’ tables. Given how worried some of the tribal representatives are about legal online poker and gambling though, it may also be that the tribes’ concerns are the real driving force behind the frequent hearings.
The list of witnesses to testify at the February 9 hearing has not yet been made public.

In other news: the WPT’s 10th season is still rolling, but that doesn’t mean the early events of the series are not ready for television. Beginning with February 12, all new WPT episodes shall be aired by FSN (Fox Sports Network) – according to the WPT. Season 10 will be covered in a total of 37 episodes, and Vince Van Patten as well as Mike Sexton will be back as commentators. According to the WPT, their 9th season redefined poker television, and season 10 would bring even more novelties and innovations.

In still other news: PokerStars’ TCOOP rolled past its half-way mark, churning out 4 more winners on Tuesday.
]]>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:39:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-14-report-1872The 14th day of the 2012 Aussie Millions saw the $10k Main Event roll on with its second day. The final day 1 flight of the poker tournament had seen scores of “name” pros belly up to the tables and many of those guys, including Phil Ivey and Tyron Krost, made it right through to day 2.
The second day of action saw 314 players return to the tables, all of them with their eyes on the $1.6 million top prize. There were several Aussie Millions champions in attendance too, like Gus Hansen, Lee Nelson and Krost. Of these guys, only Nelson survived the second day though. Hansen didn’t play in any of the day 1 flights, instead, he bought into the event on Day 2, through the late registration offered through the first level. Unfortunately for him, his late registration wasn’t a particularly lucky one: he busted out early at the hands of Tony G, whose Ah, Kh got the better of Hansen’s Ad, Qd.

Jason Mercier didn’t have a better run either: he got his chips into the middle on an A,Ko and got called by Tom Grigg, who had pocket 8s. The classic coin-flip went Grigg’s way when his pocket 8s held up. High-profile players continued hitting the rail through the day. Annette Obrestad, Van Marcus, Vitaly Lunkin, JP Kelly and Tom Dwan all joined the victims. Tony G was extremely proud of his elimination of Gus Hansen, but he too bit the dust before the day was over. A total of 74 players survived the day. Tim O’Shea managed to build the largest stack. His 921k chip stack was certainly an impressive one, but only an hour before the end of the day, there was no trace of O’Shea at the top of the ranks. It was around that time that a massive pot came about, which instantly propelled him to the top.
O’Shea was the one who kicked off the action in the said hand from under the gun as Josh Barrett provided action from the BB. Phil Ivey finished with a large stack as well.

]]>Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:37:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-poker-grapevine-playtech-looking-to-take-advantage-of-regulated-markets-1871The Playtech network may not be the biggest of on line poker operators, but it’s certainly up there with the best of them and they’re by no means resting on their laurels when it comes to aggressive marketing. The network has made several moves meant to take advantage of emerging regulated markets world over lately. No fewer than 3 major transactions were announced yesterday and none of the deals were aimed at the US. Playtech has apparently acquired Geneity, a UK-based lottery and online sportsbook software company for £11 million. The other two deals were joint partnership ones with Gauselmann of Germany (an online gaming co) and with Peermont of South Africa (a live casino operator).
According to Mor Weizer, COE of Playtech, the company is positioning itself for all new and potential online poker markets and that includes the US too. Apparently, there are more than a few US corporate entities that would like to team up with the company when online poker is finally legalized and regulated.

In other news: potential US online gambling regulation would likely turn Facebook into a revenue generating monster far beyond everything the industry has ever known. According to estimates, the social networking company would generate $100 billion in revenues per year, instead of the current “trickle” of $4 billion it generates through advertising and various other means.

The only question is: would Facebook prove to be as popular an online poker platform as it is a social networking and gaming one. The answer to that question is probably a resounding yes, especially in light of the fact that Facebook already have a lucrative online poker partnership in place with Zynga, and they already operate a play-money online poker room which is immensely successful with their users. The real money gambling capabilities of the site will be put to the test this year, as Facebook have already announced that they would develop a real-money gambling setup in the UK in 2012.

]]>Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:09:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-13-report-1870The 13th day of the 2012 Aussie Millions saw the third flight of the $10k Main Event belly up to the tables. The true cream of the crop of the poker world yet again waited out the last opportunity to swing into action, and swing into action they did: Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Tony G and Jason Mercier were all among the registrants. The total starting field for the day was 317. Day 1C saw 7 levels of play logged, at the end of which 150 players were left standing. Robert Lam was the player who clinched the chip lead. As soon as the action kicked off, Ivey took down a few big pots and stormed right into the lead. He managed to hold on to his position for most of the day, although eventually he slowed down. At one point during the day, he had 175k chips in his stack. He kind of just stopped then though and he began dropping chips until he found himself back at the 85k mark. He locked horns with Shane Warne then, and took down a massive pot from him, shooting right to the top of the leader board again. He finished the day 4th, with a stack of 184k chips.

Even as Ivey was battling for the poker tournament’s chip lead, some of his “name” peers were unsuccessfully struggling for their tournament lives. Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu, Daniel Alaei, Erik Seidel and Nam Le all bit the dust on Day 1C. Jason Mercier didn’t join them on the rail but he didn’t exactly thrive either. He struggled around 30k chips for most of the day, but just as the action was winding down, he managed to chip up a bit, so he eventually finished with 61k chips to his name.
Michael Pedley survived the day too, together with David Steicke and Jason Koon.
Events #11 and #12 also played down to their respective winners: Borge Dypvik and Benjamin Breadsell were the victors.

]]>Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:18:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-poker-grapevine-jungleman-cant-find-challengers-1869Daniel Cates, known to his online peers as “Jungleman”, has issued a €100k challenge a while ago but thus far no takers emerged. The challenge may have been based by and large on the infamous durrrr Challenge (which fizzled out in quite an anti-climax), but there were significant differences. The Jungleman Challenge would’ve taken place live, at the Prague Poker Festival on December 6, but it obviously failed to materialize. The Challenge still stands apparently, and Cates has listed some “unconventional” help in rustling up some opposition: Tony G has gotten onboard and he will attempt to convince someone to take on Cates.

In other news: PokerStars TCOOP (Turbo Championship of Online Poker) kicked off over last weekend. The action – as expected – was fast and furious as no fewer than 15 players earned tournament wins on the first two days alone. The UK’s Toby Lewis was among the winners. Lewis made his move in the $55 NL Holdem Knockout event, which he won for a $68,676 reward. He had to best a starting field of 12,270 players to get there.
While his win was an impressive one indeed, Lewis didn’t finish as the biggest winner of the weekend. That honor went to a player known as “alterbo ka”. The Brazilian won event #19, taking down a prize of $90.7k. The event – the $200+$15 NL Holdem Hyper Turbo - was done in less than 2 hours, so the winner’s earning rate was a truly impressive one indeed.

In still other news: Bet24 have begun seriously enhancing their in-house team of online poker pros. On Monday, they’ve announced that no fewer than 7 new professionals had joined the site. The new players who will represent the Bet24 brand online and in live poker events are: Arvin Golrang, David Wintersberger, Stefan Mattsson, Tapio Vihakas, Matias Knaapinen, Ida Lundholm and Sara Shalabi. By far the highest profile player among the 7 is Mattsson, who’s a renowned and feared cash game player.

]]>Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:15:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-12-report-1868The $100k Challenge of the 2012 Aussie Millions is in the books. Day 12 of the Series also saw the second day 1 flight of the Main Event complete.
The $100k Challenge rolled to a finish as Dan Smith grabbed the title, the bragging rights and of course the biggest chunk of the $2.2 million prize-pool. Smith bested Mikhail Smirnov heads-up. The poker tournament had kicked off on Sunday, with 22 players bellying up to the tables, 100k chips in front of them. The first day of action handily reached its objective: only 8 players remained at the final table at the cessation of Day 1 hostilities. Given the relatively low number of participants, the final table participants weren’t all guaranteed a payday though. Only the top 4 would end up taking home money, so 4 more players needed to bite the dust on Day 2 before the bursting of the money bubble.
Nam Le, Sorel Mizzi, Gus Hansen and Sam Trickett were the players who left the tournament with nothing to show for their efforts. Tony G finished 4th, eliminated by Dan Smith on an A,6 vs A,Q match-up. Joe Hachem, the local hero most of the railbirds would’ve probably liked to see finish on top, was 3rd. He picked up $330k. Smirnov’s second place was worth $616k, while Dan Smith picked up $1,012,000.

187 players registered on day 1B of the 2012 Aussie Millions’ Main Event, among them some of the poker pros who were bounced from the $100k Challenge. Jonathan Karamalikis and Tom Dwan both played on Day 1B and they both managed to survive. Other notable players who took the Day 1B hurdle in stride were Kenna James, James Dempsey and Annette Obrestad. Dwan had a pretty blend day up until past the dinner break, when he managed to get a thing or two going. He eventually finished with about 80k chips.
Tyron Krost and Stewart Scott made it to day 2 as well.

]]>Wed, 25 Jan 2012 12:12:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-online-poker-weekend-akenhead-wins-sunday-million-1867The on line poker weekend was yet again on track as far as player numbers were concerned, despite the fact that the Aussie Millions have drawn quite a few players away from the virtual tables. James Akenhead was the biggest tournament winner of the weekend. He took down PokerStars’ famed Sunday Million, having made no deals on his way to the $213,750 top prize.
The event featured a starting field of 7,125 players and a prize-pool of $1,425,000. By the time the final table was reached, it was obvious that Akenhead would make a serious dash for the title: he was 3rd in chips, and looking better than all his remaining opponents. His situation improved further when he got all his chips into the middle with 7 players remaining, on a K,10 against an opponent’s pocket Qs and went on to win the hand to double up. The player who doubled him up, pnp23 made it all the way to the heads-up stage of the event, having hit a double-up himself. By then though, Akenhead had a 4-1 lead and there was no way he was going to let it slip away.

Pnp23 picked up $157.2k for his efforts. The other 6-figure winner of the event was 3rd place finisher Giuseppe Pantaleo, who took home $114k. Another notable to finish high was Milana Jones who took down a little over $44k for her 6th place finish. Mario Puccini finished 33rd for $2.9k.

The Sunday Warm-Up created another 6-figure winner. RasA86 finished in the top spot in this one, taking down $112k for his efforts. There were no deals at the top in this event either. 3,569 players took part, generating a prize-pool of $713.8k. vonBaranow finished second for $83.5k.
The highest finishing notable player in the event was Steve Tripp, who scored a $1.6k haul with his 30th place effort. There were no other 6-figure winners in any of the weekend’s major guarantees.

]]>Tue, 24 Jan 2012 22:06:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-11-report-1866Several high profile events kicked off or rolled on at the 2012 Aussie Millions on day 11 of the Series. The start of the $10k Main Event stole the limelight, but the $100k Challenge also kicked off, a nice addition to those with large-enough bankrolls to afford entry. Obviously, the $100k Challenge was attended almost exclusively by the “name” crowd. Gus Hansen was there, together with Jason Mercier, Tony G, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and Erik Seidel. The Main Event saw its fair share of high profile pros too: Patrik Antonius skipped the Challenge in its favor, together with Barry Greenstein and McLean Karr.

The $100k Aussie Millions Challenge has been around for quite a while now. First introduced in 2006, the event has always garnered enough interest to keep going through the years. The unique structure of the poker tournament is quite probably a huge part of its appeal. The betting format is a split-limit one, players start out with 100k chips in their stacks and there are no antes.
At the end of the day, Gus Hansen emerged with the largest stack. Local player Joe Hachem was a close second. Dan Smith, Sorel Mizzi and Michael Smirnoff finished on healthy stacks too. Tony G and Sam Trickett made the final table too. While the field did manage to play down to the final table, it means little considering the fact that only the top 4 finishers will get paid.

The Main Event kicked off with its first Day 1 flight. 153 players showed up to see Joe Hachem give the traditional “shuffle up and deal” call. 7 levels of action were squeezed into the day, at the end of which 68 players were still standing. Brett Watson was the one who managed to amass the largest stack.
Event #7, the $1,650 NL Holdem Bounties event, played down to a winner: Ross Parkhill from Ireland won this one.

]]>Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:18:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-poker-grapevine-ira-rubin-guilty-1865Ira Rubin, the payment processor who had helped online poker companies Full Tilt Poker, Absolute Poker and PokerStars disguise their financial transfers in order to elude the grasp of US authorities before the Black Friday events, has apparently pleaded guilty to 3 charges brought against him, striking a plea bargain which is likely to shave massive time off his potential prison sentence. Rubin has apparently pleaded guilty to conspiracy. He has been sitting in jail since April 2011 when law enforcement agents apprehended him in Guatemala, just as he was allegedly trying to slip through to Thailand.

UB may indeed be on the ropes due to the Black Friday problems, as is the entire Cereus network, which is highly likely never to see the light of cyberspace again, but it seems like their problems don’t stop there. Several poker pros, among them well-known Canadian player Brad Booth, Dustin Wolf and Tom Koral have filed a RICO suit against Excapsa software, the company that used to be behind Ultimate Bet and Absolute Poker when the sites were rocked by a cheating scandal a few years ago. According to the filed complaint, Excapsa stole around $20 million from its players through the perpetration of a software loophole which allowed certain people to see their opponents’ hole cards while playing.
Booth has always been outraged by the above said cheating, and he’s always been vocal about how he was stripped of around $2 million by Ultimate Bet super-users.

In other news: with legal online poker appearing more and more likely in the US, Ladbrokes have made a move towards securing a presence on the US market once the wheels and cogs of the legal system start turning towards a positive outcome: they have purchased a major stake in Stadium Technology Group, a Las-Vegas based online wagering software provider.
The deal gives Ladbrokes access to technology used by the Golden Nugget and the Hard Rock casinos.

]]>Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:14:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-10-report-1864With the more significant events of the 2012 Aussie Millions just around the corner, the cream of the crop of the poker world showed up on Day 10 of the series. In preparation for the $10k Main Event, the $250k Super High Roller and the $100k Challenge, many of these players decided to take part in the events the day had to offer.
Event #6, the $1.1k NL Holdem Shootout played down to a winner on Day 10. The player to walk away with the lion’s share of the prize-pool ($122k to be exact) was Michael Pedley, who bested local big gun Jonathan Karamalikis heads-up for the win. 92 players bellied up to the tables at the beginning of the day, coughing up no fewer than 332 buy-ins. The eventual prize-pool was a massive $423k one.
The final table saw quite a few “name” players make the cut: Besides Karamalikis, Jim Collopy, Dan Kelly, Tyron Krost and Marvin Rettenmaier also made the home stretch of the poker tournament. Michael Benvenuti was the first victim of the final table. Rettenmaier was the one responsible for his demise.

Next, it was Andrew Scarfe’s turn to bid farewell to the tournament. He had nurtured a short-stack since the beginning of the day and he eventually committed on an A,Qo. Tyron Krost called him with pocket 8s and the coin-flip was on. Needless to say, Krost’s pocket 8s held and Scarfe was out.
Jonathan Karamalikis locked horns next with Marvin Rettenmaier in what would turn out to be the most important hand of the tournament up to that point. Karamalikis had pocket Js against Rettenmaier’s Ad,9d and the Js held up to give the Aussie a huge chip lead while knocking the German into short-stack territory. A little later Krost moved in for the kill, finishing off Rettenmaier for good.
Collopy fell in 6th place, followed by Mike Watson in 5th and Tyron Krost in 4th. Dan Kelly’s elimination in 3rd set the stage for what would become a very short heads-up stage. The final hand of the poker tournament saw Pedley’s K,J best Karamalikis’ K,10.

]]>Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:10:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-poker-grapevine-partygaming-involved-in-megaupload-scandal-1863The Megaupload and Megavideo takedowns as well as the arrests made in the case have been all over the news for the last couple of days. What is surprising for the online poker community is though that PartyGaming (the parent company behind PartyPoker) was apparently also involved in the scheme which generated around $42 million every year for Megaupload owner Kim Dotcom. PartyGaming was one of the clients that advertised at the site, paying about $3 million a year for these services. Exactly what this means for PartyGaming in legal terms now that the operation based on piracy was busted, is unclear. Google’s Adsense and adBrite were also involved with Megaupload advertising.

In other news: Zynga has apparently reversed its position on real money online poker. As the largest manufacturer of online games in the world and owner of the largest online poker network, Zynga was obviously intrigued by the possibility of real money online poker being legalized in the US. According to a company spokesperson, Zynga is now looking for ways to enter the US online poker scene once the game gets legalized and regulated. According to the same source, Zynga’s poker players are indeed interested in playing for real money and this player interest is apparently what prompted the company to mull the idea in the first-place. Conversations with potential partners are already in progress.

In still other news: PokerStars’ first ever TCOOP (Turbo Championship of Online Poker) is in full swing, having kicked off last Thursday. The first day of the series hosted 4 events, each of which played down to a winner extremely fast. The good news was that each and every one of the inaugural events managed to handily beat the guarantee. The first event beat all expectations, drawing a starting field of 44,787 players. The winner collected $67.9k in this one.
The second event featured a slightly larger buy-in and thus only 4,337 players registered for it. The third and 4th events attracted 5,561 and 9,877 players respectively.

]]>Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:46:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/harry-reid-and-online-poker-in-2012-1862Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has popped up as possibly one of legal online poker’s biggest supporters in 2011. He hadn’t talked a lot about the subject before his move to push through a bill, nor has he become known as one of the vocal supporters of the cause after. Unlike Congressmen Barney Frank and Joe Barton who have always been open about their support for legal and regulated online poker, Reid hasn’t given any interviews on the matter, until the other day that is when he shared a few thoughts with one of the online gambling portals. The interview was obviously centered around the latest positive news regarding the online poker cause: the DoJ’s recent backtracking on the provisions of the Wire Act and their applicability to inter-state online gambling.

According to Reid, the DoJ’s move is a significant one indeed, in the sense that it will give lawmakers an incentive to finally make a move in the matter.
As a former chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, Reid opined that having a series of laws around the country regulating an activity like online poker wasn’t at all practical and the necessity of a federal-level bill on the matter was obvious.
Based on his comments, it’s safe to conclude that Reid (and probably other lawmakers too) has recognized the fact that 2012 may present the last opportunity for the Federal Government to pass a nation-wide law in regards to online gaming, otherwise the states will just move forward with laws of their own, without any Federal involvement. It’s no secret that groups like the PPA (Poker Players’ Alliance) that have long pushed for legal online poker, prefer federal regulation instead of a local one. According to John Pappas of the PPA, it will definitely help the business side of the online poker industry to legalize online poker under a federal framework.
In quite possibly the most important announcement of the year (from the point of view of the online poker industry that is) Reid also broke the news that he was negotiating with Sen. John Kyl in regards to a federal online poker bill.

]]>Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:43:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/online-poker-action-phil-galfond-among-winners-1861Despite all the Aussie Millions hype and the ongoing action, the live tournament series failed to compel players to stay away from the virtual green felt. As a matter of fact, several players who are currently in Melbourne for the Aussie Millions have logged profitable time at the on line poker tables last week. Phil Galfond was one of the biggest winners: he took down a little over $100k over 62 sessions and about 4k hands. Fake Love888, the player suspected to be none other than Patrik Antonius, finished with a handsome profit as well: he took down $196k. What’s noteworthy is that Patrik Antonius is in fact at the Aussie Millions playing.
Another player suspected to be a high profile pro (quite possibly Phil Ivey himself), known by the online moniker ‘RaiseOnce’ saw quite a bit of action too. He finished as the one of the biggest losers of the week though, about $154k under the red line.

The biggest winner of the week was a player known as ‘patpatman’ who logged an extremely profitable week: he ended up taking down $299.8k over just 2.6k hands. BiatchPeople had a very profitable week too: he finished with a $278.5k profit, amassed in a little over 2.2k hands. The title of the biggest loser of the week went to ‘Kanu7’. He dropped around $313k and he was outstandingly efficient in shedding money too: he accomplished his deed in only 1.8k hands.
The losers’ list wasn’t a shabby one at all: it contained names like Viktor Blom, Sander Berndsen, and possibly Phil Ivey (see above). On Sunday, Rami Boukai, the second biggest winner of last year and Phil Galfond took over the tables. Glafond took on Sander Berndsen and at one point he found himself up about $200k. He did drop a little money later, but he still finished with a more than impressive profit of $165k.
Rami Boukai made about $150k too. Most of his money came from Ben Sulsky.

]]>Sun, 22 Jan 2012 18:41:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-9-report-1860The 9th day of the 2012 Aussie Millions saw another winner added to the tally. Tom Middleton was the one who added his name to the winner’s list, by working his way to triumph in the $1.1k NL Holdem 6-Max event. Event #6 reached its final table.
18 players returned to the tables of event #5 with one goal in mind: to play down to a winner. The action kicked off on the right foot, with one player biting the dust on the very first hand: Tayna Puppa was the first victim of the day. Greg Tucker didn’t last much longer either. Early on, it looked like every single all-in would result in an elimination. As the pressure increased on the short stacks, they began making their stand one by one. Stefan Jedlicka was one of these short-stacks. He was eliminated in 8th place. A whole bunch of ‘name’ players bit the dust short of the final table.
The official 7-handed final table was reached after Stefan Jedlicka’s elimination. Middleton than sprung into action and took care of the final stretch of the poker tournament in less than 2 hours. Middleton bested Joel Dodds heads-up to pick up the AUD$84k top prize. Dodds was rewarded with AUD$58k for his second place.

Event #6, the $1,1k NLH Re-buys event drew a starting field of 92 players. When all the re-buys were accounted for too, 331 buy-ins were in the middle. The massive size of the prize-pool meant that the eventual winner would take home $122.6k, the first 6-figure prize of the series.
As soon as the action kicked off, players began shoving all-in. Several of them – like McLean Karr and Faraz Jaka were forced to re-buy shortly. At the end of the day, the 10-handed final table was set. Marvin Rettenmaier has the largest stack (113.7k chips), followed by Mike Watson and Jonathan Karamalikis. Jim Collopy and Tyron Krost also made the final table.

]]>Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:39:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-8-report-1859Day 8 of the 2012 Aussie Millions was about the final table of event #4, the $1.1k NLH/Pot Limit Omaha mixed event. Aaron Lim was the one who managed to clinch the title in this one, taking out Ali Ghezelbash heads-up, after he started the final stage with a massive chip advantage of 10-1.
Lim picked up $36.7k for his efforts. Ghezelbash walked away with $27.2k for his second place. Casey Kastle, the start of the day chip leader, had a rather disappointing final table run: he finished 7th for a $7.1k prize.

Event #5 of the Aussie Millions, the $1.1k NL Holdem 6-handed event, kicked off with 385 players bellying up to the tables. After 12 hours of play, 18 players remained, capping off a rather successful and impressive day. Craig Cockburn finished with the chip lead. A whole bunch of name pros were in the field at the beginning of the day. Jonathan Karamalikis played, together with Sam Holden, Nacho Barbero, Maria Ho and JP Kelly. None of these players managed to make the final 18.
As usual, play came to a virtual standstill on the money bubble. Nick Bizimoski’s elimination spelt the end of the freeze. Bizimoski got the last of his chips into the middle on an A,Qo. He was called by an opponent who had Jc,10c and proceeded to make a two pair to score the KO.

The pace of the poker tournament action picked up with the money bubble out of the way. Tyron Krost busted in 34th place, followed to the rail by Jackie Glazier and Chris Moorman. Local hero Joe Hachem also bit the dust at the hands of Tom Middleton.
Middleton held the chip lead for a while, but he made a few uninspired plays and soon, the majority of his chips migrated over to Craig Cockburn’s stack. Other players who had good days and finished close to the top of the chip counts were Stefan Jedlicka, Ben Richardson and Joel Dodds.

]]>Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:55:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-day-7-report-1858The 2012 Aussie Millions have barely kicked off and thus far the events weren’t overly impressive. There are two winners in the books already, but the massive exodus of high profile professionals towards the Aussie Millions’ tables hasn’t happened yet. With the warm-up stage out of the way though, things appear to be stirring: professional players like Jeffrey Lisandro, Gus Hansen, Erik Seidel and Randy Dorfman have been arriving at the Crown for a few days. Several others have also made their intentions to get there known. Daniel Negreanu, Tristan Wade and Shawn Buchannan all fired out tweets making their Aussie Millions plan public.
Day 7 of the 2012 series saw event #3 play down to a winner. The $1.1k NL Holdem Shootout saw 10 players return to the tables on its second day. Oliver Speidel was the one leading the pack with a 384.5k stack. Joey Lawrence had made the final table too, together with Jackie Glazier and Mark Segal.

The final stretch of event #3 didn’t last long at all. After about four and a half hours of play, Saandeep Pulusani was crowned the winner, taking down the $35.7k prize. Speidel did use his chips wisely, but by the time the heads-up stage was reached, Pulusani had such a massive lead that he could do nothing about it whatsoever. Speidel picked up $24.7k for his runner-up spot.

Event #4, the $1.1k NL Holdem/PLO mixed event kicked off on Day 7, drawing a starting field of 158 players. Mel Judah, Jim Collopy, Sam Holden, Dan Kelly and Joseph Cheong were all among the starters. The final table was successfully reached. Casey Kastle will lead the survivors into the final day of the event. Michael Benvenuti and Dean Francis made the cut too.
The next event to kick off on Day 8 of the series is the $1.1k 6-handed NL Holdem event.

]]>Fri, 20 Jan 2012 13:47:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-poker-grapevine-iowa-to-jump-on-the-online-poker-bandwagon-1857The about-face on the interpretation of the provisions of the Wire Act by the DoJ essentially gave fuel to the legal online poker movement in more ways than one could’ve imagined when the announcement was made. Shortly afterwards though, experts began claiming that unless federal lawmakers made a quick push to come up with and squeeze through a poker bill, history would zoom past them as states would one by one move to legalize the game within their respective jurisdictions.
Apparently, that’s exactly what we’re witnessing today: after Nevada has already passed online poker and gambling legislation and with news of New Jersey mulling a similar move, the state of Iowa might jump on the online poker bandwagon soon too. Iowa Sen. Jeff Danielson is apparently intent on putting together and introducing a poker bill which would make the online version of the game legal within the state limits. Settling with poker playing Iowans only is far from the true goal of the bill though. According to Danielson, legalizing online poker in Iowa would make it possible for the state to link up with other states that have already legalized the game, like DC and Nevada. The bottom line is that the move would create a welcome addition to the growing family of states where online poker is no longer subject to the infamous 2006 UIGEA’s restrictions. In theory, for smaller states where player liquidity is a scarce commodity, linking up with other states would be the answer to generating massive online poker revenues, in a fashion similar to Powerball-like multi-state lotteries.

The feasibility study regarding online poker in Iowa is already done: in December, the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission put together a study regarding the regulation of online poker and the actual setup of a state-wide network, just in case online poker is ever legalized within the state. According to the IRGC study, on line poker would generate between $3 million and $13 million in tax revenues per year.

]]>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:37:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-aussie-millions-update-day-6-1856The second event of the 2012 Aussie Millions, the $1.1k PLO one, went into the books on Monday. The event drew a relatively feeble starting field of 129 players, taking the prize-pool to $129k. The first prize was AUD$33.4k and it ended up in online poker player Dan Kelly’s possession.
Despite the relatively shallow starting field, there were plenty of big names in it: the Aussies were well represented by Leo Boxell and Billy Argyros, but Mel Judah and Van Marcus were there as well. Other name pros who took part were Sam Holden, McLean Karr and James Dempsey.
Billy Argyros was the first victim of the final table. He picked up $4.1k for his efforts. He was followed to the rail by Michael Guzzardi, who took down $6.1k. McLean Karr failed to catch the 5-figure train too: he busted out in 6th place for a $8.2k reward. Geoffrey Smith was the first one to ascend to 5-figure land: his 5th place was worth $10.8k.
Charles Cuschieri finished 4th, followed by Van Marcus in 3rd place. The heads-up battle was between Kelly and Martin Kozlov. Kozlov picked up $25k for his second place.

The other event which took place on Day 6 of the series was the $1.1k NL Holdem Shootout, event #3. Registration was capped at 150 participants and the limit was indeed met as many of the players who had played in event #2 re-surfaced here: Billy Argyros, Van Marcus and McLean Karr all played, together with Maria Ho, Vitaly Lunkin and Jonathan Karamalikis.
McLean Karr nearly managed to make the final table of this event too: he eventually ran out of steam in 12th place. Joey Lawrence is the one taking by far the largest stack into the final stretch of the event. He has 1.3 million chips. The second largest stack is Oliver Speidel’s 384.5k one, so the difference is indeed quite substantial.

]]>Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:34:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/the-poker-grapevine-hansen-thrives-in-macau-1854The infamous high stakes poker action in Macau is apparently as hot as ever. The StarWorld Hotel and Casino is the scene and non-stop poker is the name of the game. When we say non-stop we truly mean non-stop indeed. According to Gus Hansen, several players have been putting in marathon 24-hour long sessions looking to take advantage of the effects of the fatigue on their opponents. Hansen joined the fray last week and he has since been battling opponents like Phil Ivey, Andrew Robl and John Juanda as well as a selection of Chinese businessmen who are regulars in the game.
Hansen has been doing great too. Thus far, he has amassed about $4 million in profits and his heater seems to be ongoing. He has put in several 24 hour sessions, but he’s admitted in a blog post of his that he was having trouble keeping up with the rest of the field stamina-wise. The Great Dane plans to put in at least another 24-hour run before he heads over to the Aussie Millions.

In other news: Melanie Weisner of Full Tilt Poker fame has been sponsor-less for a while in the wake of the Full Tilt poker scandal, but that seems to have come to an end. Lock Poker has hired her to represent the operation. She will join Chris Moorman, Leo Margets and Matt Stout.
The 25-year old Weisner has already amassed around $1 million in online tournament profits and about $400k in live tournament winnings. She has definitely fared better online than in live events. Her biggest live poker achievement is a 12th place finish in the EPT’s Prague Main Event, where she scored a $43k prize.
She won the EPT’s Monte Carlo Ladies Event, taking home $33k. Weisner broke the news, saying that she was delighted to represent a reputable online operation which already had an impressive in-house team of pros.

]]>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 15:40:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/weekend-online-poker-action-karamalikis-near-miss-1853The Aussie Millions have recently kicked off, and live action is therefore plentiful Down Under, but that doesn’t mean the insatiable appetite of some of the young Aussie on line poker pros can be satisfied. Despite all the live action taking place, the online tables saw their fair share of registrants in the various large guaranteed events over the weekend. Jonathan Karamalikis, one of the best Australia has to offer poker-wise, was playing and he nearly made the final table of PokerStars’ Sunday Million. He made the final 14, but by that time he was desperately short on chips. He shoved the last of his tournament lifeblood into the middle on a 7c, 5c, looking for a monster, but a player called “GreenChe” made the call from the BB with an A,8. The flop fell 6,5,3, not a bad one at all for Karamalikis, but the A on the turn pretty much sealed his fate. The 3 on the river was of no help and the Aussie was out, picking up $6,124 for his efforts.

The eventual winner of the Sunday Million was Ticiz, who took home $200k+ after a two-way deal with second place finisher roosi88. The only other player to finish in 6-figures in the event was “nordlending” whose 3rd place was worth $118k. Another notable to finish high was Michael Telker, who took home $2,774 for his 41st place. The event drew a starting field of 7,379 players, which generated a prize-pool of $1.47 million.
The Sunday Warm-Up created a 6-figure winner too. MikiOpasniy took home $115k for his win. There were no deals in this event at the top. The winner bested a starting field of 3,670 players. Mark Epstein was the highest finishing notable: he was rewarded with $1,324 for his 58th place.

The Sunday 500 drew 812 entrants. PSMozak won this one, taking home $73k. Cory Carroll finished 15th for $3.4k.

]]>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:39:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-pca-high-roller-leonid-bilokur-wins-1852Leonid Bilokur, the eventual winner of the 2012 PCA’s $25k High Roller event started the final table 4th in chips. He made the wise choice to stay out of harm’s way early on, letting the short-stacks duke it out for their tournament lives. Randy Lew was the official short stack of the final table and he did indeed cause some mayhem early on by doubling up twice. Eventually, he was forced to admit defeat though, becoming the first victim of the final table when his A,Ko fell to Jason Koon’s pocket rockets.
Michael Telker had a tough time at the final table. He failed to get anything going for most of the day and when he eventually picked up a decent hand, it all blew up in his face, sending him right to the rail. He shoved his last chips into the middle on a Kh,Qh, only to be called by Nicolas Fierro with pocket 10s. The board gave Fierro another 10 for the set and Telker was done.

Fierro didn’t stop there. He bounced Govert Metaal next, with pocket Ks over some measly Ad, 2d.
Despite Fierro’s heroics, Bilokur was the one with the chip lead firmly in his grip when dinner-time came. The Russian had collected many of his chips from Koon, with whom he’d tangled before the break. In the said hand, he won a classic coin-flip with pocket Js vs Koon’s A,K.
After the dinner break, Isaac Haxton took care of Fierro, and Jonathan Duhamel disposed of Koon, whose A,4 was no match for his pocket Ks. Haxton’s elimination in 3rd place set up the heads-up stage between Duhamel and Bilokur.
Duhamel had a huge lead over Bilokur, but he failed to get anything going throughout the heads-up stage, getting thoroughly trounced by the shorter stack. The final hand of the tournament saw Duhamel shove all-in with K,4o against Bilokur’s A,7o. The board landed two aces and the High Roller event was over.

]]>Tue, 17 Jan 2012 13:07:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/aussie-millions-opener-brandon-rubie-wins-1851The first event of the 2012 Aussie Millions is in the books and Brandon Rubie is the one who took the top prize after three days of grueling action. The opening event featured no fewer than 3 day 1 flights, drawing a respectable number of contestants. Day 2 was supposed to be the last day of the event, but as the hostilities stretched on without the hope of a winner emerging, the last 10 survivors were re-scheduled to play down to a winner on Day 3. Rubie was the one carrying the second largest stack into the final stretch. The final table action began the usual way: with the short stacks putting their tournament lives onto the line in hopes of chipping up and staving off elimination. It took about 2 hours for the two shortest stacks to hit the rail. Sean Robey was the first one to buckle under the pressure. He was followed to the payout queue by Tamara Volkoff.

Rubie was busy chipping away at his opponents’ stacks by then. He took quite a bite out of Naz Sibaei’s stack when he busted a bluff with a set. Manny Stavropoulos then swooped in to mop up the remains. Sherif Derias was the next victim of the final table. He was bounced by Rob Angood. The move lit Angood on fire and he scored the next elimination by showing Tam Truong the way to the rail. Truong held A,3 against Angood’s Ks, Qs.
John Thomson was definitely the master of the short-stack at this final table. He flew his short-stack under the radar for most of the day, but eventually, he was forced to commit and soon he found himself on the outside looking in.
Rubie got going at about that point in the poker tournament. He first crippled Angood and eventually eliminated him, securing a 2-1 chip lead over his last remaining opponent going into the heads-up stage. The final hand of the event saw Rubie’s Q,Jo best Scott Wilson’s 3c,4c for the win.

]]>Mon, 16 Jan 2012 22:31:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-pca-high-roller-day-1-report-1850The 2012 PCA’s $25k High Roller event drew a starting field of 141 players – an impressive feat indeed, considering the size of the buy-in. Of these players, 56 survived the day, as Nick Yunis clinched the chip lead with a stack of 407k chips.
There were plenty of name players among the starters, and many of those who found themselves on the rail early on chose to re-buy. Chris Moorman was among those who re-bought, together with PokerStars’ Bertrand Grospellier, the chip leader himself: Nick Yunis and Chance Kornuth.
The prize-pool was set to $3,626,000 of which the winner will receive $1.1 million+. The money bubble has been set to 17th place and the min-cash is $58k.

Yunis’ day was an impressive rollercoaster ride indeed. He found himself chip-less after only 4 levels of play, he chose to re-enter though, putting $50k into the middle while looking at a min-cash of $58k. His new stack gave him newfound strength. He began chipping up steadily until a major hand thrust him straight into the lead. The board was reading 8d,2d,10c,5s when Carlos Boyd shoved all-in. Even though he had more than enough chips to cover his opponent, it took Yunis a while to make the call. He eventually did so with A,8 for a measly pair, only to see Boyd table a Kd, 5d for the monster flush draw. The river was not a diamond though and Boyd was out.

Bill Perkins provided one of the most interesting performances of the day: seemingly set to play in every single pot at his table, he got his chips into the middle again and again, getting away with robbery every time. During his day-long rampage, he eliminated players like Carlos Mortensen, Viktor Blom and Ludovic Lacay. He eventually finished with a very healthy stack of 345.7k chips.
Team PokerStars pro Jonathan Duhamel finished the day with a healthy stack too.

]]>Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:59:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/online-poker-action-sander-berndsen-dominates-1849There are several high profile live poker events running in various areas of the world, which take up much of the fire-power of the high stakes online regulars. One would expect the on line poker action to take a bit of a dip at times like this, but it seems like whenever the top pros are missing, there’s an inexhaustible supply of new players willing to step forth into the spotlight.

Sander Berndsen is by no means a novice but his is not a name that’s usually featured in weekly online action reports. Yet last week, he clinched the top spot on the winners’ list, with a not too shabby profit of $631,422. He scored that profit over 11,318 hands, in 88 different sessions. The second place man, Ben Sulsky was much more diligent: he played 126 sessions, although his were shorter ones. His profits were shorter too, at $333,436. Another player who had an exceptionally profitable week was Niklas Heineckerragen – himself a rather unusual presence at the top of the pops. Known by the online moniker “ragen70”, Heineckerragen finished the week a massive $251k above the red line to clinch 3rd place on the winners’ list. Phil Galfond made the winner’s circle too: he returned to action on January 7 and he took on Viktor Blom to kick off the New Year on the right foot. He won about $90k over a few short sessions.

Whenever there are winners, there have to be losers too. GVOZDIKA55 was the one who bore the brunt of the losses last week. He dropped 240k+ to become the biggest loser. Diggidave finished almost a full 100k better, but it wasn’t enough to keep him off the losers’ list. With $158k under the red line, he was the second biggest loser of the week.
Ilari Sahamies was the third biggest loser. After finishing as the biggest winner of the previous year, Sahamies dropped $131k to begin the year in the red.

]]>Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:56:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-pca-main-event-john-dibella-wins-1848After a week of hard-hitting tournament action, the fate of the 2012 PCA Main Event’s top prize has finally been decided: the $1.77 million came to rest in John Dibella’s pockets after he fought his way up from 5th place at the final table to grab the title, together with the financial spoils and the bragging rights, the psychological value of which shouldn’t be underestimated either.
Ruben Visser had more chips than the eventual winner when the action kicked off. He was quite unlucky though, falling into a seat which was quite probably the worst one at the final table. He was the first casualty of the final day of action. He had lost quite a few chips before he got his last into the middle on an Ac, Jc against Mark Drover’s A,Qo. Drover went on to win the hand, but he didn’t have enough chips to finish Visser off for good.
Kyle Julius was the one who mopped up, his A,Qo getting the better of Visser’s pocket 6s.
David Bernstein was the next victim, his pocket 4s no match for Dibella’s pocket rockets. Bernstein was followed to the rail by Anthony Gregg. Gregg was the official short stack of the final table and he did manage to hang on for a while before his A,10 succumbed to Xuan Liu’s A,Qo.
Mark Drover finished in 5th place. His final hand saw his K,Jo fall to Faraz Jaka’s pocket 6s. Xuan Liu busted out after the dinner break in 4th place, picking up $600k for his efforts.

Faraz Jaka was the next one to fall after quite a bit of give and take. His elimination set up the heads-up stage between Dibella and Julius. Dibella was the one who held the lead going into the final stretch of the event and he took full advantage of that lead. The final hand of the poker tournament saw Julius commit a huge mistake, trying to bluff-raise the river while his opponent had a flush.
Julius picked up $1.5 million for his efforts.

]]>Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:54:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/online-poker-will-pass-in-2012-says-mgm-ceo-1847For James Murren, CEO of MGM Resorts International, the problem of regulated and legalized online gambling in the US is a simple one: he knows it will pass this year. The only thing he isn’t certain of is whether or not the game will be legalized on a federal level. In an interview with CNBC, the Las Vegas insider appeared extremely confident that the online poker law would pass in 2012. He didn’t say it may pass or that he hoped it would pass. He simply said it would pass. He acknowledged however that federal-level regulation was still something of a problem. According to Murren, the time for stalling and arguing was over: if the federal government fails to act in 2012, the states will go ahead and take the initiative, and online poker will get legalized state by state, regardless of whether or not the federal government has a hand in it. The State of Nevada has already drawn up plans for regulation and it has already approved a poker law, which will be implemented later in 2012.

Still, federal regulation would be the preferred path on account of the enhanced possibilities it would offer regarding the protection of underage gamblers, fraud prevention and the elimination of illegal online gambling operations.
According to Murren, the DoJ’s new interpretation of the Wire Act has basically given the green light for the states to go ahead legalizing and even combining their online poker networks over state lines. The move also threw the ball into Capitol Hill’s court, placing pressure on the lawmakers to act or to be simply rendered obsolete on the matter by the speed with which events shall proceed.
Murren also said that once legalized, online poker would become a multi-billion dollar industry on a scale never before seen. MGM has already teamed up with bwin.party to forward its online poker agenda as soon as the legal green light is received.

]]>Sun, 15 Jan 2012 16:52:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-pca-main-event-day-5-report-184624 players bellied up to the tables on Day 5 of the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure’s Main Event. Faraz Jaka had a massive lead over the rest of the field at the beginning of the day and he preserved his advantage for the final table. Everything went according to plan on Day 5 too: the field played down to the final table as scheduled. This time around, meeting the schedule wasn’t easy: Day 5 was the longest one of the event thus far.
The short stacks were under quite a bit of pressure when the action kicked off. The first to be bounced was Danny Chevalier, the shortest stack in the room. He got his last few chips into the middle on an A,10, only to be called by Daniel Shiff with pocket Ks. Instead of an A to save Chevalier, the board brought another K to draw first blood.

Alex Venovski was the next one to hit the rail. He was followed by David Peters. After the field whittled down to 21, things froze up a bit eliminations-wise. Corey Burbick’s elimination restarted the trickle. The end of his tournament life was decided by a coin-flip: his pocket 7s fell to an opponent’s A,Q.
After a few more eliminations, Ruben Visser clinched the chip lead for a little while. Jaka had just dropped a rather large pot to an opponent when his A,K fell to pocket rockets, but he was about to start a rally. He saw off Sam Greenwood in 15th and suddenly he was back in contention. Anthony Gregg caught a good pot too, and he too vaulted towards the top of the chip counts.
Lee Goldman was the official final table bubble boy. He busted out in 9th place after he shoved all-in with pocket Ks and got called by John Dibella with pocket 9s. Although he had the goods, Goldman was struck down by the 9h on the river, which gave his opponent a set.

]]>Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:58:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-pca-main-event-day-4-report-184564 players returned to the tables on day 4 of the PCA’s 2012 Main Event. The objective was to play down to the final 24, and that’s exactly what the field accomplished in one of the shortest but most action packed days of the poker tournament. Faraz Jaka started the day with one of the largest stacks and he put his chips to work well: at the end of the day, he was the one sporting the largest stack. He managed to build up a monster stack, leading the rest of the field by more than 1.5 million chips at the end of the day.

Alex Fitzgerald played well too: he finished in second place. The other start of the day large stacks fared well too: Phil D’Auteuil finished 3rd followed by Anthony Gregg and Byron Kaverman.
Day 4 was smooth sailing for Jaka indeed: he couldn’t make a bad move. One of the most interesting hands of the day saw him go up against Martin Jacobson. The two players got around 300k into the pot on the Ah,3c,2h,Qs,4h board. Jaka then put another 500k into the middle, sending Jacobson into the tank. He eventually made the call, only to see Jaka flip over a Jh, 9h for the unbeatable flush. He didn’t even show his hand.

Even though that pot had already put his stack over the 3 million chip mark, Jaka didn’t stop there. A little later, he eliminated Lawrence Greenberg for another huge pot. He then moved on and bounced Sam Chartier and Eddie Sabat. Barry Greenstein also made Jaka’s victims’ list by the end of the day.
Galen Hall had played well through the first few days. Being the reigning champion of the event, he drew plenty of press attention too. Unfortunately, on day 4 he would not be around for long: he was the first player who earned a trip to the rail.

]]>Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:56:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/randy-lew-sets-online-poker-world-record-1844A few days ago we featured a piece on Randy Nanonoko Lew going for a Guinness World record at the 2012 PCA and we can now tell you his attempt was crowned with success. He was going to put as many hands into 8 hours of online play at PokerStars as possible, and he was going to do it while turning a profit. Eventually, his tally came to 24,493 hands over 8 hours, which meant an hourly average of 2,936.63 hands and about 48.94 hands a minute. Logging such truly otherworldly numbers isn’t easy of course. Lew found it extremely difficult to play poker profitably, and in the end he had to make do with a measly profit of $7.65. Although unimpressive in terms of productivity, the 7 bucks were enough to make the World Record official.
The session was a true feat of endurance. Having taken a seat in the PCA tournament room at 1PM, Lew didn’t rest, didn’t eat and didn’t use the bathroom for 8 straight hours while playing. He fired up a whole bunch of tables at PokerStars, with a maximum of 40 running at the same time.

The record-setting didn’t go smoothly at all. At one point it looked like keeping his head above water profit-wise would prove impossible for Nanonoko. He was down about $1.2k and he found himself chasing his loses. Even with just 17 minutes to go in the challenge, he was only $8+ up and as shaky as ever. Eventually, he did manage to preserve his fragile advantage though and the record attempt was successful.
When down in the $1.2k hole, things looked like they may be over for him. He had to take some desperate measures, like going up the limits and focusing more on the action to recoup his losses.
Towards the end of the attempt, Lew began closing tables one by one to make sure his advantage remained standing. In one of his final hands, he won a three way pot with pocket rockets.

]]>Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:33:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-pca-main-event-day-3-report-1843The 3rd day of the 2012 PCA’s Main Event turned out to be a rather short one. 183 players returned to action and in a little over 4 levels, they played down to the final 8 tables. The first level of play was the one to present the biggest challenge, as when the action kicked off, there were only 23 eliminations to go before the money bubble.
Faraz Jaka started the day with the largest stack of chips, but over the 4 levels, he lost his position to Phil D’Auteuil, who eventually finished the day on top. D’Auteuil accumulated 1.47 million chips. Jaka didn’t fare badly either: he ended up in 3rd place, having built a 1.22 million stack. Sam Greenwood finished in second place. Other players in the top 5 were Anthony Gregg and Alex Fitzgerald. Kyle Julius finished with a 6-figure stack as well.
Jaka’s day started off on the wrong foot, be he recovered and through prowess, he fought his way to a menacingly-sized stack yet again. Javier Dominguez and Barry Greenstein were the beneficiaries of his early struggles.

D’Auteuil had a smaller stack at the beginning of the day, but he was quick to add to it and he rose through the ranks quickly. His first major pot came in a hand against Esteban Ripamonti, who had pocket 8s on a board of Ac,Qc,5h, and all his chips in the middle. D’Auteuil made the call with 5c, 6c for the 4-card flush. The Jd on the turn didn’t really help him out, but the Kc on the river filled his flush and sent his opponent packing. That pot pushed him over the 700k mark, but he wouldn’t stop there.
JC Alvarado and Robert Rosen found that it was particularly painful for them to leave the tables behind: they left with nothing to show for their efforts.
Shane Schleger and Randy Lew were eliminated too, but at least they cashed.

]]>Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:45:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-pca-main-event-day-2-report-1842544 players returned to the tables on the second day of the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event. Six levels of action went into the day, at the end of which only 184 players were still standing. Faraz Jaka played extremely well on Day 2, and when play was called, he had the largest stack: 902.5k chips.
Jaka had a solid stack of 129k when the action kicked off and he put his chips to great use. He clinched the chip lead almost as soon as the action commenced: the end of the first level found him atop the provisional leader board. He had around $700k in his stack when thanks to some perverted twist of fate, Chino Rheem landed next to him at the table. Rheem had about 300k chips, but Jaka’s proximity wasn’t at all beneficial for him. He held on for about 2 hours, but by that time he barely had any chips left.

Having crippled his prey thoroughly, Jaka then moved in for the kill. Rheem shoved all-in holding an Ac, 9c and he made the call with a dominating Ah, Jh. The flop made it very clear from the beginning whom it would favor: the A,J,2 flop gave Jaka a two pair. The turn and the river changed nothing and Rheem was bounced. On the very next hand, Jaka ended the tournament life of another player. He didn’t slow down at all till the last level of the day when he managed to shed some chips, but his position at the top was still in no danger whatsoever. Other players who had good day 2s and finished on impressive stacks were Cristian Folescu, Erik Cajelais and Phil D’Auteuil.
Several of the pros who were at the tables at the beginning of the day, had to settle for the proverbial wooden spoon. Lex Veldhuis, Dario Minieri, Humberto Brenes and John Racener were all eliminated.

]]>Wed, 11 Jan 2012 21:41:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-pca-main-event-day-1b-report-1841The second day 1 flight of the 2012 PCA Main Event surpassed expectations by drawing a starting field of 654 players. Together with those who had registered the previous day, that took the total number of participants to 1,072. The prize-pool was set too: those who make it to the money will share $10,398,400. The money bubble is set to 160th place and min-cash is $15k. The winner of the event will take home $2 million.
327 players managed to survive the day’s green felt hostilities. Alex Venovski was the one to clinch the lead, with a stack of 193k chips. Venovski had a good start to his day: he amassed more than 180k chips before the dinner break, and from there on out he wielded his large stack skillfully, not only preserving his advantage, but adding some to it too.
There weren’t too many other players to cross the 100k mark, but those who did were quite a bunch indeed. Chino Rheem finished the day in second place, having built a 182,900 chip stack. Philip D’Auteuil, Jonathan Jaffe and Luca Pagano all finished with stacks larger than 100k too.

Rheem was responsible for one of the most interesting pots of the day. Towards the end of the action, he got his chips into the middle against Tyler Kenney, firmly believing he was holding pocket rockets. He had apparently made a grievous mistake though, as the pocket hand he flipped over was an A,2o. An A fell on the river nonetheless to give him the pot and to send his opponent packing.
PokerStars’ Arnaud Mattern did extremely well too: he picked up pocket rockets twice during level 3 and he took full advantage of them both times, getting his stack up to 150k. He later bled some chips, but he still finished with a more than healthy 139k stack.
Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Vanessa Rousso and Eugene Katchalov were all eliminated.

]]>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:40:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-pca-super-high-roller-viktor-blom-wins-18408 players returned to action on the last day of the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure’s Super High Roller event. The $100k tournament drew a starting field of 30, and 2 players re-bought, so the prize-pool hit the $3 million mark, guaranteeing a $1.25 million haul for the eventual winner.
PokerStars’ Viktor Blom, the menace of the high stakes online tables, was the only one left standing at the end of the day. The win marked the Swede’s first ever live poker tournament victory, a truly impressive achievement for a player who was thus far only known for his online antics.

Due to the relatively low number of participants, the money bubble was set for 5th place, so out of the 8 players returning for the final stretch, 3 would have to leave empty-handed.
Humberto Brenes was the first one to go. Brenes started the day with the shortest stack and he was compelled to act early. He got his chips into the middle shortly after the action kicked off on an A,8o. Galen Hall pounced on the opportunity to get a rival out of the way and made the call with pocket Js. The board did give Brenes a pair of 8s through the river card, but it was too little too late for him. Mike McDonald, another short-stack, fell next, courtesy of Viktor Blom, whose A,J bested McDonald’s K,J without any sort of problems. The event’s bubble would see all those landing in the money take home at least $250k, so the stakes were high indeed. Scott Seiver was the one who succumbed to the bubble-pressure, Galen Hall the one directly responsible for his demise.

Daniel Negreanu couldn’t find any traction at the final table, and as soon as the bubble was out of the way, he hit the rail, ushered out by Viktor Blom. Jonathan Duhamel followed him, eliminated by Blom as well.
Galen Hall busted out in 3rd, leaving Blom and Dan Shak to battle it out for the win. The final hand of the event saw Shak’s Ah,5h fall to Blom’s K,Qo.

]]>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 14:36:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/2012-pca-main-event-day-1a-report-1839The first day 1 flight of the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event was a 9-level long affair. Having attracted a starting field of 418 players, Day 1A played into the organizers expectations. Alexey Repik was the one who managed to clinch the chip lead at the end of the day, having built up a 220k+ stack.
He started off on a 30k stack just like everyone else, but he must’ve done something better than the other players, because his end of the day stack will indeed be a tough one to best for the Day1B participants. Repik played well and although he did not overdo it with the aggression, he adopted a quirky style of play which caught most of his opponents off-guard. His bets were more generous than usual: preflop, he raised several times the BB and his post-flop bets were mostly actual pot-size ones.
Although he did pull away from the field by quite a bit, Repik was followed by a couple of players who did extremely well too: Richard Bruning managed to build a stack of 193.1k chips. Salvatore Bianco wasn’t far behind either: he finished the day on a 192.4k stack. Faraz Jaka and Adam Levy were two of the “name” players to finish close to the top. Jaka finished with 129.5k chips while Levy had a stack of 115k when the action was called.

Levy had more than his fair share of ups and down through the day. He started off well, and soon he had around 60k chips, having doubled his starting stack of 30k. He then picked up a pair of Ks and ran them straight into an opponent’s pocket rockets to have his stack cut to about 11k. He fought back fiercely though and he eventually managed to shoot past the 100k mark after he won a coin-flip against Jamie Rosen’s pocket Qs with A,Ko.
Victor Ramdin, Pat Pezzin and Jude Ainsworth made it to day 2 too.

]]>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:42:00 GMThttp://www.pokerstop.com/wpt-ireland-day-2-report-1838The Citywest Hotel in Dublin, which hosts the first ever WPT Ireland stop, saw 195 players return to the tables out of the original 338, on day 2 of the event. The most significant point of the day was the bursting of the money bubble. Oliver Nilsson and Franck Boyer locked horns on the bubble in a hand which eventually saw the bubble-boy head to the rail. Both players shoved all-in generating one of the biggest pots of the tournament up to that point. The chips went into the middle on a flop of 10,9,7 all-heart. Boyer held pocket 9s for the flopped set, while Nilsson had J,8 for the flopped straight. It was a true “perfect hand” situation, which had a lot more in store for the two protagonists: the 2s on the turn didn’t mean a whole lot, but another 2 on the river paired the board, giving Boyer a boat and sending Nilsson out the door, flopped straight and all.

There were quite a few “name” pros in the field at the beginning of the day and only a handful of them made it to the final whistle. Toby Lewis, Andy Black, Sam Holden, Kara Scott and Jake Cody all ended up on the rail, with nothing to show for their efforts. James Dempsey was one of the short-stacks at the beginning of the day. He got his last chips into the middle on a Jd, 10d and got called by Jim O’Neill, who had pocket Qs. The ladies held up and Dempsey was out.
Dave Shallow from England was the one who clinched the lead at the end of the day. He amassed a stack of 951k chips. Shallow may not be one of the “name” crowd yet, but he is by no means inexperienced: he has been playing online at PokerStars for a good few years and he has logged quite a few impressive accomplishments.

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