Legal Notice: PokerStop.com (c) 2010. All Rights Reserved.http://www.PokerStop.com/rss/rss_news.xmlNews rss feed on PokerStop.comen-USThu, 02 Sep 2010 18:35:27 GMTPokerStop.com News13085http://www.PokerStop.comhttp://www.PokerStop.com/images/rss.jpghttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=984The third day of the EPT’s Vilamoura Main Event saw 69 survivors return to the tables of the Casino Vilamoura. Of these guys, only 24 were still in action when the day got called. The money bubble burst on Day 3 too and out of the 69 who began the day with high hopes, 13 were forced to depart without anything to show for their efforts. The first guys to bust after the money bubble all pocketed €7,263. At the end of the day, the chip lead went to Martin Jacobson, who’d managed to amass 1.3 million chips.
Most of those chips came from the British contingent. Jacobson first locked horns with Paul Foltyn just before the money-bubble, knocking him out. He then tangled with JP Kelly, getting him all-in preflop on an A,Ko vs A,Qo match-up. Sure enough, he managed to bounce him too.
Ayaz Sadrudin Manji became another of Jacobson’s victims, when he got all his chips into the middle on pocket Js against Jacobson’s pocket rockets.

Brandon Cantu was the player who began the day with the largest stack of chips, and for a while there in the beginning it looked like he was going to hold on to his advantage. Unfortunately for him, after he dropped a couple of large pots, he found himself in the squeezer and he eventually succumbed to Dmitry Gromov whose pocket 9s made short work of his A,K. Cantu did make the money though, as he collected €8,381 for his 36th place.

Arnaud Mattern was among those eliminated as well. The French PokerStars pro didn’t even make it past the money bubble. Luca Pagano did cash but he left disappointed nonetheless.
Teddy Sheringham, the footballer turned poker player, is still in contention. So is Sam Trickett and Toby Lewis.

]]>Thu, 02 Sep 2010 05:00:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=983221 players returned to the confines of the Casino Vilamoura to battle it out for survival on day 2 of the EPT’s Vilamoura Main Event. Russia’s Leonid Bilokur, of the PokerStars qualifiers, started the day with the largest stack. The way would not be paved with roses for the Russian though, as an impressive cast of characters also survived to day two and was hell bent on stealing his laurels before the end of the inning. Team PokerStars’ Arnaud Mattern was among these guys, and so was Brandon Cantu, who eventually managed to grab the chip lead. PokerStars’ Andre Coimbra finished the day in second position, as the starting field whittled down to 69.

Brandon Cantu has been a household name for the US for quite a while, on the other side of the pond though, large scale success has so far eluded him. He hasn’t even cashed in an EPT event thus far, which is not exactly a surprise considering he’s only ever played in a 2-3 such poker tournaments. Cantu wasn’t the only American busy chipping up on day 2, though others weren’t quite as successful as he. Antonio Esfandiari had a more than decent start, but he started bleeding chips and he eventually busted out within a few hours.
James Dempsey, one of the true revelations of the 2010 WSOP, started the day on a decent stack too. At the end of it though, he was no longer in contention either. Other Brits did much better though. JP Kelly made it all the way to 6th spot on the provisional chip leader board, behind a stack of 314k chips.
Andre Coimbra represented Portugal well yet again, after he’d finished on top on Day 1A. Others who made it past the day 2 hurdle were: Luca Pagano, Teddy Sheringham and Arnaud Mattern.

]]>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 16:38:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=982With the 2010 edition of the WCOOP on the horizon, players are taking to the tables in larger and larger numbers. The massive buy-in online weekend guarantees have recorded more than decent numbers and they have largely managed to cover their guarantees yet again. “Name” players are out in force too. As a matter of fact, several of the weekend poker tournaments were won by such “name” pros. PokerStars’ Sunday Warm-up was won by Michael Guzzardi and the $215+Rebuys NL Holdem event was won by Joe Cada.

PokerStars’ Sunday Million was yet again responsible for the biggest single prize of the weekend. The $200+$15 event attracted a starting field of 8,190 players, generating a prize-pool of $1,638,000, well above the $1.5 million guarantee. The winner of the poker tournament, Peetoon, took down a prize of $232,362 despite a deal that he had with second place finisher FightnnIrishh. The second place man took down $193,517 for his efforts. The event created another 6-figure winner too: RedIceCap took home $122,850 for his 3rd place.
Randy Haddox finished 6th in the event and Luke Staudenmaier ended up in 12th.

The Sunday Warm-up had just one 6-figure winner: Guzzardi took down a $132,910 prize, after no deals were made at the top.

Full Tilt Poker’s $750k guaranteed failed to attract enough players to cover its guarantee. 3,443 players showed up for the tournament, coughing up the $216 buy-in. No 6-figure winners were registered in this one, quite possibly on account of the 3-way deal the top finishers had agreed upon. That deal left the eventual winner, Leopold Chow, with a $90,811 prize. Second place man Steve McNally was the one taking down the largest prize: he took home $98,471.

A notable finish in the event was that of JC Alvarado, who finished 13th, for a $5,325 prize.

]]>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 10:11:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=981As expected, the EPT’s Portuguese Main Event saw slightly more players belly up to the poker tables of the Casino Vilamoura on Day 1B of the event. 203 players coughed up the buy-in, rounding the total field to 384, and thus setting a new record for the largest ever live poker event hosted in Portugal. The record-breaking field came with a record-breaking prize-pool of course, which meant that the player to win it all, would take home an almost $500k haul.

Several of PokerStars’ name pros found the path to the rail on Day 1B of the event. Daniel Negreanu was one of those pros. Joining him on the sidelines were Noah Boeken, Bertrand Grospellier and Thomas Bichon.
Liv Boeree on the other hand had a good day and remained in contention. David Williams and Brandon Cantu were among the ranks of the survivors as well.
Jonathan Weekes had an excellent start. He knocked out two players during the early going, and soon, he was sailing along on a 90k chip stack. He did manage to conserve his early advantage too, carrying it right through the day.
Another player to build a large early stack was Sorel Mizzi. Mizzi managed to take down a few early pots too, and he eventually finished the day with a stack of 132,200 chips.
Joseph Ebanks joined the ranks of the monster stacks for a while himself, but then he came out on the wrong end in a confrontation with Brandon Cantu and sunk right back into the field.

The chip leader of the day was a PokerStars qualifier. Leonid Bilokur from Russia managed to amass a stack of 161,200, thus clinching the provisional top spot. His stack was slightly bigger than that of the day 1A chip leader so he would be the one heading into day 2 with the overall lead.

]]>Tue, 31 Aug 2010 08:57:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=980By now, you’ve probably already had your fill of the Negreanu vs Annie Duke drama, but if not, here’s a small introduction to this Hollywood-like battle of words (and apparently not so much one of wits): in an interview, Daniel Negreanu has severely lambasted Annie Duke for a bunch of various reasons, using a bunch of colorful expressions, the bottom line of which was that Duke was just an altogether terrible person (and I’m being gentle here) and certainly not a personality suited to represent the game of poker at the level at which she currently does. In the interview, Negreanu, in his usually eloquent and “tell-it-like-it-is” style took a whack at Duke when asked about the ladies’ event at the WSOP.

Daniel Negreanu is a class act. There’s no second guessing that, but the way he argued his point in the interview was less than appropriate for a player representing the world’s biggest online poker site. The ripples generated by the interview have obviously already caused Daniel’s soaring popularity to dip, but there may yet be more fallout from it all. Messages of indignation have started pouring in to PokerStars, requesting the site to distance itself from Negreanu’s remarks. Annie Duke herself has written an open letter to the site requesting the same. While PokerStars did issue a statement addressing the matter (following an initial blunder of a response email in which a PokerStars support-employee made it appear like the site fully supported Negreanu’s statements), Negreanu himself has remained adamant in refusing to apologize for having voiced his opinion.

In poker circles it’s been long known that the two players nurtured no particular respect for one another, such a public war of words was still entirely unexpected though. Where the drama will end up remains to be seen.

]]>Sun, 29 Aug 2010 20:14:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=979181 players showed up at the Casino Vilamoura for the PokerStars EPT’s Day 1A, chasing after the European summer and after the massive prize-pool that the event would hopefully generate. The size of the PokerStars reception held a day before, gave organizers legit hopes that at least as many would get rolling on Day 1B too.
The first Day 1 flight saw a total of 79 players hit the rail, their EPT title hopes gone up in smoke.
The structure of the poker tournament made for some extremely interesting action. the 30k deep stacks gave players plenty of room to maneuver, and that was exactly what most of the survivors did. PokerStars’ Arnaud Mattern dropped about half his stack before he gained some traction and vaulted straight into the lead at about mid-day. He played it cautiously from there on though and he managed to survive the day on a top-5 stack that instantly turned him into one of the top contenders for the title.
The French contingent as a whole had a pretty outstanding day 1A. Michel Abecassis finished as one of the large-stacks. Ludovic Lacay and Anthony Lellouche did well too.
Several “name” players made it through the Day 1A hurdle. Alan Baekke was among them, together with Pieter de Korver, Vicky Coren and Anton Wigg. Annette Obrestad played as well, but she busted out towards the later stages of the day. Barny Boatman and Liam Flood were among those eliminated too.

Dario Minieri hit the warpath towards the evening, coming out swinging and collecting 160k chips at one point. He did drop some of those before the day’s end but he finished on a more than healthy stack nonetheless.
The Day 1A chip lead ended up with one of the Portuguese players though: Andre Coimbra amassed a stack of 157,600 chips to finish on top.

]]>Sun, 29 Aug 2010 17:54:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=972It took him 5 grueling days of green felt action in the Bicycle Casino in LA, but in the end, it was all worth it for Andy Frankenberger, the previously unheard-of player who won the WPT’s 2010 Legends of Poker last week. Even though specialists would hardly consider him a favorite at the start of the poker tournament, by clinching the chip lead on Days 2, 3 and 4, he provided plenty of proof regarding his skills.
Thanks to his skillful maneuvers, he was the one who started the final table with a solid chip lead. He soon lost his advantage though as Tom Lee took over.

Frank Brunetti had started the final day of action as one of the large stacks, but he withered away in the opening stages of the final stretch and thusly hit the rail as the first victim of the final table.
Jared Jaffee was the next player to head to the rail, followed shortly by Tom Braband. Kyle Wilson was the one responsible for Braband’s elimination. Braband still picked up more than $109k for his efforts though, becoming the first player to reach a 6-figures in the event.

As the three-handed stage kicked off, Frankenberger found himself the short-stack. He did fight back though and refused to be eliminated. Tom Lee was the one who succumbed instead, heading to the payout booth to pick up the $174,772 for his 3rd place.
Because he was the one who had eliminated Lee, Frankenberger quickly went from short-stack to a 4-1 chip advantage at the start of the heads-up stage. Kyle Wilson had no choice but to force an early double-up against Frankenberger to stay in the game, and he tried just that a mere 6 hands into two-handed play. Unfortunately for him, his Ad, 3d proved to be no match for Frankenberger’s Ac,9c and the tournament was over.

]]>Sat, 28 Aug 2010 21:06:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=976As the live poker season was in full swing and not slowing down one bit, player numbers at various online events were smaller than usual this past weekend. Regardless of that though, most of the flagship weekend tournaments managed to cover their guarantees quite handily. PokerStars’ Sunday Million attracted a starting field of 7,798 players. The prize-pool was $1,559,600, just enough to sneak past the guarantee. That was enough to give first place finisher pvas2 a $233,943 prize. No deals were made, which meant that everyone took home exactly as much as he deserved.
Second place man Paul Dewald scored a $171,556 haul. The interesting thing about last week’s Sunday Million was the fact that Johnny Lodden made the final table. He finished 5th, taking down a $62,384 prize.

The Sunday Warm-Up generated a prize-pool of $796,800. 3,984 players coughed up the $200+$15 buy-in to take part in this one. The bulk of the prize-pool was divided among the top three finishers through a deal they made. The eventual winner was YugiohPro, who took down a $104k prize. A notable finish was that of Chris Moorman, who took down $4,780 for his 12th place effort.

No other 6-figure winners were created at PokerStars over the weekend. The Sunday 500 awarded a $74,185 prize to winner Jonas Klausen and the Sunday 2nd chance gave Mathias Neu $52,142.

With only 3,421 participants, Full Tilt Poker’s $750 GTD failed to cover its guarantee. Thanks to a 4-way deal at the top, no 6-figure winners were registered either. sasodiits finished 1st, for a $83,307 prize.
One of the highest finishing notables was Hayden Fortini, who took home $5,325 for his 13th place. Neither the Sunday Brawl, nor the Sunday Mulligan managed to put any of their players into 6-figures.

]]>Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:23:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=977Ultimate Bet’s online poker championship is in full swing, offering those who miss out on the weekend guarantees the opportunity to battle it out for high prize-pools and against reputable foes. Sunday saw 2 UBOC events unfold: event #7, the $200+$15 PLO Rebuy+Add-on one, and event #8, the $1,000+$50 Deep Stack NLH 6-max one.
Event #7 drew a starting field of 246 players, who combined buy-ins for a prize-pool of $117,400. It needs to be noted that in UBOC events, players get rewarded with a UBOC watch for event wins, and with a T-shirt and a special prize of $200 for every Ultimate Bet pro they manage to send to the rail. In event #7, there were plenty of pros involved, and none of them did particularly well, so heads were rolling and bounties were falling left and right.
Brandon Cantu, Matt Graham, Mark Kroon and Annie Duke were all involved in the action and none of them managed to make it past the money bubble. The eventual winner of the poker tournament was ALLRGCTONUTS who bested JROMB heads-up to pick up the $30,524 top prize.

The Mini UBOC event associated with Event #7, was won by TQ23, who took down $3,335.
Event #8 saw 583 players belly up to the tables. The registrants generated a prize-pool of $583k, easily thrusting it past the guarantee which was set to $500k.

This event saw its fair share of pros too, most of whom busted out early. Not all pros were cannon-fodder though. Matt Graham made it to the money and Tiffany Michelle made a great deep-run, ending up in 5th place eventually. The winner was Jeremy Fitzpatrick. He took down $134,090 for his efforts.
DANNYILLS finished 2nd for a $81,620 reward. The corresponding mini UBOC event went to OUDLANGER610, together with a $5,868 prize.

]]>Thu, 26 Aug 2010 00:05:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=975A total of 141 players returned to action on day 2 of Full Tilt Poker’s Merit Cyprus Classic Main Event. Of these guys, only 45 remained after 7 grueling levels of poker and Manig Loeser grabbed the chip lead, with a stack of 337k chips. Loeser started the day on a healthy stack and he never looked back. He kept building it methodically, without engaging into spectacular coin-tosses and without ever putting his tournament life onto the line. He forced people to fold hands in which they were pretty much pot committed and generally took down a lot of non-showdown winnings.

Much more spectacular bits of action were provided by Bruno Stefanelli and David Rheem, whose feud led to Rheem’s eventual demise. It was Rheem’s stack that gave Stefanelli the thrust to take him all the way into the provisional top 5 of the poker tournament.
Given the more than impressive cast of characters which made it into day 2, it was inevitable that some big names should bite the dust before the day’s end. Sure enough, Day 1B large-stack Sorel Mizzi failed to make it through day 2. Joining him on the sidelines were Antonio Esfandiari, Carter Philips, and Michael Mizrachi.

Van Marcus and David Benyamine were luckier though. They made it through, together with Joe Cassidy, Andrew Feldman and John Dolan.

Play on the whole was rather unconventional on Day 2. Some players thrived, while others couldn’t handle the situation. Dominik Nitsche got into a coin-flip race with Onder Ozdemirler, having run his Q,Q into the latter’s A,K. A K landed on the board and Nitsche was done.

]]>Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:23:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=974Organizers hopes for getting more players to belly up to the tables of the Merit Cyprus Classic’s Main Event were dashed as only 71 players showed up for the second and final day 1 flight. Still, the number of big poker names present in the field made up for the partial disappointment.
Only 11 players were eliminated after 5 levels of Day 1B action, which means that exactly 60 will move on to day 2 to combine with the 80 players who survived the first day 1 flight.
John Dolan was the one who ran the show on Day 1B. The November Nine member had had a pretty good run in the high rollers event too, where he fell short of the money in the end nonetheless. In the Main Event though, he seemed to be set to achieve far greater things. His 95,400 end of the day stack certainly gives him the right to hope for more.

Another player who had an excellent Day 1B run was Sorel Mizzi. Mizzi had held the chip lead for most of the day, and at the end of it, he finished with a stack of more than 90k chips. Manig Loeser had also managed to build a large stack, his 91,550 second only to John Dolan’s pack-leading haul.

The selection of pros who took part in the day 1B action (and who all managed to move on) was indeed impressive. Antonio Esfandiari was there, together with Jennifer Lee, Joe Cassidy, Carter Phillips and Sam Trickett.
Perica Bukara, winner of the high roller event, was late to show up and so were the rest of the players who made it deep in the aforementioned event. They all survived day 1B too.

]]>Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:07:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=973Perica Bukara was the one with the biggest stack at the beginning of the final day of Full Tilt Poker’s Merit Cyprus Classic high roller event, and at the end of it all, he was the one who pocketed the top prize too.
The interesting thing about the poker tournament was the fact that not even all the final table participants would make the money. With the money bubble set for 5th place, 4 more players would have to bust before the bursting of the money bubble.
Carter Phillips was the first victim of the final table attrition. He shoved all-in on the first hand, after he’d flopped a boat. Andrew Feldman made the call with a set and proceeded the hit a higher boat on the turn, sending Phillips to the rail.
Ziv Caspi, the official short-stack of the final table, followed Phillips shortly. November Nine member John Dolan failed to reach the bubble too.

Sam Trickett was the unfortunate bubble boy of the poker tournament. He shoved all-in in a board of A,7,4,6, holding 3,5 for a straight. Bukara called him holding the only hand that could beat Trickett’s: the 8,5. The river card proved to be irrelevant and the survivors sailed into the money.

Jon Turner was the first player to finish in the money. David Benyamine, who at one point had held the chip lead, was the next one out. The Full Tilt pro was followed to the rail by Andrew Feldman and the heads-up stage of the game was set.
Bukara started the final stretch of the event with a slight lead, but Miller soon settled into the leader’s seat. Lady Luck would stand firmly by the Serbian’s side though, and eventually he came through, his K,5 besting his opponent’s A,J in the final hand. He took home $373,207 for his efforts.

]]>Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:24:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=978Full Tilt Poker’s Merit Cyprus Classic is finally in the books, wrapped up last Wednesday, and having culminated with the victory of Andreas Krause. The televised final table of the poker tournament was a truly select one. Headlined by Full Tilt poker pro Van Marcus, the final stretch of action was every bit worthy of the TV cameras. At the end of the day, it was Andreas Krause who stood tall, bracelet in hand and the $415,780 in pocket.

The first victim of the day was the official short-stack of the final table, Hakan Dalokay. Zsolt Vasvenszki was the one responsible for his elimination. Vasvenszki turned a set of 5s to draw first blood.
The next elimination came a massive 45 minutes later, and it was Ahmet Ucali who bit the dust that time. He ran his pocket Js into Mathieu Clavet’s A,Q which proceeded to catch another A on the board for the dagger.

Vasvenszki was the one who held the chip lead when 4-handed action began, but he squandered his advantage and after an A,4 vs 10,10 match-up against Krause, he hit the rail, donating the majority of his chips to the German who proceeded to take full advantage of the situation.
Van Marcus was the next one to go, his elimination setting up the heads-up action between Clavet and Krause.
Krause was the one who started the heads-up action with the chip lead, but Clavet overtook him at one point in a pretty spectacular fashion. Krause rebounded though almost right away and got the lead back. Ten more minutes elapsed before the final hand of the poker tournament. Krause’s pocket 5s managed to hold up against Clavet’s A,7o and the tourney was over.

]]>Sun, 22 Aug 2010 08:10:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=971As far as poker is concerned, things are certainly moving about at an alert pace on the isle of Cyprus. Last year marked the first time ever that an international poker tournament was held there, and this year, poker celebrities have already flocked to take part in the Full Tilt Poker Merit Cyprus Poker Classic’s Main Event. The organizers are ambitious too: they want nothing less than to break the records set last year, and by the way things have shaped up on Day 1A, they certainly appear to be on the right track to meeting their objectives.

Day 1A of the Main Event attracted a starting field of 109, slightly bigger than last year’s 91, but if the usual trend of most of the players only getting going on the last Day 1 flight holds up, a marginal record-breaking move may yet turn into a landslide.
France’s Nicholas Chouity finished the first day of action with the largest stack of chips. The Frenchman’s day wasn’t exactly the definition of an exciting rollercoaster ride, but a late push was more than enough to land him in pole position for day 2. He hit the 120k chip mark at the end of a hand in which his pocket rockets managed to hold up against an opponent’s Ah, Jh.

Chouity wasn’t the only one to have a good day though. Chip Jett finished with a nice stack of 80,750 chips, after an early double-up. Van Marcus appeared at the top of the provisional chip leader-board with 67,500 chips too.

Tommy Vedes wasn’t as lucky though, as he failed to advance. Only 80 players survived the fist day of action, among them names like Michael Mizrachi, Chino Rheem and November 9 member John Racener.

]]>Sun, 22 Aug 2010 05:43:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=970The second day of Full Tilt Poker’s Merit Cyprus Classic high roller event saw an important milestone reached: the poker tournament played down to its final table. The interesting thing this about the situation was that not even all the final table participants were guaranteed a money spot. Only 5 would be paid, which meant that 4 final table participants would still end up with the proverbial wooden spoon.
24 players returned to action on day 2 of the event, with Full Tilt’s David Benyamine leading the final table charge. At the end of the day, the chip lead would change hands though, ending up in Perica Bukara’s possession.

Bukara had recently emerged as a true force on the international live poker scene. He had finished 14th in the EPT Tallinn Main event just a few days ago and he appeared set on causing some serious damage in Cyprus too.
One of the notable eliminations of the day was Phil Ivey’s. The Full Tilt Poker pro fell at the hands of Michael Mizrachi, when the latter hit a bottom set to send him packing during the first level of the day.

Even though he got off to a stellar start, Mizrachi would not make it among the 9 final table survivors either. He first dropped some chips to Carter Phillips on a busted bluff, then gave it all up to Perica Bukara in a hand in which the eventual chip leader’s pocket Js beat his A,K despite the ace which fell on the flop.

A notable survivor was John Dolan, a member of the November 9, who finished on a relatively healthy stack of 455,500 chips. Ziv Caspi will be the official short stack at the final table, riding only 103,500 chips into battle.

]]>Sun, 22 Aug 2010 05:09:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=969Full Tilt Poker’s Merit Cyprus Classic got rolling with the high rollers’ event a few days ago. Only 36 players found it within their means to cough up the $25,000 buy-in, and at the end of day 1, only 24 of the contenders were still at the tables. The official prize-pool has not been revealed yet, a few things are certain about the poker tournament though: only the top 5 finishers will walk away with money. The winner will pocket 45% of the pool, which – considering the size of the buy-ins – is likely to be a true monster. Full Tilt Poker’s David Benyamine emerged with the chip lead at the end of the first day of green felt hostilities.

The Frenchman’s ride to the top was everything but smooth though. He began by dropping about 35% of his stack, but he managed to rebound, and during level 2 he chipped up nicely by taking down a huge all-in pot from Chris Karagulleyan (who had his pocket rockets cracked) and another player (who got it all-in on 8,8 with a set on the turn).

Jon Turner was the one who finished second in chips. His break came when he got it all-in on a 4-card flush on a board of Ac,Qs,5c holding Kc, Qc in his pocket. His opponent made the call holding A,5 for the top pair, but the 8c on the river made Turner’s nut flush, giving him the pot.

Phil Ivey made it through day 1 as well, together with Carter Phillips, Michael Mizrachi and Titan Poker Pro Sorel Mizzi.
Ivey had a great start, but later he dropped some chips to Martin Kabrhel, and thus sunk back into the field stack-wise.

]]>Sun, 22 Aug 2010 04:38:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=968These days, online poker tournament series seem to follow each other in quick succession. Barely has Full Tilt Poker’s FTOPS wound down, Ultimate Bet is readying the dish for the online poker players who’ve gotten used to the continuous excitement. The site’s own online poker series, the UBOC (Ultimate Bet Online Poker Championship) kicks off today. The Series will feature no fewer than 20 events, and for those for whom the buy-ins featured by the various events may be too big, a mini UBOC series will run too, parallel with the big one.

Event #1 takes place today. People interested in playing in this event need to have an Ultimate Bet or Absolute Poker account. The buy-in is $300+$20, and the game is NL Holdem featuring $30 bounties and a guaranteed prize-pool of $200,000. This is of course only the tip of the iceberg. Event #2, which runs on the 18th as well, features a buy-in of $250+$17. This poker tournament features a mix of PL Holdem and PL Omaha and players will do battle for a share of a $100k prize-pool. The series will unfold this way to August 29th when the UBOC Championship Monster Stack event ($1,000+$50) will wrap up the action.

In the meantime, the mini UBOC will keep smaller stacked players busy. The series kicks of on the 18th with a $30+$3 NL Holdem event, featuring $5 bounties and a guaranteed prize-pool of $20,000. Make no mistake about it, despite the smaller buy-ins, these events will be wildly popular and their prize-pools will be extremely generous too.

The last event of the Mini UBOC will be the Monster Stack, featuring a buy-in of $50+$5, featuring a guaranteed prize-pool of $50k. If you do not have a UB account yet, it is time you got one. Sign up now and make this an August to remember.

]]>Wed, 18 Aug 2010 19:25:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=967The last online poker weekend went down bearing the mark of the FTOPS’ 17th edition. A whole host of FTOPS events rolled to a conclusion on Sunday, on top of the usual flagship guarantees.
The FTOPS Main Event was the poker tournament which created no fewer than 5 6-figure winners. Of these players, two walked away with prizes bigger than $400k.
The $600+$40 event attracted a starting field of 4,805 players, who combined buy-ins for a $3 million prize-pool. The two top finishers struck a deal which left the eventual winner, TyboVegas, with $423k. Second place man, DQnk collected $446k for his efforts.
Event #29, the $2,000+$100 NL Holdem Six-Max two day event, created 5 more 6-figure winners. McLean Carr walked away with the title and the jersey in this one, not to mention the $417k he picked up on the side.

FTOPS event #32, the $240+$16 NL Holdem Knock out 6-max event, was a smaller-scale affair, but it still turned two players into 6-figure winners. Drunkspirit was the first to cross the line, pocketing the $193k top prize.
BgsaPnaples won $118k for his second place.

Event #33, the NL Holdem Rush with Rebuys one, saw another deal at the top. Dalbaiyob and David Peters duked it out heads-up, with the former emerging victorious. First place was thus worth $182k. David Peters picked up $152k for his second place.

PokerStars’ Sunday Million attracted a starting field of 8,294 players, and managed to cover its guarantee. $1.6 million was up for grabs as the hostilities commenced. The lion’s share of that haul went to the four players who made a deal at the top: RAZZER777 took home $168k for his second place. Tim Ulrich had to settle for $160 for first. YouHave2outs and The Pot SWE finished with 6-figure prizes too.

]]>Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:34:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=966During the WSOP, the online poker action had pretty much ground to a stand-still, all the regulars caught up in various WSOP-related ventures. Nowadays, as the memory of the summer’s biggest poker frenzy is slowly fading into the distance, the action is gradually returning to its pre-WSOP intensity levels. All the “name” regulars were busy doing what they usually do: Ivey was winning, Hansen was losing and Dwan was losing a little bit of steam coming off his wild August ride.

Last weekend, Dwan embarked on a 2,000 hand session of NLH and PLO at the end of which he found himself a massive $470k below the red line. He also squeezed in a 475 hand heads-up PLO match with URnotInDanger2 which cost him a further $236k.
Needless to say, Dwan lost the majority of the largest pots that went down during the above mentioned sessions.
In other Tom Dwan-related news: apparently, the second round of the $1 million durrrr challenge series is about to commence. Jungleman12 (Daniel Cates) has apparently already deposited the money with Phil Ivey in preparation for the confrontation. Dwan’s first Challenge match-up against Patrik Antonius has not yet concluded, but the New Jersey Wonderkid has that part of the deal firmly under control, or at least so it seems.

As Dwan was losing money at the Full Tilt Poker online tables, Phil Ivey was doing the opposite: he racked up winnings of over $760k last week, mostly at the expense of “deprimiert”. The two players had a 334 hand session, at the end of which Ivey was $373,000 in the black.
He took some money off Cole South too later on.

For Gus Hansen, business returned to its usual track too: the Great Dane dropped close to $500k to various poker players. Adding that to his $1.3 million loss in August, he’s in the red for 2010, after a promising but short-lived starting run.

]]>Wed, 18 Aug 2010 10:46:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=965The 17th edition of Full Tilt Poker’s FTOPS is in the books, and as always, it has yielded a bunch of heroes, zeros and weirdos and that’s ok, because that’s exactly what we like to see. Poker pros and amateurs have battled it out during this series, and there were plenty of overachievers on both sides.
Quite probably the best red Full Tilt pro to take part in the hostilities, was Brandon Adams. Adams won the $200 Limit Omaha Hi/Lo event, confirming his status as one of the best Omaha Hi/Lo players. The win made him the only red Full Tilt Poker pro to win a FTOPS event this time around. Having made a final table, Chris Ferguson also came close, and so did Jeff Madsen.

The best poker tournament player award will have to go to a cash game player. Brent Roberts had already secured titles in WCOOP, FTOPS and SCOOP tournaments, but he one-upped himself by taking down a second FTOPS title in event #1, the NL Holdem poker tournament in which he bested a starting field of 4,590 players on his way to a $164,357 prize.
Roberts wasn’t the only one to secure his second career FTOPS win though. Altogether, there were 3 more players who picked up their second jersey: Mark Radoja, Mickey Petersen and Mike Chappus.

As always, the FTOPS has seen some weird twists too. A player appropriately named FTOPS XVII HERO, made a deep run in Event #3, to finish 6th and to pick up a $9,331 prize. This guy had probably just created his Full Tilt account before the FTOPS kicked off and he sure enough showed quite a bit of confidence to call himself that, knowing that he may not end up anywhere close to the money in any of the events.

]]>Wed, 18 Aug 2010 09:06:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=964The player with all eyes on him at the EPT Tallinn’s final table was PokerStars France pro Arnaud Mattern. He had the experience, he had the swagger, and most importantly, he had the chip lead going into the final day of the poker tournament.
At the end of it all though, it would not be him grasping the trophy and grinning with badly masked excitement on account of the €400k prize in his pocket.
Mattern played well, but he got sunk by a two outer which hit his opponent. Stani did extremely well too. The Norwegian folded when he had to and forged ahead when the situation called for it. He was always in the right place at the right time. He had finished 127th in the WSOP’s Main Event this summer, so he had already shown potential before his championship bid.

Mattern came out firing on all cylinders, and he drew first blood at the final table. Bassam Elnajjar was the first victim. He was followed to the rail by Nicolo Calia. Steven Van Zadelhoff was the 6th place man. His Q,9o proved to be no match for Stani’s pocket Qs.

Mikko Jaatinen was the next victim, his 5th place finish worth exactly €80k. Mattern was the one responsible for his demise too.
Dmitry Vitkind proved to be the master of the short-stack at the final table, but with so many players on the sidelines already, his bells tolled too. He fell at Stani’s hands, who then ran his pocket 3s right into Mattern’s pocket Qs. The 3h which fell on the river was a true dagger for the Frenchman, who was thus sent to the rail in 3rd place.

The heads-up battle between Stani and Konstantin Bilyauer lasted for a while but eventually the Norwegian cleaned house and took home the €400k first prize.

]]>Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:56:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=963The 4th day of the PokerStars EPT Tallinn stop saw no fewer than 25 players belly up to the tables of the venue, on account of the fact that many of the short-stacks had proven way to stubborn the day before and stayed in contention. On day 4, there was no was no more procrastinating though. The inevitable could not be put off any more, and in a little bit more than 4 levels, the final table was set.
PokerStars’ own Arnaud Mattern was the one who managed to clinch the chip lead going into the final table of the poker tournament. Mattern managed to build up a pretty massive lead, accumulating over 1 million chips more than second place man Kevin Stani.

Perica Bukara started the Day 4 action in the chip lead. The start of the action was a bit tense, because the first elimination of the day would bring about a prize-jump for the survivors and obviously, no one wanted to be the man to head to the rail first. Eventually, Vitalijs Zavorotnis was left with no choice but to depart. Besides Mattern, there was another big name at the tables too, Ivan Demidov. Unfortunately, the Russian got knocked out by a fellow countryman’s K,Q when it connected with another Q on the board.

As these things were happening, Mattern was busy building his stack. He knocked out two players in quick succession to shoot past the 2 million chip mark. He hit a snag soon after though. Perica Bukara bit the dust in 14th place in the meantime, donating his stack to Konstantin Bilyauer, thus helping him into the chip leader’s position.

Vallo Maidla was the last of the home contingent to be bounced. He was ushered away from the table in 10th place. Weekes became the official final table bubble-boy.

]]>Tue, 17 Aug 2010 16:36:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=962Day 3 of the EPT’s Tallinn Main Event proved to be a real game-changer. Of the 84 players who returned to action, only 25 would be standing at the end of the day, the money bubble safely behind them. The top of the chip leader board would also be turned upside down.
Jonathan Weekes was the one who started the day with the largest stack of chips. He would hit some bad beats early on though, and he couldn’t really gain any traction, before his stack whittled to half of what he had at the beginning of the day. He did manage to pull himself together though, and eventually finished with more the 800k chips, close to the top of the chip counts again.

The day 1 chip leader, Perica Bukara had a nice comeback though and finished with a stack of 1.3 million chips. Konstantin Bilyaver finished second in chips, followed by none other than PokerStars’ Arnaud Mattern. The money bubble was a true milestone during day 3. It only took about two blind-levels to arrive. During these two levels, PokerStars’ Katja Thater was bounced. She did pick up an EPT award for being the mixed games player of the year though, so she didn’t have to leave empty-handed after all.
Tomer Berda, down to about 2 BBs on the money bubble was accused of stalling. Eventually, he did make it into the money, at the expense of Yotam Bar-Yosef, who became the bubble boy of the poker tournament.

Luca Pagano made the money too, but he failed to survive the day, falling to Steven Van Zadelhoff. Mattern had an average-size stack before he knocked out a couple of players during the first two levels, to double up. Ivan Demidov made it past the day too.

]]>Sun, 15 Aug 2010 07:45:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=961The second day of action was a smoking one at the EPT’s Tallinn stop. The action only lasted for 5 levels, but plenty of things happened during this short outing. Jonathan Weekes shot to the top of the provisional leader board, followed by none other than PokerStars’ Ivan Demidov.
More than 200 players returned to the second day of EPT Tallinn action. At the end of the day, only 82 were still in contention.
Weekes’ sudden chip surge was largely due to a massive pot he took off PokerStars’ Luca Pagano. The two players got into a preflop raising battle which ended in Weekes’ all-in shove. Pagano thought about risking his entire stack for a while, but eventually decided against it and folded his pocket Ks. Weekes then showed pocket Qs for the win. Weekes made quads during the final stretch of the day to chip up further and to clinch the chip lead.

A PokerStars pro was responsible for most of Ivan Demidov’s end of the day stack too. Ville Wahlbeck had apparently turned a straight on a board of 9c,3c,2s,6c,3d, thus finding himself on the wrong end of a perfect hand, because the same card that filled his straight, gave Demidov a flush. Wahlbeck wasn’t the only PokerStars pro to bite the dust on Day 2 of the Poker Tournament. teammates of his to head to the rail were: Joep Van Den Bijgaart and Alexander Kravchenko. EPT Player of the Year, Max Lykov was bounced too, together with Jeff Sarwer, Nicholas Chouity and Marc Naalden.

Luca Pagano survived the day on a healthy stack even, and so did Manuel Bevand. Arnaud Mattern, Scott Montgomery and Katja Thater will also be back for day 3 action.

]]>Sun, 15 Aug 2010 07:11:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=960It’s that time of the year again folks: the Merit Cyprus Classic is just around the corner. The event will take place on the beautiful Mediterranean island of Cyprus, in the Merit Cristal Cove Hotel and Casino, which is positively one of the best locations to organize a high stakes poker tournament series.
The action will unfold between August 17th and the 26th, and there will be a Main Event (featuring a $10k buyin) as well as a special high roller event, which will cost players $25k to enter. We know what you’re thinking: that’s an awful lot of money, right? It sure is, but fortunately, Full Tilt Poker offers its players countless opportunities to qualify online for the event, so if you do not yet have a Full Tilt account, hurry over and open one right now. If you bust out of the event you enter earlier than you’d like to, the beach awaits and the experience will indeed be quite awesome. By registering (earning your seat online) for the Merit Cyprus Classic, what you basically do is you combine a luxury holiday with a poker tournament and something like that just can’t miss.
Around 250 people are expected to show up for the Main Event, and Full Tilt Poker estimates that there will also be 80-100 High Rollers.

Last year, the event was a more than successful one. 181 players showed up for the Main Event. Thomas Bichon was the one who eventually walked away with the top prize. Huck Seed, Layne Flack and Nenad Medic were among the top finishers too. A whole bunch of red Full Tilt Pros will take part this year too, among them Eric Liu and Ben Roberts. Antonio Esfandiari is expected to play too.

]]>Wed, 11 Aug 2010 19:43:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=959Matthias Habernig survived 4 days of intense poker tournament action to win the PokerStars LAPT’s Florianopolis event. The Austrian was the one who calmly held up the Ac,10c, the last hand he played, sitting behind a trophy and a stack of all the chips involved in play, at the end of the final day of action. The content look on his face was most probably due to the $247,441 he’d picked up for the feat.
He survived an initial starting field of 364 players.
The 8 participants who took to the green felt on the final day were all guaranteed a minimum payout of $18,476, but of course, none of them was willing to settle for that much.

Rudy Blondeau, the Canadian who had led the action at one point in the poker tournament, was the one to be bounced first from the final table. His pocket rockets fell to Alexandre Richard Martin’s runner-runner straight.
The next victim also rode a pair of Aces to his demise: Rodrigo Scartezani shoved all-in on his rockets, to be called by Dayan Vardanega’s pocket 9s.
Andre Luiz Scaff was the next player to bust out. He was bounced by Habernig. Robson Vinicious Kozan picked up a pair of Js and decided to stake his tournament life on them. For a moment there it did indeed look like he’d made the right move, as Martin’s pocket 5s were thoroughly dominated in the match-up, until another 5 landed on the board, sealing Kozan’s fate.
Habernig then swung into action again, doing away with Miguel Velasco.

The heads-up stage of the poker tournament saw Habernig hold a huge chip lead over Vardanega. Vardanega did take over at one point during heads-up play but Habernig eventually stormed back to close out the deal.

]]>Wed, 11 Aug 2010 06:18:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=958After some uncharacteristically rainy weather on the first day of action, the sun finally broke free from under the blanket of think clouds for the second day of the LAPT’s Florianopolis stop. Mathias Habernig was the one who topped the 183-player field of survivors who bellied up to the tables on Day 2 of the PokerStars sponsored event. At the end of the day, he no longer had the lead though. Canada’s Rudy Blondeau sat top the provisional leader board, as all remaining Day 2 survivors were safe in the knowledge that they’d managed to survive the money bubble.

Habernig held on to his chip lead for a while in the beginning. He was joined atop the chip leader board of the poker tournament by Alessandra Correa Dos Santos. Kwang Ho Han, second in chips, found no shame in taking on Habernig once the two of them were seated at the same table. Angel Guillen had a decent early Day 2 run, but once he got moved from the televised table, he whittled away and he was eventually bounced with nothing to show for his Florianopolis efforts.

After the dinner break, the money bubble was suddenly tantalizingly close. Wallacy Marcal seemed to be the one destined to become the bubble boy, but he won a coin-flip to stay alive and then managed to chip up a little, taking down another pot, and staving off elimination. Alexandre Fracari was the one who paid the price of Marcal’s heroic stands. His pocket Js fell to Francisco Azocar’s As, 10s and he was out on the bubble.

12 more players busted out after the bubble as Blondeau managed to build a large enough stack to clinch the chip lead.
Habernig remained in the top 8 with 298k chips.

]]>Sun, 08 Aug 2010 16:05:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=956The vul… er… agents hovering about the tables during the final stages of this year’s WSOP will like this one: EPT San Remo Main Event winner Liv Boeree may have parted ways with her sponsor, Ultimate Bet. Boeree had been seen wearing a UB patch through much of the WSOP, right up to till the Main Event. Since then though, she’s been seen around patch-less. This is by no means a confirmed report, rather just a logical conclusion (read: speculation) regarding Boeree’s status. Besides the rumors, one fact seems to give some food for thought for those with nothing better to do than to salivate over every bit of poker and online poker information out there (myself): Boeree’s name has been removed from UB’s team page.

In other news: Phil Laak has apparently made the wrong choice when he decided to go ATV-ing in Oregon. While the pastime itself sounds rather exciting and harmless, if one adds Antonio Esfandiari (the Magician) and Alec Torelli to the mix, the situation deteriorates at an alarming pace. This time it was apparently Laak who “bought it”. Esfandiari tweeted a picture showing Laak in a rather banged up state, after he’d supposedly broken 7 bones in what must’ve been an incident involving an overdose of aged teen spirit and an ATV flipping over.

In still other news: Cake Poker has apparently still not done away completely with the security glitch plaguing the site. While the 1.0 version of the software has indeed been successfully patched, the version used by some of the cake poker skins remains vulnerable as the SSL used for the original version is apparently incompatible with it. Look for the issue to be sorted out on the skins too soon.

]]>Sat, 07 Aug 2010 16:42:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=957By now, those with anything to do with the online poker and online gambling industries as well as with their live counterparts, have probably gotten used to the litany of bad news that Summer seems to bring about every year. We know, we know. When the heat’s on and the sun’s shining, online poker players and gamblers are much more tempted to leave their dark caves of decadence behind for some well earned r&r by the pool. That however doesn’t explain why live gambling interests like Harrah’s in Vegas and MGM lose revenue too…

Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. has apparently suffered a drop of revenue from $2.271 billion to $2.22 billion. We really do feel for those guys (not), but the fact that he losses have probably come from lower hotel room rates still manages to get us excited. Decreased spending by Las Vegas visitors (most of them on a tighter than usual budget due to the ongoing economic woes) has apparently also been a factor in the equation. How does Harrah’s intend to tackle the issue? By looking to get in on the act as soon as online poker goes legal in the US. If a company of Harrah’s size and position is seriously considering expanding into cyberspace, legalization moves may lead to something after all this time around.

Another company to announce losses was MGM Resorts International. These guys have parted with about $883 million ($2/share) on account of their CityCenter project.
While the CityCenter continued to pressure the coffers of the company, the Aria’s occupancy rate has apparently gone up, together with its non-gambling revenue, so it’s not all bad news for the MGM guys.

]]>Sat, 07 Aug 2010 16:41:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=955The PokerStars sponsored Latin American poker Tour’s penultimate stop is currently underway in Florianopolis, in Brazil. Day 1 of the event saw a starting field of 356 players belly up to the tables, many of them PokerStars pros and European or US poker professionals. The Main Event featured a buy-in of $2,500.
When the day was called (after 8 levels of play), Austria’s Matthias Habernig had the biggest stack of chips bagged. Having amassed 130,350 chips, the Austrian will start Day 2 of the event from pole position.

Habernig took advantage of a perfect hand situation during the 6th level to shoot to the chip lead. On a board of 9,8,2, an opponent shoved all-in against him after a couple of back and forth re-raises. It turned out the opponent’s move was fully justified as he had 2,2 for the bottom set. Habernig on the other hand, was right to call him too. He had 9,9 in his pocket for the top set. The turn and the river bricked out and the Austrian clinched the chip lead, sending his opponent to the rail.

Felipe Ramos had a good Day 1 run too. He finished with 108,900 chips. Mario Masciotro finished 3rd with a stack of 102,975.
Angel Guillen made his WSOP problems forgotten with some skillful Day 1 maneuvering. He played at a table dubbed the table of death on account of the level of talent represented by the players who sat around it, but he did just fine nonetheless. He eliminated Andre Akkari for the early chip lead. He eventually finished the poker tournament with a large stack.

Team PokerStars’ own Victor Ramdin was eliminated early in the going, and he was soon joined by teammate Joe Cada, who still didn’t seem to be able to find his stride.

]]>Sat, 07 Aug 2010 16:34:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=954With the WSOP largely in the books, the poker world has currently turned its attention to the LAPT’s Florianopolis event but some bigger things are already brewing just over the horizon. The EPT’s 7th season is set to kick off soon, and I suppose I needn’t tell you that the EPT is currently the second biggest and most generous poker tour behind the WSOP.
The 7th season of the European Poker Tour will feature 13 stops, and although the format has largely remained the same from last season, some minor tweaks have been made to the schedule. The Tour will no longer kick off in Kyiv. The Ukrainian event wasn’t as popular as the Moscow one it was supposed to replace would’ve been, thus Tallinn will come into the picture in its place this year.

The Portuguese stop in Vilamoura has been brought forward to overlap with the peak of the tourist season, thus possibly increasing its chances to attract more players than last year. The Barcelona stop’s buy-in has been decreased as well with the same goal in mind: to get more players to the green felt.
The Warsaw stop has been replaced with a Vienna one, which means that this season Austria will host 2 of the EPT’s Season 7 stops. Snowfest will be the scene of the other Austrian stop in March 2011.

The Prague stop will be back, together with the PCA. Deauville and Copenhagen will be back too, and Berlin will be the scene of the last stop before the grand finish in San Remo.
Qualifying will be possible this year too through PokerStars, so sign up now and become one of the online poker players to bring a significant contribution to EPT history.

]]>Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:46:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=953Full Tilt Poker really needed something to get the online action going and to have those massive guaranteed prize-pools covered again in the wake of the WSOP, and the XVIIth edition of the FTOPS was apparently that something. The first event of the online series kicked off on Wednesday, attracting a starting field of 4,591players. The $750k guarantee was blown to smithereens as the participants combined for a prize-pool of $918,200.
The action in the opener lasted for 12 straight hours. The winner of the marathon and the last man standing when the dust settled was Brent Roberts, who earned a gold jersey and a $164,357 prize to go with it.

The victory was a special one for Roberts, because it thrust him near the top of the All Time Final Tables Made leader board of the FTOPS, where he joined players like Casey Jarzabek, Kevin Saul and Aaron Bartley. Roberts’ 4 final tables yielded 2 wins. The absolute king of the hill is still John Racener though, whose 7 final table presences make him quite untouchable for now. James Obst has 6 final tables, which were rewarded with 2 FTOPS wins.

The $750k FTOPS XVII opener which Roberts won, yielded another 6-figure winner. Player “Doorbread” finished 2nd to take home $113,856. Sam Grafton finished third, but he missed the 6-figure train, taking down “only” $81k.
Another notable finish in the event was that of Lee Watkinson, who earned $5,050 for his 13th place effort.
If you fancy taking part in the FTOPS XVII yourself, sign up to Full Tilt Poker now. Remember that there’s no better way to get a serious bankroll going than by finishing deep in one of the FTOPS events.

]]>Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:24:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=952Soon after the session that managed to break the ice following the 92-day hiatus the durrrr challenge had seen on account of the WSOP, the two protagonists reconvened for another 181 hand bout. The session only lasted for 36 minutes, but it was more than enough for Dwan to nip Antonius’ comeback attempt in the bud and then some. The New Jersey Wonderkid ended up with a $459k profit, taking his overall lead above the $2 million mark for the first time in the long history of the series.
At the end of this session, there were still 10,564 hands to be played till the end of the challenge, which means that Antonius should win about $195 each hand to make up the lost ground and to rebound. This very session is a great example though of just how great swings can be at Full Tilt Poker’s special challenge tables.

The session saw Dwan get off to an excellent start. Barely had a few minutes of playing time elapsed, he was already firmly in the driver’s seat, having pocketed his first 6-figure pot. The monster was a $111k one, and it found its way to Dwan’s side of the table, after his top two pair made short work of Antonius’ overpair. All-in-all, there were no fewer than 5 6-figure whoopers in this brief session, and Dwan ended up winning each and every single one of them. The biggest one was a $157k monster, which Dwan took down in his usual luck-spangled way.
After about 36 minutes of the above described treatment, Antonius saw it fit to throw in the towel for the night and to retreat to lick his wounds.

]]>Fri, 06 Aug 2010 21:00:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=951You have probably heard about Barney Frank’s HR 2267 passing through the House Financial Services Committee with flying colors. If you’ve been reading the news on here for a while, you probably also know that here was a cost to this victory, one that may yet prove to be an extremely dear one. The bill only passed with a few amendments peppered onto its side, and these amendments cover some pretty significant points. Online poker companies targeting a possibly legalized US market would have to have the majority of their employees in the US. Also, companies which are considered to have broken federal or local laws in the US, would not even be considered for a license. What exactly does that mean? It means none of the sites which accepted US players at one point or another after the 2006 passage of the UIGEA, would qualify. Yes, that includes sites like PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Despite the possibility of being left out of a potential second online poker explosion, PokerStars officials remain optimistic about the road their operation is about to go down. According to Paul Telford, PokerStars’ General Counsel, PokerStars will support HR 2267 in every possible way, despite the above mentioned amendments. Apparently, PokerStars would still be able to operate in the US through various operators in a licensing setup similar to the one it currently uses in Italy and in France. To make things absolutely clear, the PPA’s legal team has confirmed that indeed, none of the existing online poker operations could be legally denied access to the US market under the provisions of the bill, in the form in which it’s been passed by the House Financial Services Committee.

Despite that, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker may have to settle for second fiddle behind operations like Harrah’s which the government will likely push over everyone else if and when regulation happens.

]]>Thu, 05 Aug 2010 15:49:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=950The fact that Barney Frank’s famous online gambling bill got a positive vote in the House Financial Services Committee, got a lot of players and online poker operators excited. Many people act like federally legalized online poker is just around the corner in the US, effectively opening the market up for all those operators who have been awaiting the moment of their triumphant return to the US since 2006.
While the vote was indeed a positive development, the situation is not quite as bright as many people would like to believe. This vote in itself means a good start for the process of legalization, but that’s about it. The road ahead is long and it’s fraught with many pitfalls, some of which may yet stop the process altogether.

Now that the first step has been taken, it needs to be followed up by several moves of similar amplitude. The first such move would be to get Jim McDermott’s companion bill aimed at establishing guidelines and procedures for the taxing of online poker and online gambling, through the House Ways and Means Committee. With almost half a year left to accomplish this feat, surely it would be done in 2010, right? Not exactly. You see, the House of Representatives recess starts on August 9th, and it lasts all the way to September 12th. This week’s pretty much in the books already, so everything will be put on hold till at least the middle of next month. Even then, the window of opportunity will be an extremely small one because of the November elections. Because the elections are likely to hand Republicans majority (and let’s not forget Republicans are still not keen to have poker legalized), the whole effort may run ashore right there and then.

]]>Thu, 05 Aug 2010 14:24:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=949It took them a while in the wake of the WSOP (where Dwan was busy chasing that elusive prop bet bracelet of his), but the two Durrrr Challenge rivals finally got together again for a session on Full Tilt Poker’s specially set-up challenge tables.
The feat was a rather impressive one in light of the fact that the two haven’t really played a single challenge hand in 92 days, and railbirds were slowly but surely beginning to give up on the whole thing.
This session consisted of 280 hands and it lasted for 50 minutes. At the end of it, it was Antonius who bagged his chips with a $244,599 profit. This round of action left Dwan in the lead by a $1.6 million margin, but given the size of some of the pots that were played for (two of them cracked the $150k mark), large swings are always a possibility.

The two monster pots of the session went Antonius’ way. The first one, a $160,394 whooper, saw Dwan kick off the preflop action with a bet. Antonius made the call and the two of them went on to see the 7h,5h,3s land on the flop. Antonius fired out a bet, which got raised by Dwan almost immediately. Antonius three-bet it and when Dwan raised it again, he shoved all-in. Dwan had a nut straight and an open-ended straight flush, while Antonius had a set and a nut flush draw. The turn put a pair onto the board, thanks to which Antonius made a boat and the river could not tip over the power-balance.

A few minutes later, the Finn took down another even bigger pot, when his nut straight got the better of Dwan’s two pair.

]]>Thu, 05 Aug 2010 12:48:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=948The PokerStars.it Italian Poker Tour’s Venice stop was a true record setter. The €2,000 event saw 504 players belly up to the tables of the Casino Ca’Noghera, marking the biggest Italian Poker Tour event ever. Hungary’s Tamas Lendvai was the one who grinned into the camera trophy in hand and €235k in his pockets at the end of it all. The Hungarian bested a final table at which he had started out with the smallest stack.
Sandro Mazzei of Italy was the one to be bounced first from the final table though. He was followed in short order by Toby Lewis of the UK. Lendvai proved resilient and the next player to exit was Andras Kovacs, the Hungarian who’d finished 3rd in the same event last year. His 6th place finish meant that Kovacs would not improve on last year’s effort, but he still had a more than decent cash.

Ali Tekitamgac’s was one name you’ve probably already heard. He won the WPT’s Barcelona stop last year, and started this final table with the biggest stack. The advantage offered to him by his stack wasn’t enough though. He was the one to exit the event in 5th place.
Cristiano Guerra’s exit in 4th and Giovanni LaPadula’s in 3rd meant that the home contingent would be cut down to one: Davide Cerrato. By this stage though, Lendvai had built up a nice lead and having come from behind, he was clearly in the zone. The Hungarian won the poker tournament, giving his career poker tournament earnings a huge boost. Cerrato walked away with €147k for his second place. PokerStars’ Luca Pagano had busted out much earlier, although his father, Claudio, managed to hang on all the way to 13th place.

]]>Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:11:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=947It’s official: the WSOP hangover is done with in the online poker world. Big names like Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey have returned to the tables at Full Tilt Poker and a surprise appearance from Martonas was also in order this week. Finns had an excellent week as they dominated the high stakes action. LocoIsBack logged a $300K+ profit to close out an altogether excellent month. Patrik Antonius did well too and earned about $600k. The monster pots have returned as well. The biggest one of the week was a $256k whooper, which Patrik Antonius won from Gus Hansen, who had apparently regained his swagger too as far as dropping money was concerned.

Another player who had an excellent week was Phil Ivey. Ivey took on Dutch sensation Luukie21 and promptly relieved him of nearly $700k in only 652 hands. Luukie21 will certainly think twice about picking on someone his own size next time he hits the $500/$1,000 capped PLO tables.

The news of the week was martonas’ return though. For those of you who may not be in the know, martonas was a Swedish mystery player (pretty much like Isildur1) who hit the nosebleed stakes last August and amassed close to $2.4 million in winnings before he gave it all back and sunk back into anonymity.
Over a span of two days, martonas played 3,116 hands, at various PLO limits. He won some and he lost some and in the end, he finished with a $90.6k loss, not exactly the best way to strike fear into opponents’ hearts upon his return.

Luukie21 and Di Dang were joined by Cole South on the list of the biggest losers of the week. Antonius finished with the biggest profit, but Ivey and LocoIsBack did well too.

]]>Wed, 04 Aug 2010 20:29:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=946The online poker industry is slowly but surely recovering from the shock of the 2010 WSOP. High buy-in weekend guarantees are excellent indicators in this respect, and according to them, people are returning to the online tables. PokerStars’ Sunday Million managed to cover its guarantee, having attracted an initial starting field of 8,197 participants. The combined buy-ins were enough to generate a $1,639,400 prize-pool, which made it possible for the winner to take home a handsome $245,914 prize. Aqua44 was the one who pocketed that prize, after no deals were made in the poker tournament.
James Tolbert finished 2nd, for a $180,334 haul. Idacir_bra took home $122,955 for his 3rd place. Notable finishes were those of Nicholas Grippo and Kevin Tanner.

Full Tilt Poker’s $750k Guaranteed failed to cover the mark again though. 3,466 players showed up to fight it out for the exact sum of the guarantee. No deals were made in this poker tournament either. The winner, Jordan Young, took home $132,787. Pajeropy finished 2nd for $80,250 and mstrkrft55 finished 3rd for $52,500. Christian Iacobellis finished 5th and Andrew Feldman finished 25th among the notables.

PokerStars’ Sunday Warm-up worked its way up to a nice $805,600 prize-pool. This event saw 4,028 players belly up to the tables. A two-way deal at the top was made, which left the eventual winner – Buffet1980 – almost $120k. Second place man Alex Camberis took home $101k. No other players finished in 6 figures in any of the other guaranteed prize-pool poker tournaments run by PokerStars over the weekend. Over at Full Tilt Poker, there was another 6-figure winner though. Jordan Young won the Sunday Brawl, to pocket a prize of $104,951.

]]>Mon, 02 Aug 2010 19:33:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=945John Dolan is probably one of the least known members of the November Nine, but that doesn’t change the fact that the 45 million chips he managed to accumulate (mostly on the final table bubble) make him one of the favorites for the title. Only one player has more chips than him, and that’s chip leader Jonathan Duhamel, who has 65 million.
Dolan says he’s nothing special and that he did nothing special to set himself apart from scores of other guys who have gone down the path of online poker in college. He started out at the $5/$10 stakes and gradually worked his way up from there, after a few initial setbacks of course. His parents weren’t exactly happy for his career choice, but after he proved his talent through a couple of large wins, it became obvious to everyone he had made the right choice indeed.

His passion for poker even drove him to work as a dealer for a while. His first WSOP cash came in 2007, in the Casino Employees event. After a some initial struggles, things started to click for the then 20 year old, who scored a few large wins to get a real bankroll going. From that point on things kind of just fell into place for the Floridian, who had amassed around $1 million in poker tournament wins till 2010. He won Full Tilt Poker’s $1k Monday once and PokerStars’ Sunday Warm-up as well.
This year’s WSOP was by far the most successful one for him. He finished 6th in a $1,000 NL Holdem event and then obviously, he made the Big Dance final table.

Most impressive about Dolan’s rise to the Main Event final stretch was the way he played the final table bubble. Over 6-hours long, the bubble saw extremely tight play from everyone except him and Duhamel.

]]>Sun, 01 Aug 2010 17:16:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=944Despite all the protest from various male and female poker players against gender-segregation at the WSOP’s Ladies only event, PokerStars is planning to do the “unthinkable”: to start a women’s poker league. We’re not sure how one can crossdress online, but even if it were possible, it wouldn’t really earn access to guys planning a WSOP-like protest. Only ladies are allowed in this promotion, which runs till the end of the year. Players will have to accumulate points, and at the end of the year, they’ll be rewarded with cash prizes, poker tournament entries and live event packages.
How will participants accumulate points? By playing in two daily tournaments. Gender segregation in poker may be sending the wrong type of messages to some people, but this poker promotion will certainly provide a genuine opportunity for the ladies to grab some prizes without having to worry about outracing a bunch of 24/7 fanatics.

In other news: the passage of Barney Franks bill in the House Financial services committee seems to have stirred up quite a fuss. Experts have forewarned that the achievement in itself doesn’t equate to the legalization of online poker in any shape or form, regardless of that though, online poker and even social networking companies seem terribly excited, planning their moves to invade the US market. PartyGaming’s merger with Bwin was apparently just one consequence of the good news. Zynga, the company responsible for the play money online poker application featured by Facebook has expressed its interest in getting into real money online poker. Seems like the shop’s not even open and takers are already queuing up outside.

]]>Sat, 31 Jul 2010 16:54:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=943The fact that Barney Frank’s proposed online poker bill has passed the vote of the House Financial Services Committee, marking the first time ever that US legislators have cast a positive vote on the matter of legal online poker, has set a whole bunch of major events into motion already, despite experts’ warnings that the move was little more than a psychological boost for the supporters of online poker.

One such event was PartyGaming’s reverse takeover of European sports betting giant Bwin. As a consequence of the merger, Bwin will control 51.6 percent of the new monster-company. All of Bwin’s assets as well as liabilities will be transferred to PartyGaming though. While the offensive-minded nature of the deal is obvious from a US perspective, according to experts, the merger was also a defensive move. Bwin Poker and PartyPoker are supposedly losing online poker market-share in Europe to the monster duo of Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. The merger will offer some degree of protection for both companies involved. The real reason behind the undertaking may well be an entirely different one though.

Frank’s bill only cleared the House Financial Services Committee vote with a whole bunch of amendments attached. One such amendment clearly states that poker sites found to have knowingly violated US federal or local laws would not be eligible to receive a license to operate in the new legal online poker market in the US. The two companies worst affected by this little amendment? Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. The entities with the most to gain off it? PartyPoker and its newfound partner, Bwin. Without the merger, the two sites would’ve become competitors in the US market, this way though, they’ll have enough firepower to outgun their potentially outlawed and thus crippled competitors.

]]>Sat, 31 Jul 2010 15:01:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=941Daniel Negreanu has been one of the most popular faces of poker in recent years, on television and in live poker events. He’s also been known for his lack of success at the online tables. The Canadian pro, one of PokerStars top representatives, had unsuccessfully attempted to shake the online poker monkey off his back several times in the past, but he finally achieved a breakthrough last week: in the wake of the WSOP, Negreanu has made it a top priority to show up at Daniel’s Room at PokerStars and to chip away at his $305,000 2010 losses by playing $100/$200 NL Holdem. Over 5 days, he logged 1,325 hands and he ended up with a $332,770 profit over that stretch, taking his game above the red line for the year.

He played a host of opponents like Joel Nordquist, Jason Mercier, Tom Marchese, Will Molson and Justin Smith.
Responsible for one of the biggest pots Kid Poker took down though, was Sussie Smith. Smith had a Qc, Jc against Negreanu’s Ah, 9h. After a bit of a preflop tussle, the 9s, 6c and 2h fell on the turn, missing Smith completely. Negreanu fired out a bet and Smith came back with a huge raise. Negreanu made the call to see the Ad fall on the turn. Smith checked and Negreanu fired out yet another bet. In an absolutely disastrous move, Smith then shoved all in. Negreanu made the call again and the river did not help Smith. The $100,200 pot was shipped the Canadian’s way. Another huge pot that Negreanu pocketed was one against Will Molson, whose A,J fell to Negreanu’s pocket Ks.

Over at Full Tilt Poker in the meantime, the PLO tables were the ones that once again drew the bulk of the nosebleed stakes action. Jared Bleznick walked away the biggest winner and Gus Hansen managed to recover some of his recent losses.

]]>Sat, 31 Jul 2010 14:57:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=942John Racener may be a virtual unknown to most online poker players and poker fans, but that doesn’t mean he’s a new face at the green felt. Most of the big live poker names know him well, as he’s been playing and cashing in various WSOP-C events in recent years.
Racener has started playing poker at an early age. He was about 16 when he asked his mother to make a $50 deposit for him at an online poke site. That moment was the starting point of an online career, which would prove to be more than successful in the coming years. His $50 had swollen into $30k, about two years later.

Racener wasn’t one of the players who allowed poker to mess up his academic career. He graduated from Florida Southern with an associate of arts, having taken a break from poker. As soon as he could though, he returned to the virtual green felt, and continued building his bankroll. His 21st birthday was a huge milestone for his live poker career. It was then he made his first ever live final table, finishing 3rd in the WSOP-C’s Atlantic City Main Event. That move earned him a $103,527 prize, setting him firmly on track for a stellar run at subsequent live events.

His first WSOP-C win came exactly a year after his first final table, in the very same Atlantic City event: Racener raked in a $379k reward that time and established himself as one of the WSOP-C big guns.
Adding his online winnings to his live tally, one would get a sum well in excess of $2 million. Taking a 19 million chip stack into action at the November Nine table, Racener’s primary goal is a victory in the Big Dance.

]]>Sat, 31 Jul 2010 14:57:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=940July 28th 2010 will go down in online poker history as a true landmark: it was the day federal lawmakers first viewed legal online poker in a positive light. The 41-22-1 vote that Barney Frank’s Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act received was a clear indication that a new era of online poker may soon be upon us. Does it mean online poker is just about to be legalized? By no means. It’s just a small step in the right direction, and on top of it one that needs to be taken with a grain of salt for several reasons.
Remember, Frank’s bill was never about just legalizing online poker in its current form (and neither were the other bills supported by the PPA). It was about taxation and regulation too, and while that is quite probably the only reasonable path to take towards legalization, its financial impact on the online poker industry may yet prove to be bigger than that of the UIGEA.

Just to give you an idea about what legal online poker would come hand-in-hand with, let’s sample a few of the amendments included in the bill (some of which are NOT supported by the PPA btw).
Legal and regulated online poker would mean that none of the sites which have ever intentionally violated federal or local US law would ever be given the chance to get a license. While that would pretty much kill both PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, PartyPoker would probably re-emerge as the world-wide online poker powerbroker.

All facilities of the licensed sites would have to be located in the US, and the majority of employees would have to reside in the US too. Sports betting would remain prohibited. Credit cards would not be allowed for deposits.

]]>Thu, 29 Jul 2010 09:43:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=939PokerStars is apparently set to change the makeup of its team, although this time it’s not a new poker pro they’re looking to bring into the fold. Gabi Campos, from 888’s Dragonfish, will apparently take over as the new CEO, as Mark Scheinberg, founder Isai Scheinberg’s son, will become the new chairman. Exactly what repercussions will these changes have for the players? Quite possibly none for the time being, although the above named executives have iterated their intention to take the company forward towards continued success, and that may mean some sweeter PokerStars promotions in the future.

Doyle’s Room continues to shuffle the roster of in-house representatives in the meantime too. The newest addition is Daniel Kelly, who apparently earned his spot by winning the WSOP’s $25,000 Six Max event. Kelly had Faraz Jaka and David Sands to beat for his Brunson 10 spot.
The final position on the Doyle’s Room roster went to David Sands, who managed to accumulate 2,269 points during the WSOP, for his overall performance.

The odds for the 2010 WSOP November Nine final table participants have been released. Experts quote Jonathan Duhamel with a +275 chance, while Michael Mizrachi, the Grinder who’s got all eyes on him, is a +500 favorite. Jason Senti, the official short stack of the November Nine, is a +1,600 fav.

The first ever government-run online gambling operation, launched in British Columbia a few days ago, has been shut down pending the fixing of a problem which caused a data cross-over among 134 player accounts.
The site is currently offline, but authorities plan to reopen it as soon as all security measures needed for proper operation have been completed.

]]>Mon, 26 Jul 2010 16:07:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=938The hiatus provided by the 2010 WSOP may have been a welcome one for the players, but it definitely didn’t go down as well with the various online poker rooms, which routinely failed to cover their guarantees and registered awful player numbers while the Series kept the cream of the crop busy.
Barely has the biggest yearly live poker festival wrapped up, other massive live events are already knocking on the gates.
The UKIPT (UK and Ireland Poker Tour) sponsored by PokerStars, is probably the next stop for those for whom travelling to Edinburgh is not a problem on August 19th. Taking place as part of the Edinburgh Festival, the event will last till the 22nd and it will probably attract a large talent pool (which always makes for a nice prize-pool too) from both sides of the pond.
The buy-in for the Main Event will be £500+£50, and because the main sponsor of the poker tournament is PokerStars, qualification will be possible online as well.
Want a taste of the Festival and the Edinburgh weather, coupled with a nice green felt bout? The UKIPT’s next stop is the obvious answer.

The numerous poker tours that have sprung up over the last few years don’t just mean more competition for the ones that had existed previously. They also mean that those interested will find it much easier to play in a live event close to their homes. The Canadian Poker Tour (CPT) has apparently managed to surpass its profit-related expectations, with a massive 30%. In the wake of the positive report, the company is planning to expand into BC and Manitoba.

PokerStars’ ANZPT is in full swing in the meantime. Day 2 of the poker tournament has just ended, leaving 50 players in contention for the 15 cash spots.

]]>Sun, 25 Jul 2010 19:56:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=937The online poker industry had probably awaited the end of the WSOP breath held, and the reason has now become obvious: as soon as the hostilities ceased at the Rio and as soon as the nosebleed stakes professionals shed the dust of the competition, the online poker games got going again.
Full Tilt Poker’s Tom Dwan was quite probably the biggest loser of the Series, considering that he failed to get that bracelet he had been chasing after, and that meant he wouldn’t be able to collect an untold amount of side-bet dough. Having fallen short of his WSOP objective had little to no effect on his online poker appetite though. On Thursday, he logged a massive 9,400 hands over just 24 hours.
UrNotInDanger2 was his main opponent, to whom Dwan initially dropped around $100k. He recovered his losses later though, and finished the session with a $12k profit. The largest pot the two played for was a $62k one, which landed in Dwan’s pockets.

Ilari Sahamies was another high stakes maniac just itching to jump back into the heat of the online action. The Finn employed a hit and run style tactic to win $88k from Tom Dwan in just 64 hands, and tons more from Jared Bleznick in 224. Sahamies finished the day with a $200k profit. The largest pot Sahamies took down was a $80k one.

Patrik Antonius was also back in action. Ha won some and lost some during the week, but eventually, he walked away with a $420k profit, which put him right to the top of the week’s earners list.
In other online news: jungleman12 is apparently set on taking Antonius’ place once the Durrrr Challenge Series first leg wraps up.

]]>Fri, 23 Jul 2010 21:11:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=936As the field whittled down to the final two tables on day 8 of the poker tournament, things turned from serious to dead serious. Scott Clements, one of the “name” pros who’d managed to hang on thus far was the first one to have his November Nine hopes crushed. His problems started with the A,Qo he picked up. That hand was never any good because Matthew Jarvis had picked up an A,K, but Clements committed his last chips on it nonetheless.
The board gave both players a pair of As, but Jarvis’ superior kicker decided the race.

David Baker was the next one to head to the rail, when his flush draw never filled up against Jonathan Duhamel’s pocket Ks.
Benjamin Statz went out in 16th, when his A,6o got flopped to smithereens by Matthew Jarvis’ K, Q which hit a boat on the flop.
Matt Affleck’s exit in 15th was more brutal than that though. Affleck shoved all-in holding A,A and got called by Duhamel with J,J. Duhamel then proceeded to hit a straight on the turn to eliminate Affleck.

Hasan Habib followed Affleck to the rail, his A,9 no match to Racener’s A,K. Duy Le was bounced in 13th. Adam Levy followed him out the door, when his K,Q fell to Duhamel’s pocket rockets.

Pascal LeFrancois exited in 11th, setting the stage for the November Nine bubble boy to surface. Although reluctant to the extreme, it was Brandon Steven who eventually took on that role. His A,K looked game against Jarvis’ pocket Qs, but the board failed to help him out and thus he too was done.

]]>Mon, 19 Jul 2010 22:10:00 GMThttp://www.PokerStop.com/News/PokerNewsFull.aspx?Id=935As soon as day 8 of the 2010 WSOP Main Event kicked off, it was clear it would be different from previous days. This one would be all business and the highest level at that. The first victim of the day was none other than Team PokerStars’ Johnny Lodden. The Norwegian got it all into the middle holding pocket 8s against Matt Affleck’s A,10. Affleck then proceeded to hit a pair of 10s on the board for the win.

Matthew Bucaric followed Lodden to the rail. The 25 year old from Tennessee staked his poker tournament life onto a pair of 9s he’d picked up. He got looked up by Filippo Candio after a flop which gave the Italian a 4-card flush. Candio them proceeded to hit his flush on the turn.
Mads Wissing was the one who fell next, followed by Ronnie Bardah of MA. Bardah took home around $300k for his efforts.

Robert Pisano exited next. He was the player to “blame” for Johnny Chan’s elimination earlier in the tournament.
William Thorson’s elimination in 23rd place was a rather plain one. He picked up a 10d, Jd and shoved all-in, to be called by John Dolan who had picked up pocket Ks. The board didn’t improve either hand involved and Thorson was bounced.

Redmond Lee from London was the next one to exit. He was followed to the payout booth by Patrick Eskandar. Michiel Sijpkens’ elimination meant that the surviving field could be condensed to two tables. The poker tournament was Sijpkens’ first ever and considering that, he was probably quite delighted to end up in 19th. Still, 9 more players needed to go before the survivors could have their chips bagged for the November final table.

]]>Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:25:00 GMT