PokerListings Blog

The tournament may have ended early tonight but the real action was happening upstairs in Studio 3 where over $1 million in cash was laid out on the table of a high stakes cash game. 

The game included Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Dan “jungleman12” Cates, Tom Dwan, Sam Trickett, Patrik Antonius and Gus Hansen plus Winfred Lu and Richard Young, two wealthy businessmen from China.

The game lasted for over five hours and we caught an epic three-way hand between Negreanu, Antonius and Mercier.

For seven years the Heartland Poker Tour has been showing us what a low buy-in regional poker tour can do and with their recent acquisition by Federated Sports and Gaming things are only going to get bigger.

We spoke to HPT co-founder Todd Anderson about why the HPT is poised for growth, and why it offers a unique opportunity for US grinders who might be feeling the pinch post-Black Friday.

This interview was used along with quotes from FS+G Chairman Jeffrey Pollack in our news feature Heartland Poker Tour: Hidden Gem of US Poker Circuit.

Say what you will about Tony G but the man is always good for a prop bet. 

Yesterday rumors started swirling that The G had offered Melanie Weisner a seat in the $10,000 Aussie Millions Main Event if she could ride a unicycle around a poker table twice.

The rumors were true.

We had a feeling when we saw Weisner practicing with a unicycle in the hall earlier today but Tony G confirmed over Twitter that he was indeed offering $10k if she could pull it off.

After the third level of the Day 1c Main Event, in which Weisner is already playing, Tony G, Weisner, the media and about 20 of Weisner’s friends congregated on the Crown Casino promenade outside the casino.

Weisner and Tony G talked for a few minutes about the arrangement. Weisner wanted to go in a straight line instead of around an object and Tony G finally relented.

After a couple test runs Weisner finally took off and came tantalizingly close to winning the bet finally falling of the unicycle within about 15 feet of the makeshift finish line.

We’ve got a couple photos from the event after the jump:

The $100k Challenge began at the Crown Casino today and, as expected, it brought a handful of the best poker players in the world.

Although the 22 entrants fell well short of the 38 players who signed up last year it will still pay four places with $2 million for first, $616,000 for second, $330,000 for third and $242,000 for fourth (all in $AUD of course).

The 22 included Joe Hachem, Daniel Negreanu, Daniel Alaei, Jonathan Karamalikis, Dan Smith, Mikhail Smirnov, Phil Ivey, Tony Bloom, Masa Kagawa, Jason Mercier, Sorel Mizzi, Gus Hansen, Tony G, Sam Trickett, Erik Seidel, Nam Le, JC Tran, Dan Cates, Tobias Reinkemeier, Tom Dwan, Dan Shak and Mike Watson.

We’re currently mid-way through the third level and eight players have already been relieved of their $100k including Mike Watson, Dan Shak, Tom Dwan, Masa Kagawa, Tony Bloom, Daniel Alaei, Daniel Negreanu and local Jonathan Karamalikis.

Of course the biggest story of this two-day event might be the appearance of poker legend Phil Ivey.

Outside of a trip to Macau, Ivey has been absent from major tournaments since the events of Black Friday so it came as a minor shock when rumors began to swirl that he would make the trip to Australia.

Indeed the former Team Full Tilt Pro showed up an hour late, much to the delight of Daniel Negreanu and various railbirds.

Negreanu and Ivey reminisced at the poker table and swapped new phone numbers.

It appears that Ivey hasn’t lost his edge as he’s been giving his opponents fits all day and at the end of Level 3 he was third in chips with 236,000.

Here’s a collection of photos we’ve taken throughout the day of the massive event:

Australians do things a little differently than everyone else and it goes further than just eating pancakes for dinner and being obsessed with Paul Hogan.

That's why if you find yourself at the upcoming Aussie Millions you're going to hear some phrases thrown around that might confuse you. Don't worry we've got you covered with our guide to the most popular poker hand nicknames Down Under.

Nathan “Blackrain79” Williams claims to be the biggest winner at NL2 and NL5 ever on PokerStars.

Judging by the six million recorded hands he’s got, we’re inclined to believe him.

PokerListings.com met Williams in Vancouver to talk about his new book Crushing the Microstakes and find out what it’s like to attain some of the highest winrates ever recorded.

Click through here for our feature news review of Blackrain79’s book and keep reading for the full interview transcript.

I’ve been enjoying a much needed break from poker the last month, but it’s about time to get back on the grind.

In fact, I hope to have played a session by the time you read this.

I have been carefully considering my poker goals for 2012. I want to challenge myself and strive to do well this year, but I also don’t want to set goals that are unrealistic.

Sometimes it’s hard to find the right balance. To be honest, I have no idea what I should be expecting of myself at this point.

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom’s entire career has been based around incredible highs and gut-wrenching lows. 

Blom experienced an entirely new high this week by winning his first major tournament (fittingly it was the PCA Super High Roller) and winning a massive $1.3 million first place prize.

Of course with every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction and knowing it’s Isildur1 the railbirds are already circling his signature high stakes tables on PokerStars.

If Blom actually deposited the $1.3 million into his PokerStars account that means there’s a good chance he has the biggest bankroll on an online site since taking on Brian Hastings on Full Tilt Poker in the fall of 2009.

We all know how that one ended. The question is: Will he do it again?

With that in mind we’ve compiled a list of five hot online players who stand a good chance of stealing a piece of Isildur1’s gold.

In our many years of poker observation we’ve learned never to make flat-out statements about poker skill - and that goes doubly for crossover sports stars like Sergio Garcia.

The Spanish professional golfer is among the 188 players left in the 2012 PCA main event with a stack of 104,500 in chips, though, which is tilting the scales subtly in favor of at least the possibility of Garcia’s poker prowess.

So while it’s unquestionably true Sergio Garcia is good at golf, the most we’ll say is that he might be good at poker.

It’s like we’ve said time and time again, we don’t like to make flat-out statements about how good poker players are. Poker’s a complicated game, and even after years and years of winning, millions of hands played, the farthest we’ll go is to say someone might be good at poker.

This week we’re bestowing that dubious honor on Isaac Haxton.

Happy holidays! I hope everyone has been able to take some time off to enjoy their friends and family this month. Life has been crazy for me, but I really wanted to try to post this before the year ended.

Where poker is concerned, 2011 was a pretty interesting year for me. I went to PCA, played on the Big Game, and went to the WSOP for the first time. While none of these get-rich-quick schemes worked out for me, they were great experiences and I learned a lot.

Please welcome new guest writer Kevin Mathers, aka Kevmath, poker forum guru and all-around fount of information.

Earlier this month, PokerListings posted an article listing the ten biggest social media players in poker. The list was provided by Klout, a company that measures social media influence by tracking users' Tweets, Facebook posts, FourSquare checkins, etc.

If you've taken a look, there are several interesting choices. The obvious #1 choice is Daniel Negreanu, surely the most powerful professional poker player today, but when you look further down the list, a few names stand out.

Howard Lederer? Phil Ivey? Andy Bloch? Maybe they're using some super-secret accounts only Klout knows about.

When the list was rediscovered earlier this week on Twitter, discussion centered on who should actually be considered.

PokerListings decided to ask me for some guidance, so here's my attempt at the top ten social media players in poker, not necessarily in numerical order.

We’ve always been wary of making all-out assertions when it comes to things like poker. Too much luck we say.

That’s why even when someone like Steve O’Dwyer goes on a super-heater and wins $1.42 million in a single year the farthest we’ll go is to say they might be good at poker.

In 2012 Guy Laliberté and the WSOP are taking tournament poker to astronomical new heights with the world’s first $1 million buy-in event.

So far 22 players have committed to playing, which begs the question, “Who in their right mind would spend a million dollars on a poker tournament?”

Well, we’re here to answer that question, along with everything else you might be wondering about this super-mega-ultra high roller WSOP bracelet event.

Do you like poker? Do you like wasting time on your iPad? Do you have thumbs? If you answered yes to all three of those questions, or just the last one, Poker Drop might be for you.

Launched by Granville Games for iOS devices, Poker Drop takes poker hands and slams them into the age-old Tetris drop down game format. By arranging cards into five card hands both horizontally and vertically the player battles his way through ten levels of increasing speed and difficulty.

Most online poker players know the ins and outs of keeping their online accounts secure.

For new players just getting started in online poker, there are a few basics everyone should know before depositing or transferring money online.

The infographic below goes over the basics of securing your online accounts including your poker account.

It’s that time of year! Christmas lights are going up, grocery stores are playing merry music 24/7, and the malls are a nightmare. Oh yeah, and all the grinders are online trying to cram in as many games as possible before the year ends. 

Right now I have 91,551 VPPs, which means around 6 full days of poker until I hit Supernova. I play a lot of half days, though, so I probably won’t hit it until December 18^th (which is, coincidentally, the day of the giant Sunday Million).

According to the website Klout.com, social media in the poker world is led by players like Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey.

Klout gathers information from all social media sites and aggregates it into a score, measuring the number of people you reach, how effectively you influence them, and how significant a presence you are within your network.

Some of the names on this list seem obvious, cough Daniel Negreanu, but others prove that sometimes it doesn't take exhaustive social media effort to have one of the biggest voices in poker.

It also proves having 1 million Twitter followers won't get you the number one spot.

Keep reading to see whose social media voice is the loudest in poker. And while you're at it, follow us on Facebook and Twitter!

***Update: Due to popular demand we've compiled a new, much more reality-based ranking and we did it with the help of one Kevin Mathers.

Click here for Kevmath's Real Top 10 Social Media Players in Poker.

Click here to follow everyone on both our Top Social Media Poker Players with a handy Twitter List!

Have lingering feelings of resentment towards Howard Lederer?

Try a touch of electrocution, in cartoon form.

It won’t get your money back. But it is a brief respite from waiting for a statement from Full Tilt Poker’s Board of Directors.

Not much of a relief, but a little.

Hold the button, watch him fry.

It’s good to be the king of poker.

22-year-old German Pius Heinz has had a couple of weeks to settle in to his new role as World Champion (and defacto ambassador) of poker, and so far so good.

As he outlined in our news feature yesterday, Germany is showing signs of embracing the game of poker on a wider scale and Heinz hopes to be a big part of it.

Read on for the full transcript of our interview that includes the story behind the white hoodies, the Pius Heinz chant and his thoughts on the now infamous KJ hand between Ben Lamb and Martin Staszko.

• Newer Posts
• Older Posts