Charity Poker

NAPT Ups The Ante in Uncasville

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0100

The original plan to host a $10,000 buy-in bounty shootout at the Mohegan Sun has been shelved in favor of a $25,600 two-day High Roller Bounty Shootout.

The Apr. 12 tournament will feature a $5k bounty on the head of every player, entry into the next NAPT Bounty Shootout for however collects the most scalps, $50k to all the finalist and a winner-take-the-rest final table format.

"I had the opportunity to play in the first High Roller Bounty Shootout at NAPT Venetian in February and I have to say it's an incredibly exciting format," said Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negranu. "I am really looking forward to the chance to play again at NAPT Mohegan Sun - and reach the final this time! It's going to be a great event."

Mohegan Sun has scheduled a $5,250 Super-Satellite qualifying tournament for the event at 12 p.m. on Sunday, Apr. 11, guaranteeing ten entries with two added by PokerStars.net.

The full North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun schedule includes 37 poker events over 16 days, including a $5,000 buy-in Main Event Apr. 7-11.

Both the Main Event and Bounty Shootout will be filmed for broadcast on ESPN2.

Multi-step satellite qualifying tournaments to the NAPT Main Event are currently underway in the Mohegan Sun Poker Room until the start of the tournament.

Registration for all events is now available both in the Poker Room and online at Ptseats.com.

For full details about all NAPT events, please visit the tour's website.

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Leatherass Joins Team PokerStars Online

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:30:00 +0100

Citing "irreconcilable differences" with the sites, Schmidt left his post in January joining training site DragTheBar.com as its lead instructor and has now been added to the PokerStars Team Online roster.

The 26-player team also includes top online poker players like Randy "nanonoko" Lew, Andrew "Kid Nebraska" Goetsch and Thomas "Boku87" Boekhoff.

"I feel like I've joined the Yankees," Schmidt said. "Getting the opportunity to represent the largest poker room in the world is definitely something that makes all of the hard work feel worthwhile. I couldn't be more honored."

Five years into his career, Schmidt's has played more than 8 million hands over more than 10,000 hours and has won more than $3 million in cash games online.

He's never had a losing month in his career and in 2007 achieved PokerStars' SuperNova Elite status in just eight months.

Schmidt said that being named to PokerStars Team Online means he'll be going for SuperNova Elite status again in 2010.

"The chase for SuperNova Elite is officially on," he said.

Schmidt said his joining Team PokerStars Online means he'll be playing exclusively on the site. He'll also keep a blog on PokerStars and will play in tournaments on the site as well.

Prior to his start in poker, Schmidt was a top-ranked golfer, but gave up the links in favor of the felt at age 23 when he suffered a heart attack.

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Cantu Wins at the Wynn

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0100

The $5,000+160 event drew a field of 262 players creating a total prize pool of $1,173,700 and a final table that included World Poker Tour final tablists Jarred Jaffe, Odie Dardon and perhaps the hottest player in poker right now, Thomas Marchese.

Since winning the inaugural PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour Las Vegas event last month, Marchese went on to cash deep at the WPT's Bay 101 Shooting Star, the very same event Cantu won in 2008.

However, Marchese would make no better than fourth in Las Vegas this week and it was 2010 WPT Southern Poker Championship fourth place finisher Jaffee left to take on Cantu on heads-up.

Jaffe was forced to take $246,477 for second as Cantu booked his first major win since grabbing his second World Series of Poker bracelet in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha 8 event this past summer.

Cantu also made another final table at the 2009 WSOP and after this week's win, the Team UB pro has amassed more than $3.6 million in online and live tournament earnings.

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2010 Online High-Stakes at a Glance

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:30:00 +0100

While it's no shock seeing Tom "durrrr" Dwan on the top of the leader board with over $3.4 million as we near the end of the first quarter of 2010, it is that Phil Ivey has barely played.

In total, Ivey has logged just 4,351 hands this year. And while he 's showing a $194,074 profit, every big name in the biggest games have played more hands.

In the meantime, Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn, winner of the 2008 Aussie Millions, has had tremendous success on Full Tilt in 2010 so far, earning over $2.2 million to put him into second place.

Kostritsyn has proved himself to be a master of mixed games, with more than $1.6 million of his profits coming from the high-stakes 7-Game tables.

But perhaps the biggest story of the year has been Cole South.

He held the profit lead with as much as $3.6 million to start the year, but a recent month-long downswing has left him with only $1.2 million of it.

The most volatile players ever to hit the digital felt made his first splash late in 2009, making over $5 million in just three days from Dwan.

Identity unknown, Isildur1 went on to play the biggest pots in online history, the largest worth over $1.3 million against Patrik Antonius, before losing that and another $2 million in just two weeks.

The majority of the losses came at the hands of Brian Hastings, including more than $4.2 million in a single session, and with the unknown Swede returning to the tables again this year, we've already seen more than one epic rematch.

Despite playing slightly more conservatively, Isildur1 has managed to go on a $3.6 million dollar swing. And even though Hastings still appears to still be getting the best of him, he's currently sitting with $422,400 in profit.

Antonius has been another shocking story.

He absolutely crushed the leader board last year, but has been unable to find his stride in 2010, down almost $3.8 million since the first of January.

In addition to his massive losses, Antonius has also been getting dismantled in the durrrr Challenge, Dwan's lead extending to almost $2 million.

Finally, since the 30-day suspension of his Full Tilt pro status, Brian Townsend has struggled to turn a profit in almost every session he has played, losing over $1.9 million so far this year.

It's anybody's guess as to what will happen over the next nine months, but the two questions most online rail birds are still hoping to have answered appear to be: When will Ivey decide to put up some numbers and just who is Isildur1?

Below are the three largest pots of the year so far. To see more hands from last night, head to MarketPulse.

Isildur1 up against all four aces.

Back when Cole South was running white-hot.

Ziigs drawing nearly dead.

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ESPN WSOP Coverage Garners Emmy Nomination

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0100

The network's WSOP coverage was nominated last year as well and is one of 54 nominations ESPN received this year - the most of any outlet for the ninth time in the last ten years.

Specifically, the WSOP nomination is for ESPN's same-day broadcast of the 2009 final table in the Outstanding Live Event Turnaround category.

Also nominated in the category are ESPN2's Bassmaster Classic, CBC/Versus' Tour de France coverage, Speed and Nascar Media's Inside the Headsets 25th All Star Race, and the PGA Tour's Inside the PGA Tour Deutsche Bank Championship.

ESPN has won a total of 128 Sports Emmy Awards in the past 21 years.

The Awards will be given out at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Home of Jazz at Lincoln Center located in the Time Warner Center on April 26 in New York City.

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WPT Bucharest Adds Events

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0100

In addition to the 400-seat €3000+300 WPT Main Event, set to run Mar. 27-Apr. 2 at the Novotel Bucharest City Center Hotel, organizers will run a group of super satellites starting at €150€+€15 and both a €500 and €1,000 two-day side event.

"We want WPT Bucharest to become a major event on the international poker scene, and a 'must do' for any poker player," said Sorin Constantinescu, Regent Casino CEO.

"The combination of the excellent location, special facilities and great tournament action will keep players coming back."

Also planned is a player welcome party kicking off the action Mar. 26 at 8pm at Space Club near the Novotel Hotel.

The super-satellites and new side events begin Mar. 20.

"WPT Bucharest is a unique and exciting addition to the World Poker Tour," said WPT President Adam Pliska.

"Regent Casino and Gamebookers.com are strong partners with the right positioning to make WPT's first stop in Romania a success. We look forward to growing this event in years to come and reaching more players in Eastern Europe."

Already confirmed to play in the main event is Team PokerStars Pro and WPT Season 7 Player of the Year Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier.

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Borgata Spring Poker Open Set

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 08:30:00 +0100

Beginning Saturday Apr. 10 through Friday Apr. 30, the 110-table Borgata poker room will play host to a 60-event 21-day schedule, including the $3,500 Borgata Spring Poker Open Championship event kicking off Apr. 25.

The championship event will feature two starting days, 30,000 in tournament chips and a guaranteed $1 million prize pool.

In addition to a series of No-Limit Hold'em tournaments, the schedule will also feature, Six-Max No-Limit, H.O.S.E., Pot Limit Omaha, Omaha 8 and Stud events.

Plus, a series of super satellite, survivor, seniors-only and ladies-only tournaments are planned.

Borgata will offer online reservations for main events, beginning Mar. 22 through Apr. 7.

On-site registration for all Borgata Spring Poker Open events begins Apr. 9.

To view the full schedule or for more information, click here.

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Mercier's High Stakes Poker Experience

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

"I would definitely do it again if the opportunity arose," he told PokerListings. "I feel like I play the cash games as well as any good high-stakes player.

"Obviously $400/$800 is not my normal game, but I don't feel like I was playing like scared money. I was able to shove $210,000 in on a semi-bluff."

After two episodes of the popular GSN show where he did not get involved in very many hands, Mercier's exit from the High Stakes stage came during an episode that aired this past Sunday in a hand with arguably poker's greatest player, Phil Ivey.

Gus Hansen raised to $4,200 under the gun and Eli Elezra and Ivey both made the call before Mercier tried a three-bet squeeze to $22,100 with A♥ 4♥ from the small blind.

"Normally I would probably just call in this situation," Mercier said. "We're over 250 big blinds deep and it's fine to call here. I don't really like folding, especially with how deep we are and the players in the hand. I felt like it was a really good spot to squeeze. I can put in like 10 % of my stack and there's like $16k out there that I can pick up if it works.

"I was really expecting to get re-raised or everyone to fold. My image was really tight and I figured that they would put me on a big pair, maybe ace-king, and they really wouldn't want to mess with me at this point."

Hansen and Elezra gave up, but not Ivey, who made the call before the dealer revealed a 7♥ 3♦ 2♠ flop.

"He called without even thinking about it," Mercier said. "From watching the last couple of episodes I know that he was really active, but I wasn't really aware of how active at the time. I know he did have over $800k and when he called, I really felt like he had a middle pair, like fives through tens."

Mercier continuation bet $28,700, Ivey raised it up $50k more and almost instantly, Mercier pushed in for another $110K.

"I was not necessarily expecting him to fold to one bullet, but I didn't expect him to raise ever," he said. "There's almost no hand he should be raising with on that flop. I expected him to call and depending on what came on the turn, I may double barrel.

"The thing is, I hadn't really been involved in any big pots, so I felt like he was going to give me credit for an overpair at this point. I was 100 % sure he didn't have a set and I really felt like he was just trying to see where he was at with a pair.

"As soon as he raised, I knew I was going all in."

Ivey made a reluctant looking call with pocket nines, the turn and river were no help to Mercier and with his $200k buy-in gone, he left the game.

"I knew that if I shoved it was going to look like I had aces, kings or queens and if he can't beat that, how can he call? That was my rational," Mercier said. "Plus I had an over card, the gutshot and the back-door flush draw."

Better luck next time kid.

But despite losing more than $200,000 in a single hand to the legendary Ivey, Mercier said there's not much he would do differently.

"I feel like I played my best," he said. "Hopefully I didn't say anything in the interview afterwards that was too bad. I might have said Phil Ivey played his hand badly.

"I mean, I don't think he's going to be saying, 'I owned that kid.' I don't think that's the optimal way to play nines against me, but what can I say? he's Phil Ivey.

"He's one of the best in the world, if not the best in the world. But if I had to play the hand again, I don't think I could do anything else."

In a game featuring the greatest players in the world, a 23-year-old Mercier may seem overmatched on paper.

But the World Series of Poker and European Poker Tour title holder, with more than $4 million in career live tournament earnings in just the past two years and millions of hands in online cash-game experience, doesn't seem to think so.

"I thought it was a good opportunity," he said. "I read the line-up and I felt like I could have an advantage. I feel like I would have an advantage in almost any line-up. Plus, it's also good exposure.

"When I got there, unfortunately it was a pretty tough line-up. But some of them have their leaks. I still think I would have an edge in that line-up any day of the week."

Unfortunately for Mercier, not that day of the week.

"I went in there not just trying to survive and make like $20k," he said. "I was going to take advantage of whatever circumstances I could, whatever hands I was dealt, spots I was given and just try to make some cash."

If he has one regret from his four hours in the game, it's from his first hand at the table, where he raised with deuces and folded to a Tom "durrrr" Dwan three bet.

"I probably should have shoved it down durrrr's throat," he said. "I would have been considered a legend probably. But I really didn't want to go broke on the first hand.

"I think you have to play tighter when durrrr's at the table. You definitely have to change the way you play, but I felt like I was doing a good job of that. I feel like durrrr's a little tougher to play against than Ivey because he's so crazy. You can't really put him on anything."

But regardless of how things turned out, Mercier said the experience was definitely worth it.

"I was kind of nervous at first," he said. "But it was definitely fun."

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TOC Voters Flock to WSOP Site

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 10:30:00 +0100

"In just 24 hours the poker community has spoken loud and clearly and they should be applauded for their passion," said Harrah's VP Ty Stewart.

"We really love the idea of turning the fans into Executive Producers and they are taking the challenge head-on and making sure their voices are heard."

Shelved since 2006, the WSOP announced Monday it will be bringing the Tournament of Champions back this summer, putting up $1 million in a freeroll for the top 20 WSOP bracelet holders as voted by fans of the game.

All 521 living WSOP bracelet holders are eligible to receive votes for entry through a selection process on WSOP.com that began Monday and will remain open through June 15.

A total of 40,722 votes were cast in the first 24 hours since the announcement, an average of 1,697 an hour or more than 28 every minute.

The WSOP says early results indicate it will be a very close and hotly-contested race.

The top 50 vote-getters are listed on the site and updated instantaneously as votes are cast.

In addition to the top 20 vote getters, five entries into the tournament will be automatic, including previous Tournament of Champions winners Annie Duke, Mike Matusow and Mike Sexton, reigning WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada and WSOP Europe main event winner Barry Shulman.

Finally, two sponsor exemptions will be awarded by the WSOP, with details still forthcoming on how those seats can be won.

The event will go off Sunday June 27 at the Rio, playing down to a final table of nine that will reconvene on Sunday, July 4 to play for a share of $1 million.

It will be filmed for broadcast on ESPN.

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Harman Hosts 4th Annual SPCA Event

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 09:30:00 +0100

The fourth annual Charity Poker Tournament benefiting the Nevada SPCA will go off Tuesday April 13 at The Venetian with a $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event seat and a Curtis & Co. watch up for grabs.

The festivities will begin with a 4 p.m. red carpet followed by a $300+30 No-Limit Hold'em tournament where the top ten finishers will share sponsored prizes valued at $30,000.

Hollywood celebrities and dozens of world-famous poker players are expected to attend.

All proceeds will benefit the Nevada SPCA. In the past, the event has raised six figure sums for the society.

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Isildur1 Dumps $1.6 Million to Hastings

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Yesterday afternoon, Isildur1 found himself in the middle of a heads-up $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha battle with Sahamies and Hasting.

The match started with Isildur1 making just under $200k from Sahamies in 499 hands. Sahamies then left, giving his empty seat to Hastings, Isildur1's top rival.

Isildur1 was down $350k after 1,500 hands against Hastings to start out. But over the next 1,210 hands, Hastings crushed the Swede for a total profit of $1.6 million.

After Hastings logged off, Isildur1 hooked up with Sahamies once more, this time at $200/$400 PLO. Isildur1 made just under $65k before agreeing to up the stakes to $300/$600.

Sahamies managed to make $349,925 at the higher stakes, leaving him up $60k on the day. He finished his day by taking over $237k from Tom "durrrr" Dwan at $500/$1,000 PLO, walking away up $295,617.

Unable to follow up his weekend rush with another win, Dwan finished yesterday down nearly $300k. But despite the loss, he still sits as the top online profit earner in 2010.

Finally, having lost over $1.7 million already, Isildur1 dropped down in stakes to play Cole South heads-up at $25/$50 PLO where he lost another $30k before calling it quits.

In total, Isildur1 lost a whopping $1,790,744.

Below are the three largest pots between Isildur1 and Hastings. To see more hands, head to MarketPulse.

Why would either player be afraid of the flush?

He actually had it this time, but still had to dodge 10 outs.

Isildur1's fold button must have been broken.

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Cake Launches No-Strings WSOP Satellites

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0100

The site kicked off a series of no-strings-attached World Series of Poker satellites today.

While many online poker sites require their satellite winners to wear logo-covered gear, stay at certain hotels and use their winnings for certain events, Cake Poker's winners have no strings attached.

In fact, Cake is offering players the chance to win $2,500 and $12,500 packages for the 2010 WSOP in Las Vegas that are completely flexible.

"We are excited about this year's World Series and are delighted to offer satellites to our players," said Cake Poker cardroom manager Lee Jones. "Our players get to concentrate and focus on their game, instead of worrying about wearing the proper shirt to keep their free hotel room.

"We will show our appreciation and reward players who choose to wear our gear, but we're certainly not going to police it. We think our players will appreciate that we want to send them to the WSOP for the love of the game, not our corporate objectives."

Cake Poker's 2010 World Series of Poker offerings include a five-step Sit & Go series starting at $1 and a $350+$24 multi-table tournament Sundays at 4 p.m. ET with satellites starting at $3.

For more on Cake Poker and its WSOP satellite program, click the banner below.

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World Team Poker Hits Vegas

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0100

Set for May 19, the $50,000 one-day event will feature 40 of the world's top poker pros representing eight different countries on five man teams.

Each of the teams will be captained by superstars of poker in their respective countries, including Phil Hellmuth, Jr. (Team USA), co-captains Johnny Chan and David Chiu (Team China), Men "The Master" Nguyen (Team Vietnam), Eli Elezra (Team Israel) and co-captains Jeff Lisandro and Tony Guoga (Australia).

It will be a five-table shootout format consisting of rounds of Limit Hold'Em, Pot-Limit Hold'Em and No Limit Hold'Em.

Viewers from around the world will be able to watch live streaming coverage of the event at www.worldteampoker.com and it will be filmed for TV.

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Isildur1 and durrrr Headline Weekend Action

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 14:00:00 +0100

The majority of the weekend's action and almost all of the largest pot, came from a variety of six-max Pot-Limit Omaha games.

The largest pot of the weekend, worth $622,962, was won by Di "Urindanger" Dang at $300/$600 PLO when both Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond and Isildur1 got it all in with the Dang brother pre-flop.

Dang managed to hit the perfect flop, making the bicycle straight, with neither player having two spades to complete what could have been a flopped flush. Not only did Dang flop the straight, but Isildur1 was left drawing dead and Galfond only had outs to chop.

Despite winning the largest pot of the weekend, Dang still finished with an overall loss of $150k. Galfond, who showed up on the losing end of 3 out of 5 of the weekend's largest pots, also booked a $238,466 loss.

Dwan's first serious match of the weekend came at $200/$400 No-Limit Hold'em where he lost $174k to Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo over 1,715 hands.

He was able to re-coup his losses in the next match he played, taking $230k from Patrik Antonius in the short 61-hand durrrr Challenge session. Thanks in part to this loss, Antonius finished the weekend down $923,567.

After a few small losses, all with a combined total of less than $25k, Dwan spent just 552 hands at the six-max $300/$600 PLO tables, making an impressive $707,785 before calling it quits.

In total, Dwan finished the weekend up over $797k.

Meanwhile, Isildur1 managed to have the best weekend results of all, posting a weekend profit of around $845k. Isildur1's first match came at $100/$200 NLHE against Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro. After losing over $87k, Isildur1 doubled the stakes, but lost another $144k in the process.

Moving to $200/$400 PLO against Dang, Isildur1 crushed the session, leaving up $550,456 after almost 4,000 hands.

Isildur1 carried his momentum into his next HU match, this time taking $284k from Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn at $300/$600 PLO.

Unfortunately, Isildur1 was unable to navigate the $300/$600 PLO six-max game, losing over $344k during his 521-hand stint.

After taking on Kelopuro once more, this time at $300/$600 NLHE, and making back over $220k, Isildur1 sat with Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies at $500/$1,000 PLO.

The two played 500 hands with Isildur1 making just under $200k before Sahamies logged off. His empty seat was filled by Brian Hastings who, at the time of publication, had lost $150k after 1,500 hands in a still ongoing match.

Up until press time, Isildur1 had made over $844k on the weekend. Check back tomorrow for the final results of the Isildur1 vs. Hastings nosebleed match.

Below are three of the weekend's largest pots. To see more hands from last night, head to MarketPulse.

The perfect flop for Dang.

Isildur1 bricks on the draw.

No suck-out here.

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durrrr Challenge: 61 Hands and $230k

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

When it comes to online poker results, Patrik Antonius is having the worst year of his life.

The 61-hand Challenge session came early on Friday night and became just the first hit Antonius would have to take before the weekend ran its course.

Much like the previous durrrr Challenge session, this one ended with Antonius losing a $184k pot and being felted him on one of the four tables.

Just like the previous session, Antonius chose not to re-load on the busted table, forcing an early end to the match.

The pot itself saw both players get it all in on the turn, with Dwan having flopped the nut straight. Antonius had a pair, a worse straight draw and two flush draws, but needless to say, the flush draws failed to come through on the river.

Although this session added $230,710 to Dwan's lead, putting him up just under $2 million, it did little to further the progress of the challenge itself with still over 16,000 hands left to play.

durrrr Challenge by the numbers:

274,109,409: Total amount wagered 183,031,272: Gross revenue made by the film Maverick worldwide 1,986,418: Amount durrrr is ahead 33,303: Hands played overall 230,710: Amount made by Dwan in the last session 25,000: Amount of debt owed by Worm (including juice) in Rounders 7,511: Amount of rake made by Full Tilt from the Challenge 106: Hours played in the challenge 67: Percentage of challenge completed

Below are the three largest hands from the Challenge session. To see more hand replays head to MarketPulse.

The hand that ended the session.

A setup turn.

Antonius can't catch a break.

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WSOP Brings Back Tournament of Champions

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0100

Shelved since 2006, the WSOP is bringing back the Tournament of Champions, putting up $1 million in a freeroll for the top 20 WSOP bracelet holders as voted by fans of the game.

"The Tournament of Champions brand has heritage in delivering the big moments," said Harrah's VP Ty Stewart. "We're thrilled to reinvent it around a model that should elevate the game by engaging millions of poker fans."

All 521 living WSOP bracelet holders will be eligible to receive votes for entry through a selection process on WSOP.com March 15 through June 15.

Finally, two sponsor exemptions will be awarded by the WSOP, with details still forthcoming on how those seats can be won.

"Tournaments like the Tournament of Champions help elevate poker to the level it deserves and I am honored to participate," said inaugural winner Annie Duke.

"Winning the Tournament of Champions marks one of the most memorable events in my poker career and I'm ecstatic that the WSOP is hosting this prestigious event."

The event will go off Sunday June 27 at the Rio, playing down to a final table of nine that will reconvene on Sunday, July 4 to play for a share of $1 million.

It will be filmed for broadcast on ESPN.

The Tournament of Champions began in 2004 after Harrah's took ownership of the World Series of Poker brand. In the inaugural event, ten top names were invited to participate in a winner-take-all freeroll.

In 2005, Matusow won an event with an expanded field of 114 entrants.

The last event last took place in 2006 at the Rio featuring 27 of the biggest names in the game.

This year, first place will pay $500,000, the runner-up gets $250,000, third place earns $100,000 and the fourth through ninth place finishers will earn $25,000 each.

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The Sunday Scoop: Moorman Wins The Brawl

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0100

The British pro, ranked #1 worldwide on PocketFives.com's list of online poker tournament players in 2009, added another six-figure score to his bankroll winning $109,620.00.

While he has yet to have a real breakthrough live, Moorman continues to dominate online, now sitting fifth in the on the respected PocketFives 2010 worldwide rankings.

It appeared to be a good day all around for pros on Full Tilt as Benjamin "TheStein" Zumani, who final tabled the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event earlier this year, made fourth in the Sunday Mulligan for $21,466.25.

Meanwhile, Full Tilt Pro David Pham made seventh in the $750k Guaranteed, cashing for $18,262.00.

However, the day's biggest score on Full Tilt was reserved for -zoopreme-, who took the $750k Guaranteed title and $140,577.70 from an event that drew 3,970.

Once again, the biggest tournament of the day was held over on PokerStars.

The Sunday Million drew 9,687 players creating a guarantee-breaking $1,937,400 prize pool.

A player calling himself Highway51 took home the most gold, cashing $271,241.22 for the victory.

But big name pros would not be shut out on PokerStars either, as Bryn "BrynKenney" Kenney won the Sunday 500 for $71,453.75, Tyler "puffinmypurp" Reiman made second in the $109 Rebuy for $62,569.32 and Joe "bigegypt" Elpayaa won the $215 Rebuy, defeating a final table that included James "mig.com" Mackey and Chad "lilholdem954" Batista.

Finally, a well known pro took down UB's biggest Sunday event as well.

Adam "AKAT11" Katz, a World Poker Tour final tablist, earned $47,607.56 by winning UB's $200k Guaranteed event, shining on a final table that also included Cliff "Johnnybax" Josephy.

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Poker News in Brief: March 8-14, 2010

Sun, 14 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Phil Hellmuth made his fourth WPT final table at the 2010 Bay 101 Shooting Star with a chance to win his first WPT title.

You can read more about the stunning conclusion of Bay 101 in our news section.

It wasn't all Hellmuth during the week, however, and as usual, PokerListings compiled some of the lesser-known poker stories in our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature.

This week we'll take a look at UB sponsoring a major Canadian tournament, PokerStars hosting the world's largest poker game and the upcoming Wynn Poker Classic main event.

UB Poker to Sponsor Poker Pro Canada Classic

UB Poker said no to the Caribbean and yes to Canada this week.

The online poker site cancelled its signature tournament in Aruba, but announced it is becoming one of the key sponsors of the Four Aces Poker Pro Canada Classic in Montreal.

Taking place April 15-18, the $1,650 buy-in tournament will now feature UB Poker pros Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke.

UB will be sending over 50 players from its site to the tournament in satellites that start at just $11.

To learn more or qualify for the tournament check out the UB site here.

Wynn Classic Main Event Kicks Off Tomorrow

The Wynn Classic poker series, which began Feb. 25, is scheduled to culminate with the $5,000 main event this Monday at noon PT.

The series has already seen a couple of notable pros take down side events including Justin Young winning the $500 H.O.R.S.E. event and Chris Bjorn taking down the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em event.

Scott Clements and Bryan Devonshire also finished runner-up in two events.

Now in its fourth year of existence the Wynn Classic has crowned Chris Moore, Zachary Hyman and Keith Ferrara as champions in previous years.

This year's Main Event will run three days with the final table playing out on Wednesday.

$1 million in Prizes as Gladiator Continues

The Gladiator promotion on PartyPoker is off to a hot start and organizers are estimating players could potentially earn over $1 million by taking part.

"The Gladiator is off to a mightily powerful start and we forecast over $1 million in prizes based on the first week's activity," said a PartyPoker spokesman.

"It still isn't too late to get involved though - there is still plenty of time to win some great cash rewards. If a customer earns 2,000 points a day for the remaining 20 days of the promotion they will pick up a cool $5,000."

The Gladiator runs from March 3 to April 1 on PartyPoker and any player that earns a minimum of 10 PartyPoints each day will gain entry into $10,000 freeroll.

To learn more about the Gladiator promo visit the PartyPoker website.

PokerStars Hosts World's Biggest Poker Game

PokerStars held one of the more unusual events related to poker this week.

The online poker room hosted what site representatives are calling, "The world's largest poker game."

The title doesn't refer to number of players or the prizepool - it refers to the size of the chips and cards being played with.

The event featured English rugby stars James Haskell, Ben Foden and Delon Armitage pushing massive shoulder-high chips around a field.

PokerStars is the official gaming and casino partner of the English Rugby team and the entire event was filmed as a promo for the site.

You can check out the clip here.

International Poker Network Upgrades Software

The International Poker Network, which includes poker room's bwin, BetClic and Paradise Poker, released an improved poker client this week.

The software update allows players to pick their own seats and the ability to use the same wallet for poker and casino.

"Being able to choose your own seat at the table may seem like a small thing to some," said Wendy Lawrence of GTECH G2, the software provider for IPN, "But we design everything from the player's perspective, so when players told us this is a feature they'd like to see, we built it in.

IPN recently celebrated its three millionth member and its two billionth hand. The network also awarded a €601,370 bad beat jackpot last fall.

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Weekly Freerolls: $7k in Two Days

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

The following freerolls are open to all PokerListings.com players. Qualify in the specified qualification period, then take your seat to win a boatload of free cash.

If you're not a PL.com registered player on any of the following sites, click on the site's name in the list to sign up. Getting your free seat in the tournament can be just as simple as that.

Party Poker

Be sure to have collected 100 points in February for your seat in the next $2,000 Party Poker freeroll.

Date: Mar. 13 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 100 points Qualify between: Feb. 1 - Feb. 28

Betfair Poker

Open to all new PokerListings.com players who signed up in February, or any existing players who earned 10 points before March 1st.

Date: Mar. 14 Value: $3,000 Qualify with: 10 points

Sportsbook Poker

The next $2,000 Monthly freeroll is almost here, buy in with just 200 points.

Date: Mar. 14 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 200 points

Pacific Poker

Weekly freeroll for new depositing players only.

Date: Mar. 16 Value: $500 Qualify with: Deposit and play

bwin Poker

Monthly freerolls for all PokerListings players on the site. Just 50 pts to qualify.

Date: Mar. 19 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 25 points Qualify between: Dec. 1- Mar. 19

Titan Poker

All PokerListings players are welcome to earn their seats in the next quarterly $15k freeroll from Titan Poker. Just 750 points to qualify.

Date: Mar. 28 Value: $15,000 Qualify with: 750 points
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Karr Comes Back for Bay 101 Win

Sat, 13 Mar 2010 03:00:00 +0100

Karr, a U.S. Air Force Academy Applied Math and Statistics grad turned poker player who found his way into the event through a $1,200 satellite said it was at least the second biggest moment of his life.

"It's a close call, I think when I finally graduated from the Air Force Academy and the Thunderbirds came rolling over and we threw our hats in the air and said, "You can't take this diploma back now, I made it," that was pretty close and a bigger sigh of relief," he said.

"Here I was still going to be a big winner even if I came second. It was still going to be my biggest cash ever, but obviously this is really cool. I can't even express to you how happy I am. I don't even think I'll realize for another few days."

Although he was once the shortest stack left in the event, Karr, 28, said he never gave up hope.

"I definitely thought it was possible," he said. "But it was definitely a long shot. I've played a lot of tournaments and there have been times where I've gotten down really short and came back, so I knew it was possible.

"I knew it was going to be an uphill battle against this field though. There were a lot of great players."

In fact, when the final six began Friday afternoon, one of the biggest names in the game donned the marquee at Bay 101.

However, the lights on Phil Hellmuth's tournament were turned off fairly quickly.

The 11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner lost the first few pots he played and before long, found himself all in with queens against chip leader Andy Seth's A♣ J♣.

The king-high flop kept Hellmuth safe, but he had a sweat when a ten on the turn gave Seth two more outs to a straight.

The crowd sat on the edge of their seats expecting a Hellmuth double up, but were suddenly shocked into silence when an ace fell on the river sending him out.

Hellmuth stared blankly at the board before standing up, walking to the rail and falling to his knees in anguish.

He cupped his head in his hands and kneeled on the floor in the fetal position rocking back and forth for several minutes before finally getting up, letting the WPT TV crew interview him and signing Seth's new, "I busted Phil Hellmuth," t-shirt.

After a few minutes, he walked off the WPT stage, unlucky for the fourth time, with a smile and a wave to the crowd chanting his name.

After Hellmuth's emotional exit in sixth, Seth appeared to be cruising before Karr bluffed him off an 800k pot and the chip lead with a big river bet on an ace-high board forcing a fold.

It was the moment Karr really thought winning was possible.

"It gave me that confidence that I can knock heads with the best of them here," he said. "It was like, 'Let's play some cards.'"

WSOP bracelet winner Matt Keikoan was the next player out, running ace-seven into Andy Seth's pocket nines.

He was soon followed to the rail by Hasan Habib, who committed his chips with a flush draw against Karr's flopped trips and was sent home fourth from his third WPT final table when Karr turned a full house.

A short stacked Dan O'Brien then stepped out of the way third, running jack-deuce into Karr's sevens and Karr took a better than 2:1 lead into heads up with Seth.

Seth soon doubled with jack-nine versus ace-four when he flopped two pair and before long he pulled even.

As the clock struck 2 a.m. PT it began to look as though the sun might rise before a champion would be crowned in San Jose.

However, Seth pushed with fours soon after. Karr called with eights and after a board of blanks, the $878,500 first-place prize was his.

"I got a little bit of luck and picked some good spots and, wow, here I am," he said.

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Hellmuth Headlines Bay 101 Final

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 14:30:00 +0100

One of poker's biggest names will dawn the marquee in San Jose as Phil Hellmuth Jr. will come in second in chips in an attempt to win his first WPT title.

The 11-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner will be making his third WPT final table and a comeback of sorts, having admitted 2009 was his worst year in poker.

"I've been working really hard on my game," Hellmuth told PokerListings. "It feels really good. I'm really happy and I'm pleased with the way I'm playing."

Daniel Negreanu recently criticized Hellmuth, claiming the Poker Brat wasn't taking the necessary steps to improve his game in an ever changing poker landscape.

However, Hellmuth now says he's been working with players like Brandon Cantu, Ted Forrest and David "The Maven" Chicotsky to adjust.

A plan that appears to have worked out here at Bay 101.

"We've been talking about some of the Internet kids and their techniques and how they're playing," he said. "They seem to be very mathematical. Everything is about the math.

"And I've been learning because I have to figure out how they're playing and devise a strategy to beat them."

Armed with a better understanding of what the players around him are up to, Hellmuth will head into the final table confident and ready to get to work.

"I think I have a great chance if my reads stay strong," he said. "But I've still got a lot of work left."

Now, he says even his biggest critic has changed his tune.

"Daniel's in my corner now," he said. "He likes the fact that I'm trying some new school stuff."

However, it's still going to take all Hellmuth has to get past a final six with a combination of experience, youthful exuberance and poker skill.

Andy Seth, the runner-up in one of the many $1,500 events at the WSOP this past summer with a list of online poker accomplishments a mile long will come in with the chip lead and a reputation as the player whose been giving Hellmuth the most headaches thus far.

Plus, after an 11th place finish here last year and a ninth in Biloxi earlier this season, Dan O'Brien will finally get a crack at a big score here and has the chips to make some real noise.

Despite having played with the poise of a veteran pro, turning his short stack into a big one on the event's penultimate day, McLean Karr has just a few preliminary cashes around the circuit on his resume.

However, a recent run all the way to 62nd in the inaugural PokerStars NAPT Las Vegas and a boatload of online experience have set the U.S. Air Force Academy Applied Math and Statistics grad turned poker player on the edge of something rather large here in the Bay Area.

In the meantime, Hasan Habib will come in to his third WPT final table fifth in chips. He has yet to book a win, but does have five final tables at the WSOP and a bracelet there, proving he knows how to get it done.

Matt Keikoan has also won at the WSOP and took down the WSOP Circuit event in Lake Tahoe last year. After a seventh and a ninth on the WPT over the past few years, he will enter his first final table as the short stack.

Known for the loudest fans on tour, San Jose will be treated to a final filled with big names and dramatic story lines destined to go down as one of the most exciting in World Poker Tour history.

Action will begin at 4 p.m. PT. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

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Isildur1 Drops $1.8 Million In a Day

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 12:30:00 +0100

The unknown Swede's session started by turning around a heads-up $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha session against CardRunners pro Cole South, going from down over $300k after 133 hands to up $557,896 after 952 hands of play.

Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo, who has been playing heads-up Hold'em with Isildur1 almost daily, took $101k from the Swede after just over 300 hands of $200/$400 No-Limit Hold'em, but was unable to hold on to it losing back $622,648 a couple hours later.

Bonomo would leave the tables down $521,566 last night.

Tom "durrrr" Dwan, who has been in the process of making a massive comeback since his brutal losses at the end of 2009, would be next on Isildur1's hit-list, but after 888 hands of $300/$600 PLO Dwan managed to pull off a massive $1,021,995 win, almost entirely negating Isildur1's profit for the day.

Dwan's million dollar profit moves him to first place for profit in 2010 with over $3.3 million earned so far at Full Tilt.

Next up, Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond continued the heads-up $200/$400 NLHE session started by Bonomo, making just over $57k after 1,482 hands.

The two then agreed to move the game to $300/$600 PLO where they remained for 2,182 hands, moving up to $500/$1,000 after Isildur1 got stuck for over $254k.

Galfond turned up the heat at $500/$1,000, absolutely crushing Isildur1 for over $1.6 million across the action-filled 2,064 hand session.

In total, the two played 8 pots worth over $300k, the largest of which came in at $415,999.

By the end of the day, Isildur1 had lost $1.9 million exclusively to Galfond, booking a massive $1.8 million dollar loss on the day.

Below are three of yesterday's largest pots. To see more hands from last night, head to MarketPulse.

Isildur1 spikes one of his 7 outs.

A brutal call by Isildur1.

A bluff gone wrong.

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EPT Berlin Robbery Revelations

Thu, 11 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0100

"I think it's completely irresponsible to start playing again," he told PokerListings approximately 90 minutes after the robbery. "This is the most important moment in my poker career. We're playing for €1 million here, and you think, after a raid like this, you just sit back at the table and play?

"After an incident like this, everybody should get some time to sleep over this and to calm down. Tell me, how many people are expected to get back to work the same day they were held at gunpoint? Is there any other job in the world where you would do that?"

Officials from the PokerStars European Poker Tour now claim the robbery involved four armed men targeting the registration desk outside the tournament area at the Grand Hyatt Hotel at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz. No shots were fired and nobody was seriously injured.

Despite German tabloid reports to the contrary, the EPT says approximately €240,000 was stolen and the men were armed with a handgun and a machete, not Kalashnikov assault rifles or hand grenades.

The suspects quickly fled after a security guard intervened and remain at-large as the police investigation continues.

The tournament resumed after a few hours and was eventually won by MacPhee, a 29-year-old poker pro from Idaho.

A few days after the incident, MacPhee said he understood why organizers decided to play on and praised their efforts to piece together the action in the event after the robbery.

"Obviously it worked out for me, but at the time I was upset about continuing," he said. "I still think they should have consulted with the players more. Although most of them wanted to play, I think some were affected by the incident psychologically."

In response to MacPhee's comments, I.A. Tanj Mayer from the Spielbank Casino, where the event was held, said since no one was seriously hurt within the tournament hall, tournament organizers came to the decision to continue with the main event and this decision was met with approval by the players.

Meanwhile, in recent statements to the German press, Head of the German Police Federation Rainer Wendt has claimed the suspects were "petty criminals" acting "chaotically and amateurishly."

He also says they left "mountains of clues" behind and police will catch them "very quickly."

However, Wendt was also slightly critical of members of the private security firm hired by the EPT for showing up unarmed and undermaned.

The EPT claims it maintains strict security standards and collaborates closely with the local tournament organizers to insure the safety of its players.

And Mayer says the outcome in this particlar incident was not as serious as it could have been, thanks to the prompt response of tournament security, which was suitable for a tournament of this size.

"All EPT-events, which have now been taking place in various European countries for six years, adhere to strict safety standards," he said. "These standards are also respected during the EPT itself. In our capacity as the event organizers, we have done everything in our power to ensure the smooth running of the EPT.

"We had professionally trained and experienced security personnel in an adequate quantity who were watching the access to the tournament area."

Mayer said he was satisfied with the work of the security team on the premises.

"Our security team reacted in a calm and measured manner, in complete accordance with their qualified professional training," he said.

A statement from the tour says because of the events at EPT Berlin, it will enhance security measures at all future events.

The next event for the tour is the EPT Snowfest at the Alpine Palace in Austria from March 21-26.

In the meantime, police are asking anyone who has information, video footage or photographs that might aid the investigation to contact them at:

The police president of Berlin
Police Press Office
Platz der Luftbrücke 6
12101 Berlin
Email: pressedienst@polizei.berlin.de

- With files from Dirk Oetzmann

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Hometown Hero Takes Hold at Bay 101

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:00:00 +0100

Faraz "The-Toilet" Jaka picked up the game in the dorms at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign while earning a degree in economics and business management.

He soon started playing live here at Bay 101 when he was at home and online while at school, quickly taking to the game, booking massive scores and winning packages to play in high-stakes events all over the world.

However, a year and a half of following the PokerStars European Poker Tour and his first half a dozen shots at WPT glory did not bear even a single cash.

Then suddenly, one year ago right here at home, things turned around in a big way.

He booked his first WPT cash at the 2009 Bay 101 Shooting Star before moving on to make third at the hotly contested 2009 World Series of Poker $5k Six-Max event.

Then, when Jaka finished second at the Bellagio Cup this past summer and third at December's Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, he took the lead in the World Poker Tour's Player of the Year race and hasn't given it up yet.

Add in a final table appearance at the inaugural PokerStars North American Poker Tour's $25k High Roller Bounty Shootout and the San Jose native has cashed for almost $2 million in live tournaments over the past 12 months.

"It's kind of ironic, considering I played so many of these tournaments and then all of the sudden I start doing really well, but it's really just variance," he said. "Obviously I'm constantly improving a little bit, but I don't think there's been anything drastic."

Despite the rough start, having played thousands of tournaments earning over $1 million online before he ever stepped foot on the high-stakes live tournament stage, a 24-year-old Jaka says his confidence never wavered.

"I always thought I was good enough to be at the top of these things and win a few," he said. "It's always been just a matter of time."

Now in the midst of the kind of successful run that would turn even the most seasoned pro green with envy, he's still missing one thing: A major tournament victory.

"I'm definitely ready for a win," he said. "It's frustrating getting second and third so I'm definitely hungry."

Yet he seems to understand opportunities like this won't last forever.

"I'm obviously running amazing this year and it's not going to keep going, I understand that," he said.

In the end, Jaka's just hoping to keep playing his best and let the chips fall where they may, especially here at home.

"This is my hometown," he said. "So this tournament is a little more personal for me. I grew up playing here. It brings back so many memories and I still recognize so many of the dealers here from like four or five years ago.

"It would be really nice to do well here."

Action at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star continues through March 12. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

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Isildur1 Ships $1.5 Million

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 12:30:00 +0100

With Hastings having won $4.2 million in a single session against Isildur1, and South having the best year of his life so far, the odds seemed slim for Isildur1 to have much of a chance if he returned to the biggest games on Full Tilt.

To the surprise of many, he did come back just a couple months after his crushing defeat, and has begun to steamroll his way back to the top.

For Isildur1, yesterday's session began with a 1,114 hand $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha match against South, ending with Isildur1 up $240,779.

Hoping to expedite his comeback, South chose to step up the heads-up match to $300/$600 PLO, but only managed to lose another $401,733 over 566 hands.

With South's hole growing deeper by the second, Hastings logged on to try and get one back for the CardRunners team. After 811 hands of $300/$600 PLO, Hastings himself booked a $250k loss before moving the game to the nosebleed stakes: $500/$1,000.

After 1,356 hands of furious action, Hastings threw in the towel down another $581,954.

Up next for Isildur1 came another re-match against Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo at $200/$400 No-Limit Hold'em. Across the two-and-a-half-hour 2,386-hand Hold'em match, Isildur1 took another $101k before Bonomo took his leave.

After losing $31k to NEKOTYAN over just six hands of $200/$400 PLO, Isildur1 went on to make another $154k at the $200/$400 Cap-PLO tables.

His day would end on the downswing, starting with a $30k loss to skjervoy at $100/$200 PLO before he sat across from South once more, this time losing back $354,008 over 133 hands of $500/$1,000.

In total, Isildur1 booked a more than $1.5 million profit, add that to the $572,746 he made Monday and everyone's favorite mystery Swede is quickly working his way to the top of the 2010 profit leaderboard.

In fact, he is currently sitting in second place behind Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn on around $2.8 million.

South, thanks to his $354k win at the end of the night, managed to keep his losses to only $309,215, while Hastings took a hit of over $832k.

Below are three of the largest pots from yesterdays matches, to see more head to MarketPulse.

Just the nuts.

Hastings saved by the river.

I guess this was a semi-bluff.

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UB Cancels Aruba Poker Classic

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:30:00 +0100

A statement from Tokwiro CEO Paul Leggett says the online poker rooms also has plans to develop a monthly $500k Guaranteed Tournament with an eye on building it into a million-dollar event, create more pro-related competitions and run its UB Online Championship twice a year.

"It is with great regret that we are announcing that the Aruba event will not run this year, but 2010 is going to be an exciting year for UB and its players," said Leggett. "Over the last year, we've been redefining the UB brand in every way. We love the Aruba Poker Classic event, but we think we can do a lot more for our players by investing in new events and rewards."

UB will continue to offer players access to events like the World Series of Poker and major World Poker Tour events through ongoing online satellites.

Players will also see benefits in the form of major WSOP incentives and additional loyalty benefits for top players.

"I, for one, am excited about what this shift in focus means for UB and what this will add to the experience for our players," said Joe Sebok.

The 2009 Aruba Poker Classic drew 475 players to the Caribbean island creating a $2,303,750 prize pool. Brandon Hall took the title after a heads up chop with then chip leader Robert Mizrachi, giving Mizrachi the lion's share of the cash.

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Titan Poker Upgrades Software

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0100

Titan Poker launched the new 9.6 version of its online poker software this week featuring a host of new features and functionalities.

Included are an updated Flash version compatible for Mac users, Razz games and five additional languages, including Czech, Greek, Hungarian, Portuguese and Romanian.

The site also unveiled a radically revamped website, sleek new brand logo and the Titan Poker Academy, a comprehensive poker strategy guide providing valuable insights for both beginner and veteran players on odds calculations, money management, positioning, bluffing and more.

With nearly 30,000 online players at peak hours, Titan Poker has grown into the number one online poker room in Europe.

The site guarantees $16,000,000 in monthly prizes, features special sit 'n' go tournaments with progressive jackpots as high as $100,000, and awards players with entries to major worldwide poker tournaments.

Click the banner below for more information on the changes at Titan Poker.

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Bounty Hunting at Bay 101

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:30:00 +0100

Created by Bay 101 owner Marko Trapani 14 years ago, tournament director Matt Savage says the concept was based on the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am, which draws some of the best golfers in the world, a host of celebrities and thousands of spectators to the Northern California coast every year.

Trapani's original plan was to try and draw the world's best rounders to a fan and player friendly $1k buy-in event in the Bay Area.

When it first started, the bounties were a bunch of Trapani's friends, but it slowly grew and when the World Poker Tour came along seven years later, Savage says they bumped up the buy-in and had a perfect fit.

"It's great for TV and the fans because it's a really unique tournament," he said. "With the $5k bounties, $10k for the chip leader at the end of the first day and six-handed play with 36 left, it's unlike any other tournament in poker."

Unique tournament structures also make for unique tournament strategies.

"Some people chase the bounties," Savage said. "The local players sometimes are just out here to get the bounties. They think, 'Hey, I won my way in through a $200 satellite, now I have the chance to pick up five thousand,' so they might make a loose call.

"That's why one or two of the shooting stars make the final table every year, because people are going after them and if they pick up chips, they're tough to get."

Team UB Pro Brandon Cantu loves the format and actually won the event in 2009, collecting a record six bounties on his way to the title.

"This is one of my favorite tournaments," he said. "And I actually do hunt the bounties. It's nice to try and get the buy-in back, so I'm really a fan of going after the bounties."

Cantu went wire-to-wire in 2008, taking the chip lead on his Day 1 and the $10k prize it came with.

He says that's the kind of thing that really makes the event fun to play and keeps the fans on the rail entertained throughout.

"I was actually going for it," he said. "When I was 8,000 behind late in the day, I really went for it. I wanted it."

What Cantu didn't enjoy was being a bounty for the first time last year.

"People played really differently against me," he said. "It seemed like they were up to no good all the time and it just changed my whole mindset.

"I didn't know where I was in a hand as much as I usually do. I didn't like it."

Phil Laak has a bounty on his head and says it changes just about everything.

"I love it, but it really sucks as a bounty when your chip stack starts diminishing," he said. "You are forced to get real hands, because people are going to call you down, often correctly.

"But it is nice when you have some chips, because people are going to take some incorrect lines to try and chase you."

Like it or not, with a rail full of fans watching the biggest names in the game here in San Jose this week, Trapani's plan has worked.

Action at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star continues through March 12. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

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durrrr Challenge: Antonius in Trouble

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0100

Other than four hands on Saturday (where Dwan lost $1,000) the durrrr Challenge picked up where it left off on February 15th with an hour-long 364 hand session Monday.

The session started with Antonius in the midst of an epic down-swing which has cost him over $3.2 million so far this year.

Three pots worth over $100k played out, the largest of which saw Dwan win $213k after hitting one of his many outs on the turn to beat Antonius' kings.

The pot, which felted Antonius at one of their four challenge tables, appeared to be the last straw for the Finnish pro, who ended the session down $306,558.

With Dwan's lead now over $1.7 million, Antonius has just 16,758 hands to get out of the hole, or he will lose the challenge, along with an extra $500k.

If we assume that all remaining Challenge sessions will be exactly 364 hands - the length of this most recent session - Antonius would have to profit an average of $38,135 over 48 sessions to get back to even.

For Antonius to pull this off, he would have to average $104.77 profit per hand for the remainder of the challenge.

durrrr Challenge by the numbers:

273,423,095: Total amount wagered 118,000,000: Number of Google search results for the term Poker 1,755,708: Amount durrrr is ahead 33,242: Hands played overall 342,157: Amount made by Dwan in the last session 258,000: Number of Google search results for the term "durrrr Challenge" 7,501: Amount of rake made by Full Tilt from the Challenge 105: Hours played in the challenge 66: Percentage of challenge completed 8: Number of Google search results for the phrase "cork it durrrrballs"

Below are the two largest hands from the Challenge session. To see more hand replays head to MarketPulse.

He was hoping for the flush, but two-pair will do.

Interesting runner-runner.

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Isildur1 Steps on Sahamies

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 12:30:00 +0100

Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies would be the first player to take on the unknown Swedish pro.

After 451 hands of $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha, with Sahamies losing over $487k, the two moved their game to $500/$1,000 PLO, where they remained for 40 minutes.

By the end of the 259-hand nosebleed session, Sahamies logged off, down another $290,965.

With Sahamies gone, Isildur1 went on the hunt for his next opponent, finding him in Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo. The two played $200/$400 NLHE for 791 hands with Bonomo finishing up $187k.

Looking to bounce back after that NLHE loss, Isildur1 took on the CardRunners team, playing both Cole South and Brian Hastings heads-up at the same time.

Despite starting the year off with a white-hot streak of wins, South lost $334k over his 825 hands, while Hastings made $330k over a shorter 224-hand match, all at $300/$600 PLO.

Hastings, who holds the online record for most money made in a single session after crushing Isildur1 for $4.2 million on Full Tilt late in 2009, tried to repeat his feat, convincing Isildur1 to move their game back up to $500/$1,000, where they played for another 468 hands.

Although Hastings was unable to make anything close to $4.2 million, he came away from the nosebleed session with another $219k, up over half a million total on the day.

After some small sessions at smaller stakes games, Isildur1 sat for his final heads-up sessions, giving South a chance to get even on the day.

After 565 hands of $100/$200 PLO, and South getting himself suck another $222k, the two doubled the stakes, finishing their session with 344 hands at $200/$400.

Although he wasn't able to get completely out of the hole, South managed to make back $77,958 before the end of the match.

In total, Isildur1 added $572,746 to his roll, putting him up well over $1 million in 2010 so far.

Below you can find Isildur1's three largest hands of the day. To see more hands from Isildur1, including the $1.3 million dollar largest-ever online pot, head to MarketPulse.

Ziigmund, drawing to 6.

Omaha is definitely a drawing game.

A brutal turn for Isildur1.

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Women’s World Open Dates Confirmed

Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0100

The PartyPoker.com Women's World Open IV will take place in London, England March 23 and 24 featuring 24 of the best female poker players on the planet.

Amongst those already confirmed to take part are Team PartyPoker's Kara Scott, Betfair pro Annette Obrestad, Women's World Open III winner Aisling Collins and runner-up Wooka Kim.

Also scheduled to play are Laurence Grondin, Shelley Rubenstein, Stefanie Bergener, Maria Demetriou, Christine Klecz, Pippa Flanders and season two winner Soraya Homam.

The $3,000 buy-in will create a $72,000 prize pool for the tournament. The event's format dictates that the top two players from each of the three deep-stacked eight handed heats carry their chips through to a six-handed final table.

"Last year Aisling proved that Britain's got talent, but the same can be said about Japan in the form of Wooka Kim," said a PartyPoker spokesperson. "Both will be strong contenders for the title this year. We've made the stacks deeper and the competition is just as fierce."

Matchroom Sport director Eddie Hearn said he's looking forward to the action.

"The PartyPoker.com Women's World Open has proved extremely popular with players, viewers and broadcasters over the last three seasons," he said. "As the game continues to grow, we have made a number of changes to our formats that enables the viewers to watch a deeper-stacked game with more skill, where players can really showcase their ability and flair."

Commentary for the TV broadcast will be provided by Jesse May, with presenting duties shared between Kara Scott and Tatjana Pasilic. Coverage of the event will first be broadcast on Five in the UK later this year and then distributed internationally.

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Women Rule the Day at Bay 101

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:30:00 +0100

After all, Bay 101 has seen deeper runs by women than any other venue on the World Poker Tour.

At the 2007 edition of the popular bounty event, Joanne Liu made runner-up to Ted Forrest in an attempt to become the WPT's first female champion.

Then last year, veteran pro Kathy Liebert matched the feat, finishing second to 2009 champion Steve Brecher.

Liebert's runner-up finish helped push her up and over $5.6 million in career tournament earnings, making her far and away the number one earning female poker player of all time.

Being the number one female player in the game is not exactly the reason Liebert plays, but it's certainly an honor she cherishes.

"Being a top poker player is more important to me than being a top female poker player," she said. "But being the top woman in poker is something I'm proud of. There are a lot of women trying to catch up to me."

One of the women chasing Liebert is two-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner and respected high-stakes cash game pro Jennifer Harman.

Though Harman, who currently sits fifth on the all-time female money list and made the final table at Bay 101 in 2008 finishing third, really sees herself as just one of the boys.

"I look at myself as a poker player," she explained. "I don't believe in the whole gender thing because this is a co-ed sport.

"You shouldn't get kudos for being a woman or a man, you should get kudos for being a great poker player and that's all."

International Women's Day is about celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women past.

But even as women like Liu, Liebert and Harman continue to achieve in poker, it appears many men on the felt refuse to treat them as equals.

"I think some men treat women with no respect at the table and some men treat women with too much respect," said Harman. "For me, since I'm like old furniture in this business, they just treat me the same as anybody else. They don't play any differently against me because I'm a woman, but I know with some women they do."

Regardless, Harman, who booked her first major cash in a poker tournament 16 years ago, says the game is changing all the time and more women are flocking to it every day.

"When I first started, I would walk into a poker room and there would be me," she said. "Now you walk into a poker room and there are one or two women at every table.

"I think it's grown and it will continue to grow. A lot of women are still intimidated, but I know they enjoy the game and they want to do it, they just need to take that next step, because poker can be a lot of fun."

Liebert says she feels a lot of love and support from female fans of the game, many of whom she sees following her lead.

"I always have women coming up to me and telling me they are rooting for me," she said. "And they feel like if I'm a woman and I can do it they can do it to."

Action at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star continues through March 12. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

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Isildur1 and Dwan Crush the Weekend

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:30:00 +0100

The first big session for Dwan came Saturday evening when he sat for 413 hands of heads-up $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha against Isildur1.

Dwan left the session up $81k, logging off for the night.

Eight hours later, before dawn on Sunday, Dwan sat for 360 hands of $300/$600 PLO against Patrik Antonius and PixKim.

By the end of that four-and-a-half-hour session, Dwan had massed over $624k in profit, the majority coming from the quickly floundering Antonius.

After the $81k loss to Dwan, Isildur1 went on a series of swings.

First he made back $79k of his losses, then dumped another $177,990 at $200/$400 Cap PLO.

He was soon back on the up-swing, however, making $64k from Cole South heads-up before meeting up with Dwan again, this time at a six-max $300/$600 PLO game.

The six-max game saw hours of furious action between Isildur1, Dwan, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, Hac "trex313" Dang, Patrik Antonius and others.

And despite playing against some of the most prolific players in the world, Isidlur1 left after 1,689 hands with a profit of $517,223.

Dwan took a $229k loss at the same game, Sahamies nearly broke even losing just $10k, Dang made away with $119k and Patrik Antonius took a massive hit, losing over $874,000.

After breaking the six-max game, Isildur1 moved on to play a couple of cap games, losing $18k at $200/$400 Cap PLO and making around $90k from LarsLuzak at $500/$1,000 Cap No-Limit Hold'em.

The unknown Swede went on to make another $83k from Triko at $200/$400 PLO, and after just ten hands of heads-up $200/$400 PLO against Sahamies, called it quits.

By the end of the weekend Isildur1 had made $526,083, bringing his total profit for the year up to around $915,000.

Meanwhile, Dwan put in two more heads-up sessions and a couple small Cap PLO sessions before logging off.

His first heads-up match resulted in a $76k to LarsLuzak after 222 hands of $500/$1,000 Cap NLHE.

But Dwan turned it around in his final heads-up match of the weekend, taking another $306k from Antonius, this time over 344 hands of $300/$600 PLO.

All toll, Dwan finished the weekend with a massive profit of $856,489, bringing him up to around $1.7 million profit for the year so far.

Antonius came out of the weekend as the biggest loser by far, finishing stuck over $960k bringing his losses in 2010 up to $2.8 million in so far.

Below are three of the largest hands from the weekend, to see more head to MarketPulse.

Isildur1 hit the crap out of that flop

I like how 3256 wins this pot.

Antonius really needs to start running better.

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Duke Dominates in NBC Heads-Up Win

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0100

"I'm so excited to win such a prestigious event and join the likes of Huck Seed, Chris Ferguson and Phil Hellmuth as Heads-Up Champion," said Duke, who became the first-ever woman to win the NBC Heads-Up title.

"I came into this tournament really focused and it feels great to finally break through in this event."

The road to victory at Caesars Palace was not an easy one for the UB sponsored pro. She beat 2008 runner-up Andy Bloch in the first round before getting past 2009 WSOP Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon in the round of 32.

Next up was 2007 champion Paul Wasicka who looked to have the best of Duke when she was all in with ace-ten against his pocket aces at one point. Miraculously, Duke went runner-runner to make a straight, take the lead and eventually move on.

"I would have loved all of my matches to be easy," said Duke. "I'm sure (Producer) Mori (Eskandani) is happy though, because it's going to give the show some serious drama.

"One thing's for sure, I can never complain about bad beats again after hitting that runner-runner king-queen against Paul Wasicka."

In the end, Duke beat eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel in the best-of-three final to bank the $500,000 first-place prize.

"Annie was my number one pick to win," said Seidel. "She played very tough. She had no fear. She really played the way you're supposed to play in this sort of structure."

A mother of four, Duke took some time off from her career as a professional poker player to film The Celebrity Apprentice last season.

Now she says a little time away from the game did her a world of good.

"I know what my main priority is and that's my family, so I'm never going to play as much poker as everyone else, but it's really nice to come back with a bang," she said. "I took the time off, I readjusted and now I've had some good results."

Vanessa Rousso made runner-up at the Heads-Up Championship in 2009, the deepest finish by a woman in the event before this year.

Duke said it's great to see so many female poker players rising to the top.

"I think it's great that a woman came in second last year and a woman finished first this year to really represent woman players," she said. "There are some great female poker players out there."

NBC's coverage of the 64-person event will air Sunday's at 12 p.m. ET beginning April 18 through May 23.

- With files from Matthew Showell

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The Sunday Scoop: West Books Second Chance Win

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:00:00 +0100

West, who has close to $900k in live tournament earnings over the past four years, banked $51,853.44 for the win.

But he wasn't the only well know pro to post some big numbers Sunday.

Jordan "Octavian_C" Rich won the $215 H.O.R.S.E. on PokerStars beating a field of 143 players while Tyler "puffinmypurp" Reiman, runner-up at the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, final tabled the $109 Rebuy taking sixth.

Once again, the PokerStars Sunday Million was the biggest draw on an action-heavy Sunday with 10,123 players helping create a $2,024,600 prize pool, smashing the $1.5 million guarantee.

MAE9690 got the lion's share of a four-way chop at the top and went on to secure the victory and the extra $30k the players had reserved for the winner.

In all, MAE9690 added $260k to his online bankroll, earning just shy of the $283,449.40 he would have won had no deal been made.

In the meantime, Full Tilt Poker's $750k Guaranteed drew a considerably less 4,180 players with shiftzerg taking down the $147,629.24 first-place prize.

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MacPhee Wins Robbery-Delayed EPT Berlin

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:00:00 +0100

The 29-year-old from Idaho beat Finnish player Ilari Tahkokallio heads-up to take down the largest poker tournament in German history and its massive €1 million first prize.

A star in the online game that broke the PokerStars record for most Tournament Leader Board points in April 2008, accruing more than $100,000 in profits that month, MacPhee has previously played in 15 European Poker Tour events, satelliting in through PokerStars for 14 of them.

He was one of 243 players who won their seats online to EPT Berlin, but until now a big score had eluded him.

"Winning an EPT was a real goal of mine," he said." I have worked very hard for this. It feels awesome."

A total of 945 players from 48 countries entered the €5,300 Main Event creating a total prize pool of €4,725,000.

EPT Berlin was interrupted on the event's penultimate day when armed robbers stormed the registration desk outside the tournament area at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.

No one was seriously injured and the suspects fled after a security guard intervened. The tournament resumed after a few hours and a police investigation is continuing.

Next up for the EPT is EPT Snowfest set for March 21-26 in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria.

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Poker News in Brief: March 1-7, 2010

Sun, 07 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0100

Between the LAPC and WPT Invitational winners, Isildur1 getting busy online and the start of the NBC National Heads-Up Championship there was nary a dull moment for poker fans.

As usual, we’re going to list some of the poker stories you might have missed as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature.

This week we’re going to take a look at online gambling in Iowa, a WSOP all-star game, Roland de Wolfe winning a London tournament and more.

Legal Online Gambling in Iowa?

Iowa is the latest U.S. state apparently looking at legalizing online gambling.

Rep. Doug Struyk of Council Bluffs told the Quad City Times that 50,000 people in Iowa already participate in online gambling and the government could provide better protection for them if the industry was legalized and regulated.

Struyk’s proposal would regulate the practice through the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.

If the proposal goes through Iowa would become the first state in the country to allow online gambling.

Tiger Woods Turns Down Paddy Poker Deal

Many of Tiger Woods major sponsors have dropped him since his sex scandal broke but at least one online poker room seems to have no problem with the golfer.

Ireland-based Paddy Power Poker reportedly offered the disgraced sports star a five-year deal worth $75 million to represent the site.

Although Woods has already turned the offer down, Paddy Power Poker has claimed it is planning on coming back with an even better offer in the future.

It’s not the first time a poker organization has offered a deal to a fallen sports star. Last summer the Asian Poker Tour invited Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps to its Macau event.

A picture of Phelps holding a bong surfaced on the internet in early 2009, which led to several sponsors dropping the multiple gold-medalist.

Check Paddy Power Poker for more.

Roland de Wolfe Wins London Open

Full Tilt pro Roland de Wolfe outlasted 110 players to win the 2010 Mansion Poker Les A London Open last week.

De Wolfe overcame a final table of mostly unknown players to win the £77,000 first place prize. The Hendon Mob’s Ross Boatman came in eighth place for £6,600.

The inaugural £2,000+£200 buy-in Mansion Poker Les A London Open ran February 23-24.

WSOP to Introduce All-Star Tournament?

It appears Harrah’s is interested in hosting some form of an all-star tournament at the 2010 WSOP.

Harrah’s released a cryptic message via the WSOP Twitter account this week that read:

“Which 20 WSOP Bracelet-Holders would you like to see compete in an All-Star game? Stay tuned…”

Last summer the WSOP held the 40th Anniversary Champions Invitational, which was open to every player that had won the Main Event. The tournament was won by 1983 World Champion Tom McEvoy.

In previous years, Harrah’s held a Tournament of Champions that featured a large number of notable pros. Annie Duke, Mike Matusow, and Mike Sexton were all winners of that event.

More Gold for Cake Poker Players in March

Cake Poker is giving its players two exclusive promotions during the month of March.

The first is the Cake Poker Turbo Gold Cards March Madness event that features Gold Cards dropping four times more often.

Gold Cards randomly appear in your account when you are playing ring games on Cake Poker. The cards are redeemable for cash or tournament entries depending on what card you receive.

Cake Poker will also be offering more satellites to the 2010 Irish Open, starting March 14.

"Dublin is a wonderful town and when you bring a major tournament there with the accompanying insane side action, it's hard to beat,” said Cake Poker room manager Lee Jones.

To learn more visit the Cake Poker website.

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A $911k Morning for Dwan

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 15:30:00 +0100

After losing $245k at $25/$50 Pot-Limit Omaha, Dwan sat for his first Full Tilt high-stakes session of the day across from LarsLuzak, Gus Hansen, skjervoy, Sir Watts and eventually Brian Hastings.

This $200/$400 PLO session lasted for 619 hands with Dwan finishing up over $317k.

At the same time, he took on skjervoy and TheGorn at $100/$200 PLO, where he earned another $44,687.

Dwan's next stop was an hour of $200/$400 Cap PLO, adding $62k to his profit before returning to PLO 6-max to play $300/$600 against many of the same players from the earlier $200/$400 table.

Once again, Dwan came out on top, this time up $280,847.

High-stakes player andrewkirk was brave enough to sit at Dwan's reserved heads-up $500/$1,000 PLO table, but only managed to last just 33 hands before losing his entire $50k buy-in.

On a roll, and seemingly unable to lose, Dwan moved his streak of run-good to $500/$1,000 Cap No-Limit Hold'em. After 364 hands, he had added another $35,750 to his morning.

Dwan's second last session of the morning came playing just 63 hands of $300/$600 PLO versus PixKim and Gus Hansen. Up another $137k, Dwan was rapidly approaching $1 million in total profit for the day.

In his final attempt to reach that magic mark, Dwan sat for a 245-hand re-match at $200/$400 PLO with unknown Swede Isildur1. Unfortunately for Dwan, Isildur1 would get the better of him again, ending his win streak with a $16k loss.

In total, Dwan finished the morning up $911,434, bringing his profit for the year up to $1.8 million so far.

Below are three of Dwan's largest pots from this morning, to see more hands head to MarketPulse.

Dwan sucks out.

skjevoy had lots of outs, wiffed on all of them.

And Dwan flopps the second nuts.

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Armed Robbery at EPT Berlin

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:30:00 +0100

Panic struck at the first-time ever EPT Berlin event when four masked men raided the hotel with two others standing guard outside just after 2 p.m. local time.

Berlin tabloid B.Z. has reported as much as €800,000 was stolen before the culprits took off across the Marlene Dietrich Platz in front of the hotel and blended into the crowd at the nearby Potsdamer Platz Arcades.

Although no one was seriously hurt, the newspaper claims as many as eight security personnel suffered minor injuries.

PokerStars released the following statement.

"An armed robbery by 5-6 men took place today at EPT Berlin," the statement reads. "Nobody was seriously injured. We hope to restart all events at 4 p.m. local time. A police investigation is underway. If you have video footage or photographs that could help the police, please contact the EPT organizers as soon as possible."

A stampede of players and floor staff running for safety was seen on the EPT Live broadcast before play was suspended.

There were approximately 22 players left in the event when the incident occurred.

Tournament staff was in the process of verifying chip counts in an attempt to restart the event just before 6 p.m. in Berlin.

See the startling footage captured by a bystander below:

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Weekly Freerolls: $6k for Sunday

Sat, 06 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0100

The following freerolls are open to all PokerListings.com players. Qualify in the specified qualification period, then take your seat to win a boatload of free cash.

If you're not a PL.com registered player on any of the following sites, click on the site's name in the list to sign up. Getting your free seat in the tournament can be just as simple as that.

Titan Poker

Offered monthly, PokerListings players on Titan Poker can get their seat in a monthly $5,000 freeroll for just 25 points.

Date: Mar. 7 Value: $5,000 Qualify with: 25 points

Pacific Poker

Earn 100 points as a PokerListings player in the previous month to play in the monthly Pacific Poker $1,000 freeroll.

Date: Mar. 7 Value: $1,000 Qualify with: 100 points Qualify between: Feb. 1 - Feb. 28

Pacific Poker

Weekly freeroll for new depositing players only.

Date: Mar. 9 Value: $500 Qualify with: Deposit and play

Party Poker

Be sure to have collected 100 points in February for your seat in the next $2,000 Party Poker freeroll.

Date: Mar. 13 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 100 points Qualify between: Feb. 1 - Feb. 28

Betfair Poker

Open to all new PokerListings.com players who signed up in February, or any existing players who earned 10 points before March 1st.

Date: Mar. 14 Value: $3,000 Qualify with: 10 points

Sportsbook Poker

The next $2,000 Monthly freeroll is almost here, buy in with just 200 points.

Date: Mar. 14 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 200 points

bwin Poker

Monthly freerolls for all PokerListings players on the site. Just 50 pts to qualify.

Date: Mar. 19 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 25 points Qualify between: Dec. 1- Mar. 19

Titan Poker

All PokerListings players are welcome to earn their seats in the next quarterly $15k freeroll from Titan Poker. Just 750 points to qualify.

Date: Mar. 28 Value: $15,000 Qualify with: 750 points
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Isildur1 Loses $190k in Marathon Session

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 13:30:00 +0100

After getting beat down by Brian Hastings and the Full Tilt crew, he seems to have a new approach to poker in 2010.

Isildur1, who is rumored to be Swede Victor Blom, has been grinding his way back into the big games by playing marathon heads-up battles across multiple tables.

Yesterday Isildur1 played 9,963 hands, which is 6,084 more than Phil Ivey has played over the entire year.

Isildur1's day started with a 2,690 hand heads-up session of $100/$200 No-Limit Hold'em against URnotINdanger2. By the end of this 2.5 hour battle Isildur1 was stuck for $95k.

Up next came 596 hands of $200/$400 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha versus David Benefield and Daniel "FakeSky" Alaei, where Isildur1 made $165k, before moving to a heads-up table to continue the game with just Benefield.

Benefield and Isildur1 played 971 hands of Cap PLO with Isildur1 up $167,861. The two rivals then moved their game to a regular $200/$400 PLO table where they stayed for another 3,106 hands.

By the end of the massive session Benefield had ground back $94,240.

Despite having played over 7,000 hands so far, Isildur1 wasn't anywhere near finished. Unknown online player skjervoy beat Isildur1 for $77k over 982 hands of $100/$200 PLO.

In a final surge of activity Isildur1 won $19,000 over 644 hands of Cap PLO and lost $275k against Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn in 973 hands of $200/$400 PLO.

At this point Isildur1 finally called it, ending the day down $190,369.

Below you'll find three of Isildur1's biggest hands of the day, or head to MarketPulse for more.

Neither player was folding after that flop.

The nuts with two blockers on the turn, but still only 68% to win.

Aces versus aces.

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NBC Releases 2010 Heads-Up Bracket

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 11:30:00 +0100

The two PokerStars pros have both been hot over the last 12 months with millions of dollars in combined tournament earnings.

Some of the other marquee first round matches include Phil Hellmuth vs. Howard Lederer, Peter Eastgate vs. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Brock Parker vs. Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey vs. Gavin Smith.

In total there will be 32 heads-up matches played in the first round.

NBC once again separated the players into four brackets – Hearts, Clubs, Spades and Diamonds – with the winner of each bracket booking a seat in the semifinals.

The tournament begins today at 1 p.m. PT. Be sure to check out our live updates of the event.

Here is the complete line-up for the first round of the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Championship:

Clubs:

Patrik Antonius vs. Chris Moneymaker
Leo Wolpert vs. Eric Baldwin
David Williams vs. Joe Cada
Erik Seidel vs. Huck Seed
Dan Ramirez vs. Erick Lindgren
Peter Eastgate vs. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
Stephen Quinn vs. Ted Forrest
Dario Minieri vs. Jamie Gold

Spades:

Gavin Smith vs. Phil Ivey
Richard Edwards vs. Scotty Nguyen
Shawn Rice vs. Joe Hachem
Gabe Kaplan vs. Johnny Chan
Daniel Negreanu vs. Jason Mercier
Pieter de Korver vs. Mike Sexton
Phil Gordon vs. Tom Dwan
Phil Laak vs. John Juanda

Hearts:

Jesper Hougaard vs. Allen Cunningham
Eli Elezra vs. Greg Mueller
Annette Dworski vs. Craig Ferguson
Kara Scott vs. Dennis Phillips
Doyle Brunson vs. Brock Parker
JP Kelly vs. Don Cheadle
Howard Lederer vs. Phil Hellmuth
Annette Obrestad vs. Orel Hershiser

Diamonds:

Barry Greenstein vs. Vanessa Rousso
Sam Farha vs. Antonio Esfandiari
Jennifer Harman vs. Jennifer Tilly
Jerry Yang vs. Mike Matusow
Darvin Moon vs. Bill Huntress
Andy Bloch vs. Annie Duke
Andrew Wilson vs. Paul Wasicka
Gus Hansen vs. Greg Raymer

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LAPC Crowns Koroknai Champ

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 08:00:00 +0100

"It feels excellent," Koroknai said through an interpreter. "I'm going to spend the money. All of it."

Koroknai started with the lead and although he gave it up midway through the final six, by the time heads up rolled around, he was clearly in charge.

Short stack Michael Kamran was happy to be through to his first WPT Final table after making seventh at WPT Bay 101 last year.

However, the L.A. local's time did not last long as he ran T♦ 7♦ into Koroknai's ace-jack in the early going.

Despite flopping an open-ended straight draw and turning a pair, Kamran was done in by an ace on the river railing him sixth.

J.C. Moussa took fifth when he shoved ace-nine into Tri Huynh's ace-queen and failed to improve and fourth belonged to George Kasabyan, who called Huynh's shove with a pair of aces only to find Huynh with aces-up.

Three-handed play was a relatively tight affair until Raymond Dolan and Koroknai got in a major battle.

Both paired their ace on an A♣ Q♦ 2♦ flop and after the money went in, Koroknai's jack kicker played over Dolan's six to give the Hungarian a commanding chip lead.

That lead got even bigger when Koroknai busted Huynh in a classic race with ace-king beating jacks after a king on the flop.

Heads up started with Koroknai holding 13.4 million chips to Dolan's 1.4 million and it was over fast.

On the first hand, Koroknai shoved with Q♥ 8♥ and Dolan called with Q♣ 4♥.

A four in the window made it look like Dolan would double, but Korknai picked up an open ender to go with a flush draw on the turn and when the K♥ fell on the river giving him the flush, the L.A. Poker Classic title and almost $1.8 million was his.

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Online Satellite Winner Takes WPT Invitational Title

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 07:30:00 +0100

LeRon "Dream187" Washington, a 34-year-old West Virginia boxer and part-time poker player walked away with $75,000 in cash and a seat in the $25,000 WPT World Championship coming up this April.

"It's a dream come true," he said. "I've been waiting for this day a long time."

Washington beat 1,683 players in a tournament on ClubWPT Jan. 3 to secure the last seat available in the invite-only Celebrity Invitational at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles

On February 20, he joined Hollywood A-listers including Teri Hatcher, Jenny McCarthy, Hank Azaria, Jerry Ferrara, and poker pros like Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson, Antonio Esfandiari, Mike Matusow and Phil Laak on the first day of the Invitational.

After two days of tournament play, Washington was one of six finalists who outlasted a record-setting field of 567 players to secure his place at the televised final table. He returned to Commerce March 3 to book the win.

"I've been trying to get out there to show what I can do, but you have to earn it," he said. "ClubWPT gave me the opportunity to make it happen, and here I am. The $20 a month subscription is definitely the best investment I've ever made."

Washington was joined at the final table by Commerce Casino qualifier Steve Elliott, poker pro Thor Hansen, fellow amateur player Neev Baram, Reality TV star Trishelle Cannatella and Bellagio satellite winner Sean Urban.

"One of the great highlights of the WPT Invitational for Commerce Casino is the opportunity to reward people who love poker, but may not be full time established professionals, whether they are Hollywood stars or people who earned their way through Commerce satellites or partners like ClubWPT.com," said John Griffo, Commerce Casino Director of Poker Operations.

"We applaud LeRon for the 'fight' he showed in getting through the field of more than 500 and becoming our new WPT Invitational champion."

This year's event was also an opportunity to raise money for charity and the Invitational pulled in $109,700 for Chrysalis, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping economically disadvantaged and homeless individuals become self-sufficient through employment opportunities.

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LAPT Chile Cancelled

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 17:00:00 +0100

The earthquake struck 175 miles south of Viña del Mar, killing almost 300 people.

PokerStars officials say the cancellation was forced by the effects of the earthquake and in light of current rescue and recovery efforts.

The event was scheduled to be held at the Enjoy Viña del Mar Casino and Resort from March 19-23.

Everyone at PokerStars.net and the LAPT offers their thoughts and condolences to all of those affected by the disaster.

All players who have qualified or bought-in to the event will be fully refunded their buy-ins and any out-of-pocket expenses.

Players should contact lapt@pokerstars.net with any questions.

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Isildur1 Takes on David Benefield

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 12:30:00 +0100

Including the session with Benefield, Isildur1 booked 4,700 hands yesterday on limits ranging from $25/$50 to $100/$200.

Although almost all of his hands came from Pot-Limit Omaha, 99 of them went down at a couple of tables of $50/$100 Cap No-Limit Hold'em.

Isildur1's match with Benefield began at $50/$100 PLO where he earned $21,795 over 1,323 hands, the largest pot of the match coming in at just $31k.

After almost two hours, Isildur1 and Benefield agreed to double the stakes, moving their action up to $100/$200 PLO. It was here where Benefield finally got the upper hand, making over $50k in the two and a half hour, 1,767-hand, session.

The largest pot of day on Full Tilt came during this second session after Benefield spiked a flush on the river to beat Isildur1's turned nut straight. The two players had their money all-in on the turn with Benefield pulling in the $101,392 pot.

By the end of the day, Isildur1 finished with a total profit of $76,577, bringing him up to almost $200k profit on the year so far.

Benefield, who only played 11 hands of $200/$400 Cap PLO before starting his first session with Isildur1, finished the day up just over $32k.

Below are the three largest pots from the match, head to MarketPulse for more.

Benefield needed a king or a spade.

Aces cracked by fives.

He hit the flush and the gutshot.

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Online Poker Rooms Gear Up for 2010 WSOP

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0100

PartyPoker is giving away a $14,000 WSOP Main Event package, including buy-in, accommodations and $2k in spending money, for absolutely nothing.

The site just introduced a comprehensive range of WSOP qualifiers this week, starting with daily freerolls.

Qualifiers are online now until June 13 with the main $700+$50 satellites taking place every Friday at 6 p.m. ET and Sunday at 3:35 p.m. ET giving away a $14k WSOP package to one in 20 players.

"PartyPoker.com is offering more seriously cost effective ways to qualify for the WSOP than ever before," said a company spokesperson. "It doesn't get much better than winning a package for absolutely nothing!"

Meanwhile, in an attempt to make all its qualifiers feel like winners, Absolute Poker and UB are running a bonus promotion that pays every player who qualifies for the Main Event on the sites at least $1,000 in cash and a chance at a final table sponsorship that's worth up to $750,000.

Players who qualify for their Main Event seat at UB or Absolute Poker through Step tournaments or multi-table satellites and play in the Main Event wearing approved branded gear will qualify for the bonus.

Starting at $1,000, the bonus is progressive, meaning the more players that qualify on Absolute and UB, the bigger the bonus will be.

Absolute and UB will add $1,500 per player to the progressive prize pool and that amount will grow up to $5,000 per player based on how many players take advantage of the promotion.

Of the total bonus prize pool, 75% will be split among all participating players and the remaining 25% will be shared among those who cash in the Main Event.

There are several ways to get hold of one of UB or Absolute's $12k WSOP packages.

In addition to Step tournaments for just 10 cents and Weekly Super Satellites, which are fed by daily qualifiers, UB and AbsolutePoker will also hold a 25-seat Guaranteed tournament on June 6 and a 50-seat Guaranteed tournament on June 20.

Plus, a "Win the Most Satellites" leaderboard competition will award over $10,000 in Tournament Dollars to the top 5 players who win the most Main Event seats on either site.

For more information on all these promotions, check Absolute Poker, PartyPoker and UB.

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PartyGaming Poker Revenues Drop

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0100

"Whilst the macroeconomic environment remains uncertain, we remain focused on executing our stated strategy and are confident about the Group's prospects," said PartyGaming CEO Jim Ryan.

The Gibraltar-based company, which runs PartyPoker, dropped from a $66.9 million profit in 2008 as total revenue declined 6% to $446.2 million.

The loss is being blamed partly on the $105 million settlement the company signed with the U.S. Attorney's Office in April to avoid prosecution for providing Internet gambling services to U.S. customers prior to the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA).

Under the terms of the agreement, PartyGaming agreed to stay out of the U.S. Internet gambling market under current legislation and is hoping, should the legislation change, it would be in a prime position to move back in.

"We believe that at some point the U.S. will regulate online gaming and we want to be ready to take that opportunity," said Ryan. "We have a number of organizations who are willing to do business with us. It is our ticket back."

While the weakness of the English Pound was a factor in the loss, a fall in poker revenues to $196.7 million from $274.0 million in 2008 also played a large role.

However, Ryan is pointing to the fact revenues have already turned around in the first two months of 2010 as a reason for continued optimism.

New player sign-ups on PartyPoker increased to an average of 1,700 per day with 55,900 active players on the site every day generating average gross daily poker revenues of $709,000 throughout January and February 2010.

"We delivered a solid performance during 2009 which demonstrated the resilience of our business model that continues to generate strong cash flow, even in the most challenging of circumstances," Ryan added. "We plan to do more in 2010 and I believe we are on course to meet our objective of becoming the world's most valuable online gaming company."

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Dwan vs. South: The $1.2 Million Dollar Day

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Ever since his massive string of losses to Isildur1 in late 2009, Dwan's online results have been inconsistent at best, leading many skeptics to believe he no longer had what it takes to beat the biggest games online.

In a mid December interview with PokerListings Dwan seemed confident and unfazed by his negative results, addressing his skeptics who had been anonymously flaming him across multiple poker forums.

"It hasn't been the best year," he said. "But if anyone doesn't think that it's a downswing then they are welcome to cross book me in any game I play in. That's all I have to say."

It's beginning to look like Dwan was telling the truth, stealing fifth spot on the 2010 high stakes leaderboard last night after taking a massive bite out of South, the year's top performer so far.

South, who had been leading all high-stakes comers with $3.5 million in profit, lost a total of $1.2 million yesterday across two sessions, one in the early morning and the other late last night.

Out of the $1.2 million, Dwan is responsible for over $800k, won mostly playing heads-up Pot Limit Omaha.

Last night's heads-up match on Full Tilt came after Dwan lost $156,386 playing $200/$400 Cap-PLO, and South dumped $25,418 from a variety of PLO games.

The two moved to $200/$400 heads-up PLO where Dwan proceeded to crush South for $457,852 over a 668-hand session.

The largest pot of the session came in at over $130k after both players got it all in with straight draws and over-pairs. Even though South led on the flop with a pair of kings, one of Dwan's many outs came through on the river as he spiked a nine for the nut straight.

The two-hour heads-up session would be the last hands either player would play on the day.

Below are three of the largest pots of the match. To view more high-stakes online hands, head to MarketPulse.

Dwan drawing thinner than he had hoped.

South drawing stone-cold dead.

Aces vs. kings, both double-suited.

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PokerStars SCOOP Schedule Revamped

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 11:00:00 +0100

The series runs May 2-16, with events across a range of poker games and buy-ins as all 38 will feature three buy-in levels.

"What I find most exciting about SCOOP is that players at all stake levels get an opportunity to play in a championship-level event," said PokerStars Tournaments Team Leader Bryan Slick.

SCOOP will guarantee $45 million in prize money, edging out last year's total prize pool of $39,372,270 with the main event guaranteeing prize pools of at $1 Million, $3 Million and $5 Million in the low, medium and high buy-in levels respectively.

The first event of the series is a No-Limit Hold'em Six-Max event, with buy-ins of $22, $215 and $2,100.

The series will offer several other events with buy-ins ranging from $109 to $10,300, plus a two-day Heads-Up Match Play tournament with a buy-in of $25,500.

The SCOOP schedule includes most of the games PokerStars offers, including Badugi, Omaha, Draw, Stud and Hold'em.

Highlights include Shootouts, 2X Chance Turbos, 8-game and HORSE.

For more on the 2010 SCOOP schedule click through to PokerStars.

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LAPC Final Table Set

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0100

As well known players like two-time World Series of Poker Main Event champion Johnny Chan, Celebrity Apprentice star Annie Duke, three-time WPT final table participant Steve Sung and 2001 Main Event champ and two-time WPT title winner Carlos Mortensen all fell throughout 14 hours of poker Tuesday, a final six all making their televised table debut emerged.

The final table will begin Thursday at 4 p.m. PT inside the Commerce Casino in East Los Angeles with Hungarian Andras Koroknai holding the chip lead.

Although he has just one small live cash from the Austrian Classics in 2008, Koroknai will bring with him a rather boisterous group of Hungarian supporters from the L.A. area.

Fountain Valley, California resident Raymond Dolan currently sits second in chips and while two small cashes including a 12th place finish at a prelim in this series is all Dolan can count on for experience, he is the brother of Tim Phan, who made the final table at WPT Legends in 2005.

Coming in third in chips is Canadian Tri Huynh looking to add to his $30k in career earnings that includes a final table appearance at an L.A. Poker Classic prelim in 2007.

Armenian American Gevork (George) Kasabyan has half a million in career earnings from a boatload of small tournaments in the L.A. area and will come into the final fourth in chips.

Canadian Jean-Claude Moussa brings three WSOP cashes worth almost $60k and the experience of playing regularly online as high as $50/$100 to the table while currently fifth in chips.

And finally, the short stack is L.A.'s own Michael Kamran, happy to be through to his first final six after making seventh at WPT Bay 101 last year.

A $1.7 million first-place prize and the chance to join an illustrious group of LAPC champs including Phil Ivey, Antonio Esfandiari, and Gus Hansen hangs in the balance.

For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

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Seiver Books LAPC High Roller Win

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 18:00:00 +0100

"It feels really great," Seiver told PokerListings. "It sounds silly to say how good it feels to win, but it feels really good. It's such a rush, it's just so exciting."

Seiver came into the six-man final table with a slight chip lead over respected pro Daniel Alaei.

But Alaei immediately chipped up when the final table started at Commerce Casino just after 1 p.m. Tuesday.

First he sent short stack Will Molson home sixth before his tens held against Tommy Vedes' K♣ 3♣ to rail him fifth.

Soon after, Alaei doubled through Seiver to take a commanding lead when he got it all in and turned a full house to crack Seiver's flopped trips.

Alaei's grip on the title looked even tighter when he busted Lee Markholt fourth, but Seiver soon picked up a few more chips and a little bit of momentum.

Seiver busted Jason Mercier third and when heads-up began, he had moved into the chip lead once again.

Despite being deep-stacked compared to the blinds, Alaei lost a massive pot when Seiver made a full house against him just a few hands into the match and soon shoved in with Q♦ J♦ facing a Seiver three-bet with A♠ J♠.

Seiver made the call and although the flop gave Alaei both a gutshot and a flush draw, he bricked out handing Seiver the title and $425,334 first-place prize.

"I don't know if I can stand up here and say I'm the best at these, but I like to think of myself as one of the better players," Seiver said, explaining his recent success in High Roller events. "It's always about walking a fine line between confidence and hubris.

"It's very tough in the poker world to know where you stand compared to other people. I try to accurately gage how good, or not, I am and I feel like I'm good enough to play in these events.

"Clearly these are some of the best players in the world, but I like to think I at least rank somewhere up there with them."

The event began Sunday with 41 of the biggest names in poker, including Season 7 WPT Player of the Year Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, 2008 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Erick Lindgren and Ashton Griffin, who won the NAPT's $25k Bounty Shootout in Las Vegas last week.

Seiver, who moved up to just under $2 million in career tournament winnings with the victory, said it was a particular thrill to take on an esteemed player like Alaei heads-up.

"Daniel Alaei is my hero," he said. "He's one of the best in the world and to beat him heads up just felt so great."

The World Poker Tour's L.A. Poker Classic continues through March 4. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

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Dwan and Sahamies Take Down South

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0100

South's day started at $25/$50 Pot-Limit Omaha on Full Tilt where he made $15k before moving up to $300/$600 PLO against Di "Urindanger" Dang and Gus Hansen.

South only stuck around for 12 hands making $10k before leaving to sit heads-up with Dwan at $200/$400 PLO.

The heads-up match lasted over two and a half hours, spanning 466 hands across two tables. By the end, South had dropped just over $84k.

Meanwhile, on top of a couple hands of $25/$50, and a long but uneventful session of $200/$400 Cap-PLO, South also sat with both Dwan and Sahamies for 378 hands of $300/$600 PLO.

Over the duration of the three-handed session, South managed to lose $226,950, all but $23k going to Sahamies.

He made one more attempt to save the session with a $200/$400 PLO rematch against Dwan, this time playing 400 hands in just under an hour.

However, the Cardrunners pro dropped another $234k to Dwan, finishing his day down $511,149.

On top of holding-over on South all day, Dwan also made $50k at $300/$600 PLO stacking the unknown luckexpress10 in just four hands. Include a $14k loss at $200/$400 Cap-PLO and Dwan finished his day up $377,568.

Sahamies entire day consisted of the single 3-handed session. He earned over $203k in just two hours of work - $1,769 a minute.

Below are three of the largest pots from yesterday's session. For more hands, head to MarketPulse.

South duped by a deuce on the river.

Yet again, duped by the deuce.

If you're going to lose, it might as well be to a straight flush.

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Stars Align for Paralyzed Vets Charity Poker Event

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 09:00:00 +0100

World Series of Poker bracelet winner Mike Sexton and First Lady of Poker Linda Johnson are helping host a charity tournament for the Paralyzed Veterans of America organization Wednesday, March 3, at 7 p.m. at the Grand Hyatt in the U.S. Capital.

The aim of the event is to raise awareness and funds for Paralyzed Veterans and its mission to help those who have served in the U.S. armed forces, although a $10,000 seat in the 2010 WSOP Main Event is also on the line.

Tournament chairs include poker players Andy Bloch, Lee Childs, Kenna "Cowboy" James and film star Ben Affleck with a host of other pros, politicians and stars expected to attend.

The Poker Players Alliance is sponsoring the event, along with Walmart, Reynolds America, Orchestrate Technology, Merkle, Data Management Inc. and Midwest Direct Mailers.

All proceeds from the tournament and a silent auction at the event will benefit Paralyzed Veterans of America, founded 63 years ago by a band of spinal cord injured service members returning home from World War II.

For more on the organization click through to it's website.

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"Nacho" Barbero Wins LAPT Uruguay

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:30:00 +0100

With a field of 306 players this year's LAPT Punta del Este event generated a prize pool of $1,042,260.

Forty-eight players made the money with Barbero taking home $279,330 for first.

The final table was made up of three Argentinean players, two Brazilians, one Colombian and one local player from Uruguay.

The only player from outside South America to reach the final table was French PokerStars qualifier Nicolas Cardyn, who finished second for $161,550.

The tournament was held at the Mantra Casino & Resort at Punta del Este.

Barbero, who once represented the Argentinean national team in Magic: The Gathering tournaments, also became only the second Latin American player to win an event on the LAPT circuit.

Previously, he finished ninth at the LAPT season 2 event in Mar del Plata and has six cashes at the World Series of Poker.

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Newhouse a New Man at LAPC

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 18:00:00 +0100

The Chapel Hill, North Carolina native had made a World Series Poker final table that summer and after taking down the WPT Borgata title and it's $1.5 million first place prize, he went deep just a month later at WPT Niagara, finishing 17th.

His faced donned the cover of poker magazines everywhere, who hailed him as one of the game's brightest young stars.

It was as hot a start to a poker career as you'll find, but things cooled off just as fast.

Two years passed before Newhouse would find another big score and another two came and went before he would seriously start to climb out of what ended up to be a $2 million losing streak.

"There was a period that I was just not playing well in tournaments or cash games," he told PokerListings on Day 4 of the L.A. Poker Classic main event at Commerce Casino Monday.

"I was in the process of losing a lot of money and kind of out of my mind. I pretty much fired off $2 million. I didn't care. I made practically every mistake you could have made and kind of lost my mind."

Bad decisions, both personally and financially, started to add up and it soon began to look as though big-time poker had chewed up Newhouse and was about to spit him out.

Rock bottom came when he was barred from Commerce for an altercation regarding a joke that got out of hand, putting him out of a card room he had once called home.

But instead of heading a few miles away to the Bicycle Casino in nearby Bell Gardens, or online to continue the grind, Newhouse decided to take a much needed break from the game.

"I took a break from poker and just started enjoying my life and I feel like I started thinking really clearly and that's really helped my game," he said.

Results soon followed. Under his online handle Newhizzle, Newhouse outlasted 8,357 to win the PokerStars Sunday Million and $245,897 this past December.

Now, deep into Day 4 at the World Poker Tour's L.A. Poker Classic with under 40 players left, he finds himself among the chip leaders.

"I fixed a few leaks," he said. "And I feel like my tournament game has gotten better over the last several months."

Newhouse is backed in tournaments by famed backing duo Eric "sheets" Haber and Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy. Like many in the pair's stable, he counts on them for support and advice.

Even after the Sunday Million win, the three went over the hand histories diving deep to look for inconsistencies, mistakes and ways to improve.

Having plugged few holes both personally and professionally, Newhouse now says he feels as ready as ever for another big score.

"I feel better than I've felt in a couple years and I'm playing better as well," he said. "Taking three weeks off was probably the best thing I've ever done. Now I'm back on track, focused and I'm playing better than ever."

The World Poker Tour's LAPC continues through March 4. To Follow Newhouse's progress and complete coverage, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

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Antonius Tops Weekend High-Stakes Action

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:00:00 +0100

The Finn's win came from 239 hands of $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha with Brian Hastings.

After a little over two hours of play, Antonius left the tables with his profit, not to return besides six un-eventful hands Sunday night.

Friday had begun according to plan for Hastings after he made $114,898 playing 125 hands of $200/$400 Cap-PLO. He parlayed his profit into a heads-up match against Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, making another $211k from a mix of $200/$400 and $300/$600 PLO.

But Hastings' session with Antonius would be enough to negate his profits, finishing Friday down $52,231. He logged off and did not to return to Full Tilt for the rest of the weekend.

Sahamies rough start to the weekend included losing $29,717 playing Cap-PLO before getting beat for another $211k by Hastings.

He managed to earn back the majority of his losses on Saturday earning $139k playing the $200/$400 Cap game, but lost back $39,408 at the same tables early this morning. In total, Sahamies finished the weekend down $140,493.

A third Finn who had been away from the high-stakes action for quite some time made his return this weekend.

Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro put in one of the largest weekend sessions, playing an impressive 5,767 hands.

3,762 of those hands came playing jungleman12 heads-up at $100/$200 No-Limit Hold'em. In total, Kelopuro took $104,245 from the unknown pro.

Unfortunately, he was unable to hold on to his heads-up profits after losing over $150k playing the $200/$400 Cap-PLO game. He finished the weekend down just over $46k.

Gus Hansen played 201 hands of $300/$600 PLO heads-up against the unknown luckexpress10, losing $93,293 in the process. Luckily for Hansen, he continued his run-good on the Cap-PLO tables earning $159k for a weekend profit of $66,574.

Finally, Tom "durrrr" Dwan only played 31 hands on Saturday, losing just $10k at the cap games. Dwan did, however, return to the $200/$400 Cap-PLO tables early this morning earning $95,377 in a 360-hand session to post a weekend profit of just under $85k.

Below are three of the largest pots from the weekend, to see more hand replays head to our MarketPulse page.

If Hastings had any hopes of folding his set on the flop, they were killed by the turn.

Ziigmund tried to bluff the flush that Hastings actually held.

Antonius thought each card improved his hand.

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The Sunday Scoop: Near Miss for Nico Behling

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:30:00 +0100

The Sunday Million continues to smash its guarantee as 10,077 players came out to play creating a $2.01 million prizepool.

Behling and Swiss player Ronald “ronaldgruer” Gruer, who is currently ranked fourth in CardPlayer's Online Player of the Year race, made competition at the final table fierce.

Gruer eventually finished in fifth place for $80,616 while Behling crashed out third, narrowly missing a shot at heads up.

Behling has over $245,000 in online tournament earnings and a final table appearance at the 2008 Aussie Millions, but a major online title has always eluded him.

In the end, orionrg won this week's Sunday Million for $255,429 after a two-way chop.

In the other big PokerStars tournaments, online grinder Ben “ANIMAL5050” Pappas took the Sunday 500 title for $87,400 while Brazilian atcasanova won the Sunday Warm-Up for $146,854.

Over on Full Tilt Poker, the $750,000 Guaranteed garnered the attention of 4,196 players who combined to form a prizepool of $839,000. Online player mohamedali13 beat a table of unknown players to win $148,196.

live fox won the Full Tilt Sunday Brawl for $116,319 while SCOOP final table finisher Ben “kidcardiff” Warrington came in fifth-place for $29,223.

Meanwhile on UB Poker, KEJULES10 won the $200k Guaranteed for $37,564. Reality TV star turned poker player Trishelle Cannatella came in 18th out of the 1,006 players that entered the tournament.

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Keeping Up With the Phils

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 16:30:00 +0100

But sitting among the leaders on the event's third day, that's not at the forefront of his mind.

"The thing is, it's a lifetime thing," said 35-year-old Kid Poker. "It's not really a pressing thing."

The pressing business was for both he and Ivey to get past 2006 WSOP Main Event champ Jamie Gold, who edged out him for the top spot with that single $12 million win four years ago.

But when Negreanu passed Gold finishing second at the WSOP Europe main event this past September and Ivey's November Nine appearance and Aussie Millions High Roller runner-up finish pushed him even further ahead, two of poker's best were left to spend the rest of their careers vying for top spot.

The only problem is, continuing to collect big scores from tournaments isn't getting easier.

Negreanu says everybody is getting better and every year, fresh faced kids rising from the online ranks continue to display an unmatched fundamental talent for the game.

He says he's been forced to change his game, unlike another player named Phil, who still sits behind Gold in fourth on the all-time list with a little more than $11 million in earnings.

"The biggest difference with Phil Hellmuth and I is that I watch the way the game changes and I understand I need to tweak my game in order to compete," he said. "He thinks if he brushes his teeth, does yoga and eats right he's just going to win.

"He really thinks you just need to have a positive attitude. You just need to learn how to play poker better."

The way Negreanu sees it, the old-school way just isn't going to cut it anymore.

"Years ago there was a way to play. It was easy and it worked," he said. "These young kids have found a way to exploit it. It's like a bacteria mutating to become resistant to the medication you've been giving it. You have to find a way to attack the problem.

"There are weaknesses in every strategy to some degree. So I go after their weaknesses and the way they perceive me, which opens up a whole new group of opportunities that I can use against them."

His willingness to adapt is where he finds the consistency.

"Right now I'm getting back to basics," he said. "Which is paying attention to a lot of physical tells that I'm seeing in the young guys. Paying attention to who is the wild man, what they're doing and that sort of thing.

"In the old days I didn't even have to do as much of that, because people just played the game so fundamentally poorly."

But as he goes about trying to make poker history as one of the leaders in L.A. Sunday afternoon with an eye on the big screen inside Commerce and the Canadian Olympic Hockey Team Winning gold on home soil to make hockey history, Negreanu sounds ready for business.

"It takes a lot of concentration. It's not easy anymore," he said. "It's not like I can just sit there and wait for them to make mistakes like we used to."

The World Poker Tour's L.A. Poker Classic continues through March 4. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

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Poker News in Brief: Feb. 22-28, 2010

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 11:00:00 +0100

The NAPT held its first exclusive event at the Venetian and more than 800 players paid the $5,000 buy-in.

Meanwhile the stars were indeed shining bright at the WPT Invitational with Tia Carrera, Trishelle Cannatella, and Marlon Wayans coming out to play.

With all the excitement over the competing poker tours there were several poker stories that were almost forgotten.

Fortunately as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief we’ve compiled a list of the lesser-known stories below.

This week we’ll take a look at PartyPoker running an endurance promo, new schedules for two PokerStars tournaments, a training seminar by Mike “The Mouth” Matusow and more.

Class in Session for Mike “The Mouth” Matusow

When The Mouth talks you’d better listen.

That’s what organizers are hoping participants will take out of the upcoming Mike “The Mouth” Matusow poker training session in California.

Matusow, who is the dean of DeepStacks University, will teach a special five-hour session that covers winning strategies for tournament and cash game poker in addition to giving one-on-one poker analysis at the tables.

The training session will cost $495 to attend and every contestant will receive a copy of the Team Full Tilt Pro's new book Check Raising the Devil.

The event will take place March 12 at the Palo Casino Spa and Resort.

Big Names Headline The Poker Show Live

One of the poker's most popular radio shows is returning with Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Galfond, Tony G, David Benyamine and Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz all coming along for the ride.

The Poker Show Live, sponsored by Boylepoker, will feature all the aforementioned poker players in new episodes for the show’s third season beginning March 2.

Hosted by Jesse May, The Poker Show Live has interviewed almost every well-known poker player over the span of its first two seasons.

Tom Dwan, Vicky Coren, Andrew Feldman, Huck Seed, Neil Channing, Erik Seidel have all taken their turn on The Poker Show Live microphone.

The show is available on ThePokerShowLive.com, BoylePoker.com and iTunes.

Ontario Considers Online Gaming

The Canadian province of Ontario is taking a serious look at running its own official online gambling service that could potentially include poker.

Ontario Lottery and Gambling chairman Paul Godfrey and Premier Dalton McGuinty want the province to provide Internet gambling instead of letting potential revenue go to offshore gambling sites.

In Canada, British Columbia and Atlantic Lottery Corporations already officially allow online gambling. The BC Lottery Corporation offers a limited poker game called Pacific Hold’em Poker, which is played against the house.

Loto-Quebec’s poker site is set to launch this fall and analysts are estimating it could potentially net $50 million in revenue for the government over the next three years.

Gladiator Promo Returns to PartyPoker

One of the most popular promotions on PartyPoker is returning this March.

The Gladiator promo rewards players who generate at least 10 PartyPoints every day for a minimum of five days. There are potentially bigger rewards available for players who earn up to 2,000 PartyPoints.

“The Gladiator is back and the rewards are greater than ever before,” said a PartyPoker spokesman.

“This promotion is about spreading play over a period of time for maximus rewards! It is simple and offers great value and we encourage players to challenge themselves and take a closer look.”

If a player manages to earn 2,000 PartyPoints a day from March 3 to April 1 they will instantly earn a $12,500 package to the 2010 WSOP Main Event.

To learn more about The Gladiator check the PartyPoker website

PokerStars Releases SCOOP, NAPT Mohegan Sun Schedules

PokerStars announced the dates for one of its biggest online series and its burgeoning North American tour this week.

The PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker will take place over 14 days from May 3-16 with 33 events. Like last year, each event will have a low, medium and high buy-in variant.

The series will culminate with the Main Event on May 16, with guarantees of $1 million, $3 million and $5 million for each buy-in level.

Meanwhile the PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour’s next stop, at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, will take place April 7-11. The main event carries a $5,000 buy-in and there will be a $10k High Roller Bounty Shootout.

To see the complete schedules for the upcoming SCOOP or NAPT check the PokerStars website.

Versus Picks Up Season 2 of Poker2Nite

Poker news show Poker2Nite is returning for another season, but leaving Fox Sports Net behind for Versus.

Poker2Nite follows an informal news format with UB Poker pro Joe Sebok and poker personality Scott Huff acting as hosts. Dana Workman also produces the satirical Weekly Misdeal for the program.

All 13 episodes of the first season were shown on Fox Sports Net. The second season will kick off this Wednesday at 11 p.m. ET on Versus, which was formerly OLN.

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Moneymaker Boom Babies Instill Fear

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 20:00:00 +0100

In fact, as a crew of barely legal pros turned on to the game by Chris Moneymaker's 2003 World Series win when they were just teens dominate poker tournaments across the globe, you are more likely to hear a player at the L.A. Poker Classic this week complaining about the difficulty of his table draw if it includes half a dozen 21 to 23-year-old online pros than a stable of veteran gamblers.

"I think even I would fear the youngsters more, to be perfectly honest with you," said Hoyt Corkins, a 50-year-old veteran of the game who just won his second WPT title at the Southern Poker Championships in Biloxi last month.

"I mean, I just made a final table and everyone was in their 20's and here I am 50 years old. I think these kids are going to dominate in the years to come.

"It's a different style. The kids are tough. Their technique is good."

At just 23-years-old, Jason Mercier already has more than $4 million in live tournament earnings.

But the South Florida native says his success has very little to do with youthful exuberance.

For a young man who watched Moneymaker win the World Series of Poker Main Event when he was just 16 and has dedicated his life to the game ever since, it's all about the valuable experience of an adolescence spent grinding online.

"That kind of experience you will never get live," the Team PokerStars Pro said. "You just can't play millions of hands live. I think that definitely contributed to my success. In 2007, I played over two million hands online. You just can't do that live."

But is the experience gained playing online poker the same as playing live? Corkin's doesn't think so.

"You can't discount 32 years of watching people's faces and watching the way they put their money in the pot," said the Alabama born Corkins. "When you've played that much online you may be more experienced as far as the technical side goes, but poker is more than just that. It's got a human element to it."

Mercier sees his point.

"Of course experience helps and playing tons and tons of hands online helps," he said. "But the more you play live, the more you pick up on as well. That's why so many of these big online guys have yet to have a big score live. A lot of it has to do with variance, but a lot of them also haven't grasped how live poker is played.

"There's just so much more to it. It's so much more complex. There's only so many things that you can learn online and there are so many more things you get live that you don't get playing online."

At just 21-years old, Yevgeniy Timoshenko won the WPT Championship last season. Like Mercier, he is another baby of the Moneymaker boom.

However, the Ukranian-born Timoshenko says what makes a table full of young online players something to fear isn't just youth, or the number of hands they've played online.

It's the studious approach to the game taken by a group of players who seem to have grown up treating poker like another subject in high school as much as a form of entertainment.

"I don't think being young necessarily makes you good at poker," he said. "And I think even though you play more hands online it doesn't necessarily give you the same amount of experience as you would get playing in a casino.

"But for me, it's not just about hands. What's more important is reviewing your sessions. If you don't do that, it doesn't matter if you play a million hands. If you don't study and try to improve, you are not necessarily going to get a lot of experience out of those million hands."

According to Timoshenko, a player that takes the right approach and studies the game as much as he plays online can gain experience about four times as fast as one playing strictly live.

And that's just what the kids from this era have done to make them seasoned veterans of the game at such a young age.

"It's hard to quantify," he said. "The biggest factor is how many tables you play and how many hours a day that you play. But you can get better at poker online in like one fourth of the time it would take you strictly playing live. It's like a factor of three or four I would say."

Do the math and it's no wonder fresh faced young players born from the Moneymaker boom are having so much success.

They have almost the same experience as 30-year pros like Corkins.

"I mean, I definitely don't feel like a guy who has been sitting here for 20 years," Timoshenko said. "But I feel comfortable enough."

The World Poker Tour's L.A. Poker Classic continues through March 4. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

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Weekly Freerolls: March Madness

Sat, 27 Feb 2010 11:00:00 +0100

The following freerolls are open to all PokerListings.com players. Qualify in the specified qualification period, then take your seat to win a boatload of free cash.

If you're not a PL.com registered player on any of the following sites, click on the site's name in the list to sign up. Getting your free seat in the tournament can be just as simple as that.

Pacific Poker

Weekly freeroll for new depositing players only.

Date: Mar. 2 Value: $500 Qualify with: Deposit and play

William Hill Poker

With just 100 points earned in February, you can play in William Hill's next exclusive freeroll worth $2,500.

Date: Mar. 4 Value: $2,500 Qualify with: 100 Points Qualify between: Feb. 1 - Feb. 28

Titan Poker

Offered monthly, PokerListings players on Titan Poker can get their seat in a monthly $5,000 freeroll for just 25 points.

Date: Mar. 7 Value: $5,000 Qualify with: 25 points

Pacific Poker

Earn 100 points as a PokerListings player in the previous month to play in the monthly Pacific Poker $1,000 freeroll.

Date: Mar. 7 Value: $1,000 Qualify with: 100 points Qualify between: Feb. 1 - Feb. 28

Party Poker

Be sure to have collected 100 points in February for your seat in the next $2,000 Party Poker freeroll.

Date: Mar. 13 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 100 points Qualify between: Feb. 1 - Feb. 28

Betfair Poker

Open to all new PokerListings.com players who signed up in February, or any existing players who earned 10 points before March 1st.

Date: Mar. 14 Value: $3,000 Qualify with: 10 points

Sportsbook Poker

The next $2,000 Monthly freeroll is almost here, buy in with just 200 points.

Date: Mar. 14 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 200 points

bwin Poker

Monthly freerolls for all PokerListings players on the site. Just 50 pts to qualify.

Date: Mar. 19 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 25 points Qualify between: Dec. 1- Mar. 19

Titan Poker

All PokerListings players are welcome to earn their seats in the next quarterly $15k freeroll from Titan Poker. Just 750 points to qualify.

Date: Mar. 28 Value: $15,000 Qualify with: 750 points
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Handling the Baddest of Beats

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 21:30:00 +0100

You feel the rush of jumping out of the airplane. Wind and all manner of force is in your face as you speed down towards the earth.

As you fall closer to the ground the time comes for you to pull the rip cord and it fails.

When Tyler Reiman spiked a queen all in pre-flop against John Duthie's aces at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure this past January with 12 people left and enough chips in the middle of the table to send the winner of the pot through to the final table with a massive chip lead, Duthie says that's exactly what it felt like.

"I equate it to that," Duthie said on Day 1 of the World Poker Tour's L.A. Poker Classic. "The feeling the skydiver feels at that point is exactly how you feel I would imagine."

With Duthie practically guaranteed second or third-place money had he won the pot, the value of the beat made it all the more devastating.

"The situation really made it the worst beat that I've ever had or will ever have in the game of poker," he said. "It was literally like losing $1.5 million in one hand when you are an 87 per cent favorite."

Duthie says taking a beat like that can definitely have an effect on your psyche and, therefore, your game.

"The horrible thing is you start expecting to lose these hands even when you are a massive favorite," he said. "What you end up trying to do is keep the pots much smaller. Not take as many big risks."

But as time goes on, you have to put the bad beat behind you, no matter how big it was.

"You actually don't want to play poker for a long time," Duthie said. "You might even say I'm never playing poker again, but a good sportsman doesn't stop playing the game just because he gets beat.

"I'll never forget that hand, but the impact is diminishing. Life goes on and I'm a great believer that it's only a patch. I'm just going through a phase at the moment.

"I'm not an unlucky person. I know it won't last forever and as long as I keep telling myself that, it will be alright."

The worst bad beat story Daniel Negreanu says he ever heard was from a $1-$5 Stud game.

Two players were heads up showing a king-high straight flush against a queen-high straight flush. With a $300,000 bad beat jackpot on the line, the entire table was already counting the money when the player with the queen-high straight flush drew the king on Seventh Street to chop the pot.

"Think of these guys playing $1-$5 Stud," he said. "All they all have is $100 to their name and they are going to win a sick jackpot. That's bad."

But in the end, that's poker.

"Those are the exact two words you chalk it up to," Negreanu said. "That's poker. Weird stuff is going to happen to you all the time. You have to have mental strength and emotional stability. If you don't you are in the wrong environment.

"Other people struggle through much worse things in their lives. If the worst thing you have to complain about is a bad beat and you only ended up in fourth place - Sorry about your luck. Some people have no arms. Some people have been paralyzed from the waist down. Other people have it worse. Think about real bad beats, put it in context and you realize your life's not so bad."

In the World Poker Tour's first Season, Mark Seif had aces cracked in a pot for the chip lead at the final table to bust in fourth at the Legends of Poker main event.

Four years later, in the pot that gave Vivek Rajkumar an insurmountable lead at the WPT Borgata final table, all the money was in the middle with Seif holding aces against Rajkumar's tens before a ten flopped.

"That one still sits with me," he said. "It's been a year and a half now and I still think about it."

But despite lingering thoughts, Seif said he tries not to let it affect his game or his outlook on life.

"I've been extremely unlucky at very unfortunate times," he said. "But I look at it as though I did what I was supposed to do. My job is to get the chips in when I have the best hand. I got all the chips in pre-flop with two aces against two tens. That was my job.

"The fact that I was so unlucky might devastate other people and, as I told you, I still think about it. But at the end of the day, I look at my life in general, and I'm so lucky.

"I get to play poker for a living, I live in a really great house and I have two beautiful little girls. I just live a really great life and, in the big picture, I can't mope around and feel like I'm unlucky."

In the end, even bad beats are all about perspective.

The WPT's L.A. Poker Classic continues through March 2. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates and News.

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Isildur1 takes $120k from Tom “durrrr” Dwan

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0100

Isildur1 and Dwan have one of the most epic rivalries in online poker history. After coming out of nowhere, the unknown Swede took Full Tilt by storm late last year, his sights fixed squarely on Dwan.

In just three days of heads-up action, Isildur1 took Dwan for over $5.2 million.

Dwan could only sit and watch as Isildur1 went on to lose all of his money to the other players in the nosebleed games, most notably Brian Hastings, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius.

It's safe to assume Dwan has been eagerly waiting for his chance to get even with the Swede, but with Isildur1 keeping to slightly lower stakes, and rarely sitting behind a massive stack, he has been unable to do it so far.

Dwan's night started with a 2,011 hand match of $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha against Cole South. Unperturbed by South's exceptional results over the last two months, Dwan managed to end up $299k.

After losing $31k playing a $200/$400 Cap PLO game, Dwan next sat with Gus Hansen, Di "Urindanger" Dang and skjervoy at $200/$400 PLO, where he proceeded to lose $70k, the majority to Hansen.

After the other players at the table had their fill, Isildur1 took his seat, making $59,684 in just 24 hands before agreeing to move to heads-up $100/$200 No-Limit Hold'em.

After 980 hands of Hold'em, Isildur1 had doubled his profit adding another $59,054. Isildur1 went on to play $100/$200 and $200/$400 PLO heads up with Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, losing $18k before throwing in the towel.

In total, Isildur1 finished the day up $48,655, while Dwan managed to keep his losses to only $5,343.

Meanwhile, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and Brian Hastings squared off at $300/$600 PLO. Thanks to winning a $291k pot, Hastings took the Finnish pro for over $256k.

After Ziigmund left, he was replaced by another Finn, Patrik Antonius.

Hastings went on to make another $56k from Antonius before calling it a day, up $312,119.

Below are three of the largest pots from last night and this morning. To see more hands, head to MarketPulse.

I guess the three spades or two kings weren't reason enough to shut down.

Seems aggressive to push with just top pair in PLO.

Three-pair for the win.

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Ashman Wins NAPT $25k

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0100

Playing under the handle Ashman103, he takes on the best in the world at the highest stakes almost nightly on Full Tilt.

While he has a history of going from boom to bust online, over the past year Griffin hasn't just been staying in the game, he's been winning.

So when 49 of the top names in the game got together for the PokerStars.net NAPT $25k Bounty Shootout in Las Vegas over the past few days, it's to no one's surprise that winning continued.

The event began at the Venetian Hotel and Casino Wednesday with seven seven-handed heats. In addition to collecting $75k and a $5,000 bounty for every player they knocked out, the winners of each heat went on to Friday's final.

Scott Seiver busted every player in his preliminary heat and started out the final table with a bang, doubling through Peter Eastgate with aces and sending the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event champ to the rail seventh soon after.

Griffin actually spent the day off before playing high stake online and came into the final without benefit of a night's sleep.

He was seen taking power naps on the break, but had no trouble waking up to get in to the bounty collecting business when he called a Brett Richey shove with king-queen, three-outing Richey's ace-queen with a king on the river.

Faraz Jaka was sent to the rail next, running queen-ten into Seiver's ace-jack and with another $5k bounty collected, Seiver guaranteed himself at least a chop of the $100k put up by PokerStars for the event's top bounty hunter.

Seiver was actually the next player out when Hoyt Corkins doubled through him with jacks over fives, then eliminated him with ace-king over queen-ten.

But when Griffin sent Joe Cassidy home with a dominating ace-nine over ace-deuce after three-hours three-handed, Seiver locked up the $100k.

Cassidy's exit also sent Griffin and Corkins into a heads-up match that would last just a few brief moments.

On just the second hand the two got it in on a nine-high flop holding top pair. Griffin had Corkins outkicked, it played and the title was his.

In addition to a $455,000 first-place-prize, Griffin grabbed $75,000 for winning his first table and $30,000 in bounties for a total win of $560k.

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South and Sahamies Return to Battle

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:00:00 +0100

South warmed up with $5/$10 and $25/$50 Pot-Limit Omaha eventually finding Sahamies at the $300/$600 PLO tables.

After one hour and 275 hands South walked away from the match up $511,166. Surprisingly he made this profit despite losing four of the five largest pots. The top two biggest pots were collectively worth over $750k.

After taking on Full Tilt pro Tom "durrrr" Dwan at $200/$400 PLO, but only making $36k over the 646 hand session, South returned to $300/$600 to challenge Sahamies once more.

This second session lasted over three hours and Sahamies managed to grind back $121k of his loss. The Finnish poker pro ended the day down $409k, losing $389k of that total to South.

Meanwhile South continued his incredible run in 2010, finishing the day up $436,487. South has earned over $3.5 million playing online poker this year.

Dwan started his day by warming up at $50/$100 PLO before sitting for his heads-up session with South. After losing the $36k to South, Dwan went on to lose another $252k to Brian Townsend playing $100/$200 PLO heads-up.

After grinding back $50k at a PLO Cap game, Dwan sat for round two against Townsend, this time taking the CardRunners pro for $496,651. Dwan finished his day up over $263k. With the win, Dwan has nearly pulled himself even for the year, down just $50,000.

Below are three of yesterday's largest pots. To see more hands replayed head to MarketPulse.

South knew Sahamies didn't have the ace, and tried to triple barrel.

The set holds.

South gets one back with the nuts on the turn.

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Francesco Totti Joins PartyPoker.it

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Born in Rome, Totti has succeeded on almost every level of soccer he played over the span of his career.

Totti, who is nicknamed “Er Pupone,” started playing for his hometown team Roma when he was just 16 and is now the number one goalscorer and most capped player in team history.

On the international stage Totti has been a fixture of the Italian national team since 2000 and was a member of the Italian squad that beat France to win the World Cup in 2006.

Totti won the Italian Footballer of the Year award five times and was named by Pelé as one of the top 125 greatest living footballers in 2004.

The Italian superstar now brings his considerable presence to the online tables on PartyPoker.it.

“I have faced many challenges in my career and I always apply myself with skill, intelligence, loyalty and passion,” said Totti.

“You need all these abilities for poker and it is also a game that excites me and is a lot of fun. Thanks to PartyPoker.it, I am able to combine my passion for sport and the challenge of poker.”

PartyPoker.it representatives were thrilled to have Totti onboard.

“We expect Totti to become the most capped player and number one goalscorer in our history,” said a PartyPoker.it spokesman.

“He is one of the greatest football players of his generation - the question is now will he be one of the greatest poker players of his generation too? What Totti strives for he normally succeeds in achieving! He is a huge signing.”

Totti wasn’t the only significant player signed by the PartyPoker brand this week.

On Wednesday PartyPoker announced it had signed notable poker player Dragan Galic to Team Party. Galic is a 35-year-old Croation/German from Schneverdingin, who has over $900,000 in tournament winnings and an EPT final table.

Galic joins Mike Sexton, Kara Scott, Tony G, Ian Frazer, Felipe “Mojave” Ramos, Bodo Sbrzesny and Remy Biechel on Team Party.

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NBA Star Tony Parker Signs with BetClic

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 10:30:00 +0100

"A great adventure begins," said Parker. "BetClic is a leading company with big ambitions and I am very happy to contribute to its development in the sport during the coming years."

Three-time NBA champion Parker was born in Bruges, Belgium to an American father and a Dutch mother but raised in France. He began his professional basketball career in Paris and played with the French national team before joining the San Antonio Spurs in 2001.

The 27-year-old point guard won the NBA Finals MVP award in 2007 and married Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria in the same year.

Parker and Longoria have taken part in several high-profile poker charity poker nights over the past few years and Parker has proven to be an avid player, so the leap to BetClic is a natural one.

Created in 2005 by Nicolas Beraud, BetClic has risen to prominence in the European online gaming market over the past five years.

After signing former Team PokerStars Pro Isabelle Mercier in 2009, the company has made a push into the ever-growing European poker market by purchasing both the Expekt and Everest Poker brands.

Now, the company is hoping that having a high-profile star like Parker in an ambassador role will help it grow even further, particularly in France, where new legislation is expected to open up the French poker market.

"We are delighted to welcome Tony Parker in the team BetClic,"said Beraud. "He is a great ambassador for the brand. Tony represents the strong values of excellence and ethics in sports that we share. This new partnership reflects our commitment to continue our development in the sport by adding great champions to our team."

-With files from Fred G.

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Marchese Crowned King at NAPT Venetian

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 01:00:00 +0100

"It's really hard to describe, but it feels really good," said Marchese, a Seton Hall drop out turned online poker pro who has moved his way up to some off the biggest games on the Internet since leaving school.

"It hasn't really set in yet in terms of the money and the accomplishment. I'm kind of just letting it all sink in."

Eric Blair, who actually finished eighth at Borgata, was the first player to exit Wednesday's final table in Las Vegas when he shoved with sevens facing a Marchese raise.

Start-of-day chipleader Sam Stein pushed in over the top with ace-king and after Marchese folded, a king on the flop sent Blair out eighth again.

A veteran of 26 World Series of Poker final tables, including three wins, Full Tilt pro John Cernuto can now add a PokerStars NAPT seventh place finish to his resume.

Cernuto moved up from his short stack position to start the final table, but after getting all his chips in the middle pre flop with ace-five, he was outdrawn by Stein's jack-ten.

Soon after, 2007 EPT Baden fourth-place finisher Tom Fuller saw his stack dwindle and shipped it in with jacks against a Daniel Clemente raise.

Clemente called with queens to send Fuller out sixth.

With more than a 2:1 chip lead on the nearest player to him and a little less than half of the chips in play, Stein appeared to be running away with the NAPT Vegas title.

His domination even continued when he five-bet shoved with jacks into David Paredes aces and hit a jack to rail him fifth.

Four-handed play went quite long with Stein finally losing the odd pot, but not the lead.

However, Marchese got healthy when Clemente shoved into his turned full house and the New Jersey native said it was then he felt winning was a distinct possibility for the first time.

After doubling once to stay alive, Yunus Jamal was sent packing fourth losing a race with tens versus Marchese's ace-queen.

A few hands later, Marchese shoved with queens, Clemente called with ace-eight and missed to bow out third.

'It all went well for me and fell apart for (Stein).'

Marchese went into heads-up just three million chips shy of Stein's 13 million and although Stein won the first few hands heads-up, his grip on the title slipped away when he made a river call with third pair against Marchese's top pair.

Just a few hands later, with Marchese suddenly in the lead, he shoved the river again and Stein called with second to the bottom pair.

This time Marchese had a set of tens and, just like that, the NAPT title and $827,648 first-place prize was his.

"When you get heads up you never know whats going to happen," said Marchese. "I was fortunate enough to make some hands and I got called pretty light.

"I know that it's frustrating to go from a pretty dominate chip lead to suddenly being dominated yourself, so people tend to almost spite call. The tide really turned in the space of about five hands were it all went well for me and fell apart for him."

Having beaten a massive field of 872 players to take the first NAPT title contested on North American soil and cement his status as one of the hottest young talents in the game, Marchese said he's going to do what any self respecting poker player would do - Play more poker.

"I'm definitely feeling super confident in my tournament game right now and hopefully this run continues," he said, claiming his next move was to hop a flight to Los Angeles for the World Poker Tour's LA Poker Classic beginning Friday.

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Høivold's High Stakes Poker Experience

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0100

"I had the honor of playing in what probably is the best poker game ever assembled," he told PokerListings. "I don't regret anything."

The Ladbrokes sponsored pro lasted just two episodes of the increasingly popular cash game show, dumping the last of the $200,000 he bought in for when he called all in on the turn holding A♥ Q♣ on a queen-high board against Full Tilt's Gus Hansen.

Unfortunately for Høivold, Hansen held a raggedy two pair and despite running the river twice, it held.

Outside of that hand, Høivold said he simply couldn't catch anything. Looking back now he is at least a little disappointed he didn't try to mix it up more.

"I was completely card dead and didn't flop a pair during the 4-5 hours I played," he said. "But I should have played better and more aggressively."

Like Phil Hellmuth on this season of HSP, Hoivold left his seat after losing a single $200k buy-in, choosing not to rebuy.

But that doesn't necessarily mean he won't be back for more.

"I will probably have the chance if I want to," he said. "Time will tell if I take it or not. It all depends on what happens with poker in the future, not the least financially."

High Stakes Poker airs Sunday's at 8 p.m. on GSN.

- With files from Erik Pedersen

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Hollywood Hooters Hosting Absolute Poker Academy

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Absolute Poker and Hooters are offering all that and more at the AbsolutePoker.net Poker Academy in Hollywood, California Feb. 25.

Poker pro Matt Vengrin, who has won close to $2 million playing online and off, will host the free event at the Hollywood Hooters from 7-9 p.m. PST, offering free tips to players while they enjoy free wings and beer.

"I'm all about trying new stuff to increase the appeal of poker," said Vengrin, "This is one of the first of many new things I will be doing to help bridge the gap between the poker world and the world outside of poker."

There will be several on-site AbsolutePoker.net gaming terminals available for players to take each other on.

Plus, giving the Hooters' waitresses a run for their money, Absolute Poker's Trishelle Cannatella and Lacey Jones will be there.

To gain access to the Poker Academy at Hooters in Hollywood email your Absolute Poker screen name, first name and last name to events@abgpr.com.

To sign up for an Absolute Poker account click here.

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Proposed U.S. Tax Legislation Includes Internet Gaming Regulation

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 10:30:00 +0100

Should it become law, the Bipartisan Tax Fairness and Simplification Act of 2010, introduced to Congress by Democratic Senator Ron Wyden and Republican Senator Judd Gregg Tuesday, will regulate Internet gambling and charge Internet gaming operators a licensing fee of 2% on all deposits monthly.

"Internet gambling in the United States should be controlled by a strict Federal licensing and regulatory framework to protect underage and otherwise vulnerable individuals, to ensure the games are fair, to address the concerns of law enforcement and to enforce any limitations on the activity established by the States and Indian tribes," the proposed legislation reads.

Many of the provisions in the act regarding Internet gambling are similar to those included in legislation introduced last year by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank.

Senator Wyden also introduced an amendment in the Senate Finance Committee to use Internet gambling revenue to offset the costs of health care reform last year.

However, he later pulled the amendment to focus on the health care aspect of the bill.

Internet gaming lobbyists from the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative are applauding Wyden and Gregg's latest bill.

"With so much media focus on the differences between Democrats and Republicans in Congress, this bipartisan initiative highlights the growing support on both ends of Capitol Hill for replacing the failed prohibition on Internet gambling with a system to regulate the industry, protect consumers and generate billions in new revenue," said spokesperson Michael Waxman.

A Joint Committee on Taxation analysis found that regulating Internet gambling would generate nearly $42 billion over 10 years.

The next step for this latest bill is to be debated in a Senate committee.

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Youth and Experience Make Up NAPT Final Table Mix

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:30:00 +0100

And while it is hardly chock full of big names, the final eight is an interesting mix of youthful talent on the rise and at least one veteran player who seen it all before.

The event began four short days ago with a whopping 872 players and all the fanfare live PokerStars tournaments have built a reputation for.

But as a field of top pros, Internet qualifiers and Las Vegas rounders taking a shot at the big time fell by the wayside, 22-year-old Sam Stein pushed his way into the chip lead.

Stein, who made the final table at the World Poker Tour's Legends of Poker event this past August, will carry that chip lead into Wednesday's final eight.

Now he's hoping the experience of playing in front of the WPT cameras will pay dividends here at Venetian.

"I think there's only one player that's even been under the TV lights before and that's 'Miami' John Cernuto," said Stein.

"He's an older guy and he's been around the block, but he's a short stack, so that's good.

"The other guys are mostly online guys, they're all good players and everyone is playing really well, but the experience of playing under the lights and how they'll react to that, we'll have to see. It'll be a different game."

As Stein mentioned, Cernuto is the most venerable player to earn a spot on the NAPT's first final table.

Short stacked almost all day, Cernuto said the experience of an amazing 26 World Series of Poker final tables, three WSOP bracelet wins and a WPT final table certainly helped him stay patient.

"Experience has already paid off," he said. "I've watched players with way better shots to win the tournament just give their shot away. They just gamble, gamble, gamble. I don't know if it's an ego thing, a testosterone thing or a youth thing."

Regardless, Cernuto is the still the short stack going into the final and understands that these days, being the oldest player at the table doesn't necessarily make you the most experienced.

"Experience does give you an edge, but I'm not necessarily more experienced than these kids," he said.

"Every five years I've played poker they've done in three months on the Internet. So they may even have more experience than I do."

Thomas Fuller will come into the final table third in chips and with a fourth place finish at EPT Baden in 2007 and more than $600k in career tournament earnings over five years as a pro, he'll bring some experience with him as well.

Sitting third is law school grad and hedge fund employee turned cash game pro David Paredes, while Yunas Jamal, a Software engineer from nearby Henderson, Nevada with a few decent cashes on his part-time poker playing resume will come in fourth in chips.

Lurking dangerously under Jamal is 22-year-old Tom "Kingsofcards" Marchese, a regular at the $25/$50 cash games online who has played as high as $500/$1,000 with some the biggest names in the game.

Marchese, who hadn't had much success in live tournaments before making the final table of the Borgata Winter Open Championship earlier this month, believes his nosebleed cash game experience is key.

"I think it really plays to my advantage," he said. "A lot of people are concerned about the money. I don't even know what I'd get paid now. All I know is that first is like $870,000. I thinks that's a huge advantage when play tightens up."

Rounding out the final eight is Eric Blair, who just missed a WPT final table making eighth at Borgata in last year and 37-year-old live pro Dan Clemente, who has earned almost $200k from live tournaments with buy-ins $1k an under throughout his eight-year career.

The final table will play out beginning at 2 p.m. PST and PokerListings will have comprehensive coverage on our Live Updates page throughout.

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Cole South Takes Dwan for $251k

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:30:00 +0100

Dwan's first session of the day was a brief 21-hand stint at $200/$400 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha where he won $19,682.

After a five hour break, he returned to the tables to play South heads up at $200/$400 PLO. The match lasted 224 hands with the largest pot coming in at $172,184.

But despite losing the seven largest pots of the session, Dwan managed to keep his losses to only $251k.

This single session would be the only cards South would play on the night. Adding the $251k to his totals for the year now brings South back up to over $3.1 million.

A surprise to most, Dwan has struggled to turn any profit for 2010, currently sitting down around $580k on the year.

His inability to turn a profit seems to have little to do with hand volume as Dwan sits just 300 hands shy of 60,000, making him the fourth most active high-stakes player on Full Tilt so far this year.

After his session with South went south, durrrr went on to play 503 hands of $200/$400 Cap-PLO against Gus Hansen, Brian Townsend and Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, losing another $155k.

Fortunately, he managed to make $353,195 playing 7-Game, subsidizing the majority of his losses.

Gus Hansen continues to win at the tables posting a $182k win from 7-Game, and another $85k from Cap-PLO to add $268,205 to his roll.

Since his 30-day suspension last year, Brian Townsend has been on a heavy downswing losing another $224k at 7-Game last night to push his losses on the year over $1 million.

Below are the three largest pots between South and Dwan. To see more hands from the night, head to MarketPulse.

South spikes with one to go.

Dwan needs to grab some of this run good.

Dwan might have been two-outed here.

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NAPT $25k High-Roller Shootout Set

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0100

The 49-player field will be pitted against each other in a seven-table shootout format with the winners going on to the final table Thursday. There will also be a $5,000 bounty on every player's head throughout the first round heats and the final.

Interestingly, there are just three female players registered for the event, Annie Duke, Vanessa Rousso and Jennifer Tilly, and they drew seats next to each other on the same table.

2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker will get the chance to take on 2009 WSOP Main Event champ Joe Cada in a heat that also includes PokerListings Blogger and Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier.

Plus, Daniel Negreanu, who drew the names out of the hat Monday, will have his work cut out for him at a table with some of the brightest young minds in the online game, including Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, Andrew "Good2CU" Robl, and Alex "AJKHoosier1" Kamberis.

The self-proclaimed best No-Limit Hold'em player in the world, Phil Hellmuth, will have to prove it against a table featuring fellow WSOP Main Event champ Greg Raymer and EPT Founder John Duthie, while young guns like Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Sorel Mizzi will take on old-school Big Game pros Barry Greenstein and Chau Giuang.

The first round of play will be filmed in two sessions Tuesday inside the Venetian's Belleni Ballroom. The event is being filmed for broadcast on ESPN2.

For the full table lists check the chart below.

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NBC Heads-Up Field Released

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0100

Familiar faces like Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson will be back to compete in the bracket-style head-to-head format for $1.5 million in combined prize money Mar. 5-7.

Plus, several newcomers including PokerListings Blogger and Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier, 2009 World Series of Poker champion Joe Cada, 2009 WSOP Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon, and High Stakes Poker host Kara Scott will be in the field of 64 trying to take down last year's champ Huck Seed.

"The lineup of competitors for this year's event is the best yet," said Jon Miller, executive vice president of NBC Sports.

"Continually bringing together the best of the best to compete in this unique format has made the National Heads-Up Poker Championship one of the most anticipated poker events of the year."

The event will be taped for broadcast on NBC over six consecutive Sundays in April and May.

The first round opponents for the brackets will be chosen at random during the GoDaddy.com Draw Party held at PURE Nightclub at Caesars Palace Mar. 4.

Below is a list of the entire 64-player field less seven spaces for online qualifiers.

Patrick Antonius               Eric Baldwin           Andy Bloch           Doyle Brunson
Joe Cada                         Johnny Chan          Don Cheadle          Allen Cunningham
Pieter De-Korver              Annie Duke            Tom Dwan         Peter Eastgate
Eli Elezra             Antonio Esfandiari       Sam Farha               Chris Ferguson
Ted Forrest                      Jamie Gold                 Phil Gordon              Barry Greenstein
Bertrand Grospellier Joe Hachem    Gus Hansen Jennifer Harman
Phil Hellmuth                    Orel Hershiser            Jesper Hougaard       Phil Ivey
John Juanda                     Gabe Kaplan              J.P. Kelly                  Phil Laak
Howard Lederer                Erick Lindgren    Mike Matusow           Jason Mercier
Dario Minieri                     Chris Moneymaker     Darvin Moon             Greg Mueller
Daniel Negreanu               Scotty Nguyen           Annette Obrestad      Brock Parker
Dennis Phillips                  Greg Raymer             Vanessa Rousso        Kara Scott
Huck Seed    Erik Seidel                 Mike Sexton             Gavin Smith
Jennifer Tilly                     Paul Wasicka             David Williams          Leo Wolpert
Jerry Yang

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Young Vet Poised for Poker Glory

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 17:00:00 +0100

"I think it's just because I've played so much online previously and got so many more hands in and more experience than guys strictly from the live scene," he told PokerListings on Day 3 of the PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour Venetian main event, where he is among the leaders and appears poised for a deep run.

"By the time I made it to the live scene I was already significantly more comfortable than you would expect. It's kind of odd how it works."

Lichtenberger picked up the online game five years ago as a teenager and has been taking it seriously for the past three.

Around the same time he had moved his way up from grinding online micro-stakes as a teenager to $3/$6 No-Limit Hold'em, he became a little bored with cash games and started playing tournaments.

It wasn't long before he turned 21 and burst onto the live scene with a 13th-place finish at the $25k WPT Championship.

Then, in his first shot at the World Series of Poker this past summer, he made second in the $5K Shootout before finishing an outstanding 18th in the Main Event, getting his fare share of face time on ESPN.

Thanks to that more than $700k bankroll boost, he's now travelling the tournament circuit and can be found playing online under the handle LuckyChewy at $25/$50 and higher.

And, as 2010 turns two months old, Lichtenberger is beginning to see how the experience of finishing deep in two of 2009's biggest live tournaments is proving itself more valuable every day.

"The WPT was my first time going deep and, it's not that I was nervous, it's just that it feels so different than anything else," he said. "You are not really used to it. At this point now, with the Main Event and all the cameras there, nothing really compares, so anything else is just any other day playing poker for me."

Being so comfortable in high pressure situations allows Lichtenberger to focus on the kind of things he believes sets his game apart from other players.

"I just analyze situations very deeply," he said. "I pick up factors that most people miss. I'm aware of certain things based on all the hands I've played.

Patterns start occurring and you kind of can tell when a certain guy is going to get fed up and start playing back at you, stuff like that."

An instructor with LeggoPoker and a regular poster on poker forums across the net, Lichtenberger is no stranger to the poker community.

But the exposure from ESPN's coverage of the Main Event coverage has also made him recognizable elsewhere thesed days.

"I got recognized at a festival in Adelaide, just randomly by some guy," he said. "It happens all the time now, especially in poker rooms."

But despite the sudden celebrity, all the experience of running deep in big events and the cash that comes with it, Lichtenberger is missing one thing.

"I've actually never won a live tournament," he said. "So yeah, I really want to win a live tournament. It would be so cool. And why not the first NAPT? That's not a bad idea."

Live coverage of the PokerStars.net NAPT Venetian continues through Feb. 24 on PokerListings' Live Updates page.

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Ziigmund Bests CardRunners for $1 Million

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:30:00 +0100

Sahamies and Hastings squared off at noon on Saturday, playing 453 hands of $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha.

As is typically the case with Sahamies, the session was flush with action, seeing multiple pots worth over $200k.

The largest pot of the match, at $426,198, went to Sahamies after he turned two pair to beat Hastings' aces.

The session came to a close with Sahamies up $565k.

Up next for the Finn was 506 hands of $200/$400 Cap-PLO where he took down another $129,768. It wasn't until he sat with the unknown Italian player luckexpress10 did Sahamies have his first loss on the weekend.

After just 64 hands of $200/$400 No-Limit Hold'em he dumped exactly $192k to luckexpress10, then continued his run-bad losing another $120,000 in just 13 hands of $300/$600 PLO.

After a small $24k win at the Cap-PLO tables, Sahamies sat with another CardRunners pro heads-up, this time taking on the white-hot Cole South.

Sahamies played 606 hands of heads-up $300/$600 PLO against South, making over $773k in the process.

In addition to losing $773k to Sahamies, South dropped an additional $126k heads-up with Tom "durrrr" Dwan. Thanks to a couple of $100k winning sessions earlier in the weekend South kept his total losses down to $646,255.

Despite starting the year as a Full Tilt pro, Dwan has yet to find his stride for 2010, putting himself down another $110,230 this past weekend.

Meanwhile, after South left his seats across from Sahamies, Phil Ivey sat down to play just 42 hands (his only weekend session), earning $87k.

In the end, however, Sahamies still finished the weekend up $1,091,202.

Below are three of the weekend's largest pots. To see more hands replayed head to MarketPulse.

He was looking for a spade, but the 3 will do.

Just the nuts.

Two-pair holds.

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Swede Wigg Wins EPT Copenhagen

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 11:00:00 +0100

"It just feels so wonderful right now," said the 22-year-old pro. "I was in real trouble many times, but I kept my cool and told myself never to give up and I am so proud to have come through."

The 22-year-old bested a field of 423 players and an eclectic mix of a final table that included two-time EPT Copenhagen finalist Magnus Hansen and Danish mechanic Morten Guldhammer, who won his seat for just $1 in a tournament organized by the Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet.

Wigg, who won his seat in a €500 satellite on PokerStars, actually defeated Italian Francesco de Vivo for the title after a four hour heads-up battle.

Notably, famous Danish actor and musical theatre singer Stig Rossen, playing is his first ever live tournament, finished 19th earning €10,750.

"EPT Copenhagen has seen so many personalities during this week and the atmosphere has just been intense," said EPT spokesperson Kirsty Thompson. "Everyone from car mechanics to opera singers and of course the world's best poker players came together to create the upsets and fairy tales we've come to expect from the Danish leg of the European Poker Tour."

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The Sunday Scoop: PokerStars Shatters Record

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 10:30:00 +0100

Because PokerStars dealt its 40th billion hand on Friday the online room bumped the guarantee on the Sunday Million up to a massive $4 million, more than the prizepool of the ongoing North American Poker Tour Venetian event.

Online players responded in a big way with 36,169 players paying the $215 buy-in to get in on the action.

The field utterly destroyed the guaranteed prizepool taking it all the way up to $7.2 million making it one of the largest online tournaments in history, falling just short of past WCOOP Main Events.

There were numerous Team PokerStars Pros on hand for the event with Chad Brown, Jude Ainsworth and Gavin Griffin all making minor cashes. Griffin was the final Team PokerStars Pro to fall, making it to the final 100 but then busting in 95th place for $6,501.

The final table was made of mostly unknown players outside of 2006 WSOP Main Event eighth place finisher Erik “lirarerik” Friberg.

Friberg ended up finishing in fourth place for $282,118 after making an ill-timed shove with king-five.

The heads-up battle came down to RichieRichZH and lankeshwar. It was a back and forth battle until RichieRichZH finally took control winning 29 of the final 33 hands.

RichieRichZH won $1.1 million, the biggest payout in the history of the Sunday Million, while lankeshwar had to settle for $745,774 for second.

The rest of the big PokerStars tournaments on Sunday seemed like an afterthought but the Sunday Warm-Up and Sunday 500 still drew big numbers. homanga won the Sunday Warm-up for $167,100, rusostreet won the Sunday 500 for $126,000.

Meanwhile over on Full Tilt another edition of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series came to an end with four tournaments on Sunday.

The biggest event was the $500 buy-in FTOPS XV Main Event, which drew 720 players to form a prizepool of $2.8 million. The final table was dominated by unknown online players with JackQKA becoming the ultimate victor.

JackQKA officially made $482,647 for his efforts although there was a seven-way chop that meant he took a significant pay cut.

The other FTOPS XV results included BadcardsAA winning Event #22 for $430,000, BigMich08 taking Event #25 for $194,763 and finally -Alt_F4_lIlIlll winning Event #26 for $29,249.

Meanwhile on UB, ELWOODINHO won the $200k Guaranteed for $51,016.

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Poker News in Brief: Feb. 15-21, 2010

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0100

Rumored to be Swede Victor Blom, Isildur1 disappeared from the high-stakes games after he went on a devastating multi-million dollar downswing in late 2009.

He returned with a vengeance this week with huge matches against Justin Bonomo and Brian Townsend.

With all the attention focused on Isildur1 there were a few poker stories that were nearly forgotten. Fortunately, as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature we’ve compiled a list below.

This week we’ll look at another winner on the UKIPT, a notable player winning at the LAPC, the record-breaking sale of a poker domain and more.

Dutch Student Wins UKIPT Manchester

Twenty-one-year-old Dutch student Joeri Zandvliet outlasted 517 players to win the inaugural UK & Ireland Poker Tour Manchester event this week.

The final table was dominated by residents of the UK with only Zandvliet and Julian Hasse of Germany coming from Europe.

Zandvliet beat Newcastle native Jack Ellwood heads-up to claim the £63,200 first place prize.

“I feel very happy and lucky,” said Zandvliet after his big win. “There were five relatively strong players at the final table. Whatever I did today didn’t really work too well but I managed to get lucky a couple of times.”

The £550 buy-in event drew several big name players including John Duthie, Victoria Coren and Julian Thew.

To learn more about UKIPT qualifying visit the PokerStars website.

ChiliPoker Launches DeepStack Open

ChiliPoker released the schedule for a new French tournament this week.

The Chilipoker DeepStack Open will take place April 9-11, 2010, in the Partouche poker room in France.

The tournament will offer a deep structure of 50,000 starting chips, 50/100 starting blinds and 60 minute levels.

In contrast to large buy-in tours like the EPT and WPT, the Chilipoker DeepStack Open will offer a more affordable buy-in of €500+€50. There will be a maximum of 500 players allowed into the event.

Chilipoker will also introduce a couple unique elements to the tournament.

The first called “Extra Ball” which will see the online poker site throw in an extra 50% of the first place prize. Half of this will go the winner while the other half will go to all the players who qualified on Chilipoker.

The second feature is called “Knock-Out Insurance” and it rewards players who finished out of the money but managed to bust five opponents. Each player performs this feat will receive a free seat in the next Chilipoker DeepStack Open event.

To qualify for the ChiliPoker DeepStack Open visit the poker room’s website.

Jonathan “Fatal Error” Aguiar Wins LAPC 8-Game Event

You can add another well-known poker player to the list of players who have cashed in on the LAPC preliminary events.

Jonathan Aguiar, who plays online as Fatal Error, outlasted 106 players to win the $34,800 first place prize in the LAPC 8-Game Mix side event.

With the victory Aguiar is quickly approaching $1 million in lifetime live tournament winnings with $722,351.

Joe Tehan also made the final table of the Eight Game event but crashed out in fourth place for $9,460.

PokerListings’ blogger Jason Mercier came in 14th place and blogged about it here.

The LAPC has already seen some notable victories with Carlos Mortensen, “Miami” John Cernuto and Chino Rheem all taking down tournaments.

Betfair Poker to Sponsor Amateur Poker Association & Tour

Betfair Poker announced this week it will be the headline sponsor of one of the leading amateur poker tours.

The London-based online poker site will be the exclusive sponsor of Season 4 of the Amateur Poker Association & Tour (APAT).

“Our tie-up with APAT signals our commitment to grass roots poker,” said Matt Mowlam, head of U.K. poker for Betfair. “APAT are a professionally run, fun tour, and one that has been keenly contested by thousands of players in the three seasons to date."

Season 4 will see the APAT host 28 live tournaments in the U.K., Ireland and Europe with buy-ins ranging from £25 to £250.

The APAT has seen rapid growth over the last three seasons and is currently home to over 20,000 registered members.

The first event on the Season 4 APAT schedule will be the Welsh Amateur Championship in Aspers, Swansea on March 20. Check APAT website for the complete schedule.

Poker.org Sold for $1 Million

Poker.org became the most expensive .org domain ever sold this week when PokerCompany.com purchased it for $1 million.

PokerCompany.com, which already owns BlackJack.org, EveryPoker.com and Rakeback.org, did not announce their plans for the domain.

Previous .org sales pale in comparison with Engineering.org the closest, selling for $198,000.

The most expensive website ever sold was Sex.com, which went for $14 million in 2006.

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Celebrities Flock to Weekend Charity Poker Events

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 01:00:00 +0100

First, names like Christian Slater, Jason Alexander, Slash and T-Pain rocked the Pokerstars.Net NAPT Venetian Charity Tournament in Las Vegas on Friday, raising more than $42,000 for Southern Nevada's Three Square food bank.

Then, the WPT's Celebrity Invitational drew a list of stars a half-mile long Saturday, bringing a host of railbirds and paparazzi to the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.

This time around the charity was Chrysalis, a non-profit organization helping homeless and economically disadvantaged people get jobs. While the final numbers aren't in yet, every $200 rebuy and add-on from a record 567-player field full of poker dignitaries and household names will head in its direction.

Emmy nominated actress Teri Hatcher, Entourage star Jerry Ferrar and Sam Levine from Quentin Tarantino's Academy Award nominated film Inglourious Basterds were just a few of the famous faces seen in L.A.

Donnie Wahlberg and Marlon Wayans also dropped by - two of a few who played in both events back-to-back.

Fresh Prince of Bel Air star Alfonso Ribeiro said he really doesn't play poker but figured he'd give it a shot at Commerce for a good cause.

"A couple of buddies of mine were like, let's go play and have a good time and I said, 'let's do it, why not?'" he said. "They helped me sort of brush up to get ready. I'm a quick study, so we'll see what happens."

Emmy-winning actress Camryn Manheim is a veteran of these events and the game itself.

She plays in a number of Hollywood home games, including one that's all-female with Hatcher, Ellen DeGeneres, Portia de Rossi and Ricki Lake among others.

"People go home with four or five thousand bucks," she said. "It's not too serious, but it's not bad and some of the tournaments we've had, people have gone home with twenty grand."

Manheim even played host to her own charity tournament at Commerce this past October raising thousands for traumatized children in the Los Angeles area.

"I love poker," she said. "I love to play poker, I play in a couple of home games and as many of these events as I can. I'm a mom first though and I have a full time job, so I'm not like a freak."

Wayne's World babe Tia Carrere is a bit of a regular at the Celebrity Invitational as well, but she's no expert rounder.

"It's the only time I play," she admitted. "I used to do these small home games in between with other actors, but not really anymore."

In truth, it was the charity that drew Carrere.

"Chrysalis is a great organization because they teach people how to take care of themselves," she said. "People who were previously homeless or drug addicted. They teach them a skill so that they can be employable."

"This is what we need to do. Help people get back on their feet again instead of doling out welfare. That doesn't help anybody. You know? Teach a man to fish."

The WPT Celebrity Invitational will continue Sunday until just six players remain then return Mar. 3 for the televised final table with a $100,000 first-place prize on the line.

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Weekly Freerolls: Gearing up for Spring

Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0100

The following freerolls are open to all PokerListings.com players. Qualify in the specified qualification period, then take your seat to win a boatload of free cash.

If you're not a PL.com registered player on any of the following sites, click on the site's name in the list to sign up. Getting your free seat in the tournament can be just as simple as that.

PokerStars

If you collected 750 points in the month of January, you are invited to take part in the PokerListings exclusive $25k freeroll on PokerStars.

Date: Feb. 21 Value: $25,000 Qualify with: 750 points

bwin Poker

Monthly freerolls for all PokerListings players on the site. Just 50 pts to qualify.

Date: Feb. 21 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 25 points Qualify between: Dec. 1- Mar. 19

Pacific Poker

Weekly freeroll for new depositing players only.

Date: Feb. 23 Value: $500 Qualify with: Deposit and play

William Hill Poker

With just 100 points earned in February, you can play in William Hill's next exclusive freeroll worth $2,500.

Date: Mar. 4 Value: $2,500 Qualify with: 100 Points Qualify between: Feb. 1 - Feb. 28

Titan Poker

Offered monthly, PokerListings players on Titan Poker can get their seat in a monthly $5,000 freeroll for just 25 points.

Date: Mar. 7 Value: $5,000 Qualify with: 25 points

Pacific Poker

Earn 100 points as a PokerListings player in the previous month to play in the monthly Pacific Poker $1,000 freeroll.

Date: Mar. 7 Value: $1,000 Qualify with: 100 points Qualify between: Feb. 1 - Feb. 28

Party Poker

Be sure to have collected 100 points in February for your seat in the next $2,000 Party Poker freeroll.

Date: Mar. 13 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 100 points Qualify between: Feb. 1 - Feb. 28

Sportsbook Poker

The next $2,000 Monthly freeroll is almost here, buy in with just 200 points.

Date: Mar. 14 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 200 points

Titan Poker

All PokerListings players are welcome to earn their seats in the next quarterly $15k freeroll from Titan Poker. Just 750 points to qualify.

Date: Mar. 28 Value: $15,000 Qualify with: 750 points
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Tom Dwan Drops $991k

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 13:00:00 +0100

It seems that every time Dwan climbs his way back into the black for 2010, he follows up with an epic losing session.

After grinding his way back up to a $134k profit, Dwan's latest loss puts him down over $850k for the year.

Dwan lost his largest pot of the day to Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies who shipped the $275,806 pot after turning a full house.

Despite being involved in all 12 of the largest pots of the day, Sahamies finished the session up just $230k.

Cole South, who has been having a nearly perfect year online, made another $765,522, bringing his total profit on the year up to around $3.8 million.

For a full interview with South head to Due South: Cole on Fire in 2010.

Also spotted at the tables yesterday was the Great Dane, Gus Hansen. Hansen earned $116k before returning to the $300/$600 PLO tables this morning to play Phil Ivey and Di "Urindanger" Dang. It proved to be a mistake as Hansen was stuck for over $150k by the end of the session.

Phil Ivey, whose appearances on Full Tilt have been somewhat scarce this year, made a small profit of $14k.

The strangest online news of the day happens to be centered around the world's most talked about player, the unknown Isildur1.

After his massive loss Wednesday night, Isildur1 returned to the tables yesterday, losing just over $16k at $200/$400 Cap-PLO. Isildur1 then logged off for twelve hours before returning to play $0.25/$0.50 PLO, both 6-max and heads-up.

In total Isildur1 lost $15.50 this morning.

You can find replays for some of the most important hands from last night and this morning below. To see more, head to MarketPulse.

That's a lot of black cards.

I'm pretty sure South wasn't a favorite here.

The big full is usually good.

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Benyamine Banks Premier League IV Win

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 11:00:00 +0100

“It feels really good winning a title, I’m not used to it,” said Benyamine.

“I haven’t really been around for a while and I hope this gives me momentum going forward! I really enjoyed the format and competition – I’m sure it will make great TV.”

Taking place at the M Resort in Las Vegas, it was the first time the Premier League had been hosted in the U.S.

Poker pros Daniel Negreanu, Phil Laak, Roland De Wolfe and Italian online qualifier Giovanni Safina all entered the final table with a shot at the $400,000 first place prize.

Surprisingly Laak was the first player to fall, despite the fact he dominated the group stages, winning three of the six heats.

Laak would soon be joined by De Wolfe and Negreanu who finished fifth and fourth respectively.

Online qualifier Safina was finally given his ticket to the rail when Schwartz sucked out after getting it in behind.

This set up an epic heads-up match between Benyamine and the volatile Schwartz. Although Schwartz had a 2-1 chip lead heading into the match, it was eventually Benyamine who got the best of the trash-talking Schwartz.

“I’m really, really disappointed,” said Luke who received $200,000 for second. “I think I played the best this week and I deserved to come first but that’s how it goes.”

Benyamine, who is primarily a cash game player, admitted that Schwartz was a challenge for him.

“Luke (Schwartz) is a very impulsive player but I just stuck to my own game heads-up and it was enough,” he said.

Benyamine joins J.C. Tran, Andy Black and Juha Helppi as the only players to win a Premier League title.

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ESPN2 to Broadcast NAPT

Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0100

ESPN2 will televise 16 original hours of the new poker tour, starting April 2010. All of the NAPT stops will be featured including Las Vegas, Connecticut and the Bahamas for the PCA.

“Having the North American Poker Tour on ESPN2 is going to take poker on this continent to a different level,” said Team PokerStars.net Pro Daniel Negreanu.

“With some of the most important gaming venues in the US on board and the reach of ESPN2, the NAPT is set to bring the excitement of world-class tournament poker to millions who love this game as much as I do.”

The NAPT, which was announced at the PCA in January, is set to offer numerous tournaments around North America with a variety of buy-ins and huge payouts.

The main event for the first season has been set at $5,000 with a variety of ways to qualify on PokerStars.

ESPN2’s coverage of the first event at the Venetian will include the unique $25,000 High Roller event, which will feature a number of the world’s biggest poker celebrities such as Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari and Tony G.

The NAPT event at the Venetian in Las Vegas is set to take place Feb. 20-24, 2010. Visit PokerStars website for the complete NAPT schedule.

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Due South: Cole on Fire in 2010

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 11:00:00 +0100

But the 22-year-old CardRunners instructor and Georgetown economics major says his recent success is due to a lot more than just running good.

"I've certainly had a lot of luck on my side, and am very fortunate to have had such a strong start to the year," he said. "I have put in a lot of hard work away from the tables and it is certainly nice to see it paying off."

South's first foray into the highest stakes games on Full Tilt could hardly be deemed successful. He dropped close to $1 million in 2008.

But 2009 was a different story altogether as he developed into one of the most consistent players in the nosebleeds, posting a $2 million profit by the end of the year.

Now with a blazing hot start to 2010, South credits the work he's done away from the virtual felt as much as the work he's done on it.

"There are some opponents at the highest stakes that are such good card players they can play any game at any time and be a favorite," he said. "I have a ton of respect for that approach, but I find that hard work away from the tables is a big factor in my results.

"Before and after every session, I am always looking at the big hands I've recently been involved in to see what I could have done differently."

Picking the right games to play in has also been a factor.

"Game selection is an important skill for any poker player," South explained. "If you are only playing in games with players that are better than you, you are bound to eventually go broke. That said, it is difficult to improve as a poker player if you are only playing lesser opponents. At some point you will undoubtedly begin playing down to your competition and stop progressing your game."

With only a handful of the best poker players in the world playing in the big games online, South has had no choice but to get better.

"In the biggest games, the player pool is so small and the stakes are so high that any weak players would be quickly sent broke," he said.

"Every opponent at these levels is extremely tough, and there aren't any players that can be viewed as easy money. Guys like Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, and Phil Ivey are at the top for a reason; they are insanely good poker players.

Respect due.

"I respect their games immensely, but at the same time I have played each one of them in long heads-up matches and have emerged a much stronger player because of it."

South started playing poker in a home game with some buddies during his freshman year of college.

He found losing the week's beer money a frustrating experience, so he checked out a few poker books from the library and began to improve his game.

As his results improved, he turned to online poker, busting a few $50 deposits playing well above his bankroll.

Eventually he learned a little about bankroll management and took a real shot, ran up a $200 deposit playing low-stakes Limit Hold'em and "with a lot of study, and a fair amount of luck at the right times," he hasn't looked back since.

But despite all the time he's spent playing, studying and analyzing the game, South believes his time spent away from poker altogether has been just as valuable.

"I really enjoy playing poker, but at the end of the day it's just a card game," he said. "I am happiest when I am leading a balanced life with a variety of interests."

South says playing poker at the highest stakes is a great challenge, but without other goals to temper it with, it can become all consuming.

"Right now I'm training for a marathon and the feeling of a great run after a poker session is very rewarding," he said.

"Traveling is one of my passions, and I have been fortunate enough to visit over thirty countries on every continent but Antarctica in the past few years. Every place I've visited has had a ton to offer, and I'm always hungry to further explore the world."

Ultimately, South believes pursuing his passions outside of poker has helped lead to success inside the game.

"When I'm happy outside of poker, I find that my results at the tables reflect it," he explained. "Life is all about the people you surround yourself with, and I'm very lucky to have a wonderfully supportive girlfriend and fun-loving dog to come home to no matter how my day at the tables went."

After a three-year hiatus from school, South came back to Georgetown last fall and is currently wrapping up his junior year.

While he finds the subject of economics fascinating, describing it as, "a never-ending poker game with a lot more variables," he doesn't necessarily see himself pursuing a traditional 9-5 job in the field.

An instructor with CardRunners for three past years, South said he enjoys being in a position to help others find better results at the tables.

He also found some success at the World Series of Poker this past summer, booking his first live tournament cash when he made 162nd at the 2009 WSOP Main Event.

But in the end, where he'd most rather be, is taking a shot in the nosebleeds.

"I had a great time playing live tournaments last summer, and I plan on playing several WSOP events this year," he said. "Going far in a tournament is a very rewarding feeling entirely different from winning big in a ring game.

"Ultimately though, I'm a cash game player at heart. I love the flexibility, constant action, and big gamble that only a cash table can offer."

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Isildur1 Gets Stuck for $959k

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:30:00 +0100

The unknown Swede started his day at $200/$400 No-Limit Hold'em across from Dwan, his original online rival. But despite their history of playing massive extended sessions, the match ended after just 166 hands with Dwan up just over $33,000.

Up next came Bonomo, whose previous encounter with Isildur1 on Monday cost him $567k. After an hour of six-tabling heads-up $100/$200 NLHE, Bonomo had ground back almost half of Monday's losses, up $233,521 in 881 hands.

As he's been known to do after getting stuck heads-up, Isildur1 convinced Bonomo to up the stakes, moving the game to $200/$400.

Another 20 minutes and 296 hands at the new limits saw Bonomo earn another $35k, taking a total of $268k of his money back from the phantom Swede.

Bonomo returned to the $200/$400 NLHE tables later that night to play Dwan heads-up, taking an additional $360k from the struggling pro to end his night up $650,264.

But with the night still young, Isildur1 quickly found one more heads-up opponent, sitting with Brian Townsend at $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha.

After the hand history scandal, which lead to Townsend's 30-day suspension as a red pro and a $4.2 million dollar win for Brian Hastings, it was up in the air whether or not Isildur1 would be willing to play the CardRunners crew when he returned to the high-stakes games.

To the surprise of many, Isildur1 went after Hastings almost immediately, destroying his rival for $504k Tuesday.

Then last night, fellow CardRunners instructor Townsend sat with Isildur1 for four hands of $200/$400 PLO before jumping up to $300/$600 PLO.

Once at their new stakes, the two rivals battled for 934 hands and Isildur1 began to look like the same player we saw near the end of 2009, playing a savagely aggressive game resulting in the match being responsible 9 of the 10 largest pots of the night.

The top pot, worth $415,986, went to Townsend after he hit one of a multitude of draws against Isildur1's flopped middle set.

When the grudge match finally came to a close, Townsend left with over $651k, bringing Isildur1's losses on the day up to an astonishing $959,645.

The loss brought Isildur1's profits down to just $565k on the year.

Below you can watch the three largest pots of the day, or you can head to MarketPulse to get your fill of the high-stakes action.

Big hand versus a huge draw.

The diamond on the turn cost Townsend over $100k.

A brutal turn for Isildur1.

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WPT Announces Barcelona Dates

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 08:30:00 +0100

Casino Barcelona will once again welcome the WPT back to Spain as the tour returns to crown a fourth WPT Spanish Champion.

The 2010 WPT Spanish Championship main event will go off May 19 featuring a €3,200+€300 buy-in.

"Casino Barcelona has been an incredible partner-- from player and partner servicing to tournament staff, their dedication to every detail is second to none," said WPT CEO Rohin Malhotra. "They will continue to be a key partner as we expand our presence in Spain and we are looking forward to this wonderful event."

Since its addition to the World Poker Tour in 2007, the Spanish Championship has drawn a host of top pros including Gus Hansen, Erik Seidel, Barry Greenstein, Antonio Esfandiari, Annette Obrestad, Ludovic Lacay and Steve Sung.

Previous winners include Markus Lehmann of Austria, Denmark 's Casper Hansen, and reigning WPT Spanish Champion, American Mark Randal Flowers.

A number of online qualifiers and land-based satellites, including super satellites on May 17 and 18, are already lined-up.

The next stop on the World Poker Tour is the L.A. Poker Classic main event set to begin Feb. 26.

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Isildur1 vs. Hastings Round Two

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0100

The previous match between Hastings and Isildur1 went down Dec. 8, with Hastings making an astounding $4.2 million, in part thanks to an in-depth hand-history analysis by Brian Townsend derived from the combined Full Tilt histories of Townsend, Hastings and Cole South.

The record-setting session appeared to leave the unknown Swede in a state of disrepair.

However, after almost two months of grinding lower stakes games, Isildur1 returned to the high-stakes scene Monday, making over $806k to kick-start his comeback.

In typical Isildur1 style, he returned to put his profits back into play yesterday, commencing what appears to be a second run at the online poker leader boards.

Isildur1 started his night by playing 625 hands of $200/$400 PLO against Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, making over $116k.

Sahamies went on to lose a total of $266,926 for the night.

Up next for Isildur1 was four tables of Six-Max $300/$600 PLO against Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Di "Urindanger" Dang and Jani Vilmunen. After making another $247k in 639 hands, Isildur1 was ready for his rematch with Hastings.

Hastings and Isildur1 took seats at six tables of heads-up $300/$600 PLO setting the stage for round two of what might be the biggest grudge-match in online poker history.

After 926 hands, Isildur1 had grabbed an ounce of redemption, taking apart the CardRunners pro to the tune of $504,987.

With the $504k from Hastings added to his total for the day, Isildur1 finished the day up $869k.

His comeback now in full swing after back-to-back $800k+ days, Isildur1 has moved into fourth place for profit in 2010 with over $1.4 million.

Below are three of the largest pots from yesterday's battle between Isildur1 and Hastings. To see more hands from the day head to MarketPulse.

A small suckout for the Swede.

No heart, no seven.

Isildur1 holds.

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Titan Poker Featured in New Travolta-Rhys Myers Flick

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0100

Co-written and produced by critically acclaimed French Director Luc Besson, whose production company partnered with Titan Poker to feature the online poker room on screen, the film follows Rhys Myers as a low-level CIA operative who dreams of becoming a bona fide agent and seeing some real action.

His first senior-level assignment has him partnered with a trigger-happy, wisecracking, loose cannon, played by Travolta, who's been sent to Paris to stop a terrorist attack.

Titan Poker makes its Hollywood debut during a scene in which one of the film's characters is playing online poker.

As a promotion for the release of the film, Titan Poker's French site will be holding an exclusive From Paris with Love Tournament in which players can win up to $5,000.

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NBC Heads-Up Headed Back to Caesars

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:30:00 +0100

The 6th annual National Heads-Up Poker Championship presented by GoDaddy.com will go off March 4-7 with 64 of the world's best poker players in squaring off and $1.5 million in prize money on the line.

Scheduled to play are familiar faces like Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu and last year's Heads-Up finalists Vanessa Rousso and Huck Seed.

"It takes a lot of skill and mental toughness to get through a field of such exceptional players," said Seed, who won it last year and is the only player in the history of the event to cash in all five years. "I look forward to defending my title and trying to win it again."

New faces in this year's line-up will include 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event champion Joe Cada.

As always the tournament will be taped for broadcast on NBC over six consecutive Sundays in April and May.

"We're excited to bring this annual tradition back to Caesars Palace," said Jon Miller, executive vice president of NBC Sports. "The National Heads-Up Poker Championship's compelling poker action has become a must-see for the casual and hardcore poker fan alike."

Model and television personality Leeann Tweeden will host with Craig Hummer and Ali Nejad providing commentary.

The single-elimination bracket-style tournament, with a best of three final, features a $500,000 first-place prize.

First round opponents will be chosen randomly during the tournament's Draw Party at Caesars' PURE Nightclub Thursday, March 4 with the matches beginning at 12 p.m. PT the next day.

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Isildur1’s Triumphant Return to High-Stakes

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0100

But one thing is certain: Isildur1 is back and he’s shooting the lights out again.

After going on the most prolific high-stakes swing of all time near the end of 2009, including losing the biggest online pot ever played worth over $1.3 million, the unknown Swede has been playing lower stakes games keeping mostly under the radar.

From playing epic sessions of $500/$1,000 just a few months ago to grinding as low as $5/$10 at the beginning of this month, the general assumption was that Isildur1 was just about bust.

Then suddenly, he came back. From Feb. 3-8, Isildur1 played a 16,000 hands on Full Tilt, losing $147,079 in those five days. He took the next five days off, returning to the tables on the 13th to play $50/$100 No-Limit Hold'em.

After 1,011 hands, and dumping another $30k, he stepped up to $100/$200 No-Limit Hold'em and hasn't played anything lower since.

First he made over $327k, mostly at $200/$400 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha from players like URnotINDanger2, Di "Urindanger" Dang and Andrew "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn.

Next he took on Isaac "LuvtheWNBA" Haxton heads-up at $100/$200 NLHE, dropping $90,000.

Then last night, with his profits cut to $237,122, Isildur1 did what he does best, putting everything he had just made into play heads-up.

This time it was $200/$400 NLHE against Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo. After 1,944 hands, on as many as seven concurrent tables, Bonomo left the match down a massive $567k.

In the last three days, Isildur1 has made an impressive $806,685, which could set the stage for a second round of furious nosebleed action and million dollar pots.

Below are three of the largest pots Isildur1 has played in the last week. To see more replays from these sessions and others head to MarketPulse.

A classic setup flop.

Isildur1 hit the crap out of that flop.

Standard.

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Stratosphere Hosting Dale Earnhardt Charity Tournament

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 11:00:00 +0100

Kerry Earnhardt, eldest son of NASCAR racing legend and seven time champion Dale Earnhardt, will host the tournament while Nationwide driver and TV personality Kenny Wallace will serve as the Master of Ceremonies.

Already confirmed to attend are former Dale Earnhardt race team crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine and NASCAR drivers Casey Mears, Matt Crafton, Regan Smith, Aric Almirola, Eric McClure, Todd Bodine, Mike Bliss, Scott Lagasse Jr, Andy Ponstein, and Danny Efland.

The Dale Earnhardt Foundation's mission is to continue Earnhardt's legacy through charitable programs and grants that sustain his lifelong commitment to children, education and environmental/wildlife preservation.

NASCAR and poker fans can support the foundation by dropping the $150 buy-in for the event giving them a chance to play with and meet their favorite drivers, collect autographs, and win cash or valuable driver merchandise.

The Grand Prize winner will receive $2,500 in cash, Dale Earnhardt souvenir merchandise and a one year VIP account with the online racing game iRacing.com.

Advance tickets are available to watch the tournament and get driver autographs for a $20 donation to the foundation. Additional tickets will be available for a $30 donation at the door, but space limited to the first 500 people.

"Dale would be honored to know that so many drivers and fans have come forward to participate in this exciting fundraising event that will serve to benefit his designated charitable programs," said Teresa Earnhardt.

For reservations or more information about the tournament, contact the Stratosphere at 702-380-7777 or through the hotel's website.

For more on the Dale Earnhardt Foundation, please visit the organization's website.

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Wahlbeck Doubles at Nordic Awards

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 09:30:00 +0100

"It's all a bit overwhelming actually," said the 34-year-old Wahlbeck, who finished among the top 13 players in six events at the 2009 World Series of Poker, including winning the $10k World Championship Mixed Event.

"Doing so well in the summer was incredible and getting these awards tonight is a real bonus."

The PokerStars Nordic Poker Awards celebrates the achievements of players from Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Poker fans from the region vote online for their favorite players in four categories and a jury of journalists and poker industry insiders pick the overall winners from a shortlist.

In addition to Wahlbeck's two awards, fellow Finn Patrik Antonius was awarded Best Online Player of the Year. Antonius was the biggest winner on the high-stakes tables online in 2009, earning better than $8.9 million.

Following wins in the High Roller event at the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker and the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam, Swede Kristoffer "Sumpas" Thorsson took home the Rookie of the Year title to round out the awards.

The awards ceremony was hosted by EPT presenter Michelle Orpe at the Park nightclub last night with 2010 EPT Copenhagen set to begin at Casino Copenhagen today.

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durrrr Challenge: 79 Hands and $22k

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 12:00:00 +0100

Dwan spent Friday night, all of Saturday and a chunk of Sunday grinding both No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha on Full Tilt.

By the end of the weeked he had logged 4,411 hands, including the 79-hand Challenge session Saturday.

The Challenge session itself lasted just 16 minutes with the largest pot on four tables weighing in at $64k.

There was no public explanation given as to why the session ended so quickly, but when it did, Dwan had extended his lead to $1,414,551 with now 32,874 of 50,000 hands played.

Due to a $164,353 loss to CardRunners pro jungleman12 Saturday evening, Dwan's final weekend profit came in at just over $34k.

Meanwhile, coming off a string of large wins at the end of last week, Antonius took it easy over the weekend, only putting in 102 hands, including the Challenge session, losing $25k in the process.

Outside of the durrrr Challenge, Gus Hansen continued to prove he's no high-stakes fish earning an impressive $578k from 4,615 hands of $100/$200 Cap-PLO. This profit puts Hansen up over $1.88 million on the new year.

Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn, who has been destroying the games on Full Tilt since the beginning of 2010, added $105,418 to his roll this weekend, putting him up $1.87 million on the year, just behind Hansen.

Although Saturday's short 79-hand session didn't change the scape of the durrrr Challenge all that much, you can see the updated figures below.

durrrr Challenge by the numbers:

1,760,000,000: Estimated cost of the 2010 Winter Olympics 269,253,741: Total amount wagered 1,414,551: Amount durrrr is ahead 32,874: Hands played overall 21,790: Amount made by Dwan in the last session 16,063: Total number of Olympic medals awarded from 1896-2008 7,425: Amount of rake made by Full Tilt from the Challenge 2,629: Total number of competing athletes for the 2010 Winter Olympics 104: Hours played in the challenge 66: Percentage of challenge completed

Below are three of the largest pots from the weekend. You can see more hands by heading to MarketPulse.

Dwan gets straightened out.

He was playing for the 64, not the kings.

Hansen dodges outs from all angles.

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Big Names Dominate LAPC Prelims

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:00:00 +0100

Well known pros Thor Hansen and Ray Henson both made the final table of the $1,065 Six-Handed Limit Hold'em event.

But it was 2009 PokerStars EPT Grand Final runner-up Matt Woodward who took down the title and $30,000 first place prize.

Woodward is beginning to emerge as a Limit specialist following a final table appearance at the 2009 World Series of Poker's mixed event and a 16th place finish in the $10k Limit Hold'em World Championship the summer before.

The very next tournament on the LAPC schedule, a $545 Limit Hold'em event, was won by "Miami" John Cernuto.

Cernuto, who is actually from Las Vegas, booked the $11,590 win after beating a final table that included 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider.

But the weekend's biggest prize at the LAPC went to none other than Carlos Mortensen.

The WSOP Main Event and WPT Championship winner added the LAPC's $1,065 No-Limit Hold'em with Rebuys title to his resume, banking a massive $273,500 first-place prize in the process.

Taking the title was no easy feat for Mortensen, as pros Ralph Perry and Joe Serock both made the final table of the 317 person event that saw 381 rebuys and 244 add-ons.

Finally, 2008 November Niner and WPT Five Diamond champion David "Chino" Rheem found himself back in the winner's circle this weekend, taking down the LAPC's $1,065 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw event.

Rheem took home $23,910 after beating a final table that included Las Vegas pro Mark Gregorich.

The LAPC continues through the end of February at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles with the $10k Commerce H.O.R.S.E. Championship, $10k Commerce Heads-Up Championship, $25,100 Commerce High Roller, the World Poker Tour's Celebrity Poker Classic and the $10k WPT LAPC main event still to come.

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The Sunday Scoop: Batista Books FTOPS Win

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 09:00:00 +0100

The biggest story to emerge from another Sunday filled with major tournaments had to be Chad Batista booking an FTOPS win.

FTOPS XV Event #10, a $300+22 buy-in with a $1.5 million guarantee, drew a total of 4,682 players. Chad "jse81" Batista and Lilly79 chopped at the top saving $15k for first, but eventually Batista booked the win and banked $225,000.

Batista wasn't the only FTOPS winner on the day, however. Dr Fill Good won the $120+$9 No Limit Hold'em Knockout event for $136,250.11 and AAeveryhand won the $500+$35 Heads-Up for $77,336.

FTOPS XV continues through February 21 on Full Tilt.

Over on PokerStars, the Sunday Million continued to be the biggest Sunday draw with 8,341 players turning up to create a $1,668,200 prize pool.

Swiss player Blompf booked a $227,757.02 win after a chop at the top with oldrich88 from the Czech Republic.

Smac102 took down the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up banking $142,982.61, but perhaps even more notable was the fifth place finish by East Coast loudmouth Eugene Todd in the PokerStars F40 $40 Micro Million, celebrating PokerStars 40 billionth hand dealt.

Todd took $33,263.29 for his efforts and after his exit, the four players at the top chopped, with $95,816 going to eventual winner anybodybut17.

Meanwhile, Jeremiah Vinsant, Nick Maimone and Team PokerStars Pro J.C. Alvarado all made the final table of the Sunday 500 on PokerStars.

However, none could best KGBkaka, who took home $92,341 for the win.

Other big names to make final tables in PokerStars Sunday events included Lee "Final Table" Nelson, Jon "PearlJammer" Turner, Hevad "RaiNKhAN" Khan, and Jason "JP OSU" Potter.

Finally, just weeks after his final table appearance in the 2010 Aussie Millions, Peter "Apathy123" Jetten made the final table of UB's $200k Guaranteed event.

Jetten could manage no better than ninth, however, as BEARBEER took first place and $48,202.08.

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Poker News in Brief: Feb. 8-14, 2010

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 11:00:00 +0100

However, there were several stories that almost fell through the cracks here at PokerListings.com and as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature, we’ve compiled a list of them below.

This week we’ll look at a former world champion returning to Full Tilt, the PokerStars Macau Poker Cup and more.

Mortensen Returns to Full Tilt

The enigmatic Carlos Mortensen has apparently returned to Full Tilt Poker as a red pro.

Mortensen, who is the only player in history win both the WSOP Main Event and the WPT World Championship, disappeared from the Full Tilt roster after the 2008 WSOP.

Although Full Tilt has yet to officially confirm that Mortensen has returned, he is once again listed as a red pro on the company’s website.

Despite his impressive tournament results, which include more than $8.8 million in lifetime earnings, Mortensen has stayed out of the limelight and limits the number of live tournaments he plays every year.

Record Prizepool at PokerStars.net ANZPT Adelaide

PokerStars kicked off the second season of the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour with a tournament in Adelaide this week that drew a record number of players.

A total of 236 players bought into the event to create a prize pool of AUD$644,280, which beat last year’s tournament by AUD$57,330.

The final table of ANZPT Adelaide is scheduled to take place later today. The next event on the ANZPT schedule will take place in Perth on March 17-21.

World Poker Tour to Reach Landmark Episode

The World Poker Tour's eighth season will climax with the 178th episode of the show, putting it ahead of long-running U.S. TV stalwarts like L.A. Law (171 episodes), The Flintstones (166 episodes) and Magnum P.I. (162 episodes).

“WPT’s production team is no stranger to making history - their show propelled the game into the thriving global industry it is today,” said George Greenberg, executive vice president of programming and production Fox Sports.

“The WPT production team broke new ground in translating the game of poker to audiences worldwide through innovative formats and high-quality production.”

After the conclusion of the eighth season the WPT will be right behind classics like Seinfeld, which ran for 179 episodes and I Love Lucy, which went 179.

Songwriter Offers Half WSOP Winnings

Jason Mershon, a professional poker pro and songwriter, has come up with an unusual plan to promote his new song “Playin’ Poker for a Livin’.”

If Mershon makes the final table of the 2010 WSOP Main Event, he has agreed to give 50% of his winnings to the first 15,000 fans that purchase the song from his website.

“It’s just my way of saying ‘thank you’ to those fans who really like my new song,” said Mershon.

Mershon plans on updating his progress at the 2010 WSOP via Twitter so fans can sweat their horse.

Macau Poker Cup Coming in March

PokerStars released the schedule for an upcoming Macau Poker Cup this week.

The tournament series will run March 3-7 with six events including the $1 million Hong Kong dollar guaranteed Red Dragon event.

The series will also include a HKD$3,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event, a Knockout Bounty event, a charity event and a Rebuy tournament.

All the events take place in the PokerStars Macau poker room in the Lisboa Hotel and Casino.

PokerStars-sponsored player Kitty Kuo outlasted 246 players to win HKD$557,230 in the last Macau Poker Cup event, which took place in October.

All results in Macau Poker Cup events count towards the Asia Player of the Year and this year PokerStars will award a one-year sponsorship deal to the APOY winner.

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Weekly Freerolls: $36k Valentine’s Day

Sat, 13 Feb 2010 10:30:00 +0100

The following freerolls are open to all PokerListings.com players. Qualify in the specified qualification period, then take your seat to win a boatload of free cash.

If you're not a PL.com registered player on any of the following sites, click on the site's name in the list to sign up. Getting your free seat in the tournament can be just as simple as that.

Party Poker

Be sure to have collected 100 points in January for your seat in the next $2,000 Party Poker freeroll.

Date: Feb. 13 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 100 points Qualify between: Jan. 1-31

Full Tilt

A makeup freeroll for the missed Saturday $1,500's. This $4,500 event replaces the standard $1,500 freeroll.

Date: Feb. 13 Value: $4,500 Qualify with: 100 points Qualify between: Jan. 07-12

Sportsbook Poker

The next $2,000 Monthly freeroll is almost here, buy in with just 200 points.

Date: Feb. 14 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 200 points

Pacific Poker

Weekly freeroll for new depositing players only.

Date: Feb. 16 Value: $500 Qualify with: Deposit and play

PokerStars

The next massive freeroll from PokerStars comes as a $25k event awarding $24k worth of "turbo takedown tickets" plus $1k cash for the final table. Collect 100 points in January as a PokerListings player to earn your seat.

Date: Feb. 21 Value: $25,000 Qualify with: 100 points Qualify between: Jan. 1-31

bwin Poker

Monthly freerolls for all PokerListings players on the site. Just 50 pts to qualify.

Date: Feb. 21 Value: $2,000 Qualify with: 25 points

Qualify between: Dec. 1- Mar. 19

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