The PokerListings Blog

WPT vs. EPT: Which Poker Tour is Best? (Infographic)

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:17:13 -0800

Photo Recap of Ivey’s Epic $2 Million Win

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:30:48 -0800

Phil Ivey was a man possessed after busting out of the 2012 Aussie Millions Main Event in 12th. The $250k Challenge went until 6 a.m. but Ivey didn't miss a beat.

John Juanda was partially responsible for getting four Chinese businessmen in on the game.

Patrik Antonius came in second place and cashed for $1.2 million. Despite his notable cash game winnings, it was his biggest ever live score.

Daniel Negreanu busted in fourth and experienced one of poker's worst bubbles. Instead of making $823k, Negreanu lost $250k. Gus Hansen snagged the min-cash for $823k.

The $250k Challenge took place entirely in Crown Casino's TV friendly studio 3. The event began at 4:30 p.m. and ended just after 6 a.m. the next day.

After the last hand was dealt, Patrik Antonius and Phil Ivey agreed to go get breakfast together. Ivey just asked that Antonius wait while he sorted out how he was going to get paid.

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Black Friday Bulletin Board - US Online Poker Legal Updates (Updated 02/02/2012)

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:00:00 -0800

February 2, 2012

In an exclusive statement to PokerStrategy.com, the lawyer for Groupe Bernard Tapie said that money still owed to Full Tilt Poker by Team Pros like Phil Ivey, Layne Flack, David Benyamine, and Erik Lindgren could pose problems to the acquisition deal.

Behn Dayanim, the lawyer, said the money owed is between $10 and $20 million.

Dayanim said:

"GBT doesn't want to acquire assets which will need to be litigated over later. In total, the sum owed to the company is between $10 and $20 million.

"Several of the players who owe money and have not yet expressed a willingness to pay their debts include Phil Ivey, Layne Flack, David Benyamine, and Erik Lindgren. Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, and others owe a smaller but still significant amount."If the money doesn't come in, it creates a serious obstacle to completion of the deal.

"This isn't the only issue with the takeover, and the deal won't end on any one issue - but this is a substantial item."

Read the whole story here.

February 1, 2012

In an interview with IGamingFrance, Laurent Tapie fires back at rumors that Chris Ferguson is holding up Groupe Bernard Tapie's attempts to acquire Full Tilt Poker.

Tapie called the the story “totally false” and said the deal is on track to be completed by the end of February.

Get the whole story with quotes from Laurent Tapie right here.

January 25, 2012

Online poker news site Subject: Poker reports that former Full Tilt Poker co-owner Chris “Jesus” Ferguson had “secret” accounts into which he funneled money prior to Black Friday, and that it could hamper FTP's acquisition by Groupe Bernard Tapie.

Get more on that rumor here.

January 17, 2012

Adding to Ultimate Bet's worries is a new lawsuit brought against the online poker room by a group of players that includes Brad Booth, Dan King and Dustin Woolf. The group claims more than $20 million was stolen in connection to the site's superuser scandal, and they're seeking to recoup their losses plus further damages.

Get the details on that lawsuit right here.

December 20, 2011

Absolute Poker co-owner Brent Beckley pleaded guilty to the federal charges laid against him in connection to online poker's Black Friday this past April. Beckley was charged with bank fraud and breaking US Internet gambling laws, charges which carry a maximum sentence of 30 years. Under his plea agreement, however, Beckley is reportedly serving between 12 and 18 months.

Click here for the full story on Brent Beckley's plea agreement.

December 16, 2011

PokerStars announces a new process for protecting player funds, called The PokerStars Player Protection Plan. Introducing the strategy in the regulated French market, it will involved appointing a third party financial services company to oversee the segregation of player funds. PokerStars hopes this will become the standard in online gaming in Europe.

Click here for the full story on PokerStars' Player Protection Plan.

December 15, 2011

Full Tilt Poker has voted to further the transfer of its assets to Groupe Bernard Tapie, by way of the US Department of Justice. A two-thirds majority by FTP owners was satisfied to reach the agreement, marking another important step towards players getting repaid and GBT getting Full Tilt back on its feet.

Click here for the full story.

November 18, 2011

Group Bernard Tapie has officially acquired Full Tilt Poker, paying $80 million and agreeing to repay all FTP's former non-US customers while the DOJ will manage the repayment of American players.

The deal will also see FTP assets voluntarily forfeited to the DOJ who will then transfer them to GBT.

Click here for the full story on the official acquisition of Full Tilt Poker.

November 15, 2011

Chris Ferguson, whose name was added to the civil complaint against Full Tilt Poker in September, has filed a new group of motions with the US District Court of Southern New York.

The motions are on behalf of the companies that comprise Full Tilt Poker, and seeks to return assets seized by the US Department of Justice on and before Black Friday. One of the motions also seeks to add Los Angeles-based attorney Ian J. Imrich to Ferguson's defense team.

Get the details plus links to the motions right here.

November 1, 2011

Subject Poker publishes an email sent from Ray Bitar to Full Tilt Poker shareholders, announcing that the Department of Justice and Bernard Tapie Group have reached an agreement in principle that could facilitate BTG's acquisition of Full Tilt Poker.

Here is the email in full:

Dear members,

I am pleased to announce that today the Department of Justice and Groupe Bernard Tapie have reached an agreement in principle regarding the acquisition of the companies comprising FullTiltPoker. My understanding is the deal provides that in exchange for an agreed upon payment by GBT, and a GBT commitment to assume responsibility for payment of ROW players, DoJ will reimburse US players and settle the outstanding civil litigation with the companies comprising FTP. Beyond these conditions, issues like the time frame and process for repayment of players remain unclear at this point and time.

With DoJ’s consent now in hand, GBT may now proceed to finalize an agreement to acquire the companies or assets that comprise FTP. That agreement will very likely address the status of your shares or interests in the successor company. When I receive that agreement, I will coordinate with our attorneys to ensure the terms of that proposed agreement will be shared with the membership and voted on.

-Ray

October 20, 2011

The Alderney Gambling Control Commission amends its original tribunal report regarding the amount of money Full Tilt Poker had seized by the US Department of Justice.

The original statement put that sum at $331 million USD but the revision explains that this number more accurately represents the total money "unavailable" to FTP, only a part of which is a result of DOJ seizures.

The AGCC says that the DOJ has seized roughly $159 million from Full Tilt, $115 million of which was seized prior to Black Friday.

Read the statement and an explanation here.

September 30, 2011

Full Tilt Poker signs an acquisition agreement with the Bernard Tapie Group. The acquisition is contingent on a few conditions being met, chief among them being a "favorable resolution" with the US Department of Justice.

The agreement explicitly includes the repayment of Full Tilt Poker funds to its former customers.

Read the statement in its entirety here.

September 29, 2011

After a six-day long hearing the Alderney Gambling Control Commission has revoked Full Tilt Poker's gambling license. While this does not preclude FTP from seeking another license elsewhere, it does end the AGCC's jurisdiction over the now defunct online poker room.

Click here to read excerpts from the statement.

September 22, 2011

Two of the lawyers representing Full Tilt Poker fire back at US Attorney Preet Bhahara's suggestion that Ful Tilt was operated as a "global Ponzi scheme". FTP's lawyers call that description careless and inflammatory.

Read the whole story with quotes from Full Tilt's lawyers right here.

1pm - September 21, 2011

Epic Poker League announces the decision to suspend Howard Lederer and Chris Ferguson based on the amendment to the civil complaint against Full Tilt Poker.

Read the whole story right here.

12pm - September 21, 2011

Rafe Furst releases a statement addressing his inclusion in the US civil complaint against Full Tilt Poker.

Read the full statement here.

September 20, 2011

The Department of Justice makes an amendment to the civil complaint against Full Tilt Poker, adding Howard Lederer, Chris Ferguson and Rafe Furst to the list of defendents.

The amendment names the three prominent members of Team Full Tilt and describes Full Tilt Poker as a "global Ponzi scheme".

Read the whole story with excerpts from the amendment right here.

August 30, 2011

Full Tilt Poker releases a statement addressing player funds and the key obstacles standing in the way of repayment. They also discuss potential investors and new management if and when the site re-opens.

Click here to read the statement in its entirety.

August 5, 2011

Full Tilt Poker pays the Alderney Gambling Control Commission outstanding licensing fees totaling £250,000.

Click here for the story.

July 26, 2011

The Alderney Gambling Control Commission holds a hearing in London described by the AGCC “to make public evidence from both AGCC and Full Tilt regarding the suspension of Full Tilt’s licence and to adjudicate the findings transparently.“

The hearing was later adjourned to a date no later than September 15, 2011.

Read about the original hearing here.

Read about the decision to adjourn here.

June 30, 2011

The LA Times reports, erroneously, that Full Tilt Poker was sold to a group of European investors.

Read that story here.

June 29, 2011

PokerStars and the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision Commission issue statements assuring customers that PokerStars has and will continue to adhere to regulations, and that their license is not in jeopardy.

Click here to read the full statement.

May 31, 2011

Phil Ivey announces that in support of US online poker players he will not be playing at the World Series of Poker. Ivey also announces he is suing Tiltware, one of the principle companies behind Full Tilt Poker.

Read Ivey's statement here.

Read Tiltware's response here.

Read Daniel Negreanu's thoughts on Tiltware's response here.

May 24, 2010

U.S. Attorneys in Baltimore, Maryland announce two new federal indictments, charging two internet gaming businesses and three individuals with money laundering and illegal gambling.

In association with the charges ten internet gaming domains have been seized, including Doylesroom.com, Bookmaker.com, 2Betsdi.com, Funtimebingo.com, Goldenarchcasino.com, Truepoker.com, Betmaker.com, Betgrandesports.com, Betehorse.com and Beted.com.

Read our full story on the new indictments right here.

9am - May 10, 2011

Absolute Poker reaches an agreement with the Department of Justice. Under the agreement, the US Attorney's Office has agreed to provide all necessary assurances that third parties may work with Absolute Poker to facilitate the return of funds, currently held by third party processors, to players located in the US.

Read the full press release here.

Read our story on it right here.

12am - May 6, 2011

Federal prosecutors file a supplementary fortfeiture in Manhattan's federal court, outlining the seizure of five properties in connection with the Black Friday indictments.

Click here for the details.

9am - May 5, 2011

Blanca Games, operator of UB/AP, issues a press release announcing the liquidation of its workforce and the rehiring of 20% of personnel in key positions.

This release contradicts apparently mistaken reports yesterday that UB/AP had filed for bankruptcy in Norway. The confusion arose from a release in which Blanca announced it would cease its debt repayment to Madeira Fjord who then filed for Bankruptcy.

Absolute Poker and UB to Focus on Non-U.S. Business St. John’s, Antigua and Barbuda (May 5, 2011) — Blanca Games Inc. (“Blanca”), operator of online poker rooms Absolute Poker and UB, issued the following statement today:

As previously stated, Absolute Poker and UB ceased their U.S.-facing operations due to recent legal developments in the United States. The company is currently restructuring and is focusing its resources on consolidating its non-U.S., rest-of-the-world operation and software business. In order to have a more efficient and successful future business, an immediate need to downsize and streamline operations significantly at both online poker rooms has been required. Absolute Poker and UB continue to operate their non-U.S.-facing business.

This decision comes after considerable review and analysis of the impact that ‘Black Friday’ has had on the business as a whole. The workforce has been liquidated, and the process of rehiring approximately 20% of staff in key positions has commenced. All affected employees have been informed of this necessary restructure.

A company spokesperson said: ”We regret that we have been compelled to take these actions. We have worked tirelessly to create a truly amazing company that is filled with extraordinary people. We have always been and still remain fully committed to our employees and players. At the same time, we are confident that this restructuring will strengthen the company and its future.”

The Company spokesperson also addressed erroneous reports that Blanca has filed for bankruptcy. The apparent confusion over this issue stems from the fact that Blanca recently informed a debt holder, Madeira Fjord, that it was terminating debt payments to, and its relationship with them. As a result, Madeira Fjord apparently filed a notice of bankruptcy in Norway. This notice has no negative impact upon Blanca, the operating company, or its brands. As stated previously, Absolute Poker and UB continue to operate their non-U.S. facing business around the world.

For non-U.S. players, Absolute Poker and UB have increased their maximum withdrawal limits to $1000 for Visa withdrawals and $500 for all other methods. The number of transactions being processed per day has been significantly increased as well. Players are still restricted to one transaction per week, but we are working to return non-U.S. withdrawals to normal service levels as quickly as possible.

As confirmed earlier this week, the company’s legal counsel is in continuing discussions this week with the U.S. Attorney’s office to formalize an agreement that would facilitate the return of funds to U.S. players.

9am - April 29, 2011

Full Tilt Poker representative "FTPDoug" posts answers to forum users questions.

Originally Posted by FTPDoug

Hi all, I've been collecting your unanswered questions and asking around for the answers. The questions that I've "ignored" aren't answered below either because I don't have any kind of answer yet, I can't give any kind answer yet, or they're more general questions that I'll answer in the next "normal" Answers thread. Apologies for the long delay in posting again here. Unfortunately the process of posting is drawn way out when my answers need to be double and triple approved instead of my normal one man show. We're also working on getting a FAQ page up on the US site soon. 1. Any estimate on when we [US players] can begin cashing out? - Here's the official statement about this question: "Full Tilt Poker is diligently working on return of US Players funds which is a top priority and will have a further update for US customers by early next week." 2. What is the procedure for assessing the value of USA player accounts?Tournament tickets (including IM freeroll tickets) - Tournament tickets will be converted to their real money value before withdrawal. I don't have a final answer about freeroll tickets, but my best guess is they will be left untouched (not converted, but not taken from the account).Cash game tickets (soon will be "expired cash game tickets") - All Ring Game ticket balances will be converted to real money, even if they've expired since the 15th.FTP points (as if converted to tourney tickets?) - We're still looking into this one. It's unclear what we can do with FTPs, but they definitely won't just "go away."IM medals (as if converted to tourney tickets?) - We're still looking into this as well. My guess is they will be converted to FTPs once we determine what will be done with FTPs. Bonuses in progress (pro rata as if points/medals refunded?) - Bonuses purchased with points or medals will likely have their "unused" points/medals refunded. First time deposit bonuses (or any other non-purchased bonuses) will probably just expire.IM progress in April (as if purchased up to 4 days for next level? medal value of freeroll?) - We're looking into this as well, but I think we'll give a pro-rated April status (and medals) of some sort. The details still need to be worked out.Unpaid rakeback (or cashback or whatever) - This will be paid out as soon as possible. Almost definitely before cashouts are turned on.Progress toward promised mid-year bonus - This is still under discussion, but I think it's unlikely we'll pay out a potential bonus in cash. What might happen is that we preserve the "potential" from January through April and add it to the next one of those bonuses that our US players might be eligible for.Accumulated months in IM - These will be frozen in time until a player starts playing again. You won't have your streak broken because you can't play at the moment.FTP Academy points - Academy points will be treated the same as Iron Man medals, and likely be converted to FTPs.Take 2 promotion - Take 2 will be paid out (on a pro-rated basis of some sort since US players couldn't participate in the final day or two) as soon as possible, again before cashouts are turned on. 3. Will United States players who move to a new country be allowed to resume play at the site and/or withdraw their funds to a non-US bank account? - I needed to get a very official answer on this one as well: "Yes. But your existing account and balance will not yet be available on logging in. You will be required to provide sufficient proof of relocation, including your photo identification and proof of residency at your new address. You can then use non-US funds to play from outside the US. And, after return of your US funds, you will be able to use those funds as well from outside the US." I know that's still a bit fuzzy, sorry about that. We'll work on clearing up all the details as soon as possible. 4. but Moneybookers are unavailable as a cashout option - Sorry, this was my mistake. The MB issue is separate from other issues, and we're working with them to resolve the situation as soon as possible. I don't have an exact timeline for when it will be available again, but we're hopeful it will be soon. 5. I am a canadian player and it looks like Instadebit is disabled. Im just curious if you plan to use Instadebit in the near future? - Instadebit should be up and running now. Let us know if that's not the case. 6. What about the money that the payment processors BOUNCED us in checks? And pending withdrawals via check that have not been received? Do we e-mail support with the bounced checks? Are the checks requested prior to 4/15 going to be received? Are they good? - Definitely email cashier@fulltiltpoker.com if a check bounced. If you already emailed them a while ago and they haven't gotten back to you, PM FTPSean and he will see if there's anything he can do to help speed things along. You should also email cashier with the other questions so they can look into the specific case for you as I don't think there's a general answer that covers all cases. 7. Is there an estimate time table for withdrawals to Neteller? - Many players started getting their Neteller withdrawals late last week. There have been a couple of hiccups along the way, so there is still a bit of a delay until that clears up, but things are looking good to resume normal withdrawal speeds within a week or so. 8. cashed in medals for points last night but still haven't been credited my points. - If you are in the US, we aren't currently processing Iron Man purchases. It's likely the order will be cancelled and you'll be refunded the medals. If you aren't in the US, there's currently a bit of a delay in the processing because of the US block. Sorry about that. 9. Can players in the US still buy things from the FTP store? - Not at the moment, no. 10. What is going to be done with the multiple US players who were previously able to change their location? - They have been reset back to have the United States as their country. They won't be disqualified from any tournaments they happened to enter, though. 11. Address the PMI issue - We haven't forgotten about this. I haven't seen an update in about two weeks, as you might imagine, but I know we are still looking into it. 12. am I gonna get my tv i ordered last monday before Black Friday? - For the moment the store isn't shipping to any US address. If your item already shipped it will get to you. If it was ordered but not yet shipped, it's been placed on hold. If it turns out we have to cancel those orders, your FTPs will be returned to your account. If you want more details about your specific order, please contact the FTP store at customersupport@fulltiltpoker.com and they can look up the status of your order. 13. when are you paying the take 2 money ? - Non-US players should have already been paid for Take 2. For US players, see question 2. If you are a non-US player and haven't gotten paid for Take 2 yet, contact support and they will look into it for you. We were pretty conservative when it came to identifying players as US players so it's possible you were wrongly tagged and that's why you haven't gotten paid yet. 14. I'm very curious as to what will happen to players that made deposits that have not yet been collected from their bank accounts? - At this point it's not clear what will happen here. We're looking into it and as soon as we know more we'll inform the affected players. 15. i just cashed out large parts of my roll via local bank transfer because i'm still not sure whats happening and i obviously wanna be rather safe than sorry. rumours say that full tilt went bankrupt and is going to have problems to pay out euro players once they start paying the players from the u.s. can you comment on that and explain why my money is supposed to be safe? i dont wanna go to stars or something bc i hate that site but when it comes to security/reliability stars is looking way better these days than full tilt. how can i be sure that my funds are really safe? - We are not bankrupt. While there is some fallout from the US situation on non-US withdrawals (mostly in the form of delays), we won't have any problems paying out Euro (or any other) players, even after players in the US have their withdrawals processed. 16. why Webmoney still not working, sir? - I'm hearing the Webmoney issue will be resolved within a week or so. Sorry for the delay. 17. What about FT [transaction] history. When will that be back up? - Transaction History should be working again for US players tomorrow I think. If not tomorrow, then by next week at the latest. Sorry about that. 18. can us players still play the race to the main event freeroll? - No, I'm afraid not. 19. We all need an answer to when and how long it should take for FTP support to get back to us. - There are a couple of issues here. One is for US players getting nothing back except for a generic template explaining the current situation (or, worse, nothing at all). This was the advice given to support by our legal team, so their hands were tied. We're trying to get more clarity here as soon as possible as to what exactly they can and can't say (as opposed to the current "don't say anything" approach) so that support can be more helpful to US players. I do apologize for the length of silence coming from Full Tilt. It's a sensitive situation and I think we probably were a bit overly cautious here. 20. What will happen with my bankwire I req in early march that still hasnt gone thru? - Contact cashier@fulltiltpoker.com (or FTPSean if the cashier people haven't gotten back to you in a reasonable amount of time) with all of the details and they will look into it for you. Again, let me apologize for the length of time it's taken to give these answers (and apologize for the fact that many of the answers aren’t very satisfying yet). I'm going to do my best to keep everyone as up to date as possible as often as possible, but the situation is complicated and I'm pretty limited in what I can say without a bunch of approval. Doug

9am - April 28, 2011

Ira Rubin, another of the 11 individuals indicted by the Department of Justice, has been arrested and is being held in Miami. Rubin was arrested in Guatemala on April 25th and was since extradited to the US.

Rubin was a payment processor and is facing nine federal charges including conspiracy to violate the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act; three counts of violation of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act in connection with Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker; three counts of operation of an illegal gambling business in connection with Pokerstars, Full Tilt and Absolute Poker; conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering conspiracy.

Click here for the story.

9am - April 27, 2011

PokerStars begins processing withdrawals for its former customers from the US.

Click here to read the story.

9am - April 22, 2011

Absolute Poker issues its first statement. Absolute Poker nor UltimateBet will be entering into similar agreements with the DOJ as PokerStars or Full Tilt, but Absolute stresses that refunding US players' accounts is a top priority.

Absolute Poker has retained Blank Rome LLP as United States counsel to provide legal advice in relation to civil and criminal matters filed in federal court in Manhattan and made public on April 15, 2011," the statement reads.

Absolute Poker is aware that on April 19, 2011, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York entered into separate agreements with Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars. These agreements concern the use of the respective www.fulltiltpoker.com and www.pokerstars.com domain names. The US Attorney, in a press release dated April 20, 2011, stated that the government is willing to enter the same agreement with Absolute Poker and UB.

At this time, Absolute Poker’s top priority is, and must be, the refund of balances to its and UB’s U.S. players. However, given the far-reaching consequences of the U.S. Attorney’s actions for Absolute Poker and for the entire poker community, Absolute Poker believes that the responsible course of action is to review with its attorneys the relevant court filings before taking any action.

Absolute Poker believes that the U.S. Attorney shares the view that refunds to U.S. players are an immediate and pressing concern, and Absolute Poker wishes to make clear that it wants to work cooperatively with the U.S. Attorney to safely and efficiently return its players’ funds. To that end, Absolute Poker’s counsel has initiated communications with the U.S. Attorney’s office and plans to continue proactively advancing those discussions.

2pm - April 20, 2011

PokerStars posts an FAQ, answering common questions for US players with real money accounts.

Click here for the PokerStars FAQ.

10am - April 20, 2011

PokerStars releases a statement in a pop-up in their poker client outlining the agreement they've struck with the DoJ. It includes continued real money poker for players outside the US, and the refund of US players' account balances.

PokerStars.com is pleased to confirm that the US Department of Justice has agreed to release the www.pokerstars.com domain name for use by PokerStars outside the US.The company categorically denies the allegations brought by the US Department of Justice on 15th April 2011 and is taking all steps necessary to robustly defend itself, and the two named individuals.Meanwhile, the company has stopped offering real money poker services in the United States.PokerStars' services outside of the US are not affected. The company has received assurance from the Isle of Man regulator that its license status is unchanged. The company remains compiant with all of its other international licenses.Following discussions with the US Department of Justice, PokerStars has now entered into an agreement which has been publicly filed. The US Department of Justice Agreement expressly states that the domain can be used by PokerStars outside the US to facilitate the provision of real money poker services, and that PokerStars can pay out balances to its former customers in the US.Returning US players' funds is a top priority for PokerStars and the company can now start the process of returning money to its former US customers.All PokerStars deposits are completely safe. The Isle of Man's strict licensing laws (similar to other jursdictions where PokerStars holds licenses) require all funds to be held in accounts that are segregated from company assets. PokerStars has always complied with this requirement and continues to do so. This money is readeily available to meet withdrawal demands, indeed the company continues to comply with withdrawal requests from players based outside the US as normal.Outside the US PokerStars continues to operate business as usual.

9am - April 20, 2011

The US Department of Justice releases a statement announcing that the .com domains for PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker and AP/UB will be returned to the companies in order to facilitate the return of American players' funds.

The DoJ will work with the poker operators to create a process for these refunds, since the payment processors used previously are compromised.

Furthermore, the DoJ emphasizes that no player accounts were ever seized in connection to the recent criminal and civil charges.

Click here to read the story.

Click here to read the DoJ press release.

4pm - April 19, 2011

Chad Elie, another of the 11 individuals named by the DoJ, was released on bail after pleading not-guilty. Elie is a payment processor from Illinois.

Click here for the story.

11am - April 18, 2011

Bradley Franzen, one of the 11 principals named in the federal indictment, surrenders to FBI and pleads not-guilty. Franzen subsequently released on a $200,000 bond.

Franzen is President of Chicago-based IJ International, and acted as an agent for First Data Corp of Atlanta, one of the big processors of e-commerce payments.

Click here for the story.

10am - April 18, 2011

John Pappas of the PPA appears on Bloomberg to discuss the developing situation. Click here for the interview.

9am - April 18, 2011

Absolute Poker releases a pop-up in their poker client.

As you may be aware, we have suspended real money activity for online players based in the U.S. due to legal developments. Players outside the US are not affected by these developments, and they can continue to access and play in our poker room.

The Absolute Poker website has been moved to www.absolulepoker.eu and our Support email is now support@absolutepoker.net. We ask for your patience as we endeavor to attend to all player enquiries.

We apologize for inconvenience or concern caused by these circumstances. We will update you as soon as possible.

3pm - April 16, 2011

PokerStars begins calling players to assure them in person that their money is secure, as reported by a forum poster on Two Plus Two.

Originally Posted by MattC

PokerStars gave me a call today. Not a whole lot of new information but figured I would share what I was told. I was told they are calling all players to relay this information. 1) They again reassured me that player's funds are safe. 2) They plan to have more information to give us on Monday or Tuesday. 3) I asked them if I made a foreign bank account if that would help me retrieve the funds more quickly. They told me it was their general policy that you can't cash out anywhere but the country you reside in but given the special circumstances that new options may be made available.

11am - April 16, 2011

Working Full Tilt Poker client available for download on new FTP domain.http://www.fulltiltpoker.co.uk/

10am - April 16, 2011

Full Tilt Poker addresses withdrawals and money in players' accounts.

Statement from Full Tilt Poker Regarding Recent Check Withdrawal Issues

In light of recent events involving the freezing of certain accounts, Full Tilt Poker would like to assure all players that their funds remain safe and secure. Processing of both deposit and withdrawal requests is proceeding as normal and is still available to all of our players.

All players who were affected by the current situation have had their funds returned to their accounts and all new withdrawal requests are proceeding normally. We assure all players on Full Tilt Poker that your playing experience will not change and that you will be able to both deposit and withdraw funds as needed. Your money remains safe, secure and accessible at all times.

Full Tilt Poker remains committed to the protection of our players' security and legal rights, and will continue to provide the best and safest online poker room available worldwide.

8:30pm - April 15, 2011

PokerStars releases a pop-up in their poker client.

Important Notice from PokerStars

As you may have heard, we have had to suspend real money poker services to people based in the US due to legal developments there. The developments are confined to the US and do not have any impact on your ability to continue using our services.

Please be assured player balances are safe. There is no cause for concern. For all customers outside the US it is business as usual.

The PokerStars website has been moved to www.pokerstars.eu and our support email address is now support@pokerstars.eu. We apologise to our players for any inconvenience caused by this disruption.

Please be aware that we are currently experiencing a very high volume of emails, so response times are delayed. We will answer player emails as soon as possible. Thank you for your patience and understanding in this matter.

7pm - April 15, 2011

Full Tilt Poker drops a press release addressing the situation.

Dublin Ireland (April 15, 2011)- Full Tilt Poker is saddened by today's charges against its CEO Raymond Bitar and offers its full support to Mr. Bitar and Nelson Burtnick. Online poker is a game of skill enjoyed by tens of millions of people in the United States and across the world. And, Full Tilt Poker remains as committed as ever to preserving the rights of those players to play the game they love online. Mr. Bitar and Full Tilt Poker believe online poker is legal - a position also taken by some of the best legal minds in the United States. Full Tilt Poker is, and has always been committed to preserving the integrity of the game and abiding by the law. "I am surprised and disappointed by the government's decision to bring these charges. I look forward to Mr. Burtnick's and my exoneration," said Mr. Bitar. Unfortunately, as a result of this action, Full Tilt Poker has decided that it must suspend "real money" play in the United States until this case is resolved. However, Full Tilt Poker will continue to provide peer-to-peer online poker services outside of the United States.

5pm - April 15, 2011

In response to federal charges Wynn Resorts pulls out of its partnership with PokerStars.com and Station Casinos pulls out of its partnership with Full Tilt Poker.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704628404576265060852516194.html

4pm - April 15, 2011

PokerStars.com relaunches site on http://www.pokerstars.eu/

2:30pm - April 15, 2011

Cash play is locked for US players on PokerStars.

The FBI seizes the domain names PokerStars.com, FullTiltPoker.com, AbsolutePoker.com, UltimateBet.com and they are locked by the registrars.

2pm - April 15, 2011

The US Attorney's office in New York communicates in a press release that federal charges including bank fraud, money laundering and illegal gambling have been brought against the three biggest online poker rooms, PokerStars.com, Full Tilt Poker and Absolute/UltimateBet.

Click here for our news story with quotes from the US Attorney.

View official document here.

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Trickett, Mercier, Negreanu Crush Aussie Millions Cash Game

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:12:51 -0800

Antonius was all-in for about $80k, Negreanu for $148k and Mercier had both players covered. This was all pre-flop and they ended up running the board three times.

Incredibly Negreanu tabled A♦ A♣ and the aces held up all three times.

Antonius whiffed with K♠ K♦ and Mercier outright mucked his hand.

Unfortunately for the TV crew the cameras weren’t rolling at the time and they missed the whole sequence.

“The cameras weren’t rolling?” asked Mercier. “Well, that’s a relief.”

Antonius merely shrugged and told the nearest floor manager, “I would like another $100k.”

Considering Negreanu’s bad fortune on High Stakes Poker he might want to consider never playing when the cameras are rolling.

A bit later on we talked to Mercier briefly while the game was still going on and he gave us his thoughts on the experience.

“This game is so sick,” he said. “I lost $100k in the first hour and now I’m up over $200k.”

When the game finally broke it was actually Sam Trickett who was the big winner. “Tricky” bought in for $200k and left with an astounding $648k.

Mercier left with about $160,000 in profit and Negreanu ended up approximately $160k.

Negreanu later Tweeted he now plans on playing the $250k later this week.

The rest of the players? Well let’s just say they can try and make it all back tomorrow.

Here’s a few photos we snapped:

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HPT Founder Todd Anderson - Full Interview Transcript

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 04:00:00 -0800

PokerListings.com: What was the original vision and goal with Heartland Poker Tour, and has that changed as a result of all the changes poker has gone through in recent years?

Todd Andersen: It’ll be seven years almost to the day right now and in the beginning we really didn’t have any lofty goals. We just wanted to create a poker television show that normal people could play.

My business partner and I had been friends for a long time and we were playing a lot of poker casually in local casinos and stuff. We live in North Dakota and there was a casino about 80 miles away where we used to play at once a week or something.

At the time the only thing on TV really was the WSOP Main Event and the World Poker Tour, and it just seemed impossible for regular players to get into a $10,000 event. So we were just kicking around the idea of creating our own show and that was the genesis of it.

Is that sort of the overriding tone of these events, that it’s accessible and comfortable for the recreational player? How have people reacted to that idea?

I remember the first tournament we did and we had like 200 players and people loved it. I think people were excited to see a tournament that could attract a good-sized field and generate a fairly big prize pool but I think a lot of people were skeptical about the idea.

"I know a lot of the casinos we worked with in the beginning were very skeptical about the idea that these two guys from Fargo were going to get a TV show produced."

I know a lot of the casinos we worked with in the beginning were very skeptical about the idea that these two guys from Fargo were going to get a TV show produced. And they should have been skeptical. In retrospect it was a lot more difficult than we thought it would be.

But it’s worked out. I think a big part of why it’s working is because we really try to foster an environment where people get together to have fun, and poker is the thing that’s bringing them together.

The biggest prize we’ve ever had was almost $300,000, which is a big contrast to the first tournament we did where first prize was $30,000.

With so many recreational players in these fields, and a manageable buy-in, are there many professionals following the tour?

I’d have to say the range of players is about as wide as it can get. You’ve got players that have never played a live event before in their lives all the way to some very exceptional players.

The very first final table we had there was a kid named Cody Slaubaugh and he’s gone on to great things as a professional poker player. He’s had great results since but he was just an 18-year-old kid from Fargo back at that final table.

I remember thinking he was some punk kid back then (laughs), but it turns out he’s a really nice guy and we’ve become friends.

I’d say 80 percent of our players are what I’d call enthusiasts. They have nine to five jobs and they play poker for fun. But that other 20 percent are making a living playing poker, and you’re usually going to see a few of them at the final table.

How has Black Friday Changed Things for Heartland Poker Tour?

Since Black Friday we’ve definitely seen an uptick in our events. We had our biggest event ever in October in Colorado where had our first million-dollar prize pool.

A final table on the Heartland Poker Tour.

I think there are a lot of players who used to be able to play online, whether it’s for fun or to make a living, and now they’re forced to come out to the casino to play tournaments.

And our events offer a lot of value. You can win a lot of money. The idea of winning $300k from a $1,500 buy-in is pretty exceptional.

Let me put it this way, a pro in our field is going to have an advantage. I’m sort of surprised our events haven’t been targeted more by the sort of low to mid-stakes grinders because they do offer such great value.

Do you think HPT is showing poker in a positive light, and showing it to people who might otherwise not be exposed to it?

I would definitely say that our tour has brought poker to a lot of mainstream players. We’ve had in excess of 60,000 unique players that have played in HPT events. This is a great way for beginner players to sort of slide into the game.

You can come and play qualifiers for as little as $40, or a $180 super satellite where 10 percent of the field gets into the main.

It’s a great way to get out and play live comfortably and not get overwhelmed and make sure you have a great experience.

It’s a really social atmosphere so people are making friends and coming back to events and seeing each other. It’s really great to see that happening.

It’s different than the big buy-in events where you really feel that pressure, because it’s a lot of money and people have so much riding on it.

HPT’s growth has been very healthy. What are the predictions for the next few years?

I foresee very significant growth for us in the next few years, and I’m not just blowing smoke, there are some very definite reasons.

Every day we’re exposing new people to this brand and our merger with Epic Poker has opened up a lot of new doors for us in that department.

We’ve added six new levels to our main event structure and we’re just going to continue to expand to new locations, and continue to improve our tournament experience for our players.

The other thing is that we have a very unique syndicated television model which makes us a very durable show. It’s basically free to any station that wants to pick it up so we reach a whole variety of audiences.

As long as we’re putting on fair tournaments and as long as we’re putting on a good quality TV show I don’t see any end in sight for the Heartland Poker Tour.

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Ride a Unicycle, Win $10,000

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 00:01:00 -0800

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A Picture is Worth $100,000?

Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:09:45 -0800

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Guide to Poker Hand Nicknames in Australia

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 12:45:05 -0800

– Qantas Airlines

– Crocodile Dundee

– Paul Hogan

– Little Crocodile Dundee

– Kingaroo Jack

– Queengaroo Jack

– Aceroo Jack

– Foster’s LAGer

– Crocodile Dundee

– Crocodile Dundee 2

– Linda Kozlowski

– Kangaroo Jacks

– Wallabies

– the four-be-two

– Vegemite on toast

– Big Crikey

– The Kiwi

– Chopper Reid (Don't ask why he has three cards)

– Quigley Down Under

- Boomerangs

To lose a hand and throw a telephone at your opponent – The Russell Crowe

Keep an eye on our Live Coverage section for Live Updates and News from the 2012 Aussie Millions.

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Nathan "Blackrain79" Williams - Full Interview Transcript

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:18:33 -0800

PokerListings.com: Hello Nathan! Let’s start with your backstory. Please tell us a bit about where you came from, before getting into poker.

Blackrain79: I grew up in Maple Ridge which is a suburb of Vancouver, BC and I was really into sports growing up as a kid. I was really competitive.

I went to Simon Fraser University and did a degree in History and Philosophy and I ended up getting into poker when I was about 24.

It was pretty much the same story. A friend of mine showed us Hold’em at a party and I ended up getting really lucky and winning, and found Party Poker online the next day, this is in 2004, and started playing with play money.

"At the very lowest stakes I have the most winnings ever on PokerStars, at 2NL and 5NL."

I played that for about a year and was winning a lot just playing tight and I ended up finding a way to sell play chips so that’s how I got my first small bankroll. I sold like 5 million play chips for $60.

Eventually I moved to PokerStars and started playing the lowest stakes they had which I think was 1c/2c and just employed my strategy of playing super tight and it worked.

I bought some Two Plus Two books from the PokerStars store, Theory of Poker was the first book I ever read, and I saw the address to the forums on the back.

I started really learning a lot from the forums and I started playing a lot and mass multi-tabling and moving up.

I quit my job in 2007 to play NL100 and I ended up playing millions of hands at the lower stakes. I guess I didn’t really have the right work ethic and I kind of just hung around the micros.

And then when PTR came out my exploits at the lowest stakes became public knowledge and it became interesting for people to talk about.

I’ve been blogging for a long time and in 2010 I got involved with coaching and now I work with DragTheBar.com.

Then I had an idea for a book and wrote Crushing the Microstakes in 2011.

You mention your ‘exploits’. Tell us more about why you caught people’s interest.

I guess because no one was playing as many hands as I was and getting such high winrates. And people just thought it was crazy.

I think it was just the sheer number of hands. I’ve played about 6 million hands online. And most of those are at NL25 or below.

At the very lowest stakes I have the most winnings ever on PokerStars, at 2NL and 5NL.

Are there other people putting in that kind of volume at the micros?

There are actually yeah. In a lot of countries out there where the American dollar goes a lot farther there are a lot of “professionals,” even at the lowest stakes.

If the dollar goes four times as far where you live it’s definitely possible to get by playing these really low stakes.

By writing a book like Crushing the Microstakes you’ve got to be contributing to the rising average skill of the players, essentially making it harder for you to earn money. Do you believe that there will be a time that games are unbeatable, or at least much harder to beat?

For years I actually stopped posting in strategy forums, so did a lot of players, because everyone was kind of scared the games would just get too tough.

But after a while I just realized that the players you make the most from playing lower stakes are just recreational players.

"Recreational players really aren’t doing anything to improve, and that’s where most of your money is coming from at the micros."

They’re not joining training sites or reading forums or buying my book.

Sure, the regs in these games will continue to get better by using books like this, but the recreational players really aren’t doing anything to improve, and that’s where most of your money is coming from at the micros.

And I don’t subscribe to the opinion that anyone can just join a training site or get some coaching and expect to be as good as the best regs.

There’s always going to be a pecking order in poker.

Dusty Schmidt said in a blog post about a year ago that he thought the games are as hard now as they’re ever going to get and I agree with that.

These recreational players are always going to be there to play.

Now that you’ve been making a living playing poker for a while how happy are you with your decision to pursue it professionally and spend a big chunk of your life playing?

I got into poker for the same reason as a lot people. I loved the freedom and the independence that poker offers.

I haven’t exactly gotten rich playing poker but I don’t regret it at all.

I knew that the corporate nine-to-five gig wasn’t for me even though I did get a degree so the freedom and the control over your own destiny that poker has was really appealing.

In poker if you’re willing to take some calculated risks and put in the work you can play all day and all night and move up stakes and give yourself a pay raise.

There’s a ton of benefits if you can make it work.

Do you feel like poker is a viable way to make a living for young people who have the brains and the work ethic that it takes to play poker day in and day out?

Five years ago it looked more optimistic to play poker professionally but even now in 2012 I don’t think my opinion has changed all that much.

If you’re young and disciplined and want to take a shot at this I don’t think there’s any reason not to. You don’t have to give up your life to try poker or anything.

I really feel strongly about going after what you want, that’s how I’ve tried to live my life, and I don’t regret getting into poker.

I’m in my thirties and I’m really happy with the decisions I’ve made.

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IG tester

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:50:54 -0800

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Top 5 Real Winners from Isildur1's PCA Title

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:08:04 -0800

5. Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen

Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen may not be the most well-known player on this list but historically he’s one of the biggest winners against Isildur1.

Torbergsen torched Isildur1 for $612,718 in 9,102 hands on PokerStars so there’s a good chance he would be willing to resume the battle against his Scandinavian rival.

Tempers have flared between the two opponents before with Isildur1 calling Skjervoy a “…stupid ugly nit…” and accusing the Norwegian of hitting and running on several occasions.

4. Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond

Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond did not have the best 2011 and after some pretty heavy swings finished with only $2.5k in profit.

That doesn’t mean Galfond is afraid of playing Isildur1, however. Back in the day Galfond was one of the bigger winners against Blom and even booked a $1.6 million session against the Scandi.

In addition Galfond is one of the few players in online poker who has the bankroll to play the highest stakes.

3. RaiseOnce

RaiseOnce is a bit of wildcard in the high stakes games on PokerStars.

Many players believe the account belongs to Phil Ivey but since hitting the high stakes games on PokerStars he’s done nothing but lose.

In just 546 hands over the last few months RaiseOnce has lost a total of $256k.

Phil Ivey and Isildur1 have done battle in the past, however, and there’s no reason why they won’t renew acquaintances over the next few months.

2. Ilari Sahamies

Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies was the biggest winner on PokerStars in 2011 and so far he’s shown no signs of slowing down.

Despite having somewhat similar styles, Ilari Sahamies and Isildur1 have never been the biggest rivals.

Perhaps now that that they both have a considerable amount of money on PokerStars railbirds will finally get what they’ve been waiting for and will see a massive session between Sahamies and Blom.

1. Fake Love888

Outside of Brian Hastings (who Isildur1 simply won’t play anymore) Patrik Antonius was the one player Viktor Blom could not beat.

Antonius famously raked in a $1.3 million pot – the biggest in online poker history – against Isildur1 during the huge 2009 sessions.

Fake Love888 hasn’t exactly lit PokerStars on fire since reactivating his account in late September and has lost over $700k.

Still, Antonius actually has the cash to survive those losses and he’ll likely be hungry to make a big comeback.

If the Fake Love888 is actually Antonius, as is rumored, it’s all but guaranteed the two action-loving players will face off in the near future.

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Sergio Garcia Might Be Good at Poker

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:46:12 -0800

If you want evidence, consider that one year ago Garcia also played in the PCA main event but lasted just a few short levels on his Day 1 heat.

This year he's managed to advance to Day 3 in the same tournament.

That's three times as far at least, indicating to us that he’s at least three times as good as he was in 2011.

He hasn't increased his speed much, according to a few reports from his table, but we'll give him a pass on that as that's how he plays golf too.

“Any time you try do something at a high level it’s going to be tough and there are going to be some similarities,” Sergio told us when we spoke to him a year ago.

“There’s a huge mental game in both and it’s important to have mental strength,” he said.

While it is true that Sergio Garcia has no real poker results per se, he did win a televised celebrity event sponsored by PokerStars in Spain.

Check out Garcia here deftly folding A-7 when his opponent had pocket aces. Spanish fluency not mandatory.

And a few pictures we picked up in the Bahamas last year.

Sergio Garcia at the 2011 PCA main event

Sergio Garcia

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Isaac Haxton Might be Good at Poker

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 11:43:24 -0800

Interestingly it was the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure that first brought Haxton to our attention, and it’s the PCA that put him on our radar today.

The first entry on Haxton’s tournament record is an $861,789 runner-up finish in the 2007 PCA main event.

Since then he’s earned roughly $2.7 million playing live poker tournaments and he’s looking to build on that big-time today in the Bahamas as he leads the final 16 in the $100,000 buy-in Super High Roller event.

The Backstory

When you find players excelling in poker at a young age more often than not they excelled at other mental athletics as well. Such was the case for young Isaac Haxton.

Born in New York and raised in Syracuse, Haxton was the son of an English professor and started playing chess at four years of age.

Haxton was too cool for school, or at least the fifth grade.

Like some sort of Tenenbaum replicant Haxton skipped the fifth grade and was absorbed by Magic: The Gathering by age ten. Swept up in the wave of MTG players making the switch to poker, Haxton was making trips to the Turning Stone Casino in New York as a high-school senior. It wasn't long after that he found online poker.

Haxton started winning and, using the knack for gaming excellence he had acquired early on, applied himself to poker in a big way.

The Evidence

Isaax Haxton has been providing evidence that he might be good at poker for years, starting chiefly with the aforementioned $861k PCA score five years ago.

As we reported all those years ago, Haxton ran extremely bad to have transferred his winnings from his PokerStars account to Neteller. That’s because the day after the funds hit his Neteller account, the online payment processor’s funds were seized by the Department of Justice and its owners arrested.

It took many months for Haxton to recoup the money, but luckily for him he went on to earn another $214,000 before the end of 2007. That mini-heater included a final table at the WSOP, and extended straight into 2008 with four more World Series cashes and a six-figure payday at the EPT London High Roller event.

Haxton’s biggest score to date came at the 2009 WSOP when he finished second to Vitaly Lunkin in the $40,000 40th Anniversary event. Haxton earned $1,168,568.

In 2010 Haxton fared well with two more six-figure finishes, winning a $2,500 Venetian Deep Stack event and finishing ninth in the $25k WSOP Six-Max Championship.

His most recent windfall before today’s PCA Super High Roller came in the way of a third-place finish in the $100,000 buy-in event at the Bellagio’s Five Diamond series in Las Vegas. That result earned him $581,806.

Keep an eye on our Poker News section for ongoing updates on the 2012 PCA Super High Roller event.

And now we treat you to the photo reel of Isaax Haxton we’ve compiled over the years.

Haxton used to have long hair, like really long.

Looking very Jim Morrison at the 2007 WSOP.

2008 and the hair remains.

2009 was the first time we saw Haxton 2.0

After a while it just started to look normal.

One year ago in the Bahamas.

Read More Posts About People Who Might Be Good at Poker:

Praz Banzi Erik Seidel Vanessa Selbst Liv Boeree Arnaud Mattern Tobias Reinkemeier Andrew Lichtenberger Ludovic Lacay

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Kevmath > Klout: The Real Top 10 Social Media Players in Poker

Thu, 29 Dec 2011 13:45:11 -0800

Note: The list doesn't include members of the poker media.

1. Daniel Negreanu

The obvious top choice as the main face of PokerStars. Negreanu influences the poker community through his blogs, tweets and relentless media effort.

Twitter Followers: 142,812

Facebook: Interest Page - 27,824, Athlete Page: 19,688

2. Matt Savage

The World Poker Tour head tournament director combines responses to questions regarding rulings, busting Matt Affleck's balls on the links and his wife's obsession with Tim Tebow into an entertaining Twitter feed.

Twitter Followers: 15,959

Facebook Fans: 1,236

3. Doyle Brunson

The Poker Hall of Famer has cut down on the blonde jokes but he's not afraid to offer his thoughts on sports, poker or the world around him.

Twitter Followers: 382,777

4. Jean-Robert Bellande

He's allegedly broke, but he's not living like a dollar millionaire.

Twitter Followers: 30,913

5. Jason Mercier

He may not have created the #whenwillitend hashtag, but he made it his own after another seven-figure year. Also good at #mashing.

Twitter Followers: 33,970

Facebook: 9,697

6. Erik Seidel

Winning over $6.5m this year hasn't stopped the Seiborg from dropping amusing Tweets.

Twitter Followers: 35,140

Facebook Fans: 3,525

7. Jack Effel

THE go-to guy for all questions, problems and concerns at the World Series of Poker.

Twitter Followers: 7,742

8. Phil Hellmuth

Worth the "follow" for his name-dropping and random usage of quotation marks.

Twitter Followers: 105,394

Facebook Fans: 32,685

9. Matt Glantz

The high-stakes regular stepped up his Twitter game in 2011 with his jabs at his fellow pros, especially Allen Bari.

Twitter Followers: 9,132

10. Shane Schleger

This online grinder typified players affected most by Black Friday. Schleger's adventures in Canada and Mexico along with his popular blog make his Twitter feed popular.

Twitter Followers: 3,675

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Steve O’Dwyer Might Be Good at Poker

Wed, 21 Dec 2011 14:21:56 -0800

O’Dwyer has been cashing in live majors since 2007 and though he’s never exactly struggled, he’s seriously hit his stride in 2011.

He once told us he got started online as a beta-tester for Full Tilt Poker, bug-reporting in exchange for tournament tickets.

This past year he’s made 10 final tables in events with a buy-in of $1,000 or more, including such highlights as:

1st - €1k PLO rebuy at EPT Loutraki - $25,439 1st - $1,500 Epic Pro-Am - $43,810 1st - $5k No-Limit Hold’em at Bellagio Cup VII - $259,452 2nd – WPT Venice €3k Main Event - $128,063 2nd – EPT London £5k Main Event - $726,790 4th – Wynn Classic $2k No-Limit Hold’em - $17,227 5th – EPT Barcelona €10k NLHE Single Reload - $67,568 5th – WPT Championship $5k No-Limit Hold’em - $26,715 6th – WSOP Europe €3k Shootout - $48,568 8th – NAPT Uncasville $5k Main Event - $32,330

O’Dwyer has total lifetime earnings in excess of $2 million, thanks to a long list of cashes between his recent heater and the event in which he recorded his first live result, the 2007 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Those years were highlighted by eight WSOP cashes, including a final table in the 2009 $10k Heads-Up Championship for $92,580. He also made the final table of the 2009 $15k WPT Five Diamond main event for $202,362.

O’Dwyer is also an accomplished online poker tournament player under the screenname “Mr. Tim Caum”.

Check out the photos of Steve O’Dwyer we’ve collected over the last four years.

O'Dwyer at the 2011 EPT London final table.

Steve O'Dwyer at the final table of the €3k Shootout, 2011 WSOPE

Steve O'Dwyer on Day 5 of the 2011 EPT London main event.

Steve O'Dwyer on Day 1B of the 2011 EPT London main event

Stephen O'Dwyer on Day 1a of the 2010 PCA main event

Steve O'Dwyer on Day 2 of the 2010 EPT London Main Event

Steven O'Dwyer on Day 2 of the 2007 WPT World Poker Finals.

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Game Review: Poker Drop for iPad and iPhone

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 12:39:54 -0800

Cards don’t have to be arranged in sequence in order to count as hands. For example, the cards 2-3-4-5-6 will count as a straight regardless of their position to one another, as long as they’re in the same row or column.

Hands are scored on difficulty and you can super-charge your score using multipliers for speed and cascading hand combos.

While it does take a few minutes to wrap your head around the game-play it’s easy to pick up. And after playing for a few days we’ve yet to pass all ten levels.

This is a game you’ll pick up and play when you have a few minutes to burn, and it’s entertaining enough that you’ll continue to do so for more than a few days.

One thing you’ll notice is it’s very easy to make flushes and two-pair hands, and that they’re scored accordingly. To play this game well you must go after high-value hands, and that’s when things get complicated.

You must manage the board well to deal with the randomness factor of cards coming off the deck, setting yourself up to score big when the cards do come. Just like real poker!

Poker Drop is available for $1.99 in the iTunes App Store

Check out the screenshots below to get a feel for the game.

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Top 10 Biggest Social Media Players in Poker

Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:59:39 -0800

1. Daniel Negreanu

Twitter Followers:139,951

Facebook Fans: 27,507

2. Phil Hellmuth

Twitter Followers: 105,394

Facebook Fans: 32,685

3. Phil Ivey

Twitter Followers: 86,165

Facebook Fans: 85,802

4. Howard Lederer

Twitter Followers: 35,141

Facebook Fans: 1,671

5. Erik Seidel

Twitter Followers: 35,140

Facebook Fans: 3,525

6. Jennifer Harman

Twitter Followers: 33,141

Facebook Fans: 3,701

7. Matt Savage

Twitter Followers: 15,959

Facebook Fans: 1,236

8. Liv Boeree

Twitter Followers: 29,165

Facebook Fans: 6,083

9. Joe Sebok

Twitter Followers: 1,039,556

Facebook Fans: 5,549

10. Andy Bloch

Twitter Followers: 20,256

Facebook Fans: 1,239

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Hold The Button, Fry Howard Lederer (Flash Game)

Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:21:53 -0800

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Q & A with Pius Heinz, Poker's Newest World Champion

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:21:50 -0800

PokerListings: It’s been a few weeks now, what’s changed for you since winning the 2011 Main Event?

Pius Heinz: It’s been a surreal experience since I won. Obviously a lot has changed for me.

I’ve had a lot of media attention over here in Germany. I’ve met a lot of cool, interesting people, a great deal of whom I’d only seen on TV before.

PL: What’s the reception been like from the German media?

PH: It’s been pretty good. I’m quite happy about it. You’re always going to have a few negative articles but most of it has been very positive.

The German media, in general, has been quite supportive. I’m really happy about that.

PL: What do you think your victory will do for German poker?

PH: I hope it helps grow the game in Germany. I want to do my part and be an ambassador for the game.

Poker is such a great, interesting game that has a unique psychological aspect to it. Hopefully I can relate that to the general public.

PL: How have your friends and family reacted?

PH: They’re all super happy and very proud of me. A lot of my friends and family came out to support me in Las Vegas and that made winning the title even better.

PL: If the money was the same would you have just taken second place and avoided dealing with the media and the various World Champion responsibilities?

PH: It’s a pretty big honor to be the WSOP champion. In 20 years when you have kids you can tell them you were the World Champion once.

Being the World Series of Poker Main Event champion is something no one can ever take away from you.

It’s like winning an Olympic gold medal or something like that. I’m really proud that I was able to achieve that and happy with how things turned out.

PL: Your white hoodie became one of your signatures at the table. Did you plan that all along?

PH: I just started wearing it at the poker table because it was comfortable. Once my Main Event started going well it became my good luck charm though.

PL: Did you know all your friends and fans would be wearing them at the Main Event final table?

PH: No, they surprised me with that. I thought it was really awesome. (laughs)

PL: Who helped you out most heading into the final table?

Timex was on the Heinz team.

PH: I got coaching from Mike “Timex” McDonald so he definitely helped me out the most.

I’m also friends with a lot of high-stakes tournament players from Germany, Austria and the United States and we all help each other out and talk about various hands.

It’s really important if you want to grow as a player.

PL: It seemed like you didn’t check the live stream very much during the final table, did that affect your game?

PH: I actually checked the live stream quite a bit. Not every 15 seconds or anything but every time there was a big hand I would go talk to my friends.

It definitely helped. It gave me a lot of confidence because I watched the Day 1 coverage and felt that almost every big decision I made was the correct one.

PL: So I guess you’re happy ESPN decided to go with that coverage format?

PH: Yeah I was never against it. I mean it’s the same for everyone.

Everyone is seeing the same thing so no one has an unfair advantage. It’s also good for poker and anything that’s good for poker is eventually good for the player.

PL: Your fans had a very memorable chant during the Main Event. Where on earth did that come from?

PH: It was a friend of mine from Scotland that came up with it. I don’t know how.

I guess he had a few beers and that made him really creative (laughs).

It’s from that song “Baby Give it Up” (by KC & the Sunshine Band). It just caught on. I thought it was really funny.

Pius Heinz, Pius Pius Heinz!

PL: What’s your average day been like over the last few weeks?

PH: Usually getting up in the morning, having some breakfast, doing some phone interviews. Later in the day I do TV interviews.

The TV interviews tend to take a whole day because there is quite a bit of preparation involved.

I spent last week in London and I’m in Cologne right now. I head back to my home in Vienna, Austria next week.

Later in the month I’m going to be on a German poker show, which is sort of our equivalent of High Stakes Poker although obviously the stakes are smaller.

It’s been a pretty busy schedule and whenever I get a day off I thoroughly enjoy it.

PL: Have you played much online poker recently?

PH: Honestly I haven’t played a single hand of online poker in over a month.

I’m really looking forward to playing again when I get the time. When EPT Prague is finished I’m going to go on a little vacation and I think I’ll schedule a little online poker in that time.

Does Staszko ever show up light there?

PL: Perhaps the most talked about hand at the Main Event final table was when Ben Lamb jammed with K-J three-handed. What were your thoughts on the hand?

PH: I don’t think either player played it that well. I definitely see where Ben was coming from though.

I think it’s usually fine but the fact that it was the first hand of three-handed changed things a bit. I tend to feel that players are not light on the first hand back.

Everyone is nervous and usually plays tighter. That’s not to say Martin (Staszko) is not capable of being light there but I would definitely tighten up a bit there.

I also would have preferred if Martin flatted with sevens there. I certainly would have played it differently.

PL: Outside of poker and considering you grew up in Cologne, Germany, are you a pretty big football fan?

PH: Yeah I’m definitely a fan of the Cologne soccer club. I used to go to the Stadium every home game for around three years.

I used to be a pretty big fan but I haven’t followed it as closely over the last few years as I’ve been quite busy. I’m still a fan though.

The NBA finals were actually much more important to me than the Champions League or something like that.

PL: Do you think Germany is a favorite in the Euro Cup this summer?

PH: I hope so. They’ve definitely been playing really well. I mean Spain is always really tough though. They are probably the best team in the world right now.

I think Germany and Spain are the big favorites for sure.

PL: Germany could potentially legalize online poker next year but you live in Austria. Do you feel legalized poker in Germany is still quite a ways from reality?

PH: I honestly don’t know. I’m not really an expert on the topic.

I really hope it’s legalized and I’m going to try and do my part to make that happen. I want to show the German people how beautiful the game of poker is.

PL: What did it mean for you to sign with PokerStars?

PH: It was a really big deal for me. I’m really happy to be a part of the team.

To me PokerStars is probably the best company in the industry. It’s always great when you can work with the best.

It’s an honor to be a part of a team that includes Sandra Naujoks, Jan Heitmann and Johannes Strassman.

Carrying the flag for a new generation of German greats.

PL: You’re known as an online grinder, did you have any money stuck on Full Tilt in the Black Friday ordeal?

PH: I did have a little but not near as much as some of my friends. I know people who have a lot of money stuck on there.

PL: Who are the best German players in the world right now?

PH: As far as tournaments go Benny Spindler is really, really good. Sebastian Ruthenberg and Tobias Reinkemeier are really good as well.

PL: What kind of tournament schedule do you think you’ll play in the upcoming year?

PH: I’m going to play quite a few EPTs starting with Prague next month. I’ll definitely play the PCA.

I’ll probably play around 10 the rest of this season. I’ll also be heading back to the Las Vegas for the 2012 WSOP, probably for the whole summer.

Looking forward to the mixed events at the WSOP.

PL: Thanks Pius, great to talk to you.

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Impress Your Friends with a $150k Poker Chip Set

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:49:29 -0800

The entire thing is priced at $150,000 but it could break that number at Christie’s auction at the end of the month.

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Down Goes ElkY! RaSZi Wins Long-Awaited Kickboxing Match

Tue, 22 Nov 2011 17:10:04 -0800

ElkY and Veldhuis, who both played Starcraft professionally before finding poker, had been training for the fight since 2009 and decided to finally get it done as part of a TV show that was filming in the area.

We even talked to Grospellier and Veldhuis earlier this year about the fight and they gave us a few quotes that now seem somewhat prophetic.

“I think his biggest advantage is his reach,” said ElkY. “That’s definitely the hardest thing I’m going to be able to counter. Even though getting hit isn’t very nice, I think it’s going to end well.”

In the end Veldhuis’ reach proved to be too much for ElkY to handle and two roundhouse kicks sent the French pro to the mat.

The match also provided an interesting Thai vs. Dutch angle as ElkY studied Thai kickboxing. At the time Veldhius downplayed the significance of being Dutch.

“Holland is the tallest nation in the world so my genes have given me good reach, which will help a lot,” he said. Holland does do well in kickboxing but it’s not like in Thailand where it’s really part of the culture. It’s not like all kids learn to kickbox in Holland.”

There was a substantial amount of money riding on the event including a $50k wager between the participants. Earlier in the year ElkY said pride was the bigger concern.

“Man I really don’t want to lose to him,” he said. “I will be so ashamed. The money is definitely not the most important thing.”

Unfortunately for ElkY he definitely lost. We’ve found one clip of the fight that you can watch above. That second roundhouse kick looks painful.

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What Not to Do with a Huge Poker Tournament Score

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 21:32:24 -0700

Special thanks to twoplustwo user sqwerty12 for sharing what might just be the best graph we’ve ever seen.

Also: This is what you should probably do with your first big poker score.

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Photo By Numbers: EPT London Table of Death

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 20:08:51 -0700

Tony Cascarino is a legend in Irish football (the European kind) and has proved he’s got what it takes to compete on the poker felt as well. Cascarino has earned almost $600,000 since getting his start in low buy-in tournaments back in 2003. His first major win came in a $1,000 side event at the Caribbean Poker Classic in 2006, good for $28,400. In 2008 he took down a GUKPT tour stop for $96,000 and won the Grand Final on the same tour one year later for $283,412, his biggest score to date. Cascasino’s best finish on the European Poker Tour was 14th right here at EPT London in 2007, earning him just under $45,000. Tristan “cre8tive” Wade has made over $1.4 million playing tournament poker online and over $700,000 playing live. This past WSOP was especially lucrative for the Florida native, with a fourth-place finish in the $10k Six-Max championship for $292,866 and a seventh-place finish in a $1,500 donkament good for $94,700. Wade is a passionate blogger and an instructor at Deepstacks University. Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer has earned over $1.1 million playing live and hundreds of thousands more playing online. O’Dwyer’s record begins in 2007 with a $17k score at the PCA and four WSOP cashes worth roughly $70,000. One year later he made over $100k at the WSOP, including his first final table. His biggest scores are a sixth at the 2009 WPT Five Diamond at Bellagio for $202,362 and a win at the 2011 Bellagio Cup in a $5k side event for $259,452. Barny Boatman is a legitimate London old-schooler and full patch member of the Hendon Mob with over $1.7 million in live tournament earnings. Jason Mercier is the favorite in almost any tournament on earth, evidenced by his more than $6.7 million in live tournament earnings. He’s got two WSOP bracelets, an open EPT title, numerous high roller wins and a long list of significant cashes. And all that’s in addition to the huge success he’s enjoyed playing cash and MTT poker online.

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Luke "Full Flush" Schwartz Flaunts New Sandwich at EPT London

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 20:01:26 -0700

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Doyle Brunson EPT London Picture Book

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 15:46:39 -0700

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Great Poker Rivalries: Daniel Negreanu vs. Annie Duke

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:35:31 -0700

There are very few ongoing conflicts between poker players that have gotten as malicious and continued as long as the one between Kid Poker and the former Celebrity Apprentice contestant.

Although the feud has calmed down over the years, it seems very unlikely that either player will be sending Christmas cards to the other.

Here are some of the highlights, or maybe lowlights, from the decade-long battle between Negreanu and Duke.

1990s: First Contact

Back in the late ‘90s Daniel Negreanu was making his first trips to Las Vegas in an effort to make it as a professional poker player.

Over that time Negreanu was an active member of the rec.gambling.poker community, which included famous members such as Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and Howard Lederer.

In 1999 Negreanu made a post that listed the 10 best Limit players in the world based on his experience in the $500/$1,000 game at Bellagio.

It was arguably the toughest game in the world at that point and Negreanu listed Annie Duke as the sixth-best player in the game and was extremely complimentary of her game at the time.

Sept. 9-18, 2002: Shots Are Fired

Negreanu starts making vague accusations on rec.gambling.poker about an “expert” that acts like a bully in the Bellagio game.

At first the comments are about an anonymous person but Negreanu later starts adding “she” into the thread.

Howard Lederer, a member of the community and brother to Annie Duke, realizes who Negreanu is referring to.

Howard Lederer

September 27, 2002: Big Brother Steps in

Later in the month Lederer posted an open letter to Negreanu accusing him of waging a public smear campaign against Duke

Lederer focused on the following issues:

Negreanu constantly referring to Annie Duke as “Annie Puke” when she’s not at the table Negreanu’s “obsession” and obvious bias for Jennifer Harman over Duke in terms of successful female poker players Negreanu’s “desperate” need for public recognition Lederer also alleged that Negreanu called Duke “digusting” and made fun of her wardrobe.

Lederer finished the letter by saying he never wants anything to do with the Canadian pro unless he’s trying to bust him at the poker table.

Daniel Negreanu

Sept. 28, 2002: You Wouldn’t Like Kid Poker When He’s Angry

The next day Negreanu posted a response, and it’s safe to say he wasn’t very happy when he wrote it.

Negreanu got downright nasty as he said that Duke went out of her way to ridicule him from the moment he met her when he was 22 years old at the 4 Queens.

According to Negreanu, Duke referred to him as “cupboy” thanks to his habit of always having a Styrofoam water cup at the table and frequently criticized his play.

Negreanu called Duke a “horrible person” and maintained there were numerous players that felt the same way.

The post hit a low when Negreanu accused Duke of always wearing the same dirty clothes with no shoes in the casino.

At one point he even said that no one wanted to sit in $2,000 chair that has "urinated foot sweat soaked into it."

He also said that she had been causing harm to many players for years and it was time someone said something about it.

Feb. 19, 2003: “Annie Duke is a low life.”

A few months later Negreanu would yet again post on RGP about the various reasons he thinks Annie Duke is a low life.

He separated the post into seven points:

He accuses her of angle-shooting in Stud-8-or-Better games by not splitting the pot when she said she was going to. He says she habitually looks at the hands of players next to her and once swore on her kids that she didn’t look when she had, in fact, seen the cards. Negreanu referred to a three-handed satellite to the WSOP Main Event where she picked up an opponent’s cards from the muck and looked at them. She apparently said “Just checking” and threw the cards back into the muck. Negreanu accuses Duke of looking at his hole cards during a $300/$600 mix game. According to Negreanu, Duke used to steal other player’s seats. In the 1999 WSOP Main Event Negreanu claimed Duke was involved in a hand where another player made a string bet. Another player at the table, Steve Kaufman, who wasn’t involved in the hand made the dealer aware of the string bet. Duke lost it on Kaufman and said “This is the worst thing that has ever happened to me in a tournament.” Negreanu talked in detail about how Duke treated him when they first met at the 4 Queens.

Negreanu finished the post by saying that a couple years later he had started to win tournaments and all of a sudden she was nice to him.

Finally he apologized to his friends who are also friends with Duke for the awkward position he has put them in.

2003-2005: The Professor and Kid Poker Make Up

It’s not exactly clear when it happened but apparently Lederer and Negreanu patched things up enough they can tolerate each other at numerous poker tables around the world.

Negreanu still seems to have some strong feelings about Duke, however.

Annie Duke

Jan. 15, 2005: Well, this is Embarassing

The aforementioned rec.gambling posts began to circulate on the TwoPlusTwo poker forum and Negreanu posts a blog that says the posts were “nasty” and he was “embarrassed” by them.

Negreanu goes on to say that he always speaks his mind but it’s not his place to judge others.

He doesn’t go so far as to say he actually regretted making the posts but did say that they embarrassed him.

Sept 8, 2005: You Can Read About it in My Book

The autobiography Annie Duke: How I Raised, Folded, Bluffed, Flirted, Cursed, and Won Millions at the World Series of Poker is released and a small portion speaks about Negreanu.

She refers to him as her “online tormenter.”

Throughout their entire feud Duke rarely publically acknowledged Negreanu’s strong words for her.

Daniel Negreanu

July, 2010: Hello Neighbor!

Negreanu and Duke are seated right next to each other in the Tournament of Champions at the WSOP.

Despite the proximity and media attention, nothing of consequence happens. A couple weeks later however…

August, 2010: Did You Just Use the “C” Word?

In an interview with PokerPlayer.co.uk Negreanu allegedly called Duke a c@#$ for belittling the Ladies Event.

Duke would later say she was shocked by the language and wrote an open letter to Negreanu’s online sponsor, PokerStars, demanding a reprimand.

PokerStars responded by saying they don’t support the use of derogatory or hurtful language ever.

Eventually Negreanu would say that he thought he was speaking off the record to the writer of the article and apologized to all women who were offended.

He never apologized directly to Duke, however.

March, 2011: I Don’t Care for UB, Never Have

Throughout the late 2000s Negreanu is also very outspoken in his contempt for UB Poker, a site where Duke was heavily involved as a member of Team UB and as the UB Cardroom Consultant.

UB was tarnished when a super-user was found to have cheated players out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Duke finally left the site in early 2011.

The Epic Poker League

Aug. 11, 2011: Your New Tour Sucks

Negreanu writes a blog post titled “Why I Don’t Play the EPL” that blasts Duke’s newest venture – the Epic Poker League.

Negreanu mentions he doesn't think the tour will be a success without a legitimate source of revenue.

Outside of online poker being legalized in the U.S. and the Epic Poker League starting a poker site, Negreanu says he can't see a way for the tour to be profitable.

He also mentions the lack of big name old-school players like Phil Ivey, Chris Moneymaker, Scotty Nguyen and Doyle Brunson that will seriously hurt any chance the tour has to succeed.

Duke is the commissioner of the league and has yet to respond to any of Negreanu's recent criticism, although she has mentioned on numerous occasions that the league has some very wealthy and committed investors.

The Future?

This is just a brief history of the war of words between the two well known poker pros.

If you really want to get into the nitty gritty of the mud-slinging then you should check out this thread on TwoPlusTwo, which also has the majority of the old RGP posts.

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Tom "durrrr" Dwan Talks Full Tilt Poker on FOX Business - VIDEO

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 22:11:24 -0700

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Who's Not Named in the Full Tilt Poker Civil Complaint?

Tue, 20 Sep 2011 20:31:32 -0700

No one was more central to getting players to play at FTP than Phil Ivey. He's also the best candidate for the individual referred to as "Player 1" by the Department of Justice.

Andy Bloch has been part of the Full Tilt crew since the very beginning. (Photo from 2005)

Andy Bloch was still repping Full Tilt Poker post-Black Friday. (Photo from 2011)

Not you too Erik Seidel!? Say it ain't so. (Photo from 2005)

Unlike Andy Bloch, Seidel took off his FTP patches after Black Friday. (Photo from 2011)

FTP got some of its best exposure ever thanks to Allen Cunningham's appearance at the 2006 WSOP Main Event final table. Cunningham's been wearing the patch since the beginning.

Jen Harman has been a patched member since the beginning, although she took it off after Black Friday. (Photo from 2005)

John Juanda was an original Full Tilter, and didn't take the patch off until Black Friday. (Photo from 2005)

Phil Gordon was central to Full Tilt in the early days but has taken steps to distance himself from the company as of late. (Photo from 2005)

Erick Lindgren has certainly done his part to get people playing on Full Tilt.

Mike Matusow and Full Tilt have always been joined at the hip. (Photo from 2005)

Gus Hansen has always been tight with the Full Tilt crew.

Patrik Antonius didn't join Team Full Tilt until 2008, putting his ownership status in question.

Despite representing the poker site, Tom Dwan has said explicitly that he is not now, and never has been, an owner of Full Tilt.

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Brian Hastings in Vancouver - Full Interview Transcript

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:55:18 -0700

PokerListings.com: So, why Vancouver?

Brian Hastings: Well, I’m from the East Coast so it wasn’t exactly close for me, but the proximity to Vegas and LA are good things. I can see myself heading down there a lot to play poker or just hang out with friends.

I knew I wanted to live somewhere that was fairly normal to me, something similar to the US. I lived in Rome for the spring and I wasn’t trying to do somewhere that has a foreign language again.

I was seriously thinking about Montreal even though it is bilingual. It sounded really cool but Vancouver just seemed more like a city I’d want to live in. It has the reputation of being really laid back, with lots of outdoor stuff to do. I’ve always heard that the people here are really nice.

You’ve only been here a week but how is it meeting those expectations so far?

Hastings the man meets Hastings the street.

I like it a lot. My place is really nice and it’s in walking distance from everything downtown which is amazing. A few days ago I walked to Stanley Park in about 25 minutes. All the main areas for going out are walkable. I’m just a few blocks from the harbor and I went for a run there the other day.

How smooth was the set-up as far as getting up here and getting your online poker accounts up and running?

PokerStars wanted a landline phone number, a non-US bank account statement, a copy of the apartment lease and a utility bill.

It honestly wasn’t that bad. I got here on Thursday night and didn’t do anything that evening, then got a bank account on Friday and had my Stars account up and running by Sunday to lose $10k (in the WCOOP high roller event). (laughs)

Is there something special going on right now that got you to make the move up here or were you planning it for a while?

I knew I wanted to play online from somewhere just because it’s so much more profitable than playing live. Online you get so many hands in and there are games to play. Since I’ve been here I’ve been playing over 2,000 hands a day which would be impossible live.

I do like live poker but the games are kind of sporadic, even in Las Vegas. So with the options online you’re able to set your own hours and play when you want to.

You have history online with Viktor “Isildur1” Blom and he’s been playing a lot on Stars. Was that part of the reason to get back in the games right now?

Yeah I’ve played with him a little bit since I’ve been here but it doesn’t seem like he has all that much money on Stars. He seems to be taking shots in games and I actually saw him in a $3/$6 PLO game trying to run it up.

When he does have money though he’s super fun to play with and he brings a lot of action to the games.

Are the games changing with people like you starting to relocate?

I think the games are getting tougher as more players relocate but they will be running more which is good. The higher games are fun to play in but it’s definitely a challenge.

Do you feel like it’s kind of backward that you’ve had to leave the United States in order to pursue your chosen profession?

Yeah, I mean, the US bills itself as the land of the free and prides itself on life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness and they’re certainly not letting online poker players do that right now.

Phil Galfond is back in the high-stakes online games from his new apartment in Downtown Vancouver.

What’s your line on when that’s going to change?

I don’t have any inside information on the situation or anything but I would take the under on two and a half years for some sort of bill to be passed that regulates online poker.

I don’t know if that means online poker will be available immediately at that point but I definitely see this as a short term thing. It’s a billion dollar industry and with all the budget problems the government is facing I can’t see them ignoring this for very long.

You mentioned a Facebook page for uprooted poker pros here in Vancouver so tell us a bit about who you’ve been hanging out with since you got here.

I’m good friends with Phil Galfond and I met up with him and his roommate Mikey Stotz and went out for dinner and some drinks on Saturday.

I’ve been chatting with Phil pretty regularly. We play in the same games so it’s great to have someone here to talk to and bounce ideas off.

Yesterday it was NFL opening day and I went out with a group of mostly poker refugees.

Do you think this sort of relocation is viable for a lot of poker players or is it only an option for high-stakes players that can afford all the expenses?

A lot of the guys I’ve met are pretty regular tournament grinders and I think if you do it properly and split a place with a bunch of people, not trying to go for the super high end, it is possible.

I feel like the rents aren’t terrible in Vancouver. I’m paying $3k a month for mine but if I had the same place in New York it would be double or more.

If the lockout continues in the US do you see yourself moving somewhere else, and using online poker as a way of living and working all over the world?

Yeah that’s exactly what I’m leaning towards now, moving around and living in a lot of different places. I like it here now but that might change when winter really gets going.

I have a buddy who’s moving to Panama to play which sounds amazing. Costa Rica is pretty popular. I’m thinking somewhere like that for the winter.

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The Top 7 Guiltiest Howard Lederer Photos

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 17:29:01 -0700

We'll let you decide what was actually going through Lederer's head (and what it means for your FTP money) when these photos were taken:

Hold on, I thought heard a siren.

I miss the Mayfair club.

Phil Ivey did what?

I wonder what Department of Justice federal agents look like.

Alright, I'll loan you some money. Only $150 million though.

I'll eat TWO cheeseburgers if you buy Full Tilt.

I did a bad thing.

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This Day in Poker: Sept. 9, 2006 - Clear Skies Ahead

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 23:42:10 -0700

Touting poker as the driving force behind the company's success, Party Poker and the rest of the poker industry had no idea what was in store.

Less than three weeks later the House and Senate passed the Safe Port Act, which included the devestating Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Party Poker, as a publicly traded company, was forced to pull out of the US market.

An estimated 77% of Party Gaming's revenues came from customers in the United States. The company's stock fell dramatically to 60% of its former value as Party Poker's player base was cut off at the knees.

But even before getting knocked out of the number one spot in online poker, Party Gaming was making decisions that would give them a leg-up in the post-UIGEA poker world.

In our story from today in 2006 Party CEO Mitch Garber emphasized the importance of international markets.

"PartyGaming has delivered a strong first half performance. These results demonstrate the strength of our business model and also the potential to grow our business through investment in the development of new products and new territories outside North America," said Garber.

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Huck Seed Hits $670k Video Poker Royal Flush

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 18:39:44 -0700

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New PokerListingsBlogEntry

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 02:28:09 -0700

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2011 SCOOP Results MS Word Info-Graph(ic)

Sat, 28 May 2011 22:33:06 -0700

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Poker Super Secret #1: How to Succeed in Tournament Poker

Wed, 25 May 2011 20:59:19 -0700

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Leo Margets Picture Book

Wed, 25 May 2011 20:11:10 -0700

Watch the BOOM Poker Docu Trailer Right Here

Fri, 20 May 2011 23:18:54 -0700

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Brand New Liv Boeree Picture Book

Thu, 19 May 2011 18:46:53 -0700

See More Poker Picture Books Leo Margets Picture Book EPT Grand Final Madrid Picture Book Tatjana Pasalic Picture Book

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EPT Grand Final Madrid Picture Book

Tue, 17 May 2011 23:57:50 -0700

(click on the pictures to enlarge them)

The casino is 30 minutes outside of Madrid, in a small town called Torrelodones, and accessible by PokerStars shuttles.

The casino entrance.

After the last robbery on the EPT security is definitely taken seriously.

Casino entrance hall, complete with ridiculous chandelier.

Signage.

Obligatory weird Spanish art.

The PokerStars welcome desk.

PokerStars Shwag.

Shamballa Jewels, official sponsor of the EPT. The winner of the grand final took home a $22,000 Shamballa champion bracelet.

The tournament room.

Take your seat.

The dealers are ready.

Thirsty?

Tournament registration.

Entrance to the TV table room.

Inside the cameras wait.

The Mandalay room with television set-up.

The TV Table.

Made for TV.

Boom!

Lights, camera, action.

The trophy.

Press obligations.

Down the stairs we find the press room.

And many a poker journalist.

The poker media runs on free spreads like this.

The outdoor garden, host to many an open bar.

Food, drink, sun.

And of course BBQ.

Yeah, we'll be going back.

See More Poker Picture Books Leo Margets Picture Book Liv Boeree Picture Book Tatjana Pasalic Picture Book

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Watch Episode 5 of The Micros Right Here

Mon, 16 May 2011 20:28:03 -0700

Watch More Episodes of the Micros

Episode 2 Episode 3 Episode 4

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Eugene Yanayt Might Be Good at Poker

Wed, 11 May 2011 17:11:56 -0700

Some shrewd investigative reporting from EPT Media Coordinator and FOPL.com Mad Harper uncovered the truth, that Yanayt is a made man online and one of the greatest Triple Draw players in the world.

In fact, he’s not really even European. While he was born in Russia, his family moved to Boston when he was just nine years old. It was obvious Yanayt had an affinity for gaming by high school when he was competing in National chess competitions and getting ready to head to University to study computer science.

As it turns out his degree hasn’t done much for him, but his love of gaming and strategy certainly has.

He’s been playing poker for nine years and has made SuperNova Elite on PokerStars where he plays as “oogee”.

Yanayt is one of a small group of the best Triple Draw players in the world which includes Gus Hansen, Matt Hawrilenko and Phil Ivey. “There’s about four of us in the world playing at the really high levels and we just sit around waiting for someone we don’t know to turn up,” he told the EPT.

Yanayt is looking for his first real live result here in Madrid. So far his only significant cash was 414th in the 2006 WSOP Main Event.

Follow the action from the EPT Grand Final live with our EPT Grand Final Madrid Live Updates.

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EPT Caption Contest - Williams, Benyamine and the iPad

Sun, 08 May 2011 19:31:27 -0700

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DOJ Pulls Jack Move on Ray Bitar and Destiny Davis

Fri, 06 May 2011 10:44:17 -0700

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Taylor von Kriegenbergh Might Be Good at Poker

Thu, 05 May 2011 13:23:51 -0700

Von Kriegenbergh came out of nowhere a few months ago with a fourth place finish at the Big Event at the Bike, winning $140,000.

One month later he found himself at the NAPT Mohegan Sun, finishing 18th out of 387 for $12,000 in the main event and then making the final table of the High Roller Bounty Shootout for $44,000.

All that was just a preamble, however, to his victory at the $10k WPT Seminole Hard Rock Showdown where he won $1,122,340.

Von Kriegenbergh seems to agree with us that skill isn't necessarily responsible for his success. In his winner interview Taylor immediately admitted, "My success is clearly 100% attributed to luck. That's how I've gotten this far."

While there's clearly some jest involved, Von Kriegenbergh has good reason to believe he might be luckier than most.

In the interview below Taylor explains, "My dad passed away about a year ago and I think he's like my guardian angel now. He was my best friend and now he's looking down from up above." We've got to say he seems like a good dude.

With four solid results totaling $1.3 million, in less than two months, we expect massive things from Taylor Von Kriegenbergh.

Check out the video below to get to know him a bit better.

Read More Posts About People Who Might Be Good at Poker:

Vanessa Selbst Praz Banzi Erik Seidel Liv Boeree Arnaud Mattern Tobias Reinkemeier Andrew Lichtenberger Ludovic Lacay Photo Credit: Joe Giron for PokerStars Blog

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Isaac Haxton UB/AP $300k Bankroll Fire Sale

Thu, 05 May 2011 11:39:45 -0700

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Tatjana Pasalic Picture Book

Tue, 03 May 2011 13:40:32 -0700

See More Poker Picture Books Leo Margets Picture Book Liv Boeree Picture Book

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Eight Black Friday Questions with an American Poker Pro

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 18:06:07 -0700

How devastating is this development for working online poker pros in the US?

That really depends a lot on a how much a player played live, how comfortable they are with live play, and their ability to now travel and have the roll/backing for live events.

Obviously it's a lot less devastating to players who play a lot of live poker or are at least comfortable and able to play a lot more live poker, but it's definitely going to be devastating to a lot of players who rely on online poker only as an income and can't transition to live for any of several reasons.

I know a lot of my friends are in a tougher spot than I am, but despite my other revenue streams and my ability to play a lot of live poker this will definitely have a negative impact on my income in the near future.

Stout has plenty of live experience; others not so much.

Do you see live games blowing up in places like Vegas and AC?

I see traffic increasing a bit, but not nearly as much as many seem to expect.

It's also going to make the games a bit tougher overall because while more recreational players will in fact come play live more frequently when they can't get their fix online, many decent-to-good pros will be making the move to Vegas/LA/AC and put in far more hours than the recreational players.

Has the government acted in the interest of its citizens or itself in the way it's handled PokerStars, FT and AB/UP?

I obviously disagree wholeheartedly with the government's interference with online poker, but to some extent they're doing it because they're trying to protect their citizens from what they see as a social issue I suppose.

That being said, it's ridiculous for them to interfere with online poker when casinos are allowed to be legally operating in the US if preventing social issues is their true goal. Their recent actions definitely represent more of a "big government" move than I'd normally expect from the USA.

Will players get their money back from these three sites? (Answered before Stars began cashouts)

I think players are at least 95% to get their $ back. I feel that even if the big 2 don't get the seized $ back they would pay players back out of pocket, especially if the site plans to continue international operations and doesn't go under because of all of this (which I don't think will happen).

I would be a lot more nervous if I had a lot of $ on UB/AP tho.

What do you think will happen to the three sites in question, and online poker in the US? Do you think there will be a government run or licensed online poker option soon?

I think the big 2 will continue to operate internationally and that none of the three will be allowed to let Americans play again.

I'm less sure about UB/AP's future but that's mainly because I haven't played on the site in years and don't know as much about how much they were taking in and what % of their customers were US players.

What does this mean for the WSOP this year? What's the line on field size for Main Event?

The prelims will likely benefit and grow as a result of this, but the Main Event will be 15-20% smaller than last year.

How much harder is it to make a living playing live poker compared to online?

It's quite a different game from online poker, but even after one overcomes those shifts there are still things that make it harder to make a living live. Travel expenses and significantly higher average buy in levels mean higher variance and a much higher cost of living.

This can be especially difficult for struggling players who are backed, because backers rarely provide for travel expenses associated with playing live events.

What bigger-picture changes will we see in the poker world over the next year?

A lot of negative ones will definitely come about as many players don't have the ability or means to transition to live play (kids, tied to geographic area, $$$, etc.). A lot of people in the poker media will lose their jobs and even media outlets may go under since a ton of their revenue usually comes from affiliate deals with the online poker sites that have been seized.

Ultimately, however, this could produce positive effects for the poker world. Hopefully this will lead to the government allowing and regulating online poker in the future in an effort to prevent situations like this from arising in the future.

Matt Stout is a Lock Poker pro. Check out our Lock Poker review and bonus codes and join Stout at the tables!

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43 Confirmed for EPT Champion of Champions Event

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:28:30 -0700

Rob Hollink Pascal Perrault Brandon Schaefer Alexander Stevic Jeff Williams Mats Iremark Jan Boubli Peter Jepsen Andreas Hoivold Roland de Wolfe Thang Duc Nguyen Vicky Coren Bjorn-Erik Glenne Glen Chorny Jason Mercier Michael Schulze Tim Vance Mike McDonald Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier Arnaud Mattern Joseph Mouawad Pieter de Korver Constant Rijkenberg Sandra Naujoks Jens Kyllönen João Barbosa Will Fry Nicolas Chouity Liv Boeree Anton Wigg Jan Skampa Antonio Matias Christophe Benzimra Aaron Gustavson Carter Phillips Galen Hall Roberto Romanello Kent Lundmark Michael Eiler David Vamplew Kevin Stani Ben Wilinofsky Vladimir Geshkenbein

For all the action keep an eye on our Live Coverage page beginning May 13.

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2011 Irish Poker Open Underway and Streamed Live

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 19:53:57 -0700

Check out our comprehensive review of PaddyPowerPoker.com for the best signup bonuses.

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Best Places to Move to Play Legal Online Poker

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:09:56 -0700

The biggest question facing prospective emmigrants is whether to seek residency in a new country. For the vast majority of people this is not the case.

The future of online poker in the U.S. is far from clear and for the most part people are looking for ways to continue earning money playing online in the short term.

Luckily every country on this list is easily accessible if you're just looking for something quick. Even better, if you want to stay you usually just have to leave for a few days every three months.

As an added bonus since you're playing poker on the internet and not working for someone in that country you won't have to worry about those pesky work visas.

Canada – Where Every Deck is a Cold Deck

It’s close to the US, it’s easy to get into and you can play as much online poker as you want.

For American online grinders looking for a quick way to continue earning, Canada is our number one pick. If you do decide to relocate to the Great White North, there are three main cities to choose from.

It’s just like their latest tourism posters, “Canada: Now with Three Cities!”

Vancouver

Vancouver is the ultimate place to live if you’re an online grinder. It’s a forward-thinking city where people won’t bat an eye when you announce you play poker professionally.

It’s true that the weather is rainy, but since online poker players rarely go outside that shouldn’t be a problem.

Mountains, ocean, legal online poker.

The attitude towards online poker isn’t the only progressive thing about Vancouver. It’s also known for the quality of a certain green-colored plant material that’s rumored to be a favorite among online pros ;)

Toronto

Toronto is arguably the only true city in the entire country. It’s got that metropolis feeling that many Americans take for granted.

The live poker scene leaves something to be desired but its location is ideal for players currently based on the Eastern seaboard.

Montreal

Gambling is a beloved pastime of the Quebecois people and they had no trouble jumping on the poker bandwagon. Drinking is another of the most common pastimes which should help make online poker players feel comfortable.

It’s where the current world champion is so poker is only getting bigger in the city of Montreal.

Canada at a Glance

Location: Close to home for US players. See family and friends on a semi-regular basis while you earn in Canada.

Tax Laws (For Residents): Gambling winnings are not taxed in Canada but if you make your primary living from poker, and want to follow the law 100%, you are expected to pay income tax.

Live Poker: Vancouver has a strong live poker culture, less so for Toronto and Montreal.

Other cities in Canada to consider: Halifax, Ottawa, Victoria.

Click here for the Canadian Citizenship and Immigration website:

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp

Australia – Land of the backwards flowing toilets

Australia’s a lot like Canada, except instead of beavers they have kangaroos. What they do have in common is a love of poker, and playing it legally on the internet.

Another commonality between Australia and Canada is that despite being extremely large, there are only a few main centers well-suited to the online poker player.

Melbourne

Melbourne is home to the biggest casino in the southern hemisphere, the Crown, making it an obvious choice for poker players.

Think about it. It's summer there when it's winter here.

The live poker is good, the weather is better, and Americans won’t suffer too much culture shock making the switch from their North American way of life.

The cost of living is high, even for Americans, so you’ll have to earn a few more BBs per hour to continue living the baller lifestyle.

Sydney

Home to the second-biggest casino in Australia, Star City, Sydney is an extremely habitable place for online poker pros.

Just like Melbourne, Sydney isn’t a cheap place to live so you’re going to have to work on that win-rate.

Australia at a Glance

Location: Really, really far away. (Really) You won’t be popping back and forth to see friends and family more than once or twice a year.

Tax Laws (For Residents): Similar to Canada, gambling winnings including poker are not taxed as income.

Live Poker: The Crown Casino Poker Room is one of the best in the world. Tournaments and cash games are bountiful. The Star City room is smaller but hosts cash games and weekly tournaments, as well as a stop on the PokerStars APPT.

Other cities in Australia to consider: Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Byron Bay.

Check out the Australian Immigration and Citizenship website here:

http://www.immi.gov.au/

Thailand – Like that movie The Beach except with Online Poker

The truth is, young online poker players have been moving to Thailand long before their ability to play in the US was jeopardized, and for good reason.

With a cost of living so low that successful micro-stakes grinders can live like kings, and a culture radically different from North America, Thailand is an appealing option.

Visa and residency issues are known to be a pain but there are plenty of resources online explaining the situation.

Since online poker is the goal, a strong internet connection is the only deal-breaker as far as locations. That said, there are a few obvious choices for places to set up a headquarters.

Bangkok

The capital and largest city in the country, Bangkok’s the place if you like the madness of the third-world metropolis.

In case you were wondering, the full ceremonial name of the city is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Yuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Phiman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit

The perfect place for Jungleman12.

You should probably start memorizing that now.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is by no means a rural backwater. With close to 1 million residents and over 5 million visitors annually, it’s definitely got a lot on Bangkok.

It’s a much more livable and progressive city. In fact, there’s a movement in Chiang Mai to apply for Creative City status with UNESCO

Thailand at a Glance

Location: 18 hours by plane, far enough that monthly visits home will be difficult.

Tax Laws: What the Thai government doesn’t know won’t hurt them.

Live Poker: Only weird Thai casinos where they try to get you to play Russian Roulette in the basement.

Other cities in Thailand to consider: Ko-Samui, Phuket.

More Great Places to Move to Play Online Poker

It’s a great big world out there and the possibilities for relocation are endless.

Here are a few more great places to consider.

Prague, Czech Republic

Prague currently has the lead for PokerListings.com’s favorite city in Europe. We’ve gone there a bunch of times for the EPT events and it’s blown us away every time.

The city has character that just doesn’t exist in North America, and despite being on the pricey side for Eastern Europe it’s pretty cheap by our standards.

Also, if you end up getting a work visa and earning money while you’re there, everything up to $75,000 is tax free.

Be sure to check out the Chapeau Rouge near the Old Town Square. That bar is PokerListings' headquarters when we’re in town.

Budapest, Hungary

Budapest is a lot like Prague, at least to uneducated, boorish North Americans like us. We attended the one-time EPT event there and just one look at the city will tell you it’s a place worth considering.

As long as you stay out of the tourist districts Budapest is cheap.

When we were there poker pros Brandon Schaefer and Dani Stern were living there in an apartment close to the casino, which they said was affordable.

Barcelona, Spain

For us Spain is basically the Mexico of Western Europe. It’s cheap, they're Spanish and there are plenty of great beach cities up and down the coast.

Barcelona is the prime Spanish candidate for an online poker headquarters. There’s even a casino in the Port Olimpic that hosts major European poker events like the EPT.

Bogotá, Colombia

These days Colombia isn’t all Pablo Escobars and roving bands of machine-gun wielding drug dealers, we think.

People have amazing things to say about Bogotá and it’s gaining serious ground as both a tourist destination and a place to live.

The weather is fair, the women are gorgeous and you can play as much online poker as you like.

Plus, you won’t be completely cut off from the rest of the poker world as the PokerStars.com Latin American Poker Tour has a stop there every season.

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durrrr Poses Question to Obama in Facebook Town Hall

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 22:22:49 -0700

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CNBC Reports on US Online Poker Legal Fiasco - VIDEO

Sat, 16 Apr 2011 23:52:51 -0700

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Vanessa Selbst Might Be Good at Poker

Thu, 14 Apr 2011 20:31:32 -0700

Vanessa Selbst isn't without her detractors, a group of bitter individuals enraged by the idea of some lag-tard woman crushing the worldwide live tournament circuit.

To their credit, Selbst does play very aggressively. Sometimes it works out for her, as we saw when she five-bet shoved 4♦ 8♦ preflop and cracked aces midway through the tournament and went on to win the entire thing.

Whatever Selbst is doing, it's working. She's been posting results like nobody's business.

Vanessa Selbst knows how to win.

Now known as a tournament player, Selbst actually got her chops playing online poker, mostly No-Limit Hold'em and PLO cash games. She played a lot of $25/$50, and could be found as high as $200/$400 at times.

Selbst was first introduced to poker at Yale University and despite still pursring her law degree at that school, it's safe to say poker has eclipsed her academic career.

The first entry on Selbst's Hendon Mob page is a final table at the 2006 WSOP worth over $100,000. She came back the next summer and made two more final tables, including taking third in the $5k Heads-Up event for $129,000.

Over the next year she racked up about $96,000 in tournament earnings before the WSOP began. At the 2008 Series she took down her first bracelet, winning a $1,500 PLO event for $228,000.

Three days later she finished third in the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship event for $108,000.

From there she headed back to her old stomping grounds of Connecticut where she won two side events at the WPT World Poker Finals, worth $115,000 and $74,000 respectively. She also posted a third place finish in a $2,325 event for $25k.

In 2009 she began a hiatus from poker to do the first two years of Law school at Yale. But for Vanessa Selbst even a hiatus can be profitable.

In April of 2010 she played the NAPT Mohegan Sun main event in Connecticut and won, good for $750,000. One year later she would win it again for $450,000.

In the interim between those two scores she took down the Partouche Poker Tour event in Cannes, France for an astounding $1.8 million! A month after that she placed fourth at the EPT London High Roller event for $220,000.

To date Selbst has more than $4.1 million in lifetime earnings and doesn't look to be slowing down a bit.

PokerListings.com is set for a big WSOP this summer in Las Vegas. Keep an eye on Vanessa Selbst's progress and all the action from Vegas on our WSOP 2011 Live Coverage page.

Read More Posts About People Who Might Be Good at Poker:

Praz Banzi Erik Seidel Liv Boeree Arnaud Mattern Tobias Reinkemeier Andrew Lichtenberger Ludovic Lacay

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Gimmick of the Week: PartyPoker's Card Rush

Tue, 12 Apr 2011 19:39:58 -0700

The concept behind this promotion is wonderfully simple. In the month of April Party Poker is giving away 1.8 million prize cards to players on their site. Each card can be redeemed for either points, cash or freeroll action.

You get the cards by earning player points on PartyPoker.com. Earn 5 points and you get your first card. Each additional card will take 15 points to earn. Players are limited to earning 50 cards per day, and the promotion will end either at the end of the month, or when all 1.8 million cards are given away.

You receieve the cards in your email and, after doing a little virtual scratch-and-winning, you get your prize.

Each card will include one of the following prizes:

Cash: $1, $2, $3, $5, $10, $50, $250, $5,000

Entry into one of six freerolls: (prize pools) $2k, $3k, $5k, $7.5k, $10k, $15k, $20k

Player Points: 10, 20, 50, 100, 150, 250, 750, 5,000, 25,000

Card Rush Race Points: 1, 3, 5, 10, 20

The fourth category refers to a special points race attached to this promotion. Here's how the payouts work for the Card Rush Points Race:

1 $9,000 2 $7,000 3 $5,250 4 $4,000 5 $3,500 6 $3,000 7 $2,500 8 $2,000 9 $1,500 10 $1,000 11-18 $800 19-30 $700 31-45 $600 46-60 $500 61-75 $400 76-100 $300 101-125 $200 126-150 $150 151-200 $100 Hot spots - Every 20th spot from 220 to 2,000 $50

Click here to sign up for a PartyPoker account and get involved in some of this free money!

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ElkY and RaSZi to Fight it Out Kickboxer-Style at WSOP

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 18:46:41 -0700

The Tale of the Tape

Since we don't actually have any of these stats we're going to use our super powers of deduction to figure them out. We'll be looking at photos, video and delving into our personal experience from years of watching these two play cards to make our assessments.

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier

The last time we saw ElkY was quite some time ago and, to put it bluntly, he didn't look like a kickboxer.

Apparently he's been packing on the muscle and training kickboxing to prepare for this fight, however, and a few recent eye-witness reports indicate the training is working.

Height: 4.5 baguettes

Weight: 550 baguettes

Reach: 4 baguettes

Strengths and Special Moves: ElkY's background in StarCraft has given him the fast-twitch muscle fibers of a 15-year-old Korean boy.

Weaknesses: ElkY will have to fight his genetic predisposition for surrendering at the slightest sign of adversity.

Lex "RaSZi" Veldhuis

The Dutch have a proud tradition of kickboxing and Veldhuis has the naturally pointy elbows and knees needed to succeed in that sport.

RaSZi is said to have been training for some time with expert Dutch fighters.

Height: 6.5 wooden shoes

Weight 200 wooden shoes

Reach: 7 wooden shoes

Strengths and Special Moves: The Dutch Windmill, a move that consists of closing one's eyes and blindly swinging both arms while charging the opponent.

Weaknesses: An unrealistic confidence in the Dutch Windmill's effectiveness.

Based on the accurate and reliable stats we've put together we're giving this fight to RaSZi. He looks to have more experience and strikes us as the hungrier fighter (He's really skinny).

The match is supposed to go down at the end of May in Vegas, right before the WSOP. Keep an eye on our WSOP 2011 Live Coverage page for more info!

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Chilipoker Brings Social Media to Online Poker

Tue, 05 Apr 2011 18:40:21 -0700

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Gimmick of the Week: PokerStars' Game of Your Life

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 19:50:12 -0700

So, like many promotions this one consists of a series of freerolls, culminating with one final in which the $100,000 sporting event package will be awarded.

You can check out the full freeroll schedule right here, or take a look in the PokerStars lobby.

Basically there are daily freeroll and FPP satellites running until May 21. By placing in these you can get a seat in the major $100,000 guarantee freeroll running the following week. The first $100k guarantee is on April 17 and there are six in total.

The finale is on May 22, with the winner taking down the $100k sporting event package.

The Bottom Line

Listen, it's tough to argue with freeroll promotions. Sure it's a longshot since every bonus-hunter and broke-ass on the planet will be doing their best to get their piece, but with over $1 million up for grabs there's a legitimate shot at getting a taste.

Plus how sick would it be to spend $100,000 on a trip to any sporting event on the planet?

If we won we'd pick a really cheap event and take like 5,000 homeless people. Let us know what you'd do in the comments below.

Check out our comprehensive PokerStars review and take a shot at winning the Game of Your Life!

We Make Rick Muny's PPA Q&A Video Watchable

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:42:38 -0700

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Watch Episode 4 of The Micros Right Here

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 18:22:13 -0700

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EPT Awards Season 7: Updated Standings

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:26:26 -0700

Eight categories are recognized at the EPT Awards and we're going to go through each of them individually.

Player of the Year

Last year this honor was bestowed upon Max Lykov for his win in Kiev and a long list of other notable results. This year it's the flamboyantly-named Fernando Antonio Fontoura Brito running away with the POY race.

Fernando Brito looks uncatchable.

Brito has been a fixture on the EPT recently, playing every event but one this season. Brito has been piling up the POY points in the side events and has now passed the $700,000 mark in lifetime earnings. Impressive when you see his first result came in November of 2009.

It's safe to assume this isn't life-changing money for Brito. He owns factories in Angola and sprawling farms in Brazil.

As you can see from the leaderboard, it's going to take some work to overtake Brito for POY.

1 Fernando Brito 3750 2 Konstantin Puchkov 2330 3 John O'Shea 2225 4 Dario Alioto 2075 5 Kent Lundmark 1780 6 Martin Jacobson 1610 7 Tomer Berda 1585 8 Vegard Nygaard 1580 9 John Eames 1550 10 Kristijonas Andrulis 1535

Best Omaha Player

Dario Alioto is leading the run for Omaha honors but the gap between him and second is a bit closer than in the POY race.

1 Dario Alioto 1025 2 John O'Shea 900 3 Bjorn Verbakel 550 4 Joel Casper 500 4 Sam Chartier 500 4 Philip Junghuber 500 4 Niclas Fjellstrom 500 4 Bartolome Gomila Romero 500 4 Stig Härold 500 4 Gary Mills 500 11 Kevin Michel Derwael 500

Alioto is cleaning up in non-Hold'em events.

Best Mixed Game Player

The race for best mixed game player is neck and neck, with Dario Alioto just a few points back from Matt Ashton. Greg Raymer, Marcel Luske and Chris Bjorin also find themselves on the board.

1 Matthew Ashton 1075 2 Dario Alioto 1050 3 Anders Berg 850 4 John O'Shea 825 5 Greg Raymer 580 6 Marcel Luske 550 7 Allen Chang 500 7 Florian Bussmann 500 7 Sebastien Sabic 500 7 Ofir Abramovici 500 7 Benjamin Pollak 500 7 Chris Bjorin 500

Best Heads-Up Player

Diogo Veiga looks solid to win best heads-up player. Richard Gryko, Nikolay Evdakov and Annette Obrestad also have points.

1 Diogo Veiga 860 2 Richard Gryko 825 3 Nikolay Evdakov 750 3 Daniel Colman 750 5 Santeri Valikoski 675 5 Mark Radoja 675 7 Tom Pomponio 500 7 Pieter de Vries 500 7 Annette Obrestad 500 7 Alexander Roumeliotis 500

Best Country

The award for best performance by a country looks to be calculated by dividing the total number of entrants representing that country by the number of times they cash.

The Czech Republic took this one last season.

Rank Country Entrants Cashes Percentage 1 Belgium 98 18 18,37% 2 Romania 122 22 18,03% 3 Spain 228 41 17,98% 4 Norway 116 20 17,24% 5 UK 399 68 17,04% 6 Italy 339 55 16,22% 7 Finland 142 23 16,20% 8 France 755 121 16,03% 9 Russia 334 51 15,27% 10 USA 1101 168 15,26%

Best Online Qualifier

An award is given for the player who is most successful at qualifying for EPT events through PokerStars.com.

1 Martin Jacobson 1940 2 Pierre Neuville 1564 3 Anton Ionel 1400 4 Michael Eiler 1200 5 Dmitry Vitkind 1188 6 Konstantinos Nanos 1150 7 Chris Oliver 1120 8 Kevin MacPhee 1000 9 Giuseppe Pantaleo 950 10 Sam Stein 940

Player's Choice Award

Last year Kevin MacPhee took this one. Voting will be open to EPT players via an online survey released near the end of the season.

Best Achievement Award

Another award decided by players' votes, last year's achievement award went to Allan Baekke for winning Snowfest and then barely missing the final table at the next event in San Remo.

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Eugene "MyRabbiFoo" Katchalov's Poker Story - Q&A

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 18:12:10 -0700

PokerListings: We’d like to get a bit of background info. We know you're from Brooklyn and that you graduated university, but obviously chose a career in poker. How did you get into the game to begin with?

Eugene Katchalov: Just after I graduated from NYU, in the summer of 2003, I discovered poker with friends. I remember we were just driving around without anything to do and one of them suggested that he heard about a cool new game.

All I knew before that was blackjack, haha.

PL: Did you have a history of playing strategy games, or anything that predisposed you to being a good poker player?

Katchalov returns to Bellagio, home of his biggest score.

EK: I didn't play cards too often, but I do remember playing some strategy board games. Most of my strategy experience probably came from online strategy games

I remember I used to really like Warcraft 2, where you battle other people online and other similar games when I was in high school.

PL: Describe the development of poker in your life from 2003 on.

EK: When I first started playing I didn't even know you could play poker online so we just had home games with friends. Like 8-9 of us would get together and play like a $10 Sit and Go or some very small limit Hold’em cash game, like $0.25/$0.50 lim holdem

After a while I learned that you could play online and that No-Limit Hold’em was the most popular and interesting. So I started to play $5 and $10 SNGs on Party Poker and was doing pretty well at those.

Success wasn't quick, but limited success was. I was probably making $20-$30 per day playing in those days, which was good enough for spending money at the time.

I slowly moved up from there and started to play much larger field tournaments. I remember winning like $500 in a $5 buy in tournament and from then on was hooked.

From there on poker was always a way for me to make side money while I worked as a trader

PL: So you began online during the really great days of Party Poker?

EK: Yeah exactly! Obviously I didn't realize it back then though.

PL: So you were working in Finance as you got started in poker?

EK: I was a day trader at the time and it's very difficult to make money right off the bat in that because there’s a large learning curve. So they tell you to not expect to be profitable for the first few years.

PL: What happened to make you decide poker was the better career path?

EK: I figured I'd play poker to pay the bills, and at the same time learn to trade. Even though I eventually became a pretty good trader and really liked it, poker grew on me a lot more.

I really loved and enjoyed the game and was becoming consistently more and more successful at it. But I still loved trading and wanted to do both

About a year ago I realized I couldn't do both since to be really good at either I need to concentrate and give 100% to only one.

So since poker was going great and I enjoyed the freedom and traveling, I chose poker.

I still dabble in trading a little, and may get back into it in the future if poker doesn't seem appealing any more for some reason. Although that's probably not happening any time soon.

Katchalov at the EPT Season 6 London High Rollers event.

PL: What was the reaction of friends and family when you made that decision?

EK: When I first started playing poker my dad was fully supportive because him and his dad played cards professionally through their childhood so he believed in me.

My mom didn't really understand how you could make a living gambling but quickly became supportive after a couple of good results. This was also in like 2004-05 while I was still trading

When I actually decided to fully concentrate in poker I was successful enough in it so that everyone was fully supportive.

PL: Tell me a bit about your dad and granddad playing cards professionally.

EK: My dad played cards professionally from the time he was a teenager until right before he left the USSR to come here. Gambling was highly illegal in communist russia, so they gambled in parks, beaches or each other's homes in those days

My granddad did the same, although I don't know as much about it as he passed away when I was young.

There was also no poker in Russia. They played games I've never heard of

PL: Like what?

EK: One sec, lemme ask my dad.

PL: Sweet

EK: ClubYash. It's pronounced like Club, then Yash lol.

PL: Sounds like something they'd play in communist Russia.

PL: Exactly lol.

PL: What were your aspirations vs. expectations as you became more successful in poker? Did you believe it was possible to win over $6 million and to be taking down $100k buy-in tournaments?

EK: At first all I expected poker to be was a way for me to make some extra money to pay my bills.

It worked great and as time passed I paid more and more bills until I actually started saving money. I slowly started realizing it could be something bigger.

I probably didn't realize that I could do it for a living for at least 3-4 years though because I was concentrating on trading so much.

I never expected to be where I am today

Genetically predisposed to playing cards professionally.

PL: What carries the most importance for you, money or being an accomplished pro? By that we mean, is it important to you to make a mark in the poker world, or is it really just about the cash?

EK: Well, when I first started I just really loved the game and obviously the fact that you could make money doing it.

So money was probably more important to me at the time but now I definitely see more possibilities for myself and would love to continue doing well and possibly getting more recognition.

PL: On that note, how do you feel about your recent endorsement deal with Pokerstars? Is that something you were actively seeking or was it offered to you?

EK: I was always open to an endorsement deal, but at the same time the offer itself had to make sense to me.

As of a year ago I realized that all I needed was to win one more major tournament to get a proper offer that I'd be satisfied with, and I believe the 100k at the PCA helped with that.

I also like being part of PokerStars because they're so respected and professional in what they do. And I love that I get to go back to my home country of Ukraine and represent them globally from now on when I play.

PL: Where do you see poker headed in the coming years, and do you think companies like PokerStars are doing the right things to ensure the continued vitality of the game?

EK: I think poker has been evolving for a long time and I don't see that stopping any time soon. With all the recent announcements of casinos partnering up with online sites, I certainly think it's just a matter of time now before online poker becomes legalized in the US.

I certainly think pokerstars is going about it in the right way by partnering up with a huge gaming corporation like WYNN because that gives them even more legitimacy in the US.

I also think that there will be a big boost to the current growth in online poker once it becomes legalized because of all the different and interesting partnerships online gaming sites could have with live brick and mortar casinos.

PL: You're going to play the PokerStars Russian Poker Tour event in Kiev this week. What do you predict for the future of poker in new markets like Ukraine?

EK: I haven't been in Ukraine for about three years, but I've heard that poker has experienced some tremendous growth there over last few years so I'm very excited.

I've heard that like three years ago maybe 8,000 people or so played online poker in Ukraine. Today that number is over 100,000.

It's recognized as a sport there so that's kinda cool too.

PL: Thanks Eugene.

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Li Dong Making Poker TV Show, Still Has Funny Name

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:07:10 -0700

Unlike Dong's last movie, Girly will be a work of fiction. The story takes place in a world where women dominate the online poker world (talk about fiction amirite?).

So basically a group of hot, chick grinders who party, gamble and do all the things we find so much less attractive when done by guys in our real world.

The trailer below isn't really a trailer; it's more of a promotional short. The girls in this trailer aren't actors, and they won't be in the actual show if it gets produced.

Dong is looking for $5,000 to produce a 15-minute pilot episode, which will be cast and shot in Montreal. He's got a page over on Kickstarter.com to help raise the money. We're not sure if it's like a donation thing or if you're actually investing. Seems like the former.

Here's a blurb on the show from Dong.

In a parellel universe, the terrain of online poker is dominated by legions of young girls sitting in front of their computers. This is a story of four such "grinders" who spend all day on the internet scratching out a living by clicking buttons. They read forums. They get memes. And most important of all, they enjoy the personal freedom that their unique profession affords them. Their fast lives become a blur of degeneracy, booze, sex and the digital world.

However, "living the dream" has its downsides. The girls must deal with the mental anguish of losing large sums of money on a regular basis. Furthermore, the poker economy is shrinking and the games are getting tougher by the minute. Also, the necessity to stay in front of their computers for extended periods of time have degraded the girls' ability to function properly in a normal social atmosphere. Even their abundance of money and free time has not come with a sense of personal satisfaction and fulfilment.

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Pogo650 Pockets $102,090 in PokerStars 60 Billionth Hand

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:35:12 -0700

As you can see from the screen capture above, an announcement was made to the table, and a moderator even implied that folding pre-flop would be ludicrous. (The winner gets a $60k bonus, in addition to double the regular payout)

Despite that sage advice one player mucked his cards to an opening raise. We're hoping that was a misclick since deciding to do that ranks pretty high up there on the absolute mental retardation scale.

The remaining five players wisely stuck around until showdown with Pogo650's Q-3 flopping a pair of treys, the best hand when all was said and done.

All told almost $200,000 was handed out to the six players at this low-stakes Limit table. Not bad for an afternoon of online poker.

Keep an eye on this blog for warning of future milestones. PokerStars will be doing it every 100 millino hands until the super-duper mega milestone at 100 Billion.

Borders:

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Gimmick of the Week: 888 Poker Push/Fold Tables

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 19:21:06 -0700

The concept is straightforward. Six-max cash tables of all stakes with a max buy-in of five big blinds.

Contrary to the name, you are still able to raise without moving all-in. It's just that the super short stacks make it a foregone conclusion that the money will be going in whenever two or more players decide to play a pot.

These tables have been met with mixed reactions. The PR department at 888 Poker assures us it's an awesome idea that everyone will love. Real poker players aren't so positive.

The truth, as usual, is somewhere in between.

The Bad

The rake was unavailable for questioning.

Grinders have two major compaints about 888 Poker's Push/Fold tables. The first is that since almost every pot is an all-in, the total rake paid in a session is going to skyrocket. It's hard to argue with this comlaint.

A quick look at the 888 lobby confirms that the average pot size at these push/fold tables is higher than at the regular six-max tables of the same limit. Consistently bigger pots mean more rake, simple as that.

In fact, the five big blind max buy-in all but guarantees that the pots will max out the rake. Let's look at an example from a hypothetical $1/$2 game.

Two players each have the five BB stack ($10) and go all-in. Since rake maxes out at $1 per pot, at a rate of one cent for every twenty cents in the pot, a $20 pot provides the maximum rake available at the limit. Coincidence?

The second complaint is over how appealing these tables are to the fish. Grinders need fish at the deep-stacked tables since this is where their edge is the greatest.

Sharks are afraid that all the dead money will be traded back and forth at the Push/Fold tables and eventually gobbled up by the rake.

The Good

The important thing to remember about gimmicks like this is the target audience. 888 Poker has been very vocal in their desire to cater to recreational players and that's exactly who this is aimed at.

We're talking about players who are on the site mostly for entertainment and fun. Players like this generally aren't as concerned with paying a bit more rake if they're having a good time.

That's what the Push/Fold tables are all about. It gives amateur players a fun, fast-paced way to play poker.

The argument that it's a bad idea since it's pulling fish out of games in which they're big dogs only holds water if you're a shark. For recreational players this should be a good thing.

There's nothing worse than the feeling a fish has when he realizes he's completely out-classed by his competition. Trust us. We've got plenty of experience on that count ;)

The Bottom Line

While Push/Fold tables aren't for everyone there is something to the concept. People love gambling, and what could be more gambly than a format where almost all the poker is subtracted from the game?

888 Poker might be well-advised to reduce the rake a smidge on these tables in response to that first compaint, but other than that it is what it is: a gimmick.

Gimmicks exist for a reason. Humans love novelty.

Give it a shot for yourself by getting $8 absolutely free on 888 Poker. Seriously, no strings attached.

CNBC Talks Internet Gaming Legislation - VIDEO

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 18:22:30 -0700

Nonetheless, Ader does voice his opinion that legalized, and taxed, online gambling will happen in the US. It's just a matter of time. "It doesn't make any sense for this money to be leaving our shores without any control or tax revenue," says Ader.

Anything that pushes the focus to this issue is good for us. It would just be nice to see someone in the mainstream media delving into the issue a little deeper.

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Dwan, Antonius and More Coaching for Charity

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:55:10 -0700

Adams is super jazzed up about the new site. You can check out his explanation of what it's all about here, but the gist of it is pretty simple.

The service is looking to make one-on-one coaching easier. The coordination, payment, and audio/video session itself will all be built into the site, which is launching on April 18.

They're going to be using the domain http://www.expertinsight.com/. Right now it's just an instructional DVD sales site.

The bidding on the sessions is being handled through Brandon Adams' Twitter account, and the 2p2 thread linked above. The opening bid is $3,000 each so it'll be interesting to see how much money they can raise by the time all is said and done.

Tom Dwan has pledged 100% of the cash to the charity and Antonius will almost certainly do the same.

Here's the schedule for the sessions as it stands now.

Monday, April 18. Patrik Antonius Tuesday, April 19. Tom Dwan Wednesday, April 20. Ben Sulsky (Sauce123) Thursday, April 21. Chris Sparks (GoMukYaSelf)

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José Girah for durrrr Challenge III? We Say Finish the First Two

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 16:17:09 -0700

First, a little background. When Patrik Antonius and Dwan undertook the first durrrr Challenge it was big news. People were excited. Sadly, that excitement was somewhat short-lived.

The challenge stagnated with long stretches of inactivity. People became less excited. Dwan and Antonius have played 39,436 of the 50,000 total. Dwan is up over $2 million.

Then Dwan accepted a second challenge, this time with Dan "Jungleman12" Cates. People became excited again. That battle got off to a good start but, as we saw in the Challenge's first iteration, they were unable to maintain the pace.

It's now almost seven months into the second Challenge and they're only 17,456 hands in. Cates is now leading by more than $1.2 million.

So, all of this begs the question: Really durrrr? Really? A third Challenge?

To put it in terms we can all relate to, if you've got two dinners in front of you and you're having a tough time finishing them, do you order a third dinner?

We'll keep you updated on whether this third challenge is a go or not. Tell us what you think in the comments below.

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Praz Bansi Might Be Good at Poker

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 23:55:58 -0700

Praz Bansi's tournament record goes back to 2005 but the '06 World Series was when he first got our attention. That tends to happen when you win your first WSOP bracelet.

It was a $1,000 No-Limit event and he defeated 1,100 people to take the $230,000 first place prize, by far the biggest score of his career at the time.

Bansi at the 2010 PCA main event.

A few months later he was back in Vegas playing at the Bellagio Five Diamond series. In the span of 11 days he final-tabled the $1k daily tounament four times, racking up almost $50,000 in profit!

Things only got better for Praz in the first few months of 2007. He won the first event on the GUKPT for $145,000, defeating close friend Karl Mahrenholz heads-up. Less than a month later he won the $1,000 event at the poker festival in Birmingham for $65,000.

In April of 2007 he was back at the Bellagio, cashing in the $25,000 WPT Championship for $60k.

In the following two years Praz ammassed almost $300,000 in winnings, although his next big win wouldn't come until April of 2009 when he took down the $5k event at the Bellagio Five Star series for $130,000.

A few five-figure scores later and Bansi found himself at the final table of the 2009 WSOP Europe main event. A sick hard finale including Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Chris Bjorin, Matt Hawrilenko, Bansi finished third and pocketed just under $600,000!

The next January he went deep in the PCA main event for $87,500 but it was just preparation for another massive summer in Las Vegas.

At the 2010 WSOP Bansi won a $1,500 No-Limit event, beating out 2,092 players to take $515,500 and his second WSOP bracelet. He went on to make a solid cash in the Main Event for $50,000.

Less than two weeks ago Bansi won the $1,500 GUKPT event in London for $163,000, bringing his career total to the staggering $2.6 million at which it currently stands.

Bansi has a detached, calm presence at the table. In fact most of the time it looks like he's asleep. But his style is anything but laid back. Bansi plays full-out and is very dangerous. He's not scared to take risks and he's got a very keen card-sense and feel for opponents.

He's one of the most entertaining players to watch in live tournaments and for that, and his millions of dollars in winnings, we salute him.

Read More Posts About People Who Might Be Good at Poker:

Erik Seidel Liv Boeree Arnaud Mattern Tobias Reinkemeier Andrew Lichtenberger Ludovic Lacay

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Gimmick of the Week: PokerStars' Road to 100 Billion Hands

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 23:36:29 -0700

The last installment in this PokerStars promotion was when they hit 50 billion hands. Almost $1 million was given away to players involved in hands leading up to and including the big 50 BN!

It's obviously a lottery whether you get in on the money but it's worth the time. The guy who won the 50 billionth hand got $56,140 and he was playing $0.02/$0.04!

This time there will be 300 milestone hands before the "Mega Milestone" of 60 billion. The mini-milestones occur every million hands and the payouts depend on the individual players participating in them.

Here's the formula:

The player will receive a base payout of $50, plus an additional $50 for every VPP they've earned in the preceding 50 hands. So, if you're dealt into a milestone hand and you've earned 10 VPPs in the 50 hands before it you'd get $550.

50 + (50 X 10) = 550

For the 60 billionth hand the formula is the same, except multiplied by ten! The winner of the hand will have that prize doubled, plus an additional $60,000 bonus!

So, playing higher stakes and/or action games that promote big pots and therefore more VPPs is the way to maximize your payout should you be lucky enough to hit a milestone.

It's a bit of a catch-22 though, especially for players with limited bankrolls. You could drop stakes and multi-table the hell out of your sessions to give yourselve more shots at the milestones, but you're not going to have as many VPPs for the multiplier if you were to hit.

You can keep an eye on the number of hands played by checking out the Hand Counter here.

The current forecast calls for the first milestone to occur on March 24 and for the Mega-Milestone of 60 billion to happen on March 29. Get on the site for a chance at the cash.

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Another SrslySirius Hit - Sunday Ft. Joe Sebok

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 17:47:27 -0700

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Zynga Poker Hacker/Thief Gets Two Years in Jail

Tue, 22 Mar 2011 16:48:35 -0700

Mitchell was able to fence a portion of the stolen e-booty for £53,000, and would have made an estimated total of £184,000 had he succeeded in off-loading the rest at the same rate.

This begs the real question, who on God's green earth is paying tens of thousands of pounds for play-money chips on a Facebook based poker site? Is lording your super-stack over your Facebook friends really worth the outlay of cash?

Wouldn't it be more fun to spend the money on, say, real poker chips at a casino?

As it turns out this wasn't Mitchell's first foray into the world of electronic crime. He'd received a 40-week suspended sentence in 2008 for hacking into a municipal government website and changing his personal details, benefiting himself £3,498.

Mitchell was also juggling a gambling addiction with his propensity for law-breaking, according to his lawyer, and was dropping £1,000 a day through online gambling sites. Mitchell cited this as a factor in his motivation to commit the fraud.

Mitchell's in for a sad surprise when he gets to prison. They don't use play-money chips to keep track.

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Real Life Cheating Ring Grifts Vancouver Businessman

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:15:12 -0700

The Breakdown

So the gist of the story is this. Alex Tkach is a prominent figure in the media and film industry here in Vancouver, translation: he's probably got some money to lose in a card game.

He was contacted by someone claiming to represent a reputable American company interested in setting up shop in Vancouver. Tkach was told there was $125,000 in it for him to head up their local marketing campaign.

Tkach met the group in a rented office and, lo and behold, he arrived to see a high-stakes card game already in progress. As the group "waited for the boss to show up," they continued playing. The game was apparently Seven-Card Stud.

A short time later one of the players received a phone call and asked Tkach to play his hand for him. Tkach won that first pot, worth $2k, and the player split it with him to thank him for winning the money.

They talked Tkach into playing the next hand as well, still ostensibly with the other player's chips. Tkach made a full house, nines full of fours.

At this point we can only assume Tkach took over bankrolling the hand, since he promised to go across the street to the bank and withdraw the money to cover it should he lose.

Well, his opponent tabled a better full house and Tkach made good on his promise to pay it off.

The group planned to meet again the following week but of course that never happened. A friend of Tkach dug up a press release published by the Hamilton, Ontario police detailing the exact same scam.

Really Tkach? Really?

It's hard to imagine why someone would fabricate a story about themselves getting scammed by a poker cheating ring so there's got to be some truth to what went down.

That said, we have a hard time believing this is 100% accurate. First of all who goes to a business meeting and jumps into a high-stakes Stud game while waiting for the boss. Okay, we've done that a number of times but according to our gamblers anonymous sponsor it's not normal.

Then there's the whole part about how he was playing with the other guy's money. When he won the first pot the money went to the other guy. Why would Tkach take over the risk halfway through the second hand when he could freeroll it by letting the other guy keep the winnings?

Also, who doesn't see this as a scam a mile away? According to the police these guys are really polished, as far as dressing well and so on, but still.

The truth is if the pot was $9,000, Tcach's end was only half that. As a prominent film-industry type he probably doesn't really care about that sum all that much. That lends some credence to the story since he might not think much of putting that up on a random poker hand.

But that brings us to the viability of the scam itself. Four guys, a rented office, the leg-work of prepping the mark in advance and getting them to the meeting. It seems like a ton of work for a $4,500 payday. It's hard to believe they're finding enough willing participants to make this a lucrative venture.

We'll keep you posted with updates as the story develops. In the meantime be wary of office poker games in Vancouver.

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$7.3 Million Poker Chip Set - Why Wait? Get Yours Today

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 09:47:52 -0700

Check out these stats:

384 18-karat white gold chips inlaid with stingray skin Set contains an estimated 22,364 stones, totaling 1,012 carats. Edges of chips are set with white diamonds for the white chips, sapphires for blue, rubies for red, emeralds for green and black diamonds for black The dealer button will be a larger white gold disc set with two rows of diamonds on the edge Set comes in genuine alligator-skin case so the product is not only fiscally irresponsible but also ecologically irresponsibile (a must for true ballers) The case comes with 18 karat white gold combination locks and hardware, and the case's suede lining features a gold and diamond frame

These sets must be custom-ordered and are estimated to take six to nine months to complete. That means you're going to have to act quickly to get these into the rotation at your weekly home game.

Considering the price tag is almost as much as winning the WSOP Main Event, we're thinking these aren't geared towards your average poker player.

And if you had them, would you really play with them? The fun of nice chips is being able to shuffle them, toss them around, rake big pots and so on. Not too sure how much you're going to want to throw around a chip worth like $20,000.

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Gimmick of the Week: 888 Poker Teams Tournaments

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 18:54:14 -0700

Teams Tournaments Explained

The idea is pretty simple. Hold an online poker tournament that coincides with a major sporting event. Divide the tournament prize pool into two equal parts, one of which will be awarded according to a traditional payout structure and the other to the players who picked the winner of the sporting event.

We were a little slow on the uptake here so a few of these events have already passed. Three remain, outlined below.

Fri, Mar 18 @ 19:00 GMT - Ireland Vs. England (Six Nations) - Prizepool: $1,000 & 1st place gets a free seat in the Irish Poker Open QualifierSat, Mar 26 @ 10:00 GMT (20:00 AEST) - Ferrari Vs. McLaren (F1) - Prize Pool: $2,500Sat, Apr 02 @ 18:00 GMT - Cricket World Cup Final (TBC) - Prize Pool: $2,500

* Buy-ins for all Teams Tournaments are $0.88

As you can see from the buy-in level these tournaments fall squarely in the novelty category. If they prove popular, however, 888 won't hesitate to make things more interesting by raising the stakes.

Teams Tournaments Explored

A few points about this structure concern us and they have to do with the distribution of the sports betting component of the prize pool.

Shane Warne knows a thing or two about teams.

Because 50% of the prize pool is reserved for the players who pick the correct outcome of the sporting event, the individual sports payout is going to be a direct result of the distribution of the sports picks.

We predict that the distribution of picks will correlate somewhat to the money line on the event. That is to say, the favorite to win will recieve more picks than the underdog. By predicting the distribution of picks, and comparing it to the actual odds set by sports books, it will be possible to make the sports pick that gives you the most equity.

We assume that the distribution of sports picks within the Teams Tournament will not be made available during registration. If it was it would be hugely beneficial to wait until the last minute to see if there was a discrepancy between the odds and the distribution of picks.

For example, if one team was a favorite to win, but the majority of the field picked the underdog, you would gain a ton of equity by betting the actual favorite. Similarly, if a team was a slight favorite to win but received the vast majority of the picks, you'd gain much equity by betting on the underdog.

Since the actual distribution of picks won't be available the ability to predict that outcome will be hugely valuable.

In general terms the payout for the winning sports pick will be similar to a traditional min-cash. Let's look at some examples:

We'll assume that the correct number of players registered to hit the guarantee (2,841 players contribute $0.88 to build a $2,500 prize pool)

If the distribution of picks was 50/50, each winning sports pick would be awarded $0.88.

If 25% of the field picked the underdog in an event and the underdog won, the winning pick would double to $1.76.

So, as stated earlier, the edge to be gained in the sports betting component comes from the discrepancy between the actual odds of the event outcome and the distribution of picks within the Teams Tournament.

The Bottom Line

In its current state this concept should be a lot of fun. It's common for online sessions to be accompanied by prop and sports betting among groups of people playing together so why not incorporate it directly into the tournament.

Right now the stakes are so low that this event's primary value will be entertainment. However, if these tournaments were offered at higher stakes the ability to correctly predict the picks of the tournament field would become very profitable.

Let us know what you think in the comments below.

Click here to look at our 888 Poker review. Get all the information and decide whether Teams Tournaments are for you.

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Todd Brunson Still Classy at WPT Bay 101

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 17:15:45 -0700

The shirt reads, "Rot in hell!!! You stupid luck-box muther f****ing dick face jack ass INTerneT Punk ASS B***h - Todd AA Brunson"

We especially like his writing style which is marked by completely random capitalization and the kind of style you'd expect to see on a homeless man's sign by the side of the overpass out on the freeway.

The news was posted via Brunson's twitter account and explained, "This kid raised 10 pots in a row. I raised utg to 2100 and he open shoves 25k with pocket 77. I called with AK off And I'm out. :-("

Check out this video from our house in Las Vegas to see more of Todd Brunson's insane classiness.

*Photo credit: BJ Nemeth for WPT (We assume he took this photo, feels like a BJ to us)

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Tyler "frosty012" Frost Tells His Poker Story - VIDEO

Thu, 10 Mar 2011 18:55:46 -0800

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Complete Guide to High Stakes Poker Season 7

Tue, 08 Mar 2011 21:40:58 -0800

The Lineup – Grade: B

The most glaring difference this season is the absence of a single Full Tilt Poker patch at the table. What that means to fans is no Phil Ivey and no Tom Dwan.

Dwan was on the winning end of the show’s biggest pot ever ($919,600) and last season he played some of the best poker we’ve ever seen on TV.

Losing durrrr is definitely a negative but there is a silver lining. Dwan has a big effect on the table dynamic and the show definitely feels different without him.

For people like us with very short attention spans anything different is usually a good thing.

In place of those sharks we’ve been given whales. Robert Croak, Phil Ruffin and Bill Klein are all immensely wealthy so we’re getting a much more authentic high-stakes game dynamic.

Those who like him, like him a lot.

Real-life games this high are usually built around a few rich players willing to give up an edge in exchange for competing against the best players in the world. That’s exactly what’s happening here.

Circling them are pros like Doyle Brunson, Antonio Esfandiari and Barry Greenstein. This is a game that could be going down regardless of the television cameras.

The Host – Grade: C+

Since HSP’s inception Gabe Kaplan has been the man behind the mic but that era has come to an end. Norm Macdonald is now filling those shoes. People are less than ecstatic.

The thing about Norm Macdonald is that a lot of people just don’t think he’s funny. I mean, he got canned from Saturday Night Live because one executive watched the show and became convinced Norm had no talent and didn’t belong on television.

But people who like Norm Macdonald, also known as smart people with good taste and a sense of humor, tend to like him a lot.

Belonging to the latter group we were quick to jump to Norm’s defense. After watching two episodes, however, we’ve downgraded “defense” to “suspending judgment”.

We’re hoping he settles into the role because his dry, monotone style doesn’t exactly lend itself to poker commentary.

Kara Scott is great as usual and she raises the letter grade by a full +.

The Action - Grade: A

The action is one area that has passed with flying colors. The first episode saw two massive all-ins and in the second we were treated to a $600,000 monster between Barry Greenstein and Antonio Esfandiari.

As much as we love big dollar amounts they’re just one half of compelling poker action. Without interesting lines and strategy it’s just degenerate gambling.

So far the strategy has been plentiful. From Vanessa Selbst’s much-criticized call with queens against Phil Ruffin’s set to Barry’s heroic $100,000 river bluff we've had no shortage of conversational ammo at the water cooler on Monday.

The whales have the money to burn and we're hoping this season will generate the first pot over a million dollars.

The Final Grade: B+

A lot of people are flapping their gums, saying things like, “RIP HSP,” and the like. We’re here to tell you that sentiment is way off the mark.

The show is different so if Ivey and Dwan battling was the only reason you tuned in, you’ve got a few adjustments to make. Yes, your beloved Gabe Kaplan is gone but give Norm a chance. He might surprise you.

Finally, with a legitimate whale-based game we’re actually excited to see who wins the money. These rich guys are comfortable dropping a million dollars in an afternoon. We'll see how the pros feel about it.

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Erik Seidel Might Be Good at Poker

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:54:19 -0800

It wasn't long ago that more often than not a mention of Erik Seidel included a footnote referencing his notorious heads-up loss to Johnny Chan in the 1988 Main Event.

While Chan has still been posting results, and reportedly cleaning up in the high-stakes games of Asia, his recent presence in the poker world has been almost nonexistant compared to Seidel.

With his recent win at the NBC Heads-Up Championship Seidel has taken over the top spot on poker's all-time tournament list.

We know you've got a short attention span so we're going to break down Seidel's record in bullet form, the fastest and most dangerous kind of list in the world.

Seidel's Big List of Accomplishments

2010 Inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame $4.3 million in earnings already in 2011! (two final table appearances at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, the $100K High Rollers at the Aussie Millions, wins in the Aussie Millions $250K Super High Roller and the $25k High Roller at the L.A. Poker Classic and a fifth-place finish in the $5k Heads Up in L.A.) $14.6 million in lifetime earnings Succeeded in lifetime goal of being quite tall but remaining down to earth. 8 WSOP bracelets, 60 cashes. 1 WPT title worth $993,000. Finished 2nd in NBC Heads-Up in 2010, won it in 2011. 176 entries on his Hendon Mob page. Appeared as an extra on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Once did a 25-minute interview with us at 5am after winning his eighth WSOP bracelet. Our choice for funniest Tweeter in poker. As you may have heard Erik Seidel plays at Full Tilt Poker. Go play with him. We heard he's got money to burn.

Read More Posts About People Who Might Be Good at Poker:

Liv Boeree Arnaud Mattern Tobias Reinkemeier Andrew Lichtenberger Ludovic Lacay

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NBC Heads-Up Final 8: Updated Bracket and Pics

Sun, 06 Mar 2011 21:26:33 -0800

Emmit Smith was recently signed to an endorsement deal with Full Tilt. Here he is below with Don Cheadle. Then we've got Doyle Brunson with the lovely Jennifer Tilly, Andrew Robl and Emmit Smith, Ali Nejad and Leann Tweeden and finally Phil Gordon.

In other news, how does Phil Gordon keep getting invited to these things?

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Top 10 Online Screen Names in Poker

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 02:29:28 -0800

Players have all sorts of strategies for picking their online moniker.

Quite often they’ll use an abbreviation of their name (see: Matt “mattg1983”, Dan “djk123” Kelly and Gary “Debo34” DeBernardi) or a combination of university and player (see: Scott “SCTrojans” Trojans, Phil “USCPhildo” Collins and Alex “AJKHoosier1” Kamberis).

Other players will just use real life nicknames such as Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu and Doyle “TexDolly” Brunson.

Finally there are players who just get completely ridiculous (We’re talking about you iHazCheezburger420).

There are some good handles, however, and some players have become better known by their online alias than their real life name.

The following list includes 10 of the most noteworthy and arguably best online screen names ever made.

Feel free to add glaring omissions in the comments.

Johnny "bad_ip" Lodden

10. bad_ip – Johnny Lodden

Is there anything more badass than a bad Internet protocol address?

Actually, yeah, probably. What the hell does that even mean?

Even so, Johnny Lodden was one of the first mega-stars of the online cash game era and he did most of his work behind the handle “bad_ip.”

The nickname was one of the first online names that made lesser players fear for their bankroll when he took a seat at their virtual table.

9. Dan Heimiller – Lenny

Sometimes there are just online names that suit their real life counterparts.

Such is the case with Dan Heimiller as “Lenny” on PokerStars. Not sure on the significance (love to hear it if you know) but it’s really no surprise Heimiller took “Lenny” over some gamer-type name.

What is somewhat surprising is the amount of success Heimiller has had online. He’s made FIVE PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker final tables, which is more than anyone else.

Plus he has an amazing website.

Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond

8. OMGClayAiken – Phil Galfond

Not all online poker names have to be intimidating.

Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond is perhaps the most famous example.

Galfond mentioned in interviews the reason he chose OMGClayAiken (in reference to the famous American Idol singer) was because many of the online names at the time were macho and pretentious.

He wanted to go in the opposite direction with a name that was funny and people would be embarrassed to lose to.

He found a winner in “OMGClayAiken.”

7. JohnnyBax – Cliff Josephy

Online names work very well if they have some sort of significance in real life.

Cliff Josephy backs a lot of players (allegedly). We’re talking about a LOT of players (allegedly).

Yep, “JohnnyBax” does the trick.

6. Isildur1 – Viktor Blom

This one is pretty nerdy but winning about $5 million and then losing it all and more will get you some notoriety.

Viktor Blom appeared on the online poker scene on Full Tilt as Isildur1 in late 2009 and quickly became known as one of the most fearless players in poker.

FYI, Isildur was a character in the Lord of the Rings who originally found the ring but was corrupted by its power. Sorta like Viktor Blom and a bankroll.

Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies

5. Ziigmund – Ilari Sahamies

One of the most memorable names in online poker goes to Ilari Sahamies for his “Ziigmund” alias on Full Tilt.

Likely a riff on legendary psychologist Sigmund Freud, Sahamies made up the name in the early stages of online poker

Thanks to his renowned trash-talk and all-around aggressive play “Ziigmund” or “Ziggy” has become one of the most feared names in online poker.

4. Lilholdem954 – Chad “Lilholdem954” Batista

We’d say that an online name truly transcends into greatness when it’s used more often than the player’s actual name.

That’s definitely the case with Chad “Lilholdem954” Batista. Certain players know Chad Batista but almost everyone has heard of “Lil’ Hold’em.”

In case you didn’t know, Batista is not a tall dude and he certainly lives up to his status as Lil’ Hold’em.

Tom "durrrr" Dwan

3. durrrr

Talk about making something from nothing.

Tom Dwan couldn’t think of anything when he was starting his first online account so he just chose the simplistic and perhaps even Homer-esque “durrrr.”

If Dwan had become nothing more than a $.50/$1 grinder, no one would think twice about the name.

Instead Dwan become one of the most profitable online players of all-time and even gained some mainstream appeal, which is difficult for online players.

If you’ve played just a few hands of online poker there’s a good chance you’ve heard of “durrrr.”

2. Di Dang – Urindanger

Di “Urindanger” Dang has been one of the most consistent players in high stakes poker and he’s done it with one of the most memorable names out there.

It’s got all the attributes that make for a great online name.

Use of his real last name? Check. Intimidating statement? Check? Absence of numbers and University? Check and check.

Dunno about brother Hac Dang though. What the hell is a trex313?

Phil Ivey

1. Phil Ivey

If you had the most intimidating name in poker, you’d use it as your screen name too.

Honorable mention:

BeepBeepImaJeep – Max Villemure

Not the most well known player in the world but the name makes us laugh every time we read it.

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Watch I Am Nanonoko Short Poker Documentary Right Here

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:34:36 -0800

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Review of A Kid's Game Online Poker Documentary

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 20:18:16 -0800

We’d seen the trailer for this doc some time ago and it looked promising. Get some of the biggest high-stakes players in the world in front of the camera and get them to tell the story of online poker. It made sense.

The cast includes Andrew Robl, Hac and Di Dang, Isaac Haxton, Peter Jetten, Shaun Deeb and Alec Torelli, successful online players who were there in the so-called Golden Age of poker and have survived through the developments of a post-boom industry.

The documentary is 70 minutes and it covers a lot of ground. For people on the inside the themes will be familiar, probably from a million conversations you’ve had with other players, your friends, or your family.

For the uninitiated this film provides an inside look at a group of young people who have taken advantage of one of the most lucrative employment opportunities in history. Online poker.

Like we said, this thing is 70 minutes long. That’s verging on feature film territory. There’s no narrative and a lack of supporting material to help it move. That's going to be a problem for those viewers who aren't super into poker.

The filmmaker takes a particular interest in Hac and Di Dang and this is one of the areas where the piece succeeds. Not a ton is known about these guys and they’re among the most successful high-stakes players ever.

The Dang brothers offer a lot of insight into how poker can be used responsibly as a very lucrative way of making a living. These guys are not your average online pros and it’s refreshing to see that it’s possible to have a level-headed, reasonable view of life as a millionaire online poker pro.

All in all we give this film a solid 6.5/10, and that's in the category of low-budget documentaries about poker. With a good narrative to tie it together, and more supporting material that score could have been a lot higher.

Memorable Quotes

“If I woke up one day and found out I had cancer I’d be upset obv. But I would realize there’s a certain chance that it’s gonna happen, and given that I’m born and I accept those chances I can’t be that upset if it does.” - Alec Torelli

“If [people] have some prejudice against it going in they’re not going to listen to what you have to say. They’re going to assume that the stuff you’re saying they can’t understand, or don’t understand, are just the rationalizations of a compulsive gambler” - Isaac Haxton

“In my mind right now anything under $1,000 is free.” - Dr Giggy

You can check out the documentary by signing up for a trial account over at Bluefire Poker. Oh yeah, they also offer poker training.

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Andrew "azntracker" Li Wins Sets Supernova Elite Speed Record

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:36:27 -0800

Here's a look at the numbers:

VPPs in Jan (including 50k WSOP bonus): 398,682 VPPs in Feb: 602,086 VPP Milestones achieved in February: 6 Lowest VPP session: 7,326 on Jan 1st (lol lazy) Highest VPP session: 35,167 on Feb 18th VPPs in last 15 days: 425,954 (28,397/day) Top 3 profit days: +12,732, +9,880, +8,444 Top 3 loss days: -17,511, -12,860, -9,414 Left-mouse clicks in 2011: 1,172,167

More than 1.1 million left-mouse clicks! His index finger must be like the Jim Fixx of index fingers.

The really crazy thing is that Li wasn't even playing ever day of 2011. He went to the PCA and played live, and took a ski vacation!

Li talks about having vague thoughts about breaking the previous SNE record set by George Lind back in 2008 - Lind made it on March 18 - but that it was only when he saw he had serious competition from Isildur1 who was beasting the $5k HU SNGs, and poker_in_pb who was ahead of Li earlier this month that he decided to ratchet up the intensity.

To get more than 600,000 VPPs in a single month is just insane. And this is February! There are only 28 days for pete's sake.

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Watch Episode 3 of the Micros Right Here!

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 19:44:14 -0800

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Bluff Announces 2011 Poker Power 20

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 18:39:31 -0800

#20 - Eric “sheets” Haber and Cliff “johnnybax” Josephy - Backers

#19 - Jim Ryan - CEO, PartyGaming

#18 - Steve “Chops” Preiss - Entity, Wicked Chops Poker

#17 - Lance Bradley - Editor in Chief, BLUFF Magazine

#16 - Phil Hellmuth - Poker’s Most Valuable Free Agent

#15 - Ray Bitar - Director, Pocket Kings LTD

#14 - Matt Savage - Executive Tour Director, World Poker Tour

#13 -Tony G - Owner, PokerNews

#12 - Tom Dwan - Player, Team Full Tilt

#11 - John Pappas - Executive Director, Poker Players Alliance

#10 - Doyle Brunson - The Godfather of Poker

#9 - Mori Eskandani - CEO, Poker PROductions

#8 - Mitch Garber - CEO, Caesars Interactive Entertainment

#7 - Daniel Negreanu - Player, Team PokerStars Pro

#6 - Phil Ivey - The World’s Best Poker Player

#5 - Brian Balsbaugh - Founder, Poker Royalty

#4 - Harry Reid - Senator, Nevada (D)

#3 - Ty Stewart - Vice President, Caesars Interactive Entertainment. Executive Director, World Series of Poker

#2 - Isai Scheinberg - Founder, PokerStars

#1 - Howard Lederer - Consultant, Pocket Kings Limited

Check out the list with blurbs on each person over at Bluff Magazine.

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Watch Layne Flack's Reality Show Right Here

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 00:39:03 -0800

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Cheater Suing Partouche Poker Tour for €1.5 Million

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 21:01:32 -0800

Plenty has been written about this scandal and from what we've heard, much of it based on firsthand observation. This guy was cheating with help from a conspirator posing as a member of the poker media.

We were told back in November that the PPT had solid video evidence of the cheating and since they pulled the trigger on banning him from the event, the evidence must be pretty damning indeed.

The PPT went out on a limb taking that sort of drastic action, and they also swallowed the negative press that resulted from evidence of cheating going on at their biggest tournament.

If you want to brush up on the background of this case our good friend Benjo did a radio interview with PokerPT.com last year, while he was on location in Cannes at the PPT finale.

Benjo's definitely got his finger on the pulse of poker in Europe and he lays everything out nicely. Check out the youtube video of that interview below.

We'll be posting updates as this case develops so keep an eye out right here in the PokerListings.com Blog.

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NFL Snubs Deaf Children Worldwide

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 20:32:40 -0800

The NFL isn't exactly a supporter of poker. When Barney Frank and Jim McDermott first began forming legislation that would regulate and tax online gambling, they included poker and sports betting.

The NFL pulled out all the stops to get sports betting removed from those plans and through a concerted effort by their lobbyists they did just that.

To the NFL poker represents a time and money-consuming activity that has a serious demographic conflict with football fans. The NFL would prefer that instead of playing poker, males age 21-40 spend their time, and money, on something football related.

But this isn't the reason the NFL stepped in and stopped their players from taking part in the charity poker tournament this weekend.

It's well known that NFL players are subject to extreme restrictions as far as what they're allowed to do with themselves, especially when it can be construed that they're representing the NFL brand.

Gambling definitely falls into that category and when the promotional material around something like a charity poker tournament is full of "NFL player" this and "Football star" that, the NFL is quick to step in.

We can only assume that this was the reason for their decision, not that they have anything against cute deaf children in Africa struggling in vain to hear the lion quietly approaching through the grass.

But seriously, charity poker to benefit deaf children? It's not hard to see why giant corporations like the NFL get a bad rap.

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PokerListings/Cardrunners Free Poker Strategy Begins!

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 19:24:24 -0800

First, check out the list of topics. Each week one of the CR coaches will pick a topic and we'll cross their name, and the topic, off the list. We'll also go ahead and link up the articles to the topics below once they're posted.

Managing Your First Big Score *Posted How to Be a Poker Pro Best Home Game Variant You Don’t Know *Posted Using Live Tournaments as Vacations *Posted Tracking Software for Noobs *Posted Badugi Basics *Posted US vs. European Poker Sites *Posted Push/Fold Tournament Strategy Part 1 *Posted Push/Fold Tournament Strategy Part 2 PLO Strategy Grab Bag

The idea is for these coaches to have the freedom to choose a topic about which they have something to write.

Let's be honest, almost everything has been written about at one time or another. We're hoping to create a more authentic experience by letting these coaches approach the subjects from their own personal experience.

Here's the working list of the coaches. We've still got two mystery spots to fill in to keep things ... mysterious.

Matthew 'mindcirkus' Wheat John "Nicolak" Kim James 'DZoo" Hart Steve 'electrical' Albini Bryan "PrimordialAA" Pelligrino Matthew Janda Mike "Predator006" Six Samer "Braminc" Khuri Mark Silver ??????????

The first post is up in our strategy section now!

Click here to read "Managing your First Big Poker Score" by John "Nicolak" Kim.

We'll be posting a new article from this series every Monday until we're done so keep an eye out in the Poker Strategy section, or check back here for links to all the posts.

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

New PokerListingsBlogEntry

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 23:33:03 -0800

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Gimmick of the Week: Play-Money Poker on Windows 7 Mobile

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 19:13:08 -0800

The days of driving and not playing mobile poker will soon be over.

The Windows 7 version of Full House Poker is set to drop mid-March so we've got a little waiting to do before we get to do a hands-on test. Check out the video at the end of this post, done by WPCentral.com at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show.

The really cool thing about this game is that it actually acts as a companion game to the XBox 360 version. You can play the mobile version with your XBox Live avatar and work on your bankroll and experience on the go.

There are a few limitations, like the absence of multi-player on the mobile version, but this is definitely a step in the right direction as far as Microsoft's efforts to link up home console gaming with mobile devices.

In light of recent developments between EA Studios and Virgin Group to allow XBox players to wager money on virtual games, this could open up a whole new sector for online poker.

The game itself looks good, utilizing your XBox Live avatar and some good animations. Most of the graphic components of the game are customizable and the developers promise a wide variety of thinking opponents to keep you on your toes.

While no substitute for real money mobile poker we're still going to give this a shot in an attempt to keep our poker jones at bay. We'll let you know how it turns out.

Click here for our full guide to playing poker on the iPhone!

WPT Celebrity Invitational Has Celebrities, Live Streamed

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 21:40:35 -0800

Celebrities scheduled to appear

Movies

Jennifer Tilly* Bullets Over Broadway, Bound

Gina Gershon Bound, Showgirls

Michael Clarke Duncan* The Green Mile

Mimi Rogers Austin Powers

Don Cheadle* Hotel Rwanda, Oceans 11

Andrea Savage Funny or Die

Sean Astin Lord of the Rings trilogy

Billy Burke Twilight

Matthew Lillard Scream, Without a Paddle

Jennifer Cadena The Roommate

Vince Lozano Pirates of the Caribbean

Mekhi Phiffer 8 Mile, Lie to Me

Samm Levine Inglourious Basterds

*Academy Award Nominee

Television/Personalities

Zachary Levi Chuck

Shanna Moakler Miss USA

Natasha Alam HBO's True Blood

Dean Cain Lois & Clark

Daniel Baldwin Cold Case

Donnie Walberg Blue Bloods

Patrick Warburton Rules of Engagement

Parvesh Cheena Outsourced

Eddie Cibrian CSI: Miami

Michael Vartan Hawthorne

Dr. Phil McGraw Dr. Phil Show

Robin McGraw Author/Personality

Hope Dworaczyk 2010 Playmate of the Year

Maura Tierney ER, Rescue Me

Sarah Jean Underwood 2007 Playmate of the Year

Sam Trammel True Blood

Nicholas Gonzalez Melrose Place

John Tenny The Closer

Shaun Sipos Melrose Place

Will Sasso $#'! My Dad Says

Hank Azaria The Simpsons

Danny Masterson That 70's Show

Camryn Manheim The Practice

Michael Gladis Mad Men

Jennifer Morrison How I Met Your Mother

Rich Sommer Mad Men

Kelly Monaco Dancing With the Stars

Tony Dennison The Closer

Leanza Cornett Entertainment Tonight (E.T.)

Mark Steines E.T.

Kunal Nayyar Big Bang Theory

Adrian Paul Highlander

Josh Malina In Plain Sight, The West Wing

Shanola Hampton Shameless

Kiersten Warren Desperate Housewives

Kenny Johnson Sons of Anarchy

Ricki Lake The Ricki Lake Show

Yancy Arias Kingpin

Sports Figures

Leigh Steinberg Sports Agent

Randy Couture UFC Champion

Jose Canseco MLB All Star/Celebrity Apprentice

Coco Crisp Oakland A's CF

Jerry Buss Lakers Owner

Musicians

Chaka Khan

Ryan Cabrera

Barbara Mandrell

Boyz II Men**

Incubus**

My Morning Jacket**

**Select band members scheduled to appear

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STFU Haters: "Black and Yellow" Poker Rap

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:26:24 -0800

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Gimmick of the Week: Playing Poker with a Webcam

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:34:01 -0800

The whole concept of webcam poker is that you MUST be online, on the webcam, to participate in the game.

There are two important ways this rule affects the online poker experience.

As a social component of the game: Players who prefer being able to see their opponents, who like to pick up reads and see the player they’re up against. Webcams add a human, albeit technologically-driven, facet to the game.

Right now PokerView does not offer audio. You can play up to eight tables at the same time and it will be interesting to see how they handle voice chat in the future.

Put faces to names with webcam poker.

As a security feature: Bots don’t have faces, so it’ll be obvious if you’re up against a piece of software. Same thing goes for multi-accounting and people selling their accounts. The idea is that they’ll be able to verify who’s at the controls at all times.

The most common complaints with using webcams revolve around these same two concepts.

For one, not that many people love the social aspect of poker. In fact, many players seek refuge in online poker precisely because it’s relatively private.

Playing in your underwear, for example, doesn’t work so well in front of a webcam.

That mental image should work as a nice segue into the next potential problem on our list, people’s inherent need to take off their clothes whenever they find themselves alone in front of a webcam.

To help stave off that scenario, and ensure the integrity of the webcams, PokerView has a few simple rules.

WEBCAM ON FACE - Your face must be visible on the webcam at ALL TIMES while you are dealt in a hand. Webcams pointed at the floor, wall, body, toys, or blank screens are UNACCEPTABLE. You will be given a warning by an admin to adjust your webcam, if you don’t comply immediately your account will be suspended and possibly terminated.

ABSOLUTELY NO NUDITY - Players who transmit themselves naked will be blocked immediately and permanently banned from PokerView. NO EXCEPTIONS!

Hats – Are allowed as long as your face can be seen clearly.

Sunglasses – Are allowed.

Players who repeatedly break PokerView Webcam Rules face the risk of having their account temporarily suspended and/or permanently banned.

Making the rules is one thing but they won’t be worth much if they’re not enforced. And if this idea were to catch on it would take quite a team to monitor it, to say nothing of running the system itself.

Enforcement is especially important since the webcams are being presented as a way to verify that you’re actually playing against the person to whom the account belongs.

Honestly we find it difficult to take it too seriously as a security feature. We’re not going to lay it out here but, suffice it to say, if someone’s going to the trouble of multi-accounting or botting, they’ll be able to figure out a workaround for the webcam.

The Bottom Line

A poll was taken recently on 2p2 and one in seven players were open to the idea of granting a poker site access to their webcams. They had polled just under 700 players at the time of posting.

With those numbers in mind we do see a future for webcam poker. It will never become the norm and we don’t see it revolutionizing online poker, but it does seem there’s a potential customer base out there.

We could definitely see the major poker rooms jumping on the bandwagon and offering select webcam tables in the near future.

Update! 888poker has introduced webcam functionality! Check out 888poker to play online poker with webcams.

Liv Boeree Might Be Good at Poker

Tue, 08 Feb 2011 23:49:05 -0800

If ever there was a marketable poker player it's Liv Boeree. She got into the game through a reality television show and, even though it sometimes seems irrelevant with beatiful women in poker, she can actually post results.

Usually poker pros have to win something big to be offered a sponsorship deal but Boeree did the opposite. It was only until after she signed with Absolute, and then switched to UltimateBet that she took down EPT San Remo for $1.7 million.

Her EPT title earned her more than just a mammoth payday. She also parlayed it into an upgrade in the endorsement department. She jumped ship from UB and was signed on as part of PokerStars' ever-expanding Team Pro.

Poker or astrophysics: Typical teenage decisions.

That she hadn't taken something notable down previous to San Remo wasn't for lack of making deep runs. Everything has to go just right to win but it's paramount to give yourself the opportunity by making it into the money. Boeree had no trouble there.

Her Hendon page is long and it's populated with solid results in side events all over the world. She's got over $300k in winnings in addition to that massive EPT score.

Yesterday she added $147,000 to her bankroll by taking down the $215 Sunday Warm Up on PokerStars. She beat over 4,700 players and defeated James "mig.com" Mackey heads-up for the win.

It would be tough to find a more skilled heads-up opponent than Mackey. He won a WSOP bracelet in 2007 and has WCOOP and SCOOP titles to go with it.

The final hand was uninteresting though, with both players around 20BB and the money going in preflop with pocket sevens for Boeree and A-6 for Mackey.

Plenty has been written about this young woman but the bullet points remain impressive. I mean, she's got a degree in astrophysics and she shreds heavy metal guitar. What could be more impressive than that?

We did a really great video profile of her at the WSOP in 2009. Check it out below to get to know Liv Boeree a little better.

Read More Posts in our series They Might be Good at Poker:

Arnaud Mattern Tobias Reinkemeier Andrew Lichtenberger Ludovic Lacay

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Ivey, Antonius and Lederer Share Table at Aussie Millions

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 05:39:43 -0800

By no means are these guys actively colluding, or even soft-playing each other, but the fact that they know each other so well must have an effect on the decisions they’re making.

Poker’s so full of marginal decisions, spots where you’d sometimes open, sometimes fold, there’s a lot of room for subconscious tendencies to present themselves.

This whole concept is of particular interest to us since we want to see all three of these players go deep. We’re hoping that since they will have a greater-than-normal tendency to stay out of each other’s way, they might all make it through this table with stacks.

The truth is, these guys have plenty of reason not to get into it with each other. After all, why would you play pots against the best players in the world when there are five other guys to pick on?

But sometimes there’s just no avoiding confrontation. When big hands clash the money’s going in, as we saw just one hour ago.

Howard Lederer and Phil Ivey were in a hand together and both turned a flush. Howard had the nuts and Ivey the second nuts. The chips ended up in the middle and Lederer got a huge double.

We’re reporting all the action from this tournament. Follow along right here with our live updates of the 2011 Aussie Millions main event.

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Who Got Naked and More from The Aussie Millions Million Dollar Cash Game

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 13:17:08 -0800

Eventually the discussion turned to the odds of hitting your three card prop on the flop all in your suit, with Dwan doing the numbers in his head and the rest of the table suddenly willing to bet if he had done the math correctly.

That's when Oppenheim chimed in with a pretty funny tale about a poker game he'd once played at in Los Angeles.

Apparently the table was full of eight men, but one player agreed to take his clothes off and play naked for a lousy $500.

"The story wouldn't even be that interesting except that man is sitting at the table here tonight," Oppenheim laughed.

"That's nothing," added Benyamine. "There are games where guys will pay the rest of the table $500 for the chance to take their clothes off. It just depends which side of town you're on."

The poker game continued with Smith having to rebuy after going broke shoving into Antonius and the nuts on one hand.

The discussion turned to absinthe, liquid heroin and the strongest drink Dwan has ever had - 151 Proof Rum for those of you keeping score at home.

Plus there was even some mention of Oppenheim working a brief stint as gigilo - although he would not confirm that or the identity of the player who will get naked for $500.

Soon after, a chuckling Antonius took the opportunity to needle Matusow a little, reminding him of the time he lost $2 million in a day playing Pot-Limit Omaha online against he and Gus Hansen.

"It sure is their thing, and it sure ain't mine," bemoaned Matusow.

Before long, Smith went broke again and decided not to rebuy, just as Phil Ivey and the Malaysian businessmen walked back in the room.

Ivey quickly locked up Smith's seat, but the Malaysians were only on dinner break from the main event downstairs and despite a little pleading from Dwan, decided to sit this one out.

Ivey seemed less than interested in trading chips and stories with group, playing just a few hands before disappearing and soon the game appeared to break.

They returned about half an hour later with just Antonius, Dwan, Benyamine and Oppenheim playing four handed, but a few texts and phone calls later and the table was once again full, with Feldman returning and Chris Ferguson, Sam Trickett, and James Bord joining in.

They played on into the night with more prop discussions and Oppenheim making quads against Antonius to drag a $370k pot.

He looks to be the big winner right now, and definitely told the funniest story of the night, but with the Crown telling the players they will keep dealing until they're asked to stop, it could be a long night in Melbourne and anything can and will happen.

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Watch Episode 2 of The Micros Right Here!

Tue, 25 Jan 2011 04:12:26 -0800

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Ivey, Antonius and Dwan Battle Malaysian Businessmen at the Crown

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 08:10:58 -0800

The American pros learned a valuable lesson in Macau: These opponents are extremely dangerous and not to be underestimated. Despite having the edge in skill, the Americans can't compete in sheer bankroll.

Armed with unlimited rebuys and a true gambling attitude these businessmen can do a lot of damage in a short amount of time, and they're going to use that to put serious pressure on the pros.

Right now they're playing $500/$1,000 with a $100 ante and a minimum buy-in of $100,000. Already we've seen a few big hands and a few rebuys. If things continue like they have so far we might be in for some $1,000,000+ pots before this is over.

The game's being filmed as part of the Aussie Millions so you'll get a chance to see all the big pots live sometime soon. The cool thing about this televised cash game is that it's not an all name-pro roster. This is a backroom high-stakes game that, luckily for us, is playing out in front of the cameras.

We've got photos of the players below. The first three show the three players from Macau. From right to left we have Wang Qiang, Paul Phua and Richard Yong.

We've got an operative keeping an eye on things up there but we're pretty much going to disappointed with anything less than a seven-figure pot.

Keep an eye on our poker news section later on to see the results.

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Bloom Goes the Dynamite - Tony Bloom at the Aussie Millions

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 05:06:37 -0800

Sam Trickett is a tough player and he’s had a lot of success recently. How do you rate him after having had the chance to play with him in the $100K?

I played with him for basically two solid days and it was the first time I’d played with him. I was very impressed with his play.

The heads-up match only lasted for about ten hands and apart from one big hand he dominated.

We’ve seen a lot of success from young players coming out of the UK in the last year or two. Is there something you can point to that accounts for the amount of talent we’re seeing?

Honestly I don’t think it’s something that’s only happening in the UK. There are talented young players coming out of Scandinavia, the US, and it’s no surprise to me that there are young kids coming through that are going to be very successful.

There’s probably hundreds of thousands of kids trying and a very small percentage of those are going to have the talent to be successful.

The opportunity is out there for eighteen, nineteen year olds that just wasn’t there for me when I was that age. Most of these kids, by the time they’re nineteen they’ve played more hands than I’ve played in my entire life.

I don’t play that much so it’s really hard to keep up but it’s a good challenge for me to be playing against these young up and coming players.

Like you said you’re not playing every tournament on the circuit by any means but you seem to like these high roller events. Is it the big money that motivates you to play these or the higher level of competition?

It’s a mixture of a few things. Because I don’t have a lot of time to play too many tournaments a year these high roller events suit me well.

They’re not too long, they’re for big money so that is a motivating factor but more it’s the caliber of player you’re up against and the challenge of it all that motivates me.

Do you have anything else scheduled poker-wise in the next few months?

I probably won’t end up picking up a card for the next five months after I’m done with the Aussie Millions. That’s just the way it is. I probably won’t go to Vegas in the summer but I’ll be playing the World Series events in London in September.

That’s really all I have time for these days but occasionally if something comes up I’ll play it. If I can, I like to play.

If you want to join the ranks of those hundreds of thousands honing their poker skills on the internet check out our online poker room reviews and find the site that's right for you.

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