Poker News in Brief: Nov. 2-8, 2009

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Sunday, Nov. 8, 2009

Poker News in Brief: Nov. 2-8, 2009

PokerListings.com Invades London for the WSOP-E

Yet another poker tour will hold a tournament in London, England.

By PokerListings.com

It's poker's biggest weekend and if you're reading PokerListings.com there's a good chance you know the 2009 WSOP Main Event is down to just two players.

If you're looking for spoilers just check out our Live Coverage, but this is about the stories that didn't make the front page this week.

As part of our Poker News in Brief feature we've compiled a list of those lesser-known stories below.

This week we're going to look at a new poker tour in Europe, the passing of a celebrated poker player, Brandon Cantu winning yet another online tournament and more.

ParadisePoker launches new European tour

ParadisePoker is the latest online poker room to enter the live tournament scene and will offer a series of tournaments throughout Europe in 2009/2010.

The first season of the ParadisePoker Tour will include stops in London, Prague, Madrid and Bulgaria.

The ParadisePoker Tour will begin with a £550 tournament at the Empire Casino in Leister Square, London on Dec. 12 with a guaranteed prize pool of £100,000.

It's possible to qualify for the event on ParadisePoker for as little as €1.10. Click here for more information.

Hans 'Tuna' Lund playing in the 2007 WSOP Main Event.

Poker world loses Hans "Tuna" Lund

Hans "Tuna" Lund, perhaps best known his epic heads-up battle against Mansour Matloubi at the 1990 WSOP Main Event, succumbed to cancer early Friday morning.

Lund began playing tournament poker way back in 1977 and since then he accumulated nearly $3 million in tournament winnings, two WSOP bracelets and two Main Event final table appearances.

Despite retiring from the game in 1997 to spend more time with his children Jimmy and Lilly, Lund still played the occasional tournament.

His most recent cash at the WSOP came in the 2007 Main Event where he finished 319th for $39,445.

A resident of Sparks, Nevada, Lund was 59 years old.

Playtech releases new iPoker update

Poker sites like Titan, William Hill, CD Poker, Bet365 and ChiliPoker will benefit from some new features thanks to a software update to the iPoker network.

Playtech released the new iPoker client on Wednesday and users now have access to tools like auto top-up, buddies functionality and a sharp new interface.

Other innovations include a multi-currency option, five-step seat finding feature, hand-for-hand mode in tournaments and a new tournament time-bank that offers player a predefined allotment of extra time throughout the tournament.

Brandon Cantu has been killing it.

Brandon Cantu dominating UltimateBet games

Las Vegas Team UB pro Brandon Cantu is having one hell of a year.

Just this past Sunday, Cantu won the signature UltimateBet $100,000 guaranteed tournament for $34,580. In August he won the same tournament for nearly $37,000.

Cantu also won the weekly heads-up tournament leaderboard match on UltimateBet.

Each week the tournament leaderboard winner faces off against a Team UB pro for $1,000. Team UB pros have won the event for three straight weeks meaning the prize pool is up to $4,000 for next Saturday.

Cantu's success in 2009 hasn't just been online either. This summer Cantu won his second WSOP bracelet by taking down the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha event for $228,867.

The aggressive poker pro is up to over $3 million in lifetime tournament earnings as well as several hundred thousand earned online.

Sites offering Belgium Poker Championships qualifiers

Satellites for the Belgium Poker Championships began this week on PokerStars.com, Everest Poker and bwin Poker.

On PokerStars, the satellites start at just $5.50, which are the first step in qualifying for the $215 monthly final.

Meanwhile, on Everest Poker, players can attempt to climb the Sit 'N' Go steps which start at just $2 and go all the way up to $360.

Finally, bwin will hold a freeroll later this year with first place winning a seat in the Belgium Poker Championship.

Last year Sijbrand Maal won €315,875 for outlasting 842 players in the 2008 Belgium Poker Championships.

The 2009 Belgium Poker Championships will take place this Nov. 21-29 at Casino de Namur.

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospeliler, Ludovic Lacay, Davidi Kitai, Lex Veldhuis and Marcel Luske are all confirmed to play with several other big-name poker players expected to sign up.