PokerStars 'World Championship of Online Poker' is just getting bigger and bigger every year since it started 7 years ago. In this years WCOOP not less than $40,000,000 is guaranteed in 45 events. Not many poker sites in the world other than PokerStars could guarantee these enormous amounts of money within the short time that WCOOP has been running.
Neither the PGA Tour or the ATP-tours biggest tournament 'Wimbledon' comes even close those to these kinds of prize pools. Since the first WCOOP was played, the total prize pool has grown with around 6000%, and probably it will continue increase in future WCOOP tournaments.
125 players made it to Day 2 of World Poker Tour in Cyprus. Of those 125, only 64%, or 55 players survived to Day 3 of the tournament. Among the survivors we find Full Tilt pros Allen Cunningham, Andy Bloch, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, along with the overnight chip leader, Nenad Medic. Unforutunartly the 4 players (Phil Gordon, John Tabatabai, Jan Skampa and Ludovic Lacay) with the biggest stacks as Day 2 started, were sent packing.
Day 3 of the tournament has now been running for a while now and at the moment there are only 47 players left. Nenad Medic is still the chip leader, he has around 360,000 chips at the moment. On second place and ninth place we find Full Tilt pros Roy Winston and Huck Seed. It will be very interesting to see if any of the big names will make it to the final table.
Day 1b of World Poker Tour in Cyprus attracted a very interesting starting field which included lots of pros. For example: John Juanda, Phil Gordon, Howard Lederer, Chris Furguson, Gus Hansen, and Erik Lindgren. 62 players made it through from Day 1b to Day 2. In the chip lead of Day 1b we find no one else than Team Full Tilt pro Phil Gordon with around 160,000 chips. Not far behind him is Jean Robert Bellande with around 155,000 chips.
Unfortunately, the poker legend John Juanda went out in the very last hand of Day 1b. Before he went out of the tournament he was quite short-stacked and also seemed to be a bit "tilted". Many disappointed fans of his probably expected him to make it at least to Day 2 of the tournament. But, one can't blame him for having a hard time as he was seated at the same table as these guys....
Seat 1: Unknown player Seat 2: Va Shon Watkins Seat 3: Patrik Antonius Seat 4: Howard Lederer Seat 5: Chris Karagulleyan Seat 6: Albert Yakoub Seat 7: Unknown player Seat 8: Phil Gordon Seat 9: John Juanda
Earlier this year, Full Tilt poker, created the TV show "Face The Ace" where anyone can get the chance to play against Full Tilt pros with the chance of winning lots of money. Now, PokerStars, have announced that they will start their own TV show. "Million Dollars Challenge" is the name of PokerStars new TV show, and in this show anyone have the chance to play a heads-up versus Daniel Negreanu for 1 million dollars.
How to qualify for the Million Dollar challenge First off, one has to come top 10 in one of the "million dollar challenge"-freerolls at PokerStars. If you are one of those 10, then you get the chance to send in a presentation video of yourself to FOX and PokerStars. Fox and PokerStars will then review the video and decide if you will get to play against a PokerStars pro. If you do well there, then you will finally get to play against Daniel Negreanu and have the chance to win some serious cash. With other words it's not that easy to qualify for the million dollar challenge. But, the good thing is that it's for free which gives "rich as poor" the chance to win a life changing amount of money.
WPT (WORLD POKER TOUR) Cyprus (BUY-IN - US$10,000 + US$300) started yesterday and is now over. Only 91 players signed up for Day 1a, which are quite few players to be any starting day of a WPT event. But most probably the other starting day will make up for it. Anyhow, 63 out of 91 players made it through to Day 2 of the tournament. John Tabatabai, is the one that accumulated the most chips in Day 1a. He will bring around 170,000 chips to Day 2. But, even though John Tabatabai is the chip leader, it wasn't he who got the most attention in Day 1a.
Layne "back-to-back" Flack, had more than 120k chips in less than 90 minutes, which is quite an impressive achievement. But Flack's luck ran out after a while and he ended the day on 5th place with 112k chips. Day 1b of the tournament has a very interesting starting field. Just to mention a few of the players that will play this day, Howard Lederer, Chris Furguson, Gus Hansen, Erik Lindgren and John Juanda
The past few days, Gus Hansen, the Danish poker pro, has been playing on much lower stakes than he usually does. There are many theories why he has moved down in stakes. One of them is that his bankroll isn't what it used to be, and therefore he can't afford to play against "durrrr", Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, and other big names at the highest stakes. Another theory is that he finds the opponents at the lower stakes much weaker.
So how is Gus doing at the lower stakes? It seems like he is doing very well at the lower stakes. He also seems to play more comfortable there than at the highest stakes at Full Tilt poker. It will be very interesting to see if he stick to the "lower stakes", or if he decides to move up in stakes again. However, Gus Hansen, has had a rough 2009 with around 2 million dollars lost, and most probably much more on other things next the poker. For example he lost a lot of money when the best tennis player in the world (Rafael Nadal) surprisingly lost against the Swede Robin Söderling in French open.
Phil Hellmuth, is one of the most successful players in WSOP throughout all years. He has cashed 74 times, won 11 bracelets, and was until 2008 (when Peter Eastgate won) the youngest player ever to win the WSOP Main Event. Mainly because of his amazing achievements in WSOP, he was inducted to the poker hall of fame a few years back.
Hold'em for Heroes Phil Hellmuth, has decided to organize a charity tournament with the name Hold'em Heroes. All the money in this tournament will go to TASER Foundation for Fallen Officers. The tournament is scheduled to start 19th November, and Phil Hellmuth is very proud and thankful to get the opportunity to help others.
"I and my friends are very thankful for these brave men and women. We are very proud to help them"; Phil Hellmuth says
Lately there has been a lot of thing going on in the poker scene. With that I refer to all the big live tournaments such as EPT, WPT, IPT etc that has been played. All the great high stakes action at Full Tilt poker and other poker sites. And when it comes to online poker tournaments, it can't get any better as PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker with a guarantee of $40,000,000 starts in a few hours!
2009 WCOOP kicks off tonight with the following events:
20:30 CET - Event 1: No Limit Holdem - $1,25 million guaranteed 22:30 CET - Event 2: Razz - $200,000 guaranteed
Ever wondered what it would be like playing poker above the ground? What if it was 50 meters above ground? Would you still do it? For the second year Party Poker organizes Poker in the Sky. Last year it was held in Sweden and became a huge success. This year it's Copenhagen in Denmark's turn. The participants in Poker in the sky will be hoisted up 50 meter s up in the air and then play poker for some great prizes.
The event is scheduled 11th September in Copenhagen, Denmark. 22 players will step on a platform and then be hoisted up above City Hall Square in Copenhagen. They will then play a tournament for 4 hours, or until there are only 2 players left. These 2 players will get a World Open V (London) package each and play with some of the biggest names in poker. For example: Tom "durrrr" Dwan (probably the most successful high stakes player this year) and Mike Sexton (2009's hottest nominee to get inducted to the Poker Hall of Fame).
We've just updated the leaderboard in our August Titan Poker Leaderboard promotion, this is the last update until the leaderboard promotion expires on Saturday.
"catchEmAll" is still in the lead and looks to be very tough to beat, but the next few places are still up for grabs, where "snapcall419", "almighty666", "B48018" and "Funology" seems very interested in securing as high a spot as possible.
Further down the leaderboard the competition for a prize is still quite open and we even have a bunch of players very close to entering the top 10 and get a piece of the prize pool.
Last week was a great week for some high stakes players from Finland. However, the most successful of those were Patrik Antonius who won over a million dollars, and his fellow countryman, Ilari Sahamies, who won close to half a million dollars. Most of the money Antonius won came from the American pro Tom "durrr" Dwan. Tom "durrr" Dwan came to be the biggest loser last week with around $900,000 lost. But as we all know, that is not an amount that Tom Dwan will cry so much over.
Another poker player that lost a lot of money last week was "Martonas", or the "unknown Swede" as many people call him. It seems like "Martonas" has given up playing on the highest stakes at Full Tilt poker. Because lately he can be found on the lower stakes at Full Tilt. Probably he has realized that he can't afford the enormous swings, or just think its easier making money on the lower stakes?
Ramzi Jelassi, 22, from Sweden, won IPT (Italian Poker Tour) in San Remo yesterday and took home the first prize of 170,000 EURO. This is Ramzi's second big title in the previous 8 months. In December he won the side event to EPT Prag and received around 130,000 EURO. Ramzi Jelassi, also did very well in this year's WSOP Main Event, but unfortunately he went out before the really BIG MONEY (425th place - $27,469).
FINAL TABLE RESULTS: 1 Ramzi Jelassi - €170 000 2 Andrea Sapere - €100 000 3 Francesco Veronese - €68 000 4 Massimo Di Cicco - €50 000 5 Giuseppe Pipino - €39 000 6 Roberto Pompei - €28 000 7 Claudio Rinaldi - €18 000 8 Niccolò Domeniconi - €13 000
People that create fake accounts on facebook, twitter, myspace (examples), and pretend to be someone else, seems to become more and more common every day. Patrik Antonius, the Finnish poker pro, is someone that has got to experience this. Someone has created an account on twitter in his name and posted comments about the people he played against at bobby's room, and also written some mean things about Doyle Brunson.
Earlier this year, Scotty Nguyen, made a statement that he would stop playing poker if he didn't win at least 4 million dollars in 2009 WSOP. The most people thought that it was crazy of him to say something like that, and they meant that there is not a chance in the world that he will stop playing if he doesn't win 4 million dollars. All of them were right. Scotty Nguyen, weren't even close to win that much money in 2009 WSOP, and he never stopped playing poker after the world series. In an interview with a Swedish magazine he said the following.
Dermot Blain, a 25-year-old ex-sales manager from Ireland, won PokerStars third season main event of APPT Macau. He won his entry to the tournament by playing a PokerStars Macau satellite. When he had made it to the final table he was in 7th place with just 507,000 chips. At this time no one thought he would stay in the tournament for long. The turnaround for Blain came when he eliminated the start of the day chip leader with A-K vs A-Q.
When the table was down to heads-up, it only took Blain 4 hands to knockout his final opponent Mike Kim. Mike Kim, went all-in preflop with T-9 and got called by Blain who had K-T. The board ran cold for both players and Blain's King kicker gave him the win and $541,000. Mike Kim, received 385,000 for his second place.
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doyle brunson.
Posted on 28 August 2009 by "T".
Doyle Brunson, wrote in his latest blog post that he have a quite busy schedule this year. This schedule for example includs playing in many big tournaments and doing lots of interviews all around the globe. Then of course, he has his own poker site, blog, family, and lots of other things to take care of. Not bad for a 75-year-old man that absolutely doesn't need any more money as he most probably already have many million dollars saved in his bank account. So, what keeps Doyle Brunson hungry for more achievements and winnings? The answer is very simple - His love for the game of poker.
However, according to his blog, it seems like age is taking out its right as he writes that it might be the last time he's traveling outside USA.
"It looks like the next month or so is going to be pretty packed for me. I'm doing a commercial for the M Casino so I'm not going to have time to go back up to Montana. Then, I leave for Budapest in early September to meet folks and speak at the Budapest Affiliate Conference. After that, I'm off to Nottingham for the English Poker Open and then back to Birmingham for the Caesar's Cup. I then go to London for a televised cash game and right after that the WSOP Europe begins' where I'll be playing in the main event. I'll finally make it back home to Vegas in early October. That's a lot of traveling for an old man and this may be the last time I cross the big pond."; Doyle Brunson says.
The third season of APPT Macua attracted 429 players who created a total prize pool of HKD $16,130,400 (2,081,092 US Dollars). All three starting days have now been played. First day saw a starting field of 119 players and 60 of them made it to Day2. Day 1b attracted 125 players, 55 of them made it through to Day 2. Day 1c saw the biggest starting field of all 3 starting days. Not less than 185 players took part this day. Day 1c also included the most notable names.
PokerStars Team Australia Pros Joe Hachem (Winner 2005 WSOP main event), Tony Hachem (Runner-up 2007 NZ Poker Championships) and Lee Nelson (2006 Aussie Millions Champion), Bertrand (ElkY) Grospellier (Winner 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure) from PokerStars Team Pro: France, PokerStars Team Asia Pros Celina Lin (Winner Macau Poker Cup: Red Dragon July 2009) and Bryan Huang (Third 2008 APPT Macau Main Event) all of them move forward from Day 1c to Day 2.
Out of 429 players, 196 players made it through to Day 2 of APPT Macua. The ones that will bring the most chips with them to Day 2 all come from Day 1b - Kristoffer Myhre from Norway (183,400), Peter Nielsen from Denmark (141,500), and PokerStars online qualifier Roel Pijepers from Netherlands (125,500).
Day 1b of APPT Macau attracted a starting field of 125 players. Of these 125 players, 55 made it through to 2 Day of the tournament. 22 of these are PokerStars online qualifiers and 5 PokerStars Macau satellite winners.
The ones that will bring the most chips with them to Day 2 from Day 1b are Kristoffer Myhre from Norway (183,400), Peter Nielsen from Denmark (141,500), and PokerStars online qualifier Roel Pijepers from Netherlands (125,500).
Day 1c of the tournament will include a lot of familiar names. Joe Hachem (WSOP 2005 main event winner), Tony Hachem (Runner-up 2007 NZ Poker Championships), Bertrand "Elky" Gospellier (Winner of 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure and much more), Lee Nelson (2006 Aussie Millions Champion) any many more. Day 1c will for sure be the most interesting and action filled day so far of the tournament!
After a long break away from the durrr challenge, Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan have now played 2 sessions within 24 hours. Before the first one started, Tom Dwan, had a big lead with over $700,000 won from Antonius, but the Finnish poker pro took back $392,000 from Tom Dwan after they had played 795 hands and decided to stop for the day. Just a couple of hours later they decided to play another session of the "durrr" challenge.
Before this session started, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, was in the lead with $334,199. But once again Patrik Antonius played his very best of poker and this time he won $415,311 from Tom Dwan. Patrik Antonius, is now in the lead with $76,104 over Tom Dwan after 22 683 hands played. It will be very interesting to see if Tom Dwan will manage to fight back in the next session against Antonius.
Day 1a of PokerStars APPT Macau event saw a starting field of 119 players. Only 60 of them made it through to Day 2. So far the tournament has been dominated by PokerStars and its players and online qualifiers. Not less than 13 PokerStars online qualifiers and 10 PokerStars Macau satellite winners will play Day 2 of the tournament.
In the lead after Day 1a is the PokerStars player Brandon Demes from USA. He will bring 102,200 chips with him to Day 2 of the tournament. In second place is PokerStars online qualifier David Steicke from Hong Kong with 82,300. Steicke is not a newbie in APPT Macau as he has won approximately $200,000 in the 2 previous seasons. In third place we find PokerStars satellite winner Jicheng Su from China with 82,000 chips.
After a long break due to WSOP and other things, "durrrr" and Patrik Antonius once again played a session of 795 hands as a part of the durrrr challenge. Before the session started, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, had a big lead with over $700,000 won from Antonius. But, the long break seems to have been what the Finnish poker star needed to get back in shape. In this session, Patrik Antonius, played a totally different game than before and thanks to that he took home the biggest and most important pots.
After 795 hands played, Patrik Antonius, stood as the bigger winner of the day with $392,000 dollars won from "durrrr". Tom "durrrr" Dwan, is still in the lead with $334,199 even though he lost so much this time. However, there is a very long way to go as "only" 21,442 hands out of 50,000 hands have been played so far. Anything can happen with other words.
Yesterday night there was a lot of high stakes games going on at different poker sites. "Martonas", the unknown Swede, has won and lost millions of dollars in no time since he start showing up at Full Tilt poker. Yesterday he won $204,000 after having a great session of poker. This win must have felt extra good for "Martonas" who has been losing a lot of money lately. Another 2 players that played very well yesterday are "theASHMAN103" and "SxMxF". "theASHMAN103", won $193,00 and "SxMxF" $150,000.
Full Tilt poker, is the one and only poker site when it comes to high stakes games. Nowhere else you will find so high activity on tables with for example $2000/$4000 and $1000/$2000 blinds. Of course the most people can't afford to play on these stakes, but it doesn't cost a penny to watch when some of the biggest names in poker play against each other. One must admit that it feels a bit unreal when pots many times are $500,000 - $1,000,000 and the players don't even have "monster hands". The money that these guys can lose/win in just one single hand is many times something that the average poker player won't win or lose in his entire lifetime.
296 players from 33 countries took part in the first ever EPT Kyiv (about 80 of them PokerStars players) and created a prize pool of €1,391,200. Maxim "Decay" Lykov, 21, from Moscow, was the chip leader after both day 2 and day 3. When he reached the final table there was no doubt that he would become the last man standing. After 6 hours the final table was down to heads-up. The two remaining players were Alexander Dovzhenko and Maxim Lykov. But there was not a long fight between these two as it only took the 21-year-old Russian 20 hands to take down the tournament. For the win Maxim "Decay" Lykov received €330,000 and also became the first ever Russian to win an EPT.
We've just updated the leaderboard in our August Titan Poker Leaderboard promotion, this is the last update until the leaderboard promotion expires on Saturday.
