A massive field of 557 players packed the ballroom at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Berlin as the second starting day of the EPT Berlin Main Event kicked off. Out of the 557 players who started the day, roughly 300 players made it to Day 2 of the tournament.

Among them we find PokerStars PRO's William Thorson (133,100), Vadim Markushevski (93,800), Jude Ainsworth (138,100), Noah Boeken (54,100), Florian Langmann (134,000), Julian Thew (71,600), Johannes Strassmann (100,700), Marcel Luske (75,400), Thierry van den Berg (36,200) and Chad Brown (45,400)

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A field of 389 players signed up for the first starting day of the EPT Berlin Main Event. This field included poker pros from all around the globe and also some celebrities. After many hours of play, 196 out of 389 players had made it through to Day 2 of the tournament. Kfir Yumin from Israel accumulated 213,500 chips during Day 1a of the tournament. He's now in a lead with around 50k chips more than many of the other top finishers of Day 1a.

Day 1b is about to start now. And as usual when it comes to the second starting day of any major tournament - more players and more pros are expected to take part. This will hopefully make Day 1b of the EPT Berlin Main Event even more interesting to follow!

 

It wasn't long ago since MasterCard announced that they are going to block Americans from making transactions to online gambling sites. Now, MasterCards biggest opponent VISA follows and block their American customers as well. That both the credit card giants VISA and MasterCard have decided to block Americans from making transactions to gambling sites is a clear sign that UIGEA (Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act) will soon come into effect (1 June 2010).

We will have to wait and see how effective the UIGEA law will be since there are a lot of problems which the american authorities need to solve before the law will be effective - in other words, stop americans from finding other ways of transferring money.

 

Its soon time for the European Poker Tour to make another stop. This time it will be in Berlin instead of Dortmund where it has been played in the previous seasons. Anyhow, PokerStars is expecting even more players this year than last year because of the new location and the €1 million first place prize guarantee (667 players took part last year - Sandra Naujoks won and took home the first prize of €917,000).

Team PokerStars Pros Sebastian Ruthenberg, Benjamin Kang, Johannes Steindl, Arnaud Mattern, Tom McEvoy, William Thorson are all scheduled to take part in Day 1a of the Main Event, which will give the tournament the best possible start!

 

The Full Tilt pro Cole South just keep on winning, and at the moment - it seems like nothing and no one can stop him! Last month, he was the biggest winner online with almost $2 million in winnings. This year, Cole South has won almost $3,5 million and because of that he's the one who has won the most money this year.

Other players that have been doing well so far this year and in the previous month are PostFlopAction (February:+1,559,469 Total winnings: +$2,570,307), Tom "durrr" Dwan (February:+1,003,270).

Players that didn't do so well last month - Brian Townsend (-1,293,778), Zigmund (-$872,856), Brian Hastings (-$794,875), Urindanger (-646,305).

Lets hope that March will be even more action-filled and thrilling than February was!

 

72 out of 745 players have made it to Day 4 of the L.A. Poker Classic. Three of the most notable players that have made it this far in the tournament are Annie Duke (321,000), Daniel Negreanu (222,500) and Johnny Chan (218,000) - all of them with a bit over the average stack. Chip leader at the moment is Mark Newhouse with 498,000 chips and only 10k behind him is Chris Moore.

At the moment it looks like almost anyone in the remaining field of players has a decent chance of making it to the final table, however, we will have to wait for Day 4 of the tournament to pass before we know who the big favorites to win the tournament will be.

Day 4 of the tournament kicks off in a few hours time! Lets hope that it will be the most action filled day so far!

Jose Ignacio Barbero from Argentina came to be the last man standing in PokerStars LAPT Punta del Este Main Event. For the win he received nothing less than $279,330. This is not the first time Barbero does well in a bigger tournament. He ended up in 89th place in the WSOP Main Event and has also won a side event in PokerStars Caribbean Adventure. However, the win of LAPT Punta del Este Main Event is his biggest achievement so far.

Final table results:

1. Jose Ignacio Barbero, $279 330

2. Nicolas Cardyn, $161 550

3. Andres Korn, $99 020 

4. Norbert Ludger, $ 72 960 

5. Daniela de Lima Zapiello $52 110
6. Marco A. Caicedo, $41 690
7. Bernardo da Silveira Dias, $31 270
8. Roman Suarez, $20 850

307 players signed up for the LAPT Punta del Este Main Event this time. So far, day 1 and 2 have been played. Now, 24 players are fighting for a seat at the final table. Among them we find Team PokerStars Pro's Jose Ignacio Barbero (Argentina) and Humberto Brenes (Costa Rica) in the top of the remaining field. Chip leader as Day 3 of the tournament is about to start is Cesar F. Mostafa with his 529,00 stack. Closets to him in chips is the last female in tournament, Daniela de Lima Zapiello with 485,000.

Next player to go out of the tournament (24th place) will receive $7,300, and the winner will get nothing less than $279,330. In other words, we can expect that even the short stacked players will give the big stacks a fight to remember since its a quite steep payout structure.

 

PartyPoker has just announced that they have signed the football player Francesco Totti. The fact that Totti is a living legend and one of Italy's most successful strikers ever, will for sure help PartyPoker get many, many new Italian football lovers to sign up and play poker at their site. Lets hope that Totti will play at least in a few major poker tournaments this year, so we get to know if he's as good at poker as he's at football.

"I have faced many challenges in my career and I always apply myself with skill, intelligence, loyalty and passion. You need all these abilities for poker and it is also a game that excites me and is a lot of fun. Thanks to PartyPoker, I am able to combine my passion for sport and the challenge of poker." said Totti

"He is one of the greatest football players of his generation - the question is now will he be one of the greatest poker players of his generation too? What Totti strives for he normally succeeds in achieving! He is a huge signing." said PartyPoker spokesman

 

Cole South had some very nice results last year - and especially in the end of the year - he could thank the Swede Isiludur1 for that! 2010 seem to be no different than the previous year for Cole South as it has started in the best possible way for him. Last week, for example, he became the biggest winner - $903,000 plus. Other players that did well that week were PostFlopAction (+$688,000), Zigmund (+$676,000), Isildur1 (+$637,000) and Brian Townsend (+$635,000).

2 players that didn't do so well last week were Patrik Antonius (-$924,000) and Brian Hasings (-$1.2 million). However, we can expect these two to be back in business very soon. It will be interesting to see who the biggest winners will be after that this week has come to an end.