BankrollMob News: Poker, Casino, Crypto & Betting

It came to be these 8 (2 PokerStars qualifiers) relatively unknown players who made it to the final table in the NAPT Venetian Main Event. Sam Stein, Thomas Fuller, David Paredes, Yunus Jamal, Tom Machese, Eric Blair, Daniel Clemente and John Cernuto.

Anyhow, the 2 players that dominated the final table and made it to heads-up were Sam Stein and Tom Marchese. Sam Stein took the command almost straight away, and because he had won almost every single pot in the 3 past days, no one thought that Tom Marchese stood a chance against him. However, Marchese managed to figure out Stein's game and sense his weaknesses - and exploit them. It didn't take long before Marchese had taken the command over the game and after some time he had also taken every single chip from his opponent. A big congratulations to Tom Marchese.

A new gambling law which upsets the whole Norwegian poker community has just been passed into law by the government of Norway. The new law will make it illegal for banks in Norway to process transactions to casinos and poker/casino/betting sites outside Norway.

How they will stop people from using Neteller, MoneyBookers and other e-wallets - we will just have to wait and see. The new law will come into effect on 1 June 2010 - the same day as the US Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) will come into effect. 

Are you afraid that similar laws will be introduced in your country?

Yesterday, NBC revealed all information about the sixth season of the National Heads-up Poker Championship. 64 players will meet up at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas on 4th March and play for a piece of the $1,5 million dollar prize pool. Host for this event will be no one less than Leeann Tweeden (picture), host of Poker After Dark. Now, take a deep breath before checking the participants list below.

Mike Matusow
, Jason Mercier
, Dario Minieri
, Chris Moneymaker
, Darvin Moon
Greg, Mueller, 
Daniel, Negreanu
Scotty Nguyen, 
Annette Obrestad, 
Brock Parker
, Dennis Phillips, 
Greg Raymer
, Vanessa Rousso
, Kara Scott
, Huck Seed,
 Erik Seidel, 
Mike Sexton
, Gavin Smith
, Jennifer Tilly, 
Paul Wasicka, 
David Williams, 
Leo Wolpert
, Jerry Yang, Patrick Antonius, 
Eric Baldwin, 
Andy Bloch, 
Doyle Brunson, 
Joe Cada, 
Johnny Chan
, Don Cheadle, 
Allen Cunningham
, Pieter De-Korver
, Annie Duke
Tom Dwan
, Peter Eastgate, 
Eli Elezra
, Antonio Esfandiari, 
Sam Farha, 
Chris Ferguson, 
Ted Forrest, 
Jamie Gold, 
Phil Gordon, 
Barry Greenstein
, Bertrand Grospellier, 
Joe Hachem, 
Gus Hansen
, Jennifer Harman
, Phil Hellmuth, 
Orel Hershiser, 
Jesper Hougaard
, Phil Ivey, 
John Juanda, 
Gabe Kaplan,
John Paul, Kelly
, Phil Laak, 
Howard Lederer, 
Erick Lindgren

Payout structure:
1) $500,000
2) $250,000
3-4) $125,000
5 - 8) $75,000
9-16) $25,000

PokerStars 2010 NAPT (North American Poker Tour ) Venetian Main Event is soon coming to an end. Out of the 872 players who started Day 1 of the tournament, 29 are now left in the tournament playing Day 3. These 29 players are now fighting for a seat at the final table. The biggest name among the players who have made this far in the tournament is Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso.

Vanessa Rousso has played really good from the very first day of the tournament and she will definitely make it to the final table if she continue playing this well. However, Vannessa and all the other players in the top of the field are still far behind the chip leader, Sam Stein. Stein has accumulated a stack of 340,000! Almost 120k chips behind him is Eric Blair in second place.

The winner of NAPT Venetian will receive $827,648. In other words, a huge first place prize!

We're starting the week with really great news for those of you interested in our free Noble Poker no deposit bonus:

1) More allowed countries added!

Now, even more countries are allowed to request the bonus. View the entire list of countries, here, or go straight to the bonus page and request the bonus now!

2) No more daily limit!

We've removed the "max 200 daily requests" for this offer, so now you don't have to come back tomorrow in case we're "sold out" for today.

Just one catch though: You need to request the bonus as soon as possible!! We can not guarantee this offer will remain open much longer, but Noble Poker promised us to let it run for at least the rest of February. Bottom line - if you want it, go get it now, don't wait till it's too late.

Link: Free Noble Poker $100 no deposit bonus.

On Friday night, the 40,000,000,000 hand was dealt at PokerStars. A Swede with the alias Senecady ended up winning this historic hand at a $2/$4 Holdem table. Thanks to PokerStars 40 billion hand celebration campaign, he didn't only win the pot of $350 but also another $24,000 ($800 for each VPP earned in the previous 40 hands)! His opponents came to be big winners as well! All players at the table got $400 for each VPP accumulated in the previous 40 hands.

Let's hope for more great campaigns (like this one) from PokerStars in the near future!

After 5 days of play, it finally came to be poker pro Anton Wigg, 22, from Stockholm, Sweden, who took down EPT Copenhagen and the first place prize of 3,675,000 DKK (about $670,000). Wigg played very well on the final table and it looked like nothing could stop him for a while. However, when the final table was down to heads-up, Wigg had a really hard time against his final opponent Francesco de Vivo.

Wigg was big favorite to take down many big pots against Vivo, but unfortunately the luck wasn't on his side anymore, and suddenly, he was almost out of the tournament. Then everything took a turn again and Wigg started taking down pot after pot. After that Wigg had doubled up a few times, he and his opponent had even stacks again. And after 3,5 hours of play, it all came to an end.

Read more » Swede takes home EPT Copenhagen

Phil Laak started the final table with most chips meaning that he had accumulated the most points before the final table. Phil was closely followed by David Benyamine. Both of them had been in the top of the field since the first heats. However, it came to be Phil Laak who was the first player to drop out of the field. And shortly after, it was time for Roland De Wolfe to leave.

Daniel Negreanu was playing very well on the final table and also was the chip leader for a while. But unfortunately, Daniel was crippled by Luke Schwartch and then eliminated by David Benyamine. After that, it was time for Giovanni Safini, the online qualifier, to leave the tournament. He must have been quite satisfied with making $100,000 from the $120 he paid to take part in the PartyPoker Premier League IV satellite.

Read more » David Benyamine wins PartyPoker Premier League IV ($400,000)

76 out of 243 players who started Day 2 are now through to Day 3 of the EPT Copenhagen Main Event, which will start in a few hours. Notable players that have made it to Day 3 with decent stacks are Team PokerStars pro's Peter Eastgate (302,000 - 9th place) and Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier (243,800 - 16th place). 2 other big names can be found further down in the field, Juha Helppi & Anette Obrestad. In the lead is Csaba Toth with 561,900 chips. Almost 150k chips behind him are Fabian Gentile (413,300 - 2nd place) and Stig Rossen (411,200 - 3rd place).

56 of the remaining 76 players will get a piece of the total prize pool of 14,212 DKK (about €1,9 million dollars). The winner will get about €500,000.

We're sorry to inform that the BetRaiser €5 No Deposit Bonus which we announced yesterday in our newsletter, is currently paused per request from BetRaiser.

The reason is simple: The bonus was too popular for BetRaisers' servers to handle all the new users and traffic.

Everybody who created an account and followed the instructions, should still receive the €5 bonus. Also, if you have any problems logging in at BetRaiser, please have patience - they are working on upgrading their servers, at which time we intend to re-opend the BetRaiser €5 no deposit offer.

We all know that almost anything can happen in the poker world, and probably that is why poker always has been so popular? A few examples, we are used to hearing about some really sick bad beats, people that become rich in no-time with a little bit of luck, people that start "fighting" in a big tournament when the cameras are rolling etc. The list can be made long.

However, here are 5 classic poker moments that occured during the 21st century. And you know what the best thing is? It was all caught on camera!

1. Prahlad Friedman rapping

After watching this clip, you will probably agree with me when I say that Friedman should stick to playing poker.

Read more » Video: Poker moments we'll never forget

232 came to start in Day 1b of the EPT Copenhagen Main Event. 138 players made it through the day and will now join the other 113 players (from Day 1a) today when Day 2 of the tournament kicks off. Peter Eastgate, the 2008 WSOP CHAMP, played very well in Day 1b of the tournament as he managed to accumulate 128,300 chips (4th place). A few other notable players that played very well in Day 1b of the tournament were Sebastian Ruthenberg (130,000 - 3rd place), Juha Helppi (120,600 - 6th place), Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier (113,700 - 14th place).

Further down in the field are Ramzi Jelassi, (Swedish poker pro - lots of great live tournament results), Luca Pagano (Italian PokerStars pro & probably the most successful EPT player ever?), and Tomas Brolin, the Swedish ex-football pro who has played in many EPT events in the past few years - without good results.

The 232 players who have made it to Day 2 will now fight for a piece from the total prize pool of 14,212 DKK (about €1,9 million dollars). The winner will get about €500,000.

Day 1a of EPT Copenhagen delivered a lot of action, mainly because of the Scandinavian, aggressive style of playing poker. However, there is a Canadian (Andew Pantling - 155,800 chips) who has come out on top. Although a few notable players have dropped out of the Day 1a field - Martin Kabrhel, Thomas Bichon, Jeff Sarwer etc - there are still some really big names who have made it to Day 2 of the Main Event.

Just to mention three of them, Annette Obrestad, Johnny Lodden & Dario Minieri. Day 1b of the tournament will most probably be even more action filled and interesting to follow as William Thorson, Luca Pagano, ElkY, Peter Eastgate and many other big names will take part.

TOP 5 players of Day 1a
Andrew Pantling - 155,800
Johnny Ostbjerg - 117,100
Christian Togsverd - 116,100
Patrik Kaltrud - 133,200
Kristian Kofoed - 110,500

Isildur1 is once again back playing for high stakes at Full Tilt poker! To be honest, I (and probably many other people who have followed him from Day 1) couldn't see a comeback coming this soon. I mean, where did he get all that money from? Is Tony G staking him? There are many questions we will have to wait for answers to. However, Isildur1 had the best possible start on his comeback as he ended up winning $732,000 in just over 5800 hands.

Most of the money Isildur1 won came from the high stakes player ZeeJustin. Isildur1 crushed ZeeJustin in this session. Let's just hope that Isildur1 has learned from his mistakes back in 2009 and that he's here to stay this time.

Read more » Isildur1 is back! Won $732k last night!

Today, the Main Event (Day 1a) of EPT Copenhagen kicks off. This is the ninth stop on the EPT tour and for sure the one we will see most Nordic stars in. Just to mention a few of the players that are going to take part, Peter Eastgate, Johnny Lodden, Anette Obrestad, William Thorson and Kristoffer "Sumpas" Thorsson who just received the Rookie of the Year award in Nordic Poker Awards.

EPT Copenhagen will run between 16/2 - 21/3 and it will of course not only include the Main Event. However, we will keep you updated regarding the Main Event (since we believe it's the most important event and also the event with the largest prize pool) in our news section, so you won't miss out on the action!

2 days ago, PokerStars held the Nordic Poker Awards at Park nightclub in Copenhagen to honor the top players of the year from Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden. These were the categories and the nominees this year. 

Best Live Tournament Player: Peter Eastgate (Denmark), Ville Wahlbeck (Finland), Dag Martin Mikkelsen (Norway), Kristoffer "Sumpas" Thorsson (Sweden). 

Rookie of the Year: Mickey "Mement_Mori" Petersen (Denmark), Jens Kyllönen (Finland), Martin Gedvangen (Norway), Kristoffer "Sumpas" Thorsson (Sweden).

Read more » Video: Nordic Poker Awards: Finland grabs three out of four awards!

We have two freerolls coming up at RummyRoyal, a $100 Kalooki 51 freeroll at February 18th and a $100 Rummy 500 freeroll at February 25th.

Click here to register with RummyRoyal now and use bonuscode 5WELCOME for a free $5 no deposit bonus. For more information about the freerolls, click here.

Read more » RummyRoyal Freerolls & $30,000 Tournament

It's time for another standings update for our exclusive BigBet Poker $25,000 RakeChase.

The BigBet Poker $25,000 RakeChase is exclusive for BankrollMob members and is really simple. Just hit each of the 9 VIP Point Milestones (as specified on the link above) and get RakeChase Prizes for hitting that level.

There's a massive $5000 up for grabs for the 1st person to reach the last level and if you make it through each of the 9 levels, you will get nearly $10,000 in RakeChase Prizes!!

The RakeChase runs betwen 20th November 2009 and Sunday 28th February 2010.Read more » BigBet Poker $25,000 RakeChase - Standings (Feb 12th)

After two days of play, the World Series of Poker Circuit Tunica event championship was down to a final table. These were the 9 players who had survived the 96 player starting field.

1. Paul Wasicka - 454,000
2. Shane Zell - 336,500
3. Dwyte Pilgrim - 322,000
4. Richard Robb - 224,500
5. Carter Phillips - 200,000
6. Larry Gurney - 137,500
7. Matt Stout - 102,500
8. Jerry Saucier - 77,000
9. Robert Thornhill - 53,000

Read more » World Series of Poker Circuit Tunica: Long-awaited win for Paul Wasicka!

A few days ago, PartyPoker Premier League IV in Las Vegas kicked off. 11 pros and 1 internet qualifier are now playing for a prize pool of $1,5 million dollars + a sponsorship contract worth $100,000. So far, three heats out of 12 have been played.

Heat 1: Phil Laak wins the first heat!

Phil Laak is a very good poker player. No doubt about that! Anyhow, even a good poker player like Phil can get lucky once in a while. Well, he got lucky many times in Heat 1 as he flopped sets numerous times when his opponents had big hands. Nothing could stop Phil this day, and after 8 hours of play, it was all over as JC Tran, last year's winner, was eliminated in second place.

Read more » PartyPoker Premier League IV: Phil Laak in the lead!

Noble Poker is back with their free $100 no deposit bonus for BankrollMob members.

The $100 no deposit bonus comes in three stages:

1. Receive a free $25 bonus upon signup!
2. Free $25 after you generate 5,000 points
3. Free $50 after you generate 10,000 points

When making a deposit, Noble Poker offers you a 200% up to $600 deposit bonus, giving you a total bonus of $700 ($600 deposit bonus + $100 free no deposit bonus). Read more » Noble Poker: Free $100 No Deposit Bonus - NOW OPEN!

We are getting quite used to watching, hearing and reading about Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies high stakes games (live and online) against some of the world's best poker players. It's not a secret that he has made himself a name and a fortune from playing this high for such a long time.

However, we all know that many things in life becomes routine and just an ordinary day after some time. This applies even to the most famous and rich poker players, who have everything an ordinary person could ever dream of. Could this be the reason why Ziigmund wanted some new challenges and took part in Finnish Fear Factor last year?

Read more » Video: Ziigmund in Finnish Fear Factor!

Did you know that Tom "durrrr" Dwan has his own blog? If the answer is no - then you're not alone! Dwan's blog is almost never updated and therefore many have gotten used to follow their favorite American high stakes pro through media. Anyhow, just a few days ago, durrrr updated his blog with some really interesting things.

For example Tom Dwan writes a few words about why he created the "durrrr challenge", about the money he lost in 2009, and most interesting of all - some thoughts about the mysterious Swede Isildur1, who he lost millions of dollars to last year. Tom Dwan ends his blog by promising his fans that he'll donate $10,000 to Haiti every month he doesn't update the blog at least 3 times. 

Read more » Tom "durrrr" Dwan in his own words about Isildur1

The 40 billion hand is getting closer and closer at PokerStars. To celebrate this, PokerStars have created a "40 billion hands celebration"-promotion (F40) in order to give something back to its customers. Here is brief information about the promotion.

There will be cash prizes on all cash game tables where players dealt into every millionth hand will win a cash prize of $20 for every VPP they have earned in the previous 40 hands played on that table. The winner of the hand will also get their cash prize doubled. There will also be MTTs (multi-table tournaments) with extra big guarantees, more freerolls, special sit & go's running 24/7 where the winner get a slice of a $40,000 prize pool etc.

We offer a 100% up to $600 deposit bonus at PokerStars. Combine this with the F40-promotion and you'll get the best possible start at PokerStars.

On February 8, it was once again time for another session of the durrrr challenge between Tom Dwan and Patrik Antonius. This time they played a 883-hand session. Tom Dwan crushed Antonius this time, taking a total of $315,000 from him.

One of the biggest pots of the night was played out this way.

Antonius opened on the button to $1200. Dwan three-bet to $3600 and Patrik called.

Read more » durrrr challenge: Dwan's lead is getting bigger