Micro Series, with €1M in combined guarantees and affordable buy-ins, is another exciting tournament series of 2023 in the EU Network (France & Spain).
Rumored to have won an undisclosed amount at a cash game this weekend in the French city of Cannes, Dan "jungleman" Cates celebrated his victory by surrounding himself with nude Playboy-style bunnies!
On Tuesday, WSOP announced the 2013 WSOP Europe schedule. The 7th Annual WSOPE offers seven gold bracelet events and will run October 12 to October 25, 2013 in Paris, France. The highlights of the tournament will be a brand new €25,000+€600 No Limit Hold'em High Roller event and, of course, the main event. Last year the main event was played in Cannes and Phil Hellmuth bested a field of 420 players and laid hands on $1.3 million and his 13th bracelet! The organisers of the tournament believe that this year's main event will attract more players thanks to the move to Paris.
"New tournament dates and 12 million Parisians have us aiming for the largest Main Event in Europe," said WSOP Executive Director Ty Stewart. "Baguettes and Bracelets; Champagne and Cash; we think is a winning recipe for the 2013 WSOP Europe."
Click here to check the complete tournament schedule.
The final table is getting closer and closer as only 23 players remain after 4 days of play at the 2013 EPT Deauville Main Event. Like all the other days, Day 5 will have a new chip leader: Cyril Andre (picture) from France with 2,108,000 chips! His closest opponent is Remi Castaignon with 1,997,000.
The remaining 23 players, all of whom are guaranteed €23,000, will return to the tables in a few hours and play until 8 remain (guaranteed a minimum payday of €60k each). The final table will be played on Saturday and there's a €770,000 first-place prize up for grabs!
When about 50 players remained in the 2012 WSOP Main Event, Aussie David Balkin ended up in a heads-up duel against Gaelle Baumann from France. Before the river card had been dealt, Balkin had about 75% chance of taking home the pot with three of a kind 10s against Baumann's AJ (flush draw and straight draw). The river card gave Baumann the nut flush and Balkin moved all-in almost straight away. Baumann snapped called. Balkin took a quick look at Baumann's cards before heading to his friends in the crowd and celebrated. But in a matter of seconds someone said "You lost, bro!!" and Balkin realized his big mistake.
Event #4: €3,250 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout ended up being a very thrilling 3-day tournament. The tournament attracted 141 players and Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Faraz Jaka and a few other big names got in the money. After several hours of final table action, the American poker pro Daniel O'Brien and Giovanni Rosadoni, from France, were playing heads-up for the title.
On Wednesday, France finally got its first World Series of Poker Europe bracelet winner and, even better, it occured on home soil. Roger Hairabedian outlasted a field of 96 players in Event #3: €5,300 Pot-Limit Omaha in Cannes, France. Besides the title and becoming a part of history, he received a cheque of €142,590!
His name might not be a familiar to many, but he has been around the poker scene for many years and cashed in several major tournaments. His biggest cash was back in 2008 when he won Grand Prix de Paris for €419,520. In 2010 he finished 7th in the EPT Grand Final Main Event for €200k, and about a year ago he placed 5th in Partouche Poker Tour Main Event for €230k. In total, his lifetime live tournament winnings are $3.5 million.
The European Poker Tour Deauville Main Event is now finally down to a last table with 8 players. Paul Guichard, from France, holds the narrow lead over Vadzim Kursevich from Belarus. Guichard, who's known as one of the best players on PokerStars.fr, began the last day before the final table with 1.7 million. About 6 hours later, he had turned that stack into amazing 5,955,000.
The hottest name on the final table is of course Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano. This is his 20th cash and his seventh EPT final table. Today he will bring 2,010,000 to the final table and is second to last in chips. But with his final table experience he's still one of the favorites to take down the tournament.
There are some amazing cash prizes on the final table today. The winner will get a stunning 875,000 Euro, while the second place finisher gets 557,000 (could easily be the first prize in any major tournament). All the remaining players are guaranteed to get away with at least 67,200 each.
Incase you missed it: the Partocuhe Poker Tour Main Event has been running in the past 2 days. Already Day 1a and Day 1b are over and 322 players will return to the tables today and play Day 2. The current chip leader is Giuseppe Pantaleo with 265k chips. Unfortunately many of the biggest names busted during the first day, but there are still a few notables left.
Another day of the EPT Barcelona main event is now in the books, and the player field has been narrowed even further. 141 players will return to the tables in a few hours time and continue the trip towards the €850,00 first place prize. The chip leader still comes from France, however, it's no longer Guillaume Darcourt but Xavier Caruggi with 577,700.
Darcourt, the Day 2 chip leader, has dropped to 7th place and will bring 380,100 chips today. The two biggest names that will join Darcourt and Caruggi in the top of the field today are Vanessa Selbst (USA) - 364,500 chips, Victor Ramadin (USA) - 252,900 chips.
We will return with an update as soon as Day 3 comes to an end.
Yesterday, the WPT National Series Paris High Roller Event (€10,000 buy-in - 27 participants) finally got a winner. It ended up being Imad Derwiche from France who took home the tournament for €125,000 after an amazing comeback on the final table. This is his biggest win in his poker career, but if he keeps up that good game we will for sure hear more about him in the future.
For almost 3 years, the online gambling market in France was owned by a state run monopoly. In April this year, a law was passed to allow for regulated gaming, opening up the market to foreign operators who follow strict guidelines and rules. In June, 11 sites received a license, followed by another 7 sites. On Monday, ARJEL (Autorité de Régulation des Jeux En Lignee - Authority of Regulation of Online Games) issued 9 new licenses to companies that want to offer internet gambling services to French customers (Full Tilt and PKR are 2 of the biggest sites among these 11).
In total, 27 sites foreign sites now have received a license to operate in France. Hopefully more countries with gambling monopoly will follow in France's footsteps and start issuing licenses to foreign betting companies.
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