Akenhead Participation Remains Consistant
October 20, 2009
Top UK based poker player James Akenhead has once again reached the final table of the Poker Million, a tournament that has recently been signed up under the sponsorship of Full Tilt Poker.
This will be the players 3rd appearence on the final table of the tevevised poker tournament in as many months, already holding 2 other participations within the tournament.
Akenhead has not just had success gaining entry into the final table of the Poker Million but has also already booked his place in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) main event which is set to be played on November 7th for a total prize pool of $8.5 millilon.
This appearence will not be the palyers first in the WSOP either, having already played in the WSOP Europe main event in London where he placed a very respectable 9th place, cashing over $70,000.
The Poker Million tournament which is due to air in December but be played in Novemeber is a reward for the players consistant form that has seen the poker world sit up and take notice of the player, especially after Akenhead managed to knock out Tom “Durrrr” Dwan and eatting away at the stack of Antonio Esfandiari all within the same hand.
Akenhead will enter the main event with a chip count of 338,000 and will face off against some known faces due to the fact that a number of his Full Tilt Poker Pro collegues will also be attending the tournament.
Akenhead will have his eyes set on one player inparticular, Peter Vasiliou who qualified into the tournament via online poker play.
There is still one place remaining in the tournament which will be won thorugh online poker room Full Tilt Poker who as already mentioned have placed their name into the sponsorship of the live tournament.
Akenhead will be looking to improve on his previous placings within the tournament before turning his attentions to the WSOP main event where he will be rubbing shoulders with some of the biggest names in the poker world such as Full Tilt Poker team mate Phil Ivey.
The WSOP main event will offer Akenhead a huge challenge due to the fact that the UK based poker player will be taking to the tables as the short stack but this will not hinder the performance of the player who is constantly looking to make a household name for himself.
Akenhead has already taken part in a WSOP main event and was very close to achieving victory until he ran into a hand that left the player finishing in second place, cashing for over half a million dollars.
Christophe Savary Wins Biggest Poker Tournament Held in Africa
October 20, 2009
The World Poker Tour has once again managed to break into the record books by playing host to the largest poker tournament to be held in Africa.
The tournament was hosted in Marrakech and had enough players register to boast a prize pool of €1,648,613 for players to battle it out for.
The tournament drew in 416 hopefuls as they bought into the tournament looking to not only take home the €377,262 first place reward money but also the WPT crown.
Frenchman Christophe Savary successfully outlasted the whole of the player field, beating Irishman Eoghan O’Dea at the final table.
Savary seemed to play his hands to perfection, waiting for O’Dea to make his plays before stepping the game standard up a level and using the check-raise plays that have been credited to the players known ability.
The final hand of the tournament saw a straight placed onto the board for the Frenchman, leaving O’Dea with no where to hide, drawing died.
O’Dea will be licking his wounds after getting so far in the tournament but the €262,446 second place prize money will go a long way to helping the Irishman to get over the disappointment that he will be feeling after getting so close.
The final table did offer alot for the specators to watch though, with Ludovic Lacay who had dominated much of the days play seeing his chip stack fall in quick proportion, crashing out in third place.
The biggest poker tournament in Africa certainly didn’t fail to impress with a huge turnout as well as some highly impressive plays and laydowns which were shown across the whole of the player pool.
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Shulman Wins 2009 WSOPE
October 2, 2009
The World Series of Poker Europe main even has come to an end, with professional poker player Barry Shulman outlasting the field to take the victory.
With Daniel Negreanu sat across the final table for the professional it was never going to be a walk in the park, with Negreanu as much feared name within the poker scheme.
The tournament saw 334 players buy entry, meaning that the prize pool was £3.34 million.
With Shulman not letting the occasion nor his opponent scare him into any sudden or unthought plays, he successfully managed to get the better of Negreanu, against the tips within the stands.
With Negreanu finishing second in the tournament, it leaves him becoming the leading poker player in terms of amount cashed from tournament entries, before been sat behind the likes of Jamie Gold and poker sensation Phil Ivey.
The final table of the event offered spectators alot of action, with the final few having to battle it out for a huge 17 hours before Shulman was crowned as the champion and bracelet winner.
The game wasn’t without its fair share of shocks and luck for Shulman though, at one point entering into a hand with Negreanu holding pocket aces to Shulman’s A/5 suited.
Negreanu allowed Shulman to see the flop which dealt Shulman a lifeline in terms of 2 hearts hitting the board.
Seeing this Negreanu and Shulman were both fast acting to get all of their chips into the central pot, leading to a showdown.
The cards ran juicy for Shulman, hitting his flush in order to stay in the game and double up on his chip count.
The final hand of the tournament saw Negreanu push all in while holding pocket 4′s pre flop, Shulman saw his chance and called with pocket 10′s. Negreanu needed to hit a 4 in order to remain in contension to win the tournament but the cards ran dead, giving Shulman the victory.
Shulman took home a cash prize of £801,000 with Negreanu leaving with £500k for his runner up finish.
Lady Gaga Turns Poker Player
October 1, 2009
The singer Lady Gaga has agreed to take part in a poker festival that is scheduled to be held in Ireland.
The singer is not known for her skills at the table, rather for her hit song ‘Poker Face‘ which topped the charts on its release and became one of those song that you just can’t seem to get out of your head.
According to PokerNews, the singer has agreed to take to the tables as she looks to her hit single to guide her thorugh the field to battle it out for first place, hoping that she can infact show her best poker face while at the tables not just stood on stage or over a microphone.
The appearence is not for definate due to the singer about to engage in a tour supporting Kanye West but a source close to the pop star has said that she is a fan of the game so the festival organisers will be hoping that she will be able to take the time to show her poker face over the felts.
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Pokerstars Increase $2000 Freeroll Series
October 1, 2009
Pokerstars, the world’s largest online poker room has announced that they are going to increase their latest promotion on freeroll tournaments, taking the $2,000 prize pool tournaments right through until December 2009.
The series of tournaments has been named as the $2000 Freeroll Series and means that players on the site can guy into tournaments for 150 VPPs in order to take part in the large prize pool freeroll tournament.
With the buy in for the tournament set so low, there is always a full field that you have to battle against but with the promise of a $2,000 prize pool for the investment of points that are given by just playing the tables and generating rake, you can hardly complain.
Entry into the tournaments is a simple as downloading the Pokerstars client via our download link, generating 150 VPPs by playing on the real money tables or within real money tournaments and then just exchanging the points for entry.
This is a great way for players with a small bankroll to be able to enter into a tournament that is going to offer a huge reward should you reach the final table.
The tournament schedule sees the series of tournaments been played 4 times a month, meaning that you have the opportunity to obtain points inbetween the weekly tournaments to make sure that you are entered into the tournament.
Making the tournaments even more appealing to you, Pokerstars have decided that instead of the usual 4 tournaments that would take place this month, they are going to throw you another one too!
This means that the month of October will offer you 5 chances to enter the series, more importantly giving you the opportunity to win a share of the $10,000 that will be placed up for grabs!
Tournaments in October will be played on 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th and 31st October and if you have the points to enter then they want to see you there!
What are you waiting for? Check out the Pokerstars Review or Download Pokerstars now!
Katchalov Wins WCOOP Heads Up Event
September 14, 2009
Pokerstars World Championship of Online Poker is well underway and this past weekend has seen some huge action at the world’s biggest online poker room.
The highlight of the weekend has to have been the heads up victory that Eugene Katchalov registered, showing that he had the strength to out last the field, even though the players were offered deep stacks on registration.
The tournament ran for a total of 11 rounds, with most rounds taking as much as 2 hours to complete due to the high number of players and the chips that were given from the start of the tournament.
By the time that the final 2, made up of Katchalov and Jakus Khan were locking horns, 21 hours of play had already passed.
Katchalov finally managed to get a strong hold of the tournament, eventually beating out his opponent as he hit 2 pairs on the flop against a flush chase.
The tournament was a $500+$30 buy in tournament, with $1 million up for grabs by the 256 paid places within the tournament.
A total of 1,564 players bought into the tournament, placing their wager on their No Limit Texas Hold em Heads Up ability.
The final table placed like this:
1. Eugene “MyRabbiFoo” Katchalov — $140,000
2. JakusKhan — $120,000
3. joe E scar — $55,000
3. imashokU — $55,000
5. William Thorson — $27,500
5. pilsuhng — $27,500
5. Leo “Pechorin” Wolpert — $27,500
5. Dokosoko — $27,500
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Party Poker Monthly Million Approaches!
August 27, 2009
The time is almost here that all online poker players who play their hands at Party Poker have been waiting 4 weeks for, the next Party Poker Monthly Million tournament, which will be played on 6th September 2009.
The tournament falls on the first Sunday of every month and offers the sites top online poker players the opportunity to buy a place within the tournament for a buy in of $600 + $40.
The buy in for the tournament buys your place into the start of the tournament and covers the fees that the site places onto the game for their running costs.
Each player will begin the tournament with twenty thousand poker chips and the game will be played in levels that last twenty minutes per round before the blinds increase.
The $1 million prize pool for the tournament is guaranteed, so getting into the tournament has a huge draw factor for any poker player out there.
Not got $640 to place into a buy in fee? Well don’t worry just yet, you will be glad to know that you can buy into satellites that will be priced at a lower fee in which you can win entry into the main tournament.
More great news for online players at Party Poker is that they have announced that they want to be able to reward loyal players over the month of September, creating a new promotion named ‘Cash Machine’.
The promotion is aimed towards getting players to stay active over the time that the promotion is active, having to obtain a minimum of 10 points while playing at the tables per day.
The site will then calculate the number of points that players have obtained over their highest 10 days of the month, matching the points total to cash, paying out $1 per point earned.
This will be great news for any player at the site, especially the big hitters that sit at the $5/$10 tables on a daily basis.
World Poker Tour Rights Could Be Sold
August 26, 2009
WPT Enterprises Inc., the parent company to the better known World Poker Tour are set to take negotiations regarding a sale of the companies assets.
The deal is been thrashed out with Peerless Media Ltd, a division within the better known PartyGaming plc company.
The deal will see PartyGaming PLC taking over the ownership of the World Poker Tour brand in a $12.3 million purchase but within the deal WPT Enterprises Inc. will still recieve 5 percent of the monitory figures that are achieved from trade names, branding, tangible personal property as well as intellectual property rights.
The deal comes as the World Poker Tour is set to have its first televised tournament placed onto air, featuring a tournament being held at Hollywood Casino Lawrenceburg, Ind.
The deal owill mean that the previous offer of $9.075 million from Gamynia Ltd. will be dwarfed and ruled out with PartyGaming PLC looking the likely company to take control of the brand.
Steve Lipscomb, President of WPT Enterprises issued a statement saying:
“The Board of Directors has determined that PartyGaming’s acquisition proposal is financially superior and we look forward to working with one of the pioneers and leaders in the poker and online gaming markets to provide a strong vehicle for the WPT brand to continue its global expansion and return to online gaming.”
Both of the offers that have been tabled for the company offer nothing compared to the offer that was made by Doyle Brunson back in 2005, with the professional poker player offering $700 million to take control of the company and its assets.
FTOPS XIII Events Get 2 Winners
August 10, 2009
Last Saturday saw alot of action happening at Full Tilt Poker due to their ongoing popuar tournament FTOPS Series.
The tournament has been a very popular series of tournaments with some of the worlds biggest poker professionals locking horns with amatuers in a bid to take the huge prize pools that are on offer for the winners of each event.
Saturday’s action saw event number 6 and 7 played out and there was some very interesting clashes at the virtual poker felts.
FTOPS XIII Event #6 Final Table Payouts
- Smouse156 – $76,232.75
- zelik – $71,000
- countrymac – $41,650
- thewood503 – $31,654
- NoPasaran – $22,491
- blend84 – $14,369.25
The sixth event within the FTOPS tournament schedule was the $535 six max Pot Limit Omaha tournament which pulled in a player field of 833 players, all looking to get their hands on the title of FTOPS champion and the huge payout that came with the honour.
With figures expected to be lower for the number of players who were looking to enter into the tournament, the prize pool offered an increase amount of over $400,000 up for grabs, shared between any players that placed in the tournament.
The pro rank players in the tournament saw that their chip stakes were reducing quickly and soon found themselves ‘heading to the rails’ with professional poker player Johan Storakers finishing the highest of the pros that bought into the tournament, finishing in 12th place with a cashing of $4,914.70.
FTOPS XIII Event #7 Final Table Payouts
- guilhermeosa – $126,632.27
- mralan2950 – $107,289.72
- blackjack9 – $68,237
- hmiester – $51,526.20
- j0lfa – $36,207.60
- BeanzMcGriff – $23,674.20
- 37ofhearts – $16,014.90
- pracaka – $11,140.80
- SteveyMoney – $8,355.60
The second event of the day to be played was that of Event 7 – $109 No Limit Hold’em with rebuys.
No limit poker is often one of the most popular variants of poker that is played within the FTOPS series of tournaments due to its ever increasing popularity across the globe, with this tournament offering no less than 2,316 players.
Due to the huge player field and the ability to purchase rebuys should a player have the funds, the prize pool was guaranteed to become a large one, with $696,300 placed up for grabs due to the number of buy in and rebuys that were made during the tournament.
The professionals at Full Tilt Poker offered a poor showing within this tournament, with the highest placed Leandro Brasa finishing in 62nd place and winning $1,253.34 prize money.
So far it seems that the professionals are been schooled on their weaknesses by the amatuers, could that be the way that the tournament is going to play out this year or will some of the bigger names in world poker begin to appear and show winning status?
Poker to Become Harder to Play Online
July 29, 2009
With the legal case still being battled out within the legal court rooms, online poker is set to become harder for players to play due to the banks set to roll out a new tougher stance on internet gambling, in line with the 2006 Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act.
The governments are seemingly overlooking the potential for taxation purposes should they have opted to tax the online gambling companies, instead deciding that they were going to make it harder for online gamblers to stake their own money at the virtual tables.
The 2006 Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act was passed in October 2006 and sees the transfer of funds for online gambling within the United States of America become illegal.
Currently the only country that is been affected by this act is the United States but this will have a huge effect on the public based within the country due to the huge number of online poker players within the country.
Texas Hold’em Poker has been about since the early 1900′s and after research was done into the game and its history the Texas State Legislature recognised that Texas was the birth place of the game that is proving to attract millions of players every year.
Many U.S. players and online poker rooms have been looking to create new ways in which they can transfer the funds into the players accounts that will keep both the site and the player within the legal legislation set out in the act.
This could become increasingly more difficult once the full compliance deadline is reached on 1st December 2009.
Although the act was passed back in 2006, a 1,000,000+ strong team known as Poker Player Alliance has fought hard for the game not to fall within the guidelines of the act, claiming that the game is more skill based than luck, something that is outlined within the act.
The Miami Herald wrote:
The poker alliance, meanwhile, has launched a legal counteroffensive to the ban. Last week the group staged a massive lobbying effort on Capitol Hill aimed at tweaking the nation’s gambling laws to make on line poker completely — and clearly — legal.“John Pappas, executive director of the alliance: “Internet gaming, particularly Internet poker, is an industry that’s not going away.” Pappas’ pitch to lawmakers is this: don’t lump poker into the same “gambling” category as other casino games, and use legalization to both protect U.S. consumers and raise tax revenues for the federal government.
Pappas’ group has spent $400,000 in the past three months on lobbying efforts. Last week’s intense legislative push included more than than 100 meetings with members of Congress and their staff, as well as a charity poker tournament in which some lawmakers took part. The alliance says it has assembled a petition with more than 375,000 signatures supporting on line poker.
The Poker Player Alliance seems to be getting heard too in their fight for exception, with the U.S. congress having to look over 2 bills that will keep the online poker industry available to the players based within the United States.
One bill would see that poker is made exempt from the act and the other would see that the bank’s full compliance deadline is extended, creating more time for online players to be able to play the game.
The legal case that is still ongoing has definitely drawn alot of attention, with the news that 2 of the major banks within the United States were willing to withhold funds that players had withdrawn from any online gambling site until the case comes to a close after been asked to do so by the government.
Until the court case comes to a close and the final ruling is made on the future of online gambling, online gambling sites and players must continue to jump through hoops in order to keep their games alive.
What are your thoughts on the matter?
Do you feel that the government should be able to restrict how you are about to spend your own money?
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