Posts Tagged ‘2010’
And Isildur1 against Cole South again!
We wonder if Isildur1 has even slept yet. He just finished his second match against Cole South at Full Tilt Poker. South lost about $500k this time.
South has lost almost 1,3 million dollars to the Swede in the last 24 hours and Isildur1 has grinded up nearly 4 million dollars this year! That is really exceptional work from the Swedish sensation yet again.
Biggest pot of the session; Isildur1 hits full house, $316k pot
Source: Highstakesdb
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ESPN March Poker Player Rankings Released
Tuesday, ESPN.com released the March version of "The Nuts," its ranking of the top ten poker players in the world. The list does not simply rank the best living players, but rather aims to determine who is currently playing the best poker. All variations of poker are considered – live and online, tournaments and cash games. Poker News Daily's own Dan Cypra is one of the members of the voting panel, along with ESPN.com writers Gary Wise, Andrew Feldman, and Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Bernard Lee, Bluff Magazine's Editor-In-Chief Lance Bradley and Senior Writer Jessica Welman, PokerNews Editor-In-Chief Matthew Parvis, and tournament reporter Don Peters, and PokerRoad's Court Harrington.
This is the fourth month for "The Nuts" and for the fourth month, the seemingly peerless Phil Ivey sits atop the rankings. He did not have any significant live poker tournament success in February, but his cash game prowess is still second to none. While the rankings are a measure of who is the best "right now," the panel's focus is not so narrow as to limit evaluation to just a single month. Ivey gets credit for his outstanding results in the months leading up to the most recent vote.
Jason Mercier, one of the best players that the general poker public may have never heard of, moved up one spot to number two. In February, the Floridian made the quarterfinals of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship and placed third in the WPT L.A. Poker Classic's High-Roller event. When he found out that he had climbed to the second spot, Mercier was excited, telling ESPN.com, "It's pretty cool [to be No. 2]. I think that I've reached as high as I can go. I don't think I have any chance of beating out Ivey."
The biggest riser among last month's top ten was Tom "durrrr" Dwan, who was number eight in February and is now number three. Dwan doesn't have any notches in his tournament belt recently, but he has been destroying the online cash games, as he usually does. He made $2.7 million in the month leading up to the current vote, much of it off Patrik Antonius in the Durrrr Challenge.
Speaking of Antonius, his poor cash results resulted in him dropping in the rankings from second to fifth.
New to "The Nuts" this month are Cole South and Scott Seiver. South has been tearing up cash games to the tune of $2.5 million in profit this year, while Seiver won the L.A. Poker Classic High-Roller event and placed fourth in the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Venetian High-Roller Bounty Shootout.
Dropping from the rankings were Bertrand "Elky" Grospellier and Jeffrey Lisandro, who were ninth and tenth, respectively, in February.
ESPN.com "The Nuts" Poker Player Rankings – March 2010
- Phil Ivey
- Jason Mercier
- Tom "durrrr" Dwan
- Daniel Negreanu
- Patrik Antonius
- Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko
- Daniel Alaei
- Eric "basebaldy" Baldwin
- Cole South
- Scott Seiver
UB.com Cancels 2010 Aruba Poker Classic
The annual UB.com Aruba Poker Classic will take a leave of absence in 2010, according to officials from the USA-facing online poker site. Instead, UB.com plans to increase its presence at other live events and expand its online tournament offering.
In 2009, Brandon "AreTheseUtz" Hall defeated a field of 475 players in the UB.com Aruba Poker Classic Main Event to collect a $753,000 first place prize. The $5,500 tournament’s prize pool swelled to well over $2 million and a throng of online poker players flocked to the Radisson Aruba Resort and Casino to partake in the annual pilgrimage. Now, the tournament will be put on the shelf for 2010.
In lieu of the annual gala in paradise, UB.com will focus its efforts on expanding its live and online tournament schedules. In the virtual world, a monthly $500,000 Guaranteed is in the works. As it stands now, UB.com and its sister site, Absolute Poker, hold a weekly $200,000 Guaranteed that regularly draws over 1,000 entrants. Last week, 2008 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) winner Carter “ckingusc” King took down the contest and earned $48,000.
The Ultimate Bet Online Championship, or UBOC as it’s commonly referred to, will be expanded to run twice per year. It last appeared in January and featured two $1 million prize pool events, the first of which saw its purse grow to $1.5 million. When a second UBOC would occur is not yet clear. Full Tilt runs its Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) four times per year, while PokerStars’ WCOOP and Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) take place in September and May, respectively. The $500,000 guaranteed UB.com tournament may ultimately grow to become a $1 million event.
Tokwiro COO Paul Leggett commented in a press release on Wednesday, "It is with great regret that we are announcing that the Aruba event will not run this year, but 2010 is going to be an exciting year for UB and its players. Over the last year, we've been redefining the UB brand in every way. We love the Aruba Poker Classic event, but we think we can do a lot more for our players by investing in new events and rewards." Tokwiro is the parent company of UB.com and Absolute Poker. Both sites happily accept customers from the United States.
UB.com will also continue to qualify players for land-based tournaments on the World Poker Tour (WPT) as well as the World Series of Poker (WSOP), which kicks off in late May from the Rio in Las Vegas. In addition, “major WSOP incentives and additional loyalty benefits for top players” are being planned, according to the same press statement.
In 2002, Juha Helppi defeated Phil Gordon in the first ever running of the UB.com Aruba Poker Classic, which appeared as part of the WPT schedule during Season 1 in 2002. One year later, Erick Lindgren took down the $500,000 top prize in a final table that also featured Barry Shulman. During Season 3, Eric Brenes tangled with Layne Flack and came out on top for $1 million, with Mike Matusow and John Juanda also reaching the final table. In 2005, Freddy Deeb took down the Aruba Poker Classic title in the tournament’s final year as a stop on the WPT circuit.
The 2006 installment featured Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy battling heads-up against Devon Miller. The pro ultimately fell short and Miller banked $775,000. In 2007, Travis “TravestyFund” Rice emerged victorious, while Matt Brady took down the 2008 UB.com Aruba Poker Classic. Whether the tournament will reappear in 2011 remains to be seen.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest on this breaking story.
Tags: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, absolute poker, Online Poker, poker player, pokerstars, tournament, UBOC, usa, vegas, WSOP
Brian Townsend wins big for the first time in 2010
Tags: 2010
Isildur1 Ships $1.5 Million
With Hastings having won $4.2 million in a single session against Isildur1, and South having the best year of his life so far, the odds seemed slim for Isildur1 to have much of a chance if he returned to the biggest games on Full Tilt.
To the surprise of many, he did come back just a couple months after his crushing defeat, and has begun to steamroll his way back to the top.
For Isildur1, yesterday's session began with a 1,114 hand $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha match against South, ending with Isildur1 up $240,779.
Hoping to expedite his comeback, South chose to step up the heads-up match to $300/$600 PLO, but only managed to lose another $401,733 over 566 hands.
With South's hole growing deeper by the second, Hastings logged on to try and get one back for the CardRunners team. After 811 hands of $300/$600 PLO, Hastings himself booked a $250k loss before moving the game to the nosebleed stakes: $500/$1,000.
After 1,356 hands of furious action, Hastings threw in the towel down another $581,954.
Up next for Isildur1 came another re-match against Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo at $200/$400 No-Limit Hold'em. Across the two-and-a-half-hour 2,386-hand Hold'em match, Isildur1 took another $101k before Bonomo took his leave.
After losing $31k to NEKOTYAN over just six hands of $200/$400 PLO, Isildur1 went on to make another $154k at the $200/$400 Cap-PLO tables.
His day would end on the downswing, starting with a $30k loss to skjervoy at $100/$200 PLO before he sat across from South once more, this time losing back $354,008 over 133 hands of $500/$1,000.
In total, Isildur1 booked a more than $1.5 million profit, add that to the $572,746 he made Monday and everyone's favorite mystery Swede is quickly working his way to the top of the 2010 profit leaderboard.
In fact, he is currently sitting in second place behind Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn on around $2.8 million.
South, thanks to his $354k win at the end of the night, managed to keep his losses to only $309,215, while Hastings took a hit of over $832k.
Below are three of the largest pots from yesterdays matches, to see more head to MarketPulse.
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Isildur1 grinded 1,4 million last night!
Isildur1 is back! He has made 1,4 million dollars in the last 24 hours on Full Tilt Poker - playing PLO. He has now won the most in 2010. Pretty insane guy.
Most of his winnings came from Cole South and Brian Hastings. South lost $785k and Hastings $556k. After this session the Swedish sensation is now the biggest winner of the year with over three million dollar in winnings.
Isildur1 makes a nice check/raise on the river and wins a $382k pot:
Isildur1 ($242,980)
Brian Hastings ($190,988)
Brian Hastings raises to $3,000, Isildur1 raises to $9,000, Brian Hastings calls $6,000
FLOP ($18,000) 2h 6d Qh
Isildur1 checks, Brian Hastings checks
TURN ($18,000) 2h 6d Qh 7d
Isildur1 bets $18,000, Brian Hastings calls $18,000
RIVER ($54,000) 2h 6d Qh 7d 8h
Isildur1 checks, Brian Hastings bets $43,000, Isildur1 raises to $183,000, Brian Hastings calls $120,988
Isildur1 shows As 3d Ah Kh
Isildur1 wins $381,975
Without no doubt the Swede is going to play until he is broke or has won all the money from everyone. If you believe some rumors, Isildur1 made about 7 million dollars last year but lost everything. Now everything looks the same, except the games have been a bit smaller.
Let’s see how far the Swede can fly this time.
Source: Highstakesdb
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UB Cancels Aruba Poker Classic
A statement from Tokwiro CEO Paul Leggett says the online poker rooms also has plans to develop a monthly $500k Guaranteed Tournament with an eye on building it into a million-dollar event, create more pro-related competitions and run its UB Online Championship twice a year.
"It is with great regret that we are announcing that the Aruba event will not run this year, but 2010 is going to be an exciting year for UB and its players," said Leggett. "Over the last year, we've been redefining the UB brand in every way. We love the Aruba Poker Classic event, but we think we can do a lot more for our players by investing in new events and rewards."
UB will continue to offer players access to events like the World Series of Poker and major World Poker Tour events through ongoing online satellites.
Players will also see benefits in the form of major WSOP incentives and additional loyalty benefits for top players.
"I, for one, am excited about what this shift in focus means for UB and what this will add to the experience for our players," said Joe Sebok.
The 2009 Aruba Poker Classic drew 475 players to the Caribbean island creating a $2,303,750 prize pool. Brandon Hall took the title after a heads up chop with then chip leader Robert Mizrachi, giving Mizrachi the lion's share of the cash.
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EPT Berlin Robbery: Kevin MacPhee Appears on Early Show
The weekend robbery of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Berlin event has garnered headlines around the world. On Monday morning, the tournament’s champion, Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee, appeared on CBS’ “Early Show” to break down the heist.
In one of the most bizarre events ever to take place during a poker tournament, masked gunmen stormed the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Berlin, nabbing a portion of the EPT’s prize pool. According to a Monday update issued by the Associated Press, the four thieves are still on the run and police have “no clear leads.” The perpetrators robbed the poker tournament’s registration area just after 2:00pm local time on Saturday in a midday assault and, according to the news outlet, escaped with a "low six-digit figure" of cash into a nearby mall. No one was harmed.
MacPhee told the millions of “Early Show” viewers live from Berlin, “It was one of the craziest days that I’ve ever experienced. There was a lot of panic in the room that day and then we were asked to come back and play for €1 million. It was very unusual.” Video of the robbery aired concurrently with MacPhee’s interview. A few hours later, participants returned to the tournament room and resumed their pursuit for the €1 million top prize.
MacPhee was seated at the feature table with the scuffle began and recalled, “We weren’t really sure what was going on. I just saw a wave of people headed for the back exit. There was a lot of panic and the actual TV stage started to collapse. When that started to happen, all of the players got up out of their seats to see what was happening.” The commotion began out in the hallway and players made their way to safety in the tournament room, some seeking cover under tables.
The tournament’s eventual winner knew that someone with a gun was likely to blame for the near riot: “My first instinct was just to get down on the ground. I figured that only someone with a gun in the room could cause that kind of panic. The gunmen didn’t even enter the poker room. They stayed near the tournament registration area, which was where the cash was. Thankfully, they didn’t come into the poker room and make it worse than it already was.” The Main Event drew nearly 1,000 players.
News of the rare casino heist has made waves across the world’s largest media outlets. Media outlets including the Sydney Morning Herald, Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, and Toronto Star have all reported on the story, as have a variety of poker news outlets. According to The Local and reprinted in the New York Times, another assailant may be to blame: “Because the well-timed heist bore the signs of an amateur job, police told Berlin daily Berliner Zeitung that they now believe there was at least one other accomplice already inside the hotel who gave a signal to begin the raid.” Whether the accomplice worked for the Grand Hyatt Hotel remains to be seen.
Despite the financial loss, all players received their prize money and the tournament carried on to a conclusion. As for what MacPhee did to celebrate his rather eventful live win, the online poker player told “Early Show” viewers, “Sundays are our busiest day, so… I celebrated by playing more poker. I think I’ll get out in Berlin the next couple of nights and try to celebrate a little bit more.”
Check out the complete CBS News interview with Kevin “ImaLuckSac” MacPhee.
Tom “durrrr” Dwan has great March - He’s up about 1,7 million dollars
There has been loads of action this month on Full Tilt Poker. The biggest winner is Tom Dwan with 1,72 million dollar winnings.
There’s couple of other players who are doing great this month. The internet sensation Isildur1 is up about a million and the Finnish “LokoIsBack” is up $530k.
Patrik Antonius has lost the most, around 1,15 million dollars so far. Cole South is not far behind with 950k dollar losses.
Here are some of the results so far:
Source: Highstakesdb
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Tom “durrrr” Dwan has great March - He’s up about 1,7 million dollars
Ziigmund lost a million to Isildur1
Full Tilt Poker games are wild. There’s not a single day when someone wins or loses seven figures. Last Sunday “PixKim” lost a million, and this time it was Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies who lost a million.
Ziigmund and Isildur1 played about 1000 hands of $300/$600 and $500/$1000 PLO.
Isildur1’s full house beats Sahamies’ hand in a $423k pot
After their heads up was over, Sahamies told to Isildur1 that he should lose his money to Brian Hastings - and that is what happened. Isildur1 lost about half a million to Hastings later on.
Ziigmund: its just ****** amazing
Ziigmund: give my money for hastings
Ziigmund: gg
Eventually the Swedish Isildur1 managed to lose most of his winnings and is up only about 181.000 dollars in the past 24 hours.
Source: Highstakesdb
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Isildur1 Steps on Sahamies
Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies would be the first player to take on the unknown Swedish pro.
After 451 hands of $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha, with Sahamies losing over $487k, the two moved their game to $500/$1,000 PLO, where they remained for 40 minutes.
By the end of the 259-hand nosebleed session, Sahamies logged off, down another $290,965.
With Sahamies gone, Isildur1 went on the hunt for his next opponent, finding him in Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo. The two played $200/$400 NLHE for 791 hands with Bonomo finishing up $187k.
Looking to bounce back after that NLHE loss, Isildur1 took on the CardRunners team, playing both Cole South and Brian Hastings heads-up at the same time.
Despite starting the year off with a white-hot streak of wins, South lost $334k over his 825 hands, while Hastings made $330k over a shorter 224-hand match, all at $300/$600 PLO.
Hastings, who holds the online record for most money made in a single session after crushing Isildur1 for $4.2 million on Full Tilt late in 2009, tried to repeat his feat, convincing Isildur1 to move their game back up to $500/$1,000, where they played for another 468 hands.
Although Hastings was unable to make anything close to $4.2 million, he came away from the nosebleed session with another $219k, up over half a million total on the day.
After some small sessions at smaller stakes games, Isildur1 sat for his final heads-up sessions, giving South a chance to get even on the day.
After 565 hands of $100/$200 PLO, and South getting himself suck another $222k, the two doubled the stakes, finishing their session with 344 hands at $200/$400.
Although he wasn't able to get completely out of the hole, South managed to make back $77,958 before the end of the match.
In total, Isildur1 added $572,746 to his roll, putting him up well over $1 million in 2010 so far.
Below you can find Isildur1's three largest hands of the day. To see more hands from Isildur1, including the $1.3 million dollar largest-ever online pot, head to MarketPulse.
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Annie Duke Wins 2010 National Heads Up Poker Championship
The first female champion of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship was crowned on Sunday as UB.com pro and Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Annie Duke took down the title and its corresponding $500,000 top prize.
Duke defeated eight-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Erik Seidel in the finals. She was nearly sent packing against Paul Wasicka in the round of 16, but trumped pocket aces with A-10 and pocket jacks with 8-5 of diamonds to move on. Duke beat Wasicka to face 2007 WSOP Main Event winner Jerry Yang in the Elite Eight. In the five previous installments of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, Duke had only made it out of the opening round once.
Against Yang, a bevy of all-ins occurred, as her opponent doubled up with 3-6 against K-9, pocket threes against J-7, and even A-4 against A-K. Yang was finally sent to the rails holding J-3 against Duke’s A-8. The flop came A-J-2, giving Yang middle pair and Duke top pair. The turn and river were a 10 and nine, respectively, missing Yang and handing Duke a ticket to the Final Four against 2008 WSOP Main Event November Nine member Dennis Phillips.
After falling behind, Phillips doubled up after pushing pre-flop with K-J of diamonds. Duke called with a baby ace, A-5, and watched as the flop came K-Q-6, pushing Phillips out in front with top pair. No help came on the turn for Duke and the river improved Phillips to trips. In the final hand of the battle between Phillips and Duke, the former committed his chips with A-8 and was up against pocket sevens for a race. The board fell 9-3-2-6-4 and Duke advanced to the finals. Phillips earned $125,000 for his efforts in the invite-only poker tournament.
The finals were held in a best of three format and Duke quickly jumped out to a 1-0 lead on the Full Tilt Poker pro. Seidel was all-in on a flush draw with 8-6 of spades on a board reading 7-K-J with two spades. Duke had A-K for top pair, top kicker and dodged spades on the turn and river to claim the first match against Seidel.
In the second match, a sizable pot brewed when Seidel flipped up the Doyle Brunson, 10-2, on a board of 2-8-K-2-4. Then, Seidel took down match number two after Duke committed her chips with K-5 against Seidel’s 7-8. The flop came 9-6-4 with two hearts and the five of hearts on turn gave Seidel a straight. Duke could win if a heart fell on the river, but instead a black nine hit to set up the rubber match.
In the final hand of the third match, Duke’s pocket nines held against Seidel’s A-2. Duke banked a half-million dollars for winning the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, while Seidel earned a $250,000 consolation prize. Seidel had never made it out of the first round of the unique bracket tournament.
In a Guest Column two weeks ago on Poker News Daily, Duke seemingly forecasted the final match-up of the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship: “Erik Seidel and I were joking that we have bad records in that event. He’s a brilliant player, but has never won a match, and I’ve won one. I don’t care who I draw; I just want to win my [first round] match.”
Here were the final payouts:
1st Place: Annie Duke - $500,000
2nd Place: Erik Seidel - $250,000
3rd Place: Scotty Nguyen - $125,000
4th Place: Dennis Phillips - $125,000
5th Place: Jerry Yang - $75,000
6th Place: Doyle Brunson - $75,000
7th Place: Jason Mercier - $75,000
8th Place: Peter Eastgate - $75,000
9th Place: Paul Wasicka - $25,000
10th Place: Eli Elezra - $25,000
11th Place: Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad - $25,000
12th Place: Barry Greenstein - $25,000
13th Place: Gabe Kaplan – $25,000
14th Place: Phil Laak - $25,000
15th Place: Chris Moneymaker - $25,000
16th Place: Jamie Gold - $25,000
A total of 13 former WSOP Main Event champions entered. Amazingly, nearly half of them, or six, made the top 16. Other former Main Event winners who played included Joe Cada (2009), Huck Seed (1996), Joe Hachem (2005), Johnny Chan (1987, 1988), Chris Ferguson (2000), Phil Hellmuth (1989), and Greg Raymer (2004).
You can catch the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship on NBC beginning on Sunday, April 18th at Noon ET. We're sure that the tournament will come up on this Sunday's webcast of the Kevin Pollak Chat Show, which will feature Duke in a broadcast sponsored by Poker News Daily.
Image courtesy NBC Sports.
Tags: 2008, 2009, 2010, Annie Duke, Barry Greenstein, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, tournament, trips, WSOP
Annie Duke Claims NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship
Isildur1 and Dwan Crush the Weekend
The first big session for Dwan came Saturday evening when he sat for 413 hands of heads-up $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha against Isildur1.
Dwan left the session up $81k, logging off for the night.
Eight hours later, before dawn on Sunday, Dwan sat for 360 hands of $300/$600 PLO against Patrik Antonius and PixKim.
By the end of that four-and-a-half-hour session, Dwan had massed over $624k in profit, the majority coming from the quickly floundering Antonius.
After the $81k loss to Dwan, Isildur1 went on a series of swings.
First he made back $79k of his losses, then dumped another $177,990 at $200/$400 Cap PLO.
He was soon back on the up-swing, however, making $64k from Cole South heads-up before meeting up with Dwan again, this time at a six-max $300/$600 PLO game.
The six-max game saw hours of furious action between Isildur1, Dwan, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, Hac "trex313" Dang, Patrik Antonius and others.
And despite playing against some of the most prolific players in the world, Isidlur1 left after 1,689 hands with a profit of $517,223.
Dwan took a $229k loss at the same game, Sahamies nearly broke even losing just $10k, Dang made away with $119k and Patrik Antonius took a massive hit, losing over $874,000.
After breaking the six-max game, Isildur1 moved on to play a couple of cap games, losing $18k at $200/$400 Cap PLO and making around $90k from LarsLuzak at $500/$1,000 Cap No-Limit Hold'em.
The unknown Swede went on to make another $83k from Triko at $200/$400 PLO, and after just ten hands of heads-up $200/$400 PLO against Sahamies, called it quits.
By the end of the weekend Isildur1 had made $526,083, bringing his total profit for the year up to around $915,000.
Meanwhile, Dwan put in two more heads-up sessions and a couple small Cap PLO sessions before logging off.
His first heads-up match resulted in a $76k to LarsLuzak after 222 hands of $500/$1,000 Cap NLHE.
But Dwan turned it around in his final heads-up match of the weekend, taking another $306k from Antonius, this time over 344 hands of $300/$600 PLO.
All toll, Dwan finished the weekend with a massive profit of $856,489, bringing him up to around $1.7 million profit for the year so far.
Antonius came out of the weekend as the biggest loser by far, finishing stuck over $960k bringing his losses in 2010 up to $2.8 million in so far.
Below are three of the largest hands from the weekend, to see more head to MarketPulse.
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Tom “durrrr” Dwan wins $1.33m online
Tags: 2010
Annie Duke wins NBC Heads-Up Championship
The Sunday Scoop: West Books Second Chance Win
West, who has close to $900k in live tournament earnings over the past four years, banked $51,853.44 for the win.
But he wasn't the only well know pro to post some big numbers Sunday.
Jordan "Octavian_C" Rich won the $215 H.O.R.S.E. on PokerStars beating a field of 143 players while Tyler "puffinmypurp" Reiman, runner-up at the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, final tabled the $109 Rebuy taking sixth.
Once again, the PokerStars Sunday Million was the biggest draw on an action-heavy Sunday with 10,123 players helping create a $2,024,600 prize pool, smashing the $1.5 million guarantee.
MAE9690 got the lion's share of a four-way chop at the top and went on to secure the victory and the extra $30k the players had reserved for the winner.
In all, MAE9690 added $260k to his online bankroll, earning just shy of the $283,449.40 he would have won had no deal been made.
In the meantime, Full Tilt Poker's $750k Guaranteed drew a considerably less 4,180 players with shiftzerg taking down the $147,629.24 first-place prize.
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National Heads-Up Poker Championship: Elite Eight Set
Eight players remain in the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which will begin airing on NBC on April 18th at Noon ET. Among the survivors are poker veterans Doyle Brunson and Annie Duke.
Duke faced off against 2007 National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Paul Wasicka in the round of 16. The seesaw match featured the short stack doubling up time after time. Finally, Duke shoved with A-10 pre-flop and Wasicka made the call with pocket aces. The flop came A-2-J, giving Wasicka what seemed like an insurmountable lead. However, Duke spiked a queen on the turn and king on the river to make a runner-runner Broadway straight and double through.
Coverage found on PokerNews described the scene during Duke’s miracle double-up: “The gallery went absolutely berserk. Duke, standing over the table, held her hands up to her face in utter disbelief. She then walked to Wasicka's side of the table and whispered something in his ear before re-taking her seat.” Wasicka was the runner-up to Jamie Gold in the 2006 WSOP Main Event, earning $6.1 million.
The hand crippled Wasicka, who promptly doubled with A-9 against Duke’s K-10. In the final hand of the match, Wasicka committed his chips with pocket jacks and Duke made the call with a meager 8-5 of diamonds. The flop came 8-2-7, giving Duke top pair, and a five on the turn improved the UB.com pro and Poker News Daily Guest Columnist to two pair. Wasicka needed a two, seven, or jack on the river to stave off elimination, but a nine fell and Wasicka was ousted. Next up for Duke is 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Jerry Yang, whose supporters had a less-than-cordial run-in with Jennifer Harman earlier in the day.
Brunson’s miracle run continued. In 2008, Brunson defeated Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad two matches to none in a prelude to the WSOP Europe Main Event. In the Sweet 16, the two Caesars Cup participants squared off once again. They sat at the feature table and Brunson shoved all-in on a flop reading 7-5-J. Obrestad held 6-4 for an open-ended straight draw, while Brunson flipped up J-5 for two pair. The turn was a king, leaving Obrestad needing to hit a straight on the river to avoid doubling up the 10-time bracelet winner. However, a jack hit, giving Brunson a boat and a critical double-up.
Obrestad, the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event champion, then shoved pre-flop with Q-5 of hearts for her remaining stack. Brunson, who underwent extensive dental surgery two days after the Super Bowl, woke up with A-8, which held on for the win. Brunson’s Elite Eight opponent is 2008 WSOP Main Event November Nine member Dennis Phillips, who bested high-stakes cash game pro Eli Elezra in the round of 16. Phillips’ National Heads-Up Poker Championship opponents have included Chris Ferguson and Kara Scott.
Eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel will face off against 2008 WSOP Main Event winner Peter Eastgate in the round of eight. Seidel bested another former World Champion to punch his ticket to the Elite Eight, Chris Moneymaker. Seidel doubled up after flopping a straight with Q-J against Moneymaker’s K-2. The flop came 9-10-K, giving Seidel the nuts, and a running 6-9 didn’t help matters for Moneymaker. The former Tennessee accountant was then all-in with 10-8 of diamonds against Seidel’s A-Q. The board came 3-5-7-3-7 and Seidel’s two pair with an ace kicker scooped the pot and sent Moneymaker packing.
The winners of the clubs and spades brackets will face off against each other in the Final Four. Similarly, the survivors of the hearts and diamonds brackets will play each other. Here is how the field shapes up:
Clubs Bracket
Erik Seidel vs Peter Eastgate
Spades Bracket
Scotty Nguyen vs Jason Mercier
Hearts Bracket
Dennis Phillips vs Doyle Brunson
Diamonds Bracket
Jerry Yang vs Annie Duke
A winner will be determined today. The action kicks off at 11:00am PT from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest National Heads-Up Poker Championship coverage.
Poker News in Brief: March 1-7, 2010
Between the LAPC and WPT Invitational winners, Isildur1 getting busy online and the start of the NBC National Heads-Up Championship there was nary a dull moment for poker fans.
As usual, we’re going to list some of the poker stories you might have missed as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature.
This week we’re going to take a look at online gambling in Iowa, a WSOP all-star game, Roland de Wolfe winning a London tournament and more.
Legal Online Gambling in Iowa?
Iowa is the latest U.S. state apparently looking at legalizing online gambling.
Rep. Doug Struyk of Council Bluffs told the Quad City Times that 50,000 people in Iowa already participate in online gambling and the government could provide better protection for them if the industry was legalized and regulated.
Struyk’s proposal would regulate the practice through the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission.
If the proposal goes through Iowa would become the first state in the country to allow online gambling.
Tiger Woods Turns Down Paddy Poker Deal
Many of Tiger Woods major sponsors have dropped him since his sex scandal broke but at least one online poker room seems to have no problem with the golfer.
Ireland-based Paddy Power Poker reportedly offered the disgraced sports star a five-year deal worth $75 million to represent the site.
Although Woods has already turned the offer down, Paddy Power Poker has claimed it is planning on coming back with an even better offer in the future.
It’s not the first time a poker organization has offered a deal to a fallen sports star. Last summer the Asian Poker Tour invited Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps to its Macau event.
A picture of Phelps holding a bong surfaced on the internet in early 2009, which led to several sponsors dropping the multiple gold-medalist.
Check Paddy Power Poker for more.
Roland de Wolfe Wins London Open
Full Tilt pro Roland de Wolfe outlasted 110 players to win the 2010 Mansion Poker Les A London Open last week.
De Wolfe overcame a final table of mostly unknown players to win the £77,000 first place prize. The Hendon Mob’s Ross Boatman came in eighth place for £6,600.
The inaugural £2,000+£200 buy-in Mansion Poker Les A London Open ran February 23-24.
WSOP to Introduce All-Star Tournament?
It appears Harrah’s is interested in hosting some form of an all-star tournament at the 2010 WSOP.
Harrah’s released a cryptic message via the WSOP Twitter account this week that read:
“Which 20 WSOP Bracelet-Holders would you like to see compete in an All-Star game? Stay tuned…”
Last summer the WSOP held the 40th Anniversary Champions Invitational, which was open to every player that had won the Main Event. The tournament was won by 1983 World Champion Tom McEvoy.
In previous years, Harrah’s held a Tournament of Champions that featured a large number of notable pros. Annie Duke, Mike Matusow, and Mike Sexton were all winners of that event.
More Gold for Cake Poker Players in March
Cake Poker is giving its players two exclusive promotions during the month of March.
The first is the Cake Poker Turbo Gold Cards March Madness event that features Gold Cards dropping four times more often.
Gold Cards randomly appear in your account when you are playing ring games on Cake Poker. The cards are redeemable for cash or tournament entries depending on what card you receive.
Cake Poker will also be offering more satellites to the 2010 Irish Open, starting March 14.
"Dublin is a wonderful town and when you bring a major tournament there with the accompanying insane side action, it's hard to beat,” said Cake Poker room manager Lee Jones.
To learn more visit the Cake Poker website.
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Tags: 2009, 2010, aced, Annie Duke, cake poker, legal, legalizing, Mansion Poker, Online Poker, poker player, tournament, WSOP
Poker Predictions for 2010 by Mike Sexton
2009 was an amazing poker year. The first thing that jumps out at me is the continuing trend of young guys doing so well in live events. The two biggest events of the year were won by 21 year-olds. Yevgeniy Timoshenko captured the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship and Joe Cada won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. They were the youngest players to ever win those events. By now, you must recognize that internet poker has developed a tremendous crux of terrific poker players and they continue to prove themselves in the biggest live events in the world.
I carried the torch for the old guys in 2009, the highlight being my induction into the Poker Hall of Fame on November 7th. The Poker Hall of Fame is the one area in poker that old guys have a big edge.
I am happy to point out that two well-known, experienced, high-stakes players had the best WSOP in 2009. Three bracelets and the best all-around player award went to Jeff Lisandro and poker superstar Phil Ivey won two bracelets and made the final table of the Main Event. You have to salute both those guys.
A real buzz was created in 2009 by the nosebleed high-stakes games online. It's difficult to follow the swings these guys take, which amounted to millions of dollars per week. These guys have moxy (a polite way of saying “balls”) that is hard to believe.
It's always exciting to think about what's ahead for the poker world. Here are some things I believe will happen in 2010:
1. The young guys will continue to dominate the big events in poker. I say that because the big events take at least four or five days to play and I believe the younger guys can handle those long, tough, consecutive sessions better than the older guys. Generally speaking, when stamina plays a role in something, young guys fare better.
2. The direction of online poker will finally come out of the "gray area." I believe that legislation will finally come forth in some fashion, so we'll know whether or not online poker will become regulated. If it's not on the federal level, I believe you'll see individual states, starting with California, attempt to legislate and regulate online poker.
3. More countries around the world will individually regulate online poker like Italy and France are doing. For those who may not know, those countries are legalizing online poker, but you can only play against players from your own country. This is the model I believe that individual U.S. states will follow.
4. The WPT will expand its brand worldwide with more live tournaments in more countries around the world. Party Gaming purchased the WPT, which bodes well for poker players around the world. Players can qualify online for these events at PartyPoker.com and, hopefully, other sites as well.
5. The enforcement of Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) will come to an end.
6. Here's a good thing: Far more money will be raised through poker charity events than has been in the past. PokerGives.org is designating September "Poker Charity Month," where numerous live casinos as well as online sites will hold charity events for PokerGives.org. In my mind, benefiting worthwhile charities is a big plus for the entire poker industry and players, management, and casinos should all do more to support charity events.
7. Two players will win two bracelets at the 2010 WSOP and no one will win three. I don't know who they will be, but I know who I'd bet on to do it.
8. I'm afraid that the trend will continue for women on the WPT. They won't win a $10,000 buy-in or higher event in 2010. There just aren't enough aggressive women in poker to favor them winning a WPT event. Incidentally, I hope I'm wrong about this prediction. Go ladies!
9. Two people will be inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame in 2010. The top candidates are Erik Seidel, Barry Greenstein, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, and Tom McEvoy. Who do you like?
10. Championship poker events will continue to thrive and television will continue to play a major role in bringing more players into the poker world.
Best of luck to everyone in 2010!
Tags: 2009, 2010, Barry Greenstein, charity, Daniel Negreanu, ladies, legal, legalizing, Online Poker, Phil Ivey, poker player, tournament, women, WSOP
Breaking News: Armed Robbery Suspends Play at EPT Berlin (Video Update)
Doyle Brunson Advances to Round 2 of National Heads-Up Poker Championship
Round 2 of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship plays out today from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas and will see the field trimmed from 32 to 16. Among those players still in contention is Doyle Brunson.
There was a question as to whether Brunson would even be able to play in the unique heads-up tournament after undergoing extensive dental surgery shortly after the Super Bowl last month. However, the DoylesRoom front man did more than just show up to the event in his backyard, he advanced to the second round. After an upset by GoDaddy Girl Vanessa Rousso in the opening round in 2009, Brunson defeated Brock “t soprano” Parker to advance in 2010.
In the pairing’s final hand. Parker was all-in with a wired pair of eights and Brunson showed A-Q of diamonds, setting up a race situation. The queen came as the window card and Brunson never looked back. Now, he’ll play actor and Ante Up for Africa co-founder Don Cheadle in the round of 32. Cheadle bested J.P. Kelly in the first round. Kelly won bracelets on both sides of the Atlantic last year after taking down a $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event in Las Vegas and a £1,000 No Limit Hold’em event in London.
In a clash of the titans in the first round, Full Tilt Poker’s Howard Lederer faced off against UB.com troublemaker Phil Hellmuth. Like the match-up between Parker and Brunson, this one came down to a race. Lederer moved all-in pre-flop with pocket tens and Hellmuth made the call with A-K of hearts. The flop came K-5-2, giving Hellmuth top pair, top kicker and a running 9-K sealed Lederer’s exit. This was Lederer’s fourth straight first round elimination in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship.
Next up for Hellmuth is another industry giant, Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad. The winner of the 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event, Obrestad outlasted former baseball great Orel Hershiser in first round action on Friday. The 2010 cycle of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship is Obrestad’s first appearance on the program, which will air on NBC. Obrestad Twittered on her next foe: “Won my match. Guess who im playing tomorrow.... Thats right... @philhellmuth. Sigh lol.”
Also advancing to the second round is 2009 WSOP Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon. Coverage found on PokerNews noted that the table featuring Moon and Caesars qualifier Bill Huntress was “the quietest table on set.” Huntress was all-in after a flop of Q-4-A with three clubs and showed J-8 of spades for what ESPN poker announcer Norman Chad would dub “nuclear squadoosh.” Moon showed K-10, including the ten of clubs, for straight and flush draws. He also, rather amazingly, held the best hand. The turn and river fell a nine and seven, respectively, ending any hopes of the qualifier making it through to the next round. Moon’s second round opponent is Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Annie Duke.
All but one qualifier of the seven who entered was eliminated in first round play, as Stephen Quinn upset Ted Forrest yesterday. Here are the second round match-ups for the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship:
Clubs Bracket
Chris Moneymaker vs Leo Wolpert
David Williams vs Erik Seidel
Erick Lindgren vs Peter Eastgate
Stephen Quinn vs Jamie Gold
Spades Bracket
Phil Ivey vs Scotty Nguyen
Joe Hachem vs Gabe Kaplan
Jason Mercier vs Pieter de Korver
Phil Gordon vs Phil Laak
Hearts Bracket
Allen Cunningham vs Eli Elezra
Chris Ferguson vs Dennis Phillips
Doyle Brunson vs Don Cheadle
Phil Hellmuth vs Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad
Diamonds Bracket
Barry Greenstein vs Sammy Farha
Jennifer Harman vs Jerry Yang
Darvin Moon vs Annie Duke
Paul Wasicka vs Gus Hansen
The action resumes inside Caesars Palace in Las Vegas at 1:00pm PT and will play down to a field of 16. The winner of the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship will be determined on Sunday. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest.
The Nightly Turbo: Tiger Woods Not a Gambler, Chicago Poker Classic, and More
International Federation of Poker Refutes IMSA Acceptance Reports
Early reports that the International Federation of Poker (IFP) would be accepted into the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) may have been misguided, according to the Poker Black Belt Blog (pokerblackbelt.co.uk). After reports circled last month that the IFP's acceptance into the IMSA was only a month or so away, the IFP released a statement this week denying that the membership with the IMSA was finalized and that several steps still needed to be taken before a decision was made. This means that poker in the Olympics could be further away than we hoped.
The President of the IFP, Anthony Holden, issued a press release about the inaccurate reports on Monday: "I do not know how or where these rumors started, but I must make it clear that they are premature. IMSA membership is one of IFP’s publicly declared goals, and we have put in much work towards that end over the past year. Despite very encouraging signs, however, we are not there yet."
According to Holden, the IFP is working ardently with SportAccord, formerly known as the General Association of International Sports Federations, to become a full member. SportAccord is an organization intended to unite the world of sport and is a loyal partner of the the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
"In order for IFP to secure a 'global' membership and be recognized in as many countries as possible, IFP requires poker to be recognized as a game of skill – a 'Mind Sport' and is, therefore, planning to apply to become a member of both SportAccord and the International Mind Association," said Holden.
The IFP's goal was to be a full member of SportAccord and the IMSA before the 2010 SportAccord Congress in Dubai on April 30th. Holden says that the IFP will be an observer this year, but intends to have an application to be a full member ready for the 2011 Congress in London.
The IOC recognizes the IMSA, meaning that if poker were accepted into the IMSA, it could be considered an official game of skill by the IOC. Currently, the only card game to be accepted by the IMSA is Bridge. Other skill games recognized by the IMSA include Chess, Go, Draughts, and Xiangqi. The IMSA played a major role in the inaugural World Mind Sports Games, which were held in Beijing two months after the 2008 Summer Olympics.
The hope is for poker to join the IMSA and the World Mind Sports Games, gaining further ground in becoming a part of the Olympic Games. The IOC has outlined that a game or sport must be practiced by men in at least 75 countries on four continents and by women in at least 40 countries on three continents in order to be recognized. That shouldn't be a problem considering the increasing popularity of poker over the past decade.
Poker News Daily will continue to update the IFP's progress in the coming months.
Andras Koroknai Wins WPT L.A. Poker Classic
After a one-day delay, the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic resumed on Thursday with its six-handed final table. After 94 hands, Andras Koroknai emerged victorious and banked $1.8 million.
Koroknai earned the largest first place payday awarded so far during Season 8 of the WPT. His prize package included $1.8 million in cash, a WPT bracelet and watch, a Commerce Casino trophy, and a $25,000 entry into the end-of-season WPT Championship, which will play out next month from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Koroknai had a rowdy Hungarian rail during the L.A. Poker Classic’s final table and told WPT Live Updates Hostess Jacque that his plan was to spend his newfound riches.
Koroknai edged out Raymond Dolan heads-up. Michael Kamran, the short stack entering the final table, was the first person sent packing. Kamran moved all-in pre-flop with 10-7 of diamonds for eight big blinds and George Kasabyan made the call with A-J. Kamran picked up a straight draw when the flop came 9-8-5 and turned a seven to take the lead in the hand with a pair. However, Kasabyan hit an ace on the river to end Kamran’s heroics. He picked up $246,000 for his run through the $10,000 buy-in poker tournament.
The second player eliminated was J.C. Moussa, who picked up $321,000 for his fifth place showing. Moussa shoved over the top of a re-raise by Tri Huynh with A-9. Huynh flipped up A-Q and the board ran out 10-6-2-K-5. Huynh made a flush by the time all was said and done and sat with the second largest stack at the table.
Dolan scooped a 2.6 million chip pot shortly thereafter to take the chip lead before a long battle ensued to see who would become the tournament’s fourth place finisher. Kasabyan called all-in with A-7 on a board of A-9-8, but ran into Huynh’s A-9 for top two pair. Kasabyan hit a seven on the turn for one of his outs needed to win the hand, but a river nine gave Huynh a full house. Kasabyan, who hails from Armenia and was rooted on by Chris "The Amenian Express" Grigorian throughout the final table, collected $450,000.
The trio remaining was fairly even in stack sizes following Kasabyan’s exit, but Koroknai doubled through Dolan to claim 60% of the chips in play. On the 93rd hand of final table play, Huynh was bounced after calling all-in with pocket jacks against Koroknai’s A-K. I bet you can guess how this hand ends. A king hit on the flop to send the tournament’s eventual winner out in front and no help came on the turn or river. Entering heads-up play, Koroknai held a 10:1 edge in chips.
Heads-up action lasted all of one hand, as Dolan called off his remaining chips with Q-4 and found himself up against Koroknai’s Q-8 of hearts. The action flop came 10-9-4 with two hearts, giving Dolan bottom pair and Koroknai a flush draw. The turn was a seven, adding even more drama and giving Koroknai even more outs. Sure enough, the king of hearts hit as the jackpot card on the river and Koroknai took down the 2010 L.A. Poker Classic. Here were the final payouts:
1. Andras Koroknai - $1,788,040
2. Raymond Dolan - $1,002,710
3. Tri Huynh - $665,140
4. Gevork Kasabyan - $450,580
5. Jean-Claude Moussa - $321,840
6. Michael Kamran - $246,740
Next on tap for the WPT is the Bay 101 Shooting Star event from San Jose, California. The unique bounty tournament kicks off next Monday, March 8th. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT coverage.
2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship Bracket Set
The field of 64 is set in the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which will air on NBC. One of the highlights of the opening round is a titanic showdown between PokerStars pros Jason Mercier and Daniel Negreanu, who have both been on a hot streak.
Mercier and Negreanu made the final table of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event last year. Mercier finished fourth in the £10,000 buy-in poker tournament, while Negreanu fell heads-up to CardPlayer Magazine owner Barry Shulman after entering as the short stack. Mercier and Negreanu collected £267,000 and £495,000 for their efforts, respectively. Both are bracelet winners and members of Team PokerStars Pro.
Mercier enters the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which is emanating from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, on a high note. Last week, the Florida native took third in the L.A. Poker Classic’s High-Roller event for $141,000. In December, Mercier won a $5,000 HORSE event during the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $100,000. Negreanu made waves during the recent PartyPoker Premier League, finishing fourth at the final table. Heading into Thursday’s draw party, Negreanu Tweeted his desired first round opponent: “Headed down to Pure for the NBC HU draw party and I'm hoping to NOT draw one of the 7 qualifiers or a woman. Record going into #6 is 7-5.”
Meanwhile, two titans of the online poker industry will tangle, as 13 bracelets will meet when Full Tilt Poker front man Howard Lederer takes on UB.com bad boy Phil Hellmuth. Lederer was fourth on Bluff Magazine’s recent Power 20 list, while Hellmuth leads the all-time bracelet count with 11. Both have crafty nicknames, as “The Professor” will take on “The Poker Brat” in a high-stakes first round encounter.
In an all-female first round showdown, Full Tilt Poker’s Jennifer Harman is paired up with actress Jennifer Tilly. A total of seven women will make their way to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas today for first round action. Joining Harman and Tilly to add estrogen to the field are Annie Duke, Annette Dworski, Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, Vanessa Rousso, and Kara Scott. Six women took to the field in 2009, including Rousso, who finished as the runner-up to Huck Seed.
Those in the hunt for the title range between 21 (Obrestad) and 76 years-old (Doyle Brunson). The tournament hits television airwaves on NBC beginning on April 18th and will run for six consecutive Sundays. The ultimate survivor of the single elimination heads-up tournament pockets $500,000, while its runner-up takes home a cool $250,000. Here’s a look at the first round match-ups in the 2010 National Heads-Up Poker Championship:
Clubs Bracket – Top Half
Patrik Antonius vs Chris Moneymaker
Leo Wolpert vs Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin
David Williams vs Joe Cada
Erik Seidel vs Huck Seed
Clubs Bracket – Bottom Half
Dan Ramirez vs Erick Lindgren
Peter Eastgate vs Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier
Stephen Quinn vs Ted Forrest
Dario Minieri vs Jamie Gold
Spades Bracket – Top Half
Gavin Smith vs Phil Ivey
Richard Edwards vs Scotty Nguyen
Shawn “westtexasman” Rice vs Joe Hachem
Gabe Kaplan vs Johnny Chan
Spades Bracket – Bottom Half
Daniel Negreanu vs Jason Mercier
Pieter de Korver vs Mike Sexton
Phil Gordon vs Tom “durrrr” Dwan
Phil Laak vs John Juanda
Hearts Bracket – Top Half
Jesper Hougaard vs Allen Cunningham
Eli Elezra vs Greg “FBT” Mueller
Annette Dworski vs Chris Ferguson
Kara Scott vs Dennis Phillips
Hearts Bracket – Bottom Half
Brock “t soprano” Parker vs Doyle Brunson
J.P. Kelly vs Don Cheadle
Howard Lederer vs Phil Hellmuth
Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad vs Orel Hershiser
Diamonds Bracket – Top Half
Barry Greenstein vs Vanessa Rousso
Sammy Farha vs Antonio Esfandiari
Jennifer Harman vs Jennifer Tilly
Jerry Yang vs Mike Matusow
Diamonds Bracket – Bottom Half
Darvin Moon vs Bill Huntress
Andy Bloch vs Annie Duke
Andrew Wilson vs Paul Wasicka
Gus Hansen vs Greg Raymer
Rice and Huntress both qualified for the National Heads-Up Poker Championship at the host casino, while Dworski, Edwards, Quinn, Ramirez, and Wilson all won online satellites. The tournament’s first round will play out today, while the second round will take place on Saturday. The quarterfinals, semifinals, and championship match will all pan out on Sunday. Here are today's start times:
Clubs Bracket - 1:30pm PT
Diamonds Bracket - 4:00pm PT
Spades Bracket - 7:00pm PT
Hearts Bracket - 9:30pm PT
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest from Caesars Palace.
Isildur1 Loses $190k in Marathon Session
After getting beat down by Brian Hastings and the Full Tilt crew, he seems to have a new approach to poker in 2010.
Isildur1, who is rumored to be Swede Victor Blom, has been grinding his way back into the big games by playing marathon heads-up battles across multiple tables.
Yesterday Isildur1 played 9,963 hands, which is 6,084 more than Phil Ivey has played over the entire year.
Isildur1's day started with a 2,690 hand heads-up session of $100/$200 No-Limit Hold'em against URnotINdanger2. By the end of this 2.5 hour battle Isildur1 was stuck for $95k.
Up next came 596 hands of $200/$400 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha versus David Benefield and Daniel "FakeSky" Alaei, where Isildur1 made $165k, before moving to a heads-up table to continue the game with just Benefield.
Benefield and Isildur1 played 971 hands of Cap PLO with Isildur1 up $167,861. The two rivals then moved their game to a regular $200/$400 PLO table where they stayed for another 3,106 hands.
By the end of the massive session Benefield had ground back $94,240.
Despite having played over 7,000 hands so far, Isildur1 wasn't anywhere near finished. Unknown online player skjervoy beat Isildur1 for $77k over 982 hands of $100/$200 PLO.
In a final surge of activity Isildur1 won $19,000 over 644 hands of Cap PLO and lost $275k against Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn in 973 hands of $200/$400 PLO.
At this point Isildur1 finally called it, ending the day down $190,369.
Below you'll find three of Isildur1's biggest hands of the day, or head to MarketPulse for more.
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David Benefield and Isildur1 in a wild marathon session
Isildur1 is infamous of his overly long playing sessions and last night was no exception. Isildur1 has played over 13,500(!) hands in the last 24 hours. Most of the hands were played against David Benefield.
Benefield and Isildur1 played for quite many hours in six $200/$400 PLO tables until Benefield had to stop:
David Benefield: i need a break
David Benefield: not used to these long sessions
Isildur1: k im to tired for break
Isildur1: then i go to bed
…
Cole South: up for a match?
Isildur1: ok
Isildur1: or no
Isildur1: tomorrow mb hjave to sleep
Highstakesdb recorded amazing 13,517 hands for Isildur1 in the last 24 hours. He won $303.242. Benefield played 8895 hands and lost $30.925, so it seems that their heads up match was quite even.
The biggest pot of the evening. Turn all-in, Benefield takes down $177k pot with a full house:
Source: Highstakesdb
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NBC Releases 2010 Heads-Up Bracket
The two PokerStars pros have both been hot over the last 12 months with millions of dollars in combined tournament earnings.
Some of the other marquee first round matches include Phil Hellmuth vs. Howard Lederer, Peter Eastgate vs. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Brock Parker vs. Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey vs. Gavin Smith.
In total there will be 32 heads-up matches played in the first round.
NBC once again separated the players into four brackets – Hearts, Clubs, Spades and Diamonds – with the winner of each bracket booking a seat in the semifinals.
The tournament begins today at 1 p.m. PT. Be sure to check out our live updates of the event.
Here is the complete line-up for the first round of the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Championship:
Clubs:
Patrik Antonius vs. Chris Moneymaker
Leo Wolpert vs. Eric Baldwin
David Williams vs. Joe Cada
Erik Seidel vs. Huck Seed
Dan Ramirez vs. Erick Lindgren
Peter Eastgate vs. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
Stephen Quinn vs. Ted Forrest
Dario Minieri vs. Jamie Gold
Spades:
Gavin Smith vs. Phil Ivey
Richard Edwards vs. Scotty Nguyen
Shawn Rice vs. Joe Hachem
Gabe Kaplan vs. Johnny Chan
Daniel Negreanu vs. Jason Mercier
Pieter de Korver vs. Mike Sexton
Phil Gordon vs. Tom Dwan
Phil Laak vs. John Juanda
Hearts:
Jesper Hougaard vs. Allen Cunningham
Eli Elezra vs. Greg Mueller
Annette Dworski vs. Craig Ferguson
Kara Scott vs. Dennis Phillips
Doyle Brunson vs. Brock Parker
JP Kelly vs. Don Cheadle
Howard Lederer vs. Phil Hellmuth
Annette Obrestad vs. Orel Hershiser
Diamonds:
Barry Greenstein vs. Vanessa Rousso
Sam Farha vs. Antonio Esfandiari
Jennifer Harman vs. Jennifer Tilly
Jerry Yang vs. Mike Matusow
Darvin Moon vs. Bill Huntress
Andy Bloch vs. Annie Duke
Andrew Wilson vs. Paul Wasicka
Gus Hansen vs. Greg Raymer
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