Poker News

Schwartz Joins Premier League IV Lineup

 “I can’t wait to get to Vegas and crush the field in the PartyPoker.com Premier League,” said Schwartz.

Schwartz will join the already announced Phil Hellmuth, J.C. Tran, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Roland De Wolfe in the $100,000 buy-in tournament. This is the first time the shootout-style event has been held in Vegas.

Despite the number of skilled poker players, Schwartz likes his chances in the event.

“For sure there are some big names playing but I have to be a huge favorite,” he said. “They need to know that I’m coming with my sharky hat and it’s gonna be a whole week of soul owning from Full Flush.

Schwartz made a name for himself playing online as Full Flush on Full Tilt Poker and beating some of the best online players, including Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond for over a million.

He was perhaps most well-known for his tirades where he would refer to Dwan as “durrrr-balls” and the entire online high stakes community as “OMGweNerds” in the chatbox.

He made the final table of another well-known PartyPoker tournament last year – the World Open V – but was eventually ousted in fourth when his A-T failed against Austrian qualifier Jan Veit’s K-J.

According to PartyPoker officials they were reluctant to add the controversial young player.

“We did a lot of soul searching rather than soul owning before deciding to invite Luke into the Premier League,” said a PartyPoker spokesperson. “The fact is that he is a great player and he will certainly ignite the line-up and we haven’t even completed it yet.”

More players will be announced to the Premier League IV in the coming weeks.

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Everest Poker Announces Live the Dream Team

The online poker site Everest Poker has awarded 10 of its most talented and active players with a $100,000 contract as part of its Live the Dream promotional event in Vienna, Austria. The winners outlasted 190 other hopefuls in a series of live tournaments, cash games, and interviews to lock up a one-year sponsorship contract.

Over 50,000 players participated in the Live the Dream online qualifications from September to December, with 200 making the cut to take part in the final live event on January 9th and 10th. Participants were judged on a series of tests evaluating their live and online poker skill levels and brand ambassador qualities. At the final event, a judging panel comprised of players, press, and poker professionals awarded each finalist points for online poker skills, live poker abilities, ambassador quality, and a newly added criteria of popular voting.

The 10 Live The Dream winners will represent Everest Poker at tournaments all over the world in 2010, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in Las Vegas, and will receive over $30,000 in travel expenses as part of packages totaling $100,000.

Here are the 10 members of the Everest Poker Live the Dream team:

Fabien "SchumyFab" Perrot (France): A financial advisor who switched from cash games to No Limit Hold'em tournaments and had immediate success. Perrot has wins in Everest's largest-ever online guaranteed tournament – the $500,000 Guaranteed – and the $50,000 Guaranteed during Everest Poker’s Winterfest.

Leonard "leoledingo" Truche (France): A former physical education teacher for special needs and disabled children, Leo honed his tournament game and actually qualified for Live the Dream twice via the All-France Live the Dream direct entry. He recently finished third in the Everest Poker $100,000 Guaranteed and has also won the $30,000 and $25,000 Guaranteed tournaments.

Julien "Garrincho54" Claudepierre (France): After graduating with an engineering degree, Claudepierre took a shot at a poker career and can now be found playing as high as $25/$50 No Limit Hold'em cash games on Everest.

Ronny "Spadesman" Pickard (Germany): His dream is to play in the WSOP Main Event. Now, he'll get his chance. Pickard is a banker that spends a good part of his free time playing online poker. He qualified for the Live the Dream Team via the Summit Point Leaderboard.

Tobias "Tobestar11" Wagner (Germany): At 26-years old, Wagner began his poker career online with Everest just two years ago, grinding away at the lowest cash game levels, eventually graduating to higher-stakes ring games and the top of the VIP Summit Club. He is a student majoring in English and Physical Education.

Koen "koendb" de Bakker (Netherlands): Earned his spot on the Live the Dream Team by topping the sit and go leaderboards. Koen travels the poker circuit already and made trips to 10 different international events in 2009. He is also working on completing an Economics degree.

Javier "elflacokanu" Martinez (Spain):  A civil engineering student who put his academics on hold to pursue a poker career. He still plans on finishing his degree within the next few years. Martinez cashed in a WSOP event in 2008 and made the final table of multiple stops on the Spanish Poker Tour.

Sigurd "TheBigViking" Eskeland (Norway): A 23-year-old teacher, Eskeland got some press during the 2008 WSOP Main Event by holding the tournament chip lead on Day 3. He finished 241st for $35,383.

Thomas "DannyMcCoy" Froslev (Denmark): Will graduate with a Financial Economics degree next June, but spends a good majority of his time playing online at Everest Poker. Froslev is primary a cash game player, but looks forward to cutting his teeth on the tournament circuit in 2010.

Viktoria "SexyGirl" Szlasi (Hungary): The only female member of the group, Szlasi gained live poker experience by qualifying for a $1,000 WSOP event in 2009. She has spent two years sharpening her tournament skills on Everest Poker.

Kevin Saul, Amnon Filippi Among PCA Day 1A Leaders

Day 1A of the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) played out on Tuesday, with 668 players taking to the felts inside the Atlantis Resort and Casino in the Bahamas. Wayne Bentley, a PokerStars qualifier from Britain, leads the way with 329,500 chips.

Bentley nearly amassed 11 times the starting stack of 30,000 in the $10,000 buy-in poker tournament after eight levels of play. He held pocket aces and eliminated a player with pocket kings within the first few minutes of Day 1A, doubling his stack to 60,000, and he never looked back. Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreanu issued the traditional “Shuffle up and deal” command moments earlier. At the end of Day 1A, 430 players remained in the hunt.

Bentley sits comfortably in front of the second place stack of Amnon Filippi, who held a pile of 220,100 chips at the end of Day 1A. The accomplished poker pro was nearly 50,000 chips ahead of online poker pro Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul, the winner of the 2007 installment of the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Bellagio Cup for $1.3 million. Last year, Saul finished eighth in the PCA Main Event for $234,000, outlasting all but seven of the 1,347 players who entered.

Team PokerStars Sports Stars will be out in full force on Wednesday for Day 1B, as German tennis legend Boris Becker, Swedish NHL star Mats Sundin, Dutch hockey pro Fatima De Melo, baseball commentator Orel Hershiser, and U.K. football legend Teddy Sheringham will all take to the felts. Also entering on Day 1B is Mike Kosowski, the winner of Season 1 of the “PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge.” Kosowski earned $1 million after defeating Negreanu heads-up in the finale of the poker game show last month.

2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Nine member Eric Buchman sits in sixth place after Day 1A with 159,100 chips. The PokerStars sponsored player finished fourth in the $10,000 buy-in feature tournament in Las Vegas in November, adding $2.5 million to his net worth. The event was ultimately won by Joe Cada, who will take to the felts for Day 1B today. Joining him will be pros like Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, Humberto Brenes, and Victor Ramdin. Also playing is rapper Nelly, who has become somewhat of a staple on the poker circuit in recent months.

Here were the top ten chip stacks in the Bahamas after the smoke had cleared on Day 1A of the 2010 PCA Main Event:

1. Wayne Bentley - 329,500
2. Amnon Filippi - 220,100
3. Kevin Saul - 175,500
4. Eric Froehlich - 166,000
5. Dustin Dorrance-Bowman - 163,700
6. Eric Buchman - 159,100
7. Garðar Geir Hauksson - 138,900
8. Jacob Avital - 137,700
9. Christian Schwarz - 133,200
10. Rafal Michalowski - 129,300

The PCA is a stop on both the European Poker Tour (EPT) and Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT) and, as such, has attracted a global field. Still remaining after Day 1A are players from the United States, United Kingdom, Iceland, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, Ukraine, Brazil, Canada, Sweden, Mexico, Turks and Caicos, Russia, Finland, Argentina, France, Norway, Switzerland, Slovakia, Poland, Denmark, Hungary, Czech Republic, Ireland, Belgium, New Zealand, Romania, Australia, Slovenia, Greece, Costa Rica, Austria, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Curiously absent is a representative from the host nation, the Bahamas.

Last year’s champion, Poorya Nazari, hails from Canada and nearly tripled his stack on Day 1A. Notable players who survived the first starting day, along with their chip counts, include:

Dennis Phillips – 113,000
Dario Minieri – 109,800
Vivek “Psyduck” Rajkumar – 106,400
Poorya Nazari – 89,300
Barry Greenstein – 89,200
Jeff Madsen – 79,400
John Duthie – 60,100
Marcel Luske – 55,600
Gavin Smith – 54,000
Jean-Robert Bellande – 53,900
Kevin Schaffel – 53,200
Bernard Lee – 46,800
Amit “amak316” Makhija – 42,000
Steven Paul-Ambrose – 37,900
“Miami” John Cernuto – 36,500
Chris “moorman1” Moorman – 34,700
Ivan Demidov – 27,600
Tom McEvoy – 19,900
Huck Seed – 16,000
Jeff “yellowsub” Williams – 13,100

Play wrapped up in Level 8, when blinds were 400-800 with a 100-chip ante. Day 1B will encompass the same eight levels before the field merges for Day 2 on Thursday.

EPT Adds Poker Tournament in Berlin

The European Poker Tour (EPT) recently decided to change up the back half of its Season Six schedule and in lieu of the stop in Dortmund will instead be traveling to Berlin.  The upcoming event promises to be the biggest poker tournament ever held on German soil and has a guaranteed first place prize of €1 million.

The tournament is set to run from March 2nd to 7th following EPT Copenhagen and preceding the new EPT Snowfest stop.  The event will take place at the Spielbank Casino and the EPT’s new home appears eager to pull out all of the stops for its new addition.  Play will be held in a two-story glass palace that will be situated adjacent to the casino in Marlene Dietrich Plaza.  The palace will have more than 6,000 feet of space, which is more than enough space to accommodate the 1,000-plus players expected to take part.  In addition to the Main Event, there will also be a number of side events that will get underway on the third day of play.

The buy-in for the Main Event will be €5,000 + €300.  With the guaranteed first place prize of €1 million, there is potential for an overlay, but even without one, the stop is poised to offer one of the biggest prize pools on the tour.  The entirety of Team PokerStars Germany will be attendance, including Sandra Naujoks, who won the Season Five stop in Dortmund last year, earning €917,000 for her efforts.  Other players scheduled to play in the event include tennis star Boris Becker and Jan Heitmann.

Dortmund was a regular stop on the EPT starting in Season Three and last year it drew a rather large field of 667 players, putting it behind only San Remo and the Grand Final in Monte Carlo in terms of attendance.  EPT staff is confident the new location in Germany is going to be even more popular than Dortmund, so Naujoks will likely have to contend with a larger field in order to defend her title.  Last year, she bested a tough final table lineup that included online poker pro Michael “Timex” McDonald, William Thorson, Johan Storakers, and Luca Pagano.

Pagano already has an incredible six EPT final tables to his credit, including two in the most recent season.  He logged a fourth place showing at EPT Warsaw and then picked up a sixth place finish at EPT Prague just over one month later.  He is the current leader on the EPT Tournament Leaderboard with 3,419 points, but Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier is hot on his heels with 3,354.

The Berlin stop is the third new location on the EPT Season Six schedule.  The other two cities, Vilamoura, Portugal and Kiev, Ukraine, already held events earlier in the season, drawing 322 and 296 players, respectively.  The upcoming EPT Snowfest is also a new addition to the schedule and will get underway shortly after Berlin wraps up.

EPT Snowfest will be held at the Alpine Palace Hotel in the Saalbach-Hinterglemm area of the Austrian Alps.  That series of events will run from March 21st to 26th.

Everest Poker Offers Players a Chance to Live the Dream

Popular poker room Everest Poker is aiming to kick off 2010 in style with the second installment of its Live the Dream promotion.  The contest gives qualifiers the chance to compete for one of ten sponsorship deals worth over $100,000.

Players could qualify for the event in one of three ways: tournament leaderboard races, cash game loyalty points races, or by direct-entry tournaments open to various countries.  The qualifying process is now over, but more than 200 players advanced to the next round of the promotion’s process.

The qualifiers are now being reviewed by Everest Poker staff to assess their poker skills, viability as a sponsored representative of the site, and popularity among the users of Everest Poker.  Players set up profiles on Everest Poker’s official website and others are able to view and vote on their favorite players.  Of the 200 plus qualifying players, 58 hailed from France, while Germany posted the second largest number of players with 29.  Other countries represented in the contest include Hungary, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Britain, and Sweden.

The next step for qualifiers is to meet the Everest Poker staff in person.  Qualifiers will travel to the Palais Auersberg in Vienna, Austria for the final step before the top ten winners are selected.  Players who travel to Austria will be divided into two groups.  Group A begins the first day with five-minute taped interviews.  While players wait to be interviewed, they will be playing each other in cash games.  Meanwhile, Group B will play in sit and go tournaments.  After a brief break for lunch, the two groups will switch tasks.  At the end of the day, most of the players will be dismissed, but the top 20 will be asked to come back Sunday for an even more intensive interview process.

The top 20 will take part in 20-minute long interviews that will be reviewed by both Everest Poker staff and a panel of industry judges.  The top ten winners will be announced after dinner and will commence their year-long affiliation with the site with an official press conference.  As part of their deal, players will receive more than $30,000 to cover travel expenses as they travel the international poker circuit.  All ten of the players are set to take part in a number of tournaments, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event.

The first Living the Dream contest took part in 2008.  Some of the promotional winners included Steven van Zadlehoff of the Netherlands, Voitto Rintala of Finland, and Pablo Ubierna of Spain.  Prior to winning the Living the Dream promotion, Van Zadlehoff was already beginning to establish himself as a skilled poker player with a seventh place finish at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Spanish Championship in 2007 and an 11th place finish at the first annual WSOP Europe.  He also has five WSOP cashes to his credit.

Van Zadlehoff commented on his Live the Dream experience on Everest Poker’s official site.  ”If you get sent to the rails, you just look ahead to the next tournament and your next win. Live The Dream built more than my bankroll. It built my career,” he extolled.  Ubierna and Rintala echoed the sentiments, with all three agreeing that Live the Dream was a life changing and career-making opportunity.

Bwin Downplays Party Gaming Merger Talks

Party Gaming and Austria-based gambling group Bwin are allegedly involved in merger discussions, according to stories published in The Times and Sunday Times over the weekend. The move would potentially create a £2 billion online poker, casino, and sports betting company.

Shares of Party Gaming and Bwin jumped 2.5% and 4.1%, respectively, on Monday morning after the reports broke. Both companies have similar market value; Party Gaming is worth £1.1 billion, while Bwin is valued at about €1.3 billion.

Party Gaming and Bwin have refused to confirm the story, according eGaming Review. Bwin, Europe's biggest sports betting provider, said it wanted to take part in sector consolidation, but added that it is in talks with everyone in the industry on an ongoing basis and was not in advanced talks with Party Gaming. The Austrian group also told Reuters that it is not in advanced merger talks with anyone.

Party Gaming, meanwhile, has been looking for a major sports betting platform for years despite acquiring Gamebookers in 2006 for £102 million. The company has openly stated its determination to hunt for a bigger target in order to become a leading sports book operator and complement its online poker, casino and bingo platforms.

James Hollins at brokerage Daniel Stewart said a Bwin-Party Gaming merger would be “exceptionally strategically compelling," adding, "the combined groups' poker operations would drive clear scale economies and liquidity to compete squarely against the U.S.-facing giants of PokerStars and Full Tilt.”

Analyst Nick Batram at KBC Hunt is confident that a large deal is in the near future: "There was lots of press comment over the weekend suggesting that Bwin and Party Gaming have held informal merger talks. This doesn't come as a surprise, as online groups frequently talk informally. However, we believe that the recent sector consolidation will gain momentum through 2010 and it is only a matter of time before we see further sizable deals."

Party Gaming has been busy in deal making talks as several countries are in the process of regulating online gambling, most importantly the United States. In November, Party Gaming purchased the World Poker Tour (WPT), with many believing the company was attempting to set itself up for a return to the U.S market. Party Gaming’s Chief Marketing Officer, Chris Welch, later verified that idea: “This is the first step toward us returning to the United States."

WPT announcer and PartyPoker spokesperson Mike Sexton agreed, saying, “We all think [the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is going to be reversed] at some point. It’s just a matter of when. I’m convinced we’re going to see another poker explosion like we saw six years ago. It’ll be second to none.”

Party Gaming was reportedly involved in buyout talks with GigaMedia Limited earlier this year, but nothing developed. GigaMedia is the company behind the online poker site Everest Poker. Party Gaming purchased Cashcade, owner of the Foxy Bingo website, in July to enhance its own online bingo site, PartyBingo.

PartyGaming to merger with Bwin?

The purchase of WPT was just the beginning for PartyGaming in a quest of becoming the biggest poker site in the world, again. The next step apparently is adding sports book to their supply, as the company has started merger talks with Austrian gambling company Bwin.

PartyGaming is set to welcome Bwin.

The merger would create a huge gambling company worth of £2 billion. Talks about the merger have been held on and off since the summer. If the two sides can agree a tie-up, the deal would be a merger of equals, as the value of both companies are about the same.

PartyGaming is currently offering poker and casino games. The merger, that is expected to be clarified early this week, of PartyGaming and Bwin would be logical, because PartyGaming is looking for new revenues from sports betting, something that Bwin is good at.

PartyGaming has been looking for expanding their business recently under CEO Jim Ryan. Before the UIGEA was set PartyGaming was estimated being worth of £5 billion, nearly 90% of its revenues coming from America. Closing their American operations lost them huge share of poker markets.

Everything is pointing to a fact that PartyGaming is preparing a return to US market. Mike Sexton, the WPT announcer and PartyPoker spokesperson told cardplayer.com that people at PartyPoker are sure UIGEA will be reversed and it will start a poker boom like six years ago, When Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP main event.

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PartyGaming to merger with Bwin?

EPT Vilamoura under way

The first European Poker Tour event to be held in Portugal got under way in Vilamoura yesterday with Ljubomir Josipovic leading the way at the end of Day 1A. The Austrian heads the 76 remaining players with a stack of 192,900.

Zhivago2, Obiedman Win FTOPS XIV Poker Titles

Full Tilt Poker’s 14th installment of its Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) came to a close Monday morning when a champion was crowned in the $535 buy-in Main Event. Austria’s “zhivago2” outlasted a record-setting field to earn a payday of $418,839 and the gold FTOPS jersey.

Full Tilt’s newest team member, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, hosted what would ultimately be the largest Main Event in FTOPS history, attracting 5,471 players for a prize pool of $2,735,500. Nearly 70 Full Tilt Red Pros took part in the historic event, with Dave Colclough’s 250th place finish topping them all. Brandon Adams, Jeff Madsen, Gary Jones, and Soren Kongsgaard were the other Red Pros to make the money.

Former Full Tilt Red Pro Adam Junglen was the biggest name to reach the final table, which got underway at around 7:00am ET after an exhausting 11 hours of play. Junglen entered the final table third in chips, trailing “kinheim” and eventual champion zhivago2. Andrew “bankrollme87″ Touchette was fourth in chips as the final nine was formed, but the online pro was sent to the rail in sixth place when he got all of his chips in on a 9s-8d-6s board with 9d-3d against the 9h-7h of “ItsTime2Win.” The better kicker held up and Touchette exited with $90,271.50.

After kinheim (fifth place, $131,167) and “dfunks222” (fourth place, $175,072) were eliminated, the final three players agreed to a deal that would secure a payout of at least $290,000 for each of them. With some extra money set aside for the winner, Junglen and zhivago2 got tangled up in a pre-flop raising war that would end the pro’s tournament life. ItsTime2Win raised from the button, zhivago2 called, and Junglen three-bet to 1.4 million from the big blind. ItsTime2Win folded and zhivago2 put the pressure on Junglen by moving all-in. Junglen called with pocket sixes and was in a race against zhivago2’s Qs-Jh. The Jd-8h-5d flop left Junglen needing help, but the turn and river were of no assistance and he collected $290,418 for his third place finish.

zhivago2 took a sizable lead into heads-up play and was able to finish off ItsTime2Win after a lengthy match. On the final hand, zhivago2 bet two million on a 9h-5c-2d board and ItsTime2Win moved all-in for around 11 million. zhivago2 called with pocket jacks and was in great shape against the Ac-3c of ItsTime2Win. The 6c and 3h came on the turn and river, respectively, and zhivago2 was the new FTOPS Main Event champion. ItsTime2Win earned $316,554 as the runner-up.

Here’s a look at the final results from the FTOPS XIV Main Event:

1. zhivago2 – $418,839.16
2. ItsTime2Win – $316,554.40
3. Adam Junglen – $290,418.94
4. dfunks222 – $175,072
5. kinheim – $131,167.23
6. Andrew “bankrollme87″ Touchette – $90,271.50
7. nuts7878 – $58,813.25
8. Valuechecking – $41,032.50
9. Dr Fill Good – $28,722.75

The biggest prize of the FTOPS XIV series went to “obiedman,” who won the Two-Day $2,500+$120 No Limit Hold’em Event #22 on Sunday. A 938-player field of the best online tournament players in the world participated to create a prize pool of $2,345,000.

Full Tilt Red Pro Gary Jones had the chip lead late into the tournament and earned a seat at the final table, but found himself short with four players remaining and moved his remaining stack in with Ad-3c. “Timvd20” called with pocket fours and the pair held up to eliminate Jones in fourth place for $193,463. Timvd20 was the next player to hit the rail after losing much of his stack to obiedman and then running pocket threes into the pocket aces of “Supa4real.”

An entertaining heads-up ended with each player holding trip queens on a Qc-Qd-9d board. However, obiedman’s Js kicker bested the 10s kicker of his opponent and obiedman made a full house with the Jc on the river to win the Event #22 title and $539,350. Supa4real, who also final tabled the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Two-Day Main Event in September, earned his largest online cash to date of $340,025.

Here are the results from FTOPS XIV Event #22:

1. obiedman – $539,350
2. Supa4real – $340,025
3. Timvd20 – $252,088
4. Gary Jones – $193,463
5. the_real_magic – $146,563
6. TheAlligatorNo1 – $105,525
7. Ahvall – $70,350
8. DanOBrien – $54,873
9. Rabbit_hunterSA – $39,865

Full EPT Season 6 Schedule Announced, Features Snowfest Stop

Come one, come all to the first ever European Poker Tour (EPT) Snowfest stop, scheduled to take place from March 21st to 26th at the Alpine PalaceSaalbach-Hinterglemm ski resort in Austria.

EPT Snowfest was part of the second half of the schedule of the roving tournament series released this week. The six latest additions bring the total number of tournaments to a baker’s dozen. The Austria event takes place at one of the country’s premier ski resorts, so players who bust out can hit the slopes in earnest to burn off tilt. PokerStars is offering prize packages to the event that include its €3,750 buy-in, bus transfer to and from the airport in Salzburg, and a six-day ski package complete with lift tickets and snow attire.

The Snowfest event seems to parallel the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, also a stop on the EPT circuit, in that the poker tournament takes a back seat to the bevy of extracurricular activities available. As was the case in London, several stops on the upcoming EPT schedule will feature a “Festival of Poker,” as founder John Duthie outlined in a press release distributed by PokerStars: “There has been huge enthusiasm for the new EPT schedule and also for the bigger ‘Festivals of Poker’ like the one we held in London and will be holding at the PCA, Sanremo, and Monte Carlo events.”

Nine locales make up the remainder of the sixth season of the EPT. Next up for players and tournament officials alike is the series’ first ever trip to Portugal for EPT Vilamoura. The €5,300 buy-in event kicks off on November 16th and will crown a champion five days later. Here’s a glimpse at the remaining slate of events:

EPT Portugal: November 16th to 21st
Casino Vilamoura
€5,000 + €300 buy-in
Cap: 600

EPT Prague: December 1st to 6th
Golden Prague Poker
€5,000 + €250 buy-in
Cap: 600

PokerStars Caribbean Adventure: January 4th to 14th
Atlantis Resort and Casino
$10,000 + $300 buy-in
Cap: 1,600

EPT Deauville: January 20th to 25th
Casino Barrière de Deauville
€5,000 + €300 buy-in
Cap: 600

EPT Copenhagen: February 16th to 21st
Casino Copenhagen
35,000 + 2,250 DKK buy-in
Cap: 500

EPT Germany: March 2nd to 7th
Details Not Yet Announced

EPT Snowfest: March 21st to 26th
Alpine PalaceSaalbach-Hinterglemm
€3,500 + €250 buy-in
Cap: 500

EPT Sanremo: April 15th to 21st
Casino Sanremo
€5,000 + €300 buy-in
Cap: Not Yet Announced

EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final: April 25th to 30th
Monte Carlo
€10,000 + €600 buy-in
Cap: 1,000

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is also a stop on the current season of the PokerStars-sponsored Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT). The event is sure to break nearly every record that the LAPT has to offer and is regularly one of the largest live tournaments held outside of the United States. In 2009, a record-breaking 1,347 players participated in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event and Canadian Poorya Nazari emerged victorious, banking $3 million for his efforts. A total of 746 PokerStars qualifiers were in the field, or 55% of those in action.

Four events have taken place so far during the EPT’s sixth season. Maxim Lykov bested the field in Kiev, a tournament that replaced the Russian Poker Open after casinos in the latter country were shut down. Then, American Carter Phillips outlasted his opponents in Barcelona and Aaron Gustavson triumphed over the field in London. Wrapping up two weeks ago was EPT Warsaw, which Christophe Benzimra took down for 1.5 million PLN.

Stay tuned for the latest updates from the EPT, LAPT, and other tournament series right here on Poker News Daily.

EPT 6 second-half schedule released

The major change to the schedule sees the addition of a new event in the Austrian Alps - the first 'EPT Snowfest' in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, running March 21-26, 2010.

Saalbach-Hinterglemm is one of Austria's premier ski areas and PokerStars qualifiers will also win a six-day ski package for this event.

Traditional stops in France, Denmark, Italy and the Grand Final in Monaco remain on the schedule, but the German leg of the tour will see a city and venue change.

The EPT will not be returning to Dortmund and although the new location has yet to be finalized, it appears it will likely be held in Berlin or Hamburg.

The second half of the schedule will also see the addition of several side events.

"There has been huge enthusiasm for the new EPT schedule and also for the bigger 'Festivals of Poker' like the one we held in London, and will be holding at the PCA, San Remo and Monte Carlo events," said EPT CEO John Duthie.

"The spectacular success of the EPT London Poker Festival a few weeks ago shows that players really relish the chance to play more side events, with a variety of games and buy-ins."

Last season's EPT proved a success with 11 events generating an overall prize pool of almost €55 million - more than any other poker tour.

Almost 8,000 players from 97 countries participated and with 13 events now on the schedule for Season 6, organizers believe the EPT is certain to smash records again.

Online satellites for EPT Portugal and the Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure are running now and others are planned in the coming months for future events.

Below is a look at the remainder of the EPT schedule. For more information the EPT website can be found here.

Tournament	Date	Venue	Buy-in	Cap
EPT Portugal	Nov. 17-22, 2009	Vilamoura	€5,000+300	600
EPT Prague	Dec. 1-6, 2009	Hilton	€5,000+250	600
PCA	Jan. 4-14, 2010	Atlantis	$10,000+300	1,600
EPT Deauville	Jan. 20-25, 2010	Casino Barriere de Deauville	€5,000+300	600
EPT Copenhagen	Feb. 16-21, 2010	Casino Copenhagen	35,000+2,250DKK	500
EPT Germany	Mar. 2-7, 2010	TBC	TBC	TBC
EPT Snowfest	Mar. 21-26, 2010	Alpin Palace Saalbach-Hinterglemm	€3,500+300	500
EPT San Remo	April 15-21, 2010	Casino San Remo	€5,000+300	TBC
EPT Grand Final	April 25-May 1, 2010	Sporting Club Monte Carlo	€10,000+600	1,000

 

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Phil Ivey Appears on the Cover of ESPN: The Magazine

2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine member Phil Ivey graces the cover of the November 2nd issue of ESPN: The Magazine. The expose, entitled “4 Days, 3 Nights, $1 Million,” chronicles Ivey’s jet-setting exploits at the craps tables in casinos around the world.

Chad Millman followed Ivey from Foxwoods to Austria, with his article explaining Ivey’s stature in the industry: “Phil Ivey is a poker pro, but to call him that limits the scope of his game. It’s like saying Jay-Z is just a rapper. Ivey is an all-around player, a man with the need and nerve to wager obscene amounts on poker, pro and college sports, craps, or his own golf game.”

The tale began at Foxwoods in Connecticut, where Ivey, a whale, was put up in the Mashantucket Suite, a two-story gem. Instead of heading to play poker, his bread and butter, Ivey hit the craps tables in a private room, ordering the most expensive bottle of wine in the house (worth $2,100) to get the evening started off on the right foot. After 25 minutes at the table, Ivey was up $185,000, betting $30,000 to $50,000 per place bet. The wine didn’t even arrive until Ivey was ready to head out, leading Millman to comment, “We [got] it to go.”

After Ivey’s personal jet was grounded in Groton-New London Airport, the facility’s manager came out armed with a magazine featuring Ivey on its cover. On aviation officials questioning Ivey’s erratic flight pattern, he noted, “I guess they don’t know you.” Ivey signed the airport manager’s magazine copy before the poker pro and November Nine member tipped him $1,000 for having “to stay open so late.”

In Montreal, the crew headed to the local casino, where Ivey cashed a check for $1 million to seed his bankroll. Shortly after the start of his craps session, Ivey had bled $360,000. Then, Chris “Gotti” Lorenzo, his manager, took to the felt and rolled point after point, number after number, boosting Ivey’s arsenal of chips to $2.5 million after just 20 minutes of play. Then, Millman stepped up and lost Ivey $240,000 after hitting a seven with several place bets out. Ultimately, Ivey left Montreal up $752,000, or nearly $1 million after just 24 hours on the trip.

Ivey and company then headed for Amsterdam, where Millman painted a picture of Ivey’s social life: “Now that he’s made the WSOP’s final table, Lorenzo has pushed him to pull back the curtain a bit. He’s an A-list celeb among A-list celebs, texting with Michael Phelps about attending D.C. charity events, going backstage with Jay-Z, golfing with Michael Jordan.”

Millman also recapped the source of some of Ivey’s wealth, explaining that he took $16.6 million off of billionaire Andy Beal as part of the “Corporation” three years ago. He continued, “Last year, [Ivey] reportedly won more than $7 million online. And while he has already won $1.2 million for making the final table – and stands to earn $8 million more if he wins it all – he’s made side bets worth another $4 million with people who doubt him.”

The article also spotlighted several aspects of Ivey’s unique high-stakes lifestyle. Besides jet-setting around the world seemingly at will, Ivey drives an SLR McLaren worth $500,000 and a Rolls-Royce Phantom worth $400,000. He lives on a golf course in Las Vegas and put his sister through law school. He’s one of the key faces behind Full Tilt, the second largest online poker room in the world. Ivey’s “office,” so to speak, contains three computer monitors, five flat-screen televisions, and the arcade version of Pac-Man.

The journey ended with a Full Tilt Poker function in Salzburg and the poker pro having earned a crisp $1 million over the course of four days. Check out the November 2nd issue of ESPN The Magazine featuring Ivey.

Unabomber blows up at World Open V

Laak is one of the most recognizable faces in poker, but hasn't had anything resembling a big score since winning an episode of Poker After Dark in 2007.

"This was a wild roller coaster ride and I am proud to have shared it with this amazing cast of characters," said Laak. "They were a tough bunch. Wow - what an honor."

Laak beat Austrian qualifier Jan Veit in heads-up play to win the $250,000 first place prize.

The invitation-only World Poker Open V began with 48 players, including Tom Dwan, Roland De Wolfe and James Akenhead, all of whom were eliminated in the preliminary heats.

By the time the dust had settled in the prelims, Laak, Schwartz, Sexton, Tilly, Andy Black, Bodo Sbrzesny and Veit had booked seats at Thursday's final table.

After a slow start to the final, Black jumped out to the early lead, but was surprisingly the first casualty when he dipped into short stack territory and shoved K-J into Laak's A-7.

Sexton, who was also officially announced as the lone 2009 inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame Thursday, was the next to go when he shoved pocket eights into Veit's pair of kings.

Tilly then found her way to the rail after going all in with A-J and having Veit wake up with pocket nines.

Veit continued to pick up steam when he eliminated PartyPoker grassroots pro Sbrzesny in fourth place, leaving himself, Laak and Schwartz to fight it out three-handed.

The always-controversial Schwartz endured several bad beats at the final table, including getting it in with A-T against Veit's K J in his final hand. Veit went runner-runner to river a flush and bust him third.

Laak and Veit entered heads-up play with nearly equal stacks, but it took just one hand to decide their fate.

Veit got all-in with A-4 on the first hand heads-up and Laak made the call with A-8. An eight on the flop was enough to give Laak the checkmark and a severely out-chipped Veit was forced to shove with J-7 the very next hand.

Laak made the call with Q-9, the board bricked and that was enough to secure Laak the title and $250k prize.

Here are the complete final table payouts for the PartyPoker World Open V:

1. Phil Laak - $250,000
2. Jan Veit - $100,000
3. Luke Schwartz - $40,000
4. Bodo Sbrzesny - $30,000
5. Jennifer Tilly - $25,000
6. Mike Sexton - $20,000
7. Andy Black - $15,000

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Titan Poker offering $50k in October

The Titan Turbo begins on Oct. 5 with the first of the online poker room's weekly one-day tournament player races.

These races rank players based on their tournament participation on that particular day and Titan will award $1,000 to the busiest player each week.

In addition, the top 100 players from the five races will win seats in a special Titan freeroll tournament, which will take place Oct. 31.

The top three players at that tournament will each win a $5,000 prize package to play in the Euro City Poker Tour's Malta event, which will take place at Casino di Venezia on Nov. 13-15.

Jacob Chen collected €47,000 for winning the last ECPT event, held in Salzburg, Austria.

Titan will also offer a cash game version of the Titan Turbo with four-day races ranking players by the amount of Titan points they generate.

The cash game races also begin Oct. 5 and will award $5,000 in cash every week to players finishing on top of the leaderboards.

The overall top 100 players in the cash games races will be entered into a final, one-day Titan Turbo race on Oct. 31, which will award $10,000 in prizes to top ranking players.

To level the playing field for new poker players, and those who have not yet achieved VIP status, Titan will double a first place prize amount won by any Bronze-level player in the cash game races.

Full details for Titan Poker's October promotions are available on the room's website.

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Isabelle Mercier Signs With BetClick

Last week we told that Isabelle Mercier got booted from PokerStars. Well, it was a hasty assumption as we now know that Mercier just signed to BetClick, which is part of Mangas Gaming.

Isabelle Mercier is now a BetClick Lady

BetClick is better known from its sporting bet side, but now they’re trying to expand to Poker and they’re opening new sites in Belgium, Hungary, Netherlands, Czech Republic and Romania until the end of October.

BetClick’s mother company, Mangas Gaming, is quite big in Scandinavia, Germany and Austria. Mangas has been expanding largely lately as they just bought expekt.com.

BetClick isn’t even trying to grow as big as PokerStars, but are just trying to expand their Poker resources a bit. With Isabelle Mercier, BetClick will get a famous Poker face to promote their fresh activities.

Source: Egrmagazine

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Isabelle Mercier Signs With BetClick

Tiffany Michelle, Maria Ho May Compete on Amazing Race

Poker News Daily can confirm that Ultimate Bet Star Player Tiffany Michelle will compete on the upcoming season of the CBS reality series “Amazing Race,” according to anonymous sources inside the industry. The show debuts on September 27th at 8:00pm ET following “60 Minutes.” Michelle’s partner, according to Bluff Magazine and various television news outfits, is Maria Ho.

The upcoming season is the 15th for the “Amazing Race,” which pits teams of two against each other for a race around the world – literally. Last season, contestants traveled to diverse destinations that included Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Romania, Russia, India, Thailand, and China before crossing the finish line at the King Kamehameha Golf Club in Maui, Hawaii. Michelle and Ho represent the last women standing in the 2008 and 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Events, respectively. Michelle gained notoriety last year by calling the clock during a hand she wasn’t involved in, an act that was criticized by tablemate and November Nine member Craig Marquis.

An e-mail sent to Michelle seeking comment about the rumors resulted in an auto-response that read, “I’ll be off shooting for the next month, till mid August, and may be away from my computer and out of touch during that time.” An image that appeared on RealityFanForum.com showed Ho at Los Angeles International Airport allegedly for the start of “Amazing Race.” In a blog entry dated June 27th, Michelle indicated that she would not defend her title of Last Woman Standing in the Main Event: “It’d have to be something pretty big to deter me from the WSOP Championship Event this year and trust me, IT IS! I can’t disclose much right now, but I’ll be leaving the country to film a project for a month and it conflicts with the Main Event.”

In May, Jean-Robert Bellande, who appeared on CBS’ “Survivor: China” in 2007, posted on the online poker forum TwoPlusTwo that “two hot poker girls” were wanted for an “upcoming reality show.” Bellande, a Bodog pro, noted that the ideal candidate is “a respected pro, young, hot, single, [and] engaging.” The Bad Boy of Poker suggested Kristy Gazes and Team PokerStars Pro member Vanessa Rousso, although the latter is engaged to Chad Brown. Last season on the “Amazing Race,” former NFL cheerleaders Jaime and Cara finished as the runner-ups to siblings and lawyers Tammy and Victor.

A representative from Ultimate Bet told Poker News Daily, “I know Tiffany is away working on a project, but unfortunately that is all we know at this point. We can’t comment on any such rumors.” Michelle signed with the Tokwiro-owned online poker room one year ago, joining a Team UB roster that includes Adam “Roothlus” Levy, Brandon Cantu, Gary “debo34” Debernardi, “Hollywood” Dave Stann, Matt “mattg1983” Graham, Michael Binger, Mark “P0ker H0″ Kroon, Scott Ian, and Shawn “westtexasman” Rice. The site’s two main faces are 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth and “Celebrity Apprentice” runner-up Annie Duke.

At the Dream Team Poker event held at Caesars Palace in March, Michelle and Ho joined forces to bring Team Yo Mama to life. The all-female squad also featured Lacey Jones. No female team has ever won “Amazing Race,” which first aired in 2001. That season, contestants traveled 35,000 miles around the world, led by Rob and Brennan. For its 11th season, favorites from the first 10 cycles of “Amazing Race” convened for a special All-Stars edition. Notable teams included Rob and Amber of “Survivor” fame and Season 7 winners Uchenna and Joyce, who were eliminated at the end of the ninth leg.

During each episode, teams compete in “Detours,” which is a choice between two tasks, each with its own pros and cons. In addition, they’ll stumble upon “Road Blocks,” which are challenges that only one team member can perform. Each “Detour” and “Road Block” typically focuses on the local culture, giving the show a unique flair. New Zealander Phil Keoghan serves as its host and the show will return to its Sunday night timeslot on September. “Amazing Race” serves as the lead-in for the new CBS drama “Three Rivers.”

Return of KaiBuxxe? Jedlicka wins $1 million

His name was Niki "KaiBuxxe" Jedlicka and in 2007 he went on the mother of all PLO heaters eventually winning $3.2 million for the year.

Unfortunately for the young Austrian all good things must come to an end and, thanks to a combination of poor table selection (hello Phil Ivey!) and poor bankroll management, Jedlicka soon donated a great deal of his winnings back to the other high stakes sharks.

Suffice to say, Jedlicka disappeared from the high stakes online games for a while.

But last night he tried to make up for lost time by winning over $1 million from players like Tom Dwan, David Benyamine, David "Raptor" Benefield, Cole South and Patrik Antonius.

Playing a combination of $200/$400 6-Max PLO and $300/$600 6-Max PLO, Jedlicka was able to drag several monster pots worth over $100,000 each. In his biggest win, Jedlicka rivered the nut-straight on a Q J 5 J T board to win $161,447.

On the other side of things, Dwan was the biggest loser, dropping close to $850,000, which was close to the total amount he won the day before. After being down nearly $4 million earlier this year, Dwan is still up over $1 million in 2009.

The high stakes PLO games on Full Tilt Poker continue to be incredibly well-populated and it's likely we'll see more action featuring the game's biggest names before the end of the week.

Perhaps it's a combination of the lack of major live tournaments currently running or that players are looking for something to get over the WSOP hangover, but the games are busier than they've been all summer.

We're still waiting on some $500/$1,000 action, however.

You can check out several examples of Jedlicka's work from last night in the PokerListings' hand-replayer below:

Nikki Jedlicka 1

Nikki Jedlicka 2

Nikki Jedlicka 3

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Team CelebPoker in the money in Austria

Holland’s Rein Zijda has marked his move into the world of live tournaments with an impressive third place finish at the Poker Master Main Event in Austria. The 45-year-old Dutchman who is part of Team CelebPoker, collected a cheque for €19,150.

Free Million Dollar Game to kick off WSOPE

The Free Million Dollar Game will include players from 15 regions around the world battling for a $1 million top prize.

There is also the potential to win a £10,000 WSOPE Main Event seat, a £5,000 WSOPE Pot-Limit Omaha seat and a £1,000 WSOPE No-Limit Hold'em seat.

The first step to getting in the game is finding your daily regional freeroll to play. The freerolls started April 13 and will run for 18 weeks.

The regions that will be included in the promotion are:

• United Kingdom: England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland
• Ireland
• Greece/Cyprus
• DE/AUT/CH: Germany, Austria, Switzerland
• Spain/Portugal
• Italy
• Eastern Europe: Bulgaria, Czech. Rep., Romania, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Slovakia, Croatia, Slovenia
• Denmark
• Sweden
• Norway
• Finland
• France/Belgium
• Russia
• Rest of World (ROW)
• Canada

The top 18 players from each daily regional freeroll will advance to the weekly regional freeroll.

There will be 18 weekly regional freerolls, and the winner of each one will win a seat in the live regional final. The prize includes travel and accommodation for the live regional final.

The winner from each of the 15 live regional finals will be sent to London to play in the Free Million Dollar Game final.

Each live regional final will also award cash prizes to second through fifth place:

• 2nd - $1,500
• 3rd - $750
• 4th - $500
• 5th - $250

There are currently unlimited entrees into the daily regional freerolls. Starting May 4, all players will only have one entirely free entry but can earn more entries into the freerolls by earning Betfair Poker points.

For more information about this and other promotions, visit Betfair Poker.

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Embossed Angel Playing Cards Debuted at 2009 PokerNews Cup Alpine

Something felt a little bit different this past week, said the players and dealers at the PokerNews Cup Alpine in Salbaach-Hinterglemm, Austria. And they liked it. To what were they referring? The answer...

Game Over for PokerRoom.com

PokerRoom.com was founded in Sweden just before the big poker boom and it quickly grew and became the biggest poker room on the internet.

In December of 2005 the owners decided to sell PokerRoom.com together with the whole Ongame Network to the Austria based company bwin.com. Bwin.com bought PokerRoom.com together with the Ongame Network for the total sum of $500 Million. At the time of the deal PokerRoom.com was the biggest online poker room in the world (Yes, even bigger than PokerStars.com) and they had a lot of success in the North American countries.

Three years down the line it is a completely different story and bwin have now decided to close down PokerRoom.com and move all of the players over to bwin Poker. All PokerRoom.com players are offered a cash bonus for transferring their account over to bwin. The upside to this story is that enjoyed playing at PokerRoom.com will still have access to all the same features at bwin Poker as they are using the same poker platform.

All PokerRoom.com players are asked to log on to their player accounts for full instructions on how to move their player accounts over to bwin Poker.