Poker News

Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz Added to PartyPoker.com Premier League IV Roster

As the PartyPoker.com Premier League IV draws closer, the field of 12 continues to take shape.  On Tuesday, PartyPoker.com announced that poker's newest bad boy, Luke "FullFlush" Schwartz, has been confirmed as the fifth player for the February contest.  Schwartz joins Premier League III winner J.C. Tran, 11-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, World Poker Tour (WPT) Season 7 world champion Yevgeniy "Jovial Gent" Timoshenko, and "Triple Crown" winner Roland de Wolfe in the exclusive event, which will take place February 11th to 18th in Las Vegas.

Schwartz caught the attention of the poker world in 2009 by racking up seven-figure profits online, all the while beating an impressive list of players.  Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, Brad Booth, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, and David "Raptor" Benefield were among his victims.  Perhaps more than his poker skill, it was his "in your face" personality that really turned heads.  Known to trash talk to his heart's content, Schwartz cemented himself as one of online poker's most controversial figures when he called Dwan and Di "Urindanger" Dang "gay" in a public interview.

In October 2009, Schwartz took his behavior to another level, stealing a sandwich from a food stand after busting out of the European Poker Tour (EPT) London event.  Having been previously banned from Grosvenor Casino properties for not obeying the dress code only to have the ban lifted in time for EPT London, he was banned once again for his actions.

Schwartz may be young, but he is far from intimidated by the already strong field.  "For sure there are some big names playing but I have to be a huge favorite," he told PartyPoker.com.  "They need to know that I’m coming with my sharky hat on and it's gonna be a whole week of soul owning from Full Flush."

"He is poker's new villain, no question about that," Daniel Negreanu once wrote in his blog.

Seven players are yet to be determined and all but one will be hand picked by PartyPoker.com.  The final competitor will be a PartyPoker.com online qualifier.  A total of 16 qualifiers will square off in Las Vegas, battling it out in a series of sit and go tournaments to determine which skilled player will receive the final (and free) seat in the PartyPoker.com Premier League IV.  In addition, PartyPoker.com will evaluate each of the 16 qualifiers and select one to receive a $100,000 sponsorship deal from the site.  While one would assume that the winner will have a leg up on the competition, PartyPoker.com will also consider personality and marketability in addition to poker skill, so even those who do not win the 12th seat will have a chance at the sponsorship deal.

The PartyPoker.com Premier League has a unique format.  The 12 players will compete in a series of six-handed sit and gos, or "heats," with points awarded based on the order of finish.  Once all the heats are completed, the top four point winners will advance to the six-handed Grand Final.  The next four players will face off in heads-up matches to determine the fifth and sixth members of the final table.

With a $100,000 buy-in and $300,000 added by PartyPoker.com, the prize pool for the Premier League IV will be a whopping $1.5 million.  The action, including the battle for the 12th seat, will be televised in Europe, with Team Party's newest member, Kara Scott, serving as host.

Top 5 of 2009: The Emergence of Luke Schwartz

With an eye on the great poker personalities that have made the scene and the interesting fodder they’ve provided for us over the past 12 months, we’ve come up with our very own Top Five Poker News Stories of 2009.

The plan is to present them to you every other day from now until New Year’s Eve and we will start today with No. 5: The Emergence of Luke Schwartz.

By March of this year, the name __FullFlush1__ was on the tip of the entire poker world’s tongues.

The ever brash and always outspoken UK based player had jumped up to the highest stakes games online and was posting massive profits against the likes of Tom "durrrr" Dwan, David "Raptor" Benefield and Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond.

But it was the way he was doing it that had him dominating poker headlines. Coming seemingly out of nowhere, the unknown Brit challenged poker’s best and brightest not just on the virtual felt, but in the chatbox as well.

Calling Dwan things like "durrrr-balls" and the rest "OMGweNerds," FullFlush’s visceral brand of chat provided endless entertainment for railbirds and an image for himself as poker’s next bad boy.

When PokerListings finally talked to the man behind it all for an exclusive interview at the end of March, his real life persona was far from disappointing.

A 25-year-old Londoner by the name of Luke Schwartz who had built a massive roll on Euro sites like Betfair before taking a shot at the nosebleed stakes on Full Tilt, he called durrrr a “nonce-cake,” trashed-talked high stakes mainstays like the Dang brothers and threatened to send the lot of them broke.

An interview with Schwartz read just like some of his best chatbox rants and the public, who either loved him or hated him, lapped it up.

"Poker needed a new kind of bad boy and Luke fit the bill," said noted author and the voice of poker in Europe Jesse May. "I can't even remember now how we could talk about poker without using terms like 'railtard', 'woteva', and 'got the jakey on.' His mouth and style got him his first five minutes of fame, but what will ensure that Luke stays around is the fact, surprising to some, that he is clearly one of the top poker players in the game."

By September, Schwartz had pulled seven figures numbers out of Full Tilt and bought himself some property in London, stepping away from the high stakes online games – But not the headlines.

Barred from playing at the World Series of Poker Europe for an incident at London’s Victoria Grosvenor Casino where he’d refused to remove his hat, PokerListings found Schwartz on the rail at the event.

It took all of one minute before he launched into a tirade against his online nemesis Dwan.

“I just can't stand durrrr,” he said. “I can't stand durrrr's face, durrrr's voice, and durrrr's eyes. I can't stand anything about durrrr.

“I'm sending him broke before the end of 2010. That's my goal.”

With a little help from some friends in the industry, Schwartz got the ban lifted just weeks later, in time to play at PokerStars EPT London, where he made headlines once again for something other than playing cards.

This time it was a sandwich he refused to pay for after busting out of the event, claiming he’d paid enough in tournament fees to cover it, was a VIP and should be treated as such.

The result was another ban from UK casinos and one of the most talked about events of the poker world’s annual fall pilgrimage to London.

But those who thought “Sandwichgate” would be the last they’d hear from Schwartz were sorely mistaken.

By the end of the year his poker playing skills were back on display as he managed to final table both the Full Tilt Poker Million and PartyPoker World Open, two of the biggest televised tournaments in Europe.

Plus, although he hasn’t stepped back into the high stakes games yet, a little advice from him helped an unknown Swede going by the name Isildur1 take a huge chunk out of Dwan’s online roll.

"Luke has shown that he has the walk to back up the talk," added May. "And in a feat of true deception, behind all the bluff and bluster, Luke Schwartz happens to be a very good guy. He is an Ali G of poker for the decade to come."

Poker fans love a winner, but they love a character even more.

Luke Schwartz appears to be both and as a result, his emergence as poker’s next bad boy is No. 5 on PokerListings’ Top Five Poker News Stories of 2009.

PokerListings has criss-crossed the planet this year bringing you the biggest and best poker news from every corner of the globe.

Now that 2009 is coming to a close, we’ve decided to sift through the literally thousands of headlines searching for the year’s top stories.

With an eye on the great poker personalities that have made the scene and the interesting fodder they’ve provided for us over the past 12 months, we’ve come up with our very own Top Five Poker News Stories of 2009.

The plan is to present them to you every other day from now until New Year’s Eve and we will start today with No. 5: The Emergence of Luke Schwartz.

By March of this year, the name __FullFlush1__ was on the tip of the entire poker world’s tongues.

The ever brash and always outspoken UK based player had jumped up to the highest stakes games online and was posting massive profits against the likes of Tom "durrrr" Dwan, David "Raptor" Benefield and Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond.

But it was the way he was doing it that had him dominating poker headlines.

Coming seemingly out of nowhere, the unknown Brit challenged poker’s best and brightest not just on the virtual felt, but in the chatbox as well.

Calling Dwan things like "durrrr-balls" and the rest of his crew as "OMGweNerds," FullFlush’s visceral brand of chat provided endless entertainment for railbirds and an image for himself as poker’s next bad boy.

When PokerListings finally talked to the man behind it all for an exclusive interview at the end of March, his real life persona was far from disappointing.

A 25-year-old Londoner by the name of Luke Schwartz who had built a massive roll on Euro sites like Betfair before taking a shot at the nosebleed stakes on Full Tilt, he called durrrr a “nonce-cake,” trashed-talked high stakes mainstays like the Dang brothers and threatened to send the lot of them broke.

An Interview with Schwartz read just like some of his best chatbox rants and the public, who either loved him or hated him, lapped it up.

By September, Schwartz had pulled seven figures numbers out of Full Tilt and bought himself some property in London, stepping away from the high stakes online games – But not the headlines.

Barred from playing at the World Series of Poker Europe for an incident at London’s Victoria Grosvenor Casino where he’d refused to remove his hat, PokerListings found Schwartz on the rail at the event.

It took all of one minute before he launched into a tirade against his online nemesis Dwan.

“I just can't stand durrrr,” he said. “I can't stand durrrr's face, durrrr's voice, and durrrr's eyes. I can't stand anything about durrrr.

“I'm sending him broke before the end of 2010. That's my goal.”

With a little help from some friends in the industry, Schwartz got the ban lifted just weeks later, in time to play at PokerStars EPT London, where he made headlines once again for something other than playing cards.

This time it was a sandwich he refused to pay for after busting out of the event, claiming he’d paid enough in tournament fees to cover it, was a VIP and should be treated as such.

The result was another ban from UK casinos and one of the most talked about events of the poker world’s annual fall pilgrimage to London.

But those who thought “Sandwichgate” would be the last they’d hear from Schwartz were sorely mistaken.

By the end of the year his poker playing skills were back on display as he managed to final table both the Full Tilt Poker Million and PartyPoker World Open, two of the biggest televised tournaments in Europe.

Plus, although he hasn’t stepped back into the high stakes games yet, a little advice from him helped an unknown Swede going by the name Isildur1 take a huge chunk out of Dwan’s online roll.    

Poker fans love a winner, but they love a character even more.

Luke Schwartz appears to be both and as a result, his emergence as poker’s next bad boy is No. 5 on PokerListings’ Top Five Poker News Stories of 2009.

FullFlush threatens to break durrrr at WSOPE

But that didn't stop the outspoken Londoner from dropping by the Casino at the Empire to rail the action and a few horses he's put in the event.

"It's bullshit," Schwartz said. "There was something at the Vic [London's Grosvenor Victoria Casino] ages ago when I wouldn't take off my hat and now I'm nationally barred from all the casinos. But I've just snuck in and won about five grand on the roulette."

The brash 25-year-old burst onto the high-stakes online poker scene earlier this year posting significant profits against the likes of Tom "durrrr" Dwan, David "Raptor" Benefield and Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond.

But he's perhaps best known for the often visceral brand of trash talk he brings to the chatbox online.

Schwartz has verbally attacked just about everyone who's crossed his path, but he seems to have a particular dislike for Dwan.

"I don't like seeing durrrr just own off the poker world and just win all the money from all the other fish," he said. "I don't mind if Patrik [Antonius] and [Phil] Ivey win. I just can't stand durrrr. I can't stand durrrr's face, durrrr's voice, and durrrr's eyes. I can't stand anything about durrrr.

"He's just an arrogant social retard. He's spastic. There's not much more to say than that."

Schwartz takes particular issue with how he believes Dwan built his bankroll, claiming his money was made chiefly from beating Cirque du Soleil founder and reported high-stakes fish Guy Laliberté out of millions.

"He thinks he's the best, but he's just so annoying," Schwartz said. "People just don't even realize if Guy had not existed in this poker world, durrrr would be nowhere."

Although he's particularly vocal regarding his distaste for Dwan, the online phenom doesn't appear to be his only target.

Some of the biggest names in the game turned up for Day 1b of the WSOPE main event, including four-time WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu, 2008 WSOPE main event champ John Juanda and 2000 WSOP Main Event champ Chris "Jesus" Ferguson.

But Schwartz' respect for poker's elite players seems limited as well.

"All these big players that you hear of, like Negreanu and all these old guys, they all won when there was better fish around - that's why they're famous," he said. "Obviously they did well and took advantage of poker when it was easy, but now it's tough. It's fucking hard to win now."

In recent months, the name __FullFlush1__ has been missing from the high-stakes games on Full Tilt Poker.

Schwartz says he withdrew most of his winnings from the site and because of a $5,000 per day and $15,000 per month limit on deposits, and a bit of a bad run trying to spin up the relatively small deposits into a sufficient bankroll for the bigger games, he's been forced to take his action elsewhere and avoid any confrontations with his nemesis Dwan.

Dwan is currently in London taking part in several events, including Matchroom Sports' durrrr Million Dollar Challenge, where he will take on Sammy "any two" George and a series of players yet to be named in 500-hand live heads-ups matches with a $500k buy in.

But Schwartz said he is unlikely to challenge his rival there.

"I'm not much of a live player and sitting down with $500,000 is obviously quite deep, so it's not the first thing that comes to my mind," he said. "But I would like to do a challenge with him of some sort at some stage quite soon."

It appears more likely that he will eventually meet Dwan online in Full Tilt's 50,000 hand durrrr Challenge, although Dwan is still in the midst of taking on Antonius and Schwartz isn't quite sure he's ready.

"I'd like to do that," he said. "I'd do that right now at $100/$200 with durrrr snap, but $200/$400 is a bit much. I suppose I could do that with my roll right now, but I'd feel like I was short if I started getting stuck right away."

Both players are set to take part in the PKR Heads Up Grand Slam in London beginning Oct. 8 and will meet there if they both reach the semifinals.

Anxiously awaiting the start of that, Schwartz sounded more than eager to get a shot at Dwan no matter where it is.

"I've smashed him," he said. "I'm up like 600 grand on him online. I would be up 800 grand, but we did these 200 grand flips when I was tilted one day and he won both of them. I kill this guy. This guy is like an autistic retard. If you just get a little bit into his head he can't deal with it.

"I'm sending him broke before the end of 2010. That's my goal."

For more from Day 1b of the WSOPE main event and beyond, including chip counts, photos and live updates, click through to PokerListings' Live Tournaments page.

Return of KaiBuxxe? Jedlicka wins $1 million

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

Stammdog win, Negreanu loss headline WSOP June 7th

Pros Phil Ivey, Kirill Gerasimov and Roland De Wolfe were among the 18 survivors who started the day with a shot at the bracelet, but none would last to see the final table.

Instead, Stammen faced down the likes of Guillen, Shawn Glines and Gregg Merkow on the way to victory.

Here's how the rest of the day played out at the World Series of Poker on Sunday:

Event 14 - $2,500 Limit Hold'em Six-Handed

Limit Hold'em specialist Brock "TSoprano" Parker defeated fan favorite Daniel Negreanu in heads-up play to claim his first WSOP bracelet.

Check out the full recap here.

Event 15 - $5,000 No Limit Hold'em

Event 15 played down to the 3 a.m. deadline before play was halted with 17 survivors still in contention for the $692,658 first prize.

Isaac Baron headlines a final contingent that includes Thomas "Thunder" Keller, David "Raptor" Benefield, Mike Sowers and David "The Dragon" Pham.

Due to scheduling concerns, Day 3 will begin at noon Vegas time.

Event 16 - $1,500 Seven-Card Stud

PokerListings.com blogger Jason Mercier cashed in 16th place as the entry-level Seven Card Stud tournament played down to the final table.

Jeffrey Lisandro and John Juanda are the big names among the final eight, with Thor Hansen just barely missing the cut with a final table bubble.

They'll play down to a champion starting at 2 p.m. Monday.

Event 17 - $1,000 Ladies No Limit Hold'em

More than one thousand women showed up for the Ladies Event, including pros Erica Schoenberg, Evelyn Ng, Beth Shak, Maria Ho and Tiffany Michelle.

By the end of the night only 146 members of the fairer sex remained. Defending champ Svetlana Gromenkova continued her dominance of female-only events, finishing near the top of the leaderboard.

Maria Ho and J.J. Liu were also among those to survive Day 1.

Event 18 - $10,000 World Championship Omaha 8-or-Better

A total of 179 of the world's best O8 players bought-in to the 5 p.m. World Championship event, including the aforementioned Negreanu, who multi-tabled the $2,500 LHE Six-Max.

By day's end, 133 were left, including Kid Poker, chipleader Scott Clements and defending champ David Benyamine.

Check out more in the PokerListings.com 2009 WSOP section.

FullFlush1 spews: The Luke Schwartz interview

The trash-talking __FullFlush1__ has already tallied big wins against Tom "durrrr" Dwan, David "Raptor" Benefield and Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond while playing at the highest stakes available online.

It turns out the man behind the myth is Londoner Luke Schwartz.

Although he's only been playing poker for the past four years, Schwartz built his bankroll and reputation by dominating the cash games on Betfair Poker.

"When I started I was just a donk, but I somehow managed to beat the fish," Schwartz told PokerListings.com. "I went broke a couple times, but I had a couple MTT wins to get me back in."

Since then Schwartz has primarily played cash games, and he's been incredibly successful at it.

Starting in 2009, Schwartz turned his attention to the ultra high-stakes games on Full Tilt Poker. He deposited just $10,000 at first, but has since run that up past $1 million.

The 25-year-old Brit immediately started getting noticed for his complete disregard for some of the most elite online players.

In a recent interview with BBC radio, Schwartz mentioned he had no fear when playing the best players. He's also been known to trash-talk whomever he's playing.

"Some of these spazzes on the Full Tilt rail seem to hate me since I've been making their gods all look like fish," said Schwartz. "It's [funny]."

Although he wouldn't talk about any specific strategies he uses against the top-tier players, Schwartz says he is confident he can win against anyone, even the vaunted Dwan.

"I do have a huge heads-up No-Limit edge on every player on this planet," he said. "[Dwan] has run like god the last few sessions and I'm beating him for like $500,000 so far."

While beating some of the best players online, Schwartz has continued to unleash a barrage of insults against them, including referring to Dwan as "durrrr-balls" and the rest of his crew as "OMGweNerds."

When asked where he comes up with this stuff, Schwartz responded simply, "It comes naturally when the truth stares me in the face."

Never one to shy away from controversy, Schwartz has already said he'd like to take on the $1.5 million, 50,000 hand durrrr Challenge, and pretty much anyone is a fair target.

"The Dangs [Di "Urindanger" Dang and Hac "Trex313" Dang] are quite weak," he said. "They ***hunt Gus [Hansen] and Guy [Laliberte] and that's in mixed. Their No-Limit heads-up game is weak."

One might begin to think that Schwartz has no respect for any other poker players at all, but he did mention there are a number who are very skilled. Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro was one, and he said he likes INTERNET POKERS' game as well.

"Some of the $50/$100 players I think are much better than the OMGweNerds crew and company," Schwartz said.

He was even able to dig up at least one compliment for Dwan, albeit a slightly backhanded one.

"I respect durrrr's stamina and willingness to gamble, even though he's still a nonce-cake," he said.

Schwartz's live tournament results to date amount to under $35k in cashes, and when asked what he would like to accomplish in poker over the next couple years he mentioned he had some interest in winning a major tournament.

A frequent player on the PokerStars European Poker Tour, he also said he hoped to see a few other Brits find the same success he has.

But more than anything, he said he wants to keep dominating the nosebleed cash games online.

"I'd like to send a lot of nits broke all over the world," he said. "I'm done trash-talking - time for OMGweBROKE."

Related articles:

• FullFlush1 back to challenge durrrr
• __FullFlush1__ passes durrrr in Hold'em profits
• __FullFlush1__ trades pots with aejones

__FullFlush1__ back to challenge durrrr

Schwartz, almost better-known for his trash-talking ability than for his poker skills, managed to run his online roll up to $1.3 million over the past year by playing top players like Di "Urindanger" Dang, David "Raptor" Benefield and Tom "durrrr" Dwan.

It was rumored that he took most of his money off the site a few weeks ago, because he hadn't logged on in a significant amount of time.

Apparently he left enough to play $200/$400 because he's been playing Dwan and several others over the last few days. He's up approximately $50,000 this week, with most of that coming against durrrr.

As always in a __FullFlush1__ session, the highlight was the endless tirade of trash talk and insults. Just a few of the quips Schwartz traded with his fellow players:

Talking about who the greatest player is

"__FullFlush1__: dif between me and heltmuth is helmuth
thinks hes good but hes not . i knwo im the greatest"

Referencing Phil Galfond and his crew:

"__FullFlush1__: team OMGweNerds"

About getting his chat unbanned on FTP

"durrrr: want me to ask ftp to do it?
__FullFlush1__: il let u know soon
__FullFlush1__: ye ask them actually
durrrr: ok i will when i land
__FullFlush1__: ok eyeballs"

On durrrr profits

"__FullFlush1__: tell durr again i like the money hes
been donating
Urindanger: take the durrr challenge
__FullFlush1__: juicy 500 thousand dollars
__FullFlush1__: i will"

On No-Limit Hold'em dominance

"__FullFlush1__: i got such a huge egde on him and
the rest of the world at nl hu its a joke"

Check below for visual representation of the biggest __FullFlush1__ hand of the past week:

The biggest hand of the session

Related articles:

• __FullFlush1__ passes durrrr in Hold'em profits
• __FullFlush1__ trades pots with aejones
• DaEvils stomping _FullFlush1_