Poker News

The Top Winners and Losers of 2009

Below are summaries of the top five money earners, and top five losers of the year, including a month-by-month graph of their results.

To see more stats and hand replays from throughout the year, head to MarketPulse.

Patrik Antonius

It only makes sense to have the year’s top earner at the top of the list, so without further ado, we bring you the 2009 story of Patrik Antonius.

Patrik Antonius just might have hit the life jackpot. He was at one-time a model and tennis pro, before becoming one of the most respected, and feared, poker players in the world. He made the list of the top 10 top profit earners in 2007 under the username FinddaGrind with over $1.3 million earned.

In 2008, he made another $1.3 million, this time as part of Team Full Tilt.

This January Antonius made over $2 million and never dropped below that point. His year was filled with million dollar swings, but in the end, the Finnish pro always found a way to come out good.

On top of being the most profitable player on the year, Antonius was also busy breaking the records for the largest pots ever played online. Despite all of his profits, Antonius has fallen behind in the durrrr Challenge and needs to make close to $1 million in the second half to have a chance.

However, he finished 2009 as the top earner with a massive profit of over $8.9 million.

Phil Ivey

This year Phil Ivey has done exactly what Phil Ivey does every year: Win. In 2008, Ivey was the top online earner with over $7.3 million in profit. In 2007 he was the third largest earner with $1.9 million and this year he ends in second place with $6.3 million.

His story is the same every year: Any players, any game, any stakes. He’ll sit, and most of the time he’ll win. But even Ivey isn’t immune to the swings, starting off the year in the red he had to spend a couple of months getting back to even.

After an $800k loss in May, it was pretty much profit from that point on. Add these winnings to his two WSOP bracelets, Main Event final table appearance and prop bets won, and you have one hell of a good looking year.

Brian Hastings

CardRunners pro Brian Hastings has had one of the most interesting years out of anyone online. He started the year with a backing deal for playing the nose-bleed stakes against Gus Hansen.

Even with Hansen bleeding chips for months, Hastings struggled to get even for the majority of the year, finally showing a profit come August.

Come the end of November, it started to look as though Hastings would be having a positive year, but nothing too spectacular, or worth talking about. That was until he sat down with Isildur1 for possibly the biggest session in online poker history.

By the end of the single session with the game’s most explosive player, Hastings had made $4.2 million in profit; effectively ending Isildur1’s run at Full Tilt’s high-stakes tables.

The win was steeped in controversy when information came to light that Hastings, along with two fellow CardRunners pros Brian Townsend and Cole South, merged their hand history databases together to allow for an in-depth study of Isildur1’s heads up game.

For the full scoop on this controversy, head to: Full Tilt Suspends Brian Townsend.

theASHMAN103

Ashton “theASHMAN103” Griffin is only 20 years old, and began playing poker seriously in high-school. His downfall has always been bankroll management and tilt issues.

After a series of massive swings he went broke right at the beginning of the year, but Griffin finally got his head in the right spot coming in to April of 2009 when he was forced to get a stake to get back in the game.

Thanks to winning a prop bet for making $500k playing nothing higher than $25/$50 No-Limit immediately before the event was set to start, Griffin was able to enter into the $25k heads-up shootout, which he went on to win for another $500k.

Griffin’s heater continued over the next two months going from broke to the fifth most profitable player on the year. To read a full interview with Griffin about his heater, and life in poker, head to: Ashman103: The Interview Transcript.

Ilari Sahamies

Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies is one of the most well-known and entertaining online players in the world. Above all else he seems to have a love for gambling with sick amounts of money.

For a few days, Sahamies had convinced a few of the nosebleed players to convert the $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tables into $3,000/$9,000. Along with all the massive flips Sahamies played over the year, it’s safe to say he is the biggest gambler at the tables.

But despite his love for gambling, Ziigmund is still one of the most profitable players in the world. The occasional swing aside, Ziigmund’s graph is mostly un-eventful, hovering around the $2-$3 million mark for the majority of the year.

It wasn’t until Ziigmund set his sights on Isildur1 that his graph took a violent swing upwards. After taking a few million from the unknown player, Ziigmund finished his year up an impressive $3.2 million.

Isildur1

True identity still unknown, Isildur1 showed up on the poker scene Sept. 16. He splashed around in medium to high-stakes for about a month before starting to take shots in the nosebleed games.

The true story of Isildur1 started on Nov. 7 when he began his first serious upswing by crushing well known players like Haseeb Qureshi and UgotaBanana. After these wins, Isildur1 seemed fearless, willing to play anyone at any stakes.

Soon Isildur1 set his sights on Tom “durrrr” Dwan and over the next three days he absolutely destroyed him for over $4 million. At his highest point on Nov. 15^, Isildur1 sat with over $5 million in profit, only to lose it all, mostly to Ivey and Antonius, by the 21^st.

After making another quick run back up to almost $3 million in just one week, Isildur1 began his largest downswing.

It was during the downswing where Isildur1 shattered all the records for the largest pots of all time. He first broke the record with an $878k pot versus Patrik Antonius, only to break that record a few days later losing the first pot worth over a million at $1,356,947. 

Mostly a result of losing over $4.2 million in a single session to Brian Hastings, Isildur1 saw his roll get almost entirely crushed, sitting down over $2 million for the remainder of the month.

With his only hands being played at the medium stakes tables, it appears at this point as if Isildur1’s run at the highest stakes games online is through.

David Benyamine

In 2008, David Benyamine was the sixth most profitable online player in the world. He finished the year having made almost $3 million profit and had snagged himself one of the most beautiful girls in poker, Erica Schoenberg.

At the very end of 2008, Full Tilt Poker dropped Benyamine as a red-name pro. As a result, he began 2009 playing under the username “MR B 2 U SON”. He played under that username until July of 2009 when his Team Full Tilt status was re-instated.

At the time of the username switch, Benyamine was down $731,128 on the year. Things continued to get worse for the French pro as he struggled throughout 2009, finishing down $2.9 million. To top it all off, many sources have reported an end to his relationship with Schoenberg.

All in all, 2009 might just have been the worst year in Benyamine’s career.

LarsLuzak

Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro is a 22-year-old Finnish poker pro who showed up on the high-stakes scene in 2007. He made over a million dollars in both 2007 and 2008, plus a rumored large profit from $250/$500 No-Limit sessions played on Betfair poker.

Despite hopes of cementing his name as one of the top players in the world, 2009 turned out to be a complete disaster for Kelopuro.

Starting the year with an $810k loss, Kelopuro was almost able to grind his way back to even in February before beginning a landslide of losses.

At no point in 2009 did Kelopuro show a profit, despite his continued efforts at the games highest stakes. After reaching nearly $4 million in losses on the year, Kelopuro disappeared from the high-stakes games, sparking rumors of a busted bankroll.

With a laundry list of impressive results from both cash games and tournaments, it’s safe to assume the poker world will hear more from Kelopuro in 2010.

Tom “durrrr” Dwan

Tom Dwan has to be considerd one of the most entertaining poker players in the world. As a result, there has been more time spent talking about Dwan in 2009 than any other online player.

His year began by losing over $4 million in the first two months, only to grind back up to over $1.4 million in profit just four months later. However, the massive swings were only one of Dwan’s many stories on the year.

The first came with the introduction of the durrrr Challenge. After almost two months of speculation and rumors, Patrik Antonius stepped up as the first competitor, and the challenge was underway.

After a short period of consistent play between the two competitors, the Challenge took a hiatus as both players chose to focus on busting a new fish splashing around at the highest stake tables available.

It didn’t take Dwan, and the rest of the online regulars, long to bust a new fish calling himself Martonas, and the challenge seemed as if it would resume.

But it wasn’t long before another new face showed up on the scene and began stirring the pot. Luke “fullflush1” Schwartz proved to be as strong at the table as he was mouthy, focusing the majority of his insults at Dwan, including the now infamous “cork it durrrrballs”.

Schwartz successfully made over $700k at the tables before cashing out, and buying a house with his profits.

The next big story for Dwan came with the third unknown player to splash around in the big game. Unfortunately for Dwan, this player, Isildur1, would end up taking him for over $5 million, before giving it all away to everyone else.

Shortly after losing the majority of his online roll, Dwan became the newest member of Team Full Tilt, and began grinding his way back towards even. By the end of 2009 Dwan had brought himself back to -$4.3 million from his November low point of -$6.8 million.

On the bright side, he is ahead in the durrrr Challenge by over $937k.

Gus Hansen

This year’s story for Gus Hansen is simple: He made $3 million in the first month, mostly off Tom Dwan, then proceeded to lose almost exclusively for the remainder of the year. Although there were months in which he showed a profit, Hansen’s graph on the year is anything but encouraging.

Due to his consistent negative results, Hansen has become one of the most popular online players amongst the other regular high-stakes grinders. As he explained in an interview with PokerListings, the high-stakes games on Full Tilt simply follow him from table to table.

As a result, Hansen chose to play almost exclusively 7-Game for the remainder of the year, at times killing absolutely all high-stakes action for all other variants.

For a look into high-stakes, and how some of the other players in the game view Hansen, head to: State of the High Stakes Poker Nation.

Visit PokerListings.com

Poker After Dark Season 6 Kicks off January 4th

Fans of the popular NBC poker franchise “Poker After Dark” won’t have to wait long after the clock strikes Midnight this evening to catch the show’s sixth season, which debuts on Monday night, January 4th, at 2:05am ET.

Ali Nejad and Leeann Tweeden will reprise their “Poker After Dark” announcing and hosting roles, respectively, as the show enters season number six. The first week is entitled “Commentators III” and, while the name isn’t very catchy, the action on the felt should be nail biting. Howard Lederer, Gabe Kaplan, Joe Sebok, Nejad, Mark Gregorich, and Kara Scott will all play in “Poker After Dark’s” Season 6 premiere. Sebok, who hosts UB.com’s “Poker2Nite,” and Scott, the new floor reporter for GSN’s “High Stakes Poker,” are making their “Poker After Dark” debuts. You can catch “Commentators III” beginning on January 4th.

A total of 13 shows were filmed for Season 6 of “Poker After Dark,” including six-handed freezeouts and three different buy-in cash games. Followers of 2007 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event champion Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad will be able to catch the youngster on a special “Nicknames” episode that also features Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, Erick “E-Dog” Lindgren, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, and Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth. Obrestad, a Betfair pro, turned 21 in September and is finally old enough to gamble legally on U.S. soil.

A $50,000 buy-in cash game features a star-studded lineup of Brandon Adams, Todd Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Matusow, Esfandiari, and Hellmuth. A press release distributed by Poker PROductions notes, “Any time Matusow and Hellmuth play against each other in a cash game, the insults alone make for must-see-television.” A high-stakes $150,000 buy-in cash game will see Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Patrik Antonius, David “Viffer” Peat, Eli Elezra, Kaplan, and Alan Meltzer take to the felts. The six are staples of “High Stakes Poker” and one mounts the comeback of the century.

One of the more notable freezeout themes is “Lonesome Shark,” which features Lindgren, James Akenhead, Esfandiari, Matusow, David Williams, and Brad Booth. What do they all have in common, you ask? All six are poker’s most eligible bachelors and the heads-up battle in this episode is one of the longest of the season. Mixed Martial Arts will take center stage shortly thereafter in a show featuring UFC announcer Bruce Buffer, Antonius, Strikeforce fighter Dan Henderson, former UFC champion Randy Couture, Lederer, and Lindgren.

Here is the schedule through April for new episodes of Season 6 of “Poker After Dark” according to NBC.com:

Week of January 4th - Commentators III
Howard Lederer, Gabe Kaplan, Joe Sebok, Ali Nejad, Mark Gregorich, Kara Scott

Week of January 11th – Nicknames
Annette Obrestad, Mike Matusow, Antonio Esfandiari, Erick Lindgren, Phil Laak, Phil Hellmuth

Week of March 15th - Cash Game $50,000 buy-in, Part 1
Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Brandon Adams, Todd Brunson, Mike Matusow

Week of March 22nd – Cash Game $50,000 buy-in, Part 2
Todd Brunson, Mike Matusow, Phil Hellmuth, Brandon Adams, Antonio Esfandiari, Chris Ferguson

Week of April 19th - My Favorite Pro
Craig Ivey, James Ashby, Steve Bartlett, Phil Hellmuth, Jens Voertmann, Chris Ferguson

Week of April 26th - He Said, She Said
Erica Schoenberg, Jean-Robert Bellande, David Grey, Karina Jett, Mike Matusow, Annie Duke

Additional dates for new episodes will be announced in the future and re-runs of popular shows will also air over the first four months of 2009. “Poker After Dark” will take a hiatus during the weeks of February 15th and 22nd due to the Winter Olympics, which NBC owns the rights to.

“Poker After Dark” and “High Stakes Poker,” both products of Poker PROductions, were filmed in October at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas. The latter begins airing on GSN on Sunday, February 14th.

Erica Schoenberg Interview with Poker News Daily

Poker News Daily: How did you get started in poker?

Schoenberg: I came off of playing blackjack with a team. Our team disbanded and we were getting a lot of heat from the casinos. I was asked to do a poker show on GSN with Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi and David Williams and I played terribly. From there on, I decided I was determined to get better at poker.

PND: Talk about the blackjack team. Did any part of your involvement with it help groom you for the game of poker?

Schoenberg: I met the original members of the MIT Blackjack Team and they referred me to someone in Los Angeles. Aside from the ability to process a lot of information at once, which you have to do in card counting, the time I spent loitering in casinos and the late nights helped me. Poker can end up in long hours for tournaments and late nights. Blackjack helped me get used to that.

PND: Why was poker appealing to you?

Schoenberg: I couldn't imagine sitting in an office or a cubicle for the rest of my life. It's crazy that poker can be a career. It's living the dream if you have a little bit of gamble in you.

PND: Talk about having David Benyamine in your life, who also excels at poker. Does having him help you fine-tune your game?

Schoenberg: Sometimes I get tired of poker because it feels like that's all we talk about and do. For the most part, it's 90% helpful and 10% annoying. Being able to watching him play online and hearing him talk through hands is huge for me.

PND: What makes Benyamine's game above and beyond the rest?

Schoenberg: The way he thinks about the game is on a higher level from anyone I've ever watched. I really believe that and I'm not just saying it. I've met a lot of brilliant people in my life. He has this ridiculous gift for card games and is good at rummy, gin rummy, and backgammon. He has a mind for it.

PND: You're a member of Team Full Tilt. Talk about what makes Full Tilt Poker a premier online poker room.

Schoenberg: I think their software is the best. Getting hand histories is much easier. It's helpful when you're playing to go back over hands. Full Tilt makes that simple and is the premier online poker site.

PND: Talk about being associated with members of Team Full Tilt like Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, and Allen Cunningham.

Schoenberg: It's such an honor to be associated with them. It's great to have your name in the company of some of the world's best poker players.

PND: In your eyes, what is your greatest poker accomplishment to date?

Schoenberg: Winning a $2,500 World Poker Tour preliminary event at Mandalay Bay in 2007. It was an open event, not a women's only event, but I got heads-up with Anna Wroblewski. I have total respect for her game and she's a great poker pro in general. My third place in a $1,500 Hold'em event at the 2007 World Series of Poker was a bit of a sick burn.

PND: What advice do you have for women looking to get into poker?

Schoenberg: Play as much as you can online before stepping foot in a casino. The minute you get into a poker room with all males, it's going to throw off your game. Get as firm of a grasp on all of the rules and be comfortable with the game before you sit down. I think for a beginning female poker player, being in a roomful of males could be really disconcerting. You don't want to be spastic because you're surrounded by men.

PND: Tell us about what you do away from the game.

Schoenberg: David and I golf a ton. We love it. I'm also a huge animal lover and I do things with my dogs. I like to go at the beach and spend time outside for a healthy and clean living. I have a Golden Retriever and a Jack Russell Terrier.

Returns

Filming of 13 different shows concluded in October at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas featuring a mixture of well-known regulars from previous seasons and thirteen players making their Poker After Dark debut.

Ali Nejad, returns to provide commentary and Leeann Tweeden is back for her third season as the show’s host.

Seven of the new shows will follow the traditional Poker After Dark week-long six-handed winner-take-all freezeout format while the remaining six will feature cash games of varying buy-ins that will each air over a two-week period.

Producers say there are first-time winners, matches that end in dramatic fashion, huge swings, plenty of laughs and many other memorable moments.

The season will kick-off Jan. 4 with a Poker After Dark staple: The “Commentators” episode, featuring Nejad and High Stakes Poker host Gabe Kaplan along with newcomer Joe Sebok from Poker2Nite and Kaplan’s new co-host Kara Scott.

A “Nicknames” episode will follow that includes Annette “The Huntress” Obrestad’s Poker After Dark debut and great names like Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, Erick “E-Dog” Lindgren, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, and Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth.

The first cash game episodes to air will feature a $50,000 minimum buy-in and players including, Todd Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Matusow, Esfandiari, and Hellmuth.

In what could be the first win for an amateur on Poker After Dark a “My Favorite Pro” episode will air including online qualifiers Craig Ivey from Australia, James Ashby from Alabama, Jens Voertmann from Germany, and 2009 Howard Lederer Charity Event winner Steve Bartlett playing alongside Hellmuth and Ferguson.

In a match similar to the “Battle of the Sexes” theme of Season 2, a “He Said, She Said” episode will include Erica Schoenberg, Jean-Robert Bellande, David Grey, Matusow, Annie Duke and Karina Jett, making her Poker After Dark debut.

The next cash game show has a $100,000 minimum buy-in and includes some of the biggest cash players in the world. Here Hellmuth will take on Eli Elezra, Doyle Brunson, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Gus Hansen, and Laak.

A “Lonesome Shark” show will feature bachelors Lindgren, James Akenhead, Esfandiari, Matusow, David Williams, and Brad Booth and there is a “Mixed Martial Arts” show featuring Bruce Buffer, Dan Henderson, Randy Couture and Patrik Antonius.

The third and final cash game has a $150,000 minimum buy-in and includes Dwan, Antonius, David Peat, Elezra, Kaplan, and Alan Meltzer.

Finally, the season wraps up with a “Charity in Mind” show, highlighting the charity work of players including Phil Gordon, Jennifer Harman, Andy Bloch, Duke, Lederer and Ferguson.

Season 6 begins Jan. 4 in Poker After Dark’s regular 2:05 a.m. timeslot on NBC.

For more information and the entire schedule, check out the Poker After Dark page on NBC’s website.

Visit PokerListings.com

Erica Schoenberg invites all to OFC Wolf Mountain charity tournament

Saturday, December 5, marks the day that Full Tilt Poker will play host to the Online Forum Challenge Wolf Mountain Sanctuary charity tournament at 8pm GMT. The tournament is an $11 entry that will raise money for Wolf Mountain Sanctuary, a non-profit animal organisation, in association with Online Forum Challenge.

Sahamies Running Hot Against Benyamine

Ilari Sahamies and David Benyamine clashed on two Full Tilt Poker 7-game tables. Benyamine was able to dominate at the beginning, but in the end it was Sahamies who was able to win it all.

Benyamine’s start was great in the heads up battle and he was able to win in Hi/Lo games quite much. After the game changed to NL Hold’em Sahamies squeezed a nice $247k pot. Sahamies held Jacks against Benyamine’s Tens and “Ziigmund” started to dominate. Benyamine had Tens on the other table as well, but it was Sahamies who won the pot ($90k) again. “Ziigmund” hit his three-outer with AT and Sahamies was already over $300k up.

Benyamine was reloading small sums and Sahamies was up $150k-$200k for a long time. Sometimes it seemed that Benyamine had his whole bankroll on the two tables.

David Benyamine (BB): $85972.00
Ziigmund (BTN/SB): $268134.00

Pre Flop: ($1500.00)
Ziigmund raises to $3000, David Benyamine raises to $9000, Ziigmund calls $6000

Flop: ($18000.00) 5d Tc 8c
David Benyamine bets $14000, Ziigmund calls $14000

Turn: ($46000.00) 5c
David Benyamine requests TIME, David Benyamine checks, Ziigmund checks

River: ($46000.00) 6c
David Benyamine requests TIME, David Benyamine bets $37000, Ziigmund calls $37000

Final Pot: $120000.00
David Benyamine shows Jh Ah (a pair of Fives)
Ziigmund shows 7c 7s (a flush, Ten high)
Ziigmund wins $119999.50

Sahamies and Benyamine played almost 900 hand before the heads up was over. Sahamies crushed Benyamine on both tables and sat out with a nice $683k stack, so “Ziigmund” won over $400k from Benyamine. Does Benyamine’s break up with Erica Schoenberg tilt him that much, or is David just running bad?

Sign up to Full Tilt Poker through HighStakesNews to get the best offer with 27% rakeback and a great first deposit bonus! Click here

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Sahamies Running Hot Against Benyamine

Poker Gossip: David Benyamine and Erica Schoenberg Split Up

Some very reliable source has confirmed the breakup of Benyamine and Schoenberg to PokerNews.com. Let’s see what they have to tell.

Erica & David

One little bird sang to PokerNews staff about the breakup of Erica Schoenberg and Devid Benyamine. This reliable source has confirmed the breakup which happened already two months ago.

After the rumored split up, David has been doing the things that men do after a breakup: playing poker, going to the gym and other manly stuff. Erica however is doing what women do the best: shooting guns, hang in Aruba and all that relaxation after a long relationship.

Neither of them have confirmed the rumor, so don’t take the gossip too granted.

Source: PokerNews

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Poker Gossip: David Benyamine and Erica Schoenberg Split Up

PokerPages.com to Close October 31st

Along with the influx of players to the world of poker, the past decade has also seen an increase in the number of poker-related media, magazines, and informational web sites for fans to peruse. Since the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gaming Enforcement Act (UIGEA) in 2006, however, many of these businesses have fallen victim to lean times. One of the recent casualties was also one of the first to set out into the poker information business back before the poker boom began.

It was announced on Friday that the longtime poker information site PokerPages.com, which has been in business since the late 1990s, would be ceasing operations come the end of October. In a brief statement on the site, PokerPages management said, “For many years Poker Pages has enjoyed providing the best source of poker related content, arguably the internet’s largest and most complete live poker tournament results and listings database, as well as a place to play poker for free. These services will certainly be missed, but we realize that the most appreciated benefit of our products and services has been the community created by our user base. We thank you for the many great years you allowed us to provide you with the best poker content on the internet and wish you all the best in your future poker endeavors. It has been a pleasure and a privilege serving you over the years!”

PokerPages.com was arguably one of the top sites for tournament schedules and reporting. Its international tournament listings were second to none and the history of many of the events in its database stretched back to the 1970s. PokerPages.com was also the home of Poker School Online, which featured poker instruction from poker veteran Al Spath and provided new players a place to hone their skills online for free before stepping out into the world of live cash poker.

Such noted players as poker legend T. J. Cloutier, 2008 “November Nine” member Dennis Phillips, pros Kenna James and “Hollywood” Dave Stann, and top female players Erica Schoenberg and Maria Ho added their insights through writing articles for the site. At one time, in addition to the numerous professional players and their thoughts, its writing staff featured such notable names as Mike Paulle, who was the originator (along with Max Shapiro and the late Andy Glazer) of the “tournament reporter” position that is commonplace in today’s poker media, and author Amy Calistri, who recently teamed with Tim “The Poker Shrink” Lavalli to pen “Check Raising The Devil,” the autobiography of Mike Matusow.

The original ownership of PokerPages.com, Mark and Tina Napolitano, recently sold the company, which was headquartered in Austin, Texas, and the site’s quality had begun to decline. Calistri noted on her blog that, in commenting on the death of Las Vegas legend Bob Stupak, “I knew it would be too much to ask to find one (a story on Stupak’s passing) on PokerPages, which is rehashing a lot of old articles and posting week-old news these days.”

In a comment to Poker News Daily, Paulle summed up his thoughts on PokerPages’ demise by stating, “Tina Napolitano was the heart and soul of PokerPages.com. When you lose your heart and soul, you die.”

PokerPages.com will cease operations on October 31st and, according to announcements on the site, there is no information as to what will become of the wealth of history that it has accumulated.

2 Months, 2 Million: Rosenkrantz Challenges Benyamine, Team Up $163,000

After defeating a rival poker house in a veritable Olympics of shenanigans last week, the cast of the G4 reality show “2 Months, 2 Million” set their sites on two new targets: Full Tilt Pros David Benyamine and Erica Schoenberg.  The quartet also got back to putting in time on the virtual felt, adding $49,000 to their previous $114,000 in winnings and bringing their total profits up to $163,000.

Sunday night’s episode featured more heads-up online action between Jay Rosenkrantz and the player known as “BLEWJOB.”  After a rough series of matches in the first episode of the show, Rosenkrantz was just beginning to think he had his opponent figured out when BLEWJOB picked up from the table and stopped playing Rosenkrantz altogether.  The loss of this key opponent left Rosenkrantz concerned about the group’s overall goal.

“It’s going to be tough to make all this money this summer, “Rosenkrantz explained.  “Finding really good spots is a big part of it and BLEWJOB is a really good spot.”

Rosenkrantz decided to let off some steam with a trip to the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Pool with housemates Dani “Ansky” Stern and Brian Roberts.  While lounging poolside, Roberts spotted Schoenberg at a nearby cabana.

Even though Rosenkrantz and Schoenberg had never met in person, the two still had a history with each other.  A while back Schoenberg’s fiancé Benyamine was playing online against Rosenkrantz  when he picked up and moved to a higher stakes table.  Rosenkrantz taunted Benyamine through the chat box, chastising him for hitting and running and calling him a fish.  Schoenberg blogged about the incident and referred to Rosenkrantz as, “just a typical NL a**-clown.”

Rosenkrantz saw this as an opportunity to make amends and try to line up some high stakes action in the process, so he approached Schoenberg to apologize for his behavior.  She apologized for the statements in her blog as well and told Rosenkrantz she would be sure to let Benyamine know he was interested in some heads-up action.

While Rosenkrantz and Benyamine e-mailed back and forth to set up their match, Stern decided he should try to set up a match with Schoenberg.  As preparation for their impending heads-up showdowns, the guys do some yoga on the lawn.  Roberts struggled the most with the lesson and, at one point, convinced himself he had pulled his hamstring.  Later, Rosenkrantz also goes over some old hand histories of his previous matches with Benyamine to prepare himself for his latest challenge.

The next day Rosenkrantz woke up to a missed call from Benyamine, who phoned him at 6AM to see if he wanted to play.  While Rosenkrantz missed his chance to face off against Benyamine, Stern and the guys find time to meet up with Schoenberg for a live heads-up cash game session with a $2,000 buy-in.  The show didn’t reveal how much each player won, but it appeared as though both were having a good time as Schoenberg inquired about Stern’s friends and his love life.

The following morning Rosenkrantz is awoken by a call from Benyamine, who is willing to play a one hour match against the online pro.  Rosenkrantz heads down to the war room where Benyamine is waiting for him online.  Each player bought in for $40,000 and Rosenkrantz quickly jumped up to a $70,000 stack while Benyamine had to reload.

A big hand in which the two players got it all-in on an ace high flop with Rosenkrantz holding A-J to Benyamine’s A-Q was just the start of a series of rough hands for Rosenkrantz.  He managed to make a big fold against Benyamine despite making trip kings on the river, but was still down $74,000 with only 20 minutes left to play.  By the end of the session Jay was down $60,000 to his online nemesis.

After the session, the guys tallied up their winnings for the week and they were all in the black.  Emil Patel was the big winner with $27,200, Stern won $11,000 Roberts won $9,500 and despite the big loss to Benyamine even Rosenkrantz turned a $1,000 profit.

Rosenkrantz was offered three different penalty stunt options and opted for performing alongside male strippers at a strip club called X.  Though the stunt was intended to be demoralizing, Rosenkrantz had a great time performing in a construction hat and dancing under a shower.

Next week’s episode will feature some serious action on the felt with Roberts, some serious partying from Stern and some serious concerns from Rosenkrantz that the guys will not come anywhere close to meeting their $2 million goal.

FTOPS Guarantees $5.7 Million this Weekend on Full Tilt Poker

At least $5.7 million will be on the line this weekend as part of the 13th Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS). The $535 buy-in Main Event caps off the festivities and comes with a $2.5 million guaranteed prize pool.

The Main Event kicks off on Sunday at 6:00pm ET and will be hosted by Gus Hansen, one of the premier members of Team Full Tilt. Last time out, the FTOPS Main Event drew a whopping 4,581 runners and shelled out $432,400 to its winner, Pocketownage420. Others who made the final table included azzabentonaces (second place for $262,500), iDubDeuce (third place for $170,000), Hartwith (fourth place for $132,500), nickeltwenty (fifth place for $100,000), -NinG- (sixth place for $75,000), RonFezBuddy (seventh place for $57,500), baDONKaD0NK88 (eighth place for $43,750), and oiltrader (ninth place for $32,500). The top 648 players finished in the money, with 18 banking at least five-figures.

Kicking off this afternoon at 2:00pm ET is the $2,620 buy-in FTOPS Two-Day Event, which boasts a $2 million guaranteed purse. The challenging tournament is hosted by Patrik Antonius and will pause tonight when Level 17 has concluded or when the final two tables remain, whichever comes first. Then, the action resumes on Sunday at 2:00pm ET and will play down to a winner.

2007 Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic winner Travis “TravestyFund” Rice grabbed the win in the FTOPS XII Two-Day Event, earning $460,000. Others in the top nine last time out included Claws of Gix (second place for $290,000), BickleAce (third place for $215,000), GnightMoon (fourth place for $165,000), CiegoBoY (fifth place for $125,000), marlin5555 (sixth place for $90,000), pzyclone (seventh place for $60,000), HaiducF (eighth place for $46,800), and phat_cat1 (ninth place for $34,000). The FTOPS XIII Two-Day Event will be played in a six-max format.

Kicking off today at 3:00pm ET is the first-ever FTOPS Ante Up for Africa event. The tournament, which is hosted by Ante Up for Africa Co-Founder Don Cheadle, will set players back $120. Full Tilt will donate the entire $20 entry fee to charity; Matt Damon and Mekhi Phifer are two of the celebrities scheduled to play. Ultimate Bet pro Annie Duke and Norman Epstein also co-founded the organization, which raises money and awareness for victims of the crisis in Darfur. The Ante Up for Africa charity poker tournament comes with a $100,000 guaranteed prize pool and features an ante from the start format.

The final event to play out this weekend is a $129 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Knockout tournament, the 24th on the FTOPS XIII schedule. Erica Schoenberg will host the high-stakes bounty contest, which kicks off tomorrow at 2:00pm ET and features at least $750,000 up for grabs. A $256 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Knockout Six-Max event last Sunday drew a crowd of 4,644 runners, the second largest FTOPS XIII field. In the end, mikeyG16 walked away $177,000 richer for his efforts.

In September, the MiniFTOPS festivities will take place on the world’s second largest online poker site. The tournaments are similar to their high-stakes FTOPS counterparts, but come with one-tenth of the buy-in. The MiniFTOPS Main Event takes place on September 20th at 5:00pm ET and carries a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool. During FTOPS XII, MiniFTOPS tournaments were held concurrently with traditional events, causing many players to gravitate towards the smaller buy-ins. Consequently, a bevy of overlays occurred in the high-stakes FTOPS tournaments.

Full Tilt Poker brings back Sit and Go Madness next weekend, August 21st to 23rd. More than $125,000 in cash and prizes, which includes a $50,000 freeroll, will be on the line during the 48 hour affair.

<i>2 months, $2 million</i> to air on G4

The show will center on well-known high-stakes online pros Jay "pr1nnyraid" Rosenkrantz, Emil "Whitelime" Patel, Brian "Flawless_Victory" Roberts and Dani "Ansky" Stern as they try to collectively win $2 million in two months playing online poker.

The group will use a shared bankroll while staying at a 10,000 square foot mansion in Las Vegas, just outside of the strip, which includes a specialized "war room" with four 50-inch plasmas and several computers for multi-tabling online poker.

Each cast member is no stranger to success in poker. Stern recently finished fourth in the 2009 WSOP's $40,000 No-Limit Hold'em event for $548,315.

Patel finished second in the 2008 Full Tilt Poker Heads-Up tournament for $320,000 and both Rosenkrantz and Roberts have earned hundreds of thousands playing cash games online.

With the house only a few miles from the Strip, the crew will also take time out from poker to explore the Las Vegas scene, all for the benefit of reality TV.

There will also be several guest stars as the guys will have dinner with online cash-game wizard Tom "durrrr" Dwan, play a live cash game against Erica Schoenberg and log some high-stakes action against David Benyamine.

In a teaser clip for the show, the group is seen gambling for who will take what room in the mansion and then hanging out with some Playboy Playmates in the pool.

The show will feature 10 half-hour episodes and begins airing Aug. 16 at 9 p.m. PT.

Check out G4TV for more about the series.

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Jose Canseco Enters Dream Team Poker WSOP Tournament

Poker News Daily has learned that former Major League Baseball star Jose Canseco has entered the third Dream Team Poker tournament, which will be held on July 12th and 13th during the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP).

Canseco, whose book “Juiced” helped fuel the steroid hunt in professional baseball, will take to the Dream Team Poker felts along with teammates Shane McDowell and Josh Clark. Canseco’s team, dubbed “On Tilt,” is one of over 100 that have already registered for the event, which will be the first of its kind at the WSOP. Each three-man Dream Team Poker squad will battle for individual and team prizes in the two-day contest, which comes with a price tag of $560 per person.

Attendees of PokerPalooza, formerly the WSOP Gaming Life Expo, will notice a wall of jerseys hanging outside its entrance. The spectacle has been on display all week, runs from floor to ceiling, and has become a popular stop for poker fans. Dream Team Poker officials are expecting over 300 players total at the Rio, including Daniel Negreanu, whose Team Poker VT has already paid its buy-in. 2007 WSOP Main Event Champion Jerry Yang will be in attendance, as will Team Bodog, which includes Evelyn Ng, Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, and David Williams.

Last time out, Dream Team Poker held its first open tournament at Caesars Palace. The event attracted 148 teams and 444 players, selling out the Caesars poker room. In the end, Team ACED, led by 2006 WSOP Main Event Champion Jamie Gold, took down the title. Although Gold has since parted ways with the Merge Gaming Network site, his name is forever entrenched in Dream Team Poker history. Gold and company pocketed $59,000 for recording the top team finish and Danny Nelson from Team BikerHaven.net grabbed $24,000 for claiming the individual title.

Coming in second place at Caesars in the team competition were the Claddaghs, who earned $33,000. Other top finishers included The Clones (third place for $15,000), Party at the Mansion (fourth place for $10,000), and the Hellmuth Busters (fifth place for $6,000). One-third of the 2008 WSOP November Nine turned out at Caesars, as did Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Todd Brunson, Paul Wasicka, Mike Matusow, Erica Schoenberg, and T.J. Cloutier. Also in attendance was Bonomo, who along with Matt Parvis and Eric Morris took down the inaugural Dream Team Poker event as part of Team Bluff.

Each player will begin with 10,000 starting chips and blind levels last 40 minutes. The price of poker begins at 50-100 and antes kick in at Level 3, when blinds are 150-300. A 10 minute break occurs after every three levels and teammates are not seated at the same table until 14 to 16 players remain. Teams that registered prior to July 1st received a customized jersey and play begins at 2:00pm Pacific Time on both July 12th and 13th. Individual payouts amount to 40% of the prize pool, while team payouts make up the remaining 60%.

Other players slated to enter the third Dream Team Poker tournament include Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok (Team PokerRoad), Gavin Smith (Team Zurvive), Pamela Brunson (Team Pushers), Liz Liu (Team Chili Poker), and Barbara Enright, Paul Darden, and David Levi, who will make up Team Bookmaker Poker.

July 12th also marks Day 5 of the 2009 WSOP Main Event, which kicked off on Friday with the first of four starting days. A total of 1,116 entrants took to the felts on Day 1A, down from 1,297 last year. Today’s field is expected to be smaller due to the July 4th holiday in the United States. The $10,000 buy-in tournament will play down to its final table on July 15th, when it will be paused for four months. Last year, Danish poker pro Peter Eastgate earned $9.1 million for the victory and became the youngest WSOP Main Event winner ever at age 22.

The Dream Team Poker event will be held inside the Amazon Room, home of the 2009 WSOP. Registration is now open at the Rio cage and can be paid via casino chips, cash, or cashier’s check. We’ll have full tournament results for you right here on Poker News Daily.

Schulman, Carris take down bracelets WSOP June 13

Schulman finished first in the $10,000 World Championship 2-7 final table with Wahlbeck taking second to grab control of the WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard with 255 points.

An especially impressive feat considering Erick Lindgren won POY last year with only 245 points.

Both players outlasted a stacked final table that included Steve Sung, John Juanda, David Benyamine and Rolande de Wolfe.

Click here for an extensive recap of the prestigious event.

Here's a look at what else happened on another busy day at the WSOP:

Event 22 $1,500 Shootout Final Table

The $1,500 Shootout final table didn't have a lot of star power, but you wouldn't have known that by looking at the railbirds.

More than 20 fans donned orange Jeff "Wildcat" Carris t-shirts to cheer on their horse while Chris Moore and Jason Somerville also drew a large crowd of fans.

The screaming was near Main Event level as Carris proceeded to outlast all of his competition, including WPT Five Diamond winner Eugene Katchalov, to take down the bracelet and the $313,673 that came with it.

Event 24 $1,500 No-Limit Day 2

Event 24 was of particular interest to PokerListings' fans because two of our bloggers, Martin Derbyshire and Olle Sundin, were looking to go deep.

Both players made it past the 40-player mark but Sundin busted soon after and Derbyshire ended up coming in 29th. Not bad for the PL.com crew.

Pretty much everyone was excited to see EPT Hostess Kara Scott go deep in the event, but she also busted out around 1 a.m.

By the end of the day, 19 players remained with no big-name pros in the running. Although Dean Hamrick did bubble the 2008 Main Event final table.

Also trying to win the bracelet are Michael Greco, Panayote "Pete" Vilandos and Andy "BKiCe" Seth. Day 3 of Event 24 starts at 1 p.m. sharp tomorrow.

Event 25 $2,500 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud HL/Eight or Better Day 2

Day 2 of Event 25 began with 153 players including pros like Jennifer Harman, Phil Ivey, Gavin Smith and Chau Giang all vying to make another WSOP final table.

They made it all the way down to 14 players before opting to bag up the chips and come back tomorrow for what could be a long Day 3.

Jon "Pearljammer" Turner is your overnight chip leader with 365,000 chips. It could be an epic final table with Ivey, Blair Rodman, Chad Brown, Carlos Mortensen and Dutch Boyd still in the running.

Play resumes at 1 p.m. tomorrow.

Event 26 $1,500 Limit Hold'em Day 1

Event 26 drew 643 players, which once again proves that the No-Limit variant of poker is easily the more popular of the two.

That said, the field was rather compelling with actress Shannon Elizabeth, Lakers owner Jerry Buss and all the usual suspects with Teddy "Iceman" Monroe, Erica Schoenberg, Brock Parker and Barry Greenstein all in the building.

By the end of the day there would still be 124 players remaining with Bill Chen, Justin Bonomo and Nikki Harris all wielding big stacks.

Play resumes at 2 p.m. tomorrow.

Event 27 $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split Eight-or-Better Day 1

For an obscure event with a buy-in of $5,000, Event 27 did very well to bring in 198 runners.

Among the field were well-known pros like Phil Ivey, who multi-tabled Event 25, Barny Boatman, Shannon Shorr, Amnon Filippi, Clonie Gowen, Kathy Liebert, Erick Lindgren and many others.

By the end of the day 60 players were left with the money starting at 18. Daniel Negreanu, Jeffrey Lisandro and Roland De Wolfe were all stacked.

Day 2 starts at 2 p.m. tomorrow.

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Stammdog win, Negreanu loss headline WSOP June 7th

The Ohio-based online pro defeated Angel Guillen in heads-up play to clinch the $2,500 No Limit Hold'em (Event 13) title, earning $506,786 and his first WSOP bracelet in the process.

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.

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Erica Schoenberg Talks About Poker and Golf on The Scoop

"Eff you Adam," Erica Schoenberg says with a smile. Her playful derision is directed at Adam Schoenfeld, one of the hosts of the weekly Card Player TV show, The Scoop. Schoenberg talks about her golf game quite a bit in this week's episode, which is sponsored by Full Tilt,...

Team ACED Wins Dream Team Poker Caesars Palace Tournament

A total of 148 teams, or 444 players, entered Dream Team Poker's second tournament, which was held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas over the weekend. It was the first installment open to the public and, when the final cards were dealt, Team ACED took down the event for nearly $60,000.

2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion Jamie Gold headlined Team ACED, which also included Ashley Nataupsky and Houston Waldie. The team's name is a reference to Gold's sponsorship by the Merge Gaming Network site of the same name, an agreement he inked in February. The Network accepts players from the United States and also includes Carbon Poker, IronDuke, Poker Nordica, and Rumble Poker, among others. ACED recently sponsored a charity fundraiser for Children Uniting Nations that was held after the Oscar festivities in Los Angeles and emceed by Gold.

Gold actually took ninth in the event, while Nataupsky finished in fourth. The 2006 Main Event winner commented in a press release distributed by Dream Team Poker on Monday, “It’s the most fun you can have without $12 million on the line. My WSOP bracelet is in a vault, but my Dream Team Poker trophy will be on my mantel for all to see.” Gold bested a field of 8,773 players in poker's most prestigious tournament in 2006 and took home the largest prize ever given out at the WSOP.

In order to preserve the integrity of the game, Dream Team Poker also awards prizes for the top individual tournament finishers. At the Caesars event, Danny Nelson emerged victorious from the pack, taking home nearly $24,000. Heads-up, he went toe to toe with Philip Rousseaux for 45 minutes in front of a throng of onlookers. In the final hand, Rousseaux pushed with J-8 on a board of K-8-4, only to see he was dominated by Nelson's K-9. A six on the turn and a seven on the river sealed the win for Nelson, who played as part of Team BikerHaven.net.

Teams were given jerseys to hit the felts with, creating a unique atmosphere. A team's overall score is determined by the two best finishes of its members and teammates are not seated at the same table until 14 to 16 players remain in order to stunt collusion. The runner up finish by Rousseaux was enough to earn The Claddaghs the second best team score and its corresponding $33,000 prize. Here were the top five teams at Caesars in the second Dream Team Poker tournament, a $550 per person buy-in affair:

1st Place: Team Aced - $59,940
2nd Place: The Claddaghs - $33,300
3rd Place: The Clones - $15,984
4th Place: Party at the Mansion - $10,656
5th Place: Hellmuth Busters - $6,660

The top five individual finishers were:

1st Place: Danny Nelson (Team BikerHaven.net) - $24,063
2nd Place: Philip Rousseaux (Team Claddaghs) - $13,320
3rd Place: Jerry Percival (Team Runner, Runner) - $7,922
4th Place: Ashley Nataupsky (Team ACED) –$ 6,666
5th Place: John Regis (Poker Masters) - $5,328

The very first Dream Team Poker event was held at the Hard Rock Casino in November and was won by Team Bluff, which consisted of Matt Parvis, Eric Morris, and Bodog poker pro Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo. Despite being open to the general public, the second installment of Dream Team Poker brought out some of the top names in poker. Former WSOP Main Event Champions in attendance over the weekend included Gold, Jerry Yang, Tom McEvoy, Ultimate Bet pro Phil Hellmuth, and Johnny Chan. Also making the trek to Caesars were three members of the inaugural November Nine: Dennis Phillips, David “Chino” Rheem, and Kelly Kim. Other poker pros that competed included Todd Brunson, Paul Wasicka, Full Tilt Poker front man Mike Matusow, Erica Schoenberg, T.J. Cloutier, David Williams, and the last woman standing in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, Tiffany Michelle.

No date for the third Dream Team Poker tournament has been announced. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest on this unique spin on the game.

Babes + Poker = Profit!

Being a pretty girl and playing poker can get you huge popularity lot easier than for men with same merits. Still, it can be hard for a female pro poker player to be taken seriously at the tables.

Vanessa Rousso, who finished second at the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship this year, is topping the list of the hot poker babes. Other female stars include Tiffany Michelle, Erica Schoenberg and Evelyn Ng, who are scheduled to do a photo shoot for Knockout Magazine.

So hot and so knowing the pot odds! Poker babes are for real!

Schoenberg, who is also known for being the fiancé of David Benyamine, thinks it makes a huge difference that a magazine like Knockout have chosen to use real female poker players for an issue rather than just using models in a poker theme.

Successful female players out in the media could help draw more female players to the game. Tiffany Michelle is confident that her success in the last years WSOP Main Event has given an extra boost to other women getting interested in poker:

“Dealers have told me that more young women would be playing poker today if I’d made the final table at the WSOP,” Michelle said. “I’ve had a lot of people tell me their wives or girlfriends got more interested in playing poker after seeing me in the WSOP.”

Rousso, who has best live tournament results of these four, said she sometimes feels like she’s singled out because she’s a woman. She still takes a lot of grief in online poker forums as a woman in poker:

“But in the end, being a woman is definitely to my advantage at the poker table,” Rousso said. “I can take advantage of the underestimation and stereotypes that will be attributed to me simply due to my gender.”

Schoenberg is hoping that more women start playing poker, which would bring more respect to all women players in the game:

“Because there aren’t as many women in the game as men, the really good players that are out there just don’t get noticed,” Schoenberg said. “Bringing more women in and making them a bigger part of the game will help with that and continue to bring more respectability to poker in general.”

Still, I don’t know if there would necessary be as many women as men in the top of poker world, if there were more women playing, but I agree the respectability part.

It is also funny how being good looking and poker player has more value than being a successful one. After all, really successful female players like Kathy Liebert and Annie Duke have been playing for ages and they rarely unfold in the media like their hotter and less successful colleagues Schoenberg and Michelle.

Source: pokerlistings

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Babes + Poker = Profit!

Poker babes good for the game

There are more than a few women in the game, though, who are challenging that idea.

Vanessa Rousso turned up the heat recently at the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship and in the pages of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

Tiffany Michelle gained notoriety at the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event as the last woman standing. Now she, Erica Schoenberg and Evelyn Ng are scheduled to do a photo shoot for Knockout Magazine.

They're successful, they're hot, and now people outside the usual poker circle will get to see that poker is no longer just a backroom card game played by old men.

Schoenberg said she thinks it makes a huge difference that a magazine like Knockout would choose to use real female poker players for an issue rather than just hiring models and giving the photo shoot a poker theme.

"If guys want to just see hot girls, they can pick up a Maxim or even a Victoria's Secret catalog, but this way they get to see and hear about real women in the game," Schoenberg said.

"Not all that many young attractive women who play poker are willing to do something like this," Michelle said.

But just getting more young female poker players out in the media could help draw more players to the game, including more women.

"Dealers have told me that more young women would be playing poker today if I'd made the final table at the WSOP," Michelle said.

Just that little extra televised exposure would have seen many more women take a shot at playing. But even the coverage Michelle did get as the last woman standing had an effect.

"I've had a lot of people tell me their wives or girlfriends got more interested in playing poker after seeing me in the WSOP," Michelle said.

Schoenberg agreed that exposure to real female poker players is good for the game and good for women in the game, even if it's through a men's magazine.

"You know you can go look at poker sites online and poker ads that feature beautiful women, and you know they don't actually play," Schoenberg said. "With the magazine, they'll be getting real women who play poker. We really are someone you could be sitting at a table with."

These women have the game, too, as well as the looks at the table.

Michelle has more than $350,000 in tournament winnings in the last couple of years. Her biggest cash is the 2008 Main Event 17th-place finish, but she also has a World Poker Tour cash from 2008 to her credit.

Schoenberg has more than $700,000 in tournament winnings on her poker resume. That includes five WSOP event cashes since 2006 along with five WPT cashes.

Add Evelyn Ng's $340,000 in tournament winnings, and Knockout's summer issue will feature women with nearly $1.5 million in winnings between them.

Rousso has more than $1.3 million in live tournament winnings on her own as well. Some of that comes from her recent second-place finish in the NHUPC. She defeated poker heavyweights such as Doyle Brunson, Phil Ivey, Paul Wasicka and Daniel Negreanu to make it to the final round against Huck Seed.

Her largest cash comes from playing online poker. She took second place in the 2007 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker main event to earn more than $700,000 and boost her earnings up over $2 million.

Her success has led to a GoDaddy.com sponsorship deal as well as to the launch of her own poker tutorial camp in Florida, where she'll be pairing her skills with teachings from The Art of War to give poker lessons.

"The Art of Poker - An Intro to Game Theory and Poker," is put on by Big Slick Boot Camp and has several dates scheduled between now and April 26 in several Florida locations.

"My biggest passion outside of playing poker is in teaching poker strategy," Rousso said. "I love watching that lightbulb go off in my students' minds when they discover something new."

Despite all that experience, it can be hard for a female pro poker player to be taken seriously at the tables.

Rousso said she sometimes feels like she's singled out because she's a woman. She still takes a lot of grief in online poker forums as a woman in poker.

"But in the end, being a woman is definitely to my advantage at the poker table," Rousso said. "I can take advantage of the underestimation and stereotypes that will be attributed to me simply due to my gender."

Michelle agreed there are certain advantages to being an underestimated player at the tables because you're a woman, but in the end, what you want most is to be respected as a player.

"I realize that anything you can do to gain an advantage is good," she said, "but I think at the end of the day we all just want to be seen as good players."

Schoenberg said that getting more women into the game will help bring more respect to all women players in the game.

"Because there aren't as many women in the game as men, the really good players that are out there just don't get noticed," Schoenberg said. "Bringing more women in and making them a bigger part of the game will help with that and continue to bring more respectability to poker in general."

 

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