Poker News

Jonathan Duhamel and Scotty Nguyen have their debut on High Stakes Poker

There has been lots of talk about the lineup for High Stakes Poker Season 7 and now the players are slowly revealed as the filming is underway.

The filming will end today and after going through some players who use twitter, it is clear who have been playing:

Barry Greenstein: “Getting ready to film High Stakes Poker at Bellagio. They gave me old chips from the cage due to a recent robbery!”

Antonio Esfandiari: “Today is High Stakes Poker. Oatmeal. Protein shake. Feeeeling good. One (moore) time!”

Jonathan Duhamel (WSOP 2010 Main Event winner): “@TheGrinder44 Some shooting for PStars and then high stakes poker!”

Andrew Robl: “On set for high stakes poker. Going to be quite a season!”

Jason Mercier: “Off to Vegas today … Goin to try my luck again at season 7 of high stakes poker”

And also Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Doyle “Texas dolly” Brunson, David “Viffer” Peat, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak and Scotty “Scotty baby” Nguyen are going to play.

Full Tilt Poker haven’t changed their politics, they won’t allow their Team players to play on HSP. Also Daniel Negreanu told that he is busy doing other things, so he is not able to play.

Let’s hope that the new players will bring some life to HSP as the Season 6 was a bit of a letdown.

Source: Pokerista.net, PokerKingBlog

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Jonathan Duhamel and Scotty Nguyen have their debut on High Stakes Poker

Durrrr Challenge 2 continues - Dwan takes a win

Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates have been really busy with their Challenge on Full Tilt Poker. They continud the Challenge last night and Dwan was able to win again.

Dwan had a $300K lead at one point, but in the end he won only $63,362 as “jungleman12″ made a nice comeback. This time they played 1214 habds.

Now they have played a bit over 14,000 hands and DCates’ lead is getting smaller and smaller - it is now about $500,000.

Even though Cates lost, the biggest pot goes to him as he wins @210K with a straight

They had to quit the session as Dwan began to disconnect. “Durrrr” even checked his fulsh on river becaause of that.

Cates found the accident amusing:

Dealer: durrrr has timed out
Dealer: durrrr shows a flush, Ace high
Dealer: durrrr wins the pot ($35,399.50) with a flush, Ace high
jungleman12: ….
durrrr: wowthat
durrrr: thats so gay
jungleman12: hey
durrrr: gg
jungleman12: i thought it was pretty cool
durrrr: nice douchebag comment ty
jungleman12: joking obv
durrrr: pretty off timing
durrrr: to joke
durrrr: after running pretty sick for 20min and then my 1st intnet messup in days it chks behind nut flush vs ur 2p which obv autocalls
durrrr: but w/e enjoy the needle play later
jungleman12: gg

Read more about the Challenge from the official website.

Source: Pokerista.net

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Durrrr Challenge 2 continues - Dwan takes a win

PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Final Table to Air Live on ESPN

Poker News Daily has learned that the upcoming PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) final table in January will air live on the ESPN family of networks.

The PCA is set to begin its 48-tournament schedule on January 6th at the Atlantis Hotel and Resort in the Bahamas, with the $10,000 Main Event set to begin on January 8th. As a part of the festivities, ESPN will cover the final table of the PCA Main Event in its entirety over its family of networks. At the moment, ESPN is dedicating a minimum of five hours of programming time on ESPN3.com and ESPN2.

At 5:00pm ET on Saturday, January 15th, ESPN3.com will open up its coverage of the final table. According to Kimberly Jessup, a spokesperson for ESPN Communications, “The broadcasts on our outlets will be delayed for an hour. By doing this, we will be able to provide hole card camera viewpoints for our audience, enhancing the poker experience.” At 10:00pm, the web broadcast will continue, but ESPN2 will join in to provide a simulcast.

At this moment, it is unknown who will be the commentators for the tournament. For previous ESPN poker broadcasts, Lon McEachern and Norman Chad have provided play-by-play and color. McEachern and Chad have been the voices of the World Series of Poker since 2003.

“For the first time, viewers at home will see a poker telecast from start to finish, with all of the strategy of world-class poker players playing in real-time and completely unedited,” Matt Volk, the ESPN’s Manager of Programming and Acquisitions, stated during the announcement.

PokerStars.net North America Regional Marketing Director, Joe Versaci, is also looking forward to a groundbreaking moment in poker. “This is one of the most exciting announcements ever in televised poker,” Versaci said. “This is the first time people watching online or on TV will be able to see everything that happens at a poker table. So much happens in poker that never makes it to the final television edit, but this will show exactly how top-level players go about winning a massive tournament. There’s so much money on the line… it’s going to be gripping.”

With this broadcast of the PCA, ESPN’s production will become only the second live tournament final table to be broadcast on television in the United States. Although ESPN provided delayed coverage of the final table of the 2010 WSOP Main Event final table through ESPN3.com, it has not attempted to show a tournament in almost real-time.

For the first broadcast of a live poker tournament’s final table, we have to go back to 2004. Fox Sports Net featured live coverage of “Championship Poker at Turning Stone,” which saw such players like John Juanda, Phil Ivey, Paul Phillips, Robert Williamson III, Randy Jensen, and a then-unknown John D’Agostino on the felt. Fox Sports Net used a special scanner to show viewers the hole cards on a five-second delay.

Two other made-for-television events have also been featured live on Fox Sports Net. In 2005, the Full Tilt Poker Invitational was played out live from Monaco and the Full Tilt Poker Championship was shown live from the Wynn in Las Vegas. These tournaments, however, were invitational events, not an open multi-player tournament like the Turning Stone or PCA events.

PokerStars Introduces Sunday Kickoff

PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, has announced a new weekly Sunday tournament that will cater to players residing in the Eastern Hemisphere. The $109 buy-in Sunday Kickoff, with a $50,000 guarantee, will begin at 2:00pm Central Europe Time, meaning that European players won’t have to worry about playing a major tournament deep into the night like the Sunday Million, which gets underway at 10:30pm CET each week.

The Sunday Kickoff is open to all players, including early risers in the U.S., who can play in the new tournament at 8:00am ET. The event will join the Sunday Million, Sunday Warm-Up, Sunday 500, and Sunday Second Chance on the weekly Sunday Major schedule on PokerStars.

To celebrate the launch of the first Sunday Kickoff tournament this weekend, PokerStars is hosting a promotional $11 satellite featuring 100 seats guaranteed at 8:00am ET on Saturday. The initial $11 buy-in could ultimately result in a five-figure payday for the winner. Players can also buy in directly through the tournament lobby.

The new tournament received mostly positive feedback from members of TwoPlusTwo, as non-U.S. players unable to play the normal PokerStars Sunday Major slate welcomed the early start time. “Nice time to get the action underway,” TwoPlusTwo poster “mdr1984″ said. “For the Europeans, it’s a great time, especially when you have to work the next day.” Fellow European player “Snapman” agreed: “Awesome. Will be playing this. Can’t really play the Sunday Warm-Up or Sunday Million due to work on Monday morning, so I’m happy about this development.”

However, forum members also discussed the validity in the Sunday Kickoff being mentioned as a “Major” tournament. The structure was a chief concern, as players will receive 3,000 chips to start compared to the 10,000-chip stacks of the Sunday Million and Sunday Warm-Up. Said TwoPlusTwo member “DaBigBoss86,” “The Kickoff needs a better structure and a six-figure guarantee to be considered a ‘Major.’” Several others chimed in saying that PokerStars already had a bigger $109 buy-in on the Sunday schedule, the $125,000 Guaranteed starting at 7:00pm ET.

The five Sunday Majors on PokerStars now guarantee more than $3 million in prize money each week, with the Sunday Million generating more than half of that total. Last Sunday, PokerStars player “Troopaloop” took down the flagship event for more than $243,000. The other big winners over the weekend included “Limitless22” (Sunday Warm-Up win for $144,425), “jokkee_apart” (Sunday 500 win for $89,234), and “teamfranklin” (Sunday Second Chance win for $51,564).

This weekend will not only feature the inaugural Sunday Kickoff, but also the highly anticipated SuperStar Showdown, PokerStars’ answer to Full Tilt Poker‘s Durrrr Challenge. The 2,500-hand heads-up match will pit newly signed PokerStars Team Pro “Isildur1” against any challenger. This weekend, the mystery Swede will face off against Isaac “philivey2694″ Haxton. The two players will play four tables of $50/$100 or higher No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha simultaneously until the 2,500-hand mark is reached. The match is set get underway on Sunday at 6:00pm ET. Read more.

Ziigmund is back!

Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies logged in to Full Tilt Poker after a bit over two weeks break from online poker. The Finnish grinder varied his games a lot as he played from $25/$50 PLO to $200/$400 CAP Pot-Limit Omaha.

According to HighstakesDB, Sahames won about 13,000 dollars during the last night’s session. HighstakesDB doesn’t track the small $25/$50 PLO games though.

Let’s see how the break treated him as he is down about 2 million dollars this year, and the last month was catastropical.

Ziigmund’s 2010 graph

Apart from Ziigmund’s return, there haven’t been much going on at the nosebleed games. Some players are filming the new season of High Stakes Poker, so that might slow things a bit.

Source: Pokerista.net, HSDB

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Ziigmund is back!

Jonathan Karamalikis Win PokerStars APPT Grand Final in Sydney

Full Tilt Poker pro Jonathan “xMONSTERxDONGx” Karamalikis bested a field of 289 players to win the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Grand Final in Sydney, Australia over the weekend. The 22 year old online superstar from Adelaide, Australia earned AUD $459,510, his biggest score ever, and outlasted one of the toughest final tables ever played on the APPT.

The star-studded final table included Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreanu, live poker Triple Crown winner Roland de Wolfe, and former APPT champion Eddy Sabat. Negreanu, who took a short stack to the final table, was the first to exit after running top pair into de Wolfe’s set of threes. His ninth place finished earned him AUD $36,415.

However, de Wolfe’s newfound chips didn’t take him far, as the London pro lost a few pots and then moved his short stack all-in pre-flop with A-9 only to be called by the A-Q of Karamalikis. The best hand held up, sending de Wolfe out in eighth place with $50,285. After Manuel Hansimikali was eliminated in seventh place, Karamalikis busted yet another pro at the table, sending Sabat out in sixth. Karamalikis four-bet all-in pre-flop with pocket nines and was called by Sabat, who revealed A-K. The Q-Q-6-3-Q board was no help to Sabat, who collected $79,765.

Hours later, Karamalikis found himself heads-up with fellow Aussie Benjamin McLean for the APPT Grand Final crown. McLean had a slight lead when heads-up play began, but Karamalikis quickly took control and never looked back. In the most pivotal pot of the match, Karamalikis made the nut flush with his Ks-Ts and got three streets of value from McLean, who had A-K for top pair. McLean then moved his remaining chips in pre-flop with A-6 suited against the pocket fives of Karamalikis and was unable to improve, sending the pot and the title to the 22 year old.

“This is obviously the biggest (tournament) I’ve ever won, by far,” Karamalikis said after the victory. “It’s quite a prestigious title, so I’m really glad to have it under my belt.”

With the victory, Karamalikis became the fourth consecutive Aussie to win the APPT Grand Final. He also moved into the top 10 of Australia’s all-time money list with over $1 million in live tournament earnings. Joe Hachem ($10,962,046), Antanas “Tony G” Guoga ($4,385,948), and Mel Judah ($3,238,391) are the top three Aussie money winners.

Here’s a look at the final table results from Sydney (all prizes listed in AUD):

1. Jonathan Karamalikis – $459,510
2. Ben McLean – $294,780
3. Tom Rafferty – $164,730
4. Peco Stojanovski – $121,380
5. Antoine Amourette – $97,970
6. Eddy Sabat – $79,765
7. Manuel Hansimikali – $65,025
8. Roland de Wolfe – $50,285
9.  Daniel Negreanu – $36,415

The 2010 APPT Grand Final saw a significant drop in attendance from 2009, when Aaron Benton best a field of 389 players to win the title. Despite the 100-player slide, the event was deemed a success by tournament staff. “It’s been an amazing series and an exciting time for me and the poker staff at Star City,” said Debra Rillo, Star City Hotel and Casino Poker Manager. “We’ve had some of the biggest names in poker grace our felts this fortnight. Many thanks to all our local, interstate, and international guests and players. I am proud to say that I was a part of this event. Roll on 2011!”

The Online Railbird Report: Scott “URnotINdanger2″ Palmer Gets The Better Of Patrik Antonius

Patrik Antonius battles Scott “URnotINdanger2” Palmer

Kevin Vendermissen wins Full Tilt Poker Series Espana

The Nightly Turbo: Gus Hansen Wins Full Tilt Poker Million IX, a New Poker Reality Show, and More

WSOP Main Event Runner-Up John Racener Receives Third DUI

Over the weekend, 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event runner-up John Racener received his third DUI, according to the St. Petersburg Times newspaper. Early Saturday morning, law enforcement officials stopped Racener at West Azeele Street and South Westland Avenue.

According to the Times, “He refused blood-alcohol testing and was booked into the Hillsborough County Jail on $1,000 bail.” The Florida news outlet also profiled Racener’s past run-ins with the law: “Racener has been arrested in Hillsborough County three times before – on charges of driving under the influence in 2005 and 2007 and on a misdemeanor battery charge in 2009, according to jail records.”

Racener has not updated his Twitter feed since December 9th at 1:01am, when he bowed out in fourth place from the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic for $232,000. Victory Poker pro Antonio Esfandiari ultimately won the marquee WPT tournament, which saw Andrew “good2cu” Robl, PokerStars pro Vanessa Rousso, Kirk Morrison, and Ted Lawson also reach the six-handed final table. At the time, Racener was one month removed from heads-up play in the WSOP Main Event.

Racener banked $5.5 million in the Main Event and played second fiddle to Jonathan Duhamel, who became the tournament’s first Canadian champ. The Full Tilt Poker pro nearly outlasted the entire 7,319-player field and recorded his third final table. Racener hails from Tampa and sported logos for CardRunners at the final table. When play reached heads-up, Racener switched to a Full Tilt patch.

A 22-page thread about Racener’s run-in with the law popped up on TwoPlusTwo, where posters were largely critical of the poker player’s decision to drink and drive. One member, however, explained, “Very naive to think most people don’t or haven’t driven while over the legal limit. You go to a restaurant and look around, you will see like six couples with a bottle of wine sitting in front of them. None of those people are driving home? I mean they might not be ‘hammered,’ but I would guess they are over the legal limit. Is it right to drive while drunk? No. Is it right to drive after two glasses of wine? No. Do people tend to do it? Yes.”

Racener broke onto the live poker scene four years ago, when he finished third in the WSOP Circuit Championship in Atlantic City for $103,000. One year later, he took eighth in the WPT Borgata Winter Open, also in Atlantic City, for $166,000. He claimed a Circuit gold ring in December 2007 in Atlantic City, besting a final table that included future November Niner Eric Buchman.

In the online arena, Racener won the challenging PokerStars $100 Rebuy in August for $24,000. On Valentine’s Day, he took second in the UB.com $100,000 Guarantee for $23,000. More recently, Racener came away with a third place finish in the PokerStars $200 Rebuy for $19,000 in October.

Scott “URnotINdanger12? Plamer crushes Patrik Antonius at $500/$1000 PL/HA

Scott “URnotINdanger12″ Palmer and Patrik Antonius had a wild heads up session last night. They played at two $500/$1000 Pot Limit Hold’em/Omaha Hi (HA) tables on Full Tilt Poker.

Palmer and Antonius played about 500 hands and the Finn lost $400K to Palmer. We don’t have the exact figures as HighstakesDB is having a maintenance.

Antonius, Palmer and the other players have most likely played a lot more last night, so the results are not telling the whole truth.

The biggest pot of the HA games, Palmer has kings against Patrik’s open ended straight draw:

Source: Pokerista.net

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Scott “URnotINdanger12″ Plamer crushes Patrik Antonius at $500/$1000 PL/HA

Full Tilt Poker launches short-handed happy hour

High Stakes Poker to no longer feature Full Tilt pros?

Gus Hansen wins Poker Million

No Dwan, Ivey or Antonius on High Stakes Poker Season 7?

High Stakes Poker didn’t get too many praises in last season when A.J. Benza was replaced by Kara Scott. The upcoming season doesn’t look that promising either.

Full Tilt Poker might forbid their players to participate on the show. The reason for the ban is that the show is sponsored by PokerStars, which is the biggest rival to FTP.

Barry Greenstein writes about it on 2+2 forums:

“I talked to Howard Lederer and Mori.

However, Full Tilt has two major concerns. First is they don’t like their players playing when PokerStars is the sponsor of the show. (I assume Full Tilt can buy ad time but I didn’t check this out with GSN or PokerStars.) Secondly, they were unhappy that PokerStars bought the HSP archives.

In the early seasons of HSP, the players didn’t wear logos, so FTP is concerned that viewers will be able to go to pokerstars.tv and see the FTP players without logos and be confused by their affiliation,” Greenstein writes.

Greenstein doesn’t like the current policy, because everyone would like to see Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey and Tom “durrrr” Dwan on the show.

“Most of us would like to see the three top FTP cash game players on the show along with some of the other characters we have had in previous seasons. If they don’t play, they’ll be replaced by some new young stars of the game, some affiliated and some not,” Greenstein concludes his post.

Only time will tell what happens. Let’s hope that the policy will change, so HSP would get a season waht the fans deserve.

Source: Pokerista.net

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

No Dwan, Ivey or Antonius on High Stakes Poker Season 7?

Gus Hansen Victorious at Full Tilt Poker Million IX

Defeating one of the toughest tables ever assembled for the tournament, recent World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe bracelet winner Gus Hansen emerged victorious at the Full Tilt Poker sponsored Poker Million IX.

The event, which took place on live television in England on Sky Sports Network, featured some of the best players in the world vying for a $1 million first place prize. Along with Hansen were such notable players as 2010 WSOP Europe champion James Bord, Patrik Antonius, and Howard Lederer. With such a huge prize on the line, the eight players battling for the Poker Million IX championship wasted little time getting to action.

On the 37th hand of play, Antonius departed in spectacular fashion. After a raise from Tony Bloom with A-3, Antonius looked him up from the small blind with A-9 and Bord came along for the ride out of the big blind with 10-8. The flop was magical for Bord, 9-7-6 rainbow, giving the Englishman the nuts. With his top pair, Antonius led out only to face a re-raise from Bord. Bloom released his hand and, after a bout in the tank, Antonius moved his stack to the center. Bord delightfully called, tabling his winning hand and seizing a sizeable lead in the early going.

Soon after Antonius’ elimination, Bord attempted to take down Hansen, but fell short after his A-J fell against Hansen’s A-Q and the “Great Dane” doubled up. Hansen used these chips to eliminate Lederer from the tournament when, in a battle of the blinds, Lederer moved all-in from the big blind with A-8 of diamonds. Hansen, in the small blind, deliberated for a bit before making the call with his A-J and, after dodging eights and diamonds on the board, was in a seemingly dominant position to take down the Poker Million IX title.

Two internet qualifiers, Seth Webber and Gary Peniket, performed well on the big stage, but were unable to drive deep. Webber was dispatched from the tournament at the hands of Hansen, while Peniket departed the table via a bad beat from Bord. After Bord raised from under-the-gun with K-10 of clubs, Peniket decided to make a stand with K-Q. Peniket’s dominant position changed on the flop, which came down 5-10-9 with two clubs, giving Bord the lead. Drawing thin, Peniket could not find one of his seven outs and was eliminated in fifth place.

Bloom got back into the action when he defeated Hendon Mob member Barny Boatman, out-flopping Boatman’s pocket tens with an A-3. After remaining quiet, Bloom began to impose his will on the felt, defeating Bord in a key hand where the WSOP Europe champion held an up-and-down straight draw against Bloom’s flopped two pair and couldn’t find a closer.

After eliminating Bord, Bloom was behind Hansen by about 140,000 chips and the duo only took two hands to decide who would be the champ. After catching pocket queens on his first hand and raising Bloom out, Hansen looked down to see A-8 on the very next hand. After Bloom moved his stack to the center, Hansen decided to look him up and was thrilled to see he was in a dominant position against Bloom’s A-6. An unnecessary eight on the flop sealed the deal for the Danish poker champion, propelling him to victory and the $1 million first place prize.

The victory caps a tremendous year for Hansen. Although he only won $581,073 in tournament poker during 2010, Hansen was able to shed the “Best Player Never to Win a Bracelet” tag by winning the epic marathon that was the £10,000 No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up event at this year’s WSOP Europe. The bracelet became the latest addition to Hansen’s trophy chest alongside his three World Poker Tour titles and 2007 win at the Aussie Millions. All totaled, the “Great Dane” has won over $8 million in his career, not counting his Poker Million victory.

Tournament organizers Matchroom Sport have promised to pull out all the stops next year when Poker Million gets its tenth outing. “Poker Million is one of the few remaining poker majors that has truly stood the test of time,” said Eddie Hearn, Managing Director of Matchroom Sport. “It has remained Europe’s most prestigious title and 2011 will see the event reach its tenth year. We plan something very special for Poker Million X and want to give the poker playing public a real shot at the million.”

Full Tilt Poker Launches Short-Handed Happy Hour Promotion

Poker players can always count on Full Tilt Poker for unique promotions.  At the beginning of December, the popular online poker room launched its Short-Handed Happy Hour promotion, encouraging players to jump start empty or nearly empty tables.

Running through the end of January, Full Tilt players will earn double Full Tilt Points (FTPs) by playing in short-handed cash games.  For the purposes of this promotion, Full Tilt defines “short-handed” as follows:

Six-Max tables – Three players or fewer
Eight-Max tables – Four players or fewer
Nine-Max tables – Five players or fewer

Heads-up tables are not included in the promotion, and for obvious reasons.  The only possible way to have a short-handed heads-up table would be to have just one player seated, which would mean there would be no game.  Rush Poker tables are also not included.

There are no specific times for Short-Handed Happy Hour; tables will be marked with the traditional Happy Hour smiley face whenever they are short-handed.  If they are short-handed during what would normally be a Happy Hour time, players at the table will earn triple FTPs.

Remember that these extra Happy Hour points are considered bonus FTPs and therefore do not count towards points targets for promotions such as the Iron Man Challenge nor do they count towards clearing deposit bonuses.  Only base FTPs earned at the tables count.

In cash games, FTPs are earned based on the amount of money raked from the pot.  For each dollar raked, 10 points are awarded to the table.  Those points are then split up equally among all players who were dealt cards in the hand.  Players can earn points for playing in tournaments as well, but as already stated, only ring games count for the Short-Handed Happy Hour promotion.

According to the online poker traffic watchdog site PokerScout.com, Full Tilt Poker currently ranks as the second largest poker room or network on the internet.  It is a steep climb to the number one spot, however, as PokerStars has averaged 30,000 cash game players over the last seven days, compared to 17,000 for Full Tilt.  On the bright side, it does not appear that Full Tilt will drop below that second spot any time soon.  PartyPoker sits in third place with a seven-day average of just 3,850 cash game players, with the iPoker Network close behind with 3,750.

Recently, Full Tilt made a bold attempt to get more people playing at its tables by introducing a Rush Poker Mobile app for Android-based phones.  For the most part, the app was received positively by those who tried it, although its performance was affected by the quality of the user’s cell phone signal.  Unfortunately, the app was pulled from the Android Market about a week ago.  Full Tilt said it was “due to maintenance,” but the real reason was likely because it allowed customers to gamble for real money.  While the Android Market allows apps with gambling themes, real money gambling apps are strictly forbidden.

The Nightly Turbo: Isildur1 Had a Bad Day, Full Tilt Poker Million IX Report, and More

Full Tilt Poker MiniFTOPS XVIII Underway

The Mini Full Tilt Online Poker Series (MiniFTOPS) XVIII is in full gear, as four of the 34 events on the slate are already in the books. More than 25,000 players participated in the first four tournaments, including 15,328 in Event #1, a $20 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament hosted by Full Tilt pro Andy Bloch on Wednesday night.

The first event of the series saw a couple of online poker’s top players make deep runs, but fall just short of the final table. Zachary “HusterGrune” Gruneberg, ranked 14th in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, took 10th place for $2,054, while Andrew “ALLOFIT29″ Youngblood placed 12th for the same payout. The tournament was eventually won by “mulls24,” who defeated “PPARRISH” for the MiniFTOPS jersey and $46,793. “PPARRISH” collected a still comforting $31,422, while brunoricelli ($22,225), 1beebers1 ($15,941), and SmnLikDat ($11,342) rounded out the top five.

Thursday’s MiniFTOPS lineup had three events, the first being a $24 Pot Limit Omaha Knockout (#2). The tournament drew 4,464 entrants and was won by “YuOnlyBeatMeBad,” who took home $15,051 after a two-way chop with runner-up “Posemuckel69″ ($12,000). Feared online grinder “kennl” finished just short of the final table, placing 11th for $670.

Event #3 kicked off Thursday and the $30 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em Shootout generated a massive prize pool of $126,810. The last four players standing decided to make a deal, with each locking up at least $7,600. “Chilenogjr” went on to win the tournament and his first MiniFTOPS jersey as well as $16,001 after defeating “Tamerlan9″ heads-up. “Tamerlan9″ collected $7,891.52 in prize money, while third-place finisher “OWN_U2″ took home the second largest prize of $12,250 following the four-way deal.

Finally, Event #4 got started Thursday night. The first-ever Rush HORSE event saw 2,861 players pony up the $20 buy-in, but the $75,000 guaranteed contest still had an overlay of nearly $18,000. The tournament also had a deal at the final table, this time a heads-up chop between “ugadebugadeuga” and “lincolini.” Despite finishing second, “ugadebugadeuga” walked away with the most money ($11,011), while “lincolini” earned the jersey and $10,288.

The attendance numbers thus far have bested the previous MiniFTOPS, which was held in September. That series saw 14,938 players participate in Event #1, the same $20 No Limit Hold’em tournament. March’s MiniFTOPS XV holds the record for most entrants in a kickoff event with 18,875.

The MiniFTOPS schedule features the same events as the regular FTOPS that concluded last month, but each buy-in is one-tenth of the price. The 11-day series still has $6 million in guaranteed prize money, including a $1 million guaranteed prize pool for the $70 buy-in Main Event on Sunday, December 19th. There is also a Two-Day $200 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament starting on Saturday, December 18th. That event, hosted by Erick Lindgren, has a $600,000 guaranteed prize pool.

MiniFTOPS resumes at 1:00pm ET today with Event #6, a $20 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em tournament with one rebuy and one add-on. Event #7, which gets underway at 5:00pm ET, is a $31 No Limit Hold’em Super Turbo. That will be followed by a $20 Seven-Card Stud High/Low contest (Event #8) at 9:00pm.

Isildur1 Drops $300k to Galfond

Isildur1, who some claim is Swede Viktor Blom, lost the majority of his stack playing $100/$200 PLO against savvy vet Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond.

Isildur1 is widely considered to be a better No-Limit Hold’em player so his losses in PLO were not a complete surprise.

Swings of this nature are no stranger to Isildur1. Last year Isildur1 went on the mother of all heaters spinning his Full Tilt account up to over $4 million before losing it all and more.

Over on Full Tilt Poker Patrik Antonious was the ultimate winner over a rather slow day. He picked up $147k in the $200/$400 Six-Max PLO games.

Some of the other big winners included new account KobeYard85 with $140k, Limit specialist O Fortuna PLS with $115k, harrington25 with $113k and Gus Hansen with $104k.

Isildur1 was the biggest loser on any site but upstart bemyguestbud saw his hot streak on Full Tilt come to an end losing $274k.

Other notable losers included Phil Ivey, who’s been on a decidedly un-Phil Ivey like downswing lately. Ivey lost a total of $117k over 169 hands.

Also in the losing column were DrugsOrMe who dropped $88k and Andrew Feldman who lost $87k.

For more information about the high stakes action last night, check out our online poker stats section.

Dwan dominates December - “cadillac1944? and Patrik Antonius the biggest losers

Undoubtedly most railbirds have been following Isildur1 on PokerStars lately, but there has been some big games going on at Full Tilt Poker as well.

Tom “durrrr” Dwan is leading the December’s winning chart at the moment. He has won about 650,000 dollars for now and his domination doesn’t show no end. There’s some players just behind Dwan though: Di “Urindanger” Dang ($550K), Andreas “skerjoy” Torbergsen ($530K) and “IHateJuice” ($434K).

There’s two really big losers in December: “Cadillac1944″ (-$1,2M) and Patrik Antonius (-$860K).

The whole December’s Winner/Loser list below (remember that there’s still no results from the big 2-7 Triple Draw games):

Source: Pokerista.net, HSDB

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Dwan dominates December - “cadillac1944″ and Patrik Antonius the biggest losers

Vanessa Rousso Leads WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic Final Table

At 4:00pm today, the final six players will take to the felt to determine a winner of the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT). PokerStars pro and GoDaddy Girl Vanessa Rousso leads the way with a stack of 5.8 million headed into the six-handed televised finale.

Among those railing Rousso on the play down day of the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic was UB.com pro Maria Ho, who Tweeted late Tuesday night, “Congrats to @VanessaRousso for making the final table of the @WorldPokerTour event as the chip leader! Flying back to Vegas to sweat her!”

Also enthused about Rousso’s final table appearance was her better half, Chad Brown, who Tweeted, “Congrats to my girl making the final table and she is the chip leader. Back tomorrow at 4pm for the grand finale. My money is on the lady.” Brown is fresh off hip replacement surgery, but played in the Five Diamond just days after the operation.

Tuesday’s action saw the field play down from 15 runners to six and the final elimination of the evening went to Kia Mohajeri, who took seventh place for $97,000. Mohajeri ran A-Q into the A-K belonging to World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event November Niner John Racener on his final hand. The board ran out an uneventful 6-6-2-9-10 and Racener padded his stack to 3.2 million, good for second place on the leaderboard behind Rousso.

Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger, a Full Tilt Poker pro, met his demise after calling all-in with A-Q on a flop of A-10-6 for top pair. However, Rousso flipped up A-6 for top and bottom pair and a running 9-4 didn’t improve Lichtenberger’s holdings. He bowed out in eighth place for $67,000 from the $10,000 buy-in tournament, his deepest run ever in a WPT event.

Titan Poker pro Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi bit the dust in ninth place in the WPT Five Diamond World Poker Classic. Mizzi exited in especially brutal fashion after running pocket queens into Rousso’s pocket kings on his final hand. Mizzi now has back-to-back top 10 finishes in WPT tournaments, but has yet to make a final table. He was the Final Table Bubble Boy last month at Foxwoods, finishing seventh in the World Poker Finals for $88,000.

DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Amit “amak316” Makhija exited in 13th place on Tuesday, banking $42,000 for his five-day run in the Bellagio poker tournament. After Rousso moved all-in on a board of 9-6-2-10, Makhija called for his stack and showed 9-8 for a pair of nines and a gutshot straight draw. Rousso tabled ducks for a set and a river six gave the PokerStars pro a full house.

The WPT could not have asked for a more star-studded final table:

1. Vanessa Rousso – 5,830,000
2. John Racener – 3,235,000
3. Andrew “good2cu” Robl – 3,210,000
4. Kirk Morrison – 2,650,000
5. Antonio Esfandiari – 2,105,000
6. Ted Lawson – 635,000

When play resumes, the blinds will be 25,000-50,000 with an ante of 5,000. After 12 minutes, the price of poker will increase to 30,000-60,000 with an ante of 5,000. Here’s what’s on the line for the six survivors:

1st Place: $870,124
2nd Place: $549,003
3rd Place: $358,964
4th Place: $232,271
5th Place: $168,924
6th Place: $126,693

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest WPT coverage.

Poker Million final table set

Full Tilt Poker releases new multi-tabling features

“Jungleman12? and “durrrr” continued their Challenge

Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Daniel “jungleman12″ Cates continued their Challenge on Full tilt Poker today. The session was quite short, but Cates managed to win nicely in just 346 hands.

Cates is now leading for $800K when they have played about 20% of the Challenge.

Dwan was nagging to Cates again, because it seems like Cates only wants to play the Challenge when Dwan is tired and has played other games for hours.

The truth is though, that Cates has been online waiting for Dwan, but Dwan has not been around.

Maybe it’s some kind of frustration from Dwan’s part, read for yourself:

durrrr: gg
durrrr: play another time when im not dead tired
durrrr: plo games broke
jungleman12: gg
durrrr: how much u win?
jungleman12: well now you can play 6 tables
jungleman12: over 100
durrrr: 110?
jungleman12: something like that
jungleman12: 120
durrrr: ur allowed to wanna play when im up <15hrs too =)
jungleman12: lol….
jungleman12: no comment
jungleman12: i hope youre not implying that im stalking you again
durrrr: think the lol counts as a comment but i never got to the reporting part of school
durrrr: =)
durrrr: ima slepe gl
jungleman12: it does
jungleman12: ok
jungleman12: gl

Source: Pokerista.net, Durrr Challenge, 2+2

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

“Jungleman12″ and “durrrr” continued their Challenge

The Online Railbird Report: Cates Up, Antonius Down

Full Tilt Poker Releases Auto Add-On for Rebuys

Full Tilt Poker, the world’s second largest online poker site, released a software update on Monday that addressed many of its customers’ requests and concerns. Among the new features to the software were an “Auto Add-On” button for rebuys and a “Quick Fold to Any Bet” option for Rush Poker players.

The “Auto Add-On” button was probably the most asked-for feature that Full Tilt‘s software was missing up until this latest upgrade. After PokerStars inserted a clickable “Auto Add-On” box for its rebuy tournaments in June 2009, Full Tilt players requested the same. It took well over a year, but the site came through for its multi-tablers who were frustrated about forgetting to add on after the rebuy hour.

Full Tilt included an “Auto Add-On by Default” alternative in the “Options” menu so players don’t have to check it at the start of every tournament. Also, players can now rebuy any time during the add-on period, meaning that any late registrants can complete their rebuys and the add-on before the period ends.

Speaking of late registration, Full Tilt Poker addressed a major request that its customers had been demanding. Previously, a player who registered late for a tournament could get moved to a new table a number of times before getting their big blind. This would result in them not being able to play a hand for several minutes.

Now, when a player registers late and gets moved before paying their big blind, they’ll be dealt in right away at the new table as long as they aren’t between the blinds. Also, the “Must Wait for Big Blind” rule has been eliminated entirely for Super Turbo tournaments, meaning that players will no longer be able to see their equity increase while they wait for a hand and players rapidly bust out of the tournament.

Full Tilt Poker also incorporated “On Demand Tournaments” into its latest update. The newest phenomenon, according to Full Tilt Poker Rep “ftpdoug,” is a “half sit and go, half scheduled tournament that kicks off when the required number of players enter, but then shows up with late registration in the main tournament lobby.”

The $2 180-man sit and gos, 54-man Super Turbo sit and gos, and the Rush 135-man sit and gos have been converted to “On Demand.” As of this writing, the $2 180-man sit and gos were getting up to 400 total entrants, more than doubling the size of the prize pool. The site is currently monitoring the new “On Demand Tournaments” and will make adjustments based on customer response.

Here’s a look at some of the other new features that Full Tilt Poker added in its latest update this week:

Time Zones for Game Clock: Players can now set the clock to their specific time zone. Before, the clock in the lobby only showed Eastern Time.

Quick Fold to Any Bet: The “Fold to Any Bet” action has been changed to “Quick Fold to Any Bet” when appropriate.

Always Show Stack Size: The action messages (Check, Bet, Raise, etc.) have all shrunk in size to allow the pod to still display a player’s stack information. Before, players would have to hover their cursor over an opponent’s pod to see their stack size.

Disable Tournament Announcements: Players now have the option of disabling tournament announcements in the chat box.

Eight-Game and Nine-Game Additions: More games for players to check out and play. Nine-Game is just like 10-Game, but without Badugi. Eight-Game is just like Seven-Game, but also includes Triple Draw.

Poker Players Alliance Comments on Harry Reid Online Poker Bill

Last week, word broke around the industry that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) was planning to introduce legislation to legalize and regulate online poker in the United States. The bill, dubbed the Internet Poker Act of 2010, remains in draft form, but plenty of organizations have weighed in on its merits. Among them was the Poker Players Alliance (PPA), which spoke in favor of the bill on Monday.

The PPA’s Executive Director, John Pappas, commented in a press release that the process of pushing pro-online poker legislation through Congress has been a long road. Pappas admitted, “As news stories circulate about a potential bill that would license and regulate online poker, it is important to remember that the Poker Players Alliance has been actively pursuing such legislation for more than five years. If nothing else, this shows that lawmakers are acknowledging what the PPA has been saying all along – that Americans want to play the great game of poker in any venue they choose and they deserve to be afforded the basic consumer protections that regulation can provide.”

The bill has received a considerable amount of mainstream attention, as media outlets from the New York Times to Associated Press have printed articles on Reid’s bill. The Internet Poker Act bars existing sites that service the U.S. market from obtaining a license for two years, potentially shutting out Full Tilt Poker, PokerStars, and others. This feature of the bill has drawn the ire of many in the online poker community, while land-based casinos like Harrah’s and MGM have come out in favor of Reid’s proposal.

Pappas, however, charged that securing a legislative framework was critical: “The status quo is not tenable and legislation is needed to clarify and correct current laws and provide a regulated U.S. marketplace for players. Failing a federal legislative solution, the future of internet poker remains unpredictable. However, a regulated market that offers competition, consumer protections, and clarity will undoubtedly provide the greatest benefit for players and long-term stability to the internet poker experience.”

Recent funds seizures in states like Maryland and Washington have complicated the process of depositing and withdrawing from major online poker sites. Also coming under fire in recent weeks has been eWalletXpress. Under a regulated scheme, these problems could, in theory, be mended.

According to the Wall Street Journal, land-based casino companies have been nearly diehard in their support of Reid, who was reelected in 2010 to another six-year term. The Journal explained, “Gambling interests and casino executives gave the Senator more than $700,000, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, ranking fifth among all industry contributors. His biggest single benefactor: MGM Resorts International, whose executives and political action committee gave Reid more than $190,000 in combined campaign donations, according to the same data. Harrah’s Entertainment ranked fourth, with more than $83,000 in campaign contributions.”

The news publication The Hill revealed that the “lame duck” Congressional session will likely end on Friday, December 17th. It added that this week’s focus would be on healthcare for first responders on September 11th and “the DREAM Act, which provides U.S. citizenship to children of illegal immigrants.” Online poker legislation could potentially be added as a “pay-for” to a separate bill.

We’ll keep you posted right here on Poker News Daily.

LeBron James Returns to Cleveland from Poker in Twitter

While they were camped out at the Bellagio in Las Vegas for the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic, players were also keeping their eyes on the sporting world. One of the big events that drew their attention in recent days was LeBron James’ return to Cleveland as a member of the Miami Heat.

Peter Jetten probably had the best plan for watching the Heat/Cavaliers game when he Tweeted on Thursday, “Going to have a fun relaxing day today. Massage this afternoon then going to watch the Heat/Cavs and TNF, The 10k Bellagio is tomorrow.” When he actually journeyed to the Bellagio sports book to check out the game, Kevin “BeL0WaB0Ve” Saul amusingly observed, “Lol @ Bellagio sportsbook… they have audio for Eagles game over Cavs/Heat.”

Firmly on the side of James and the Heat were Floridians Robert Mizrachi and Eric Mizrachi. As the Heat were demolishing the Cavaliers, the former Tweeted, “That’s what all you LeBron haters get for all the ‘booing.’ Miami just opened a can of ‘ass whooping’ on Cleveland, lol. Go @KingJames.” Robert chirped a simple, “Let’s go LeBron.”

On the other side were Alex Outhred and 2006 World Series of Poker (WSOP) final tablist Doug Kim. Kim gave James some props when he chirped, “OK, LeBron is damn ridiculous.” Outhred, though, still held some animosity: “Miami crushing Cleveland doesn’t mean #LeBron is no longer an asshole.” In the end, the Heat destroyed the Cavaliers 118-90.

As poker players dropped from the Five Diamond, NFL football took center stage. On opposite sides of the chase for the NFC North championship race were DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Amit “amak316” Makhija and Saul. The latter showed his true colors when he Tweeted, “And that’s another victory formation! #bears.” Makhija showed his allegiance to Green Bay: “The Packers won and I’m up to 130k the only way the first level Coulda been sweeter is with a Bears loss, still a great start!”

In another big game on Sunday featuring the Indianapolis Colts and Dallas Cowboys, tournament director Matt Savage was unflinchingly honest in his assessment of the performance of Colts’ quarterback Peyton Manning: “Favre is out of the game so we need a new Interception King. Introducing Peyton Manning as the next Hall of Famer falling apart!” Jetten wryly noted across the Twitterverse, “This game would be so much more exciting if my big Cowboys must win Super Bowl bet was still live.”

Absolute Poker pro Trishelle Cannatella was in New York for the games on Sunday, but couldn’t hold back her rooting interest in the defending Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints after the team’s come-from-behind victory against the Cincinnati Bengals: “Payton is such a badass!!!! Love it. Watching the game in NYC. Geaux @Official_Saints.”

There were some top players paying attention on the cards in the Bellagio over the weekend. As action came to a close on Sunday, Allen Kessler (“Made day 4 of #wpt #Poker 10k Bellagio event. 54 left now of 438 starters. I have 90500. Avg probably 300k.”) and Vanessa Rousso (“Done for the day. I have 694k after a late surge. 54 left. Day four at noon tomorrow.”) were ready to come back on Monday.

Players out with a min-cash for their efforts included Full Tilt pros John Juanda (“Min cash WPT Bellagio. Last hand I had AKs, ran into both QQ & KK. Turned a flush draw, but missed.”) and Jon “PearlJammer” Turner (“Out 60thish, reshoved 18bbs w T9s from c/o over h/j’s raise, btn woke up w JJ, I hit 2 pair, but he hit J”).

For the top Tweets of the weekend, we’ll start with UB.com pro “Hollywood” Dave Stann, who became a movie critic: “Oscar noms for best actress Natalie Portman, director Darren Aronofsky & film Black Swan. Twisted look into the self-torture of true artists.” Scott Ian offered his critique of the latest effort from the Black Eyed Peas, Tweeting, “The Black Eyed Peas cover of Time Of My Life = the lamest piece of music I have ever had the unfortunate experience of accidentally hearing.”

Having a problem with coyotes at her home, Erica Schoenberg found a unique cure: “I just spent 100 bucks on wolf urine to sprinkle in the backyard to repel the coyotes. Guess I need to get into the predator pee market.” On the work front, Joe Reitman explained the audition process in Hollywood: “At commercial auditions, they now ask for your barcode. If I didn’t feel like cattle, I sure as hell do now.”

Finally, Joe Sebok offered a gem from PokerRoad’s Court Harrington when he Tweeted, “Me ‘Sometimes I forget to breathe when I’m typing.’ @courtharrington ‘Don’t become a novelist.’ As usual, solid Southern logic from the hick.”