Posts Tagged ‘high stakes’
The Online Railbird Report: Galfond Makes 2011 Debut, “URnotINdanger2″ Cleans Up, and Isildur1 News
Scott Palmer wins $340,000 more from Richard Lyndaker
WSOP Circuit Invades Dallas
The WSOP Circuit heads to the Dallas and Ft. Worth area for the first time today when the Choctaw Casino Resort hosts the tour's first stop of 2011.
The resort, one hour north of Dallas in Durant, Oklahoma, will host a total of 51 events over 18 days, including a $1,600 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em main event beginning Jan. 22.
“This is a huge poker market that has clamored for high stakes tournament poker and we’re ecstatic to be hosting a WSOP Circuit in this gorgeous property in Durant,” said WSOP vice president Ty Stewart.
The schedule features a broad selection of games, including PLO, PLO/2-7 triple draw mixed, H.O.R.S.E., Omaha 8 and Hold’em.
There is both a senior's and ladies event as well.
WSOP Circuit leader board points will be awarded, with the player earning the most points and the main event winner earning entry to the $1 million WSOPC National Championship at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas this May.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
Richard “nutsinho” Lyndaker taking a break from high stakes
Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier in tournament prop bet
URnotINdanger2 Scoops $342k
Palmer played a massive 2,028-hand session of $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em against Richard “Kpederson” Lyndaker.
It was a tight battle in the early stages of the session and Lyndaker even managed to win a huge $91k pot with pocket jacks.
This seemed to wake up Palmer, however, and the Maryland-resident went on to win several pots in the $80k range.
When the session finally ended Palmer was ahead by $342k. It might be the last we see of Kpederson for awhile as he wrote on his blog that he’d probably avoid those stakes for at least the near future.
Although Palmer was the biggest winner last night, fellow high stakes player Di “Urindanger” Dang also had a strong evening winning $256k.
Dang is the biggest winner in the very early stages of 2011 with $661k in profit.
Other big online poker winners from last night included harrington25 with $95k, phonderAA with $40k and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies who took down $39k.
Kpederson obviously took the worst of it last night, dropping $342k, but cadillac1944 was also in bad form losing $182k.
Some of the other players in the losing column were KobeYard85 (-$101k), DrugsOrMe (-$92k) and rytoast (-$58k).
Here’s a look at some of the biggest hands from last night. For more information check our online poker stats section.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
Daniel “jungleman12” Cates finishes 2010 as a $5.4m winner
Top Online Poker Winners and Losers of 2010
Whether it was the durrrr Challenge II on Full Tilt or the new Isildur1 SuperStar Showdown on PokerStars there always seemed to be intriguing action of one kind or another on the go.
From the emergence of relative newcomer Dan “jungleman12” Cates to the continued success of established pros like Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius there were numerous plotlines to the high stakes games this year.
We’ll start by celebrating the five biggest online poker success stories of 2010 before taking a hard look at the five biggest disappointments of the year.
Top 5 Biggest Winners of 2010
5. Di “Urindanger” Dang: $2.2 million
Although Di “Urindanger” Dang tends to fly under the radar when compared to some of his more illustrious colleagues he’s remarkably consistent.
Since he started playing the high stakes games on Full Tilt in 2007, Dang has never recorded a losing year. 2010 was no exception.
Dang did suffer through a few losing months in late spring but he came around in August and by December was up to $2.2 million.
Yet another good Christmas for the Dang household.
4. Phil Ivey: $3 million
Phil Ivey usually plays far less hands than his online opponents but he always manages to rank as one of the top five winners.
This year Ivey wasn’t particularly active until mid-April, when he went on a $2 million heater. After logging notable victories against Ashton “ASHMAN103” Griffin and Patrik Antonius, Ivey vacated the online tables from May to late August.
In August Ivey got right back to business and quickly peaked at $3.8 million in profit.
Although Ivey coasted for the rest of the year and didn’t play any huge sessions, he still finished with a very respectable $3 million.
3. Tom “durrrr” Dwan: $3.6 million
It was yet another strong year for the poker prodigy originally from Edison, New Jersey.
Once again Tom Dwan was king when it came to volume, playing a total of 296,725 hands in 2010.
The year got off to a rocking start for Dwan and by mid-spring he peaked at an astounding $6.6 million. Unfortunately for Dwan he would come back down to earth over the rest of the year.
Dwan’s biggest obstacle was Dan “jungleman12” Cates. Dwan simply couldn’t solve Cates and lost more than $600k so far in the durrrr Challenge II.
At any rate, Dwan fared far better this year compared to 2009 when he ran into a hot Isildur1 and lost millions.
2. Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen: $3.7 million
Perhaps the biggest surprise of this list is a Norwegian by the name of Andreas Torbergsen.
Torbergsen, who plays with his hometown of Skjervoy as his handle, signed with CardRunners this summer and went on to become one of the biggest winners in the high stakes online games this year.
Torbergsen was essentially at $0 in August but by the end of December was up $3.7 million. It helped he won $1 million in a 24-hour period in September and recorded several $500k sessions.
It remains to be seen whether Torbergsen will remain a fixture of the high stakes online poker scene.
1. Dan “jungleman12” Cates: $5.5 million
What more can be said about Dan “jungleman12” Cate’s dominance this year?
Three years ago Cates was flipping burgers but in 2010 he was playing the biggest online games in the world and hardly ever losing.
Cates dominated Tom Dwan in the durrrr Challenge II but also found time to take on anyone else who wanted a piece. His graph reads looks like an escalator (going up, of course). He won hundreds of thousands playing PLO (which he’s still learning).
Although some members of the online community cried variance, Cates was a consistent winner for the entire year.
At any rate, Cates now finds himself in an elite group of year-end winners that includes Patrik Antonius ($8.9 million in 2009), Phil Ivey ($7.3 million in 2008) and Niki Jedlicka ($3.1 million in 2007).
To put it simply: 2010 belonged to Cates.
Top 5 Biggest Losers of 2010
5. Brian “sbrugby” Townsend: – $1.5 million
Brian Townsend had a fantastic 2009 winning $2.4 million to become one of the biggest winners of the year.
2010 wasn’t quite as kind to the former CardRunners instructor.
Although Townsend didn’t use the sbrugby account until summer (more on that later), he didn’t waste any time donating stacks of cash online.
From June to October, Townsend lost $1.6 million and never really recovered, opting to sit out the last couple months of 2010.
Check below for even more on Townsend’s disastrous 2010.
4. Gus Hansen: -$1.6 million
You’d think losing $1.6 million would make for a pretty bad year but it could have been a lot worse for Gus Hansen.
The Great Dane actually got off to a hot start in 2010 and was up $2.3 million after the first couple of months.
Like many high stakes pros, Hansen took a break from the tables during the WSOP but was still up nearly $1 million.
It was during late summer that problems started to arise for the Team Full Tilt member. From July to October, Hansen lost $4 million, the biggest downswing of the year.
Hansen would hit rock bottom in mid-October going down to -$3.6 million.
Fortunately for Hansen he was able to put a steady string of wins together to finish the year at only -$1.6 million. Not the worst year for the recent WSOP bracelet winner.
3. cadillac1944: -$1.8 million
cadillac1944 is the only player on our list who has yet to be identified.
The online account first appeared in late August and that’s about when the losing began.
cadillac1944 quickly dropped down to -$677k by September with big losses against Urindanger and DrugsOrMe.
By November cadillac1944 was down -$1.53 million and finally hit -$1.8 million in early December.
The cadillac1944 account became inactive in mid-December and it’s anyone’s guess as to whether we’ll ever see it in use again.
2. Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies: -$2 milliion
Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, one of the original kings of swing, was up to his old tricks in 2010 with a “win a million, lose a million” mentality.
Sahamies started the year by winning $2 million in spring but then lost $2.6 million over the summer.
The fall looked promising for Ziigmund as he quickly swung his way up to $1.48 million in profit.
Unfortunately for Ziigmund October was a turning point and the Finnish pro went on what he has called the greatest downswing of his career.
Over the next few months Sahamies dropped down to -$2 million with victories few and far between.
2010 was easily Ziigmund’s worst year playing high stakes online poker.
1. Brian Townsend: -$2.5 million
Brian Townsend’s 2010 was so terrible that he made this list twice.
As bad as the game went for Townsend on his “sbrugby” account, it was far, far worse on his red pro “Brian Townsend” account.
Townsend was in bad shape from the very beginning as he quickly lost $300k in early January.
The losses just continued to escalate for Townsend and by May he was down $2.5 million.
It was then Townsend made the decision to leave CardRunners, ditch his red pro account and go back to being sbrugby on Full Tilt.
It didn’t seem to make a difference as Townsend lost another $1.5 million.
If you take both accounts into consideration, Townsend lost a grand total of $4 million this year.
No one suffered more than Townsend in 2010.Visit www.pokerlistings.com
Tags: 2008, 2009, 2010, Gus Hansen, high stakes, Online Poker, Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, pokerstars, Tom Dwan, usa, WSOP
Poker Players Ring in the New Year
Over the past few days, poker’s most prolific Tweeters have been actively preparing for the New Year. Whether they were traveling or reflecting on the year that passed, it provided a great deal of entertainment.
The New Year’s celebrations got off to a start as early as Wednesday, with model and poker player Christina Lindley Tweeting, “Beginning an absurdly fun Vegas week w some troublemakers right… now.” As New Year’s Eve came, Lindley sent out a Twitpic of a shiny silver mini and Tweeted, “Picking up the NYE dress from the tailor.” Also journeying to Las Vegas was PokerStars “Big Game” hostess Amanda Leatherman, who fired off, “Goodbye North Carolina! It’s time to go to Vegas and forget about all the things I did here.”
Other poker players had not quite decided what to do to celebrate the New Year. DoylesRoom Brunson 10 member Amit Makhija admitted to his followers, “Last minute before New Year’s and I’ve been slacking on making plans. Anyone less lazy than me have New Year’s plans that Tara & I can crash?” For their part, both Antonio Esfandiari (“Gearing up for my annual NY Eve party. It’s going to b a madhouse.”) and Alec Torelli (“Off to Atlanta for New Year’s.”) seemed a little better prepared to usher in 2011.
Daniel Negreanu, Jennifer Harman, and Marco Traniello were celebrating New Year’s with each other. After Traniello Tweeted at the others, “r u guys ready to party ?,” Negreanu responded, “the house is full and we all got spray tans, so yeah, we are ready.” Fresh off of his departure from UB.com, Phil Hellmuth’s plans for New Year’s Eve included, “sit(ting) in Jerry Buss’ box for Lakers game, then we hit Drai’s!”
The last few days of 2010 also led to some experimentation by “High Stakes Poker” hostess and PartyPoker pro Kara Scott. She Tweeted, “Bleurgh. Spent much of tonight trying to perfect a rum/coconut drink for tomorrow and am now completely sick of it. Margaritas for everyone!” Tiffany Michelle will be celebrating New Year’s Eve in Hawaii, but took time to chirp, “Counting my blessings today. Some people are stuck in snow storms, rain, & freezing weather while I’m surfing in the warm waters of Hawaii.”
The New Year brings those pesky resolutions along with it and poker players were no different in putting their thoughts for 2011 on Twitter. “This year I wish @philnolimits places 2nd to me in WSOP Main Event,” Rafe Furst jabbed at his buddy Phil Gordon. Allen Bari took the New Year as a chance to change his table demeanor, Tweeting on Friday, “This time tomorrow I will be a really nice and respectful guy at the poker table, I will smile and not berate at the table.” This prompted World Poker Tour Tour Director Matt Savage to fire back, “@allenbari it is January 1st not April 1st. You know that right?”
Adam “Roothlus” Levy vowed through Twitter, “My 2011 resolution is to get more Main Event coverage by doing far worse.” Meanwhile, Lex “RaSZi” Veldhuis was not feeling well as the New Year approached, Tweeting, “Is this really the day to get sick? Woke up sneezing and I feel cold and weak. Hope it’s gonna be better during the day.”
Some poker players were also glad to see the previous year fade to the past. “Oh, 2010, you crafty little bitch,” UB.com’s Joe Sebok Tweeted. “You’re good, I’ll give you that. Quite good. Only 14 more hours of you though and then poof, gone.” Full Tilt’s Justin “Boosted J” Smith also took time to look at the year gone by: “I want everyone to think about all the great things that happened to them in 2010… even if it was a rough year… small laughs to big things.”
Perhaps the venerable Kevin “Kevmath” Mathers summed up everyone’s thoughts for the New Year: “This year had its share of good and bad times. Hoping 2011 will have more of those good times for myself and everyone else!”
With 2011 off to a roaring start, Poker News Daily would like to take the time to wish all of our readers a happy and prosperous New Year.
December 31st – Weekly News Update
Welcome once again to the Poker News Daily weekly news update. I’m your host Sean Gibson and I’ll be delivering the top headlines for the week in the world of poker – and what a week of news it was!!
Our first story rocks the world of online poker as superstars Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke are officially parting ways with UB.com for different reasons. Both have been the faces of UB.com and represented for nine years. We did get a comment from Annie Duke about HER decision to leave UB.com:
“After some thought, I made a decision to leave UB.com because I would like to explore other avenues of business and personal growth. I realized I needed to spend my time on other things.”
Duke has stated that she has no intentions of signing on with another poker site. She said that she is moving on from UB.com to persue other projects on a full time basis. Hellmuth continues to be one of the biggest names in the world of poker and his departure, although rumored in the last few weeks, still comes as a huge shock. As more develops in this story, stay tuned right here at poker news daily for the latest.
Another online poker industry icon is moving on as Lee Jones earlier this week announced his resignation from Cake Poker. Jones posted on the TwoPlusTwo forums on Tuesday:
“This is a brief announcement to let you know that, as of yesterday, I have resigned my position at Cake Poker and will not be making any further posts here. Their management has made some strategic decisions with which I’m not comfortable.”
Jones, who also is a guest columnist here at our site told us that he simply wasn’t comfortable with some of the decisions that the Cake management was making. Jones refused to comment further but added that he hopes to remain in the poker industry and says he has a couple of irons in the fire. Jones rose to fame in the online poker industry originally in roles with PokerStars, the EPT and at CardRunners.
For those of you that can’t get enough Isildur1 action, the next SuperStar Showdown match has been announced. Coming off a loss to Isaac Haxton, Isildur1 will now face the notorious Tony G in a high stakes battle. You might remember that it was Tony G that supposedly staked Isildur1 for a comeback bid and reportedly knows the Swedish player’s identity. The match will take place on Sunday, January 2nd at 4pm eastern time on PokerStars. The game will be half no limit hold’em and half pot limit Omaha at $50-$100 blind stakes. Interested parties can rail the action at PokerStars by looking for tables labeled showdown under the Omaha tab or under the Holdem, No Limit all tables tab.
Jon Friedberg, known online as pokertrip will be debuting a new talk show right here, exclusively on Poker News Daily. Friedberg will host the new show, called “The Showdown” every week here at PND, and promises to feature some of the game’s most prolific names. Set to start during the first week of January, Friedberg’s first guest will be former Survivor castaway Jean-Robert Bellande. When asked about his new home here at PND, he stated:
“I see myself not as a member of the media, but rather a fellow poker player who sees eye-to-eye with players I interview. I don’t have any problems asking questions that other poker media might be scared to address. My passion is to share the lifestyles, strategies, and thought processes of poker players.”
Be sure to catch the first episode of “The Showdown” right here at Poker News Daily next week!
In recent days, Party Gaming and bwin announced merger plans to form a giant online gaming group that will become effective sometime in the first quarter of 2011. It’s expected that this merger will create the biggest largest listed online gambling business. The new company will operate worldwide with its existing brands and both bwin and Party Gaming will retain most of the core of their brands but be operated under a new umbrella company. Bwin’s CEO had this to say:
“Our products and target markets complement one another perfectly, and we can continue to expand our technology lead in all key product segments: sports betting, poker, casino, bingo, and games.”
Now that the year is over, CardPlayer has officially crowned Tom Marchese the 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year. His epic run in 2010 saw him make 11 final tables in major live tournaments to the tune of over $2 million in profits. The highlight of 2010 for Marchese was the win at the NAPT Venetian Main Event for over eight hundred thousand dollars. He beat out Dwyte Pilgrim, Sorel Mizzi and Vanessa Selbst for the award. Marchese had four six-figure paydays in 2010 with final tables at the European Poker Tour, World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker.
Well that wraps up a very exciting and busy week in the world of poker as well as our last weekly news report of 2010. Be sure to come back to poker news daily for all the latest poker headlines every single day and as a reminder, be sure to catch John Friedberg’s new show, “The Showdown” right here next week along with another episode of our weekly news recap. I’m Sean Gibson wishing you a very happy and safe new years!
Tags: 2010, 2011, Annie Duke, cake poker, european, high stakes, interview, Online Poker, Phil Hellmuth, poker player, pokerstars, tournament, usa, WSOP
jungleman12 Caps Incredible 2010
Cates, who was already the overwhelming biggest winner of 2010 with $4.9 million in profit, played a marathon 1,172-hand session of heads-up $300/$600 Mixed HA.
Initially Cates lost $250k but he eventually erased the deficit and went on a world-class heater against Patrik Antonius and luckexpress10.
After last night Cates is up $5.4 million in 2010 and barring a catastrophic meltdown he will be this year’s biggest winner.
As of today Norwegian player Andreas “skjervoy” Torbergsen is a distant second with $3.7 million, Tom “durrrr” Dwan is third with $3.6 million, Phil Ivey is fourth with $3 million and finally harrington25 is up $2.2 million.
Unfortunately for Cates, he’s not even close to what the top players have made in previous years. Antonius won an astounding $8.9 million for top honors in 2009 while Phil Ivey raked in $7.3 million in 2008.
In other high stakes news from last night Gus Hansen had a strong outing, winning $149k. It looks as though the Great Dane will fall short of getting even for 2010 since he’s still down $1.6 million but he made up considerable ground over the last few months of the year.
Other winners from last night included hal0zination (+$68k), KobeYard85 (+$57k) and Urindanger ($38k).
On the losing side was Patrik Antonius, who poured $382k on to the tables last night. Most of Antonius’ loses were to Cates.
Antonius will likely finish 2010 with a respectful $550k in profit but down considerably from last year.
Some of the other players who had forgettable nights were DrugsOrMe (-$150k), luckexpress10 (-$120k) and harrington25 ($94k).
For information about the high stakes action from last night check our online poker stats section.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
Isildur1 to Battle Tony G in Second PokerStars SuperStar Showdown
At 4:00pm ET on Sunday, January 2nd, new PokerStars pro Isildur1 will face off against his rumored former backer Tony G in the second running of the SuperStar Showdown. The stakes will be at least $50/$100 No Limit Hold’em and Pot Limit Omaha and text found on the PokerStars Blog succinctly sums up what we can expect: “Well, this should be good.” Both Tony G and Isildur1 are expected to buy in for $150,000.
Tony G is a sponsored pro of PartyPoker and, earlier this year, tried to bring the mystery Swedish player to the Big Game IV. Isildur1 agreed, but then ultimately pulled out of the appearance, leaving Tony G to lament in a PartyPoker blog entry, “To say I am disappointed is an understatement. I have spent so much time talking to him and reassuring him recently, but he’s just not going to come.” Tony G had offered to lend Isildur1 his Kermit the Frog outfit to preserve the Swede’s anonymity.
Posters on TwoPlusTwo were largely looking forward to the master versus apprentice showdown on Sunday. One member of the online poker community exclaimed, “OMG this is going to be freaking awesome. Isildur1 will pump up the variance and Tony will never fold, especially at these stakes. Can’t wait!” Another poster remarked, “I seriously doubt [Tony G] can keep up with the pace at two tables, let alone four. He doesn’t care about money at $25/$50 anyways. I will be very surprised if Isildur1 doesn’t win this.”
Other posters, however, were not content with the $50/$100 stakes set forth in the SuperStar Challenge, which sees players battling for 2,500 hands. One TwoPlusTwo member explained, “It’s kind of awesome that Tony G is facing off against Isildur1, but why can’t they play real high stakes?”
Weighing in on the upcoming SuperStar Showdown was PokerStars front man Daniel Negreanu, who noted that he won’t be facing off against Isildur1 anytime soon: “I’m very excited to see this match; should be entertaining either way. I don’t plan on challenging Isildur1 because I’m just not good enough, especially four-tabling, but I do want to practice these matches at small stakes, 2,500 hands at maybe $5-$10, and see if I can get used to it. If that goes well, I may try this challenge next year, we’ll see. I’d be comfortable doing a challenge like this in Eight Game if there were people interested, $400-$800.” Negreanu is a four-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner.
Last week, Isildur1 squared off against Isaac Haxton in the inaugural SuperStar Showdown. In the end, Haxton booked $41,000 in profit over 2,500 hands and was declared the winner. The rail featured a hodgepodge of poker talent, including Kevin “ImaLucSac” MacPhee and Chad “lilholdem954? Batista, and resulted in a 90-page thread on TwoPlusTwo.
According to PokerStars, the loss to Haxton resulted in Isildur1’s PokerStars bankroll plummeting to just $10,000. However, he has since parlayed that sum into over $300,000. Many believe the identity of Isildur1 to be Viktor Blom; however, Blom has not issued confirmation that he is the man behind the curtain. Blom took 16th in the 2010 WSOP Europe Main Event for £33,000.
The SuperStar Showdown may travel to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January for a live installment, according to the PokerStars Blog. Interested challengers can fire off an e-mail to showdown@pokerstars.com to toss their hats into the ring for a shot at Isildur1 and eternal poker glory.
SuperStar Showdown: Tony G Steps Up
On Jan. 2 Tony G and Isildur1 will each put $150,000 on the line in 2,500 hands of half No-Limit Hold’em and half Pot-Limit Omaha.
The winner is the player who finishes up after 2,500 hands or completely exhausts the other player’s $150k stack.
Isildur1, who is rumored to be Swede Victor Blom, was defeated by Isaac Haxton in the first edition of the SuperStar Showdown last week.
There were several significant swings in the session but when the final card was dealt, Isildur1 was down $40k to Haxton.
Tony G and Isildur1 already have some history with each other.
Last spring Tony G offered to stake Isildur1 in the PartyPoker Big Game IV in London. Apparently Isildur1 initially agreed to play but backed out at the last minute.
Meanwhile Tony G will be facing a red-hot Isildur1. After racking up some big losses in previous weeks, Isildur1 is currently up more than $300k in the high stakes games on PokerStars this week.
The match is set to go off at 4 p.m. ET this Sunday on PokerStars for anyone who is interested in railing the online poker competition. We’ll also have complete coverage and results on Monday.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
Antonius, IHateJuice Renew Rivalry
As usual Antonius and IHateJuice played exclusively heads-up Limit Hold’em, this time at $3,000/$6,000 stakes.
The session got off to a hot start when IHateJuice stomped Antonius for $241k on one table. Not to be outdone, Antonius would battle back and completely erase IHateJuice’s early win in less than 50 hands.
This seemed to kick-start one of the most spectacular sessions Antonius and IHateJuice have ever played.
The action came to a head when IHateJuice destroyed Antonius at one table for $493k but Antonius mitigated his losses by quickly winning $385k at another table.
In the end, after wagering millions of dollars against each other, IHateJuice escaped with a relatively minor $73k victory.
Meanwhile Isildur1 was once again wowing railbirds on PokerStars after playing several thousand hands on the site.
After getting stacked in the early stages of the night, Isildur1 laid a world-class beating on PepperoniF in $25/$50 Pot-Limit Omaha.
PepperoniF appeared to bust his Full Tilt account before Isildur1 finally left with a $60k profit.
In other high stakes news Urindanger ($76k), airic1400 ($40k), URnotINdanger2 ($33k) were all amongst the biggest winners while Gus Hansen (-$72k), O Fortuna PLS (-$59k) and Rui Cao (-$22k) had forgettable nights.
Check below for some of the biggest hands from the Patrik Antonius and IHateJuice or go to our online stats section for more information.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
Gus Hansen Strikes for $71k
The Great Dane logged 247 hands on the site, all in heads-up $500/$1,000 Cap PLO, and managed to record victories against Erik “DIN_FRU” Sagstrom, URnotINdanger2 and Urindanger.
Despite his win Hansen is still down $1.6 million this year and it now appears almost impossible that he will get even by the end of 2010.
It’s not all bad for the Team Full Tilt Pro as he did reduce his deficit by nearly $2 million over the last two months of the year.
Hansen is also in considerably better shape than Brian Townsend (-$2.5 million), Ziigmund (-$2 million) and cadillac1944 (-$1.8 million) as we round the final lap of the year.
Action was slow on Full Tilt this weekend but Tom “durrrr” Dwan found time to win $37k while DrugsOrMe added $21k and Andrea Benelli won $15k.
The aforementioned Urindanger was the biggest loser last night dropping $70k. kerendream (-$52k), COCOMIEL (-$14k) and URnotINdanger2 (-$13k) were also in the losing column last night.
For more information on the high stakes online games last night be sure to check out our online poker stats section.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
jungleman12 Derails Ziigmund
Cates logged on to Full Tilt and in just 76 hands of $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha managed to win $97k from the illustrious Finn.
Apparently it wasn’t enough to satisfy Cates as he played a very small session against SOLID_FUNDS in $500/$1,000 Cap PLO and managed to drag another $39k.
In total Cates won $137k last night, which strengthens his position as the overall winner of 2010 with $4.8 million.
The next closest player is skjervoy with $3.7 million then durrrr with $3.5 million and Phil Ivey with $3 million.
Meanwhile Ziigmund is currently the second biggest loser of 2010 with $1.9 million donated to opponents on Full Tilt. Only Brian Townsend has lost more. The former CardRunners instructor is down $2.5 million this year, plus another $1.5 million on his sbrugby account.
Some of the other big winners from last night included dutch_maniak ($102k), Gus Hansen ($59k) and takechip ($41k).
SOLID_FUNDS (-$161k), Ziigmund (-$115k) and tyme2gamb0l111 (-$52k) all had less than ideal sessions last night.
To learn more about the high stakes games last night check our online poker stats section.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
PartyPoker Reviving Million Dollar Hand in January
In January, PartyPoker will be bringing back one of its most popular promotions ever, the Million Dollar Hand. All you have to do is make a pair in a five-card poker hand to be awarded a prize, and a $1 million jackpot is on the line.
Accumulating cards is quite simple. You’ll get one for every 15 PartyPoints you rack up between January 5th and January 30th. When you’ve amassed five cards, you’ll have a hand. If it contains a pair, then $3 will be coming your way. If it contains two pair, then your prize will be upped to $10. If you manage to score three of a kind, then you’ll get a $20 cash prize. That’s pretty simple, right?
Players who land a straight in the Million Dollar Hand will take home $50, while those who pick up a flush will see $100 come their way. Players who make a boat will get $150, while anyone who hits quads will receive a $1,000 cash prize. Now, we’re into the big money, as straight flushes are worth $10,000. Finally, anyone who manages to score a Royal Flush will divide a $1 million prize pool, which means if two players hit it, each person will actually take home $500,000. If only one person makes a Royal Flush, they’ll take home the seven-figure jackpot.
The best part about the Million Dollar Hand is that PartyPoker is awarding every player his or her first card for free. No play is required! Just log into your PartyPoker account to see what your first card is.
Now, let’s review some of the terms and conditions of the PartyPoker Million Dollar Hand. First, you’ll only be able to acquire 10 cards per day for a total of two five-card poker hands. Second, if you fall short of 15 points, PartyPoker will carry them over to the next day. Third, you have to reveal your cards manually. In order to do so, log into your PartyPoker account and see what you’ve amassed. If you don’t reveal your cards, they won’t count.
PartyPoker players will have until the end of the day Eastern Time on January 31st to reveal any cards they’ve received and only points accumulated at cash game tables will count. Finally, as text found on PartyPoker’s website notes, “Cash prizes will be paid to players within an hour of them revealing their hand apart from Royal Flush winners, who will be paid on February 1st.”
PartyPoker is one of the industry leaders when it comes to unique promotions like the Million Dollar Hand. In fact, the site is concurrently running a Million Dollar Hand VIP Points Race for Palladium Lounge members. Players will earn the same cash prizes as in the Million Dollar Hand and also rack up points based on their hand’s value. The top two spots on the leaderboard pay out a World Poker Tour (WPT) L.A. Poker Classic prize package worth $14,000.
The top 200 spots in the Million Dollar Hand VIP Points Race pay out, with a minimum prize of $100 up for grabs. The top 30 spots award four-figures and everyone who reaches the top 500 scores a seat into the Million Dollar Hand VIP Freeroll, which doles out a WPT prize package to its winner. Palladium Lounge members will receive extra race points for accumulating over 300 PartyPoints in a single day.
According to the traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, PartyPoker is the third largest site worldwide in terms of real money ring game volume with a seven-day running average of 3,600 players. It just edges out the iPoker Network, but is well behind PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, which rank first and second worldwide, respectively. PartyPoker’s team of sponsored pros includes Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Mike Sexton, poker bad boy Tony G, and “High Stakes Poker” hostess Kara Scott.
Visit PartyPoker today for more details.
Ziigmund Rebounds with $118k Win
Sahamies, who was in the midst of one of the biggest downswings of his career, hit the $300/$600 Six-Max PLO tables with Urindanger, rumprammer, Gus Hansen, harrington25 and DrugsOrMe for two hours last night.
It was clear from the beginning that it was going to be Ziigmund’s night as the Finn hit set over set in a blockbuster $137k pot.
When the game finally broke, Ziigmund was the biggest winner with $118k in profit.
Ziigmund, who is known for his unbelievable swings, hit $1.48 million in profit in early September and then dive-bombed straight into the gutter dropping to -$1.96 million last week.
Perhaps the most concerning factor of Ziigmund’s fall from grace was his inability to post even one significant win in the last three weeks.
That stretch finally appears to be over but Ziigmund will still have to go on the biggest heater of his life if he wants to get even from his current -$1.85 million before the year ends.
Ziigmund wasn’t the only player to rake in some cash in the high stakes online games last night. IHateJuice was technically the biggest winner taking $163k, mostly from $500/$1,000 Limit Hold’em games against O Fortuna PLS.
Some of the other big winners included IReadYrSoul (+$98k), DrugsOrMe (+$95k) and SOLID_FUNDS (+$88k).
In the losing column were Urindanger (-$219k), O Fortuna PLS (-$179k), rumprammer (-$118k) and Observer84 ($99k).
To learn about the high stakes online action from last night check out our online poker stats section.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com
SuperStars Showdown: Haxton Bests Isildur1
It took a little more than four hours for Haxton and Isildur1 to burn through 2,500 hands with a very high-profile rail that included Kevin “ImaLucSac” MacPhee, Chad “lilholdem954” Batista and Daniel Negreanu taking in the action.
Haxton and Isildur1 started the session by buying in for $10,000 at four $50/$100 tables. The rules of the challenge stated that whoever was ahead by 2,500 hands or won $150,000 would be crowned the champion.
Isildur1 drew first blood in the event by winning an early $17,000 pot when he rivered a flush with K♣ T♣.
The lead didn’t last and after about one hour of play Haxton laid a sick beat on Isildur1 with Q-J beating QQ.
The suckout seemed to ignite Haxton’s game and by the 820th hand he had built a lead of $16,500.
It didn’t last, however, as Isildur1 rivered a flush with 7♦ 6♦ and raked in a $34k pot. After winning a series of smaller hands Isildur1 was suddenly the one in charge but that wouldn't last either.
Around the 1,000-hand mark Isildur1 was leading by $31,099 and Haxton started to make a serious comeback.
First Haxton scooped a large pot by making it to showdown against Isildur1 with ace-high but a better kicker.
Shortly after the ace-high hand, Haxton hit a flush against Isildur1 and then had the fortune of getting Isildur1 to shove a flopped pair of threes into his aces up.
With 471 hands to go Isildur1 started to take a few more risks and paid the price in the last 100 hands when Haxton won a session-defining $44k pot.
In the hand both players flopped a pair of nines but Haxton eventually secured the pot by having a superior kicker.
When the 2,500th hand was finally played, Haxton found himself up $41,701 and therefore the winner of the first SuperStar Showdown.
Although another opponent has yet be picked, PokerStars representatives did say there will be another SuperStar Showdown very shortly, perhaps at the PCA in the Bahamas.
In other high stakes news Patrik Antonius was the biggest winner on Full Tilt taking down $223k while fellow Team Full Tilt Pro Phil Ivey won $83k. Gus Hansen was also in the mix with a $29k victory.
On the losing side were Dan “jungleman12” Cates who posted a rare $267k loss, IHateJuice who dropped $84k onto the tables and psychobenny who donated $$55k.
For more information on the SuperStar Showdown check our online poker stats section.
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The Weekly Turbo: High Stakes Poker, SuperStar Showdown, and More
Tags: high stakes
PPA: Christmas Miracle Needed for Harry Reid Online Poker Bill
On Friday, Poker Players Alliance (PPA) Executive Director John Pappas appeared on Bloomberg Television to discuss the bill legalizing and regulating online poker introduced by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). On the likelihood of a bill passing before the current Congressional session expires, Pappas candidly told Bloomberg viewers, “It would really have to take a Christmas miracle at this point.” Watch now.
The four-minute segment, dubbed “The High Stakes of Internet Poker,” hit television airwaves at 11:45am ET on Friday. Pappas admitted that the window for legalized internet poker was quickly closing: “Unfortunately, I think Congress is missing an opportunity to get this done and get it done sooner than later. I think next year is really our next best venue. The vehicles this year just didn’t add up to get a bill done and there was really no way to get the bill as a standalone measure any time in the last week or so. I just don’t think there’s any way it’s going to happen now.”
Reid may have been close to adding the online poker language to the tax relief act, which was signed into law by U.S. President Barack Obama yesterday. Despite an early report from The Hill claiming that the “lame duck” Congressional session would expire on Friday, Congress was still going strong at the time of writing tackling the topic of gays in the military.
In 2011, the House of Representatives will switch to Republican control, causing pro-internet gambling members of Congress like Barney Frank (D-MA) to lose their positions of power. Frank is the Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, but Pappas expressed optimism that online poker won’t be lost in the fray: “I don’t know how any member of Congress – Republican or Democrat – can be happy with the status quo. They passed a bill in 2006 that tried to prohibit internet gambling, but it’s grown. Millions of Americans continue to play online poker and they’re doing it without any of the protections the Federal Government could provide.”
On Friday, an article by the Associated Press revealed that unemployment rates in 21 states rose month-over-month, the largest number in four months. Accordingly, Pappas told Bloomberg viewers that legalizing online poker isn’t just about generating revenue for the Federal and State Governments, it’s also about creating jobs: “The bills that have been introduced would mandate that these companies establish a presence here in the U.S. These are high-tech, high-paying jobs that internet gaming companies generate. It’s not cocktail waitresses at a casino. These are really high-tech jobs, from software security to software development as well as customer service.”
Any bill not acted upon by the end of the Congressional session is deemed dead. Besides Reid’s bill, Frank’s HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, will also fall by the wayside when the new Congress is seated in January. HR 2267 would have created a licensing and regulatory framework for the internet gambling industry sans sports betting. The Financial Services Committee approved the measure by a 2:1 margin in July, but it has not been discussed since.
On Thursday, Pappas told Poker News Daily that Reid’s bill was effectively dead. Stay tuned to PND for the latest legislative headlines.
durrrr Challenge 2: Dwan Strikes Again
Dwan and Cates hit the $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em tables last night and burned through 1,214 hands in a couple hours.
It was a wild session that saw numerous pots over $100k get thrown back and forth and at one point Dwan was ahead by $354k, dangerously close to getting even in the overall challenge.
Fortunately for jungleman12 he mounted a serious comeback and won the biggest pot of the session when he turned a straight against Dwan’s turned two-pair. Cates got his chips in the middle and ended up winning the $210k monster pot.
Near the end of the session Dwan’s internet cut out in a hand where he held the nut-flush against jungleman12’s two-pair.
Dwan was forced to check it down and felt that he missed a major opportunity causing some fireworks between the two opponents in the chatbox. Initially durrrr lamented his bad fortune, then this happened:
“jungleman12: i thought it was pretty cool” “durrrr: nice douchebag comment ty” “jungleman12: joking obv” “durrrr: pretty off timing” “durrrr: to joke”
When the session finally ended Dwan found himself up $63,362, which helps alleviate his losses in the overall challenge to $503k.
Other than the durrrr Challenge 2 it was a slow night for high stakes online action. ShutTheClubDown was the night’s biggest winner taking down $119k. IReadYrSoul won $31k and Gus Hansen took down $18k putting them in the top five.
ORLOVSKIY was the biggest loser dropping $76k. luckexpress10 (-$43k), O Fortuna PLS (-$31k) and Ziigmund (-$23k) were also in the losing column.
Below are a couple interesting hands from the latest durrrr Challenge 2 session. For more information check our online poker stats section.
durrrr Challenge 2 by the numbers:
92,531,724: Total amount wagered 9,800,000: Times “Poker Face” by Lady Gaga has been purchased online 500,783: Amount jungleman12 is ahead 14,190: Hands played 24: Hours recorded 14: Sessions played 1: Times durrrr has checked down a nut-flush
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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
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Jonathan Duhamel and Scotty Nguyen have their debut on High Stakes Poker
Tags: 2009, 2010, Barry Greenstein, bellagio, Daniel Negreanu, full tilt poker, high stakes, vegas, WSOP
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
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No Daniel Negreanu for High Stakes Poker Season 7
The Nightly Turbo: Negreanu Not Headed to High Stakes Poker Set, Royal Flush Girl Wins Maxim’s Hometown Hotties, and More
Tags: high stakes
High Stakes Poker Season 7 Taping at Bellagio This Week
This week, the seventh season of the GSN cash game franchise “High Stakes Poker” will begin taping at the Bellagio on the Las Vegas Strip. Last year, the action emanated from the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas and a source close to GSN told Poker News Daily that the change in venue was due to a “production decision.”
No members of the media are allowed inside the “High Stakes Poker” suite for Season 7. Instead, what happens in the small makeshift poker room will remain a closely guarded secret until the seventh cycle of the show airs beginning in February on GSN. “High Stakes Poker” will return to its Sunday night time slot and feature with the same faces as last year: PartyPoker pro Kara Scott conducting interviews from tableside and former “Welcome Back, Kotter” star Gabe Kaplan flying solo in the booth.
The constantly-changing list of pros scheduled to turn out over the next three days includes Barry Greenstein, Doyle Brunson, recent World Poker Tour (WPT) Five Diamond World Poker Classic winner Antonio Esfandiari, David “Viffer” Peat, Phil Laak, Jason Mercier, Phil Galfond, and former World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champ Scotty Nguyen, who will be making his “High Stakes Poker” debut. The same source also relayed that several amateurs will join the fray.
One player who won’t be gracing the “High Stakes Poker” felts this year is Daniel Negreanu, one of only a handful of players who have competed in every season to this point. Negreanu explained via Twitter why he wouldn’t be able to make it to Las Vegas in time: “Sad news: At airport headed home, which means the trip is over. Have a commercial shoot when I land, which means no HSP for me this year.” Negreanu had been in Sydney for the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour Grand Final, where he made the final table and finished ninth.
Lex Veldhuis will also be a no-show for “High Stakes Poker” at the Bellagio. Veldhuis Tweeted earlier today, “Crazy busy week. Leaving for Vegas on Monday. Have to get all my shit done. Had to cancel for High Stakes Poker.”
Also potentially absent from the “High Stakes Poker” felts this season will be Full Tilt pros, although our source could not confirm or deny their attendance. Greenstein, a PokerStars pro, explained the dilemma on TwoPlusTwo: “Full Tilt has two major concerns. First is they don’t like their players playing when PokerStars is the sponsor of the show… 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.”
In previous years, the press was invited for interviews prior to the action. In fact, when the filming of Season 7 was scheduled to take place last month, Poker News Daily was invited to watch the action unfold. However, due to the change in location to the Bellagio this month, a source close to GSN told Poker News Daily, “We have all of these new players, a new venue, and new elements. It’s a small space. It’s super tight and we just want to focus on the game play.”
“High Stakes Poker” will once again boast a $200,000 buy-in for Season 7 and, unlike NBC’s “Poker After Dark,” no change to Pot Limit Omaha is expected. Instead, the GSN series will continue spreading high-stakes No Limit Hold’em. One-hour episodes will once again grace the small screen next year, as has been the case in years’ past.
durrrr Challenge 2: Small Victory for Dwan
The pair started with a 1,099-hand session where Dwan won $20,894. They then took a short break but then played another 242-hand session where Cates came out on top by $9,721.
In total Dwan won a relatively minor $11,173 from Cates yesterday.
Although it was a small victory, there were some huge pots with Dwan scooping a $123k pot with pocket kings while jungleman12 won his own $74k pot with flopped kings.
Once again it was Dwan that eventually ended the session but unlike last week jungleman12 didn’t seem upset by his departure.
With the slight win, Dwan is now down $567k in the challenge.
Outside of the durrrr Challenge 2 it was a relatively quiet night for high stakes online poker.
Online player ShutTheClubDown was the biggest winner taking down $56k, while Ziigmund won $32k and theASHMAN103 grabbed $25k.
On the other side of the scale luckexpress10 steamed his way to a $63k loss, bixlu dropped $57k and IReadYrSoul lost $25k.
Check below for several hands from the durrrr Challenge 2 session last night or visit out online poker stats section for more information.
durrrr Challenge 2 by the numbers
82,035,839: Total amount wagered 2,000,000: Cost of a Bugatti Veyron Grand Sport 567,000: Amount Dwan is down 37,024: Hands remaining 1,342: Hands played last night 22: Hours logged 13: Sessions played 3: Times durrrr has Tweeted about eating duck 1: Times jungleman12 triple-barrel bluffed in $100k pots last night.
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The Nightly Turbo: Isildur1 Has an Opponent for the SuperStar Showdown, High Stakes Poker Lineup News, and More
Tags: high stakes
theASHMAN103 Takes $104k
Griffin, who played over 428 hands of $50/$100 PLO last night, has been known to play slightly smaller stakes than players like Ziigmund and Patrik Antonius but has still amassed $1.4 million in winnings this year.
Last night Griffin’s biggest win came in a $50/$100 Six-Max PLO game against Niki Jedlicka. No one else joined the game and Griffin and Jedlicka played heads-up for 75 hands. Griffin was the definitive winner taking down $86k from the Austrian.
Griffin would go on to win some smaller sessions against Ziigmund to bring his win total up to $104k on the day.
Right behind Griffin in profits was luckexpress10, who earned $103k, mostly from playing Erik “DIN_FRU” Sagstrom at $500/$1,000 Cap PLO.
Noted Full Tilt star Phil Ivey was third in earnings, taking down $88k in $3k/$6k Limit Hold’em against IHateJuice.
The aforementioned Erik Sagstrom was the evening’s biggest loser, pouring $100k from his account onto the tables. Also in the losing column were IHateJuice (-$88k), Niki Jedlicka (-$86k), 4rebmun (-$33k) and Ziigmund (-$31k).
The durrrr Challenge 2 is still MIA, although Dan “jungleman12” Cates played several hands against Patirk Antonius last night.
For more information about the high stakes online action last night be sure to check out our online poker stats section.
Visit www.pokerlistings.com