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PokerStars Announces North American Poker Tour

Look out, North America! Long absent poker events sponsored by PokerStars, the continent will host the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) beginning on January 20th at the Venetian, with another stop planned for Mohegan Sun.

Model Joanna Krupa, who was introduced to the PokerStars family during the fourth installment of the “PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge,” will serve as the NAPT’s on-screen host. A television deal is in the works and PokerStars officials have employed 411, the same company that produces the World Series of Poker (WSOP) on ESPN, to create each episode. The identity of a television partner should be released in the next two weeks.

PokerStars players from the United States and Canada currently have to hop on an airplane and travel to far away lands for PokerStars-sponsored tournaments. PokerStars-backed series include the European Poker Tour (EPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), Russian Poker Tour (RPT), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), Italian Poker Tour (IPT) Czech-Slovak Poker Tour (CSPT), Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT), and U.K. and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT).

At the Venetian in Las Vegas, the final tournament of the casino’s Deep Stack Extravaganza will be the $5,000 buy-in NAPT Main Event. The fun in Sin City will take place from February 20th to 24th and side events will also play out. From Las Vegas, PokerStars NAPT officials will travel 2,600 miles due east to Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut. The tournament series in the popular East Coast casino will see its Main Event held from April 7th to 11th as the kickoff of a brand new poker festival.

Negreanu commented in a press release furnished by the world’s largest online poker site, “I'm really looking forward to the launch of the NAPT. PokerStars.net has done an excellent job sponsoring meaningful tournaments around the world with the EPT, LAPT, APPT, and various other local tours – and it’s exciting to see them coming to my home town of Las Vegas! With the addition of the NAPT, I'll have a chance to play some tournaments on home soil and I'm very excited about that.” 2009 WSOP Main Event champion Joe Cada and Team PokerStars Pro member Vanessa Rousso are among the bevy of site pros who are expected to turn out.

Technically, the first tournament of the NAPT was the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which is ongoing from the Atlantis Resort and Casino across the harbor from Nassau in the Bahamas. Satellites to the Venetian and Mohegan Sun tournaments will take place on PokerStars, which happily accepts players from the United States. Besides Cada, other WSOP Main Event champions to call the site home include Chris Moneymaker (2003), Greg Raymer (2004), Joe Hachem (2005), Peter Eastgate (2008), and Tom McEvoy (1983).

In North America, the NAPT will compete against several longstanding brands such as the World Poker Tour (WPT) and WSOP Circuit. The WPT is in the midst of filming its eighth season, the first with the backing of Party Gaming, which purchased the rights to the series in October. Poker Hall of Fame member Mike Sexton and actor Vince Van Patten continue to bring the WPT to life each week on Fox Sports Net. The WSOP Circuit has been crisscrossing the United States since 2004, stopping at various Harrah’s properties along the way. Circuit staffers are now camped out in Tunica, Mississippi for the fifth stop of the 2009-2010 season. The series gets underway in the Deep South on January 20th from Harrah’s Tunica.

Krupa has graced the covers of a handful of brand-name magazines, including “FHM,” “Maxim,” “Playboy,” and “Stuff.” She appeared on Season 9 of the ABC reality series “Dancing with the Stars” and also tested her sports skills in the network’s “Superstars.” Krupa defeated 9/11 first responder Mike Kosowski on the fourth episode of the “Million Dollar Challenge;” Kosowski would later go on to defeat Negreanu and earn the $1 million grand prize.

Additional stops for Season 1 of the NAPT will also be announced.

PokerStars launches new North American Tour

Kevin Saul, Amnon Filippi Among PCA Day 1A Leaders

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

PokerStars ANZPT Season 2 Schedule Announced

The first six events of Season 2 of the PokerStars-sponsored Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) were announced in recent days, with Adelaide set to host the first event from February 9th to 14th.

The buy-in for the kickoff tournament of the tour’s second season weighs in at AUD $3,000 and the festivities will be held at the Adelaide Casino. The venue’s Poker Manager, David Galpin, commented in a press release distributed by the world’s largest online poker site, “We are looking forward to the return of the ANZPT in Adelaide after the wonderful success of the first year and we are excited to see the event grow and flourish.” The Main Event is capped at 360 players and preliminary tournaments will get underway in the Australian city on February 2nd.

In an interesting rule found on the ANZPT’s website, iPods are not allowed at the Adelaide event due to government policy. In addition, the casino has a strict stance against string betting and out of turn bettors will forfeit their contribution to the pot should they ultimately choose to fold. Poker players who win their way in through PokerStars will tour wineries and other nearby attractions during their trip.

After Adelaide, a brand new ANZPT event in Perth will play out, with the Burswood Entertainment Complex serving as the epicenter of the Australian poker market beginning on March 17th. The AUD $2,500 buy-in Main Event will name a champion four days later and the field is capped at 300 runners. On the new event, Jason Barry, General Manager of Table Games at Burswood Entertainment Complex, commented in the same release, “We feel this is just what our players have been waiting for and we expect big numbers will take part in the first PokerStars.net ANZPT Perth tournament.”

A total of five events made up Season 1 of the ANZPT, which kicked off in February in Adelaide. Tournaments followed in Sydney, Melbourne, Queenstown, and Queensland. In the finale of ANZPT Season 1, Scott Kerr earned AUD $168,075 for defeating a field of 249 players back in August. The largest field during Season 1 turned out in Sydney, where nearly 500 players took to the felts. The conclusion of that event saw Paren Arzoomanian scoop the AUD $246,500 first place prize.

A combined 1,309 players took part in Season 1 events and nearly $3 million in prize money was doled out. Here is the schedule for what promises to be a lively Season 2 on the PokerStars-backed ANZPT:

ANZPT Adelaide: Adelaide Casino
February 9th to 14th
Buy-in: AUD $3,000

ANZPT Perth: Burswood Entertainment Complex
March 17th to 21st
Buy-in: AUD $2,500

ANZPT Sydney: Star City Casino
April 21st to 25th
Buy-in: AUD $2,200

ANZPT Queenstown: Sky City Queenstown
July 17th to 25th
Buy-in: NZD $2,500

ANZPT Gold Coast: Conrad Jupiters
August 11th to 15th
Buy-in: AUD $2,500

ANZPT Melbourne: Crown Casino
October 8th to 11th
Buy-in: TBD

More stops will likely be added to Season 2 of the ANZPT, although no further information was available at the time of writing. A tournament leaderboard held during the first season of the tour saw Tony Hachem emerge victorious after cashing in four of the five ANZPT Season 1 events. For his leaderboard win, Hachem took home entry into Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) events as well as the 2010 Aussie Millions. Chris Levick, who finished in second place on the leaderboard, gained entry into every ANZPT Season 2 event.

In addition to the ANZPT and APPT, PokerStars also sponsors the European Poker Tour (EPT), Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), Italian Poker Tour (IPT), Czech-Slovak Poker Tour (CSPT), Russian Poker Tour (RPT), and U.K. and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT).

PokerStars Launches UKIPT in Galway as 259 Players See Action in the Inaugural Event

PokerStars UKIPT Kicks Off

The four-day tournament, running until Dec. 14, drew players from 22 countries, including 104 online qualifiers.

“Given it's the first event of a brand new tour, it is really exciting that so many players have qualified for the event and from so many countries,” said newly named UKIPT host and veteran European Poker Tour commentator Nick Wealthall.

“As the tour becomes established and builds its reputation, we look forward to welcoming more and more new players to big time live poker.”

Team PokerStars Pros John Duthie, J.P. Kelly, and Jude Ainsworth joined a field that included 147 players from Ireland and a total of 52 from the United Kingdom.

The group is vying for a piece of a €471,400 prize pool, including €125k for first.

Galway is the first of eight stops on the newly launched UKIPT. The tour will also visit Manchester, Nottingham, Killarney, Brighton, a city yet to be named in Scotland, Dublin and London, where the PokerStars EPT London main event will act as the Grand Final next October.

More on the tour can be found on the UKIPT website.

The PokerStars UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) kicked off in Galway, Ireland Friday, drawing 259 players for its €2,000 Main Event.

The four-day tournament, running until Dec. 14, drew players from 22 countries, including 104 online qualifiers.

“Given it's the first event of a brand new tour, it is really exciting that so many players have qualified for the event and from so many countries,” said newly named UKIPT host and veteran European Poker Tour commentator Nick Wealthall.

“As the tour becomes established and builds its reputation, we look forward to welcoming more and more new players to big time live poker.”

Team PokerStars Pros John Duthie, J.P. Kelly, and Jude Ainsworth joined a field that included 147 players from Ireland and a total of 52 from the United Kingdom.

The group is vying for a piece of a €471,400 prize pool, including €125k for first.

Galway is the first of eight stops on the newly launched UKIPT. The tour will also visit Manchester, Nottingham, Killarney, Brighton, a city yet to be named in Scotland, Dublin and London, where the PokerStars EPT London main event will act as the Grand Final next October.

First PokerStars UK and Ireland Tour Main Event starts today

Jan Skampa Wins EPT Prague; Becomes First Czech EPT Champ

Hometown hero Jan Skampa took down the Main Event of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague stop, banking €682,000. Skampa is a 23 year-old economics student at St. Charles University in Prague and became the first Czech champion in EPT history.

A total of 584 players turned out for the EPT Prague Main Event, which came with a €5,250 price tag. The event’s central location attracted a truly diverse international field, as seven countries were represented at the eight-handed final table. Among those at the feature table was Team PokerStars Pro member Luca Pagano, who finished in sixth place for an even €100,000. In October, Pagano final tabled the EPT Warsaw Main Event to the tune of over $100,000, one of his four EPT feature table appearances in 2009. Pagano has 13 in the money showings in EPT events.

Following his monumental win, Skampa told PokerStars officials, “It feels great to win. It’s my fourth EPT and I won it in my home town – that must be one of the greatest accomplishments you can have in poker. It was tough when we were three-handed, but once Stefan Mattsson was out, I felt confident I could win.” Here were the final results from the 2009 running of EPT Prague:

1. Jan Skampa (Czech Republic) – €682,000
2. Eyal Avitan (Israel) – €454,000
3. Stefan Mattsson (France) – €255,000
4. Anthony Roux (Czech Republic) – €171,000
5. Larry Ryan (Ireland) – €135,000
6. Luca Pagano (Italy) – €100,000
7. Gustav Ekerot (Sweden) – €71,000
8. Sven Eichelbaum (Germany) – €55,500

This was the third running of EPT Prague, which debuted during the fourth season of the EPT with Arnaud Mattern emerging victorious from a field of 555 runners. Last year, Italian poker player Salvatore Bonavena took home the crown after besting a group of 570 poker players. Attendance at the Czech event has increased gradually each year, as this season’s crop of 584 players represented a 2% increase year over year.

In the defining hand of heads-up play, which ran for three hours, Eyal Avitan pushed all-in with J-9 and Skampa woke up with pocket jacks. The dominating hand held and Skampa was crowned the 2009 EPT Prague champion, sending the hometown fans into a frenzy. Avitan sent Stefan Mattsson packing after he flopped a straight with J-10 against Mattsson’s Q-10. The fourth place finisher at EPT Prague, Anthony Roux, hit the rails after coming out on the short end of a race with pocket tens against Avitan’s A-K.

Larry Ryan, a PokerStars qualifier, hit the skids in fifth after running pocket jacks into Mattsson’s pocket aces. Ryan, who also qualified via PokerStars for the upcoming Caribbean Adventure, could not overcome being a 4:1 underdog and earned €135,000. Pagano’s EPT Prague title hopes were dashed when his A-J could not draw out on Mattsson’s pocket queens.

Next up for Season 6 of the PokerStars-sponsored EPT is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which takes place from January 4th to 14th at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort in the Bahamas. The tournament marks the EPT’s only trip to the Western Hemisphere in a joint event with the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT). In 2009, Canadian Poorya Nazari took home a massive $3 million grand prize from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which attracted a record-setting 1,347 players. In side tournament action, Team PokerStars Pro member and former Main Event champion Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier took down the $25,000 High Roller contest.

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event comes with a $10,300 price tag. Side festivities include battleship events, ladies only events, and tournaments in Omaha, Eight Game, and Badugi.

Pagano Makes Record 6th EPT Final

“There is no secret,” he told PokerListings. “It’s a little bit because of my style of game. I am very solid and I don’t take that many risks. And it’s a little bit because this year we have a new structure with more chips and a lot of play, which is giving solid players like me more opportunity to find the right spots.”

When the money bubble burst at EPT Prague on Day 3 and Pagano was still standing, the Italian was guaranteed a record 13th cash on the EPT.

However, the most prolific player in EPT history admitted skill isn’t the only reason he’s been incredibly consistent.

“This is probably a year where I’m getting some good cards as well,” he said. “I would say it’s a mix of luck and adapting to the new structure.

“The fact that I’m getting good results and a player like (Jan) Skampa is making another final table as well, is showing that playing the right way, with some luck and according to the structure, can be very good for professional players.”

After finishing fourth at EPT Vilamoura just weeks ago, Skampa, a budding superstar from right here in the Czech Republic, will enter Sunday’s final with the chip lead.

It’s just his fourth European Poker Tour event, but he believes the experience of Vilamoura will prove invaluable to him here at home.

 “It’s a tremendous help that just two weeks ago I was playing in similar situations,” he said. “In Vilamoura I had a somewhat difficult seat draw for the final table and now it’s somewhat better. But it really was the best possible training for this situation.”

Outside of the venerable Pagano, Skampa’s biggest threat appears to be Purple Lounge Pro Stefan Mattson, who will bring a massive stack and the experience of both a WPT and WSOP final table to Sunday’s fight for a €682,000 first-place prize.

“I feel really confident,” Mattsson said. “I knocked out some of the toughest players in the tournament as well so I’m feeling really good. Jan has a big stack, so he’s still a big threat, but otherwise, I feel very comfortable at this final table.

“I don’t think I will get quite as nervous as the other guys. I don’t even think about the pressure.”

Joining Pagano, Mattson and Skampa in the final is the suddenly red hot Anthony Roux, who now adds an EPT final table to the WSOP and WSOPE finals the Winamax pro has found himself at this year.

And with half the group full of top pros it appears the EPT has made some strides in distancing itself from a reputation that its final tables are often filled with unknown players.

Although, the second half of the group still includes relative unknowns Larry Ryan from Ireland, Germany’s Sven Eichelbaum, Swede Gustav Ekerot and Israeli Eyal Avitan.

Despite his record number of cashes and final tables, a win on the EPT has still eluded Pagano, but with another opportunity right in front of him Sunday, he believes a breakthrough is in the cards.

 “I know that it’s the only thing I’m missing, but it will come,” he said. “I just have to play my game. I think I proved to myself that I can play poker and the trophy will come.”

To follow all the action from the PokerStars EPT Prague final table, beginning at 12 p.m. CET Sunday, click through to PokerListings’ Live Updates.

Retired Soccer Star Wins GUKPT Grand Final

Cascarino outlasted 182 players including Michael Greco, Vicky Coren and Marc Goodwin before making it to heads-up against French player Antoine Arnault.

Cascarino then beat Arnault in a long, drawn-out, heads-up battle to claim the first place prize of £168,800.

“Getting respect from your peers and being acknowledged for being good at whatever you do with your life means a lot to me,” said Cascarino. “I think I have proved myself now.”

This is the not the first time Cascarino has found success playing in the GUKPT. In 2008 Cascarino won the Bolton leg of the GUKPT for £52,850.

As a pro soccer player Cascarino played for the national Republic of Ireland team scoring 19 goals in 88 international appearances from 1985-1999. He also had impressive years for club teams Aston Villa, Celtic, Chelsea and Olympique de Marseille.

Cascarino went through a very public divorce this year and he made a not-so-subtle reference to his ex-wife in interviews following his big win.

 “I got divorced earlier in the year and I’m delighted she won’t be getting her hands on any of this,” he said. “She’s already had enough of me.”

The third season of the GUKPT is nearly complete with only the Champion of Champions yet to be played in Luton this weekend. The tour has already released a schedule for their 2010 season, which can be found on the organization’s website.

Tony Cascarino wins GUKPT Grand Final main event

2010 Irish Open venue confirmed

Antonio Matias Leads Final 12 at EPT Vilamoura

One of the new stops on Season Six of the European Poker Tour (EPT) was a November jaunt to Vilamoura, Portugal.  The tournament, which got underway on November 17th, drew 322 runners, making it the third largest EPT event of the season so far.

A number of familiar faces made the trip to Portugal, including Team PokerStars players Chad Brown, Jason Mercier, and Katja Thater, as well as Shaun Deeb, Jason Lavallee, Andy Black, Ludovic Lacay, and Ross Boatman.  The event featured a €5,000 + €300 buy-in and promises a first place prize of €404,793, or roughly $600,000.  The Vilamoura stop is one of several new destinations on the EPT circuit and it has already outperformed one of the other additions to the tour, the August event in Kiev.

The final table is set to play out on Sunday and, at time of writing, there are still four eliminations to go on Saturday before play ends for the day.  Friday’s Day 3 proved to be a short one, as the field began with 69 players and stopped a little early once it was trimmed to 24.  Typically, play slows as the field nears the money bubble, with tables going hand-for-hand to avoid stalling.  At the Vilamoura event, play did not even make it to hand-for hand before Sergey Lebedev was knocked out in 49th place to burst the bubble.

Those who survived to Day 4 on Saturday included chip leader Anthony Lellouche, Team PokerStars Pros Jude Ainsworth of Ireland and Ruben Visser of the Netherlands, Jim “MrBigQueso” Collopy, Ryan “HITTHEPANDA” Franklin, and seven Portugese players, including Joao Barbosa.

Lellouche began the day in a familiar role, serving as the tournament’s chip leader with over 1.1 million chips.  He ended Day 2 second in chips and also logged some time as the chip leader earlier this season at the Warsaw stop.  It looked as though Lellouche would be in great position to make his fourth career EPT final table, but an aggressive play early in the day found him on the rail in 20th place.  After action on every street, Lellouche moved all-in on the river with the board reading J-8-2-Q-2 and Antonio Matias called, showing A-2 for rivered trips.  Lellouche held just 7-9 for a busted gutshot straight draw and was eliminated.

Matias amassed a huge chip lead as a result of the hand and only built on it as Day 4 progressed.  With just 12 players left, Matias holds 2.3 million chips, nearly a million more than his next closest competitor, Jeff Sarwer of Canada, who has almost 1.4 million chips.  There is a wide discrepancy between these two players and the rest of the field, as Claudio Coelho is third in chips with just 750,000.

Joining Lellouche on the rail today were Collopy, Barbosa, Visser, and Ainsworth.  The back-to-back eliminations of Visser and Ainsworth in 13th and 12th places, respectively, means there will be no PokerStars pros appearing at the Vilamoura final table, although PokerStars online qualifiers Santiago Terrazas and Pierre Neuville are still in contention for the title.

Play in Vilamoura will continue until the final eight-handed table is set.  Players will then have the night off before returning at 12:00pm local time to play down to the newest EPT champion.

Jude Ainsworth joins Team PokerStars Pro

Ainsworth will represent PokerStars in the new UK & Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT), which will see him play a tournament on his home turf of Galway from Dec. 11-14, 2009.

"I'm really looking forward to competing in the UKIPT and being part of such an exciting tour," said Ainsworth. "Undoubtedly the event I'm looking forward to is the return to my hometown Galway."

Ainsworth catapulted to poker fame ilast year when he won the Irish Poker Championship in Galway for €145,000.

This year Ainsworth, who plays as j.thaddeus online, went on to win the 2009 PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker $10,300 main event for $963,338, outlasting 501 players and a final table that included Jon "PearlJammer" Turner and Chris "Moorman1" Moorman.

After its launch in Galway, the UKIPT will move on to stops in Manchester, Nottingham, Killarney, Brighton, Scotland and Dublin with a grand final scheduled to take place in London.

Other notable players to take part in the UKIPT include Team PokerStars Pro Vicky Coren and former English soccer player Teddy Sheringham.

Visit the UKIPT website for the complete schedule.

Win a seat to the Pokerstars UK and Ireland Poker Tour

Win your seat at the Irish Open with Titan Poker

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• €800 for expenses
• €50 fee for handling
• €100 for official party

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PokerStars Announces UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT)

PokerStars, the world’s largest online poker site, has introduced the UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT). A total of nine events will play out beginning in Galway on December 11th.

The first UK-based event will be held in Manchester on February 11th at the Grosvenor G Casino. The Galway event, which serves as the kickoff tournament of the inaugural UKIPT series, will be part of the Irish Poker Championships. Players will descend upon the Radisson Hotel for the €2,000 buy-in event and the tournament crowns a champion on December 14th. In 2009, The Irish Poker Championship was brought to you by PartyPoker and saw 24 year-old Rory Rees Brennan bank €160,000 for the win in its Main Event. Seven out of the top ten finishers were Irish.

Team PokerStars Pro member Vicky Coren, a Brit, discussed the newest poker tour in a press release distributed this week: “This is an incredibly exciting addition to the range of PokerStars live events. Here is our own local British and Irish tour, nicely accessible for those who can’t travel abroad very often or who save their foreign travel for larger international events.” Champions of UKIPT events will take home an entry into the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT) London Main Event next October. PokerStars officials noted that EPT London will also serve as the UKIPT Championship Event.

Here is the schedule for the first-ever running of the UKIPT:

UKIPT Galway (Ireland): December 11th to 14th
Radisson Hotel
€2,000 buy-in (9% juice)

UKIPT Manchester (United Kingdom): February 11th to 14th
Grosvenor G Casino
£500+50 buy-in

UKIPT Coventry (United Kingdom): April 8th to 11th
Grosvenor G Casino
£500+50 buy-in

UKIPT Nottingham (United Kingdom): May 13th to 16th
Dusk Till Dawn
£500+50 buy-in

UKIPT Killarney (Ireland): June 24th to 27th
Gleneagles
€1,000+100 buy-in

UKIPT Brighton (United Kingdom): July 15th to 18th
Rendezvous
£1,000+100 buy-in

UKIPT Scotland: TBA
Venue is TBA
£1,000+100 buy-in

UKIPT Dublin (Ireland): September 9th to 12th
Burlington Hotel
€1,000+100 buy-in

UKIPT London (United Kingdom): October 1st to 10th
Hilton Metropole
£5,000+250 buy-in

UKIPT tournaments are expected to attract some of the top names in the poker industry, including PokerStars sponsored pros Coren and Teddy Sheringham. The former added that the presence of the UKIPT in Northern Europe will continue to grow the game: “The buy-ins are great: big enough to make chunky prize pools, not so big that they’re a huge drain on resources. It’s about time there was a serious, respected tournament with a £500 buy-in, like the new ones in Manchester, Coventry, and Nottingham.”

Ireland has laid claim to a crop of accomplished poker players, including Andy Black, who finished fifth in the 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event for $1.75 million, a tournament ultimately won by Joe Hachem. Black finished seventh in the 2007 EPT Monte Carlo Grand Final for nearly $320,000 and won an event during the PartyPoker Premier League in London in early 2008 for $250,000. Other top-tier Irish players include Liam Flood, bracelet winner Noel Furlong, Ciarán O’Leary, Marty Smyth, and Padraig Parkinson.

PokerStars also sponsors the EPT, Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT), Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT), Russian Poker Tour (RPT), Czech-Slovak Poker Tour (CSPT), and Italian Poker Tour (IPT). Its marquee land-based event is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which takes place each January at the Atlantis Resort and Casino in the Bahamas. In 2010, the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure is a stop on the LAPT and EPT circuits.

PokerStars will host a £10,000 freeroll for the top 100 players on the UKIPT leaderboard at the end of its first season. The top three players will also receive sponsorship opportunities to play in the second UKIPT season. Visit PokerStars for satellite information.

PokerStars Announces UK & Ireland Poker Tour

The UKIPT will kick off from Galway, Ireland, and the tour consists total of nine stops in both countries. The first tournament will be held at Radisson Hotel in Galway on 11th to 14th of December.

Compared to the EPT or the WPT, UKIPT is aimed for players who can’t afford to play in big buy-in tournaments, as the smallest tournaments of the UKIPT have only £500 + £50 buy-ins.

PokerStars has also added money to the prize pools of the UKIPT as all three events with a £500 + £50 buy-in (Manchester, Coventry and Nottingham) have a guaranteed prize pool of£100,000. In addition to that, Irish events with a €1,000 + €100 buy-in in Killarney and Dublin will have a €250,000 guarantee. The winner of each leg will also be awarded with a seat at the London Grand Final.

Also, players will be playing for UKIPT leader board points at every event. Winner of the leader board will receive a main event buy-in and money for the hotel for all UKIPT Season 2 events.

The full schedule of the UKIPT and the buyins of the tournaments:

UKIPT Galway December 11-14 Radisson Hotel €2,000*
UKIPT Manchester February 11-14, 2010 G Casino £500 + 50
UKIPT Coventry April 8-11, 2010 G Casino £500 + 50
UKIPT Nottingham May 13-16, 2010 Dusk Till Dawn £500 + 50
UKIPT Killarney June 24-27, 2010 Gleneagle Hotel €1,000 + 100
UKIPT Brighton July 15-18, 2010 Rendezvous Casino £1,000 + 100
UKIPT Scotland TBC TBC TBC
UKIPT Dublin September 9-12, 2010 Burlington Hotel €1,000 + 100
UKIPT London October 2-8, 2010 Metropole Hotel £5,000 + 300
* 9% of the tournament prize pool will be withheld to cover the cost of dealers and floor staff.

The satellites to the first tournament of the UKIPT at Galway are already running at PokerStars.

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PokerStars Announces UK & Ireland Poker Tour

PokerStars launches new UK and Ireland tour

The events will have a range of buy-ins from £500+£50 to £1,000+£100 for UK based tournaments and €1,000+€100 and €2,000 for events in Ireland.

"This is an incredibly exciting addition to the range of PokerStars live events," said Team PokerStars PRO Vicky Coren. "The buy-ins are great: big enough to make chunky prize pools, not so big that they're a huge drain on resources."

The first UKIPT event will be held in Galway, Ireland from December 11-14, 2009, in the Radisson Hotel. The event will be held as part of the popular Irish Poker Championships.

The first UK based UKIPT event will be held in Manchester from February 11-14, 2010 at the Grosvenor G-Casino.

Events will also be held in Nottingham, Killarney, Brighton, Scotland and Dublin with the Grand Final taking place as part of the PokerStars.com EPT London event next October.

In addition to the UKIPT title and prize money, all winners will earn a seat in the Grand Final.

The UKIPT will also have its own Points Leader Board featuring prizes for the top players at the end of the season, including PokerStars.com sponsorship in UKIPT events during the second season for the top 3 players and a £10,000 freeroll for the top 100.

Daily satellites are already running on PokerStars for as little as $0.25 or 250 FPPs.

Full details of the PokerStars UKIPT schedule can be found below. For more information and updates please see the tour's website.

PokerStars Launch UK and Ireland Poker Tour

Records fall on massive cross-pond poker weekend

A total of 1,412 players entered the $345 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em event at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana, just 20 minutes from downtown Chicago.

"Chicagoland has become one of the WSOP Circuit's most popular destinations for poker players," said WSOP media director Nolan Dalla. "Attendance eclipsed last year's near-record for the same event, which was 1,187 entries."

23-year-old poker pro Josh Shmerl, from Wauconda, Illinois just outside of Chicago, took the title and $79,107 first-place prize in Hammond.

The previous all-time record for attendance at a WSOP Circuit event was 1,345 players at the Tunica Grand Resort and Casino in Mississippi in January 2006.

Meanwhile, across the pond in Ireland, the 2009 Boylepoker International Poker Open set the record for the largest tournament field ever assembled outside of the United States.

The $250 buy-in No-limit Hold'em event drew 1,440 players from more than 18 countries creating prize pool of $350,000, including $27,000 added by the sponsor.

The previous non-U.S. attendance record was set at the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in the Bahamas at 1,347.

Several big names from the ((UK poker scene)) were in attendance at the Regency Airport Hotel in Dublin, including Neil Channing, Padraig Parkinson, Andy Black, Marty Smyth, Surinder Sunar, Fintan Gavin, Simon Trumper and the voice of European poker, Jesse May.

German Markus Sippe took the title and $62,250 first-place prize.

"This year's International Poker Open was another great success, breaking last year's record by a further 140 players," said Boylepoker's Paul Spillane. "The event is proving more and more popular every year, among all levels of players.

"The IPO has become an unmissable event on any poker lover's calendar, and we are already excited about the next one."

Matt Glantz Wins PokerStars EPT London High Roller Event

American Matt Glantz emerged victorious in the European Poker Tour’s (EPT) London High Roller event, banking £542,000. Glantz bested Erik Cajelais in a tournament that attracted 75 runners.

Cajelais entered the final table as a commanding chip leader, owning a stack of 893,000, well out in front of Glantz, who came armed with 647,500. Glantz had a wealth of experience, however, finishing fourth in the $50,000 buy-in HORSE Championship during the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $568,000. That final table, of course, featured Scotty Nguyen, a 2009 Poker Hall of Fame finalist, emerging victorious while allegedly inebriated. Also that year, Glantz took third in the World Championship Mixed Event for $184,000.

Cajelais, meanwhile, was fresh off a win in the £2,500 buy-in Pot Limit Hold’em / Pot Limit Omaha contest during the 2009 WSOP Europe festivities, which were also held in London. In that event, he defeated Mats Gavatin heads-up and earned £104,000. Also appearing at the Pot Limit final table were Men “The Master” Nguyen, Hoyt Corkins, and Chris Bjorin, who went on to finish sixth in the WSOP Europe Main Event.

Just after the dinner break, Glantz prevailed in the High Roller tournament. Here is how its final table shook out:

1. Matt Glantz (United States) - £542,000
2. Erik Cajelais (Canada) - £326,000
3. Eugene Katchalov (United States) - £193,000
4. Adolfo Vaeza (Uruguay) - £141,000
5. Leo Fernandez (Argentina) - £104,000
6. Ilari Sahamies (Finland) - £74,000
7. Dennis Phillips (United States) - £60,000
8. Shane Reihill (Ireland) - £45,000

Phillips has been on fire over the past year. After finishing third in the 2008 WSOP Main Event for $4.5 million, the truck salesman grabbed 45th in the 2009 installment, earning another $178,000. He won a $500 buy-in tournament during the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza in Las Vegas in April and has become one of poker’s top ambassadors. Phillips, along with a half-dozen other pros, descended on Capitol Hill for the Poker Players Alliance (PPA) Fly-In held during National Poker Week. Phillips toured the Walter Reed Army Medical Center and also played in a charity poker tournament.

Sahamies, nicknamed “Ziigumd” in the online world, is the front man for the Cake Poker Network site Power Poker. Sahamies appeared on Season 5 of the GSN cash game show “High Stakes Poker” and was part of the winning squad in the inaugural Caesars Cup. Fernandez, along with Phillips, is a card-carrying member of Team PokerStars Pro. In April, Fernandez finished sixth in the Latin American Poker Tour’s (LAPT) Mar del Plata Main Event for $63,000. His employer, PokerStars, sponsors the EPT.

WSOP November Nine member Phil Ivey was the first player sent packing from the High Roller event. Others who hit the skids on Day 1 included Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Barry Greenstein, Vanessa Rousso, Luca Pagano, J.C. Alvarado, and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. After his victory, Glantz told PokerStars officials, “It feels great. It’s just been my day.” In the final hand, Glantz’s A-2 held up against Cajelais’ Q-J.

The £5,000 buy-in EPT London Main Event is currently underway. This time around, the tournament attracted 730 players, which PokerStars claims is the largest poker event ever held in the United Kingdom. Only 596 players took to the felts in 2008, representing a growth of 23%. A total of 58 countries are represented, including 138 players from the United Kingdom, 131 from the United States, 63 from France, 45 from Germany, and 42 from Italy.

PokerStars sponsoring Irish Poker Championship

The five-day festival will take place in Galway, Ireland at the Radisson Hotel from Dec. 10-14 with the main event carrying a €2,000 buy-in.

"The Irish Poker Championship has become one of the biggest events on the Irish Poker Calendar and we are delighted to be sponsoring it," said PokerStars business development manager for European events Kirsty Thompson.

"Poker players appreciate good hospitality and a good party atmosphere and there is no better city than Galway to provide it."

The main event will take place Dec. 11-14, but there will also be three No Limit Hold'em side events with buy-ins of €550, €350 and €250.

Already confirmed for the main event are Andy Black, Surindar Sunar, Padraig Parkinson, Jon Kalmer, Julian Gardner, Neil Channing, Marty Smyth and Dutch Team PokerStars Pro Marcel Luske.

Dublin's Roy Rees bested 254 players in last year's Irish Poker Championship to secure a first-place prize of €160,000.

The event is capped at 400 players and organizers are predicting first will be worth €250,000 this year.

Satellites start on PokerStars Oct. 15 and players can buy seats in advance online.

There will also be numerous opportunities to qualify in live play at the Eglinton Casino and PokerStars is providing assistance to facilities that wish to run their own satellites.

For more information check out the Irish Poker Championship website here.

EPT London Ladies Game Freerolls at PokerStars.com

Urgent call to all female poker players in UK and Ireland – win a five star package to play poker in London, for FREE!

PokerStars are offering their UK and Irish female players the opportunity to win a £500 prize package which includes entry into the EPT London Ladies Tournament, a night at the Hilton Metropole (5*) Hotel plus £100 for expenses. All good stuff but what money can’t buy is the excitement and thrill of top live poker, and you’ll certainly experience that!

Do you want in? Of course you do!

Hurry up and get playing ‘cos these extra special freerolls must end on the 26th September and that’s just this week! So here’s the info you need:-

• The EPT London Ladies Freerolls are running every day until September 26th at 8.00pm UK (3.00pm New York), find them through the PokerStars Lobby / Tourney / Regional
• Finish in the top 9 and you’ve made it through to…
• The Freerolls Final which will take place on September 27th at 8.00pm UK (3.00pm New York)
• The top 10 finishers are awarded with a £500 EPT London Ladies Game prize package!

You can enter the daily freerolls as many times as you like and, don’t forget, unlike many live game satellites, the fields will be relatively small due to regional and gender restrictions so, have a go!

Well, if this Event is your type of thing and you haven’t yet got a PokerStars account then get a wiggle on and set up your PokerStars account now and play in the free to enter EPT London Ladies freeroll tonight at 8pm UK. Use the PokerStars Marketing Code DIRPOKER and the PokerStars Bonus Code STARS600 to score yourself the best PokerStars bonus, ever, of 100% up to $600.

Useful Reading
PokerStars Review – unbiased and topical
PokerStars EPT London Freerolls – UK/Irish players only

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