Poker News

Harrison Gimbel, Barry Shulman Among PCA Day 4 Leaders

A total of 62 players remain out of the 1,529 who began the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event. A host of brand name players survived Day 3, including 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event winner Barry Shulman.

Day 3 played out on Friday from the Atlantis Resort and Casino, just across the harbor from Nassau in the Bahamas. One of the final eliminations of the day was Amnon Filippi, who shoved all-in over the top of a raise by Bryce Yockey. His opponent came along and Filippi showed pocket eights against Yockey’s K-Q of spades, setting up a classic race situation. The flop came king-high, propelling Yockey into the lead, and a running 10-3 didn’t help Filippi’s cause. His 67th place finish was worth $33,000 in the $10,000 buy-in poker tournament.

Shulman, whose son Jeff Shulman reached the final table of the 2009 WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas, sent Greg Dyer packing during the last level of play and crossed the one-million chip threshold. He finished with nearly 1.7 million, with the entire field trailing Harrison Gimbel’s tally of 2.6 million. Gimbel trumped former Bodog pro Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo in one hand after Bonomo check-called a bet of 25,000 on a flop of Q-4-6 with two hearts. The turn was the deuce of spades, leading to another check-call from Bonomo, this time for 41,000. The river was the three of hearts and Bonomo checked. Gimbel fired out a bet of 70,000 and Bonomo called, only to see his opponent flip up Q-J for top pair.

Eliminated in 91st place in the Bahamas was 2009 WSOP Main Event November Nine member and Full Tilt Poker pro Phil Ivey. Ivey doubled up Bill Gazes with A-Q against Gazes’ K-J when a king hit on the river. Ivey had Gazes covered by a minuscule 2,000 chips and Ivey hit the rails on the next hand. Ivey, considered by many to be the world’s premier all-around player, added another $23,500 to his bankroll for his efforts in Nassau.

Two women remain among the 62 Day 3 survivors, Amanda Baker and Liz Lieu. Lieu owns a stack of 536,000 entering the fourth day of play in the 2010 PCA Main Event and will head to Table 7, where her competition will include Shulman. Meanwhile, Baker will come armed with 1.3 million chips and be seated at Table 6, which also features Gimbel, Eric “EFro” Froehlich, and Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar.

Here are the top ten chip stacks entering Day 4 on Saturday:

1. Harrison Gimbel - 2,625,000
2. Matthew Haugen - 2,149,000
3. Ryan D'Angelo - 2,092,000
4. Praz Bansi - 2,003,000
5. Barry Shulman - 1,655,000
6. Eric “EFro” Froehlich - 1,331,000
7. Amanda Baker - 1,306,000
8. James Tolbert - 1,284,000
9. John Duthie - 1,210,000
10. Kent Emil Lundmark - 1,158,000

Notable names remaining in the 2010 PCA field, along with their chip counts, include:

Jeff Madsen - 930,000
Robert Mizrachi - 876,000
Amit “amak316” Makhija - 800,000
Aaron “aejones” Jones - 651,000
Alex Brenes - 559,000
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 544,000
Liz Lieu - 536,000
Wayne Bentley - 509,000
Dean Hamrick - 433,000
Bill Gazes - 288,000
Johnny Lodden - 286,000
Peter “Nordberg” Feldman - 221,000
Huck Seed - 216,000

Among those whose 2010 PCA Main Event title hopes were dashed on Friday included Daniel Negreanu, 2008 WSOP Main Event November Nine member Dennis Phillips, Victor Ramdin, Dario Minieri, Russian sensation Ivan Demidov, Vicky Coren, Luis Medina, ESPN baseball analyst Orel Hershiser, and PokerStars poker pro Steven Paul-Ambrose.

At the time of writing on Saturday, players remaining in the Bahamas poker tournament were in Level 23 and blinds were 12,000-24,000 with a 3,000 ante. All Day 4 runners were assured a payout of at least $38,000.

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

Lodden: “Isildur1 is young and doesn’t understand the value of the cash”

Johnny Lodden was the online poker player everybody was talking about few years ago, when he played online under the nickname “bad_ip”. Nowadays Lodden doesn’t play online high stakes anymore and has focused more on competing in live tournaments. But the PokerStars pro still remembers the time when he was young and reckless high stakes gambler.

“It was pretty crazy,” says Lodden about the record pot that he lost to Kowssarie. “I might have smashed my computer. I smashed a lot of computers back in the day.”

In 2006, games were lot smaller than today and highest games were played with $200/$400 blinds, mostly at Microgaming Network, formerly known as Prima Poker Network. Just 21 years old at the time, Lodden couldn’t properly understand the value of money he was winning or losing.

“When you have the money online it’s different,” Lodden said. “If I had a briefcase in front of me with $3 million it would be different thing. When you just have chips and numbers on a computer, you just treat it differently.”

Lodden feels that Isildur1 is in a same place where he was three years ago, playing against best in the world in Patrik Antonius, Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, all players which Lodden has played against when he was active in high stakes circuit.

“I think he’s young and doesn’t understand the value of the cash,” he said. “But I love his No-Limit (Hold’em) game. I mean, he’s really good at (Pot-Limit Omaha) but he’s much better at No-Limit (Hold’em).”

Even though norwegian Lodden made a reputation as being one of the most fearsome cash game players in the world, he says he is more than happy playing live tournaments these days.

“I really want to do well in live tournaments because this is the thing everybody cares about.” Lodden says. “I love to play tournaments, especially the EPTs and nowadays I’m not playing so high, so I have to grind it out in these.”

Source: pokerlistings

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Lodden: “Isildur1 is young and doesn’t understand the value of the cash”

Big sports star set to sign with PokerStars?

It’s not just the identity of Isildur1 that has caused a frenzy of speculation on the poker message boards. A post on Johnny Lodden’s blog hinted at a massive new name joining the pro ranks at PokerStars.

Lodden’s Take on High Stakes

Having helped set the record back in the summer of 2006, Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden is one of them.

“It was pretty crazy,” said the 24-year-old Norwegian, who played under the screen name bad_ip at the time and found himself on the losing end of that $465,451 pot.

“I might have smashed my computer. I smashed a lot of computers back in the day.”

When Patrik Antonius and an unknown Swede calling himself Isildur1 tangled over $878,959 on Nov. 16, they set a new high-water mark online.

The Nordic nosebleeders beat Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Di “urindanger” Dang’s record of $723,000 set in October 2008 and less than a week later they were at it again, posting a new record for the largest pot ever played online at an amazing $1,356,947.

Dwan and Dang’s record-setting pot came at the peak of a flurry of action on the Full Tilt tables with John Juanda and Phil Ivey joining in to help break the record almost nightly.

But before the action-heavy Fall of 2008, Lodden’s record, which he shared with Swede Mohammad “Fast_Freddie” Kowssarie, stood for better than two years.

The record was set on the Prima Poker Network when Lodden got it all in with ace-nine against Kowssarie’s ace-jack with two aces on the board.

Lodden said they were well aware they were breaking new ground with every massive pot back in those days because the site’s $200/$400 games were clearly the biggest online.

Just 21 years old at the time, the only thing Lodden wasn’t aware of was the value of money.

“When you have the money online it’s different,” Lodden said. “If I had a briefcase in front of me with $3 million it would be a different thing. When you just have chips and numbers on a computer, you just treat it differently.”

While he has sat at the virtual felt with the likes of Antonius, Dwan and Ilari “ziigmund” Sahamies, Lodden has since stepped away from the high-stakes online scene.

However, like most of the poker world, he’s been paying close attention to the action of the last month as Isildur1 continues to set the agenda online and push his once record-setting pot even farther from the top of the all-time list.

In fact, Lodden said he sees a lot of similarities between the Swede and the man he was three years ago.

“I think he’s young and doesn’t understand the value of the cash,” he said. “But I love his No-Limit (Hold’em) game. I mean, he’s really good at (Pot-Limit Omaha) but he’s much better at No-Limit (Hold’em).”

Claiming the online high-stakes regulars are just too good these days, Lodden said he has no desire to take on Isildur1 and get back to breaking records. These days he’s squarely focused on the live tournament scene.

But can a man who’s played pots that would dwarf second-place money in most of the world’s biggest live events really stay motivated?

“Before it was hard,” he said. “Not anymore though. I really want to do well in live tournaments because this is the thing everybody cares about.

“I love to play tournaments, especially the EPTs and nowadays I’m not playing so high, so I have to grind it out in these.”

Lodden’s grind finds him in the Czech Republic this week for PokerStars EPT Prague. To follow his progress and comprehensive coverage of the entire event, click through to PokerListings’ Live Updates.

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Online Poker Tournament Recap for November 30th

Brazilian online poker pro Caio Cesar “caio_pimenta” Pimenta was the big winner on the virtual felts Sunday with his victory in the PokerStars Sunday Million, the site’s weekly flagship event. Pimenta outlasted a field of 9,077 players to claim a prize of $259,243.98, the 19-year-old’s largest online score to date.

PokerStars trumped every other site on Sunday with its $1,815,400 prize pool in the Sunday Million. Joining Pimenta at the final table was Team PokerStars Pro member Johnny Lodden, who ultimately took fifth for $72,616.00 after his A-K couldn’t catch up to the pocket kings of Pimenta. The Brazilian pro began the final table with the chip lead and went wire-to-wire, scooping the final pot of the tournament when he made a full house against runner-up KillerMendez.

Several other online pros had success on PokerStars on Sunday. Anthony “holdplz” Spinella took down the Sunday Second Chance after besting a loaded final table that included Michael “anakinso” Goodman, Bryan “Squirrely1″ Sapp, Adam “akat11″ Katz, and Walter “JLizard” Wright. Spinella earned $49,613.12 for his efforts. Laurence “rivermanl” Houghton headlined the final table of the Sunday Warm-Up and took fourth place for $52,296.40. Joe “floes” Serock also made that final table, collecting $11,570 for his eighth place finish.

On Full Tilt Poker, “WooohSaaah” was the winner of the $750,000 Guaranteed, earning $154,233.71. Michael “Pot Odds 3” McNeil took eighth in the event for $15,721.20. In the Sunday Brawl, mikkelstrack walked away with $96,010.22 after defeating a field of 2,794 players and a final table that included Carder “SpazIsPlusEV” England (fourth place for $40,792.40) and Andy “BKiCe” Seth (sixth place for $18,999.20).

Here’s a look at the results from Sunday’s major online tournaments:

PokerStars Sunday Million
$215 buy-in, 9,077 entrants

1st: Caio Cesar “caio_pimenta” Pimenta – $259,243.98
2nd: KillerMendez – $164,562.50
3rd: floriverboy – $135,156.53
4th: joaoMathias – $90,770.00
5th: Johnny “johnnylodden” Lodden – $72,616.00
6th: buddahead9 – $54,462.00
7th: LAPINKY – $36,308.00
8th: BRzRoll – $19,969.40
9th: bo0ort – $12,707.80

Full Tilt Poker $750,000 Guaranteed
$216 buy-in, 4,367 entrants

1st: WooohSaaah – $154,233.71
2nd: Hand Banana7 – $93,366.46
3rd: Beat Man – $61,138.00
4th: jesseja77 – $48,037.00
5th: city17 – $36,071.42
6th: sweepybreedy – $26,726.04
7th: based – $20,088.20
8th: Michael “Pot Odds 3” McNeil – $15,721.20
9th: I use 5cards – $11,703.56

PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up
$215 buy-in, 4,628 entrants

1st: Mr. Shanish – $116,468.22
2nd: angevert – $106,468.22
3rd: $saxo$ – $106,468.22
4th: Laurence “rivermanl” Houghton – $52,296.40
5th: cspdealer – $39,338.00
6th: CruSader1981 – $30,082.00
7th: Bahneyyy – $20,826.00
8th: Joe “floes” Serock – $11,570.00
9th: melano26 – $7,404.80

Full Tilt Poker Sunday Brawl
$256 buy-in, 2,794 entrants

1st: mikkelstrack – $96,010.22
2nd: YrrsiNN – $72,201.87
3rd: Snusarn1 – $72,630.71
4th: Carder “SpazIsPlusEV” England – $40,792.40
5th: Jotagran49 – $28,498.80
6th: Andy “BKiCe” Seth – $18,999.20
7th: PrishChips31 – $12,852.40
8th: uzzyking – $8,940.80
9th: dadoudinet – $6,705.60

PokerStars Sunday 500
$530 buy-in, 1,033 entrants

1st: liutas.a – $89,147.90
2nd: Blue Knight1 – $64,562.50
3rd: SENORSEXY – $49,067.50
4th: Jeremy “JBurleson” Burleson – $35,948.40
5th: Jason “Taknapotin” Somerville – $25,566.75
6th: Jason “JERRRY” Glass – $20,401.75
7th: aylinka18 – $15,236.75
8th: EMakers9186 – $10,071.75
9th: hitthehole – $5,681.50

Cake Poker $250,000 Guaranteed
$268 buy-in, 1,286 entrants

1st: PIIIGEEEOOON – $63,607
2nd: thepokerkinq – $44,654
3rd: LawyerDad – $29,812
4th: IL LAUREATO – $22,038
5th: paulgees822 – $14,906
6th: xfaithlessx – $11,276
7th: SomeDumGuy – $8,256
8th: Kakakahahaha – $6,168
9th: iamchainsaw – $5,204

PokerStars Sunday Second Chance
$215 buy-in, 1,366 entrants

1st: Anthony “holdplz” Spinella – $49,613.12
2nd: Bryan “Squirrely1” Sapp – $36,062.40
3rd: Adam “akat11” Katz – $27,320.00
4th: parksy1066 – $20,490.00
5th: bbs99 – $14,343.00
6th: Michael “anakinso” Goodman – $11,611.00
7th: The Mooks – $8,879.00
8th: SPOTLIGHT19 – $6,147.00
9th: Walter “JLizard” Wright – $3,824.80

UB.com $200,000 Guaranteed
$215 buy-in, 1,054 entrants

1st: Ben “XTHESTEINX” Zamani – $39,267.00
2nd: 99NVRLOSEZ – $35,945.00
3rd: Adam “AKAT11” Katz – $19,077.40
4th: CHIPMICK09 – $13,596.60
5th: JMEWNIE – $11,488.60
6th: ILIKEPONIES – $9,380.60
7th: BAZOOKA87 – $7,272.60
8th: ANIMAL5050 – $5,164.60
9th: Nick “SHIPKINS” Grippo – $3,583.60

Nebuchad says: Isildur1 is blom90 or gulkinas

For many years has Jonas “Nebuchad” Danielsson ruled Prima’s high stake games. In his latest blog entry, Danielsson tells what he thinks about the Isildur1 vs durrrr heads up battle.

Jonas Danielsson, who has a Ladbrokes tattoo on his butt cheek

Right at the beginning of his blog he denies the rumors that he is Isildur1. He also adds that he is practising to play PLO at the $2/$4 stakes. Danielsson thinks that Isildur1 can be only two of the players he knows. He then begins the praise about how good Isildur1 is:

“On a scale from 0-100, Isildur1 is 100, Tom Dwan is 90 and the rest are below 50.”

Danielsson railed Isildur1 for only an hour to realize how great he is. “Now, after a few more days of railing I can say that he is a great player, and he will be one of the best ones, or even the best player ever,” Danielsson continues.

One thing is uncertain to Danielsson, how much Dwan is ready to sacrifice because of this heads up. “There has been numerous players who have gone busto from various reasons, e.g. Johnny Lodden, who was one of the best ones back then”, he ponders.

“Will Dwan surrender, or is he willing to sacrifice his life because of this battle?”

Jonas Danielsson thinks Isildur1 is either “blom90” - who made from $2k to $1.4 million in three weeks, according to the rumors - or “gulkines”, another unknown Swedish player.

Source: Danielsson’s blog (In Swedish)

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Nebuchad says: Isildur1 is blom90 or gulkinas

PokerStars Baltic Festival crowns a champion

The two players are friends and actually travelled to Tallinn, Estonia together, where the €1,100 event was held.

"I haven't played many live tournaments, apart from in Las Vegas, and that didn't go very well," explained Partridge.

"But our friend qualified and encouraged us to come along as well. The heads-up at the end went pretty quickly. I had a good run of cards and got the momentum going. I'm very pleased with the way it went."

A total of 307 players descended on the luxurious Swissôtel in Tallinn for the event, making it the biggest poker tournament ever held in the Baltic States with a total prize pool of more than 4.5 million Estonian Crowns or approximately €290,000.

Partridge won a first-place prize of 1.2 million Estonian Crowns or approximately €76,750 and a trip to the Bahamas for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January.

Among the 32 players who cashed were Team PokerStars Pro Peter Eastgate and PokerStars-sponsored Lithuanian TV presenter Andrius Tapinas.

Team PokerStars Pros Katja Thater, J.C. Alvarado, Johnny Lodden and William Thorson also played, along with Team PokerStars SportStars Mats Sundin, the National Hockey League legend, and Sami Selio, the Formula 1 Powerboat champion.

The Festival also included a €10,600 High Roller event won by the Finn Ville Wahlbeck, who made four World Championship final tables at the 2009 World Series of Poker, including a bracelet win in the $10k Mixed Event.

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Stars headed to PokerStars Baltic Festival

Team PokerStars Pros Johnny Lodden, William Thorson, and Peter Eastgate are all confirmed for the €1,100 main event, set for Oct. 28-31 inside the brand new casino at the Swissôtel in Tallinn, Estonia.

Plus, recently retired National Hockey League great Mats Sundin, a Team PokerStars SportStar, will also be joining the more than 100 PokerStars players who have already qualified for a seat online.

The festival will feature 24-hour cash games, sit and go's and a number of side events, including a €10,600 High Roller tournament.

Eastgate, Tony G and Theo Jorgensen are among the players already registered for the High Rollers, scheduled to begin Oct. 30.

On the shores of the Baltic Sea, Tallin is considered one of Europe's most beautiful cities, prized for its stunning architecture and vibrant nightlife.

For more information on the festival and the full schedule of events, click here.

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Krzystzof Grubka win European Masters Of Poker Grand Final

Krzystzof Grubka has won the final event of the inaugural European Masters Of Poker Tour in Malta. The Pole outlasted a field that included big names Mel Judah, Johnny Lodden and Jonas Kyllonen to claim the first prize of 95,000 euro.

Matt Perrins wins Italian Poker Tour event

Britons put up some fine performances at this year’s World Series and the international success has continued in Italy. Manchester’s Matt Perrins outlasted a field of 439 players including top pros Dario Minieri, Vanessa Rousso and Johnny Lodden to claim the second leg of the Italian Poker Tour in Venice.

ElkY grinds to SNG world record

Fresh off of a third-place finish at the WPT Championship earlier this week, Grospellier spent Day 1a of the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour's Grand Final searching for a world record.

The French pro played an incredible 62 $6.50 PokerStars SNGs in sixty minutes, playing on four-monitors on the final table set with his every move broadcast to an enthusiastic audience.

ElkY needed to turn a profit to clinch the record, and needed to cash in the final tournament to finish in the black.

He would do better than cash, defeating player "King Sampie" in a spirited heads-up battle to claim the game and the record with a $23.67 profit.

"I'm tired, actually," Grospellier told PokerListings.com. "It was pretty exhausting because I was really not prepared.

"I arrived from Las Vegas yesterday and expected to have a little more time to prepare."

Grospellier began the challenge confident in his abilities, loading as many as 40 tournaments at a time before the pace began to catch up with him.

"It was out of control," he said. "Shorthanded play went so fast and I was sitting out a lot, but at the end I managed to regain momentum and got better."

He told PokerListings he was surprised to turn a profit at all.

"I thought I was down a lot, actually," he said. "I felt like I kept losing and sitting out of the early games."

Khan, who gained internet notoriety when he videotaped himself playing 26 SNGs at one time, was one of many Team PokerStars Pro pros who hung around to sweat their teammate.

RaiNKhaN told PokerListings.com he liked what he saw.

"I'm impressed, because there are two difficulties in what he was trying to do," Khan said. "It's very hard to play 62 tables and turn a profit, and it's also very hard to play that many tables without starting smaller and working your way up."

Khan pointed to Grospellier's excellent command of sit-and-go strategy as the key to his success.

"I liked his play a lot," he said. "I thought he played tight, which is good in SNGs, and he knew when to shove, which is essential if you're going to turn a profit."

"It's really nice to have the record," Grospellier said. "I'm really happy I managed to succeed without adequate preparation.

As ElkY ground his way toward the record, Day 1a of the EPT Grand Final was playing out its eight sixty-minute levels.

A total of 396 players paid the €10,600 entry fee and by day's end about 230 players were left standing.

Among those who lived to see Thursday's Day 2 were Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Lodden, Dario Minieri, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson and Annette Obrestad.

Failing to make the cut were Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Chris Moneymaker.

Action continues in Monaco with tomorrow's Day 1b, in which ElkY will look to continue his winning streak by facing off against the likes of Christina Milian, Nico Rosberg, Nelly and former champs Glen Chorny and Gavin Griffin.

Play kicks off at noon local time (6 a.m. EST). Check out all of the day's highlights in the PokerListings.com Live Tournaments section.

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PokerStars Signs Peter Eastgate, Ivan Demidov

On Thursday, PokerStars, the world's largest online poker site, announced that 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion Peter Eastgate and runner up Ivan Demidov have become the newest members of Team PokerStars Pro. The move bolsters the non-U.S. presence of the site, as Eastgate hails from Denmark and Demidov makes his home in Russia.

A few weeks prior to the start of the 2008 WSOP festivities, Harrah's officials announced that the final table of the Main Event would be pushed back until November. In essence, the move created a lull of 100 days and the first ever “November Nine,” the final players standing. The nine final table contestants would have ample time to pursue sponsorships, seek training, and even review hands as the WSOP played out on ESPN. Eastgate and Demidov join fellow November Nine members Dennis Phillips and Ylon Schwartz on Team PokerStars Pro. The group represents the top four finishers in the tournament.

The PokerStars blog revealed that the signings have been in the works for awhile: “Ever since you saw the two sit down face-to-face for the epic World Series battle, you somehow knew they would end up in the elite Team Pro stable. It was just a matter of when it would happen.” Eastgate banked $9.1 million from the 2008 WSOP Main Event, his lone World Series cash to date. He showed his performance at the Rio was no fluke by taking down a $4,800 buy-in preliminary tournament held during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $343,000, defeating German player Florian Langmann heads-up.

Demidov became the first player ever to reach the final tables of both the WSOP and WSOP Europe Main Events, taking third in the latter tournament for £334,850. His runner up performance in the Main Event in Las Vegas was worth a healthy $5.8 million. He also finished 11th in a $1,000 rebuy tournament during the 2008 WSOP for $39,000. Demidov is a former StarCraft player and math whiz, which explains his success at the poker felts. You can catch the Russian playing on PokerStars under the name "Ivan Demidov."

Team PokerStars Pro recently welcomed Norwegian player Johnny Lodden to its ranks. The squad, which represents PokerStars at major live events and is intricately involved in its online promotions, is headlined by a trio of recent WSOP Main Event Champions: Chris Moneymaker (2003), Greg Raymer (2004), and Joe Hachem (2005). At the end of February, Team PokerStars Pro also welcomed J.C. Alvarado, who originally hails from Mexico and now lives in Las Vegas.

Other members of Team PokerStars Pro include Barry Greenstein, Isabelle Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, John Duthie, Steven Paul-Ambrose, Luca Pagano, Victor Ramdin, Lee Nelson, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, and Humberto Brenes. The site plays host to some of the top women in poker, headlined by Go Daddy Girl Vanessa Rousso, who took second to Huck Seed in the 2009 National Heads-Up Poker Championship, which will unfold beginning on April 12th on NBC. Other top female players who are members of Team PokerStars Pro include Katja Thater, Victoria Coren, and Maridu Mayrinck.

PokerStars is in the midst of Day 2 of its inaugural Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP). The tournament series features events with low-stakes, mid-stakes, and high-stakes buy-ins. The very first event was a No Limit Hold'em Six-Max with Rebuys tournament. The low-stakes contest featured a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool and attracted over 27,000 players, making it one of the largest online poker tournaments ever held. The mid-stakes $55 buy-in version attracted 4,057 players and the $550 buy-in high-stakes edition saw a field of 672 players compete. In Event 2, a Pot Limit Omaha High-Low tournament, 7,622 players showed up for the low-stakes, 2,104 for the mid-stakes, and 327 for the high-stakes. SCOOP culminates with its Main Event on April 12th.

PokerListings.com News Wrap-Up: March 22-29

As part of a weekly series we've compiled a list of stories that didn't quite make it into the main news roster but were worth mentioning.

This week saw a certain Norwegian poker player get a deal from the world's largest poker room, while yet another study found poker to be a game of skill.

Johnny Lodden signs with Team PokerStars Pro

Team PokerStars Pro was already home to a number of well-known pros in Daniel Negreanu, Joe Hachem and Greg Raymer but surprisingly it didn't have a lot of Scandinavian content.

That seems to be changing as Norwegian pro Johnny Lodden was signed by the team this week. Lodden is an accomplished live and online player who used to wreak havoc back in the day as "bad_ip."

Lodden will join fellow European players William Thorson (Swedish) and Noah Boeken (Dutch) on the team.

http://www.pokerstarsblog.com/team_pokerstars_pro/2009/team-pokerstars-pro-signs-johnny-lodden-037861.html

Bodog sets the line on Nguyen's $4 million promise

Bodog is now taking bets on Scotty Nguyen's promise to PokerListings.com that he will retire if he makes less than $4 million at the 2009 World Series of Poker.

The outlandish promise, which Nguyen made in an interview with PokerListings TV, started a wave of forum chatter, with a multitude of players claiming they are willing to take the Prince of Poker's action.

As result, Bodog oddsmakers have stepped up and set the line at +2500 that Nguyen will reach the magic $4 million mark.

"Bodog's annual WSOP prop bets are a staple leading up to the main event," Bodog Sportsbook Manager Richard Gardner said.

"So when we came across the PokerListings.com video of Scotty Nguyen saying that if he doesn't win at least $4 million at this year's WSOP he'd quit the game, we knew this would be the kind of action our players would like to get in on."

To place your bets head over to the Bodog Sportsbook and check out all of the 2009 WSOP prop bets.

EU claims U.S. Internet gambling laws violate WTO

The European Union says U.S. laws on Internet gambling are in violation of World Trade Organization rules.

Following an investigation into U.S. measures affecting foreign suppliers of Internet gambling services, the European Commission released a draft report Thursday concluding U.S. laws deny access and discriminate against foreign suppliers of gambling and betting services.

The report says U.S. Internet gambling regulations effectively create a trade barrier which has adverse effects on EU economic interests.

Although the report claims WTO proceedings against the U.S. would be justified, it does not include any recommendation for actions, suggesting only that the issue should be addressed with the current U.S. administration.

New study finds poker is a game of skill

Once again a study has found that poker is a skill game. The latest study was released by Cigital Inc. in conjunction with PokerStars.

The study used data acquired from 103 million hands of hand No-Limit Hold'em and found that in 75% of those cases an outcome was decided without a showdown.

Learn more about the study and the Poker Players Alliance's thoughts about it in the link below:

http://pokerplayersalliance.org

Ultimate Fighting Championship shuts door on Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt Poker and the Ultimate Fighting Championship seemed like a match made in heaven, with fighters like Forrest Griffin and Mike Swick having donned the FTP badge to play in tournaments.

Instead, according to mmapayout.com, the UFC has placed FTP on the banned list, which means no fighter can don Full Tilt gear. The unconfirmed rumor is that Ultimate Bet or Absolute Poker may be taking over as a key sponsor.

http://mmapayout.com/2009/03/on-tilt-poker-company-full-tilt-on-no-no-list/

Poker in Texas?

Legal poker in Texas seems to be getting closer and closer to reality and the folks over at Pokerati have been following the issue closely. The bill for poker in Texas is titled HB 222 and it is scheduled to be voted on this week.

http://pokerati.com/2009/03/27/re-texas-poker-bill-up-for-committee-vote-today-6/

Duke returns to WSOP Academy Ladies Only Event

It was announced earlier this week that the WSOP Academy Ladies Only Event hosted by Annie Duke will once again be back this summer.

It's somewhat ironic given that Duke is vehemently against playing ladies events, but apparently she feels differently about women-only training workshops.

The Celebrity Apprentice star will host the event at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas June 5-6. Check out the Web site for more details.

http://www.wsopacademy.com/

 

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Johnny Lodden becomes a Team PokerStars Pro

The latest name to join the illustrious band of Team PokerStars professionals is Norway’s Johnny Lodden.