Posts Tagged ‘Macau’
Inside Gaming: Life is Rough for New Poker Players and Macau’s Profits Break Records
Inside Gaming: Switzerland’s Liberal Online Gambling Policy and Macau’s Profits May Help PA Get Table Games
Top 5 of 2009: Yevgeniy Timoshenko’s Year
With an eye on the great poker personalities that have made the scene and the interesting fodder they’ve provided for us over the past 12 months, we’ve come up with our very own Top 5 Poker News Stories of 2009.
The plan is to present them to you every other day from now until New Year’s Eve and we continue today with No. 4: Yevgeniy Timoshenko’s Year.
Yevgeniy Timoshenko started playing poker online when he was just 15 years old.
With wins in the PokerStars Sunday Million, the daily $100 rebuy and the Sunday $200 rebuy online, plus solid live results in prelims at the Irish Poker Open, Paris Open, the Aussie Millions, World Series of Poker Europe, EPT Barcelona and a win in the 2008 APPT Macau main event, he was a poker-made millionaire even before his 21st birthday.
But it’s the feats he accomplished soon after turning 21 that suddenly has the entire world convinced he is one of poker’s brightest new stars.
With the smell of spring in the Las Vegas air, the Ukranian-born and Washington State raised Timoshenko proved he was a force to be reckoned with this past April, winning more than $2.1 million and one of poker’s most prestigious crowns at the Season 7 WPT Championship.
This one win would have been enough to cement his status as one of the game’s young greats, but Timoshenko’s year had just begun.
His summer was spent collecting close to $100k in cashes from the 2009 World Series of Poker, but another massive score was right around the corner.
The PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker main event is by far the most coveted online title in the game and this September, Timoshenko booked the win, adding $1.7 million to his online MTT winnings.
PokerListings caught up with the budding superstar just weeks later as he found himself among the leaders in the final 36 of the WSOPE main event.
At the time, he explained how his game was designed for both the virtual felt and the kind you can touch and feel.
"I think my game is very adaptable to both online and live play," he said. "If you are just good at reading people you are not going to have as much success online and if you're only good at the math and playing ABC, you might do well online, but you're probably not going to do well live."
Winning two of poker’s biggest tournaments in a single year has obviously helped Timoshenko earn a few fans, especially among his peers.
“Yevgeniy is one of, if not the best tournament player around,” said EPT San Remo and WSOP Bracelet winner Jason Mercier. “I really like his game. I got the chance to play against him for the first time live deep in a 1k event at Bellagio a few weeks ago. I was pretty much plowing through the entire field until he showed up at my table. We have similar styles, which makes him tough to play against.
“One of the things that makes him so good is that he is almost always one level above everyone else at the table. In my opinion, there is no one better at No-Limit Hold’em tournaments.”
With more than $2.2 million in live tournament earnings this year, and another $2.2 million won online, including two of the most prestigious titles on either stage, Yevgeniy Timoshenko’s year was an easy choice for No. 4 on PokerListings’ Top Five Poker News Stories of 2009.
PokerListings' Top Five Poker News Stories of 2009:
Visit PokerListings.com
Tags: 15, 2008, 2009, 5, ABC, Barcelona, bellagio, EUR, Europe, irish poker, Las Vegas, leader, Luke Schwartz, Macau, no-limit, Online Poker, player, Poker, pokerstars, Pro, The Sun, tournament, tournament player, vegas, World Championship, WPT Championship, WSOP
Team PKR Signs Rising Russian Star
The 21 year-old from Moscow, who beat Johnny Chan heads-up to take the title and $266,690 first-place prize in Macau, then went on to crush Finnish veteran Juha Helppi to become the PKR Heads Up champ and collect $120,000, will now represent PKR at live events across the globe and online in PKR’s tournaments and cash games.
"We have been following Vladimir's progress for some time,” said PKR Marketing Director Simon Prodger. “He is an excellent poker player, charismatic, and fantastic to watch at the tables.”
Geshkenbein, who plays under the screen name 'beyne' on PKR, spent two years playing low and middle stakes tournaments until January of this year when he moved to Malta to play professionally.
Matchroom Sport Managing Director Eddie Hearn, who produced the PKR Heads Up Grand Slam, said his performance as a pro has been more than impressive.
"Poker viewers are in for a real treat when they see Vladimir in action in the upcoming PKR Heads Up Grand Slam on Sky Sports in January,” Hearn said. “The game is all about personalities and 'beyne' has it in abundance."
As a member of Team PKR Pro, Geshkenbein will be posting in the PKR forums, providing commentary on PKR.TV and writing blogs from live events.
The other eight Team PKR Pro members include Henrik 'Pokey85' Eklund, Ashley 'Ashleyhames1' Hames, Raymond 'callmebabe' O'Mahoney, Kai 'Kingkai84' Paulsen, James 'James666' Sudworth, Andrew 'Golfpro699' Teng, Karl 'discomonkey' Fenton and Adrien 'zlatan35' Allain.
Visit PokerListings.com
Tags: 5, golf, Johnny Chan, king, Macau, member, Moscow, player, Poker, poker player, Pro, Russia, tournament
Nicky Power is Boylepoker’s latest sponsored pro
Inside Gaming: BetOnSports Fined $28M; Macau Gambling Revenue Trumps Las Vegas
ESPN Ranks Top Poker Players; Phil Ivey Number One
Who is the top all-around poker player in the world? Online or live, cash games or tournaments, whose game reigns supreme over the rest of the industry? According to a panel of experts organized by ESPN.com, the answer is Phil Ivey.
The voting block consisted of ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, Gary Wise, and Bernard Lee, along with Bluff’s Lance Bradley and Michael Friedman, Poker News Daily’s Dan Cypra, and PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Court Harrington. Each of us was asked to name our top ten players in the poker world irrespective of whether we were talking about online or live play, tournaments, cash games, or game type. In the end, the first ever list of “The Nuts” was compiled.
Topping the chart was Ivey, the seventh place finisher in the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. Ivey won two bracelets in preliminary tournaments leading up to the $10,000 buy-in Main Event, one in Deuce to Seven Lowball and one in Omaha/Seven Card Stud High-Low. He owns seven bracelets and over $5 million in career WSOP earnings. Coupled with nearly $3 million in high-stakes cash game winnings off Swedish poker pro Isildur1 alone, Ivey makes a strong case as the top name in the business. Out of the seven pollsters, six chose Ivey as their top dog. The lone exception was yours truly.
My pick for best poker player today was Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko. While players like Ivey have been successful, Timoshenko has dominated high-profile events. In April, Timoshenko took down the World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship for $2.1 million, one year after winning the Asian Poker Tour (APT) Macau Main Event. He finished 25th in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event and proved his online prowess by winning the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event for $1.7 million in September. He followed that performance up with a victory in the Full Tilt $1K Monday. His stakes aren’t as high in cash games as Ivey’s, but he’s also not a member of Team Full Tilt.
Second overall on “The Nuts” was Patrik Antonius. Another participant in the high-stakes games against Isildur1, Antonius lays claim to winning the largest pot in online poker history, $1.3 million, set last month. Friedman noted, “I know this may be controversial, but I think Antonius may be the best online cash game player out there at the moment.” Going against Antonius is his lackluster performance in tournaments; he has not turned in a live score of over $20,000 since May of 2008, according to HendonMob.com.
Rounding out the top three was Daniel Negreanu, who was not ranked by Poker News Daily. Negreanu has final tabled the Main Event of WSOP Europe in back-to-back years and recorded eight in the money finishes in the Las Vegas series in 2009. Negreanu has been actively involved on televised poker programs like “High Stakes Poker” and the “PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge,” serving as one of the game’s top ambassadors. His cash game accolades seem less obvious than Ivey’s and Antonius’, who Poker News Daily ranked as #3 and #6, respectively.
So who did the seven pollsters rank in the first ever edition of ESPN’s “The Nuts”? Here is the illustrious list of today’s top poker players:
1. Phil Ivey
2. Patrik Antonius
3. Daniel Negreanu
4. Tom “durrrr” Dwan
5. Barry Greenstein
6. Jason Mercier
7. Jeffrey Lisandro
8. Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier
9. Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond
10. Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko
Others who received votes included Tommy Vedes, Isildur1, J.C. Tran, Allen Cunningham, Steve “gboro780” Gross, Scott “BigRiskky” Clements, Michael Binger, Jonathan “FieryJustice” Little, David “The Dragon” Pham, Phil Hellmuth, Doyle Brunson, Dan “djk123” Kelly, Antoine Saout, Brian Townsend, Brock “t soprano” Parker, and Matt Hawrilenko. Check out the full ESPN list for more details on each player selected.
What do you think? Should Ivey have been number one? Leave a comment here and let us know!
Tags: 15, 2008, 2009, 5, Ambassador, Andrew Feldman, Asia, Barry Greenstein, Brian Townsend, cash game player, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, durrrr, EUR, Europe, Galfond, game player, high stakes, High Stakes Poker, king, Las Vegas, Macau, member, Michael Binger, News Daily, Omaha, Online Poker, online poker history, Patrik Antonius, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, player, Poker, Poker News Daily, poker player, pokerstars, Pro, tournament, vegas, World Championship, World Poker Tour, WSOP
Inside Gaming: Sheldon Adelson’s Macau Gamble; Bwin Scores the Top Operator Award
APPT Sydney Grand Final Kicks Off December 1st
The PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) is preparing to wrap up its 2009 schedule with the $6,300 AUD APPT Grand Final running from December 1st to 6th at the Star City Casino in Sydney. Team PokerStars Pros and former World Champions Peter Eastgate and Joe Hachem are among the several hundred players expected to participate in the tour’s flagship tournament.
The APPT Sydney schedule kicked off with the $200 AUD Pink Diamond Ladies No Limit Hold’em tournament on November 22nd. Several other preliminary events are taking place before the Main Event gets underway, including a deep stack No Limit Hold’em tournament and a Pot Limit Omaha event. Once the Main Event is underway, side events include the $15,300 AUD High Roller, a $550 AUD Ladies Tournament, a $1,100 AUD team event, a $3,200 AUD Heads-Up event, and the $340 AUD Camp Quality Charity Event in aid of the Australian Children and Families Cancer Charity.
Last year, Martin Rowe defeated fellow Aussie Jason Gray for the APPT Grand Final title and $1 million AUD ($648,046) prize. The event was Aussie-dominated, as 39 of the 48 players who reached the money were from Down Under. The first ever APPT Grand Final was won by Grant Levy, who snagged USD $850,000 for his achievement and is now a member of Team PokerStars Pro Australia.
This season’s APPT champions – Dermot Blain, Simon Watt, and Dong-bin Han – won a seat to the APPT Grand Final as part of their victories. Blain collected $541,072 for his win at APPT Macau in August, while Watt earned $154,043 at APPT Auckland in October. Han took home $156,722 after claiming the APPT Cebu title earlier this month. The event in Cebu broke participation records for an event in the Philippines. The APPT Seoul event, scheduled for September 17th to 20th in South Korea, was postponed due to construction delays at the 7-Luck Casino and will be rescheduled once the construction is completed.
Overall, the APPT has been very pleased with the tour in 2009. Jeffrey Haas, President of the APPT, said: “This season’s APPT has been a great success with over a thousand players competing in the three events already held in Macau, Auckland, and Cebu. This has been made possible by massive enthusiasm for the tour right across the region. This season’s Grand Final in Sydney is set to cement the tour’s reputation for providing incredible events in great locations.”
On December 7th, the annual APPT Tournament of Champions event will take place. This invitation-only tournament features winners from the APPT as well as some of the biggest names in poker competing to help their favorite charities. The first year the tournament was held, Joe Hachem won; last season PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso took home the title.
Tags: 15, 2009, 5, Asia, Australia, charity, Joe Hachem, king, ladies, Macau, member, Omaha, Peter Eastgate, player, Poker, pokerstars, President, Pro, Sydney, tournament, usa, USD, Vanessa Rousso
Inside Gaming: Trump Withdraws Atlantic City Bid; Macau Drying Up
Korean triumphs at PokerStars APPT Cebu
Han outlasted 317 players and then beat American qualifier David Hilton heads-up to become the first Korean winner on the PokerStars APPT and take home APPT Cebu's first place prize of $158,000.
Fellow Korean Sim Somyung took third place for $60,000.
Korean players also had a strong presence at last year's APPT event in the Philippines, where three made the final table finishing second, third and fourth.
Mark Pagsuyuin was the only Filipino player who made the final table of APPT Cebu this year and he busted out in sixth place.
Vietnamese-American Nam Le was the most well-known player to go deep in APPT Cebu, but he finished in 12th place narrowly missing out on the final table. Le won the APPT Macau High Rollers event for $473,915 in 2008.
This marks the third year that PokerStars has hosted an APPT event in the Philippines, but this time around organizers switched the venue from downtown Manila to the more scenic Shangri-La resort in the province of Cebu.
The next stop on the APPT schedule is the grand final in Sydney, which takes place Dec. 1-6, 2009. Satellites for the event are currently running on PokerStars.
Visit PokerListings.com
High Stakes Poker Season 6 Cast Released, Kara Scott Confirmed as Co-Host
In a press release distributed by cable station GSN on Thursday, Kara Scott was confirmed to be the new co-host of “High Stakes Poker,” replacing A.J. Benza. In addition, a list of 17 players was revealed.
Scott replaced Benza, who had flanked “Welcome Back, Kotter” star Gabe Kaplan in the “High Stakes Poker” announcing booth for the first five seasons. Scott’s role will not be play-by-play; instead, the television personality and expert poker player will “report from the High Stakes Poker suite, interviewing poker players about poker strategy, big hands, and the table dynamics,” according to network officials. The show will take on the same feel as NBC’s “Poker After Dark” for its sixth season. The two franchises are produced by the same company, Poker PROductions.
Season 6 of “High Stakes Poker” will begin airing on Valentine’s Day – Sunday, February 14th, 2010 – at 8:00pm ET. Encore presentations will air at 11:00pm ET and 2:00am ET on Sunday nights, meaning that poker fans have three chances to catch new episodes every week. Each of its contestants coughed up $200,000 of their own money as a minimum buy-in.
Five players are making their first appearance on “High Stakes Poker,” including Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko. The youngster has been on a tear on the live poker circuit despite only weighing in at 21 years of age. Timoshenko was born in the Ukraine and won the 2009 World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship for $2.1 million. In September, Timoshenko took down the Main Event of the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) for another $1.7 million and is a former winner of the Asian Poker Tour’s (APT) Macau feature tournament.
Also making his debut on GSN’s “High Stakes Poker” is Dennis Phillips, who gained notoriety by making back-to-back deep runs in the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event. Last year, Phillips finished third in the $10,000 buy-in gala for $4.5 million after entering the final table as the chip leader. Phillips came armed to the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio with a throng of followers donning red St. Louis Cardinals baseball caps and white button up shirts. This year, Phillips finished 45th for $178,000 after being sent to the rails when an opponent made a flush with A-K suited; Phillips also held A-K.
High-stakes cash game player Sammy George will be right at home in the Golden Nugget when filming of the GSN poker franchise kicks off next week. George, who has earned the nickname “Any Two,” was scheduled to face off against Tom Dwan in the live version of the Durrrr Challenge in London back in September. However, the festivities never took place, although organizer Eddie Hearn noted that the mano-a-mano live contest may occur in December in Las Vegas. Dwan will take to the felts once again as part of “High Stakes Poker” Season 6 after making his debut last season.
Returning to “High Stakes Poker” after a two season hiatus is WSOP November Nine member Phil Ivey, who currently appears on the cover of “ESPN: The Magazine.” Ivey last appeared on the GSN series back in Season 3 and is seeking his third WSOP bracelet of 2009 when the Main Event resumes on Saturday from the Rio. Ivey has career tournament winnings in excess of $12 million and is the horse of many pros in this weekend’s Main Event final table.
Andreas Hoivold and Lex Veldhuis will both be appearing on “High Stakes Poker” for the first time during Season 6. Returning to the program are Patrik Antonius, David Benyamine, Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Greenstein, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Matusow, Allan Meltzer, and Daniel Negreanu. The season will once again be taped at the Golden Nugget in Downtown Las Vegas from November 11th to 13th.
Tags: 15, 2009, 2010, 5, aced, After Dark, Asia, Barry Greenstein, cash game player, Daniel Negreanu, David Benyamine, Dennis Phillips, Downtown Las, Doyle Brunson, durrrr, Eli Elezra, Gabe Kaplan, game player, high stakes, High Stakes Poker, interview, kara scott, king, Las Vegas, leader, London, Macau, member, Mike Matusow, NBC, Online Poker, Patrik Antonius, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, player, Poker, Poker After Dark, poker player, pokerstars, Pro, St. Louis, Tom Dwan, tournament, vegas, World Championship, World Poker Tour, WSOP
Macau Poker Cup breaks attendance record
PokerStars sponsored player Kitty Kuo from Taipei booked the win and HKD $550,000 first-place prize defeating PokerStars Team Pro Asia's Tae Joon Noh heads-up.
The field also included PokerStars Team Pro Asia members Celina Lin, Raymond
Wu and Jonathan Lin, 2008 PokerStars APPT Macau High Roller champ Nam Le and two-time World Champion Johnny Chan.
Plus, 2009 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Jeffrey Lisandro, who told PokerListings last month he was headed to Macau to play in some of the biggest cash games in the world, also played.
The 247 entrants and HKD $2.3 million prize pool smashed the previous Chinese record of 168 and HKD $1.6 million respectively.
The regional tournament series will finish up with the HKD $20,000 Macau Poker Cup Championship Dec. 12-20 featuring a guaranteed prized pool of HKD $2 Million.
Players can qualify for a seat on PokerStars.
PokerStars Macau also hosts a weekly HKD $2,500 tournament with an HKD $90,000 guaranteed prize pool.
For more information, check out the PokerStars Macau website.
Visit PokerListings.com
Tags: 2008, 2009, 5, Asia, Johnny Chan, king, London, Macau, member, player, Poker, poker player, pokerstars, Pro, tournament
Poker News in Brief: Oct. 12-18, 2009
The relatively unknown Brandon Hall became the champion in Aruba while the very well-known Phil Laak took down the World Open V.
But there were several stories that didn't make it to the front page of PokerListings.com and as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature, we've presented them below.
This week we'll take a look at the Poker Professor holding class, Doyle Brunson getting some recognition and Vladimir Geshkenbein becoming a heads-up champion.
Lederer wins $10k H.O.R.S.E. prelim at Bellagio
Howard Lederer added another poker title to his resume this week and he only had to beat 19 players to do it.
The $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. WPT Festa al Lago preliminary event wrapped up on Thursday after drawing a small but skilled field that included Eli Elezra, Michael Binger, Andy Bloch, Scott Clements, David Singer and several other established pros.
Lederer beat Russian pro Ralph Perry in heads-up play to secure a first place prize of $92,150. Despite two final tables at the WSOPE this year, Lederer hadn't won a major tournament since taking down the $100,000 buy-in event at the 2008 Aussie Millions.
Lederer, who is sometimes known as the "Poker Professor", now has over $5 million in career tournament earnings.
Doyle Brunson inducted into Athletics Hall of Fame
Doyle "Texas Dolly" Brunson is perhaps the most famous player in poker, but this week he was recognized for his athletic achievements.
After years of waiting patiently, Brunson was finally inducted into the Athletics Hall of Fame at his alma mater, Hardin Simmons University.
Before he started playing poker for a living Brunson competed in track and played basketball at HSU.
Brunson was a key member of an HSU basketball team that won its conference championship for a spot in the NCAA Division 1 playoffs. Brunson scored 412 points and was the only HSU athlete in any sport to be named the MVP of the Division 1 Border Conference.
Brunson was initially passed over for Hall of Fame recognition because of his involvement in the poker world.
The Texas Dolly is still one of the most popular poker players in the world and his twitter account "TexDolly" recently hit over 41,000 followers.
PKR Heads-Up Grand Slam for Vladimir Geshkenbein
Vladimir Geshkenbein outlasted some of the biggest names in poker to win the PKR Heads-Up Grand Slam this week.
The Russian beat Juha Helppi in the final heads-up match to take down a first place prize of $120,000.
The field was comprised of 32 players including Tony G, Tom Dwan, Luke Schwartz, Annette Obrestad, Peter Eastgate, Sammy George, J.C. Tran and numerous other high profile poker players.
Fans were hoping for a live resurrection of the online rivalry between Dwan and the trash-talking Schwartz, but were disappointed when Dwan busted out in his first match. Schwartz didn't make it much further, busting in his second match.
No one could figure out a way to beat the lesser-known Geshkenbein, who did win the high roller event at APPT Macau earlier this year. Geshkenbein has now earned nearly $400,000 playing poker in the last few months.
Forum tournament winner to play Ziigmund
A series of Online Forum Challenges are set to take place on Power Poker over the next few months with the ultimate winner getting a shot at celebrated high-stakes player Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies.
Power Poker will be hosting a series of tournaments over the next three months as part of the Online Forum Challenge and any player that takes part in every event will be entered into the Heads Up with Ziigmund freeroll.
The freeroll will offer a prize pool and a bounty in addition to the winner getting a chance to play Sahamies heads-up for $1,000.
All poker forum members are welcome to take part in the challenge and you can learn more by going to the Online Forum Challenge website here.
Visit PokerListings.com
Tags: 15, 2008, 2009, 5, basketball, bellagio, cent, Doyle Brunson, Eli Elezra, EUR, Europe, european, European Poker Tour, freeroll, Howard Lederer, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, king, London, Luke Schwartz, Macau, member, Michael Binger, Peter Eastgate, Phil Laak, player, Poker, poker player, pokerstars, Pro, Russia, singer, skill, Texas, Tom Dwan, tournament, vladimir geshkenbein, WSOP
Vladimir Geshkenbein Wins the PKR Heads Up Grand Slam
Timoshenko, Flack confirmed for World Open V
Perhaps no one is hotter than Timoshenko at the moment.
Since August 2008, he's won the APT Macau main event, the WPT World Championship and the PokerStars WCOOP Main Event, totalling $4.2 million in prize money in those three events alone.
Timoshenko was also in prime position to make the final table of the 2009 WSOPE before busting out in 25th.
Meanwhile Flack is one of the most well-known poker players in the world and has already won six WSOP bracelets and one WPT title. Never one to shy away from controversy, the outspoken Flack is instantly recognizable at a poker table.
English player George has been garnering a great deal of media attention lately after accepting a heads-up challenge against Tom "durrrr" Dwan and then putting in a strong showing in the PokerHeaven European Cash game.
The 48-person field also includes Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Luke "FullFlush" Schwartz, Jennifer Tilly, JC Tran, Phil Laak, Ian Frazer, James Akenhead and several other big-name poker players.
"The early money is for durrrr, which isn't really a surprise, but favorites do not have a good record in this competition," said a PartyPoker spokesperson. "We're delighted with the field. Every heat features a super strong line-up."
The spokesperson went on to mention that one of the best heats features Timoshenko, Akenhead, Schwartz and Frazer at the same table.
Past winners of the shootout-style World Open include Lee Nelson, Liam Flood and Anthony Hardy.
Last year Marty Smyth outlasted all competitors and then beat Neil Channing heads-up to take down the $250,000 first-place prize in the World Open IV.
Visit PokerListings.com
Tags: 15, 2008, 2009, 5, Andrew Feldman, durrrr, EUR, Europe, european, Jennifer Tilly, London, Macau, Phil Laak, player, Poker, poker player, pokerstars, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, World Championship, WSOP
APT Macau Champion Signs to PKR Pro Team
Lisandro plays Hold’em stud at EPT London
"I needed a few weeks to not play any at all and I did that," The Australian born Sicilian told PokerListings during a break on Day 2 at PokerStars EPT London, where he sits among the overnight chip leaders.
"After a few weeks I was ready to get into again."
The three bracelets Lisandro won at the 2009 WSOP, and a fourth he managed to grab at the 2007 WSOP, all came in Stud events.
With a final-table appearance at EPT Barcelona in 2007 and what's shaping up to be a deep run here in London, Lisandro has proved his proficiency in No-Limit Hold'em as well.
But that doesn't necessarily mean he likes the game.
"I find [No-Limit Hold'em] the hardest to get the most consistent results in," he said. "The other games, the structure is such that if you are chip leader, it takes a lot of work to lose those chips, so you can maintain your momentum.
"That's why I get a little bit disgruntled with No-Limit Hold'em, because sometimes I come to a tournament and I play a perfect game. I play every hand well, I build up chips without making a hand, make all the right moves, bet the right flops, make the right raises and then I'll finally pick up a big hand, kings or aces, and they'll knock me off. Or I'll have ace-king against some goofy hand and then I'm done."
According to Lisandro, skill shines in Limit games, but No-Limit Hold'em allows luck to creep into the equation.
"In No-Limit Hold'em it's like you are being tested all the time," he said. "It can be very heartbreaking when you go through three days, you've played a perfect game, you finally pick up the aces, a guy pushes you all in and they don't hold up.
"Even though you've got confidence in your game and you are going to keep going out there and doing what you always do, luck plays a big role in it."
The competition in No-Limit Hold'em is also getting stronger every day and Lisandro has taken note.
"These days a lot of people play No-Limit Hold'em well," he said. "It's the only game they know and as good as I used to play it, they've got the edge on me because it's the only game they play and they play a lot of it."
Despite his star rising to the top of the poker sky at this summer's World Series, Lisandro plays without sponsorship from a major poker site, a fact he wonders about often.
"To tell you the truth, I had so much press from magazines, so many interviews on the Internet and no one has come up to me with a deal," he said.
"I don't know why. I guess that's life. It's just such a waste that I had so much TV time and I could have been endorsing someone's product. I'll probably end up getting my own site and sponsor myself or I guess I'm going to keep trying to win tournaments until I get somebody that wants to sponsor me."
A high-stakes cash game legend long before he took the World Series by storm this summer, Lisandro says he'll likely head to Macau, China this month to play in what he hears are some of the juiciest high-stakes games going these days.
But for now, he's focused on EPT London and how he can top his amazing 2009 WSOP.
"It's really hard to be consistent in poker and I think I've been the model of consistency the last seven years," he said. "Every year I've done a lot better than average and it's really hard to keep bettering yourself.
"I don't know what will happen next year. How could I ever dream of having a better year? What can I say? It was phenomenal, and it just gets harder and harder to get better - Harder and harder to top."
For all the action from PokerStars EPT London, including chip counts, photos and live updates, click through to PokerListings' Live Tournaments page.
Visit PokerListings.com
Tags: 2009, Australia, Barcelona, China, interview, king, leader, London, Macau, model, no-limit, player, Poker, poker site, pokerstars, Pro, skill, tournament, tournament player, WSOP
Lady Gaga invited to Irish Poker Festival
Tags: Asia, irish poker, Killarney, Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival, Macau, Poker, Poker Festival, Pro, singer
Yevgeniy Timoshenko (Jovial Gent) Wins 2009 WCOOP Main Event
Continuing what has been one of the most successful years that a professional poker player could have, Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko won the Main Event of the 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), earning over $1.7 million for his efforts.
The two-day $5,000 buy in event, which started on Sunday, saw an astonishing 2,144 players willing to either pony up the entry fee or satellite their way in. This field outpaced the $10 million that PokerStars guaranteed and set up a prize pool of $10.72 million.
As is expected for what has become the preeminent online tournament of the year, top professionals and celebrities were bountiful and some performed extremely well. PokerStars Germany sponsored pro Katja Thater (305th place) was able to find her way through the first day to the money and, on the celebrity side, baseball Hall of Fame member Orel Hershiser showed that he has been a diligent student of the game by finishing in 217th place. When the play ended for Day 1, 178 were left in the fight, led by poker professional Jason Dewitt.
Dewitt brought one of the more interesting stories to the festivities of the WCOOP. In what is potentially a first-ever occurrence in the world of poker, Dewitt was also participating in the World Poker Tour (WPT) event that is taking place at the Borgata when Day Two of the WCOOP began. Tournament officials made the landmark decision to allow Dewitt - playing online under his “TheMasterJ33” moniker - to bring a computer close to the tables to allow him to multi-task.
Dewitt appeared to handle the adversities of playing in both events well. Although he wouldn’t be able to maintain his chip lead in the WCOOP Main Event (eventually being eliminated in 87th place), his play in the WPT tournament - where Dewitt admitted he was “trying to build a big stack or bust” prior to getting back into the action of the WCOOP - enabled him to finish in 15th place when action ended.
Timoshenko, under his “Jovial Gent” nickname, came to the final table of the WCOOP Main Event in excellent shape with slightly over 10 million in chips, only two million off of chip leader Dan “djk123” Kelly. The duo held over half of the chips in play and it seemed to be only a matter of time before they hooked up to decide the championship.
After “Udon Wannit” doubled up through “PeachyMer,” Kelly administered the killing blow, eliminating “PeachyMer” in ninth place. Kelly then went on to dismiss both “Mudvaynes” and “Chong94” in seventh and sixth place, respectively.
Timoshenko held back through these early eliminations, but got into the flow after about an hour and a half. Timoshenko eliminated “Xaston” in fifth place and then sealed the tournament, for all effective purposes, when he and Kelly (who had fallen into second place) went to war. After a pre-flop battle where Kelly pushed in the remainder of his 10 million-plus stack with pocket tens, Timoshenko snap-called with pocket kings. A king on the flop all but sealed the hand and, once the turn and river blanked, Kelly was out in fourth, $643,200 richer. As the 2009 WCOOP Player of the Series, he is on his way to the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in January.
With Kelly’s dismissal, Timoshenko held a dominant chip lead over “Udon Wannit” and “reddeevil” and continued to apply the pressure. He dismissed “reddeevil” in third place and, only a few hands later, locked up the title. On a 6-K-8 flop, “Udon Wannit” bet out only to face a reraise from “Jovial Gent.” “Udon Wannit” decided that Timoshenko was pushing him around and made a stand all-in with 6-5 for bottom pair; “Jovial Gent,” however, had the goods when he showed K-6 for a flopped two pair. Once the turn and river ran dry, “Udon Wannit” was out in second and Timoshenko was crowned the 2009 WCOOP Main Event Champion.
The final table played out as such:
1st Place: Jovial Gent - $1,715,200
2nd Place: Udon Wannit - $1,286,400
3rd Place: reddeevil - $933,712
4th Place: djk123 - $643,200
5th Place: Xaston - $482,400
6th Place: Chong94 - $375,200
7th Place: Mudvaynes - $268,000
8th Place: Supa4real - $182,240
9th Place: PeachyMer - $96,480
Timoshenko, when he was only 20 years-old, won the inaugural stop of the Asian Poker Tour (APT) in Macau in August of 2008, pocketing $500,000 for his efforts. He then made the final table of the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe £1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament, finishing in third for £55,350.
After taking a break to turn 21, Timoshenko unleashed his skills on unsuspecting WPT regulars, taking the Championship title in April for $2.1 million. Over the past year, he has won almost $3 million in live tournaments and, with his win in the WCOOP Main Event, drove his lifetime poker winnings to almost $5 million.
Tags: 15, 2008, 2009, 5, aced, Asia, Caribbean, EUR, Europe, Katja Thater, king, leader, Macau, member, Online Poker, online tournament, player, Poker, poker player, pokerstars, Pro, professional poker player, skill, tournament, World Championship, World Poker Tour, WSOP
Timoshenko ships WCOOP main event title
The first day ended with 178 players remaining and Jason "TheMasterJ33" Dewitt holding the overnight lead.
However, in the middle of the tournament's final day Monday, he gave almost all of his chips to Isaac "philivey2694" Haxton through a series of coolers.
Haxton busted 31st and Daniel "djk123" Kelly, who had already won two 2009 WCOOP events, rolled into the final table with the chip lead.
Kelly continued to hold the lead four-handed before doubling up one of the shorter stack and busting when he ran tens into Timoshenko's kings in a massive 20 million chip pot.
The fourth-place finish ensured Kelly would take home Player of the Series honors and $643,200 in fourth-place money.
The Ukrainian born and U.S. raised Timoshenko then busted reddeevil third taking a better than 3:1 chip lead into heads-up.
He made quick work of second place finisher Udon Wannit to ship the $1,715,200 first place prize.
At just 21-years-old Timoshenko already has more than $3 million in career live tournament earnings including $2,149,960 from the 2009 WPT Championship and $500,000 from his APT Macau win in 2008.
Other notable players running deep in the WCOOP main event included CardRunners blogger PeachyMer (9th) Shawn "buck21" Buchanan (15th) and Layne "reloadthis" Flack (55th).
Visit PokerListings.com
PokerNews Jet Set: The Top 10 Travel Tips for Poker Players
Poker Pro Victor Ramdin Gives the Inside Deal
This week, ESPN.com poker show “Inside Deal” welcomed Victor Ramdin. A member of Team PokerStars Pro who is passionate about charity work, Ramdin discusses Scotty Nguyen’s 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) antics and coming to the United States from his native Guyana.
The show began with recap of the latest poker news, headlined by WSOP November Nine member Joe Cada inking a sponsorship agreement with PokerStars. Still unsigned is chip leader Darvin Moon. “Inside Deal” host Bernard Lee gave his two cents on Moon’s future: “He’s said repeatedly that he doesn’t want to sign with a site and so far he’s keeping his word.” Attention then turned to the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) second sale to Party Gaming, the parent company of PartyPoker. As a result of backing out of its first deal, the WPT was forced to pay Gamynia Limited a $1 million penalty. Gamynia is affiliated with the iPoker Network.
After reviewing results from the WPT Legends of Poker, PokerStars Sunday Million, and the Asia Pacific Poker Tour’s (APPT) Macau stop, the “Inside Deal” welcomed Team Ultimate Bet’s Adam “Roothlus” Levy, who called into the show. On his online poker moniker, Levy explained, “It was an XBOX Live name. I just wanted something that sounded cool, so I decided to spell it phonetically.”
Levy rehashed his run-in with Phil Hellmuth during the 2008 WSOP Main Event, noting, “I thought it was pretty epic. It was surreal. I didn’t get offended or anything like that. I knew what I was getting into.” Levy then dove into the lifestyle of today’s online poker players, running into “Saved by the Bell” principal Dennis Haskins at a Los Angeles nightclub, and traveling to the Ultimate Bet Aruba Poker Classic.
Ramdin then joined the show in studio and explained his mentality when coming to the United States in 1989: “It was a dream come true. This is like all of our dreams come true – just to come to America.” He has since made a name for himself not only on the felts, but also in the world of charity, where he travels to Guyana to fund heart surgeries with a team of poker stars. Ramdin told “Inside Deal” viewers, “When it comes to charity, I’m all pumped up. I have more energy for charity than I do for poker.” In addition to a lucrative poker career, Ramdin also owns several retail stores in the Bronx and manages real estate rentals.
ESPN.com Poker Editor Andrew Feldman joined the show to discuss the results of viewer opinions on Mount Cashmore, the Mount Rushmore of poker. Viewers enshrined Doyle Brunson, Hellmuth, Stu Ungar, and Chris Moneymaker on the granite face of Mount Cashmore. Others who came close to being one of the top four nominees included November Nine member Phil Ivey, Chip Reese, Daniel Negreanu, and “Binion.” On the latter nomination, e-mailers did not specify which Binion they meant, Jack or Benny.
Discussion turned to members of a hypothetical Hall of Shame. Ramdin claimed 2008 WSOP HORSE Champion Scotty Nguyen should be the Hall’s first member: “He’s a world-class player, but he should be setting a better example. I really hated what he did.” Highlights aired of Nguyen lambasting Michael DiMichele while allegedly drunk at the televised final table and included a barrage of edited words. Nguyen has since apologized for his actions.
Ramdin called his favorite “hidden gem” of the poker tournament scene the Bahamas, the site of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure each January. On his nickname “Computer Man,” the poker pro explained, “I don’t know where that came from. I am no computer man.” Also revealed was that Ramdin has a weight loss bet and he likes to stay around 200 pounds. While he’d like to see Ivey win the 2009 WSOP Main Event in November, his second choice would be Eric Buchman, who hails from New York.
Catch “Inside Deal” every Tuesday on ESPN.com. You can also sign up to receive daily news in your Inbox and score free autographed merchandise from some of your favorite pros.
Tags: 15, 2008, 2009, 5, Adam, Andrew Feldman, Asia, Caribbean, cent, charity, Daniel Negreanu, darvin moon, Doyle Brunson, Editor, Guyana, king, leader, Los Angeles, Macau, member, New York, Online Poker, online poker player, online poker players, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, player, Poker, poker player, poker show, pokerstars, Pro, Scotty Nguyen, tournament, United States, Victor Ramdin, World Poker Tour, WSOP
Vladimir Geshkenbein wins Macau High Roller crown
Ireland’s Dermot Blain Wins APPT Macau
After battling through four days of action at the Grand Lisboa Hotel and Casino, Ireland’s Dermot Blain emerged as the champion of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau event on Saturday night.
The first stop of the third season of the APPT, Macau was truly a celebration of poker throughout the hotel and the casino. Many of the professionals who make up Team PokerStars, including former World Champions Joe Hachem and Chris Moneymaker along with Raymond Rahme and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, were a part of the 429 player field who put up the $5,160 buy-in to build a prize pool of over $2 million. Also making an appearance at the APPT Macau was the last man to win the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event in back-to-back years, Johnny “The Orient Express” Chan. All of the former Main Event champions were unable to cash in the tournament, but top pro David Chiu lasted until the next to last day of action, finishing in 16th place for slightly over $16,000.
Three days of play led to the final table and, once the United States’ Dane Lomas was eliminated in 10th place on Friday evening, the final table was set. It was an international cast that made up the nine player table, with China’s Daoxing Chen the chip leader at roughly 1.7 million in chips. Other countries such as the United States, Canada, Sweden, Kazakhstan, and South Korea were represented at the final table. In addition to the multinational makeup of the final table, there were several combatants who came to the felt having played for less than two years, a comment on the explosion of the game in Asia.
The two Swedes at the final table, Stefan Hjorthall and Pontus Kers, provided the first fireworks of the evening. After Hjorthall moved all-in for his tournament life, Kers moved all-in over the top from his position on the button. When neither blind decided to take Kers up on his bet, the two PokerStars qualifiers turned up their hands: Hjorthall’s pocket nines held the lead against Kers’ A-Q. That lead was short-lived, however, as an ace hit the flop and, once no nine came to the rescue on the turn or river, Hjorthall took the ninth place position.
Blain began to make his move in the tournament when he eliminated Arizona’s Brandon Demes in eighth place for a $41,619 payday. Blain then continued the onslaught when his Big Slick outdrew Dbinder Singh’s pocket queens, eliminating the Canadian in seventh place. Blain took the lead at the final table for good when he captured a big pot off of Darkhan Botabayev after approximately four hours of play.
After Kers was eliminated in fifth place, the tournament came to a grinding halt. It reached a point that tournament director Danny McDonagh threatened to clock players without a request from the table to speed up play. Mindful of the warning, the four players then commenced to finish the tournament within the next hour and a half.
Chen took care of Botabayev before departing himself in third place at the hands of Blain. With the Chen elimination, it was simply a matter of time before Blain, with nearly an 8:1 lead over South Korea’s Michael Kim, captured the championship. After four hands of heads-up action, Kim moved all-in with a 10-9 and was dismayed to see Blain call and table K-10. A ten came on the flop, but no nine was to be found and Blain was crowned the champion of the APPT Macau. The final table payouts were as such:
1. Dermot Blain (Ireland) - $541,072
2. Michael Kim (South Korea) - $384,982
3. Daoxing Chen (China) - $239,315
4. Darkhan Botabayev (Kazakhstan) - $166,489
5. Pontus Kers (Sweden) - $114,459
6. Jichen Su (China) - $74,917
7. Dbinder Singh (Canada) - $52,030
8. Brandon Demes (United States) - $41,619
9. Stefan Shortfall (Sweden) - $31,221
What was to be the next stop on the APPT schedule, the APPT Seoul, has been postponed due to casino renovations at the Seven Luck Casino. The next stop will now be APPT Auckland for the Skycity Festival of Poker from October 14th through the 18th.
Dermot Blain wins APPT Macau Main Event
Tags: Macau
Asia Pacific Poker Tour — Dermot Blain Wins Macau
Asia Pacific Poker Tour winner Dermot Blain
APPT Macau smashes records
Blain, 25, who recently left his job as a sales manager to play poker full time, took home approximately $538,700 for the win Sunday, marking the largest prize ever paid out in a poker tournament on Asian soil.
A total of 429 players from 46 countries created a more than $2 million prize pool for the main event, beating the previous record of $1.6 million set at last year's APPT Macau main event.
The APPT Macau High Roller event also finished Sunday with Switzerland's Vladimir Geshkenbein taking the $266,735 first-place prize.
Geshkenbein actually beat the legendary Johnny Chan heads-up, who managed to best his seventh-place finish in the very same event last year, coming second for $154,426.
The entire PokerStars.net APPT Macau Summer Festival of Poker actually featured 38 events with nearly 3,000 players and a total prize pool of $3,596,341.
"It's a wonderful experience to see the always-hospitable people of Macau and watch the sport of poker continue to grow," Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem said.
"It's truly amazing how passionate the local players at PokerStars Macau are about poker and it's abundantly obvious by not only the number of participants from Macau, Hong Kong and China, but also the great results they are having in all the events.
"I'm looking forward to coming back to the Grand Lisboa next year."
The next stop on the APPT will be in Auckland, New Zealand from October 14-18.
Visit PokerListings.com
Tags: 15, 2009, 5, Asia, cent, China, Ireland, Joe Hachem, Johnny Chan, king, leader, Macau, manager, oil, player, Poker, pokerstars, Pro, Switzerland, tournament, vladimir geshkenbein, WSOP