Posts Tagged ‘no-limit’
Isildur1 Ships $1.5 Million
With Hastings having won $4.2 million in a single session against Isildur1, and South having the best year of his life so far, the odds seemed slim for Isildur1 to have much of a chance if he returned to the biggest games on Full Tilt.
To the surprise of many, he did come back just a couple months after his crushing defeat, and has begun to steamroll his way back to the top.
For Isildur1, yesterday's session began with a 1,114 hand $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha match against South, ending with Isildur1 up $240,779.
Hoping to expedite his comeback, South chose to step up the heads-up match to $300/$600 PLO, but only managed to lose another $401,733 over 566 hands.
With South's hole growing deeper by the second, Hastings logged on to try and get one back for the CardRunners team. After 811 hands of $300/$600 PLO, Hastings himself booked a $250k loss before moving the game to the nosebleed stakes: $500/$1,000.
After 1,356 hands of furious action, Hastings threw in the towel down another $581,954.
Up next for Isildur1 came another re-match against Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo at $200/$400 No-Limit Hold'em. Across the two-and-a-half-hour 2,386-hand Hold'em match, Isildur1 took another $101k before Bonomo took his leave.
After losing $31k to NEKOTYAN over just six hands of $200/$400 PLO, Isildur1 went on to make another $154k at the $200/$400 Cap-PLO tables.
His day would end on the downswing, starting with a $30k loss to skjervoy at $100/$200 PLO before he sat across from South once more, this time losing back $354,008 over 133 hands of $500/$1,000.
In total, Isildur1 booked a more than $1.5 million profit, add that to the $572,746 he made Monday and everyone's favorite mystery Swede is quickly working his way to the top of the 2010 profit leaderboard.
In fact, he is currently sitting in second place behind Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn on around $2.8 million.
South, thanks to his $354k win at the end of the night, managed to keep his losses to only $309,215, while Hastings took a hit of over $832k.
Below are three of the largest pots from yesterdays matches, to see more head to MarketPulse.
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Isildur1 and Dwan Crush the Weekend
The first big session for Dwan came Saturday evening when he sat for 413 hands of heads-up $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha against Isildur1.
Dwan left the session up $81k, logging off for the night.
Eight hours later, before dawn on Sunday, Dwan sat for 360 hands of $300/$600 PLO against Patrik Antonius and PixKim.
By the end of that four-and-a-half-hour session, Dwan had massed over $624k in profit, the majority coming from the quickly floundering Antonius.
After the $81k loss to Dwan, Isildur1 went on a series of swings.
First he made back $79k of his losses, then dumped another $177,990 at $200/$400 Cap PLO.
He was soon back on the up-swing, however, making $64k from Cole South heads-up before meeting up with Dwan again, this time at a six-max $300/$600 PLO game.
The six-max game saw hours of furious action between Isildur1, Dwan, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, Hac "trex313" Dang, Patrik Antonius and others.
And despite playing against some of the most prolific players in the world, Isidlur1 left after 1,689 hands with a profit of $517,223.
Dwan took a $229k loss at the same game, Sahamies nearly broke even losing just $10k, Dang made away with $119k and Patrik Antonius took a massive hit, losing over $874,000.
After breaking the six-max game, Isildur1 moved on to play a couple of cap games, losing $18k at $200/$400 Cap PLO and making around $90k from LarsLuzak at $500/$1,000 Cap No-Limit Hold'em.
The unknown Swede went on to make another $83k from Triko at $200/$400 PLO, and after just ten hands of heads-up $200/$400 PLO against Sahamies, called it quits.
By the end of the weekend Isildur1 had made $526,083, bringing his total profit for the year up to around $915,000.
Meanwhile, Dwan put in two more heads-up sessions and a couple small Cap PLO sessions before logging off.
His first heads-up match resulted in a $76k to LarsLuzak after 222 hands of $500/$1,000 Cap NLHE.
But Dwan turned it around in his final heads-up match of the weekend, taking another $306k from Antonius, this time over 344 hands of $300/$600 PLO.
All toll, Dwan finished the weekend with a massive profit of $856,489, bringing him up to around $1.7 million profit for the year so far.
Antonius came out of the weekend as the biggest loser by far, finishing stuck over $960k bringing his losses in 2010 up to $2.8 million in so far.
Below are three of the largest hands from the weekend, to see more head to MarketPulse.
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A $911k Morning for Dwan
After losing $245k at $25/$50 Pot-Limit Omaha, Dwan sat for his first Full Tilt high-stakes session of the day across from LarsLuzak, Gus Hansen, skjervoy, Sir Watts and eventually Brian Hastings.
This $200/$400 PLO session lasted for 619 hands with Dwan finishing up over $317k.
At the same time, he took on skjervoy and TheGorn at $100/$200 PLO, where he earned another $44,687.
Dwan's next stop was an hour of $200/$400 Cap PLO, adding $62k to his profit before returning to PLO 6-max to play $300/$600 against many of the same players from the earlier $200/$400 table.
Once again, Dwan came out on top, this time up $280,847.
High-stakes player andrewkirk was brave enough to sit at Dwan's reserved heads-up $500/$1,000 PLO table, but only managed to last just 33 hands before losing his entire $50k buy-in.
On a roll, and seemingly unable to lose, Dwan moved his streak of run-good to $500/$1,000 Cap No-Limit Hold'em. After 364 hands, he had added another $35,750 to his morning.
Dwan's second last session of the morning came playing just 63 hands of $300/$600 PLO versus PixKim and Gus Hansen. Up another $137k, Dwan was rapidly approaching $1 million in total profit for the day.
In his final attempt to reach that magic mark, Dwan sat for a 245-hand re-match at $200/$400 PLO with unknown Swede Isildur1. Unfortunately for Dwan, Isildur1 would get the better of him again, ending his win streak with a $16k loss.
In total, Dwan finished the morning up $911,434, bringing his profit for the year up to $1.8 million so far.
Below are three of Dwan's largest pots from this morning, to see more hands head to MarketPulse.
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Isildur1 Loses $190k in Marathon Session
After getting beat down by Brian Hastings and the Full Tilt crew, he seems to have a new approach to poker in 2010.
Isildur1, who is rumored to be Swede Victor Blom, has been grinding his way back into the big games by playing marathon heads-up battles across multiple tables.
Yesterday Isildur1 played 9,963 hands, which is 6,084 more than Phil Ivey has played over the entire year.
Isildur1's day started with a 2,690 hand heads-up session of $100/$200 No-Limit Hold'em against URnotINdanger2. By the end of this 2.5 hour battle Isildur1 was stuck for $95k.
Up next came 596 hands of $200/$400 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha versus David Benefield and Daniel "FakeSky" Alaei, where Isildur1 made $165k, before moving to a heads-up table to continue the game with just Benefield.
Benefield and Isildur1 played 971 hands of Cap PLO with Isildur1 up $167,861. The two rivals then moved their game to a regular $200/$400 PLO table where they stayed for another 3,106 hands.
By the end of the massive session Benefield had ground back $94,240.
Despite having played over 7,000 hands so far, Isildur1 wasn't anywhere near finished. Unknown online player skjervoy beat Isildur1 for $77k over 982 hands of $100/$200 PLO.
In a final surge of activity Isildur1 won $19,000 over 644 hands of Cap PLO and lost $275k against Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn in 973 hands of $200/$400 PLO.
At this point Isildur1 finally called it, ending the day down $190,369.
Below you'll find three of Isildur1's biggest hands of the day, or head to MarketPulse for more.
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Isildur1 Takes on David Benefield
Including the session with Benefield, Isildur1 booked 4,700 hands yesterday on limits ranging from $25/$50 to $100/$200.
Although almost all of his hands came from Pot-Limit Omaha, 99 of them went down at a couple of tables of $50/$100 Cap No-Limit Hold'em.
Isildur1's match with Benefield began at $50/$100 PLO where he earned $21,795 over 1,323 hands, the largest pot of the match coming in at just $31k.
After almost two hours, Isildur1 and Benefield agreed to double the stakes, moving their action up to $100/$200 PLO. It was here where Benefield finally got the upper hand, making over $50k in the two and a half hour, 1,767-hand, session.
The largest pot of day on Full Tilt came during this second session after Benefield spiked a flush on the river to beat Isildur1's turned nut straight. The two players had their money all-in on the turn with Benefield pulling in the $101,392 pot.
By the end of the day, Isildur1 finished with a total profit of $76,577, bringing him up to almost $200k profit on the year so far.
Benefield, who only played 11 hands of $200/$400 Cap PLO before starting his first session with Isildur1, finished the day up just over $32k.
Below are the three largest pots from the match, head to MarketPulse for more.
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Tags: no-limit
PokerStars SCOOP Schedule Revamped
The series runs May 2-16, with events across a range of poker games and buy-ins as all 38 will feature three buy-in levels.
"What I find most exciting about SCOOP is that players at all stake levels get an opportunity to play in a championship-level event," said PokerStars Tournaments Team Leader Bryan Slick.
SCOOP will guarantee $45 million in prize money, edging out last year's total prize pool of $39,372,270 with the main event guaranteeing prize pools of at $1 Million, $3 Million and $5 Million in the low, medium and high buy-in levels respectively.
The first event of the series is a No-Limit Hold'em Six-Max event, with buy-ins of $22, $215 and $2,100.
The series will offer several other events with buy-ins ranging from $109 to $10,300, plus a two-day Heads-Up Match Play tournament with a buy-in of $25,500.
The SCOOP schedule includes most of the games PokerStars offers, including Badugi, Omaha, Draw, Stud and Hold'em.
Highlights include Shootouts, 2X Chance Turbos, 8-game and HORSE.
For more on the 2010 SCOOP schedule click through to PokerStars.
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Antonius Tops Weekend High-Stakes Action
The Finn's win came from 239 hands of $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha with Brian Hastings.
After a little over two hours of play, Antonius left the tables with his profit, not to return besides six un-eventful hands Sunday night.
Friday had begun according to plan for Hastings after he made $114,898 playing 125 hands of $200/$400 Cap-PLO. He parlayed his profit into a heads-up match against Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, making another $211k from a mix of $200/$400 and $300/$600 PLO.
But Hastings' session with Antonius would be enough to negate his profits, finishing Friday down $52,231. He logged off and did not to return to Full Tilt for the rest of the weekend.
Sahamies rough start to the weekend included losing $29,717 playing Cap-PLO before getting beat for another $211k by Hastings.
He managed to earn back the majority of his losses on Saturday earning $139k playing the $200/$400 Cap game, but lost back $39,408 at the same tables early this morning. In total, Sahamies finished the weekend down $140,493.
A third Finn who had been away from the high-stakes action for quite some time made his return this weekend.
Sami "LarsLuzak" Kelopuro put in one of the largest weekend sessions, playing an impressive 5,767 hands.
3,762 of those hands came playing jungleman12 heads-up at $100/$200 No-Limit Hold'em. In total, Kelopuro took $104,245 from the unknown pro.
Unfortunately, he was unable to hold on to his heads-up profits after losing over $150k playing the $200/$400 Cap-PLO game. He finished the weekend down just over $46k.
Gus Hansen played 201 hands of $300/$600 PLO heads-up against the unknown luckexpress10, losing $93,293 in the process. Luckily for Hansen, he continued his run-good on the Cap-PLO tables earning $159k for a weekend profit of $66,574.
Finally, Tom "durrrr" Dwan only played 31 hands on Saturday, losing just $10k at the cap games. Dwan did, however, return to the $200/$400 Cap-PLO tables early this morning earning $95,377 in a 360-hand session to post a weekend profit of just under $85k.
Below are three of the largest pots from the weekend, to see more hand replays head to our MarketPulse page.
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Isildur1 takes $120k from Tom “durrrr” Dwan
Isildur1 and Dwan have one of the most epic rivalries in online poker history. After coming out of nowhere, the unknown Swede took Full Tilt by storm late last year, his sights fixed squarely on Dwan.
In just three days of heads-up action, Isildur1 took Dwan for over $5.2 million.
Dwan could only sit and watch as Isildur1 went on to lose all of his money to the other players in the nosebleed games, most notably Brian Hastings, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius.
It's safe to assume Dwan has been eagerly waiting for his chance to get even with the Swede, but with Isildur1 keeping to slightly lower stakes, and rarely sitting behind a massive stack, he has been unable to do it so far.
Dwan's night started with a 2,011 hand match of $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha against Cole South. Unperturbed by South's exceptional results over the last two months, Dwan managed to end up $299k.
After losing $31k playing a $200/$400 Cap PLO game, Dwan next sat with Gus Hansen, Di "Urindanger" Dang and skjervoy at $200/$400 PLO, where he proceeded to lose $70k, the majority to Hansen.
After the other players at the table had their fill, Isildur1 took his seat, making $59,684 in just 24 hands before agreeing to move to heads-up $100/$200 No-Limit Hold'em.
After 980 hands of Hold'em, Isildur1 had doubled his profit adding another $59,054. Isildur1 went on to play $100/$200 and $200/$400 PLO heads up with Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, losing $18k before throwing in the towel.
In total, Isildur1 finished the day up $48,655, while Dwan managed to keep his losses to only $5,343.
Meanwhile, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and Brian Hastings squared off at $300/$600 PLO. Thanks to winning a $291k pot, Hastings took the Finnish pro for over $256k.
After Ziigmund left, he was replaced by another Finn, Patrik Antonius.
Hastings went on to make another $56k from Antonius before calling it a day, up $312,119.
Below are three of the largest pots from last night and this morning. To see more hands, head to MarketPulse.
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PokerStars 2010 SCOOP Schedule Announced
PokerStars announced the eagerly anticipated schedule for the 2010 Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) on Monday, revealing a tournament slate with $36 million in guaranteed prize money. SCOOP is unique in that each event features three tournaments with three different buy-ins, so that players of all bankrolls can participate. The 33 events in this year's SCOOP will run from May 3rd to May 16th, culminating with the two day No Limit Hold'em Main Event trio with guaranteed prize pools of $1 million, $3 million, and $5 million.
Event 1: No-Limit Hold'em with Re-buys Six-Max
May 3, 2010
Low: $5.50 buy-in, $250,000 guaranteed
Med: $55 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed
High: $530 buy-in, $1,000,000 guaranteed
Event 2: Fixed-Limit Badugi
May 3, 2010
Low: $16.50 buy-in, $25,000 guaranteed
Med: $162 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed
High: $1,575 buy-in, $75,000 guaranteed
Event 3: Pot-Limit Five-Card Draw
May 4, 2010
Low: $11 buy-in, $25,000 guaranteed
Med: $109 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed
High: $1,050 buy-in, $75,000 guaranteed
Event 4: No-Limit Hold'em Heads-Up Match Play
May 4, 2010
Low: $16.50 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
Med: $162 buy-in, $250,000 guaranteed
High: $1,575 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed
Event 5: No-Limit Hold'em
May 4, 2010
Low: $11 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
Med: $109 buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed
High: $1,050 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed
Event 6: Mixed Hold'em Six-Max
May 5, 2010
Low: $22 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
Med: $215 buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed
High: $2,100 buy-in, $400,000 guaranteed
Event 7: Seven Card Stud
May 5, 2010
Low: $33 buy-in, $25,000 guaranteed
Med: $320 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed
High: $3,150 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
Event 8: Pot-Limit Omaha Heads-Up Match Play
May 6, 2010
Low: $22 buy-in, $25,000 guaranteed
Med: $215 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
High: $2,100 buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed
Event 9: No-Limit Hold'em
May 6, 2010
Low: TBD buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
Med: TBD buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed
High: TBD buy-in, $300,000 guaranteed
Event 10: No-Limit Hold'em Ante-Up
May 7, 2010
Low: $16.50 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed
Med: $162 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
High: $1,575 buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed
Event 11: Fixed-Limit Omaha High-Low
May 7, 2010
Low: $55 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed
Med: $530 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed
High: $5,200 buy-in, $250,000 guaranteed
Event 12: No-Limit Hold'em 2x Chance Turbo
May 7, 2010
Low: $16.50 buy-in, $250,000 guaranteed
Med: $162 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed
High: $1,575 buy-in, $750,000 guaranteed
Event 13: No-Limit Hold'em Shootout
May 8, 2010
Low: $22 buy-in, $15,000 guaranteed (Quadruple Shootout)
Med: $215 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed (Triple Shootout)
High: $2,100 buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed (Double Shootout)
Event 14: Pot-Limit Omaha with Re-buys Six-Max
May 8, 2010
Low: $16.50 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
Med: $162 buy-in, $250,000 guaranteed
High: $1,575 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed
Event 15: No-Limit Hold'em Big Antes
May 9, 2010
Low: $22 buy-in, $250,000 guaranteed
Med: $215 buy-in, $750,000 guaranteed
High: $2,100 buy-in, $750,000 guaranteed
Event 16: No-Limit Hold'em Two Day Event
May 9, 2010
Low: $22 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed
Med: $215 buy-in, $1,500,000 guaranteed
High: $2,100 buy-in, $2,000,000 guaranteed
Event: 17: Pot-Limit Hold'em, Pot-Limit Omaha
May 10, 2010
Low: $16.50 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
Med: $162 buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed
High: $1,575 buy-in, $300,000 guaranteed
Event 18: No-Limit Hold'em Four-Max
May 10, 2010
Low: $33 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed
Med: $320 buy-in, $300,000 guaranteed
High: $3,150 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed
Event 19: Deuce-Seven Triple Draw
May 11, 2010
Low: $11 buy-in, $25,000 guaranteed
Med: $109 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed
High: $1,050 buy-in, $75,000 guaranteed
Event 20: Seven Card Stud High-Low
May 11, 2010
Low: $22 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed
Med: $215 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
High: $2,100 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed
Event 21: No-Limit Hold'em
May 11, 2010
Low: $11 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
Med: $109 buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed
High: $1,050 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed
Event 22: Razz
May 12, 2010
Low: $22 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed
Med: $215 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
High: $2,100 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed
Event 23: No-Limit Hold'em with Two Re-buys & One Add-on
May 12, 2010
Low: $22 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
Med: $215 buy-in, $300,000 guaranteed
High: $2,100 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed
Event 24: Eight-Game
May 13, 2010
Low: $33 buy-in, $75,000 guaranteed
Med: $320 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed
High: $3,150 buy-in, $250,000 guaranteed
Event 25: Pot-Limit Omaha High-Low
May 13, 2010
Low: $11 buy-in, $75,000 guaranteed
Med: $109 buy-in, $150,000 guaranteed
High: $1,050 buy-in, $300,000 guaranteed
Event 26: No-Limit Hold'em with One Re-buy & One Add-on
May 14, 2010
Low: $22 buy-in, $250,000 guaranteed
Med: $215 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed
High: $2,100 buy-in, $1,000,000 guaranteed
Event 27: Fixed-Limit Hold'em Six-Max
May 14, 2010
Low: $55 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
Med: $530 buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed
High: $5,200 buy-in, $300,000 guaranteed
Event 28: No-Limit Omaha High-Low Turbo
May 14, 2010
Low: $22 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed
Med: $215 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
High: $2,100 buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed
Event 29: Pot-Limit Omaha
May 15, 2010
Low: $55 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
Med: $530 buy-in, $250,000 guaranteed
High: $5,200 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed
Event 30: HORSE
May 15, 2010
Low: $22 buy-in, $50,000 guaranteed
Med: $215 buy-in, $100,000 guaranteed
High: $2,100 buy-in, $200,000 guaranteed
Event 31: No-Limit Hold'em Six-Max
May 16, 2010
Low: $22 buy-in, $20,000 guaranteed
Med: $215 buy-in, $750,000 guaranteed
High: $2,100 buy-in, $750,000 guaranteed
Event 32: No-Limit Hold'em Heads-Up Match Play Two Day Event
May 16, 2010
Low: $270 buy-in, $250,000 guaranteed
Med: $2,600 buy-in, $500,000 guaranteed
High: $25,500 buy-in, $750,000 guaranteed
Event 33: No-Limit Hold'em Main Event Two Day Event
May 16, 2010
Low: $109 buy-in, $1.000,000 guaranteed
Med: $1,050 buy-in, $3,000,000 guaranteed
High: $10,300 buy-in, $5,000,000 guaranteed
NAPT $25k High-Roller Shootout Set
The 49-player field will be pitted against each other in a seven-table shootout format with the winners going on to the final table Thursday. There will also be a $5,000 bounty on every player's head throughout the first round heats and the final.
Interestingly, there are just three female players registered for the event, Annie Duke, Vanessa Rousso and Jennifer Tilly, and they drew seats next to each other on the same table.
2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champ Chris Moneymaker will get the chance to take on 2009 WSOP Main Event champ Joe Cada in a heat that also includes PokerListings Blogger and Team PokerStars Pro Jason Mercier.
Plus, Daniel Negreanu, who drew the names out of the hat Monday, will have his work cut out for him at a table with some of the brightest young minds in the online game, including Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond, Andrew "Good2CU" Robl, and Alex "AJKHoosier1" Kamberis.
The self-proclaimed best No-Limit Hold'em player in the world, Phil Hellmuth, will have to prove it against a table featuring fellow WSOP Main Event champ Greg Raymer and EPT Founder John Duthie, while young guns like Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and Sorel Mizzi will take on old-school Big Game pros Barry Greenstein and Chau Giuang.
The first round of play will be filmed in two sessions Tuesday inside the Venetian's Belleni Ballroom. The event is being filmed for broadcast on ESPN2.
For the full table lists check the chart below.
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Young Vet Poised for Poker Glory
"I think it's just because I've played so much online previously and got so many more hands in and more experience than guys strictly from the live scene," he told PokerListings on Day 3 of the PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour Venetian main event, where he is among the leaders and appears poised for a deep run.
"By the time I made it to the live scene I was already significantly more comfortable than you would expect. It's kind of odd how it works."
Lichtenberger picked up the online game five years ago as a teenager and has been taking it seriously for the past three.
Around the same time he had moved his way up from grinding online micro-stakes as a teenager to $3/$6 No-Limit Hold'em, he became a little bored with cash games and started playing tournaments.
It wasn't long before he turned 21 and burst onto the live scene with a 13th-place finish at the $25k WPT Championship.
Then, in his first shot at the World Series of Poker this past summer, he made second in the $5K Shootout before finishing an outstanding 18th in the Main Event, getting his fare share of face time on ESPN.
Thanks to that more than $700k bankroll boost, he's now travelling the tournament circuit and can be found playing online under the handle LuckyChewy at $25/$50 and higher.
And, as 2010 turns two months old, Lichtenberger is beginning to see how the experience of finishing deep in two of 2009's biggest live tournaments is proving itself more valuable every day.
"The WPT was my first time going deep and, it's not that I was nervous, it's just that it feels so different than anything else," he said. "You are not really used to it. At this point now, with the Main Event and all the cameras there, nothing really compares, so anything else is just any other day playing poker for me."
Being so comfortable in high pressure situations allows Lichtenberger to focus on the kind of things he believes sets his game apart from other players.
"I just analyze situations very deeply," he said. "I pick up factors that most people miss. I'm aware of certain things based on all the hands I've played.
Patterns start occurring and you kind of can tell when a certain guy is going to get fed up and start playing back at you, stuff like that."
An instructor with LeggoPoker and a regular poster on poker forums across the net, Lichtenberger is no stranger to the poker community.
But the exposure from ESPN's coverage of the Main Event coverage has also made him recognizable elsewhere thesed days.
"I got recognized at a festival in Adelaide, just randomly by some guy," he said. "It happens all the time now, especially in poker rooms."
But despite the sudden celebrity, all the experience of running deep in big events and the cash that comes with it, Lichtenberger is missing one thing.
"I've actually never won a live tournament," he said. "So yeah, I really want to win a live tournament. It would be so cool. And why not the first NAPT? That's not a bad idea."
Live coverage of the PokerStars.net NAPT Venetian continues through Feb. 24 on PokerListings' Live Updates page.
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Ziigmund Bests CardRunners for $1 Million
Sahamies and Hastings squared off at noon on Saturday, playing 453 hands of $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha.
As is typically the case with Sahamies, the session was flush with action, seeing multiple pots worth over $200k.
The largest pot of the match, at $426,198, went to Sahamies after he turned two pair to beat Hastings' aces.
The session came to a close with Sahamies up $565k.
Up next for the Finn was 506 hands of $200/$400 Cap-PLO where he took down another $129,768. It wasn't until he sat with the unknown Italian player luckexpress10 did Sahamies have his first loss on the weekend.
After just 64 hands of $200/$400 No-Limit Hold'em he dumped exactly $192k to luckexpress10, then continued his run-bad losing another $120,000 in just 13 hands of $300/$600 PLO.
After a small $24k win at the Cap-PLO tables, Sahamies sat with another CardRunners pro heads-up, this time taking on the white-hot Cole South.
Sahamies played 606 hands of heads-up $300/$600 PLO against South, making over $773k in the process.
In addition to losing $773k to Sahamies, South dropped an additional $126k heads-up with Tom "durrrr" Dwan. Thanks to a couple of $100k winning sessions earlier in the weekend South kept his total losses down to $646,255.
Despite starting the year as a Full Tilt pro, Dwan has yet to find his stride for 2010, putting himself down another $110,230 this past weekend.
Meanwhile, after South left his seats across from Sahamies, Phil Ivey sat down to play just 42 hands (his only weekend session), earning $87k.
In the end, however, Sahamies still finished the weekend up $1,091,202.
Below are three of the weekend's largest pots. To see more hands replayed head to MarketPulse.
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PokerStars.net NAPT Venetian Day 1: Seth Heads Massive Field
FTOPS Two-Day Event: Looking Back
Isildur1 Gets Stuck for $959k
The unknown Swede started his day at $200/$400 No-Limit Hold'em across from Dwan, his original online rival. But despite their history of playing massive extended sessions, the match ended after just 166 hands with Dwan up just over $33,000.
Up next came Bonomo, whose previous encounter with Isildur1 on Monday cost him $567k. After an hour of six-tabling heads-up $100/$200 NLHE, Bonomo had ground back almost half of Monday's losses, up $233,521 in 881 hands.
As he's been known to do after getting stuck heads-up, Isildur1 convinced Bonomo to up the stakes, moving the game to $200/$400.
Another 20 minutes and 296 hands at the new limits saw Bonomo earn another $35k, taking a total of $268k of his money back from the phantom Swede.
Bonomo returned to the $200/$400 NLHE tables later that night to play Dwan heads-up, taking an additional $360k from the struggling pro to end his night up $650,264.
But with the night still young, Isildur1 quickly found one more heads-up opponent, sitting with Brian Townsend at $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha.
After the hand history scandal, which lead to Townsend's 30-day suspension as a red pro and a $4.2 million dollar win for Brian Hastings, it was up in the air whether or not Isildur1 would be willing to play the CardRunners crew when he returned to the high-stakes games.
To the surprise of many, Isildur1 went after Hastings almost immediately, destroying his rival for $504k Tuesday.
Then last night, fellow CardRunners instructor Townsend sat with Isildur1 for four hands of $200/$400 PLO before jumping up to $300/$600 PLO.
Once at their new stakes, the two rivals battled for 934 hands and Isildur1 began to look like the same player we saw near the end of 2009, playing a savagely aggressive game resulting in the match being responsible 9 of the 10 largest pots of the night.
The top pot, worth $415,986, went to Townsend after he hit one of a multitude of draws against Isildur1's flopped middle set.
When the grudge match finally came to a close, Townsend left with over $651k, bringing Isildur1's losses on the day up to an astonishing $959,645.
The loss brought Isildur1's profits down to just $565k on the year.
Below you can watch the three largest pots of the day, or you can head to MarketPulse to get your fill of the high-stakes action.
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Isildur1’s Triumphant Return to High-Stakes
But one thing is certain: Isildur1 is back and he’s shooting the lights out again.
After going on the most prolific high-stakes swing of all time near the end of 2009, including losing the biggest online pot ever played worth over $1.3 million, the unknown Swede has been playing lower stakes games keeping mostly under the radar.
From playing epic sessions of $500/$1,000 just a few months ago to grinding as low as $5/$10 at the beginning of this month, the general assumption was that Isildur1 was just about bust.
Then suddenly, he came back. From Feb. 3-8, Isildur1 played a 16,000 hands on Full Tilt, losing $147,079 in those five days. He took the next five days off, returning to the tables on the 13th to play $50/$100 No-Limit Hold'em.
After 1,011 hands, and dumping another $30k, he stepped up to $100/$200 No-Limit Hold'em and hasn't played anything lower since.
First he made over $327k, mostly at $200/$400 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha from players like URnotINDanger2, Di "Urindanger" Dang and Andrew "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn.
Next he took on Isaac "LuvtheWNBA" Haxton heads-up at $100/$200 NLHE, dropping $90,000.
Then last night, with his profits cut to $237,122, Isildur1 did what he does best, putting everything he had just made into play heads-up.
This time it was $200/$400 NLHE against Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo. After 1,944 hands, on as many as seven concurrent tables, Bonomo left the match down a massive $567k.
In the last three days, Isildur1 has made an impressive $806,685, which could set the stage for a second round of furious nosebleed action and million dollar pots.
Below are three of the largest pots Isildur1 has played in the last week. To see more replays from these sessions and others head to MarketPulse.
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durrrr Challenge: 79 Hands and $22k
Dwan spent Friday night, all of Saturday and a chunk of Sunday grinding both No-Limit Hold'em and Pot-Limit Omaha on Full Tilt.
By the end of the weeked he had logged 4,411 hands, including the 79-hand Challenge session Saturday.
The Challenge session itself lasted just 16 minutes with the largest pot on four tables weighing in at $64k.
There was no public explanation given as to why the session ended so quickly, but when it did, Dwan had extended his lead to $1,414,551 with now 32,874 of 50,000 hands played.
Due to a $164,353 loss to CardRunners pro jungleman12 Saturday evening, Dwan's final weekend profit came in at just over $34k.
Meanwhile, coming off a string of large wins at the end of last week, Antonius took it easy over the weekend, only putting in 102 hands, including the Challenge session, losing $25k in the process.
Outside of the durrrr Challenge, Gus Hansen continued to prove he's no high-stakes fish earning an impressive $578k from 4,615 hands of $100/$200 Cap-PLO. This profit puts Hansen up over $1.88 million on the new year.
Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn, who has been destroying the games on Full Tilt since the beginning of 2010, added $105,418 to his roll this weekend, putting him up $1.87 million on the year, just behind Hansen.
Although Saturday's short 79-hand session didn't change the scape of the durrrr Challenge all that much, you can see the updated figures below.
durrrr Challenge by the numbers:
1,760,000,000: Estimated cost of the 2010 Winter Olympics 269,253,741: Total amount wagered 1,414,551: Amount durrrr is ahead 32,874: Hands played overall 21,790: Amount made by Dwan in the last session 16,063: Total number of Olympic medals awarded from 1896-2008 7,425: Amount of rake made by Full Tilt from the Challenge 2,629: Total number of competing athletes for the 2010 Winter Olympics 104: Hours played in the challenge 66: Percentage of challenge completedBelow are three of the largest pots from the weekend. You can see more hands by heading to MarketPulse.
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Big Names Dominate LAPC Prelims
Well known pros Thor Hansen and Ray Henson both made the final table of the $1,065 Six-Handed Limit Hold'em event.
But it was 2009 PokerStars EPT Grand Final runner-up Matt Woodward who took down the title and $30,000 first place prize.
Woodward is beginning to emerge as a Limit specialist following a final table appearance at the 2009 World Series of Poker's mixed event and a 16th place finish in the $10k Limit Hold'em World Championship the summer before.
The very next tournament on the LAPC schedule, a $545 Limit Hold'em event, was won by "Miami" John Cernuto.
Cernuto, who is actually from Las Vegas, booked the $11,590 win after beating a final table that included 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider.
But the weekend's biggest prize at the LAPC went to none other than Carlos Mortensen.
The WSOP Main Event and WPT Championship winner added the LAPC's $1,065 No-Limit Hold'em with Rebuys title to his resume, banking a massive $273,500 first-place prize in the process.
Taking the title was no easy feat for Mortensen, as pros Ralph Perry and Joe Serock both made the final table of the 317 person event that saw 381 rebuys and 244 add-ons.
Finally, 2008 November Niner and WPT Five Diamond champion David "Chino" Rheem found himself back in the winner's circle this weekend, taking down the LAPC's $1,065 Deuce to Seven Triple Draw event.
Rheem took home $23,910 after beating a final table that included Las Vegas pro Mark Gregorich.
The LAPC continues through the end of February at Commerce Casino in Los Angeles with the $10k Commerce H.O.R.S.E. Championship, $10k Commerce Heads-Up Championship, $25,100 Commerce High Roller, the World Poker Tour's Celebrity Poker Classic and the $10k WPT LAPC main event still to come.
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Poker News in Brief: Feb. 8-14, 2010
However, there were several stories that almost fell through the cracks here at PokerListings.com and as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature, we’ve compiled a list of them below.
This week we’ll look at a former world champion returning to Full Tilt, the PokerStars Macau Poker Cup and more.
Mortensen Returns to Full Tilt
The enigmatic Carlos Mortensen has apparently returned to Full Tilt Poker as a red pro.
Mortensen, who is the only player in history win both the WSOP Main Event and the WPT World Championship, disappeared from the Full Tilt roster after the 2008 WSOP.
Although Full Tilt has yet to officially confirm that Mortensen has returned, he is once again listed as a red pro on the company’s website.
Despite his impressive tournament results, which include more than $8.8 million in lifetime earnings, Mortensen has stayed out of the limelight and limits the number of live tournaments he plays every year.
Record Prizepool at PokerStars.net ANZPT Adelaide
PokerStars kicked off the second season of the Australia New Zealand Poker Tour with a tournament in Adelaide this week that drew a record number of players.
A total of 236 players bought into the event to create a prize pool of AUD$644,280, which beat last year’s tournament by AUD$57,330.
The final table of ANZPT Adelaide is scheduled to take place later today. The next event on the ANZPT schedule will take place in Perth on March 17-21.
World Poker Tour to Reach Landmark Episode
The World Poker Tour's eighth season will climax with the 178th episode of the show, putting it ahead of long-running U.S. TV stalwarts like L.A. Law (171 episodes), The Flintstones (166 episodes) and Magnum P.I. (162 episodes).
“WPT’s production team is no stranger to making history - their show propelled the game into the thriving global industry it is today,” said George Greenberg, executive vice president of programming and production Fox Sports.
“The WPT production team broke new ground in translating the game of poker to audiences worldwide through innovative formats and high-quality production.”
After the conclusion of the eighth season the WPT will be right behind classics like Seinfeld, which ran for 179 episodes and I Love Lucy, which went 179.
Songwriter Offers Half WSOP Winnings
Jason Mershon, a professional poker pro and songwriter, has come up with an unusual plan to promote his new song “Playin’ Poker for a Livin’.”
If Mershon makes the final table of the 2010 WSOP Main Event, he has agreed to give 50% of his winnings to the first 15,000 fans that purchase the song from his website.
“It’s just my way of saying ‘thank you’ to those fans who really like my new song,” said Mershon.
Mershon plans on updating his progress at the 2010 WSOP via Twitter so fans can sweat their horse.
Macau Poker Cup Coming in March
PokerStars released the schedule for an upcoming Macau Poker Cup this week.
The tournament series will run March 3-7 with six events including the $1 million Hong Kong dollar guaranteed Red Dragon event.
The series will also include a HKD$3,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event, a Knockout Bounty event, a charity event and a Rebuy tournament.
All the events take place in the PokerStars Macau poker room in the Lisboa Hotel and Casino.
PokerStars-sponsored player Kitty Kuo outlasted 246 players to win HKD$557,230 in the last Macau Poker Cup event, which took place in October.
All results in Macau Poker Cup events count towards the Asia Player of the Year and this year PokerStars will award a one-year sponsorship deal to the APOY winner.
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Urindanger Fleeced for $495k in Epic Session
Dang's session started at two tables with David Benefield and Gus Hansen, but he found himself playing a wide variety of players as the night progressed.
A few of the more notable players to make an appearance included Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin, Alexander "PostflopAction" Kostritsyn and Daniel "FakeSky" Alaei.
Hansen stuck around until early this morning then took a seven hour rest before returning to the same tables. At the time of publication, the Great Dane had played 1,200 hands and was down over $155k.
Benefield came into the session with Dang already stuck $38k, but managed to get back in the black after making $20k, and another $38,000 from the $100/$200 Cap PLO games.
On top of the Cap PLO action, Benefield also took on Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo heads-up at $200/$400 No-Limit Hold'em. After 1,796 hands, Benefield lost $20k to Bonomo, finishing his night down just $678.
Dwan was quick to join the Cap PLO session with Dang, sticking around for exactly 3,600 hands before leaving game up over $367,000.
In addition to taking Dang's money, Dwan made $47k from 42 hands of $500/$1,000 Cap No-Limit Hold'em with pokerhontas2k6, and lost $134k to DrPill over 598 hands of $100/$200 No-Limit Hold'em. Dwan finished his night up $280,000.
Griffin started his day by making $74k from DrPill at $100/$200 NLHE then moved on the $200/$400 Cap PLO games where he made $71k, ending his night up $145k.
However, Kostritsyn couldn't pull together a win yesterday, losing at just about every table of every limit he sat at. After 4,442 hands, almost 4,000 of which were at the $200/$400 Cap PLO game, Kostritsyn lost over $276k.
Finally, Alaei sat in the $200/$400 Cap PLO game for 1,626 hands, earning over $133k for his efforts.
Below are three pots from the Cap PLO session, to see more hands or the largest hands from some of the various heads up matches head to MarketPulse.
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Ziigmund and durrrr put on a Clinic
Dwan, who has finally started to play in the black after struggling for most of January, is beginning to look like his old self, playing straight from midday Tuesday until nearly 8 a.m. this morning.
Over this marathon session Dwan booked 4,881 hands playing a mix of Pot-Limit Omaha, No-Limit Hold'em and 7-Game. After sitting at $300/$600 PLO and losing $180k in 95 hands, Dwan dropped down to the lower limits playing as low as $25/$50.
When he finally logged off, Dwan had booked a $241k win.
Sahamies had an easier start to his day making over $146k from 452 hands of heads-up $200/$400 PLO against Cole South. Once South admitted defeat, Sahamies moved on to $100/$200 Cap-PLO where he made another $114k.
Add on $98k from 7-Game and a small $25k loss from early this morning and Sahamies finished up over $334k.
Cole South, who had lost $50k prior to playing Sahamies heads-up, was unable to recover his losses ending the day down around $200k.
Patrik Antonius only played 213 hands of PLO yesterday, taking most of the day off after booking a quick $243k win.
Finally, Brian Townsend has yet to recover from the downswing coinciding with his Full Tilt Pro status suspension, losing another $158k yesterday, bringing his total losses on the year to over $1.6 million.
Below are three of the largest PLO pots of the day, to see more replays head to MarketPulse.
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FTOPS XV Starts Today
The online poker series, promising more than $17 million in guaranteed prize money across 27 events, starts with a $1 million guaranteed $200+$16 No-Limit Hold 'em tournament tonight at 9 p.m. ET.
Throughout the series there are another five events that each guarantees at least $1 million in prize money.
These include a $1.5 million guaranteed $300+$22 No-Limit Hold 'em tournament Feb. 14 at 6 p.m. ET, a $1.5 million guaranteed $1,000+$60 No-Limit Hold 'em tournament Feb. 15 at 9 p.m. ET, a $1 million guaranteed $300+$22 No-Limit Hold 'em 6-Max Rebuy Feb. 17 at 9 p.m. ET, a $2 million guaranteed Two-Day Event starting Feb. 20 at 2 p.m. ET and the $2.5 million guaranteed FTOPS XV Main Event Feb. 24 at 6 p.m. ET.
Satellite tournaments for all FTOPS XV events are currently running on Full Tilt with buy-ins starting at $0.50 or 50 Full Tilt Points.
A special prize package is also available to the player that finishes at the top of the FTOPS Leaderboard. Worth approximately $8.5K in tournament entries, the prize package consists of a seat to every FTOPS XVI event except the Two-Day Event.
The winner will also receive a custom avatar for exclusive use at Full Tilt Poker.
To find out more about FTOPS XV and check the entire schedule, check out Full Tilt's FTOPS Gateway Page.
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Poker News in Brief: Feb. 1-7, 2010
Full Tilt, PokerStars and UB all awarded millions of dollars last Sunday, and throughout the week Cole South, Brian Townsend and Patrik Antonius took turns winning hundred thousand dollar pots in the high stakes cash games.
There were a few stories that didn’t make the front page of PokerListings.com, however, and as part of our Poker News in Brief feature we’ve compiled a list below.
This week we’ll take a look at Isabelle Mercier’s latest promotion, two poker sites switching networks, UB teaming up with an MMA promoter and more.
No Mercy Cash Games on BetClic
It’s been months since Isabelle “No Mercy” Mercier signed with BetClic, but the room is offering its first major promotion involving the famous French-Canadian.
All this month Mercier will host her own “No Mercy” cash game table on BetClic with stakes ranging from €.12/€.25 No-Limit all the way up to €2/€4 No-Limit.
BetClic will also offer No Mercy Magic Hands where any player that makes a straight flush on the Mercier tables is entered into a special Sit ‘N’ Go with up to €2,000 up for grabs.
The No Mercy cash game tables can be found under the private tab of the BetClic lobby.
To learn more go to the BetClic website.
SportsBook.com, PlayersOnly.com Move to Merge Network
PlayersOnly.com and SportsBook.com are leaving the Cake Poker network in favor of the Merge Poker Network.
Jezette Enterprises, which owns both sites, made the announcement on Wednesday citing the chance to give players a better platform on which to play.
“This is an industry changing deal and we are delighted to have an agreement with Jazette Enterprises,” said Anthony Taylor, CEO of Merge Gaming.
The migration, which is scheduled to occur by mid-April, 2010, will see Jezette move all its brands onto the Merge Gaming Network.
PlayersOnly.com and SportsBook.com will join sites such as Carbon Poker, Poker Nordica and ACED on the Merge Gaming Network.
Meanwhile the Cake Poker network recently added a number of new rooms including the signature room of Phil Laak – Unabomberpoker.com.
Honeybone Finds Gold in Auckland
Established Kiwi poker pro James Honeybone won the SkyCity Auckland Anniversary Championships this weekend.
He outlasted 121 players including poker pros Dan Sing and Martin Cardno to win the NZ$36,030 prize for first place.
Honeybone finished fifth at APPT Korea in 2007 and also made an $84,970 score at the Ongame Network Poker Classic in Barcelona in 2005.
The win in Auckland catapulted Honeybone into ninth place on the all-time New Zealand tournament money list with $161,806.
TSN, PokerStars Launch TSN Poker Club
Canadian sports broadcaster TSN has teamed with PokerStars.net to create a custom built poker environment for poker players.
"Poker's popularity in Canada continues to grow and the TSN Poker Club gives poker players of all levels a chance to get into the action and win exclusive prizes," says Geoff Fardy, Canada Country Manager, PokerStars.net.
The club will allow members to enter a series of free-to-play tournaments with prizes like poker tables and snowboards, all while learning the game of poker.
PokerStars.net and TSN will launch the club with three daily tournaments from now until July 31.
UB Teams Up with MMA Promoter
UB has entered into an exclusive sponsorship deal with the Bellator Fighting Championships.
The agreement will see UB logos in upcoming Bellator fights while UB will advertise for the fighting brand in its poker client lobby.
"We’re super excited to tie the new UB logo to Bellator—the hottest MMA success story of 2009—and are proud to partner with them in their sophomore year," said Paul Leggett, chief operations officer of Tokwiro, the owner/operator of UB.net.
The Bellator Fighting Championship began last year with headline bouts involving MMA stars Hector Lombard, Eddie Alvarez and Joe Soto.
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Tags: 2009, 2010, aced, cake poker, Canada, canadian, Cole South, high stakes, no-limit, poker player, pokerstars, tournament, usa
Poker News in Brief: Jan. 25-31, 2010
With all that poker news coming from the WPT, EPT and Aussie Millions it was almost inevitable that some stories wouldn’t make it to the front page of PokerListings.com.
Fortunately, as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief Feature, we’ve compiled a list of smaller stories below.
This week we’ll take a look at Doyle Brunson joining an elite lineup, vietcong01 winning his second Sunday Million, Michael Phelps hitting the felt at Borgata and more.
Brunson Fills Out Premier League Lineup
Doyle Brunson is the final poker player to grab a spot in the elite PartyPoker.com Premier League IV.
“I’m very happy to have the challenge of playing against all these great players,” said Brunson.
Brunson will join Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, David Benyamine, Phil Hellmuth, J.C. Tran, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Roland de Wolfe, Luke Schwartz and Tony G at the Premier League IV.
There are two remaining seats with one of them going to an online qualifier and the other going to the winner of a mini Premier League playoff between Team Party members.
The Premier League IV is set to take place Feb. 12-18 in Las Vegas.
vietcong01 Wins Second PokerStars Sunday Million
Juan Antonio Maceiras Barros, known online as vietcong01, outlasted 8,699 players to win the PokerStars Sunday Million and $255,954 cash last Sunday.
It wasn’t the easiest final table either as Ben “benba” Lamb, who finished 14th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event, was one of the chip leaders heading into the final nine. Lamb finished in sixth place.
Barros, who first won the Sunday Million in 2007, joins Jesper Hougaaard as the only players to ever win multiple Sunday Million titles.
Barros came very close to performing the feat at the final table of a Sunday Million in March, but eventually bombed out in sixth.
Bodog Recruiting Female Pros
Bodog Poker is looking for female players to sponsor in various poker tournaments around the world.
The announcement comes just a couple weeks after the online room did not opt to re-sign Justin Bonomo to its pro team.
The site also let Jean-Robert Bellande walk several months earlier leaving David Williams and Evelyn Ng as the only members of Team Bodog.
Bodog is requesting that all applicants send a recent a photograph and a short biography in an email with the subject: Female Pro Submission.
To learn more check out the Bodog website here.
Phelps Goes to Borgata
Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps made another splash in the poker world this week at the Borgata Winter Open.
Phelps played the double elimination heads-up event and beat noted pros Paul Wasicka and Adam Gerber before being eliminated by Basilios Diakokomninos.
During the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Phelps mentioned one of his favorite hobbies was playing online poker and in 2008 he made the final table of a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at Caesars.
PartyPoker Encourages Players to Hit or Run
PartyPoker started a new promotion this week, which gives players a chance to hit or run.
“Simply collect 20 PartyPoints and we’ll give you $1 to bet on our special Hit or Run heads-up game,” said a PartyPoker spokesperson.
“Win and we’ll double your money. You can then choose to hit for another hand and the chance to double your cash or take the money and run. Lose at any point though and the game is over.”
It’s possible to hit up to 10 times per game making each one worth $1,024. If a player collects enough points they could potentially play 10 games a day, which would give them $10,240.
To learn more or sign up for a PartyPoker account click here.
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Obrestad Avoiding Aussie Millions Déjà Vu
Among the chip leaders with 21 people left in the 2009 Aussie Millions, holding ace-ten, she pushed all in for around 350k over Canadian Zach Fellows' raise, expecting him to fold all but premium cards.
However, Fellows made the rather loose call with just pocket fives.
The fives held and an angry Obrestad had a few choice words for Fellows before running nines into jacks to bow out 21st.
"It was a terrible call," she said. "It was really frustrating."
Thursday, a year later, she finds herself deep-stacked late in the 2010 Aussie Millions again and hoping this won't be a case of déjà vu.
"I hope not," she laughed. "I want to do well in every tournament I play. It doesn't really matter which one it is, but because I got deep here last year and I was so close to final tabling, I want to know what that feeling is like."
The Norwegian-born Betfair Poker pro says there's really no secret to why she's deep in the Aussie Millions main event in back-to-back years.
The tournament just sets up well for her game.
"I think the structure is just really good," she said. "And I've been running good too."
It certainly doesn't hurt that the 2007 World Series of Poker Europe main event champ has cultivated an image as a tremendously loose-aggressive player. Apparently no one ever puts her on a hand.
"They never think I have anything, no matter how I play a hand," she explained. "Even when I have the nuts and that's the only hand I could possibly have, they still don't believe me.
"It's really annoying at times, because I like to play a lot of pots. So getting involved without a hand is not a good idea. But why would I? They never believe me anyway. I don't have to. So I'm trying to tighten up a little and take advantage."
Like most of the new generation of Internet whiz kids taking over the poker world these days, Obrestad was weaned on No-Limit Hold'em.
But drawn in by its alluring action, she recently expanded her repertoire to include Pot-Limit Omaha and actually took down the $1k PLO prelim in Australia just days before the start of the main event.
"I was really excited," she said. "I've been playing a lot online. That's usually what I play if I play online these days, so I feel like I've been really improving my game.
"You can play a lot of pots. You can play really aggressively and you can bluff a lot in that game. There's a lot of action. I like it."
But for now, she's got a little Hold'em and the remainder of the Aussie Millions to contend with.
"I really want to do well here this year," she said. "And put last year in the past."
To follow Obrestad's progress and the rest of the 2010 Aussie Millions main event, tune in to PokerListings' Live Updates through the Jan. 30 final table.
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Patrik Antonius Dumps $826k
Antonius' session started at $300/$600 Pot-Limit Omaha against Tom "durrrr" Dwan and Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies.
Dwan, who had been at the table for 30 minutes prior to Antonius taking a seat, left just a few hands after Antonius's arrival.
Just 20 minutes later, Dwan's spot at the table was taken by Cole South, setting the cast for the remainder of the session.
Despite his best efforts, and multiple re-loads, Antonius seemed doomed to end up on the short end of the stick, dumping over $800k in just two and a half hours.
Fellow Finn Sahamies took the largest chunk of profit from Antonius, thanks in part to winning the biggest pot of the session – worth just over $281k. In total, Sahamies won just over $436k.
Including another $252k profit mostly from a heads-up session against South and a $14k loss on another table earlier this morning, Sahamies earned a massive $674k for the day, making him the most profitable player on the year with over $1.5 million.
After making over $257k from Antonius and an additional $118k from $100/$200 PLO, it was looking like a big session for South until he sat down at $300/$600 PLO to play Sahamies heads-up again. The $252 loss left him with just over $165k profit on the day.
Dwan, who has been busy playing live poker at the Aussie Millions, added $164k to his comeback by playing a mix of PLO and No-Limit Hold'em. This latest profit leaves Dwan down only $240k on the year.
Below you can see the three largest pots from the day, or you can head to MarketPulse to see the rest.
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Tags: 5, Cole South, durrrr, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies, king, no-limit, Omaha, Patrik Antonius, player, Poker, Pro, Tom "durrrr" Dwan
UB Poker Event Tops Record Books
The Deepstack No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max tournament drew 628 players, creating a prize pool of $1.57 million – the richest in UB’s 10-year history.
Online player SEBBAU was the biggest winner taking down the tournament and the $330,900 that came attached to first place.
Celebrated UB player DOOSHDOTCOM1 also made an appearance at the final table but ended up finishing in fifth for $86,350.
"Despite going out just before the money in UBOC 8, the tournament still left me with an incredible feeling as we ended up building the richest prize pool in the history of UB," said Joe Sebok.
"I think it sets the tone for what I think will be the best UBOC ever for our players. 2010 is just the beginning of great things to come for UB and our community."
Team UB was out in full force with Phil Hellmuth, Sebok and Liv Boeree all playing the tournament.
Boeree was the only UB pro to cash, coming in 42nd place for $6,280.
UBOC 4 continues all week with the $1 million-guaranteed $1,050 buy-in main event scheduled for this Sunday.
Click here to learn more about the UBOC schedule or sign up for an account.
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Tags: 15, 2010, 5, deepstack, Joe Sebok, king, no-limit, Online Player, Phil Hellmuth, player, Poker, Pro, tournament, UBOC
Dwan Kick Starts a Comeback
Dwan’s night started at $100/$200 Pot-Limit Omaha where he sat with a cast of familiar names, such as Ashton “theASHMAN103” Griffin, Cole South, Brian Townsend, Matatuk and Di “Urindanger” Dang.
After 482 hands at the table and over 4 hours of play, Dwan closed down the game with $155k profit. Not quite ready to call it a night, Dwan moved on to $500/$1,000 Cap No-Limit Hold’em, where he lost over $10k in just 37 hands.
Dwan’s profit brings him up to only $420k in losses on the year.
The biggest winner on the night was Griffin who sat at the $100/$200 PLO for 627 hands, taking away $156k for his effort.
This brings Griffin’s results for the year up to $327k.
Dang only played about half as many hands on PLO as Griffin, but still managed to leave the game with a profit of over $40k. Added to profit earned earlier in the day (playing $100/$200 Cap PLO), Dang’s total profit comes to almost $100k.
This $100k profit pushes Dang to just over $1 million earnings on the year, only $252k behind Gus Hansen in first place.
The biggest loser of the day was a relatively unknown French player by the name of Matatuk. After trying to beat the star-studded $100/$200 PLO, Matatuk logged off for the night with over $207k in losses.
Despite winning the second largest pot of the day (worth $113k), South still came away from the tables down over $109k, bringing his profit on the year down to around $800k.
Townsend, who lost the largest pot of the day to Dwan, continues to struggle in 2010, losing over $55k on the day, bringing his total losses to $350k on the year.
Below are the three largest pots of the day. To see more pots, including Matatuk’s largest loss of the day, head to MarketPulse.
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Tags: 15, 2010, 5, Brian Townsend, Cole South, Dang, Gus Hansen, king, no-limit, Omaha, player, Poker, Pro
Pawn Shop Reacts to T.J. Cloutier WSOP Bracelets on eBay
With 24 hours left in the bidding, the two championship bracelets that were won by T.J. Cloutier have begun to draw bidding attention on eBay.
As reported yesterday here at Poker News Daily, the store that has ownership of Cloutier’s bracelets, the Plano Pawn Shop, placed the two championship bracelets on sale on eBay after they acquired the items. The bracelets, a 2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP) championship memento and the trophy from the 2007 Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge IV, have been on the popular auction site since January 14th. Up until early Friday and with time running out on the auctions, no bids had been placed. Now, the action has picked up.
The 2005 WSOP bracelet, won by Cloutier in a $5,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament that year, was on eBay with a minimum asking price of $2,999. Since yesterday, three bids have been entered on the item. While it is unknown who the buyer might be due to eBay bidder privacy regulations, an original bid of $3,200 was entered at 1:13 Pacific Time on Friday. Soon after that, two bidders eclipsed that price with bids of $3,500 for the most prized trophy in poker. By eBay rules, the earlier $3,500 bid stands to pick up the 2005 WSOP bracelet, roughly valued at $2,350 by Poker News Daily.
The 2007 Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge IV bracelet, which marked Cloutier’s last major championship victory, has garnered less attention, but is still in play. The Plano Pawn Shop offered the white gold and diamond championship bracelet through eBay for $2,499 and bidding on it will end simultaneously with the sale of the WSOP bracelet. At this point, only one bid has been entered that meets the original asking price.
Poker News Daily placed a call to the Plano Pawn Shop and was able to learn several details about the bracelets. An employee who would only state his name as Larry said that whomever places the highest bid on the eBay auctions would walk off with the bracelets. “We haven’t offered them for sale in the Plano area; it has strictly been something that we’ve done through eBay,” Larry said. “We really didn’t have a clue what they would be worth, but we knew what we needed to get out of the items to make a fair profit.”
Larry went on to imply that Cloutier sold the bracelets outright rather than accepting a loan against them. In addition, the original asking price on eBay was the bottom line of what they might be worth: “If you melt the bracelets down and pull the [gem] stones off, what we’re asking for is the scrap price of the items.” Larry would not state what Cloutier received in exchange for the two championship bracelets.
Astute Poker News Daily reader James Guill also contacted the Plano Pawn Shop on Friday and was able to confirm that the bracelets were indeed ones that Cloutier had won. In his post, he related that the attention the bracelets have received surpass other offerings: “They (Plano Pawn Shop) stated that they have received more attention on this item than even Super Bowl rings they have auctioned off in the past.”
The poker community continues to discuss the bracelets and what should be done with them. Some believe that one of the top professionals - the names of Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu have been bandied about - should buy the bracelets and return them to Cloutier. Others believe that this would be for naught and suggest that Cloutier would only sell them again. In the discussion have been Ted Forrest buying one of Hamid Dastmalchi’s WSOP bracelets for $1,500 and Cloutier’s propensity for the craps tables.
The bracelet sales on eBay end Sunday afternoon at approximately 1:30 Pacific Time, but it is unlikely that we will learn who bought them and why. Poker News Daily will continue to track this story to its conclusion tomorrow.
Tags: 15, 5, 540, aced, Daniel Negreanu, king, News Daily, no-limit, Phil Ivey, player, Poker, Poker News Daily, Pro, Scotty Nguyen, T.J. Cloutier, tournament, WSOP
T. J. Cloutier’s Championship Bracelets Up For Sale On eBay
Awards in the poker world can range from plaques to large trophies to even the head of an alligator (the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit’s Bayou Poker Classic trophy is the stuffed head of such an animal). One of the most cherished mementos of victory in poker is, of course, the WSOP bracelet that is awarded to each winner of an event in Las Vegas. For one of the most prized trophies in poker to appear for sale is almost unheard of.
This apparently is occurring at this moment and the former owner of the bracelet is none other than longtime poker veteran T.J. Cloutier. For sale on eBay, the popular online auction site, is a WSOP Bracelet won by Cloutier. The information on the site states that the bracelet is the last one that was won by the Texas road gambler in 2005. Information from the WSOP site shows that Cloutier won the last of his six bracelets in 2005 in the $5000 No Limit Hold’em event, where he defeated a final table that included Todd Brunson, John “World” Hennigan and the late John Bonetti to capture the championship.
On sale by the Plano Pawn Shop (which is approximately ten miles from T.J.’s hometown of Richardson, Texas), the auction on eBay has about two days left in the bidding. Asking for a minimum bid of $2999, the 2005 WSOP bracelet has yet to garner any interest from potential buyers. Perhaps anyone interested in the bracelet is wary of its authenticity (the Plano Pawn Shop has stated that the bracelet will come with a certificate of authenticity to prove it is real), but eBay sales are also notorious for not getting any action until the sale is almost over.
According to other details included in the sale information for the WSOP bracelet, the Plano Pawn Shop also has another championship bracelet from Cloutier. This has been confirmed by Poker News Daily as the bracelet from Cloutier’s last major poker championship, the 2007 Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge IV, and the Plano Pawn Shop’s minimum bid for that bracelet is $2,499. Both of the items are not only for sale on eBay but are also being offered in the Plano Pawn Shop and can be viewed by appointment only.
The actual cash value of a WSOP bracelet is surprisingly easy to determine. From information provided by the Plano Pawn Shop about the Cloutier bracelet, Poker News Daily has determined an approximate value for such an item. With its 96 grams (3.38 ounces) of 14 karat gold (which is 58% gold, with 24K being solid gold) and 0.25 carats in diamonds, the cash value of the 2005 bracelet is roughly $2,350. The inherent value in a WSOP bracelet, of which only about 500 have been awarded, is priceless.
As far as what Cloutier may have received for the WSOP bracelet, an examination of the pawnshop industry would be necessary. When a pawnshop buys a piece of merchandise, it usually will pay anywhere from 30% to 50% of the actual value of an item to ensure that they get a significant return on their investment. With the Plano Pawn Shop putting a price tag of $2,999 on Cloutier’s 2005 WSOP bracelet, it can be logically assumed that the poker pro sold the bracelet for somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500.
The sale of the bracelet has the forums burning with questions about the bracelet and Cloutier’s current financial status. On TwoPlusTwo, players are assuming that Cloutier has gone broke and needs the finances to continue playing poker (at this time, Cloutier has no sponsorship deal) or, some posters imply, to take to the craps tables. Many, however, are lamenting that Cloutier would part with one of his six WSOP bracelets. Poster “Dan_Vincent” writes in his post, “That's sad. You know he didn't get anything close to $2K for this.”
Others, perhaps cruelly, are making jokes about the issue. Citing one of the currently popular reality television shows, poster “Tom Bayes” says, “TJ should have gone on 'Pawn Stars.' Then Corey and Chumlee could have drooled on the bracelet, Rick could call up one of his numerous 'buddies' to give an 'expert' appraisal and then lowball the hell out of TJ, and then the 'Old Man' could tell us how 'real' poker was played 'back in the day.'”
For whatever reason, Cloutier felt as though these two bracelets were items that he could live without. With slightly more than 48 hours left in the two auctions, it remains to be seen how many bids Cloutier’s bracelets will get or if they will even be sold through the eBay auctions at all.
Tags: 15, 5, 540, cent, gamble, Gambler, king, Las Vegas, News Daily, no-limit, player, Poker, Poker News Daily, PPA, Pro, Scotty Nguyen, T.J. Cloutier, Texas, Todd Brunson, vegas, WSOP