Poker News in Brief: Oct. 11-17, 2010

As a result, there were a few stories that didn't get the attention they deserved. Thankfully, we had a little space in our weekly Poker News in Brief feature and have thrown them in below.

This week Full Tilt signs a tennis star, an MMA legend hosts a charity tournament, poker might be Bad for Your Wealth and more.

Tilt Signs Blake

Full Tilt Poker signed US tennis star James Blake as a Friend of Full Tilt this week.

Since turning pro in 1999, Blake has consistently been ranked amongst tennis' elite and has led the US Davis Cup team since being selected in 2001.

He was also named the world's "sexiest athlete" in People Magazine's 2002 Sexiest Man Alive Issue.

Blake is an avid poker player.

London Calling

PKR's London Calling poker festival kicked off this week at the The Fox Poker Club in London's West End.

The PKR sponsored 28-day tournament series runs through Nov. 7 with 57 tournaments, the majority of which range in buy-ins from £20 to £100.

The festival will conclude with a £300 buy-in main event.

Nicolak Joins Cardrunners

John "Nicolak" Kim joined the poker training site CardRunners as a mid to high stakes cash instructor this week.

A winning pro since 1998, his first video for the site features Kim four-tabling $5-$10 six-max No-Limit Hold'em. 

Kim was already co-host of the site's bi-weekly strategy podcast Cash Plays, along with Jeremiah Smith.

Bad For Your Wealth

A new book claiming to provide scientific evidence that tournament poker is a losing proposition was released this week.

Bad for Your Wealth: A Scientific, Evidence-Based Study of Why You Should Avoid Playing Poker Tournaments, written by Ramy C. Tadros, includes calculations verified by Minimax Statistical Consulting, LLC.

Publishers claim the book is a must read for struggling players trying to understand why they cannot beat the game,

MMA Star Hosts Charity Event

Mixed Martial Arts legend Randy "The Natural" Couture will host the third annual "Operation All In" charity poker tournament and auction fundraiser benefiting the Xtreme Couture G.I. Foundation Oct. 30.

Held at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, the event is open to the public and will include a celebrity charity poker tournament featuring pro players, MMA and Hollywood celebrities; live and silent auctions; autograph sessions with photo opportunities; raffle prizes; and a Halloween after party inside the Nugget's Gold Diggers club.

Already confirmed are Tyson Griffin, Ryan Couture, Martin Kampmann, Gray Maynard, Jason Ron, Ray Sefo, Mike Pyle and John Alessio, David Zayas of "Dexter" and "The Expendables," and poker pros Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Layne Flack, Gavin Smith, Perry Friedman, Antonio Esfandiari, Todd Brunson, Nick and Michael Binger, Dutch Boyd and Lacey Jones.

The buy-in for the tournament is $225 with $100 multi re-buys. The winner will receive a $10,000 prize. Proceeds will benefit injured US soldiers.

Double Up October

Titan Poker is offering players a chance to increase their bankrolls at its popular Double Up Sit 'n' Go tournaments through its $150,000 Double Up October promotion.

$30,000 in weekly prizes will be awarded to the site's leading Double Up Sit 'n' Go players all this month.

Plus there will be an additional $30,000 in prizes awarded to players on top of the monthly leaderboard.

Poker News in Brief: Oct. 4-10, 2010

Add in a ton of high-stakes action online and several live events beginning across Europe and the United States and it was another busy week in the PokerListings news room.

A few stories may have fallen through the cracks as a result, but we've sorted them below in our weekly Poker News in Brief feature.

This week PokerStars signs a Russian pro, a WSOPE bracelet winner joins Team PKR, the FTOPS XVIII schedule is released, an NFL legend is hosting a charity event and even more.

PokerStars Signs Lykov

PokerStars inked 2009 EPT Kyiv champ Maxim Lykov to a Team Pro contract this week.

The Russian pro is in the top ten on Russia's all-time money winners list with just under $1 million in career tournament earnings and has a WSOP final table on his resume.

IPO Set To Draw Big Names

Despite its rather small €180+€20 buy-in, names like Irish Open and GUKPT winner Neil Channing, WSOP main event finalist Andy Black, WSOP main event finalist and UKIPT winner Padraig Parkinson, poker TV legend Jesse May, Irish Open and WSOP bracelet winner Marty Smyth and WPT and WSOP finalist John O'Shea are all set to play in the Boylepoker International Poker Open Oct. 15-17 at the Regency Hotel in Dublin, Ireland.

Day 1B of the event is already listed as a 600-player sell out and the event is expected to create a €200,000 prize pool.

Last year the IPO attracted a record-breaking field of 1,440 players and was won by German Markus Sippe.

FTOPS XVIII Schedule Released

The schedule for the eighteenth Full Tilt Online Poker Series has been released including more than $19 million guaranteed over 34 events.

FTOPS XVIII begins Nov. 10 with a $200+$16 No-Limit Hold'em event with an $800,000 guarantee and culminates with the $3 million Guaranteed $600+$40 Main Event Nov. 21.

For more information, check out the FTOPS Gateway page.

WSOPE bracelet Winner Joins Team PKR Pro

Scott Shelley, the PKR employee that won the £1k event at the 2010 WSOPE last month, is now a member of Team PKR Pro.

The 24-year-old North Londoner is the first member of Team PKR Pro to win a World Series of Poker bracelet.

"The last two weeks have been life changing and joining Team PKR Pro has been the icing on the cake," he said.

Shelley will make his debut at the upcoming PKR London Calling festival and will then join other PKR Team Pro members at PKR Live V in November.

To celebrate the signing, PKR will hold a Scott Shelley themed week beginning Oct. 18 offering players the chance to win a PKR Live, London Calling and $500 Heads-Up tournament buy-ins.

PokerStars Granted Estonian License

After being granted an activity license in Estonia this past August, PokerStars has now become one of the first online poker sites to also receive an operational license.

PokerStars.ee now complies fully with Estonian law.

"There are thousands of good poker players in Estonia and I am very glad that the license enables them to continue competing at the largest poker site with players all over the world," said PokerStars Nordic & Baltic Director of Marketing Michael Holmberg.

Swede wins IPF

The 2010 Ladbrokes Irish Poker Festival saw some 632 players compete for a €75,000 top prize in Killarney, Ireland last week.

But in the end, it was London based Swede Lars Torngren who outlasted them all to take the title.

Ladbrokes' pro and WSOP Main Event finalist Jon Kalmer was the early favorite and chip leader going into the final table but could do no better than fourth.

The tournament ended with a rare three way all-in.

"I have been playing poker for about 8 years and this is my first big tournament win so I am absolutely delighted," said Torngren. "I am already looking forward to next year's Ladbrokes poker festival."

NFL Legend to Host Charity Event

New York Giant legend Carl Banks is hosting a Celebrity Golf and Poker Tournament to raise funds for autism Oct. 12.

Among those expected to attend are Anthony Anderson, Michael Strahan, Maury Povich, Geraldo Rivera, Ed Lover, John Starks, Darryl Strawberry, Harry Carson, Zeke Mowatt, Alan Houston, Herb Williams, Ron Harper and several members of the current New York Giants.

Hackensack University Medical Center’s Institute of Child Development will be the beneficiary of the event, set to be held at the Alpine Country Club in Demarest, New Jersey.

Bodog Inks MLS Ad Deal

Bodog has signed an advertising deal with Major League Soccer's LA Galaxy.

Bodog.net will now be seen advertising on all the LED field boards, corner section banners, stadium scoreboards and in-stadium TVs as a result.

"Both the LA Galaxy and Bodog brands are recognized around the globe, making this partnership not only mutually beneficial, but a perfect synergy between brands across the United States and beyond," said Bodog PR director Ed Pownall.

Bad Week: Hansen Loses $1.5 Million

It was one of the worst weeks on record for the renowned Danish poker pro. Hansen played an astounding 8,844 hands this week, even more than Tom Dwan.

Hansen’s real troubles began on Monday when he played epic heads-up sessions of $500/$1,000 against DrugsOrMe, Urindanger and skjervoy.

Playing that trio was a decision the new WSOP-bracelet holder would regret as he lost over $850k to them, including $503k to DrugsOrMe alone.

The losses continued to pile up throughout the week and, at the time this article was published, Hansen was down $1.5 million in seven days. The Great Dane is now down $3.6 million in 2010, which makes him far and away the biggest loser this year.

Hansen’s tremendous losses weren’t the only story this week as Isildur1 returned to the high stakes table in earnest and Tom Dwan re-established himself as the biggest winner in 2010.

Isildur1 might be wishing that he delayed his return as the account lost $193k playing $100/$200 No-Limit Hold’em against various opponents.

On the other hand Dwan had a very solid week that was seriously boosted by winning $1.4 million last weekend. Dwan lost some of that haul throughout the week but he still finished up $1 million.

Dwan’s 2010 couldn’t be more different than Hansen’s as durrrr has raked over $4 million and is the biggest winner this year.

Dwan also recorded some hands in the durrrr Challenge II against Dan “jungleman12” Cates but the sessions were very small and durrrr only won $32k.

Some of the other notable winners this week included Scandinavian Andreas “skjervoy” Torbergsen (+$735k), DrugsOrMe (+$627k), Patrik Antonius (+$405k) and jungleman12 (+$331k).

Hansen had plenty of company in the loser’s column with Ilari (Ziigmund) Sahamies (-$799k), WastedPotential (-$455k) and David Oppenheim (-$331k) all losing large sums.

Here’s a collection of the biggest hands from the week. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.

Losses Continue for Isildur1

The aggressive online player, who is rumored to be Swede Victor Blom, has put in a decent amount of volume at $100/$200 No-Limit Hold’em over the past week and the results have been less than ideal.

Last night Isildur1 once again took to the $100/$200 No-Limit tables this time against another unidentified player – KTPOKP.

Isildur1 lost $87,415 in a little over 160 hands. Since re-emerging on the $100/$200 tables last week Isildur1 has lost a total of $402k.

Last year Isildur1 won $4.5 million from Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Phil Ivey before losing it all and more to Brian Hastings, Patrik Antonius and several others in some of the most epic sessions ever played online. Isildur1 is involved with all 10 of the top 10 biggest pots in online poker history.

Isildur1 wasn’t the only player losing stacks of cash last night. Gus Hansen dropped $420k which means he’s lost $3.5 million in 2010. Tom Dwan also lost $316k to O Fortuna PLS playing $2,000/$4,000 Limit Hold’em.

Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, on the other hand, was a huge winner last night taking down nearly $400k in the $2,000/$4,000 Omaha Hi-Lo games. After a crazy last couple of weeks, the Finn is once again nearly even in 2010.

Here are a selection of the biggest hands from last night. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.

WSOPC Storms Southern Indiana

The first event on the schedule, a $350 No-Limit Hold'em tournament, drew a healthy 570-player field creating a $162,660 prize pool. Samuel Serdar took the circuit ring and $47,171 first prize.

The $550 No-Limit Hold'em second event drew 216 and Ghansham Punjabi walked away with the $25,545 top prize while the $350 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em third event saw Timothy Mccarthy book a win and a $15,897 score.

The fourth event was a $350 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout that saw Kevin Manley outpace a 126-player field to grab a $9,566 first-place prize.

And finally, Scott Clark took down the $350 H.O.R.S.E. event, pushing past a field of 113 to collect $9,313.

WSOPC Southern Indiana continues through Oct. 12 with five more events including the $1,600 3-day championship event set to begin Oct. 10.

The winner there will get automatic entry into the nationally televised $1 million WSOPC National Championship this upcoming May in Las Vegas.

Hansen Plastered for $1 million

Hansen played a marathon 3,206 session that included Pot-Limit Omaha, H.O.R.S.E. and Omaha Hi-Lo.

The Team Full Tilt pro lost in almost every variant but it was heads-up $500/$1,000 PLO against Di “Urindanger” Dang, DrugsOrMe and skjervoy where the real damage was done.

Hansen lost $503k to DrugsOrMe, $193k to skjervoy and $152k to Urindanger. Combined with some smaller losses throughout the day Hansen lost a total of $1.09 million.

The setback gives Hansen the dubious honor of being, by far, the biggest loser of 2010, having dropped about $3.5 million. Hansen did win his first WSOP bracelet two weeks ago but that was only worth $444,925, easily dwarfed by his losses on Full Tilt.

Hansen’s troubles on Full Tilt certainly weren’t the only story at the high stakes tables last night.

Isildur1 was once again active at the $100/$200 No-Limit Hold’em heads-up tables. This time his target was durrrr Challenge II competitor Dan “jungleman12” Cates.

The pair recorded 3,300 hands and jungleman12 was the ultimate victor, winning $172k. The win puts jungleman12 up $3.9 million this year.

Combined with his success against durrrr, Cates is starting to build a serious case for himself as the premier online No-Limit Hold’em cash game player.

Here are a selection of the biggest hands from last night. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.

Dwan Rebounds with $1.4 Million Weekend

Dwan recorded his standard 3,387 hands in everything from No-Limit Hold’em to H.O.R.S.E. but most of the notable hands were played against Illari “Ziigmund” Sahamies yesterday.

Neither player was in the mood to mess around and they went straight to the $500/$1,000 PLO tables on Full Tilt where they recorded 568 hands.

durrrr absolutely lit up the well-known Finn, winning a total of $1.06 million.

Combined with his winnings from earlier in the weekend in the Six-Max games durrrr finished his three-day run with an extra $1.4 million in his online bankroll.

Dwan also found time play 582 hands of the durrrr Challenge II against Dan “jungleman12” Cates. Despite some large pots neither player was able to pull ahead and they finished almost dead-even with durrrr the small winner by $1,429.

It was still a marked improvement for Dwan who had lost hundreds of thousands in the previous durrrr Challenge II sessions.

After the weekend Dwan was back up to $4.4 million earned this year. That once again makes him the biggest winner of 2010. An impressive feat considering he lost $1 million last week.

The durrrr story wasn’t finished, however, as earlier this morning he started a session against notorious rival Isildur1.

Isildur1, who is rumored to be Swede Victor Blom, has been playing the smaller stakes on Full Tilt over the last few months but apparently decided it was time move up.

At the time this article was published the pair were locked in an epic session with four tables of $100/$200 No-Limit Hold’em. Isildur1 was up approximately $176k.

Here are a few of the biggest hands from the weekend. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.

Dwan Drops $1 Million in One Week

Dwan played a little over 3,000 hands this week and as usual he played a bit of everything with 8-game, PLO and No-Limit Hold’em in the mix.

Although Dwan seemed to lose to everyone this week, there were a few select sessions that did most of the damage.

On Thursday Dwan played 323 hands of heads-up $300/$600 PLO against upstart online player cadillac1944 and took an astounding $459,860 loss.

The same day Dwan also lost $109k playing Gus Hansen at $300/$600 heads-up PLO which must have only added to his misery.

On Monday Dwan dropped $162k in a weird Nine-Max $300/$600 game that included usual suspects Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies.

Add in smaller losses throughout the week and Dwan was down $1.03 million in less than seven days.

As a result Dwan has dropped significantly on the 2010 biggest online earners leaderboard. He went from first place all the way down to third with $2.9 million in profit. jungleman12 is first with $3.6 million.

Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen had a decidedly different week than Dwan. The Norwegian pro had several massive sessions against cadillac1944 and finished the week up $1.5 million.

It’s an impressive feat for Torbergsen considering he was only up $300k on the year before the week began.

Some of the other big movers and shakers this week included deprimiert (+$788k), cadillac1944 (+$650k), Urindanger (-$732k), Malestra Pam (-$720k), sbrugby (-$435k) and Phil Ivey (-$344k).

High stakes railbirds will want to keep a close eye on the durrrr Challenge 2 this weekend as most of the pros have finally returned from England. Whether Dwan feels like playing jungleman12 while in the midst of a $1 million downswing is anybody’s guess.

Here are a few of the biggest hands from the last week. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.

WSOPE Main Event winner: James Bord

WSOPE Main Event is over. The winner is United Kingdom’s own James Bord who got a nice salary from his work, about £830,401 to be exact. Bord had to beat the incredibly tough field to ensure his victory.

James Bord, the best of WSOPE 2010

Second place finisher was Fabrizio “superbaldas” Baldassari, also known from the Full Tilt’s nosebleed games, who won £513,049. Third was Ronald Lee (£376k) who was in the chiplead throughout the final table.

James Bord’s live earnings were only about $80k before, so it was a gargantuan victory for him.

There was oly 346 players in the Main Event, but even as the field was small, it was tough as nails and mainly consisted of poker professionals.

Final Table prize structure:

1. James Bord £830,401
2. Fabrizio Baldassari £513,049
3. Ronald Lee £376,829
4. Roland De Wolfe £278,945
5. Nicolas Levi £208,119
6. Daniel Steinberg £156,530
7. Dan Fleyshman £118,643
8. Brian Powell £90,617
9. Marc Inizan £69,754

You can read about the crucial moments of the Final Table here.

Source: PokerNews, Hendonmob

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WSOPE Main Event winner: James Bord

Gus Hansen won his first WSOP Bracelet!

Gus Hansen is a superman! First he plays online poker for almost a day without sleep, then he marches to the WSOPE Heads Up final and wins it. Superb achievement from the “Great Dane”.

The crucial hand was a bit loose, even Gus admits it:

Jim Callopy pushed all-in for 1,2 million chips which made Gus tank for a good time. Eventually Gus called it:

Callopy Ks-4s
Hansen: 4h-4d

The board ran Js-5c-6d-Ts-3d and Hansen was finally able to table his first WSOP victory. Huge congratulations to Mr. Hansen!

WSOPE Event #4 £10,350 No Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads Up results (103 participants):

Gus Hansen £288,409
Jim Collopy £178,211
Ram Vaswani £96,212
Andrew Feldman £96,212
Daniel Negreanu £47,045
Kevin Eyster £47,045
Huck Seed £47,045
Neil Channing £47,045
Howard Lederer £22,847

Source: PokerNews

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Gus Hansen won his first WSOP Bracelet!

Poker News in Brief: Sept. 20-26

Of course the focal point was London, England, where the 2010 WSOPE Main Event began and Gus Hansen secured a spot in the final two of the 10k WSOPE Heads-Up.

England wasn’t the only place where poker was played however, as Dwyte Pilgrim won his first WPT title at Borgata in Atlantic City, “Brother D” Danny Leaoasavaii won APPT Auckland and Tom Dwan and Gus Hansen won hundreds of thousands online.

With all that news there were a few stories that didn’t get the press they might have on a normal week. Fortunately as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature we’ve compiled a list of such stories below.

This week we’ll take a look at PokerStars heading back to the Philippines, a set-back for poker in Washington, a new RedKings Poker promotion and more.

Seattle Court Upholds Ban on Online Poker

Online poker players in Washington were dealt a blow this week when the Washington Supreme Court upheld a ban on playing the game for money.

Washington poker player Lee Rousso presented a law suit that argued the State’s online gaming laws violated the commerce clause of the U.S. constitution.

Justice Richard B. Sanders disagreed, claiming the legislature did not overreach in restricting online gambling.

The Poker Players Alliance’s chairman Alfonse D’Amato expressed “extreme disappointment” over the ruling and mentioned the organization will continue to fight to have it overturned.

PokerStars Confirms Return to Philippines

PokerStars will once again be returning to sunny Cebu in the Philippines as part of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour.

"We're delighted to be taking the APPT back to the Philippines, and Cebu in particular," said Jeffrey Haas, President of the APPT. "The Tour has gone from strength to strength in its relatively short life and fields are growing all the time. Last year's event in Cebu was a definite highlight and offered further evidence of the continued passion for poker in the Asia Pacific region."

APPT Cebu is now scheduled to take place Nov. 12-16 at the Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa. The buy-in for the No-Limit Hold’em tournament will be 100,000 pesos (approximately $2,165 USD).

Last season Korea’s Dong-bin Han outlasted a field of 319 players to win a $156,722 first place prize in Cebu.

ESPN3 to Broadcast 2010 WSOPE Final

Poker fans will get the chance to view the final two days of the 2010 WSOPE Main Event almost live on ESPN3.com.

ESPN3.com, ESPN’s 24/7 sports broadbank network, will feature the final two days next week on Monday and Tuesday. There will be a five-hour tape delay in effect so fans will be able to view the hole cards, which is a first for the event.

"ESPN is committed to delivering the best Poker content to fans, and ESPN3 is the ideal format to showcase this great event as it happens,” said Doug White, senior director of programming and acquisitions for ESPN.

Last year popular poker pro Daniel Negreanu lost to Barry Shulman heads-up in arguably the most exciting finale ever at the WSOPE.

Red Kings Offering GSOP Live Packages

RedKings Poker is adding a little extra incentive for players who take part in its online Grand Series of Poker V over the next two weeks.

Every player who wins an online GSOP V tournament will also receive a $3,000 seat to GSOP Live events in Riga, Malta or Budapest.

"At RedKings we value success and anyone who wins one of the main 15 GSOP online events playing at RedKings deserves to join our live poker Team at one of the groundbreaking GSOP Live events in Riga, Malta or at the RedKings Poker Open in Budapest in February,” said Marcus Greg, tournament manager for RedKings.com.

GSOP V will run Sept. 19 to Oct. 3 with 15 events in a variety of different poker games and buy-in levels. Every winner will also receive entry into the Grand Slam Online Final with $300k guaranteed.

Betfair Running $120k Rake Race

Betfair Poker started a promotion this week that will award a total of $120,000 to the busiest players over the next three weeks.

The Betfair $120k Rake Race will run until Oct. 14 and the player who earns the most Betfair points in that span will receive $20,000. In addition the top 100 players will receive a share of the $120,000 up for grabs.

The promotion is open to all Betfair players but they have to log in to opt-into the contest.

WCOOP Day 20: Ryan D’Angelo Captures Third Career Bracelet

Gus Hansen trying to catch a WSOPE victory - Cash games are going great as well

Gus Hansen has faced some criticism lately, mainly because of his huge losses in the cash games - which were almost 10 million dollars online.

Now the “Great Dane” has played some profitable sessions online and he has made to the final four of WSOPE Event #4 £10,350 No Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads Up Tournament.

The victory would bring Hansen his first WSOP bracelet and some positive publicity - for once.

WSOPE Event #4 £10,350 No Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads Up finalists:

Gus Hansen vs. Andrew Feldman
Jim Collopy vs. Ram Vaswani

Hansen has already made £96,212 and the victory would profit him £288,409. You can follow the final tables from Pokernews.

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Gus Hansen trying to catch a WSOPE victory - Cash games are going great as well

More for Mercier: Rising Star Adds WCOOP Title and $435k

The rising poker superstar, who already has an EPT win, WSOP Bracelet and EPT and NAPT High-Roller titles to go with the massive bankroll he’s built online, added a PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker title to his growing resume Tuesday morning and it was a big one.

The 42nd event on the WCOOP schedule was a two-day $1,050 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em $3 million Guaranteed tournament that drew 3,122 players.

When they reached Day 2 there was just 176 left in the hunt for the $491,715 first prize and Mercier was among the leaders.

As the masses fell by the wayside, Mercier held on to make the final table sitting in the middle of the pack.

However, after the two other biggest names left in the field, Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown and Dani "supernova9" Stern, busted ninth and eighth respectively, Mercier found himself the short stack seven handed.

A double up with ace-queen besting fives righted the ship before he won another flip with ace-king versus pocket queens.

Suddenly well stacked, it appeared Mercier’s luck ran out when he ran queens into chip leader loooser17’s aces, but somehow he found a queen on the flop to avoid the rail and take the chip lead.

Three-handed, the remaining players made a deal that guaranteed Mercier $375,862.07, loooser17 $367,500.80 and osten $302,435.13, saving $15k for second and a WCOOP bracelet and $60k for first.

To no one’s surprise, loooser17 busted third and Mercier went on to claim victory heads-up over osten.

Below are the final table payouts for the event.

1 Jason Mercier $435,862.07

2 osten $317,435.13

3 loooser17 $367,500.80

4 DHUSTLER15 $179,515.00

5 APerfectGent $135,807.00

6 TeamWispy $104,587.00

7 bastet2004 $73,367.00

8 Dani "supernova9" Stern $42,209.44

9 Chad Brown $26,537.00

durrrr Posts $365k Weekend

Dwan had no problem playing a little bit of everything this weekend from $5/$10 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold’em against MagicNinja all the way up to $500/$1,000 Heads-Up Cap PLO against Gus Hansen.

In total Dwan played nearly 3,000 hands with the majority of his profits coming from a $300/$600 session that included regulars such as Cole South, URnotINdanger2, Harrington25, trex313 and Hansen.

Dwan earned $426k in the $300/$600 PLO sessions alone but he donated $95k back to Hansen in the $500/$1,000 Heads-Up Cap PLO match.

The win boosts Dwan up to $3.63 million for the year. The race for most profitable online player of the year is still very close with Phil Ivey currently the slim favorite with $3.66 million earned. Ivey lost $187k this weekend.

The problem for Dwan is that at some point he’s probably going to have to face jungleman12 in the durrrr Challenge and thus far he’s down nearly $700k in the contest.

URnotINdanger2 was by far the biggest loser of the weekend, down an astounding $496k. Other big losers included Brian “sbrugby” Townsend who lost $320k, Hac “trex313” Dang (-$308k) and Gus Hansen (-302k).

Here are a few of the biggest hands from this weekend. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.

The Sunday Scoop: Marchese Nearly King

The NAPT Venetian winner outlasted 1,336 players before finally falling short to Wolf_holdem in heads-up play.

Fortunately for Marchese the pair decided to chop and Wolf_holdem only took down $52,264 for the outright win while Marchese still earned $44,000.

Marchese was the most notable player to go deep in a Full Tilt tournament on Sunday but the real highlight was the amount of cash that was awarded.

The Full Tilt $750k Guaranteed was upped to $1 million this week and 2,082 players bought into the contest. Eventually justgoforbroke walked away with first place and $150,130 although there was a four-way chop in place.

The Sunday Brawl drew 2,637 players to create a prizepool of $527,400. dmon188 finished first and took the biggest chunk of the prizepool worth $99,963.

Meanwhile all of PokerStars regular Sunday tournaments were replaced by World Championship of Online Poker events.

Three WCOOP winners were crowned on Sunday including most notably online player RaiseOnce who outlasted 31 players in the prestigious Event 39 $25,000 buy-in high roller heads-up event.

RaiseOnce made it further than established stars such as Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier and Sorel Mizzi to eventually take down a first place prize of $348,750. Not bad for winning a few heads-up matches.

Australian Money_1985 won Event 41 $215 No-Limit Hold’em for a haul of $282,798. Lex “RaSZi” Veldhuis notably came in 19th place just missing out on the final table.

Event 38, a smaller two-day $530 No-Limit Hold’em heads-up contest, also wrapped up yesterday with SixthSenSe19 the ultimate survivor for $100,000. Scott “BigRiskky” Clements came in seventh place for $18,600.

Finally on UB Poker a total of 924 players bought into the $200k Guaranteed to create a small overlay. LVZARDOS won first place for $40,000 while Adam “ROOTHLUS” Levy came in 13th place, narrowly missing out on the final table fun.

Poker News in Brief: Sep. 13-19

It was a very busy week for poker news as Phil Laak won his first bracelet, APPT Auckland began in New Zealand and Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies went on a warpath in the high stakes games on Full Tilt Poker.

Because the PokerListings’ news team is fully entrenched in London, there were numerous lesser-known stories that could have been missed altogether.

Fortunately we’ve gathered some of those stories in our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature below.

This week we’ll take a look at thousands of players hitting the felt at Commerce Casino, the start of the WPT Borgata Poker Open, Anders Berg winning his second WCOOP title and more.

WPT Borgata Poker Open Begins

With most of the poker world focused on London, the WPT Borgata Poker Open kicked off on Saturday.

A total of 331 players bought in on Day 1a including Tom “kingsofcards” Marchese, Allen Bari, Steve Zolotow, Mike Leah, Dan O’Brien and last year’s winner Olivier Busquet. Day 1b starts today.

Last year the WPT lowered the buy-in from $10,000 to $3,500 and as a result the field doubled with 1,018 runners.

Looking to build on that trend the buy-in remains the same as last year and organizers are hoping for record numbers.

The final table is set to take place this Thursday.

Anders "Donald" Berg Wins WCOOP 34

Norwegian poker pro Anders “Donald” Berg is the latest player to become a two-time WCOOP bracelet winner.

Berg, who is a member of Team PokerStars Online, outlasted a field of 446 players to win the $320 buy-in Limit Triple Draw 2-7 event this week. He took home $25,890 for his efforts in the contest.

The PhD-holder has been playing online poker since the early days and has had some success on the European Poker Tour, coming 37th place in the 2008 EPT Grand Final.

SpadeClub Shuts Down

CardPlayer Magazine’s brief experiment with online poker has come to an end.

The subscription-based SpadeClub closed its doors this week and will redirect all its existing players to the Zen Entertainment Network.

SpadeClub offered players the chance to take part in numerous tournaments and cash games for a monthly fee of $20 or $180 a year.

Subscription poker sites are able to operate freely in the U.S. because players do not wager real money. Despite that fact they have never seriously challenged the popularity of traditional poker sites.

New Celebs for Million Dollar Challenge

PokerStars announced a new batch of celebrities for its Million Dollar Challenge this week.

The new season, which begins today, will see Super Bowl Champion John Elway, Dancing with the Stars Brooke Burke, NBA Hall-of-Famer Gary Payton and Playmate of the Year Sara Jean Underwood all take to the felt in the heads-up competition.

Each week contestants on the show will attempt to beat one of the celebrities in a heads-up match for a shot at playing a Team PokerStars Pro for $25,000.

If a contestant beats the Team PokerStars Pro as well, they will have a chance to play Daniel Negreanu for $100,000 and shot at $1 million.

Thousand Flock to Commerce Tournament

Commerce Casino made history this week by hosting the biggest live $120 buy-in tournament on record.

A total of 3,030 players ended up buying into the No-Limit Hold’em turbo tournament on Sunday. With six different starting sessions the prizepool blossomed to $300k and first place alone was worth $100k.

Rudy Fulson, a plumber from L.A., outlasted everyone to claim the first place prize.

"I don't look around at other people's stacks to see where I am in the tournament," said Fulson. "I concentrate on my table and try to be dominant. I'm a winner and I won't settle for anything less."

The event had six starting sessions and players were allowed to re-enter after busting, which helped boost the prize pool.

Thanks to the tournament’s success, the Commerce Casino is already planning another one for November.

Laak Locks Up First WSOP Win

And moments after locking up the 2010 WSOPE £2,500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em title, the famously frenzied Laak had thoughts of girlfriend Jennifer Tilly and best friend Antonio Esfandiari on the brain.

“It’s super sweet,” he said. “It’s Jennifer’s birthday today, so jubilation levels are at an all time high and there’s nothing like putting a little tilt on Antonio, this should tilt him a little because we are very competitive.”

Born in Dublin, Ireland and raised on the East Coast of the United States, the 38-year old Laak has more than $2 million in career tournament earnings, including a WPT title, two other WPT final tables and now three WSOP final table appearances.

As chaotic a character as there is in poker, Laak made headlines this summer breaking the world record for the longest cash-game poker session, then breaking his arm in an ATV accident while on vacation in Oregon.

Outside of a win in the made-for-TV PartyPoker World Poker Open here in London last year, Laak’s deep runs in major tournaments were a few years behind him.

But following his eventful summer, he suddenly found deep finishes at the Partouche Poker Tour final in Cannes and the English Poker Open here in London.

Now, one event into the World Series of Poker Europe, he finds himself £170,802 richer and the owner of his first WSOP bracelet.

“The glory is not all that important to me, all though I love glory, don’t get me wrong, I’m hungry for that, but I want the money more,” he said. “I converted it on X/E and it’s like 267,000 American Dollars. Minus tip, minus entry fee; it’s still north of 260 - It’s huge.”

Total it up and Laak has quietly put together more than $630k in tournament earnings this year, his best as a pro since the height of the poker boom in 2005 when he earned a little over $700,000.

Canadian Andrew Pantling, two-time WSOP bracelet winner Chris Bjorin and Phil Laak were the only ones holding substantial stacks when the final table began Thursday, making it a three horse race from the outset.

But by the time Willie Tann, Ilan Rouah and David Peters had busted, leaving them three handed, Laak had picked up a few chips, Bjorin was the short stack and Pantling’s lead was beginning to look insurmountable.

However, it wasn’t long before Laak doubled through him once and had chipped up through him again with a timely play when Bjorin woke up with queens.

He pushed all in facing a Laak raise, but the Unabomber had kings, made the call and sent him to the rail third. Pantling still had the lead, but heads up play started with Laak right back in it.

“I got really lucky with kings versus queens against Chris,” Laak said. “If the big stack takes out the little stack, then I’m stuck with more of a middling stack. It would have been weighted like seventy-thirty and instead it was like fifty-fifty.”

The two traded the lead for a while before Laak built an almost 3:1 advantage, getting the last of Pantling’s chips when his king-five connected versus ace-ten.

The opening event of the 2010 WSOPE, the £2,500 Six-Handed drew 244 players to London's Casino at the Empire Tuesday.

Here’s how Thursday's final table finished up:

1 Phil Laak £170,802

2 Andrew Pantling £105,506

3 Chris Bjorin £70,473

4 David Peters £48,202

5 Ilan Rouah £33,617

6 Willie Tann £23,900

AAROOKIE Stuns durrrr for $160k

Last night the Team Full Tilt Pro recorded over 2,000 hands of $40/$80 No-Limit Hold’em against upstart AAROOKIE and eventually finished $160k in the hole.

It’s just the latest in a string of losses for Dwan who has been on a serious downswing since falling behind nearly $700k to jungleman12 in the durrrr Challenge.

Just before Dwan started playing AAROOKIE, jungleman12 came online and requested some durrrr Challenge action. Dwan mentioned he was too inebriated but then went on to play over 2,000 hands against AAROOKIE.

In the month of September durrrr is now down over $500k, which makes him the biggest loser so far.

Another Full Tilt icon, Phil Ivey, was busy last night as he managed to extract $54k from deprimiert in just 52 hands. Ivey and Patrik Antonius have essentially been taking turns beating the Limit specialist at his own game all this month.

Despite his troubles, durrrr was not the biggest loser last night. That dubious honor went to IHateJuice who lost $286k to MissNikita1987.

Finally Shaun Deeb recorded a massive score last night, although it wasn’t at the cash tables.

Deeb outlasted a field of 1,433 to win PokerStars WCOOP Event 28. First place in the $1,050 buy-in event netted Deeb $243k.

Earlier this month Deeb won the $750k Guaranteed on Full Tilt Poker for $132k so it’s safe to say he’s officially on a roll.

Here’s a look at several of the biggest hands from last night. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.

Antonius Takes $303k Beating

Malestra Pam, who is rumored to be a Russian Limit Hold’em specialist, played 1,423 hands of $2,000/$4,000 Limit Hold’em against Antonius.

Antonius never really seemed to find his legs against Malestra Pam and, despite winning the biggest pot of the session when he turned a set of deuces, ended up a massive loser.

September has been a rough month for Antonius who now finds himself $229k in the hole over the first two weeks of the month.

Meanwhile it’s been a far different experience for Malestra Pam who’s earned $490k, which makes him the most profitable player of the month.

Some of the other big winners of the evening included superbaldas who made $157k playing $300/$600 PLO against Ziigmund and the NUTHUNTER who earned $93k playing $200/$400 No-Limit Hold’em against tuff_fish.

Yesterday’s losers included Gus Hansen, who added to a miserable September by dropping $123k, Cole South (-$88k), Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond (-$86k) and harrington25 (-$42k).

Here’s a look at several of the biggest hands from last night. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.

2010 WSOPE Event #1, Day 1: Pantling’s on Fire

WSOPE 2010 Debuts with Poker’s Hottest Game

The first Six-Max World Series of Poker bracelet event on this side of the Atlantic drew a respectable 244 players, selling out the tight confines of the Leicester Square casino with alternates filling the empty seats as early gamblers hit the rail often, thinning the field to less than a third of its size in the late going.

But this £2,500 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em event sits as just the latest example of the online born-and-raised poker variant’s gaining popularity.

The WSOP’s $1,500 Six-Handed No-Limit event grew from 1,459 runners in 2009 to 1,663 this summer, while the $2,500 jumped from 1,068 to 1,245.

This despite the most of rest of the numbers at the series staying stagnant or dipping.

In fact, even the tamer sounding $2,500 Limit-Hold’em Six-Max saw a bump from 367 to 384.

Much of its popularity comes from a younger generation who grew up on a steady diet of the game online.

But self proclaimed “poker dinosaur”, grandfather and 2010 WSOP Player of the Year Frank Kassela, who made 3rd in the WSOP’s $25k Six-Max this summer, says the game appeals to everybody.

“To me, and in a lot of ways and maybe this is contrary to what a lot of people think, but I think No-Limit Hold’em is one of the more boring poker games out there. If you’re not catching cards and you are not involved in a lot of hands, you may as well take a nap,” he said.

“But six-handed, your hand values change, starting hands change; you have position about half the time. You’re just playing a lot more hands and it’s just a lot more fun.”

2010 November Niner John Racener built a stack in the early going Tuesday and although the 25-year-old Floridian said his poker experience includes a lot more full-ring tournament experience; he loves the up-tempo pace six-handed.

“There are not as many pauses between hands,” he said. “I can loosen up my range and sometimes you don’t even have to look at your hand. Because it’s short-handed, you can just play position. It’s fun stuff.”

Racener believes the gaining popularity of the game is in part due to its allure to cash game players.

“There’s more action and it’s what everyone is playing online these days in the cash games; no one plays full ring anymore,” he said.

“Cash game players, if they’re going to pick a tournament to play, it's going to be the Six-Max event.”

One of the most feared online cash game players on the net, Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger says nothing beats short-handed play and that’s why poker players are flocking to the game.

“The fewer players the better,” he said. “Heads-up is my favorite, followed by Four-Max, which has started coming in on the Internet a little bit now, the way Six-Max did a few years back, and I love Six-Max - There’s a bit more post flop play and people just play more hands.”

But regardless of the reason No-Limit Six-Max is on the rise, Kassela says it’s obvious the trend will continue.

“It’s more interesting,” he said. “There’s a lot more action. I think it tends to favor more skilled players and frankly, you are just more comfortable. There’s more room at the tables; it’s a much more luxurious game to play.

“I’d rather play a six-handed tournament than No-Limit.”

Poker News in Brief: Sep. 6-12

Add in some high stakes action, the UKIPT heading to Ireland and the Partouche Poker Tour setting its own November Nine and it was a busy week in the PokerListings news room.

A few stories may have slipped through the cracks, but we've gathered them below in our regular Poker News in Brief feature.

This week, the WCOOP main event gets the biggest guarantee ever, Boxing legend Evander Holyfield hits the felt, UB's bad beat jackpot is claimed and more.

$2 Million for WCOOP Champ

PokerStars is now offering a record-breaking guaranteed payout to the winner of this year’s World Championship of Online Poker main event.

The 2010 WCOOP main event champion will walk away with a guaranteed $2 million payday, the largest first-place prize for an online poker tournament in history.

The $5,200 two-day main event begins Sep. 26.

Last year Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko won the title and $1,715,200 first-place prize.

High Heels Heads West

The first all women’s poker tour launched on the East Coast, is headed west.

The High Heels Poker Tour will hit the Wildhorse Resort Casino in Pendleton, Oregon. The Nov. 8 for its $165 Fall Round Up Ladies No-Limit Hold’em event.

For more information, including dates, times and buy-ins go to www.highheelspokertour.com.

Still The Champ

Evander Holyfield won the celebrity 'Beat the Champ' poker tournament live at Poker in the Park in London this week.

London's Leicester Square played host to thousands of fans attending Europe's largest poker festival including one Midlands man who got the chance to take on the former Heavyweight Boxing Champion of the World on the felt.

"It's like fighting," Holyfield explained. "If you want to win you have to focus and prepare and that's exactly what I did for this tournament, just like I do for any challenge." Leif G. won his way into the tournament through RealDealPoker.com.

Bad Beat?

A Ferris, Texas woman lost with quads, but won $218,115 in Bad Beat Jackpot money on UB this week.

KAPPIT saw her four nines crushed by CJBV’s quad queens at a $0.25/0.50 table, triggering the payday.

For his part, CJBV picked up $109,057.85 while the seven other players banked at least $1,000 just for being there.

Plus 610 others grabbed $89.36 because they were playing the same limit.

"I've been playing Poker for 45 years now, mostly live poker, and I hit a jackpot once in a land-based Casino, but this is the biggest prize I've ever got,” she said. “Keep those jackpots coming UB... Dreams do come true."

Full Tilt Sponsors MMA Series

Full Tilt Poker is putting its name on the Bellator Fighting Championships.

Now in its third season, the Bellator Fighting Championships is a continuing series of televised World Class Mixed Martial Arts presented in a tournament format.

This week marked the first of eight nationally and internationally televised Bellator events sponsored by Full Tilt.

PokerStars Offers WCOOP Reload Bonus

To celebrate the 2010 World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP), PokerStars is offering a special reload bonus to all of its current customers.

Players who make a qualifying deposit before 11:59pm ET on September 11th using the bonus code “WCOOP” (without the quotation marks) will receive a 20 percent bonus up to the maximum of $100. For example, a customer depositing $200 on Wednesday will receive a $40 bonus. In order to receive the maximum $100 bonus, a $500 deposit is required.

As one might expect, the bonus will need to be earned through play at the real money tables; it is not put into players’ accounts right away. Those who deposit in U.S. Dollars will need to earn 20 VIP Player Points (VPPs) for every $1 in bonus. Different currencies have different VPP rates: 26 VPPs per €1, 32 VPPs per £1, and 20 VPPs per C$. Also note that for Euros and British Pounds, the maximum bonus is scaled down to reflect the differences in currency value to €75 and £65.

VPPs are collected by playing at real money tables, both tournaments and cash games. In tournaments, 5.5 VPPs are earned for every $1 paid in tournament entry fees (8 VPPs per €1). Cash game rates are determined by the number of seats at the table, regardless of how many are actually occupied. At cash tables with eight or more seats, 6 VPPs are distributed to the table as a whole for every $1 in rake (8.5 VPPs per €1), while at tables with seven or fewer seats, 5.5 VPPs are distributed for every $1 in rake (8 VPPs per €1). Those VPPs are then divided equally among the players who were dealt cards in the hand. Fractional VPPs are awarded.

For example, at a full ring table with nine players and $3 in rake taken from a hand, 18 total VPPs will be divided among the players, meaning that each player will receive 2 VPPs.

Fortunately, unlike bonuses at PokerStars over the years that were released in one lump sum once the entire bonus was earned, the WCOOP reload bonus will be released in $10 increments. Thus, players don’t have to worry about the entire bonus being lost if they are unable to earn the whole thing.

Players will have 20 days from the time of deposit to earn as much bonus as they can.

The 2010 WCOOP kicked off at PokerStars on September 5th. Today’s events will be $215 Pot-Limit Draw, $215 Triple Stud, and $1,050 Two-Day No-Limit Hold’em. All told, the 2010 WCOOP will consist of 62 events over three weeks with $50 million in guaranteed prize pools. It all culminates with the two-day $5,200 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event beginning on September 26th.

The Sunday Scoop: Shaun of the Deeb Rises Again

The $200+$16 event drew a total of 3,397 and when it was all said and done, Shaun “tedsfishfry” Deeb was left standing with the title and $132,787.50 first-place prize.

While he has an FTOPS title and several major scores on his resume already, outside of a WCOOP win in 2008, this now represents Deeb’s biggest online score ever.

Speaking of WCOOP, the latest incarnation of PokerStars’ World Championship of Online Poker kicked off Sunday.

The first event, a $215 No-Limit Hold'em Six-Max tournament, drew a rather healthy 9,001 player field.

London’s AlexKP outlasted them all, besting Tutanhamon1 heads-up after almost 19 hours of play to claim the $257,000 score.

A two-way deal made after Stephen "stevie444" Chidwick cashed third for $130,514.50 left $198,274.48 for Tutanhamon1.

WCOOP’s second event was the $10,300 High Roller. It drew a respectable 313 runners, making for a guarantee smashing $3.13 million prize pool.

Newly minted Team PokerStars Pro and 2009 WSOP mixed game killer Ville Wahlbeck dominated the event, but in the end, could not get past winner CrabMaki.

Wahlbeck was forced to settle for $453,850 in second-place money while CrabMaki banked the $605,655 first-place prize.

The Sunday-Million-like $215 NLHE $2 Million Guaranteed was the next event on the WCOOP schedule.

It drew 12,066 players, creating a $2,413,200 prize pool. As of press time there were eight players left in the hunt for a $335,681.16 first-place prize and the event was well into its 16th hour of play.

Elsewhere, 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure winner Harrison “this is punny” Gimbel took down the Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan for $54,120, defeating a final table that included Jason Potter.

Jossel2008 won the $109 Rebuy on PokerStars, outplaying a final table that included Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo and Travis “TravestyFund” Rice to earn $87,819.60.

And, mralan2950 bested a field of 2,820 to win Full Tilt’s Sunday Brawl and put away $114,492 in winnings.

Jungleman12 beats Antonius for almost $200.000

On saturday night we saw Patrik Antonius to sit at the $500/1000 No-Limit heads-up table at Full Tilt Poker waiting for opponents.

-Mr. Antonius

Soon Daniel “junglemans12″ Cates chose to battle it out with the Full Tilt Pro Antonius. Last session with these two players during the summer left Patrik with $91.000 in profit. Now the tables turned as Cates won quickly $170.000.

The biggest pot of the evening was just a bit over $100.000 where Antonius tried to bluff with his busted draws, only to find Cates calling him down with two pair.

We expect them to battle it out soon again - taken from their table chat:

Patrik Antonius: ill be back later
Patrik Antonius: gg
jungleman12: ok
jungleman12: gg

Cates is having a great, having won already over $3,5 million dollars online.

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Jungleman12 beats Antonius for almost $200.000

Blair Hinkle & Friends Corn Shucking Prop Bet

Blair Hinkle, Dwyte Pilgrim and Doug “Rico” Carli are all no strangers to the WSOP Circuit events around the country. All were playing at the World Series of Poker Circuit Event in Council Bluffs, which is right on the border of Iowa. To honor the cornfields of the heartland of America, the three engaged in a Corn Shucking Prop Bet to see who could shuck three corn stalks the quickest. The winner of this amazing prop bet wins the admiration of dozens, bragging rights over his poker peers in addition to the grand prize of an all expense paid dinner at the casino.

Blair Hinkle is a young live tournament pro who has a WSOP bracelet to his name, in the 2008 WSOP $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event which won him over a half million dollars. He’s also won online, including the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) $216 No Limit Hold’em event for $146,288. At this particular circuit event he ended up winning the $1,600 Main Event which had 251 runners for a $88,000 payday. He also received a diamond and gold ring and $10,000 to buy into the 2011 WSOP Main Event, in addition to a seat at the Circuit National Championship.

Dwyte Pilgrim is the unofficial WSOP Circuit Master, with over $750,000 to his name in live tournament earnings. He is considered a rising star in the world of live tournament poker and someone to keep an eye out on at the 2011 World Series of Poker No Limit Hold’em events.

Doug “Rico” Carli is an old-school poker player hailing from Ohio who has a degree in mathematics. In addition to poker he’s known to be found at the local golf course or bowling alley.

The Asian-American Chris Moneymaker?

They represent close to 5 % of the population and are the third largest minority group in the country.

The Greater Los Angeles Area itself is almost 12% Asian American and one quick look inside local poker rooms like those at The Bicycle and Commerce Casino show an even bigger percentage checking, raising and pushing all in with regularity.

Asia itself is the world's most populated continent, and with approximately 4 billion people, online poker rooms have long looked at the area as the new frontier for gaming.

And as the powers of online poker look to expand East, of this there is little doubt: The Asian-American population is large, growing, poker is a big part of it and it’s getting even bigger.

So, when a 37-year-old Vietnamese-American medical-supply company employee and amateur poker player from Orange County, California, came out of nowhere to book a spot at the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event this summer, certain questions arose.

Could Soi Nguyen create a Chris-Moneymaker-style poker boom in the Asian-American community, the same way the Tennessee accountant did for the rest of America with his 2003 WSOP Main Event win?

“That’s exactly what I am,” Nguyen told PokerListings. “I’m the Asian Chris Moneymaker because I’m not a pro and I don’t really have that much experience.

“I’ve never really had a chance to play that much poker because I’ve been working. But I watched Chris Moneymaker win and I said, ‘Hey, I can do this.’

“Now, everybody I talk to is thinking about playing in the Main Event next year. They see that if I can do it, they can do it too.”

But the Moneymaker boom was born out of more than just his Main Event win. It was driven by online poker's marketing machine.

Moneymaker practically became a household name in the United States, easily recognized almost everywhere he went from the PokerStars TV commercials the site attacked the American market with in the weeks and months following his win.

Plus, a multi-tiered sponsorship deal kept him playing in big-time tournaments and in the public eye.

But Jerry Yang’s experience tells us an Asian-American winner may not get the same kind of push.

Yang won the 2007 WSOP Main Event, and while his commitment to religion and charity work may have been a large part of the equation, he did not become the catalyst for any kind of tangible boom in Asian-American poker.

In fact, outside of a few major tournaments and some charity events, Yang spends most of his time these days running his new sushi restaurant in Merced, California.

All the major marketing plans, television commercials and lucrative sponsorship deals seemed to simply pass him by.

And Yang says he’s not the only one.

“I’d like to know why Asian players don’t get the big sponsorship deals.” Yang asked. “I really would like to know. Being a World Champion, I get that question all the time. Do you know why, because we would like to know and I don’t know the answer?

“I believe, in this country, that everything people do is fair and I hate to bring the race issue into this. I don’t think its racism, but at the same time, we need to figure out what it is. We have to find a way to work together and figure out what this is all about.”

Scotty Nguyen and Johnny Chan are both WSOP Main Event champions and two of the most recognizable names and faces in the game. Neither has a major sponsorship deal in place.

With more than $5 million in career tournament earnings and a WPT Player of the Year title, back in 2007, J.C. Tran was among the hottest poker players on the circuit and widely considered one of the best tournament players on the planet.

Yet the Vietnamese-born and Sacramento-raised Tran was without a major sponsorship deal.

“I think it's mainly because I'm an Asian guy and it's tough to market an Asian guy. I mean, how many Asian guys do you see on TV?” he said in November of that year at a tournament in Lake Tahoe.

“It's kind of not fair that I don't get the recognition and endorsements I deserve and there are players out there who don't do half of what I do and they do.”

Tran said he was considering walking away from tournament poker if a major sponsorship deal did not come his way. Almost three years later, he still has no deal and is playing fewer tournaments than ever before.

As a poker agent and player manager, Eric Brewstein of No-Limit Management is tasked with negotiating sponsorship deals with online poker rooms on behalf of his players.

This summer, he brokered the deal between Full Tilt Poker and the second Asian-American at the 2010 WSOP final table - student-turned-online-poker-pro Joseph “subiime” Cheong.

Brewstein said race was never a factor.

“He got his deal based on chip position, background, historic performance and his accomplishments in poker up to date,” Brewstein explained. “I just don’t think there’s a correlation.

“I know people, other players, who have told me the sites don’t think Asian players are marketable, but I’ve never heard it from anyone directly at the sites and I don’t believe it.”

Brewstein says players like Tran, Chan and Nguyen may be overvaluing themselves in dealings with the various online poker rooms and in the case of Yang he simply didn’t have the right people around him pushing his agenda.

“Look at (2009 WSOP champ) Joe Cada,” he said. “He put himself in a camp with people that were going to drive that engine, a young, hungry agent willing to fight for him and the right kind of marketing people to attack the business with vigor and lofty plans.

"Did Jerry Yang do that? I don’t think he did.”

For his part, Nguyen has been too busy dealing with the fact he’s made the final table to make plans for what he’ll do should he win the world title and $8.9 million first-place prize this November.

Or, if race will play a role in it at all.

“It is a big community and there are a lot of Asian people interested in poker,” he said. “I hope that my experience will benefit the Asian community in some way.

"I hope it really does shine the spotlight on the Asian community and I would love to see more Asian players get sponsorship deals.

“Obviously I’m being sponsored by Full Tilt and I hope more sponsorship deals come down the line for me and others. Some of my closest friends are well-known Asian poker players like Nam Le and Tuan Le.

"Sooner or later they will get their due.

“We are a very close knit community, we all know each other. If one of us makes the final table we root for our teammates and when I say teammates, I mean any member of the Asian community.”

Antonius Thrashes deprimiert for $306k

Antonius, who is looking to rebound from an awful August that saw him lose over $800k on the online tables, played 413 hands of $2,000/$4,000 Limit Hold’em against deprimiert.

With the win, Antonius is now the biggest winner in the very early stages of September. There’s a good chance we’ll see that position change frequently as the month continues.

As for deprimiert, it was the second straight day that he’s accrued massive losses. Yesterday Phil Ivey had his way with deprimiert in the high-stakes Limit games and drained him of $327k. Over the last two days deprimiert has lost over $600k.

Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond was the night’s second biggest winner with $213,863 in profit.

Most of Galfond’s winnings came from Dan “jungleman12” Cates in a mixture of $100/$200 No-Limit Hold’em and PLO. Perhaps Galfond should have issued a challenge of his own.

The durrrr Challenge tables were silent for a second straight day. Tom Dwan is perhaps still stinging from the fact he’s down nearly $700k to jungleman12 and trying to develop a new strategy.

Here’s a couple of the biggest pots from the Patrik Antonius/deprimiert session last night. Be sure to check out our online poker stats section for more information.

Hinkle Bags WSOPC Bling at Council Bluffs

Hinkle, who burst onto the live tournament scene with a deep run in the 2008 L.A. Poker Classic before winning a WSOP bracelet later that year, outlasted a field of 255 players in the $1,500 tournament to secure the $88,553 first-place prize.

Although he entered the final as the chip leader, collecting the cash, gold ring, $10,000 buy-in into next year’s WSOP main event and a seat in the million-dollar Circuit National Championship in Las Vegas next year was no easy task for the 24-year old chemical engineering and business finance student turned poker pro from Kansas City, Missouri.

The final table included no less than 2009 Circuit Player of the Year Dwyte Pilgrim, coming off a win in a $200 No-Limit Hold’em prelim in Iowa earlier in the series.

Pilgrim busted third for $39,531 when he ran top pair into a Hinkle straight.

The final day of the event started with 16 players and Pilgrim in the lead. But by the time 2005 WSOP Main Event 13th place finisher Bernard Lee had bubbled the final nine, Hinkle was in charge.

College roommates with 2007 WSOP bracelet winner James Mackey, Hinkle now has close to $1.2 million in career tournament earnings. His brother Grant Hinkle also won a WSOP bracelet in 2008.

With 255 players, WSOPC Council Bluffs had a $361,440 prize pool. Total entries for the entire series of events was 4,056, a 12% increase over the last Circuit series in Iowa.

Doug “Rico” Carli cashed for the 44th time on the WSOPC, extending his lead as the player with the most Circuit cashes. He now has twice as many as anyone else.

Here’s how the final table finished:

1. Blair Hinkle                        $88,553

2. Shiva Dudani                     $54,715

3. Dwyte Pilgrim                    $39,531

4. Matt Lawrence                  $29,092

5. Charles Moore                   $21,795

6. Jack Do                             $16,608

7. John Wakeen                    $12,867

8. Daniel Biddle                     $10,131

9. Kevin Calenzo                    $8,103