Poker News

Schwartz Joins Premier League IV Lineup

 “I can’t wait to get to Vegas and crush the field in the PartyPoker.com Premier League,” said Schwartz.

Schwartz will join the already announced Phil Hellmuth, J.C. Tran, Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Roland De Wolfe in the $100,000 buy-in tournament. This is the first time the shootout-style event has been held in Vegas.

Despite the number of skilled poker players, Schwartz likes his chances in the event.

“For sure there are some big names playing but I have to be a huge favorite,” he said. “They need to know that I’m coming with my sharky hat and it’s gonna be a whole week of soul owning from Full Flush.

Schwartz made a name for himself playing online as Full Flush on Full Tilt Poker and beating some of the best online players, including Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond for over a million.

He was perhaps most well-known for his tirades where he would refer to Dwan as “durrrr-balls” and the entire online high stakes community as “OMGweNerds” in the chatbox.

He made the final table of another well-known PartyPoker tournament last year – the World Open V – but was eventually ousted in fourth when his A-T failed against Austrian qualifier Jan Veit’s K-J.

According to PartyPoker officials they were reluctant to add the controversial young player.

“We did a lot of soul searching rather than soul owning before deciding to invite Luke into the Premier League,” said a PartyPoker spokesperson. “The fact is that he is a great player and he will certainly ignite the line-up and we haven’t even completed it yet.”

More players will be announced to the Premier League IV in the coming weeks.

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Jeff Garza Spits On Bryn Kenney at PokerStars Caribbean Adventure

Harrison Gimbel was crowned the champion of the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) Main Event in the Bahamas more than a week ago, but the event is still stirring up chatter due to an incident involving two of the game's high-stakes online players that occurred during a $5,000 side tournament. According to sources that were close by, Jeff "ActionJeff" Garza spat on Bryn Kenney while Kenney was still playing in the tournament at the luxurious Atlantis resort.

News of the skirmish first broke in a thread on popular online forum PocketFives.com. Jordan "scarface_79" Smith began the topic, posting, "How is there not a thread on this?" Several others then stepped in and described what they saw and heard relating to the conflict.

"I was sitting at the next table over I think," said Jon “xxjondxx" Delong, who placed 22nd in a $1,500 event at the PCA. "Wasn't too exciting, just heard the dealer yell security and saying that someone spit in someone's face and saw someone who I guess was [Action Jeff] walking out of the room."

Shawn "jordankickz" Busse was also in the Bahamas while the conflict took place. "I didn't really see what provoked this nor did anybody else that I talked to," Busse said, "but Jeff just walked up to him and spit in his face then they started shoving each other before Jeff just quickly walked away once security was called."

The incident was merely speculation until Garza posted his side of the story on PocketFives.com and TwoPlusTwo.com.

"Bryn and I have personal issues unrelated to him multi-accounting dealing with large amounts of money," Garza said. "I was just ready to drop it and take the hit for making the mistake of dealing with a scumbag. My hate was reignited real strong when I kept hearing about him talking behind my back."

"I walked away after busting the $5K and Bryn was in my path," he continued. "He made eye contact with me as I was walking away, I gave him a [expletive] you and he smirks at me. I walked up to him and said something along the lines of 'don't look at me you thieving piece of [expletive]' and nudge him with my shoulder. At this point security gets called. He said something along the lines of, 'if I wasn't playing poker, give me one good reason...'

"So I gave him that good reason. And let's be clear here: No, it didn't miss, and yeah, it was right in his face, and it was a lot because I'd been putting down some water at the table."

Kenney was under fire following the 2009 PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event after suspicions arose about Kenney multi-accounting under the name "Udon Wannit," who took second place in the tournament for $1,286,400.00. Kenney later confirmed that the account belonged to his brother, who was normally a low-stakes tournament player, which sparked debate among high-stakes regulars.

Garza's issues with Kenney date to a backing arrangement that they had in which Kenney ended the deal and owed Garza money. The two exchanged words in the thread on TwoPlusTwo, with Kenney backing up both the spitting incident and the money he owed to Garza.

"The only thing I did wrong was when he was in like $60K makeup I was losing a lot during the series and the $12K or whatever I owed him I couldn't give him right then since I was getting killed. Nothing else I have ever done to him was even close to in the wrong," Kenney wrote.

Garza concluded his take on the subject with the following post on PocketFives: "Bryn's my enemy and I have no respect for [him] and wanted to show it. I shoulda just knocked his ass out, but he refuses to fight and attacking someone when they turn their back is a bitch move."

Gus Hansen Reaches $1.3 Million

After realizing he couldn’t beat the best online players in the world at Pot-Limit Omaha or No-Limit Hold’em, Gus Hansen started 2010 by moving to 7-Game, hoping his years of mixed-game experience would be enough to give him back an edge.

It appears to be working after yet another winning session for the Danish pro. His latest $560k came yesterday with $169k of it from C-PLO and the remaining $391k from 7-Game.

Hansen wasn’t the only player to have a big day though. Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies took top honors on 7-Game, crushing the tables for over $513k, well ahead of Cole South who made $302k at the same time.

Di “Urindanger” Dang earned over $313k exclusively from C-PLO, but played a massive 6,202 hands to do it.

The biggest loser on the day is a relatively unknown player named PixKim. Although it hasn’t been 100% confirmed it appears PixKim is a Finnish pro by the name of Jari Komulainen. Through a combination of C-PLO and 7-Game PixKim managed to lose over $609k.

Two other players with notable losses on the day include Brian Hastings ($285k) and Tom “durrrr” Dwan ($245k).

Here are the three largest C-PLO pots of the day. You can see more of the action over on MarketPulse.

 

 

 

 

 

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Jonas “Nebuchad” Danielsson Announces Retirement From Poker

On Friday, a top European online poker professional announced that he would quit playing poker, citing fatigue and a depleted bankroll as the reasons.

Swedish professional Jonas “Nebuchad” Danielsson, in a rambling blog post issued last week, stated (in a rough translation from the original Swedish), “The fire and passion I had for poker is now complete. It's like a bonfire that burned all night and now (it) hisses in the morning.” Citing an inability to sleep and the desire to experience other things in life, Danielsson says that the decision to quit playing poker has been brewing in his mind for the past two years; only now did the time feel right for his retirement.

In addition to the physical desire to stop playing, “Nebuchad” also states in the blog that he couldn’t do what most players do when faced with a depleted bankroll. There were “hints,” he says, from his fellow players that he should step down in levels and attempt to rebuild, which Danielsson pushed aside for two reasons. First, Jonas writes, “It would not change my financial situation. I should not have to work harder in my life, if I play my cards right.”

The second reason demonstrates one of the pitfalls of all players, whether they play at high-stakes or micro-stakes: “Secondly, going from top to bottom anywhere on the table and the risk of going out is too much for my vanity psyche. Without exaggerating, I would find it hard to look people in the eye.” Ego is something that all players have to face at some point in their poker playing lifetimes.

“Nebuchad” continues with a couple of memories that made him one of the top online players in the world. He discusses his legendary battles against Patrik Antonius, including a breakdown of a few hands, and remembers the moments quite fondly. “I can’t describe the feeling I had in poker (that day),” Jonas recalls.

In a down moment for his poker career, Danielsson recaps what should have been one of the top moments in his life. In 2008 during the Scandinavian Poker Awards, Jonas won the best online player award and accepted it from top professional Daniel Negreanu. When Negreanu asked him what his screen name meant, “Nebuchad” responded with a statement that implied that he disliked members of the Jewish faith. It was a statement that was taken out of context and, since that time, Danielsson has stated he meant no disrespect of the Jewish people and that he was highly nervous during the awards ceremony.

In a thread on the TwoPlusTwo forums, the common belief is that the Swede will be back at some point. The poster "mumrik" writes, “(From his blog post), it doesn’t seem like he has given up the thought of playing poker completely.” "GiantWalleye" agrees and cites his own experience: “I played fulltime back in 04-06, got bored and got a job. (I) realized I didn't like working and was back to playing fulltime by ‘08. He will be back.”

In his live playing career, Danielsson had been suffering from a downswing. According to the HendonMob database, “Nebuchad” did not cash in a live event in 2009 and only took in approximately $190,000 over his four-year live career. Jonas cashed in three events during the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) and earned his best live cash, a third place in the Swedish Poker Championships for $67,658, early in the year. The earnings from his online cash games, however, are said to have Danielsson well off. At some point, the desire for the game could potentially bring “Nebuchad” back from the grave.

Online Rounders Dominate PCA Final

The chip leader going in will be the same man who led the final 24, Ryan “g0lfa” D’Angelo.

An online pro for the past six years, D’Angelo has two PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker titles on his resume, but his live experience also includes a third-place finish at a World Series of Poker $2k event in 2008.

Considering the more than 750 online qualifiers at the event and the wealth of online players in the field, D’Angelo said the 2010 PCA has played a lot more like an online MTT than your typical live tournament.

“In a lot of other tournaments you can’t get away with raise sizes like you would online,” he said. “Here it plays pretty much like an online tournament. A lot of three-betting and cold four-betting. I really haven’t taken part in that though. I guess I’m not as crazy as some of these younger Internet kids here who just spit fire and get in there with nothing.”

Thanks to the flopped queen he used to crack EPT Founder John Duthie’s aces and rake a ten-million-chip pot, another online pro will come into Monday’s final eight second in chips.

Morton, Illinois’ Ty Reiman has almost $1 million in online earnings and actually won the first live tournament he ever played at the Heartland Poker Tour’s Turning Stone $1k in 2007.

Like D’Angelo, he feels the PCA has played much like an online tournament so far.

“I really don’t feel like it’s that different from any other online tournament,” he said. “Maybe it’s just because that queen hasn’t really set in yet.”

Fellow U.S. online regulars Tom Koral, Harrison Gimbel, Benjamin Zamani and Zachary Goldberg join PokerStars qualifier Aage Floenes Ravn from Norway in rounding out the final eight.

But it’s 2009 WSOPE champ and CardPlayer publisher Barry Shulman who will come into the final table third in chips and on the hottest streak of his poker career.

The suddenly resurgent Shulman won a WSOP bracelet in 2001 before most of these players had even heard of poker.

Now, despite being the least experienced player when it comes to the online style, he appears to have adapted.

“Historically I play better against better players,” he explained. “(The WSOPE) was the toughest field I’ve ever played with. It was impossible to find people just dumping off chips. Here is a whole different story, because it’s such an aggressive situation.

“My own play was actually the same, but this was different because they just play so differently. There is so much action versus what I saw in London.”

The action could slow down when the final table begins, however, as the online players adapt a strategy similar to playing Sit & Go’s.

“I tend to play final tables like a Sit & Go,” said D’Angelo. “I just like to see what everyone is doing, try and feel everybody out and play a solid game. Once the blinds get higher that’s when we start moving chips.”

“The table is really good,” added Reiman. “There are a lot of online players who I’ve played with. I’m just going to try and play my game, not get into too many big pots and let the smaller stacks dwindle out. Then, once we’re four-handed or five handed, we go to battle.”

To follow all the action and see who takes down the 2010 PCA and its $2.2 million first-place prize, tune in to PokerListings’ Live Updates beginning at 12 p.m ET Monday.

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Big Field Poker at the PCA

But according to at least one player who has weaved his way through some big numbers before, big-field poker requires big strategy changes.

“There’s a different approach because it’s a longer tournament,” said Jeff Madsen, who managed to best a similar-sized field of 1,579 to win his first of two World Series of Poker bracelets in 2006.

“The style of just trying to double early and get chips really fast isn’t as effective. You may have chips early, but you still have to get through a few more days. You have to be more patient. You want to survive and get much deeper before you start playing huge pots and taking big risks. Otherwise you are never going to see a Day 3.”

Kevin Saul, who managed an eighth-place finish at the 2009 PCA, says you might be aware of it but you simply can’t think about the massive field size when you sit down at any tournament table.

“You only sit with eight people at a time, so for me, it’s just normal poker until the field dwindles,” he said. “I just care about my chip stack and what everyone has at my table. I don’t really worry about what’s going on in the tournament as a whole.”

The PCA presents a different picture from the average big-field event, considering roughly half of the 1,500-plus players have qualified online. Saul says he certainly adjusts his strategy to account for that.

“You can follow the real satellite qualifiers,” he explained. “I mean, I won a satellite, but I would have bought in anyway. Then you have the other people who wouldn’t have bought in. They probably satellited into a satellite and took a few steps to get there and you spot them and try to apply pressure to them.”

Madsen says he does the same thing.

“These guys are good, but a lot of them don’t have much live-tournament experience and they’re used to playing a lot of hands and playing really fast,” he said. “In that respect I’ll probably play a little tighter. They may be looking to push me around or play bigger pots, because online players tend to do that, so I’ll usually just play a little tighter and wait for things to come to me more.

“Especially because I don’t know these players and I don’t really know their style, I’ll take a little time to get to know the players at my table first.”

In the end, Madsen says even the biggest fields get pared down to size and you simply have to play your game and stick to your reads.

“You really can’t look at the whole tournament from the beginning or else it’s overwhelming,” the Full Tilt pro said. “You have to take it one hand at a time. No matter how big the field is, in a couple of days, it’s still going to get down to the money. So yeah, you take it one hand at a time and try not to think about how many people are in the tournament right from the start.”

To see how Madsen and Saul fare against the massive field this time around, and follow all the action from the 2010 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, tune in to PokerListings’ Live Updates.

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High-Stakes in 2010: A Slow Start

After making over $8.9 million to earn the title as the year’s top earner, Patrik Antonius has been taking a break from the online high-stakes world. How long of a break he plans to take is unknown, but chances are you’ll see him back at the tables sooner rather than later.

As of this morning, Richard Ashby sits as the largest online earner of the year so far with just over $221k.

But in a virtual tie for first sits Brian Hastings with $220k. Hastings, who made an astounding $4.2 million in a single session against Isildur1 near the end of last year, could very well become one of the most prolific online players in 2010 considering the roll he's starting with.

Just like in 2009, Gus Hansen started off his year in the black, having earned almost $160k since New Year's Eve.

It won’t be surprising to see Hansen attempt to add to his profits while splashing around at the nose-bleed 7-Game tables over the next couple of months.

The two more players to have earned over $100k on the year are Di “Urindanger” Dang and geoff7878.

Topping the list as the year’s largest loser is Andrew “Browndog19” Brown with almost $300k in losses. In second place sits a relatively unknown player named bixiu, down $262k.

Other notable players to make the top 10 list for losses include Rafi “howisitfeellike” Amit (-$157k), Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies (-$107k), DIN_FRU; rumored to be Erik Sagstrom (-$94k), Eli Elezra (-$82k) and Cole South (-$78k).

With both Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan down in the Caribbean for the PCA, it might be a few more days before we see any real baller action online.

Below you can find three of the largest hands of the year, to see more hands from this year and last, head to MarketPulse.

 

 

 

 

 

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Moorman Takes Online Honors

The Brit, who plays under the screen name Moorman1, was ranked #1 worldwide on PocketFives’ list of online tournament players.

His online tournament wins in 2009 included $28,000 in a $65k Guarantee and $88,166 in a Daily $100 Rebuy in February, $39,750 in a $150k Guarantee in March and $52,950 in a Daily $100 Rebuy in September.

But in addition to online tournament scores, the PocketFives ranking system also incorporates a polling system to determine the top ranked players.

The PocketFives’ community, chock full of some of the best online players in the world, were asked to select the players that they believe will be successful in the future based on past performances and Moorman’s name came up often enough to push him into the #1 ranking.

He was also ranked fourth in both the CardPlayer and Bluff Magazine Online Player of the Year rankings in 2009.

Moorman has over $1.7 million in lifetime tournament earnings, including nine career titles and 148 cashes.

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Belgium to Enact Laws Nationalizing Online Poker

Defying an order from the European Union (EU), Belgium has enacted laws that could have it become the next nation to nationalize online poker operations. It follows a similar stance towards online poker in Italy.

A recent article in De Standaard, one of Belgium’s newspapers, stated that the coming year would bring laws regarding the country’s stance towards online poker. The new regulations would purportedly nationalize the operations of online poker rooms by preventing outside companies, such as PartyPoker, PokerStars, and Full Tilt Poker, from being able to court Belgians. Online poker rooms would have to set up a separate operation that would be licensed by the Belgian government and located inside of the country, much like what Italy has done with its online poker operations.

This defies an order from the EU that was issued in June 2009. After receiving details on Belgium’s plans for online poker regulation from its government in March of last year, the EU decided that the plan violated several areas of the free trade treaty that all 27 member nations had signed. Some of the violations included requiring the operators of online gaming and poker sites to be based in Belgium, limitation of available licenses, criminal prosecution of customers who play on non-sanctioned sites, and restriction of services from outside nations. At the time, Belgium was also looking to use ISP blocking software to prohibit its citizens from playing on other licensed EU sites.

The EU has shown an inconsistency when it comes to nationalization plans. It allowed Italy to nationalize its online gaming operations, presumably for taxation and gaming regulatory purposes, but has disallowed other countries like Belgium and France. It also has been unable to come to an accord on the online gaming question among its own Member Nations, leading many countries to attempt to nationalize online poker for tax revenues in lean fiscal times. The government of Belgium also states that many of the online poker sites in existence have “ties to organized crime” and, as such, the need for the nationalization is necessary.

The online community is responding to this issue in many of the popular online forums. On TwoPlusTwo, a ten-page thread has developed with players are debating the issue. Part of the reason for its popularity is that one of the top online players in the game today, “Chiren80,” hails from Belgium and the proposed legislation would, in effect, remove him from international action with the threat of possible arrest.

Some of the discussion on TwoPlusTwo inaccurately says that the nationalized sites would still be part of the global network, much like different skins of poker rooms operate. This is not true; the nationalization of sites requires the online poker room to dedicate servers and operations to that nation alone, as PokerStars has done with its PokerStars.it site. With that operation, only Italians can play on the site and there are stringent rules that govern play.

The nationalization trend is, in some players’ minds, becoming a worrisome trend. “Nationalization of gambling environments and…the separation of player pools are real dangers for professional poker players in small European countries,” comments “Droschopf.” Another poster, “Sjors,” states, “I'm fine with regulating but don't cut off the world. Playing against people on the other side of the globe and having traffic around the clock is what makes online poker great.”

With the Belgian laws signed into effect, there is a great deal of pressure on the EU to formalize an agreement on online gaming and poker for the continent. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest.

The Top Winners and Losers of 2009

Below are summaries of the top five money earners, and top five losers of the year, including a month-by-month graph of their results.

To see more stats and hand replays from throughout the year, head to MarketPulse.

Patrik Antonius

It only makes sense to have the year’s top earner at the top of the list, so without further ado, we bring you the 2009 story of Patrik Antonius.

Patrik Antonius just might have hit the life jackpot. He was at one-time a model and tennis pro, before becoming one of the most respected, and feared, poker players in the world. He made the list of the top 10 top profit earners in 2007 under the username FinddaGrind with over $1.3 million earned.

In 2008, he made another $1.3 million, this time as part of Team Full Tilt.

This January Antonius made over $2 million and never dropped below that point. His year was filled with million dollar swings, but in the end, the Finnish pro always found a way to come out good.

On top of being the most profitable player on the year, Antonius was also busy breaking the records for the largest pots ever played online. Despite all of his profits, Antonius has fallen behind in the durrrr Challenge and needs to make close to $1 million in the second half to have a chance.

However, he finished 2009 as the top earner with a massive profit of over $8.9 million.

Phil Ivey

This year Phil Ivey has done exactly what Phil Ivey does every year: Win. In 2008, Ivey was the top online earner with over $7.3 million in profit. In 2007 he was the third largest earner with $1.9 million and this year he ends in second place with $6.3 million.

His story is the same every year: Any players, any game, any stakes. He’ll sit, and most of the time he’ll win. But even Ivey isn’t immune to the swings, starting off the year in the red he had to spend a couple of months getting back to even.

After an $800k loss in May, it was pretty much profit from that point on. Add these winnings to his two WSOP bracelets, Main Event final table appearance and prop bets won, and you have one hell of a good looking year.

Brian Hastings

CardRunners pro Brian Hastings has had one of the most interesting years out of anyone online. He started the year with a backing deal for playing the nose-bleed stakes against Gus Hansen.

Even with Hansen bleeding chips for months, Hastings struggled to get even for the majority of the year, finally showing a profit come August.

Come the end of November, it started to look as though Hastings would be having a positive year, but nothing too spectacular, or worth talking about. That was until he sat down with Isildur1 for possibly the biggest session in online poker history.

By the end of the single session with the game’s most explosive player, Hastings had made $4.2 million in profit; effectively ending Isildur1’s run at Full Tilt’s high-stakes tables.

The win was steeped in controversy when information came to light that Hastings, along with two fellow CardRunners pros Brian Townsend and Cole South, merged their hand history databases together to allow for an in-depth study of Isildur1’s heads up game.

For the full scoop on this controversy, head to: Full Tilt Suspends Brian Townsend.

theASHMAN103

Ashton “theASHMAN103” Griffin is only 20 years old, and began playing poker seriously in high-school. His downfall has always been bankroll management and tilt issues.

After a series of massive swings he went broke right at the beginning of the year, but Griffin finally got his head in the right spot coming in to April of 2009 when he was forced to get a stake to get back in the game.

Thanks to winning a prop bet for making $500k playing nothing higher than $25/$50 No-Limit immediately before the event was set to start, Griffin was able to enter into the $25k heads-up shootout, which he went on to win for another $500k.

Griffin’s heater continued over the next two months going from broke to the fifth most profitable player on the year. To read a full interview with Griffin about his heater, and life in poker, head to: Ashman103: The Interview Transcript.

Ilari Sahamies

Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies is one of the most well-known and entertaining online players in the world. Above all else he seems to have a love for gambling with sick amounts of money.

For a few days, Sahamies had convinced a few of the nosebleed players to convert the $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tables into $3,000/$9,000. Along with all the massive flips Sahamies played over the year, it’s safe to say he is the biggest gambler at the tables.

But despite his love for gambling, Ziigmund is still one of the most profitable players in the world. The occasional swing aside, Ziigmund’s graph is mostly un-eventful, hovering around the $2-$3 million mark for the majority of the year.

It wasn’t until Ziigmund set his sights on Isildur1 that his graph took a violent swing upwards. After taking a few million from the unknown player, Ziigmund finished his year up an impressive $3.2 million.

Isildur1

True identity still unknown, Isildur1 showed up on the poker scene Sept. 16. He splashed around in medium to high-stakes for about a month before starting to take shots in the nosebleed games.

The true story of Isildur1 started on Nov. 7 when he began his first serious upswing by crushing well known players like Haseeb Qureshi and UgotaBanana. After these wins, Isildur1 seemed fearless, willing to play anyone at any stakes.

Soon Isildur1 set his sights on Tom “durrrr” Dwan and over the next three days he absolutely destroyed him for over $4 million. At his highest point on Nov. 15^, Isildur1 sat with over $5 million in profit, only to lose it all, mostly to Ivey and Antonius, by the 21^st.

After making another quick run back up to almost $3 million in just one week, Isildur1 began his largest downswing.

It was during the downswing where Isildur1 shattered all the records for the largest pots of all time. He first broke the record with an $878k pot versus Patrik Antonius, only to break that record a few days later losing the first pot worth over a million at $1,356,947. 

Mostly a result of losing over $4.2 million in a single session to Brian Hastings, Isildur1 saw his roll get almost entirely crushed, sitting down over $2 million for the remainder of the month.

With his only hands being played at the medium stakes tables, it appears at this point as if Isildur1’s run at the highest stakes games online is through.

David Benyamine

In 2008, David Benyamine was the sixth most profitable online player in the world. He finished the year having made almost $3 million profit and had snagged himself one of the most beautiful girls in poker, Erica Schoenberg.

At the very end of 2008, Full Tilt Poker dropped Benyamine as a red-name pro. As a result, he began 2009 playing under the username “MR B 2 U SON”. He played under that username until July of 2009 when his Team Full Tilt status was re-instated.

At the time of the username switch, Benyamine was down $731,128 on the year. Things continued to get worse for the French pro as he struggled throughout 2009, finishing down $2.9 million. To top it all off, many sources have reported an end to his relationship with Schoenberg.

All in all, 2009 might just have been the worst year in Benyamine’s career.

LarsLuzak

Sami “LarsLuzak” Kelopuro is a 22-year-old Finnish poker pro who showed up on the high-stakes scene in 2007. He made over a million dollars in both 2007 and 2008, plus a rumored large profit from $250/$500 No-Limit sessions played on Betfair poker.

Despite hopes of cementing his name as one of the top players in the world, 2009 turned out to be a complete disaster for Kelopuro.

Starting the year with an $810k loss, Kelopuro was almost able to grind his way back to even in February before beginning a landslide of losses.

At no point in 2009 did Kelopuro show a profit, despite his continued efforts at the games highest stakes. After reaching nearly $4 million in losses on the year, Kelopuro disappeared from the high-stakes games, sparking rumors of a busted bankroll.

With a laundry list of impressive results from both cash games and tournaments, it’s safe to assume the poker world will hear more from Kelopuro in 2010.

Tom “durrrr” Dwan

Tom Dwan has to be considerd one of the most entertaining poker players in the world. As a result, there has been more time spent talking about Dwan in 2009 than any other online player.

His year began by losing over $4 million in the first two months, only to grind back up to over $1.4 million in profit just four months later. However, the massive swings were only one of Dwan’s many stories on the year.

The first came with the introduction of the durrrr Challenge. After almost two months of speculation and rumors, Patrik Antonius stepped up as the first competitor, and the challenge was underway.

After a short period of consistent play between the two competitors, the Challenge took a hiatus as both players chose to focus on busting a new fish splashing around at the highest stake tables available.

It didn’t take Dwan, and the rest of the online regulars, long to bust a new fish calling himself Martonas, and the challenge seemed as if it would resume.

But it wasn’t long before another new face showed up on the scene and began stirring the pot. Luke “fullflush1” Schwartz proved to be as strong at the table as he was mouthy, focusing the majority of his insults at Dwan, including the now infamous “cork it durrrrballs”.

Schwartz successfully made over $700k at the tables before cashing out, and buying a house with his profits.

The next big story for Dwan came with the third unknown player to splash around in the big game. Unfortunately for Dwan, this player, Isildur1, would end up taking him for over $5 million, before giving it all away to everyone else.

Shortly after losing the majority of his online roll, Dwan became the newest member of Team Full Tilt, and began grinding his way back towards even. By the end of 2009 Dwan had brought himself back to -$4.3 million from his November low point of -$6.8 million.

On the bright side, he is ahead in the durrrr Challenge by over $937k.

Gus Hansen

This year’s story for Gus Hansen is simple: He made $3 million in the first month, mostly off Tom Dwan, then proceeded to lose almost exclusively for the remainder of the year. Although there were months in which he showed a profit, Hansen’s graph on the year is anything but encouraging.

Due to his consistent negative results, Hansen has become one of the most popular online players amongst the other regular high-stakes grinders. As he explained in an interview with PokerListings, the high-stakes games on Full Tilt simply follow him from table to table.

As a result, Hansen chose to play almost exclusively 7-Game for the remainder of the year, at times killing absolutely all high-stakes action for all other variants.

For a look into high-stakes, and how some of the other players in the game view Hansen, head to: State of the High Stakes Poker Nation.

Visit PokerListings.com

Eric Baldwin Joins UB

The signing comes just days after Baldwin secured CardPlayer’s Player of the Year honors with 6,994 POY points and $1.5 million in tournament winnings including a WSOP bracelet in 2009.

So far this year, UB has signed Joe Sebok, Billy Kopp, Brandon Cantu and Liv Boeree.

“I am eager to be a part of UB’s new brand direction,” said Baldwin. “I carefully weighed my sponsorship opportunities over the last couple months and after meeting with UB officials and the Team UB pros, it’s very clear that UB is the perfect fit.”

Baldwin has only been playing poker for a few years, but in that time he has built a reputation as an extremely talented player at both live and online tournaments.

He has already recorded victories at the WSOP, the Venetian Deep Stack and the WPT Five Diamond series.

Baldwin has also won a number of major online tournaments including the Full Tilt Sunday $750k Guaranteed, the Bodog $100k guaranteed and PokerStars Super Tuesday.

In total, Baldwin has amassed over $2.6 million in tournament winnings.

“Eric Baldwin isn’t just a new UB.com pro, he is UB,” said Annie Duke, UB’s cardroom consultant. “Eric loves the game more than anything else in the world, he plays to win, and he’s respected for his passion at the tables. We really couldn’t be more ecstatic to have the Player of the Year on our team.”

You will be able to find Baldwin on UB tables under the username "eric_baldwin." Online players at UB can use the site’s buddy list feature to find out where he is playing at any time of the day.

Visit PokerListings.com

Full Tilt Suspends Brian Townsend

The allegations, which claimed Cole South, Brian Hastings and Townsend colluded to cheat Isildur1 out of millions, began almost immediately after Brian Hastings’ one-day $4.2 million dollar win against the unknown Swede.

The first public comments made by any of the accused came from an ESPN.com interview with Hastings and Townsend after Hastings’ big win.

According to Hastings, the three players worked together to understand and find weaknesses in Isildur1’s game.

"Honestly, I give most of the credit to Brian Townsend here. I mean, Brian is honestly the hardest worker I know in poker,” Hastings told ESPN.

“He analyzed a database of heads-up hands that Isildur1 had played and constructed ranges of what Isildur1 was doing in certain spots. The three of us discussed a ton of hands and the reports that Brian made, so I'm very thankful to him and to Cole as well."

When it comes to sharing hands and information on opposing players, Full Tilt’s terms and conditions are very clear:

“Full Tilt Poker defines an unfair advantage as a user accessing or compiling information on other players beyond that which the user has personally observed through his or her own game play” (from item #8 of the Full Tilt T&C).

Townsend has taken full responsibility for the infraction, and through his blog clearly explained exactly what his infraction consisted of.

“I had about 20k hands of play on Isildur and I acquired another 30k hands” wrote Townsend.

“Of the three I was the sole one to break the T&C of Full Tilt. The three of us never shared hands where mucked hands were shown besides a few hands I posted on weaktight.org, and in fact all the information I received could be taken from watching the game.”

In layman’s terms, Townsend combined his own showdown hand histories with another 30,000 hands from South and Hastings to run definitive reports and queries on Isildur1’s game, allowing detailed strategic discussions between Hastings, South and himself, which directly led to Hastings having the successful session he did.

"At that level, to be successful, you really have to take advantage of the little things," Hastings told ESPN. "They can help make the difference. That's why [analysis and discussion] is so important."

The actual breach of Full Tilt’s T&C’s is considered a relatively small one, which the majority of serious online players are assumed to commit daily using software or websites to acquire or view hand histories from hands they were not specifically a part of. These histories do not share any private information and can be found through multiple sources, including PokerListings' own MarketPulse section.

As a result, Full Tilt decided to suspend Townsend’s Red Pro status on the site for a period of 30 days. It is assumed that during this suspension Townsend will no longer receive any of the benefits or rewards from being a Red Pro, potentially costing the online pro thousands of dollars.

As for the allegations of collusion, ghosting and multi-accounting, Townsend denies all claims.

“Cole, Hastings and I live about 3000 miles from each other," he wrote. "I have never played on Brian H's or Cole S's account.

When it comes to the issue of conglomerating hand histories, Townsend said that is simply not what happened.

"I analyzed the database I put together, and the three of us chatted about my analysis, and optimal strategy against Isildur," he wrote. "Any discussion we had occurred away from the table when we were not playing a session.”

Townsend was first suspended by Full Tilt for six months in 2008 after he admitted to moving down in stakes and playing under a secondary username "Stellarnebula".

He at no time played under mulitple usernames at the same table, but it is against the site's terms and conditions to have more than one active account at any time.

As of the time of publication Townsend ($1.5 mil), South ($210k) and Hastings ($3.8 mil) have taken a combined total of over $5.6 million from Isildur1.

As a result, Isildur1 currently sits with over $2.6 million in losses on the year, and appears to have either lost his roll or spirit. The Swede's last session came Sunday, resulting in a $25k loss from games as low as $10/$20 Pot-Limit Omaha.

Visit PokerListings.com

Joe Cada Meets with More than 10 Lawmakers on Capitol Hill Visit

As the newest ambassador of the game, 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion Joe Cada met with more than 10 Congressmen on Capitol Hill on Monday in a visit sponsored by the Poker Players Alliance (PPA).

Cada could be found speaking with Representative Linda Sanchez (D-CA), Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Representative Allen Boyd (D-FL), Representative Kendrick Meek (D-FL), Representative Steve Cohen (D-TN), Representative Candice Miller (R-MI), Representative Joe Barton (R-TX), Representative Dean Heller (R-NV), Representative Gary Peters (D-MI), Representative Shelley Berkley (D-NV), and Senator Carl Levin (D-MI). Cada hails from Michigan and met with his two Senators and local Representative throughout the whirlwind one-day affair.

PPA Executive Director John Pappas told Poker News Daily, “There were a number of really good visits with lawmakers like Joe Barton and Linda Sanchez, who are avid poker players, so they got to talk a little poker and a little policy. Throughout the day, he probably met another half-dozen members of Congress.” Congressman Heller brought Cada onto the floor of the House of Representatives during a vote, giving the youngster a unique opportunity to witness the democratic process first-hand.

On Capitol Hill, Cada and his entourage bumped into Senator John Ensign (R-NV) and had a five-minute long conversation. Ensign serves as the counterpart to Harry Reid (D-NV), the current Senate Majority Leader. On Cada’s parade around Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Pappas commented, “He doesn’t have the recognition that other pros we bring do, but he's just becoming a face on the scene. He was great from our perspective. He wasn't here to do the hard sell on public policy; he was here to give a good face to poker and tell his story.”

Cada became the youngest WSOP Main Event winner ever at age 21 in November, eclipsing Peter Eastgate’s standing record by one year. Cada and Eastgate are both card-carrying members of Team PokerStars Pro, which also includes other World Champions like Chris Moneymaker (2003), Greg Raymer (2004), and Australian Joe Hachem (2005). A bevy of news outlets met with Cada during the day, including Politico, The Hill, and Roll Call, popular Capitol Hill publications.

On the future of Cada’s relationship with the PPA, Pappas told Poker News Daily, “When we do fly-ins and other events, we want to be able to work with him and have him be a face for us in Washington, D.C. We'd love for him to continue to promote the PPA to the poker playing community, particularly to the younger online players who look up to Joe. He recognizes the importance of what we’re doing.” Cada’s post-WSOP Main Event media appearances have included the “Late Show with David Letterman” and ESPN’s “SportsCenter.” He’s also featured on the current cover of Bluff Magazine.

Next up for Cada is a trip to Las Vegas, where he will donate a two-hour training session to the prize pool of the All In For CP charity poker tournament, which will be held at the Hard Rock. Cada told Poker News Daily, "The PPA really treated me like a champion and made my stay very enjoyable. It was awesome meeting various politicians, especially the ones from Michigan. I placed third in John Pappas' home game, which was a huge cash for me of $110. I'm looking forward to supporting the PPA in the fight. Next stop: Bellagio."

Next up for the PPA is a push to pass legislation to legalize and regulate online poker in the United States. Pappas revealed, “We've built a lot of momentum at the end of the year and anticipate a Committee vote on HR 2267 in late January or early February. Right now, we're focusing on the targets we need to get this legislation through.” HR 2267, proposed by Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA), provides a framework for online gaming companies to solicit U.S. customers. It boasts 63 co-sponsors.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest headlines from Capitol Hill.

Chess Prodigy Checkmates EPT

At eight years old, Canadian Jeff Sarwer won the Under 10 World Youth Chess Championship in Puerto Rico.

By the time he was nine, he was travelling around North America taking on 40 players at a time in a series of simultaneous chess demonstrations, playing the world’s best speed chess hustlers in New York’s Washington Square and earning himself a lifetime membership in the revered Manhattan Chess Club.

He quickly became a darling of the media, was pegged by Grand Masters as a future World Champion and even became the inspiration for a character in the famed poker film Searching For Bobby Fischer.

But it all came to a crashing halt.

His father pulled him out of chess and the alternative lifestyle he had them living, including refusing to enroll Sarwer and his sister in school and having them sleep in the car as they travelled around, came under intense scrutiny.

Canadian authorities soon removed Sarwer and his sister from their father’s care, but they ran away to be reunited with him, spending the better part of the next 20 years in anonymity, traveling around Europe under a cloud of secrecy.

“I had a pretty tough childhood,” Sarwer said. “My father was quite controlling. But he was a really interesting character and there are a lot of good sides to him as well. As an adult I’ve just called it a wash and moved on with my life.”

In 2007 he resurfaced on the chess scene entering a tournament in Poland, where he now lives.

However, the 31-year-old was soon bitten by the poker bug.

“I’ve always loved poker as a game,” he said. “It has gotten so popular over the last couple of years it just finally grabbed me as well. Poker is all over TV, all my friends play. So I just figured let’s get into this, it’s a fun game.”

Sarwer read Harrington on Hold 'em by 1995 WSOP Main Event champion Dan Harrington and headed for Prague to play in the PokerStars European Poker Tour’s annual Czech Republic stop last year.

“I really knew nothing but the basics,” he said. “But I did manage to cash, so that was good for my confidence.”

The €7,000 he earned for a 54th place finish was just the start. By February of this year he had managed to make the final table at the European Masters of Poker event in Tallinn, finishing third for €29,760.

He booked a few small cashes in lower buy-in events across Europe and then this October, things really seemed to click as he absolutely dominated play at EPT Warsaw before busting tenth.

But Sarwer would not have to wait long for a real breakthrough.

Just a few weeks later he made the final table at EPT Vilamoura, finishing third for €156,170.

“I’ve developed and I think I just started to realize exactly what’s going on here,” he explained. “All I needed was a few good conversations with some really good players in order to get my game there.

“My confidence has always been up there. I believe in admitting I’m wrong when I’m wrong, but genuine confidence, I have that from chess and from life.”

When it comes to poker, it appears his chess background has given Sarwer a lot more than confidence. He believes there are several parallels between the two games.

“There are a lot of similarities and a lot of things that are different,” he said. “The things that are similar include having to pay attention, gather information and think a few moves ahead about what types of moves people will do, what your opponent is feeling and what he’s thinking. All that stuff is a little bit like chess.

“Certainly at a Master level, or a decent level of chess, there is a lot of meta game and that transfers over to poker for me.”

And while Sarwer’s poker experience is still quite limited, he has already grasped that the game is infinitely more intricate than it appears on the surface.

“In chess you can see things on the surface, look three or four moves deep, and eventually you are going to lose when someone traps you into something less obvious,” he said. “It’s the same with poker. You can just play ABC and not pay attention to what’s happening at the table and somebody is eventually going to catch you.”

While experience and a willingness to learn from others have played a big role in Sarwer’s recent success, he also attributes it to a newfound aggression.

“I’ve really opened up and become quite an aggressive player,” he said. “A lot of chess players tend to be a bit nittier and more technical. I just don’t happen to play that way right now because it’s not in my character.”

After an up and down day on the EPT Prague felt Thursday, Sarwer eventually busted, ending his string of deep finishes on the EPT.

But despite business commitments in Poland and the fact he claims he’s still just a “poker hobbyist” and not a professional player, it appears his new found love for the game will keep him coming back.

“I’ve made a lot of good friends amongst the online players,” he said. “They have that rare combination of being sharp, analytical and fun. The top poker players all seem to have that and I have a lot in common with that mindset.

“I love hanging around them. I’m nowhere near the top yet and I suppose it’s still too early to tell if I’ll make it there, but we’ll see.”

PokerStars EPT Prague continues with Day 3 Friday. For comprehensive coverage from the Czech Republic, tune into PokerListings’ Live Updates.

Visit PokerListings.com

National Council on Problem Gambling Head Discusses Internet Research

Given that compliance with the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) has been delayed six months to June 1st, 2010, research on the effects of online gaming may now take center stage as lawmakers craft sensible legislation. At the helm of the National Council on Problem Gambling is Keith Whyte, who sat down with Poker News Daily to discuss the internet side of problem gambling research.

In June, Congressmen Jim Moran (D-VA), Lee Terry (R-NE), and Frank Wolf (R-VA) introduced HR 2906, the Comprehensive Problem Gambling Act. The bill boasts 26 co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle and allocates $71 million over five years for problem gambling awareness, research, and treatment. Its language was incorporated into Senator Robert Menendez’s (D-NJ) S 1597, the Internet Poker and Game of Skill Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act.

Poker News Daily: Thank you for joining us. Talk a little bit about the differences between live and online problem gambling research.

Whyte: A lot of the research we have is not online and there may be some significant differences between online and live players. When we think about online players, one of the ways I try to break it down is to look at the risk factors for gambling problems: high speed of play, social isolation, use of credit cards, higher limits, and easy access. Those can all be found in the online arena. All of the studies have found that internet gambling users tend to be younger and male. Also cited is that online gamblers are not necessarily losing a lot of money; they are just on there 14 hours a day to the detriment of their work and family life. Problem gambling is not just about the money.

PND: Online gamblers have access to a wide variety of options like poker, blackjack, sports, and casino carnival games. Does that increase, decrease, or not affect the propensity for problem gambling to occur?

Whyte: It’s a pretty robust finding that the more types of things you gamble on, the more likely you are to have a gambling problem. The fact that online gamblers tend to play more types of games means that they are more likely to develop a gambling problem.

PND: Is an online problem gambling study in the works?

Whyte: As we work on Capitol Hill, there are a lot of people asking questions about the online environment. One of the reasons we haven’t done the research is funding and resources. As an advocacy organization for programs that assist problem gamblers, a lot of our focus is on prevention and treatment. For example, we’re still trying to build a safety net for problem gamblers at the state level. We are keen on trying to understand this better and I’d like to see the National Council in a position to support that research.

PND: Have any online poker or internet gambling sites come to you looking for research or offering assistance?

Whyte: bwin has collaborated with Harvard University. Other examples have included the involvement of eCOGRA, but it’s nothing that we’ve done directly.

PND: Will regulation of the industry through a bill like Congressman Barney Frank’s (D-MA) HR 2267, the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection, and Enforcement Act, deter problem gambling?

Whyte: That’s one of the concerns we have at the state level right now. We have no confirmation that regulated gambling is more responsible; it’s how that regulation is done. We’ve had problems with state governments not collecting and releasing information, which makes it much more difficult for us to act.

Russian pro breaks the world record for the most hands played in a day

It’s a given that online players rack up more hands than their bricks and mortar counterparts. Russian pro “innerpsy” has taken that maxim to its extreme by breaking the world record for the most hands played in a 24-hour period.

Isildur1’s plan “revealed”

Now, after we’ve followed the insane action between Isildur1 and Tom “durrrr” Dwan, it’s time to expose how Isildur1 managed to make his way from a total nobody into one of the greatest online players. We found this article on the internet so the following text is purely fictional, thus we do not take any responsibility of it. And yes, we have the permission to use it and we wish to thank the writer from it.

Ice cold facts:

• Isildur1 is still a mystery, he seemed to pop out from total emptiness
• He is willing to challenge the world’s best players
• He insists to play only against Tom Dwan
• He demands at least six $500/1000 tables to be played simultaneously
• Plays insanely long sessions
• Wants to continue after a really short break

There’s really only two choices: 1) he is some total mental case, or he is a super talented genius; 2) Swedish top pros have set up a cunning plan.

Choice 2, or How to Beat durrrr - Part 1, Target Acquired; Lock & Load

One has to choose a subject who will not give up easily, Dwan fits the profile excellently. He doesn’t get scared after losing big time and is willing to continue even while losing - also a huge bankroll won’t do any harm.

Then one has to gather up a team of best players in their country - few mathematicians can’t be bad either. Data mine all the hands the subject has played during the past years and begin to analyze. One needs to dig deeper than just looking at the hands with what Dwan uses to raise. One has to go deep down straight into the subject’s mind, one has to look for patterns about how Dwan’s playstyle and strategies have changed. Go through every hand and analyze them all. Search for certain betting patterns. One has to analyze so far, that one can find the smallest holes and behaviour patterns in his play, thus finding an edge against the subject.

One of the Isildur1 team members analyzing Dwan’s brain matter

After going through the hands one has to create tens and hundreds of different approaches, strategies and tactics to counter Dwan. One has to build up an analytic and mathematical approach to Dwan’s play. Build a model which will give the edge against every hand Dwan plays.

This phase will take months to complete.

How to beat durrrr - Part 2, Operation Milk the Cow ’til it Bleeds

One has to gather up the top players and then demand their money to create a collective bankroll. Then the group rents an apartment to where they will build their headquarters. Create a new account to Full Tilt Poker and challenge the subject. Demand at least six tables to be played.

While one lures Dwan into the trap, 4-6 other players will make the calls by looking at the data they analyzed earlier. Each one of the group can monitor 1-2 tables, all of the though situations, Dwan’s overall mood and playstyle must be decided collectively. After the read is made, commence the exhausting grind.

Team Isildur1 chasing their subject target: durrrr

The team gains edge over Dwan by knowing Dwan’s every move. The team has multiple minds over the subject’s mind. Because Dwan has to play multiple tables simultaneously, one must now take the advantage. Team’s chosen players must make hasty plays, thus creating pressure unto Dwan. Thus begins the critical part; the team must lure Dwan to play too long sessions, that the subject will be too exhausted to play his best game. Tired player makes more mistakes; the more mistakes the subject makes, the more the team profits. By having a large team, there will be no tired team players.

The subject will be heated up, tired up and by doing the background work, one knows that the subject will not give up. Now the team must pump out every cent Dwan has before he realizes what hit him.

Proceed to the next victim. Rinse & repeat.

Original story can be found in Finnish at Pokerista.fi

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Isildur1’s plan “revealed”

The Online Railbird Report: Dwan Loses Over a Million, Isildur1 Keeps Taking Shots

It was a rollicking week at the virtual tables, as the high-stakes action continued to be driven by Swedish mystery man “Isildur1”, who kept challenging top online players to multitable heads-up matches. While Isildur1 was busy playing the...

Best Poker Twitter Accounts You’re Probably Not Following

The Twitterverse is a vast and sometimes scary place.  With so many people microblogging the minutiae of their everyday lives, it is often difficult to find Twitter accounts that are genuinely worth reading.  For every active celebrity, there are a half-dozen who only Tweet about what they had for dinner.

In other words, just because someone is famous doesn’t mean their tweets will keep you rapidly hitting refresh on your cell phone or laptop.  The same can be said for the celebrities of the poker world, whose tweets range from chip counts to outrageous stories from debauchery-filled nights on the Las Vegas Strip.  Since it seems as though every poker player around has opened up a Twitter account, we here at Poker News Daily have taken it upon ourselves to point out some quality feeds for your reading pleasure.

We’ll assume you are aware of the biggies.  With more than 943,000 followers, you’ve more than likely already added Joe Sebok (@JoeSebok) to your list of poker-related Tweeters.  Doyle Brunson, known to Tweeters as @TexDolly, is rapidly approaching 100,000 followers, so we won’t waste your time reiterating how groan-inducing, but funny, his endless string of blonde jokes is.  What we will do is offer up five Twitter accounts from players who may not be the most well-known pros on the circuit, but offer up some quality insight in 140 characters or less.

@basebaldy

This is the time of year when the various Player of the Year races start heating up and a few players in contention start entering every tournament around.  World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin is one such player who has been documenting his progress via his Twitter account.  His tweets not only provide chip counts and updates on his own progress, but also give rundowns of some of the kookier characters he encounters on the felt

Choice Tweet: “Not sure why I convinced @JonathanLittle to play this 300 with me. It doubled the number of good players in the field.”

@Erik_Seidel

If you think eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel’s Twitter feed will make you a better poker player, think again.  It will instead provide you with a steady stream of chuckles thanks to Seidel’s witty quips on everything from Balloon Boy to President Obama.  His loyal group of 4,000+ followers has already begun to spread the word about the joys of Seidel’s dry sense of humor and eagerly await his Tweets, which crop up once every couple of days.

Choice Tweet: “T-Mobile Sidekick has lost all customer data. Andy Richter, Paul Shaffer + Tom Arnold also reported missing”

@RoothlusUncut

The brainchild of poker pro Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer, @RoothlusUncut is composed entirely of quotes from Ultimate Bet sponsored pro Adam “Roothlus” Levy.  Ranging from the comical to the absurd, @RoothlusUncut’s tweets will often leave you more than curious about what conversation and situation could possibly produce them.  Unfortunately, Levy’s relocation to Los Angeles has left the account idle for the past couple of months, but the concept is such a good idea that we simply couldn’t let it go unmentioned.

Choice Tweet: “I just looked up the last google I did…Jane Seymour’s age”

@allenkessler

While the Twitter updates from Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler filling the world in on his latest bad beats are entertaining in their own right, what is perhaps even more fun is reading the tweets of those who talk back to him.  Whether it is Kessler arguing with tournament director Matt Savage or exchanging pleasantries with the growing contingent of online players who think of Kessler as a cult hero of sorts, the banter is what really makes his feed so fun.  There is also the added bonus of hearing updates from tournaments at smaller venues that do not always receive mainstream poker media coverage.

Choice Tweet: “If anyone is hungry I have a 200 comp at ago restaurant at the hard rock”

@Maridu

In order to fully appreciate Team PokerStars Pro Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck’s Twitter feed, you need a working knowledge of Portugese.  The Brazilian pro switches back and forth between her native tongue and English as she posts updates on herself and other South American pros like Alexandre Gomes and Andre Akkari.  Following Mayrinck on Twitter can also be a profitable venture, as she recently offered $10 on PokerStars to the person who gave her the best Halloween costume idea.  Always one to get a conversation going, Mayrinck keeps it lively and interactive like a good Twitter account should be.

Choice Tweet: “i long for a world where chickens can cross roads without being questioned about their motives…”

This list is certainly not all-inclusive and we’ll continue to scour the internet for more top Twitterers, but for those looking to kill some time while grinding online, these are a good place to start.

Townsend beats Dwan out of $200k

Earlier this year it would have been hard to place Brian "Sbrugby" Townsend amongst the top online players in the world. The Full Tilt pro had been losing consistently and couldn't seem to make a big score.

By spending the whole year grinding his way through the lower limits, Townsend has only recently made his way back to the spotlight and Full Tilt's high-stakes tables.

For all the Sbrugby lovers out there, it appears as if Townsend's losing streak is over and his roll is once again large enough to put him back into the big games.

Last night Townsend sat for 200 hands of heads-up $200/$400 Pot-Limit Omaha against Dwan and the session was almost entirely one sided. Even though Dwan won the biggest pot, worth $144k, Townsend won the next eight pots on the list.

The largest pot of the session came as a gift to Dwan, getting it all in after flopping a full house. Townsend stood little chance of catching up with just two outs to a better hand.

The second and third largest pots show Townsend playing extremely well, and grabbing enough luck to hit once, and hold once, both times taking Dwan's full stack.

At the end of the night, Dwan had left having lost just under $200k, while Townsend went on to play 50 hands against high-stakes regular OnTheRize finishing with a $286k profit.

In H.O.R.S.E. action, Phil Ivey lost over $330k, nearly a third of his profit from yesterday's blow out. Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies claimed the top spot of the night collecting most of Ivey's losses for a final figure of $336k.

Patrik Antonius was also in the mix, netting himself $168k, while Phil "OMGClayAiken" Galfond lost over $100k in the game.

Here are the three largest pots of the night between Dwan and Townsend, to see more hands of Omaha and Hold'em, click over to the PokerListings MarketPulse page.

I say to myself, what a wonderful flop.

Townsend could not have played this better.

It's amazing this hand held.

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Cake Poker Announces New Tournament Schedule, Mobile Option Improvements

One of the top online poker sites in the industry, Cake Poker, has announced that it is making changes in two critical areas of its product.

On Monday, Cake Poker announced the start of a new multi-table tournament schedule. These changes, which will be implemented incrementally, were a direct result of analysis of some of Cake’s competitors’ tournament lineups as well as consultation by Lee Jones (the Card Room Manager of Cake Poker) and noted online players Serge “adanthar” Ravitch and Eric “rizen” Lynch.

“We found the most popular $50 tournament on the Internet and parked our $50 tournament right behind it,” noted Jones, who also is a Guest Columnist for Poker News Daily and detailed some of the changes in a recent article. “Now, our players can play at Cake along with our competitor’s event.” The changes to the multi-table tournaments will be rolled out through the early parts of 2010 and will eventually include a longer late registration period and reduction in the number of rebuy and add-on tournaments. “We are putting much more emphasis on freezeout tournaments rather than on rebuys and add-ons. We believe this is better for most players and they seem to prefer it,” said Jones.

In addition to the ongoing changes in the Cake multi-table tournament lineup, the site is also looking to make changes to its mobile offering. As one of the few online poker rooms that offer the ability to play on your cell phone, Cake Poker is constantly trying to improve the performance of its mobile offering. The changes that have been made make the Cake Poker Mobile a viable option for online poker players who don’t have the ability to get to their computers.

Some of the new features that the Cake Poker Mobile option offers are in the lobby, where the percentage of players seeing the flop has been added. As to the play at the tables, users now have the ability to play with a four-color deck and take advantage of an in-game rebuy option. Future changes to the Cake Poker Mobile option will include Blackberry and Symbian compatibility, a top-down view of the table, and tournament options.

The recent changes have also cured some of the problems that the Cake Poker Mobile option had. Disconnections from the site have been reduced and are handled better than in the past and, if a player is sitting out, the ability to observe the play at the table has been enabled. With these improvements on not only the mobile option, but also on the web site, Cake Poker is looking to offer something for everyone.

The hits continue: martonas drops another $500k

The martonas comeback began with a $200k win on Sunday night. But when the Swedish gambler tried for a repeat the next night, he lost over $500k to Tom "kingsofcards" Marchese and Aaron "aejones" Jones.

If martonas is one thing, he's persistent. Last night he returned to the highest-stakes games online, and for the second night in a row, he managed to get beat out of half a million dollars.

Almost every nosebleed-stakes player in the game could smell the blood in the water, causing an absolute frenzy of action.

In fact, the top 25 pots of the night alone amounted to over $6.1 million wagered.

Patrik Antonius, whose appearances on Full Tilt's tables have been sparse in contrast to last year, has returned with a vengeance, proving once again he is one of the most prolific online players ever.

Last night Antonius was involved in four pots worth over $300k, including the largest pot of the night worth a massive $496,023. Antonius won the top pot by snapping off Marchese's bluff, making a $101k call on the river holding nothing but king-high.

Despite losing the half-million dollar pot, Marchese managed to minimize his losses down to just over $100k.

Playing on the same tables as Antonius and Marchese, POKERBLUFFS picked his spots well, playing fewer hands than his opponents but taking down the majority of those he chose to play.

At the end of the night, POKERBLUFFS finished with an impressive profit of $488k.

On top of all the No-Limit Hold'em action, Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies and Phil Ivey took turns pulling down massive pots while playing heads up $500/$1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha.

Even after winning all five of their largest heads-up pots, Sahamies was unable to leave the table with any more than $150k of Ivey's money. However, by winning some large pots in other games, Sahamies brought his final result on the night to just over $230k.

The night was a complete bust for Ashton "theASHMAN103" Griffin who cut his month's profit of nearly $1 million in half, losing close to $480k playing NLHE.

Regardless of who won or lost over the last few days, one thing is almost certain: As long as martonas continues to return to the tables, the action will be through the roof.

Here are the three largest pots of the night, head to MarketPulse to see the rest:

Both players knew they both had the draw.

$146k on a draw.

A nice turn for Antonius.

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Poker News in Brief: Sept. 21-27

But despite the focus on London there was even more going in the poker world with Jamie Gold having more legal troubles and Yevgeniy Timoshenko taking down yet another major tournament by winning the WCOOP Main Event.

Of course there's always even more going on behind the scenes that doesn't necessarily make it to the front page of PokerListings.com. Fortunately, as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature we've collected a list of those stories below.

This week we'll take a look at the death of a Las Vegas legend, Phil Hellmuth taking a shot at the WSOP, PokerStars potentially adding an online division to their team and poker in politics.

Wyden pulls online gaming amendment

It didn't take long for Senator Ron Wyden to change his mind about a possible amendment that would have seen legalized online gambling revenues go towards healthcare reform in the U.S.

Barely one week after proposing the amendment, Wyden opted to pull it from the table deciding he didn't want to add another controversial issue to the healthcare debate.

Wyden's bill had already gained support from Rep. Jim McDermott, Rep. Barney Frank and Internet gambling advocacy groups like the Safe and Secure Internet Gambling Initiative.

Las Vegas Icon Bob Stupak dies at 67

Bob Stupak, builder of the Stratosphere and a WSOP bracelet winner, died at Desert Springs Hospital on Thursday after a long battle with leukemia.

Stupak was one of the earliest visionaries in Las Vegas and was also responsible for creating Las Vegas world in 1974.

"Bob Stupak was a true visionary and he will be sorely missed," said a statement from the Stratosphere.

Puggy Pearson taught Stupak to play poker and in 1989, Stupak won a WSOP bracelet in the $5,000 Deuce-to-Seven event. Stupak also made the final table of the 2003 WPT's L.A. Poker Classic and put in an appearance on the GSN series High Stakes Poker.

Phil Hellmuth takes shot at WSOP

Phil Hellmuth is arguably the WSOP's most successful player with 11 bracelets, but the UltimateBet pro is hinting he might not play the series if Harrah's opens its own online poker room.

In an appearance on the Hardcore Poker Show, Hellmuth mentioned he thought there was a potential battle brewing between Harrah's and established online rooms like UltimateBet, PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker.

Hellmuth went on to say that if Harrah's decided to restrict competing poker room logos from its competitions there was a possibility that all the players from the major sites would form their own WSOP-style event.

PokerStars adding Online Pro division?

It appears that PokerStars will be adding a primarily online section of its Team Pro roster.

The employee that runs the official PokerStars twitter account tweeted the following Friday:

"Team PokerStars Online Pro is a new branch of our team who'll be playing mainly online not live. Anyone will be able to apply in due course."

Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu re-Tweeted the message.

PokerStars already has some very respectable online players with Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Jason "treysfull21" Mercier and Hevad "RaiNKhaN" Khan all in the Team PokerStars Pro fold.

Bobb Barr speaks out on Internet Gambling

Former House Representative Bob Barr is the latest public figure to comment on the state of online gambling in his Atlanta Journal-Constitution column - the Barr Code.

Barr mentioned that the potentially revenue generated from legalizing, regulating and taxing online poker was becoming harder for the government to ignore.

Barr went on to say it was very likely that Barney Frank's pro-online gambling bill would go before a hearing this fall.

Earlier this year, conservative columnist George Will wrote in his Washington Post column that he supported the legalization of online poker.

Harrah's extends contract with IMG Sports & Entertainment

Harrah's Interactive Entertainment and IMG Sports & Entertainment announced a four-year contract extension for global representation of the WSOP property this week.

According to the agreement, IMG will continue to use its international network to help establish the brand in areas beyond Las Vegas and London.

"We are looking to emphasize the 'World' in World Series of Poker as our vision of the brand extends beyond the annual events in Las Vegas and London," said Mitch Garber, CEO of Harrah's Interactive Entertainment.

"By tapping the global reach and expertise of IMG, we are confident that together we can take the brand to new levels on the international stage through new international bracelet events and other WSOP licensed poker events."

IMG has worked with the WSOP since 2005 and helped attract corporate sponsors like Jack Link's, Hershey's and Planters.

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PokerStars Loses Isabelle Mercier, Gains Field Hockey Star Fatima Moreira De Melo

The roster of sponsored pros at the online poker room PokerStars continues to change, as the company both parted ways with players and signed on new faces during the month of September.  Longtime PokerStars representative Isabelle Mercier of Canada ended her relationship with the site a few weeks ago, but another woman has already been added to the roster.  PokerStars recently announced the signing of Fatima Moreira de Melo, an Olympic gold medal winning field hockey player from Denmark, to its Team PokerStars SportsStars.

News first broke of Mercier’s departure during the European Poker Tour (EPT) Barcelona stop.  The live reporting team and television commentators reported that Mercier, who worked with the online site for five years, was moving on to pursue other projects.  At the time, it was not clear what those projects would entail, but the mystery would be revealed in just a matter of days following the announcement that she was moving on.

On September 18th, the European gambling site Betclick announced Mercier would be serving as its new spokeswoman.  The site, which is primarily known for its sports betting, is aiming to expand its online poker brand and turned to the well-known Mercier to help them do so.  “We are very strong on betting, but poker is not the strongest part of our offering,” said a spokesman in Betclick’s official press release. “The signing of Isabelle Mercier means we will be putting in place a strategy to develop and improve our offering, but this will not be put into action for a few months yet. It is part of our overall project to enhance our poker platform.”

Mercier first rose to poker notoriety when she won Ladies Night II of the World Poker Tour (WPT) in 2004.  On her road to victory, WPT commentator Mike Sexton first referred to her as “No Mercy,” a nickname that has stuck with her to this day.  Prior to her WPT victory, Mercier got her start in poker on the other side of the table.  The French-Canadian law school graduate began as a poker dealer before working her way up to poker room manager and eventually giving it a shot at being a pro herself.  She found success as a pro and, in addition to her Ladies Night win, she has also more recently made an appearance at the EPT London High Roller final table and won the Ante Up for Africa charity event held in conjunction with the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo.

Team PokerStars’ newest face did not start out as a poker player either.  The field hockey star made her claim to fame serving as a striker on the Dutch national team in the 2000, 2004, and 2008 Olympic Games.  She helped lead her team to a gold medal in Beijing, adding to her bronze medal in 2000 and silver medal in 2004.  In addition to her athletic ability, De Melo is known in Denmark for her singing and has performed at several athletic events around Europe.

De Melo will be a part of Team PokerStars SportsStars, an elite group of five athletes who have a passion for card playing.  She is the first female to join the team, which already consists of tennis star Boris Becker, hockey player Mats Sundin, rugby player Sebastien Chabal, and powerboat racer Sami Selio.  In addition to representing PokerStars at live tournaments around the world, De Melo will also play on the online site under the screen name “FatimaDeMelo.”

The room’s official Twitter account recently revealed that it is looking for a group of strictly online players to serve as Team PokerStars Online Pros.  PokerStars will be accepting online applications through October 31st.

Bodog still growling after 15 years

It was 15 years ago that Bodog.com opened its doors to the gaming community and the company has decided to mark the occasion by offering a 15-day tournament series.

Already underway, the 15-Days of Poker Tournament Series consists of daily qualifying events running until Oct. 6.

Each qualifying event begins at 8:15 EST and features a buy-in ranging from $5 to $15. A variety of Hold'em formats are being offered with No-Limit, Pot-Limit, Fixed Limit, Turbo, Super Turbo and Re-Buy events all on the schedule.

In addition to a regular prize pool in each the events, the top 30% of finishers will earn tournament leader points to determine who moves on to the 15 Days of Poker Semi-Final and the $15,000 Final tournament.

"For 15 years, Bodog has been a leader in the online gambling industry, giving players a superior gaming experience while awarding billions in prizes," said Bodog.com poker pro David Williams.

"And Bodog.com's 15 Days of Poker Tournament Series gives online players a fun and profitable way to celebrate this colossal achievement with Bodog."

The top 15 finishers on the 15 Days of Poker leaderboard gain automatic entry directly into the $15,000 Final.

Meanwhile the players who place 16th-115th on the leaderboard will have a shot at the freeroll final if they can make it into the top 15 of the Semi-Final Tournament, which takes place on Oct. 8. Any player that competes in at least 10 qualifying events will also gain entry to the Semi-Final.

The winner of the Semi-Final also gets a seat in the weekly Bodog $100,000 guaranteed tournament while the 14 other highest finishers get a seat in a qualifier for the $100k guaranteed.

The $15,000 Final will take place on Oct. 15 with the prize money distributed in standard tournament fashion. In addition, the top 15 finishers will also get a seat in the $100k guaranteed tournament.

For the complete 15 Days of Poker schedule click here.

In other news, Bodog recently launched its own Facebook account, which will provide fans with news about the company and special promotions. You can check the site out by clicking here.

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Bernard Lee Recaps the 2009 WSOP, ESPN Inside Deal Launch

With the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in the midst of a four month hiatus, the members of the November Nine are currently engaged in the inevitable media onslaught.  Of course, these players are also mentally preparing to return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino to battle for the coveted WSOP Main Event bracelet, the $8.5 million first prize, and instant poker stardom.  This year’s group is led by chip leader Darvin Moon, who has over 25% of the chips on the table, and poker superstar Phil Ivey.

To follow all of the exciting news and behind-the-scenes action, watch ESPN.com’s new weekly poker show, ESPN Inside Deal.  This weekly poker show, which airs online, debuted on Tuesday, August 4th with its first guest, the 2003 WSOP Main Event Champion Chris Moneymaker.  I have significant inside information about this show since I am one of the co-hosts along with ESPN the Magazine contributor Laura Lane.  During the next few months, we will interview members of the 2009 November Nine, while giving the viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the WSOP.  You can send a question to us via e-mail, Twitter, or Facebook.  I hope you will join us each week, as I am sure that you will enjoy the show (look for our version of “This is Sportscenter” commercials).  Visit ESPN.com/InsideDeal or ESPN.com and search “Inside Deal”.

Beyond the November Nine, this year’s WSOP was known for its multiple bracelet winners, four to be exact.  Each player had their own interesting story prior to their incredible summer.  Here is a brief recap of each of them:

Jeffrey Lisandro (2009 WSOP Player of the Year and winner of three bracelets)

In 2007, Lisandro was still on the BPWB (Best Player Without a Bracelet) list.  However, later that summer, he was able to remove himself from this dubious group, which currently includes Andy Bloch, Michael Binger, Michael Mizarchi, Gavin Smith, Gus Hansen, Patrik Antonius, and Jonathan Little, among others. Lisandro captured the win in Event #32 ($2,000 Seven Card Stud), outlasting 212 other players and taking home $118,426.  However, this year he outdid himself, winning three WSOP bracelets and capturing 2009 WSOP Player of the Year honors.  Positioning himself as one of the best Seven Card Stud players of all-time, Lisandro won all three bracelets in variations of this classic game (Event #16, $1,500 Seven Card Stud; Event #37, $10,000 Seven Card Stud 8 or Better; and Event #44, $2,500 Razz).  Oh, by the way, Lisandro also finished ninth in Event #6, $10,000 Seven Card Stud.  In total, he cashed six times this summer, pocketing over $800,000.

Greg Mueller (Winner of two Limit Hold’em bracelets)

This former professional hockey player from Canada had been a bridesmaid in back-to-back years at the WSOP.  In 2007, Mueller finished second in Event #1, $5,000 Mixed Hold’em, to Steve Billirakis, who still holds the record for being the youngest WSOP bracelet winner.  In 2008, he came ever so close again, this time losing to Phillip Tom in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout.  However, the third time was a charm, as he captured Event #33, $10,000 Limit Hold’em.  I had the pleasure of witnessing this victory first-hand, as I was the lead commentator on ESPN360.com.  The most critical pot occurred three-handed against the chip leader at the time, Chad Brown.  Mueller 4bet Brown, who made a crying call with an ace-high flush.  However, Mueller turned over a straight flush, allowing him to take over the chip lead.  From that moment on, he never looked back and took home his first bracelet along with $460,836.  However, he was not done for the summer, as he captured a second bracelet just 11 days later, when he took down Event #50, $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout, and another $194,909. Congratulations to a solid player and gentleman at the tables.

Brock Parker (Winner of two Six-Handed Hold’em bracelets)

Well-known online for years as “t soprano,” this 27 year-old from Maryland made his mark in live tournaments this summer at the 2009 WSOP.  Beginning with Event #14, $2,500 Limit Hold’em Six-Handed, Parker outlasted the popular Daniel Negreanu heads-up, capturing his first WSOP bracelet and $223,688.  Amazingly, three days later, Parker found himself at another WSOP final table, this time at Event #19, $2,500 No Limit Hold’em Six-Handed.  Ten hours later, he had outlasted 1,067 other players and won his second bracelet in back-to-back events, cashing for 552,745.  Who says that online players can’t make the transition to live poker?

Phil Ivey (Winner of two bracelets and member of the 2009 November Nine):

Nicknamed the “Tiger Woods of Poker,” Ivey entered the 2009 WSOP with five bracelets; however, he had not won any hardware since 2005.  He ended his dry spell this summer with a vengeance.  First, Ivey captured Event #8, $2,500 No Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball, becoming the youngest player to own six WSOP bracelets.  Nine days later, he rewrote the history books once again, becoming the youngest ever to capture seven, prevailing in Event #25, $2,500 Omaha 8 or Better/ Seven Card Stud 8 or Better.  Ivey then outlasted nearly 6,500 players to earn a spot in the 2009 November Nine.  Amazingly, he has finished in 23rd place or better in the WSOP Main Event four times in the past eight years - 2002 (23rd place), 2003 (10th place), 2005 (20th place), and 2009 (at least ninth place).  Simply remarkable!  If he does capture the 2009 WSOP Main Event, it will amazingly be his first No Limit Hold’em bracelet and will surely cement his legacy as one of the best players of all-time.

As for me, my second WSOP trip and Main Event were filled with more bad beat stories.  There is no need to elaborate any further.  Suffice it to say, I did not have a good 2009 WSOP.  Oh well, there is always next year.

And as a final note, don’t forget to listen to my radio show, The Bernard Lee Poker Show, on RoundersRadio.com on Tuesday nights from 7:00pm to 8:00pm ET and repeated throughout the week.  Upcoming guests will include Tom McEvoy, winner of the 2009 WSOP Champions Invitational, and members of the November Nine.

Scott Ian Hosting 2nd Online Home Game at Ultimate Bet.

Rockers are reuniting once again to compete in Scott Ian's second annual Home Game, which in actuality will be played online at Ultimate Bet. This is the second home game that the Anthrax guitarist has hosted at UltimateBet and a few seats are up for grabs for online players to ...

Titan’s Monthly Million Series starts next month

Online players have another chance to win a $1m prize this time thanks to Titan Poker. Their inaugural $1,000,000 Guaranteed Prize Tournament takes place at 7pm on Sunday 13th September 2009. The buy in for the event is $500+$35 with satellites starting from just $1+10c.

durrrr finds million dollar challenger

London's own Sammy "any two" George has signed up to take on the online phenom, according to event organizers Matchroom Sport.

"With Phil Ivey and Patrick Antonius, you are talking about guys I rate quite highly," George said. "Guys like durrrr to me are normal, you know, they're nothing special.

"I'm stepping up to the plate and putting my money where my mouth is."

While Dwan is highly regarded as one of the best high-stakes online players in the game right now, George has yet to make any major mark on the poker world.

He has become a familiar face on televised poker in the UK after appearing on The Big Game and Poker Million, where he made the semi-final.

His biggest live tournament cash to date was a 21st place finish at the 2009 WPT Championship in Las Vegas this past April for a little over $21k, although George has built a reputation for himself in London's biggest cash games.

Dwan and George will square off over 500 hands in a live heads-up match playing either Pot-Limit Omaha or No-Limit Hold'em up with a $500k buy in. The blinds will be set at $500/$1000 and once the match starts, neither can leave until the 500 hands or up or they go broke.

"Sammy is one of the few players in the game who is willing to walk the walk rather than just talk the talk and although many will see him as underdog in this match, he has plenty of heart and should not be underestimated," said Eddie Hearn, Managing Director of Matchroom Sport.

Dates, a location and three other challengers willing to take on durrrr are expected to be named in the near future.

"I'm buzzing," said George. "What could be sweeter than playing in the world's biggest heads-up match against durrrr?"

The much hyped online durrrr Challenge, with Dwan putting up $1.5 million to any challenger's $500,000, four-tabling heads-up with minimum $200/$400 stakes over 50,000 hands, is still ongoing.

Dwan is is in the midst of taking on his first challenger, Antonius, although progress has been slowed by scheduling conflicts, the 2009 WSOP and the allure of other high-stakes action online.

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Hand Dissection - Jordan “scarface_79” Smith

Jordan “scarface_79” Smith won his first World Series of Poker bracelet on June 20, 2009. He bested a field of 1,659 players to capture the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em Event (#36), collecting $586,212 in the process. It was the biggest career cash for 27-year old online poker pro from Texas, who went on to finish 10th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $896,730, just missing an opportunity to become a member of the November Nine. Smith also has multiple major online wins, including the PokerStars  Sunday Million and Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan. His lifetime poker winnings (both online and live) are well over $3 million.

Smith took some time with Poker News Daily to analyze a hand he played during his WSOP victory against eventual runner-up Ken Lennaard. This particular hand was the biggest pot of the entire tournament and gave Smith the commanding chip lead.

Poker News Daily: First off Jordan, how do you think your style of play is perceived by opponents? Did you switch your game up at all during the final table?

Jordan Smith: Well, I’m not sure how online players perceive me, some think I’m a total nit, and some think I’m a maniac. But, as far as this tournament, I think I had a fairly tight image, because I was at tough tables the whole tourney and never got a chance to open up much, so I just played fairly solid. But I am still somewhat young, and I had a big stack most of the tourney, so that’s two bad stereotypes going against me for possibly being labeled loose and aggressive. So, perception probably varied for my opponents. I was second in chips coming in to the final table and lost a big flip right off the bat, so I got put back with the pack and sort of chilled after that for awhile and played solid for various reasons.

PND: What are your thoughts on Ken Lennaard?

JS: He plays different than your typical Swede. He is more old school, and more of a flop taker than a 3-bettor. I think he played pretty well for the most part. I played with him on Day 2 and obviously assumed he was your usual over-aggro Scandi, but I gradually realized the longer we played on Day 3 that he was reasonably straightforward.

PND: Did you feel like you had an edge against him heads-up?

JS: I feel like I’m a favorite versus anyone if I’m playing well, but I’m not sure what percentage of that is confidence and what percent is me being delusional (laughs). Whatever edge I felt I had, was probably erased by the fact I was so exhausted and mentally drained by the time we reached heads up. I definitely don’t want to shortchange Ken, he played well. But we were probably flipping on the heads up match on that particular day.

PND: You’ve been heads-up in several online tournaments in the past. What sort of strategy do you normally use? Do you like to influence the action or is it dependent on your opponent’s style?

JS: I really never go in with a certain strategy heads-up – or at any point during a tourney for that matter. I just try to adapt according to stack sizes, blinds size, opponents, the flow of the table, and each individual situation or hand as it comes up. As far as the action goes, it really all depends on the things I’ve just mentioned and mainly my opponent and how deep the stacks are. I just try to find out what the best way to counter his style of play is.

Hand Setup:
Ken Lenaard – 5.8 million chips
Jordan Smith – 4.3 million chips

Blinds are 40,000/80,000 with a 10,000 ante

Cards are dealt:
Ken Lennaard raises to 240,000 from the button and Jordan Smith calls with

PND: Do you always defend your big blind? With what range do you think he’s opening with position?

JS: No, I don’t. But, I’m certainly not going to let someone run me over either. We have sort of awkward stacks, they are quasi-deep, but shallow enough to where pots develop quickly and you can easily get all the chips in. Position is so huge and underrated heads up, and I try to avoid playing many hands out of position. It’s kind of funny that this hand played out the way it did or even took place to begin with, but there were a few factors that made me take a flop in this spot. First, and most importantly, I was kind of on tilt from a hand not long before where I didn’t follow my instincts and paid him off on a big pot which let him catch up to me on chips, and then he proceeded to win most of the handful of pots leading up to this hand taking the chip lead.

Flop:
Smith checks to Lennaard, who fires out 150,000. Smith calls.

PND: Is this a spot where you might lead with a bet? Check-raise? What made you decide on a check-call here?

JS: Sometimes I do (bet), and looking back based on the stack sizes etc., leading out with the intention of shoving if he raised might’ve been the best option here. But I decided to check, and he only bet 150K which was considerably lower than his opening raise which was sort of confusing because he hadn’t really been doing things like this. If he had bet like 350-400K, I probably would’ve just raised to 1.1-1.3 million and called if he shoved (even though it wouldn’t have been fun) because there would’ve been enough in the pot to merit that based on the percentage of times I get him to fold and the equity I have versus his shoving range. But with his super small bet after my check, calling was the easy clear cut option. It seemed he either had a really strong hand or a fairly weak one and was just getting goofy. So I was content to keep the pot small and see what happened on the turn because I truly had no idea what he had.

Turn:
Smith checks. Lennaard bets 300,000. Smith calls.

PND: Does his bet sizing indicate strength?

JS: At this point, I’m thoroughly confused by his small bet sizing, and I’m just calling pretty much drawing at decent pot odds with the possibility of implied odds.

PND: What range of hands are you putting him on now and what is your plan on the river?

JS: I really don’t think he has a monster at this point, but I can’t really put him on a specific range of hands. I really, really hate just check-calling on draws with no other chance to win a pot, especially heads up. I like to be aggressive with draws a lot of times to give myself two chances to win, but in this spot his small bet sizing and our stack sizes really made it hard for me to do that, so I was sort of forced to play passive and draw for cheap. So yeah, sadly my only plan for the river is just for my hand to get there. And I hadn’t shown any strength in the hand, so not many lead bluffs on the river would be believable.

River:
Smith takes the lead by betting out 900,000.

PND: You hit one of your eight outs and make the nuts on the river. Talk a little bit about your thought process here. Why did you feel that leading out would be the best way to get action?

JS: Well, there was a four card straight on the board so I’m guessing he’s not betting very many hands if I check to him, and hopefully he either happened to have a big hand or he tries to make a hero call with whatever. With that scare card, it’s also entirely possible that I am bluffing here, and he also knew I was starting to get frustrated in the match. So I just stuck out a big bet and hoped I could get action.

River:
Smith takes the lead by betting out 900,000. Lennaard moves all in. Smith snap-calls.

Hands Revealed:
BOARD:
Lennard shows (Nine-high straight)
Smith shows (Ten-high straight)

PND: He moves all in and leaves you with an easy call. You now have 8,670,000 chips while he slips to 1,500,000. How much confidence did this pot give you the rest of the way?

JS : Well, I’m not sure if it gave me extra confidence except just for the significant chip lead it gave me, but it sure perked my energy level up and got me off tilt because I was extremely fortunate to not only hit, but for it to be one of the three gin cards that gave him a lower straight and also the fact he decided to shove. He had picked up a diamond draw on the turn, so my eight outs had turned to six, and he had me in fairly bad shape heading to the river. But, yeah, it definitely got my blood pumping to try and finish him off.

PND: Is there anything you’d do differently in this hand now looking back on it?

JS: I definitely could’ve folded preflop, but like I said, I was tired and tilted and felt comfortable playing postflop with his quasi-passive style. But he definitely could’ve made my decisions tougher in this hand after the flop. And I guess I possibly could’ve led the flop and shoved if he raised, but in hindsight that wouldn’t have been good, because he would’ve certainly called my shove with two overs and a double gutter if the hand played out that way. It would’ve been a really interesting postflop all-in showdown if we had played it like that, jack-high versus ten-high in true Potripper form (laughs).