Poker News

Kara Scott signs with PartyPoker

For someone with such presence in the poker community, Kara Scott has taken a while to find herself a sponsorship deal. However, PartyPoker have now stepped in and taken the leggy Canadian on board – hopefully boyfriend and Full Tilt Pro Brian “sbrugby” Townsend won’t get too upset at her signing with a rival site.

RealDealPoker.com offers special high stakes tables for Isildur1

The creators of RealDealPoker.com have offered Isildur1 the opportunity to play at specially created bespoke high stakes tables when he makes his return to the big online cash games.

Kara Scott Joins PartyPoker

The Canadian will join Mike Sexton, Remy Biechel, Ian Frazer, Felipe “Mojave” Ramos, Stewart Scott and Bodo Sbrzesny as a full-fledged member of Team Party.

“I’ve had such a positive experience in poker and have been incredibly lucky as well,” she said. “Being asked to be a part of Team Party is a real rush and I’m so honored. I just hope I can do them proud.”

Although she was born in Alberta, Canada, Scott rose to fame in England where she became one of the main hosts of the award-winning show Poker Night Live.

She went on to host the popular PokerStars European Poker Tour and most recently provided the commentary on the latest season of High Stakes Poker on GSN, which is set to air later this year.

While she will play tournaments patched by PartyPoker, Scott will continue her television work as well.

“They understand that while I absolutely love playing poker and am really stoked about playing more big live events and working on improving my game, my actual job is TV presenting,” she explained. “It was really gratifying that they feel I’ll bring value to their team as both a player and a TV presenter.”

Ironically, it was a PartyPoker event that gave Scott one of her first big breaks when it came to actually playing the game.

“When I started playing poker a few years ago I was lucky to get asked to be on a couple of Party Poker’s UK TV tournaments and had my first big cash, and win, with their Sports Stars Challenge III,” she said. “It seemed like a natural progression for me to get involved with them now, particularly as I’ll be spending a lot of time in Canada.”

After winning the Sports Star Challenge III, Scott went on to make deep runs at the WSOP Main Event in back to back years. She finished 104^th for $41,816 in 2008 and 238^th for $32,963 in 2009.

In 2009, she also had her biggest score ever at the Irish Open where she outlasted 798 players before eventually falling to Christer Johansson heads-up. She earned €312,600 for second place.

In her relatively short span of playing high buy-in events, Scott has won $557,902, which places her 24^th on the all-time women’s tournament money list.

“Kara is a great signing and we are really looking forward to working with her,” said a PartyPoker spokesman.

“She has historic links with PartyPoker.com after taking down the Sports Stars Challenge III and we have been super impressed by her progress since then. As well as being a great presenter, Kara is also a fantastic player with great results and the potential to go even further. We are excited about this new relationship.”

As part of the deal, Scott will play tournaments around the world and act as a presenter for the Premier League when it moves to Vegas for the first time in February. She will also represent PartyPoker at a number of Canadian Poker Tour events.

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Kara Scott Joins PartyPoker

The Canadian will join Mike Sexton, Remy Biechel, Ian Frazer, Felipe “Mojave” Ramos, Stewart Scott and Bodo Sbrzesny as a full-fledged member of Team Party.

“I’ve had such a positive experience in poker and have been incredibly lucky as well,” she said. “Being asked to be a part of Team Party is a real rush and I’m so honored. I just hope I can do them proud.”

Although she was born in Alberta, Canada, Scott rose to fame in England where she became one of the main hosts of the award-winning show Poker Night Live.

She went on to host the popular PokerStars European Poker Tour and most recently provided the commentary on the latest season of High Stakes Poker on GSN, which is set to air later this year.

While she will play tournaments patched by PartyPoker, Scott will continue her television work as well.

“They understand that while I absolutely love playing poker and am really stoked about playing more big live events and working on improving my game, my actual job is TV presenting,” she explained. “It was really gratifying that they feel I’ll bring value to their team as both a player and a TV presenter.”

Ironically, it was a PartyPoker event that gave Scott one of her first big breaks when it came to actually playing the game.

“When I started playing poker a few years ago I was lucky to get asked to be on a couple of Party Poker’s UK TV tournaments and had my first big cash, and win, with their Sports Stars Challenge III,” she said. “It seemed like a natural progression for me to get involved with them now, particularly as I’ll be spending a lot of time in Canada.”

After winning the Sports Star Challenge III, Scott went on to make deep runs at the WSOP Main Event in back to back years. She finished 104^th for $41,816 in 2008 and 238^th for $32,963 in 2009.

In 2009, she also had her biggest score ever at the Irish Open where she outlasted 798 players before eventually falling to Christer Johansson heads-up. She earned €312,600 for second place.

In her relatively short span of playing high buy-in events, Scott has won $557,902, which places her 24^th on the all-time women’s tournament money list.

“Kara is a great signing and we are really looking forward to working with her,” said a PartyPoker spokesman.

“She has historic links with PartyPoker.com after taking down the Sports Stars Challenge III and we have been super impressed by her progress since then. As well as being a great presenter, Kara is also a fantastic player with great results and the potential to go even further. We are excited about this new relationship.”

As part of the deal, Scott will play tournaments around the world and act as a presenter for the Premier League when it moves to Vegas for the first time in February. She will also represent PartyPoker at a number of Canadian Poker Tour events.

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Durrrr and Antonius dominate Full Tilt 7-game

It seemed that Gus Hansen had a great start to the new year with a $656,000 day on Full Tilt Poker. However, he will be licking his wounds after the full 7-Game table on Full Tilt Poker saw him lose $348,000 while durrrr and Antonius walked off with around half a million each.

ChiliPoker set for Irish expansion

Chiligaming has teamed up with broadcaster Setanta in an attempt to crack the Irish poker market. The pair is set to launch a new poker site that will be run by Chilipoker.com.

€250,000 up for grabs in ParadisePoker.com’s latest promotion

ParadisePoker.com is celebrating dealing its 2 billionth hand by offering players the chance to win up to €250,000. Players can win €2,000 just for playing at Paradise Poker starting from the 1.97 billionth hand.

Winter freerolls from DevilfishPoker.com

With all the snow and ice around at the moment venturing outside into the freezing cold isn’t a very tempting proposition. The only snow that Bluff Europe will be interested in this week is a series of winter themed freeroll tournaments courtesy of Devilfishpoker.com.

Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt Resigns From Stoxpoker/CardRunners Team

Much of the attention of the poker community in recent days has been focused on the amicable parting of Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo and Bodog. In another announcement that came out earlier this week, a top poker teacher has announced that he will no longer be a part of the poker training team he helped reach its current prominence.

In a blog posting earlier this week, noted poker player/golfer Dusty “Leatherass” Schmidt used his 400th post on the popular Stoxpoker/CardRunners site to announce his departure from the training team: “I will admit I never really thought this day would come, but due to irreconcilable differences with Stoxpoker/Cardrunners, I am resigning as a lead coach."

While he doesn’t go into detail about what the “irreconcilable differences” are, Schmidt is gracious in his departure: “I want to thank everyone who watched my videos and followed my blogs over the past three years here at Stoxpoker.com. It was you guys who kept me going during some of these difficult times with Stoxpoker/Cardrunners.”

Similar to Bonomo’s situation – in which he stated that there are several sponsorship opportunities available to him – Schmidt is looking to the future of his poker teaching career. “In the coming days and at an appropriate time, I will announce which training site I will begin making videos for”, “Leatherass” tells his readers. It was quickly revealed that Drag the Bar would be his new home.

Schmidt started out on Stoxpoker as a low-level grinder who was looking to improve his own poker game. After intense participation in the forums, Dusty became a co-owner of the site and began to provide his own instruction to others. Along with fellow Stoxpoker members Nick “Stoxtrader” Grudzien (who was one of the founders of the site), Bryce “Freedom25” Paradis, and Matt Matros, Stoxpoker became one of the top poker training sites in the world.

In September 2008, the merger of Stoxpoker and CardRunners was finalized, with both the Stoxpoker team and the CardRunners team – Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby, Andrew “muddywater” Wiggins, Brian “sbrugby” Townsend, Brian “stinger85” Hastings, Mike “Schneids” Schneider, Cole “cts” South, and Eric “p3achy_keen” Liu – offering training that crossed their respective borders. While continuing to teach on Stoxpoker, Schmidt made other news in the poker world through a prop bet he proposed.

A top-notch golfer, Schmidt made a $1 million prop bet in April 2009 that he could beat anyone in a 72-hole golf match and in 10 heads-up poker matches, which no one accepted. At the time, Schmidt was a noted amateur player who, by his own admission, had broken some of Tiger Woods’ amateur records. The proposed prop bet, however, incurred the wrath of the United States Golf Association (USGA), which yanked his amateur status over the wagering and the promotion of the event.

Schmidt challenged the USGA's decision, even threatening to take the leading authority in the golf world to court in July. After losing a preliminary hearing on the subject, Schmidt dropped his suit and decided that, eventually, he would attempt to play on the PGA Tour while continuing to play poker. He is currently suspended from amateur play for one year.

Dusty finishes his blog post by saying, “Thanks again to everyone for all of the fantastic experiences. I really enjoyed my time here helping out so many members. Stoxpoker.com truly is a great community and I will miss it greatly.” Poker fans can now catch up with Schmidt at Drag the Bar.

FTOPS XV schedule announced

FullTilt Poker has announced details of its forthcoming FTOPS bonanza where a total of 27 events with a whopping $17m in guaranteed prize money will be up for grabs.

$17 Million On the Line in Upcoming FTOPS XV

Set to run Feb. 10-Feb. 21, the series will offer $17 million in guaranteed prize pools with events in a number of poker variants including No-Limit Hold’em, Pot-Limit Omaha, Omaha Hi-Lo, Razz, H.O.R.S.E., 7-Game and Seven-Card Stud.

Notable events include the two-day $2 million guaranteed No-Limit Hold’em tournament on Feb. 20 and the $2.5 million FTOPS XV main event on Feb. 21.

Full Tilt will also offer Knockout, Turbo, Rebuy, Heads-Up and Cashout events in No-Limit Hold’em.

Hosts for the events have yet to be announced.

Players who can’t afford the FTOPS buy-ins will have the opportunity to take part in MiniFTOPS XV, which takes place just one month later from March 10-March 21.

Every FTOPS event will have a MiniFTOPS equivalent at 1/10^th the buy-in. MiniFTOPS XV will offer a prize pool of $6 million.

Full Tilt started the FTOPS in 2006 with a combined prize pool of $1 million. Since then the online series has blossomed into one of the busiest in the world with hundreds of winners crowned and main events with multi-million dollar prize pools.

The last FTOPS proved to be a memorable one as David Pham, Greg “FBT” Mueller and Chris “Genius28” Lee all won titles while online player zhivago2 outlasted 5,470 players in the main event to win $418,839.

For more information or to sign up check out Full Tilt here.

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An Online Qualifier Takes Down Day 1A of the PCA

Total of 668 players started the first part of the first day of the tournament, all with 30,000 chips. Wayne Bentley, a PokerStars qualifier from the UK, had a nice start, when after just ten minutes of play he found pocket aces and ran them into pocket kings for a doubled up.

At the end of the day Bentley (pictured) had managed to build a huge stack of 329,500 chips - almost 11 times the amount he started with. Bentley’s chip lead is quire significant as his nearest challenger, an accomplished tournament pro Amnon Filippi, ended the day with around 220,000 chips in his stack.

Kevin Saul, who made to the final table last year at the PCA, ended the day third in chips. Erich Froehlich, two-time bracelet winner, who once was the youngest bracelet winner of all time, and November Nine 2009 member Eric Buchman also had a good day, finishing 4th and 6th respectively.

Daniel Negreanu also fared well, as he just missed the top ten by ranking 12th, and he comments in his blog that he felt his table was “kind of juicy, with no real pros to speak of and no young online phenoms to deal with”. He felt like his table was very passive and because of that Negreanu was playing more aggressively than he normally does.

Here is the top top of the day 1A of PCA:

1. Wayne Bentley UK 329500
2. Amnon Filippi USA  220100
3. Kevin Saul USA 175500
4. Eric Froehlich USA 166000
5. Dustin Dorrance-Bowman USA 163700
6. Eric Buchman USA 159100
7. Gardar Geir Hauksson Iceland 138900
8. Jacob S Avital USA 137700
9. Christian Schwarz Spain 133200
10. Rafal Michalowski USA 129300

Source: pokerstarsblog, negreanublog

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An Online Qualifier Takes Down Day 1A of the PCA

2010 WSOP Schedule Critiqued by Bernard Lee

The 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) concluded with the completion of the second November Nine.  The crowning of Joe Cada as the 2009 WSOP Main Event champion culminated 57 bracelet events this year.

However, the 2010 WSOP is now on the minds of every poker player with the recent release of the new schedule.  Beginning May 28th, the poker universe will once again center on the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.  To begin the next decade, the WSOP will have a 51-day schedule where players will compete for 57 WSOP bracelets.

As I looked over the schedule, I had the following comments, questions, and suggestions:

$1,000 events:  Last year during the opening weekend, Harrah’s held its first $1,000 buy-in No Limit event, nicknamed “The Stimulus Special.”  With 6,012 players participating, it was a rousing success.  With the state of the economy, Harrah’s promised more $1,000 buy-in events for 2010.  As seen in next summer’s schedule, Harrah’s definitely delivered with a $1,000 event every weekend and one right before the Main Event (six in total).  Players will each begin with triple the buy-in chips ($3,000) at level 25/25.  However, be forewarned!  The blinds increase quicker than you think and the eliminations are fast and furious once you get to the middle stages of the tournament.  Overall, these lower buy-in events will definitely increase the number of participants over the weekends, helping the Rio not only fill hotel rooms, but also improve their cash games.

Mid-level buy-in events ($2,000 to $5,000):  Although Harrah’s has catered to the casual player with numerous lower buy-in events such as the $1,000 and $1,500 versions, the reduction of the mid-level buy-in events hurts professional players like myself.  These events still have tremendous value (fewer players, but larger buy-ins), more starting chips (thus, more chance to play without a short stack) and fewer participants (thus, a better chance, albeit slight, to win).  Besides the $5,000 (June 8th) and $2,500 (July 2nd), all of the preliminary No Limit Hold’em events are $1,500 and under.  I understand that it is harder to get participants for the mid-level events; however, Harrah’s scheduled two $2,500 Six-Handed Hold’em events, a $2,500 Mixed event, and a $5,000 Six-Handed Hold’em event.  Instead of six $1,500 No Limit events, I believe they should have replaced a few of these with mid-level buy-in events, such as a $2,000, another $2,500, and a $3,000.

Players Championship:  This year, Harrah’s decided to replace the $50,000 HORSE event with this Eight-Game event.  The final table will be exclusively No Limit Hold’em, specifically so it can be television-friendly.  Although I do not agree that tournament officials should change the game just for the final table, at least one of the games played during the early levels will be No Limit Hold’em.  I always found it ridiculous that during the inaugural year in which Chip Reese won, the WSOP had the HORSE final table play only No Limit Hold’em when it was not even one of the five games (only Limit Hold’em is played in HORSE).  Nevertheless, with the return of this event to television, the Players Championship will most certainly have more players than last year’s disappointing 95 registrants.

$25,000 Six-Handed Event:  With the elimination of the $40,000 No Limit event and the moving of the Players Championship to the beginning of the series, the WSOP felt it needed another big event before the Main Event.  Thus, the $25,000 Six-Handed event was born.  Although this will attract some of the best players – live and online - I’m not sure why this is a $25,000 buy-in.  Why not make this event a $10,000 Championship event like the other ten $10,000 events?

No play on July 4th:  I believe that this was an excellent modification to the WSOP schedule.  Over the past couple of years, the day with the fewest number of participants was often July 4th.  This year, Harrah’s decided to begin the Main Event after the holiday so players can focus solely on it.

More room:  In 2010, Harrah’s will increase its capacity for each event, especially with the inclusion of the additional $1,000 events and to avoid the WSOP Main Event Day 1D debacle.  This year, almost all of the Rio convention rooms will be reserved for the WSOP.  You’ll need a map just to figure out where you are playing, especially during the first few days.  Therefore, if you are just coming in for a few events, make sure you know exactly where you are playing the night before so you aren’t wandering for the first 15 to 30 minutes of the event.

Avoid sell-outs:  Last year, the WSOP had a record 10.25 sellouts (the 0.25 is for Day 1D of the Main Event).  In an attempt to avoid sellouts, Harrah’s is increasing the space for additional tables.  However, there are ways to avoid being shut out, especially for the first $1,000 No Limit event being held on Saturday, May 29th.

1. Always register early.  Make sure you register not just hours, but days in advance, especially the low buy-in events.  Last year, the Stimulus Special sold out the night before, even though it had two starting days.

2. For events with higher buy-ins ($2,000 and greater), you often can wait until the morning it starts since they usually do not sell out.  However, my advice is to register the night before.  I usually go to the cage just before I go to bed and I have never waited more than a couple of minutes.  Additionally, I can sleep in or have a nice breakfast and not worry about having to get my seat.  I’m always amazed at the people waiting in the huge lines just before the event.

If you can’t arrive days early, make sure that you pre-register via WorldSeriesofPoker.com, which will ensure you a seat.  Unlike at some other tournaments across the country, you cannot have someone else register for you.

Well, after all this thinking about the biggest poker event of the year, I am already looking forward to the 2010 WSOP.  Good luck to everyone and I hope to see you there.

UB.com, Absolute Poker Offering Super Bowl Tickets

Absolute Poker and UB.com, both of which reside on the CEREUS Poker Network, will award three $12,000 packages to the NFL’s flagship event.

Each package includes a pair of tickets to the game, $2,000 cash for travel expenses, four nights’ accommodation at Bold New Eden Roc, dinner for two at a highly-rated Miami restaurant, limousine transport to and from Dolphin Stadium and exclusive VIP access and table service at a top Miami nightclub.

There will be three qualifying “Touchdown” main events, each one carrying a $215 buy-in, taking place on Jan. 6, Jan. 13 and Jan. 20 at 9:30 ET.

Both rooms will also run lower buy-in satellites for the main events, which start at just $3.

Visit UB.com’s website or Absolute Poker’s website to learn more about the football promotion.

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PartyPoker Starts 2010 LAPC Qualifiers

The main $750 buy-in weekly qualifiers take place every Sunday at 14:15 ET with a $14,000 package up for grabs.

The package includes the $10,000 buy-in, seven nights' accomodation and $2,500 in spending money.

If a PartyPoker player wins the LAPC, the company will award $500,000 to that player and $500,000 spread between the players who qualified on PartyPoker, no matter where they finished.

“The PartyPoker.com packages are amazingly appealing to anybody who wants to attend the LA Poker Classic,” said PartyPoker.com spokesman Mike Sexton.

“The $1 million payout if an online qualifier takes down the main event offers superb extra value. Imagine if you bust out really early and then one of your fellow qualifiers went on to win, you’d still go home with your share of $500,000.”

The promotion marks one of the first collaborations between PartyPoker and the WPT since it was announced PartyGaming would buy the tour late last year.

The LAPC is the most prestigious poker tournament in L.A. and former winners include Phil Ivey, Michael Mizrachi and Antonio Esfandiari. Last year Cornel Cimpan outlasted 695 players and a final table that included Chris “Jesus” Ferguson and Mike “SowersUNCC” Sowers to win $1.6 million.

The $10,000 main event of the 2010 WPT LAPC will take place Feb. 26-March 4.

Visit the PartyPoker website to learn more about the LAPC promotion.

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Tony G May Stake Isildur1

Poker pro Tony G may soon be funding the bankroll of Swedish online poker player Isildur1. The revelation, which appeared in a blog posted on TonyGPoker.com, comes at the same time as Isildur1 revealed that he may file a complaint concerning data mining on Full Tilt Poker.

Tony G explained in his blog that he had conversations with Isildur1 over the phone. In addition, he noted that the mystery Swedish player had only learned how to play Pot Limit Omaha eight months ago. The brash poker pro noted, “Anyway, it is likely I will stake him in some big cash games in the future, this is what I do after all. I like to give people a chance in life to do well.” Isildur1 stormed onto the high-stakes online poker scene on Full Tilt back in November, racking up as much as $5 million in earnings. However, he later crashed back down to Earth and currently stands with career losses of $2.6 million, according to PokerTableRatings.com.

Tony G had originally fingered Viktor “blom30” Blom as the man behind the Isildur1 moniker. However, to open December, Blom told Bluff Europe Magazine that he was not the man of the hour: “I am not the one you are looking for. Keep searching.” In a chat that appeared on Full Tilt at a high-stakes table, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies addressed Isildur1 by name as “Viktor” and the statement went uncorrected. Perhaps due to stringent tax laws in Sweden, the real identity of Isildur1 may never be known. It remains a plot reminiscent of an episode of “Murder, She Wrote.”

The potential new backer of the Isildur1 empire gave his take on the poker world finding out the real identity of Isildur1: “I also have to say that earlier I was guessing and I will never reveal who he is from here on out. I think it’s more exciting for everyone, leaving the mystery as a mystery.” Guesses as to who Isildur1 is have ranged from Blom to Robert “Gulkines” Flink to Todd Brunson, even though the latter is American and a sponsored pro of the Cake Poker Network site DoylesRoom.

Isildur1’s career peek, according to PokerTableRatings.com, came on November 15th, when he racked up $5.03 million in earnings. Within a week, that number had been cut by 90% before a nearly $3 million losing day on December 8th sent his bankroll plummeting into the red. He told PokerNews.com that, despite the adversity on the virtual felts of Full Tilt Poker, he would make his triumphant return in 2010.

In mid-December, a $4.2 million win by Brian Hastings, a CardRunners instructor, at the expense of Isildur1 made waves after it was revealed that Hastings used hands compiled on the Swedish pro to his advantage. Fellow CardRunners pro Brian Townsend took the fall in the end and had his Red Pro status suspended for one month.

Hastings gave credit to Townsend for his performance, telling ESPN columnist Gary Wise in a December 14th interview, "Honestly, I give most of the credit to Brian Townsend here. I mean, Brian is honestly the hardest worker I know in poker. He analyzed a database of heads-up hands that Isildur1 had played and constructed ranges of what Isildur1 was doing in certain spots. In a way, I feel bad that it wasn't Brian who got this win instead of me.”

Tony G was the final table bubble boy in the $40,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament commemorating the 40th running of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 2009, earning $172,000 for his 10th place finish. His demeanor in the World Poker Tour’s (WPT) Grand Prix de Paris earned him a spot among the bad boys of poker.

Tony will stake Isildur1 to high stakes games

Tony G wrote his latest blog entry lately and tells about his plans to stake Isildur1 to some high stakes games.

Tony G writes about how he was in contact with Isildur1 by phone and knows who he is. This time he just tells that he was only speculating who Isildur1 is (Viktor Blom) before, but now he has 100% certainty about his identity and he is not going to reveal him. He thinks it’s better that Isildur1 maintains his “mystical” status.

Tony G’s trust to Isildur1’s skilsl is huge and he is planning to stake him in the biggest games:

“I have had a few conversations over the phone with him and I really love the kid.  He is like me 15 years ago. I just wish I had as much talent as he does.  He can play the world’s best on eight tables and he only learned PLO about eight months ago.  Anyway, it is likely I will stake him in some big cash games in the future, this is what I do after all. I like to give people a chance in life to do well.”

Tony G adds that Isildur1 is not sueing Full Tilt Poker:

“I can see how people attacked Full Tilt Poker on 2+2 – calling for lawsuits, etc., but this is not what Isildur1 really wants.  He wants to enjoy his life and move on.  This is what he needs to do.  He is a brilliant player and with a little bit of hard work, he will build back up to a multimillion roll.”

Tony G reveals about his personal deal a bit as well. He is going to make an announcement soon and the deal is ready to be signed. He’s still not saying anything, but you can gather some bits and pieces from his talk that he might sign a deal with PartyPoker. Tony says he’s going to play more WPT tournaments next year and WPT is owned by PartyGaming.

Source: TonyG

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Tony will stake Isildur1 to high stakes games

PartyPoker Turns ATM

From Jan. 4-31 PartyPoker players who earn at least 10 PartyPoints for a minimum of 10 days will once again be able to use the Cash Machine to convert those points into cash.

At the end of the promotion, PartyPoker will look at the PartyPoints collected by every player on their 10 highest-earning days, then match the number of points accumulated on the lowest days with $1 for every point earned.

There are up to 28 qualifying days and no limit to the amount of points a player can earn. 

Players who get more than one point on 10 qualifying days, but not up to 10 points will also be entered into the $25,000 Cash Machine freeroll, set for 3 p.m. ET Feb. 3.

"We’ve also added an extra incentive for the most serious players,” a PartyPoker spokesman said. “Earn a minimum of 1,000 PartyPoints per day on 20 of the 28 days and we’ll award a special Cash Machine Booster Bonus in addition to the standard cash machine payout.”

For more information check out PartyPoker's Cash Machine web page.

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Full Tilt Poker Crashes on Sunday

It was an unusual Sunday for online poker players all over the world, as Full Tilt Poker, the world's second largest online poker site, had its server crash during the heart of its heavy-traffic period. The site’s stoppage affected everyone playing on the site, including those still alive in Full Tilt's flagship Sunday tournament, the $216 buy-in $750,000 Guaranteed.

The crash occurred at 7:45pm ET and players were booted from the site and unable to log back in. When attempting to open the Full Tilt client, players received a message saying, "Unable to connect to server." This went on for hours and the poker community erupted.

Full Tilt posted the following message on its site shortly after the crash occurred: "Unscheduled Maintenance In Progress: We recently experienced a network outage. We expect to be operational shortly." After failing to get the site back up in a timely manner, Full Tilt Poker cancelled all running tournaments at 9:41pm ET. Then, at approximately 11:15pm, ET, the site's support staff sent the following e-mail to players who were still playing in tournaments:

When a tournament is cancelled before it reaches the money, according to tournament rule 31.2 (http://www.fulltiltpoker.com/tourRules.php):

-All players still in the tournament at the time of the cancellation will be refunded their tournament buy-in and tournament fee. Players will have their buy-ins refunded in the tournament prize pool currency.

-In addition, the remaining prize pool will be divided and distributed according to chip count - (Remaining Prize Pool)*(Your Chip Count)/(Total Chips in Play) = Your Share of Remaining Prize Pool.

The reimbursement policy for rebuy tournaments is slightly different and several players expressed their confusion regarding Full Tilt's procedure. PocketFives.com forum member "MattElsarelli" posted the following concerning a tournament he was playing: "Does anyone know their policy on refunding for rebuys? I'm like 15 buy in deeps in the $20 rebuy, do I get refunded all of them?"

He got his answer from a fellow poster who laid out Full Tilt's Tournament Rules: "In a Rebuy tournament - the number of rebuys or add-ons a player has made does not affect the payout if a tournament is cancelled. If a tournament has not reached the money, all players will have their initial tournament buy-in and fee returned, as described in bullet 31.2. In addition, any other money in the prize and Cashout pools where applicable (excluding guarantees and money added by Full Tilt Poker), will be divided and distributed to the remaining players, based on their respective chip counts."

For tournaments that awarded a non-monetary prize, such as a live tournament package (like a World Poker Tour event), Full Tilt Poker assigns a monetary value to the prize and distributes it in cash to the remaining players based on their chip counts. In ring games, the hand being played at the time of the stoppage was considered dead and all bets were returned at the point of the crash.

As of Monday morning, Full Tilt Poker was operating as normal.

Poker News in Brief: Dec. 21-27, 2009

This week the front page of PokerListing was slammed with huge stories like Brian Townsend getting suspended by Full Tilt Poker, Tom “durrrr” Dwan making a desperate charge to get even for the year and Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler finally finding a structure he likes.

Of course, like every week, there were still a few lesser-known stories that threatened to get lost in the shuffle. Fortunately, on PokerListings.com we compile all those stories in our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature.

This week we’re going to take a look at Poker2Nite heading to Europe, new poker chip technology, a new PokerStars rewards program and more.

The Poker Channel Europe Airs Poker2Night

It’s already a hit in North America but the Joe Sebok and Scott Huff hosted Poker2Nite made its debut in Europe last week on the Poker Channel Europe.

The channel is airing episodes of the show every Wednesday at 22:00 CET for the entire run of the first season. Repeats will run Thursdays and Saturdays at 16:00 CET. The channel is Europe’s largest dedicated gaming TV network and shown in more than 18 million European homes.

Poker2Nite is now its fifth week of operation in North America, where it appears on Fox Sports West on Wednesday at 23:00 EST.

To celebrate the show’s success, UB is also currently running a Poker2Nite Pro Challenge promotion, awarding two WSOP packages.

Nicole Rowe Applies for Million Dollar Challenge

Cancer victim Nicole Rowe will be trying out for a spot on the PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge.

Rowe is perhaps most well-known in the poker world for finishing second to Abraham Korotki, a man, in the 2009 Borgata Ladies Event.

Inspired by witnessing a taping of the Million Dollar Challenge, Rowe decided to enter a 10,000 player tournament on PokerStars just for the chance to audition for the show. She won the tournament and has since posted her audition video on YouTube.com.

“My plan is to come out and beat Daniel Negreanu for the $1 million and use that money for breast cancer awareness and donate a portion of my winnings to breast cancer foundations such as the Susan G Komen,” said Rowe in the video.

Earlier this week 911 Veteran Mike Kosowski became the first player in the show’s history to win all his heads-up matches and take home the $1 million first place prize.

PokerStars Introduces VIP Stellar Rewards

PokerStars upgraded its VIP program this week with the announcement of VIP Stellar Rewards.

Starting Jan. 1, 2010, PokerStars players who earn 750 VIP player points will be able to go to the PokerStars store and spend 1 frequent player point (FPP) to receive $10.

It doesn’t stop there as players will have the opportunity for 18 cash bonuses as they journey from 750 VIP points all the way up to 90,000 Supernova status.

In total, players will receive an extra $1,000 if they make it all the way to Supernova thanks to the VIP Stellar Rewards program.

To learn more go to PokerStars.com.

GPI to Unveil New Poker Chip Technology

Gaming Partners International Corporation will present a dramatic new approach to the construction of poker chips at the 2010 International Gaming Expo in London on Jan. 26-28.

At the Expo, GPI will introduce RFIDPoker, which is being developed to improve accuracy and increase the speed of various actions at the poker table.

Easily fitted to any poker table the technology sees every chip outfitted with a small RFID chip, which makes calculating a pot size error free. The system can also calculate pot-size in real time, while a hand is being played out.

According to GPI’s studies, RFIDPoker has the potential to increase hands per hour by as much as 30%.

Titan Launches 2010 Irish Open Promo

The 2010 Irish Open doesn’t start until April, but Titan Poker is already running satellites to the tournament.

Titan Poker will run a weekly Super Satellite on Sundays that will award a $7,200 package, which includes the €3,500 buy-in. It’s possible to qualify for these weekly satellites for just $2.20.

The Irish Poker Open is the longest running No-Limit Hold’em tournament in Europe and it typically takes place over Easter weekend in Dublin.

Last year Christer Johansson beat Kara Scott heads-up to claim the €600,000 first place prize.

Titan Poker generally has a large presence at the Irish Open and last year sent 32 players to represent the brand.

Click here to learn more about Titan Poker’s Irish Open promotions.

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TwoPlusTwo Sues Dutch Boyd

World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Russell “Dutch” Boyd may be best known for his career as a professional poker player, but he has also supplemented his income over the years by cyber-speculating, registering a number of poker-related domain names and making money off the traffic that goes to those sites.  Boyd’s side job appears to have gotten him in hot water, as the owners and operators of TwoPlusTwo Publishing have filed a suit over his ownership of the domain name TwoPlusTwoPoker.com.

The Las Vegas Sun broke news of the suit earlier this month.  The Sun story said TwoPlusTwo Publishing accused Boyd of cyber-squatting on the domain and considered it to be an instance of trademark infringement.  Within the article, Boyd commented on the legal action, noting, “It is never fun to be sued, especially by someone you look up to and respect professionally.''  Boyd had choice words for TwoPlusTwo owner Mason Malmouth in particular, whom he accused of bullying.  Boyd was not the only alleged cyber-squatter sued by the publishing company.  A lawsuit was filed against Anthony Scocozza, who purchased a similar domain name at the beginning of the year.  Boyd originally purchased his URL in July of 2004, but has since transferred ownership of the site over to the publishing group.

The article in the Sun proved to just be the beginning of the story though and the drama continued, appropriately enough, on the TwoPlusTwo Poker Forums.  Boyd responded to a thread linked to the article and offered his side of the story, stating that he regretted registering the domain name in the first place, but confirmed that the ownership of the domain name was transferred over to Greenberg Traurig, the law firm representing the interests of TwoPlusTwo.

A week later, Malmouth posted a thorough explanation of why the company filed suit, including scans of two cease and desist letters sent to Boyd by Greenberg Traurig on behalf of the company.  Malmouth also offered an explanation as to why TwoPlusTwo did not drop the suit since they now have control over the domain name in question: “Due to the length of time the registration was owned by Mr. Boyd, and his blatant infringement, we informed Boyd that the expiration of the TwoPlusTwoPoker.com would not resolve the dispute. At the very least, we needed to know exactly how much revenue the domain name and website had generated and how much traffic the site received.”

Malmouth went on to report that their representation repeatedly tried to settle out of court with Boyd, but the two parties were unable to come anywhere close to an agreement.  According to Malmouth, a final e-mail from his attorneys to Boyd letting him know they were left with no choice but to file suit was met with a terse response of “F*** Off.”

Under the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), registrants cannot register any domain names that infringe upon the rights of a third party.   More specifically, the URL cannot be identical or similar to a pre-existing trademark and the registrant cannot use that domain name in bad faith.  Boyd responded in the thread, posting an excerpt of trademark law that suggests because TwoPlusTwo did not meet the notice requirement necessary in order to obtain profits or damages.  Moreover, Boyd asserted that the site earned no more than $200 in profits during the five years it was under his ownership.

This is not the first time Boyd’s purchase of domain names has landed him in the spotlight.  In October of 2008, Boyd went to arbitration with online poker room PokerHost over his use of the website, PokerHost.net.  Boyd registered that URL in 2004 and PokerHost alleged his usage of the site was in violation of UDRP since the company obtained the URL PokerHost.com two years prior.  However, because the online site did not launch its gaming services until after Boyd registered the domain name, the judge arbitrating the case ruled in favor of Boyd, saying the term was a generic domain name at time of registration and not a pre-existing trademark.

Antonius and Dwan continued their challenge

It has been a good time since Patrik Antonius and Tom Dwan played their heads up challenge last time. They only played 362 hands on four $200/$400 PLO tables.

Before this session, Antonius was down $700k and Dwan didn’t give it easy this time either. Antonius started the session really good, but Dwan took the lead in the end.

Couple of hands from the session:

Dwan wins the biggest pot with straight

Antonius hits a great turn card and even better river

Durrrr takes a $221k pot

Both hit the flop nicely and they get all in

Dwan and Antonius have now played 29,764/50,000 of their challenge. Dwan leads it with $973k in total wins.

You can follow the challenge on the official site: durrrr challenge

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Antonius and Dwan continued their challenge

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.

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Isildur1 will most likely appeal against Hastings

Tony G wrote about Isildur1’s 4 million dollar loss to Brian Hastings in his latest blog entry. According to Tony G, Isildur1 is going to make a formal appeal against Brian Hastings.

Tony G is still really sure that Isildur1 is Viktor Blom and what he has heard are some rumblings about a potential controversy in the last session where Isildur1 lost those 4 million dollars. Isildur1 thinks that he played against the Team Cardrunners “Corporation” and is going to make a formal appeal to Full Tilt Poker.

After Hastings won those 4 million dollars, he has given some interviews which raised some doubts that Brian Hastings, Cole South and Brian Townsend would have colluded against Blom.

Full Tilt Poker commented the allegations on 2+2 forum and according to the user name “sean” (some Full Tilt Poker spokesman), Team Cardrunners didn’t collude against Isildur1.

Source: Tony G, 2+2

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Isildur1 will most likely appeal against Hastings

Poker News in Brief: Dec. 14-20, 2009

There were a few other big poker stories with Harrah’s releasing the official 2010 WSOP schedule and Mangas Gaming acquiring Everest Poker but for the most part the poker world has started to get quiet as the lead up to Christmas begins.

Fortunately there are always a few stories that don’t make the front page here at PokerListings and we compile them for you every week in our ongoing Poker News in Brief feature.

This week we’ll look at a PokerListings player winning a trip to Australia, another World Series of Poker Circuit winner, the Aria Poker Room opening its doors and more.

PokerListings Player Wins PartyPoker Aussie Millions Package

PokerListings player gimeyoursbr capitalized on an exclusive PartyPoker freeroll in a big way last week.

The 35-year-old Brazilian won a $15,000 package to the biggest tournament in the Southern Hemisphere – the 2010 Aussie Millions.

“I will try my best and see where it takes me,” he said after winning. “I am very excited about getting to know Melbourne and the nearby cities but once I am playing at the Aussie Millions I will be 100% concentrated on it.”

gimeyoursbr has been playing poker professionally for three years now and once hit the jackpot on PartyPoker for a large score. Suffice to say he’s a fan of the site.

“They are pretty good and getting big again,” he said. “That is terrific.”

PartyPoker is making a huge push to send players to the Aussie Millions this year with more than 27 packages already awarded.

Chris Klodnicki wins WSOPC Harrah’s AC

Poker pro Chris Klodnicki finally found the tournament victory he’d been looking for at the 2009 World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s Atlantic City main event this week.

Klodnicki outlasted 194 players to win $215,915 and a WSOPC ring.

“I feel great,” said Klodnicki. “I was having a pretty off year and this ended the year on a great note. I was starting to lose my confidence and this picked it up a lot.”

Noted online player Kyle Bowker finished in second place for $128,357.

Outside of a Borgata side event win, Kodnicki’s list of career cashes is full of second place and third place finishes. Klodnicki is perhaps most well known for coming in 12^th place in the 2008 WSOP Main Event for nearly $600,000.

Aria Poker Room Opens

Poker players have yet another place to frequent in Las Vegas as the multi-billion CityCenter development opened its doors for business this week.

The 61-story ARIA holds the development’s casino and poker room. The poker room offers 24 tables complete with a closed off high limits room. Players will find limits of $1-3, $2-5, $5-10 on a daily basis although the room will spread higher ones based on demand.

Other hotels at CityCenter include the 400-room Mandarin Oriental resort and the upscale non-gaming hotel Vdara with Harman boutique hotel opening late next year.

Bonus Blizzard coming to Pacific Poker

Pacific Poker is giving its players a reason to be jolly over the Christmas season.

The online room will be running its “Bonus Blizzard” promotion during certain hours from Dec. 16-22.

If players are at the Pacific Poker tables during the right hours they could potentially receive a bonus of $8 all the way up to $888 just for being there.

Players can keep an eye out for Bonus Blizzards in a countdown timer in the main lobby. There’s no limit to the amount of bonuses that players can win and players who are multi-tabling will have an even better chance at taking home a hefty bonus.

PartyPoker Introduces $25/$50 PLO Table

PartyPoker launched a $25/$50 Pot-Limit Omaha table this week in an effort to kick-start the high stakes games on the site.

The gamble seems to have paid off as the room has since added several other high limit tables to keep up with player's requests.

“Demand meant we recently introduced a new $25/$50 Pot Limit Omaha table but since then we have had to open up more tables for high stakes action,” said a PartyPoker spokesperson.

“We used to have big limit games but this is the biggest game we have had at PartyPoker.com for a long time. The high stakes action has picked up.”

UB.com Set to Run Bubble Buster Promo

Players who make the money in UB.com’s upcoming Ultimate Bet Online Championship 4 will have the opportunity to win up to $1 million in extra cash.

As part of the Bubble Buster promotion any player that cashes at least twice in UBOC 4 will have shot at winning anything from a seat in a $10,000 freeroll all the way up to a $1 million cash giveaway to a player who makes 11 cashes in UBOC 4.

With over $4 million guaranteed, UBOC 4 is the biggest online tournament series available on UB.com. The series will run Jan. 20-31 with the $1 million guaranteed $1,050 buy-in main event is scheduled for Jan. 31.

PKR Teams Up with Nuts and Loaded

PKR poker announced a partnership with IPC Media, publisher of mainstream UK men’s magazines Nuts and Loaded, this week.

Players on PKR poker will now have the option of playing their favorite games while being surrounded by images of women in the popular magazines.

Players will also have the opportunity to customize their avatars with Nuts or Loaded t-shirts.

Meanwhile magazine readers will benefit from poker trips from Team PKR Pro as well as trip reports from high stakes tournaments around the globe.

"We think that the collaboration with IPC Media is a perfect matchup of brands,” said PKR marketing director Simon Prodger. “Nuts and Loaded readers are spot on for us, and by having branded environments within our game, we offer them a unique poker experience."

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Join JC Tran in the PartyPoker.com Premier League

PartyPoker.com has announced details of qualifiers for next February’s Premier League IV. The tournament will be heading to Las Vegas for the first time and defending champion JC Tran will be back to defend his title.

2010 Paddy Power Irish Poker Open Schedule Announced

As the curtain falls on the 2009 with the World Poker Tour’s Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, the 2010 tournament season is preparing to take shape.

While January, with the Aussie Millions, PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, and the L.A. Poker Classic, is drawing immediate attention for poker’s elite players, there are other tournaments in the first half of 2010 that also are making their preparations. On Wednesday, PaddyPowerPoker.com announced the full schedule of events that will make up the 2010 Irish Open.

The 2010 Irish Open will be held in Dublin from April 1st to the 5th, continuing its tradition as the oldest poker tournament in Europe. Contested every year since 1980 and created by the late poker legend Terry Rogers, the Irish Open has grown in importance over the years. In 2005, PaddyPowerPoker.com picked up the sponsorship rights to the tournament. Since that time, it has expanded to not only include the best the European poker world has to offer, but also the elite from the American side of the Atlantic, including former World Series of Poker Main Event champions Dan Harrington and Doyle Brunson.

The Burlington Hotel will once again play host to the PaddyPowerPoker.com Irish Open, as it has since 2007. On April 1st, a satellite tournament, which costs €200 + €20, will be held to usher in the final few players for the championship event that begins the next day. The Irish Open Main Event, which will be a €3,200 + €300 No Limit Hold’em affair, brought a record-setting field of 700 players last time out. Veteran poker player Christer Johannson will be back to defend his title after defeating “High Stakes Poker” hostess Kara Scott in heads-up play.

“The Irish Open festival is shaping up very nicely, with all the preparatory work really paying off,” Eric Booth, the head of poker operations at PaddyPowerPoker.com, stated. There are also other events on the schedule that, Booth said, “will make some players upset there are not enough hours in the weekend to play them all.”

After Day One is completed in the Irish Open, side tournaments like the Pot Limit Omaha Championship, a €1,500 + €150 No Limit Hold’em tournament, a Ladies’ Championship, and a “Scalps” (bounty) tournament will be held. These events should provide plenty of action for players in attendance.

The full schedule of the 2010 Irish Open, presented by PaddyPowerPoker.com, looks like this:

April 1st
Satellite Tournament: €200 + €20, 7:00pm

April 2nd
Championship Event: €3,200 + €300, 3:30pm

April 3rd
Championship Event Day 2, 2:00pm
Pot Limit Omaha: €750 + €75, 6:00pm

April 4th
Championship Event Day 3, 2:00pm
Pot Limit Omaha Championship Day 2, 2:30pm
Ladies’ Championship: €300 + €30, 3:00pm
No Limit Hold’em: €1,500 + €150, 5:00pm

April 5th
Championship Event Day 4, 2:00pm
Ladies’ Championship Day 2, 2:30pm
No Limit Hold’em Day 2, 2:30pm
No Limit Hold’em Scalps Event, €270 + €30 + €30, 3:00pm

In addition to being the sponsor of the tournament, PaddyPowerPoker.com has introduced an online registration method for the Main Event that will allow players to buy in with credit cards, bank transfers, and checks. “We are delighted to launch the online registration facility for the Irish Open so that players eager to secure their seat at Europe’s longest running poker tournament can do so months in advance,” Booth said.

Are Team Cardrunners Cheaters or Just Hard Workers?

Brian Hastings had played against Isildur1 only three times before he obliterated him, but he, Cole South and Brian Townsend conglomerated their hand histories, which gave them bigger sample of hands to study how the mystery Swede plays.

In an interview of ESPN.com, Hastings gives most of the credit to Townsend:

“We’ve done quite a bit of studying of his habits,” Hastings reflected. “Honestly, I give most of the credit to Brian Townsend here. I mean, Brian is honestly the hardest worker I know in poker. He analyzed a database of heads-up hands that Isildur1 had played and constructed ranges of what Isildur1 was doing in certain spots.

In a way, I feel bad that it wasn’t Brian who got this win instead of me. Obviously I’m happy and I’ll take it, but Brian did a ton of work. 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.”

Brian and Brian, cheaters or not?

The problem is that Full Tilt Poker has explicitly forbidden the use of shared hand histories. You can see it from this quote taken from the terms of Full Tilt Poker concerning programs that are prohibited at the site:

“Shared hand history databases and “data mining” software, including subscription services and the exchange of personal databases: The use of shared hand histories provides detailed information on opponents a player has little or no personal experience playing against, and is deemed to be an unfair advantage. Violating this policy is subject to the maximum penalties for prohibited software use.

Players are not permitted to use the hand histories for hands that they have not personally participated in. Software designed to collect hand history information from games that the player did not participate in is prohibited.”

Some might say “that rule concerns only programs that gather information”, but there is also another point at the site terms where using other players hand histories for your own use is prohibited:

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.

There might have been only one player playing against Isildur1, but still there was many players figuring out the moves Hastings made against him. Unfair? Maybe. Will Team Cardrunners walk away without punishment? Probably.

Even though Brian Townsend was suspended 6 months from Team Full Tilt last year after violating the rules, I doubt he or other Brian will be punished about this. After all there is a fine line between “having a conversation about other players between friends” and “sharing an information about other players between friends for getting an unfair advantage against other players”.

Still I somehow feel like Isildur1 got robbed by Cardrunners.

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Are Team Cardrunners Cheaters or Just Hard Workers?

Two + Two founder sues “Dutch” Boyd

Mason Malmuth, founder of Two Plus Two Publishing, has sued multiple companies and individuals over alleged trademark infringements. Among the sued individuals is poker pro Russell Aaron “Dutch” Boyd.

Two Plus Two Publishing LLC is  accusing “Dutch” Boyd of cybersquatting, or putting up Web sites intended to divert customers from a trademarked site by using identical or confusingly similar names; trademark infringement, unfair competition, deceptive trade practices and intentional interference with prospective economic advantage.

The lawsuit claims Jacknames.com and Boyd on July 14, 2004, registered a domain name using the phrase “Two Plus Two” and the word “poker;” and who then linked the domain name to a poker strategy and gaming services site.

Russell Aaron “Dutch” Boyd

“The lawsuit he is bringing against me is based on a domain name that he currently owns: `twoplustwopoker.com.’ It is without merit and is designed to encourage me to pay him off or face a substantial legal bill defending myself against it,” Boyd said after he got the lawsuit.

In the end it is up to Las Vegas court to judge if “Dutch” Boyd has broken any laws.

Source: Las Vegas Sun

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Two + Two founder sues “Dutch” Boyd

PartyPoker Offering 25 Aussie Milllions Prize Packages

Ever since the popular online poker room PartyPoker signed 2009 Aussie Millions Main Event winner Stewart Scott as one of its sponsored pros, it has gone out of its way to promote both online and brick and mortar poker in Australia.

This weekend, PartyPoker is offering players a chance to win one of 25 seats in the 2010 Aussie Millions Main Event for just $600.  On Sunday, December 13th, the site will host two separate online satellites, one for citizens of Australia and New Zealand and one that is open to the rest of the PartyPoker customer base.  Both will feature a $600 + $40 buy-in, although many players will have won their way into the tournaments for much less since the site has been running micro-satellites.

The Aussie-only tournament will give away five tournament packages, each valued at $12,000.  The package includes buy-in to the AUD $10,000 Aussie Millions Main Event, hotel accommodations at the Crown Promenade in Melbourne, and $500 to be put towards travel expenses.  The tournament will begin at 2:45am ET.

The open field tournament will get underway a little later in the day at 2:30pm ET.  It will reward seats to the top 20 finishers and offer a slightly more lucrative version of the Aussie Millions prize package.  In addition to the buy-in and the hotel accommodations, the package will also include $3,500 to cover travel expenses.  Should a non-Aussie take part in the early tournament, PartyPoker will not offer any additional money to cover travel expenses.  Conversely, if a player from Australia or New Zealand wins one of the $15,000 packages, they will still receive the full $3,500 to cover travel.

Stewart Scott commented on the satellite tournaments in an official statement from PartyPoker: “I’ve been playing at PartyPoker.com for five years. These great packages are an amazing opportunity for other players to play in this huge tournament. Claiming the Aussie Millions title has been the highlight of my career and I’d love to see another PartyPoker.com player take the title.”

PartyPoker gave away 96 seats to the Aussie Millions in November as part of the site’s Gladiator promotion.  The players who earned at least 1,000 PartyPoints each day in November won their way into the event and the site doled out even more seats as part of a series of online tournaments featuring Scott.

Scott is the reigning Aussie Millions Champion and the first local player to win the tournament since it took on its new moniker and became one of the premiere events on the international tournament circuit.  In January, Scott defeated a field of 681 players to take down the AUD $2 million first place prize.  Peter Rho of Las Vegas finished in second place and earned AUD $1 million.  Other past winners of the Aussie Millions include Alexander Kostritsyn of Russia and Team Full Tilt member Gus Hansen.  Last year’s event also played home to one of the biggest live cash games in history with a minimum buy-in of AUD $1 million.

The previous Aussie Millions event boasted a guaranteed first place prize of AUD $2 million.  The Crown Casino is expecting an even larger turnout than 2009 and the tournament’s official website is predicting more than 800 runners in the upcoming Main Event.  There will also be a host of side events, including an AUD $100,000 buy-in High Rollers Event, a Heads-Up Event, and several Pot Limit Omaha events.  In total, the Crown will offer 20 different tournaments from January 14th to 31st, including the Main Event, which will run from January 24th to 30th.