Poker News

Returns

Filming of 13 different shows concluded in October at the Golden Nugget Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas featuring a mixture of well-known regulars from previous seasons and thirteen players making their Poker After Dark debut.

Ali Nejad, returns to provide commentary and Leeann Tweeden is back for her third season as the show’s host.

Seven of the new shows will follow the traditional Poker After Dark week-long six-handed winner-take-all freezeout format while the remaining six will feature cash games of varying buy-ins that will each air over a two-week period.

Producers say there are first-time winners, matches that end in dramatic fashion, huge swings, plenty of laughs and many other memorable moments.

The season will kick-off Jan. 4 with a Poker After Dark staple: The “Commentators” episode, featuring Nejad and High Stakes Poker host Gabe Kaplan along with newcomer Joe Sebok from Poker2Nite and Kaplan’s new co-host Kara Scott.

A “Nicknames” episode will follow that includes Annette “The Huntress” Obrestad’s Poker After Dark debut and great names like Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, Erick “E-Dog” Lindgren, Phil “The Unabomber” Laak, and Phil “The Poker Brat” Hellmuth.

The first cash game episodes to air will feature a $50,000 minimum buy-in and players including, Todd Brunson, Chris Ferguson, Matusow, Esfandiari, and Hellmuth.

In what could be the first win for an amateur on Poker After Dark a “My Favorite Pro” episode will air including online qualifiers Craig Ivey from Australia, James Ashby from Alabama, Jens Voertmann from Germany, and 2009 Howard Lederer Charity Event winner Steve Bartlett playing alongside Hellmuth and Ferguson.

In a match similar to the “Battle of the Sexes” theme of Season 2, a “He Said, She Said” episode will include Erica Schoenberg, Jean-Robert Bellande, David Grey, Matusow, Annie Duke and Karina Jett, making her Poker After Dark debut.

The next cash game show has a $100,000 minimum buy-in and includes some of the biggest cash players in the world. Here Hellmuth will take on Eli Elezra, Doyle Brunson, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Gus Hansen, and Laak.

A “Lonesome Shark” show will feature bachelors Lindgren, James Akenhead, Esfandiari, Matusow, David Williams, and Brad Booth and there is a “Mixed Martial Arts” show featuring Bruce Buffer, Dan Henderson, Randy Couture and Patrik Antonius.

The third and final cash game has a $150,000 minimum buy-in and includes Dwan, Antonius, David Peat, Elezra, Kaplan, and Alan Meltzer.

Finally, the season wraps up with a “Charity in Mind” show, highlighting the charity work of players including Phil Gordon, Jennifer Harman, Andy Bloch, Duke, Lederer and Ferguson.

Season 6 begins Jan. 4 in Poker After Dark’s regular 2:05 a.m. timeslot on NBC.

For more information and the entire schedule, check out the Poker After Dark page on NBC’s website.

PartyPoker Cash Machine Returns, Features Booster Bonus

In January, PartyPoker, one of the world’s longstanding online poker sites, returns the popular Cash Machine promotion. This time, hardcore grinders will earn additional cash as part of a Booster Bonus.

The Cash Machine promotion last ran during the month of September and shelled out a bevy of added funds to PartyPoker players. The promotion returns on January 4th and will run through the end of the month. All players have to do is earn 10 or more PartyPoints on at least 10 days during the 28-day period. Then, PartyPoker officials will take a look at the PartyPoint totals of the 10 highest-earning days and match the lowest one at the rate of $1 per point.

As an example, if a player’s 10 highest PartyPoint total days were 100, 100, 100, 150, 150, 150, 200, 200, 200, and 200, PartyPoker would award a $100 cash bonus, matching the lowest amount. The minimum payout is $10 and there is no maximum amount that PartyPoker will match. For those players who are unable to meet the $10 minimum, a generous consolation prize exists. Text found on PartyPoker’s website explains, “If you can achieve 10 qualifying days of one PartyPoint or more, but fail to earn the minimum cash reward, we’ll give you a seat in our $25,000 Cash Machine freeroll, which takes place at 15:00 ET on Wednesday, 3rd February.”

The Cash Machine Booster Bonus is available to players who earn at least 1,000 PartyPoints per day on 20 out of the 28 days of the promotion. Players who earn between 1,000 and 1,500 PartyPoints for 20 days will earn a $500 Booster Bonus. Players who rack up between 1,500 and 2,000 PartyPoints for 20 days will get a $1,100 Booster Bonus. Players who amass between 2,000 and 2,500 PartyPoints for 20 days will take home a $2,000 Booster Bonus. Players who earn between 2,500 and 3,000 PartyPoints will receive a $3,000 Booster Bonus and those able to surpass 3,000 PartyPoints for 20 days will nab a colossal $5,000 Booster Bonus.

The Cash Machine is an opt-in promotion and players can register for it at any time prior to its conclusion. Once they opt in, PartyPoker will credit players with all PartyPoints earned during the 28 days, regardless of when they sign up. Each qualifying day runs from 00:00 ET to 23:59 ET and days do not have to be consecutive in order to count. All funds earned will be dropped into players’ accounts within 48 hours of the Cash Machine promotion ending.

One day prior to the Cash Machine promotion kicking off, the PartyPoker Monthly Million will play out. The $640 buy-in tournament takes place on the first Sunday of every month and boasts a Championship blind structure. Players begin with 20,000 chips and blinds start at 25-50. The price of poker increases every 20 minutes and antes kick in at Level 6, when blinds are 250-500.

Qualifiers for the Monthly Million run constantly on PartyPoker. Popular ways to enter include a daily Monthly Million Qualifier, a $70 buy-in satellite with at least 19 seats on the line. A Mega Friday Satellite also takes place weekly, featuring a $55 buy-in and 20 seats guaranteed. On Saturdays, two qualifiers take place on PartyPoker offering a combined 18 seats. Country-specific freerolls and daily player point qualifiers also send players to the Monthly Million. Mark your calendars for Sunday, January 3rd, the next running of the Monthly Million.

According to the traffic ranking site PokerScout.com, PartyPoker is the fourth largest site worldwide, with a seven-day running average of 4,500 real money ring game players. It is the second largest not to accept players from the United States, trailing only the massive iPoker Network.

PartyPoker claims World Poker Tour Host and new Poker Hall of Fame inductee Mike Sexton as its ambassador and is currently qualifying players for the L.A. Poker Classic.

Mike Kosowski Beats Negreanu, Wins the Million Dollar Challenge!

The million dollar prize money didn’t come easily for Mike Kosowski ,53,, a former policeman from New York City who was severely injured on 9/11, as he had to beat Father Andrew Trapp, Iraq war veteran Denny Luna, and liquor salesman Brian Barboza in the Challenge of Champions, and finally Daniel Negreanu in a heads up.

Kosowski (pictured in the middle celebrating), who was trapped with eight other people in WTC’s south tower when it collapsed, knows how lucky he was to survive that day.

“I was one of the luckiest guys in the world to survive that day. And now this.”

Kosowski was forced to retire from the police forces due to the injuries he suffered and he started playing online poker. He had only played poker a few times before he was injured, but after the injury he started to play up to six hours of poker in a day.

In the Challenge of Champions, Kosowski, who had already busted Luna out of the tournament, had to hit an one-outer to eliminate Barboza in third place. The Catholic priest Trapp couldn’t stop Kosowski either and the heads up between the poker pro and the NYC cop was set.

The luck was on his side again in the heads up, as Kosowski found just the right cards in right places. On the final hand Kosowski found himself in a very bad spot on the flop after calling a preflop all-in push from Negreanu with 5-7 against K-4 of the Canadian. The flop came K-9-6 and Kosowski was in a need of a miracle. A miraculous eight, the new lucky number of Kosowski, hit on the river making Kosowski a happy millionaire.

After the successful first season of the TV show, a new season has already announced and qualifiers for season 2 are already running at PokerStars.

Sources PND, NYDN

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Mike Kosowski Beats Negreanu, Wins the Million Dollar Challenge!

Mike Kosowski Beats Negreanu, Wins the Million Dollar Challenge!

The million dollar prize money didn’t come easily for Mike Kosowski ,53,, a former policeman from New York City who was severely injured on 9/11, as he had to beat Father Andrew Trapp, Iraq war veteran Denny Luna, and liquor salesman Brian Barboza in the Challenge of Champions, and finally Daniel Negreanu in a heads up.

Kosowski (pictured in the middle celebrating), who was trapped with eight other people in WTC’s south tower when it collapsed, knows how lucky he was to survive that day.

“I was one of the luckiest guys in the world to survive that day. And now this.”

Kosowski was forced to retire from the police forces due to the injuries he suffered and he started playing online poker. He had only played poker a few times before he was injured, but after the injury he started to play up to six hours of poker in a day.

In the Challenge of Champions, Kosowski, who had already busted Luna out of the tournament, had to hit an one-outer to eliminate Barboza in third place. The Catholic priest Trapp couldn’t stop Kosowski either and the heads up between the poker pro and the NYC cop was set.

The luck was on his side again in the heads up, as Kosowski found just the right cards in right places. On the final hand Kosowski found himself in a very bad spot on the flop after calling a preflop all-in push from Negreanu with 5-7 against K-4 of the Canadian. The flop came K-9-6 and Kosowski was in a need of a miracle. A miraculous eight, the new lucky number of Kosowski, hit on the river making Kosowski a happy millionaire.

After the successful first season of the TV show, a new season has already announced and qualifiers for season 2 are already running at PokerStars.

Sources PND, NYDN

You just read Poker News from HighStakesNews.com

Mike Kosowski Beats Negreanu, Wins the Million Dollar Challenge!

WPT Sets Sights on Romania

After revealing its plans to head back to the Paris’ famed Aviation Club de France in May 2010 after a four-year absence last week, the WPT has now set its sights on Romania.

WPT Bucharest will run Mar. 27–Apr. 2, 2010 and will include a non-televised €3,000+€300 buy-in main event.

The Regent Casino in the Novotel Hotel at the center of Bucharest will play host to the tournament.

The casino features a gaming area with 25 table games, 88 slot machines, two VIP rooms, a luxury restaurant and other facilities.

“We are happy to be in partnership with WPT and to launch this special event together for the first time in Romania,” said Regent Casino CEO Sorin Constantinescu.

“It is already known that WPT always introduce new tournaments into prestigious locations. Regent Casino Bucharest is one of those special places, and with WPT Bucharest we believe it will become an excellent meeting point for the most talented poker players from all around the world.”

In addition to online qualifiers, land-based satellites will also be offered at Regent Casino.

When the WPT was bought by PartyGaming in the fourth quarter of 2009, officials promised to expand the tour, particularly in Europe. It appears now those plans are being put into action.

Wheeling Island Casino to Host Darvin Moon Poker Challenge

World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon may not be up for representing an online poker site, but he seems content to lend his name to a brick-and-mortar room.  After wearing the Wheeling Island Hotel and Casino logo during his appearance at this year’s Main Event final table, Moon is playing host at an upcoming tournament series at the West Virginia poker room.

Moon will serve as host and loan his name to the Darvin Moon Poker Challenge.  The tournament series will run from January 14th to 18th and include five No Limit Hold’em tournaments.  The events will feature buy-ins ranging from $125 to $550, culminating in a WSOP satellite with a $130 buy-in.

There is also an added incentive for players to take part in all of the events.  The casino will be awarding points to the top 20 finishers in each tournament.  The person who accumulates the most player points across the first four events gets to face off against Moon in the Ultimate Challenge, a heads-up match in which the winner will walk away with $2,000 offered up by the casino.

The tournaments will feature starting stacks of at least 10,000 chips and none of the Moon events will include rebuys.  However, there will be satellites for the $500 tournament, more than one of which features an optional rebuy.  All of the satellites will take place in the casino’s poker room, while the Challenge events will be held in the casino’s feature showroom.

It has been widely documented that Moon won his seat into the WSOP at a qualifier held at Wheeling Casino and it seems to be the lone exception to Moon’s otherwise stringent no endorsement policy.  Although Moon hails from Maryland, the West Virginia casino is just a couple of hours from his hometown of Oakland.  The property is best known for its greyhound racing track, which is the most profitable dog track in America based on purses paid, but it also offers table games, slots and, of course, poker.

The Jim Beam Poker Room at the Wheeling Island Casino offers a range of cash games year-round, including Seven Card Stud, Hold’em, and Omaha.  The stakes range from $1/$5 to $40/$80 for Stud, $2/$4 to $40/$80 for Limit Hold’em, and $1/$2 to $5/$10 for Pot Limit Omaha, No Limit Omaha, and No Limit Hold’em games.  The room is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and features 20 tables.

Pre-registration for the Darvin Moon Poker Challenge will open up on January 1st at 12:00pm.  The complete schedule of events is included below. All times are local:

Thursday, January 14th
1:00pm - Satellite for the $500 event - $65 buy-in (one optional rebuy)
7:00pm - Event #1 NHL - 10,000 in Tournament Chips - $125 buy-in (no rebuy)

Friday, January 15th
1:00pm - Satellite for the $500 event - $65 buy-in (one optional rebuy)
7:00pm - Event #2 NHL - 10,000 in Tournament Chips - $125 buy-in (no rebuy)

Saturday, January 16th
10:00am - Turbo satellite - $40 buy-in (no rebuy)
1:00pm - Event #3 NHL - 12,000 in Tournament Chips - $230 buy-in (no rebuy)

Sunday, January 17th
10:00am - Turbo satellite - $65 Buy-in (no re-buy)
1:00pm - Event #4 NHL - 15,000 in Tournament Chips - $550 buy-in (no rebuy)

Monday, January 18th
10:00am - The Ultimate Challenge - $2,000 added
1:00pm - WSOP Super Satellite NHL - 10,000 in Tournament Chips - $130 buy-in (no rebuy)

Titan Poker launches Euro City Poker Tour Barcelona Satellites

PartyPoker Offering Premier League Seat and Sponsorship Deal

In the coming weeks, players will not only be trying to satellite their way into the fourth installment of the PartyPoker Premier League tournament, but they are also vying for a sponsorship contract that could be worth $100,000.

The list of top pros taking part in the February event is starting to come together and the winner of the previous Premier League installment, J.C. Tran, will be back to defend his crown.  In December of 2008, Tran defeated a tough final table lineup that included Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Juha Helppi, Peter Eastgate, Roland de Wolfe, and Tony G.  Heads-up play came down to Tran and Tony G, with Tran prevailing over the Aussie pro to take the title.

Tran commented on his return to the Premier League in an official statement from PartyPoker: “I am very much looking forward to defending my Premier League title.  It was a fantastic experience last year and is an amazing format. I am certainly not going to be giving up my crown without a fight!”

This year, a PartyPoker online qualifier will join Tran and the other pros in the event, which features a prize pool of $1.5 million.  The site is giving out 16 packages worth $9,000 that include a trip to Las Vegas and a chance to compete in a Premier League qualifying tournament.  Each prize package includes a $6,250 buy-in into the qualifying event, hotel stay, and $2,000 in spending money.  The qualifier will run from February 9th to 10th and its winner will stick around from the 11th to 18th, when the actual Premier League IV tournament takes place.

As for the $100,000 sponsorship deal, it is available to any one of the 16 players who makes the trip to Vegas, not just the person who wins the seat in the finals.  Representatives from the online poker room will be on hand to evaluate players on their skills on the felt and other factors like marketability and personality.  Of the 16, one will be chosen to join the grassroots team of sponsored pros, which already includes World Poker Tour host Mike Sexton, Felipe “Mojave” Ramos, Ian Frazer, and others.

A PartyPoker spokesperson spoke about the decision-making process in a press release from the online poker room: “One amazing element of this promotion that provides a truly fantastic opportunity is that one of the 16 qualifiers will be chosen by PartyPoker to receive a $100,000 Team Party contract to be a sponsored player.  This decision will be made by PartyPoker within two weeks after the event takes place.  We will only get a flavor of who we want to sponsor once we have had a chance to meet and interact with the 16 players that make it out to Las Vegas.”

Players interested in satelliting their way into the event can do so for as little as $2 thanks to three-tiered series of online qualifiers.  PartyPoker will be running $2 and $6.50 tournaments daily and winners will advance into a $52 buy-in event that will run at 3:20pm ET every day.  One in every ten players in those tournaments will earn a seat into the final online qualifier.  The finals will run each Sunday at 3:20pm and the $480 buy-in tournament will award one prize package for every 20 entrants.

For those who want to avoid playing too many satellites, PartyPoker is also running a rake race exclusively for Palladium Lounge members.  Palladium Lounge is the VIP customer rewards club for PartyPoker players.  The top 600 finishers in the points race, which is running from December 7th to January 3rd, will compete in a freeroll on January 10th to win two of the $9,000 packages.  The top 250 finishers will also be rewarded with a share of a cash prize from a $155,000 prize pool.  The winner will receive a Premier League package and the runner-up gets $6,000.  The remaining 248 players will receive anywhere from $4,500 to $100.

Join JC Tran in the PartyPoker.com Premier League

PartyPoker Starts Premier League IV Qualifiers

The online poker room started satellites for the Premier League IV today. The event is scheduled to take place in February and it’s possible to qualify on PartyPoker for as little as $2.

A total of 16 players will qualify for a special playoff in Las Vegas that will determine which player gets the $100,000 buy-in to face 11 professional players in the official Premier League IV.

PartyPoker will also award one player with a lucrative Team Party contract worth $100,000.

“One amazing element of this promotion that provides a truly fantastic opportunity is that one of the 16 qualifiers will be chosen to receive a $100,000 Team Party contract to be a sponsored player,” said a PartyPoker spokesman.

“This decision will be made by PartyPoker within two weeks after the event takes place. We will only get a flavor of who we want to sponsor once we have had a chance to meet and interact with the 16 players that make it out to Vegas.”

TV crews are set to film both the qualifier playoff and the Premier League IV Final, which means even the satellite winners will get their time in the spotlight.

J.C. Tran, winner of the Premier League III, has already been confirmed to take part in the upcoming Premier League. Tran outlasted a stiff field last season that included Tom Dwan, Tony G, Roland de Wolfe, Peter Eastgate and Juha Helppi.

“I am very much looking forward to defending my Premier League title,” said Tran. “It was a fantastic experience last year and is an amazing format. I am certainly not giving up my crown without a fight.”

The Premier League began in England and has crowned Juha Helppi, Roland de Wolfe and the aforementioned J.C. Tran as champions over the span of its three year existence. The event follows a shootout-style format that sees winners in the preliminary heats qualify for the final table.

PartyPoker is set to announce the rest of the poker celebrities that will take part in the Premier League IV over the coming weeks.

Everest Poker Offers Players a Chance to Live the Dream

Popular poker room Everest Poker is aiming to kick off 2010 in style with the second installment of its Live the Dream promotion.  The contest gives qualifiers the chance to compete for one of ten sponsorship deals worth over $100,000.

Players could qualify for the event in one of three ways: tournament leaderboard races, cash game loyalty points races, or by direct-entry tournaments open to various countries.  The qualifying process is now over, but more than 200 players advanced to the next round of the promotion’s process.

The qualifiers are now being reviewed by Everest Poker staff to assess their poker skills, viability as a sponsored representative of the site, and popularity among the users of Everest Poker.  Players set up profiles on Everest Poker’s official website and others are able to view and vote on their favorite players.  Of the 200 plus qualifying players, 58 hailed from France, while Germany posted the second largest number of players with 29.  Other countries represented in the contest include Hungary, Japan, Brazil, Italy, Portugal, Britain, and Sweden.

The next step for qualifiers is to meet the Everest Poker staff in person.  Qualifiers will travel to the Palais Auersberg in Vienna, Austria for the final step before the top ten winners are selected.  Players who travel to Austria will be divided into two groups.  Group A begins the first day with five-minute taped interviews.  While players wait to be interviewed, they will be playing each other in cash games.  Meanwhile, Group B will play in sit and go tournaments.  After a brief break for lunch, the two groups will switch tasks.  At the end of the day, most of the players will be dismissed, but the top 20 will be asked to come back Sunday for an even more intensive interview process.

The top 20 will take part in 20-minute long interviews that will be reviewed by both Everest Poker staff and a panel of industry judges.  The top ten winners will be announced after dinner and will commence their year-long affiliation with the site with an official press conference.  As part of their deal, players will receive more than $30,000 to cover travel expenses as they travel the international poker circuit.  All ten of the players are set to take part in a number of tournaments, including the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event.

The first Living the Dream contest took part in 2008.  Some of the promotional winners included Steven van Zadlehoff of the Netherlands, Voitto Rintala of Finland, and Pablo Ubierna of Spain.  Prior to winning the Living the Dream promotion, Van Zadlehoff was already beginning to establish himself as a skilled poker player with a seventh place finish at the World Poker Tour (WPT) Spanish Championship in 2007 and an 11th place finish at the first annual WSOP Europe.  He also has five WSOP cashes to his credit.

Van Zadlehoff commented on his Live the Dream experience on Everest Poker’s official site.  ”If you get sent to the rails, you just look ahead to the next tournament and your next win. Live The Dream built more than my bankroll. It built my career,” he extolled.  Ubierna and Rintala echoed the sentiments, with all three agreeing that Live the Dream was a life changing and career-making opportunity.

Gavin O’Rourke on top at UKIPT opener in Galway

PokerStars UKIPT Kicks Off

The four-day tournament, running until Dec. 14, drew players from 22 countries, including 104 online qualifiers.

“Given it's the first event of a brand new tour, it is really exciting that so many players have qualified for the event and from so many countries,” said newly named UKIPT host and veteran European Poker Tour commentator Nick Wealthall.

“As the tour becomes established and builds its reputation, we look forward to welcoming more and more new players to big time live poker.”

Team PokerStars Pros John Duthie, J.P. Kelly, and Jude Ainsworth joined a field that included 147 players from Ireland and a total of 52 from the United Kingdom.

The group is vying for a piece of a €471,400 prize pool, including €125k for first.

Galway is the first of eight stops on the newly launched UKIPT. The tour will also visit Manchester, Nottingham, Killarney, Brighton, a city yet to be named in Scotland, Dublin and London, where the PokerStars EPT London main event will act as the Grand Final next October.

More on the tour can be found on the UKIPT website.

The PokerStars UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) kicked off in Galway, Ireland Friday, drawing 259 players for its €2,000 Main Event.

The four-day tournament, running until Dec. 14, drew players from 22 countries, including 104 online qualifiers.

“Given it's the first event of a brand new tour, it is really exciting that so many players have qualified for the event and from so many countries,” said newly named UKIPT host and veteran European Poker Tour commentator Nick Wealthall.

“As the tour becomes established and builds its reputation, we look forward to welcoming more and more new players to big time live poker.”

Team PokerStars Pros John Duthie, J.P. Kelly, and Jude Ainsworth joined a field that included 147 players from Ireland and a total of 52 from the United Kingdom.

The group is vying for a piece of a €471,400 prize pool, including €125k for first.

Galway is the first of eight stops on the newly launched UKIPT. The tour will also visit Manchester, Nottingham, Killarney, Brighton, a city yet to be named in Scotland, Dublin and London, where the PokerStars EPT London main event will act as the Grand Final next October.

Joe Hachem Comments on the State of Australian Poker

With the conclusion of the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) in Sydney, Australia last week, another successful season came to an end and one more Aussie champion was born. Online qualifier Aaron Benton won the AUD $6,300 Grand Final Main Event to become the third straight Australian-born player to capture the title. Additionally, fellow Aussie and former APPT champion Van Marcus defeated a tough field to win the APPT Tournament of Champions.

2005 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event champion and Team PokerStars Pro member Joe Hachem recently wrote an article in the Sydney Morning Herald discussing the growth of poker in Australia. Hachem, who was born in Lebanon and moved to Melbourne at age six, talked about the APPT, the Aussie Millions, and the poker culture that has taken over Australia since his life-changing victory in 2005.

"Obviously we are yet to reach the heights of popularity that the sport has achieved in America, where every major tournament is televised and attracts thousands of live spectators, but the popularity and the competitors continue to grow," Hachem wrote. "For a professional player, I always hope we'll get to that point. The growth so far has been satisfying as the standard of the events available in Australia continue to improve, as we attract more international talent as well as retain our best home-grown players."

That home-grown talent has made some serious noise in 2009. Jeffrey Lisandro (born in Perth) won three WSOP bracelets in 2009 while capturing Player of the Year honors in a year that saw five different players win multiple events. Lisandro, known better as a successful cash game player, now has four bracelets and joins fellow Aussies Hachem, Mark Vos, Gary Benson, and Mel Juda as WSOP champions.

In January, Bilambil Heights native Stewart Scott earned $1,865,724 by winning the Crown Aussie Millions Main Event. Scott became the first Aussie to keep the prestigious title in his home country since the event went international in 2003. The event, which was first introduced in 1997 as a $1,000 buy-in Limit Hold'em tournament, has developed into one of the biggest poker events on the planet. The number of entrants has increased every year since 2003, helped greatly by Fox Sports Net's broadcast that reaches millions of homes internationally. Poker fans were able to watch Gus Hansen claim the title in 2007 and Alexander Kostritsyn defeat Erik Seidel to win it in 2008.

Benton, who already had a claim to fame coming into the APPT Grand Final as a former contestant in the Australian edition of “Big Brother,” collected AUD $594,000 for his victory in Sydney last week. Benton bested a field of 396 players, including seven Aussies at the final table. Though the tournament drew fewer entrants than the past two years (561 in 2007 and 477 in 2008), Hachem is still pleased with the direction the game is headed in his homeland.

"From the Aussie Millions and this weekend's Pokerstars.net APPT, (the largest poker tour in the region) to smaller events that still offer a genuine challenge like the ANZPT (Australia New Zealand Poker Tour), a professional player could quite happily now play a full season in this country and boast an impressive record of events," Hachem said.

The 2010 Aussie Millions gets underway on Thursday, January 14 with a $1,100 No Limit Hold'em event. Several similar preliminary events will take place up until the $10,500 Main Event kicks off on January 24.

WSOP Champ Joe Cada Heads to Capitol Hill

Tuesday will mark a busy day in the life of 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event Champion Joe Cada. The youngest winner of the $10,000 buy-in tournament ever, Cada will travel to Capitol Hill flanked by the Poker Players Alliance (PPA).

The PPA has seen its own string of victories as of late, including achieving a six-month delay of the regulations of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA). Now, the 1.2 million member strong lobbying organization will bring the current face of the game to Capitol Hill. Cada told Poker News Daily in an exclusive interview, “I’m meeting with Congressmen for the PPA. I’m still trying to get used to all of this.” PPA officials will accompany Cada around Capitol Hill and the youngster, who is now 22 years-old, will join the Sports Junkies radio show at 10:15am ET on WJFK.

Cada will visit with several lawmakers in pre-planned meetings, including Congresswoman Linda Sanchez (D-CA), who, according to the PPA, plays poker herself and is a friend of UB.com pro Annie Duke. Cada will also spend time with Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), who hails from the Main Event winner’s home state. He’ll be brought to the members’ dining room on Capitol Hill for lunch, where Cada will be introduced to those in attendance.

After lunch, Cada will meet with Congresswoman Candice Miller (R-MI), who represents Michigan’s 10th Congressional District. According to Cada’s agent, Miller will introduce him to entire House of Representatives on the chamber’s floor in a once-in-a-lifetime experience. He’ll then head to the offices of another Republican, Joe Barton (R-TX), the Ranking Member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce and a poker player. Finally, Cada will meet with members of the Nevada delegation in Washington, D.C. and the PPA will escort the $8.5 million winner around town before he heads for the airport.

On Cada’s itinerary, PPA Executive Director John Pappas told Poker News Daily, “We know that these members are interested in poker. They’re poker players themselves. This is to tell the story of the World Champion, the youngest winner in Main Event history.” Cada warmed up for the whirlwind of meetings by playing in Pappas’ home game on Monday night, a $40 rebuy tournament that saw him fade J-Q multiple times. About 10 players could be found at the game last night.

Local media and press on Capitol Hill were expected to join Cada during the day. He recently flew cross-country from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C. after filming the “PokerStars.net Million Dollar Challenge.” Cada was one of the poker pros scheduled to appear on the show, but did not play against a PokerStars qualifier. Cada told Poker News Daily, “It was good, but I didn’t get to play at all because the qualifiers couldn’t get past the celebrities. I was supposed to play after that. I got to meet a few celebrities like Joanna Krupa and a lot more.”

The PPA saw several members of the WSOP Main Event final table don patches for the tournament’s conclusion, which aired on ESPN in mid-November. On the organization’s fight for the rights of poker players in both the online and offline versions of the game, Cada explained, “I’m all for what they’re doing. I haven’t had too much contact with them, but hopefully that can change very soon. It would be good to meet a bunch of Congressmen and speak with the PPA a lot more. It’s something I hope I can help with.”

In addition to his forthcoming appearances on Capitol Hill, Cada has made waves throughout mainstream media, including guest spots on the “Late Show with David Letterman” and the ESPN news franchise “SportsCenter.” He’s also become a hometown hero of sorts in Michigan, covered by nearly every local news outlet.

Haitao Wu is GUKPT Champion of Champions

Akenhead Aces Full Tilt Poker Million VIII

It was little more than a month ago Akenhead entered the 2009 WSOP Main Event final table as one of the short stacks, couldn’t get anything going, and finished in ninth place.

Akenhead also finished in ninth place at the 2009 WSOPE Main Event and back in 2008 he finished second in a $1,500 WSOP No-Limit Hold’em event, thanks to a heart-wrenching bad beat.

In addition to getting the monkey off his back, Akenhead picked up $500,000 for his effort in the Poker Million VIII.

“It’s been such a great year and ever since I came second for a bracelet in such a brutal way I’ve been striving to win a big tournament,” Akenhead said. “I’ve made lots of final tables but not come first so to win an event as big as the Poker Million is fantastic.”

Akenhead outlasted some stiff competition with pros like Juha Helppi, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, Luke "FullFlush" Schwartz, Taylor Caby and online qualifiers Craig Wakeham and Peter Vasiliou gunning for first place at the prestigious final table.

CardRunners instructor Caby was the first player eliminated, much to the chagrin of fans who took part in the “Piece of Caby” promotion.

Both of the internet qualifiers soon followed Caby to the rail and Schwartz, who entered the final table as the chip leader, looked primed to take down the tournament.

Instead Akenhead won a large number of his chips and Mikkelsen finally busted the trash-talking Schwartz in fourth.

Mikkelsen's victory was short-lived as he was eliminated in third, which left Helppi and Akenhead to fight it out for the title.

Although Helppi held a slight chip lead heading into heads-up, it didn’t take long for Akenhead to draw even.

In the final hand Akenhead bet with pocket tens, Helppi shoved all-in with pocket sixes and Akenhead made the call.

The tens held and Akenhead became the latest Poker Million winner joining the likes of past winners Marty Smyth, Joe Beevers and Donnacha O'Dea.

Here are the complete final table payouts for the Poker Million VIII:

1. James Akenhead - $500,000
2. Juha Helppi - $250,000
3. Dag Martin Mikkelsen - $200,000
4. Luke Schwartz - $150,000
5. Craig Wakeham - $100,000
6. Peter Vasiliou - $75,000
7. Taylor Caby - $50,000

Jan Skampa Wins EPT Prague; Becomes First Czech EPT Champ

Hometown hero Jan Skampa took down the Main Event of the European Poker Tour (EPT) Prague stop, banking €682,000. Skampa is a 23 year-old economics student at St. Charles University in Prague and became the first Czech champion in EPT history.

A total of 584 players turned out for the EPT Prague Main Event, which came with a €5,250 price tag. The event’s central location attracted a truly diverse international field, as seven countries were represented at the eight-handed final table. Among those at the feature table was Team PokerStars Pro member Luca Pagano, who finished in sixth place for an even €100,000. In October, Pagano final tabled the EPT Warsaw Main Event to the tune of over $100,000, one of his four EPT feature table appearances in 2009. Pagano has 13 in the money showings in EPT events.

Following his monumental win, Skampa told PokerStars officials, “It feels great to win. It’s my fourth EPT and I won it in my home town – that must be one of the greatest accomplishments you can have in poker. It was tough when we were three-handed, but once Stefan Mattsson was out, I felt confident I could win.” Here were the final results from the 2009 running of EPT Prague:

1. Jan Skampa (Czech Republic) – €682,000
2. Eyal Avitan (Israel) – €454,000
3. Stefan Mattsson (France) – €255,000
4. Anthony Roux (Czech Republic) – €171,000
5. Larry Ryan (Ireland) – €135,000
6. Luca Pagano (Italy) – €100,000
7. Gustav Ekerot (Sweden) – €71,000
8. Sven Eichelbaum (Germany) – €55,500

This was the third running of EPT Prague, which debuted during the fourth season of the EPT with Arnaud Mattern emerging victorious from a field of 555 runners. Last year, Italian poker player Salvatore Bonavena took home the crown after besting a group of 570 poker players. Attendance at the Czech event has increased gradually each year, as this season’s crop of 584 players represented a 2% increase year over year.

In the defining hand of heads-up play, which ran for three hours, Eyal Avitan pushed all-in with J-9 and Skampa woke up with pocket jacks. The dominating hand held and Skampa was crowned the 2009 EPT Prague champion, sending the hometown fans into a frenzy. Avitan sent Stefan Mattsson packing after he flopped a straight with J-10 against Mattsson’s Q-10. The fourth place finisher at EPT Prague, Anthony Roux, hit the rails after coming out on the short end of a race with pocket tens against Avitan’s A-K.

Larry Ryan, a PokerStars qualifier, hit the skids in fifth after running pocket jacks into Mattsson’s pocket aces. Ryan, who also qualified via PokerStars for the upcoming Caribbean Adventure, could not overcome being a 4:1 underdog and earned €135,000. Pagano’s EPT Prague title hopes were dashed when his A-J could not draw out on Mattsson’s pocket queens.

Next up for Season 6 of the PokerStars-sponsored EPT is the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which takes place from January 4th to 14th at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort in the Bahamas. The tournament marks the EPT’s only trip to the Western Hemisphere in a joint event with the Latin American Poker Tour (LAPT). In 2009, Canadian Poorya Nazari took home a massive $3 million grand prize from the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, which attracted a record-setting 1,347 players. In side tournament action, Team PokerStars Pro member and former Main Event champion Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier took down the $25,000 High Roller contest.

The PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event comes with a $10,300 price tag. Side festivities include battleship events, ladies only events, and tournaments in Omaha, Eight Game, and Badugi.

APPT Sydney Title Stays in Australia

PokerStars online qualifier Aaron Benton outlasted 395 players to win a first place prize of $594,000 (AUD) in the Star City-hosted event.

"I used to play more for the entertainment in pub games, but I'm loving my poker and I wanted to take it to the next level," Benton said after his victory.

The 32-year-old recruitment consultant from Wollongong, New South Wales, had to get by well-known players like Mark Vos, Tony “bond18” Dunst and Joe Hachem before making it to the final table, which included Australian veteran Leo Boxell.

Boxell was eventually eliminated third and the final showdown was between Benton and fellow online qualifier Ernst Hermans from the Netherlands.

In the decisive hand of the tournament Herman open-shoved with 9-8 and Benton insta-called with pocket kings. The kings held up and Benton won his first APPT title.

The APPT Sydney Grand final has been won by an Australian in all three years of its existence. Last year Sydney local Martin Rowe outlasted 476 players to win $1 million (AUD).

APPT Sydney also marked the end to the third season of the tour. Winners were crowned in Australia, China, New Zealand and the Philippines although the Korean stop was postponed indefinitely due to construction of the venue.

Details for season four will soon be available on the APPT website and if last year was any indication the first event will likely take place this summer.

Here are the final table payouts for the $6,300 (AUD) buy-in APPT Sydney:

1. Aaron Benton - $594,000 (AUD)
2. Ernst Hermans - $381,000 (AUD)
3. Leo Boxell - $213,840 (AUD)
4. Wayne Carlson - $166,320 (AUD)
5. Tom Grigg - $130,680 (AUD)
6. Andrew Hiscox - $106,920 (AUD)
7. Barry Forrester - $83,160 (AUD)
8. David Formosa - $65,340 (AUD)
9. Thomas Slifka - $47,520 (AUD)

James Akenhead Wins Full Tilt Poker Million VIII

Rack up another final table for Full Tilt Poker Red Pro James Akenhead.  The British pro, who already final tabled both the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and World Series of Poker (WSOPE) Main Events earlier this year, not only made the crop of top six finishers in the Full Tilt Poker Million VIII event, but won the whole thing.  He netted $500,000 in the process.

The Full Tilt Poker Million was an invitational event featuring 72 players from around the globe fighting for the half-million dollar first place prize.  The shootout-style event’s preliminary and semi-final bouts were filmed earlier this year in London and already aired on Sky Sports in Europe.  While those rounds were taped, the final table players returned to London Friday to play down to a champion.

One of the event’s organizers, Matchroom Sport, posted live updates in its online poker forum to keep non-Europeans posted on the tournament’s action.  When the final table began, it was Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz who held the chip lead with 397,000, while Akenhead was in second place with 338,000.  The players started the final table with the same number of chips they ended with in the semi-finals, save Craig Wakeham, an online qualifier from Full Tilt who was added to the mix at the last minute and given the shortest stack of 100,000 chips.

Joining Akenhead, Schwartz, and Wakeham at the final table were CardRunners instructor Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby, Juha Helppi, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, and another online qualifier who defeated a host of top pros to make the final table, Peter Vasiliou.

Those enrolled in the Piece of Taylor promotion at CardRunners will be sad to hear that Caby was the first player eliminated when he moved all-in with pocket sevens from the button and Mikkelsen called out of the blinds with K-4.  A king on the flop and a king on the turn spelled disaster for Caby, who was eliminated in seventh place for a $50,000 payout.  The winner of Piece of Taylor promotion will still earn $500 for taking part.

Vasiliou was the next player to fall, also knocked out at the hands of Mikkelsen, who overtook the chip lead after the qualifier’s sixth place elimination. The other qualifier was out only minutes later after losing a coin flip to Helppi.  At that point, the blinds were so high that virtually every player at the table was in all-in or fold mode.  Schwartz called an all-in shove from Akenhead holding pocket eights to Akenhead’s As-7s and the opinionated and vocal Schwartz started to leave the table even though he had the best hand.  The eights only improved, as the flop fell 10-9-8, but it also brought straight and flush possibilities for Akenhead.  The turn made a flush for Akenhead and when the board failed to pair on the river, the former chip leader was decimated, while Akenhead amassed a sizeable chip lead.

Schwartz returned to the table and quickly doubled up, but couldn’t repeat the feat, losing with A-5 to Mikkelsen’s K-Q and he was out in fourth place.  It looked like Helppi would be next to fall, but he doubled up at the right time He then eliminated Mikkelsen in third place to take the chip lead headed into heads-up play against Akenhead.

Even though Helppi held the chip advantage, the blinds were high enough that the win was far from in the bag.  It was only a matter of hands before Akenhead edged out his opponent for the chip lead and the final hand of play went down when Helppi picked up pocket sixes to Akenhead’s pocket tens.  The tens held and Akenhead took down his first major title of 2009.  In total, the final table took just under four hours to complete, which is pretty brief when compared to Akenhead’s other two final table appearances this year.

Here are the final table results from this year’s Poker Million:

1st Place: James Akenhead – $500,000
2nd Place: Juha Helppi – $250,000
3rd Place: Dag Martin Mikkelsen  – $200,000
4th Place: Luke “FullFlush” Schwartz – $150,000
5th Place: Craig Wakeham – $100,000
6th Place: Peter Vasiliou – $75,000
7th Place: Taylor “Green Plastic” Caby – $50,000

Bernard Lee Recaps the 2009 WSOP Main Event Final Table

It was certainly a memorable World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event final table.  From Doyle Brunson announcing “Shuffle up and deal” to Joe Cada putting on the coveted bracelet, I was present in the Penn and Teller Theater to cover all of the festivities for ESPN Inside Deal.

Sadly, I could not play in the World Poker Tour (WPT) World Poker Finals Main Event at Foxwoods Resort and Casino.  The event has had significant personal meaning.  Not only did I have consecutive runs in the Main Event dating back to 2004, I also entered the 2009 World Poker Finals with three preliminary titles in the last three years ($5,000 in 2006, $2,000 in 2007, and $600 shootout in 2008).  I gave myself an opportunity to make it four in a row by making the final table of the $1,500 event, but I came up a little short, finishing in eighth place.  Oh well, I guess I will try to start another streak next year.

Nevertheless, the 2009 November Nine definitely had its share of memorable moments.  Right after the final table, I shared my thoughts with my radio show audience during my WSOP final table wrap-up, which lasted about three hours.  Guests included 2009 November Niners Darvin Moon, Steven Begleiter, and Kevin Schaffel, as well as recent Poker Hall of Fame inductee Mike Sexton, PokerNewsDaily.com’s own Dan Cypra, and Heartland Poker Tour announcer Fred Bevill.

The week after, I also produced an audio blog of the WSOP Main Event final table from start to finish.  Some of the interviews even included talks with players during the breaks to hear how they felt they were playing at the time.  If you would like to hear these shows or any past interviews with any member of the November Nine, you can download the podcast of “The Bernard Lee Poker Show” via iTunes or visit RoundersRadio.com.

Of course, congratulations to Joe Cada.  A year after Peter Eastgate broke Phil Hellmuth’s 19 year-old record for youngest WSOP Main Event champion, the 21-year old online player from Shelby Township, Michigan rewrote history once again by winning the $8.5 million first prize and the 2009 WSOP Main Event bracelet.  Cada went on a media blitz after his victory that included a ringside seat at a WWE event, appearances on several ESPN shows, and topped off with an interview with David Letterman.  I hope he continues to be a true poker ambassador during his reign.  Congratulations once again to our new WSOP Main Event Champion, Joe Cada.

Looking back, here are some of my additional thoughts about the WSOP final table:

1) Slow Early Play:  Based on the prize structure, I was surprised at how slow the play was at the beginning.  With the money difference between ninth and eighth only being $37,000 and the next jump being only $104,000, many analysts expected the short stacks to push early.  With players needing to finish in fourth place or better to at least double their guaranteed $1.26 million, I was even amazed that it took 59 hands to eliminate our first player.  However, after James Akenhead (ninth) and Kevin Schaffel (eighth) were eliminated, it took over 100 hands to dismiss Ivey from the final table in seventh place.

2) Atmosphere:  Unable to attend the inaugural November Nine last year, I previously heard all of the stories about the crowd excitement and noise.  This year, I got to experience it first-hand and it definitely did not disappoint.  Inside the Rio’s Penn and Teller Theater, the packed house was truly deafening and involved from hand one.

3) The Best Fans:  Many of the players brought their own cheering sections:

a. Schaffel: His fans wore white shirts that read “Schaffel up and Deal”
b. Moon: His family and friends had cut out faces of Darvin and shirts that read “Bad Moon Rising”
c. Saout: His cheering section wore France’s home team colors and chanted like soccer (or football as they say in Europe) fans
d. Ivey: The entire audience was cheering for him

However, the best fans were, without a question, Joe Cada’s gang.  Although there was a fight among their group, the majority of Cada’s group never let their guy down.  They cheered with every hand, sometimes even when he lost a hand.  One time, his group reacted so loudly that I was confused, thinking that he might have actually won the hand.  They really kept his spirits up and never let him give up.

4) Worst Bad Beat:  This year’s final table may be known as the Year of the Bad Beat.  Amazingly, every player eliminated from eighth place to third had the lead pre-flop and lost.  Here are a couple of the worst ones:

a. Schaffel versus Buchman:  Schaffel’s Ah-Ac got cracked by Buchman’s Kh-Kc when Buchman flopped a king and turned quads to eliminate Schaffel in eighth place.

b. Ivey versus Moon:  Pre-flop Ivey (Ac-Ks) had Moon (Ad-Qs) dominated, but Moon flopped a Qd.  Ivey could not catch up and was eliminated in seventh place, deflating his fans and the room in general.

However, the worst beat had to be when Cada shoved all-in versus Antoine Saout on the very first hand of three-handed play.  Saout’s Qs-Qh was poised to eliminate Cada’s 2s-2c; however, a 9s-7s-2d flop destroyed Saout’s hopes of the WSOP Main Event title.

5) Emerging Poker Star: Besides Cada, the one player that surprised many people was Antoine Saout.  An unknown player before the 2009 WSOP, this online qualifier final tabled the WSOP Europe Main Event final table prior to the November Nine.  Then, the second short stack ended up finishing in third place and could have been playing heads-up versus Moon.  Had Cada not flopped a set (see #4 above), the Frenchman would have brought a 110:70 million chip lead to the mono-a-mono battle.

For a limited time only (until December 25th), all PokerNewsDaily.com readers are invited to a special pre-holiday sale.  Click Here to receive a 20% discount for ordering my books, The Final Table, Volume I and II.  Both books make perfect holiday gifts for all poker fans.

Finally, in the coming weeks, “The Bernard Lee Poker Show” will interview two champions: 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event champion Barry Shulman and the Godfather of Poker himself, two-time WSOP Main Event champion Doyle Brunson.

I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

Since finishing 13th in the 2005 WSOP Main Event, Bernard Lee has cashed in numerous tournaments, capturing three titles and earning over $1.35 million.  He is the host of ESPN’s poker show, ESPN Inside Deal.  He is a columnist for the Boston Herald and ESPN.com and the radio host of “The Bernard Lee Poker Show.”  Listen every Tuesday night from 7:00pm ET to 8:00pm ET on 1510 AM in Massachusetts and also on 1510thezone.com and RoundersRadio.com.  The show is replayed several times during the week and also available on podcast. Visit BernardLeePoker.com for the latest news regarding Lee.

Poker Million final live on Sky Sports tonight

European Poker Tour Prague Day 2: Yann Brosolo Leads the Way to Day 3

Full Tilt Poker Million Final Table Airs Live Friday

The live finale of the Full Tilt Poker Million is on the horizon, which means the last of its pre-taped episodes are airing on the Sky Sports channel in Europe.  The most recent installments have focused on the last of the Turbo preliminary heats and the two semi-final heats of the prestigious invitational event.  The live finale is set to air on Sky Sports on Friday.

The eighth installment of the event featured 72 different players, including Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad, Gus Hansen, Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko, Nam Le, David Chiu, Allen Cunningham, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Jennifer Tilly, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan.

The heats played out in London in recent months.  In the first round, there were 12 six-handed preliminary heats.  Each of the winners advanced to the semi-final round, while the runners-up were put into a consolation Turbo heat.  The first of the two Turbo heats was taken down by online qualifier Peter Vasiliou, while Antonio Esfandiari took down the second Turbo, which aired on Tuesday on Sky Sports.  Esfandiari defeated a lineup that included Hansen, Timoshenko, Christian “charder” Harder, Michael Tureniec, and Bradley “FatsoFat6969” Craig.  Heads-up play got down to Craig and Esfandiari.  On the final hand of play, Craig moved all-in with K-2, Esfandiari called with pocket sevens, and the wired pair held.

The first of two semi-final heats is set to air Wednesday night and will feature Le, Obrestad, Vasiliou, Luke “Full Flush” Schwartz, Juha Helppi, Tony Bloom, and Paul Zimbler.  Bloom had experience on his side, as he made the final table of this event in 2000 and 2001, but would fall short of final table number three.  The top three finishers in each of the semi-final heats advanced to the finale’ that honor went to Vasiliou, Schwartz, and Helppi.

The second semi-final heat airs on Thursday and will feature Esfandiari, Chiu, Dwan, CardRunners instructor Taylor “GreenPlastic” Caby, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, James Akenhead, and Daniel Bowden.  The second semi-final saw Caby, Mikkelsen, and Akenhead advance to meet the other three qualifiers in the final round.

As Poker News Daily previously reported, Caby is offering members of Truly Free Poker Training a chance to win 1% of his earnings, which could range between $50,000 for seventh place and $500,000 for first.  The contest is still open and people are automatically registered once they enroll with the free site, which offers users a chance to earn CardRunners and StoxPoker subscriptions based on the number of Full Tilt Points they earn in a given month.

Though the episodes are playing daily on Sky Sports, the various heats and semi-finals of the event took place over the course of a couple of months.  Caby spoke to Poker News Daily about the long breaks in between action and acknowledged that it took a little time for him to adjust to the unusual format.  “It’s the first time it ever happened to me.  It’s kind of weird to fly back home and then fly back [to London] knowing I can bust on the first hand, but I am excited to go back,” he explained.

Players will begin the final table with the same amount of chips they ended with in the semi-final round.  To add another twist to the event, there is also supposed to be a seventh online qualifier thrown into the mix at the outset of the final table.

In a press release revealing details of the semi-final and final rounds of the tournament, Matchroom Sport’s Eddie Hearn commented on the excitement and prestige surrounding the event’s live finale: “The Poker Million final is always one of the most exciting dates for the poker diary. We staged poker’s first ever live televised final back in 2000 and since then it’s been an event that all the top players want to take down. With the likes of Tom Dwan, Nam Le, Luke Schwartz, Annette Obrestad, Juha Helppi, and James Akenhead in the semi finals, Friday night is set to be an electric night of poker.”

The live final table is set to begin at 7:30pm GMT on Friday, December 4th.

European Poker Tour Prague Day 1a: Marc Gork Leads the Way

Poker News in Brief: Nov. 23-29, 2009

With only the main event of the U.S. Poker Championships to keep poker fans busy they were left to contemplate the identity of the rumored Swede who has taken millions off Tom "durrrr" Dwan.

There was a ton of other poker news, however, and we're going to break some of it down for you today in our regularly scheduled Poker News in Brief feature.

This week we're going to look at PKR Live III results, another world record broken on PokerStars, an Andy Beal update and a certain young celebrity with a penchant for poker.

Billionaire poker player bids on Trump Casinos

It appears that billionaire banker Andy Beal isn't quite done with the poker world.

The Dallas-based businessman made a bid for three bankrupt Trump Entertainment Resorts Inc. Casinos in Atlantic City this week.

Beal was portrayed as a fearless poker player in Michael Craig's The Professor, the banker and the Suicide King: The Richest Poker Game of all Time.

In the book, Craig chronicled Beal's heads-up matches against the likes of Phil Ivey, Jennifer Harman and Doyle Brunson, which were some of the biggest games ever played.

Under Beal's buyout proposal, an affiliate of his Dallas-based bank would convert its $486 million mortgage on the casinos into equity.

Beal's bid is just the latest in a series that included Trump Entertainment bondholders and Donald Trump himself.

The three properties in question are the Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort, the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino and the Trump Marina Hotel Casino.

Russian breaks world record on PokerStars

Russian online player innerpsy broke the record for number of hands played in a 24 hour span this week.

The 21-year-old poker pro somehow managed to log 40,088 hands on PokerStars in just one day.

"Before this challenge I never actually played more than 20,000 hands in a day before but the idea came up and I just figured I could do it," he told PokerStars Blog. "It was one of the toughest things I have ever accomplished, but I am proud I managed it."

The challenge was hosted on PokerStars by Russian forum Card Game Masters and nearly 10,000 fans logged on to watch innerpsy burn his way through more hands than some poker players go through in their lifetime.

Qualifier wins PKR Live III

A 21-year-old English man made history by winning the biggest PKR Live payout ever in London this week.

Vincent "vd12345" Diver qualified for the event for just $5 on PKR and went on to outlast 133 players to take the first place prize of PKR Live III for $33,500.

"It's an incredible sum to me and it still hadn't kicked in until I saw it on my PKR account," he said. "It has opened up a lot of doors for me."

This year's PKR Live required a buy-in of $1,000 and took place at the Loose Cannon in London. The event has grown in every year of its existence.

Grandmothers arrested for playing poker in Cyprus

Forty two women between the ages of 75 and 95 were arrested at private home game in Cyprus this week.

The police raided the house where the games took place in Ayios loannis and proceeded to charge the women for illegal gambling. The police also confiscated €100 in betting money, 546 playing chips and 530 playing cards.

Playing cards for money is illegal in Cyprus and the police regularly conduct raids at clubs, betting ships and various associations.

The women were playing poker and gin rummy.

The raid took place on Sunday at 6 p.m. after a series of complaints from neighbors about noise.

Zac Efron a poker pro?

Renowned director Richard Linklater says teen heartthrob Zac Efron is a poker shark.

Linklater told the UK's Press Association that although Efron looks clean cut, he will take your money if you play poker against him.

Linklator is currently directing the young star in Me and Orsen Welles, which sees Efron play teenager Richard Samuels who ends up working with a young Orsen Welles.

Efron has never played the popular WPT Celebrity Invitational, which takes place every year at the Commerce Casino in Los Angeles.

Vincent Diver wins PKR Live III

EPT Vilamoura title stays in Portugal

Antonio Matias, who runs a travel agency, became the first player to win an EPT title on home soil since Team PokerStars Pro Sandra Naujoks did so in Dortmund, Germany last season.

"I like to think of myself as a citizen of the world, but it is very satisfying win an EPT in my home country," Matias said. "I wasn't intimidated by the competition because I play a lot of very good players in cash games. I just decided to play the way I play, and hope that luck didn't turn its back on me."

The €5,300 event drew 322 players, including 69 PokerStars qualifiers.

The €1,561,700 prize pool made EPT Vilamoura the richest poker tournament ever held in Portugal.

Matias beat 67-year- old retired Belgian businessman and PokerStars qualifier Pierre Neuville heads up to book the win. Neuville bubbled the final table at EPT San Remo last season.

Former chess prodigy Jeff Sarwer finished third, just a few short weeks after the Canadian's tenth-place finish at EPT Warsaw.

Matias is not a pro player, but said his sights were firmly set on keeping the title in Portugal.

"I play poker just for a hobby, but when I got the chip lead yesterday, at that point, the only thing I had on my mind was winning."

PokerStars appeared pleased with turnout and results on its first trip to Portugal.

"It's always exciting when the European Poker Tour visits a new destination and we have wanted to hold an EPT in Portugal for some time, so we are delighted that so many players took part including 63 players from Portugal," said EPT spokesperson Kirsty Thompson. "It's been a superb week of poker."

Next up for the PokerStars EPT is its annual stop in Prague in the Czech Republic from Dec. 1-6. Satellites are running now on PokerStars.

Antonio Matias Leads Final 12 at EPT Vilamoura

One of the new stops on Season Six of the European Poker Tour (EPT) was a November jaunt to Vilamoura, Portugal.  The tournament, which got underway on November 17th, drew 322 runners, making it the third largest EPT event of the season so far.

A number of familiar faces made the trip to Portugal, including Team PokerStars players Chad Brown, Jason Mercier, and Katja Thater, as well as Shaun Deeb, Jason Lavallee, Andy Black, Ludovic Lacay, and Ross Boatman.  The event featured a €5,000 + €300 buy-in and promises a first place prize of €404,793, or roughly $600,000.  The Vilamoura stop is one of several new destinations on the EPT circuit and it has already outperformed one of the other additions to the tour, the August event in Kiev.

The final table is set to play out on Sunday and, at time of writing, there are still four eliminations to go on Saturday before play ends for the day.  Friday’s Day 3 proved to be a short one, as the field began with 69 players and stopped a little early once it was trimmed to 24.  Typically, play slows as the field nears the money bubble, with tables going hand-for-hand to avoid stalling.  At the Vilamoura event, play did not even make it to hand-for hand before Sergey Lebedev was knocked out in 49th place to burst the bubble.

Those who survived to Day 4 on Saturday included chip leader Anthony Lellouche, Team PokerStars Pros Jude Ainsworth of Ireland and Ruben Visser of the Netherlands, Jim “MrBigQueso” Collopy, Ryan “HITTHEPANDA” Franklin, and seven Portugese players, including Joao Barbosa.

Lellouche began the day in a familiar role, serving as the tournament’s chip leader with over 1.1 million chips.  He ended Day 2 second in chips and also logged some time as the chip leader earlier this season at the Warsaw stop.  It looked as though Lellouche would be in great position to make his fourth career EPT final table, but an aggressive play early in the day found him on the rail in 20th place.  After action on every street, Lellouche moved all-in on the river with the board reading J-8-2-Q-2 and Antonio Matias called, showing A-2 for rivered trips.  Lellouche held just 7-9 for a busted gutshot straight draw and was eliminated.

Matias amassed a huge chip lead as a result of the hand and only built on it as Day 4 progressed.  With just 12 players left, Matias holds 2.3 million chips, nearly a million more than his next closest competitor, Jeff Sarwer of Canada, who has almost 1.4 million chips.  There is a wide discrepancy between these two players and the rest of the field, as Claudio Coelho is third in chips with just 750,000.

Joining Lellouche on the rail today were Collopy, Barbosa, Visser, and Ainsworth.  The back-to-back eliminations of Visser and Ainsworth in 13th and 12th places, respectively, means there will be no PokerStars pros appearing at the Vilamoura final table, although PokerStars online qualifiers Santiago Terrazas and Pierre Neuville are still in contention for the title.

Play in Vilamoura will continue until the final eight-handed table is set.  Players will then have the night off before returning at 12:00pm local time to play down to the newest EPT champion.

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