Annie Duke Talks Dancing with the Stars, Engagement to Joe Reitman

Fresh off announcing her departure from UB.com, reigning National Heads-Up Poker Championship winner Annie Duke sat down with Poker News Daily to discuss life away from the game. She also addresses the rumors that former colleague Phil Hellmuth will be on the hit ABC reality series “Dancing with the Stars.”

Poker News Daily: Thanks for joining us. Would you tune in to watch Phil Hellmuth strut his stuff on “Dancing with the Stars”?

Annie Duke: I think it’d be hilarious. I think he would make a great foil on the show. All of those things are amazing for poker. Any time you can bring a poker player into the mainstream world, it’s incredible. I adore Phil and he would make me watch that show, but I like Chris Ferguson for it too, who is an actual dancer.

With Phil, it’s always a love-hate relationship with the audience. People love to watch him because they love to hate him. You have people like that in every sport and he takes on that role in poker. He is amazing for poker, though. He does nothing but good things for the game.

PND: You were a former contestant on “Celebrity Apprentice” on NBC. Tell us how the casting process works for a reality show featuring celebrities.

Annie Duke: With “Apprentice,” it’s some people’s representatives reaching out and “Apprentice” having a wish list that they contact. I assume it happens that way on “Dancing with the Stars.” I know some people who have been asked to be on the show and also know people who have reached out. I would assume that with someone like Phil, it’d be him reaching out to “Dancing with the Stars.” I hope he’s on and wish him all the best. They would get an extra viewer in me.

PND: Congratulations on your engagement! Among those who responded to your engagement announcement was Kevin Pollak, who is the host of the new Fox game show “Million Dollar Money Drop.” Have you watched it?

Annie Duke: I have and think he’s fine as a game show host. I’m fascinated by the show. I love shows like that and have watched every episode. I think it’s an interesting idea from a decision-making standpoint that they start the contestants with $1 million. People feel like they’re losing money along the way, so it’s interesting to see how it affects people. They feel like the $1 million was theirs and then they lost it. I really love the torture of the game. You know half of those couples must be breaking up right after they’re on.

PND: Tell us the engagement story!

Annie Duke: Every year, I haven’t gotten a stocking. This year, Joe [Reitman] asked me what I wanted for Christmas and I said a stocking. So, I woke up Christmas morning and had a filled stocking. We opened our presents and I got halfway through it when Joe said I had to stop because opening the rest of the stocking would give away the presents that were under the tree.

I wanted shoes, Insanity DVDs, and cool glasses, so I was wondering what was in the stocking and kept asking to open it. When I finally got back to it, I found a lot of candy. I got to the bottom where the chocolate orange should have been and there was a big wrapped box. I had very specifically gone into a jewelry store that I love and told the lady there that if my boyfriend came in, she should tell him that I wanted a bracelet, so I thought it’d be in the box. I opened it up and inside was a ring box, but I didn’t get excited yet.

What Joe said when I looked at the box was, “I don’t think you want the Donald Trump [fake-out win] thing to happen twice.” I opened up the ring box and inside was an engagement ring. It was a designer one that I wanted and I looked at him. I was crying, had my head in my hands, and the kids came over to ask me why I was crying. He did it in a way that included the kids, which was nice.

PND: Can you talk about your upcoming poker schedule?

Annie Duke: Outside of the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship and the Bay 101 Shooting Star events, I’m going to have to have a light poker schedule in the spring. I’m going to play a bunch during the World Series and I’m speaking at a business conference and an Adventures of the Mind conference, which is for 16 year olds and I’m on the committee of.

PND: We understand you have a poker strategy book in the works?

Annie Duke: It’s a 400-page poker strategy bible. Vanessa Rousso and I are writing a heads-up book where we’re analyzing all of the hands we played in the NBC National Heads-Up Poker Championship. We’re in the middle of doing that and it’ll take us a couple of months. We’re making a website with the audio files too.

PND: What do you foresee happening with UB.com’s stable of pros?

Annie Duke: I assume that they’re re-strategizing. I assume that they’ll continue on strong in the market though. They’re the #3 brand in the USA and I assume they’ll continue to succeed.

PND: What was the biggest poker story of 2010?

Annie Duke: The Harry Reid bill this fall. Getting so close to legislation being passed and having it all fall apart at the last minute was the biggest story. That’s the most powerful piece of news we had and it was a pretty big year in terms of poker news.

Prahlad Friedman Discusses Signing with UB.com

Brand new to Team UB.com is bracelet winner Prahlad Friedman, who joined the site following the departures of Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth. Friedman sat down with Poker News Daily to discuss joining the USA-friendly CEREUS Network site.

Poker News Daily: Tell us why you signed with UB.com following your now-famous Tweet in November saying you’d be “selling out” by joining an online poker site. Did you have a change of heart?

Prahlad Friedman: I had a change of heart. It was all because of friends and family. They all convinced me that I could do greater good by signing and having more exposure and influence. We live in a society where the people who are the most well known have the greatest influence. I felt this could get me out there a little more. There’s also a charity component to my deal.

PND: What can you tell us about the charity portion of your agreement with UB.com?

Prahlad Friedman: There’s a good chunk of money that I’ll be giving to charity every year. I’ll be posting on Facebook and Twitter for any charities people think are awesome and I have a few ideas of my own. There are many options out there.

PND: What sparked your original stance against signing with an online poker site?

Prahlad Friedman: I’m just super liberal. I was raised vegetarian and I meditate. I’ve always liked underground hip-hop. I’ve always been on the outside. Now, I’m trying to mix it up and work from the inside out. I can turn a lot of heads, make people healthier, and help with charity. I don’t view it as selling out.

PND: You were affected by the cheating scandal on UB.com. What does Prahlad Friedman signing with UB.com say about the site moving forward?

Prahlad Friedman: People should know I’m not a donkey. I’m not going to sign if I thought there was anything going on. I obviously feel like the site is different and new now. Anybody who had to do with that scandal is gone.

PND: With Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth now gone from Team UB.com, can you be the main face of an online poker site?

Prahlad Friedman: I’ve always been a leader. I’ve always been outspoken. For quite a few years now, I haven’t been afraid to do interviews and be in front of cameras. I’m comfortable and have always been a point guard.

PND: What were your thoughts when you found out that Duke and Hellmuth were leaving?

Prahlad Friedman: They’re going to make the decision that’s best for them; it didn’t raise any concerns for me. They’ve been there a while and wanted a change of pace or had a change of heart just like I did. People change and the fact that they’re out is hopefully good for them and I know they’ll do well in the future. It also gives me an opportunity to be at the forefront. One of the things that most attracted me to this deal was the creative control I’ll have in commercials, clothing lines, and charitable things.

PND: What details can you share about the interactions you had with UB.com following the cheating scandal? Were you reimbursed?

Prahlad Friedman: It’s one of the greatest experiences I’ve had. I’m sure a lot of people feel differently, but I was pumped to get money back and it was a large sum. They took care of me and it reinforced to me that I was one of the best poker players in the world. Any money I had lost was because I was cheated off of it. Every site has had its problems with weird things happening and you have to improve and move on.

PND: What were your thoughts about Daniel Negreanu calling you out for signing with UB.com?

Prahlad Friedman: At first, people were recommending that I not read TwoPlusTwo and Twitter because if there’s anything negative, it can get to you, but I couldn’t help myself. I read Daniel Negreanu’s comments and I’m not hating on him. We’re friends and fellow vegans, but he feels strongly about UB. I don’t have problems with the things he said. I just feel a lot differently than he does.

PND: Were you surprised at some of Negreanu’s comments?

Prahlad Friedman: I knew from the past that people are going to bring up tough questions and criticize me. People have been criticizing me since I was on the scene. You can’t let those things affect you. People have different ideas. That’s what makes the world interesting.

PND: You broke Steve Nash’s consecutive free throw record on an episode of “Poker2Nite,” which was quite impressive. Tell us about your preparation for that attempt.

Prahlad Friedman: I’ve always been intense about things I do. Playing basketball competitively has been my main goal since I could hold a ball. All I did was shoot 500 or 1,000 shots a day for years and years. I’d sneak my way into gyms as a youth and I was obsessed with basketball.

Usually, when I go out and shoot, I’ll make 40 or 50 in a row, and my best is 118. The world record is 5,200 shots in a row, which would be awesome to break, but could be out of reach. I thought Nash’s record was within reach and broke it on the third try. I’d like to do it again, improve upon it, and make it so people will have a tough time beating it.

PND: We’d wager that many poker players know you best for your World Series of Poker Main Event run-ins with Ted Bort and Jeffrey Lisandro.

Prahlad Friedman: It seems silly that I’m known for those. I can’t blame people because ESPN is one of the biggest outlets and millions of people watch it. In the future, they can hopefully remember me for other things. I don’t like to be remembered for drama, so it is a little funny that these controversies come up. I’m looking to get past them.

PND: Are you focused on winning a second WSOP bracelet?

Prahlad Friedman: I haven’t played enough tournaments recently to have a really good chance. I’d love to win two, though, and with this signing with UB, I think I’ll play more. I’ll put myself in a good position to win another one.

Prahlad Friedman Joins Team UB.com

Following last week’s overhaul at Team UB.com that saw Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth depart on the same day, the USA-friendly CEREUS Network site has picked up its newest pro. On Thursday, site officials announced that Prahlad Friedman had joined Team UB.com.

Friedman seemingly hinted at joining an online poker site back in November. The 32 year old California native Tweeted, “I said I would never sign with a poker site. Should I ever reconsider? What y’all think? I would have to get over the fact that I’m ‘selling out.’ I’m the only player in the world that hasn’t wanted a deal that I know of.” UB.com promoted Friedman as “one of the world’s greatest cash game players, online and off, with millions in winnings earned since 1999.”

Friedman’s first major live cash came eight years ago in the Main Event of the Five Diamond World Poker Classic at the Bellagio, where he booked $101,000 for his runner-up finish to Full Tilt Poker’s Erick Lindgren. One year later, he notched his first (and so far only) World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet in a $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em tournament and banked $109,000 in the process.

In 2005, Friedman played second fiddle to Chris Ferguson in the WSOP Circuit Championship at Harrah’s Rincon to earn another $363,000. One year later, this author remembers being at the Rio in Las Vegas and following Friedman through the WSOP Main Event. There, he turned in a 20th place finish for nearly a half-million dollars and fell just short of the coveted Main Event bracelet.

He’d make amends in August 2009, when Friedman took down the Legends of Poker, a stop on the World Poker Tour (WPT). His victory in the California poker tournament was worth a colossal $1 million and saw Friedman outlast a final table that included November Niner Kevin Schaffel, Todd Terry, Toto Leonidas, and Sam Stein.

Friedman was a victim of the superuser scandal that rocked UB.com and drew the ire of PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu for signing with the site that had wronged him. “Kid Poker” responded to a variety of Tweets last weekend, among them one sent to fellow poker player Alex Outhred that read, “Like you, I’ve known him for years, which makes it all the more shocking. I’ve defended Prahlad on many occasions. Can’t here.”

Negreanu added to Outhred, “UB will always have to offer more than face value [for a sponsorship] because given a choice that’s close, no one would choose UB. Or shouldn’t… UB has to offer more money obv. He used to say it wasn’t about the money. I don’t believe that anymore… He used to speak out against all corporations, claiming he stood for something. Then, the money was right and his tune changed… I get it happens. I’m disappointed it did happen. I’ve always liked Prahlad and still do despite his decision. Just shocking.”

Nevertheless, Friedman will join UB.com just in time for the sixth UB.com Online Championship, or UBOC, which gets underway on January 16th. The 29-event series will stretch all the way until January 30th, when a $1,050 buy-in Main Event will kick off. The $1 million guaranteed feature tournament will deal No Limit Hold’em and be played as a Monster Stack.

Running alongside the sixth UBOC schedule is a MiniUBOC series, which features the same 29 tournaments, but with buy-ins that are generally one-tenth as large. The MiniUBOC slate ends with a $55 buy-in Monster Stack Championship Event that comes with a $50,000 guaranteed purse.

Following the departures of Hellmuth and Duke, UB.com’s stock of pros now includes Friedman, Joe Sebok, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Brandon Cantu, Tiffany Michelle, and Maria Ho. The site happily accepts players from the United States and joins Absolute Poker on the CEREUS Network.

Play with Prahlad Friedman today only by visiting UB.com.

Cake Poker Opens Diamond Mine on January 10th

Starting next week, Cake Poker will fire up its latest promotion, which will offer $40,000 in cash to those who participate. The Diamond Mine begins next Monday, January 10th and will be a series of tournaments with increasing prize pools. The key to enter these events will be the ever-popular Cake Poker Gold Cards that have been released to this point in 2011.

Each tournament has a guaranteed prize pool, starting with $300 for the first and running up to $15,000 for the final event on the schedule. There is no cost for players to enter save for using the Gold Cards that they have accumulated through ring game play on Cake Poker.

The 14-event schedule begins with a tournament for players who can come up with five of the two of diamonds Gold Cards from the 2011 series. These players will battle it out for one of 100 seats in the next tournament and a piece of a $300 prize pool. If a player earns one of those seats, they’ll move on to the second tournament, which is offered to those with five of the three of diamonds Gold Cards. Each event as a player moves up the ladder has a card requirement for entry and an increasing prize pool.

If a player is able to play in all 12 of the preliminary events on the Diamond Mine schedule, they’ll earn a seat in the Diamond Mine Flawless Freeroll. This freeroll offers a $10,000 prize pool and will take place one day before the final event.

The final on January 23rd, which players can earn entry to either through winning a seat in Event #12 or by having an ace of diamonds from any of the Gold Card series, will feature a prize pool of $15,000.

Knowing that players will be burning through Gold Cards for the Diamond Mine tournament series, Cake Poker is simultaneously running its Turbo Gold Card promotion. Gold Cards will be distributed at ring game tables at twice the normal rate each day from January 10th to January 23rd from 4:00pm ET to 5:00pm ET and from 8:00pm ET to 11:00pm ET. This promotion gives players a chance to build up their 2011 series Gold Card collections and get in on the $40,000 Diamond Mine tournament schedule.

For those who prefer to “wheel and deal” to get the Gold Cards they need, Cake Poker’s Gold Card Exchange is open as well.

Already running on Cake Poker are satellites to one of the longest running tournament schedules in poker history. Cake Poker is offering its players the opportunity to head to Ireland over Easter weekend to take part in the 2011 Irish Poker Open, the second oldest tournament behind only the World Series of Poker. Cake Poker is offering players a chance at a seat at the 2011 Irish Poker Open Main Event for as little as $1.10, with satellites running daily. These satellites feed into a monthly Final.

Cake Poker has put together packages for players that are worth battling for. Each $7,000 prize package from Cake Poker includes a seat at the Main Event of the Irish Poker Open worth €3,500, a five-night stay at the Irish Poker Open’s host venue (the Burlington Hotel), $1,500 cash for travel expenses, and an official Cake Poker gear pack. The opportunity to play alongside the best poker players in the world during the Irish Poker Open, however, is the biggest prize. The final day to earn entry into the Irish Poker Open through Cake Poker is March 27th.

Featuring such outlets as its own eponymous room, the Doyle Brunson-backed DoylesRoom, and Victory Poker, the USA-friendly Cake Poker Network should be a popular stop for poker players throughout the month of January with its wealth of promotions. Visit Cake Poker to learn more about the Diamond Mine tournament series.

David “Viffer” Peat wants to play the SuperStar Showdown against “Isildur1?

Tony G lost his Showdown against “Isildur1″ a few days ago on PokerStars and before they played the Challenge, he wrote on his blog that he would like to play a live challenge match against “Isildur1″ during the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure which is played from 7th to 16th of January.

There has been no refusal from PokerStars yet, so we might see that happen.

But now also David “Viffer” Peat wants to take a live challenge against “Isildur1″. “Viffer” wrote on 2+2:

“Id like to take the challenge live at pca. we can play 1 table 150k deep unlimited rebuys, cant quit unless 150k looser or 2500 hands.

Im open for other offers, or if not interested i understand.”

According to some rumors, “Isildur1’s” identity will be revealed during PCA, which makes sense, as then the live challenges are possible to be played.

At least there will be more SuperStar Showdown’s online and the third one is already being planned.

Source: Pokerista.net, Poker.org

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David “Viffer” Peat wants to play the SuperStar Showdown against “Isildur1″

The Showdown with Jon Friedberg Debuts on Poker News Daily

The very first episode of “The Showdown” with Jon Friedberg debuted today on Poker News Daily. The weekly web-based series welcomed former “Survivor: China” castaway Jean-Robert Bellande to discuss a variety of topics ranging from bankroll management to the Spearmint Rhino in Las Vegas.

Friedberg is a former World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner who was an original ranked player on PocketFives.com. His former ventures include a radio show and television show on CardPlayer and he brings a considerable amount of media experience to Poker News Daily. The USA-friendly site UB.com sponsors “The Showdown” and new episodes will be released every Tuesday.

In a recent Guest Column here on Poker News Daily, World Poker Tour (WPT) front man Mike Sexton gave several suggestions to improve attendance on the live tournament circuit, among them lowering buy-ins and shortening each tournament’s length. Friedberg responded, “I absolutely agree with Mike on this. It would be really great if we could lower the buy-ins a little bit and maybe shorten the time period of a tournament. $10,000 is a lot of money.” What do you think? Give us your take on how to increase tournament turnout by posting a Tweet at @JonFriedberg.

Also making news in recent days was WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel asking for suggestions for the 2011 Series, which kicks off on the last day of May. Friedberg gave his take on the responses that poured in via Twitter: “I saw a lot of great suggestions on Twitter, but I have to say the best suggestion I saw… is changing the structures to where the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em events and the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em events have the exact same structure… I don’t think you should ever have a smaller buy-in event in the World Series have a better starting structure than a bigger buy-in event.”

Then, Friedberg welcomed Bellande to the Las Vegas set. Bellande has opened up his life via Twitter, discussing his bankroll’s wild swings, among other topics. Bellande noted, “I just am not mindful of bankroll management. I just get on the table, am not afraid to put it all on the line, and I go for it. There is an appreciation in the poker community because a lot of us have the desire to do that, but after you’ve gone broke a couple of times and can’t stand being broke, nobody wants to do it.”

Bellande revealed that he has a wealth of backers to help him get back on his feet should his fortunes at the tables turn sour. On whether he prefers playing with the help of backers, Bellande told “The Showdown” viewers, “I’d much prefer to play on my own money. I’ve built up some credit with some people and always pay back… but I’d much rather be playing on my own stakes. Tournaments are different because the buy-ins are so enormous. A tournament player can spend $250,000 or $350,000 a year on buy-ins.”

Bellande serves as an ambassador of Aria Las Vegas and commented to Friedberg that the idea of Re-Tweeting insults came after seeing a popular porn star do the same: “My idea of Re-Tweeting the hater stuff – I actually got it from Jenna Jameson. She Re-Tweeted all of her hater stuff and I thought that was hilarious. People are going to think what they’re going to think anyway.”

If you follow Bellande’s Twitter feed, then you’ll also hear about his exploits at the Spearmint Rhino, a renowned strip club in Sin City. “I’ve spent $1,000 or $1,200 in there, but it’s never more,” Bellande admitted. “It’s usually around a couple hundred or $400. They actually don’t make me buy the bottle because I’m more of a local, regular guy. I have not gone into the Rhino very often recently.” Bellande added that visiting the Rhino serves as a way to help him wind down from a day at the tables.

With many poker players making resolutions, Bellande vowed not to go broke in 2011: “I really don’t want to go broke. My goal is not to go broke in 2011… You’ll see me go from $100,000 to $200,000 in the next month or two and then I’ll try to shoot it up so I have a decent bankroll going into the World Series.” The former Bodog pro added that he wants to hit the $1 million mark by the end of the year.

Check out the inaugural episode of “The Showdown” with Jon Friedberg, brought to you by UB.com. Use bonus code UBPND when signing up!

Tom Dwan loses $320,000 to jungleman12 in durrrr challenge

Tom “durrrr” Dwan and Daniel “jungleman12” Cates put in the first challenge session of 2011 yesterday and boy was it a big one. The two played almost three thousand hands in a six hour period with Cates winning over $50,000 per hour to increase his total lead in the challenge to an all-time high of $819,213.50 with 17,108 hands played.

PokerStars Caribbean Adventure begins this week

One of the most-hyped, most-loved and most popular tournament series of the poker calendar begins this week as thousands of hopefuls flock to the Bahamas for their shot at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, the $10,000 Main Event of which begins on January 8.

Top Online Poker Winners and Losers of 2010

Whether it was the durrrr Challenge II on Full Tilt or the new Isildur1 SuperStar Showdown on PokerStars there always seemed to be intriguing action of one kind or another on the go. 

From the emergence of relative newcomer Dan “jungleman12” Cates to the continued success of established pros like Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius there were numerous plotlines to the high stakes games this year.

We’ll start by celebrating the five biggest online poker success stories of 2010 before taking a hard look at the five biggest disappointments of the year.

Top 5 Biggest Winners of 2010

5. Di “Urindanger” Dang: $2.2 million

Although Di “Urindanger” Dang tends to fly under the radar when compared to some of his more illustrious colleagues he’s remarkably consistent.

Since he started playing the high stakes games on Full Tilt in 2007, Dang has never recorded a losing year. 2010 was no exception.

Dang did suffer through a few losing months in late spring but he came around in August and by December was up to $2.2 million.

Yet another good Christmas for the Dang household.

4. Phil Ivey: $3 million

Phil Ivey usually plays far less hands than his online opponents but he always manages to rank as one of the top five winners.

This year Ivey wasn’t particularly active until mid-April, when he went on a $2 million heater. After logging notable victories against Ashton “ASHMAN103” Griffin and Patrik Antonius, Ivey vacated the online tables from May to late August.

In August Ivey got right back to business and quickly peaked at $3.8 million in profit.

Although Ivey coasted for the rest of the year and didn’t play any huge sessions, he still finished with a very respectable $3 million.

3. Tom “durrrr” Dwan: $3.6 million

It was yet another strong year for the poker prodigy originally from Edison, New Jersey.

Once again Tom Dwan was king when it came to volume, playing a total of 296,725 hands in 2010.

The year got off to a rocking start for Dwan and by mid-spring he peaked at an astounding $6.6 million. Unfortunately for Dwan he would come back down to earth over the rest of the year.

Dwan’s biggest obstacle was Dan “jungleman12” Cates. Dwan simply couldn’t solve Cates and lost more than $600k so far in the durrrr Challenge II.

At any rate, Dwan fared far better this year compared to 2009 when he ran into a hot Isildur1 and lost millions.

2. Andreas “Skjervoy” Torbergsen: $3.7 million

Perhaps the biggest surprise of this list is a Norwegian by the name of Andreas Torbergsen.

Torbergsen, who plays with his hometown of Skjervoy as his handle, signed with CardRunners this summer and went on to become one of the biggest winners in the high stakes online games this year.

Torbergsen was essentially at $0 in August but by the end of December was up $3.7 million. It helped he won $1 million in a 24-hour period in September and recorded several $500k sessions.

It remains to be seen whether Torbergsen will remain a fixture of the high stakes online poker scene.

1. Dan “jungleman12” Cates: $5.5 million

What more can be said about Dan “jungleman12” Cate’s dominance this year?

Three years ago Cates was flipping burgers but in 2010 he was playing the biggest online games in the world and hardly ever losing.

Cates dominated Tom Dwan in the durrrr Challenge II but also found time to take on anyone else who wanted a piece. His graph reads looks like an escalator (going up, of course). He won hundreds of thousands playing PLO (which he’s still learning).

Although some members of the online community cried variance, Cates was a consistent winner for the entire year.

At any rate, Cates now finds himself in an elite group of year-end winners that includes Patrik Antonius ($8.9 million in 2009), Phil Ivey ($7.3 million in 2008) and Niki Jedlicka ($3.1 million in 2007).

To put it simply: 2010 belonged to Cates.

Top 5 Biggest Losers of 2010

5. Brian “sbrugby” Townsend: – $1.5 million

Brian Townsend had a fantastic 2009 winning $2.4 million to become one of the biggest winners of the year.

2010 wasn’t quite as kind to the former CardRunners instructor.

Although Townsend didn’t use the sbrugby account until summer (more on that later), he didn’t waste any time donating stacks of cash online.

From June to October, Townsend lost $1.6 million and never really recovered, opting to sit out the last couple months of 2010.

Check below for even more on Townsend’s disastrous 2010.

4. Gus Hansen: -$1.6 million

You’d think losing $1.6 million would make for a pretty bad year but it could have been a lot worse for Gus Hansen.

The Great Dane actually got off to a hot start in 2010 and was up $2.3 million after the first couple of months.

Like many high stakes pros, Hansen took a break from the tables during the WSOP but was still up nearly $1 million.

It was during late summer that problems started to arise for the Team Full Tilt member. From July to October, Hansen lost $4 million, the biggest downswing of the year.

Hansen would hit rock bottom in mid-October going down to -$3.6 million.

Fortunately for Hansen he was able to put a steady string of wins together to finish the year at only -$1.6 million. Not the worst year for the recent WSOP bracelet winner.

3. cadillac1944: -$1.8 million

cadillac1944 is the only player on our list who has yet to be identified.

The online account first appeared in late August and that’s about when the losing began.

cadillac1944 quickly dropped down to -$677k by September with big losses against Urindanger and DrugsOrMe.

By November cadillac1944 was down -$1.53 million and finally hit -$1.8 million in early December.

The cadillac1944 account became inactive in mid-December and it’s anyone’s guess as to whether we’ll ever see it in use again.

2. Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies: -$2 milliion

Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, one of the original kings of swing, was up to his old tricks in 2010 with a “win a million, lose a million” mentality.

Sahamies started the year by winning $2 million in spring but then lost $2.6 million over the summer.

The fall looked promising for Ziigmund as he quickly swung his way up to $1.48 million in profit.

Unfortunately for Ziigmund October was a turning point and the Finnish pro went on what he has called the greatest downswing of his career.

Over the next few months Sahamies dropped down to -$2 million with victories few and far between.

2010 was easily Ziigmund’s worst year playing high stakes online poker.

1. Brian Townsend: -$2.5 million

Brian Townsend’s 2010 was so terrible that he made this list twice.

As bad as the game went for Townsend on his “sbrugby” account, it was far, far worse on his red pro “Brian Townsend” account.

Townsend was in bad shape from the very beginning as he quickly lost $300k in early January.

The losses just continued to escalate for Townsend and by May he was down $2.5 million.

It was then Townsend made the decision to leave CardRunners, ditch his red pro account and go back to being sbrugby on Full Tilt.

It didn’t seem to make a difference as Townsend lost another $1.5 million.

If you take both accounts into consideration, Townsend lost a grand total of $4 million this year.

No one suffered more than Townsend in 2010.

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WPT Qualifiers at Full Tilt Poker

Full Tilt are inviting their players, new and old, to the World Poker Tour (WPT for short) being hosted at the Bay 101 Casino, San Jose, California, USA this coming March 14th - 18th.

The top player will win the 1st prize which is estimated to be $1,000,000+, but that’s not all, the winner will take away a $25,000 seat at the WPT Championship Bellagio as part of the prize! Shoot down (eliminate) one of the stars in the field and claim your $5,000 bounty bonus. This is a top prize package to a top WPT Event, surely not to be missed.

With Full Tilt Poker you can win a $12,000 WPT Prize package which will include

• $10,000 seat to the main Event
• $2,000 for your expenses

Interested in playing in this mega live event? Here’s how with Full Tilt Poker’s WPT Qualifiers!

There are satellites running from now until Sunday February 27th, from just $10.65, all feeding to the Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays WPT Qualifiers where the $12,000 WPT Prize Packages are won. You can also buy in direct to the WPT Qualifiers:-

• Wednesdays at 2.00am UK (Tuesdays at 9.00pm New York) $322 buy-in direct
• Fridays at 2.00am UK (Thursdays at 9.00pm New York) $1,060 buy-in direct
• Sundays at 8.30pm UK (3.30pm New York) $640 buy-in direct

If you are new to Full Tilt Poker, established in 2004, you can rest assured when you sign up you will be in illustrious company as Full Tilt Poker has a very impressive rollcall of poker pros playing exclusively on their site. Take a look at our Full Tilt Poker Review for an unbiased, overall look at what this top site has to offer you. Use the Full Tilt Referral Code FTPGOLD for a sign up bonus of 100% up to $600 when you set up your account and you will be amongst the many loyal band of Full Tilt poker players.

Full Tilt Store Holiday Giveaway Ends January 9th

If you’re looking to take advantage of the Full Tilt Store Holiday Giveaway, then you’re running out of time. The promotion over at Full Tilt Poker comes to an end on January 9th at 23:59 ET, which means that there are only a few more days left to be rewarded for trading in your hard-earned Full Tilt Points (FTPs) on the world’s second largest online poker site.

Starting on January 10th, one day after the Holiday Giveaway ends, big changes will take place at the Full Tilt Store. Text found on Full Tilt’s website explains, “We will be updating the prices of certain items in the Full Tilt Store beginning on January 10th to correspond with the changes in the Full Tilt Points system implemented earlier this year. Merchandise such as electronics and clothing will be re-priced to more accurately reflect their value.” Meanwhile, items like tournament tickets will retain the current prices.

The Full Tilt Store Holiday Giveaway rewards those players who spend 7,500 FTPs or more in the Full Tilt Store or Black Card Store. Players who spend between 7,500 and 14,999 FTPs will earn a free Step 1 ticket in addition to their chosen product in the store. Players who spend between 15,000 and 39,999 FTPs will receive a Step 2 ticket on the house. Anyone who trades in between 40,000 and 74,999 FTPs will see a free Step 3 ticket come their way.

But wait, there’s more! Spend between 75,000 and 139,999 FTPs and you’ll take home a free $50 cash bonus. Finally, players who spend 140,000 or more FTPs will get a $100 cash bonus on top of their store purchase. Full Tilt Poker will credit any cash bonuses and tournament tickets earned by January 11th.

Anyone who purchases an item during the Full Tilt Store Holiday Giveaway, regardless of its price, will take home a seat into the $50,000 Holiday Giveaway Freeroll. The $50,000 freebie comes your way on January 16th at 14:15 ET. Remember, the Full Tilt Store Holiday Giveaway is your last chance to take advantage of the existing Full Tilt pricing structure. Also, you’ll need to play at real money ring games on Full Tilt Poker in order to clear any cash bonuses you receive.

The Full Tilt Store Holiday Giveaway has been running since December 16th and now enters its final week. Among the cutting-edge electronic items you’ll find in the Full Tilt Store are a Sony Bravia 46-inch HDTV (334,300 FTPs), a 64 GB iPod Touch (85,000 FTPs), and an 8 GB Flip video recorder (51,500 FTPs). For you golf enthusiasts out there, purchase Phoenix golf bags for 35,000 FTPs or a sleeve of white Titleist balls for 4,000 FTPs.

Players can also purchase branded and unbranded Full Tilt Poker security keys, which are handheld devices that display an eight-digit code that must be entered when logging into the USA-friendly site. A would-be hacker without that code won’t be able to sign in. providing an extra layer of security for your online bankroll.

If Santa neglected your canine companion this year, look no further than a Full Tilt Poker dog tank top for 3,000 FTPs. For the same price, you can also get a Full Tilt hoodie for your puppy to protect him or her from the cold winter. Multiple stress tools and branded outwear are also available, so visit Full Tilt Poker today to check out the store’s inventory.

Daniel Negreanu Speaks Out on Rumored Prahlad Friedman UB.com Signing

Late last week, poker pros Annie Duke and Phil Hellmuth parted ways with UB.com, a USA-friendly site on the CEREUS Network. Word quickly spread that Prahlad Friedman would be signing with UB.com as a replacement in the coming days, sparked in part by his name appearing on Duke’s old biography page.

Over the weekend, PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu bantered on Twitter about Friedman’s rumored signing. Negreanu congratulated Hellmuth for leaving UB.com last week and then fired off a series of Tweets blasting Friedman’s decision. His first thoughts were, “So disappointed in @prahladfriedman signing with the devil who stole millions from him. He was so ‘anti-sellout’ and then he did the unthinkable… They must have paid him a lot to join the dark side and endorse the exact same people who ruined him. So sad and so mind-boggling… The current owners of AP/UB are spending Prahlad’s money. They must be mocking him at this point. Cheat the dude and watch him endorse us!”

Among those responding to Negreanu was bracelet winner Jon Friedberg, who inquired, “Is that official? I thought just speculation. Smart biz move for @UB if it’s true, despite any opinions about him or them… And again if true, then they obv convinced him that they’re not shady anymore. He’s a very bright guy. Anxious to see if true.” Negreanu retorted, “Sure, totally cheat and destroy a guy and then offer him a deal. That company is no less shady today and they cannot prove otherwise?” “Kid Poker” added, “It’s true and you are all being lied to if you think the infrastructure of the company has been miraculously cleaned up.”

In other responses to inbound Tweets, Negreanu replied, “I also like Prahlad a lot, just disappointed he would do something this stupid after years of saying he’d never sign with a site.” Negreanu countered other nay-sayers by continuing to rip the Blanca Games site: “Imagine a world where crooks weren’t held accountable and continue to rob people with no recourse? The world should know… I’m all about 2nd chances in the right circumstances; this isn’t one. They are no more transparent today than in the past.”

Negreanu’s series of Tweets sparked the ire of two-time bracelet winner Matt Keikoan, who fired, “I can see people like @RealKidPoker, sitting behind his $4 mil a year PokerStars contract, w/ his nose up in the air, judging other people.” Negreanu countered, “I spoke out against UB when I was broke, always will. Prahlad is the one who said he’d never sign with a site and then chose UB… I was dead broke and turned down a deal with them. I don’t hate Prahlad, I’m disappointed he made what I think is a bad move.”

Keikoan asserted on Sunday, “And what, PokerStars is some great moral company, out for the good of all mankind? Gimme a break.”

One of Negreanu’s followers asked the PokerStars front man what would happen if his home online poker site experienced a scandal similar to the one that unfolded on UB.com. Negreanu claimed he’d be exiting stage right: “If anything like that were to happen (it won’t) my morals would have me resign immediately.” PokerStars recently found itself in hot water over a scandal involving Chinese players in its Double or Nothing games.

A possible signing by Friedman would signal a changing of the guard of sorts at UB.com, whose roster of sponsored pros would become remarkably younger. It currently includes players like Maria Ho, Tiffany Michelle, and Joe Sebok.

Poker News in Brief: Dec. 27, 2010- Jan. 2, 2011

That meant a few of poker's smaller stories may have slipped through the cracks.

Fortunately, we caught them and compiled them in our weekly Poker News in Brief feature below.

This week, Poker After Dark returns, the World Cup captains are named, UB goes back to Montreal and more.

Poker After Dark Returns

The new season of POKER PROductions' Poker After Dark returns to NBC this week.

POKER PROductions inked an agreement with NBC Universal extending the late-night poker show through 2014 in 2010 and the seventh season, filmed at the new Aria Resort and Casino at the City Center complex in Las Vegas, begins airing Jan. 3.

This season will feature more cash games than ever before. Most will be no-limit hold'em, but two weeks will also be devoted to Pot-Limit Omaha with a lineup that should impress fans.

Names like Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, Michael Mizrachi, Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, Annette Obrestad, Eli Elezra, Phil Galfond, Phil Ivey, Tom Dwan, Patrik Antonius, and David Oppenheim will all appear this season.

There will only be three weeks following the traditional Freezout format this season, including this week's "Big Heat," a $100,000 buy-in event featuring John Juanda, Erick Lindgren, Huckleberry Seed, Ivey, Dwan, and Galfond.

Leeann Tweeden will once again serve as the show's host with Ali Nejad providing commentary.

Fifty50 Sit & Go's

PokerStars has launched a new online poker Sit & Go format called Fifty50.

Although the tournaments end when half of the entrants have been eliminated, Fifty50's differ from the Double or Nothing format in that half of the prize pool gets split between the winning players equally and the other half is awarded based on chip counts.

Fifty50 events are currently running at the $10 level, but will soon be available at many different stakes.

World Cup of Poker Captains Named

The identities of the team captains for the seventh annual World Cup of Poker have been announced.

Last year, Chinese Taipei took the title. This year it will be Argentina, the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Spain, Slovakia, Italy, France, Ukraine and the United States battling it out for a $100,000 first prize at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.

Slovakia’s team will be led by Team PokerStars Pro’s newest member Dag Palovic. EPT San Remo winner Liv Boeree will lead the UK team while Argentina’s captain is back-to-back LAPT champ Nacho Barbero.

2009 APT champion Neil Arce will lead the team from the Philippines while the Spain squad will be headed up by Team PokerStars Pro Juan Manuel Pastor.

Luca Pagano leads Italy and Arnaud Mattern will captain the team from France.

And Finally, Vanessa Selbst will lead the USA while EPT Kiev runner-up Alexander Dovzhenko captains the Ukrainian side.

The action gets underway in the Bahamas Jan 14.

UB Returns to Poker Pro Canada Classic

For the second straight year, UB will be sending over twenty players to compete in the running of Montreal's biggest poker event, the Poker Pro Canada Classic.

The $1500+150 buy-in No Limit Hold 'em event runs Jan. 27-30, 2011 at the Four Aces Poker Club.

UB is running a series of super satellites and freerolls Jan. 2-16 giving players a chance to win a $2500 prize package that includes a seat plus $850 for travel expenses.

300-plus players and prize pool of $500,000 is expected in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

December 31st – Weekly News Update

Welcome once again to the Poker News Daily weekly news update. I’m your host Sean Gibson and I’ll be delivering the top headlines for the week in the world of poker – and what a week of news it was!!

Our first story rocks the world of online poker as superstars Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke are officially parting ways with UB.com for different reasons. Both have been the faces of UB.com and represented for nine years. We did get a comment from Annie Duke about HER decision to leave UB.com:

“After some thought, I made a decision to leave UB.com because I would like to explore other avenues of business and personal growth. I realized I needed to spend my time on other things.”

Duke has stated that she has no intentions of signing on with another poker site. She said that she is moving on from UB.com to persue other projects on a full time basis. Hellmuth continues to be one of the biggest names in the world of poker and his departure, although rumored in the last few weeks, still comes as a huge shock. As more develops in this story, stay tuned right here at poker news daily for the latest.

Another online poker industry icon is moving on as Lee Jones earlier this week announced his resignation from Cake Poker. Jones posted on the TwoPlusTwo forums on Tuesday:

“This is a brief announcement to let you know that, as of yesterday, I have resigned my position at Cake Poker and will not be making any further posts here. Their management has made some strategic decisions with which I’m not comfortable.”

Jones, who also is a guest columnist here at our site told us that he simply wasn’t comfortable with some of the decisions that the Cake management was making. Jones refused to comment further but added that he hopes to remain in the poker industry and says he has a couple of irons in the fire. Jones rose to fame in the online poker industry originally in roles with PokerStars, the EPT and at CardRunners.

For those of you that can’t get enough Isildur1 action, the next SuperStar Showdown match has been announced. Coming off a loss to Isaac Haxton, Isildur1 will now face the notorious Tony G in a high stakes battle. You might remember that it was Tony G that supposedly staked Isildur1 for a comeback bid and reportedly knows the Swedish player’s identity. The match will take place on Sunday, January 2nd at 4pm eastern time on PokerStars. The game will be half no limit hold’em and half pot limit Omaha at $50-$100 blind stakes. Interested parties can rail the action at PokerStars by looking for tables labeled showdown under the Omaha tab or under the Holdem, No Limit all tables tab.

Jon Friedberg, known online as pokertrip will be debuting a new talk show right here, exclusively on Poker News Daily. Friedberg will host the new show, called “The Showdown” every week here at PND, and promises to feature some of the game’s most prolific names. Set to start during the first week of January, Friedberg’s first guest will be former Survivor castaway Jean-Robert Bellande. When asked about his new home here at PND, he stated:

“I see myself not as a member of the media, but rather a fellow poker player who sees eye-to-eye with players I interview. I don’t have any problems asking questions that other poker media might be scared to address. My passion is to share the lifestyles, strategies, and thought processes of poker players.”

Be sure to catch the first episode of “The Showdown” right here at Poker News Daily next week!

In recent days, Party Gaming and bwin announced merger plans to form a giant online gaming group that will become effective sometime in the first quarter of 2011. It’s expected that this merger will create the biggest largest listed online gambling business. The new company will operate worldwide with its existing brands and both bwin and Party Gaming will retain most of the core of their brands but be operated under a new umbrella company. Bwin’s CEO had this to say:

“Our products and target markets complement one another perfectly, and we can continue to expand our technology lead in all key product segments: sports betting, poker, casino, bingo, and games.”

Now that the year is over, CardPlayer has officially crowned Tom Marchese the 2010 CardPlayer Player of the Year. His epic run in 2010 saw him make 11 final tables in major live tournaments to the tune of over $2 million in profits. The highlight of 2010 for Marchese was the win at the NAPT Venetian Main Event for over eight hundred thousand dollars. He beat out Dwyte Pilgrim, Sorel Mizzi and Vanessa Selbst for the award. Marchese had four six-figure paydays in 2010 with final tables at the European Poker Tour, World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker.

Well that wraps up a very exciting and busy week in the world of poker as well as our last weekly news report of 2010. Be sure to come back to poker news daily for all the latest poker headlines every single day and as a reminder, be sure to catch John Friedberg’s new show, “The Showdown” right here next week along with another episode of our weekly news recap. I’m Sean Gibson wishing you a very happy and safe new years!

Phil Hellmuth Leaves UB.com in Major Shakeup

It’s been a busy day for all of us in the online poker community. Just hours after Annie Duke announced her exit from UB.com to pursue non-poker business interests, site icon Phil Hellmuth departed as well. A statement posted on UB.com reveals that the two sides “mutually parted ways.”

Hellmuth was recently seen on ESPN’s coverage of the PokerStars North American Poker Tour’s (NAPT) Los Angeles Bounty Shootout wearing patches for the Aria Casino in Las Vegas and the World Series of Poker (WSOP) Academy. Curiously absent were any logos for his home poker site, UB.com. Hellmuth also appeared on NBC’s “Poker After Dark” devoid of UB.com logos, leading many to believe that he was on the outs with the USA-friendly CEREUS Network room.

Duke left UB.com earlier today in order to extend her foothold in the business world. She commented in a statement posted on UB.com, “I have nothing but positive things to say about UB and my experiences with the brand, management, and the incredible people who work hard daily to deliver a terrific online poker experience.” Duke and Hellmuth had been with UB.com since 2001, the year the online poker site was launched as Ultimate Bet and two years before the modern poker boom.

Duke told Poker News Daily that she does not plan to sign with a competing online poker site; whether Hellmuth feels the same way is not yet known. Duke’s brother, Howard Lederer, is one of the main faces of Full Tilt Poker, which also accepts action from the United States. Hellmuth, who is widely regarded as one of the top tournament players on the planet, could also head to a site like PokerStars or Victory Poker.

Hellmuth owns the record for the number of WSOP bracelets won at 11 and number of WSOP cashes at 79. Along the way, he’s racked up $6.2 million in WSOP earnings alone and is a rumored contestant on the 2011 installment of the ABC reality series “Dancing with the Stars.” He’s one of the top marketable faces in the poker industry and has coined several memorable phrases including “I can dodge bullets, baby” and “Idiot from Northern Europe.”

Hellmuth won the 1989 WSOP Main Event at age 24 and, for the next 20 years, held the record as the youngest champ ever of the $10,000 buy-in poker tournament. Before anyone knew who Chris Moneymaker was, Hellmuth had already amassed seven bracelets; in fact, he racked up three pieces of hardware in 1993 alone.

In 2009, November Niner Jeff Shulman asked Hellmuth to help him with his short-handed game in preparation for the Main Event final table. As a result, Shulman took fifth place for $1.9 million.

Today’s two high-profile departures leave UB.com stocked with a pro roster that includes PokerRoad’s Joe Sebok, bracelet winner Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, and Tiffany Michelle and Maria Ho, the Last Women Standing in the 2008 and 2007 WSOP Main Events, respectively. Also remaining on the Team UB roster are Bryan “badbeatninja” Devonshire, Brandon Cantu, Adam “Roothlus” Levy, and Anthrax’s Scott Ian, among others. The group appears to have become noticeably younger sans Hellmuth and Duke.

Prior to announcing his exit from UB.com, Hellmuth Tweeted the prices of several sports tickets he was monitoring: “New Years Eve L.A. Lakers/Sixers tix, Row 5, center court trading for $460 apiece. Tix for once a year Rose Bowl on 40 yard line, 44 rows up: $350 apiece!”

Earlier this week, Lee Jones announced his resignation from Cake Poker as its Card Room Manager, citing “strategic decisions with which I’m not comfortable” made by Cake management. Cake Poker Tournament Director Serge “andanthar” Ravitch followed suit in what is traditionally a slow week for poker news.

Poker News Daily has heard rumblings that UB.com may add another pro to its roster early next week. Who that could be remains to be seen, but rumors seem to indicate that it’s Prahlad Friedman. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest on this developing story.

Lee Jones Resigns from Cake Poker

In breaking news from the world of online poker, Lee Jones has stepped down as Card Room Manager of Cake Poker, effective immediately. Jones posted in a thread on TwoPlusTwo around 3:00pm ET on Tuesday, “This is a brief announcement to let you know that, as of yesterday, I have resigned my position at Cake Poker and will not be making any further posts here. Their management has made some strategic decisions with which I’m not comfortable.”

Despite departing the site, Jones, who is also a Guest Columnist here at Poker News Daily, spoke highly of his former colleagues: “Please direct any questions or concerns to the Cake support staff; they are top-notch people.” Cake Poker is the flagship site of the USA-friendly Cake Poker Network.

Also departing Cake Poker concurrently with Jones is Serge Ravitch, who is known in the online poker world as “adanthar.” Ravitch served as Cake Poker’s Tournament Director and Jones affectionately dubbed him the “Minister of Tournament Arts” in homage to the Harry Potter franchise. Ravitch was one of the figureheads in uncovering the cheating scandal at Absolute Poker.

Ravitch posted in the same TwoPlusTwo thread on Tuesday, “It sincerely pains me to say that, for the same reasons, I am also no longer affiliated with Cake in any way. I wish them the best of luck going forward.” What “strategic decisions” Jones and Ravitch alluded to were not clear at the time of writing. In addition, Cake Poker has not released any statement.

Jones could only tell Poker News Daily on Tuesday afternoon, “I’m just not comfortable with some of the decisions that the Cake management was making.” However, the veteran of the poker world hopes to remain in the industry, explaining to us, “I have a couple of irons in the fire. I certainly have every intention of staying in the poker business, so I’ll have to see what pans out.” Jones formerly brought customer service to new heights while with PokerStars and also worked with the European Poker Tour and CardRunners.

In TwoPlusTwo’s “Cake Poker Feedback Thread,” which is where Jones dropped the bombshell, posters weighed in en masse. The first responder explained, “This isn’t totally unexpected. Best wishes in your future enterprises.” Another poster predicted that Jones and Ravitch would land on their feet: “Lee and ‘adanthar’ are top-notch in my opinion and won’t need luck, but agreed nonetheless.”

According to PokerScout.com, which keeps tabs on online poker room traffic, the Cake Poker Network is the 24th largest worldwide and boasts a seven-day running average of 740 real money ring game players. Its peak traffic passes 1,100 cash game players and the family of sites happily accepts action from the United States.

Besides Cake Poker, other rooms on the Network include the Doyle Brunson-fronted DoylesRoom, Only Poker, Poker4Green, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies’ Power Poker, Red Star Poker, Phil Laak’s Unabomber Poker, and Victory Poker, the latter of which joined in August.

The holidays have not been kind to the Cake Poker Network, which has not eclipsed the 1,300-cash game player mark since December 21st. In the 30 days prior, it passed 1,300 ring game players 14 times.

Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for more developments on this breaking story.

Antonius, IHateJuice Renew Rivalry

As usual Antonius and IHateJuice played exclusively heads-up Limit Hold’em, this time at $3,000/$6,000 stakes.

The session got off to a hot start when IHateJuice stomped Antonius for $241k on one table. Not to be outdone, Antonius would battle back and completely erase IHateJuice’s early win in less than 50 hands.

This seemed to kick-start one of the most spectacular sessions Antonius and IHateJuice have ever played.

The action came to a head when IHateJuice destroyed Antonius at one table for $493k but Antonius mitigated his losses by quickly winning $385k at another table.

In the end, after wagering millions of dollars against each other, IHateJuice escaped with a relatively minor $73k victory.

Meanwhile Isildur1 was once again wowing railbirds on PokerStars after playing several thousand hands on the site.

After getting stacked in the early stages of the night, Isildur1 laid a world-class beating on PepperoniF in $25/$50 Pot-Limit Omaha.

PepperoniF appeared to bust his Full Tilt account before Isildur1 finally left with a $60k profit.

In other high stakes news Urindanger ($76k), airic1400 ($40k), URnotINdanger2 ($33k) were all amongst the biggest winners while Gus Hansen (-$72k), O Fortuna PLS (-$59k) and Rui Cao (-$22k) had forgettable nights.

Check below for some of the biggest hands from the Patrik Antonius and IHateJuice or go to our online stats section for more information.

 

 

 

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Top Poker News Story of 2010

We’re nearing the end of the 2010 calendar year and, as such, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on the past 365 days. There were plenty of headlines in 2010, but which one stole the show for our esteemed panel of writers? Poker News Daily asked our staff which poker headline of 2010 stood out.

Dan Cypra: Splintering of Online Poker

2010 saw the continued splintering of the online poker market worldwide. France and Italy now have their very own online poker fiefdoms, while legislation in New Jersey to create the very first intrastate internet gambling framework in the United States is gaining steam. In fact, the measure will be one of the first topics that the New Jersey Assembly tackles in the New Year.

Whether the division of the online poker market is detrimental to the player experience remains to be seen. Many of the FR and IT sites tracked by PokerScout.com hold strong in the top 20 worldwide in terms of cash game volume, but players cannot compete as part of the worldwide pool. Expect this trend to continue in 2011 and beyond, especially in the United States, where a state-by-state legalization of internet gambling appears to be in the cards.

Annie Duke: Year of the Woman

I think the biggest news story of 2010 is the breakout of women in poker, and that is not just because I am one of them. Vanessa Selbst winning two majors was a huge step forward for women in poker and, of course, an incredible accomplishment for her. Leading into that, Liv Boeree’s stellar performance in San Remo was a breakout for her and for women in poker. I guess my win has to get a mention here, too. Women have had a hard time getting true traction in this game and 2010 put an exclamation point on the quality of the women who play.

Linda Johnson: Washington Online Poker Law Upheld

I think the biggest poker news story involved the Washington State courts upholding the 2006 state law saying that playing online poker is a Class C felony, a crime on the same level as child molestation. This prompted Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars to pull out of that market. What a travesty it is for people in that state, many of whom will have to relocate. I think it is also very hypocritical of the government; after all, Washington State residents still can buy lottery tickets online.

Lee Jones: Year of the Near Miss

2010 will be remembered as the “Year of the Near Miss”. We will probably never know how close we got to overt legalization of online poker in the United States towards the end of 2010. Harry Reid tried every possible maneuver to get his bill passed that would have legalized and regulated online poker in the USA. Had it not been for Jon Kyl, the bill almost certainly would have passed and been signed by President Obama.

Despite poker pros’ concerns about the 15-month blackout prior to actual regulated play, I believe that legalization would have (and will eventually) produce a second renaissance of poker that will completely overshadow 2003, the year of Chris Moneymaker and the WPT. It will only be in the light of that second renaissance that we realize how unfortunate the “Near Miss” of 2010 was.

John “JimmyLegs” Wray: Harry Reid Online Poker Bill

Certainly the biggest almost-story was the Harry Reid online poker bill. But it looks like regulated online poker in the States will have to wait. Maybe it’ll be the biggest news story of 2011? Fingers crossed!

Chris “Fox” Wallace: Full Tilt Rush Poker Mobile

I think we will eventually realize that Rush Poker Mobile is the biggest poker news story of 2010. It might not be the biggest story right now, but it will probably bring about some significant legal changes. Seeing people playing poker on the bus, in the halls at work, at the bar, or anywhere that people congregate – and seeing all of those people playing online poker for real money on their phones – will change public perception.

What direction the public perception goes and how the legal aspects work out will have a huge effect on the future of our freedom to play our favorite game. I think Michael Mizrachi‘s trip to the WSOP final table was talked about a lot more at the tables, but Rush Poker Mobile will have a bigger splash in the long-run.

Brett Collson: WSOP Ladies Event

When I first saw Shaun Deeb seated wearing lipstick, makeup, and a cowboy hat at the WSOP Ladies Event, I knew the poker world was about to erupt. Deeb and more than a dozen male players crashed what was supposed to be an enjoyable tournament for female poker players. Instead, it turned into a media circus.

Some of the men claimed they were taking a “gender equality” stance by playing in the $1,000 event; others had lost prop bets. Regardless, all of the women were upset by it, as evident by the standing ovation that occurred each time a male player was eliminated. The unfortunate episode also fueled one of the biggest feuds of the year between Annie Duke and Daniel Negreanu, which is another of the most memorable stories of 2010.

Bernard Lee: Michael Mizrachi

For me, it would be Michael Mizrachi. At the beginning of 2010, not many people put Michael Mizrachi in the forefront of poker, but as he arrived at the WSOP, he definitely wanted to make his mark. Mizrachi came out of the gates winning the $50,000 Player’s Championship. In addition to that, he made two other final tables and, of course, who could forget him almost winning the improbable double-double of the $10,000 Main Event as well? Michael Mizrachi had a phenomenal year and has put himself back in the forefront of the world of poker.

Sean Gibson: Michael Mizrachi

For me, the biggest news story of 2010 was the resurrection of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi’s poker career. Count me in as one of the guys who wrote him off for good, especially when all of the financial trouble started cropping up. He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s one of the world’s best players; his run to the November Nine was every bit as magical as Phil Ivey‘s in 2009. Mizrachi is a player we can respect for his past accomplishments and track as one of the big names in the poker industry.

Earl Burton: Harry Reid Online Poker Bill and Jonathan Duhamel

As far as the biggest stories of the year in poker, I am torn between two. The four-year-long battle to overturn the UIGEA, which heated up even more over the past 12 months, seemed to get the hopes up of many of us in the poker community. I was always pessimistic about the passage of any legislation that would allow Americans to play poker online and, in the end, my pessimism proved to be correct.

The second story is Jonathan Duhamel’s victory in the WSOP Main Event. He became the first ever Canadian World Champion, capturing the attention of his country and the world. He was even nominated for Canadian Athlete of the Year alongside such big names as Sidney Crosby and Joey Votto. When you think of players from Canada who came before Duhamel, such as Daniel Negreanu and Gavin Smith, for him to become the first Canadian champion of the Main Event was a truly significant feat.

Top Poker News Story of 2010

We’re nearing the end of the 2010 calendar year and, as such, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on the past 365 days. There were plenty of headlines in 2010, but which one stole the show for our esteemed panel of writers? Poker News Daily asked our staff which poker headline of 2010 stood out.

Dan Cypra: Splintering of Online Poker

2010 saw the continued splintering of the online poker market worldwide. France and Italy now have their very own online poker fiefdoms, while legislation in New Jersey to create the very first intrastate internet gambling framework in the United States is gaining steam. In fact, the measure will be one of the first topics that the New Jersey Assembly tackles in the New Year.

Whether the division of the online poker market is detrimental to the player experience remains to be seen. Many of the FR and IT sites tracked by PokerScout.com hold strong in the top 20 worldwide in terms of cash game volume, but players cannot compete as part of the worldwide pool. Expect this trend to continue in 2011 and beyond, especially in the United States, where a state-by-state legalization of internet gambling appears to be in the cards.

Annie Duke: Year of the Woman

I think the biggest news story of 2010 is the breakout of women in poker, and that is not just because I am one of them. Vanessa Selbst winning two majors was a huge step forward for women in poker and, of course, an incredible accomplishment for her. Leading into that, Liv Boeree’s stellar performance in San Remo was a breakout for her and for women in poker. I guess my win has to get a mention here, too. Women have had a hard time getting true traction in this game and 2010 put an exclamation point on the quality of the women who play.

Linda Johnson: Washington Online Poker Law Upheld

I think the biggest poker news story involved the Washington State courts upholding the 2006 state law saying that playing online poker is a Class C felony, a crime on the same level as child molestation. This prompted Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars to pull out of that market. What a travesty it is for people in that state, many of whom will have to relocate. I think it is also very hypocritical of the government; after all, Washington State residents still can buy lottery tickets online.

Lee Jones: Year of the Near Miss

2010 will be remembered as the “Year of the Near Miss”. We will probably never know how close we got to overt legalization of online poker in the United States towards the end of 2010. Harry Reid tried every possible maneuver to get his bill passed that would have legalized and regulated online poker in the USA. Had it not been for Jon Kyl, the bill almost certainly would have passed and been signed by President Obama.

Despite poker pros’ concerns about the 15-month blackout prior to actual regulated play, I believe that legalization would have (and will eventually) produce a second renaissance of poker that will completely overshadow 2003, the year of Chris Moneymaker and the WPT. It will only be in the light of that second renaissance that we realize how unfortunate the “Near Miss” of 2010 was.

John “JimmyLegs” Wray: Harry Reid Online Poker Bill

Certainly the biggest almost-story was the Harry Reid online poker bill. But it looks like regulated online poker in the States will have to wait. Maybe it’ll be the biggest news story of 2011? Fingers crossed!

Chris “Fox” Wallace: Full Tilt Rush Poker Mobile

I think we will eventually realize that Rush Poker Mobile is the biggest poker news story of 2010. It might not be the biggest story right now, but it will probably bring about some significant legal changes. Seeing people playing poker on the bus, in the halls at work, at the bar, or anywhere that people congregate – and seeing all of those people playing online poker for real money on their phones – will change public perception.

What direction the public perception goes and how the legal aspects work out will have a huge effect on the future of our freedom to play our favorite game. I think Michael Mizrachi‘s trip to the WSOP final table was talked about a lot more at the tables, but Rush Poker Mobile will have a bigger splash in the long-run.

Brett Collson: WSOP Ladies Event

When I first saw Shaun Deeb seated wearing lipstick, makeup, and a cowboy hat at the WSOP Ladies Event, I knew the poker world was about to erupt. Deeb and more than a dozen male players crashed what was supposed to be an enjoyable tournament for female poker players. Instead, it turned into a media circus.

Some of the men claimed they were taking a “gender equality” stance by playing in the $1,000 event; others had lost prop bets. Regardless, all of the women were upset by it, as evident by the standing ovation that occurred each time a male player was eliminated. The unfortunate episode also fueled one of the biggest feuds of the year between Annie Duke and Daniel Negreanu, which is another of the most memorable stories of 2010.

Bernard Lee: Michael Mizrachi

For me, it would be Michael Mizrachi. At the beginning of 2010, not many people put Michael Mizrachi in the forefront of poker, but as he arrived at the WSOP, he definitely wanted to make his mark. Mizrachi came out of the gates winning the $50,000 Player’s Championship. In addition to that, he made two other final tables and, of course, who could forget him almost winning the improbable double-double of the $10,000 Main Event as well? Michael Mizrachi had a phenomenal year and has put himself back in the forefront of the world of poker.

Sean Gibson: Michael Mizrachi

For me, the biggest news story of 2010 was the resurrection of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi’s poker career. Count me in as one of the guys who wrote him off for good, especially when all of the financial trouble started cropping up. He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s one of the world’s best players; his run to the November Nine was every bit as magical as Phil Ivey‘s in 2009. Mizrachi is a player we can respect for his past accomplishments and track as one of the big names in the poker industry.

Earl Burton: Harry Reid Online Poker Bill and Jonathan Duhamel

As far as the biggest stories of the year in poker, I am torn between two. The four-year-long battle to overturn the UIGEA, which heated up even more over the past 12 months, seemed to get the hopes up of many of us in the poker community. I was always pessimistic about the passage of any legislation that would allow Americans to play poker online and, in the end, my pessimism proved to be correct.

The second story is Jonathan Duhamel’s victory in the WSOP Main Event. He became the first ever Canadian World Champion, capturing the attention of his country and the world. He was even nominated for Canadian Athlete of the Year alongside such big names as Sidney Crosby and Joey Votto. When you think of players from Canada who came before Duhamel, such as Daniel Negreanu and Gavin Smith, for him to become the first Canadian champion of the Main Event was a truly significant feat.

Top Poker News Story of 2010

We’re nearing the end of the 2010 calendar year and, as such, we’d like to take a moment to reflect on the past 365 days. There were plenty of headlines in 2010, but which one stole the show for our esteemed panel of writers? Poker News Daily asked our staff which poker headline of 2010 stood out.

Dan Cypra: Splintering of Online Poker

2010 saw the continued splintering of the online poker market worldwide. France and Italy now have their very own online poker fiefdoms, while legislation in New Jersey to create the very first intrastate internet gambling framework in the United States is gaining steam. In fact, the measure will be one of the first topics that the New Jersey Assembly tackles in the New Year.

Whether the division of the online poker market is detrimental to the player experience remains to be seen. Many of the FR and IT sites tracked by PokerScout.com hold strong in the top 20 worldwide in terms of cash game volume, but players cannot compete as part of the worldwide pool. Expect this trend to continue in 2011 and beyond, especially in the United States, where a state-by-state legalization of internet gambling appears to be in the cards.

Annie Duke: Year of the Woman

I think the biggest news story of 2010 is the breakout of women in poker, and that is not just because I am one of them. Vanessa Selbst winning two majors was a huge step forward for women in poker and, of course, an incredible accomplishment for her. Leading into that, Liv Boeree’s stellar performance in San Remo was a breakout for her and for women in poker. I guess my win has to get a mention here, too. Women have had a hard time getting true traction in this game and 2010 put an exclamation point on the quality of the women who play.

Linda Johnson: Washington Online Poker Law Upheld

I think the biggest poker news story involved the Washington State courts upholding the 2006 state law saying that playing online poker is a Class C felony, a crime on the same level as child molestation. This prompted Full Tilt Poker and PokerStars to pull out of that market. What a travesty it is for people in that state, many of whom will have to relocate. I think it is also very hypocritical of the government; after all, Washington State residents still can buy lottery tickets online.

Lee Jones: Year of the Near Miss

2010 will be remembered as the “Year of the Near Miss”. We will probably never know how close we got to overt legalization of online poker in the United States towards the end of 2010. Harry Reid tried every possible maneuver to get his bill passed that would have legalized and regulated online poker in the USA. Had it not been for Jon Kyl, the bill almost certainly would have passed and been signed by President Obama.

Despite poker pros’ concerns about the 15-month blackout prior to actual regulated play, I believe that legalization would have (and will eventually) produce a second renaissance of poker that will completely overshadow 2003, the year of Chris Moneymaker and the WPT. It will only be in the light of that second renaissance that we realize how unfortunate the “Near Miss” of 2010 was.

John “JimmyLegs” Wray: Harry Reid Online Poker Bill

Certainly the biggest almost-story was the Harry Reid online poker bill. But it looks like regulated online poker in the States will have to wait. Maybe it’ll be the biggest news story of 2011? Fingers crossed!

Chris “Fox” Wallace: Full Tilt Rush Poker Mobile

I think we will eventually realize that Rush Poker Mobile is the biggest poker news story of 2010. It might not be the biggest story right now, but it will probably bring about some significant legal changes. Seeing people playing poker on the bus, in the halls at work, at the bar, or anywhere that people congregate – and seeing all of those people playing online poker for real money on their phones – will change public perception.

What direction the public perception goes and how the legal aspects work out will have a huge effect on the future of our freedom to play our favorite game. I think Michael Mizrachi‘s trip to the WSOP final table was talked about a lot more at the tables, but Rush Poker Mobile will have a bigger splash in the long-run.

Brett Collson: WSOP Ladies Event

When I first saw Shaun Deeb seated wearing lipstick, makeup, and a cowboy hat at the WSOP Ladies Event, I knew the poker world was about to erupt. Deeb and more than a dozen male players crashed what was supposed to be an enjoyable tournament for female poker players. Instead, it turned into a media circus.

Some of the men claimed they were taking a “gender equality” stance by playing in the $1,000 event; others had lost prop bets. Regardless, all of the women were upset by it, as evident by the standing ovation that occurred each time a male player was eliminated. The unfortunate episode also fueled one of the biggest feuds of the year between Annie Duke and Daniel Negreanu, which is another of the most memorable stories of 2010.

Bernard Lee: Michael Mizrachi

For me, it would be Michael Mizrachi. At the beginning of 2010, not many people put Michael Mizrachi in the forefront of poker, but as he arrived at the WSOP, he definitely wanted to make his mark. Mizrachi came out of the gates winning the $50,000 Player’s Championship. In addition to that, he made two other final tables and, of course, who could forget him almost winning the improbable double-double of the $10,000 Main Event as well? Michael Mizrachi had a phenomenal year and has put himself back in the forefront of the world of poker.

Sean Gibson: Michael Mizrachi

For me, the biggest news story of 2010 was the resurrection of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi’s poker career. Count me in as one of the guys who wrote him off for good, especially when all of the financial trouble started cropping up. He proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he’s one of the world’s best players; his run to the November Nine was every bit as magical as Phil Ivey‘s in 2009. Mizrachi is a player we can respect for his past accomplishments and track as one of the big names in the poker industry.

Earl Burton: Harry Reid Online Poker Bill and Jonathan Duhamel

As far as the biggest stories of the year in poker, I am torn between two. The four-year-long battle to overturn the UIGEA, which heated up even more over the past 12 months, seemed to get the hopes up of many of us in the poker community. I was always pessimistic about the passage of any legislation that would allow Americans to play poker online and, in the end, my pessimism proved to be correct.

The second story is Jonathan Duhamel’s victory in the WSOP Main Event. He became the first ever Canadian World Champion, capturing the attention of his country and the world. He was even nominated for Canadian Athlete of the Year alongside such big names as Sidney Crosby and Joey Votto. When you think of players from Canada who came before Duhamel, such as Daniel Negreanu and Gavin Smith, for him to become the first Canadian champion of the Main Event was a truly significant feat.

December 23rd – Weekly News Update

Welcome to your weekly fix for this week’s poker news, I’m Sean Gibson and in our PND weekly update, I’ll be recapping the hottest headlines for this week.

We start out with maybe the biggest name in poker… and MORE exposure of UB.com’s Phil Hellmuth is just what the poker world needs. In recent days, Hellmuth potentially dropped a bombshell by Tweeting:

“OMG! Phil Hellmuth (me!) on ‘Dancing with the Stars!’ Outrageous! Might make a fool out of myself on worldwide television one more time.”

ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars” is entering its twelfth season, which is set to hit television airwaves in the beginning of Two Thousand Eleven.

Despite multiple media outlets asserting that Hellmuth is a lock for “Dancing with the Stars,” let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet. The cast for the new cycle has not yet been announced, but is apparently due out in January.

According to Politco, Senator Jon Kyl is keeping his Two Thousand Twelve reelection plans close to the vest, which is creating uncertainty about the future hierarchy of his party’s leadership. Kyl is the Senate Minority Whip, the second ranking position in the Republican Party.

Poker players know Kyl as Capitol Hill’s current public enemy number one to online poker. He was one of the key players behind the UIGEA four years ago. The bill, which aimed to stop the flow of funds to offshore internet gambling sites, was attached to the must-pass SAFE Port Act in the middle of the night just before Congress adjourned for the year.

Since Two Thousand Six, Kyl has continued to fight against online poker. Earlier this year, he blocked the appointment of several of President Barack Obama‘s nominees to the United States Treasury because he was upset that the UIGEA implementation deadline had been pushed back six months. This month, he was the most vocal opponent of Senator Harry Reid’s failed attempts to legalize and regulate online poker.

The sixth UB.com Online Championship, or UBOC, will kick off on Sunday, January Sixteenth. A record-setting twenty nine events will comprise the new series, culminating in a one thousand fifty dollar buy-in No Limit Hold’em Monster Stack Championship on January Thirtieth. All told, at least five million bucks will be shelled out to UB.com faithful during UBOC Six.

Running concurrently with UBOC Six is Mini UBOC Six, which offers the same slate of events, but with buy-ins that are one-tenth as large. This allows players of all bankrolls to compete in the wide range of tournaments on the docket. In addition, the entire UBOC Six schedule is open to players from UB.com’s CEREUS Network sister site Absolute Poker.

The very first PokerStars SuperStar Showdown took place on Sunday and featured Isaac Haxton squaring off against Isildur1. In the end, Haxton boosted his bankroll by forty-one thousand dollars over the twenty five hundred hand match and was declared the winner. Both Haxton and Isildur1 bought in for one hundred fifty thousand dollars.

According to the PokerStars Blog, the lively rail for the very first SuperStar Showdown match featured high-stakes pros like Kevin [MICK-FEE] MacPhee and Chad Batista. The group watched one of their own battle against an unknown Swedish online pro who many believe to be Viktor Blom. Four No Limit Hold’em tables at fifty/one-hundred blinds served as the battleground for the Showdown.

The next SuperStar Showdown opponent for Isildur1 has not yet been announced and interested players are encouraged to e-mail showdown@pokerstars.com. On its blog, PokerStars claims that a match may take place at the upcoming PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, although whether Isildur1’s true identity would be revealed at that time remains to be seen.

Looking to expand its brand further into the global marketplace, Caesars Interactive Entertainment has entered into a joint venture with one of Italy’s top online poker companies, Microgame.

In an announcement last Friday, Caesars Interactive and Microgame revealed a long-term agreement to co-brand Microgame’s online poker outlet, PeoplesNetwork.it, with the World Series of Poker name and logo. Through the agreement, Caesars Interactive and Microgame will offer online and live events to the Italian market prominently featuring the WSOP brand. Additionally, Microgame will become the official satellite outlet for Italian players entering the WSOP.

The movie that helped spark the poker boom is returning to fire a second barrel. Miramax Films announced this week that it will be teaming up with the Weinstein Company to produce “Rounders Two,” a sequel to the cult favorite that was released more than a decade ago.
According to IMDB, “Rounders Two” is currently in development and scheduled to hit theaters in Two Thousand Twelve. The cast and crew have not been announced, but Matt Damon and Edward Norton have supposedly signed on for the project, as has original director John Dahl. It’s unknown whether John Malkovich or John Turturro will return for the sequel, leaving fans to speculate where the story will take the lead characters this time around. Miramax broke the exciting news in press release late last week.

That does it for this week’s top headlines in the world of poker. We thank you for watching our Weekly News Update and encourage you to visit our site every day for the latest in poker news. I’m Sean Gibson, wishing you a very happy holiday season and of course … for you to crush the games for a late year heater. See you next time!

888poker Offers Special Holiday Poker Promotions

888poker is offering several ways for players to win extra cash this holiday season. The online poker room is continuing its free $8 promotion – all new players will be given $8 to play with when they register – and the site is also featuring two Christmas promotions that give players a chance at even more free cash.

All you have to do to receive your free $8 is register for a new account; the money will be waiting for you when you finish. New and existing 888poker players will also have a chance to win thousands of dollars in free cash in the following holiday promotions over the next couple weeks. Note that the site does not accept USA players:

Cash Games: Hit the 888s

Hit a pair of eights or higher and win seats into one of the $888 Xmas Freeroll events. Quad eights will get you into an $8,888 freeroll on January 8th.

Tournaments: Holiday Hold’em

Every player gets a gift by participating in 888poker’s 8 x 8¢ tournaments. You can win up to $1,000 in vouchers for the 888poker Rewards Store plus a free seat in the $50,000 Challenge Tournament. The 8 x 8¢ tournaments run on December 20th, December. 22nd, December 27th, December 29th, and January 3rd. Here’s a look at the prizes for the top finishers:

1st: $1,000 Rewards Store voucher and a seat in the $50,000 Challenge
2nd: $500 Rewards Store voucher and a seat in the $50,000 Challenge
3rd to 5th: $200 Rewards Store voucher and a seat in the $50,000 Challenge
6th to 10th: $100 Rewards Store voucher and a seat in the $50,000 Challenge
11th to 30th: $50 Rewards Store voucher and a seat in the $50,000 Challenge
31st to 100th: Free seat in the $8,888 Holiday Freeroll

In addition to the holiday promotions, 888poker invites new players to double their cash with a 100% up to $400 Welcome Bonus on their first deposit. The bonus will be awarded in 40 increments of $10. The wagering requirements are 10 points to release $1 of bonus money, so players will need to hit 100 points in order to release each of the $10 portions. The bonus will be open for 90 days.

New depositors will also earn an entry into the “$50,00o First Depositors’ Challenge“. Make your first deposit as a new member between Thursday and Wednesday in any given week to qualify for this tournament the following Friday at 7:00pm GMT. The top 20 finishers each get a seat in the $50,000 Sunday Challenge at 8:35 pm GMT.

There is also a $1,000 Depositors Freeroll available each week for players who make a deposit on the site. All you have to do is make a deposit between Friday and Thursday in any given week and you’ll be eligible for a chance at the $1,000 prize pool.

888poker is part of the 888 Network. According to online poker tracking site PokerScout.com, the 888 Network has a seven-day running average of 1,260 cash game players and a peak of 1,950 at the time of writing. The site has seen a 40% traffic increase over the past few months after introducing new software.

UB.com Announces UBOC 6 Schedule

The sixth UB.com Online Championship, or UBOC, will kick off on Sunday, January 16th. A record-setting 29 events will comprise the new series, culminating in a $1,050 buy-in No Limit Hold’em Monster Stack Championship Event on January 30th. All told, at least $5 million will be shelled out to UB.com faithful during UBOC 6.

Among those looking forward to watching UBOC 6 play out on the virtual felts of the USA-friendly online poker site was Joe Sebok. The former “Poker2Nite” host and current UB.com pro commented in a press release distributed last week, “Not too long after those New Year’s hangovers wear off, get back on UB.com because it’s time for UBOC 6. The UBOCs are my favorite online tournament series because they just keep getting bigger and bigger every time out. Now, if I can just figure out how to win an event, the excitement will be complete.”

Despite primarily catering to U.S. players, UB.com has added several tournaments to the UBOC 6 slate on Wednesdays that cater to its European clientele. These Euro-facing events kick off at 16:05 ET and include a $162 No Limit Hold’em event (#8) and a $209 No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys tournament (#22). Returning in UBOC 6 is the popular Rock Star Bounty event, which is in the books for January 17th and features Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian, who is also a UB.com pro.

We’re done keeping you in suspense. Here are the 29 tournaments that comprise the UBOC 6 schedule:

January 16th at 14:00 ET
Event #1: No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack
$500+30 buy-in, $250,000 Guarantee

January 16th at 16:00 ET
Event #2: Sniper No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack
$300+20 buy-in, $200,000 Guarantee

January 16th at 18:30 ET
Event #3: No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Ultra Turbo
$300+20 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

January 17th at 20:05 ET
Event #4: No Limit Hold’em Four-Max
$300+20 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

January 17th at 20:05 ET
Event #5: No Limit Hold’em Rock Star Bounty
$200+15 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

January 18th at 20:05 ET
Event #6: Pot Limit Omaha Six-Max
$200+15 buy-in, $50,000 Guarantee

January 18th at 20:05 ET
Event #7: No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack
$300+20 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

January 19th at 16:05 ET
Event #8: No Limit Hold’em
$150+12 buy-in, $50,000 Guarantee

January 19th at 20:05 ET
Event #9: Pot Limit Omaha Cubed
$200+15 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

January 19th at 20:05 ET
Event #10: No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Six-Max
$500+30 buy-in, $250,000 Guarantee

January 20th at 20:05 ET
Event #11: No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack
$150+12 buy-in, $75,000 Guarantee

January 21st at 20:05 ET
Event #12: Sniper No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack
$150+12 buy-in, $75,000 Guarantee

January 22nd at 15:00 ET
Event #13: No Limit Hold’em Heads-Up
$1,000+50 buy-in, $128,000 Guarantee

January 22nd at 16:00 ET
Event #14: No Limit Hold’em Turbo Triple Chance
$200+15 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

January 23rd at 14:00 ET
Event #15: No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack
$300+20 buy-in, $150,000 Guarantee

January 23rd at 17:00 ET
Event #16: No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack High Roller
$2,000+100 buy-in, $750,000 Guarantee

January 23rd at 18:30 ET
Event #17: No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Ultra Turbo Six-Max
$300+20 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

January 24th at 20:05 ET
Event #18: No Limit Hold’em Cubed
$200+15 buy-in, $150,000 Guarantee

January 24th at 20:05 ET
Event #19: Eight-Game Mix
$200+15 buy-in, $50,000 Guarantee

January 25th at 20:05 ET
Event #20: Sniper No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack
$200+15 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

January 25th at 20:05 ET
Event #21: No Limit Hold’em/Pot Limit Omaha Mix
$200+15 buy-in, $50,000 Guarantee

January 26th at 16:05 ET
Event #22: No Limit Hold’em with Rebuys
$200+9 buy-in, $50,000 Guarantee

January 26th at 20:05 ET
Event #23: Pot Limit Omaha Eight or Better
$200+15 buy-in, $75,000 Guarantee

January 26th at 20:05 ET
Event #24: No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Ante from Start
$300+20 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

January 27th at 20:05 ET
Event #25: No Limit Hold’em Centerfold Bounty
$150+12 buy-in, $75,000 Guarantee

January 28th at 20:05 ET
Event #26: No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack
$150+12 buy-in, $75,000 Guarantee

January 29th at 16:00 ET
Event #27: No Limit Hold’em Turbo with Rebuys
$200+9 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

January 30th at 16:00 ET
UBOC Championship: No Limit Hold’em Monster Stack
$1,000+50 buy-in, $1 Million Guarantee

January 30th at 18:30 ET
Event #29: No Limit Hold’em Deep Stack Ultra Turbo
$300+20 buy-in, $100,000 Guarantee

Running concurrently with UBOC 6 is Mini UBOC 6, which offers the same slate of events, but with buy-ins that are one-tenth as large. This allows players of all bankrolls to compete in the wide range of tournaments on the docket. In addition, the entire UBOC 6 schedule is open to players from UB.com’s CEREUS Network sister site Absolute Poker.

Visit UB.com for full details.

Poker News in Brief: Dec. 13-19, 2010

Our news team stayed hard at work, however, and collected all the stories you may have missed in our weekly Poker News in Brief feature below.

This week, the PPA is disappointed by the failure of another online poker bill, a WPT Royal Flush Girl is named Maxim's Hometown Hottie, the WSOP gets a little Italian flavor and a whole lot more.

PPA Disappointed By Reid Bill Fail

The Poker Players Alliance expressed disappointment this week that lawmakers likely missed an opportunity to license and regulate online poker before the end of the 111th session of Congress.

"On behalf of the millions of Americans who play online poker, I am disappointed Congress has not acted to implement important licensing and regulation of this growing industry," said former Senator Alfonse D'Amato, chairman of the PPA. "It's a missed opportunity, pure and simple."

Several attempts by Senate Majority leader Harry Reid to piggyback legislation to legalize and regulate online poker onto tax and spending legislation before the current lame duck congressional session ended Dec. 17 failed.

However, the PPA remains committed to the cause.

"The progress we've made this year and the momentum of the past few weeks will only help as we continue to work with lawmakers at the state and federal levels to protect the rights of Americans to play the great game of poker in a safe, regulated, U.S. market," said John Pappas, executive director of the PPA.

Paddy Power Releases Irish Open Schedule

Paddy Power Poker released the full Irish Open 2011 schedule this week.

The five day-long festival will run Apr. 21-25 at the Burlington Hotel in Dublin, Ireland.

The four day €3,200+€300 main event begins at 2 p.m. Apr. 22 and runs through the conclusion of the festival.

Several satellites and side events are also included.

For more information and registration click here.

Weekly super satellites take place on Paddy Power Poker every Sunday and Tuesday.

WPT Royal Flush Girl Named Hometown Hottie

WPT Royal Flush Girl Melanie Iglesias has won Maxim Magazine’s Hometown Hotties national model search competition.

Iglesias beat out thousands of contestants to make it to the Top 10 and the Magazine announced she was the leading vote-getter this week.

“I was so excited and shocked when Maxim called to tell me. What an amazing honor,” she said. “First, I get picked to be a Royal Flush Girl, then I’m fortunate enough to win this great contest – it’s been an unbelievable year.”

A new pictorial will appear on the website and Iglesias will be featured in an upcoming issue of Maxim.

WPT on Facebook Offers Invitational Seat

WPT Texas Hold ’Em Poker on Facebook is giving fans a chance to win a seat at the WPT Celebrity Invitational tournament this coming February.

One draw winner and a guest will be able to attend the Commerce Casino event in Los Angeles, California and play side-by-side with celebrities and poker pros.

WPT Texas Hold ‘Em Poker on Facebook players will receive a draw entry for each purchase of any poker chip package during the promotion period.

The promotion runs Dec. 15 through Jan. 10, 2011.

WSOP Goes Italian

Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Inc. announced a long-term agreement with Microgame S.p.A. for its WSOP brand in the Italian poker market this week.

Microgame and Caesars will now work together to market the WSOP brand in Italy with online and offline poker tournaments and promotions.

Microgame already operates the largest poker network in the newly-regulated Italian online market.

People’s Poker, a network of over 120 online poker sites, will be co-branded utilizing the WSOP brand and People’s Poker brand.

Microgame and the WSOP will also create land-based tournaments for the Italian players using the WSOP name and Microgame now becomes the exclusive satellite provider in Italy for WSOP land-based events around the world.

Christmas at Betfair

Betfair is hosting several holiday poker promotions this month.

The site has a $60,000 Christmas Points Race from Dec. 1-21 promising players in the top 100 a share of $60,000 with $10,000 for first.

The site is also giving players the chance to win one of 85 iPads via its 85 iPad Giveaway tournament Jan. 5. Players can secure a seat through select satellites all this month.

And finally, Betfair is hosting a $40,000 Raked Hand Frenzy from Dec. 11-29. Players with the most number of raked hands in the Gold, Silver and Bronze leaderboard will all win live satellite seats and prizes.

PartyPoker Starts WPT Venice Satellites

Satellites for the WPT Venice main event begin online at PartyPoker Dec. 20.

The $7,000 packages up for grabs all include the buy-in, hotel accommodation and $1,000 in spending money.

“Play in our mix of daily qualifiers that run from Dec. 20 to Jan. 23 for your chance to play in these prize satellites," a PartyPoker spokesperson said. "Remember, start with our daily freerolls and you could end up at the WPT Venice main event for free.”

The main $350+$25 online satellites take place every Sunday at 3:20 p.m. ET with one package guaranteed.

WPT Venice runs Feb. 3-11 at the Casino de Venezia.

Springael wins 2010 3LT Grand Final

The Everest Poker sponsored 3LT Grand Final drew 261 players to Vienna, Austria this week.

Belgium's Joris Springael outlasted them all to take the title and €132,680 first-place prize.

Run by TD Thomas Kremser, the 3 Länder Poker Tour (3LT) debuted as the first poker tour held in the three German-speaking countries this year.

Visit www.pokerlistings.com

December 17th – Weekly News Update

Welcome back to another edition of our Weekly News Update. I’m your host, Sean Gibson, and we’ll be talking about the biggest headlines for the week. Let’s get to the news!

On Thursday morning, Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas told Poker News Daily that the bill introduced by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid legalizing and regulating online poker is dead. A move to add the bill’s language to the tax relief act debated in Congress this week failed to come to fruition.

Pappas told Poker News Daily that a highly charged debate over the tax bill was largely to blame:

“When the tax package fell through and things became much more political for it – not related to our bill – it became clear that another controversial addition to the tax bill could sink it.”

Reid’s bill would have opened the online poker market in the United States to current operators like Caesars Entertainment, which owns the rights to the annual World Series of Poker. Pappas added that hope is not lost:

“The online poker bill that was floating around needs some improvement, so the PPA wants to go back to Senator Reid [in 2011] and talk about how we can improve on his current draft. There’s going to be a renewed focus in the Senate and we’ll be taking some of the legislation in a different direction so that’s it not focused on the Financial Services Committee, where we have a known opponent.”

Party Gaming co-founder Anurag Dikshit, who admitted to violating the Wire Act of Nineteen Sixty-One two years ago, was sentenced to one year of probation by a New York court on Thursday, according to Forbes. He has also coughed up three hundred million dollars and agreed to cooperate in an ongoing Federal investigation.

U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff determined Dikshit’s fate on Thursday and the possibility of two years behind bars hung in the balance. In the end, Rakoff told the court, “I am persuaded that no jail time is appropriate here.”

Dikshit’s admission marked one of the first times that online poker has ever been associated with the Wire Act, which has traditionally applied to sports betting. In October Two Thousand Nine, Dikshit sold his remaining shares in Party Gaming for around two hundred million British Pounds, which amounted to a twenty eight percent stake.

Party Gaming vacated the U.S. market in 2006 after the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. The publicly traded company has since inked a non-prosecution agreement with the United States Government and forked over a one hundred five million dollar fine.

Last week, PokerStars announced that the mysterious high-stakes phenom Isildur1 had signed on to become the latest member of Team PokerStars Pro. At the same time, a new promotion, the SuperStar Showdown, was launched, allowing all comers to take on Isildur1 in a nosebleed stakes heads-up match. On Tuesday, Isildur1?s first opponent was revealed.
This Sunday at Six PM Eastern Time, Isaac Haxton will put one hundred fifty thousand dollars on the line as he takes on Isildur1 at four tables of Fifty / One Hundred No Limit Hold’em. Haxton is well known throughout the poker community and, in addition to his cash game success, has put together an impressive record on the live tournament circuit.

The matches will last either twenty five hundred hands or until one of the players goes bust, whichever happens first, and the winner is the player who ends up with the most money. Anyone who is willing to pony up fifteen hundred big blinds can issue a challenge to Isildur1 by e-mailing PokerStars.

Full Tilt Poker pro Jonathan “xMONSTERxDONGx” Karamalikis bested a field of two hundred eighty nine players to win the Asia Pacific Poker Tour Grand Final in Sydney, Australia last weekend. The twenty two year old online superstar from Adelaide earned four hundred fifty nine thousand Australian Dollars, his biggest score ever.

The star-studded final table included Team PokerStars Pro member Daniel Negreanu, live poker Triple Crown winner Roland de Wolfe, and former APPT champion Eddy Sabat. Negreanu, who took a short stack to the final table, was the first to exit after running top pair into de Wolfe’s set of threes. His ninth place finish earned him thirty-six thousand Australian Dollars. By the way, De Wolfe finished in eighth place.

Staying with the live tournament circuit, PokerStars announced details on Thursday for Season Four of the Latin American Poker Tour. The fourth LAPT season will begin in February and has five events on the schedule so far, including stops in Brazil, Peru, Argentina, Chile, and Colombia.

The new LAPT Player of the Year awards will recognize excellent performances throughout the season. The awards, much like the PokerStars European Poker Tour awards, will be handed out at the end of the season based on results in not only Main Events, but also most of the side events. The EPT gives trophies yearly to the top overall player as well as the top Omaha player, Mixed Games player, heads-up player, and qualifier. There is also an award given to the country that performs the best during the season.

The first stop of Season Four will be in Sao Paulo. Here’s a look at the schedule so far:

February 16-20: Sao Paulo, Brazil (R$5,000 buy-in)
March 17-20: Vina Del Mar, Chile ($1,100 buy-in)
April 12-17: Lima, Peru ($2,500 buy-in)
June 1-5: Rosario, Argentina ($2,500 buy-in)
August 3-7: Bogota, Colombia ($1,100 buy-in)

Thanks for tuning in to the Poker News Daily Weekly Update and be sure to check back with us every day for the latest in poker news.

Traveling the Tournament Circuit with Bernard Lee

Ever wonder what it’s like to travel the live tournament circuit? Poker pro and ESPN’s Bernard Lee gives us this exclusive insight into the world of the live tournament scene as he travels from a WSOP Circuit Event (in which he finished in 3rd place) and just hours later travels to Foxwoods Casino to play in the World Poker Tour $10,000 event.

“Well, it’s been a crazy but great day. I just took third in the WSOP circuit $10k regional championship here in Hammond, Indiana… still the goal coming out here was to try to get the seat into the freeroll $1 million invitational in May and mission accomplished… we’ll see what happens there. But now the race is on to get back to Foxwoods to play in the ten thousand dollar WPT Main Event there.”

The video starts with Lee recapping what happened in Hammond at the WSOP $10k circuit event and explaining he will only get a few hours sleep until he has to get to Chicago to catch a plane, without knowing how he’s going to get to the airport to Foxwoods.

“We have some work to do to get on a plane tomorrow morning. As you can see it is 12:24 am on Central time. I got to get on the computer, figure out my fight, figure out how I am going to get from the airport over there [Foxwoods].”

The next scene shows Lee waking up at 3:45am which is barely enough time for him to run from the hotel to catch his plane. From there we see his whirlwind adventure take him to the airport where he checks in from the plane prior to take-off. From there he catches a ride from the airport to Foxwoods, and finally, checks in just moments before playing in the $10k event which is slated to start just minutes after his arrival.

Bernard Lee is a professional poker player who has two deep runs in the World Series of Poker Main Event to his name. He is also a columnist here at Poker News Daily and at ESPN.com and can be seen on the ESPN web show “The Inside Deal”.

Poker Pro Dale Philip (Daleroxxu) Begins Tour of Cards

It is the dream of every poker player: travel the world, visit exotic locations, and play live and online. It is a dream that one of poker’s most notable bloggers and players, Dale “Daleroxxu” Philip, will begin in just a few short weeks.

Philip, a member of Team PokerStars Online, put his name on the map by winning the 2006 World Blogger Championship of Online Poker. Since that time, he has become a master of sit and gos and has been able to make a living off that very difficult discipline of poker. His desire to move away from the computer, however, has led him into an endeavor called the Tour of Cards, which will be sponsored in part by PokerStars.

The Tour of Cards will see Philip travel the world in 2011, visiting 52 different countries, one each week of the year. While he travels, he will try his hand at live poker and also maintain a grueling online playing schedule. Philip will also be blogging about the trip on a dedicated Tour of Cards website, allowing the poker world to monitor his status.

Poker News Daily caught up with Philip as he was making the final preparations for his trip, which begins just before the New Year.

Poker News Daily: For those who aren’t familiar with you, tell us about yourself.

Dale Philip: I grew up in a council estate – what Americans would call the “housing projects” – in a small town in Scotland. It wasn’t particularly nice and my parents were poor and sometimes unemployed, so we only ever went on one overseas vacation when I was a kid.

I moved to Glasgow, Scotland’s largest city, to work, but quit my job to play poker full-time in 2008 and just stayed there. I didn’t know a lot of people in the city and had an infinite amount of free time to grind poker, so that’s what I did when I could pry myself from the XBox 360!

I’ve always been a sit and go player and crushed them on every site I’ve played them on for a consistent profit. But because this was such a profitable, almost guaranteed, income for me, I never played MTTs or ring games seriously; I just stuck to printing money playing sit and gs. But sit and gos are drying up a lot now that everyone knows how to play them, so I’m starting to play some Pot Limit Omaha online and live MTTs. This has actually made poker fun and interesting for me again when it was starting to become somewhat of a dull grind.

PND: Was that the idea behind the Tour of Cards or was there something else that drove you to do it?

Dale Philip: One day, I was thinking to myself how lucky I am to have a career that allows me the flexibility to do whatever I want, whenever I want to do it. Then, I realized how little I take advantage of that freedom. I spend most of my time sitting at a computer in the same boring room in the same old city playing online poker. I thought to myself that I could just as easily be sitting on a laptop in some exotic location doing my job, so what the hell am I still doing here?

I started to research different countries that I might like to relocate to, at least for a year, and the more I learned about other places, the more I wanted to visit all of them. Then, this epic idea came into my head: I’ll visit 52 countries in 52 weeks, play a ton of online and live poker, do a lot of cool stuff, blog the whole adventure, and call it the Tour of Cards.

PND: What sponsorships have you set up to be able to partake in this adventure?

Dale Philip: I recently signed with PokerStars. My sponsorship with PokerStars was announced after I had announced my Tour of Cards project; however, PokerStars had approached me before I had even thought up this project. When I told them about my plans, they loved the idea and gave me a very attractive offer based on that. It’s truly awesome to have the support of the world’s largest and best online poker site; they really understand what I want to achieve.

PND: What are your goals for the Tour of Cards?

Dale Philip: I have so many goals for Tour of Cards. I want to promote poker and the poker lifestyle to people across the world. I want to see and experience a bunch of awesome stuff, meet interesting people, make new friends (and girlfriends), and learn about different cultures. But, of course, my main goal for the project is just to have a bunch of fun because if it’s not fun, it’s not worth doing.

PND: What are the logistics of planning a trip such as the Tour of Cards?

Dale Philip: Although this whole thing is a logistical nightmare and it’s been taking up a lot of my time lately, I’m getting a lot of enjoyment out of planning and making this project happen. I’ve been trying my best to plan the order of countries I visit in a way such that the next country I go to is very close to and has a direct flight from the country I’m leaving in order to make journeys short and inexpensive. However, there are certain poker festivals I want to attend such as the Aussie Millions, PokerStars Macau Cup, and PokerStars EPT Snowfest, so making sure I get to them has made the planning much more complicated.

I’m happy to say that all of my flights for the first three months have been planned, booked, and paid for. The next thing that I have to do is organize accommodations in each location. That’s perhaps tougher than organizing flights because I have to research each location to figure out where the best place to stay is. I really don’t want to be spending a week in a hotel that sucks or is in a terrible location. It’s also usually cheaper to book hotel rooms at the last minute using an online bidding site such as Priceline. That is the opposite of flights, which are cheaper the earlier you book them.

PND: The first three months of your schedule have you in the Asian Rim. Tell us about what you’re expecting there?

Dale Philip: I’m especially looking forward to visiting the Asian countries on my tour, not just because I find Asian chicks extremely hot, but also because their culture is so much different than ours in the Western world. It’s a part of the world, being so far away, that I’ve never visited, so I can’t wait to get there, check it out, and eat their delicious food. Playing live poker in Asia should make for a fun and interesting experience, as poker is really starting to boom there now, especially in Macau. I’m expecting the games to be very lively and fun.

PND: What difficulties could you encounter during the Tour of Cards?

Dale Philip: A guaranteed way to get yourself held up at any country’s immigration border is to tell them that you are a professional poker player, so I’m generally creative with the truth when they ask, “What do you do back home?” It just makes life a lot easier. In general, it’s easy to travel to other countries for U.K. nationals. The only country on my list so far that U.K. nationals can’t enter visa-free or with visa-on-arrival is Vietnam; it has to be arranged in advance of traveling there.

Not all countries will have legal brick-and-mortar casinos or poker rooms, so I’m never going to be able to play a live poker game in all 52 countries. Thankfully, with a laptop and a PokerStars account, I’m always within instant reach of a game wherever I am. I just have to hope that the internet connection of most countries will be fast and stable enough, and I don’t think that’s too much to ask for in 2011, is it?

There is also the fact that, in certain countries, governments have total control over their citizens’ internet access and block all online poker sites. Most of these countries, where online gambling is illegal, are blocking poker sites because the morons in power don’t know the difference between poker – a game of skill – and gambling. But, if PokerStars has no problem with me playing from a specific country and I am able to access the site, directly or otherwise, then I will play. It is likely that I will use a reliable VPN service to bypass restrictions where necessary so I can play poker when I can’t access the site directly.

PND: What hardships outside of poker might you run into during your yearlong journey?

Dale Philip: Language could certainly be a huge obstacle in some countries, as English is the only language that I speak, and I speak it with a Scottish accent. The closest I come to knowing another language is a tiny bit of Russian due to having a couple of Russian girlfriends in the past, but that’s not going to get me far in somewhere like Japan. I guess I will just have to get really good at acting out charades or get a translator app for my phone and just try to remind myself that although foreign languages make life difficult as a traveler, it’s also part of what makes the culture in these places so different.

In addition to having their own languages, countries also, annoyingly, have their own currencies. Changing physical cash at airports and banks would get quite time-consuming and expensive, as they always advertise “Commission Free” and then use their own rigged exchange rate that’s a mile away from the wholesale rate. But, I’ve already got my hands on a prepaid global currency MasterCard with a U.K. bank where I can load it up with Sterling and use it to purchase goods or withdraw from ATMs in any country without getting screwed over on the exchange rate. I’ve tried it out in the USA and Ireland so far and it’s been awesome. Another advantage is that if it gets stolen, it’s replaceable, not gone for good like a pile of money would be.

I reckon the chance that I can go on 52 plane journeys and have them not lose my baggage or cancel/delay my flights to the point of seriously disrupting my plans is quite low. I’ll just have to deal with that nonsense when it happens. I will also look at alternatives to flying between countries accessible by other means. For example, I had booked an ultra cheap one-hour flight from Malaysia to Singapore, but then someone told me that there is a five-hour train journey on a very comfortable modern train with a lot of jungle scenery, lots of little towns, kids waving at the train, etc., which is a really good way to see the country.

PND: How much of an estimated expenditure are you looking at? Will what you win along your journey help finance the trip?

Dale Philip: I’ll certainly want to make more money from poker in 2011 than I spend on this project, but I’m well equipped with comfortable poker and life bankrolls, so if I go on some outrageous downswing or can’t get enough hours of online play in due to poor internet connections, it won’t be a huge disaster.

I originally figured the flights and accommodation would cost around $100,000. I realize I could do it cheaper, but I just don’t stay in bad hotels. Then, there are the expenses of eating out or ordering room service for every single meal and going on tours or doing cool stuff that isn’t cheap.

I’m revising the costs downward a bit after having been offered to stay with some poker players I know from other countries. I’ll be staying with Joel Carr, who is a PokerStars Supernova, in his Thailand villa for a week in February. “Peru,” who people may know from the TwoPlusTwo forums, has offered to let me use his house in Peru as a base to travel to countries in South America.

I’ll also be doing about five weeks of my journey with U.K. poker pro Simon “Amatay” Jones, so we’ll split hotel room costs. In addition to saving money, it’s also great to be able to spend time with other interesting poker pros either in their homes or traveling around with them, which should make my experience and my blogs more interesting too.

The Tour of Cards should prove to be an interesting journey! Visit PokerStars to play with Philip and others.

Poker and the Trait Ascription Bias

I have a four-year-old boy and he has a lot of Legos.  They really are the perfect toy and it’s something we enjoy doing together.  When we’re done for the day, I’m happy if I can just get him to gather them all up into a single bin, but I’ll often spend a little extra time once he’s in bed sorting our thousands of Legos into compartments based on type and size of the piece.  Standard blocks go here, flat plates go there, and wheels and axles go there… But invariably, after sorting everything I can, I’m left with a big pile of what I call “other” pieces: oddly shaped blocks, widgets, and hybrids that don’t fit into any easily defined category.  I usually just dump the “other” pieces into a bin by themselves and call it a day.  But I’ll be damned if that “other” bin doesn’t taunt me every time I see it.  It drives me berserk that I can’t fit those pieces into some kind of easily distinguished category. One of the common themes in my articles and videos over at CardRunners is the human brain’s need to impose order on the universe.  We like looking for patterns in ...

Web Poker Series The Micros Debuts

On December 1st, CardRunners instructor John “JimmyLegs” Wray, in conjunction with DeucesCracked founder Jay Rosenkrantz, released the pilot episode of a web cartoon series called “The Micros,” which airs on YouTube.  After only a week, the episode had over 80,000 views and over a thousand subscribers, receiving acclaim on many poker forums.  The seven-minute pilot features three main characters – a noob in the world of online poker who’s made about $3.50 after 800,000 hands, a rock solid multi-tabling grinder who is too afraid to move up in stakes to make decent money, and an online maniac named “Balls” who actually turns out to be a girl.

The pilot sets up the premise of the show, as the main character, known as “SwedeTooth” online, uses his entire bankroll to play in the MegaMillions and takes down $1.2 million thanks to a one-outer on the river.   Since his action was chopped three ways, he and each of his two friends now are each sitting on $400,000.

We sat down with Wray to talk about how “The Micros” was developed.

Poker News Daily: How did the concept of “The Micros” come together?

John Wray: It sort of materialized out of thin air – something really only possible in the digital age.  I PMed Jay on TwoPlusTwo to let him know how much I admired the TV and film work he’d been involved in and linked him to some of the videos I’d done on the forums.  He knew who I was right away and mentioned that he’d been thinking about using cheap animation to tell an ongoing story about poker and, within a week, we were writing the script that became the pilot.

The actors are all friends I had known at UCLA Theater and “RonMexico” and “Eponymous” are brilliant satirists whose work has long graced the TwoPlusTwo forums.  The online poker community is full of intelligent, creative people scattered all over the globe and we wanted to harness that talent somehow.  It’s strange that none of us have ever even met face-to-face, but I think that will become more and more common as the Web takes over as the source of new media.

PND: How much time did it take to put the pilot episode together?

John Wray: I went back and found the first emails that Jay and I traded and they were dated early September, so it took just shy of three months.  But much of that time was spent discussing character.  If our story was going to have any kind of longevity, we knew we had to create compelling characters.  So, the first month or so was just working out who these three friends were and how they felt about each other and the game of poker.

PND: When is the next episode coming out and how many are you planning to produce?

John Wray: The next full episode is slated for January, but we hope to have a little somethin’ somethin’ out in time for the holidays.  As for how many we want to produce, that’s open-ended right now.  We love the world of “The Micros” and have a lot of stories we want to tell.  But even with technological shortcuts like Xtranormal, animation still takes a long time to produce.  So, we probably won’t be able to release more than one per month.

PND: Right now, you have over 1,000 subscribers and 80,000 views on YouTube. It seems like the word is out and people really love this show, right?

John Wray: Seems like it, yes.  We’re actually a little surprised that the reaction was as explosive as it was.  We thought it would take months to build up a fan base, but apparently there was a hunger for this kind of story and we stumbled right into it.

PND: With the incredible amounts of time it takes to create just one seven-minute episode, will the show eventually need a sponsorship to survive?

John Wray: Sure, eventually.  But Jay made a really great analogy on the TwoPlusTwo Pokercast the other night.  He explained that as filmmakers, we’re grinding the micros right now.  You have to put in the hours, pay your dues, and learn your craft.  It’s an investment of time and energy, but the hope is that at some point it will all pay off.

PND: I think we’re all dying to see when some poker celebrities will make their appearance on the show. Can you give us any spoilers in that department?

John Wray: Nope, sorry.  But I will say that from Day 1 we wanted to incorporate cameos of known poker personalities.  Bart Hanson is actually in the pilot for a microsecond as the voice of the “Blonde Guy” poker avatar.  But in the future, we want to have people actually playing themselves in a funny and satirical way.

PND: You’ve already had an outpouring of support and many people have contacted you to let you know they’d love to pitch in.  What has the positive feedback meant to you?

John Wray: It means everything in the world to us.  It might be hard for poker players to relate to since they see everything in terms of EV and edges worth tenths of a penny, but artists typically crave a positive audience response over the big bucks.  So, all of the comments, compliments, “+1″s, and emoticons refill our gas tank and send us back to work with a smile on our faces.

December 19th – Weekly Update

Welcome back to the Poker News Daily Weekly update where we highlight the biggest stories in the world of poker. I’m your host, Sean Gibson, and let’s get to the news.

Well, It’s shaping up to be an interesting last few days of the current Congressional session for members of the online poker community. On Tuesday, Politico published an article revealing that U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid was attempting to add a bill legalizing online poker to the measure extending tax cuts.

Politico confirmed Reid’s desires with Senator Orrin Hatch. Senator Jon Kyl, one of the masterminds of the original UIGEA, would not allow the plan to come to fruition. Kyl told Politico,

“[There is] zero chance – no chance whatsoever that would be part of the tax deal. I don’t think it would be the right thing to do.”

We’ll keep you posted on this constantly changing story.

Nearly leading the tournament wire-to-wire, Antonio Esfandiari took down the Five Diamond World Poker Classic, a stop on the World Poker Tour. Esfandiari, a Victory Poker pro, banked eight hundred seventy thousand dollars for his efforts. The tournament can be seen as part of Season Nine of the WPT on Fox Sports Net next year.

Esfandiari edged out fellow Victory Poker pro Andrew Robl heads-up when “The Magician’s” King Jack held against Robl’s Queen Ten on the final hand. Here’s how the final group of six cashed out in the ten thousand dollar buy-in tournament:

1. Antonio Esfandiari – $870,124
2. Andrew “good2cu” Robl – $549,003
3. Vanessa Rousso – $358,964
4. John Racener – $232,271
5. Kirk Morrison – $168,924
6. Ted Lawson – $126,693

Earlier this week, PokerStars took the unexpected step of signing Isildur1. The Swede gained fame by multi-tabling against the world’s best players including Phil Ivey, Patrik Antonius, and Tom Dwan. The signing is atypical for PokerStars, which usually aims to ink established pros who have had a ton of television face time. This time around, they’ve gone with a player without an identity who has yet to play on TV.

As part of his sponsorship deal, Isildur1 will be taking part in high-stakes heads-up SuperStar Showdown matches exclusively played at PokerStars. These matches are feature a format of twenty five hundred hands at stakes no lower than fifty, one hundred. The official word from PokerStars is that these SuperStar Showdown matches will be played either as No Limit Hold’em or Pot Limit Omaha.

Poker News Daily polled the online poker industry to see what reaction several pros had to Isildur1’s signing. CardRunners founder Taylor Caby had this to say:

“I’m definitely excited to see Isildur1 back in the spotlight. As a poker fan, I’ve enjoyed watching him play and I’ll be on the rail when he starts playing again.”

Jay Rosenkrantz, founder of DeucesCracked said:

“Seems like a good move for PokerStars, creating a bit of a distraction too amidst all these legislative happenings. Watching Isildur1 play nosebleeds was better entertainment than anything on television and if they can create that kind of spectacle again, I’m sure it will be a good thing for their business and for poker.”

Unleashed Poker is handing out presents to all of its players this holiday season. Players on the site will have the opportunity to earn numerous prizes as part of Unleashed Poker’s Christmas Giveaways. From now until December Twenty-First, players can pick up exclusive Unleashed Poker swag along with high-end electronics. For those partial to Apple products, iPod Shuffles, iPod Touches, and iPads will be given away.

Players on the virtual felts at Unleashed Poker will earn Frequent Player Points, which can be used for the Christmas Giveaway prizes. Unleashed Poker will give out one FPP for each dollar raked at the tables and every prize has an associated FPP level. Unleashed Poker makes its home on the USA-friendly Cake Poker Network.

Actress Cheryl Hines of “Curb Your Enthusiasm” and former World Series of Poker Main Event champ Joe Cada will host the third annual All In For Cerebral Palsy celebrity charity poker tournament at the Venetian’s poker room on Saturday. Proceeds from the event will benefit the One Step Closer Foundation, a non-profit organization whose main goal is to ease the lives of those who suffer from cerebral palsy through financial freedom and social acceptance.

The No Limit Hold’em charity tournament will have a five hundred forty dollar buy-in with unlimited two hundred dollar rebuys for ninety minutes. Half of the prize pool will go for the tournament’s payouts, with the other half going to the foundation. There will also be sports and Hollywood memorabilia available through auctions and an after-party with free drinks courtesy of the One Step Closer Foundation. Players can register at the Venetian Poker Room cage until the end of the rebuy period.

Finally, Full Tilt Poker released a software update on Monday that addressed many of its customers’ requests. Among the new features to the software were an “Auto Add-On” button for rebuys and a “Quick Fold to Any Bet” option for Rush Poker players.

The “Auto Add-On” button was probably the most asked-for feature that Full Tilt’s software was missing up until this latest upgrade. After PokerStars inserted a clickable “Auto Add-On” box for its rebuy tournaments in June of last year, Full Tilt players requested the same. It took well over a year, but the site came through for its multi-tablers who were frustrated about forgetting to add on after the rebuy hour. Full Tilt happily accepts players from the United States.

Well, that does it for a very busy and exciting week in the world of poker. Be sure to stay tuned in to Poker News Daily for the absolute latest in poker news and be sure to follow us at twitter dot com slash poker news daily. I’m Sean Gibson, thanking you for watching and wishing you a sick run this weekend at the tables!