2008 World Series of Poker Europe Schedule Released By Harrahs.
March 19, 2008
Harrah’s Entertainment finally unveiled the 2008 World Series of Poker Europe schedule this week. The WSOPE was a huge success last year, with online superstar Annette “annette_15″ Obrestad taking down first place for over $2,000,000. Obrestad, still not even old enough to gamble in the U.S., is the youngest player to win a bracelet and took down pros like Doyle Brunson en route to her title last year.
The event should bring in another healthy amount of players and other online qualifiers, just like its inaugural tournament in 2007. This year’s World Series of Poker Europe will start on September 19th and run through October 1st, and will be taking place at the same 3 casinos as it was held last year - St. James (Fifty), Leicester Square (The Casino at the Empire) and Marble Arch (Sportsman).
BetFair Poker will also be returning as the title sponsor of the event.
“Last year produced a fantastic tournament which exceeded all expectations,” said David Yu, CEO, Betfair, also noting that online qualifiers for WSOPE have begun on the site.
Dan Harrington and Two Plus Two Releasing New -Harrington on Cash Games- Series.
March 18, 2008
Dan Harrington, author of the world-famous Harrington on Hold Em book series, is collaborating with Two plus Two Publishing and unveiling his newest work:
Harrington on Cash Games.
The former WSOP Main Event champion and tournament expert recently came onto the forums at 2+2 to answer questions about his new book and release dates. It looks as if Mason Malmuth has been hard at work finishing the book up for print - and the first batch actually heads out this week. Below is a partial description from the synopsis on Harrington’s new book.
“In Harrington on Cash Games: Volume I, Dan Harrington teaches you the key concepts that drive deep-stack cash game play. You ll learn how to tailor your selection of starting hands to your stack size, how to recognize the increasing deception value of supposedly weaker hands as the stack sizes increase, and how to use the concept of pot commitment to your advantage as the size of the pot grows.”
If this book is anything like his first series, which covers tournaments at the beginner-level all the way to advanced, then poker players will be more than satisfied with this cash game series. I’m very excited to get a copy of this shipped to me myself….
Big Sunday Online Poker Tournament Recap - Week of 03-16-08.
March 17, 2008
Bodog $100,000 Guarantee (03/16/2008)
Bodog has always seen a regular shortage of players for their weekly $100k Guaranteed tournament. This past Sunday was no exception. Only 720 players entered, with 63 players finishing in the money.
The Final Table Results:
ATM4Life - $25,000
farhamyhero - $14,300
thedude81 - $9,200
Varmkorv - $6,900
TLWatts86 - $5,500
zdepew2000 - $4,500
uxa567 - $3,500
YoungGun7 - $2,500
NYStyle King - $1,600
PokerStars Sunday Million (03/16/2008)
PokerStars had yet another great turnout for the world’s biggest guaranteed money tournament. Nearly 7,400 people showed up to contend for the $200k+ first place prize. 1,080 entrants would finish in the money.
In the end, NO deals were made.
Final Table Results:
C00LHandNuke - $208,511
Shark’Le - $104,995
RaSZi - $73,940
Vorcirion - $59,152
LennyL - $44,364
idlehours - $32,534
pusteblume - $22,921
FrgzAnonymus - $13,309
debrisfish - $8,725
Full Tilt $750,000 Guarantee (03/16/2008)
This past Sunday’s Full Tilt $1,000,000 Guarantee had a HUGE number of entrants. 2,245 players entered the tournament, creating a prize pool of $1,122,500. No chops went down thankfully, and Plotinus took home the big prize of $205k for his efforts!
Final Table Results Are:
Plotinus - $205,923
IWEARGOGGLES - $126,394
Lina Love - $82,728
LagTart - $66,003
6speed - $49,951
SemiEvil - $35,920
SkaDoodle - $26,379
Mr Perfekt - $20,654
Drew843 - $15,715
UltimateBet $200,000 Guarantee (03/16/2008)
Ultimate Bet, still reeling a bit from last week’s surprising news that a high-limit player may have been scamming their systems, had a decent turnout for their $200k Guaranteed tournament. 918 people showed, with $200,000 being paid out to 100 places.
Final Table Results:
Ace10Clubz - $45,000
BoooooooM - $26,500
scottythefish - $18,000
gray99 - $13,100
hixx - $10,500
broodogg - $8,500
panamatony - $6,500
bootswild - $4,500
gunnerbruce23 - $3,400
udel2011 - $2,000
2008 EPT Warsaw Won By Michael Schulze.
March 16, 2008
The 2008 European Poker Tour - EPT - Warsaw event concluded this past weekend with an unlikely winner taking home the first place prize of € 609,782.
In fact, the person who did end up taking down the event didn’t even think he would make it past Day 1! Michael Schulze, a PokerStars qualifier who is used to playing poker online for play money, was so confident he wouldn’t make it past the first few hours that he actually rebooked his flight home every day during the tournament. Little did he know just how far his luck - and skill of course - would take him.
Schulze made it look easy at the final table, calmly picking his spots and slowly eliminating his competition around him. Then, after more than 10 hours of final table play, he beat his heads-up opponent Ricardo Sousa. His A 6 beat out Sousa’s pocket 7’s on the last hand to give the German native the EPT crown.
The EPT Warsaw is the 4th event of the European Poker Tour season - for more information on how you can qualify yourself please visit PokerStars today (there’s a 100% first-time deposit bonus in it for ya too).
60 Minutes to Feature Absolute Poker Scandal?
March 16, 2008
In news that was broken a few days ago on his blog, online poker player and former owner of the PokerDB.com NATAREM posted that the television news show 60 Minutes has contacted him about possibly doing a story on the Absolute Poker scandal that was exposed a few months ago. it is unclear whether it is actually going to happen, but speculation around the internet has been running rampant as of late about the story.
Here’s an excerpt of his post, which can be read in its entirety by clicking here:
“I’ve been holding off on telling people about this because the 60 Minutes producer prefers that it be kept under wraps for the time being, but it appears that some other poker news sources are jumping at the opportunity to break this story. I don’t think I can reasonably sit on this any longer. Therefore, I am going to go ahead and just let the information out of the bag.
A few weeks ago, I was contacted by 60 Minutes in conjunction with a reporter from the Washington Post regarding a story about the Absolute Poker scandal from last fall. I was told that they wanted Adanthar and myself for on-camera interviews with Steve Kroft. I later found out they were also interested in interviewing Michael Josem and Marco Johnson. Basically, I spent a little while on the phone with the producer and the Washington Post reporter and recapped the whole story as well as I could from memory. I talked about my involvement and contribution, along with all the other people who were involved.”
If Nat does indeed go through with the interview, it could paint a very dark and grim portrayal of online poker in general. More to come on this breaking news soon….at least we all hope.
Brandon Cantu Wins 2008 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event.
March 15, 2008
The young online player, who has also made a big splash in many live events, took the chip lead on Day 1 of the 2008 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star Main Event and never relinquished it. It was an amazing ride for Brandon (picture, left - courtesy of CardPlayer), as he literally was mowing down his competition from the first hour he was on the felt.
And to top that off, Brandon Cantu also scored $40k in bounties (hence the name “Shooting Stars”), an entry into the season-ending WPT Championship, and of course the $1,000,000 first place prize!
The young pro took on a very eclectic and established mix of pros at the TV final table. But by the end of the night, even cash game legend Jennifer Harman-Traniello and tournament specialist John Phan couldn’t stop the force that was Brandon Cantu.
On the final hand of heads-up play, Brandon Cantu called the last-ditched all-in from his opponent Steve Sung. Cantu turned over pocket 4’s - while Sung turned over pocket 3’s. After the flop, turn, and river bricked out, Brandon Cantu had pocketed a cool million bucks and became the newest owner of a WPT-sanctioned championship! Congrats man.
“I Bet You” Wraps Up 2nd Season; New Episodes To Air Soon on MOJO HD.
March 14, 2008
The popular reality series “I Bet You” - which was created by poker superstars Antonio Esfandiari and Phil Laak - has just wrapped up filming its second season for the television channel MOJO HD.
For those unfamiliar with the concept of the show, it’s basically about long-time best friends Laak and Esfandiari going around the nation to different locales and performing different prop bets against one another. There’s a lot of fun and excitement about the show, mainly because who wouldn’t enjoy two grown men literally tossing around thousands of dollars trying to perform crazy and outrageous acts just in the name of GOOD TELEVISION?!
In this upcoming season of “I Bet You,” which airs April 10th, Phil and Antonio will visit places like Miami, LA, and of course Las Vegas, in an attempt to completely out-do themselves [and other random participants] in terms of prop bets. They will also bring along guest stars and players like Shannon Elizabeth and Laak’s current girlfriend Jennifer Tilly for the ride….so it should definitely be interesting to say the least, right?
Rumored prop bets for the 2nd season of the show include a $20k coin flip and a ballet contest. O RLY?
“The Grand” Promises to Bring A New Twist on Poker Movies.
March 13, 2008
Just saw this trailer floating around on IMDB and thought I would share it with the PO faithful.
The movie is called “The Grand” and stars a lot of very well-known actors and actresses.
It’s definitely no “Rounders,” but what “The Grand” brings is genuine hilarity and a fun little twist on the game of poker and the many different characters it entails.
With a lineup starring the likes of Woody Harrelson, Shannon Elizabeth, and Ray Romano - as well as a slew of poker stars such as Doyle Brunson and Antonio Esfandiari - it promises to showcase a funny spoof on poker itself.
It’s offers a VERY fresh perspective on an otherwise VERY classic game….lol.
Enough talking, here’s the trailer >> “The Grand” Movie
Follow-Up: Governor Eliot Spitzer Resigns; Online Gamblers Grin Accordingly.
March 12, 2008
Online Gamblers and Poker Players had a very big, collective grin on their faces Wednesday.
Why you ask? Well if you’ve been paying attention to CNN and just about every other news station out there then you probably noticed that New York Governor Eliot Spitzer (and anti-online gambling advocate) officially resigned from his post early this morning. With his wife by his side, the staunch Democrat made a public statement apologizing for his actions and announced that he will be leaving his position on Monday.
According to CNN, “Federal agents determined New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer used a high-priced call-girl ring at least eight times in recent months, and agents had him under surveillance twice this year, sources familiar with the investigation said Wednesday. “
It is unclear whether Spitzer will be charged with any crimes, although it’s not within the realm of possibility that he may have an investigation opened against him - and possibly face impeachment charges from the state.
Anti-Online Gambling Crusader Eliot Spitzer Involved In Federal Prostitution Sting in NYC!
March 11, 2008
Well apparently the Governor of New York must’ve missed the moral memo (great alliteration, huh?) that going behind your wife’s back to sleep with a prostitute is probably a little bit worse than going behind your wife’s back to sneak in a game of online poker every now and again….
Oh poor Eliot Spitzer.
Once the most powerful man in New York, the outspoken Governor - and anti-online gambling crusader - has taken a huge fall from grace. And this may be one he may never recover from….
Spitzer was the target of a federal prostitution ring in which he was discovered to have paid thousands of dollars to high-class escorts, secretly moving around cash from his own personal accounts to fund his sexual endeavors. Red flags were thrown up by his financial institution, and that’s what led to the eventual sting operation.
It is not known if Eliot Spitzer will resign from his position as Governor, but it is clear he will be under much public pressure scrutiny from his fellow Democrats and voters to step down. More on this story will be posted as it develops.
