Dublin Named European Poker Capital of the Year.
September 11, 2008
Bluff Magazine Awards Poker Award to Ireland’s Capital.
In an announcement made earlier today by Bluff Magazine, it looks as if Dublin, Ireland, can add a little more to its country’s namesake besides green beer and St. Patrick’s Day.
The capital city of Ireland was honored by the famed poker media publication as the European Poker Capital of the Year, avenging last year’s finish when they ended up in 2nd place behind London, England.
“Last year, in recognition of the inaugural WSOPE and the general health of its burgeoning poker scene, we chose London as the place to be. This induced a lot of snickering from across the Irish Sea, where they’re rightfully very protective of their fantastic poker scene,” said Philip Conneller, Editor of Bluff Europe in their press release. “But this year there was really only one candidate.”
Dublin has long been seen as one of the premier global hotspots for poker. The annual Irish Poker Open is hands-down one of the most popular tournaments of the year, and the series caters to players with small and big bankrolls. The city itself also has a lot of cardrooms and rising casinos in the area, so there’s never a dull moment if you’re a gambler in Ireland.
This was a huge honor for Dublin, and they hope to only improve upon their reputation as a poker powerhouse by adding more tournaments and increasing their presence in the world of gambling in 2009 and beyond.
PokerStars EPT Barcelona Kicks Off Today!
September 10, 2008
European Poker Tour Makes Stop in Spain.
The long-anticipated European Poker Tour Barcelona got underway today at the beautiful Casino Barcelona. The stop in Spain has been one of the more popular EPT events that PokerStars hosts, and it definitely attracted some of the very best poker players - online and live - from around the globe.
Each of the entrants who plunked down the $12k+ buyin would get a nice starting stack of 10,000 tournament chips. However, the deep-stack style format of the tourney wouldn’t stop the players from throwing around their chips around early and often, much like a progressive poker bonus whore playing online poker (lol). Before dinner break hit, more than half the starting field of 292 played down to just 112 alone!
Sitting atop the top 10 in chips were Team PokerStars members Chad Brown and 2007 PCA winner Isaac Haxton. Day 2 is slated for an early start tomorrow, and we’ll definitely be monitoring the action as it gets down to the final table. Here is a breakdown of the leaders heading into Day 2 action:
1 Michael Murra 85,000
2 Ramzi Jelassi 70,000
3 Andre Akkari 63,400
4 Michael Keiner 62,000
5 Jesper Hougaard 58,000
6 Jason Mercier 47,500
7 Daniel Mangas 41,000
8 Chad Brown 33,800
9 Isaac Haxton 32,500
10 Robert Mizrachi 28,100
Asian Poker Tour Signs On Three Big Guns.
September 9, 2008
APT Signs Tran, Do, and Le.
It was announced today that the ever-growing Asian Poker Tour signed on three tournament giants as a part of their ambassador team.
Nam Le, Quinn Do, and JC Tran all received the good news during their recent stop for the Asia Pacific Poker Tour in Macau . Each of the players will represent the APT in future tournaments, mainly to promote the brand itself and to act as goodwill ambassadors for their brand.
The popular poker tour has recently expanded their bases in Asia, and are truly hoping to make a bigger name for themselves as one of the up-and-coming tournament providers in the area.
Nam Le expressed a lot of excitement over his recent signing. “I’m truly delighted to have won and so happy to have got my deal with the APT off to the best possible start…and I’m looking forward to representing the Tour around the world.” It couldn’t have come at a greater time for Le, given that it was also his birthday today!
All three of these players have a lot of years under their belt as tournament specialists and have eclipsed the $7,000,000+ amount in prize money earned. J.C. Tran is also a big online player and even took down his first WSOP bracelet earlier this year. This trio undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with.
California Native Eddie Sabat Takes Down APPT Macua.
September 7, 2008
American Qualifier Wins 2008 APPT Macau Main Event.
Eddie Sabat would head into the final table of the Asia Pacific Poker Tour in Macau with hopes of taking home the esteemed title of APPT champ and of course the $450k+ first place price. However, standing in the way of that was chip leader Bryan Huang, who had a slim edge over Sabat at the beginning of the final play.
After a few hours under the bright lights of PokerStars film crews, who were airing live coverage on their .tv portion of their website, play started settling in nicely and the final table would have its first couple of bustouts. Macau resident Kuok Cheong was one of the remaining players that would unfortunately hit the rail early, much to the chagrin of the hometown crowd. His 6th place finish was very strong considering he entered the final table on the low end of the chip spectrum.
After a few more dozen hands and a couple more eliminations, the spotlight was once again back on the initial final table chip leaders - Bryan Huang and Eddie Sabat. Huang had entered 3-handed play with more than 60% of the chips in play, yet after some ill-timed moves and bad calls, he found himself bleeding chips and would end up running a weak Ace into the AK of Eddie Sabat, ending his APPT hopes with a disappointing 3rd place finish.
Heads-up play would go back and forth with the American Eddie Sabat and his counterpart Charles Chua. After a few more hands saw Sabat’s stack increase to nearly 4-to-1 over Chua, it seemed Sabat was in grasp of the APPT title. On a flop of Q 6 6 (2 diamonds), all the chips got in with Sabat holding a flush draw with K J of diamonds and Chua holding top pair with Q 3 offsuit. The Ace on the turn offered no help to Eddie, but the 2 of diamonds on the river made his King-high flush and the tournament and money was his!
Eddie Sabat is a native from California and takes home $450k and change for his 1st place finish. Charles Chua of Singapore would take home a little over $291k for his 2nd place efforts.
APPT Macau Main Event Heads Into Day 2.
September 5, 2008
The newly-formed Asia Pacific Poker Tour is heading into Day 2 action of the APPT Macau Main Event, which is currently being held at the Grand Waldo Hotel and Casino in Macau.
The Main Event finale started with 538 players all shooting for the 1st-place prize of $1.6 million USD. After Day 1, only 208 players would be making it through to the next day.
It was one filled with quick bustouts, furious all-ins, and big action from the best of poker’s elite. Some of the players who were sent to the rail early included Barry Greenstein, JC Tran, and John Phan.
Heading into Day 2 play, Andre Wagner will take his top chip stack of $109k into a field that still has Quinn Do and Men “the Master” Nguye.
Dennis Phillips of the November Nine Hires Poker Coach.
September 3, 2008
Roy Winston Hired by Dennis Phillips for Poker Tutoring
Dennis Phillips, the current chip leader of the 2008 WSOP Main Event final table (which is currently on a four-month hiatus), has become the first person of the November Nine to do something a lot of people expected - hire a poker coach.
Phillips had made the official announcement earlier in the week that he will be tutored and coached by 2007 Borgata Poker Open winner Roy Winston. Winston brings a plethora of poker tournament experience to the table, and with his partner Joe McGowan, they believe they can catapult the skills of Phillips ten-fold. Both Winston and McGowan are coaches for Oracle Poker Consulting, a very well-known poker coaching business.
“Dennis’s play so far has been extraordinary. My partner Joe McGowan and I are going to help with his preparation for the challenges he will face not only at the final table, but on the way there,” said Winston. “This is a unique experience to have weeks to prepare before play and we want Dennis to have every opportunity and will be there with him along the way.”
The $200 satellite entry that Dennis Phillips earned en route to his WSOP Main Event appearance has skyrocketed him in to the public limelight. So with a huge edge in chips, it’s really no wonder he has made every effort possible to ensure he takes down his remaining 8 opponents.
Many poker enthusiasts and players have already mentioned that the only downside to the four-month layoff for this final table was that it did give ALL the players time to fine-tune their games before meeting with one another for the live telecast on ESPN on November 11th. The edge favors none of the players though, as they will not be able to feed off the same type of momentum they had when they originally made the final 9 earlier this summer, which as most players will tell you is one of those “essential” things you want to have when going into the final table.
It is not known how much Phillips has paid Oracle Poker Consulting for their services, but he’s hoping it pays off to the tune of $9.1 million dollars that 1st place gets!
Yevgeniy Timoshenko Wins 2008 APT Macau!
September 2, 2008
Yevgeniy Timoshenko is the newest online poker phenom to break out on the live tournament poker scene! The name may be long and confusing to pronounce, but this internet baller is no stranger to the felt.
Playing under the name BBaller88 on PokerStars, the 20-year old Timoshenko made his way to the Galaxy Starworld Casino in Macau with one thing on his mind - WINNING.
The $5,3o0 buy-in for this Asian Poker Tour event would be ponied up by poker icons such as Doyle and Todd Brunson, Johnny Chan, and J.C. Tran - making victory seem nearly impossible when you’re just a young u-and-comer.
The pressure didn’t seem to bother Timoshenko, as he shredded through the competition with relative ease en route to a final table that featured well-known U.S. player Kasey Castle. The 257-person field was wittled down to just nine, and television crews began taping the finale in preparation for its broadcast in the coming months.
Action started fast and ended in just the same manner. Kastle would end up going out in 4th, with little-known player Robert Karian finishing in 3rd place. The heads-up final would see Timoshenko and South Korea’s Joon Hee Yeah play it out for the $500k firs-place prize.
After just a few hands, Timoshenko would close the deal on his opponent, sending Hee Yeah home with $250k in prize money and a disappointing 2nd place fnish under his belt.
“There were points in the tournament where I definitely ran good but I have to give respect to runner-up Joon Hee Yeah. He was the last person I wanted to take on heads-up,” said Timoshenko.
“I’m ecstatic to have finally won a main event,” said Timoshenko. “I will use the winnings to strengthen my bankroll but I haven’t decided about my future as yet. I have plans to go to business school in 2009.”
PokerStars Sunday Million-and-a-Half Has HUGE Labor Day Overlay.
September 1, 2008
The PokerStars Sunday Million (and-a-half now) saw something it hadn’t seen in a very, very long time.
*Gasp* An OVERLAY!
Well, not without good reason at least. With Labor Day weekend hitting in full-force, it was a time where a lot of Americans were taking advantage of the national 3-day holiday. Since many citizens were busy traveling or kicking back, it wasn’t a big time for online poker rooms.
PokerStars was no different.
Sunday’s $215 buy-in tournament may have eclipsed 7,000 players, but it still created an overlay of $57,600. This was good news for a lot of the players who were used to a slightly bigger field and increased the payouts for people making the money.
The final table took a little over 8+ hours to reach, with the final nine listed below (chip counts listed as well):
Seat 1: krs528 (5,438,648)
Seat 2: Bury2k4 (3,787,382)
Seat 3: TheRodGuy (14,440,256)
Seat 4: FlopeDeNuts (7,680,933)
Seat 5: diegoaiz (14,567,593)
Seat 6: IamUnlucky (10,497,102)
Seat 7: CodeRedRulez (6,431,828 )
Seat 8: UnbrokeN (5,711,064)
Seat 9: c j mcon (3,565,194)
In the end, the action was fast and the chips were starting to fly a bit. When play left only 3 players -all three agreed to a simple chop of the remaining prize money. These were the final chop figures:
TheRodGuy: $127,912.72
diegoaiz: $118,849.49
FlopeDeNuts: $116,687.79
When play resumed FlopDeNuts ran his pocket 9’s into the pocket 10’s of diegoaiz and was quickly eliminated in 3rd place. The heads-up battle that ensued at the world largest poker site would become one of the longer ones in recent Sunday Million history. However, after a few-dozen hands of play at $1.25M/$2.5M blinds, TheRodGuy put his entire tournament on pair of 4’s (J 4) - much to his dismay after he was called by the top pair Tens (T 9) of “diegoaiz” after all the money got in on a T 4 2 flop.
The turn and river would brick out, giving “diegoaiz” the Sunday Million title and the additional $30,000 in leftover money that the remaining two players were battling for!
