At least $1 million is guaranteed for the champ despite the buy-in remaining the same as always at $215.
Players can as usual buy a seat in the event with FPPs or through a variety of satellites from as low as $1.
A special 1,000-seat guaranteed satellite has also been added to run on the 11th before the Sunday Million kicks off.
Feeder satellites for that event also start from only $1. To buy-in directly to the Sunday Million or find a satellite, check the PokerStars lobby under Tourney>>Special.
Last year's fifth anniversary Sunday Million likewise offered a $5 million guarantee plus a Lamborghini Gallardo.
The event smashed its guaranteed with a massive 59,128 players and an $11,825,600 prize pool.
Luke "Bdbeatslayer" Vrabel took home the top prize of $671,093.81 plus the Lamborghini.
To sign up for a PokerStars with our exclusive bonus code, check our PokerStars review page.
Eastgate is one of the winningest poker players of all-time but famously announced an early retirement from the game in 2010.
“I was fed up with the game and I didn’t feel like playing anymore,” he said.
“I had a 10 month hiatus where I didn't play poker and then I felt the lust to play poker again because I still enjoy the game and there are still a lot of challenges to the game.”
The Danish pro, who now lives in London, won the Main Event for $9.1 million became a key member of Team PokerStars Pro and went on to win a notable side event at the PCA for $343k and then place second in the 2009 edition of EPT London for $843k.
Eastgate also put in an impressive title defense that him outlast 6,416 players to finish 78th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event. He’s now earned nearly $11 million in live tournaments.
The new contract with Betfair will not change his approach to the game.
“My mission is always to win and have fun at the poker table,” he said.
Eastgate also has some experience on Betfair as he played the $250/$500 No-Limit Hold’em games on the site in 2008.
“The swings were obviously enormous,” he said.
Betfair Poker also added fellow Danish pro Stefan Raffay to their team this week. The former Danish Championships winner has over $500k in lifetime earnings and will attempt to surpass that number this year.
Expect to see Eastgate and Raffay at the 2012 WSOP Main Event wearing Betfair Poker patches.
Of the 216 players to buy-in today, 131 held on to enough chips to make it to Day 2 with Wissing and Bjerkmann standing out for their solid play and healthy stacks.
Wissing, a hometown Copenhagen pro with just under $700k in lifetime cashes, quietly built his stack away from the media spotlight and bagged up 127,575 for the Day 1b lead.
Bjerkmann, a young Norwegian pro and rising star who goes by p3rc4 online, put his table on its heels immediately with his aggression and racked up 100,925 chips of his own to sit sixth for the day.
Sandwiched in between the vet and the rising star in the top five are Sebastian Rust (119,100), Alexander Manson (113,025), Costin Fucea (107,000) and Finnish pro Juha Helppi (105,425).
Despite their successful days, they’ll all start well back of overall chip leader Steve O’Dwyer, who crushed Day 1a yesterday for a 190k chip stack.
Lodden in, Blom OutJoining the leaders on Day 2 tomorrow at Casino Copenhagen will be a number of notable pros who picked Day 1b as their starting day.
Chief among them is PokerStars pro and online poker godfather Johnny Lodden, who ended the day with a solid 77,400 in chips.
Also bagging up chips on Day 1b were Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen (57,075) Theo Jorgensen (55,450), Luca Pagano (44,225), 2011 WSOP Main Event runner-up Martin Staszko (23,875) and Will Molson (11,225).
Viktor “Isildur1” Blom wasn’t so lucky as he busted out in the middle of the day when his opponent's straight draw hit on the river..
Joining Blom on the rail were Jens “Jeans89” Kyllonen, Jude Ainsworth, Peter Jepsen, Jesper Hougaard, William Thorson and Martin Jacobson.
With registration now closed, the official prize pool was also announced (below):
1. DKK 2,515,000 (€338,223) 2. DKK 1,600,000 3. DKK 1,000,000 4. DKK 740,000 5. DKK 490,000 6. DKK 390,000 7. DKK 290,000 8. DKK 191,400 9-10. DKK 140,000 11-12. DKK 110,000 13-14. DKK 90,000 15-16. DKK 75,000 17-24. DKK 70,000 25-32. DKK 65,000 33-40. DKK 60,000 41-48. DKK 55,000 (€7,396)
Day 2 action will begin at noon tomorrow from Casino Copenhagen; follow the live updates on the PokerStars blog.
Any suggestions for a future 3-Bet, feel free to drop a note in the comments.
Today in the 3-Bet we find Doyle Brunson standing by his FTP friends, the Tapie Group sticking to its plans for the stadium poker tour and a "riot" almost breaking out at the WSOPC in Palm Beach.
1) Doyle Shifts Blame to Bitar, Says FTP Pals Still PalsWe know how Daniel Negreanu, Matt Glantz and thousands more in the poker community feel about what Full Tilt did.
Now we know how poker legend Doyle Brunson feels – and it might surprise you.
In his latest blog post, Brunson gives his thoughts on the FTP debacle (as he understands it) and essentially says it’s Ray Bitar and the CFO who are the real guilty parties.
Has a friend in Doyle.Two important excerpts:
“I've been in contact with Lederer the last few months. When someone I've known for years, trusted and respected looks me dead in the eye and says he didn't know about the financial problems, call me a big old Texas sucker because I will believe them.
“I have not talked to Ferguson but I understand he says what Lederer told me, that they didn't know.
“There are at least 4 stockholders that own more of FT than Lederer. Where were they? The guilt should be shared IF its true Lederer and Ferguson didn't know of the financial mess”
And:
“As far as I know, every member and stockholder of FT was my friend before Black Friday.
“Despite all the terrible mistakes and mismanagement I know the intent to defraud wasn't part of their plan. Despite a LAW suit against FT by a major stockholder that killed potential sales, despite the fact they tried to salvage their company by continuing to operate outside the US, they are the same faces as before.
“I don't want to take a baseball bat and crush their grapes and I don't want to keep them from rejoining the poker world. Where do you stop the level of responsibility?
“I don't know, I only know all of the FT people were my friends and they still are."
Needless to say, it hasn't been received well by the 2+2 crowd. More debate here.
2) Tapie Says ISPT Still a Go, More Stops PlannedWhen the video and website surfaced last year for the soon-to-be-launched International Stadiums Poker Tour (ISPT), no one was quite knew what to make of it.
Backed by the Bernard Tapie Groupe and appearing around the time of the first takeover talks, it seemed almost too good to be true.
Laurent Tapie: Stands by his plan.With 30,000 participants, a €30 million prize pool and Wembley Stadium the setting, it looked amazing – as did the ad for it.
According to the ISPT website, that guarantee is now down to €20 million but it still looks set to go with its split online/live format at Wembley this September.
"Wembley Stadium is already booked," Laurent Tapie told eGaming Review, "and we just need to get our licence before getting a date for it - if we can do things quickly we can launch in September this year, or alternatively we can hold the first event in April 2013. We'll decide which by the end of February."
Tapie also said they will add a second event in Paris or Monaco for early 2013 and if the FTP takeover is completed by then they'll use the Full Tilt software for the events.
Revisit the concept and the scintillating ad here.
3) $1 Million Guarantee at Kennel Club Almost Incites "Riot"The WSOP and the Palm Beach Kennel Club were hoping the $1 million guarantee, $500 buy-in opening event they dreamed up for the latest WSOPC stop would drum up some attention.
It definitely did. With 2,607 entrants it set a record for the largest poker tournament ever held in Florida and second-biggest turnout in WSOPC history.
First scalpers, then chaos.It came at a small price though.
According to Nick Sortal of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, players lined up as early as 4 a.m. on Saturday for a spot in the 11 a.m tournament.
Because of the intense demand, things got heated as players argued over spots in line.
Scalpers even started selling the $555 entry tickets for as much as $2,000.
Eventually police had to be called in to calm things down.
"It was the closest thing to a riot in poker as has ever happened," WSOP media rep Nolan Dalla told Sortal.
Once the tension subsided the tournament went on as scheduled and Anh Lu, a 50-year-old nail technician from Bradenton, won the $182,750 first-place payout.
Details on the event and the rest of the WSOPC schedule (it runs until Feb. 27) at the Palm Beach Kennel Club here.
The Finnish poker pro has been one of the consistent high stakes players in the New Year and he’s now up to over half a million in profit.
Last night Wahlbeck turned his attention to the $100/$200 6-Max PLO games on PokerStars and gave opponents Gavin “gavz101” Cochrane, Ronny “1-ronnyr3” Kaiser, Benny “toweliestar” Spindler and Davin “mTw-Davin” Georgi fits.
In 1,173 hands, Wahlbeck rolled to a $198k victory.
Wahlbeck tends to fly under the radar, especially compared to fellow Finn Ilari Sahamies, but he famously made four final tables, winning one of them, at the 2009 WSOP.
Amazingly every final table that Wahlbeck made was a $10,000 or higher buy-in championship event.
Wahlbeck wasn’t the only player to continue his winning ways last night as hot hand Rafi “refaelamit” Amit added another $169k to his already considerable profit in 2012. Amit is up to over $500k this year.
LuckyGump (+$130k), Tsubi87 (+$100k) and Ben86 (+$75k) also recorded nice scores.
Meanwhile mTw-Davin was the night’s biggest loser. The former professional Warcraft 3 player dropped $184k in 4,870 hands. mTw-Davin is off to a rocky start this year with over $250k in losses.
Gavin Cochrane, who’s been hot lately, apparently had variance catch up as he lost $127k last night.
Some of the other notable losers from last night included Zypherin (-$126k), toweliestar (-$112k) and 1-ronnyr3 (-$72k).
For more information be sure to check our online poker stats section. Here’s a look at a couple of the biggest hands from last night:
Major improvements include a new horizontal tab system in the lobby, reduced load times when launching lobbies and tables, plus faster decision response when playing on up to 12 tables.
And the graphics have not only been made more intuitive, they’ve also become more intelligent.
According to Cake Poker the software will automatically optimize itself to your system, one of the biggest reasons you can expect a faster gaming experience than ever before.
You’ll now see Real Money and Play Money tabs arranged horizontally in the lobby. Selecting a tab opens up the relevant sub-tabs, doing away with the need for awkward drop down menus.
Other key features include synchronized breaks across the entire system, an advanced game selection filter to make it easier than ever to get the tables you want, when you want them, plus the ability to change your screen name every seven days.
The bottom line is you can still expect the soft games that make Cake so appealing, you’ll just be playing them on vastly improved software.
PokerListings.com is running a 110% Cake Poker sign up bonus, up to $1,000, which means you can get up and running on Cake with as much as $1,100 of free money.
And there's plenty happening at Cake to keep you busy, with their Match and Win promotion in full swing and seats to the upcoming 2012 Irish Open up for grabs.
The veteran pro and recent EPT London runner-up, who we suspect might be good at poker, completely dominated play in the early stages of Day 1a and had the bulk of his stack by the third level.
From there he cruised to the finish, using his stack to pick up small pots at will and end the day just shy of the 200k mark.
Now based out of Malta with fellow pros Justin Bonomo and Ike Haxton, O'Dwyer is looking to continue his heater that started in 2011 and resulted in 10 final tables and live cashes for over $1.4 million.
Finn Lauri Varonen and Welshman Roberto Romanello are almost in striking distance with 165,150 and 115,475 in chips, respectively, but the rest of the field has a lot of work to do to catch up.
A relatively small field of 83 showed up along with O'Dwyer for Day 1a with 48 surviving to play Day 2 Wednesday.
Outside of Romanello, other notable names to keep a stack together today were Melanie Weisner (78,900), Simon Ravnsbaek (58,900), Martins Adeniya (47,075), former footballer Jan Molby (34,925), David Vamplew (31,825), Arnaud Mattern (19,900) and Pierre Neuville (15,000).
Blom, Lodden, Hansen Expected for Day 1bAs with most events, Day 1b is set to be the larger starting day with several big name pros expected to be in attendance.
PokerStars pros Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, Johnny Lodden and Theo Jorgenson will all be on hand along with about 150 other players.
Denmark's most famous pro, Gus Hansen, also hinted on his blog he might drop by for a run at the EPT Copenhagen title.
Action starts up again at noon from Casino Copenhagen; catch the live updates on the PokerStars blog.
Any suggestions for a future 3-Bet, feel free to drop a note in the comments.
Today in the the 3-Bet we find Dan Cates and Andrew Feldman talking fisticuffs, Phil Gordon sharing his six tips for succesful poker (and business) and chess prodigy and poker fan Magnus Carlsen featured on 60 Minutes.
1) Dan “Jungleman12” Cates and Andrew Feldman to Fight at WSOP Ready to rumble.Whatever the reason for poker player vs. poker player fights, we’re all for it.
The ElkY vs. Veldhuis fight was surprisingly high level and fun to watch, and anything that gets poker players off the message boards and into the ring has got to be good for our overall health/image.
It seems like the trend is growing, even, with high-stakes pros Dan “Jungleman12” Cates and Andrew Feldman maybe the next to step up for a bout.
@Andrewfeldman1 so you still want to do the fight? Let's schedule for this WSOP perhaps? #Ringmatch
Once they get into poker, they also tend to do very well.:
Sure lets do it! #hu4rolz
And just like that, it's on. Exactly what's "on" we're not sure, but we’ll be on the lookout for details.
If you’re interested in getting into the fight game yourself, stay tuned to PokerListings for an upcoming guest post from Jeff Joslin on how to get started training MMA.
2) Phil Gordon’s Six Tips for Poker and Business SuccessFormer famous face of Full Tilt Poker Phil Gordon is getting back into the online gaming world only this time with a new company that develops online tournaments for skill-based video games.
Gordon will be in Seattle for the Startup Poker 2.0 conference fronting his new site Jawfish Games and presenting his seminar entitled “Winning in Poker and Business” to the exclusive meetup of tech startup founders, execs and investors.
Roshambo ftw.In case you're not in one of those three groups, his six tips for poker/business success are:
Be Aggressive Be Patient Have Courage Be Observant Be Resilient A Desire to Improve“My theory is if you have all six of those qualities at the poker table, you are going to be a champion player," says Gordon.
“If for some reason you are not a champion poker player, you are missing at least one of those, probably more."
Gordon's also looking for some soft games while he's in town.
“Let’s just put it this way: When I am in town, I am not only scouting for potential partners for Jawfish, I am also scouting for easy money at the poker table.”
More from GeekWire.com here.
3) Mozart of Chess Magnus Carlsen Featured on 60 Minutes Jeff Sarwer - the other chess prodigy.Chess prodigy Magnus Carlsen, dubbed the 'Mozart of Chess" and the youngest ever No. 1 ranked chess player in the world when he was 19, was featured on 60 Minutes last night.
How does that relate to poker? Kinda sorta.
Carlsen has said in the past that he doesn't hang out in bars but chats online or plays online poker while taking a break from chess.
As we've also featured before, typically there’s not much money in chess and several of the game’s best (Almira Skripchenko, Jeff Sarwer, etc) have moved into poker to try and help pay the bills.
Once they get into poker, they also tend to do very well.Thankfully for the poker world, Carlsen is a bit of a sensation above and beyond just chess and makes around $1.5 million a year via sponsors and modeling so he's not currently pressed for cash.
Let’s hope it stays that way so poker doesn't have another genius to contend with.
Either way, it's still a great watch. Full segment here.
Nestola, who more than doubled his career earnings with the win, came into the final table with the chip lead and held on for his first major tour win.
Nestola defeated Venezuelan Gasperino Nicolas heads-up after the two cut a deal for R$250,000 each, agreeing to play for an extra R$39,300 and the title.
Chilean Carlos Ibarra, who was involved in deal talks when they got down to three-handed play, ultimately ended up in third for the as-advertised R$148,840.
Negreanu Falls Short in SixthPokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu, by far the marquee name in the tournament and at the final table, came into the day fifth in chips but couldn’t make a run.
Finding himself short after a couple of hours of play, Negreanu shoved on Ibarra but came up on the wrong side of a call.
As Negreanu described his bustout hand on Twitter:
Out in 6th. Tough spot low on chips QT on T93 flop vs slowplayed AA. Instinct said fold but talked myself into a call since I was short.
Negreanu takes home R$48,730 ($28,380) for his trip to Brazil and became the first player to earn a final-table spot on the LAPT, APPT and EPT tours.
The final eight and their payouts:
1. Daniele Nestola -- R$289,3002. Gasperino Nicolas -- R$250,0003. Carlos Ibarra -- R$148,8404. Felipe Morbiducci -- R$89,5705. Jonathan Markovits -- R$64,5406. Daniel Negreanu -- R$48,7307. Vitor Torres -- R$35,5608. Juan Gonzalez -- R$26,340
The conclusion of the LAPT Grand Final wraps up a very successful Season 4 for the PokerStars.net Latin America Poker Tour.
Dates and locations for LAPT Season 5 are yet to be announced.
MaiseE, who has yet to be identified, was nearly unstoppable as he plowed his way through 5,588 hands on PokerStars. He stuck primarily to 6-Max $100/$200 PLO on his way to $338k in profit.
Not much is known about MaiseE but the account has only been active since May 2011. MaiseE played intermittently and was down just over $30k all-time heading into the weekend.
MaiseE changed that with his giant win and we’ll see if he becomes a fixture of the high stakes games over the next few weeks.
Meanwhile Isildur1 continued his cold streak in 2012 by burning through 2,412 hands and losing a total of $114k.
Blom played 6-Max $100/$200 PLO against regs Ben86, toweliestar and LuckyGump but simply couldn’t get anything going.
Isildur1 recorded his biggest live win ever when he won the 2012 PCA Super High Roller for $1.3 million in January but has had a rough ride online this year with over $600k in losses.
LuckyGump came away from the 6-Max games as one of the biggest winners with $187k in profit.
Jens “Jeans89” Kyllonen (+$173k), donhnrmepls (+$117), 1-ronnyr3 (+$117k) all made decent scores.
Interestingly RaiseOnce, the rumored account of Phil Ivey, finally recorded a winning session picking up $110k. After a disastrous run last year, the account is now nearly even with just $41k in losses.
Gavin “gavz101” Cochrane was technically the biggest loser last night as he dropped $140,480.
Oogee was right behind Cochrane with $140,400 in losses while L0ve2playU (-$110k), Vaga_Lion (-$108k) and toweliestar (-$100k) rounded out the top five biggest losers.
For more information be sure to check our online poker stats section. Here's a look at a couple of the biggest hands from last night:
Also getting in on the cash were familiar names like Johnny Lodden, Fatima Moreira, Stephen Chidwick and Mickey Petersen.
We’ve got the details on the day’s biggest online events with news from the Sunday Million, Warm-Up and 500 on PokerStars.
Irish EireAbu Wins PokerStars Sunday MillionThe biggest weekly major in online poker had no trouble clearing its $1 million guarantee again this week, attracting 7,320 players and putting $1,464,000 up for grabs.
$219,600 was on the line for first and unlike the majority of online tournaments this size, yesterday’s did not end in a chop.
EireAbu from Ireland defeated Russia’s WallterBish heads-up to earn his first major victory. The Russian took over $161k for second.
Finishing 13th for $7,075 was online pro Stephen “stevie444” Chidwick.
Making a deepish run but fizzling out in 187th was everyone’s favorite Olympic gold medalist turned poker pro Fatima Moreira de Melo.
She was one of four Team PokerStars Pros that cashed this week, joining Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth (872nd), Johnny Lodden (806th) and Mickey “mement_mori” Petersen (518th) in the money.
Mickey Petersen continues to post results.1,080 in total were paid.
Here are the full final table results for this week’s Sunday Million:
1. EireAbu (Ireland) $219,600 2. WallterBish (Russia) $161,581.68 3. KingPaulie (New Zealand) $117,120 4. leshark81 (United Kingdom) $77,592 5. dynoalot (Canada) $60,024 6. teo96 (Greece) $45,384 7. UhhMee (Canada) $31,476 8. yanko33 (Spain) $17,568 9. RikardPM (Sweden) $11,346 Jonathan "jonyctt" Concepción Wins PokerStars Sunday Warm-UpWith 3,647 entries this week’s Sunday Warm-Up smashed its guarantee, putting up almost $730,000 to be divvied up among the top 540 players.
$114k and change was reserved for first and after almost 11 hours that sum was awarded to Jonathan “jonyctt” Concepción from Spain.
Concepción has been posting results online since 2009, also playing under the screen name dante-sp on the now defunct Full Tilt Poker. In total he’s earned over $750,000 playing online poker tournaments.
The $114,516 he earned yesterday is the biggest score he’s ever had.
The Spaniard beat out Norwegian pp2wins heads-up who received $85,339 for second.
Team PokerStars Pro Johnny Lodden recorded another small cash in addition to his Sunday Million result, finishing 290th.
Johnny Lodden cashed in both the Million and the Warm-Up yesterday.Here are the full final table results for yesterday’s Sunday Warm-Up:
1. jonyctt (Spain) $114,516.97 2. pp2wins (Norway) $85,339.80 3. PRINCESPEACH (Canada) $60,175.50 4. chrisf44 (Canada) $41,940.50 5. Bonds252525 (Canada) $30,999.50 6. 5AULIU5 (Lithuania) $23,705.50 7. inigovasko (Spain) $16,411.50 8. Rainsson (Latvia) $9,117.50 9. D.man nr one (Norway) $5,835.20 Mike “Gags30” Gagliano Biggest Winner in Sunday 500Drawing 834 players, this week’s Sunday 500 was decided by a three-way deal in which Mike “Gags30” Gagliano pocketed the biggest chunk of the prize money.
While eventual champion check_lol of Finland ended up finishing first, he received $58,000, five grand less than Gagliano who took the runner-up spot.
Taiwan’s ozzyfish007 finished third and took the smallest part of the chop.
Finishing fourth was Mike “StrungOut1” Wasserman, an American pro who is currently playing from Mexico.
PokerStars player Grayson “spacegravy” Physioc finished 12th for $4,170 while yesterday’s Sunday Million champion EireAbu finished 60th.
Here are the full final table results from yesterday’s Sunday 500, adjusted to reflect the three-way deal:
1. check_lol (Finland) $58,000* 2. Gags30 (Mexico) $63,000* 3. ozzyfish007 (Taiwan) $48,719* 4. StrungOut1 (Mexico) $30,232 5. bally29 (United Kingdom) $21,016 6. pimmie (Netherlands) $16,680 7. jhwang21 (South Korea) $12,510 8. Barbosyan (Bulgaria) $8,340 9. White_BBZyan (Russia) $5,004Nestola started the day just off the lead with about 440,000 in chips but more than quadrupled his stack over the course of the day to buid a solid advantage over Negreanu and the rest of the final eight.
He'll start tomorrow with 1.89 million in chips – about 600k more than Chilean Carlos Ibarra in second with 1.29 million.
With a steady string of live cashes to his credit and about $120k in career earnings, Nestola will be looking to smash his previous best cash of around $20k.
In the way will be poker icon Negreanu, who became the first player to earn a final-table spot on the the major PokerStars tours - the LAPT, APPT and EPT.
Negreanu bagged up 702,000 to end the day in fifth overall, but he's still likely the odds-on favorite to claim the title tomorrow.
Latin America Well Represented in Final EightAppropriately for the Latin American Poker Tour Grand Final, a well-rounded field of Latin American players fills up the rest of the final eight.
Venezuelan Gasperino Nicolas will hit the final table third in chips with 1,190,00.
Ecuadorian Jonathan Makovitz, the 8th-place finisher at LAPT Columbia, now has another final table under his belt and will begin in fourth with 991,000.
After the Canadian Negreanu in fifth, Argentinian Juan Gonzalez is sixth with 548,000 and Chilean Felipe Morbiducci seventh with 347,000.
Brazilian Vitor Torres will be the short stack at 273,000.
Overnight chip leader Caio Cesar Pimenta, a feared online player with $3.4 million in career earnings, couldn’t keep his stack together today and ended up busting in 12th place.
American Josh Ewing was the final-table bubble boy, going out in ninth. Humberto Brenes, the short stack coming into the day, went out in 23rd.
Final Eight Battling for Just Under $200kAll remaining players have assured themselves at least R26,340 with R324,600 ($189,492 USD) reserved for first.
Action picks up again at noon tomorrow in Sao Paulo with live updates available on the PokerStars blog.
The final eight and their chip counts:
1. Daniele Nestola -- 1,892,0002. Carlos Ibarra -- 1,297,0003. Gasperino Nicolas -- 1,190,0004. Jonathan Markovits -- 991,0005. Daniel Negreanu -- 702,0006. Juan Gonzalez -- 548,0007. Felipe Morbiducci -- 347,0008. Vitor Torres -- 273,000
Today on the In List we’ve got one lucky man who knows it’s better to hit a slot jackpot than bink a small tournament, along with a well-known high-stakes pro who isn’t afraid to get out of his comfort zone with big money on the line.
On the Outs is another high-stakes challenge that sounds great but will never happen, and our hopes for federal online poker legislation in the US this year.
Buckle up. This is the In and Out List.
Poker’s In List: February 12-19,2012Hitting a $250k Slots Jackpot on the Break from a $560 Poker Tournament: IN
This story comes by way of Eric Baldwin who’s been playing the latest Deep Stack Extravaganza at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
Apparently a player in a $560 tournament was on break, and nailed a quarter-million dollar slot jackpot!
It’s uncertain how much he cared about the tournament following that score, according to Baldwin:
@basebaldy Some guy in this $560 poker tournament hit a slot machine for $250k during break. Bet he's real focused on this $25k belt.
Baldwin is faring pretty well himself, having won a $350 Deep Stack event for $10,041 last Tuesday.
Learning Backgammon for $80k/Game: IN
Poker pros are value-seeking missiles yeah? Able to shrewdly deduce whether a proposition is going to pay off over the long run?
It might be true for some pros but in the case of Justin “BoostedJ” Smith we think it’s safer to say he’s willing to give up EV for gambling thrills.
We submit this tweet as evidence:
Step 1: Learn Backgammon. Step 2: Bet $80,000 per game.@BoostedJ Still unsure if it was a good idea or not to be playing $80k/game backgammon last night 2 minutes after hearing the rules explained
Most poker players can’t fathom throwing down $10k for the WSOP Main Event so it’s a little hard to wrap your head around putting eight times that down on a game you just learned a few minutes before.
That is … if you believe he hasn’t been practicing in secret late at night for the last few months. Kidding.
Poker’s Out List: February 12-19,2012High-Stakes Online Challenges that Never Work: OUT
We’ve been burned before (cough, durrrr Challenge) so when people start throwing around ideas like a $50k buy-in high-stakes heads-up cash game world championship we get anxious.
Sure, we’d love to believe that the world’s best high-stakes online cash players would battle it out round-robin style at $50/$100 heads-up tables on the internet.
We’d be overjoyed to think that elite pros like Dan Cates, Justin Bonomo, Ben Sulsky and Isaac Haxton would be in on it.
It would be awesome to believe something like that was even possible but as we’ve seen from much simpler challenges, poker players suck at sticking to schedules.
So yeah, we’ll believe it when we see it.
The idea was introduced in a new thread on Two Plus Two so head over there to see the full discussion.
Online Poker Regulation at a Federal Level: OUT … until 2013
The US government has a reputation for moving slowly (really slowly … like Eskimo Clarke in the Vegas sun slowly) so it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that online poker regulation won’t be solved overnight.
But according to one Wall Street analyst, it’s a safe bet we won’t be seeing regulation at the federal level until at least 2013.
The Las Vegas Review Journal ran quotes from Macquarie Securities gaming analyst Chad Beynon, saying that if lawmakers were going to get it done this year they would have attached it to the recent payrtoll tax cut extension.
The good news for some Americans is that we could see online poker in the US in 2012, just at a state level.
Nevada and California are expected to the be the first.
Coming into the day as one of the chip leaders, Negreanu was in the middle of several big pots over the day and maxed out at 625,000 before slipping back to 398,000 to end the night.
That stack keeps him inside the top 10 heading into Day 3 and a leading candidate for a run at the eight-player final table.
Brazilian Caio Cesar Pimenta, a relative unknown in the live poker world but a dangerous online pro with over $3.4 million in career earnings including a win in the Sunday Million, will take the chip lead into Day 3 with 607,000.
Vincenzo Giannelli (538,000), Carlos Ibarra (479,000) Josh Ewing (460,000) and Vitor Torres (447,000) round out the top five.
Ewing, known as Haligon online, has over $580,000 in online earnings to go with another $250k+ live.
Outside of Negreanu, the only other "big name" player left in the field is Costa Rican Humberto Brenes, who will hit Day 3 as the short stack on just 51,000.
Fernandez, Fox, Barbero and Gazes Hit the BricksSeveral pros came into the day with chips and the hopes of making a move but instead will have plenty of time to hit the streets of Sao Paulo for Carnival.
Team PokerStars pros Leo Fernandez and Jose “Nacho” Barbero, 2011 WSOPE Main Event champ Elio Fox and veteran pro Bill Gazes all hit the rail.
Fox and Fernandez at least held on for a min-cash, leaving with 6,320 Brazilian Reals for their two days of work.
Players will be back in action at noon tomorrow for Day 3 and will be playing for a seat at the eight-handed final table.
All 24 have secured at least R$9,220 with R$324,600 the first-place prize.
Josh Ewing.Follow the PokerStars blog for all the action; the Top 10 and their chip counts below:
1. Caio Cesar Pimenta 607,000
2. Vincenzo Giannelli 538,000
3. Carlos Ibarra 479,000
4. Joshua Ewing 460,000
5. Vitor Torres 447,000
6. Daniel Nestola 443,000
7. Hugo Mora 414,000
8. Mayu Roca 412,000
9. Felipe Morbiducci 402,000
10. Daniel Negreanu 398,000
GSOP 8, which begins Feb. 26, 2012, will include a total of 18 events with buy-ins ranging from $50 all the way up to $4,900.
Of course bwin Poker will also be running a number of microstakes satellites and it’s possible to qualify for next to nothing. Check the bwin Poker lobby for information on qualifiers.
Some of the more interesting events in GSOP 8 include turbo, rebuy, deepstack, shorthanded and Pot-Limit Omaha variants.
It’s all leading up to the GSOP 8 Grand Slam on March 18. The Grand Slam will offer a guaranteed prizepool of $500,000 and is one of the biggest tournaments ever held on the network.
In GSOP 7, online player Sorry for u outlasted a field of 144 players to take down a first place prize of $169,435.
It’s not a bad time to sign up for a bwin Poker account as the site is currently running its Rookie Challenge promotion where new players have access to a daily $100 freeroll. It’s a good way to tune up your game before GSOP 8 rolls around.
Keep in mind that if you earn 100 Market Points you gain access to a $1,000 freeroll the next month. If you are somehow able to generate 75,000 points you’ll gain entry to an astounding $20,000 freeroll.
Players who sign up for bwin Poker through PokerListings currently receive a 100% bonus match up to $500.
For more information check our bwin Poker review.
Action kicked off in Sao Paulo on the same day as the legendary Carnival but 367 people skipped the party for at least one day to play some poker.
Notably stacking up a pile of chips in his first appearance in Brazil is PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu, who used a trick from Phil Hellmuth's book to get his tournament started on the right foot.
Tweeting that he needed to sleep off a caipirinha hangover, Negreanu didn’t get down to the tournament until well into Level 3.
He made the most of his time at the felt, however, bagging up 121,700 after his seven levels of play to sit fourth overall heading into Day 2.
Fox, the 2011 WSOPE Main Event champ who doesn’t have a backer and funds his own buy-ins on the circuit, made his decision to go all the way to Brazil look good today.
Fox stacked up a solid 99,7000 in chips to sit seventh.
Brazilian Jean Double is the overnight chip leader with 189,400. He’s followed by Chilean Shaun Sheffield with 181,700.
Gasperino Loiacono is just ahead of Negreanu in third with 158,300 to start Day 2 tomorrow.
Nacho, Shark Still Alive, Katchalov OutA who’s who of Latin Amercian pros were in the field today but not all will see another day of play.
Felipe Ramos (96,000), Humberto Brenes (79,000), Jose "Nacho" Barbero (38,000) and Leo Fernandez (37,000) all managed to bag up chips.
Fabrizio Gonzalez, Gualter Salles, Juan Manuel Pastor, Angel Guillen, Christian de Leon and Brazilian poker icon Andre Akkari weren’t so lucky.
Also notably hitting the rail today were Eugene Katchalov and PokerStars pro Fatima Moreira de Melo.
Just over 100 players will return tomorrow to play down towards the money at 48 and beyond.
Follow along with the live updates at the PokerStars blog.
Any suggestions for a future 3-Bet, feel free to drop a note in the comments.
Today in the 3-Bet we find Jonathan Duhamel’s bracelet turning up in a dumpster, WPT runner-up Gigi Gagne getting her drink on and we see the Full Tilt debacle from a few perspectives.
1) Jonathan Duhamel’s WSOP Bracelet Found in Dumpster Bracelet back! (sort of.)French poker site Prince Poker reported this morning that Montreal police have found Jonathan Duhamel’s stolen WSOP championship bracelet in, well, less than mint condition.
Police say Denis Theriault, an employee of a street-cleaning company in Montreal, found it in the residue from a sweep of the Ville-Marie tunnel last Wednesday.
Unfortunately it's pretty beat up. The bracelet chain is missing and the engraving on the back is pretty mangled.
Duhamel, who said from the get-go he was more concerned about the sentimental value, says he is grateful regardless of the condition and looks forward to recovering the rest of it.
The bracelet, a Rolex watch and about $150,000 were stolen from Duhamel in a vicious home invasion set-up by his ex-girlfriend in mid-December.
Her and two accomplices are set for sentencing later this week.
Read the full report on the bracelet find here.
2) WPT Seminole Runner-Up Gigi Gagne Fueled by Vodka Tonics Good times for Gagne. Photo: BJ Nemeth, World Poker TourFans following last week’s WPT Seminole Hard Rock Lucky Hearts Poker Open were privy to one of the most fun and engaging stories this year on the WPT.
One of the chip leaders for most of the tournament and the eventual runner-up, Diane “Gigi” Gagne made even bigger waves with her great table presence and unconventional theories on poker play – mainly never bluffing.
As it turns out, she was also inspired by vodka tonics and new love.
In a great piece by South Florida Sun-Sentinel writer Nick Sortal, Gagne says she tipped a few vodka tonics to help her through the 10-hour days ("It makes me play bolder,” she said) and a good luck charm in the form of a necklace a new beau gave her.
"He's my spiritual advisor and my soul mate rolled into one," she said of Richard Kess, the man she met the Thursday before the tournament and who took her to dinner and Angelo Dundee’s funeral (yep) on their first two dates.
Gagne took home $158k for her runner-up finish. She plans to take a trip with Kess and play WPT Vienna in April with her winnings.
3) What Full Tilt Poker DidWe’re never ones to skip out on an internet meme (despite being several steps slow) so here’s our take on the latest “what xxxx thinks I do” hype.
Share with your friends if you like. Or not. We’re cool with it being played out already.
The world moves so fast these days.
The Israeli pro burned through 8,522 hands and topped the online cash game charts with $376,000 in profit.
It was an interesting week for high stakes as Viktor “Isildur1” Blom finally laid off the intense amount of volume he’s been generating lately on the site and Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond remains MIA since he’s currently in the United States.
It was a catastrophic week for Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies who lost nearly $400k. On the bright side Sahamies was down over $1 million before he turned it around last year and ended up showing a $2+ million profit on the site.
As always check our online poker stats section for more information.
Here’s a closer look at the biggest winners and losers over the last week:
Top 10 Biggest Winners This WeekIt was hard to ignore Rafi Amit’s presence in online poker this week as he nearly doubled the profits of his closest competitor.
0Human0 stacked his way to $220k but was still a distance second to Amit.
Finnish pro Jens “Jeans89” Kyllonen continued his amazingly consistent play by winning $162,000.
Meanwhile U.K. pro Gavin “gavz101” Cochrane continued his tradition of starting the year hot by picking up $162k.
Last year Cochrane streaked his way to over $2 million in the first half of the year but then tailed off and finally finished with just over $1 million.
Outside of Swiss pro Ronny “1-ronnyr3” Kaiser, the rest of the top winners list was occupied by lesser-known players such as masoren and HC_68.
Here’s a complete look at the top 10 biggest winners this week:
1. Rafi “refaelamit” Amit: +$376,000 2. 0Human0: +$220,000 3. Masoren: +$210,000 4. Jens “Jeans89” Kyllonen: +$162,000 5. Gavin “gavz101” Cochrane: +$162,000 6. Bernard-bb: +158,000 7. Donthnrmepls: +$156,000 8. HC_68: +$139,000 9. MaiseE: +$133,000 10. 1-ronnyr3: +$124,000
Ilari Sahamies Top 10 Biggest Losers This WeekIt would take a fair amount of effort to literally burn money as fast as Ilari “Ilari FIN” Sahamies went through it this week.
The swingy Finn actually got off to a good start in the week with nearly $200k in profit but then went to lose over half a million, mostly in the $100/$200 6-Max PLO games on PokerStars.
Fellow high stakes pro Long90110 also had a fairly disastrous week losing a total of $238k. In the past there were rumors that the Long90110 account actually belonged to Tom Dwan.
If true, Dwan has lost over $727k on PokerStars since creating the account.
Some of the other notable losers this week include German Benny “toweliestar” Spindler who dropped $153k and frequent Isildur1-rival Sander “Berndsen12” Berndsen lost $98k.
Here’s a complete look at the top 10 biggest losers this week:
1. Ilari FIN: -$385,000 2. Long90110: -$238,000 3. Benny “toweliestar” Spindler: -$153,000 4. altiFC: -$151,000 5. RivalzZz: -$147,000 6. PepperoniF: -$144,000 7. mTw-DaviN: -$135,000 8. ChaoRen160: -$123,000 9. ZeeJustin: -$102,000 10. Berndsen12: -$98,000
Any suggestions for a future 3-Bet, feel free to drop a note in the comments.
Today in the 3-Bet we find PLO wunderkind Ben Grundy living large in London, Pius Heinz looking for help and the sounds of Scotty Nguyen ringing from home games everywhere.
1) Ben Grundy Lives in a Sweet House That PLO Built Likes his old houses modern.It’s good to be the milkybarkid.
Owner of perhaps the best poker graph in history, online high-stakes PLO wunderkind Ben Grundy is reaping the rewards of his dedicated grinding as we speak.
Grundy bought an older house in London (in the tony Chiswick neighborhood) a couple of years ago and has been putting his PLO money into renos to bring it up to sufficient milkybar style.
According to Grundy’s latest blog, renos are finally done, he’s back in the black after a downswing at the end of last year and life is back as it should be:
"In the latter part of last year I dropped around $400k, on Pokerstars and the Euro sites, which is a pretty standard swing for the stakes I play.
"I did get to finally move into my new house after 16 months of work. I basically bought a run down house, found an architect and embarked on a big project to sink the house, do a side and rear extension, have a landscaped garden, and a massive refurbishment.
"It was really stressful at times, and maybe my poker suffered a bit last year and my expenses were insane every month. It was worth it as i absolutely love the house now."
Given the size and location, estimates are he paid anywhere between £2-3 million for it.
Not our personal style, sure. But we’d make do.
2) Work for Pius Pius Heinz, Supply Your Own Uniform Good help is hard to find.2011 WSOP Main Event champ Pius Heinz is in the market for some marketing help.
Looking to turn the brand of “Germany’s most famous” poker player into something even bigger, Pius’s team posted a profile on a German job board for at least 3 interns in PR, Sales, Marketing and Business Development.
What you need to apply:
You work independently and autonomously You've mastered the German language You're mentally flexible enough to adapt to working in two different companies and you are very determined You know social networks You‘re ready for 3-6 months of a great and exciting challengeYour rewards include:
A stable job in the technology center in Cologne A fixed fee and performance-based bonus (3 +1) Direct cooperation with poker champion Pius Heinz and his "environment"We don’t speak much German and Google translate can only take you so far, but we’re pretty sure a white hoodie is mandatory and it’s coming out of pocket.
If that sounds like you, get the details and apply here.
3) Nguyening! The Scotty Nguyen Soundboard Lives!Just in case you missed it yesterday, we’ve posted the ultimate tool for your next home game if badgering your opponents in a Vietnamese accent is your thing.
Just press a button and you’ve brought Scotty Nguyen to the table!
We're not going to say what our favorite Scotty-ism is, but if you don't like hearing "haha I rolled up" over and over again, you're dead inside.
Check it out below or on our Scotty Nguyen Soundboard page.
The Finnish pro simply couldn’t get anything going in the 1,574 hands he played on PokerStars.
Sahamies stuck primarily to $100/$200 6-Max Pot-Limit Omaha and got into serious trouble on a table that included 1-ronnyr3, Bernard-bb, mickan1984, refaelamit and St1ckman.
In just 225 hands, Sahamies lost a total of $240k on that table alone.
Sahamies continued to lose in the $100/$200 6-Max games before finally switching to heads-up $50/$100 PLO against Isildur1 and Ben “milkybarkid” Grundy.
The swingy Finn didn’t find the redemption he was looking for and ended up losing another $50k before finally calling it a night.
Sahamies, who was the biggest winner in 2011, with $2 million in profit, has gotten off to a rocky start in 2011 and after being essentially stuck at $0 profit for some time is now over $500k in the hole.
Although Sahamies was by far the biggest loser last night, there were a few notable players who took tough beats.
Fellow Finn Jens “Jeans89” Kyllonen was the second biggest loser taking $94k in damage while frequent Isildur1 rival Sander “Berndsen12” Berndsen lost $57k.
The aforementioned Viktor “Isildur1” Blom lost $30k in a 952-hand session.
Meanwhile online player bernard-bb was the big dog last night as he scooped $162k, a good portion of which came directly from Sahamies.
The other notable winners included Benny “toweliestar” Spindler (+$143k), Gavin “gavz101” Cochrane (+$105k) and Rafi “refaelamit” Amit (+$82k).
For more information be sure to check our online poker stats section.
