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Monthly Archives: January 2010
Poker News in Brief: Jan. 25-31, 2010
With all that poker news coming from the WPT, EPT and Aussie Millions it was almost inevitable that some stories wouldn’t make it to the front page of PokerListings.com.
Fortunately, as part of our ongoing Poker News in Brief Feature, we’ve compiled a list of smaller stories below.
This week we’ll take a look at Doyle Brunson joining an elite lineup, vietcong01 winning his second Sunday Million, Michael Phelps hitting the felt at Borgata and more.
Brunson Fills Out Premier League Lineup
Doyle Brunson is the final poker player to grab a spot in the elite PartyPoker.com Premier League IV.
“I’m very happy to have the challenge of playing against all these great players,” said Brunson.
Brunson will join Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, David Benyamine, Phil Hellmuth, J.C. Tran, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Roland de Wolfe, Luke Schwartz and Tony G at the Premier League IV.
There are two remaining seats with one of them going to an online qualifier and the other going to the winner of a mini Premier League playoff between Team Party members.
The Premier League IV is set to take place Feb. 12-18 in Las Vegas.
vietcong01 Wins Second PokerStars Sunday Million
Juan Antonio Maceiras Barros, known online as vietcong01, outlasted 8,699 players to win the PokerStars Sunday Million and $255,954 cash last Sunday.
It wasn’t the easiest final table either as Ben “benba” Lamb, who finished 14th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event, was one of the chip leaders heading into the final nine. Lamb finished in sixth place.
Barros, who first won the Sunday Million in 2007, joins Jesper Hougaaard as the only players to ever win multiple Sunday Million titles.
Barros came very close to performing the feat at the final table of a Sunday Million in March, but eventually bombed out in sixth.
Bodog Recruiting Female Pros
Bodog Poker is looking for female players to sponsor in various poker tournaments around the world.
The announcement comes just a couple weeks after the online room did not opt to re-sign Justin Bonomo to its pro team.
The site also let Jean-Robert Bellande walk several months earlier leaving David Williams and Evelyn Ng as the only members of Team Bodog.
Bodog is requesting that all applicants send a recent a photograph and a short biography in an email with the subject: Female Pro Submission.
To learn more check out the Bodog website here.
Phelps Goes to Borgata
Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps made another splash in the poker world this week at the Borgata Winter Open.
Phelps played the double elimination heads-up event and beat noted pros Paul Wasicka and Adam Gerber before being eliminated by Basilios Diakokomninos.
During the Summer Olympics in Beijing, Phelps mentioned one of his favorite hobbies was playing online poker and in 2008 he made the final table of a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event at Caesars.
PartyPoker Encourages Players to Hit or Run
PartyPoker started a new promotion this week, which gives players a chance to hit or run.
“Simply collect 20 PartyPoints and we’ll give you $1 to bet on our special Hit or Run heads-up game,” said a PartyPoker spokesperson.
“Win and we’ll double your money. You can then choose to hit for another hand and the chance to double your cash or take the money and run. Lose at any point though and the game is over.”
It’s possible to hit up to 10 times per game making each one worth $1,024. If a player collects enough points they could potentially play 10 games a day, which would give them $10,240.
To learn more or sign up for a PartyPoker account click here.
Posted in Poker Tagged Adam Gerber, Beijing, Ben, Bodog, Bodog Poker, Bodog Recruiting, daniel negreanu, david benyamine, David Williams, Doyle Brunson, Evelyn Ng, J.C. Tran, Jean-Robert Bellande, Juan Antonio Maceiras, Justin Bonomo, Las Vegas, Luke Schwartz, Michael Phelps, Million, PartyPoker, Paul Wasicka, Phil Hellmuth, Poker, Premier League, Roland De Wolfe, rsquo, Summer Olympics, Sunday, Tony, Vanessa Rousso, Winter Open, Yevgeniy Timoshenko Comments Off
Weekly Freerolls: 11,000 Reasons to Play
The following freerolls are open to all PokerListings.com players. Qualify in the specified qualification period, then take your seat to win a boatload of free cash.
If you’re not a PL.com registered player on any of the following sites, click on the site’s name in the list to sign up. Getting your free seat in the tournament can be just as simple as that.
William Hill Poker offers a monthly $2,500 freeroll for PokerListings players. You need to collect just 100 points this month to qualify
- Date: Feb. 4
- Value: $2,500
- Qualify with: 100 points in January
Full Tilt offers weekly freerolls to all PokerListings players. Qualify with 100 points earned the week before the event to grab your seat.
- Date: Feb. 6
- Value: $1,500
- Qualify with: 100 points
- Qualify between: Jan. 31- Feb. 5
The next $5,000 Monthly freeroll is almost here, buy in with just 25 points.
- Date: Feb. 7
- Value: $5,000
- Qualify with: 25 points
Just two days left to earn your seat in February’s montly freeroll.
- Date: Feb. 7
- Value: $1,000
- Qualify with: 100 points
- Qualify between: Jan. 1-31
With your final two days to earn your points and qualify, be sure to have collected 100 points in January for your seat in the next $2,000 Party Poker freeroll.
- Date: Feb. 13
- Value: $2,000
- Qualify with: 100 points
- Qualify between: Jan. 1-31
The next massive freeroll from PokerStars comes as a $25k event awarding $24k worth of “turbo takedown tickets” plus $1k cash for the final table. Collect 100 points in January as a PokerListings player to earn your seat.
- Date: Feb. 21
- Value: $25,000
- Qualify with: 100 points
- Qualify between: Jan. 1-31
Posted in Poker Tagged Date, Feb, Pacific, party poker, Poker, poker freeroll, qualification period, Qualify, seat, titan poker, William Hill, william hill poker Comments Off
Sydney PartyPoker Qualifier Wins Aussie Millions
23-year-old Tyron Krost won a $640 online satellite to get into the main event at the Crown Casino and walked away AUD$2 million richer after besting a field of 746 this week.
“It feels like a dream and I don’t want to wake up,” he said moments after the win. “$2 million, it’s amazing.”
After a fairly lengthy feeling-out process, fellow Aussie Steven Shelley was the first player to get his walking papers from the final eight Saturday, running sevens into Krost’s jacks.
But it wasn’t long before he was joined on the rail by online superstar and 2007 World Series of Poker Europe champ Annette Obrestad.
The Betfair pro got into a flip for her stack with ace-jack against the PartyPoker qualifier’s sevens and would have liked the straight draw she picked up on the flop if that same flop didn’t give Krost a set.
The turn and river bricked out and Obrestad was sent back to Norway seventh.
Strangely, pocket sevens were involved in the next elimination as well, with Reno, Nevada’s Steve Friedlander running them into Aussie Kostas Varoxis’ big slick.
A king on the flop and another on the turn did the lone American at the final table in and play went five handed.
It stayed five-handed for quite a while until Canadian Peter Jetten appeared to implode, shipping it in with K♦ 5♦ against Krost’s tens on a move and failing to improve.
Once the massive chip leader, Sorel Mizzi’s downfall began soon after when he doubled up Frederik Jensen and before the Betfair Poker pro knew what had hit him, Krost had suddenly moved into the lead.
A few desperations shoves from Varoxis were next on the agenda, and although the first couple worked, his luck eventually ran out when he couldn’t beat Jensen’s deuces with A♥ 6♣.
Mizzi’s downfall ended three-handed when he ran pocket sevens into Krost’s ace-king and could not hold, leaving the two PartyPoker qualifiers to battle it out heads up.
Krost began heads up with better than 2:1 chip lead over Jensen and the Aussie began applying pressure on the Dane right from the outset, pounding him into submission before getting him all in dominated to book the win.
A humble Krost seemed to have the all big hands when he needed them throughout the final, beating some of the best young players in the game while following up Stewart Scott’s 2009 win to become only the second Aussie to keep the title on home soil in Aussie Millions history.
“I just ran really well and got really lucky,” he said. “I had a lot of big hands.”
Posted in Poker Tagged Annette Obrestad, Aussie, Dane, Europe, fellow aussie, flop, Jensen, Kostas Varoxis, Krost, Nevada, Norway, Peter Jetten, poker pro, Reno, Sorel Mizzi, Steve Friedlander, Steven Shelley, Stewart Scott, win, world series of poker Comments Off
Ivey Loses $320k to Ziigmund
Ivey has been somewhat of a ghost online in 2010 having played only 974 hands, while players such as Di “Urindanger” Dang have already booked over 34,000.
In his latest session Ivey played just 254 hands before throwing in the towel. He started at $300/$600 PLO against both Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies and Patrik Antonius.
Ivey only stuck around for 97 hands, earning $36k for his efforts.
About halfway into his session Ivey and Sahamies agreed to play heads-up on Ivey’s personal $500/$1,000 table – the Ivey Thunderdome. This match lasted for 157 hands, ending with Sahamies winning $321k.
Ivey’s $284k loss leaves him up just $32k on the year.
After losing $275k playing 7-Game, Sahamies finished the day with only $113k. This win continues his hot-streak, pushing his year’s results to over $1.7 million.
Antonius continues to struggle at the tables, last night losing over $467k. Nearly half of those losses ($209k) went to Tom “durrrr” Dwan in the latest session of the durrrr Challenge.
Despite winning the largest pot of the night, worth almost $500k, Antonius lost $174k to Sahamies heads-up and an additional $83k in his PLO session with Sahamies and Ivey.
When added to his results for the year, Antonius is now the first player to be stuck over $1 million in 2010.
Below you can find the largest pots of the night, or you can head to MarketPulse to see the rest.
Posted in Poker Tagged Antonius, Dwan, ghost online, hot streak, Ivey, patrik antonius, Sahamies, session, throwing in the towel, Tom Comments Off
durrrr Challenge: Dwan Reaches $1 Million
Although it had been over a month since the durrrr Challenge was active, the pair managed to log 2,112 hands against each other.
If Dwan and Antonius continue to play roughly 2,000 hands a month it’s likely there will finally be a conclusion to the Challenge before the end of 2010.
The first session of the year actually occurred late Wednesday night with the pair putting in 1,230 hands.
Despite the large number of hands Antonius was only able to make back $6k, leaving him close to $900k short of even.
The more exciting session of the Challenge happened very early this morning, and although it was only 882 hands long, Dwan managed to walk away with $209k.
The session was action packed with both players taking hundred thousand dollar swings.
At 1:31 a.m. ET Antonius won the second largest pot of the night worth $192,800. Just one minute later at 1:32 a.m. ET Dwan took down an almost identical pot on another table, his worth $192,830.
By the time the guys called it quits, Dwan’s $209k profit pushed his total lead in the challenge to $1,077,932. Although there are still over 18,000 hands left to be played, Antonius is going to need to catch a heater before long to put himself back in the running.
durrrr Challenge by the numbers:
- 260,476,997: Total amount wagered
- 1,077,932: Amount durrrr is ahead
- 1,000,000: Net worth needed to own fancy Dijon Ketchups
- 192,830: Biggest pot of the session
- 31,912: Hands played overall
- 7,212: Amount of rake made by Full Tilt from the Challenge
- 101: Hours played in the challenge
- 99: Problems Jay-Z claims to have
- 63: Percentage of challenge completed
Below are the three largest pots from the Challenge match. You can see more hands by heading to MarketPulse.
Young Stars Lead Aussie Millions Final
Betfair Poker pro Sorel Mizzi will come in to the final eight with a massive chip lead and all the confidence that comes with it following a day where it appeared he could do no wrong on the felt.
“Confident is definitely the one word to describe how I’m feeling right now,” the 23-year-old Canadian said. “Everything is just going my way. I’m getting hands, I’m making the correct reads. I feel like I’m playing the most perfect poker I know how.
“I might not be playing perfectly, but it’s the best that I know how to play and things are working out for me right now.”
Using the screen names Imper1um and zangbezan24, Mizzi is one of the most feared tournament players in online poker history.
While he has also amassed more than $1.6 million in career earnings in live tournaments, a major title has escaped his clutches to date, making this shot at Aussie Millions glory even more desirable to him.
“How badly do I want this?” he asked. “On a scale from zero to ten, it’s a ten.”
Mizzi holds close to half of the chips in play with eight players remaining, but said he has no plans to bully the table tomorrow.
“I’m just going to adjust to the situations when I see what they are,” he said. “I don’t really know my strategy going into tomorrow, but I’m really good at just feeling things out. Hopefully I feel things right and hopefully I keep hitting the cards I was hitting today.”
In Mizzi’s way stands fellow Betfair Poker pro and 2007 World Series of Poker Europe champ Annette Obrestad.
Considering she currently sits fifth in chips, Obrestad is being cautiously optimistic about her chances.
“I can’t say I’m too confident, considering Sorel has six times the amount of chips I do,” she said.
No less than an online poker legend, Obrestad, otherwise known as Annette_15, is hoping the experience of playing on a big stage in the past will pay off in Australia Saturday.
“I think it helps a lot because I’m not really nervous when I play,” she said. “For me it’s just another game of poker, just for a lot more money.”
She’s also banking on the deep structure here at the Aussie Millions allowing her to remain patient despite her stack size.
“I think people are going to be way too aggressive and try to outplay each other,” the 21-year-old Norwegian said. “I don’t really see the point in that because with my image, people think I’m nuts anyway, so I’ll just wait for a hand and probably get it in good.”
Also posing a major threat to Mizzi’s lead is 24-year-old fellow Canadian Peter “Apathy” Jetten.
With a European Poker Tour High Roller and two World Series of Poker final tables on his resume, including a runner up finish in the 2008 WSOP $10k Pot-Limit Omaha, Jetten is another player hoping experience will help him get over the hump Down Under.
“I think that experience just helps so much, if not in my play then at least in making me more comfortable,” he said. “The PLO event eluding me heads-up hurt a lot. It’s really nice to be back with a shot at winning again and I want to win this one very badly.”
Rounding out the final eight are PartyPoker qualifier’s Tyron Krost and Fred Jensen, both of whom have a couple of small WSOP cashes on their sheets.
Plus Aussie Hold’em Poker group qualifier Steven Shelly, fellow local Kosta Varoxis and Reno Nevada’s Steve Friedlander.
To follow all the action until the AUD$2 million first-place prize and 2010 Aussie Millions title is handed out, tune in to PokerListings’ Live Updates beginning at 2 p.m. Melbourne time Saturday.
Posted in Poker Tagged Annette, Annette Obrestad, Aussie, aussie millions, Australia, Europe, experience, Fred Jensen, game of poker, lot, Melbourne, Omaha, Peter, Poker, Reno, Sorel, Sorel Mizzi, Steve Friedlander, Steven Shelly, table tomorrow, Varoxis, way, world series of poker Comments Off
UBOC 4 Main Event Hits Sunday
Every day from now until Sunday, UB will run a five seat guaranteed tournament at 9:50 p.m. ET for $109.
The top five finishers are guaranteed to win a seat into the $1,000 buy-in UBOC 4 main event.
Arguably the best option for qualifying, however, will be the massive 100 seat guaranteed tournament UB has scheduled for Sunday at 12:30 p.m. ET, just a few hours before the main event kicks off. That satellite will also carry a $109 buy-in.
The UBOC 4 main event will be hosted by 11-time WSOP bracelet winner and Team UB member Phil Hellmuth.
“This has got to be not only my favorite UBOC so far, but my favorite online tournament series ever,” said Hellmuth.
“There’s another $1 million event coming up on Sunday with plenty of satellites to get you into it, and if it’s anything like last Sunday’s big $1 million Guarantee that ended up having a $1.5 million prize pool, it’s going to be huge.”
The UBOC 4 main event will begin at 4:30 p.m. ET on Sunday. For more information or to sign up for an account check the UB website.
Posted in Poker Tagged event, last sunday, main event, Phil Hellmuth, prize pool, seat, Sunday, Tournament, UBOC Comments Off
PokerStars Announces 2010 Nordic Poker Awards
The Nordic Poker Awards, previously the Scandinavian Poker Awards, will celebrate the best players from Finland, Norway, Denmark and Sweden on Feb. 15 – the day before EPT Copenhagen begins.
This year there are 30 nominees from across the four Nordic countries.
Some of the notable players to be nominated include Peter Eastgate, Patrik Antonius, Ville Wahlbeck, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, Ilari Sahamies, Jens Kyllonen and Erik Sagstrom.
The categories for 2010 include Best Live Tournament Player, Best Performance, Best Online Player and Rookie of the Year.
Award winners will be chosen by a public vote.
All EPT players are invited to the awards ceremony, which will be held at Park Café in Copenhagen at 8 p.m.
Check the PokerStars website for the complete list of nominees.
Posted in Poker Tagged Calibri, Copenhagen, Dag Martin Mikkelsen, Definitions, Denmark, Erik Sagstrom, Finland, font definitions, Jens Kyllonen, MsoNormal, Norway, patrik antonius, Peter Eastgate, roman, sans serif, section, style definitions, Sweden, theme font Comments Off
The Dreaded Min-Check-Raise by Aaron Bartley
There are a lot of potentially horrendous moves to be made in No-Limit Hold ‘em: playing out of position with a marginal hand, chasing down a draw without the correct odds, overplaying (or underplaying) the nuts. All of these are horrible, horrible plays. But in my opinion, the worst play that you can make (and I see made far too often) is the min-check-raise.
I’ve never seen this play used correctly. In fact, I don’t think it’s even possible to use it correctly. If… Continue reading
Jonty Rhodes
In a recent thread on the ever-popular Two Plus Two forum, my good friend Andy Ward made a case for the utterly intangible and totally subjective hypothesis that I am the best all round poker player in the UK.
I was naturally quite flattered by this statement, and was about to spend a few minutes deciding which other players could be described as true all-rounders, when my eye wandered down the page to the rest of the thread. Don’t worry, there was no time for me to get bigheaded at all, as… Continue reading