Buckle up. This is the In and Out List.

Poker’s In List: January 30 – February 5, 2012

Chopping the 75 Billionth Hand on PokerStars: IN

Earlier today PokerStars hit its latest milestone, hand 75 billion. And to celebrate they gave away $140,000.

And it gets better. The milestone pot was chopped, meaning two players had their prizes doubled!

edroqui07 and acer2831 both made the same seven-high straight and took $42,810 and $34,600, respectively.

Here are the payouts for the 75 billionth hand and their chat box reactions, courtesy of PokerStars Blog.

edroqui07: $42,810... "yeeeaaaaaaaaaa" acer2831: $34,600 i-268: $19,450... "awesome, ty" ant_poker: $19,010... "ooooh" Sebastfrz: $16,970 pavl007: $16,970... "enough for a sandwich" (but presumably a very big one)

We really like the sound of a $16,000 sandwich.

tcash777 for Live Updating his $2/$5 Game Against Jamie Gold: IN

Two Plus Two forum poster tcash777 sat down in a $2/$5 game at the Trop in Las Vegas and found the poker room’s namesake Jamie Gold sitting to his left.

"No one's live updated me since the 2006 Main Event"

 

He’s In this week because instead of sitting starstruck, or the much worse ask-for-a-picture, he started a thread about it.

Drawing on the vast number of bored slackers knowledge and experience available in NVG he asked for help. The feedback wasn’t exactly helpful, and his cell phone ran out of batteries before he could get much of a dialogue going, we're still commending him for taking the initiative.

Check out the thread right here.

Bryan Devonshire for Winning a Second WSOPC Ring: IN

The man known in the poker world as Devo has won a second WSOP Circuit ring, and a spot on this week’s In List.

Bryan Devonshire defeated the venerable Paul “Eskimo” Clark heads-up and pocketed $55,291. In total 228 players bought into that $1k event at Caesars Las Vegas.

Devonshire narrowly missed the 2011 November Nine, finishing 12th in the Main Event for over $600,000. He’s now got close to $2 million in lifetime earnings.

Get the full story from the amazing Nolan Dalla right here.

Poker’s Out List: January 30 – February 5, 2012

Subject: Poker for Closing its Virtual Doors: OUT

Subject: Poker, the website that has become synonymous with secret-source Full Tilt Poker news, has packed up shop and will no longer be publishing new articles.

Site founder NoahSD announced that he was getting into the online poker security consulting game, and would therefore be unable to present the kind of independent news for which the site was revered.

Feature writer Diamond_Flush has started a new blog, however, and will continue to follow the Black Friday debacle as it develops.

Daniel Negreanu for Bubbling the $250k Down Under: OUT

Some might call it cruel but we’re putting Daniel Negreanu Out this week for nailing one of the biggest bubbles in poker, the $250k Super High Roller at the Aussie Millions.

Maria Ho is one of 11 players bumped off the GPI this week.

 

Negreanu posted yesterday about what it’s like to go out in fourth and lose $250,000, instead of finishing third and winning $800k.

To make matters worse Negreanu spent the next evening with Patrik Antonius, the one who busted him out of the Super High Roller with jacks against A-8. Antonius, his wife Maya, plus Jason Mercier and his fiancée all went to the Aussie Open finals for that epic Nadal/Djokovic finale.

Click through here for Negreanu’s latest blog post.

11 Players from the Global Poker Index: OUT

Earlier this week 11 players were knocked off the weekly Global Poker Index ranking. The GPI ranks the top 300 live tournament players in the world.

Among those bumped off the list was Maria Ho, who has been in the top 300 since the 2011 WSOP, and Cornel Cimpan, who earned over $3 million in 2009 but hasn’t done a whole lot lately.

Still in the number one spot is Erik Seidel whose 2011 was among the greatest in poker history. Seidel has been number one 14 of the 32 weeks the GPI has been in existence. That’s more than any other player.

Click here for the full ranking.

Things kicks off in earnest on May 28th with a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event, that’s one day after the series officially starts with a non-bracelet $500 Casino Employees event.

The first bracelet event is one of 21 tournaments available to players at the $1,500 buy-in level.

New Bracelet Events for 2012

New events for 2012 include the aforementioned $1 million Big One, a $3,000 Mixed NLHE/PLO Heads-Up event, a $5,000 event following the same “Mix-Max” format we saw at the WSOP Europe in Cannes, a $2,500 four-handed No-Limit Hold’em event and a $1,500 Ante Only tournament.

The $50k Players Championship will play out over five days beginning on June 24th and will use the same eight-game mix from last year. The Big One, the only event that outdoes the Players Championship in terms of buy-in, will begin on July 1.

There will be a total of five open $1,000 tournaments, plus the $1,000 Seniors and Ladies events, comprising the summer's lowest buy-in bracelet events.

There will be seven $10k Championship events, including the Main Event.

New October Nine Delayed Final Table for Main Event

The WSOP has also announced expanded playing space in the Rio Hotel Convention Center. 470 poker tables are expected to be in use throughout the series. That’s 92 more than 2011, an increase of almost 25%.

The Main Event has undergone the most visible changes. The traditional four Day 1 heats have been cut to three, but a third Day 2 flight has been added. There will be no day off before the Day 2 flights as we saw in 2011.

The November Nine delayed final table has been moved up roughly a week to the end of October, but with the exception of now being an October Nine, it looks much the same as last year.

Click through to WSOP.com for the full 2012 WSOP schedule.

PokerListings.com will be in Las Vegas for the entire 2012 World Series of Poker so follow along with us right here, or on Twitter and Facebook for an up-close look at all the action.

Main Event Action

The schedule for the 2012 World Series of Poker has yet to be announced but already one important detail about the Main Event has been leaked to the media.

“A few hints on WSOP schedule coming tomorrow…you won’t find the November Nine returning.”

This was the tweet sent out by @WSOP, the official source for World Series of Poker updates and news.

The November Nine was a term that referred to the Main Event’s Final Table being staged in November, a few months after the Main Event had played and its field narrowed down to just nine players.

The original intention of staging the Final Table in November was to increase the suspense for the television audience. Critics claimed, however, that the November event did not increase public interest in the event. The extended break also crushed hopes of players “on a run” to continue all the way through the early stages of the tournament to the coveted WSOP bracelet.

@WSOP also tweeted:

“The WSOP Main Event this year will be 3 days shorter without compromising structure at all.”

And:

“Another good change coming to WSOP in 2012…no off day during Main Event.”

And:

“The 43rd Annual WSOP will take place from May 27 to July 16, 2012.”

The full schedule of the 2012 World Series of Poker is due to be released later today.

It was a very solid turnout for Day 1A, as 339 runners found their seats in the casino’s new tournament area. Leading the remaining 221 players are Lithuania’s Kristijonas Andrulis and France’s Philippe Ma with almost identical chip stacks – 162,600 and 162,200, respectively. Day 1B will need to improve on Tuesday’s attendance numbers to eclipse last year’s record of 891 players, but considering later starting days typically have larger fields than earlier ones, it looks like there is a fighting chance to set a new EPT Deauville record.

As we mentioned in our EPT Deauville preview yesterday, this tournament was on a forced hiatus for a couple years starting in 2007 because of problems with the gambling laws in France. Obviously, everything has been resolved, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some quirks to tournament play in the country. As the good people over at the PokerStars Blog have pointed out, there are no final tables deals of any kind allowed. At all. No exceptions. While some might be slightly annoyed by this, it won’t affect many people, and frankly, most players, even those who like making deals, are probably a bit relieved by this. It can be stressful trying to strike a deal, especially for those who don’t have any experience at it. It is hard enough to figure out if you are getting a fair shake, but if there are others involved who are aggressive or impatient, the process can be quite intimidating. In France, players can just concentrate on the game at hand.

Another rule difference involves raising rules. In French gambling, the minimum raise permitted is one that is twice the previous bet, rather than twice the previous raise. While this shouldn’t be a problem most of the time, it would not be surprising to see a little confusion at least once late in a tournament if someone wants to make a traditional min re-raise.

Day 1B of the EPT Deauville Main Event will start at noon local time (6:00am EST) Wednesday as a new batch of players look to join the 221 Day 1A survivors for Thursday’s Day 2.

EPT Deauville – End of Day 1A Chip Leaders

1.    Kristijonas Andrulis – 162,600
2.    Philippe Ma – 162,200
3.    Elie Payan – 141,800
4.    Julien Claudepierre – 128,200
5.    Marchel Masaladzhiu – 114,600
6.    Yoann Amaudry – 111,600
7.    Denis Patout – 102,500
8.    Pavel Perfilov – 100,300
9.    Pierre Barthelemy – 99,800
10.    Jean Marc Rigaill – 97,400

It was a very solid turnout for Day 1A, as 339 runners found their seats in the casino’s new tournament area. Leading the remaining 221 players are Lithuania’s Kristijonas Andrulis and France’s Philippe Ma with almost identical chip stacks – 162,600 and 162,200, respectively. Day 1B will need to improve on Tuesday’s attendance numbers to eclipse last year’s record of 891 players, but considering later starting days typically have larger fields than earlier ones, it looks like there is a fighting chance to set a new EPT Deauville record.

As we mentioned in our EPT Deauville preview yesterday, this tournament was on a forced hiatus for a couple years starting in 2007 because of problems with the gambling laws in France. Obviously, everything has been resolved, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some quirks to tournament play in the country. As the good people over at the PokerStars Blog have pointed out, there are no final tables deals of any kind allowed. At all. No exceptions. While some might be slightly annoyed by this, it won’t affect many people, and frankly, most players, even those who like making deals, are probably a bit relieved by this. It can be stressful trying to strike a deal, especially for those who don’t have any experience at it. It is hard enough to figure out if you are getting a fair shake, but if there are others involved who are aggressive or impatient, the process can be quite intimidating. In France, players can just concentrate on the game at hand.

Another rule difference involves raising rules. In French gambling, the minimum raise permitted is one that is twice the previous bet, rather than twice the previous raise. While this shouldn’t be a problem most of the time, it would not be surprising to see a little confusion at least once late in a tournament if someone wants to make a traditional min re-raise.

Day 1B of the EPT Deauville Main Event will start at noon local time (6:00am EST) Wednesday as a new batch of players look to join the 221 Day 1A survivors for Thursday’s Day 2.

EPT Deauville – End of Day 1A Chip Leaders

1.    Kristijonas Andrulis – 162,600
2.    Philippe Ma – 162,200
3.    Elie Payan – 141,800
4.    Julien Claudepierre – 128,200
5.    Marchel Masaladzhiu – 114,600
6.    Yoann Amaudry – 111,600
7.    Denis Patout – 102,500
8.    Pavel Perfilov – 100,300
9.    Pierre Barthelemy – 99,800
10.    Jean Marc Rigaill – 97,400

Today in the 3-Bet we find Doyle Brunson planning to step up his game (and vegetable intake), top TD Matt Savage making a case for a "Poker Majors" system and Liv Boeree revealing her inner demon.

1) Doyle Pushing Envelope, Going Vegan

Pass the kale.

 

Poker legend Doyle Brunson is essentially the EF Hutton of poker. When he talks, people listen.

Thankfully his fans will get to hear more of what's on his mind this year as he says he's ramping up the volume in his blog for 2012.

His latest post explains just how serious he is about competing with the best in the world this year - and an odd new meat problem:

“Im going to push the envelope pretty hard this year because if I cant compete at the highest level, I need to know it, I'm confident I can beat the mixed games because all the younger guys have one or two games they are very weak at. However I plan on playing in the big NLH with the best NL players in the world.

“...For some strange reason, I've become allergic to most kinds of meat besides some kind of fish. I can still handle a cheeseburger but for someone that has always been a steak and potato eater it's a big change.

“It seems nothing in my life has ever been normal so I guess this shouldn't surprise me. Maybe I'll see what all this vegan way of eating is all about.”

Expect a congratulatory tweet and some recipe ideas from Daniel Negreanu to follow.

2) Savage Calls for Syncing of "Poker Majors"

When Matt Savage speaks, Jason Mercier and Matt Glantz make fun of him (in jest) on Twitter.

Everyone else in poker, however, listens pretty closely as Savage is the preeminent TD in the game and runs the best structured and most popular poker tournaments around the globe.

First to ever use behooves in poker context.

 

In a new guest post on Glantz's blog, Savage asks for another big step in poker's history - creating a "majors" system to sync up schedules and high-end tournaments around the world. His logic:

"The players are the most important factor in the success of these poker tournaments, and it behooves the organizers to work together to make the events convenient and beneficial for them.

“When players can easily coordinate their travel schedules, money transfers, and even familial obligations around a set schedule, everyone will win, including the majors, which will see bigger turnouts and happier crowds.”

Savage suggests a "5 and 5 rule" – five years running, $5 million prize pools - to select the tournaments that qualify including:

and possibles the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event, EPT London and EPT San Remo.

It's an intriguing idea and great post - check it out in full here. Look up "behooves" here.

3) Liv’s Inner Demon

Part three of the new PokerStars "We Are Poker" ad campaign has been released and this one is another winner.

Watch for appearances by Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Sebastian Ruthenberg, Sandra Naujoks and a guy in a giraffe mask and hoodie.

Liv Boeree also makes an X-men-esque turn.

Best one yet ioho. Full ad below:

Read on for the rundown on the week’s biggest online poker tournaments.

David "Betudontbet" Emmons Wins TCOOP Main Event

The Turbo Championship of Online Poker is over and David “Betudontbet” Emmons has distinguished himself as the biggest winner of the series.

Emmons outlasted a mammoth 3,667-player field in the $700 buy-in main event and walked away with $382,855. That’s more than twice what this week’s Sunday Million winner pocketed, and it took Emmons less than half the time to do it.

In little more than five hours just Emmons and Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver remained, and in true turbo fashion the heads-up match lasted just one hand. The money went in preflop with A-5 for Emmons winning out over Oliver’s K-7.

Chris Oliver took second in the TCOOP main event for over $285k.

 

Oliver is a poker pro from Florida who is currently playing from Costa Rica. He finished second in the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event, earning $1.8 million.

This main event had a guarantee of $1.5 million but by the time registration closed there was $2,438,855 in the pot to be distributed among the top 495 places.

Here are the full final table payouts for the 2012 TCOOP main event:

1. David "Betudontbet" Emmons (Mexico) $382,855.67 2. Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver (Costa Rica) $285,310.93 3. Didak04 (Australia) $201,180.78 4. Gala_Terry (United Kingdom) $140,216.91 5. mmbittencour (Brazil) $103,638.59 6. DimaDima13 (Russia) $79,253.03 7. swissman29 (Luxembourg) $45,867.48 8. zyxel888 (Russia) $30,481.93 9. MON3Y$HOT (Australia) $19,508.44

TCOOP High Roller Triples its Guarantee

The $2,100 TCOOP High Roller event smashed its $500k guarantee, attracting 814 players and putting $1,628,000 up for grabs.

It took only two hours and 20 minutes to reach the money with Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet bubbling in 109th. Outlasting Van Fleet and finding a spot in the money were known pros Ville Wahlbeck (55th), Mattias “mattidm” de Meulder (31st), Caio Cesar “caio_pimenta” Pimenta (20th), and Maxim Lykov (15th).

The tournament was ultimately decided by a four-way chop which saw Denmark’s AlexKP take the biggest prize, although he ended up finishing second to Icallany of Norway.

Here are the final table payouts for the TCOOP High Roller, adjusted to reflect the deal:

1. lcallany (Norway) $210,259.47* 2. AlexKP (Denmark) $239,104.29* 3. Madridcash (Spain) $167,761.76* 4. Serkules (Germany) $166,756.48* 5. RuiNF (Portugal) $83,842 6. kenny05 (Costa Rica) $67,562 7. rUbEnhEnAo92 (Columbia) $51,282 8. davidv1213 (United Kingdom) $35,978.80 9. Vinkyy (Czech Republic) $20,838.40

Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari finishes 25th in this week's Sunday Million.

 

Three-Way Chop Decides Sunday Million

Even with all the excitement of the Turbo Championship of Online Poker, the Sunday Million still managed to post big numbers with 7,302 players turning up.

$1.46 million was in the prize pool and after roughly 12 hours, the final three players were able to agree on a chop. Chile’s curiplop took the biggest share, $181,080, while eventual winner CharlesTY. of Brazil pocketed $168,000.

Plenty of big names got themselves a piece of the cash this Sunday, including Andre Akkari (25th), Jim “Mr_BigQueso” Collopy (30th), Jose Ignacio Barbero (104th), azn_baller3 (119th), Keven “Stammdog” Stamen (144th) and Angel Guillen (550th).

Here are the full final table payouts for this week’s Sunday Million, adjusted to reflect the three-way deal:

1: CharlesTY. (Brazil) $168,000.00* 2: curiplop (Chile) $181,080.74* 3: hownorez (Czech Republic) $148,000.00* 4: bas0r (Germany) $77,401.20 5: K0VAK (Bulgaria) $59,876.40 6: Chikakaa (Finland) $45,272.40 7: Meewams (United Kingdom) $31,398.60 8: Joroy70 (Canada) $17,524.80 9: rasputoon (Germany) $11,318.10

Read on for the rundown on the week’s biggest online poker tournaments.

David "Betudontbet" Emmons Wins TCOOP Main Event

The Turbo Championship of Online Poker is over and David “Betudontbet” Emmons has distinguished himself as the biggest winner of the series.

Emmons outlasted a mammoth 3,667-player field in the $700 buy-in main event and walked away with $382,855. That’s more than twice what this week’s Sunday Million winner pocketed, and it took Emmons less than half the time to do it.

In little more than five hours just Emmons and Chris “ImDaNuts” Oliver remained, and in true turbo fashion the heads-up match lasted just one hand. The money went in preflop with A-5 for Emmons winning out over Oliver’s K-7.

Chris Oliver took second in the TCOOP main event for over $285k.

 

Oliver is a poker pro from Florida who is currently playing from Costa Rica. He finished second in the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event, earning $1.8 million.

This main event had a guarantee of $1.5 million but by the time registration closed there was $2,438,855 in the pot to be distributed among the top 495 places.

Here are the full final table payouts for the 2012 TCOOP main event:

1. David "Betudontbet" Emmons (Mexico) $382,855.67 2. Chris "ImDaNuts" Oliver (Costa Rica) $285,310.93 3. Didak04 (Australia) $201,180.78 4. Gala_Terry (United Kingdom) $140,216.91 5. mmbittencour (Brazil) $103,638.59 6. DimaDima13 (Russia) $79,253.03 7. swissman29 (Luxembourg) $45,867.48 8. zyxel888 (Russia) $30,481.93 9. MON3Y$HOT (Australia) $19,508.44

TCOOP High Roller Triples its Guarantee

The $2,100 TCOOP High Roller event smashed its $500k guarantee, attracting 814 players and putting $1,628,000 up for grabs.

It took only two hours and 20 minutes to reach the money with Jon “apestyles” Van Fleet bubbling in 109th. Outlasting Van Fleet and finding a spot in the money were known pros Ville Wahlbeck (55th), Mattias “mattidm” de Meulder (31st), Caio Cesar “caio_pimenta” Pimenta (20th), and Maxim Lykov (15th).

The tournament was ultimately decided by a four-way chop which saw Denmark’s AlexKP take the biggest prize, although he ended up finishing second to Icallany of Norway.

Here are the final table payouts for the TCOOP High Roller, adjusted to reflect the deal:

1. lcallany (Norway) $210,259.47* 2. AlexKP (Denmark) $239,104.29* 3. Madridcash (Spain) $167,761.76* 4. Serkules (Germany) $166,756.48* 5. RuiNF (Portugal) $83,842 6. kenny05 (Costa Rica) $67,562 7. rUbEnhEnAo92 (Columbia) $51,282 8. davidv1213 (United Kingdom) $35,978.80 9. Vinkyy (Czech Republic) $20,838.40

Team PokerStars Pro Andre Akkari finishes 25th in this week's Sunday Million.

 

Three-Way Chop Decides Sunday Million

Even with all the excitement of the Turbo Championship of Online Poker, the Sunday Million still managed to post big numbers with 7,302 players turning up.

$1.46 million was in the prize pool and after roughly 12 hours, the final three players were able to agree on a chop. Chile’s curiplop took the biggest share, $181,080, while eventual winner CharlesTY. of Brazil pocketed $168,000.

Plenty of big names got themselves a piece of the cash this Sunday, including Andre Akkari (25th), Jim “Mr_BigQueso” Collopy (30th), Jose Ignacio Barbero (104th), azn_baller3 (119th), Keven “Stammdog” Stamen (144th) and Angel Guillen (550th).

Here are the full final table payouts for this week’s Sunday Million, adjusted to reflect the three-way deal:

1: CharlesTY. (Brazil) $168,000.00* 2: curiplop (Chile) $181,080.74* 3: hownorez (Czech Republic) $148,000.00* 4: bas0r (Germany) $77,401.20 5: K0VAK (Bulgaria) $59,876.40 6: Chikakaa (Finland) $45,272.40 7: Meewams (United Kingdom) $31,398.60 8: Joroy70 (Canada) $17,524.80 9: rasputoon (Germany) $11,318.10

Sam Trickett

In response to being selected as Poker Player of the Year at the 11^th annual European Poker Awards ceremony in Paris last week, Team Titan’s Sam Trickett commented, “Extremely proud to be European Player of the Year. Thanks everyone for voting for me! ”.

Sam had been nominated in two European Poker Award categories – Player of the Year and Best Tournament Performance. The European Poker Awards were established to recognize the best Europeans poker pros and newcomers. The jury is composed of some of the top names in European poker and avid poker fans participated in the online voting.

Sam’s competition in the Player of the Year category included some very talented poker players: Jake Cody (England); Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier (France); Pius Heinz (Germany); Eugene Katchalov (Ukraine); and Andrey Pateychuk (Russia).

Sam did not win the Best Tournament Performance award, as that honor went to Pius Heinz for winning the 2011 WSOP Main Event.

Sam was not present at the European Poker Awards ceremony, held at the Aviation Club de France in Paris last week. According to media reports, Sam sent his friend, PokerStrategy blogger Barry Carter to collect his award.

Sam has been playing poker at the Aussie Millions events in Melbourne, Australia, however he was unable to repeat his huge successes from last year. He was eliminated from the Aussie Millions Main Event, as well as from the $100,000 Challenge and the $250,000 Super High Roller events.

Sam did comment that he “ran pretty good” in the $1,000,000 cash game staged as part of the Aussie Millions. As for his lack of success in the other events, Sam commented, “Ran like 2009 Sam Trickett in the high rollers this time! Kind of annoying to lose 4/5 flips in these comps! Next stop is probably Macau.”