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.

The book is available for just $9.99 on Amazon and covers seven essential topics, including Cash Games vs. Tournaments, Board Textures and Three-betting. Three pros tackle each topic to give you some serious perspective on what it takes to win at poker.

All the money raised by Poker with a Purpose will go straight to the Green World Campaign, an organization seeking to raise living standards for the rural poor through reforestation and sustainable agriculture projects.

From the GWC’s website:

The Green World Campaign has been cited by OnEarth, the magazine of the Natural Resources Defense Council, for its bold agenda: Turn degraded lands green again. Raise the living standards of the rural poor. Combat climate change. Create holistic ways to work for the health of our shared biosphere and the harmony of our global village.

The GWC connects those who want to help create a more sustainable world with on-the-ground projects that benefit people and planet. We focus on providing ecological and social benefits where they're most needed. We seek out effective grassroots partners, then finding the simplest, most direct ways we can all contribute to their success.

Our work centers around tree-planting. We ally with local experts who best know the problems and opportunities in their country. Our trusted, ground-level partners work with villagers who are motivated to work for the benefits our programs bring. Contributions from the GWC get planted right in the ground. We always learn from our partners, and collaborate with them on creative solutions.

The poker players featured in Poker with a Purpose include:

Alex Kim Andre Akkari Annie Duke Dan Colpoys David Sands Erika Moutinho Greg Shevach Isaac Baron Jared Vengrin Jason Koon Jason Young John Tabatabai Mark Herm Matt Vengrin Mike McDonald Perry Friedman Sorel Mizzi Stephen Chidwick Steve Gross Tom Marchese Tony Dunst

Get your electronic copy on Amazon for $9.99 and you can improve your poker game, while helping improve living conditions for people in need.

The unresolved debt of $16.5 million is not something the Group is willing to take on, Tapie says, especially since the overall financial situation at Full Tilt is "worse than expected."

Still, Tapie says they have reached out to all of the pros and some have even signed repayment contracts already. Some have yet to respond.

Tapie also specifically said Full Tilt players will only be refunded if GBT completes the takeover, which will require "the bulk" of that money returned.

If it isn't repaid, Tapie says it is true it could block the deal.

Said Tapie, roughly translated:

"The poker community, and particularly that made up of former Full Tilt players waiting to recover their funds, deserves to know the reality of the behaviour of some major poker figures who say they are ‘sorry for the situation of Full Tilt players and want to do everything they can to help them get their funds back, blaming the old management, but also refrain from saying how much they have borrowed from Full Tilt, and lost, playing on the site.

"However these losses represent some of the funds owed to the players who are waiting to be reimbursed. When you are a poker player, a great player at that, recognised and admired, the basic rule, it seems to me, is to honour your gambling debts.

"Fortunately, among the 19 players we have attempted to contact, some have immediately called back and worked with us on a repayment plan to clear their debts, and we are already finalising contracts to that effect."

Read the rest of Tapie's comments at iGamingFrance.

Today in the 3-Bet we find ElkY heading for the heat in Brazil, UK superstar Robbie Williams taking heat and Phil Hellmuth showing exactly how popular he is.

1) Brazil Recognizes Poker as a Sport, ElkY Shopping for Sunscreen

Two big pieces of poker news to report from Brazil this week.

ELKYYYYYYYY!!!!!!

 

One, the Brazilian Sports Ministry has officially recognized poker as a sport and named the Confederação Brasileira de Texas Hold'em (CBTH) as the official governing body.

According to a statement on the Brazilian Sports Ministry’s website:

“Poker is a competitive discipline, which requires the participant to have intelligence, ability, and intellectual and behavioural skills in order to succeed.

“The CBTH represents the most extended definition of poker, Texas Hold’em and all the other variants of this game including but not exclusively Omaha, Omaha High / Low, 7 Card Stud, 7 Card Stud High / Low, Razz and Mixed Games.”

Two, big-name players are making plans for the upcoming LAPT Grand Final in Brazil.

Among the big names committed to play so far: Daniel Negreanu, Eugene Katchalov, Humberto Brenes, Jose Barbero and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier.

Brazilian PokerStars pro Andre Akkari, for one, is very excited about hosting ElkY at Carnival:

“ELKYYYYYY IS INDA HOUSEEEE!!!! O Monstro Elky está vindo para o Carnaval no Brasil! Mais um dos gênios do poker na nossa terra!”

More on the LAPT Grand Final and how to qualify at PokerStars.

2) Robbie Williams Taking Heat Over New "Free" Poker Site

Take this, poker haters.

 

Former Take That member and multi-platinum singing icon Robbie Williams is taking heat in the UK as he launched a beta version of a new “sort-of-real-money” poker site.

Players who sign up can win Robbie-related merchandise, tickets for future gigs and the chance to meet their idol.

It’s mostly free to play, but you can also buy extra chips and some tournaments have real buy-ins.

As the site says, "Many tournaments require a buy-in to participate...because if you aren't risking anything then why are you playing!?"

Given Williams' past troubles with addiction, several fans and activist groups are already calling him out for his "lack of sensitivity," going so far as to say it's "deplorable" and "awful."

None, however, have taken issue with the real human suffering caused by his music career. Hiyo.

More from the Sun here.

3) Bo Don't Know Hellmuth

Everybody knows Phil Hellmuth is an egregious name dropper, both in life and on Twitter.

In the past week alone Hellmuth has dropped almost 20 celebrity "friends" into his tweets in his unrelenting quest to share his baller lifestyle.

Poker pro Gavin Smith finally responded by tweeting the question on everyone's mind about the name-dropping:

Does anyone else think @phil_hellmuth drops way to many fucking names, think any (of those) guys tweeter about meeting phil?

The answer:

Amy Tan does. Everybody else, not so much.

Names dropped by Hellmuth in the last week and their tweet reciprocation:

#celebrityrehash

 

Follow Phil and his celebrity friends here.

After two Day Ones, the field numbered 889 players, of which 546 came back on Thursday afternoon for the continuation of the event. Leading the pack at the Casino Barriere was Day 1B chip leader Amir Salhani, who had amassed 191,100 chips in his starting day. Following him on the leaderboard was Toufik Ouirini, Day 1A chip leader Kristijonas Andrulis and Philippe Ma, but only Andrulis would be around by the time play ended on Thursday.

Adeniya would seize the lead of the EPT Deauville about two hours into play on Day Two and it came at the expense of Ma. After making a bet in late position, Adeniya saw Ma up the action to 6200, which Adeniya called. After an A-9-4 flop, Ma led out with a 10K bet and Adeniya simply made the call. The same happened on the King turn but, on the five river, Ma moved his remaining chips to the center of the felt. Facing a decision for his tournament life, Adeniya made the call and turned up an A-J for top pair. Ma was bluffing the entire time, showing only 7-4 for bottom pair, and the chip swing rocketed Adeniya into the chip lead with more than 237K in chips.

While this was going on, several of the notable names in the tournament poker world were falling by the wayside. WSOP floor host Kara Scott, Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso, Scotty Nguyen, Praz Bansi, Kevin MacPhee, Arnaud Mattern and EPT Season Seven Player of the Year Fernando Brito all headed out of the Casino Barriere with nothing to show for their efforts, but other top names were able to earn their way to Day Three play.

Looking to complete the mythical poker “Triple Crown,” James “Flushy” Dempsey was able to end the day with 274,600 (good enough for 25th place) after starting with only around 50K to start Thursday’s action. Ludovic Lacay was also active, garnering over 377K in chips to end the day in fourth place, and former World Poker Tour champion Chris Karagulleyan put his name in the hat as a contender by finishing with 360,700 (seventh).

Also of note among the remaining players is the continued success of Team PokerStars Pro Italy’s Luca Pagano, who is looking to continue to extend his record of cashes on the EPT. He is the only PokerStars pro left in the field and, if he is able to outlast fifty people from the 178 remaining players on Friday, Pagano will earn his twentieth lifetime cash on the EPT. Pagano is set well for this pursuit, holding slightly more than 174K in chips.

The day truly belonged to Adeniya, however, as he seemed to dominate pretty much any table he was at. Adeniya was able to push many opponents around as his stack grew, using the late stages of the evening’s play to expand his stack as players looked to survive the Day Two action. By the time that the final cards flew for the night, Adeniya was able to claim the chip lead with his 512,200 in chips:

1. Martins Adeniya, 512,200
2. Brahim Oubella, 452,000
3. Artem Litvinov, 397,100
4. Ludovic Lacay, 377,300
5. Jason Hallee, 375,900
6. Julien Ehrhardt, 363,300
7. Chris Karagulleyan, 360,700
8. Andre Vieira Andrade, 345,000
9. Fehmi Cherif, 338,400
10. Samphane Phomveha, 334,800

The money bubble will burst tomorrow, with the minimum payday of €7500 going to the 128th place finisher. The remaining players are all looking for the big payday, however, as first place will take down €875,000 from the €4.6 million prize pool. The latest champion on the EPT will be determined on Monday night and the final two days of the EPT Deauville will be streamed on the internet via PokerStars.tv.

On Jan. 24, patpatman peaked with a massive $698k profit in a single day.

The account’s biggest victim is none other than Viktor “Isildur1” Blom who has been ice cold since winning the PCA Super High Roller event for $1.3 million. Patpatman has taken over $400k from Blom. 

Meanwhile Galfond had a truly catastrophic start to the year. He was the biggest loser of the month with $660k in damage.

Galfond has seen worse downswings, but not by much. Volume certainly wasn’t the problem as he recorded more hands than anyone in the top 10 winners.

For more information be sure to check our online poker stats section.

Here’s a complete look at the biggest winners and losers over the last month:

Jens "Jeans89" Kyllonen

 

Top 10 Online Poker Winners in January

Patpatman was easily the biggest winner in January but there were several other online poker pros who looked particularly dominant to start the year.

Jens “Jeans89” Kyllonen, who always seems to live in the shadow of the more famous fellow Finn Ilari Sahamies, was red hot in January with just short of $700k in profit.

Kyllonen has been remarkably consistent over the years and picked up $1.3 million last year without anyone batting an eye.

Right behind Kyllonen was Ben “Sauce123” Sulsky who amassed $671,000 in profit this month.

Sulsky has proven in the past he has the ability to run with the big dogs but last year was a bit off an off one for the U.S.-born pro as he only earned $239k.

After a brief hiatus from the game, Sulsky reemerged in the second week of January and promptly ran up well over half a million in 22,164 hands.

Some of the other notable winners this month included Phil “takechip” D’Auteil and former professional Warcraft 3 player Davin “mTw_DaviN” Georgi.

Here’s a look at the complete top 10:

1. Patpatman: +$858,000 2. Jeans89: +$698,000 3. Sauce123: +$671,000 4. ragen70: +$608,000 5. Bernard-bb: +$576,000 6. takechip: +$427,000 7. mTw-DaviN: +$349,000 8. BlatchPeople: +$344,000 9. altiFC: +$335,000 10. oogee: +$311,000

Viktor "Isildur1" Blom

 

Top 10 Online Poker Losers in January

There’s just no way around it: Phil “MrSweets28” Galfond got murdered in the January high stakes games.

Galfond played over 50,000 and lost $663k. In the middle of the month there was a two-day span where Galfond lost over $400k, a great deal of which was to Sander “berndsen12” Berndsen.

The mounting losses contributed to a recent blog post by Galfond called Sometimes I Lose, which provides some very interesting insight into what it’s like to go on half-million downswings.

Galfond was obviously not the only player to lose in January and VietRussian and Viktor “Isildur1” Blom both lost over $300k.

Blom gave VietRussian a good beating earlier in the month but then went on to lose several huge sessions to Berndsen12.

Isildur1 was easily the busiest player of the month as he burned through an insane 58,112 hands. Galfond was the only player who came close with 52,2230 hands.

Long90110, who many railbirds still maintain is Tom Dwan, got blasted for $369k.

Finally Zypherin, one of the biggest losers last year, didn’t exactly start 2012 with a bang as he lost $200k.

Here’s a complete look at the top 10 online losers in January:

1. MrSweets28: -$663,000 2. GVOZDIKA55: -$499,000 3. long90110: -$369,000 4. VietRussian: -$369,000 5. Isildur1: -$350,000 6. diggidave: -$244,000 7. Terken89: -243,000 8. roi kin23: -$233,000 9. Try__An__Hit: -$212,000 10. Zypherin: -$200,000