On February 22 (four days before the 2012 Daytona 500), a charity poker tournament dubbed “High Speed Hold’em on the Halifax” will take place from 7-10PM at the MG on the Halifax, a luxury waterfront community near the Daytona International Speedway. The invitation only event is looking to draw more than 200 players who will put up $500 to take part in the event.

Hosted by the NASCAR Foundation, the tournament is raising money for Speediatrics, the pediatric unit at the Halifax Health Medical Center. NASCAR Foundation chairwoman Betty Jane France is looking forward to drawing together NASCAR’s best drivers, celebrities, poker pros and stock car fans for a thrilling evening of entertainment.

“What a great night this is going to be,” France stated during the announcement of the charity tournament. “(It will be) a lot of fun and all for some worthy causes. The NASCAR Foundation, Speediatrics and poker are things that I love dearly. People who know me can attest to that. This evening is going to be memorable and meaningful. I can’t wait.”

Joining France in hosting the tournament will be legendary driver and NASCAR Foundation board member Rusty Wallace, who admits that he isn’t a great poker player. In an interview with the Daytona Beach News-Journal, Wallace compared playing in the charity tournament to his own career as a Winston Cup championship winning driver, saying, “You’ve got to be a bit nervy and willing to take your chances. You can play it safe the first 450 miles of the race, but the last 50 you’d better have all your stuff right and be able to stick it out there and go for it…sometimes you drive over your head and get to crash and sometimes you don’t. There’s a correlation with poker.”

Also in attendance for the tournament will be poker professional Annie Duke, the commissioner of the Epic Poker League, who will serve as the honorary tournament director for the event. “I am so pleased to play my part in this inaugural tournament to support the NASCAR Foundation’s Speediatrics Program,” Annie added during the announcement of the event. “I’m looking forward to throttling up the action with Betty Jane and Rusty as we raise funds for this great cause.”

For the tournament, each of the 22 tables will have at least one celebrity, driver or poker player seated among the combatants. Notable names that have been confirmed for the tournament are former NASCAR Winston Cup champion Dale Jarrett and former NBA great Brad Daugherty, who is now a stock car analyst with ESPN and a NASCAR team owner. For the winner of the event, a seat at a $1500 Epic Poker League Pro/Am tournament will be the prize.

One player will be able to get into the tournament for free through a special drawing being held by the MG on the Halifax. By going online and registering at eventsatmgonthehalifax.com, one person and a guest will attend the tournament and the winner of the drawing will be able to play in the event. There will also be a charity auction and entertainment for those in attendance.

If the tournament reaches its maximum number of players, it would raise over $100,000 in just the buy ins alone and potentially even more through the auction. The funds would be well used at Speediatrics, which France founded in 1999 as a NASCAR-themed pediatrics unit. It is the only one of its kind in Central Florida that cares for more than 2,000 children each year, including about 300 of those receiving care in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (ICU).

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.

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

This year, the festivities will be held in the new tournament area of the Casino Barriere at The Deauville International Centre. The venue is situated right on the shore of the English Channel and is attached to the famous Hotel Royal Barriere, which celebrates its 99th birthday this year. Deauville itself is a prestigious resort city, part of an area sometimes called the “Parisian rivieria,” as it is the nearest seaside resort to the French capital.

The EPT Deauville Main Event will begin with two starting days on Tuesday and Wednesday, followed by Days 2 and 3 on the remaining weekdays. Saturday’s Day 4 will end when 24 players remain (though plans can always change depending on how quickly or slowly players are eliminated), while Day 5 will conclude when the eight-handed final table is determined. Monday, February 6th is when the final table will be contested and the champion will be crowned.

Last year saw the largest turnout ever for the EPT Deauville Main Event, with 891 entrants creating a €4,276,800 prize pool. Lucien Cohen won the big tournament in his home country, banking €880,000.

Deauville has been a stop on the European Poker Tour since the Tour’s inception in 2004, though it was simply called the French Open in Seasons 1 and 2. Because of legal problems surrounding gambling in France, Deauville had to be removed from the schedule in early 2007, but it returned in January 2009 during Season 5 with its new name, EPT Deauville.

In addition to the €5,300 Main Event, there are close to 20 other side events, including a €10,000 + €300 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, a 32-player maximum, 2-day Heads-up event, and a 2-day Pot-Limit Omaha tournament. One unique tournament at EPT Deauville will be held Friday: a €300 + €30 men’s only event. The women will get their own tourney the following day, and to make things even more interesting, the winner from each will square off in a heads-up match on Sunday. In addition, the €1,000 + €100 2-day No-Limit Hold’em event starting Saturday, February 4th will be part of the France Poker Series.

While it is a bit late to qualify online at PokerStars, there is still a live super satellite into Day 1B of the Main Event on Tuesday at the casino. The tournament will cost €500 + €50, will allow one re-buy, and will start at 4:00pm local time. For those who miss that, there will be a few other super satellites during the week for players interested in trying to win seats into some of the other festival’s events, including the €10,000 No-Limit Hold’em event.

Speidel finished the tournament in style picking up pocket aces in the final hand to bust heads-up opponent Ken Wong.

The Melbourne local started playing poker five years ago and the Crown Casino is the first place he ever played live poker.

Speidel has been on quite a run at the Aussie Millions as he made two final tables in the preliminary events. 

“I had a great week,” said Speidel. “To win this is just ridiculous. I’m really happy.”

The 26-year-old entered the seven-player final table second in chips and from the first hand seemed destined to win the event.

He busted five of his six opponents at a rapid-fire final table that took less than six hours of play to find a winner.

Hong Kong-native Bjorn Li entered the final table as the chip leader and one of the favorites considering his significant experience in online poker.

Instead Li never really got anything going and ended up crashing out in sixth place when he lost a coin flip against Mohamad Kowssarie.

Kowssarie, who used to play online as Fast_Freddie and TerrorOfSweden, entered the final table as the short stack but was one of the more dangerous players at the final table eventually finishing in fourth place with A-3 to Speidel’s pocket kings.

The other well-known online player Yann Dion, who plays online as yadio, was actually the first player to bust when he shoved with pocket sevens and got called down by Speidel with pocket queens.

The dynamic of the 2012 Aussie Millions changed dramatically yesterday when world-renowned poker player Phil Ivey busted in 10th place.

When one of the world’s best poker players busts, most players are relieved but Speidel admitted he was slightly disappointed by the professional’s absence.

“It would have been cool to have him at the final table,” he said. “He’s an amazing poker player and it was great to play against him. I was a bit relieved though, because he is really damn good.”

Speidel is the fourth consecutive player from Australia to win the Aussie Millions and will be keeping the trophy in Melbourne.

Here’s a complete look at the final table payouts:

1. Oliver Speidel – $1,600,000 2. Kenneth Wong – $1,000,000 3. Mile Krstanoski – $610,000 4. Mohamad Kowssarie – $405,000 5. Patrick Healy – $300,000 6. Bjorn Li – $230,000 7. Yann Dion – $170,000

Unperturbed, Ivey immediately took a seat in the $250k Challenge.

About 13 hours later, Ivey beat fellow pro Patrik Antonius heads-up to win the super high roller tournament.

“It feels good to be back,” said Ivey moments after winning. “I took some time off from poker.

"This is one of my first tournaments back and it’s nice to get back to winning again.”

Ivey went on an extended hiatus from poker after the events of Black Friday before re-emerging in Macau in November.

Ivey received more for winning the $250k Challenge than he would have for winning the Main Event.

The Main Event, which plays out tomorrow, will only pay out $1.6 million. Ivey still received $100,000 (AUD), however, for finishing twelfth.

“I got pretty close in the Main Event,” he said. “Luckily I got knocked out just in time to play this. It worked out.”

Murderer's Row of Poker Players

The high-profile $250k Challenge ended up drawing 16 brave participants and, as expected, it was a collection of some of the best poker players in the world.

Pros Daniel Negreanu, Antonius, Gus Hansen, Jason Mercier, Sam Trickett, Erik Seidel, John Juanda, Tony Bloom, Dan Smith and Tom Dwan all got it on the action.

It wasn’t only poker pros in the field however as Chinese businessmen Winfred Yu, Paul Phua, Nick Wong and Richard Yong all bought into the tournament.

When registration finally closed organizers did a quick tally and informed players they were playing for a $4 million prizepool and only three players would be paid.

Negreanu Bubbles in Elite Final Four

Negreanu had the unfortunate distinction of being the bubble boy. He went out in fourth place when his A-8 fell to Antonius’ pocket jacks.

That left Antonius, Gus Hansen and Ivey to battle it out three-handed.

Hansen was the next player to go when he flopped top pair against Ivey’s flopped two-pair, although the $800,000 payout for third likely softened the blow.

Ivey and Antonius played heads-up for over an hour before a short-stacked Antonius finally moved in with K-3 and Ivey called with A-Q.

Ivey’s hand held up and Antonius had to settle for $1.2 million - now the biggest cash for the Finn in a live poker tournament.

With the victory Ivey also passed Negreanu for second place in all-time career tournament winnings with $15,990,000.

Durrrronimo.

 

Durrrr Busts Quickly

One of the marquee players in a marquee field, Tom "durrrr" Dwan went bust first early in Level 2, losing with trips queens when Hansen filled up on the river.

Businessman Wong was the next to bust, going out early in Level 3. Fellow businessman Yong followed when he flopped a set of kings against Hansen’s flush draw.

The flush came on turn and Yong was sent packing.

John Juanda, Sam Trickett and Erik Seidel followed shortly after and Paul Phua was the final-table bubble boy busting out in tenth to kickstart the final table redraw.

Jason Mercier was the first to crack in the final nine, getting all in with A♣ 7♠ against Ivey’s A♥ Q♠ and failing to improve.

Dan Smith, Tony Bloom and Winfred Yu went out in short succession before Sorel Mizzi exited fifth to set up the elite final four, getting in with nines against Ivey’s tens.

The Final 3 and Payouts:

1. Phil Ivey $2,000,000 AUD

2. Patrik Antonius $1,200,000 AUD

3. Gus Hansen $800,000 AUD

That means a signifcant number of people are getting their first taste of real live tournament poker at a Heartland event, but it also points to a huge opportunity for US poker pros cut off from online poker.

And with its recent acquisition by Federated Sports and Gaming, owners of the Epic Poker League, the Heartland Poker Tour is only getting bigger.

Televised Poker for Recreational Players

From day one the Heartland Poker Tour has taken a grassroots approach to running poker tournaments.

The HPT has partnered with smaller regional casinos to offer recreational players an affordable chance to play poker for big money, on television.

“At the time the only thing on TV really was the WSOP Main Event and the World Poker Tour," Anderson told PokerListings.com, "and it just seemed impossible for regular players to get into a $10,000 event.

"So we were just kicking around the idea of creating our own show and that was the genesis of it.”

Todd Anderson, co-founder of the Heartland Poker Tour.

 

Heartland’s first season saw seven events across Minnesota and Wisconsin.

In 2011 the tour grew to 15 main events, a charity event and a Pro-Am Qualifier to a $20,000 Epic Poker League event, all spread over nine states.

Using a unique television syndication model that allows networks and stations to pick up the show virtually for free, Anderson and co-founder Greg Lang have run more than 90 events, awarded over $30 million in prizes and produced roughly 170 hours of content.

“I think a big part of why it’s working is because we really try to foster an environment where people get together to have fun, and poker is the thing that’s bringing them together,” said Anderson.

“It’s a great way to get out and play live comfortably and not get overwhelmed and make sure you have a great experience.

“It’s different than the big buy-in events where you really feel that pressure, because it’s a lot of money and people have so much riding on it,” he said.

That open-arms attitude and reach into the mainstream is what made HPT so attractive to Federated Sports + Gaming.

FS+G Chairman and former Commissioner of the World Series of Poker, Jeffrey Pollack, said he’d always admired what the HPT has been able to accomplish.

“I’ve long thought Heartland was one of the great success stories of the modern poker industry,” Pollack told PokerListings.com.

“Poker is America’s most popular card game and there are all sorts of ways to enjoy it, and HPT is a great way for the weekend warriors to enjoy the game in a context that Greg and Todd have really custom-designed for fun and affordability,” Pollack continued.

Untapped Value for Low to Mid-Level US Pros

Online legend Dan "KingDan" Smith won six figures on the HPT in 2008.

 

While the HPT has done everything it can to attract recreational players to its events, it still seems like profesional grinders have by and large given the tour a pass.

But it’s only a matter of time before US pros cut off from most online poker sites take notice.

“Let me put it this way: a pro in our field is going to have an advantage,” quipped Todd Anderson.

“I’m sort of surprised our events haven’t been targeted more by the sort of low- to mid-stakes grinders because they do offer such great value,” he said.

Dan Smith, recent $100k Challenge winner at the Aussie Millions, won a Heartland event in 2008 and there are usually a few notable names peppered into the results, but the pro contingent certainly feels underrepresented.

Location has a lot to do with that since in the tour’s early years events were hosted in just a few Mid-Western states.

Since then the HPT has expanded beyond the actual Heartland to locations like Las Vegas and Florida, and it’s safe to expect to see more familiar faces at HPT final tables.

In the short term, HPT attendance may see a spike during the Black Friday era but in the bigger picture predictions for continued growth have more to do simply with the popularity of live tournament poker.

And the HPT seems to have struck a balance between buy-in, field size and prize pool that seriously appeals to the recreational player.

“HPT has had some ups and some downs and that’s par for the course, but over time we think poker will not only maintain its popularity but continue to grow,” said Pollack.

Anderson echoes that prediction.

"Every day we’re exposing new people to this brand and our merger with Epic Poker has opened up a lot of new doors for us in that department,” he said.

“As long as we’re putting on fair tournaments and as long as we’re putting on a good quality TV show I don’t see any end in sight for the Heartland Poker Tour.”

To read more from Todd Anderson click through to the full interview transcript.