Poker Guru's blog

The November Nine

If you are interested in poker, you probably come across news far and near about the setup of the final table of the WSOP 2010. Here I provide some intel on the players striving for the most coveted bracelet of the championship and the $8,944,138 prize.

Jonathan DuhamelJonathan Duhamel (65,975,000)
He is both the chip leader and the youngest player of the Nine, also delivering his best performance ever. Besides a 10th place in the 2008 EPT Prague €5,000 NLHE side event (€42,800), he made it in the money in two events of the WSOP this year, the $1,500 NLHE 6-handed (50th place, $5,724) and the $1,500 NLHE (15th place, $37,276).
Duhamel originally intended the WSOP as a means of gaining experience and he wishes to play even more live games, especially EPT events.

 

John DolanJohn Dolan (46,250,000)
Although boasting a number of achievements, the top of his career is this year’s WSOP Main Event, similarly to several of his fellow ’Niners’. He used to work in a casino and also participated in the WSOP event for casino employees in 2007. He went ITM twice in the 2009 WSOP, and finished 32th in the $1,500 NLHE ($13,541) and 6th in the $1,000 NLHE ($82,804) this year.
After two less successful WSOPs, Dolan is now amongst the best. He said he would analyse the style of the others and adopt his own accordingly. 

Kimberly Lansing is Back Hosting the WPT

In an earlier video we saw Kimberly Lansing announcing to return to the WPT TV show. Now it is time to present you a short bio on the compelling beauty of poker.

According to her official website, Kimberly graduated from the University of Southern California with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and was first employed as entertainment journalist by Associated Press and Us Weekly. The next stop for her was right on the top of the industry: the People magazine. In addition, she appears on screen at WireImage, Cosmo Celebrity TV and Hollywood.com, interviewing red carpet celebrities.

Kimberly Lansing
Kimberly Lansing

Patrik Antonius Short of Luck on WSOP and Online

Having got far on the Main Event, Patrik Antonius was eliminated from the WSOP before the bubble burst after all. Unfortunately, he was also struggling at the Full Tilt tables, losing $224,641 the other day.

Patrik Antonius
Patrik Antonius

Playing 705 hands at 7-game tables, he did well in the limit games but had bad luck in the NLHE and PLO, his ‘native’ game type, losing $103,614 to the Russian NEKOTYAN alone. As few high stakes pros have been active recently, he lost probably the most in July.

Besides being dealt a few bad hands, Antonius also made sure to lose big; he called several times when he definitely shouldn’t have, resulting in a loss of a total of $224,641. The greatest winner of the day thus became NEKOTYAN with his earnings from the Finnish.

Top 5 Poker Tells with Daniel Negreanu

In case you haven't seen it yet, here are the Top 5(?) poker tells from Daniel Negreanu. Do you want to know what it means if your opponent glances at their stack? If they reach out to their chips early? If they splash chips aggressively? If they talk gibberish? Well, see for yourself.

Have a nice Monday morning!  

Poker Film Review – Pari e Dispari (1978)

A thirty year old movie that I occasionally still watch and know the lines by heart, Pari e Dispari is definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it already. It’s a classic Bud Spencer – Terence Hill film about poker, gambling, roulette and sports betting, this is why I thought it deserves the review.

PARI E DISPARI

I think it’s pretty hard to write anything new about a film that almost everyone knows and has also aired by many TV stations. The jokes and punts are still as funny as they were 30 years ago, and we can still quote them at a poker table these days.

Real Deal Poker – A Real Innovation?

RealDealPoker.com is surely a poker site that offers something outstanding: they deal real cards in an online environment. 

This is how RealDealPoker founder Gene Gioia describes their poker site:

"There are no random number generators here.Our revolutionary technology uses real cards, can be audited, and leaves no question about the fairness of games. We have accomplished what no one thought was possible: to deal real cards in an online environment." 

Tag Heuer Introduces the First Night Vision Sunglasses

Tag Heuer, well-known for their beautiful wrist watches, has now come up with something unprecedented: the Squadra Night Vision Sunglasses.

Tag Heuer

The lenses have been designed mainly for 24-hour-long car races, this is what, for example, Peugeot drivers were wearing at the Le Mans 24-hour-race.

These sunglasses have a titanium body and big contrast lenses, being the first sunglasses in the world that are capable of making up for late night myopia (this is when, at night, our eyes progressively lose focusing capability when staring in the darkness for a long time).

Ongame Stands in the Line and Changes Rake Calculation Method

Over the past year or so, many-many poker sites decided to change their rake calculation method from ‘dealt’ to ‘contributed’.

Contributed rake calculation means, that only those players will receive rakeback, for example, that actually put their money in the pot, whereas with the dealt method, all players would receive points, with no regard to the fact that they fold their hand or decide to play.

Starting from Thursday, the 15th July, the Ongame Network has joined the sites using the contributed rake calculation. Their new system is called ‘Essence’.
Here is a brief overview on how exactly the new method will differ from the former version.

Ongame

WPT Bellagio Cup VI – Moritz Kranich is the New Champion

Running from 11th – 15th July, The $10,000 buy-in WPT Bellagio Cup had 353 entrants this year, with most of the poker pros that got busted in the WSOP Main Event moving their headquarters to the Bellagio for this grand tournament.

The organizers of the tournament took into consideration the many players at the WSOP, and extended late registration to two days into the tourney. Among the very late entries were Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Chris Ferguson, Phil Ivey and the 'Poker Brat', Phil Hellmuth.

Hellmuth had once again organized himself a grand entrance (he was escorted by the gorgeus Royal Flush Girls), which, just like at the WSOP, did not improve his gameplay, as he got busted after about half an hour of action.

Phil Hellmuth and the Royal Flush Girls
The 'Poker Brat' with the Royal Flush Girls

WSOP Main Event Day 6 – Theo Jorgensen Takes the Lead

The Danish Theo Jorgensen is leading the WSOP Main Event after the end of Day 6, followed by Michael Mizrachi, William Thorson and Alexander Kostritsyn.
205 players started Day 6 of the Main Event. Canadian poker player Evan Lamprea started the day as chipleader, with a stack of 3,564,000.

At the 22nd blind level,  John May said goodbye to the tournament. He was the only player who could have beaten Joe Cada’s record from last year, being the youngest player to win the Main Event. Cada won the 2009 ME just one week before his 22nd birthday. May celebrated his 21st birthday on Day 1D, he thus would have been able to set an unbeatable record, 21 being the minimum age to be able to enter a casino.

Although he did not succeed, John May managed to take 164th place, taking home $52,102.

The race has also ended for Johnny Chan, who went all-in with a pair of Jacks, and got called by Jonathan Driscolli, holding Aces. No help came for Johnny.

Johnny Chan
Johnny Chan

New Job Opportunities in Egaming

Following the dramatic economic downswing of the past few years, the storm finally seems to have settled, and new opportunities in the field of Egaming start arising once again.

According to EGR Magazine Online and Chris Denny, director of Hyperion i-Gaming Recruitment, the job market started responding to the economic changes quite quickly and positively.

WSOP Main Event – End of Day Five

Although many-many big names already had to say goodbye to this year’s WSOP Main Event, there is a quite strong selection of poker players steadily moving towards the November final.

574 players returned to the Rio on Day 5 of the Main Event. Tony ‘Bond18’ Dunst started as chipleader with a stack of 1,546,000, and was closely followed by Phil Galfond Theo Jorgensen, Johnny Chan and JP Kelly, just to mention the most well-known poker players.

International favorites followed each other getting busted on Day 5. Jason Mercier, Sammy Farha, Brandon Cantu and Evelyn Ng got eliminated.
Later on, Cole South, Steven Burkholder, Hoyt Corkins, Vitaly Lunkin, Andre Coimbra, Praz Bansi and Scotty Nguyen also said goodbye to the tournament.

Evelyn Ng
Evelyn Ng

Lauren Kling, my favorite female player this year, also dropped out on the fifth day.

After the elimination of many poker stars, there is still a very strong player base competing for the bracelet, including Johnny Chan and high stakes pros Johnny Lodden, Phil Galfond, David Benyamine and Michael Mizrachi.

Evan Lamprea will start Day 6 as chipleader, and 205 players are still in battle for the glory.

888 – French Licence Granted

The waves of poker licence donations in France go on, as the French Gaming Authority, ARJEL, has given permission to the 888 network (joined together with Microgaming) to operate their online poker sites in France.

The first operator that will launch on this network will probably be ‘La Société Française des Jeux sur Internet (SFJI)’, most likely under the brand ’200pourcentpoker’.

With this, 888 becomes part of the group of sites that are allowed to provide online poker in France, including PartyGaming, PokerStars, Bwin, Everest Poker, Betclic and Chiligaming so far.

Lauren Kling and the WSOP

Lauren Kling is a magnificent 23 years old poker player, freshly graduated from Berkeley. She admits to have been playing poker for five years now, but she only started playing live tournaments about a year ago.

Her career winnings exceed $300,000 and show a steadily rising pattern. She has taken  part in four events at this year’s WSOP and reached the money bubble in two of them, which is a pretty good ratio. And, most importantly, she is still in the competition for a Main Event title.

Lauren Kling

Three Out of Four Mizrachis Are Still In

Amongst the most amazing phenomena of the WSOP 2010 are the Mizrachi brothers, all of whom having made it to Day 4. Although only three of them entered Day 5, their achievement is already more than remarkable.

Michael Mizrachi
Michael Mizrachi

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