Poker News

Jared Huggins Big Game Appearance Rejected

Jared Huggins lost his jobs and home in February, 2010 but was helped out by the poker community. Due to his personality and touching videos they soon came to like him and even a proposal was made to get him into PokerStarsThe Big Game show as Loose Cannon. Recently, however, this has been turned down.

Jared Huggins
Jared Huggins

Jared ‘RelaxedPrecision’ Huggins was slapped hard by life in February, 2010. Despite having three jobs at a time, he couldn’t pay his rent and so he lost his home, followed by his jobs and his bankroll. By posting videos at the 2+2 forum (see one below), however, he grew increasingly popular with the poker community, which tried to help him. Today, he once again has a job and home.

New High Stakes Show to Air in 2011 – High Stakes Holdem

Red Deck Productions will launch a new high stakes show, titled High Stakes Hold'em. According to the news, some of the most talented young online pros will take part in the action, such as jungleman12, luckychewy and djk123

The brand new show will probably reach TV sets around the end of March, but no information regarding the channel to be airing the show has aroused yet. The weekly show will consist of 15 parts, 13 of which will be the cash games, and two parts will be presenting the Atlantis All In Poker Series Main Event final table. 

HSH

“High Stakes Hold’em will be a completely new experience for the poker viewing public,” said Eric Ulis, founder and CEO of Red Deck Productions. “HSH will be edgy, aggressive, and very unique.” 

Ullis did not mention how exactly this show will be different from any other cash game series, but one thing is sure: the selection of players cannot be criticised in any way. The players surely taking part in the action will be Dan “djk123” Kelly, Amit “Amak316” Makhija, Andrew “luckychewy” Lichtenberger, Melanie “Callisto” Weisner, Matt “mcmatto” Affleck and Full Tilt Poker's last year profit list leader, Daniel “jungleman12” Cates

Daniel Cates
jungleman12

The episodes will last one hour each, and the commentator will be no other than Tom Schneider, 2007 WSOP 'Player of the Year'. 

Eastgate's Bracelet Owner Revealed Himself

Since Peter Eastgate sold his WSOP bracelet, the one that bought it kept his identity a secret. Until now. It is finally public, who the mysterious man was. We know that it was not Tony G he acknowledged he couldn't win the auction, and not even some major poker room as many predicted, but Scottish businessman, William Haughey.

As I wrote in November, Peter Eastgate put his 2008 WSOP Main Event bracelet up for auction in November. The Danish pro didn't need the money, he offered 100% of the profits to UNICEF. The $16,000 starting price rose quickly, the final bid was $147,500 at the auction's end.

It turned out recently that the new owner of the bracelet is a Scottish businessman, William Haughey. Haughey became a millionaire while leading his own refrigeration company. In the previous 5 years, he donated more than $50 million to various charities, but he also donates money to his favourite soccer club, the Celtic FC.

sir alex ferguson william haughey
Sir Alex Ferguson, Joanne Andrews and William Haughey

Haughey gave the check to UNICEF's ambassador, Sir Alex Ferguson, manager of the Manchester United football team and Joanne Andrews, representative of the UNICEF (in the picture above). $147,500 was exchanged to £94,000, and Haughey thought he would donate a round sum instead, so he paid £100,000, which looks much more impressive on the photo.

Max Katz Sponsors Galen Hall and Earns over $1 Million

PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event winner Galen Hall looked for sponsors for his Caribbean action in December, 2010. Russian businessman and poker player Max Katz didn’t take long to make a deal with him – and consequently profited over $1 million.

Max Katz
Max Katz

Galen ’GasparLeMarc’ Hall, it seems, had had a good feeling about the PCA before the tournament even began. Using the screen name ’GoldenBears’, the pro posted the following at the 2+2 forum on 21st December, 2010: “I feel like I am really on the brink of taking the next big step in my live game.” He then offered 55% of his total PCA buy-ins. The package consisted of the $10,300 Main Event, the $2,150 NLHE as well as the $5,250 (8-max), $5,250 (HU) and $5,250 (Bounty Shootout) NLHE events. These totalled at $28,200 in buy-ins and Hall sold them at 1.18; that is, he sold 1% of his future winnings for $332,76.

Viktor Blom Facing Serious Problems

It was not really a surprise that Viktor Blom stepped out of the darkness as the man behind Isildur1 at the PCA. Many think that the reason for him to hide his identity for so long was to evade Swedish taxes. Now it seems this really was the case: the Swedish tax office wants $149 million in Swedish krona.

Viktor blom
Viktor Blom

Leading Swedish business paper, the Dagens Industri reported some time ago that the Swedish tax office is on to collect taxes from poker players playing at non-EU poker rooms. According to Swedish law, money made in the only Swedish-owned room, Svenska Spelen is tax-free, playing at any other room involves tax. This is why Swedish residents playing at non-EU rooms must pay 30% tax after every pot won.

Ok, Viktor Blom Is Isildur1 - But What Do the Parents Say?

After Viktor Blom admitted at the PCA that he is in fact ’Isildur1’, the young swedish heads-up specialist, he soon became the center of attention. Once doing anything he could to keep his identity secret, the Viktor was finally able to reveal himself. There are many reasons for this, including the very high Swedish taxes, but this will not be a problem for him anymore, as he moved to London leaving Sweden, and all the gorgeous Swedish models behind.
 

Viktor Blom
Viktor Blom

Another important factor was pointed out by a blogger at Expressen.se, Sohello ’BankTheMan’ Shah, who made an interview with Blom recently. From this interview, it becomes clear, that Viktor’s parents were not especially happy about their son risking a fortune on the Internet, especially after losing his whole bankroll ($300,000 at the time) back in 2008.

PCA Super High Roller - Eugene Katchalov Wins

Ukranian pro player, Eugene Katchalov took down the 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) $100,000 Super High Roller title. Katchalov managed to beat Daniel Negranu at the heads-up earning a handsome $1,500,000.

daniel negreanu

7 players sat down at the final table of this year's Super High Roller event in the Atlantis Resort & Casino last Saturday:

Chair 1: Nick Schulman - 2.990.000
Chair 2: Demján Sándor - 379.000
Chair 3: Andrew Lichtenberger - 373.000
Chair 4: Bryn Kenney - 1.390.000
Chair 6: Daniel Negreanu - 2.166.000
Chair 7: Humberto Brenes - 757.000
Chair 8: Eugene Katchalov - 1.476.000

PokerStars Confirms: Viktor Blom Is Isildur1

On Day 1A of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), the site officially revealed the identity of Isildur1. Little surprise there, though: it is the alias of Viktor Blom.

Isildur1 is Viktor Blom
Isildur1 IS Viktor Blom

October, 2009 was Isildur1’s breakthrough; it was when he became a popular topic of discussion throughout the industry by winning millions in just a few weeks’ time at online high stakes tables, eliminating players like Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan. His achievements and aggressive play that came with an insane variance almost instantly catapulted him into being one of the most renowned celebrities of poker, which was further enhanced by the mystery about his true identity. Soon many started identifying him as Viktor Blom, but with the exception of a few, nobody could be 100% sure who he really was. Until now...

Gus Hansen + Caroline Wozniacki a Couple?

Gus Hansen appears to be dating Danish professional tennis player Caroline Wozniacki. The rumor has been around, but now it seems more established, as it turns out from her tweets. Wozniacki, who was said to be dating Rafael Nadal now travels with the Danish Full Tilt pro around the world.

caroline wozniacki
Caroline Wozniacki

The 20-year-old lady must be an extraordinary one, and not just because she plays tennis very well: Danish poker pro Gus Hansen has been following her a quite long time now, he was spotted at nearly all of her tournaments around the globe. She even mentioned the 'Great Dane' in one of her tweets: "Came back from dinner with my team and my friend Gus Hansen.. Now off to bed.. early morning run tomorrow.. xx"

Jungleman12 Further Ahead in the Durrrr Challenge

On Monday, the Durrrr Challenge continued with a 3,000 hand long battle, and Daniel 'jungleman12' Cates has further increased his lead, now $819,000 ahead of Tom 'durrrr' Dwan.

The biggest pot of the second Durrrr Challenge so far was won by Cates on Monday, when Dwan raised preflop with 5-4 of hearts and Cates fired a 3-bet to $4,800 with J-2 of hearts. Dwan called, and the flop showed Q-8-6 with two hearts, giving both players a flush draw and Dwan a gutshot straight flush draw. Cates bet around half the pot on the flop, and Dwan called. The two players saw a King of hearts on the turn. 

Tom Dwan
Tom 'durrrr' Dwan - is he in trouble now?

Both players had their flushes, and Cates bet out $16,800 and Dwan called. The river was a 3 of diamonds. Cates started the action again, this time betting $43,600. Dwan shoved all-in with $81,000. Cates called and took down the tremendous $216,000 pot.

Durrrr took a huge pot as well, when he managed to win $181,000 with a nut flush, but Cates won 58% of the total pots. Dwan and jungleman12 have wagered a massive $113 million so far, with Cates taking down 8 of the 10 largest pots during the second round of the Durrrr Challenge. 

The challenge is currently one-third of the way through, and although anything can happen, Durrrr will surely have a hard time trying to defeat jungleman12.

Sorel Mizzi Became 2010 BLUFF Player of the Year

The top 20 players of the annual Player of the Year competition at BLUFF Magazine have been announced a few days ago, and it did not really surprise anyone that Sorel Mizzi came out on top.

Mizzi has several final table finishes behind him from last year, and also a third place at the Aussie Millions Main Event. He was already leading the contest in March, not giving away this position to anyone in 2010. He continued to collect BLUFF points by winning several other tourneys and getting into the final table at almost every tournament he visited.

Sorel Mizzi
Sorel Mizzi on the cover of BLUFF Magazine
 

UB Flagships Sail Away

Probably the two most important figures of the UB pro team, Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke have announced that they are to leave the poker room after many-many years of working together.

“Wishing both @annieduke and @phil_hellmuth the best of luck with everything in the future. Pleasure working with both”- said Joe Sebok, dean of Team UB Pro on Twitter.
 
He then wrote on his blog:
 
“2010 sees us parting ways with two icons of the poker world, Phil Hellmuth and Annie Duke. These two legends in our industry have, quite literally, helped to build UB into what it is today. Phil and Annie have been the face of the company for years now and we thank them for their unbelievable contributions and bid them the utmost in success moving forward.”

The fact that Hellmuth departed is not fully astonishing, seeing that he has not really been wearing the UB logo nowadays (although he did appear with the UB logo at a charity event on the 18th December).

When questioned about the departure, Duke mentioned personal reasons, and said that it had been a pleasure for her to represent UB, but would like to try herself out in something else.
 

Annie Duke
Annie Duke

The SuperStar Showdown – Isildur1 Defeats Tony G

The second round of the SuperStar Showdown has ended with Isildur1’s victory, as he managed to beat Tony G with a $44,820 profit.

In the SuperStar Showdown, a brand new promotion offered by PokerStars, players that have a sufficient bankroll can challenge Isildur1 heads-up. The games, either NLHE or PLO, are played at $50/$100 stakes, at a minimum of 4 tables and consist of 2,500 hands.

As I have written before, Isildur1 had lost the first match against Isaac ’philivey2694’ Haxton. Although the still-secret-identity PokerStars pro would have preferred a rematch, he had to take on his new challenger, Tony G.

Isildur1
Isildur1, the newly recruited PokerStars Pro

The current match against Tony G was played at two NLHE and two PLO tables on 2nd January. It came as a surprise, that at the NLHE tables, where Isildur1 was considered to be much better, the results showed a draw, as the Swede only managed to make $500 in 1,250 hands. This way, it was the outcome at the PLO tables that mostly constituted the results:

HS 2010 – Jungleman12 Tops High Stakes Profit List

The American Daniel Cates (jungleman12) became the 2010 high stakes poker king with $5,5 million in profits. The fish of the year is Brian Townsend.

Daniel ’jungleman12’ Cates made his first appearance at Full Tilt Poker’s high stakes tables in 2009. His first season was not successful; Brian had lost $453,056 in 45,396 hands. The 21 year-old high stakes specialist, however, has improved a lot, and in 2010, the breakthrough came: he has won the yearly high stakes crown with $5,503,296 (145,212 hands).

Jungleman12 dominated in NLHE and became the best in this game type with $3,519,502 (105,917 hands). His other winnings came from PLO ($1,353,855 in 32,990 hands) and mixed games ($632,939 in 6305 hands).

Daniel Cates
Daniel 'jungleman12' Cates

Durrrr Challenge 2 Pauses?

In a recent chat between Dani ’Ansky’ Stern and Daniel ’jungleman12’ Cates, appearing on a 2+2 thread, jungleman states there is currently a break in Durrrr Challenge 2. There is no action since 16th December, which means it might turn deep into January, 2011 until the challenge is up and running again.

Durrrr Challenge 2

A conversation between Dani ’Ansky’ Stern and Daniel ’jungleman12’ Cates has been put on the 2+2 forum, and it seems we have a break in the ongoing Durrrr Challenge 2. To Ansky’s question “Are you and Tom playing any time soon?” jungleman replied: “idk… Seems like there will be a big hiatus… Tom is hard to work with.” The challenge is offline since 16th December, and 2010 is obviously not going to see any more action here either.

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