Poker News

The inaugural British Poker Awards took place earlier this week at the Kensington Close Hotel in London. Hosted by Michael Caselli and Antonio Esfandiari, eleven awards went to poker players, contributors, providers and forums, according to a public online voting as well as the decision of fellow poker pros and editors.

The nominees for each category were selected by poker journalists and around 3,000 people voted for the eight that were Reader’s Choice. These are as follows: Best Cash Player, Best Tournament Player, Best Online Player, Best International Player, Best Poker League, Best UK Card Room, Best Contribution to Poker and Best UK Poker Forum.

The fourth European instalment of the World Series of Poker kicked off in London at the Casino at the Empire yesterday. The tournament lasts from 14th to 28th September and consists of five events: a £2,500+£150 6-max NLHE (14th-16th Sept), a £5,000+£250 PLO (16th-18th Sept), a £1,000+£75 NLHE (17th-21st Sept), a £10,000+£350 NLHE High Roller Heads-Up (21st-23rd Sept) and the £10,000+£350 NLHE Main Event (23rd-28th Sept).

The first event began yesterday with 244 entrants, 31 of whom return today to make it to the 6-handed final table (the first 24 places pay). Those still in the event include Chris Moorman (94,200), Phil Laak (63,600) and Liv Boeree (27,700); the field is currently led by Andrew Pantling (106,100). Poker pros like Vanessa Rousso, Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Michael Mizrachi and Tom 'durrrr' Dwan also paid the buy-in for this first event but they have already been eliminated.

The whistle has been blown and the NFL Season took a start. A lot of poker players seem to have an interest for football, and Daniel Negreanu is not an exception here. He has been betting on the outcome of the past two matches, not with a hundred percent success.

 “Bet one early NFL game CIN +5 hoping Palmer has a big game against an inexperienced NE secondary,” said Daniel on Twitter. The Bengals eventually lost to the Patriots.

Negreanu tried to make up for this with yet another bet: “Looks like I’m dead on my Cincy bet down 21 ugh. Hoping SF -3 will get me even at Seattle.” Unfortunately for ’Kid Poker’, San Francisco lost against Seattle.

Daniel is also participating in the Poker Royalty Fantasy Football League, and talks about his own fantasy football team in the video below:

As it was popular in the news recently, and as I informed you about, a group of China-based players colluded against players at PokerStars tables. One of the victims of the conspiracy, Tom Broadbent was not happy with his refund, $16,90, he thinks PokerStars owes him much more. He decided to travel to Beijing to report the incident personally to the local police.

The scandal was big news, and PokerStars closed 38 accounts involved in the illegal activities rather quickly, in which the conspirators earned a total of about $494,000 and PokerStars paid $2,100,000 in compensation to the victims. It turned out in Beijing to Mr. Broadbent that Chinese authorities have little power on such cases, hence foreign gangs know they can easily get away with crimes like these.

Such collusion is not very common, but not unprecedented. PokerStars, the largest online poker room have previously refunded $80,000 to players who unwittingly went up against poker "bots" - automated card-playing software programs that were mixed with real-life players at online tables.

Full Tilt Poker has announced that they will sponsor the Bellator Fighting Championships, which is a series of mixed martial arts (MMA) events, televised by FOX Sports and also broadcasted by NBC in their Saturday night highlight shows.

This is the third season of the Bellator series, one of the most popular fighting championships in the world. Bellator 28, this year’s first event was organized on the 9th September in the Mahalia Jackson Theatre in New Orleans, and this event already had Full Tilt logos everywhere.

Full Tilt Poker Makes its Debut in the Fighting Industry

Bellator 29 will be organized at the Rave Eagle Ballroom in Milwaukee on the 16th September.

You must remember the PartyPoker World Open VI. I wrote about a week ago, the $10,000 elvent that took pace at the Palm Beach Casino in London featuring 48 poker pros.

Sam Trickett

Well, we already have a winner. Former pro soccer player Sam Trickett have won the 2010 World Open VI. The player has had a very good year in his blossoming tournament poker career, but this result is the best so far.

The tournament was played in a shootout format, meaning players had to finish everybody off at their tables to advance to the final table. Trickett had to defeat the lineup of James Akenhead, Neil Channing, Lee Atherton, Ian Frazer, Peter Jetten, Dan Fleyshman and World Open IV. champion Marty Smyth in order to play at the final table. He succeeded, and with very good play eliminated Yevgeniy Timoshenko. He earned $200,000 for the win, boosting his total earnings for 2010 to more than $1 million.

PokerStars is closing in on its 50 billionth hand dealt during its operation of nearly a decade (another milestone they will celebrate more than adequately, I’m sure). The exact date can only be estimated, of course, but the celebration is already on with around a million dollars to play for.

“This is 50 Billion, and it‘s going to be massive,” PokerStars promises. Let’s take a look at what they have in store. For cash game players, there will be cash prizes from around 16th September: if you happen to be dealt in one of the millionth hands (counting starts at 49,700,000,000), you earn $50 for every VPP you accumulated during the last 50 hands on that particular table. If you even win that hand, your prize is doubled. The prize is exactly ten times higher for those lucky ones dealt in the Mega Milestone 50 billionth hand: its $500 for every VPP with double money and even an additional $50,000 for the winner. Moreover, players dealt in this hand are granted free entry to the $5,200 WCOOP Main Event on 26th September.

Michael Mizrachi, WSOP winner and pro player at Full Tilt Poker, is sued by Deliverance Poker, his previous sponsor, because of contract breach.

According to Deliverance, they signed with Mizrachi in July 2009, for which he received $150,000, a 1.75% interest in the company and "advance expenses related to poker tournaments in which Defendant Mizrachi would participate.” In return, he had to wear Deliverance patches and hats at all public appearances. Until the WSOP Main Event he did so but then he signed another deal with Tiltware and began to wear Full Tilt badges and hats. This is where the complaint stems from.

Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi

Deliverance claims their contract with the pro has been breached by the one with Tiltware because he previously signed that he would "exclusively wear site logoed shirts and caps during all tournament and Public Apperances" and that he would grant exclusive access to his name and likeness to Deliverance. They now seek lost profits and earning capacity as well as other damages the court might order.

Mizrachi and Full Tilt are yet to comment the case.

'Grolongo', a mysterious Swedish player playing Pot Limit Omaha and No Limit Holdem has appeared at PokerStars and is becoming more and more popular in cash game action. His identity is unknown, but there is much debate who he might be. Many people speculate that the man behind 'grolongo' is in fact the Swedish player 'Isildur1', Viktor Blom at Full Tilt Poker.

'Isildur1' became a poker superstar in 2009, when he earned a ton of of money, and played against such poker stars like Phil Ivey and Patrik Antonius, to whom he lost the biggest pot ever, $1,3 million, which was a serious blow for him.

Shooting in London at the moment, the fifth season of the Million Dollar Cash Game is promising to be more excting than ever. Although nobody knows the full list of players taking part in the event yet, Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan has confirmed on Twitter that he is heading to the spot, and Ilari ‘Ziigmund’ Sahamies also made it public on his blog that he arrived in London to participate in this massive cash game show.

"Omw to ftp cashgame, hoping to run as good (or better) than last year" says durrrr on Twitter.

James Hopkins, managing director for Emblaze Productions, commented the following on the upcuming show:

 “We are delighted that Full Tilt Poker have continued their association with the Million Dollar Cash Game and we are expecting the strongest player line up yet for season 5.”

Aired in January 2011, I am once again hoping to see the biggest pot in the history of televised poker in season five.
So far, the biggest cash game pot has been almost $1.2 million, played by durrrr and Phil Ivey in the same show last year:

In 1997, Betsson charged the government for breaking the law of the European Union by imposing a ban on almost all land-based slot machines, only excluding those owned by Svenska Spel, Swedish gambling monopoly. Although the court agreed with Betsson on the interpretation of Swedish gambling laws, no compensation will be provided, says RakeRace.com.

When the ban was introduced by the Swedish government, Betsson was forced to shut down its slot machine business, and has been asking for a $14 million damage cost. The Stockholm District Court found the Swedish government guilty of violating European Union laws, but no other action will be taken because the main causes of the ban were changes in legal procedure.

Betsson is still allowed to provide its other services in Sweden’s regulated and unregulated markets, but they have been denied permission to operate their online sportsbook services because of Svenska Spel’s monopoly.

Pontus Lindwall

Betsson CEO Pontus Lindwall said the following about the issue:

“A clear case of court decay. Apparently the state can act outside the law while the law applies for everyone else.”

The British Poker Awards is now around the corner, coming on Monday, 13th September, with the polls open since early August. Pieces of news arrive regularly as we close in on the event and now the hosts of the show are announced: poker celebrity Antonio Esfandiari and Bluff Europe’s Michael Caselli.

A part of the London Poker Festival, the BPA takes place at the Kensington Close Hotel, a new venue that can host more attendants than the originally planned Fox Poker Club. Entry fee will be £39 or free in case you are the lucky voter to win your ticket for the show. Comedian Yianni Agisilaou will warm up the audience for the event, starting at 8.00 PM after a cocktail reception and before an optional £50 NLHE tournament at 9.00 PM. You can vote nominees like Neil Channing, Chris Moorman, Luke Schwartz or Phil Ivey in eight categories. From the additional three awards, two are Player’s Choice and one is Editor’s Choice. You can cast your vote at the official website until 10th September.

Atlantis Internet Group Corp. and Cake Gaming has recently signed an agreement that allows the latter to provide interstate online poker on Indian lands in the 30 US states where tribal casinos are operating. The National Indian Gaming Commission supports the deal that creates the new provider called Tribal Gaming Network, writes PartTimePoker.com.

The Palm Beach Casino in Mayfair, London once again hosts the PartyPoker World Open. The $10,000 event, starting today on 6th September, is played by 48 poker pros and the winner will take $200,000 of the $480,000 total prize pool.

Starting stacks are three times bigger than last year in the eight-handed Heats and seven of the 48 players will be seated at the final table on 10th September. PartyPoker World Open V winner Phil Laak returns to defend his title from aspirants like Tom 'durrrr' Dwan, Neil Channing, Brandon Cantu, Huck Seed, Luke Schwartz, Annette Obrestad, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Jake Cody, Jennifer Tilly and Dave ‘Devilfish’ Ulliott. “Last year was a wild roller coaster ride. This year, I am looking forward to coming back to defend my title – it is ideal that it comes straight off the back off the WPT London Poker Classic – hopefully I can win both,” Laak commented.

The Heats will be played from 6th to 9th September and Jesse May and Kara Scott will cover the happenings of the tourney.

In November 2010, the WSOP Main Event Final Table will not be the only event worth of your attention, as the International Poker Players Association (IPPA) Championship, the poker tournament with the biggest buy-in ever, will also take place at that time in Monte Carlo.

48 players are expected to cough up the $250,000 in Monte Carlo, all top dogs, of course. Entrees who have already registered are as follows: Patrik Antonius, Phil Ivey, Tom 'durrrr' Dwan, Michael and Robert Mizrachi, Huck Seed, Gus Hansen, Johnny Chan, Freddie Deeb, Tony G, Bruno Fitoussi, Allen Cunningham and John Hennigan.