Poker Guru Blog

The cap of the $1,000,000 World Series of Poker Big One event got raised from 48 to 56 seats. The tournament is part of the 2014 WSOP schedule.

Antonio Esfandiari and Guy Laliberté

In 2012, the biggest buy-in event of all time was held as part of the WSOP schedule, the $1,000,000 Big One for One Drop. The tournament was organised to benefit the One Drop foundation, established by Cirque Du Soleil owner Guy Laliberté, with 11.11% of the total prize pool. The foundation is working on giving access to clear water to those in need around the world. Last year, organisers set a cap of 48 to maximize participation and the tournament was indeed “sold out” with some aspiring players even having been denied the opportunity to participate.

Belgian ‘tupac_srj’ won the PokerStars Carnival – 800 Million Celebration event but it is runner-up ‘environ’ in the spotlight on the international forums. Apparently, the Norwegian player cashed over $160,000 in his first ever tournament at the room.

On Sunday, the 800 millionth multi-table tournament took place at PokerStars. The Carnival – 800 Million Celebration event had a guaranteed prize pool of $1,000,000 but the 21,635 entrants amassed a lot more, a total of $2,163,500. At the nine-handed final table, two times Super Tuesday winner Spanish Oscar ‘MendaLerenda’ Serradell was by far the most recognized player. He was accompanied by ‘hateblondies’, ’tupac_srj’, ‘miami1984’, ‘theNERDguy’, ‘environ’, ‘AirBusA’, ‘Mightyf00l’ and ‘VitinhO Dzi’.

The golden bracelet eluded Dan O'Brien once again in the heads-up.

Only the final heads-up session of the WSOPE Event #3 €5,300 Mixed-Max NLHE was left for the last day of the tournament. Dan O'Brien had three times the stack of his opponent, Darko Stojanovic. After his 2nd finish in last year’s WSOPE €3,000 NLHE Shootout event for €116,280 and several WSOP Final Tables, the US pro was in for his first ever golden bracelet.

WSOP 2012 Main Event 5th finisher Jeremy Ausmus scooped in his first ever career golden bracelet.

On Day 3 of the WSOPE Event #4 €1,650 Pot Limit Omaha, the six-handed Final Table took place with EPT Deauville High Roller Champion Juha Helppi in the lead and WSOP 2012 Main Event 5th finisher Jeremy Ausmus, as well as two times WSOP champion and EPT title holder Jason Mercier also at the table.

The Final Table seat draw was as follows:

Dan O'Brien, Jason Mercier, Jeremy Ausmus and Juha Helppi are all in for a golden bracelet today at the World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) 2013.

WSOPE Event #3 €5,300 Mixed-Max NLHE day 3 brought about the 4-handed section of the event. In the lead of the 16 players still in play was Noah Schwartz with 262,000 in chips. Marc McLaughlin, Marc Trijaud, Wai Kin Yong, Nicolaus Teichert, November Nine member Marc Newhouse and James Dempsey got eliminated in this order, before Phil Ivey had to abandon his hopes of acquiring his 10th bracelet in the tournament.

Live poker scammers’ group is wanted by the German police. Local press reports Ali Tekintamgac to be under arrest since late September.

First reported by the Augsburger Allgemeine and later confirmed by other sources, WPT title holder Ali Tekintamgac is in the custody of the Augsburg police department. He was arrested late September on the charges of running an international live poker cheater group. Another suspect, also wanted by the authorities, is Kadir Karabulut, who might have fled to Turkey. He disappeared in March this year and many claimed he had become victim of a crime but at the moment, it seems more viable that he has been at large ever since.

The World Poker Tour (WPT) World Championship and the European Poker Tour (EPT) Monte Carlo stop events are scheduled to overlap each other, frustrating a number of players, interested in both. WPT President Adam Pliska has recently addressed the issue.

vs.

There are increasing concerns on players’ part about the overlap in the schedules of this season’s WPT World Championship and EPT Monte Carlo. Last week, WPT published the specific dates for events in the second half of the ongoing season and it immediately caused players to worry, as the two events will be taking place simultaneously. Apparently, WPT event organizers have been aware of the conflict and negotiated with EPT officials the options to let interested players attend both festivals.

An incredibly tough prop bet has been offered via the TwoPlusTwo online forum by a US PLO regular living in Budapest. ‘UziStuNNa’ aims to win $20,000 pre-rakeback in a month at up to 14 PLO50 and PLO100 6-max tables.

Of the several US pros scattering around the globe after Black Friday, many landed in continental Europe, aside the most important destinations like Canada, Mexico and the United Kingdom. There are a number of US players now residing in Budapest, Hungary, too, some of whom – including WCOOP title holder Michael ‘mrw8419’ Weisbrod – we have previously introduced to you in a video interview. Another grinder to carry on in the Central-Eastern European Capital is ‘UziStuNNa’, 3rd finisher in this year’s WCOOP $320 PL 5-Card Omaha 6-Max 1R1A event for $39,380.

Not only does PokerStars celebrate the upcoming 800 millionth multi-table tournament in its history, but also has it announced that the UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) is visiting the home of the room, the Isle of Man.

Liv Boeree, one of the PS Team Pros to attend the festival

Shortly after announcing the schedule to celebrate the 800 millionth multi-table tournament in the history of the room, PokerStars presents the first ever visit of the UK and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT) to its very own home, the Isle of Man. The six days long poker festival kicks off on 30 October at Villa Marina and Gardens and it features a £1,100 NLHE Main Event with a £500,000 guaranteed prize pool. Among the events, streamed online by PokerStars TV, are tournaments of a wide variety of buy-ins, including some from as low as £110.

With the €1,100 NLHE Ladies Event, this year’s World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) launched at the Casino Barrière d'Enghien-les-Bains in Paris.

At last weekend, the European instalment of the World Series of Poker kicked off in Paris, at the Casino Barrière d'Enghien-les-Bains. Originally, seven bracelet events had been planned but an eighth was added later, the €1,100 NLHE Ladies Event. It is with this tournament that the WSOPE 2013 launched. A total of 65 players registered and accumulated €62,400 in prize money. Several renowned female players were among the entrants, including Liv Boeree, Gaelle Baumann and Jackie Glazier. The latter two made it to the eight-handed Final Table, too.

Last weekend, the Final Table was formulated and played down in this year’s European Poker Tour (EPT) London festival. GuangDong Asia Millions runner-up Jeff Rossiter started in the chiplead but Robin Ylitalo won the bracelet.

Robin Ylitalo

16 players remained for Day 5 of the EPT London 2013 £5,250 Main Event, with Sunday 500 winner David ‘MissOracle’ Yan in the lead and players aimed at reaching the Final Table. Following British Neophytos Neophytou, Kent Roed, Tudor Purice, Nicolau Villa-Lobos, David Yan, Javier Etayo and Senh Ung got eliminated. Previous chipleader Martin Kozlov bubbled the Final Table: he and Stefan Vagner moved all-in on the 6-8-A flop on Level 27 (5,000/25,000/50,000). Kozlov held pocket queens while Vagner tabled aces for a three of a kind and the last streets did not help Kozlov.

A new poker utility software has been launched recently by PokerSnowie. PokerCoach is here to teach players the Game Theory Optimal (GTO) strategy by showing us our mistakes and to suggest moves that correspond with GTO strategy.

Snowie Games was established in 1998 and their first hit was BackgammonSnowie, a piece of software to coach backgammon players on a higher level. In June 2013, Snowie turned to a new field, poker, by launching the PokerSnowie brand. The first product developed by the new firm is PokerCoach, a utility tool to assist subscribing full ring, short-handed and heads-up players in acquiring the Hold’em cash game GTO strategy. The company officially describes the tool as “your world class, private poker coach”.

The Holdem Manager Cloud used to exclusively support PokerStars but now, Full Tilt Poker users can also remote access their statistics.

The Holdem Manager development team has announced that their innovative feature, HM Cloud now moves on to support Full Tilt Poker, in addition to PokerStars. With the cloud-based system, users can remote access their databases and statistics, as well as use a limited HUD. Support for iPoker, PartyPoker and 888Poker clients are planned for the near future. Also, the HM Cloud HUD is under development, with the future ability to import your own HM2 HUD. Currently, there are five types available: Default, Expanded, Harrington Intermediate, Harrington Advanced and Heads-Up.

While writers David Levien and Brian Koppelman have already finished the story of Rounders 2, apparently the studio will only give the green light for the production if the Runner Runner movie proves a success. Chances of that happening seem slim.

Just recently, the movie Runner Runner has hit cinemas worldwide but it failed to impress the audience or critics. For all the Rounders fans, however, it would be important for the film to be a success as it may be decisive about the future of a Rounders sequel. In theory, everything is set to shoot Rounders 2, except for the copyright holders’ willingness to produce the movie. Apparently, the financial success or failure of Runner Runner can tip the scales.

The field of the European Poker Tour (EPT) London Main Event reached the in the money finishes on Day 3 of the tournament. In the lead is ANZPT II Melbourne champion Martin Kozlov.

On Day 3 of the EPT London £5,250 Main Event, 106 players returned to the tables with Tudor Purice in the lead behind 628,200 in chips. Several major names of the industry accompanied him, including November Nine member Mark Newhouse and online MTT regular Robin Ylitalo, to highlight just the top ten of the participants.