Poker Guru Blog

ESPN’s news franchise recently interviewed the fresh WSOP bracelet winner Dean Hamrick and poker pro Vanessa Rousso.

Dean is the happy winner of a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event for $604,000, which also made him a bracelet owner. He told the Inside Deal host Laura Lane and Andrew Feldman about his feelings when winning the tournament.

PokerStars’ new high stakes poker TV show, the Big Game goes on. This has been the second week of the series, and the five brand new videos are already available.

In the second week of the Big Game, William Davis was the Loose Cannon, facing Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, David Williams, Abe Mosseri and the Internet entrepreneur and blogger Jason Calacanis.

In the fresh episodes Williams gives us a taste of his quite aggressive play, Negreanu and Mosseri find each other, and light gets shed on a few WSOP side bets as well.

As we surf the Net, we can find countless celebrities registered on various community sites, but, unfortunately, most of these accounts are fake.

This time, though, the real Tom ’durrrr’ Dwan decided to create his own Twitter account. His first ever message (’tweet’, to be precise) was as follows:

"I have a twitter... Hiya"

Durrrr seems to like the idea of tweeting regularly, as on his first day he posted around twenty messages. Tom already has 4,237 followers, which is quite a big number in just a few days and he is sure to acquire many more in the near future.

The South Korean police have arrested a Chinese band of hackers, who stole money from online poker players in Internet cafés all around the country. 

According to the South Korean 'Joongang', the 33-member band started operating in November 2009 and has only recently been caught. Since the beginnings, they have hacked the security systems of more than 700 South Korean Internet cafés in different locations around the country. The band was controlled by two men, 30 year-old Yu and 29 year-old Kim.

Yu acquired a Netbook Attacker program on the black market, with which they were able to launch a so-called DDos attack. During the DDos attack, computers connected to the Internet of the cafés became remotely controllable, and this made it possible for the hackers to view the hole cards of the users playing there. 

Under half a year, they won almost $50,000 from the victims. This makes a monthly wage of $250 a month per person, which might sound ridiculous at first hearing, but if we take into consideration that the hourly average wage of a factory worker in China is 75c, it looks much more tempting.

Of course, the following question can still be posed: Wouldn't it have been more beneficial if they had studied some poker strategy?

As I have previously mentioned, Ziigmund spends most of his summer partying, drinking and sports betting. 

I have found a graph that shows all his winnings and losses in 2010, and I considered it worth sharing with you all. His year has been pretty exciting so far, with huge upswings and rapid losses. In March, for example, he was up by more than two million dollars, most of which he managed to lose until the end of April. 

He currently has around $208,000 in winnings, but he also had a shorter period when he was down by one million.

As it has been announced earlier this week, Vanessa Rousso (member of the PokerStars pro team) has signed an endorsement deal with EQ Labs, the company thart produces EQ Energy drink. Rousso joins a whole team of celebrities already advertising “The Smart Energy Drink”.

Vanessa Rousso

EQ is a tablet that dissolves in any kind of beverage and provides instant energy. It is made of vitamins, Gingko Biloba and caffeine (but less than a cup of tea). You can have it in Mo Apple, Strawberry Dream and Lemon Lime flavors.

Vanessa is currently taking part in the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, but she found some time to comment on the issue: “I’m so happy to be part of the EQ Energy team! I have been working with the CEO for a few weeks and really believe in the product and the company. The energy tablets are awesome. They taste great, are super portable, and of course, give me a real energy boost.”

Rousso admitted that she has also been using EQ tablets at the poker tables and loves them:
“As a professional poker player, my energy levels and mental acuity are of the utmost importance. If I lose my focus for just one second, it could cost me a tournament and millions of dollars. EQ keeps me alert and focused when my opponents are ready for bed.”

The deal between Vanessa and EQ Labs has a time frame of a year. In exchange, Rousso receives shares of the company.

PokerNews Daily has visited Antonio Esfandiari in his home at the Panorama Towers in Las Vegas. He showed the PokerNews guys how he does workout on a regular basis, as a part of his new healthy lifestyle. 

Antonio was taking part in the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em WSOP event and there were only 18 players left. He decided to join his personal trainer before continuing with the event. Antonio talks about how working out can improve your everyday mood and also keep yourself focused when playing poker.

If you are following the 2010 World Cup, you must remember Sunday's match between England and Germany, where, although Lampard scored a completely unambiguous goal, the referee did not award it to the English team. 

Betting companies William Hill and Ladbrokes, however decided to provide the winnings for all the people betting that Lampard would score against Germany. 

In December last year, rumors arose that PartyPoker and Bwin plan to join their networks, and speculations started that the two companies will agree on a Bwin – PartyPoker merger. 

At that time, both companies refused to confirm that talks of a merger were really ongoing. 

Later on, the Austrian press reported, that the merger talks between Bwin and PartyPoker were not successful, and the merger will not come true after all. This was due to a statement made by Hannes Androsch, the chairman of the Bwin supervisory board, stating: “It is true, that talks with the English company ultimately did not lead to the desired outcome.” 

Shortly after this, Bwin issued a statement saying that Androsch had been “wrongly quoted” and corrected his statement to this one: "It is true, that up until now, talks have not lead to any specific outcome."

We do not yet know anything else for sure, but I will keep you all updated if any news comes to surface in connection with the matter.

Although he had hired a sports psychologist, Phil Hellmuth still has very serious problems with his temper when it comes to live poker tournaments. 

His last fit came when he got eliminated at the WSOP event #46, $5000 Pot Limt Omaha. What happened is that Dave Ulliott, a.k.a. Devilfish busted him by hitting an Ace high flush on the river. After this, Phil stood up and started screaming. He called Devilfish all kinds of nasty names, like a f***ing idiot, because he didn't fold his flush and straight draw on the flop. 

He then left the table without shaking hands with anyone, while Devilfish happily collected Phil's stack. Phil does not mention the incident on Twitter, all he says is that he played well and did not make mistakes.

Jason Mercier, chosen Player of the Year 2009 by Bluff Magazine, has been a very important figure in the live tournament scene in the past two years.

Bernard Lee, an interviewer for PokerNews Daily, questioned him about his poker secrets, TV shows and passions other than No Limit Hold'em.

The interview was made at the Rio at the 2010 World Series of Poker, in which Mercier is taking part as a PokerStars professional

Mercier has acquired his most recent big cash when he placed first at the North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun $25,000 High Roller Shootout and won $475,000. His live tournament winnings reach almost $5 million so far.

Ever since May, Ziigmund has almost completely disappeared from the poker scene: he hasn't logged in at Full Tilt Poker more than two times and he also neglects live tourneys.

According to the Finnish poker pro, he is only having a little summer holiday and will soon return to the poker tables. Because Ziigmund is a serious gambler, he withdrew part of his bankroll and made several deposits at various sports betting sites.

This year's World Cup has not really been easily predictable, and this might be the reason why Ilari has lost more than half a million dollars. According to him, he is planning to view the grand finale in Johannesburg.

Let's just hope he will still have some money left to cover his travel expenses.

Seven female poker players have been nominated for the 2010 Women in Poker Hall of Fame this year, two of which will be chosen into the Hall of Fame in September.

On the list, we can find current well-known poker players along with older celebrities and poker legends. Here they are:

PartyGaming and PokerStars were donated gaming licenses within the second wave of licence approvals, as published by the French gaming regulator ARJEL on Friday.

PartyGaming has received licenses for five of its sites, including PartyPoker and PartyBets.

PokerStars is from now on also licensed to offer online poker in France on a legal basis, with its subsidiary, Reel Malta acquiring group accreditation from ARJEL. 

The second wave of licence approvals also included the French casino group Partouche, and also Chilipoker.

Earlier this month, Phil Laak set a new world record of non-stop poker by playing 115 hours straight.

A few weeks later, an enthusiastic group from Austria decided to break this record.

The group consisted of seven players, led by the German actor, director and screenwriter Max Kruckl. Their aim was to play poker for 150 hours straight.
Having started on Saturday, 19.06.2010, the event was available on the group’s website for everyone to follow and has ended on Thursday, 24.06.2010.