Poker Guru Blog

Jennifer Harman recently hosted her annual charity poker tournament, which benefits the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA). Planet Hollywood poker room in Las Vegas decided to honor her efforts with a special poker felt with. While custom made felts are not unusual, this one might be one of the wierder ones we have seen so far... 

PokerStars has announced last Friday that they will be adding casino games and a sportsbook to their site. Blackjack and roulette will be available in the client shortly, while sportsbetting and other casino games will come in 2015.

The revenues of the Canadian company who recently acquired PokerStars and Full Tilt blew up in the third financial quarter of the year, and they have decided to sell the Ongame network to NYX Gaming Group.

As we have reported, the high stakes game dried up significantly after two of the three biggest losers of the year, Gus Hansen and Viktor ''Isildur1'' Blom, disappeared from the Full Tilt high stakes tables after their sponsorship deal ended. From the middle of November, it was Phil ''Polarizing'' Ivey who created most of the action at the tables, winning $900,000.

The WSOP Main Event finalists living in London have saved $9.55 million total in taxes, the American players pay at least 40% of their winnings. Russ Fox from  Clayton Financial and Tax has  been writing reports about the taxation of the WSOP winners for years, and you can read the shocking excerpt from this years report below.

PokerStars is organizing the Billionth Tournament Carnival between November 17 - 30 to celebrate their one billionth tournament ever. Throughout the Carnival there will be Golden Sit&Gos, $3 million added to daily tournaments, and the $2 million guaranteed Billionth Tournament.

As we have recently reported, Daniel "mrgr33n13" Colman has called Phil Hellmuth a spineless whore and a cancer to this world. High stakes cash game player Dani "Ansky" Stern and Greg Merson, the 2012 WSOP Main Event champion have both given their opinion regarding the situation.

Viktor "Isildur1" Blom talked about participating in a live cash game organized by Unibet and about attending the Unibet Open in London this November, and rumors are he might join the company as a sponsored player soon.

 As we have previously reported, Phil Hellmuth was recently the guest of Brian Koppelmans popular podcast, The Moment. In the thread about the podcast on the 2+2 forums, one of the first commenters was Daniel Colman, who called Hellmuth a spineless whore and a cancer to the world.

Fedor ''CrownUpGuy'' Holz won the Main Event of the 2014 World Championship of Online Poker, for which he received $1.3 million, and he has been on a roll ever since, he has won two major Sunday tournaments and has successfully taken shots in the high stakes games at PokerStars aswell. He recently gave an interview to PocketFives about his results, you can read the excerpt from the interview below.

Brian Koppelman, the screenwriter of the legendary poker movie Rounders, was joined by 13-times WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth in his popular podcast called The Moment.

According to Financial Times Alphaville, Amaya Gaming has made a $1,2 billion offer on the purchase of bwin.party. After several media outlets published the story as a fact, bwin.party released a statment that denied the sale, but they admitted that they are negotiating with several companies regarding a deal.

As we have reported, Daniel Negreanu was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame along with tournament director legend Jack McCelland. The induction ceremony happened before the WSOP Main Event final table, and you can tell how happy the Candadian PokerStars Pro is with his Hall of Fame trophy.

As soon as the WSOP finished in Las Vegas, the organizers of the event, Caesars Entertainment, announced that the European leg of the Series, the WSOP Europe, will be held in Berlin in 2015.

As we have reported yesterday, there were only three players left standing (sitting) in the battle for the 2014 WSOP Main Event title and the $10 million first prize. Jorryt van Hoof and Felix Stephensen both played great poker, but neither of them could stop Swedish tournament legend Martin Jacobson, who has claimed the first major tournament win of his career.