Poker Guru Blog

According to CardPlayer Latin America, Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan first lost $7 million and then won $25 million in recent high stakes cash games in Macau.

Although the crazy high stakes actions running at the StarWorld casino in Macau have always been known to the public, the latest report of the CardPlayer Latin America magazine has gained considerable attention: according to reliable sources, Tom ‘durrrr’ Dwan has won a total of $25 million in a single session.

After 2012, Gus Hansen emerged as one of the biggest online high stakes losers in 2013 as well. Apparently, he aims for the title for a third time this year.

In the annual report for 2013, Full Tilt Poker Pro Gus Hansen turned out to be one of the biggest losers of the online high stakes cash game season, losing $8,461,472 in 171,743 hands. Becoming the weakest player in two consecutive years, losing $3,204,539 in 63,686 hands in 2012, the once feared pro can hardly blame variance alone anymore. He is currently the second biggest online high stakes loser ever, right after Guy Laliberté.

The opening of Season XI of the European Poker Tour is marked by the 100th event in the history of the series. To celebrate the jubilee, the largest ever poker festival will be organised in Barcelona.

Organisers of the most important poker series of the old continent, the European Poker Tour have announced the largest poker festival ever, to be taken place this August. While no details have surfaced yet, the occasion is the 100th event in the history of the series, which will be the first stop in Season XI in Barcelona, after the ongoing season is wrapped up in May.

Dominik Panka had only $8,092 in live tournament winnings to his name before the PCA 2014 Main Event. He now added $1,423,096 to that as the first ever Polish champion in the EPT series.

Eight players returned on the final day of the PCA 2014 $10,000 Main Event; Madis Muur had the chiplead with 6,205,000 but Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, Isaac ‘westmenloAA’ Baron as well as online MTT world list 25th finisher Shyam ‘g's zee’ Srinivasan were the favourites.

Jake Schindler won the PCA 2014 High Roller event for $1,192,624. He bested the likes of Greg Merson (2nd) and Vanessa Selbst (3rd).

The final day of the PCA 2014 $25,000 High Roller event saw 14 players return, led by championship title holder Vanessa Selbst with 1,633,000 in chips. She was followed by a selection of the most renowned pros; ultimately, Daniel Negreanu finished in 14th, Dan Smith in 13th, Dani Stern in 12th, Paul Newey in 11th and Myro Garcia in 10th position.

Vanessa Selbst leads the illustrious field to the final day of the PCA 2014 $25,000 High Roller event. She is accompanied by the likes of Marvin Rettenmaier, Daniel Negreanu and Dan Smith at the Final Table, playing for the $1,279,880 first prize.

Day 1 of the PCA 2014 $25,000 High Roller tournament took place on 11 January with 190 entrants with a total of 229 entries. Team Ivey Poker member Jonathan Jaffe ended up on the top of the chip counts with a stack of 422,000. He was followed by Ole Schemion (stack: 347,700) and Negreanu (344,500).

The PCA 2014 $10,000 Main Event reached the Final Table day. The final eight is led by Madis Muur in the race for the $1,820,420 first prize.

Madis Muur

The weekend saw the field of the PCA 2014 $10,000 Main Event melt from 215 to only eight. On Friday, Canadian WSOP champion Pascal Lefrancois had the chip lead but, while surviving the day, dropped back significantly by the time the stacks got bagged and tagged. British pro Max Silver took over, accompanied by Vanessa Selbst in the top ten, among others. Players reached the in the money finishes and, eventually, a total of 72 of them secured their return on Day 4.

The field has dropped to only 215 by the end of Day 2 of the PCA 2014 $10,000 Main Event. WSOP champion Pascal Lefrancois is in the lead, slightly ahead of Sam ‘Str8$$$Homey’ Greenwood.

Day 2 of the PCA 2014 $10,000 Main Event saw a total of 658 players sit down to the tables; 632 of them qualified from Day 1A and 1B, while another 26 registered on the day, in concordance with the late registration regulations of the tournament. These added up to a total of 1,031 registrations, accumulating a prize pool of $10,070,000 in the $10 million guaranteed event.

A total of 1,005 players entered the PCA 2014 $10,000 Main Event for a share of the $10,000,000 guaranteed prize pool on Days 1A and 1B. Registration is still open on Day 2.

On 7 January, the PCA 2014 $10,000 Main Event started with a $10,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. Day 1A saw 295 players, of whom 194 made it to Day 2. American player Dylan Hortin collected the most chips on the day, 160,500, while Sam ‘Str8$$$Homey’ Greenwood and Joseph ‘subiime’ Cheong also made it to the top ten.

The Snowie bot’s average win rate is 22.18 bb/100 after a total of about 1.5 million hands played.

Starting with a backgammon coaching program, Snowie Games launched its assault on poker last July and they introduced the PokerSnowie brand with the Poker Coach software, a No Limit Hold’em cash game Game Theory Optimal education application for subscribing FR, SH and HU players.

The first major tournament of the year, the PCA 2014 $100,000 Super High Roller brought about Fabian Quoss’ victory. The German pro won $1,629,940.

Day 3 of the PCA 2014 $100,000 Super High Roller saw the seven-handed Final Table with Dan Shak in the chip lead (stack: 3,700,000), slightly ahead of Vanessa Selbst. Antonio Esfandiari and Quoss were not far behind, unlike Matt Glantz, Tony Gregg and Ole Schemion, all under 10 BBs in chips.

Dan Shak is accompanied by Vanessa Selbst, Antonio Esfandiari, Fabian Quoss, Matt Glantz, Tony Gregg and Ole Schemion in the seven-handed finale for the $1,629,940 first prize.

With the $100,000 Super High Roller event, the first major live poker festival of the year, the PCA 2014 started on 5 January. 45 players registered in a total of 52 entries and with registrations on Day 2, they accumulated a prize pool of $5,433,120. Current world champion Ryan Riess, as well as Bertrand ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, John Juanda, Steven Silverman, Daniel Negreanu, Mike Watson, JC Alvarado and Keith Lehr got eliminated. Of them, Negreanu was out twice but announced to enter on Day 2 as well nevertheless. He was eliminated on Day 1 by one of the best heads-up players of today, Daniel ‘mrGR33N13’ Colman.

The Global Poker Index has determined that PokerStars pro Daniel Negreanu is the best live tournament player of the past decade. Runner-up on the top list is Erik Seidel.

The Global Poker Index has started publishing a list of the best live multi-table tournament players of the past decade. Late last week, the top two finishers were finally revealed: according to the GPI calculations, Daniel Negreanu tops the list with 7,377 points.

Niklas ‘Ragen70’ Heinecker has proved unstoppable, once he entered the online high stakes field in 2013. The biggest loser was Gus Hansen.

Niklas ‘Ragen70’ Heinecker topped the online high stakes field in 2013 with $6,190,599 in profits in 65,577 hands. The German ace appeared at the high stakes tables of the re-launched Full Tilt Poker in May, which means he accumulated his winnings in just eight months. In comparison, Ben ‘Sauce123’ Sulsky took down the year 2012 with an annual total of $3,595,666 in profits.

‘Ragen70’ won the most of his money in draw games: $4,188,244 in 41,459 hands, but he also dominated the NLHE play with $2,149,223 in winnings in 20,546 hands.

The Global Poker Index has published a list of the best live multi-table tournament players of the past decade, according to their calculations. Finishers 3rd to 9th have so far been revealed of the top list.

In 2011, Federated Sports & Gaming (FS+G) introduced the Global Poker Index (GPI) to determine on a mathematical basis a top list of poker players in a given period, taking tournament field size, buy-ins and individual results into consideration. The calculations of the GPI are widely considered the best and most realistic currently available, which rendered the GPI Player of the Year one of the most prestigious awards in the live poker community.