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On Sunday, a huge mass of spectators gathered around the poker tables at the WSOP to watch the Tournament of Champions (TOC) in the Amazon Room.

A tournament with a million dollar prize pool, the TOC is only available on an invitational basis and is a non-bracelet event organized for former WSOP champions.

27 players took part in this special event, and we could see: Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, Chris Ferguson, Allen Cunningham, Johnny Chan, Scotty Nguyen, Barry Greenstein, John Juanda, Erik Seidel, Jennifer Harman, Huck Seed, Dan Harrington, T.J. Cloutier, Sammy Farha, Howard Lederer, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem and Antonio Esfandiari compete for the glory of becoming Champion of the Champions.

Huck Seed

Daniel Alaei has won the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Event of the World Series of Poker, grabbing his third WSOP bracelet.

346 players sat down at the tables of the Rio for the $10,000 PLO event, for a share of the $3,252,400 prize pool. Some of the big names taking part in the tournament included Anette Obrestad, David Benyamine, Eli Elezra, Daniel Alaei, Tom ’durrrr’ Dwan, Phil Hellmuth and Jason Mercier.

At the end of the first day, Antonio Paino was leading with a 240,000 stack.

By the beginning of the third day, there were only 33 players left. At this time, durrrr was leading with a 910,000 stack, but in the end, he dropped out by taking 17th place in the tournament.

On the third day, gameplay continued until it came down to the 9-handed final table.

Daniel Alaei

Following a massive battle, Daniel Alaei managed to win the event with three of a kind, fives, thus collecting his third WSOP bracelet.

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

In the third week of the Big Game, Nadya Magnus was the Loose Cannon (being the first female one), facing poker pros Justin Bonomo, Jason Mercier, Joe Cada, Barry Greenstein and Daniel Alaei.

The German court has come to a decision concerning the attack at the Berlin European Poker Tour: the guilty have already been caught in April, and by now, the trials have also ended.

According to the sentence, a more than three-year penalty will be inflicted on each of the four robbers. This is quite a strict decision, considering that none of the robbers are more than 21 years old. Criminals younger than 22 usually receive a lighter sentence.

It is highly plausable, that the German court wanted to statuate an example, which, in my opinion, is a very wise decision, as crimes of this type have become a fashion since the Berlin attack.

On the 4th July, French poker players invaded the cash game tables at PokerStars.fr, and then they all went on sit-out, thus demonstrating against the illogically high rake structure.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, because of the French gambling regulations, PokerStars has said good-bye to its French players, and sent them to play at the PokerStars.fr site. This poker site, however, uses a much higher rake structure than its predecessor. Besides the huge amount of rake taken from each pot, French tax authorities also deduct 2% after every hand, up to €1.

Rumors have already been circulating in the past few days, but on the 30th June it became official, that David Williams and Vanessa Selbst have signed a contract with PokerStars.

PokerStars published its official announcement on Wednesday, in which they confirm to have signed two well-known poker players to their pro team, David Williams and Vanessa Selbst. Williams used to play for Bodog Poker, but he broke up his contract this year, after winning the Main Event of the WPT World Poker Classic, which earned him $1,530,537.

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.