February 2006 Archives

It's not $1 million guaranteed every quarter. It's not $1 million guaranteed every month. It's a $1 million guaranteed every week. Sunday kicked off the $1 million guaranteed weekly tournament series and everyone who finished at the final table had at least a five-digit payday. The final two players cut...more

For all of those who were still trying to get their head around the concept of a weekly $750,000 Guaranteed tournament on PokerStars, don't bother. The idea of guaranteeing $750,000 quickly became sort of passe as the number people in the Sunday $215 eclipsed 5000 players for two straight...more

It was another huge Sunday with more than a million bucks in the prize pool. More than 5300 people showed up to play the biggest weekly tournament around. When it was over, the prizes were huge. And remember: Next week, it's $1 million GUARANTEED! Here are this week's final table...more

PokerStars' VIP Club is now a month and half old and players are still working hard to become the elite among the elite. Membership in this elite club began with online stalwart and pro gamer, ElkY. Now there are eleven VIP Club Supernova players, including the players below who have...more

They call him "Final Table." Lee Nelson, poker professional, noted author, and 2006 Aussie Millions champion has been making final tables for years. Now, he's a member of Team PokerStars. Click here to check out the team and learn more about its newest member....more

There may have been $750,000 Guaranteed, but the prize pool was an unpredictable $1.1 million dollars! A startling 5506 people showed up to play in the event and battled for nine hours before the final cards hit the table. When it was all over, tens of thousands of dollars had...more

Results1- Mats Iremark (Swe) €480,000 (plus €10,000 buy in into EPT final in Monte Carlo)2 - Mark Boudewijn (Hol) €259,0003 - Kirill Gerasimov (Rus) €155,5004 - Theo Jorgensen (Den) €118,3005 - Ram Vaswani (Eng) €97,7006 - Patric Martenson (Swe) €76,8007 - Isabelle Mercier (Can) €60,8008 - Stuart Nash (Eng) €43,500Click...more

Mats Iremark - EPT Deauville champion1- Mats Iremark (Swe) €480,000 (plus €10,000 buy in into EPT final in Monte Carlo)2 - Mark Boudewijn (Hol) €259,0003 - Kirill Gerasimov (Rus) €155,5004 - Theo Jorgensen (Den) €118,3005 - Ram Vaswani (Eng) €97,7006 - Patric Martenson (Swe) €76,8007 - Isabelle Mercier (Can) €60,8008...more

1.45am -- This one is all over. The winner of the EPT French Open, Deauville, is Mats Iremark, from Sweden. Mark moves his final 800,000 or so in with jack-ten and Mats sees enough when he looks down on an ace. The three beside it is immaterial and although he...more

Seat 1 -- Ram "Crazy Horse" Vaswani, 37, (UK) 1,191,500 chipsCrazy Horse keeping coolThe Hendon Mobster has already cashed at four EPT events, made 3 final tables and won the 2004 EPT Dublin event. His total EPT winnings to date exceed €180,000. He was a huge chip leader at last...more

Hello again and welcome to the final day of the PokerStars EPT French Open from Casino Barrière de Deauville.Eight players are left for the money and they will take their seats soon to discover the winner of €480,000 first prize. That player will also receive a €10,000 buy-in into next...more

Isabelle Mercier: heading to the EPT Deauville final tableFirst things first, the final table for tomorrow's EPT French Open in Deauville will feature the following:Ram Vaswani (Eng) 1,191,500Isabelle Mercier (Can) 428,000Mark Boudewijn (Hol) 911,500Kirill Gerasimov (Rus) 215,000Patric Martensson (Swe) 291,000Stuart Nash (Eng) 125,500Theo Jorgensen (Den) 809,500Mats Iremark (Swe) 397,000They will...more

Isabelle Mercier knocks out Micky Wernick to make the final eight. Full details imminent....more

Brian Gilbert is our tenth placed finisher. He goes out with jack-ten to Mark Boudewijn's pocket nines. Nothing improves, but Mark didn't have to....more

Isabelle Mercier doubles through against Brian Gilbert, her queens making an unnecessary straight against the Englishman's ace-king.Kirill Gerasimov comes from behind to follow the double up trend. He has king-jack against Mark Boudewijn's ace-two. He flops a king.Patric Martensson is the latest short stack to double in size when his...more

The table of ten is surrounded by at least ten supporters per player, plus the neutrals, randoms and other interested parties.They are all waiting to discover who from this ten will progress. As yet, we haven't even seen a flop. It's cagey, to say the least.Kirill Gerasimov, left, and Micky...more

This is one of those ironies of the televised poker generation. We're down to one table in the real world, with ten seats around it, but in television land there are only eight places. Battleground DeauvilleThat means we need to lose two players from the pseudo-final table before we get...more

Nine have fallen from the list in the previous post. They're dropping quicker than I can type. The unlucky names are:Julian Thew - Nottingham player tried to make queens beat aces. They didn't.Lex Veldhuis - qualifier's big slick slipped into pocket kingsJerome Douieb - overnight chip leader and PokerStars qualifier...more

Here's how it goes in the media centre. We run around the tables, count chips, do Google image searches for those few we don't recognise, then ask Rolf Slotboom of Poker Pages to fill in the gaps. Thanks to Rolf for the following table information for our final 22:Table 1Mats...more

There are 24 players left and we are playing tonight until we discover who are the eight that will comprise tomorrow's televised final table.Among the players that are not Ram Vaswani, Theo Jorgensen, from Denmark, is leading the charge with about 420,000. Mark Boudewijn, from Holland, who has just appeared...more

Ole Busborg Jensen (Denmark): hours under the studio lights but the qualifier remains (From left to right) Ram Vaswani, Ken Johnson, Greg Raymer: Hendon's Crazy Horse, Eagle Mountain's finest, feature table callerJanne Airaksinen: Finnish qualifier aiming to hang around to the endTheo Jorgensen (Denmark): lucky hatIsabelle Mercier and Malcolm Gorse:...more

Things are going great guns here in Deauville. Players are tumbling like skittles, the prizes are growing larger and the air conditioning has died in the press room. You can almost smell the excitement.As for the poker, we are down to 32 players on four tables of eight. Here are...more

It's the cruellest spot in any poker tournament but, as everyone who has ever burst the bubble will tell you, someone has to do it. Those were the words uttered by Jen Mason a few moments ago when she called Jon "Texas" Hewston's massive re-raise when we were playing hand-for-hand...more

Time for some raw data.Number of playersStart: 434Now: 51Stack sizesStart: 10,000Current average (median): 87,000Leaders: 250,000 (approx)Tournament progressCurrent level: 14Big blind: 2,000Small blind: 4,000Running ante: 400Chip counts:John Hewston (Eng) 250,000Ram Vaswani (Eng) 225,000Jeff Sharpe (Eng) 215,000Jerome Douieb (Fra) 210,000 (PokerStars qualfier)Theo Jorgensen (Den) 210,000Mats Iremark (Swe) 190,000Claude Cohen (Fra) 150,000Julien Veyrac...more

There have been some significant chip moves here - and three huge pots in particular that have given us the runaway chip leaders.In the first, Ram Vaswani knocked out both Teddy Tuil and Sami Torbey, PokerStars qualifier, when he called two all-in raises with ace-king. Sami, who was shortstacked, moved...more

We have a new television star on the EPT. His name is Ken Johnson, a PokerStars qualifier, from Eagle Mountain, Utah.Ken Johnson: television PokerStarThe 33-year-old qualified for the Copenhagen leg of this season's tour in a 300 FPP tournament, but couldn't find himself a passport in time to get to...more

As already mentioned, day two began with the pleasant surprise that Jerome Douieb, PokerStars qualifier, was leading the field here in Deauville. But he's not alone among those that have won their seat online who are still occupying a place around a "real" table in France.Here are a few more:Sami...more

Take a stroll into the Aviation Club de Paris and you're likely to notice a distinctive figure behind a vast pile of chips. His name is Jerome Douieb and he's leading the charge here in Deauville.Jerome Douieb: a cultured front-runnerTake a stroll through the PokerStars rooms at any other time...more

There was a hectic end to day 1B at the EPT French Open, both in the poker room and the media centre. Players were falling at the same rate as internet connections - and both were failing fast.While the hope is that this is the last you will hear of...more

Below you'll find the chip counts as players combine their flights and begin Day 2 of the European Poker Tour French Open. Let's all cross our fingers and hope the IT technicians have figured out the internet connection problems by the beginning of Day 2.Jerome Douieb (PokerStars qualifier) 142,925 Claude...more

We have had a few technological problems here in Deauville - and they are far from resolved as I write.The poker, however, is over, leaving the only heads being scratched belonging to the IT technicians. I've sneaked a couple of minutes on one of the only computers that has survived...more

Hello folks,Very sorry for the lack of updates. There are serious connection issues here at the moment and no one, except for a mysterious handful, can get online.At the very least, we hope to have end of day chip counts available soon, but details will have to wait for later.We...more

You might have noticed it by the way I spell "colour" or "flavour" or my use of the word "cheers", but I am a Brit. English, to me more precise. So, allow me a moment to reflect in national pride when I mention that my countryman Martin Green is chip...more

During the break we took some time to find out where the sizeable chip stacks were. There were four that stood higher than most - and now they are matched to their owners.Here's one. Its owner is Isabelle "No Mercy" Mercier, from Canada and Team PokerStars.Isabelle Mercier: surely familiar enough...more

The players are taking a dinner break - and dinner is going to taste very sweet indeed for Isabelle Mercier. She's up to 47,200 since she arrived on the featured table, carving through anything thrown in her path. Anina Gundesen has also had her share of the fun for the...more

The inevitable PokerStars corner - where a bunch of qualifiers or familiar faces wind up next to each other - has, sure enough, developed in Deauville. The contenders today are George White, originally from Dublin but now living in London, Adrian Creagh, from Bagshot, England, and James Paluszek, from the...more

Two of the first ladies of the EPT were drawn opposite to one another on table 10 this morning. Isabelle "No Mercy" Mercier, a fully signed up member of Team PokerStars, is three seats around from Anina Gundesen, sixth in Copenhagen after qualifying in a $13 re-buy tournament. That finish...more

It's still super early on Day 1B of this four-day event. We're in level 3, where blinds cost 75 and 150 of your starting stack of 10,000. The official information tells us that 209 players remain seated.The ballroom, with TV table in the foregroundWe have just taken our first sweep...more

The stars are out in force again today and, while most players now exhange the odd 100 in chips, rendering counts slightly ineffectual, here are a few photos of those competing in flight 1B.Patrick Bruel: France's music megastar and owner of a World Series braceletIsabelle Mercier: Team PokerstarsJulian Gardner: "The...more

This photo would, ordinarily, be of Greg Raymer. The 2004 World Champion, Team PokerStars member, etc., is over in France for the EPT. He's the main attraction, the first photograph on every blog and the man everyone wants to beat. Someone just has. On the second hand of the tournament....more

Good morning from Deauville. It's Day 1B of the EPT French Open, but before we begin, there are a couple of amendments to make from yesterday's coverage.Firstly, apologies to Frederik Hostrup - he's still right up there, despite what I wrote late yesterday. Jon Hewston is too, but he did...more

The night has closed in, the 57 remaining players have departed into the darkness and Day 1A at the PokerStars EPT French Open is over.Darkness fall on DeauvilleAfter a late-night swing on table two, it seems as though John "Texas" Hewston (71,875) might have taken that table's chip lead from...more

We're into the final level of the evening, with blinds at 600-1200 and a running ante of 100. Of the 209 players who started today, 69 remain, with an average stack of 30,289.Frederik Hostrup just raised his arms in the air to declare himself the first player to reach 100,000...more

Whatever happens here or at the Grand Final in Monte Carlo in March, this season's EPT has belonged to the Nordic players. Players from Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Norway have written all of the stories and taken most of the cash.Surprise, surprise, they're at it again in Deauville. The Day...more

We're now down to fewer than 100 players and they're posting blinds of 300 and 600, with a running ante of 50. It's level eight, in other words. The average stack is just over 20,000.As far as we can see, the chip leader is Fredrik Hostrup, from Denmark, who plays...more

Danny Ticer is another one of those PokerStars FPP qualifiers. And he's a qualifier of some pedigree. Last year he won two seats at the World Series of Poker on PokerStars and now here he is in Deauville, France, having snapped up another package with his poker-playing prowess.Danny Ticer: from...more

It's the law of poker tournaments: as players leave, stacks grow. You can't have one without the other.We've lost both George Baldwin ("he had a higher pair than I did") and Daniel Nelson. However, the karmic pendulum has swung towards Ken Johnson, another PokerStars qualifier from Utah, who has around...more

If you're not writing these days, you're playing poker. And if you're a writer and you're a poker player, you're probably going to spend some time writing about poker. You couldn't resist it even if you tried.So it is that lurking somewhere in the monstrous fields now de riguer at...more

Back in Copenhagen, an unfamiliar name found its way to the top of the Day One leaderboard. It belonged to Marc Naalden, apparently from Holland, but even the Dutch journalists in the press corps had no previous knowledge of the man sitting behind the vast stack of chips ("and I...more

We have just had the first break in play. Fifteen minutes for every two hours around the felt. It's not long, but it's enough to catch up with another handful of qualifiers. It's good to get to know them while nobody else does. Give it a couple of days, a...more

Is your glass half full or is it half empty? Or is it half full of nothing? If it has cost you nothing to qualify for a poker tournament, do you have nothing to lose, or everything to win?I don't know. I suspect it's both, but for a definitive answer...more

Registration continues in the lobby to the Casino Barriere de Deauville, but the chips are already in the air in the ballroom and the action is underway.A view from the stageThomas Kremser, tournament director, has announced that we will be playing ten one-hour levels today, the same tomorrow for flight...more

Barcelona, London, Baden, Dublin, Copenhagen and now here. Welcome to Deauville, France, for the French Open, the latest stopping point of the PokerStars European Poker Tour (EPT).The news, as ever, is good. In fact, it's better. When the final numbers are in, this could turn out to be the largest...more

For the first time, PokerStars offered its weekly $750,000 Guaranteed tournament and the event did not disappoint. More than 4100 players showed up and played for more than $839,000. When it was down to two players, they cut a deal that gave them both more than $120,000. Here are the...more

It's been one month since PokerStars kicked off its VIP Club and now players are starting to cash in their VIP Club Frequent Player Points. On Saturday, several of the VIPs will sqaure off against 2005 World Series of Poker Champion Joe Hachem in single-table tournaments at 6pm and 7pm...more

With the 2006 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure barely a memory, the Travel Channel has announced the World Poker Tour episode will air in May.Having already won more than a million bucks, Canada's Steve Paul-Ambrose is now just a few months away from becoming a TV star recognized in poker rooms everywhere....more