July 2008 Archives

PokerStars has upped the guarantees on most of its guaranteed tournaments. Overall, the site is now hosting 483 guaranteed prize pool tournaments per week, up from 199 just last week. The overall guaranteed prize pool? That’s going up by quite a bit as well, from approximately $7.5 million to more...more

PokerStars Macau has wrapped up another Macau Cup and the results are in. If you're not aware, PokerStars Macau opened a few months back as the first-ever live poker room in Macau. Since then, it's been home to the biggest poker play going on in China. It will also serve...more

This weekend, the Sunday tournaments on PokerStars kicked off with a certain bang we don't hear every week. The PokerStars 2X promotion turned the Sunday Warm-Up into a $1 million guarantee event with a second chance for people who busted out before the first break. The United Kingdom's richlizard walked...more

8,370 players ponied up $215 to take part in the biggest weekly tournament in poker – the PokerStars Sunday Million. 1,260 players took home a piece of the $1,674,000 prize pool, with avkid86 taking down a first prize of $138,101.00 after the final four players made a chip count chop....more

With everyone showing up to the final table with more then 20 big blinds and a slow structure this is sure to be a lengthy battle for an incredible prize pool that is completely funded by Frequent Players Points (FPPs). Only grinding out those FPPs on the cash, sit and...more

PokerSavage1 and prezado are currently on a break to decide the final seat in PokerStars’ Battle of the Planets monthly Sit and Go tournament triple shootout freeroll. After a short break the final seat of the triple shootout was filled. Perzado made the final table with a couple of tough...more

It's time for another Macau Poker Cup this weekend at Grand Waldo Casino in Macau. The exciting series of events will include a $1,000 buy-in Deep Stack event on Saturday at 12:30 and a $10,000 Red Dragon event at 8PM. There will also be other events, including a charity tournament...more

You may already know how it is. You put in the hard work, the graft and the hours to win yourself a spot in one of poker's most prestigious events such as the European Poker Tour. You arrive determined to do well in your first live event but soon realize...more

For the first time in a very long time, Every Sunday major on PokerStars finished without a deal. That meant the first place winners all walked away with some very big money. Take, for instance, SAM66 who won more than $200,000 for his win in the Sunday Million (REPORT). More...more

$209,571 and don’t forget the sixty cents. Thanks to another packed house of 8589 runners for the PokerStars Sunday Million, that is how much will be transferred immediately if not sooner to the victor tonight (unless there’s a deal of course). If there is a let down of poker activity...more

It's Week 4 for the PokerStars 2X promotion and PokerStars has cooked up a list of fun stuff that will make you forget about the past 20 days. Double the pot was fun for a week, but now it's time for something new. Ready for it? It's a double reload...more

It only cost him $80. Darus Suharto qualified on PokerStars for the World Series Main Event. His $80 win got him into a bigger qualifier and there he won his prize package to Las Vegas. Now, Suharto is one of the November Nine, the final table players of the 2008...more

Dennis Phillips told us ini the last few days of the World Series that the ESPN crews were calling him "red hat." His autographed St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap was not hard to spot in the crowd. Otherwise, the accountant from Missouri is humble enough to blend into any poker...more

Perhaps better known online as TenthPlanet, Ylon Schwartz is no stranger to live poker. A regular on the East Coast live scene, Schwartz has been around long enough to have paid his dues. Now the chess expert, lover of all games, and PokerStars is looking to get away for a...more

It's one thing to be one of the top five cash game players from your home country. It's another thing to be at the final table of the 2008 World Series of Poker. PokerStars player Peter Eastgate happens to be both of those things. In the blur that followed the...more

David "Chino" Rheem is a young up-and-comer in the poker world. The PokerStars player had a big contingent of famous players on the rail cheering him on as he made the final table of the 2008 World Series. The player from California talked to the PokerStars video blog team as...more

In minutes that followed PokerStars player Ivan Demodov's making it to the 2008 World Series final table, he was still in shock. After coming all the way from Moscow to compete in his first major live tournament, Demidov could barely find the words to explain what had just happened to...more

It’s one thing to take the chip lead at the final table of the PokerStars Sunday Million. It’s another thing to take a commanding chip lead at the final table of the largest Sunday Million in PokerStars history. And it’s something else entirely to take the chip lead at...more

In the Rio Amazon Room, there is no Monday. There is no July. Time and date are irrelevant. There is no news from around the world, lamentations about the economy, or even the usual banal discussion of the weather. It took rain in the desert to get anyone to notice...more

Long stretches of boredom with moments of sheer terror. It’s an expression that’s been used so many times to describe all sorts of scenarios, but if the long stretches between the action in this main event have been the ‘boredom’, the last half an hour has provided the terror...more

There are numerous ways to measure the progression of a poker tournament, from the basic count of players eliminated, to the angle of the slouch of the average reporter on media row. The blue screens displaying time, level, blinds and payouts have kept us updated with the key stats throughout...more

The pressure compounds by the day at the World Series. There's no questioning that immutable fact. But it's different this year. Of course, making the final table in years past has meant something special, but for the most part, second through ninth places are rarely recognized with even a fraction...more

The dinner break was the last for all 14 players in this main event before they are either nearly a million dollars richer, or in the clutch of players forever referred to as nearly men. It's a cruel fate, but for five of those dining this evening, they won't necessarily...more

As each break approaches spectators are asked to leave the Amazon Room for a 20 minute spell waiting outside in the corridors before players return to their seats and they’re allowed back in. This process has got wilder over the last day or so. Security release the door latches...more

Sixteen players remain in the 2008 World Series. Those players represent four countries: The United States, Canada, Russia, and Denmark. Of the final players, two are Danes, and both are flying the PokerStars banner. Gert Andersen of Herning, Denmark is a finance controller and seeing the the big money of...more

Then suddenly it all kicked off. Three eliminations in the space of four minutes and now just two tables remain. One of those players was PokerStars player Paul Snead, who busted in 21st place for $257,334. Among the animated players here this week, Snead was up and about at...more

Every session since the end of the tightly scheduled day ones, someone in media row has said, "It's got to slow down today." This was usually prompted by a discussion of the previous day's breakneck pace of eliminations, carnage that has resulted at least twice in a relatively early night...more

It is now impossible to watch the World Series of Poker without thinking of PokerStars. Out of the 23 remaining players in the 2008 Main Event, 14 are flying the PokerStars flag. Among those players is Staten Island, New York's Albert Kim. After graduating from law school, Kim moved to...more

Three tables and several hundred of poker’s hardcore fan base, all watching 27 players. That will be the landscape here for the foreseeable future. But what does it take to run one of the last three tables in the World Series main event? Well, table three needs the following......more

As unlikely as it seemed more than two weeks ago, we are getting very close to the end. This morning was the final walk for us reporters from the Palms Hotel, where the PokerStars qualifiers and players have stayed for the past weeks, through the neighbouring Gold Coast casino and...more

As all of our players know, every Sunday is huge at PokerStars. But this Sunday... well, it was something to tell the children about. Thanks to our 2X promotion - running throughout July - last week saw all of our tournament guarantees DOUBLED. The action came to a climax yesterday,...more

The PokerStars 2x promotion carried over into the Sunday Million this week, doubling the guaranteed prize pool to $2 Million and drawing the largest field in Sunday Million history. 14,181 players signed up for the biggest weekly guarantee in poker, building a prize pool of $2,836,200! By the time the...more

It had to happen and now it has. We have reached three tables in the World Series main event. Three tables, 27 players, one more day until we reach the final nine. Along the way, there were all the twists and turns we expect as we reach the business end...more

Twenty-nine players remain in the main event as they return from the latest break for blinds of 40,000/80,000 with a 10,000 ante. It makes the short stacks shorter and forces a few more players to look anxiously over their shoulders as the big stacks closing in. Recent eliminations after...more

The cream of the crop in poker tournaments has a tendency of rising to the top, sinking, rising, curdling, rising and sinking again, in no particular order. With so many exceptionally skillful players in every major tournament (especially towards the business end) it takes a spectacular talent to stick around...more

Whilst the backdrop of the Amazon Room and its surrounding halls and corridors has changed day by day as the field reduced in size one thing has remained constant – the feature table stage. There’s a bar at the back of this is spectator monolith. It’s raised up to...more

Chris "SLOPPYKLOD" Klodnicki may just be a good poker player. At only 23 years old, he is already a pro. Six years ago, his brother taught him the game, introduced him to home games, and watched him step into Atlantic City’s Taj Mahal—still underage—and start beating the game. But, hey,...more

Hope you had fun with the double guarantees (and how about 14,000 people in the Sunday MIllion, huh?). The PokerStars 2X promotion continues this week with some brand new 2X fun. How does double the pot sound? Between July 14-20, PokerStars will double the pot for the winner of every...more

An hour or so ago, people returning to the Amazon Room from a rare step into the outside world were reporting something very peculiar. Here in the middle of the Nevada desert, in the heat of the summer and during a drought, there was a rainstorm. And with characteristic Las...more

Two players who have experienced mixed fortunes in the field today are PokerStars players Darus Suharto and Jason Glass. Darus Suharto, who lost a few hundred thousand late last night returned today with 1 million and now sits with 1.6 million. Understandably he’s upbeat, although he's still some way...more

A staple of the countless entertainment channels the world round is the "Before They Were Famous" show -- clips of famous sportsmen turning out for their elementary school team; a senator in a college debate; Britney and Justin on the Disney Channel, that kind of thing. Before the World Series...more

There is an interesting phenomenon that happens around this time at the World Series. The air conditioning meant for 3,000 people starts to override the central nervous systems of the few hundred now in the room. It begins to feel a bit like...well, we'll just say it. It feels like...more

Two vinyl rails are all that separate several hundred poker-loving spectators and the 79 surviving players on Day 6 of the World Series main event. Beyond the circular tournament area and those watching is nothing but the vast carpeted no-mans land of the Amazon Room, transformed from the wall-to-wall...more

If the World Series of Poker could be described in the terms of just one poker hand, today they are dealing the turn card. After some feisty pre-flop action that lasted for four day ones and a couple of day twos, we finally saw the flop and associated betting during...more

The few became fewer today. This beleaguered poker bastion known as the Amazon Room got smaller and smaller and its surviving 79 occupants endured another day of triumph and trauma. The camp was small as players took their seats at high noon and by 11:30pm what remained were just...more

As these vast tournament fields thin to the elite few dozen, fewer and fewer players remain unknown. We've been in the same room with all these folk for the best part of two weeks and putting names to faces becomes easier by the day. Some faces, however, have always been...more

Sometime during the level of play before the dinner break, we received an e-mail to blog@pokerstars.com from Joanne Cordier, the girlfriend of PokerStars qualifier Brian Tatum who is going way deep into the money at the World Series today. Joanne was anxiously following Tatum's progress from their home in Illinois,...more

This poker blogging job, much like poker itself, is not one where we can let things get too personal. Alliances, friendships, and any matters of the heart can quickly turn to disappointment, frustration, and downright depression. All of that said, all of us here at the blog were rather rooting...more

The PokerStars 2X promotion continues today with even more amazing double guarantees for our major tournaments. What's more, PokerStars has announced that this week's Sunday Million will also have its guaranteed prize pool doubled. That's a HUGE $2 million guarantee for the Sunday Million this week, 13 July, 16:30 ET....more

Sitting two seats along from Kara Scott on the feature table is PokerStars player Owen Crowe. The 26-year-old is one of those bigger stacks at the table, starting at close to 900K. Famed for a monster year on PokerStars in 2006, including a Sunday Million win, it’s been a...more

If you're a frequent PokerStars player, you already know that a Frequent Player Point has a certain value to it. People have cashed them in for books, hats, cars, and even houses. Today, one player has cashed his in for more than $40,000 and a really good story. Doug Ashmore,...more

PokerStars qualifier Cristian Dragomir's rise to the top of the World Series main event leaderboard has been nothing if not steady, as he explained during the most recent break. At the end of day one, he had 55,000, at the end of day two, he had 193,000, and at the...more

Garth Paul, a 28-year-old man from Ohio has never played a World Series event, and he's not afraid to admit that. His midwestern upbringing suggests a certain pride void of arrogance. "I am a humble person that treats people as they should be treated," he said. Paul is one of...more

PokerStars player Phi Nguyen is today renewing an old acquaintance. Seated on the feature table, behind 1,500,000 at day's start, Nguyen has Mike Matusow to contend with, but knows that currently all the bragging rights between mild-mannered Californian and the self-styled "Mouth" are his. At the final table of the...more

By day five a seat on the feature table might represent your last chance for one last waltz under the television lights, a last chance to engrain the memory of your World Series week on the minds of the viewing public, a permanent record somewhere in the annals of...more

Good afternoon once again from the Rio Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas. First the stats and the plans before we list the many inponderables and intangibles about today's play. This is day five of the $10,000 championship event of the World Series of Poker. It's the eighth day of competition,...more

Wow. Seriously, wow. We may have already used that word to start a previous post from today, but it becomes no less applicable in the duplicate. Wow. Seriously, wow. Day four started an hour late after yesterday's extended bubble shenanigans, but we ended up unplugging our laptops a full level...more

The post dinner break sprint to the end of Level 19 sees us with just fewer than 200 players remaining in the 2008 World Series Main Event. PokerStars players can still be found all over the Amazon Room. None are shining brighter at this moment the following four people. Darus...more

He was impossible to trace at the PCA and here has proven no easier. A player sits on table two complete with hood to cover his face and dark sunglasses to shield his eyes. Occasionally a nose peeks out but little more. He's been like this all week. Someone...more

In most poker circles, you can't really throw out the name Larry Wright and expect a ready look of recognition. In fact, when looking at the chip counts of the 2008 World Series of Poker, you might be forgiven if you can't immediately place the name to a face. It's...more

The PokerStars 2X promotion continues today with even more amazing double guarantees for our major tournaments. What's more, PokerStars has announced that this week's Sunday Million will also have its guaranteed prize pool doubled. That's a HUGE $2 million guarantee for the Sunday Million this week, 13 July, 16:30 ET....more

It was a quiet day at the World Series of Poker, between the end of the $50,000 HORSE tournament and the start of the long main event day one. Two poker writers took a trip to Downtown Las Vegas, visited the Gamblers Bookshop, picked up a steak dinner in the...more

Victor Ramdin has a genie, but he looks nothing the lovely Jeannie from your TV set (or, for that matter, a semi-popular slot machine here in town). “It’s my lucky genie,” he told his table. “I’m very superstitious.” How lucky? Midway through the first level of the day he saw...more

There’s a lot of stuff going on in the Amazon Room, between the remaining tables. The most notable is a player wandering around, getting well known around the room as the player who went on break with chips and came back to find his table broken and his chips...more

Wow. There was a chance that the action might have slowed today as dollar signs replaced pupils in the eyes of the remaining players. But it couldn't be further from the truth: we had torn through a quarter of the day's starting field by the time the first break came...more

It's fascinating how fortunes can diverge from a single point of origin. Take yourself back to the day in 2004 when an impetuous (some might say imbalanced) Britney Spears went to a little chapel in Las Vegas and married a childhood friend. Since then, Spears has gone off the reservation,...more

Deep into the money as we are, the chance to be on television increases hour on hour. The cameras really are everywhere, taping every all-in, every big hand that could potentially make one of the memorable moments of the TV coverage. We see all sorts of hijinks aimed at...more

Hello one and all and welcome once again to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas, Nevada. We're now getting very used to this -- this is the official day four of the tournament, but the eighth day in all -- and many things are similar, but many have...more

No matter how many poker tournaments we cover, no matter how many hands we watch, no matter how many bad beat stories we hear, there is no denying the pure energy on the bubble of a tournament. Fueled by a week of anxiety and hope, the 667-player mark of the...more

Just before we went hand-for-hand, PokerStars qualifier Bill Purle wanted a cigarette. "I can't," he said. "I'm on the big blind next." Such was the anxiety before the this excruciating period that even someone seemingly cruising to the money, as was Purle with comfortably the right side of 300,000 in...more

It’s finally here. We’re hand-for-hand in the main event. 673 players remain with eight to go home empty handed before anyone sees a cent. Tournament officials are working the room, clearing the aisles with the pressure tenfold. First there are the press. Everyone, regardless of affiliation, has been shuffled...more

With 733 players remaining in the 2008 World Series Main Event, we are less than 100 players from the money. Below is a recap of the previous hour. The tournament director told us just before the break that play will go hand-for-hand with nine players remaining. So, when 675 players...more

Early in 2008, Dutch student Yde van Deuterkom came up with a brilliant idea. Since his No 1 interest in life is sleeping, why not try to make some money out of it? Yde, 22, who lives with his mum and is "sort of" studying engineering then built a website,...more

The PokerStars 2X promotion continues today with even more amazing double guarantees for our major tournaments. What's more, PokerStars has announced that this week's Sunday Million will also have its guaranteed prize pool doubled. That's a HUGE $2 million guarantee for the Sunday Million this week, 13 July, 16:30 ET....more

Fresh water is always the first thing to go. It’s easy to predict the downfall of a society, no matter if it’s a perfect Democracy or ragtag anarchy like the World Series. When the water goes, so goes convention, and with convention goes all good sense and reason. This morning,...more

For a lot of players in the Amazon room right now this is all about the big win, the big pay off that will catapult them into the big time and life on the poker circuit. For others meanwhile this is just a great way to spend the summer...more

"There are some HUUUUGE stacks out there." So came the latest observation from a reporter returning to media row from a jaunt across the tournament floor. He was right. After the early day carnage of the typical "double-up-or-bust-out" period, those players that profited from the pandemonium are now sitting pretty....more

In the first two levels today, the stories of the 150 or so PokerStars players left in the field have run the gamut, from wild success, to desperate clinging, to key double ups. A New Yorker by birth, resident of L.A. by choice, Alex Outhred has been around poker much...more

Chris Dyer started in good spirits. It was reasonable to think he’d be in a foul mood this morning considering he had just 2,600. Yes, the PokerStars qualifier returned today as the short stack, the man at the back of 1308 names, who everyone expected to stick around for...more

When two fellow news reporters began chatting to one another during level one about David Murray and back-to-back pocket kings, I knew I knew the name from somewhere. I'd definitely seen "David Murray" on the chip counts, rising through the ranks of PokerStars qualifiers towards the top, but I also...more

Our spies in the Palms poker room sent over this story this morning... Day 2 of the World Series is always a tough day. Regardless of age, nationality or gender, most people find it pretty gruelling to sit at a poker table, for ten hours at a stretch, with more...more

As the players filed into the Amazon Room this morning, we realised that this was another landmark day in the 2008 World Series main event. For the first time, the entire field is visible before our very eyes -- no more days divided into multiple flights, no more rooms spread...more

There will be no more days like these, at least not this year. No more days of a mathematical fog hanging over the main event as you try to calculate numbers and chip averages, or consecutive days of new faces whose enthusiams knows nothing of the repetition that preceded...more

Hevad Khan just raised seven out of ten pots. I’d been told this was the way he plays. Really, I stood and watched them. For many the Team PokerStars Pro is famous for two things. First, the video clip he sent to PokerStars showing himself playing 28 sit and...more

It's getting kind of near to the end of day two -- the second day two -- which means the perpetual downward tick of player numbers is dripping us closer to the money, while the ever-increasing blind levels continue to apply pressure to the short stacks and encourage that point-of-no-return...more

Bryan Tiffin sits in the Green Zone, the corner of the Amazon Room reserved for the few tables that surround the ESPN featured table. In front of him sits 27,500 in chips, only 7,500 more than his starting stack, and only 3,000 less than he had at the beginning of...more

This may have been the first time all week I haven’t seen Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin getting a massage. On Victor’s day one, it seems he required a constant pummelling to ease himself back into contention, and before that in the $1,500 HORSE the situation was the same....more

The PokerStars 2X promotion continues today with even more amazing double guarantees for our major tournaments. What's more, PokerStars has announced that this week's Sunday Million will also have its guaranteed prize pool doubled. That's a HUGE $2 million guarantee for the Sunday Million this week, 13 July, 16:30 ET....more

You never quite know when you're going to bump into Brandon Schaefer. You could be in any poker room (or any pub) in any city (or airport) in the world, and you could suddenly be forcefully shaking the hand of a giant, ebullient poker player who will let go only...more

By our count, five former World Series champions remain in the field of the 2008 World Series of Poker. Among these players are Team PokerStars Pros Joe Hachem and Chris Moneymaker. Hachem, as mentioned here, is sitting in a quiet dark corner, quietly plotting to chip up before day’s end....more

I first met Serge Grenier at the reception for the Team Moneymaker players. He stood out from the other team members for the fact he spoke to me in French. Putting to use what little French I still had in my head, like taking the covers off an old...more

Poker has always been an international game, bearing striking similarities to various ancient card games in numerous countries, with the result that historians are divided on its true origins. There are claims that it started in Germany, France, the Far East and America, among others, with those notorious gamblers in...more

“I’m trying to find my flashlight,” said Gene Bromberg, the PokerNews writer relegated to the darkest corner of the Amazon Room, the Green Zone. “We had a lamp. It was here for two days, and then it was gone.” The dimness is a necessity. The ESPN feature table (featuring none...more

The day really started in the orange section of the Amazon Room three hands in. A player busted out, his day two cut short by 12 hours 57 minutes - a fate that won’t be uncommon for several hundred players today arriving with hope, departing with painful memories. Two...more

For the past five days, we have been drowning in numbers. There are numbered lists of PokerStars Team Pros, lists of PokerStars qualifiers, lists of sponsored players, and lists featuring the rest of the field. There all have a seat number and, often, a number in their PokerStars screen name....more

The World Series math is hard to understand for an outsider. This 2008 event had four day ones. It has two day twos. More people competed in the second half of Day 1 than the first, and consequently, the second Day 2 will be more populated than the first Day...more

There are few more places in the world as vastly different as the northern Russian city of Arkhangelsk, and the American city built from the desert up, Las Vegas. The first has average winter temperatures hovering around minus 16 degrees and a summer high of around 20, whilst the...more

How do you define a top poker pro? What are the skills you need? Of course, most commentators will differ on the nitty gritty, happily spending hours discussing the multiple facets of the all-round player, placing their emphasis on the various skills in the multiple variations, adjusting their opinions based...more

As we mentioned last night (or more accurately, very early this morning) the PokerStars Burlesque Party was the biggest thing to hit the World Series party scene in a long time. If you didn't have a chance to read about it earlier, you can do so HERE. The PokerStars Video...more

Among the PokerStars qualifiers playing Day 2A a notable few are meeting particular success, as you can see on the chip counts page. For some just getting here was their main achievement while for others nothing short of a cash finish or better will truly satisfy their competitive instincts....more

The PokerStars 2X promotion continues today with even more amazing double guarantees for our major tournaments. What's more, PokerStars has announced that this week's Sunday Million will also have its guaranteed prize pool doubled. That's a HUGE $2 million guarantee for the Sunday Million this week, 13 July, 16:30 ET....more

There are a number of stock phrases one can use to describe the progression of a poker player through a major tournament. "Going deep" works well for a "big stack", "scratching the felt" is suitably evocative to describe a player "on life support". At this stage, however, with at least...more

A senior PokerStars employee once told me... “Jan Heitmann is the only man in the world I’m jealous of.” When you meet Jan you quickly realise why. Not only is he one of the best poker players to come out of Germany, he’s also an accomplished pianist and magician....more

At the PokerStars Burlesque Party last night, Joe Hachem greeted the crowd and took some time to recognize the Team PokerStars Pros who made it to Day 2. Hachem's speech was great, but when most people were waiting to watch Dita Von Teese shake what her mama gave her, Team...more

The PokerStars cardroom has long been known as the breeding ground for many of the game's top stars, and joining any table there might mean facing off against a Team PokerStars Pro, a few World Series bracelet winners, or leading lights of the EPT -- sometimes all three. PokerStars is...more

There are many significant steps on poker’s modern evolutionary road. The obvious one to most people is Chris Moneymaker’s rise from Tennessee accountant to poker World Champion thanks to a $39 online satellite. Further back still there was Team PokerStars Pro Tom McEvoy’s main event win 25 years ago,...more

Last night in Las Vegas there was a party. You might have heard about it. If you didn't, you can read about it HERE. Today in Las Vegas there is a melee. You might have heard about it. If you didn't, you can read about it right here from now...more

You may already know how it is. You put in the hard work, the graft and the hours to win yourself a spot in one of poker's most prestigious events such as the European Poker Tour. You arrive determined to do well in your first live event but soon...more

The PokerStars 2X promotion continues today with even more amazing double guarantees for our major tournaments. What's more, PokerStars has announced that this week's Sunday Million will also have its guaranteed prize pool doubled. That's a HUGE $2 million guarantee for the Sunday Million this week, 13 July, 16:30 ET....more

By Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains You had to be there. Really, you had to be there. If you haven’t learned by now that the only place to be during a major poker tournament is the PokerStars party, then you haven’t been paying attention. And even if that was...more

One would think when you are rocking and rolling at the World Series of Poker, you might take a day or two to rest up. That's not the case for a guy we know as SirWatts. Not only does he have a huge stack in Las Vegas, he took second...more

The early flights of Day 1 made it look as though this year's World Series might not be as big as last year's. Saturday called that pessimism into doubt. Today erased it completely as the Rio filled with the final flight of Day 1. By the end of it all,...more

He’s one of 17 pitchers to have thrown a perfect game; he pitched for world domination in Yankee stadium, tried the same in Toronto, and hopped a fence no one expected he would jump and joined Boston. But there was no great story for PokerStars sponsored player David Wells...more

Logic would state if two great gatherings of poker players were going on at the same time, one may have many more participants then the other. Team PokerStars and PokerStars qualifiers are currently tearing up the Amazon Room in the World Series Main Event along with 6,832 hopefuls to claim...more

Back in June at the LAPT event in San Jose, Costa Rica, I had the pleasure of following the progress of Max and Maria Stern, PokerStars sponsored players in that tournament who were unique in that they were (and still are) the only married couple each to have won World...more

Hevad Khan has previous form when it comes to popular video clips on the internet. When he was just a wee slip of an online avatar, known simply as RaiNKhan, he proved to the PokerStars moderators that he was not a pokerbot by filming himself playing 26 sit n goes...more

The break is a manic time for anyone not able to duck into the sanctuary of the media area. At the end of each level the Amazon Room is cleared of all its 1,300 or so players for twenty minutes, who are in turn joined by the hundreds of...more

George Danzer came right up to me at the break. It was hardly surprising. I’d been sweating him for nearly a full level by this time and as far as discretion was concerned the game was up. There were a few reasons for my hanging around. Firstly as a...more

Hank Sitton doesn't miss many chances to play poker. The car dealership owner from Greenville, South Carolina hosts games, plays nearly every game in town, and travels to Mississippi and Vegas at every opportunity. Hell, he even owns and publishes a poker magazine. With his time split between owning a...more

Dario Minieri just might be the most exciting poker player in the world. The Team PokerStars Pro from Rome, Italy, treats his chips as though they are on fire. He shoves them away from him at each and every opportunity, scorching a trail across the baize to the centre of...more

The PokerStars 2X promotion continues this week and you're not going to believe what you see. PokerStars is well-known for the huge guarantees on its tournaments. Now, it's planning to offer even more--double, in fact. From July 7-13, PokerStars is doubling the guarantees on each of its regular guaranteed tournaments....more

I’ve seen various characters in the crowded Amazon Room and beyond this afternoon. Men walking the halls chomping on foot long Churchill cigars; I’ve seen the spitting image of Stan Laurel complete with bowler; several players sporting Mohicans, a young player in bee glasses, a crazy guy crashing symbols,...more

And so, it begins again. As we have for the past three days, we returned to the Rio Hotel and Casino at around noon today and were surrounded by hundreds upon hundreds of poker players ready for their shot at the World Series main event. We started this thing with...more

It is the end of the third of four days ones here at the World Series of Poker and this tournament is almost beginning to take shape. There's still a long way to go, but patterns are emerging and, typically, Team PokerStars Pro and PokerStars qualifiers are looming large. Chief...more

Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu was on hand this afternoon in the Rio to sign autographs and meet the public. He busted early yesterday but was still a huge hit among the weekend crowds at the World Series, as our spy in the Champions Lounge confirms: If I hadn’t seen...more

As the hours grow late the action more intense, sometimes the stories of the tournament floor are too wide and varied to perform the precise kind of well-aimed story-telling to which we aspire. When aiming for the whole of the big target, haried non-marksmen sometimes opt for a different weapon....more

Sprinkled across the field today in both the Amazon and Brasilia Rooms are the members of Team Moneymaker, each of whom won their seats for $39 - the same amount Chris Moneymaker paid when he won a satellite in 2003 which ultimately led to World Series glory. Darren Keyes,...more

Yesterday, my colleagues and I were sitting on media row beside the main tournament area when a man approached with a story to tell. This happens sometimes, and we always lend a patient ear, even though the content is often wearily familiar and usually ends in tears. Although much of...more

Jim Hamburger stopped me in the hall the other day. We talked about the PokerStars Burlesque Party this coming Monday night. We chatted about his starting day. And then he asked, "How's your son?" Know this: I have never seen Hamburger outside of a poker event. That said, over time...more

by Maria Mayrinck Alexandre Gomes, a 25-year-old lawyer from Curitiba, Brazil, has been leaving behind his profession in law and slowly but surely gravitating toward poker. Always logged on PokerStars as "Allingomes", Alexandre is no stranger to final tables, having reached many in the 100+Rebuys, 50+Rebuys, 1K Super Tuesdays, and...more

For one guy playing today the World Series main event is just the next stop on a worldwide poker playing adventure. Thanks to his win in the PokerStars Passport competition, 23-year-old Dustin Mele gets to play ten tournaments of his choosing and in any destination he wants. Not a...more

The popular image of a PokerStars qualifier as a raw, untested amateur is as outdated as a "Bob Dole for President" button, or the contents of my wardrobe. The young stars of the PokerStars cardroom often come bludgeoning into the live arena having played more hands and tournaments than all...more

The story of Chris Moneymaker's trip to the 2003 World Series has been told so many times, it almost doesn't have to be repeated. Thing is, there are more than a dozen players here trying to do just that. Earlier this year, PokerStars ran a series of tournaments aimed at...more

In the world of professional gaming it pays to look a little edgy. The millions of fans who tune in to the Star League in South Korea like their World Cyber Games to put on a show, a space-aged one at that, and back in the day when man...more

Hello one and all and welcome back to the Rio Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, for the third day one of the 2008 championship event of the World Series of Poker. This is Day 1C, and by the end of it we will be three quarters through this opening day...more

Poker is defined largely by its American heritage on Mississippi river boats and dusty Texas back roads. The variant played here at the World Series of Poker takes its name from those areas in the Lone Star state. But, by name and definition, this tournament is an international event. From...more

We’re getting into that stage of the night where a quick check of the Amazon Room landscape will give hints as to who is most likely to be back here on day two. We’ve been able to see Team PokerStars Pro John Duthie from our vantage point on media...more

If you ever want to get yourself on a poker-related beano -- and who doesn't -- try to get qualified for the PokerStars World Cup of Poker. Running every year and open only to PokerStars qualifiers, this team event takes place over one week in the Gran Casino, Barcelona, and...more

There were two parts to Chris Moneymaker's master class this afternoon. The first related to 15 guys and gals who had won their seat to the world series in a $39 Moneymaker satellite - the same amount that Chris himself spent to win his seat five years ago. The...more

Much has been made in the media during this World Series about the relative success of top-name professional players in the preliminary events, especially at the expense of the plucky amateurs who often prevail. It's the "Year of the Pro", according to most news outlets, and Team PokerStars Pros Barry...more

There is a phenomenon in poker that few people get to experience. While everyone at a tournament table wears a target, those big name pros who have spent hours on television are painted with the biggest bullseye you'll ever see. It doesn't matter what big name pro you talk...more

You’ll see all sorts of things within the Las Vegas city limits - things that you’re almost guaranteed not to see anywhere else. Like a $4.99 steak dinner for instance, a party that starts at 9am or a slot machine promising $999,999 to a lucky winner (and a queue...more

In any poker community, people are often known by a nickname. I've played with a Snake, a Buddha, and yea, verily, a Teddy Foreskin. In the world of underground poker, it's common to never know the name the player's mama gave'em. Such was the case for me in the past...more

Let's say you're a young tennis professional and you're shaping up to make your debut at the Wimbledon Championship at the All England Club. On the eve of the tournament, both Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal treat themselves to a cheeky chocolate eclair for dessert at the champion's dinner, but...more

Time to start all over again. This is all part of the opening day déjà vu that will strike three times before next Tuesday heralds the start of the true day two. For today though over a thousand new players, most with little interest in what happened yesterday, or...more

We thought we might go our entire life without seeing Wayne Newton. We were almost certain we wouldn't ever hear him accompanied by a marching band. We would've placed good money down on Newton never uttering these four famous words: "Shuffle up and deal!" We would've lost. That's how Day...more

Shortly before we entered the final two-hour level of the day, word reached us of the official number of players anteing up on day 1A: 1,297. As you probably know by now, there are four day ones, and the fields tend to increase a little day on day. So the...more

The Italian poker community used to be a small one, but like in so many other nations over the last couple of years all that has changed. Whereas once just one or two Italian players graced a tournament field, these days that figure is more like dozens from the...more

David Tagliabue, in his mother's estimation, "loves poker and plays more than he should." From her home in Texas, mother Tagliabue may seem like she's critical of her son, but it's clear she's a proud mama who very much wishes she could be watching her son play Day 1A of...more

The World Series is where the young and old, rookie and veteran come together to play their game of choice. A famous player once said it’s a collection of all the best local game players in the world, which isn’t far off - everyone here thinks they can win...more

Team PokerStars Pro is an ever-growing entity. As the game becomes popular in even more countries around the world, owing to the likes of the European and Latin America Poker Tours (EPT and LAPT), so the players from some previously unvisited poker-playing countries come to the the world's attention, and...more

"This is the slowest structure in the history of the World Series of Poker," said Tournament Director Jack Effel. While certainly true (the WSOP added three levels in the early going), you wouldn't know it as fact by watching the carnage in the Amazon Room. Dealer cries of "All in...more

One has long hair, the other short. One is emblazoned by fine jewellery and sparkle, the other wears a simple wristwatch. One wears flash designer clothes, the other simple playing attire. And one looks animated as he plays, whilst the other always looks tired. But whilst there are differences...more

One of the most appealing aspects of poker, especially for the recreational player, is the way the game levels the playing field between superstar professional and plucky amateur, between international celebrity and bedroom beginner. Sit anyone around a poker table and reputations count for little. No matter the size of...more

The grizzled are here. No doubt about it. There are more wrinkles in this room than a kennel full of Shar Peis. While the smell of Ben Gay is present, it is not as pervasive as the scent of youth (what that smells like is open to debate, but for...more

So we're underway - several hundred people, just one flight of four to play their 'day 1' - in the outer reaches of the Rio hotel. This is all in stark contrast to the landscape flying into Las Vegas. Whether from Europe or the States; over Canada's lakes, the...more

Two thousand and eight. 2008. That's the number on all of our lips this morning as the $10,000 Championship Event of the World Series of Poker gets underway at the Rio Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas. It is, of course, July 2008 AD, the 38th renewal of the most prestigious...more

Let's face it, we see a lot of celebrities around these parts. After you spend a few weeks (or, in our case, years) doing this, running into the glitterati of the world becomes sort of old hat. That is to say, when we see Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, or Isabelle...more

You've already seen it for the best part of a year, bringing you the finest poker action from the EPT, APPT, LAPT and now the World Series. But today is when it all becomes official: the ground-breaking, innovative, slick, sharp and really rather special PokerStars.tv launches TODAY. Click below...more

Chris Sparks has played as GoMukYaSelf on PokerStars since 2004, and logged an impressive 46 final table finishes in that time, in everything from $11 MTTs all the way up to his win in this week’s Sunday Million for $135,334.75. Chris took a little time out from his summer...more

As the $1,500 HORSE event reached the critical stages - the players rested and fed, returning to action - the matter of Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso’s efforts in the $1,500 no limit hold’em had yet to be resolved. Vanessa had put in one of her best World Series...more

The $50K HORSE obviously made greater headlines that the $1500 version, but one other thing it did was to spark interest in the HORSE method itself – the five disciplines of poker that offer something new to the casual spectator used to the dominance of Texas hold’em on TV...more

Victor Ramdin is hogging the limelight for PokerStars Team Pro this afternoon at the Rio. He's one of 20 players who came back for the final day of the $1,500 HORSE event. The record turnout for a mixed game tournament meant they weren't able to play down to a final...more

Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin could really use a good finish today. See, for a lot of the people coming in town for the Main Event, being able to claim one World Series cash in 2008 would be enough. Victor Ramdin already has two cashes this year, but he's not...more

Man, oh, man. Just wait until you see this. PokerStars has just released its 2008 World Championship of Online Poker schedule and it's twice as rich as 2007. PokerStars is guaranteeing $30,000,000 over 33 different events. This year's schedule includes several new events, including: $10,300 High-Roller No-Limit Hold'em Eight-Game Mixed...more

Monday was supposed to be the day of calm before the storm, a day when pot limit Omaha aside, a few minor tournaments would grind on, acting as preparation for thousands of players newly arrived and looking for a pre-main event warm up. But even with the surprise fallers...more

News from the Brasilia room, where currently the last 38 battle hardened HORSE players – the elite cavalry you might say – are hard at work. Tournament officials have declared they will play until 3am before anyone gets back to a hotel room for rest before play resumes tomorrow....more

A few days ago, Team PokerStars Pro made a thoroughbred effort in the $50,000 HORSE championship, with Katja Thater and Chad Brown going way deep before busting just short of the money, Daniel Negreanu holding a penultimate day chip lead before fading and finishing 13th, and Barry Greenstein going all...more

As we arrived at the Amazon Room this afternoon the pot limit Omaha event, which started yesterday, was getting underway. In it played three Team PokerStars hopefuls in Humberto Brenes, Noah Boeken and Bill Chen. As reported earlier, in a period of carnage lasting about 15 minutes, the landscape...more

Team PokerStars Pros Chad Brown and Vanessa Rousso probably know more about each other's games than anyone else. It's no secret that the couple are, well, a "couple" and around the poker tables their rivalry might be fierce, but it's also based on mutual encouragement. Domestic bragging rights are one...more

One of the great things about writing this blog is that I am sometimes privy to some advance information about what’s going to happen at PokerStars. This is one of those times. Many of the details are still secret, but I can reveal that the next 31 days are going...more