March 2009 Archives

The PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker kicks off in a little more than 48 hours and it has amateurs and pros alike foaming at the mouth. "Every big player I've talked to has cleared their schedule for the SCOOP," said Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu. With $30 million guaranteed...more

...more

...more

The last Sunday of the month is always a blowout at PokerStars. Between the regular Sunday majors, the Turbo Takedown, and the Battle of the Planets triple shootout, it's hard to keep up with it all. Add to it that this weekend saw Team PokerStars Pro win the first All...more

The last Sunday of the month brought another exciting installment of the Sunday Million to PokerStars computer screens around the world. The $1.5 million guarantee was bypassed, as usual, by the 7,651 players who came together to create a $1,530,200 prize pool. And with that, the action was fast and...more

Can you make the adjustments necessary to win the $1 Million Turbo Takedown? First, you must overcome the massive field of 10,614 players who "paid" the 5,000 Frequent Players Point (FPPs) buy-in. Second, this is a turbo tournament meaning less time to wait for those premium hands. Third, after level...more

This week's edition of the Sunday Warm-Up saw the prize pool creep ever closer to that whopping $1 million mark, with 4,722 entrants building a $944,400 prize pool. Some 10+ hours after kickoff, the final table ended after one of best heads up comebacks this writer has ever seen. When...more

It had the all the drama of a playoff game, the ticking clock of an NCAA Elite Eight match-up, and enough pride on the line to last a team a year. Going into the final five matches of PokerStars All Star Week, Team PokerStars Pro and the All Star Challengers...more

Word must have gotten out to qualifiers of the monthly Battle of the Planets freeroll. Last month saw 442 qualifiers cash in their freeroll tickets for a chance at the $12,000.00 first prize. This month 536 players started the day at the first table of this triple shootout with the...more

When the PokerStars Sunday majors kick off today, you will see a couple of new Team PokerStars Pros in the mix. Our old friends Maria "maridu" Mayrinck and Leo Fernandez have been signed to Team Pro, adding two new powerful South American card slingers to the already powerful team. Mayrinck...more

Anyone who expected a blow out in PokerStars All Star Week will have to wait for another promotion. Going into the final day of competition, both Team PokerStars Pro and the All Star Challengers have a chance to win. Coming into the penultimate day of competition, Team Pro had a...more

With only two days and ten matches left in PokerStars All Star Week, the All Star Challengers are down 14-11 to Team PokerStars Pro. They will need a good showing today to have a shot at the title tomorrow. On Saturday, the Challengers will be without one of their top...more

After falling back to a 7-2 deficit after Day 2 of PokerStars All Star Week, Team PokerStars Pro rallied back for big wins on Day 3 and complete sweep on Day 4. The message to the Challengers: don't try that silliness again. After suffering the Day 4 sweep, one could...more

If you had to choose a stand-out Challenger in PokerStars All Star Week, you wouldn't get in trouble picking the man they call Canuck. In his first two matches, Canuck has played Pot-Limit Omahas and beaten Team PokerStars Pros Noah Boeken and William Thorson. Canuck's seat in those games was...more

by Adam "STUDstood" Roberts In my last post, I began blogging about which tournament events to enter. More specifically, which ones may have the most value. I want to make clear that I didn't mean to NOT make a regular buy-in to a specific event. What I did state, and...more

We should note from the outset that the members of Team PokerStars Pro will make no money from PokerStars All Star Week. Their winnings go to charity. So, how do we account for their massive comeback? One word: Pride. After starting Day 3 down 7-3, the Pros stormed back to...more

If the Team PokerStars Pro players hadn't done something good last night, they might well have just given up. The All Star Challengers had jumped out to a 7-3 lead on Day 2 of PokerStars All Star Week and didn't look to be giving up. When Day 3 arrived, Team...more

PokerStars All Star Week was on its way to being a rout. The All-Star Challengers had won the first two days and had done so convincingly. Team PokerStars Pro needed to avoid a third day of losses, if only to shake off the smell of defeat. That's just what the...more

Let's be perfectly honest. There is no easy way to turn $100 into $10,000. It's possible, sure, but it's going to be tough. With that in mind, consider this: Thomas "Boku87" Boekhoff did it the hard way and he did on PokerStars without leaving his desk chair at home. The...more

If the PokerStars All Star Week taught us anything on Day 1 it was to never count out the underdog. If Day 2 offered a lesson it was this: The Team PokerStars Pros aren't going to just roll over for the All Star Challengers. No doubt, Day 1 proved to...more

...more

...more

After years of seeing Johnny Lodden at PokerStars events, what happened today almost seems like a formality. Lodden has become friend to PokerStars, to the PokerStars players, and even to the PokerStars bloggers. Now, the wrecking ball from Norway is officially a member of Team PokerStars Pro. Hailing from the...more

We hope you're enjoying our new digs here at the PokerStars Blog. We thought the place needed a little sprucing up. One of the beauties of making the place look a little nicer is the ability to see videos all over the place here. We encourage you to take a...more

Lesson #1: Never count out the underdog. It took just one day and five heads-up matches for that lesson to ring true. The PokerStars All Star Week Challengers came out of the gates with guns set on auto and the word victory on their tongue. When the day was over,...more

PokerStars All-Star week kicked off in full today with the first matches between Team PokerStars Pro and the All Star challengers. Several weeks ago, Team PokerStars Pro held a match of its own to determine who would serve as its captain as it took on some of the best poker...more

Well, you just don't expect this kind of thing to happen. Of course, it stands to reason this kind of thing could happen. Good players do amazing things, after all. What kind of thing you ask? How about the man who won the 2008 World Championship of Online Poker main...more

We've launched a new-look blog that makes it easier and more enjoyable for you to keep up to date with all the news and views from your favorite poker room. You'll find all our latest posts on the homepage as usual, but we've now split the blog into three more...more

After two weeks of delayed Sunday Million tournaments for Daylight Savings Time sufferers, the ever-popular Sunday tournament was back on a regular time schedule for the March 22nd edition. With spring having been declared official only two days prior, a new season awaited many thousands of players. With the Spring...more

Just two more weeks until the flood gates of tournament action are unleashed when the inaugural Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) kicks off for players of all bankroll sizes. Starting April 2nd and lasting until the main event April 12th, players will be able to compete in three buy-in...more

The qualifiers for PokerStars All Star Week are in the midst of determining who will face off against the Team PokerStars Pros. Here's your daily update of the action from PokerStars' very own Host Bob. by Host Bob Prior to the final team selection tournament, there were still six members...more

The qualifiers for PokerStars All Star Week are in the midst of determining who will face off against the Team PokerStars Pros. Here's your daily update of the action from PokerStars' very own Host Bob. by Host Bob In contrast to the fresh faces produced by Friday's team selection tournament,...more

...more

by Brad Willis and Change100 In the late hours of Day 2, Tournament Director Mike Ward began joking with 20-year-old Norwegian Karl Hevroy. Ward called the young online poker player "Houdini." At first, it was an inside joke between the two men. Tonight, it has a lot more meaning. Hevroy...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 23 (15,000/30,000/3,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 9:12pm 9:12pm-- Karl Hevroy wins the LAPT Punta del Este ($283,500), Alejandro De Arruabarrena eliminated...more

...more

The qualifiers for PokerStars All Star Week are in the midst of determining who will face off against the Team PokerStars Pros. Here's your daily update of the action, this time from PokerStars' very own Host Scotty. by Host Scotty There were sighs of relief from several members of the...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 21 (12,000/24,000/2,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 5:51pm 6:11pm--A moving look at the final table Watch LAPT Punta del Este S2: Final...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 21 (10,000/20,000/2,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 5:11pm 5:20pm--Half-million pot in battle of the blinds After play folded around to the blind,...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 20 (8,000/16,000/1,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 4:00pm 4:00--SIETE!!!!!!!!! Play folded around the the blinds and Bolivar Palacios almost immediately announced, "All-in."...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 19 (6,000/12,000/1,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 2:55pm 2:55pm--Magno Aragao forcing the action Magno Aragao is not going to be content to...more

The final table of the Latin American Poker Tour event in Punta del Este is scheduled to begin in about an hour. Nine people out of the original starting field of 327 remain and will be competing for the $283,500 first prize. The PokerStars Blog will have live coverage beginning...more

The qualifiers for PokerStars All Star Week are in the midst of determining who will face off against the Team PokerStars Pros. Here's your daily update of the action from PokerStars' very own Host Bob. by Host Bob The fourth day of All Star Challengers team selection was one for...more

Latin American poker players are an emotional bunch. It's almost impossible to spend more than a few minutes inside of the tournament room here at the Mantra Resort & Casino without witnessing a wild outburst, hearing a palm slam against the felt in frustration or seeing a fist pumped into...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 19 (6,000/12,000/1,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 11:45pm 11:45pm--Final table to begin at 2pm Friday Join us here for a live coverage...more

...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 18 (5,000/10,000/1,000) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 10:38pm 10:38pm--Mario Salvagno out in 13th ($15,540) You might have noticed a trend here. People...more

...more

...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 17 (4,000/8,000/500) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 9:04pm 9:30pm--Level ends Dinner must be digesting slowly. That level ended with no more significant...more

...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 16 (3,000/6,000/500) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 6:20pm 6:20pm-- Gabriel Loyo eliminated in 24th place ($10,000) Ron Wasiel opened the action with...more

...more

...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 15 (2,000/4,000/400) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 5:01pm 5:01pm--Alex Fitzgerald and Edson Esquio eliminated back to back ($7,220) Lisandro Gallo may get...more

...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 14 (1,500/3,000/300) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 3:42pm 3:42pm--"I don't not want to risk losing with a pair of aces." Bolivar Palacios...more

...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 13 (1,200/2,400/300) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 2:25pm 2:25pm--Break time The remaining 45 players are headed to a 15-minute break. While you're...more

Updates from the LAPT event in Punta del Este Level 11 (1,000/2,000/300) will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 1:22pm 1:22pm-- Alberto Font takes out Pablo Zarnicki We caught up with this hand on...more

When we began the Latin American Poker Tour event in Punte del Este yesterday, the 327 starting players were scattered over three rooms. Today, with 64 players remaining, we've moved to one room. By the time the day ends, we'll only need one table. When we last left our fearless...more

A wise man once said, when a room is packed to the rafters, it's good to have an escalator.* Fortunately, the Mantra Resort and Casino has several. The buy-in for the second season in Punta del Este went up this year to $3,700. Most folks here expected the field to...more

Alex Fitzgerald had a rough go of it at the EPT Dortmund. On an A-J-5-A-4 board, he flopped top pair and turned trips, value betting his A-Q beautifully on each street and getting called down each time. The only problem was, his opponent turned up 4-4 on the river...more

If he would take off his shiny shades, Alberto Font might be easier to read. Maybe he knows this, because it's rare to see him without them. We first spotted the Spaniard this year at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure when he final tabled a side event and picked up nearly...more

Things looked dire for Victor Ramdin. With the blinds up to 500-1000 with a 100 ante, Ramdin had only 4,900 left -- barely enough to survive two orbits. With the action folded around, the button moved all in, having Ramdin well-covered. The small blind folded and Ramdin peeked at...more

We'll concede Jim Croce's point. The south side of Chicago might very well be the baddest part of town, but go a little farther down Illinois' I-55 and you best beware of a man named Ron Wasiel. You might be a little bit like we are tonight and wondering where...more

Alex Brenes is no stranger to this venue. Back in Season 1, Brenes had the LAPT Punta del Este title in sight, but came up just short of a victory, finishing second to Spain's Jose Miguel Espinar. Yesterday, he played his second career final table here at the Mantra Resort...more

If you've ever thrown a really big party, you know the feeling. You invite everybody, spend a of of time preparing, and then deal with the rush of people through the front door. People are eating, drinking, and rummaging through your drawers. One of your friends has shaved your cat...more

...more

Scientists have determined that large amounts of red meat in a short period of time can cause a rapid onset of euphoria and nausea typically associated with illegal hallucinogenic drugs. As we and the assembled poker rumblers have just exited the hotel's House of Steak Orgy, assume that we will...more

Mere feet from the tournament room sits a giant hearth. A sweating man in a chef's hat maniacally throws giant logs into the flames. He stares at the fire until he feels it's right and then he throws giant slabs of red meat on the adjoining grill. It is, in...more

Greg Raymer showed all the signs of a man who was card-dead. With a ring of spectators watching his every move, Raymer folded hand after hand, giving a little eyebrow raise or shaking his head ever-so-slightly as he was dealt pair after pair of rags. Still, he chatted up his...more

...more

Melina Villegas offered to eat a wax candle holder a couple of nights ago. "I'll do it for $3,700," she said. The thing was bigger than a grapefruit. It hardly seemed healthy. So, I undercut her and offered to do it for $1,000 (she was painfully unaware that I have...more

It's about 20 degrees Fahrenheit at the moment in Uppsala, Sweden, the town 40 miles north of Stockholm that Johannes Korsar calls home. With the forecast looking grim and gray, Korsar and a friend decided to take a holiday in Buenos Aires to escape the frozen Nordic winter. After two...more

After some careful scrutiny, we have determined the math in South America is the same as the rest of the world. With that in mind, we have just figured out how much we're playing for here in Punta del Este. With 327 players in the field, we're looking at a...more

Of our 327 starters, 238 remain after four and a half levels of play. Already we've witnessed the departures of Humberto Brenes, Martha Herrera, and Jim "MrBigQueso" Collopy, who is currently enjoying a sandwich in the atrium outside the tournament room and recounting his bad beat story to a few...more

...more

Listen, we're not the kind of people to just throw out wild accusations. In the world of online poker, calling someone a multi-accounter is the equivalent of calling someone a witch in Salem, Massachusetts. That said, there is something very fishy going on around here. There's this cat named Lerner...more

The qualifiers for PokerStars All Star Week are in the midst of determining who will face off against the Team PokerStars Pros. Here's your daily update of the action from PokerStars' very own Host Bob. by Host Bob We're almost half way through the All Star Week selection matches, and...more

If you've spent any time in farming country, you know the Back 40. Those acres on the back part of the property make for a long walk. The Back 40 here at the Mantra Resort and Casino takes us out the door, through the Wine Bar, up an escalator, through...more

It's not exactly the cheeriest term, but for those of us in the poker media, the word "deathwatch" is our shorthand for "lost most of his stack, about to bust". After taking a walk around the tournament room, we noticed that Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin's starting stack of 10,000...more

It's always a pleasure to chat with Maria "Maridu" Mayrinck. One of Latin American poker's great success stories, Maridu used to... well... do our job as a writer for PokerStars' Brazilian blog before she started cashing in major events left and right, leading to her present status as a...more

...more

We like to think we're giving you a pretty clear picture of what's going on here at the Punte del Este stop on the LAPT. We passed carpal tunnel a long time ago and have moved into a state of arthritic bliss. Still, there is something to be said for...more

For nearly ten hours yesterday, Josh Prager sat in the audience of the LAPT Mexico final table and called out, "Way to go, Helen!" No matter how tedious the night, no matter how slow play went, Prager held his seat and cheered on his wife. Anymore, there isn't a prototypical...more

Let's just state the obvious here: People really like them some poker. Nowhere is that more clear today than in Punta del Este where more than 320 poker players have shown up for the second stop in this fine city. Even in the face of the best planning money can...more

Over 300 players have packed themselves into our tournament room here at the Mantra Resort and with space at a premium, play has begun eleven-handed and will continue in this fashion until the field has been sufficiently thinned. A cadre of Team PokerStars Pros, past LAPT winners and the premiere...more

...more

As the LAPT Mexico final table crept toward Rory Cox's victory last night, we heard tales of a party going on. We struggled with our inner demons. We could either continue our duties live blogging the final table or slip off to one of PokerStars signature welcome parties. We chose...more

...more

If the breeze wasn't an issue, we would just pick up the tables here at the Mantra Resort and Casino and play this tournament outside. The sky is blue, the sun is shining, and the temperatures are perfect for kicking back for a few hands of poker. Alas, we're going...more

The qualifiers for PokerStars All Star Week are in the midst of determining who will face off against the Team PokerStars Pros. Here's your daily update of the action from PokerStars' very own Host Bob. by Host Bob Wildcard 'oblowski512' had the chip lead when the tourney reached five players...more

"You'll like it," someone told us as we prepared to come to Uruguay. "It's very European." We weren't sure what to make of the recommendation. When we last crossed the border into South America into Chile, we found an arid fishing community that looked like California--rolling green vineyards, desert mountains,...more

...more

by Brad Willis and Change100 If you don't know the story of LAPT Mexico by now, it's hardly worth re-telling in its entirety. Suffice to say, this is almost certainly the first time we have ever arrived at a champion in such a fashion. And what fashion would that be?...more

Updates from the postponed LAPT Mexico final table 15,000/30,000/3,000 level will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 11:35pm 11:35pm - Rory Cox wins the LAPT Mexico ($15,000), Helen Prager eliminated in 2nd place ($11,000)...more

Updates from the postponed LAPT Mexico final table 12,000/24,000/2,000 level will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 10:40pm 10:40pm-- Prager regains some ground After Rory Cox picked up a few small pots off her,...more

Updates from the postponed LAPT Mexico final table 10,000/20,000/2,000 level will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 8:18pm 8:18--Prager does it again Helen Prager is not going to be content to just let Rory...more

Updates from the postponed LAPT Mexico final table 8,000/16,000/1,500 level will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 6:35pm 6:53pm--Herrera limps out with head high ($3,000) A four-way pot has just sent Mexico's Martha Herrera...more

Updates from the postponed LAPT Mexico final table 6,000/12,000/1,000 level will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 5:47pm 5:47pm-- Steven Thompson doubles through Bolivar Palacios Steven Thompson opened for 39,000, Bolivar Palacios moved all...more

Updates from the postponed LAPT Mexico final table 5,000/10,000/1,000 level will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 4:30pm 4:30pm--Level ends with eight players remaining After two hours of play, only Victor Ramdin has found...more

Updates from the postponed LAPT Mexico final table 4,000/8,000/500 level will be posted here and come courtesy of live bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. Click refresh to see the latest updates. Last update 3:23pm 3:23pm--Chip count update Seat 1: Rory Cox (USA) 1,100,000 Seat 2: Victor Ramdin (USA) 70,000 Seat...more

...more

...more

While we ready ourselves to live blog the LAPT Mexico final table and kick off the LAPT Punta del Este event here in Uruguay, we thought you might enjoy some fantastic coverage of Sunday's big PokerStars events. PokerStars.tv is back with two brand new episoides of The Online Poker Show....more

PokerStars All Star week is almost upon us and we're just starting to learn who will make up the All Star Team and face off against Team PokerStars Pro. All Star Week will run from March 23 to 29, when PokerStars will be hosting a series of heads up matches...more

You might have heard about PokerStars Macau. You may think you know everything about it. Well, now, there is a brand new room in a brand new place and it bears some attention this morning. This weekend, PokerStars will host the grand opening of PokerStars Macau at the Gran Lisboa....more

Though you may not have realized it yet, we're in Uruguay. We'll tell you more about this fine country in just a bit, but for now, we have a bit of news on our hands. A few months back you might have seen that the LAPT event in Mexico had...more

German ShootingStar Sandra Naujoks showed just how much you can win with PokerStars when she took down EPT Dortmund last week - her home event - for €917,000. This week, hundreds more players will gather to chase another big prize, this time across the globe at the PokerStars LAPT event...more

It was one week after Americans adjusted to Daylight Savings Time, the adjusting of the time to allow for one extra hour of daylight in the evenings through the spring and summer months. Most have adjusted well. But just in case some had not, PokerStars pushed the starting time up...more

The Daylight Savings Time edition of the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up drew an impressive 4,312 entrants, once again blowing through the $750K guarantee to build a prize pool of $862,400. Add that to the $1.6 million prize pool for the Sunday Million, and PokerStars had nearly $2.5 million in two major...more

...more

Two years ago at the Victoria Casino in London, Vicky Coren triumphed on home soil to become the first woman to win an EPT main event. Coren remained alone until about an hour ago at Hohensyburg Casino, Dortmund, when Sandra Naujoks, a PokerStars.de ShootingStar, joined her in the exclusive club,...more

Live updates from level 30 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the final table. Blinds: 50,000-100,000 (ante: 10,000) The final hand: Sandra Naujoks takes...more

...more

Live updates from level 29 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the final table. Blinds: 40,000-80,000 (ante: 10,000) 10.05pm: Slow Sandra Naujoks has a...more

Live updates from level 27 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the final table. Blinds: 30,000-60,000 (ante: 5,000) 8.52pm: Level comes to a close...more

...more

Live updates from level 27 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the final table. Blinds: 25,000-50,000 (ante: 5,000) 7.25pm: Naujoks back to the action...more

Live updates from level 26 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the final table. Blinds: 20,000-40,000 (ante: 4,000) 5.17pm: As the level ends Naujoks...more

Live updates from level 25 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the final table. Blinds: 15,000-30,000 (ante: 3,000) 3.58pm: Break time Players go on...more

Live updates from level 24 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the feature table. Blinds: 15,000-30,000 (ante: 3,000) 2.55pm: Thorson's William Thorson has just...more

The players are gathering, the cameras are flashing, the EPT trophy shines and the television stage is ready. Eight players remain in the EPT Dortmund and all that stands between them and an EPT title are seven others intent on ruining each other's day. This should make for a thrilling...more

Four years is a long time in poker. If we cast our minds back to season one of the EPT, we can probably remember the sight of a spiky-haired young Swede and a suave young Italian making quiet yet confident progress through fields of about 200 players, anteing something like...more

Live updates from level 24 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the feature table. Blinds: 15,000-30,000 (ante: 3,000) 12.50am: Final eight in place Florian...more

...more

Live updates from level 23 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the feature table. Blinds: 10,000-20,000 (ante: 2,000) 12.05am: The chip leaders Johan Storakers...more

...more

Live updates from level 22 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the feature table. Blinds: 8,000-16,000 (ante: 2,000) 10.25pm: By the hand of Storakers...more

...more

Live updates from level 21 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates. This post will track the action in level 21. Blinds: 6,000-12,000 (ante: 1,000) 9.20pm: Break time Players are taking a 15 minute break. Seconds before...more

...more

Live updates from level 20 of EPT Dortmund are brought to you by Stephen Bartley and Howard Swains. Click refresh to see the latest updates. This post will track the action in level 20. Blinds: 5,000-10,000 (ante: 1,000) 6.55pm: Pointless but vaguely interesting fact of the day The last seven...more

...more

Luca Pagano did his tournament hopes no harm, just doubling up his stack. The Team PokerStars Pro pushed with pocket tens, up against T-9, hitting the case ten on the flop. Richard Kellett wins a pot against Gregor Waltemann, sending the German out. Since losing a chunk of chips earlier...more

Jacek Ladny is out, quashing any hope Poland had of a first EPT winner. William Thorson saw him safely to the rail, his pocket tens bettering Ladny's A♥-J♠ on a Q♥-4♦-5♣-8♦-3♦ board. Ladny's elimination was sandwiched by those of Alessandro Meoni (A-10 v the A-K of Cengizcan Ulusu on the...more

Florian Langmann's shooting star continues to blaze in Dortmund. He just took down a huge pot -- something in the region of 120,000 -- and eliminated Umberto Vitagliano in the process. The pre-flop action was unclear, as was the betting through a flop, turn and river that ended up giving...more

Richard Kellett may have had some chips shipped his way earlier but the shipping is going both ways in the first level. With a board already showing J♠-A♠-8♠-9♠ Kellett made it 60,000 which Holger Kanisch called for a 5♥ river card. Hood up, his head rested on his hand and...more

...more

The Dortmund adventure of Than Minh Pham is over, a victim of the most powerful combination of chip leader, table position, and a genuine hand. Holger Kanisch raised to 16,000 from the button, Marc Gork folded his small blind, but Pham moved all in from the big. Kanisch snap called...more

Naturally it didn't take long for the all-ins to begin. One of three remaining champions Andreas Hoivold holding A♠-Q♥ called the all-in of Jan Collado-Fernandez who showed A♦-3♦. Not a great start for the Norwegian - the board was studded with diamonds, running T♦-6♦-K♣-J♦-7♠, costing Hoivold more than 70,000. Englishman...more

Holger Kanisch is fulfilling his brief as chip leader by getting involved in numerous pots and attempting to apply the pressure on to his lesser-equipped adversaries. Problem being, he's sitting only a couple of seats away from the player in second place, Marc Gork, who doesn't seem inclined to go...more

Action has started on all four tables, and the kind of action we see at this stage frequently doesn't bear much resemblance to that which has gone before. Constantin Meyer, the short stack with only 42,000 at the start of the day, moved all in from the button after it...more

Casino Hohensyburg lurks about 20 minutes outside of Dortmund city centre, along a narrow country road, past fields, cottages, bed and breakfast hotels, and then a church on a wooded hillside. The building itself is something of a modern, angular, glass-heavy construction, but its location is uniquely rural for an...more

It started 11 hours ago. I remember something about fog in the trees but everything else since is just a blur. Such was the pace of eliminations today that in that relatively short time the hopes of 216 players were wiped away, a ruthless period of pain and suffering that...more

Easy game, this. Luca Pagano just built his stack up to about 150,000 again, courtesy of a second pair of pocket aces within the hour. This time he managed to persuade Than Minh Pham to match his shove on an eight-high flop. Pham had pocket nines and Pagano's bullets held....more

There are four former EPT champions among the 44 remaining players: Joao Barbosa, Moritz Kranich, Mike McDonald and Andreas Hoivold. That's remarkable enough, but add to that the fact that the latter two previously won in Dortmund, while the former pair previously won on this season, and you've got something...more

...more

Players are falling at regular intervals now, with the names of the latest prizewinners appearing on the prizewinners page. Where else would they be? In other tournament news, the remaining players are now being compressed into one tiny corner of the tournament room, which a side event takes over one...more

...more

It's poker's equivalent of labour, albeit without the intense pain, goo and a baby at the end. But the bubble, which can last minutes or hours, has burst after a relatively painless ten minutes, producing a healthy but sad bubble boy in Toby Newton. Newton, from Holland, moved in for...more

The 72 remaining players are now aligned in two rows of tables, behind each a rail not half a yard away, making it a densely packed piece of casino real estate, with the two rows separated by a passageway two feet wide. Maybe people are mistaking it for the yellow...more

There's no doubt where the action table was today. And, indeed, where it remains. Railbirds have been sneaking under the barrier to get a better view of the table featuring Luca Pagano, William Thorson, Max Pescatori and Almira Skriptschenko all day, but now they have been banished it seemed a...more

...more

To use nothing but poker-speak: Richard Kellett is ripping this one up. The PokerStars qualifier from the United Kingdom picked up aces four times within the first level -- three of those in a row -- and has used that spectacular good fortune as a springboard to the current chip...more

Rudolf Zintel has had his playing privileges revoked. Zintel tabled pocket kings, ahead of his opponent's A-K. But crucially the ace was a club and with four on the board by the river Zintel was gone. That's the fate Andreas Gülünay was dealt thanks to Clyde Tjauw Foe. Despite a...more

The plan today is to play nine levels or down to 32 players, and with 87 remaining at the end of today's level five, it seems likely we'll be going the distance. Soon-ish, we'll be entering the hand-to-hand passage of play that announces the approach of the cash bubble. One...more

Players have just returned from their dinner break, where some of them took on some sustenance, some of them took on some nicotine, some of them took a brief walk and some of them -- William Thorson and Max Pescatori, for example -- merely transferred their intense on-table rivalry to...more

For all the talk of Mike McDonald on course for a second Dortmund title it's worth remembering that Andreas Hoivold is in exactly the same position. The Norwegian, who won here in its inaugural year, pushed all-in on a hand against Jan Collado-Fernandez. With the board reading 7♦-K♠-T♦-8♣ Collado-Fernandez made...more

The chip count released at the most recent break showed some of poker's leading lights rising to the top of the charts: Thorson, McDonald, Pescatori, Pagano, et al. But fear not -- never fear -- for the band of lesser-known PokerStars qualifiers. Today, a young Swedish representative named Johan Percivall...more

...more

Luca Pagano's progress through this tournament has been something of a throwback to the early seasons of the European Poker Tour. Back then, it was pretty much a certainty that the Italian would be hanging round the tournament room for long enough to secure yet another cash and we used...more

More from Mike McDonald, who just bludgeoned Dren Ukella's day to a close. Looking for a break, Ukella needed his pocket sevens to hold up against the Canadian's Q♣-J♥, but was up against a queen on the flop and a bucket load of McDonald momentum. Yesterday we mentioned William Dean's...more

...more

The remaining 147 players have just taken their first break of the day. Two levels done, 107 players busted, business as usual. Flying highest is the Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson, who has 161,000 at the break, and is hardly under threat by the new blinds and antes of level...more

More dramatics from various directions. Max Pescatori, complete with a bandana in the colours of his native Italy, just sent another player to the rail, little mercy shown as he stacks up 90,000 worth of chips. A burst of anticipation must have ripped through the veins of Marius Targowski when...more

William Thorson is our likely chip leader here in Dortmund after he took down a pot of about 95,000 with aces holding up against ace-king. He now has about 140,000, which has probably taken him past the overnight leader Marco Noll. There is still, of course, an awful lot of...more

Dortmund doesn't necessarily make it onto many travel itineraries. Various other attractions of central Europe usually steal the limelight from this part of the Ruhr region, perhaps cruelly as anyone who has taken a wander through the forests and over the hills outside of Casino Hohensyburg will attest. But one...more

You might already have imagined what this post is about. Level nine, the first of day two, is a flurry of activity with the pulse of "seat open!" cries from all corners of the room. There's no way to write this any other way from the many times it's been...more

A fog has descended over Casino Hohensyburg this morning. Blanking the view over the Ruhr district out on the casino terrace, it has settled amid the trees making the surrounding forest seem like a sinister place where demons might appear from at night or where card players, too distraught to...more

by Adam "STUDstood" Roberts Most of the tournaments we see today are the "conventional" type, i.e. single buy-in events, with no rebuys. Although I have had success in this type of structure, I believe that for most people there is much more value in the following types of events: Tournaments...more

There was a brilliant sideshow going on today in Casino Hohensyburg. While the cabaret of singers, dancers, gymnasts and burlesque performers took their well-earned occasional break, 358 poker players anted up €5,000 and squeezed in eight levels of an EPT event. And in those brief moments when the lights were...more

Italian pro Max Pescatori is in the ascendancy, taking another tense pot. The flop was on the board, 2♦-A♣-J♣. A bet of 2,600 was raised by the Italian who then went into a state of immovable concentration. Was he trying not to give anything away, or was he intent on...more

One day soon a scientist of sound (audiologist?) will produce an aural catalogue of the sounds commonly heard at a major poker tournament. Although a zoologist might be better suited to some of the research work -- it's a jungle out there -- there's definitely some patterns to be determined...more

How's this for a line up. Michael Keiner, Danny Ryan, Michael Schultze, Mike McDonald, Katja Thater and Roland Specht. In that order. Schultze, a winner in season four in Warsaw, extended his stay at his home tournament, doubling up through Michael Keiner when he moved all-in with A-Q against Keiner's...more

Jonas Molander is out, making a crying call after he'd been set all in, from a check-raise, on a board of A♦-Q♣-J♠. Molander had A-J but clearly already thought he was behind and hoping to redraw to the full house. His opponent had K-10 for the flopped nut straight and...more

Francesco Cirianni said "raise", the dealer confirmed "raise." Francesco Cirianni said "all-in", the dealer confirmed "all-in". Francesco Cirianni has always been an expressive sort of player, evident during his Prague campaign where he finished fifth for €166,000. Now his sense of drama remains - this is his make or break...more

Jens Kyllonen, our most recent EPT champion, will not be going back to back. He just departed the tournament arena behind A♥-9♦ after his early position all in (about 3,200) was snapped off by the A♣-K♣ of the player in the big blind. That player shook his head ruefully as...more

Among the usual cerebral chatter over dinner this evening ("Is a courgette just a cucumber you can cook?") was the question of whether Peter Eastgate was still in the tournament or out. Ten minutes before the break, when one of the dinner guests had conducted a chip count, he was...more

There may be noble causes, fights worth fighting, but when it comes to the dealer at Noah Boeken's table his cause would always be a losing one, however admirable the attempt. Trying to maintain order the dealer reminded players again and again of the English only policy at the table,...more

...more

...more

Tonight's choices at the casino buffet were chicken with ratatouille, veal and pasta or something else. It was all good. As we now work off our post-prandial lethargy with a trip around the 15 remaining tables in the tournament area, here are some video blogs for you to enjoy from...more

Luca Pagano's presence in an EPT is like a signal that all is well in the world. No disturbance in the force, no glitch in the matrix, no tear in the space time continuum, just the comforting presence of one of the tour's most consistent cash finishers. You can hark...more

Table one has been a brutal place to be today. At least six players have departed from around that particular slab of baize, the most recent of whom was Dario Minieri. He arrived with a short stack but chipped up to near his starting stack again before an accident with...more

...more

And so the drip, drip of eliminations begin. Salvatore Bonavena has just seen his latest chance of becoming the first two-time EPT champion evaporate into the Dortmund ether. No one seemed to see the hand, but everyone noticed the EPT Prague champion standing at the rail, looking for a progress...more

Dario Minieri has taken his seat in the far reaches of the tournament room, his face partially covered by his Roma scarf with his stack in good shape going into level two. Next to him is William Dean, a spitting image of Kevin Smith's creation Silent Bob who cuts a...more

Among the PokerStars blog staple posts is the one about the former winners. We could write that again today in Dortmund if we wanted: Perrault, Thew, ElkY, MacDonald, Bonavena, Boeken and Martin are providing the grist for that particular mill. But why should they hog the limelight, just because they've...more

The opening level and everything is fresh - the players, the drinks, the reporters. The view from media row out across the tournament room always looks similar, but it's never quite the same. And it's always worth taking a couple of minutes to survey the landscape. So what's out there...more

"I get the strange feeling that I've seen this before," said the EPT's foremost French reporter, Benjamin Gallen, staring at a stage full of scantily-clad cabaret dancers, testing the full flexibility of the narrow slivers of lycra stretched over only the most essential areas of their athletic frames*. Yep, day...more

Last night Team PokerStars Pro William Thorson bludgeoned his way to the chip lead, a spectacular exhibition of the Swede's blatant fearlessness which set today's high water mark at around 84,000. Even in the midst of the last hand, when others were eyeing the door after a long day, Thorson...more

...more

Maybe it was the late start or maybe the rising temperature in the tournament room while the rain lashed down outside, but there was something about day 1a that made it feel like a long one. No one could put their finger on it but the 121 players from the...more

...more

...more

While the live action in Dortmund, Germany winds down for the day, we have something to keep you busy until action begins again tomorrow. PokerStars.tv is back with another couple of episoides of The Online Poker Show. What? You've not heard of it yet? Well, you're missing out. For the...more

We're getting near the end of day 1a and slightly more than 120 players remain. Like my unmentionable regions after a few days of this sauerkraut and meat diet, things are starting to get a little looser about now. The shouts of all in are increasingly frequent as the short...more

Alexander Kravchenko has been making his characteristic steady, silent, ominous progress through day 1a and has recently hit his high water mark for the day, something in the region of 25,000. He got it all in pre-flop with A-Q against an opponent's K-K and it was something of a roller...more

...more

...more

It's always a delight to see PokerStars qualifiers enjoying their first major tournament on the EPT. Apart from the fact that they get the full PokerStars hospitality treatment in a country they might never have visited before, they also get to experience the terrific structure of the European Poker Tour,...more

...more

From one point of view the story is of ShootingStar Sebastian Ruthenberg tripling up to keep his tournament alive. From another point of view the story is one of Barny Boatman losing a load of chips as Ruthenberg tripled up. A huge crowd gathered for the hand, the Barcelona winner...more

"Good luck in Dortmund. Let me know if there are any Danish players you need help with." This was a message I received at the start of the day from Simon Langeland, our PokerStars blogger from Denmark, following the tournament from his home in Copenhagen. And I was grateful for...more

Tough tables sometimes form thanks to the randomness of the seat draw, while others evolve out of the remains of broken tables, slowly forming into something hideous you imagined living in the closet at night. Few rival the line up in Copenhagen that pitted Gus Hansen, Bertrand Grospellier and Annette...more

At the start of this afternoon, the EPT's most successful Cypriot, Phidias Georgiou, had the best seat in the house. He was in seat two of table two, which just so happened to be at the very edge of the tournament room and right beside the stage. That meant he...more

The second half of the field left for dinner a few moments ago, but not before the odd big hand slanted the landscape a little. The slanting came from William Thorson's table where the Team PokerStars Pro now sits surrounded by the likes of Jorn Walthaus and new arrival Joao...more

Marcin Horecki was down to about 3,000 chips within the first couple of levels, but he has now vaulted up to around 25,000. He was all in on a flop of J♣-8♠-2♠ holding J♠-3♠ for top pair and a flush draw. He wasn't ahead at that point, however, because his...more

There's a two-tier dinner break currently going on. That means half the field are now chowing down a choice between chili con carne, pork in mushroom sauce or ham and sauerkraut, while the other half play on. And once the sated return, the starving can go and eat their fill....more

Three tables, three stories of varying fortune - control, frustration and elimination, all conveniently displayed in one short spell by a cast featuring Ivan Demidov, Peter Hedlund and Florian Silbereisen. To watch Demidov play is to witness a baffling display of what looks like laziness, or at best exhaustion....more

A few nuggets of information from the tournament floor. Firstly, the PokerStars ShootingStar Benjamin Kang has made a great start here on home soil. He found kings against jacks and the better hand stood up after they got it all in pre-flop. Kang has more than 20,000 and is attracting...more

Before the whistle blew on level one the brutality of poker was driven home with all its naked force on Moritz Kranich's table. With the board reading 5-A-A-K and a player all in, the potential caller mulled the lonely choice - fold, taking your loss like a man, or hero...more

...more

It's probably worth warning any readers who intend to stick with us this week that your two writers here in Dortmund once learned German at school. By "school", I mean high school, and by "learned" I mean sat for a few hours in a classroom with a blank face while...more

Finding your way to an EPT final table is no easy task, but the players over on table 25 today in Dortmund would be a good bunch to ask if you were looking to pick up the habit. There you'll find the Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki, who made his...more

Dancing girls bedecked in giant pink and white feathers made their first appearance on the EPT today. Not playing, just here to inject a little high kicking pomp and ceremony into day 1a to an audience of poker players riffling and waiting. They cheered them on to the stage and...more

The EPT has been to Monte Carlo, it's been to London, Barcelona, Copenhagen and many more. We have played tournaments at the heart of the bustling metropolis, and done the same beside the beaches and the sea. But among all these glamourous locations, there is something unique about Casino Hohensyburg,...more

...more

It takes a special kind of poker nerd to be able to reel off the winners from all five seasons of the European Poker Tour. But there are some people who can do it, and they can often even name the runner up, the venue, other notable incidents and give...more

Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso has just done something no other person has done before. Rousso went to the NBC Heads Up Poker Championship in Las Vegas and faced, without question, the toughest path to the finals as any player ever. After beating the likes of Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negreanu,...more

This was one of those weekends that we needed a 24-hour cable news network instead of just a blog. Between the performances of Team PokerStars Pro and and the huge Sunday winners, there was more news than we even knew what to do with. First off, huge congratulations to Team...more

For United States players, it was a day with one less hour. Daylight Savings Time is something we do to give us more daylight in the evenings; by setting the clocks back simultaneously at 2am last night, we gave ourselves a little more darkness in the morning and an extra...more

What better way to top off a weekend of online tournaments then the $750,000 guaranteed $215 Sunday Warm-up? With a first prize usually over $100,000 it gives a good excuse to go through 4,223 runners and nearly ten hours of intense poker it takes to reach that big prize. In...more

By Sunday's end, a member of Team PokerStars Pro could very well be the NBC Heads Up Poker Champion. Daniel Negreanu, ElkY, and Vanessa Rousso have all made it to today's quarter finals. While all three have a shot at the title, only one of them can make it to...more

If you had a chalk bracket going into day 1 of the NBC Heads Up Poker Championship, find a bird cage to line, because it's pretty much worthless today. Well, not entirely. Several matches went the way the experts predicted, but the last year's champion and runner-up (and favorites to...more

In less than six hours, the 2009 NBC Heads Up Poker Championship begins and now we know who will face each other in the first round. As we mentioned yesterday, a host of Team PokerStars Pros, one Friend of PokerStars and a PokerStars NBC Heads Up Qualifier are in Las...more

by Adam "STUDstood" Roberts Poker tournaments have certainly come a long way since a handful of players showed up in the late '60s to compete in the fledgling WSOP. Play has increased exponentially since I popped onto the scene in the early '90s. Today, not only has the WSOP added...more

At 19 years old, Blandino Gines had just come to America. He picked grapes for a living in California. He moved to Alaska and canned salmon. He taught himself to weld and moved to Seattle for another job. Now, he is unemployed, a victim of layoffs and the tough economy....more

Maybe you've turned on the TV and watched Greg Raymer play and thought, "Well, I might be able to beat him if I really try." Or maybe you sat down to play WCOOP and mused, "If I get sat with ElkY, I'm going to show him what I can do."...more

...more

...more

...more

Bored of hold'em yet? Well, of course, you aren't. But how about some variety? There are so few places you can get variety in your life. Restaurants rarely change their menus. The TV networks are all the same thing. If you're married, you best have kissed goodbye the concept of...more

I do not pretend to understand what makes Ylon Schwartz tick, and anyone who claims to get him can just take a spot over in line #3 at the Liar Store. Some people have called him "spooky." Others say "peculiar." I think it's safe to just call him "good" and...more

Earlier today, we showed you how the top players won the biggest tournaments online (and if you missed it, be sure to go back and check out the 3-1-09 Online Poker Show). Now, here's some advice from Team PokerStars Pro Steve Paul-Ambrose on how to make it happen for yourself....more

...more

...more

There is nothing to say you have to stay up all night on Sundays to see the best in online action at PokerStars. PokerStars.tv has started taking care of that for you. If you have not yet started watching The Online Poker Show, now is your chance. Below you'll have...more

If you went to bed early last night, you might have missed it. What started as a plan for Team PokerStars Pros Barry Greenstein and Daniel Negreanu to play some big heads up games suddenly turned into a full high stakes cash game table. You might already know about PokerStars'...more

It will take quite an imagination to wrap your head around this one, but, frankly, it took a lot of imagination to get to this point anyway. So, stick with us here. Imagine that every citizen of New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles wanted to play poker. Not an...more

Ylon Schwartz may not say a lot, but when he does, it's best to listen. On Sunday, one of the newest Team PokerStars Pros made three final tables in the PokerStars Sunday majors. Schwartz placed eighth in the $215 Mixed Hold'em event and $215 HORSE event. Schwartz then picked up...more

The first day of March brought its first Sunday Million and a total of 8,664 players to the online poker tables on PokerStars. It was set to be another stellar payday for a portion of those players, as the $1.5 million guarantee was smashed to smithereens in lieu of a...more

It's become almost routine for the Sunday Warm-Up to blow through the guaranteed $750,000 prize pool, but the $894,600.00 prize pool this week's 4,473 entrants created was definitely worth remarking on. Also worth mention is that this was one of the shortest final tables I've seen at the Sunday Warm-Up,...more