By Landon Blackhall and Sean Callander Random table draw? The seat allocations have thrown up some intriguing battles today as a capacity field of 260 have started day 1B of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Sydney Main Event. Joe Hachem Deep Stack High Stakes winner Monica Nguyen, 2008 APPT Grand Final...more
It might be casual Friday for Sydney's CBD crowd, but it's serious business for the 240-plus players expected to take their seats for today's day 1B flight of the PokerStars.net Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT) Sydney Main Event. ANZPT chief Danny McDonagh confirmed the field would be at...more
Today the EPT debuted its season six structure -- rather like a sports team running out for the final game of the year wearing their all-new strip. After one-hour levels through days 1a and 1b, we went to 75 minutes and a whole new selection of blind levels. With a...more
The tournament has finished for the day and the process of bagging and tagging has begun. As Thomas Kremser announced that there would be seven more hands prior to the finish, I camped myself around the table featuring the half million stacks of Annette Obrestad and Johannes Strassmann. The...more
Into the last level and Joe Hachem is taking it easy. The Team PokerStars Pro isn't letting up card wise, but there's a drink with lots of ice and he's laughing and joking. This is civilised poker. Humberto Brenes walks by. He and Hachem conduct a conversation without say...more
My colleague, Chris Hall, had just written the post below about George Danzer flying up the leaderboard. But just before he hit publish, we got wind of another hand, featuring Danzer's fellow ShootingStar, that simply had to take priority. Here we go: Johannes Strassmann has just won a monster pot,...more
The final level of play has started and the field has been reduced to 170. The players in the boss seats are Joe Ebanks, Vadim Shlez and Annette Obrestad, who have about 500,000, 450,000 and 415,000 respectively. Ebanks might not immediately register on the radar of many live tournament followers,...more
The PokerStars qualifier Stephen Chow is sitting on almost 300,000 now but had a spot of bother earlier. He was looking to push anyway and picked up A-T, but then thought the dealer had asked him to give back his cards because of a misdeal. He accidentally ended up showed...more
It's been a slow half hour for Alex Kravchenko at the start of level 14. Everyone at the table is in a lull, watching most hands settled pre-flop. The only action the Team PokerStars Pro gets is his own pre-flop raise which gets no takers. So when Humberto Brenes,...more
With all the remaining players now coming back to continue the tournament, one of those who has hurtled upwards today is former EPT Dortmund winner Andreas Hoivold, who started the day with around 19,000 but now proudly sits with an above-average 165,000. "I got a bit lucky early on," he...more
Sami Kelopuro is on a roll. Having previously never made the money at an EPT, he was audibly delighted even to get to the dinner break on day one in San Remo last week, and only a blind-on-blind battle with Danilo D'Ettoris stopped him making the final table. He was...more
Just as the first section players went to dinner, Fabrice Soulier was shoving in as many spots as he could manage. He first pushed against the small blind's raise who then called with A♥2♦. "I have only looked at one," said Soulier turning over the K♦ but looked decidedly...more
Most stories about Joao Barbosa feature a recap of the Portuguese's seven cashes this season and of his EPT Warsaw title. Let's skip that this time, for Barbosa won't be making it eight. He's out, and it looks like we might have a new chip leader... Barbosa had been...more
Luca Pagano finished day 1a with only his Team PokerStars Pro colleague Lee Nelson ahead of him in the counts. But after the second of the two day ones was complete, a handful of others sandwiched themselves between the two, and although Nelson still leads the charge as we enter...more
All sorts of things have been described as being made up of long periods of boredom, punctuated with moments of sheer terror. Combat missions perhaps, yearly tax returns and trips to the dentist. Add to that list playing on the same table as Annette Obrestad. Just as there are...more
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PokerStars EPT Budapest champion Will Fry has been knocked out of the tournament after admitting: "I've been grinding all day." First he lost chips when Ami Barer called his 8,400 turn bet on a Q♣7♠T♠2♦ board before both checked the K♥ river. Fry flipped his missed draw of 9♦8♣ while...more
It's not uncommon here for players to be experiencing almost a complete lifestyle change - emerging from a long dark internet winter and into the real life spring sunshine of Monte Carlo and live poker. At least that would have been the case had the sun not been so...more
Players have just returned from a 15-minute break, during which Lee Nelson will have taken an amble around the estate with the confidence of tournament chip leader. Nelson recently accounted for Nuno Coelho, the PokerStars sponsored player from Portugal. One player raised early position, Coelho made it 17,000 from the...more
The PokerStars ShootingStar George Danzer is motoring along nicely with about 240,000 at the last break while being railed by Jan Heitmann. Heitmann said of his friend: "Of all the players who have consistently played the EPTs George has probably run among the worst. The only person who runs...more
If you've been keeping an eye on the PokerStars tournament lobby, you know the World Series satellites have been rocking and rolling over the past couple of weeks. Once again, you have countless ways to get into the world's biggest poker event. PokerStars continues to offers one of the most...more
David Williams had a really good rush earlier, putting him among the chip leaders with more than 200,000. Recently, however, he has dropped back to less than 100,000. The former World Series Main Event runner-up has been playing a lot of hands but without much success in the past hour....more
There's been an almighty cull of players in Monte Carlo this afternoon - we're down to 319 of the starting 520-odd. The top pros have not been spared the slaughter and the latest sweep of the room suggests that Victor Ramdin, Chad Brown, Noah Boeken, Raymond Rahme and Vanessa Rousso...more
The chips are in the bags and 89 survivors have ordered their first beverage for the evening after an enthralling opening day at the PokerStars.net ANZPT Sydney Main Event. Once again, players turned out in force to support a PokerStars.net sponsored event at Star City. Packed fields have filled...more
Leo Fernandez is one of the newest members of Team PokerStars Pro and two levels in to day two has shown a remarkable sense of timing. The former semi-pro chess player is known to be a bit of an adrenaline junkie away from the tables and today he's played...more
There's some pretty daunting tables out on the floor today but none perhaps are quite so bad as table eight, which features some of the most fearsome professional players around. So without further ado, here's a round on the table of doom. Even as I start Ilari Sahamies wins a...more
Monster hands and monster pots are coming thick and fast today, and when two players turn full houses, nursing chip stacks of a similar size, the chances are the chips are going to fly. They did. Marcel Luske and Denes Kalo got it all in on the turn. The board...more
Vicky Coren put up with her fair share of bad luck yesterday, spotted several times heading for the smoking area to inhale some relief and dull the pain of cracked aces. Today though the plan looks to be different. A change of frock, a change of scenery and a...more
I like writing in Swedish. I don't know what it means, but it has little circles above the letters like this: å and, better, it seems to be littered with "rude" words like "bra" and "slut", which appeals to my puerile sense of humour. Joy, then, that there's good reason...more
With only one level and 120 players left on day 1A of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Sydney Main Event, there's some serious all-in action popping up left, right and centre. Notables still in contention include PokerStars.net Team Australia player Eric Assadourian (69,700), Billy "The Croc" Argyros (86,500) and Jeff Lisandro...more
The laid-back Jason Mercier has upped his stack to around 70,000 after a well-timed four-bet. He had made a standard opening raise from late position and Eric Van Den Berg re-raised to 9,200. The action went back on the former EPT San Remo champion who now made it a...more
More tough tables today after an overnight re-draw, one of which has to be Joe Hachem's table. The Team PokerStars Pro is at one end of a table with Jan Boubli, Casey Kastle and John Tabatabai, the latter two just clashing in a sizeable pot that ha boosted Tabatabai's...more
We don't like rail-birds on media row - partly because we're a bunch of inveterate misanthropes at odds with the outside world, but also because we would rather they were home at their computers reading our coverage, giving our soulless lives some meaning through their clicking on our links. That...more
An early bath for the Team PokerStars Pro Daniel Negreanu here in Monte Carlo. Returning with a round 30,000 - his precise day one starting stack - he found himself on the same table as Hevad Khan, who had an even smaller stack of 25,000, but the same double-up-or-die...more
"It was a tough steak": that was the reply from Bruce Nguyen when we inquired to his whereabouts during the first 20 minutes of level seven on day 1A of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Sydney Main Event. But his extended absence over the dinner break did little to dent his...more
Day two is now underway - and records have been broken. The announcement of "Shuffle up and deal!" came only 13 minutes after the scheduled noon start, which has got to be an all-time best. But even more impressive is the prize pool, also announced today. The 935 who turned...more
Although there are big names at the top of the chip counts not everyone falls into the category of 'instantly recognisable'. For instance Canadian PokerStars qualifier Carl Pion who returned today with 102,700 - a good start but hindered by a topsy-turvy day full of swings, sucks and re-sucks....more
Day two. The sun is shining, there isn't a cloud in the sky and the temperature is a balmy 21 degrees. What better condition is there for a day spent in a card room playing poker? That's the forecast for 528 players today, survivors of the combined day one....more
By Landon Blackhall We're fast approaching the dinner break here at Star City Casino in Sydney and as the tournament directors hand out complimentary dinner vouchers, some unfortunates who've been eliminated late in level six face the humiliation of having to actually pay for their dinner at the Michelin...more
Thursday afternoon, midway through day 1A in the PokerStars.net ANZPT - most of the field is grinding away and it's generally pretty quiet. Except for table 13. PokerStars.net Team Australia's sole representative today, Eric Assadourian, has been engaged in some energetic and entertaining banter with fellow Sydneysider and Aussie...more
By Landon Blackhall When a poker tournament is in its early stages, we tend write items to describe the ambience and atmosphere of the room, the general action on the tables; even the odd weird and wonderful hands we witness, as long as we're in the right place at...more
By Landon Blackhall As the players take the opportunity to stretch their legs during the first break of the day, we grabbed a quick chat with Karl Krautschneider. He'll always hold a special place in ANZPT history as the tour's inaugural champion after a three-day battle at SKYCITY Adelaide...more
In a room full of Aussies, the Scandinavian accent of Soren Eriksen stands out dramatically. One of the few internationals in today's PokerStars.net ANZPT field, Eriksen is originally from Denmark but now resides in New Zealand. Earlier this month, he won his adopted nation's national title when he took...more
Who better than Sydney's own Eric Assadourian to issue the order to shuffle up and deal in the PokerStars.net ANZPT Sydney Main Event here at Star City. The PokerStars.net Team Australia player, who won the 2007 APPT Macau High Roller event, heads an impressive list of players who've joined...more
Half a world away from the spring sunshine radiating down on the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, the Australasian poker spotlight returns to Sydney for the second event in the inaugural season of the PokerStars.net Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT). We're at Star City Casino in Sydney, home...more
These are the full official counts at the start of day two at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. The latest approximate counts for some notable players, updated throughout the day, will the updated on the chip count page, to which there is a link hidden somewhere on this...more
Yesterday it was Bertrand Grospellier, today it was the European Poker Tour itself setting the records. While yesterday "ElkY" played more than 60 tables at the same time online, the EPT nearly did the same in the real world - 54 tables, packed into the tournament area and beyond,...more
Day 1b at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo is over, and the tournament information screen shows that 312 players made it through the day. The official number, coming soon, will be somewhere close to that, although we usually lose a couple of players in the final few hands....more
We've entered the final level of the day and the tournament information screen shows that 333 players remain. By the time I finish writing this sentence, I'm expecting it to be about 331, and by the end of the paragraph, it'll probably be about 325. Yes, it's getting towards double...more
The EPT this season has belonged to the Germans - or, to be slightly broader, the German-speaking countries. After Sebastian Ruthenberg won in Barcelona in the curtain raiser, Moritz Kranich took down EPT Deauville and Sandra Naujoks led a German 1-2-3 on home turf in Dortmund. Benny Spindler deserves notable...more
"Accidents do happen" goes the saying, and one such occurred to Jan-Peter Jachtmann just now. He called Ilari Sahamies' late position raise from the big blind before both players checked the A♥K♥2♥ flop. On the 6♠ turn, Jachtmann moved all-in, or rather set Sahamies all-in but when Sahamies heard he...more
EPT Budapest winner Will Fry raised to 1,150 before PokerStars Shooting Star Benjamin Kang called in the big blind, saying with a smile, "I always give him action..." but this time it's only pre-flop action as he check-folds to a 1,450 bet from Fry on the K♥2♠T♥ flop. Fry...more
First things first, the official numbers are now in. The 539 players of today, added to the 396 of yesterday make for a combined total of 935 - a new record for the EPT Grand Final, and, with each player parting with €10,000 for their seat, this is quite possibly...more
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Liz Lieu is pretty much stationary at the moment with about 26,000. "If I put any of my hands up on Twitter, it would just read, muck, muck, muck!" she said. Nevertheless, with the EPT's great structure, she still has a lot of time before she will be in any...more
Us reporters still frequently tend to make a distinction between online poker players and live scrappers, but the comparison grows more meaningless by the day. Anyone groomed in the bricks and mortar casinos in the pre-internet days has long since discovered the joys of playing in the comfort of their...more
The flop was already dealt when we caught up with a hand featuring Peter Hedlund. J♣9♠3♦. The small blind checked to Hedlund in the big blind who quickly made it 600 to go. A Frenchman going by the name of Conte called in seat nine and the small blind...more
The day is rumbling on, which means the path to the door is becoming increasingly well trodden. Most recently, the Team PokerStars Pro Katja Thater was forced to pack up her headphones, deflate her pill-box hat and head out into the sunshine of Monte Carlo after tangling with the former...more
While Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand Grospellier steers his own tricky course through the first four levels with less than 20,000, PokerStars qualifier Phideas Georgiou, an occasional highlight on the PokerStars Blog, has his own battles to fight. Betting big pre-flop Georgiou was called by Farzad Bonyadi for a flop...more
Julian Thew, a former champion on the EPT, endured a rough start to his day, but things have started to perk up in the past few minutes. "I've won four pots this level," he said. "It took me three and a half hours to win the first one." At that...more
Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliot has been eliminated. Stuart Rutter and Phil Laak, who had been sitting either side of him, provided the details. Having just lost a decent sized pot to Will Kassouf (who had successfully value-bet A-9 on a Q-9-6-5-5 board vs Ulliot's 9-8) he then saw a three-way...more
Watch EPT Monte Carlo S5: Introduction into Day 1b on PokerStars.tv...more
Vicky Coren just walked passed on her way back to her table, returning from a short cigarette break. A nicotine junkie will typically use any excuse to head outdoors to smoke, but Coren's reasons might have had something to do with a painful pair of aces. There had been...more
Perhaps one of the more colourful characters playing in today's tournament in Monte Carlo, is Ilari "Ziigmund" Sahamies. The Finn is squashed between the PokerStars ShootingStar Benjamin Kang and Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem, so not an ideal spot to begin with. However, this has not stopped him from getting...more
It would be nice to think that poker players get together from time to time in a bar or restaurant, chew the fat about their previous scrapes, tease each other about bluffs gone awry or horrible suck outs, and perhaps reminisce about the time they went heads-up for a fortune....more
After two levels it hasn't been the best of starts for Gavin Griffin. The Team PokerStars Pro, who famously won the EPT Grand final in season three, is down to 13,500. Part of that problem might be online poker pacesetter Lex Veldhuis, two seats along. The two of them...more
He's got a collection of number one smash hits, goes nowhere without his huge (but very polite) bodyguard, wears diamond earrings more expensive than my house, and is happy to give his time up for worthwhile causes. But Nelly, the U.S rapper who topped the charts with It's Getting Hot...more
It's a tale of two tables for PokerStars ShootingStars Jan Heitmann and George Danzer. While Danzer enjoys the early levels, Heitmann, the happy-go-lucky German able to perform magic tricks at a moments' notice, is looking a little less impressed with life than usual. "I just lost a big pot,...more
The field today is so glittering that it would be quicker to list the tables without a host of stars. But that would be boring. So here's another spectacular table line up to consider. Two tables in from media row sits Yevgeniy Timoshenko, fresh from his success at the $25,000...more
Over on Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem's table the poker is taking second fiddle to technical procedure. On a board of T♣6♠8♦8♠ Ben Kang checked to Hachem who made it 1,600. When Kang called the river came T♦. Now the tricky bit. Hachem bet out again, 6,525 this time...more
The former Irish Open champion Neil Channing was a late arrival here today. "So far, the number of hands I've misplayed is one," he said. "And how many hands have you played?" I asked. "One." The reason for Channing's late arrival was that the self-admitted poker junkie was playing the...more
Thomas Kremser's tournament staff are as polite as they are impeccably attired. This morning, the senior floor managers arrived in their classically-coordinated suits and ties -- mauve today, it being Wednesday -- but had ambled straight into a crisis. As is so frequently the case, more players have elected...more
The random table draw discriminates against no one, throwing enticing tables together as easy as ten guys who've never played an EPT before. Today is no exception, with a couple of tables standing out as candidates for Sunday Night Football. At one end you could stand and watch Joe...more
One of the more fun tables in today's tournament features the Team PokerStars Pro Joe Hachem, the EPT Budapest winner Will Fry, serial EPT casher Thierry Van Den Berg and the PokerStars ShootingStar Benjamin Kang. Already, the Dutchman Van Den Berg has made an early impression, he re-raised from early...more
On Monday, when the first players and officials began arriving to Monaco ahead of day 1a of the EPT Grand Final, the feted principality was shrouded in a dense thunderstorm. Clouds had swallowed the blocks of multi-million dollar apartments and driving rain ricocheted from the hairpins and straights of the...more
As the seconds ticked down this afternoon to the start of the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, the vast roof atop the Sporting Club conference centre cracked in the middle and gradually slid open, bathing the tournament arena in glorious sunlight and revealing a place that most people had...more
Below you will find the full official chip counts at the end of day 1a at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, and a link to today's latest counts. There were 396 players at the start of day 1a and 223 made it through the eight levels of play....more
With four monitors placed in the centre of the featured table and a simple glass of water next to his mouse, Team PokerStars Pro ElkY sat down in Monte Carlo this afternoon to set a world record. What he had to do: 1. To open up as many $6.50 turbo...more
Team PokerStars Pro Lee Nelson arrives at his new table carrying 180,000 in two racks. "Wow." This is Johnny Lodden, substantially less endowed with 26,000 and now sharing a table with the New Zealander. As Nelson gets comfortable more players are eliminated. Erik Seidel came out worst in a...more
The PokerStars SuperNova Elite Daniel Wallace had a great start but alas he busted earlier today in a kings v aces showdown. His task was not an easy for the Indiana man whose table featured the likes of Team PokerStars Pros Alex Gomes and Dennis Phillips as well as...more
Don't forget, you can follow the latest approximate chip counts on the chip counts page, where the general idea is that we pick out the notable players from this vast and varied field and attempt to keep some kind of an eye on them, even as action changes faster than...more
Most players are on their last 15 minute break of the day - two of them though are still slugging out a hand. The unmistakeable hunched figure of Dario Minieri, looking fresh despite his late run at PokerStars' Ante Up for Arica tournament last night, was in the tank...more
Just as the clock bleeped for the end of the level, Dario Minieri was involved in a huge pot with Rachid Rami. It looked as though they had found themselves in a raising war on a T♥6♠2♠ flop, eventually getting around 60,000 in with Minieri turning over 6♣2♦ for bottom...more
Dario Minieri is in usual form, making a good call after having the clock called on him for excessive thinking. Minieri had king-nine on a flop that featured T-J-K. His opponent made a big bet with ace-ten but after much talk and deliberation Minieri's call was good. Elsewhere Daniel...more
It's hard to think of many players who had a better year on the EPT in 2008 than Jason Mercier. He won in San Remo just over a year ago and followed it up with another final table appearance in EPT Barcelona and then won the High Rollers Event at...more
Level six has just begun and there are two very familiar names at the top of the leaderboard. The Team PokerStars Pro duo of Lee Nelson and Luca Pagano have either side of 100,000 at this early stage: Nelson about 107,000 and Pagano 92,000. Nelson goes by the nickname "Final...more
The German player Jan Collado just eliminated Joep van den Bijgaart in what can only really be described as quite gruesome circumstances. After a player opened under the gun, Collado made it 3,100 from the button. Bijgaart made it 8,500 from the big blind and the early position player got...more
Mike "Timex" Mcdonald is one of the earliest big name casualties - and it will not be any consolation that he got his money in as good as he could have possibly hoped. With the blinds now at 150-300 with a 25 ante, McDonald raised to 750 from second position...more
With a chip count of around 57,000, the Team PokerStars Pro Lee Nelson is one of those leading the way, although he has not actually knocked out anyone yet. "I called a big bluff," he told me, "I raised preflop from the small blind with K-5 and he made the...more
Crammed into the goodie bag for winners of EPT main events - between the untold riches and the adoration of legions of screaming fans - is a golden ticket to the EPT Grand Final. It's a nice little trinket worth €10,000, plus flights and hotel, but frequently it's not even...more
Level three comes to an end and the blinds go up to 150-300. Over on Greg Raymer's table the atmosphere is relaxed. There are some tough tables in the room and this would be considered one of them. Davidi Kitai in seat one, next to Mark Randal Flowers and...more
Daniel Negreanu's first three levels at the EPT Grand Final have gone very well so far and he is up to 46,000 in chips. One of the latest hands involved him raising a 1,000 river bet on a 4♥J♦9♦2♥9♥ board to 3,500 take down another pot. Afterwards he picked up...more
The folks over at PokerStars.tv are cleaning off their lenses and preparing for a very big week at the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. Before we see this time next week, we will have seen the absolute best in poker coverage. In the meantime, PokerStars.tv is sating our appetites...more
In a room full of poker players, more than 400 at last count, it's pretty easy to blend into quiet anonymity amid dozens of tables. But PokerStars SuperNova Elite Daniel Wallace from Evansville Indiana has a few stories of his own to bring him to the front of the crowd....more
Not everyone who has made it to the EPT Grand Final has had to fork out the full €10,000 for their entry. Some players have managed to get in for absolutely nothing. One such player is Ian Farrell, with whom I shared a taxi from Nice airport to the hotel...more
Constant Rijkenberg isn't exactly picking up where he left off in San Remo. Or is he? After pre-flop bets from the seat five player of 450 and then a call from Moritz Kranich on the button, Rijkenberg raised from the small blind to 1,450. It put neither of the others...more
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Poker is the great leveller, with all ages and genders competing on the same field, with the same chips, the same chance and playing the same game. And although the young guns have well and truly arrived on the EPT, it's still a foolish player who fails to respect experience...more
The Team PokerStars Pro Dario Minieri was part of a four-way pot where it was checked to him with the board reading 7♣J♠8♣. The young Italian bet 800 and was called in all three spots, including by the new French PokerStars sponsored player Adam Lounis and Michael Tulchinskiy. On the...more
One table caught the attention quicker than most, a real hotbed of action. PokersStars Team Pros Luca Pagano and Greg Raymer share a table with former EPT Dortmund winner Mike McDonald, Belgian WSOP bracelet winner Davidi Kitai, as well as young guns 'Randall' Flowers and Ben Fineman. Pagano flicked his...more
It's not all about the pretty faces on Dennis Phillips' table. Phillips is among the most relaxed players at the table. Whether that's something to do with the financial cushion of a WSOP third place, or his homespun baseball cap appearance, either way he came out of a hand...more
This is the time, at the start of a major tournament, that we walk the room in search of the stars and the juicy tables, seeking the serendipitous table draws that have thrown together a clutch of the brightest stars. (Serendipitous for the spectator, at least - try telling some...more
Monte Carlo - beautiful scenery, blue sky weather and luxury at every turn. Making it this far means coming a long way. You kicked off in Barcelona and London, then enjoyed a central European swing through Budapest, Prague and Warsaw. After seeing in the new year on the beaches...more
While it was a day of great glamour, drama and sportsmanship, and a day that Isabelle Mercier will remember for a long, long time having secured victory, PokerStars' Ante Up for Africa tournament will go down in the history books for another very good reason - raising more than 250,000...more
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From Barcelona, via London to Budapest. Then from Warsaw, through Prague, the Bahamas, to Deauville, Dortmund and San Remo. And now, the long and winding yellow-brick road of the European Poker Tour has reached its Oz, otherwise known as Monte Carlo for the EPT Grand Final. This season has been...more
This page will be updated throughout PokerStars' Ante Up for Africa event here in Monte Carlo. Celebrities have joined some of poker's greats in a 39-strong field, with each of the 4,000 euro buy-ins going to help the relief effort in Darfur. Each player began with 10,000 chips, but the...more
While our celebrity and pro players settle into their seats in the main tournament room, here's a look at how our man behind the lens, Neil Stoddart, has captured them using some very expensive looking pieces of equipment. Whatever he uses, Neil's results are always quite spectacular. Have a scroll...more
Walk around Monte Carlo and the chances are you'll rub shoulders with someone rich or famous. Business tycoons, actors, Formula One racing drivers, and Royalty - all live and prosper in the small principality of Monaco. Had you by chance been in the tournament area of the Monte Carlo Bay...more
The PokerStars Blog has been around since 2005. In that time, we've written thousands upon thousands of posts from all around the world. That's hundreds of thousands of words bringing you all the news from the world of PokerStars. Now as we prepare to kick off our EPT Grand Final...more
You know when you walk into a shop and the shopkeeper gives you a look a lot like you'd expect from the Soup Nazi? That look that says, "Let's get on with this because there's too much to do otherwise?" Imagine us with that look right now. Not only did...more
As you arrive in Monaco, driven in a gravity-defying manner along winding mountain roads that have the comfort of a wall of rock on one side but a terrifying 1,000-metre drop on the other, you can almost smell the money. This place has more millionaires per square foot than almost...more
It was a stellar Sunday on PokerStars. With month-end tournaments like the Turbo Takedown and the Battle of the Planets added to the already powerful lineup of tournaments, players came out in droves to take part in the plethora of events. As usual, the Sunday Million was there as one...more
Each month PokerStars puts up $1 Million for players with a few Frequent Players Points lying around (5,000 to be exact) to potentially turn those hard earned points from ring games, MTTs, and SnGs into $100,000.00 which goes out to the winner of this tournament. Today 8,949 players "bought" their...more
With the bright lights of SCOOP behind us, the Sunday Warm-up churned its usual $750,000 guarantee busting crowd this evening. With 4,077 players lined up and 585 of those going home with a little more than their buy-in we would take under ten hours this evening to go from start...more
Before the 466 players lined up for this month's $50,000 PokerStars Battle of the Planets Triple Shootout freeroll, many of them snacked on the weekly prizes for this promotion that has awarded over three million dollars to our Sit and Go regulars over the past year. For example: the top...more
And here we thought the news was going to be about ElkY crossing the $5 million in career earnings mark. Silly us for once again failing to realize that Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier will always find a way to amaze. According to the fine reporting from the World Poker Tour bloggers,...more
Moneymaker. Raymer. Hachem. Eastgate. Six years, four champions, and they all play for Team PokerStars Pro. Now is your chance to put your name among some of the world's best known players and you can do it for the cost of a fast food lunch. PokerStars is now running satellites...more
We have a request for Betrand "ElkY" Grospellier: stop making us work so much. Writing a blog that follows Team PokerStars is a busy job, to be sure. With more than 30 members who tend to tear up tournaments on a regular basis, we find it hard to write about...more
by Adam "STUDstood" Roberts Much like in cash games, the talent and ability of the players in higher buy-in tournament events increases. Therefore, there will be more better players, hence less "dead money," as they say. Just like in higher limit cash games, there will also be some players that...more
As we mentioned a few days ago, PokerStars is bringing Ante Up to Africa to Europe and the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo. If you're anywhere in the vicinity, you don't even need cash to buy-in. You can do so directly from your PokerStars account. Anyone can get into...more
The EPT main event in San Remo has been a triumph from the start, and the final table - one of tension, high-wire hands and enough unpredictable aggression to keep everyone guessing - gave the Italian Riviera the send off it deserved. The principal reason was a 20-year-old student from...more
EPT San Remo season five is over. Constant Rijkenberg, from Holland, won the €1,508,000 first prize, beating Kalle Niemi heads up. This is a full list of all 112 prize-winners, from a starting field of 1,178, a record-number of players at an EPT event in Europe. The next EPT event...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 featured table. The latest chip counts are available on the chip count...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 featured table. The latest chip counts are available on the chip count...more
Live updates from level 28 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 featured table. The latest chip counts are available on the chip count...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 featured table. The latest chip counts are available on the chip count...more
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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 featured table. The latest chip counts are available on the chip count...more
The final table is set for EPT San Remo and play will get underway at 2pm CET. The following eight players will be eyeing the first prize of €1,508,000, with the full payout schedule, and winners to date, available on the prizewinner's page. As ever, there will be a full...more
If you'd have blinked any time over the past couple of days on the Italian Riviera, you would have missed anything between 10 and 25 eliminations from the largest European Poker Tour event in its five-year history. More than a thousand started and now more than a thousand have departed....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 featured table. The latest chip counts are available on the chip count...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 featured table. The latest chip counts are available on the chip count...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 featured table. The latest chip counts are available on the chip count...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 featured table. The latest chip counts are available on the chip count...more
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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 featured table. The latest chip counts are available on the chip count...more
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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 here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the featured table. Blinds: 6,000-12,000 (ante: 1,000) 4.28pm: Hooray for Hungary In one...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 here, or head on over to EPT Live for live action from the featured table. Blinds: 5,000-10,000 (ante: 1,000) 2.55pm: Double German After taking a...more
This week in San Remo has been all about compression - how to squeeze the largest ever EPT field into not the largest EPT tournament room, how to run three impossibly-popular side events alongside it, and how to keep everyone happy even as most of them are going to leave...more
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When players reconvened this afternoon tournament organisers were undecided about how many levels to play. Thomas Kremser ultimately opted for playing down to 32, regardless of how long that took. But it soon became apparent that "long" was the wrong word. In less than five hours 124 players became...more
OK, you might not believe this but it's true. With five minutes left of level 19, there were 36 players remaining in the tournament. The tournament director Thomas Kremser suggested playing on for a few more minutes rather than heading straight to dinner, just to see if we could lose...more
Dragan Galic has a competitor. Strike that, he has two competitors. Although the Croatian has made all the right moves and kept moving in the right direction this afternoon, Constant Rijkenberg and Steven Silverman have also been wearing their jet-packs today and are now closing in on Galic. "How much...more
Italians pretty much invented passion and they certainly bring it to the poker tables too. We've grown gradually accustomed on the EPT to raucous celebrations whenever a pot is won; so much so that we joke in the press room about what is indicated by a particular tone of celebratory...more
Steve Silverman has been on our radar for some time now. We first met him on his way to a third place finish on the LAPT in Costa Rica. Then a chance for a quick interview on the steps of the casino this morning - only Team PokerStars Pro...more
The Team PokerStars Pro Marcin Horecki will not be making his second final table appearance of the season. After an early-position raiser and a mid-position call, Horecki squeezed for his final 100,000 and was insta-called by Giuseppe Argento. Horecki had A-Q and Argento had A-J but a jack came on...more
These are the full official chip counts at the start of level 30. During final table play, the full, official chip counts will appear on this page, updated at the end of every level. The latest chip count, updated regularly as play progresses, will be available on the chip counts...more
The bread and butter of the typical young pro these days is the internet. It's where the big games are the, tournaments almost on demand and a poker economy that rewards those who count themselves among the best. So it's with surprise we learn that one of the chip...more
There was plenty of action proceeding the bubble drama which we can now catch up on. "He went all-in. I called with ace-queen..." That was Bill Chen's brief resume of his last hand. His A♣Q♥ was up against 9♦7♦ but the board had been unkind, running out 5♥J♠J♣8♣T♥. Chen...more
Alexander Kravchenko is out, one of the first to take the walk after the bubble was burst. The Team PokerStars Pro had shown remarkable durability to cling onto a short stack seemingly through two full days, but when push came to shove he pushed and shoved behind two red threes....more
Bubbles burst and bubbles burst. Some mean handshakes and a round of applause - a salute to those who have made it this far - in Italy though they party like it's 1999, creating scenes reminiscent of the NASA control room after men in ties bring their boys home...more
It's that time again, when EPT geeks get out the calculators, or more likely the backs of envelopes, and work out how likely a first time second winner is in San Remo. The chances this time round may produce very small numbers though with both candidates, Arnaud Mattern and...more
Last night's leisurely reading in PokerStars Blog Towers included a collection of travel journalism from the Australian writer Clive James. In a piece about the cut-throat nature of life in New York City, James wrote: "The bigger the heap, the more people there must be who are not at the...more
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Day two of EPT San Remo is in the books with a record field being cut back down to only 124 players ready to compete on day three. Our chip leader is Dragan Galic, from Croatia, with the Dutch player Constant Rejkenberg breathing down his neck. The complete list can...more
At the start of the day, we made a prediction. We said that day two of EPT San Remo would be utter carnage, citing a few years of experience as evidence, coupled with numerous relative short stacks among the 400-plus remaining players, plus an innate tendency among the indigenous to...more
You meet a lot of people in a lot of incongruous locations when you cover a lot of major poker tournaments. For instance, Dave Hardy became well known to reporters and staff covering the inaugural season of the Latin America Poker Tour last year, even though he's originally from Essex...more
The poker players of San Remo came out in force today to offer their support to the victims of the devastating L'Aquila earthquake earlier this month, which left close to 300 people dead and thousands more without a home. A €1,200 side event attracted a capacity 140 players, with the...more
Asa Smith will be here a little longer, even if times are hard. He just doubled up with pocket jacks, called by ace-queen. A third jack hit the flop to take Smith back up to 40,000 which right now is just under the average mark. Also at the table...more
Bill Chen just doubled up to about 55,000 with queens all in pre-flop against jacks. Meanwhile the unstoppable engine that is Dragan Galic continues to accumulate chips at a phenomenal rate and is up close to 300,000. Most recently Galic making a flush with K♣Q♣ on a board of 7♣T♣5♣Q♠J♠....more
Luca Pagano has just doubled up, moving up to around 40,000 and probably ruining his chances of playing in the PokerForLife.it charity event that is getting underway in the neighbouring room. That tournament is a €1,200 buy-in event from which the casino is waiving its registration fee (the odd €200)...more
Arnaud Mattern, winner in Prague last season, has become something of a rocket man in the last level. Starting today on 11,000 he now has 85,000 after several well played hands, involving the Frenchman's almost smoke and mirror ability to move players off a hand. Mattern has company on...more
Laurence Houghton is among the latest fallers. On a board of 5♥Q♠8♦6♠ he shoved in with 9♥8♣ but was caught by Sami Kelopuro with 9♣7♣. A table along, a quieter Peter Hedlund has also departed. It's not bad news for everyone. On a flop of 7♠2♦3♠ Joe Elpayaa made...more
There's a fast growing fascination with the game of poker in Italy, harder to explain than to simply point at the 701 who played this event last year and the 1,178 who turned up to play in season five. It's more than that and the game is burning into...more
Marcin Horecki popped a white headphone out of his ear, slid up his trademark orange wrap-around shades and said: "Seventy-one." He casually pointed to his stack (I think we both knew what he was talking about) and then went on to describe how he got them. It was nothing so...more
It's not immediately obvious whether the players sitting in seats eight and nine of table 15 today know who each other is. There's certainly not a great deal of chat going on between the two of them and there's no evidence that they're friends or anything. But Laurence Houghton and...more
You hear David Saab before you see him. A talker even at the worst of times, Saab now had reason to be chatty, calling Giuseppe Argento's all-in with ace-king with his own pocket aces. "It's 91.5 per cent" he said as the board was dealt. First the flop Q♦J♠5♣....more
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Day two at the PokerStars.com EPT main event in San Remo, and let's kick off with a prediction: these first couple of hours are going to be absolute carnage. Having watched enough EPT events, and having in particular watched those featuring a large number of Italian players, the early stages...more
Day 1b in San Remo began with 600 players and it finished with 253. Once again, eight levels was too long for close to two thirds of the field to survive, and they have now drifted off into the night, preparing perhaps for Monte Carlo next week. The full counts...more
After a two-week pause in Sunday Million action for the 2009 SCOOP series, the popular Sunday tournament was back with its signature $1.5 million guarantee and the best poker action on the internet. Coming back on a Sunday filled with significant live tournaments at various locations around the globe presented...more
Sunday was a banner day for PokerStars action, with an LAPT event in Argentina, an EPT event in Italy, and blowout crowds in the guarantees tournaments. The Sunday Warm-Up drew an impressive 3,859 players, and by the time it was all said and done shane261966 had bested BoyArgentina in a...more
It's hard to say the story of day 1b in San Remo was any different to yesterday. Just when you thought a tournament field couldn't get in any bigger, a new crowd arrived equally charged, enthused and ready to disregard the hopes and dreams of another for the sake...more
For this Nitsche, God is not dead. Dominik Nitsche is 18 years old. He is still in high school. Heck, he may have some homework to finish after this. And after playing in his first ever live tournament, he's an LAPT champion. After he knocked out fellow big stack Mark...more
After a largely miserable tournament so far for Team PokerStars Pro and our friends, there has been a remarkable change in fortune over the most recent level, during which both Isabelle Mercier and Bill Chen have gone from short stacks to contenders. Mercier was on only 7,500 the last time...more
It's at that time of the day when any wander around the tournament floor means dodging through players making their way to the streets. There are big hands and bustouts at every corner, and the resulting giant stacks beginning to develop. A pot a moment ago just vaulted the Italian...more
Poker can be a cruel game. Just ask the player with "Here to win" written across the back of his shirt. He's out. His ace-king battered by king-queen on a cruel board. Elsewhere Francesco Ciriani just lost what could be a critical pot for him. With an ace on...more
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The players have just taken a 15 minute break at the end of level six. The three-tier dinner break has also just finished, which means that when this latest pause is over, the entire remaining field will return to play until the end of the day. If they make it...more
It's never been tested but home field advantage sometimes works wonders. It seems to work in Max Pescatori's favour, but if we going to be accurate, the Italian has done well wherever he's played, home or abroad. Pescatori's progress has continued after the dinner break but at the expense...more
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Hevad Khan explained his reasons for making an appearance in San Remo today. This isn't a precise quote, but he said something like: "Well, I was coming to Monte Carlo and you don't want to play just one five k event in a week." So it was that the Team...more
This is a live blog of the LAPT Mar del Plata Grand Final, brought to you by bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. This post will updated on a regular basis. Click refresh for the latest information. The latest selected chip counts can be found on the LAPT Chip Counts page....more
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The news is bad for Dario Minieri. Despite hopes for a repeat of the barnstorming performance of last year the pocket dynamo just busted in San Remo and news doesn't get any worse than that. The details are sketchy, a hand featuring Minieri's ace-queen against aces that then went...more
Sunday in San Remo started with a record single-day field for an EPT event: 600 players arrived to cap the entrants for day 1b. That gave us that monstrous prize pool, that star-studded field, but, at least at the very start, a strangely muted few hours. There was significantly less...more
As the first flight heads for the buffet play is split between one end of the tournament room and the other, with three solitary tables playing in between. Whether or not you ever get to cash in your meal ticket doesn't necessarily depend on staying in, but it would...more
Below you will find the profiles of the nine final table players at the LAPT Grand Final in Mar del Plata, Argentina. The players come from around the corner and around the world. They will be fighting for the following prizes. LAPT Mar del Plata final table prizes 1. $387,030...more
This is a live blog of the LAPT Mar del Plata Grand Final, brought to you by bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. This post will updated on a regular basis. Click refresh for the latest information. The latest selected chip counts can be found on the LAPT Chip Counts page....more
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Maria Maceiras has made a name for herself over the year and a half, triumphing in the Spanish Championship and coming second in a Spanish Poker Tour event before being named Spanish Player of the Year. In San Remo though her day has been marked by frustration. After an...more
The Team PokerStars Pro Lee Nelson has made his way to Europe for this spectacular double-header of EPT action. His trips to this side of the world are relatively rare these days -- who can blame him with the ANZPT and APPT a little closer to home? -- so the...more
Johnny Lodden and Sebastian Ruthenberg are both out. Lodden, making his debut as a fully paid-up member of Team PokerStars Pro, flopped top pair with his K-10 on a board showing both a king and a jack. Lodden bet all the way, but by the time the river had been...more
As touted moments ago, the full details of the prize pool and payout structure has now been decided. If you peer a few lines down this post you'll be able to see it, and from now on there'll be a permanent link to the page in the red text at...more
I'm afraid there might be a familiarity to this post about Dario Minieri. Anything written about the Italian Team PokerStars Pro always is and features the same process - Dario, betting pre-flop, or calling to see them before hammering away, taking pots uncontested. I wish I could add some...more
We've been suffering some technical issues here in San Remo, meaning updates haven't been coming quite as quickly as we, and probably you, would have liked. Still, we do have one very important nugget of information to impart, and it's this: the prize pool for the most popular European Poker...more
As you are probably aware, the European Poker Tour has arrived to Italy in the wake of a national disaster. Close to 300 people died last month when an earthquake struck in the Abruzzo region of the country and more than 25,000 people are now living in temporary accommodation after...more
The action on John Tabatabai's table pre-flop was a lot of calling, followed by a small raise, followed by everyone calling again. Then the flop, 9♠T♠5♦. The action was on Illari Sahamies in the small blind, who checked, as did Tabatabai. The seat ten player, who had chanced the...more
As if it wasn't hard enough to see off over a thousand opponents studded among them today are the kind of players that can really ruin your day at the table. Notable table line ups include Dario Minieri and Katja Thater seated beside each other. At the next table...more
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Think back to one of those family get-togethers. While your mum prepared a feast fit for in-laws, grandparents and a friend you were allowed to invite to keep you occupied, your dad was dispatched to find every last chair in the house, from the basement to the attic, to...more
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Good morning from San Remo. Last night, we were busy picking through the wreckage of day 1a of the largest-ever European Poker Tour event. Close to 600 players started the day, something like a third of them finished it, and we were busy searching around for their chip counts, which...more
We don't know what to say. This hardly ever happens to us. We don't know how to react when it happens this fast. It usually lasts a lot longer. We promise. Somehow we managed to dispatch 52 players in less than seven hours of playing time. Using the word "somehow"...more
Our colleagues working for the EPT website recently came by to ask what were the biggest news stories from day 1a at EPT San Remo. It was a fair question -- there were no huge world superstars at the top of the chip ladder, no Team PokerStars Pro thrashing their...more
Marc Gork just doubled up. For Gork it seems every day is fancy dress day, a costume party to be celebrated with a touch of flamboyance. And why not. Four weeks ago in Germany Gork collected €307,000 for his third place finish, astonishing onlookers with a stunning degree of...more
This is a live blog of the LAPT Mar del Plata Grand Final, brought to you by bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. This post will updated on a regular basis. Click refresh for the latest information. The latest selected chip counts can be found on the LAPT Chip Counts page....more
On a recent wander to check out some chip stacks, it didn't take long to find a notable tower right under our noses. In the very first seat on the very first table outside our press room sits Constant Rykenberg, who is playing the first EPT of his career. He...more
With the kind of spectacular timing that sometimes makes me think William H Macy ought to play me in the movie of my cooler's life, Annette Obrestad is out. No sooner had we featured her on the blog than she found pocket aces, initially slow-played them but got the money...more
A bet, a call and a flop of 3♣T♣5♥. Then Stefan Mattsson had some thinking to do. He'd made it 1,625 before his opponent, wearing a cap reading "Trans Ocean Auto", re-raised, 4,300 in total. Mattsson asked how much it was to call - 2,675 -then how much was...more
Annette Obrestad is among the most fearless and fearsome poker players in these massive EPT fields, all the more so for her impeccable poise at the table. Sure, between hands she'll merrily chat away with anyone talking and happily pose for photographs, sometimes even signing autographs for railbirds. But with...more
It's level six for some, still dinner for others. Those that have already enjoyed the buffet are back at the coal face and for many that means doubling up. More than 230 players have already been dispatched today and the post dinner level normally sees a few make or...more
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Alexander Kravchenko doubled up shortly before the dinner break. He earned something in the region of 25,000 when his pocket jacks stayed good through a board of 5♥8♦3♦9♣4♦. That, though, is merely around about the average stack at the moment as plenty of players have taken advantage of some wild...more
This is a live blog of the LAPT Mar del Plata Grand Final, brought to you by bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. This post will updated on a regular basis. Click refresh for the latest information. The latest selected chip counts can be found on the LAPT Chip Counts page....more
Chad Brown's San Remo hopes are no more. He moved in, putting two green chips worth a grand each into the middle. He was called, his opponent showing A♥8♥ to Brown's Q♣J♣. The ace on the flop sealed Brown's fate who after handshakes and good lucks was gone. EPT...more
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The three-tier dinner break is well underway, which means while one third of the field enjoys lasagne or penne all'arabiata, another third is playing level five and another third is already in level six. It's complicated, but it does work itself out somehow. Meanwhile the tournament leaderboard shows 392 players...more
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Having bubbled in the $5,000 Omaha tournament the previous night, I was pretty determined to do well in either the SCOOP $25,000 heads up or $10,000 main event. The HU field looked pretty grim being full of some of the best HU players in the world, but I knew that...more
ShootingStar George Danzer, who like Tom McEvoy has grown a beard since we last saw him, is among them. Danzer went quietly, no fuss, the only noise being a long sigh as he passed by on his way to explaining himself to friends. Christophe Gross had been an easy...more
This is a live blog of the LAPT Mar del Plata Grand Final, brought to you by bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. This post will updated on a regular basis. Click refresh for the latest information. The latest selected chip counts can be found on the LAPT Chip Counts page....more
In the early stages of tournaments like this, individual hands don't tend to have much longer-term bearing. A pot is often worth no more than a couple of thousand chips, a number that will probably represent no more than an ante by the time the tournament meets the business end....more
Antony Lellouche will not be repeating San Remo performance from last year, falling short by roughly four days. The Frenchman, who finished second to Jason Mercier in one of the quickest EPT finals ever 12 months ago, has busted out in unknown circumstances in level three. It's a different...more
This is a live blog of the LAPT Mar del Plata Grand Final, brought to you by bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. This post will updated on a regular basis. Click refresh for the latest information. The latest selected chip counts can be found on the LAPT Chip Counts page....more
The following takes place to the sound of Peter Hedlund chatting in the background. Ben Kang's EPT record is one of frustration, with a single cash since his high water mark in Poland two seasons ago where he finished 11th. Frustrating for the Berliner as he tends to tear...more
The European Poker Tour is sometimes the victim of its own success. Today, for instance, the poor casino employee whose day at work usually consists of little more than the leisurely punching in of passport details of one, maybe two, new visitors was besieged by more than 500 anxious poker...more
The first level is typically a cautious one; few big hands, no point getting carried away, take things easy. It's the way to stretch the day out a little. It's not an approach everyone agrees to. One player busted first hand, attempting a hero call on the river with...more
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You probably have your own choice for the best voice of poker, but the voice of the EPT is Thomas Kremser. The Austrian's dulcet tones have been heard for the first time, welcoming the hundreds players taking their seats for day 1a. Follow that with the fast paced Italian...more
Snake-charmers, painted ladies, burlesque artists cavorting in champagne glasses. To the long list of entertainers who have dazzled us with their skills at PokerStars welcome parties, last night's curtain raiser for EPT San Remo added a few more. First up, there were walking, talking, dancing playing cards, who eventually sat...more
Outside the Casino Central, it was a sparkling, sunny day. Cool ocean breezes announced the arrival of fall. Couples walked hand in hand down the Avenida Peralta Ramos, enjoying their Friday afternoon. Sea lions barked a few meters offshore. But inside the poker room, a man sat with an umbrella...more
We're getting close to the end and the evening is paralleling last night pretty well. There was post-supper craziness followed by a food coma lull followed by a dramatic lock-down by the people looking to make Day 2. A few minutes ago, we saw two nearly identical hands with quite...more
It seemed like hours ago when Chris Moneymaker sidled up to Joe Hachem's table, joking that he needed to bust quickly because they needed three more players for a satellite out in the poker room. Oh wait... it was. Hachem was short-stacked then, but managed to survive for several levels....more
Alas, there is now but one Brenes remaining in the field. Short-stacked for some time now, Humberto Brenes moved all in for roughly 12,000 and the action was folded to David Schechter on the button, who went into a lengthy think. "I have a good hand, Humberto" he said. "Please...more
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So, Team PokerStars Pro Maria "maridu" Mayrinck busted yesterday during Day 1A, but that doesn't mean she is forgotten. In fact, she's pretty easy to remember, what with her playing a side tournament right in front of us. Since she wasn't able to stick around for long yesterday, the PokerStars...more
Alexandre Gomes didn't exactly get the easiest table draw today. He started the day with Veronica Dabul and Leo Fernandez on his immediate left and though Dabul busted a few hours ago on the baddest of beats, Fernandez is still well in this thing with over 31,000 in chips. The...more
Greatness is not simply a matter of survival. Greatness comes from prospering while others merely struggle to stay afloat. While your countrymen tiptoe around expandiing sinkholes, you build high rises. It's not necessarily the Art of War, but we're only talking about poker, so it'll do. That is simply a...more
If there's one thing we've learned about Leo Fernandez today, it's this. The man is a short-stack ninja. Crippled to only 1,100 in chips only moments after cards went in the air when his flopped two pair were outdrawn on the turn, Fernandez didn't allow that early beat to shake...more
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Earlier today, we brought you the story of Zach Hall, the man with the umbrella on his head. Frankly, simply having an umbrella-headed kid in the house is reason enough to come to these things. Still, we like having a bit of an explanation for the sartorial decision. With that,...more
We can't pinpoint exactly what's happened, but the Central Casino's matrix just went loopy. In the past 15 minutes, the word "hot-blooded' as been uttered more than a couple times. After one and half days of play, this room is finally coming unglued. People are screaming, cursing, and trying to...more
Roberto Brenes is the smallest, youngest, and by far the quietest member of the Brenes clan. Though he picked up the family last-longer honors in his last LAPT appearance in Vina del Mar, Chile, he unfortunately will not be able to claim that title again here at the LAPT Grand...more
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We're steadily sneaking up on the dinner break and there's no small amount of tummy grumbling here in Mar del Plata's Central Casino. Still, there is a lot of work to be done before dinner's kind respite. With that in mind, our video blog team went out in search of...more
Dennis Phillips did not look like a happy man. Standing behind his chair with his head slightly bowed, the slice of felt in front of him now devoid of chips, Phillips showed all the signs of a man who had just been busted on some sort of horrible beat. With...more
We have just received the final numbers for the Latin American Poker Tour Grand Final in Argentina. The $5,200 buy-in drew 291 players for a total prize pool of $1,411,350. Those who make the money are guaranteed more than $14,000. First prize will pick up $387,030. The top 27...more
Presently it's clear and sunny over the beaches of Mar del Plata, but should clouds move in we know one man who has come prepared for a sudden downpour. Meet PokerStars online qualifier Zach Hall, a young American who traveled over 6,500 miles from his New Hampshire home to play...more
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It took a couple guys with a high-tech abacus, but the final number of entrants is in. Day 1A saw 140 players belly up for the eleven levels of play. Today, 151 will play the exact same amount of time. If you take the time to do the addition, you'll...more
It's that time again, folks where we chronicle the adventures of Costa Rica's royal family of poker. One is a boisterous, camera-loving shark aficionado. Another is a quiet WPT champion. And another yet is already traveling the LAPT at the tender age of eighteen. Behold, the return of BrenesWatch! Situated...more
It was awkward. We'll admit that from the outset. A couple nights ago, we saw a man dressed in all black standing on the periphery of the PokerStars welcome party. He wore a black fedora that seemed a little too familiar. Who was that man in the chapeau? We'd seen...more
Cards went in the air moments ago here on Day 1B of the LAPT Grand Final and though there isn't quite the media circus that we witnessed 24 hours ago when Boris Becker sat down to play, the room is filled nearly to capacity with Latin American poker's best and...more
If you go to the southern tip of Argentina, you can see the end of the world. If you go to Mar del Plata, you can see the end of the Latin American Poker Tour's second season. If you go to the end of this day, however, it's a long,...more
Vanessa Machado is used to being stared at. It comes with the territory in front of the camera and on the runway, where she's built a successful career. Cutting a striking figure at the table, the raven-haired Brazilian model/actress has been fighting on a short stack for some time now....more