Well, this is just silly. Seriously, if you were going to plan a vacation and had the means, wouldn't you hop from Sydney to Queenstown and then back over to Melbourne? It's pretty much the perfect vacation. Now, try this on for size: what if you could play a world...more

I loved Brazil before I ever went to Brazil. I loved it for its people, their genuine smiles, and a joie de vivre that is impossible to find in other countries. It's difficult to fully appreciate unless you've seen it. It's as if every major hardship a Brazilian has suffered...more

Well, well, well. Here's a piece of news that is sure to knock the socks off Asia Pacific Poker Tour players. Today, the APPT announced its final stop of Season 5, and it's one of the most popular destinations on the tour. April 25-30, the Waterfront Airport Hotel and Casino...more

It's been a busy January on PokerStars with tournaments in the Bahamas and France the past few weeks. Throw in the first TCOOP series and it may make you forget about the regular major events on the schedule. The calendar states that this is the first Super Tuesday in...more

They had their moment in the sun. They had their moment in the spotlight. They had their moment with a Latin America Poker Tour trophy hoisted above their head. Now, they are going to have their moment at the LAPT Grand Final Carnival of Poker. As you might know, the...more

The final table of EPT Deauville promised so much. In the end it delivered on some of what we'd hoped for, but for much of the eleven-and-a-half-hours this day took it became a tactical duel, riddled with a mixture of caution and patience. For eventual winner Vadzim Kursevich it...more

Vadzim Kursevich now holds an enormous chip lead, staking his claim to the €875,000 EPT Deauville title. The Belarusian won a 17,540,000 pot crippling Vuong Than Trong in the process. Trong opened the button for 500,000 and Kursevich three-bet to 1,200,000 out of the small blind. Trong quickly moved all-in...more

Frenchman Bruno Jais has just been sent to the rail by Vuong Than Trong who reclaims the chip lead with a 11,700,000 stack. Jais, who has been playing an entertaining if not unorthodox game, opened the pot to 450,000 from the cut-off and was thee-bet to 1,050,000 by Than Trong...more

Vadzim Kursevich is sitting front and centre of the EPT Deauville final table, arms resting around his stack. Just a few yards away sits Russian Andrey Pateychuk, who won EPT San Remo earlier this season for €680,000, railing the Belarusian who has been the most active player at this final...more

We've just seen a first for the European Poker Tour, perhaps even for poker itself. Never before has a player moved all-in by force, shoving in for his big blind because, well, that's all he had left. It was as though Olivier Rogez felt better of himself than to...more

It was probably the most dramatic moment of the final table so far, the double up of Yorane Kerignard in front of the home crowd. Short stacked, Kerignard got his chips in with king-six, not the best of options but Kerignard was short of chips and time, moving in...more

The Chinese New Year celebrations are complete and the Year of the Dragon appropriately launches the 2012 Asia Player of the Year race with the Macau Poker Cup: Red Dragon series which takes place from February 18-26 hosted by PokerStars Macau at Casino Grand Lisboa. The 15th installment of Asia's...more

The casino floor is not far away from the tournament room, just a short walk out the door and to the right where the main theme music to Jesus Christ Superstar blares out from somewhere. A Jesus Christ Superstar slot machine seems unlikely, even in secular France. But the...more

Luca Pagano will have to wait for his first EPT title having lost a 3,300,000 flip against Vuong Than Trong to bust out in 7th for €110,000. It's been another fine performance from the Italian Team PokerStars Pro who extends his dual record of most EPT final tables (seven) and...more

Mick Graydon is the first player out at the EPT Deauville final table collecting €67,200 for his eighth place finish. His elimination at the hands of Paul Guichard has pushed the Frenchman further ahead of the pack, now up to 7,800,000, some way ahead of his countryman Olivier Rogez with...more

The bank of seating facing the stage is now full of spectators, most of whom seem to be attending to important business on their mobile telephones. A group of standing-room-only spectators has also gathered to one side of the temporary stand. It's not clear where their telephones are. For...more

Mick 'BIGMICKG' Graydon told us last night that he felt that he wasn't too concerned about starting the day in last place as he rated his own short stack game. So far he's backing up that claim. The Irishman started the day with 960,000 but has chipped up to 1,350,000...more

Rarely does an EPT final table start on time and this one wasn't going to be the exception. At about 12.15pm it seemed most of the players were here, but there would be no start until at least 12,30pm. Eventually the last eight were rounded up, Vuong Than Trong...more

The final table of the PokerStars European Poker Tour Deauville leg plays down to a winner today, the culmination of six days of poker on the Normandy coast. Watch all the action from Deauville on EPT Live Lite by going to PokerStars.tv. Typically the Deauville leg conjures up a...more

Sundays are usually reserved for winding down from a busy week, but in the world of online poker, it's one of the most exciting days with the most opportunities to win big. Last Sunday saw the final events of the inaugural TCOOP series take place, and today brought all of...more

It was a big day of sports for the Americans and those who follow what the Americans call football. But for the rest of the world, it was poker as usual, and PokerStars was there to provide the schedule of tournaments that would satisfy everyone from the low buy-in players...more

With just eight players remaining in the European Poker Tour Deauville main event, it's a Frenchman who holds the narrow lead as Paul Guichard bags up 5,955,000 after a speedy six-hour day at the tables. Luca Pagano meanwhile reaches a record-extending seventh EPT final table. Guichard, who began the...more

If not today then sometime soon, Nikolaus Teichert will ask himself, "Why did I make that call?" It's a question we've certainly been asking ourselves up on the stage behind the final table, just a heavy velvet curtain separating us from them. Perhaps he wanted to emulate Doyle Brunson, maybe...more

If Chris Brammer could have looked more gutted it would hard to imagine how. Paul Guichard had opened for 80,000 from the hijack, a standard action for the chip leader at this stage of the tournament, and was shoved on by Denis Cheremisin for around 400,000 from the button. In...more

Deauville has been the site of some memorable final tables in the five previous incarnations. Starting in Season 1, Brandon Schaeffer became the first of many fascinating stories to emerge from the tour. Schaeffer's friend Carl Olsen qualified on PokerStars to play Deauville and suggested Brandon try to do...more

Every EPT is a festival of poker, it's not just a main event. Okay, there might not be the 40-odd events you have at the PCA but there are side events galore, from €300 nightly turbos up to €10,000 High Rollers. These side events have proved to be happy hunting...more

There's a man, one can only assume part of the EPT Live Lite team, disassembling a step ladder at the corner of the stage, folding it down ready to carrying it away. To anyone looking into the tournament room to see what was going on, that ladder is the...more

As well as following the action on the PokerStars Blog, don't forget live coverage on EPT Live Lite begins today, a fixed camera no hole cards version of the more flamboyant EPT Live. You can watch all the action from the feature table - which right now features chip...more

While Deauville slept six inches of snow fell across northern France. This winter wonderland looks beautiful, the blanket of white only disturbed by the passing of cars and the odd child intent on sniping passers-by. In the right circumstances it's a happy time but today it merely makes idiots...more

The biggest and richest tournament in all of Europe is on its way back to Monaco. After a one-year hiatus, the PokerStars and Monte-Carlo®Casino European Poker Tour Grand Final is returning to Monaco. As Season 8 of the EPT draws to a close, the EPT will pack its bags April...more

It's difficult to write that Luca Pagano is leading EPT Deauville. He is and it should be easy; after all, we've written it countless times before. The trouble starts though when you try to be original, you just stare at the keyboard convinced you've cut and paste a previous...more

Table one 1 Olivier Rogez 2,668,000 2 Vuong Than Trong 871,000 3 Andre Corredoira 1,310,000 4 Paul Guichard 1,700,000 5 Sergey Baburin 438,000 6 Antonio Guerrero 519,000 7 Christopher Brammer 1,262,000 8 Kevin Vandersmissen 737,000 Table two 1 Marc Inizan 481,000 2 Luca Pagano 3,561,000 3 Bruno Jais 970,000 4...more

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a live one. Artem Litvinov, who we yesterday compared to Illya Kuryakin, is up to 900,000 after making a call for the majority of his chips with A♠7♠. It wasn't the hand but the manner of celebration that left both spectators and the majority of...more

We are down to the final four tables here at EPT Deauville with just eight more players to bust before play ends for the day, 32 down to 24. Table five, which housed Luca Pagano, Ignat Liviu, Kevin Vandersmissen, Marc Inizan, Paul Guichard and Bernhard Mossner was the table to...more

The clock rests stubbornly on 36 players remaining, having not budged for some time now following the earlier surge that sent five players to the rail in just a few minutes. The remaining 36 are a varied bunch, a mixture of old and new, experienced and not experienced, just...more

At the first main event table you arrive at from the PokerStars press desk there was an empty chair. The absent player seemed to be doing pretty well, columns of grey 5,000 chips and a single tall red 25,000 stack contributing to a 1,700,000 stack. A couple of yards away...more

The tournament area is dominated not by the seven tables in action, but by a French camera team, whose tripod mounted camera is causing gridlock in the middle of the playing area. It's not the only camera in action, two more float around, not to mention that belonging to...more

Luca Pagano starts Day 4 of EPT Deauville in a position he's well accustomed: in the money, with his sights set on the final table and at the top of the EPT Tournament Leaderboard. The Italian Team PokerStars Pro sat down this afternoon with 344,000, some way below average, having...more

It's another beautiful day in Deauville today. The sun shines and locals wear sunglasses, the sun casting shadows along the boulevards. So much so that you almost miss the ice on the pavements which nearly sent at least one of us flying this morning. The ice forms curious leaf...more

1 1 Herve Halfon 323,000 1 2 Christophe Rusca 129,000 1 3 Martins Adeniya 893,000 1 4 Heinz Kamutzki 224,000 1 5 Andre Andrade 263,000 1 6 Christopher Brammer 1,090,000 1 7 Mikael Guenni 89,000 1 8 Agris Klaise 436,000 2 1 Jason Hallee 127,000 2 2 Jean-Jacques Mars 310,000...more

He started the day as chip leader and he almost ended the day as chip leader. Martins Adeniya put in another top draw performance today but was thwarted to the lead in the dying minutes of the day, when his stack dropped below the million mark as across the...more

As always at this stage of a poker tournament the main event is slowly losing its dominance of the tournament room. As it shrinks, the eliminated players now entitled to line up at the pay-out desk, side events take on a greater role, vast sweeping things spread out across...more

The stories during this part of a tournament tend to be polarised: the players that bust and the stacks making a run at the chip lead. In some ways this is doing a disservice to all those grinders in between for they are the future heroes and villains of this...more

Without doubt the table to watch right now is that of Ludovic Lacay and Martins Adeniya. The chip leader coming into the day, Adeniya, is one seat to the left of the current chip leader Lacay, the pair divided by the dealer about about 100,000 chips. Their stacks, castles...more

After the breathing in on the bubble there's always the exhalation post-pop as the players trying the hardest to hold their gut decide enough is enough, I don't care who sees my flab. Today of course was no different as the usual flurry of short stacked players jammed in...more

After a prolonged spell where the player count didn't seem to budge, the bubble bursts with two players departing on the same hand-for-hand hand, so to speak. Gone are Eric Nhouyvanisvong and Ilan Boujenah who will each share the €7,500 awarded for 128th place. Is that a good thing...more

The Turbo Championship of Online Poker revealed a lot about the nature of today's game. Of the many things we learned, it's that the series can produce champions from the ranks of relative unknowns. Just a few days removed from the end of the first TCOOP, we asked a few...more

Martins Adeniya and Toby Lewis are within a couple of feet each other. Both are young, British and undoubtedly good players but that's where the similarities end today. Adeniya is sat bolt upright in his chair, right hand constantly riffling a small stack of chips from his enormous pile which...more

You've heard of EPT Live, well now there's EPT Live Lite. When play reaches the penultimate day, when 24 remaining players complete across three tables for a place at the final, the cameras will be switched on, as will the lights and the commentators will be permitted to talk...more

1 1 Pierre Nousse 67,500 1 2 Mikael Cavailles 77,100 1 3 Patrick Nataf 174,100 1 4 Nikolaus Teichert 177,700 1 5 Julien Claudepierre 202,100 1 6 Todd Terry 85,200 1 7 Toby Lewis 278,700 1 8 Fabrice Yoni Journo 144,000 2 1 Martins Adeniya 512,200 2 2 Agris...more