Karim El Rharbaoui last weekend won the France Poker Series Mazagan Sunfest for MAD 505,000 ($59,443) beating French journeyman Richard Ekert and Dutch grinder Patrick Renkers into podium finishes. Renkers would have fancied his chances at the final table given his experience and $313,216 in live tournament winnings. The Dutchman...more

There was another huge turnout this week for the Super Tuesday, PokerStars' weekly $1,050 no-limit hold'em tournament. The 494 entrants represented the biggest field since early April, and the fourth-largest of the year. That group created a prize pool of $494,000, well above the $300K guarantee for the event. The...more

The inaugural UKIPT online main event final table is set. After two days of online combat we have eight players remaining who will have to jet into Bristol, United Kingdom from as far away as Uruguay and Russia. Although the chip leader zugzwang16 is a phenomenal player in his own...more

Ludovic Lacay claimed the biggest headlines heading into this weekend by winning EPT Sanremo and €744,910 beating French Canadian Jason Lavallee heads-up. EPT Sanremo had been a good one for the east side of Canada (Marc-Andre Ladouceur won the first of two High Rollers for €132,000). As EPT Sanremo began...more

A couple of weeks ago, Ludovic Lacay's Facebook friends were subject to a polite request. "Until new notice poker is going terrible," Lacay wrote on his status update. "Please stop asking :)" The smiley face could not disguise the fact that here was a poker player running bad. But those...more

Lynn Gilmartin talks to the new EPT9 Sanremo champion Ludovic Lacay about a long day at the table. The Frenchman, who looked content in front of his stack of chips and winning hand, spoke about his performance, his expectations, running good and playing to his best. We also saw...more

Usually as the number of players in a poker tournament is reduced so too are the number of spectators. But the opposite is happening in the theatre of Casino Sanremo thanks largely to a sizeable gathering of Jason Lavallee supporters. Or are they Ludovic Lacay supporters? Some 20 or...more

Roger Hairabedian has continued an incredible run of form this autumn by beating Team PokerStars Pro Max Martinez in Event #24: €990 Heads-up. Hairabedian made two final tables in the recent WSOPE, winning one event, to score his first bracelet and take him up to $3,777,458 in live tournament winnings....more

Jason Lavallee talks to Lynn Gilmartin about how the final table is progressing - in his view badly - and about his unorthodox preparations for the day - largely drinking and sleeping, as well as a plate of spaghetti. Lavallee also talks about the dominance of Ludovic Lacay in...more

It's a story often told among poker circles, dusted off whenever a final table passes the ten hour mark or play slows to an unbearable crawl. It is of course the story of the first ever EPT Sanremo final table back in Season 4. More important than the destination,...more

Team PokerStars Pros Liv Boeree and Jason Mercier both won their EPT title here in Sanremo (Mercier in season four, Boeree in season six). Boeree may have won more but Mercier claims to have won the tougher final table (a point which Boeree concedes). PokerStars.tv caught up with the pair...more

One of the most successful players at today's final is Frenchman Ludovic Lacay. Should he win it would be the latest in a line of successes for French poker, dating back more than a year, starting here in Sanremo. Yorane Kerignard reached the final table in Season 8, and...more

When play stopped last night in the high roller just seven of the field of 84 (including reloads) remained. And leading them was Sweden's Joel Nordkvist. He stands to double his career earnings if he wins the €288,000 first prize. But in his way are some of the fiercest...more

And so to the final table. After five days of play just eight of the original 797 players remain to contest the final of EPT Sanremo. At stake is a first prize of €800,000. Yesterday we saw the collapse of one chip leader and the emergence of another. While...more

The contrast between the main event and the high roller is pretty stark. While the main event rumbles on in the theatre, with beams of bright light illuminating the central stage and the final table, the high roller event plays on in relative obscurity, beneath the mural of a...more

They may be in Sanremo, Italy, for the PokerStars European Poker Tour, but quite a few players are occupying their time away from the felt with another card game. Earlier this week, Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Scott Seiver were among the players who partook in a 34-hour session of open-face...more

In the middle of the pack right now is Ismael Bojang. It's a name that should be easy to remember, and yet not much is known about the German who is notching up his second cash of the EPT season. Bojang though is unusual among the poker community being...more

The atmosphere is temperate and calm in the theatre of Casino Sanremo, and the seats comfortable, but as for poker you can't see anything. Events on the stage are being recorded for television, with the live feed starting tomorrow on EPTLive. For now though the view from the seats...more

Faraz Jaka will sit down at 3pm (local time) with the largest stack in Event #15: €2,200 No-Limit Hold 'em. All 38 players are now in the money but the huge 450-man field has created a mammoth €210,000 first place prize which many of the remaining field will feel entitled...more

This week's Super Tuesday saw yet another big field join the weekly $1,050 no-limit hold'em tournament that often brings together online poker's elite. A total of 464 joined the fray this time, making a $464,000 prize pool and easily besting the $300K guarantee. The top 54 finishers divided the prize...more