Poker News

No fewer than 19377 entrants lined up for last nights PokerStars Sunday Million, giving it a astronomical prizepool of $3.875 million.  3150 of those players got paid, with the money starting at $266.03.    After 12 hours of play OX45AL took down the $550,011.29 first prize.  

1st OX45AL $550,011.29
2nd celofyz33 $333,540.00
3rd eMarkM $244,616.42
4th OBVAMENTS $166,270.00
5th S.Takmaziyan $133,016.00
6th Kostya 77777 $99,762.00
7th Gmelkonyan $66,508.00
8th austinlewis $44,227.82
9th hunter10999 $29,928.60

OX45AL has an ABI (average buy-in) of just $13 so this win will no doubt propel him upwards into the bigger buy-in tourneys. Good luck to him

Full Tilt have introduced a new and innovative form of poker called Rush Poker.  Is is fast and furious and you can end up playing 400 or 500 hands an hour to compared to the normal 60 odd hands.

With Rush Poker the instant you make a decision to fold your 8 opponents are swept away and 8 new opponents appear and you have a new hand right there in front of you.  So you can literally click click click through hands until you find one you like.  It works a treat it really does.  A whooshing sound sweeps those players away the second you click “quick fold”.  You dont even have to wait until it’s your turn to act.

If you fancy giving Rush Poker a go you then sign up to Full Tilt here and get a bonus up to $600

To play just look at the left of the main Full Tilt lobby where you have the options of Ring Games, Sit-and-gos, Tournaments, or Rush Poker.  Select Rush Poker then simply select your prefered stakes, and buyin for your prefered amount.  And then you’re away.  It’s very easy.

Lots of Rush Poker stategies can be used.  Raising each time can be effective as many players have already left the table (their avatar is still there but they’ve long since clicked “quick fold” and moved on).  When you raise you often get a lot of instant folds and not much opposition.    Another strategy is to flick through loads of hands until you find something really big like pocket kings or aces, and then playing them really hard.

Each hand you are at a table with different players, therefore no-one really knows if you’ve been stealing the blinds a lot all the time.  Talking of blinds, the big blind just gets allocated to the player who’s gone the longest without paying it.  Therefore it evens out and you pay the big blind on average every 9 hands.

Rush Poker really is something new and refreshing, so why not give it a try now

The 14th Mini FTOPS on Full Tilt Poker gets underway today.  Here is the schedule of events:

Event #01 Wed Dec 09th 21:00 ET $22 NL Holdem 6-max
Event #02 Thu Dec 10th 13:00 ET $22 7-Game
Event #03 Thu Dec 10th 21:00 ET $55 NL Holdem Shootout
Event #04 Fri Dec 11th 13:00 ET $22 NL Holdem 1R1A 
Event #05 Fri Dec 11th 21:00 ET $22 Stud8 
Event #06 Sat Dec 12th 13:00 ET $55 PLO 6max 
Event #07 Sat Dec 12th 15:00 ET $11 NL Holdem w/rebuys 
Event #08 Sun Dec 13th 13:00 ET $26 NL Holdem Knockout 6max
Event #09 Sun Dec 13th 15:00 ET $55 NL Holdem Heads Up 
Event #10 Sun Dec 13th 17:00 ET $33 NL Hold em 
Event #11 Mon Dec 14th 13:00 ET $22 PLO8  
Event #12 Mon Dec 14th 21:00 ET $109 NL Holdem 6max 
Event #13 Tue Dec 15th 13:00 ET $33 NL Holdem 6-max Shootout   
Event #14 Tue Dec 15th 21:00 ET $55 HORSE 
Event #15 Tue Dec 15th 21:00 ET $22 NL Holdem Turbo
Event #16 Wed Dec 16th 13:00 ET $26 PLO Knockout 
Event #17 Wed Dec 16th 21:00 ET $33 NL Holdem 6max Rebuy
Event #18 Thu Dec 17th 13:00 ET $22 NL Holdem Cashout  
Event #19 Thu Dec 17th 21:00 ET $22 Limit Holdem 6max  
Event #20 Fri Dec 18th 13:00 ET $22 NL Holdem  
Event #21 Fri Dec 18th 21:00 ET $33 Razz 6max 
Event #22 Sat Dec 19th 13:00 ET $266 NL Holdem Ante From Start
Event #23 Sat Dec 19th 15:00 ET $11 PLO Rebuy 
Event #24 Sun Dec 20th 13:00 ET $13 NL Holdem Knockout  
Event #25 Sun Dec 20th 17:00 ET $55 NL Holdem

The latest cash action on Full Tilt Poker has been crazy.  Huge games everywhere with durrrr and Isildur1 ploughing through tens of thousands of hands over the space of just a few days. 

On Sunday they played around 7500 hands with hundreds of them reaching 100K or above.  A massive 21 hands topped $400K.

Dwan finished Sunday around $1.2 million down and came back on Monday looking to get some of it back.   Monday saw a mind boggling 12,000 hand session, with Dwan losing a further $600K.

Tuesday it continued with Dwan dropping a further $850K to Isidur1

On Wednesday Dwan was tied up with filming High Stakes Poker, much to his frustration no doubt.    While the cat’s away the dog must play.  Isildur1 went up against Antonius, Cole South and Brian Townsend.   He finished up around $400K from that 4-way encounter.

Then Dwan was back, keen as mustard to start getting un-stuck, and went on to lose yet again, this time around $700K

Overall after this somewhat crazy week Durrrr was about $3 million down.   That sure did screw his overall stats over for 2009.

All this action flying around reached fever pitch today with Isildur1 and Patrik Antonius competing for a pot of just under $900,000.  A world record online pot.  Antonius emerged the victor, liberating Isildur1 of around $450K

What craziness will follow over the coming days, god only knows.  But one thing’s for sure it’s going to be exciting to watch.

The Sunday Million on PokerStars this Sunday brought a record breaking field to the felt.  A whopping 18283 registered at $215 a pop, making a prizepool over $3.6 million, the largest Sunday Million in history.

There was a 6-way chop before Zadman5311 went on to win the title

1st: Zadman5311 ($282,662.86)
2nd: m8675309a ($200,844.74)
3rd: call110 ($250,037.00)
4th: ZyeD3 ($144,353.10)
5th: waWe ($205,477.38)
6th: Guldlemmen4 ($177,650.76)
7th: The Omaholic ($54,849.00) <- Well known online pro, Mark Roland
8th: MATPOC28 ($32,909.40)
9th: E-Daddie ($21,939.60)

 The tourney took 12 hours and 21 mins to complete

We were spot on with that news blogpost on 2nd Oct regarding Tom Dwan.   A month and a bit later it was announced to the world that he had indeed become a member of Team Full Tilt.   I guess we were way ahead of the game on that

Dwan becomes the youngest member of Team Full Tilt, and the last member since Patrick Antonius to join.

Unlike standard red pros who get a base deal of 100% rakeback and $35 an hour, the actual “Team Full Tilt” members are cut in for a small percentage of the profits of the whole site.

So expect to see Dwan promoting the site heavily everywhere.  He’s likely to appear on commercials and various online marketing images.

He’s certainly a great signing for them, and will help increase appeal to a slightly younger audience.    He has a very big following through numerous very high profile live events, and his exceptional results and play at the highest levels both live and online.  The shear level of widespread exposure is surly excellent for the marketing of Full Tilt

It looks very much like Tom Dwan has signed for Full Tilt. Howard Lederer and the team have been after Tom “Durrrr” Dwan for a while to join their team. Whilst browsing the schedule for the FTOPS I noticed he was listed as a host. Slightly suspiciously he was then removed from the list a couple of hours later. Luckily I took a screenshot of it before they changed it. So, if this is good enough evidence it looks like it may have finally happened:

Popular poker pro Daniel Negreanu came back from being the shortstack at the start of the final table to take 2nd place in the WSOPE Main Event 2009.   He lost to Barry Shulman after a long heads-up battle with many chip swings. At one point Negreanu just needed for AA to hold against A5 of hearts for the championship. The chips went all-in (with Negreanu covering Shulman) on a flop containing 2 hearts, but before Negreanu could even contemplate adding a new bracelet to his collection a heart was delivered on the turn to double Shulman up. Many toos-and-fros followed but ultimately Shulman won with TT vs Negreanu’s 44.   Here are the final placings:

1 £ 801,603 Barry Shulman
2 £ 495,589 Daniel Negreanu
3 £ 360,887 Praz Bansi  
4 £ 267,267 Jason Mercier  
5 £ 200,367 Markus Ristola  
6 £ 150,267 Chris Bjorin  
7 £ 114,228 Antoine Saout  
8 £ 87,074 Matt Hawrilenko  
9 £ 66,533 James Akenhead

The EPT London, run and sponsored by PokerStars, starts in a couple of days time. On Wednesday 30th Sept to be precise. There is an interested schedule of events. It follows straight on from the WSOPE in London, so many of the big players, including those from America are over for this.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 2009
12:00 £20,000 + £500  - High Roller - Day 1
14:00 £1,000 + £100 - No Limit - 6 Max - Day 1
20:00 £1,000 + £100 - PLH / PLO Freezeout - Day 1
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2009
12:00 £20,000 + £500 - High Roller - Day 2  
13:00 £1,000 + £100 - No Limit - 6 Max - Final Day
13:00 £1,000 + £100 - PLH / PLO Freezeout - Final Day
14:00 £1,000 + £100 - PLO Double Chance - 6 Max - Day 1
18:00 £2,000 + £150 - European 8 Game Championships - Day 1
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2009
12:00 £5,000 + £250 - Main Event Day 1A
12:00 £20,000 + £500 - High Roller - Final Table 
13:00 £1,000 + £100 - PLO Double Chance - 6 Max - Final Day
13:00 £2,000 + £150 - European 8 Game Championships - Final Day
17:00 £550 + £50 + 1 Re - Buy - Super Satellite to Main
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2009
12:00 £5,000 + £250 - Main Event Day 1B
20:00 £1,000 + £100 - PLO Hi-Lo - Double Chance - Day 1
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2009
12:00 £5,000+ £250 - Main Event Day 2
13:00 £1,000 + £100 - PLO Hi - Lo - Double Chance - Final Day
16:00 £2,500 + £200 - NL Freezeout - Day 1
MONDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2009
12:00 £5,000 + £250 - Main Event - Day 3 
13:00 £2,500 + £200 - NL Freezeout - Final Day
14:00 £2,000 + £150 - PLO Double Chance Freezeout - Day 1
17:00 £200 + £20 - Ladies ONLY Event – 1 day event
20:00 £1,000 + £100 - NL Freezeout - Day 1
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2009
12:00 £5,000 + £250 - Main Event Day 4 
13:00 £1,000 + £100 - NL Freezeout - Final Day
13:00 £2,000 + £150 - PLO Freezeout - Day 2
14:00 £500 + £50 - 8 Game - Day 1
18:00 £1,500 + £100 - NL Freezeout – Day 1
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2009
12:00 £5,000 + £250 - Main Event Day 5 - Final Table 
12:00 £2,000 + £150 - PLO Freezeout - Final Day
12:00 £500 + £50 - 8 Game - Final Day
12:00 £1,500 + £100 - NL Freezeout - Final Day
13:00 £500 + £50 - PLO Shootout - Cap 100
13:00 £500 + £50 - No Limit Shootout - Cap 100

The WSOPE Main Event in London has reached Day 3 with 94 players remaining, left competing for the £800,000 first prize ($1.27 million).

Amongst the 4 chip leaders are Doyle Brunson (10 time WSOP Winner),  Praz Bansi (WSOP Winner and GUKPT Winner), James Akenhead (2009 November Nine Player),  and Ian Munns (actual leader with a 528K chipstack).

Still alive and very much kicking are also Liz Lieu, Daniel Negreanu, Dave Devilfish, Annette Obrestad, Steve Zolotow, Ram Vaswani, Joe Beevers, Antonio Esfandiari, Todd Brunson, Men Nguyen, John Juanda, and many many other big names.   A whole host of big internet names are also still in such as Boosted J, and Jovial Gent.

The action is definately hotting up and tomorrow will see the bubble burst as they are playing down to 27, with 36 players getting paid