710 players anted up the $320 buy-in for the Wednesday Hundred Fifty Grand (HFG) on PokerStars.  After just over 9 hours, Shazmeister took down the victory.

1st Shazmeister $39,405
2nd bambinus $28,542
3rd KTEN24 $21,300
4th Pipedream17 $15,975
5th Marius2910 $11,182.50

Former Sunday Million winner MattSuspect finished 32nd, winning $745.50

Poker Pro PearlJammer won the PokerStars Super Tuesday last night.  There were 324 entrants for the $1050 buy-in event.

Result:

1. PearlJammer $71,280
2. Virgil369 $48,924
3. Anjunadeep $33,372
4. BrynKenney $25,920
5. xxjondxx $19,440

PearlJammer (real name Jon Turner) is a Full Tilt Pro, and is quite well known on the live circuit as well.    His online winnings at PokerStars alone amount to $1.1 million, converting $401K of that to profit.

No-one really wants to hear bad beat stories, and I think most people switch off pretty early on in the story.  However there has been some interesting additions to many live tournaments recently to combat this.

Firstly, Bad Beat booths, where players can record their moan on video.  “Just let it all out son”!

Secondly, Bad Bear Ears, seen in as prestigious of tournaments  as the WSOP.  Basically a couple of guys sat there, you pay them some fee (eg $5) and they will genuienly listen to your bad beat story in its entirity.   And I mean properly listen, and they will ask you questions and point out what the sick parts of the hand were, in sympathy.     You might think to yourself, ‘I’m not paying $5 for that’, but believe me many do, and there is often something resembling a queue of lingerers.    Poker therapy is available cheaper than the standard shrink folks - Available at a casino lobby near you!

Vaga_Lion won this weeks PokerStars Sunday Million

There were 7680 entrants to this $215 buy-in event, and Vaga_Lion chopped some money with 2 players left.

Here is the final result:

1. Vaga_Lion (United Kingdom) $177,816.00
2. V00D00CHILE (United States) $147,816.00
3. princessl111 (United States) $76,800.00
4. exceed_EXE (Canada) $61,440.00
5. billusnail (United States) $46,080.00
6. johne147 (United Kingdom) $33,792.00
7. garsn (Sweden) $23,808.00
8. Fjusse (Sweden) $13,824.00
9. jkcva (United States) $9,062.40

Vaga_Lion is a high stakes cash player, often seen at the top level tables on Full Tilt Poker.

Here he is at the $200/$400 NL Holdem tables:

Full Tilt Poker Game #2211000858: Table Canfield (6 max) - $200/$400 - No Limit Hold’em - 19:36:19 ET - 2007/04/14
Seat 1: itislinda ($8,885)
Seat 2: Vaga_Lion ($40,600)
Seat 4: baddoggi ($28,308)
Seat 5: jinsokkp ($48,845)
Seat 6: hit21hit ($8,000)
hit21hit posts the small blind of $200
itislinda posts the big blind of $400
The button is in seat #5
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Vaga_Lion raises to $1,200
baddoggi folds
jinsokkp folds
hit21hit raises to $8,000, and is all in
itislinda raises to $8,885, and is all in
Vaga_Lion calls $7,685
itislinda shows [Qc Qd]
Vaga_Lion shows [Ad Ac]
hit21hit shows [Kc Kd]
David Benyamine sits down
*** FLOP *** [Tc 4s Td]
David Benyamine adds $18,001
*** TURN *** [Tc 4s Td] [Kh]
*** RIVER *** [Tc 4s Td Kh] [7s]
itislinda shows two pair, Queens and Tens
Vaga_Lion shows two pair, Aces and Tens
Vaga_Lion wins the side pot ($1,770) with two pair, Aces and Tens
hit21hit shows a full house, Kings full of Tens
hit21hit wins the main pot ($23,997) with a full house, Kings full of Tens
itislinda is sitting out
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot $25,770 Main pot $24,000. Side pot $1,770. | Rake $3
Board: [Tc 4s Td Kh 7s]
Seat 1: itislinda (big blind) showed [Qc Qd] and lost with two pair, Queens and Tens
Seat 2: Vaga_Lion showed [Ad Ac] and won ($1,770) with two pair, Aces and Tens
Seat 4: baddoggi didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 5: jinsokkp (button) didn’t bet (folded)
Seat 6: hit21hit (small blind) showed [Kc Kd] and won ($23,997) with a full house, Kings full of Tens

texpert picked up the $5,200 buy-in, $100K winner-takes-all freezeout on PokerStars.  This is a popular tournament each week, and quick to fill to the max of 20 players.

Result

1st texpert - $100,000

2nd AKULA1

3rd Gigabet

4th takechip

5th turbotiff

I think there is a reasonble amount of justification for the use of NH (nice hand) at the poker tables being made illegal.  Online poker players seem to have a great tendancy to either over-use it, or to use it in inappropriate circumstances, leading to the annoyance of others (namely me) at the tables.

In a recent survey, 92.1% of NH useage was deemed to be relating to when a player had a pretty looking hand, as opposed to actually playing the hand well.  This sort of misuse could well be very confusing to new and aspiring players leading them down the much travelled path towards donktown.

If NH were made illegal in online poker, the world would undoubtly be a much better place.  I look forward to seeing it happen soon.

PokerStars have introduced what looks to be a nicely thought through new leaderboard, exclusively concentrating on sit-and-go tournaments (SNGs)

The leaderboards run weekly, and are divided up into 8 divisions catering for different buy-ins.  The lowest division is called Mercury, and is for buy-ins between $1 and $2.99.  The highest division is called Jupiter, and is for buy-ins of $300 and above.

The SNGs covered by the leaderboards are those from 6 to 27 seaters.  It looks like the ones from 6 to 10 seaters are the best to play as the average points per player is 10 points in those, whereas the higher ones are either 9, 8.5 or 8 per player (8 per player in 27 seaters).  For example, a 9-seater SNGs will give 45 points for first, 27 for 2nd, and 18 for third.    A total of 90 points, or 10 per player average.

The 8 divisions are further split into 2 volumes.  20 SNG volume, and 100 SNG volume.  If you played 20 SNGs in a week and got 4×1sts, and 3×2nds, you would have accumulated 261 points.  An average player over 20 9-seaters should get 20×10 = 200 points.

Each week every leaderboard wins prizes.  For Mercury, the top 100 get prizes, for Jupiter the top 10 get prizes, and various numbers of prizes for the buy-in levels in between.

If we take Earth division ($10 to $19.99 buy-in) as an example, 30 leaderboard prizes get paid, with 1st place gettig $700 and 30th place getting $40.

The total prizepool starts at $1500 (split over 100 players for Mercury) and goes up to $5000 (split over 10 players for Jupiter)

On top of this weekly prizepool money, the top ten players in every division (both high and low volume) will be entered into a $50,000 monthly freeroll.  That is 8×2x10 = 160 a week.  OR 160×4 = about 640 players a month on average (An EV of $50,000/640 = $78)

All in all the PokerStars SNG leaderboards look nicely constructed and will provide some interesting competition for players at all levels.

I find it slightly amusing that, despite the American Banking Association’s declaration that UIGEA is unworkable, several European countries are still endeavouring to following an UIGEA style approach to the restriction of online poker/gambling.  When UIGEA first landed on US doorsteps it didnt take Einstein to understand that it was fundamentally flawed in many regards, and cobbled together no doubt by people with no comprehension of the true nature of the internet.

Without a serious restriction of all cival liberties in a modern age, the internet and business/activity conducted on the internet cannot be controlled by any one country.  It can be policed, but it cannot be controlled.  Policing involves searching out and shutting down unsavourey elements after the fact.  That is possible.  What is not possible is governing peoples behaviour and their online movements.

UIGEA is flawed because it is unable to cope with the fact that privately owned gambling companies are hosted and legislated in countries outside their borders, and that deposits made to those companies cannot be tracked due to numerous levels of 3rd party payment processing. 

Without installing a regime into your country where no citizen is allowed to purchase anything over the internet, then restriction of 3rd party payment processors beyond your borders is not possible without full unilateral worldwide legislation, which is a non-existant concept.

Sure, if some execs of a big payment precessor such as Neteller happen to land on US soil (as they did), you can hit them hard, but the truth of the matter is that there will always be an abundance of new payment processors waiting in the wings (from countries all over the world), ready to take up where the last left off.  The online gambling companies themselves are very quick to facilitate the new deals with new companies, as it is fundmental to their businesses.  The banks themselves are tied in knots over selectively trying to restrict any movement of money which might eventually end up at a payment processor which can fund a gambling/poker account.  It simply isnt possible in a consumer driven freemarket economy.  A fact which the banks themselves readily admit to.  

The motivation behind legislation such as this in both the USA, and European countries such as Germany trying to follow suit, is undoubtably a large proportion to do with tax, and a smaller proportion due to social conscience.   Prohibition was unsuccessful for alcohol (driving it underground), and in the end it was obvious that large tax revenues could be generated if alcohol was allowed but regulated.  The same applies for online gambling.  You can drive it the equivalent of underground and never truely erradicate it, with people still spending money on it, OR you can accept it as a fact and try to impose reasonable regulations which will mean more tax could be generated from it. 

For the European countries which are also embarking on this path, some lessons should be learned and learned quickly by the failure of the legislation in the United States.

This week’s Super Tuesday on PokerStars attracted 336 runners, each paying the $1050 buy-in.

Some big MTT ballers went deep, notably Tmay420, pbdrunks, and Gigabet

Tmay420 is currently sat on $1.1million winnings on Stars, with $300K profit
pbdrunks is currently sat on 915K winnings on Stars, with $425K profit
Gigabet is currently sat on 360K winnings on Stars, with $124K profit

Here is the final result, with gcnmoo taking it down:

1st - gcnmoo - $73,920
2nd - Tmay420 - $50,736
3rd - Paolo69 - $34,608
4th - Ricemyster - $26,880
5th - pbdrunks - $20,160
6th - Gigabet - $15,792

UH Big Tex took down this weeks Sunday Million.  This time around it was a $1050 buy-in and there were 1869 entrants.   UH Big Tex, a previous winner of a large field $215 on Stars, and a $215 rebuy on Stars, wrapped up the win in just shy of 11 hours.

There was a 3-way chop, leading to the following pay-outs:

1st - UH Big Tex — $245,737
2nd - Governator — $237,200
3rd - BrokenTPot — $200,370
4th - dannyred99 — $106,533
5th - playmeandpay — $83,544
6th - driverseati — $62,985
7th - quadducks — $44,295
8th - Eeedz — $27,474
9th - mendieta19 — $16,447