The Turbo Takedown on PokerStars is becoming a regular fixture.  It will happen on the last Sunday of every month (starting May 25th) and will be a 5000 FPP buy-in and have a $1,000,000 guaranteed prizepool

Entrants are capped at 12,000 and 4,000 places get paid, making it a very shallow structure, rewarding fairly cautious play

1st prize will be $100,000 and 2nd prize $60,000

WEEKLY TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

2pm Mon–Fri - £20 Freezeout 2,000 starting chips

8pm Monday - £50+£5 Bounty Freezeout 4,000 chips 20 minute clock – Dealer Dealt

8pm Tuesday - £10 Rebuy WSOP 1,000 rebuy straight away, 2,000 add on.

8pm Wednesday - £75 Freezeout 5,000 chips 20 minute clock – Dealer Dealt

8pm Thursday - £20 Deep & Steep-3,000 chips 15 minute clock

8pm Friday - £10 Rebuy - 1,000 chips rebuy straight away, 2×30 minute rebuy period. 2,000 chips add on.20 min.clock

2pm Saturday - £5 Rebuy – 500 chips rebuy straight away, 2×30 minute rebuy period. 1,000 chips add on. 20 min.clock

8pm Saturday - £100 Freezeout 8,000 chips 20 minute clock – Dealer Dealt

2pm Sunday - £20 Deep & Steep 3,000 chips-15 minute clock

8pm Sunday - £30 Extreme Stack 6,000 chips-15 minute clock

This weeks Super Tuesday on PokerStars attracted 345 entrants.  After 7 hours and 20 mins spacegravy emerged the victor

Notable finishes for Martine23 in 3rd, JohnnyBax (Cliff Josephy) in 5th, SirWatts in 7th and Tmay420 in 15th

1st spacegravy $75,900
2nd MIB727 $52,095
3rd Martine $35,535
4th JohnnyBax $27,600
5th Allingomes $20,700

The 2008 WSOP Main Events starts on July 3rd, and will run until July 14th, at which point just 9 players will remain.  These will be known as “The Novemeber Nine”

These 9 players will all be paid the 9th place money in July.

Then there will be a 117 day delay(!), and the final table will be played on 9th November

The big gap might seem crazy to some, but it is all about TV ratings, and building the hype/interest.  The November Nine are expected to become minor celebrities in the 4 month gap, and every spectator will probably have someone they are clearly cheering for even if no household-name pros are amongst the nine.

Here is the plan for November:

Nov 4th = ESPN shows a one hour final table preview show
Nov 9th = Final Table is played (9 down to 2)
Nov 10th = Final table heads-up
Nov 11th = ESPN broadcasts the final table (9:00 pm ET)

On the positive side, it means when ESPN shows it’s WSOP coverage (July 22nd to Oct 28th), when it gets round to the final table, it will almost be like watching it live, making it much more exciting.

On the negative, are such problems as deaths, incarceration, no-shows, tutoring etc.  All of which are possibles with such a gap.

Personally, whilst it obviously takes away a little charm and neatness away from the previous format, it isnt exactly the end of the world, and I’m sure the poker world will adjust, and making the final table (The November Nine) could easily in itself become the stuff of legend, rather than the lion’s share of the glory going to just the bracelet winner.

The PokerStars Sunday Million attracted 7001 entrants this weekend, and ShankingYou (who has been seen getting very deep in events like the Super Tuesday) had a very fine showing taking the runner-up spot.

With 2 players left they did a 50:50 2-way chop, and then Iron Henry preceding to take down the heads-up battle for the title and the extra 30K

1. Iron Henry (United Kingdom) $163,421.20
2. ShankingYou (United States ) $133,421.20
3. hobbybob (Germany) $70,010.00
4. etushekki (Finland) $56,008.00
5. jlost88 (Canada) $42,006.00
6. Duffman08 (United States) $30,804.40
7. fiddski (Sweden) $21,703.10
8. redhookesb (United States) $12,601.80
9. ROCKHOUND23 (United States) $8,261.18

WSOP Bracelet winner MrSmokey1 won the winner-takes-all $5K freezeout on PokerStars a couple of week ago.   He nearly repeated that achievement with a 2nd place finish this week, eventually getting pipped by nordlending on this occassion.

 They chopped the $100K when heads up, so Mrsmokey1 converted his $5200 buy-in into a tidy $26K

1. nordlending $74k
2. MrSmokey1 $26K
3. zangbezan24
4. djk123
5. Genius28

The husky voiced Poker commentator (and succesful poker player) Vicky Coren has signed for PokerStars.  Vicky is most famous for her EPT win in 2006 in London, where 1st place earned her no less than $941K.  She has proved popular commentating on many UK poker events, and is seen playing in many a high class invitational, such as the Party Poker Premier League.

She will be playing at PokerStars under the online ID “Vicky Coren”.  Look out for her at a table near you soon.

The $1050 buy-in Super Tuesday  on PokerStars picked up 357 entrants this week.  The result was as follows:-

1st any2cantu $78,540
2nd Goldenboys $53,907
3rd JEFFREG $36,771
4th djk123 $28,560
5th ckingusc $21,420

Notable cash for brsavage in 7th winning  $12,852

The PokerStars Sunday Million was by a Dane for the first time in as long as I can remember.    A 5-way chop earlier in the final table lead to a fairly even prize distribution at the top end.

1. KipsterDK (Denmark) $149,860.76
2. plattsburgh (United States) $133,396.88
3. tshooter1970 (United States) $143,314.23
4. futilewar (Israel) $108,479.24
5. pearljam1012 (Canada) $112,297.34
6. iamhiv (United States) $45,225.50
7. caicu (Portugal) $32,749.50
8. jmmeijer (Netherlands) $20,585.40
9. DCal Zone (United States) $12,164.10