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WPT World Championship Reaches The Money

The poker room at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada, had many of the world’s best poker players descend on it last week for the £25,000 World Poker Tour finale, the World Championship. 

A total of 220 players paid a massive entry fee in exchange for 100,000 tournament chips and only 15 of these players remained after four arduous days of dynamic poker.

52 players had returned to the poker room at the Bellagio with the knowledge that 25 of them would be walking away from the poker room without any money to show for all their efforts over the past four days.  Former WPT World Championship winner, Yevgeny Timoshenko, Roberto Romanelo, Sam Trickett and Jon “PearlJammer” Turner were all unfortunate to go home empty handed.

Ali Tekintamqac, who is alleged to have cheated at numerous live tournaments in Europe and who was at the mercy of Daniel Negruenu’s trade on Twitter on the second day of play was yet another player who went home without any prize money.

The bubble was eventually burst five hours after the restart of the tournament, when Hafiz Khan found himself all in with a pair of aces and looked on course to double up through Justin Young who held pocket jacks.  However Khan was sent to the rail in 28^th place resulting in a guarantee of at least $37,167 for all the players with chips still in front of them.  This was followed by a steady stream of eliminations with Brunson in 24^th place and Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott in 22^nd place.

Once play resumed Galen Hall lead the way and managed to turn his 100,000 starting stack into 3,438,000.  He started Day 5 as the chipleader and finished it with a 20,000 chip advantage over WSOP bracelet winner Scott Seiver.

Day 5’s plan of action was to play five 90-minute levels or until the 15 surviving players had been scaled down to the final table of six. 

Once the 15 starters had been reduced to the final six competitors David Peters lost a race and the tournament was paused until the Friday.

Wise Guys Deputy Leader Board Promotion at 32Red Poker

Online poker players are accustomed to enjoying regular promotions and rewards when playing at 32Red Poker, which is known to be one of the leading online poker rooms in the industry.

The Wise Guys leader board promotion is currently running at 32Red Poker that will enable the top players at this site to win their share of £1,000 in free poker chips each and every week.

Players at 32Red Poker earning the most profit at the site’s cash game tables each week will not only win prizes but will also be awarded a Wise Guy title.

The 32Red Poker site will basically be running two leader boards in the Wise Guys promotion, namely the Deputy Wise Guys and the Sheriff Wise Guys leader boards.

The top three earners on real money Omaha High and Omaha hi-lo or Texas Hold’em cash games of up to (and including) small blinds of 0.050 chips will be rewarded in the Deputy Wise Guys leader board.  This particular leader board could result in players winning $350 in free poker chips every single week.

The Sheriff Wise Guys is the second leader board with the top three earners on real money Texas Hold’em or Omaha high and Omaha hi-lo cash games with small blinds of one chip or more being rewarded.  Every week skilled players are being offered $700 in free poker chips with this promotion.

Eligible players must have played not less than 250 raked hands in order to qualify for any Wise Guys bonus.

The weekly payouts will be distributed as follows: 1^st $200, 2^nd $100 and 3^rd $50.

32Red Poker is a leading online poker room that provides players with a secure and rewarding online poker room experience.

Players at 32Red Poker are offered stunning graphics, exciting cash tournaments, and a wide selection of games including Texas Hold’em and Omaha, as well as top bonuses.

Players can get up to 50% rakeback each time they play thanks to the site’s unrivalled rakeback program.

Milestone Prizes at Victor Chandler Poker

It has become quite popular in the online poker industry for sites to celebrate milestone hands dealt.  Victor Chandler Poker is no exception and is offering players a great promotion at the site.  The poker site is holding this promotion in order to celebrate the dealing of its 2,222,222,222^nd online poker hand dealt at this great site.

This milestone promotion at Victor Chandler Poker will see players take home cash prizes worth a whopping € 22,222.

A statement by Victor Chandler Poker site read “Be sure therefore to keep an eye on the identifications and to be playing on our cash games come the countdown to be in with a chance of landing some free lolly.”

Victor Chandler has revealed that it will commence counting from hand number 2,222,000,000 and will be awarding lots of prizes along the way until the magical number is hit.  The lucky winner who manages to hit a milestone hand on the way to the magic number will be awarded a prize of € 1,000 and all participants at the lucky player’s table will each be rewarded with € 100.

On the 2,222,111,111^th hand the prizes will be doubled with the winner taking home € 2,000 in cash and all the players at his or her table being awarded € 200 each.

The player who succeeds in having cards dealt on hand 2,222,222,222 will be awarded the highest prize and will take home a massive amount of € 10,000 in cash.  A cash amount of € 1,000 in cash will go to each participating player at the winner’s table.

Due to the fact that winning these fantastic prizes has nothing to do with the player’s poker skills, but is clearly a case of being in the right place at the right time, any player, from amateurs to professionals could win the cash. Players can, however, increase their chances of winning by spending lots of time at Victor Chandler Poker in case the magic numbers happen to come up during their gaming sessions.

Agreement reached with US Department of Justice with Absolute Poker

Following the civil and criminal matters filed in the federal court in Manhattan and made public on April 15 2011 (which is now known as Black Friday) it was announced earlier this week that Absolute Poker, including the UB (formerly Ultimate Bet) brand has reached an agreement with the United States Department of Justice.

In terms of the agreement, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (‘SDNY’) will provide all the necessary assurances to allow third parties to work with Absolute Poker in order to facilitate the return of funds which are currently held by third party processors to players who are located in the United States. This is a very important step towards returning US player funds.

Absolute Poker has also notified the Southern District of New York that it has closed its U.S.-facing operations and that it has agreed to the cessation of real money poker play in the United States. The agreement between them does not provide for the return of Absolute Poker’s worldwide domain names, such as www.AbsolutePoker.com www.UltimateBet.com and www.UB.com., nor has Absolute Poker requested such return.

A Monitor, approved by the US Attorney’s office, will be provided to assess the Company’s compliance with the terms of the agreement.

It has always been Absolute Poker’s top priority to refund account balances to its US players although the Company has many legal issues to face before this can be done. As a result of the agreement players funds will not become available immediately for withdrawal.

A Company spokesperson said “As previously announced, we have already taken specific actions to exit the US market by closing our US-facing operations. Blank Rome LLP will continue to engage in discussions with the SDNY in order to complete the necessary agreements for the final transfer of frozen fund balances to our US players. This remains our highest priority. We will continue to update our players and the poker community, as we move forward to resolve outstanding issues.”

PKR Poker Hosting WSOP Vegas Experience

PKR Poker, the prestigious online poker room, is offering players an opportunity each night between now and Wednesday, June 8^th to win an amazing prize and make their way to Sin City.

Online players can win their way to Vegas in order to take part in the World Series of Poker event by playing the WSOP Vegas Nights (Speed) tournaments at PKR Poker that is running every night during this period.  The casino will take 20% from each prize pool and put it towards wonderful World Series Experience prize packages.

Each and every participant in a WSOP Vegas Nights (Speed) Tournament will get a free-roll entry into a Sunday, June 12 tournament in which lucky players will be awarded with the WSOP Experience prize packages.  These fantastic prize packages will include a buy-in into a 2011 WSOP bracelet event, a particular event No. 54 $1,000 No Limit Hold’em, luxury accommodation for 6 nights, an amount of cash to cover travel and other costs, special invitations to the PKR Poker WSOP party as well as to PKR Poker’s exclusive Pool party.

For every night that players participate in the WSOP Vegas Nights (Speed) Tournament between now and June 12, PKR will increase their starting stake by 100 chips in the June 12 World Series Experience Tournament.  The more WSOP Vegas Nights that players, therefore, participate in, the more chance they will have of winning a WSOP Experience prize package on June 12.

In order to join in the fun at PKR Poker, players can claim one of two amazing instant bonuses. 

The first instant bonus of $10 is made after making their first deposit of $10 or more and players will also earn five free $500 daily premium free-roll tickets, $1K premium free-roll ticket and 1,500 PKR points.

The second instant bonus is a welcome bonus of 100% up to $800 for deposits of as little as $10.  Players can once again enjoy the tickets into the daily free-rolls as well as the 1,500 PKR points.

Dusk Till Dawn Announce Monthly Deepstack will be a Re-Entry Event

Dusk Till Dawn in Nottingham has recently proved that they are never afraid of trying something new by announcing an all-new £300 Monthly Deepstack from June, 2011.   

The revamp of the monthly £300 Deepstack will result in the guarantee being pushed up to £100,000 at a time of the year when Dusk Till Dawn usually drop the amount of the guarantee.

Dusk Till Dawn’s Signature Event is its monthly £300 Deepstack that has established itself as the very best medium buy-in event in the country.  This official European Ranking Event is usually held on the first weekend of every month and regularly attracts more than 300 players from across the country and also very often from Europe.

It has been decided to make a few changes to the Dusk Till Dawn event by giving this monthly tournament a bit of a facelift in order to maintain the appeal, prestige and interest in the event.

The £300 Deepstack Festival will take place on an extra day from June, 2011 with Day 1a taking place on the Friday, Day 1b on the Saturday and Day 2  on the Sunday.  The extra Day 1 is being made possible so as to offer players more choice and flexibility and to allow those who would previously not have been able to attend due to other commitments on the Saturday to attend on the Friday instead.

As from June, 2011, the £300 Deepstack’s new RE-ENTRY system will allow players that have been knocked out of the tournament to buy back in for the same price in order to take another shot at the prize pool.  Only players from Day 1a will, however, have the option to re-enter and this must be done into Day 1b.  Provided that they can do so before the end of late registration, on the Sunday, the Incredible 100 will have the option to re-enter.  Those who RE-ENTER stand to lose 1 small and 1 big blind per level as well as 1 round of antes if they enter in level 5 or 6.

Full Tilt Unable to Fulfill Promise to Sponsor Cardiff U.K. Poker Tournament

Following the recent action on 15^th April, by the Federal Government in the United States against US poker sites, and in particular, the indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney in Manhattan charging Raymond Bitar, founder of one of the world’s biggest online poker company, Full Tilt Poker, many people have been dealt a hard blow.

People who have invested a lot of energy in the game of poker such as content providers and television products as well as the professional players have all suffered since the action by the Federal Government on 15h April (since known as Black Friday).

Full Tilt Poker, the parent of Dublin-based Poker Kings, had originally undertaken to sponsor the prize money for a televised poker tournament in the UK but this tournament had to be cancelled after the Irish-based company failed to produce the promised prize money.

It was necessary for the TV Company covering the poker tournament in Cardiff to stop filming due to the fact that the funds did not arrive from Full Tilt Poker in Dublin.

According to press reports, the six players who were being sponsored by Full Tilt were unable to produce the $20,000 entrance fee for the tournament.

Although Presentable, the television company covering the tournament emphasized that the filming had stopped with Full Tilt’s agreement, the company blamed Full Tilt for the collapse of the tournament.  

Megan Stuart, the managing director of Presentable, said “The money hadn’t come through for some of the players, basically the Full Tilt ones. We would have been staging the tournament under false pretences had we carried on.”

Despite the fact that the American authorities shut down Full Tilt two weeks ago the government thereafter restored Full Tilt’s “.com” domain so that the company could return funds to its customers.  However, there remain significant practical and legal impediments to returning funds to Full Tilt players in the immediate future as the company has no accounting of the millions of dollars of player funds that have been seized by the government.

Mark Driver Plays His Cards Right

Mark Driver, the 21 year old Heckmondwike poker player is thrilled to be jetting of to Las Vegas after having come third in a UK poker competition.

After playing many free league poker games in pubs in the area, Mark participated in the Live Pub Poker League’s National Championship where he was joined by more than 450 other qualifiers from around the UK.  Mark’s was attempting to win the championships and be crowned in the UK and Ireland Pub Poker League Champion for 2011.

The eight leading players, who are known as the final table in poker jargon, won prizes that included trips to Las Vegas.

Mark won the trip to Las Vegas for reaching third place in the championship and was the only player from West Yorkshire to make the final table in the competition.  He is very excited about his win and looking forward to flying out to Las Vegas together with the Live Pub Poker League as a member of their exclusive team to the World Series of Poker.  Once in Las Vegas Mark will play to enter the World Series of Poker and endeavor to win up to $800,000.

Mark was quoted as saying “When I first sat down on the Friday evening and looked around the massive showroom, I really didn’t think I would be still there as part of the final table on Sunday afternoon, but as the tournament went on my confidence increased. Soon enough the dream turned into reality and my name was being announced as I walked to the table knowing I had already won my Vegas package – then I just wanted to be champion!

Mark is hoping to return to the Live Pub Poker League in order to improve his place by one or two.   Meanwhile, he will be flying to Las Vegas in June where he will spend a week at the Imperial Palace Hotel and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

PKR Off to Vegas’ Cosmopolitan for WSOP

PKR.com, the next-generation online poker room was thrilled to announce that the base for the company’s 2011 World Series of Poker Experience will be the newly opened The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas.

The hotel, which was only finished in January this year is the latest hotel to grace the Vegas skyline and is bound to be a perfect fit for the PKR gang.   It boasts three stunning pools, a salon, a spa and shopping as well as 100,000 square feet of casino floor and a sports-book.  There are no less than 12 restaurants and cafes on site offering Italian, Mexican, burgers, Chinese, the finest sushi and much more.

The Cosmopolitan has already proved to be a hit with celebrity names such as J-Lo, Kanye West, Beyonce and Cameron Diaz while the four bars and the Marquee Nightclub and Dayclub in the hotel has already played host to a few of the world’s  top DJ’s including Tiesto, Paul Van Dyk and Erick Morillo.

Anyone winning a World Series of Poker package at PKR.com can look forward to spending six nights at this magnificent Cosmopolitan.  Every PKR player will be allocated his very own Terrace Studio with a private balcony and a magnificent view of the Vegas strip.  The hotel offers the largest standard rooms in town that come complete with a living area, sofa, luxurious bathroom, flat screen TV and modern kitchen facilities.

Satellites for the World Series of Poker Experience will run each Wednesday night from now until mid June and winners get to take home free entry into Event NO. 54 at this summer’s WSOP, six nights accommodation at the Cosmopolitan, $1,000 to cover travel expenses, $500 in spending money plus a WSOP goody bag.  Winners will also have access to VIP events which include the PKR.com pool party in Vegas.

PKR’s marketing director, Simon Prodger, stated that the WSOP Experience is all about living the Las Vegas life to the full and that The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas is the perfect base for that.

Julian Thew Signs for Sky Poker

Julian Thew, the European Poker Tour (EPT) and double Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT) champion, has announced that he has signed for Sky Poker.  The deal was signed shortly before Thew won the Dusk Till Dawn (DTD) Monte Carlo for £60,000 in Nottingham last weekend.

Thew, who is based in Nottingham, said “I’m delighted and excited to be asked to join Sky Poker and really look forward to representing them at various live tournaments and playing in their many online events, including the brand new Sky Roller.  Sky Poker is a well-respected and trusted company with a great community of players who I’ll certainly be getting to know more”.

When Thew’s contract with PokerStars was not renewed earlier this year it came as a big surprise for many but before long this champion was snapped up again. 

Thew will be joining Teak Sky Poker at many events, including the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour (GUKPT), the World Series of Poker (WSOP) and the Sky Poker Tour.  He will also be playing under the alias of “yoyo” on the interactive TV poker channel and will be appearing regularly on Sky Poker Channel 865 together with analysts, including Tony “Tikay” Kendall.  Tikay reported that he has known Julian for many years and that he is genuinely thrilled that he will be joining the team.  Tikay feels that it is a wonderful opportunity for Sky Poker players to learn from and to play with one of the most talented players that the United Kingdom has ever seen.   He added that Thew is very well loved and respected in the poker community and that he will be a fantastic ambassador for Sky Poker.

It is without question that Julian Thew is one of the most successful UK poker players ever.  His two GUKPT titles and EPT win together with combined winnings are estimated to be well over £2.5 million.