Online Poker Directory

Archive for May, 2011

Last year we gave away a 2010 Aston Martin DB9 Coupe to Marek Sosnowski. Now you have your own chance to win a Porsche 911 Carrera!

Every day in June we’ll hold a prize draw – you can win prizes like Porsche 911 Carrera, holidays to the Caribbean plus hundreds of iPhones and iPads. Sign up now and start playing!

This is how it works:

• You need tickets to enter the prize draw
• You get a ticket for every point you earn (first ticket is awarded for just one raked hand)
• Every day you earn a ticket you are eligible for that day’s draw
• Every day you are eligible ALL previous tickets will also be included giving you more chance to win
• We will run a mega draw every Sunday with added prizes

There are over $ 500,000 worth of prizes:

• 60x Apple iPhone 4 16GB
• 60x Sony Bravia 46” Widescreen TV
• 150x Apple iPad 2 16GB
• 150x iPod Touch 64GB
• 210x LG 22” LCD monitor

Every Sunday we will boost the prizepool by adding some big prizes:

• 5th June – VIP Vegas trip for two
• 12th June – Caribbean Cruise for two
• 19th June – Harley Davidson Fatboy Motorcycle
• 26th June – Porsche 911 Carrera

These are very easy entry requirements and great prizes are on offer – sign up now and start playing!

Hi again, poker fans!

I’ve been very busy lately, and this explains why I could not write any new blog entry in the last two months. In my last column, I spoke about the long journey I spent in the United States west coast. I then participated in various charitable activities here and there in the Montreal area. I was about to go to Asia.

In fact, I spent a total of three days in China. Almost as much time spent in the plane as in Asia! I went to Hong Kong and Macau in order to play in the Macau Millions Championship and also to play in a cash game with the winners of a major competition organized by PokerStars. I had a wonderful stay even though I could not stay as long as I wished. I indeed had to come back very quickly to participate in a North American Poker Tour event, a tournament that was held at Mohegan Sun Casino near Boston. I was still lost in my jet lag when I had to participate in the $ 5,000 main event of the series. Unfortunately, fatigue and bad cards hurt me, and I could not finish in the money. I spent about one week there, and I then went back to Quebec for a few days.

The bags just unpacked, I had to redo them for a major trip to Europe! Indeed, after the benefits of a few days off, I left for about 3 weeks to play in a few tournaments of the European Poker Tour series. I had to go to Italy, but I first stopped by Paris to attend the very popular show of Morandini at the Direct 8 channel. It’s a huge show in France, a bit like “Tout le monde en parle” in Quebec, for those who know. Time for an interview, followed by a photo shoot for a magazine and another interview, and I was already in the plane ion my way to San Remo, Italy. I spent about ten days there playing almost every day. Unfortunately, the results were not there for me. With the great start of the year I’ve had, I expected to have a sequence without a win sooner or later. As they say, ”it’s part of the game.” I finally left for my final destination, Madrid, Spain, where I participated in the Grand Final of the European Poker Tour. I played only the two largest tournaments before returning home. Again, I could never take off in any of my two tournaments, so I did not reach the money places. It is sometimes difficult to have consistent good results in tournaments. It should be noted that only 10% of the players will finish in the money, so that 90% of players leave empty-handed at each event.

So, I was back in my hometown, Boucherville, after having spent a great trip in Europe. The sun was nice and I had eaten very well, but I was back with no score from this long trip. Time to rest? No! I immediately participated in PokerStars SCOOP, a large series of online tournaments played every day for two weeks where there is always an event with three different entry prices. The small, medium and large ones. Say that the small costs $ 20, then the average will be $ 200, and the large one $ 2000! I have played in many, picking up some results here and there, but nothing major. A series of tournaments where my high expectations were not achieved!

I finally got some days off to recharge. I had a good time with people who are important to me and did several things here and there. I took a break to think about anything but poker. It is important to keep a good mindset. In poker, one must have a clear head and a clear mind. It is important to have the rage to win, and I can tell you that these few days of rest have given me a taste of winning as never before!

Now I’m flying for a major six weeks trip to Las Vegas for nothing less than the World Series of Poker! I’ve been waiting a very long time for this moment! Several friends and I rented a huge house in Las Vegas for the duration of the trip, where we’ll spend most of the summer. I’ll play poker ten to 12 hours a day, a minimum of six days per week! I’ll try to play as many tournaments as possible in order to have as many results as possible!

Of course, the last tournament of the series, the Main Event in early July, is the most important one, and this is where I will defend my title! But the whole month of June has two tournaments a day, every day, with different variations of poker, with different entry price! More than ever, I have a mad desire to play my best poker and win another bracelet! I honestly believe that I am a much better player than I was last year at this time. I really want to give the best of myself and have several very good results! We’ll see what the summer will bring me, but my mental strength and my rage to win make me very optimistic! I am motivated and ready! The next six weeks will be all poker for me, more poker, and the WSOP Main Event! Shuffle up and deal!

Me proudly flying the PokerStars flag on my way to winning last year’s WSOP main event

Throughout the summer, you’ll be able to follow my live results. Every day, several times a day, I’ll give you reports and news of my tournaments, both on my Twitter my Facebook FanPage. Just follow me to get results in real time throughout the summer!

I now fly to the desert of Nevada. Thank you all for following me! I wish you all the best of luck at the poker table!

“Vekked” celebrates

Player “Vekked” from Canada was among 923 players who took their virtual seats at Titan Poker’s $ 200,000 Guaranteed tournament on May 22.

When asked if the tournament was difficult he said that “the first time I remember having any trouble was with around 2-3 tables left. I had a few guys re-raising me quite a bit and not letting me get away with opening many pots. The start of the final table wasn’t great either since a few of the guys who were giving me trouble were to my direct left, but I just sat tight and fortunately pretty much everyone who was giving me a tough time up until that point busted in the first 4-5 people.”

“Vekked” said that Heads-up play in the $ 200,000 Guaranteed on May 22 was “grueling” and lasted “at least 45 minutes, maybe over an hour. It was a bit stressful since it was the difference of about 20k between 1st and 2nd.”

In the end, “Vekked” outplayed his opponent “Fbrink” and took home the first prize of $ 42,000.

One of his most memorable hands of the tournament was the final one, which gave “Vekked” the victory. “The other player went all in over my re-raise when I had the rockets. Unlucky for him he only had 1 rocket and a 4, which I admit sort of looks like another rocket. I think he was pretty much drawing dead on the flop so that was a relief. I was just glad he didn’t have the crackers.”

“Vekked” has played the $ 200,000 Guaranteed before but has never previously won the tournament. “I’ve had 1 bigger score for just under 100k, but this was my biggest outright win,” he said.

“Vekked” told us that he “first started playing in high school at lunch time with my friends, but didn’t play online or take it at all seriously until 2008 when my friend (who plays as imustbontilt online) sent me $ 50 to play with online and I haven’t really looked back since.”

In addition to playing online at Titan Poker, Vekked said that he has “played a few live tournaments before. I’m fresh off final-tabling a $ 3000 buy-in in Montreal, Canada, where I unfortunately finished 10th. The biggest live tournament I played was the 2009 APPT Main Event in Sydney. I ended up finishing 14th there, just short of the final table. Both of these were great tournaments, I enjoy playing live quite a bit but there aren’t all that many good live tournaments in Canada, although more have been popping up recently.”

His advice to new poker players is that “if you’re too careful your whole life can become a grind, so start satelliting into the 200k Guaranteed every Sunday and just win all the gold.”

As for his poker goals for this year, “Vekked” told us: “I’d like to at least final table a couple more Sunday majors, winning another would be nice as well. Mostly I’m just going to play my best and keep trying to improve and hope that the results follow. It’s really tough to hope for much more in this crazy game.”

Day 2 of the Estrellas Poker Tour Alicante, a €1,000 buy-in event supported by PokerStars, finished after 10 levels of play. Some 105 players started Day 1B, 53 of whom had qualified online on PokerStars – but only 12 will come back today to the tables.

In this Estrellas Alicante, which takes place at the Mediterraneo Casino, a total of 347 players entered, building a total prize pool of €303,140. This means that the winner will take home €75,800 and 41 players will cash.

After 16 levels of play, the bubble boy was revealed, the PokerStars online qualifier from Spain, Cristobal Tomas.

The chip leader is Eduardo de las Rivas with 679,000 chips, followed by PokerStars player Alvaro Santamaria “Varosky”, in second position with 657,000 in chips.

On Day 2 we had the Team PokerStars Pros Juan Manuel Pastor and Juan Maceiras, both knocked out during the day.

For coverage today, visit our sister Spanish PokerStars Blog.

Eduardo de las Rivas

Attention all SNG players: Carbon is giving people the chance to play for $ 10,000 in monthly leaderboard cash, along with an additional $ 2k on the side.As far as the $ 10k SNG Leaderboard goes, the top 25 players on the board will all get paid at least $ 100. In regards to the extra $ 2,000, this is given out to the players with the top 5 win streaks each month.

To be eligible for the leaderboard money, all you need to do is play SNG’s at Carbon and earn leaderboard points. To calculate your points, you can go to this page, and use the calculator to figure out how many points you’ll receive for each finish. But as a quick synopsis, you’ll receive more points for higher finishes in high buy-in tournaments with more players.

For example, if you were to finish first in a 10-player, $ 5 + $ 0.50 tournament, it would be worth more points than finishing first in a 6-player, $ 1 + $ 0.10 tourney. In addition to this, you will also get extra points for going on win streaks.

As far as the money goes, here is a look at the prizes for both the $ 10k SNG Leaderboard and $ 2k streak bonus:

$ 10k Leaderboard

Win Streak Prizes

PokerStars.IT IPT Malta started today in the beautiful Portomaso Casino. It’s the first stop in the third season of the Italian Poker Tour.

One player who is taking a serious bite of out of other people’s chips is the Day 1a chip leader here at IPT Malta, Alfonso Amendola, who has got 75,000 chips, followed by the Italian Antonio Balzano with 61,300 chips.

PokerStars Qualifier Guido Pieraccini is third with 60,325 chips.

Malta

A field of 48 players from around Europe made their way here for Day 1A and 13 of those qualified online with PokerStars.

A total of 42 survived Day 1a and return to see the start of Day 2.

Day 1B will kick off later today with another bumper field, including PokerStars Team Pro Luca Pagano, Dario Minieri, Salvatore Bonavena and Pierpaolo Fabretti, and Team PokerStars Online Luca Moschitta.

If you were at a safari park would you ever go up and poke a sleeping lion on the ass and expect to get away with it? No, you would get hurt, potentially eaten in one mouthful and I want someone out there to remember this.

I am back in Lithuania dealing with serious comings and goings in this industry. Things seem to be getting better re the US situation and anything I do find out will be posted on my Twitter immediately.

Anyway, because of my business commitments it meant I couldn’t go to the WPT Barcelona. I did, however, loan my lucky dolls to the PartyPoker.com team for their online qualifier party.

For those who have no clue what I am talking about I had some very special poker player dolls made for me as lucky mascots for the Big Game in Nottingham. They worked as I won over £150k. Anyway the dolls of Hellmuth, Negreanu and me were in Barcelona but got stolen at the rooftop party last night.

There isn’t going to be ransom notes

This is no stupid publicity stunt, there isn’t going to be ransom notes as far as I know but these things were shipped in from Phoenix and I want them back. Quite frankly, I have bigger things to worry about but I can be superstitious at times.

It has just narked me. When I originally bought the Hellmuth doll I thought it would be good to give to him so he could sleep with himself. Give the dolls back so I can do this.

Who has taken them? An online qualifier or a member of staff at PartyPoker.com have to be in the frame. If I find it to be a member of staff at PartyPoker.com I will take this issue up at the highest possible level so return please.

If any other status obsessed individuals are involved in this they’ll get it too. Want to see an ash cloud, wait until I erupt! Baby I’m a firework, come and see my colours burn…

For live updates from WPT Barcelona go here and don’t forget the live stream of the final table on Sunday.

Maryland indictments

One month after the U.S. Department of Justice shut down the websites of popular poker rooms PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker, and indicted their owners and founders with charges of bank fraud and money laundering, actions that have become known in the industry as Black Friday, a federal grand jury in Maryland seized several gambling websites as part of indictments against what it deemed to be an “illegal gambling business.”

Among the sites seized was the Doylesroom poker room. Just recently, poker legend Doyle Brunson announced that he was ending his affiliation with that poker room and would only reenter the online poker business when it was fully legal in the United States.

The latest shutdowns mostly targeted sports betting sites and have been labeled Blue Monday as they were unsealed yesterday after the original indictments were returned on April 26.

“It is illegal for internet gambling enterprises to do business in Maryland, regardless of where the website operator is located,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “We cannot allow foreign website operators to flout the law simply because their headquarters are based outside the country.”

Titan Poker and the iPoker Network withdrew from the United States market following the passage in 2006 of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA), which makes it a crime for gambling businesses to knowingly accept most forms of payment in connection with the participation of another person in unlawful Internet gambling.

Doyle Brunson told gambling911.com earlier this month:

Reluctantly, I have decided to terminate my endorsement contract with Doylesroom.com. It pains me to leave at this time. I have aspirations of reentering the online poker business when the United States Government passes legislation that officially legalizes online poker sites. Doylesroom management has decided to continue to serve U.S. customers. Although they believe they have the right to market the name Doylesroom and to use my name and likeness for a period of time, I have asked them not to. Good luck -Shuffle up and deal.

Austrian player Borromias recently took down a $ 14,000 WSOP prize package.

He explained how he made it to the final WSOP Satellite saying, “I qualified through a $ 80 subqualifier. If I remember correctly, I played two or three of these.”

Once he got there, how did the final WSOP satellite go? He admits he doesn’t remember much except that he was chip-leader most of the time!

Borromias summed up the tournament modestly saying, “the tourney went down somewhat smoothly”.

Borromias is a PartyPoker.com regular and for him it’s all about securing seats at action-packed live events. He says, “I play on PartyPoker.com mostly for the WPT and WSOP satellites. I also play 6max PLO cash games and regular tournaments from time to time.”

Join Borromias and win your seat at the world’s biggest poker tournament for free! Play now at PartyPoker!

The Austrian isn’t just going to be paying Las Vegas a flying visit either. He reveals, “I am of course looking forward to my trip as I’ll stay in Vegas for about six weeks during the WSOP. I’ve been there before so I already know what to expect; six weeks of live poker with loud gambling machines in the background and ‘free’ drinks!”

Borromias is a big fan of the WSOP and all it has to offer. This isn’t the first time he’s played at the WSOP either, he competed in the WSOP 2009 main event and has played in numerous other live events in Austria.

As you can imagine Borromias is pretty pumped up about getting the chance to return to the WSOP. He says “I loved the WSOP atmosphere the last time so I am really looking forward to playing there again.”

When we asked Borromias about whether he was looking forward to meeting any famous poker players in Las Vegas, he gave a tactical answer saying “Hopefully lots of recreational players”.

If you reckon you’ve got what it takes to bring down the players at the WSOP, check out how you can win your own $ 14,000 WSOP prize package!