Online Poker Directory

Archive for August, 2011

For those people out there who think that Canada is a cold and wintery place; you have never been to British Columbia in the heat of summer.

I’m here visiting with my family and WOW is it hot! My parents live in an area that is full of fruit trees and orchards and even some vineyards so we’ve been spending a lot of time eating (and drinking!) very, very well.

I’ve also had the chance to play a bit of poker in the evenings, generally getting involved in the $ 33 $ 5k Guaranteed tournaments.

I get a chance to chat with people while we’re playing (which is actually very bad for my game and such a bad habit of mine) and a few of them have made some interesting suggestions for the kinds of tournaments that they’d like to see.

One particularly interesting idea was a free roll for the ‘regulars’ on Party Poker who have been playing on the site for 5+ years It’s always great to hear people’s ideas for the website and I definitely encourage people to write in to bwin.party to let them know what you’d like to see at the tables.

All I can see at MY table right now is a very large glass of locally sourced wine (yum) and a plate heaping with fruits, veggies and cheese. I’m off to fall into a food coma. Hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Oh, one last thing. I found out this week that I’ve been nominated for Poker Personality of the Year at the British Poker Awards in early September. I was really surprised and totally chuffed to be included in a very tough category but if you fancy voting for me you can do that for the next few days here.

Here’s the seat draw for Day 4 at EPT Barcelona. 24 players remain, and our coverage will begin at noon.

Chip counts are here, and the Day 3 wrap is here.

1 1 Andras Kovacs Hungary PokerStars qualifier 251,000
1 2 Marcos Fernandez Spain  PokerStars qualifier 1,699,000
1 3 Raul Mestre Spain 2,363,000
1 4 Tome Moreira Portugal 338,000
1 5 Jose Miguel Esteban Spain 1,169,000
1 6 Evgeny Zaytsev Russia 1,095,000
1 7 Martin Schleich Germany  PokerStars player 536,000
1 8 Juan Manuel Perez Spain 780,000

2 1 Javier Contreras Spain 1,156,000
2 2 Benjamin Juhasz Hungary 663,000
2 3 Marton Czuczor Hungary 860,000
2 4 Tomeu Gomila Spain 2,547,000
2 5 Rumen Nanev Bulgaria 397,000
2 6 Eugene Katchalov United States  Team PokerStars Pro 1,452,000
2 7 Dragan Kostic Spain 714,000
2 8 Matthias De Meulder Belgium  Team PokerStars Pro 1,376,000

3 1 Sigurd Andreas Eskeland Norway 802,000
3 2 Saar Wilf Israel 1,999,000
3 3 Mikel Allende Spain 826,000
3 4 Massimilano Martinez Italy 1,795,000
3 5 Xavier Carruggi France 542,000
3 6 Anthony Picault France 450,000
3 7 Isabel Clemente France 255,000
3 8 Miikka Anttonen Finland 282,000

The trophy

Summer is ending but that doesn’t mean yours has to. ChipSplit and Aced.com are proud to announce that the affiliate that refers the most first time depositors to Aced.com between September 1^st and October 15^th will receive an all-expenses paid, five-night trip for two to the Punta Cana Poker Classic in the Dominican Republic.  The trip rings up to $ 5,000 value.

This promotion comes on the heels of a huge couple of months for Aced Poker.  A successful redesign has the site looking outstanding, and the brand’s primary markets: Canada, the UK, and Europe, have all responded with major numbers and significant revenue boosts for our affiliates.  That’s why this month we wanted to reach out and thank you affiliates who have helped make the rebranding so successful, and offer a little extra incentive for any other affiliates who might want a piece of the action.

Aced.com is a world-class poker brand that runs on the best software in online poker and features an exceptional rewards program, a low-qualification Bad Beat Jackpot, and millions in guaranteed prize pools each months.  At ChipSplit we’ve created a series of high-converting banners that make bringing your players to the brand easy and convincing.  Which in turn should just make it easier to win your way to the Dominican…

Just in case you’re curious, here’s what included for the winner:

• Your $ 1,500 + $ 150 buy-in to the $ 500,000 Guaranteed Punta Cana Poker Classic
• A five night in the five star Punta Cana Hard Rock, Dominican Republic.
• Airfare for two to Punta Cana.
• Shuttle service to and from the airport
• All-inclusive premium food and beverages including 24-hour room service
• Access to exclusive poker cash games and side events
• $ 1500 in spending vouchers for hotel amenities including golf, spa, tours, and more.

If the Dominican isn’t your thing (really?) or you can’t make the dates (November 8^th-13^th, 2011), no problem, we’ll add $ 3,000 to your Aced.com player account in addition to all the earnings you’ll have already raked in from the players you’ve referred.

What are you waiting for?  All first-time depositors referred to Aced.com starting today will count towards the promotion, so start working towards your Dominican getaway now!  Complete terms and conditions are below and as always you can email us at support@chipsplit.com if you have any questions or concerns.

Happy Aced Poker, everyone!

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

As a member of ChipSplit, herein “the Promotion”, you are bound by the following Terms and Conditions:

1. The ChipSplit “Aced Poker Punta Cana Classic” promotion will commence Wednesday September 1 and conclude Friday October 15 at 23:59 (Carbon Poker Server Time), 2011.  This period will herein be referred to as the “Promotional Period”.

2. Any qualifying players referred after October 15 at 23:59 will NOT count towards an affiliate’s total number of referred players.

3. The affiliate who refers the most Qualifying Players will receive the Punta Cana Poker Classic package.  A Qualifying Player is a new player that:

• Joins and successfully completes an initial deposit during the Promotional Period.
• Has made a minimum of one deposit totaling $ 10 or more during the promotional period.

4. If the winning affiliate chooses to decline the package they will be awarded $ 3,000 into an Aced.com player account of their choosing.

5. All players must meet ChipSplit’ Terms & Conditions, and ChipSplit reserves the right to modify these rules at any time, and for any reason, at its sole discretion.

6. Any breach of the Terms and Conditions will result in instant removal from the promotion.

 August has been an exciting month for women in poker, as the Women’s Sunday has seen some record fields and prize pools, and the Women’s WCOOP promotion has awarded nearly 1,000 Steps tickets for WCOOP satellites.

September looks to be a whirlwind month of WCOOP tournaments, but August isn’t quite over yet! There are still a few days left to work on those WCOOP satellites for next month’s poker fiesta. Women who make final tables of Women’s Poker League tournaments in the last few days of August will win Step 1 tickets, and there are many of those still available.

And by working hard in next month’s WCOOP, you could be the highest ranking woman of the Series and walk away with a $ 3,500 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure prize package! Click here for more details. A Bahamas vacation in January sure does sound good already, doesn’t it?

Meanwhile, here we are with the stats on today’s Women’s Sunday:

Total players: 224

Prize pool: $ 11,200.00

Paid finishers: 36

There were two players with PokerStars logos in today’s field, meaning they both carried $ 50 bounties for any player skilled enough to knock them out of the tournament.

Team Online’s Adrienne “talonchick” Rowsome was the last to register but the first of the two to be knocked out, though she did make it to 96th place before it happened. Still standing was Friend of PokerStars Charlotte “Sjlot” Van Brabander, who was hanging tough deep into the tournament.

With four tables remaining, Sjlot moved up to the top position on the leaderboard and stayed there as the field thinned to three tables, though she took a hit when a jeanettelove doubled through her, and another to kassia1988 when moved to a new table.

Hand-for-hand action began just past the 3-hour mark of the tournament, and it was kassia1988 who moved all-in preflop with [As][Td]. Original raiser lulilla called with [Jc][Jd], and the jacks held up to the [8h][3c][4h][Kh][Kd] board. Kassia1988 exited in tenth place with $ 179.20.

Lulilla leading & looking for second title

Still in Level 17, with blinds at 1,500/3,000 and a 300 ante, the final table was set with these chip counts:

Seat 1: hirrrvi (50,086 in chips)

Seat 2: juciella (22,200 in chips)

Seat 3: lulilla (164,672 in chips)

Seat 4: SADE31 (65,420 in chips)

Seat 5: Dutchess06 (134,545 in chips)

Seat 6: spoonface (14,286 in chips)

Seat 7: Olya111 (50,735 in chips)

Seat 8: Sjlot (56,956 in chips)

Seat 9: Buska007 (113,100 in chips)

The shortest stack of the group waited a few hands before pushing all-in from early position with [Ac][7s]. Dutchess06 called from the big blind with [As][Ah], and the board only brought [Ks][Qd][8s][9s][8c] to make that into two pair. Spoonface left in ninth place with $ 212.80.

Sjlot had become the newest short stack at the table and pushed all-in from early position with [3c][3d]. Olya111 called from the big blind with [Ad][Qd]. It looked like the pocket pair might hold up with a [6h][Jc][4h] flop, but the [Tc] turn and [Ks] river gave Olya111 the straight to win the pot and the $ 50 bounty. Friend of PokerStars Charlotte “Sjlot” Van Brabander was out in eighth place with $ 280.00.

Juciella doubled through Buska007, and a bit later, Buska007 doubled through lulilla to take over the chip lead.

Lulilla struggled from there and soon got involved with Olya111. The two went to see a flop of [Ah][4d][6s], and a bet from Olya111 led to a check-raise from lulilla. Olya111 called, and the [8h] came on the turn. Lulilla bet all-in for her last 47,071 chips with [Ac][Ts] for top pair, but Olya111 quickly called with [6h][6c] for the set of sixes. The [4s] on the river gave Olya111 the full house, and former Women’s Sunday champion lulilla was eliminated in seventh place with $ 392.00.

Dutchess06 dominates

Hirrrvi doubled through Dutchess06, though the latter maintained the chip lead at the table.

Juciella was the next player to move all-in, doing it from the big blind with [8h][8s]. Olya111 called with [9h][9s], and the better pair held up to the [4s][7h][5s][5h][Kh] from the dealer. Juciella left in sixth place with $ 504.00.

Hirrrvi then got into a hand with SADE31 and Buska007. The flop of [Kc][Td][Ah] brought a bet from hirrrvi, call from SADE31, and fold from Buska007. The [Ks] on the turn prompted hirrrvi to move all-in, and SADE31 called all-in for her last 36,840 chips with [Th][Tc]. That full house looked good but couldn’t beat the [Ac][As] and better full house of hirrrvi. The [5c] came on the river to send SADE31 out in fifth place with $ 649.60.

Buska007 finally took a chance with [Ks][9d] for the rest of her chips, and Dutchess06 called with [8c][7c]. The board came [5s][2d][7d][5h][3s], and Buska007 was busted in fourth place with $ 952.00.

Three-handed play went on for some time, but it was finally Olya111 who moved all-in with [Qh][7h] against the [Ah][Tc] of hirrrvi. The board brought [Jd][8c][Ts][2s][Kh] and gave hirrrvi the pair of tens, solidifying her win. Olya111 finished in third place with $ 1,265.60.

Hirrrvi begins heads-up with lead

The two headed into battle with these chip counts:

Seat 1: hirrrvi (400,373 in chips)

Seat 5: Dutchess06 (271,627 in chips)

But Dutchess06 found her moment and went for it, doubling up with this hand:

RSS readers click through to see replay

On the very next hand, hirrrvi takes the all-in risk with [Kc][Js], and Dutchess06 is along for the ride with [Ah][7d]. The board came [As][4h][5s][5c][Qd], and hirrrvi of Finland is eliminated in second place with $ 1,680.00.

Dutchess06 of the Netherlands won the Sunday Million and $ 2,290.40 in cash. Congratulations!

Women’s Sunday Results for 08/28/11:

1st place: Dutchess06 ($ 2,290.40)

2nd place: hirrrvi ($ 1,680.00)

3rd place: Olya111 ($ 1,265.60)

4th place: Buska007 ($ 952.00)

5th place: SADE31 ($ 649.60)

6th place: juciella ($ 504.00)

7th place: lulilla ($ 392.00)

8th place: Friend of PokerStars Charlotte “Sjlot” Van Brabander ($ 280.00)

9th place: spoonface ($ 212.80)

There are many ways to get in on the Women’s Sunday action. Take a look at the home page for information on daily satellites. And join us on Facebook for news and monthly freerolls, and Twitter for the latest information. See you next week!

Many American poker players lost their livelihood on Black Friday, when the U.S. government shut down the major online poker rooms and indicted their founders and senior management. Hope of resuming their online gaming swiftly faded for these players as legislation has been indefinitely delayed and Full Tilt Poker has been shut down altogether.

With the World Series of Poker now behind them, many avid online poker players have begun leaving the United States to relocate to countries where online poker is legal.

PocketFives, a community of online poker forums and rankings, has just launched Poker Refugees, a service to help displaced poker players take refuge in countries like Costa Rica, Panama, and Canada.

 

According to its website, Poker Refugees offers “a variety of services, including one-on-one interviews with clients, guidance on how to play on sites, high-speed Internet with a backup connection, detailed requirements and tips for setting up a local bank account” and more. The service assists players in finding homes and cars as well.

The person behind Poker Refugees is Kristin Wilson, who has been involved in the online poker industry for the past ten years. From her home in Costa Rica, Kristin has “helped hundreds of people relocate, retire, and start businesses in Central America.”

The services offered by Poker Refugees are not free, and American players should also be aware of legal requirements in their new homes. For example, U.S. citizens can stay in Costa Rica for up to 90 days on a tourist visa and then must renew their visa every three months by leaving the country for 72 hours.

Explaining the reasoning for setting up the Poker Refugees service in an interview with the ESPN Poker Blog, PokerFives co-founder Cal Spears said, “We figured there would be a lot of guys waiting around and wondering, ‘What do I do now? I’m a professional poker player, do I want to start on the circuit or do I want to go somewhere to establish myself and play online again?’”

2.10am: Alexandru Mitrus eliminated in 13th place (€2,550)

Shortstacked with just 37,000 pocket kings was a pretty nice hand for Alexandru Mistrus to find under-the-gun, in when his chips and Pavao Vujnovac called from the big blind with [Ad][9s]. All was looking good for Mistrus until an ace spiked on the river.

Just a dozen left here in Zagreb.

2.05am: Last six hands

The tournament clock has been paused and players will play six more hands before bagging up for the night.

1.55am: Chip counts

I’ve just updated the chip counts page, to see counts of the 13 remaining players click here.

Vasileios Chantzaras still leads the way with around 1,300,000, Richard Bodis and Carsten Luxig with 400,000 a-piece his nearest challengers.

1.40am: Adrian Negrusa eliminated in 14th place (€2,550)

In another all-in pre-flop encounter Adrian Negrusa got his last 130,000 in with [A][9] but ran into Carsten Luxig’s [A][Q], after that hand the German climbs to 310,000.
Carsten Luxig has over 300,000
1.30am: Martin Svub eliminated in 15th place (€2,550)

The Martin Svub revival has hit the rocks and of course it was one man wrecking machine Vasileios Chantzaras. A flurry of betting ended with Chantzaras five-bet shoving [A][K] and Svub calling with [A][Q] and big-slick held up to propel Chantzaras to around 1,400,000, more than a third of the chips in play.

1.20am: One more level

The powers have be have decided that they’ll be one more level tonight. Stay right here as we try and play down to the final table. Instinct tells me we’ll end with 11 or 12 players.

LEVEL UP: BLINDS 4,000-8,000 ante 1,000

 

1.15am: Exposed hand ruled dead

Tournament director Thomas Lamatsch just had to make a ruling. After Richard Bodis had opened to 16,000, Alexandru Mitrus three-bet to 43,000 and with the action back of Bodis he said something along the lines of: “Nice bet,” Mitrus now thought that this meant that Bodis had mucked and turned over pocket queens.

Lamatsch was called to the table and ruled that the pot would be awarded to Bodis but that Mitrus could take back his raise and send just 16,000 in the the direction of Bodis.

1.05am: Marko Mikovic eliminated in 16th place (€2,200)

No details I’m afraid but the board is showing that 15 remain and he was the last elimination according to tournament staff. He was one of the shorter stacks with 80,000 so his exit is not unexpected.

12.55am: Roman Kadziela eliminated in 17th place (€2,200)

From mid-position Roman Kadziela moved all-in for 62,500 with pocket sixes and got a call from Alexandru Mitrus who held pocket kings. No help on the board and we’re down to 16.

12.40am: Another Greek tragedy

It seems Vasileios Chantzaras is hell bent on knocking every other Greek out of this tournament as he just sent Ioannis Triantafyllakis to the rail and in the process climbed over the million chip mark. He now has more than a quarter of the chips in play with 17 players left.

In the hand in question Triantafyllakis opened the button to 14,000, Chantzaras three-bet to 34,000 from the big blind, Triantafyllakis moved all-in fro 300,000 with king-queen and Chantzaras snap called with pocket queens, which held.

12.35am: Svub on the up

Martin Svub finished 12th at Eureka Prague and he’s making another deep run here in Croatia. He’s been grinding a short stack most of the day but finds himself in possession of an above average stack at the moment as he has 290,000.
Svub – has more than a stub
12.25am: Marko Mikovic doubles up

He’d slipped to just 40,000, found pocket fours and moved all-in, he got a willing customer in the shape of Adrian Negrusa who held [Ah][Js].

The flop of [5h][8c][Ac] wasn’t the best for Mikovic and but the [2d] turn and [3d] river certainly were and he rivered the straight to stay in the tournament, Negrusa slips to around 140,000.

12.15am: Down to two tables

Since the break overnight chip leader Dominik Mokni has been eliminated in 20th place and Peter Christ in 19th. The latter told me: “I moved all-in with king-queen and my opponent had kings.” Still that’s not a bad effort for your first major poker tournament.

There’s been a short break whilst they combine the remaining players at two tables.

12.10am: Chip counts

If you click here you’ll see the chip counts of every player who remains. And it’s all Greek at the moment Vasileios Chantzaras leads with 723,500 and he’s followed by compatriot Ioannis Triantafyllakis who has 428,000. Their closest challenger is Richard Bodis of Hungary who has 274,900.

12.01am: 20 left in Zagreb

We’re down to 20 players in Zagreb as Day 2 draws to a close. At this juncture I’m not sure if players will play one or two more levels, I think it depends on how many are left at the end of this level.

Either way players are back in their seats and cards are in the air, chip counts coming right up.
A stack of the yellow 5,000 chips

Whether you work in the poker industry, or are just a fan of the game, then I am sure the World Series of Poker (WSOP) has the same mesmeric pull as the FIFA World Cup does for anyone who likes to kick a ball about.

Since the early seventies poker players have flocked en masse to Sin City to match their luck, skill and judgment with the very best in the world.

This year, as the poker world prepared for its annual jaunt, I was offered a unique opportunity to spend the entire series living in Las Vegas.

The only burning question was whether or not I would spend that time as a player, lover of the game or as a journalist? In the end, because I couldn’t make my mind up, I decided to try and do the lot.

My home for six weeks was a $ 3 million mansion in a place called Shenley Court, roughly 20-minutes taxi ride from the glitz and glamour of The Strip. I was sharing the house with some of the UK’s hottest young poker talent.

John Eames and Stuart Rutter were chasing gold bracelets, Mathew Frankland and Dan Carter were playing a mixture of cash games and tournaments and David Dial, David Nicholson, Jamie Sykes and Richard Finney were there to play in the cash games. Thomas Harris was the man holding us all together as chief organiser of the household.

Leading up to the series the poker world was expecting a post Black Friday depression, but that fatalist approach proved to be a false dawn. Incredibly, the 2011 WSOP broke all sorts of previous records. A record 75,672 people entered 58 events thus creating the largest ever prize pool for a WSOP: $ 191,999,010.

The 2011 event boasted the most million-dollar tournaments ever, the largest ever seniors event, the largest ever single day attendance for the 3,752 players who entered event #30 ($ 1k buy-in) and Phil Hellmuth extended his record as the individual all time leader in cashes (84) and final table appearances (43).

Outside of the Rio Casino and Hotel, the dealers and card room managers were witnessing an unprecedented attendance at the cash games tables and specially arranged Deepstack tournament festivals.

So whether you were a professional or amateur poker player there was plenty for you get your teeth stuck into. But what was I going to chew on: cash games or tournaments? The advice from the household was to play in the tournaments and that is where I started.

I played in two separate $ 215 buy-in tournaments at Caesars Palace and finished nowhere in either. I then realised that if I kept entering these tournaments at a rate of one or two per day I would be skint before the end of the first week. So I had a change of plan and decided to hit the cash game tables instead. Tournaments are always going to require a much bigger bankroll, just ask Rutter and Eames, who must have spent over $ 100,000 on tournament buy-ins between them.

So Eames and Rutter would prepare themselves for the tournaments (and for life exclusively contained within the Rio) and the rest of us would hit the cash game tables. When you travel to Vegas to play in the cash games there are a myriad of people lining up to give you advice on how to create a profitable trip. The two main pieces of advice that kept being crammed into my cranium were casino selection and table selection.

For example, I was told that the Rio would be the best place for cash games because it would be full of tilt enraged players who had just busted out of a WSOP side event. But the Rio was so cold I once saw a Penguin wearing a slanket and the food was being refused by the homeless.

Even during the times I did brave the cold and the food poisoning I found all of my $ 1/3 tables to be full of nitty regulars, who all seemed to have been given the same dud advice. It wasn’t just at my level that people were struggling to find the proverbial fish out of water.

Mathew Frankland who was playing $ 5/10 and $ 10/20 even decided to leave after three weeks, because in his professional opinion, the games were just not profitable enough. In six weeks I lost $ 1,000 playing $ 1/3 cash games and all the other cash game players in the house ended up in the red.

The tournament front was equally as frustrating as neither Eames nor Rutter ended in profit, despite a few cashes. For both of them it was a bitterly disappointing series and only a gold bracelet would have made it otherwise. Dan Carter played in two WSOP events and min-cashed in one of them, Finney played in two and cashed in neither.

Sykes played in just the main event and didn’t make it past day one and I played a grand total of three hands in my WSOP side event for a grand total of $ 333 per hand! In fact the only player to come out of the series in profit was that man Frankland. He flew home, won a shed-load of dough playing online and then returned to play in the main event where he cashed for $ 54,851 finishing in a very respectable 121st place.

So is the WSOP a great place to earn some money if you are an amateur or professional poker player? I suppose I am still far too inexperienced to answer that question. I am just glad it isn’t like the FIFA World Cup or else I would have to wait another three-years and that is simply out of the question.

1.10am:Moneymaker makes big laydown

I joined the action to see a bet of 15,000 in front of Chris Moneymaker and an all-in bet of around 79,000 in front of big blind Ante Cetinic. This suggested the action had probably gone open, three-bet, four-bet, shove.

Either way action was on Moneymaker and after getting the bets of 15,000 pulled in he tanked hard saying: “I think I’m getting the right price,” before eventually folding his hand. As he took the pot Cetnic showed [Ac][Kd].

1.03am: Last five hands

With 15 minutes left in the level the clock has been paused and players will play five moe hands before bagging and tagging.

1am: 42

Not only is it the secret of life, the universe, and everything but there’s 42 players left here in Zagreb. One of those free to hitchhike round Croatia is Michael Leedham who is a recent bust out.

0.50am: Moneymaker slipping

Chris Moneymaker seems to have slipped a little to around 75,000 with his chips seemingly going to his left hand neighbour.

Despite there only being 20 minutes left in the day there hasn’t really been any big pots of note of even many all-ins. For instance in a recent hand i saw after a button raise and a small blind flat call, the big blind squeezed to 6,400 and despite all three being deep stacked both the other players gave it up with little fuss and no resistance.
0.35am: Chip leaders

There’s no runaway chip leader at the moment. The average stack is around 36,250 and according to my eyes there are a number of players between 86,000 and 70,000. It seems that Team PokerStars Pro and WSOP 2003 main event champion Chris Moneymaker may well has snuck into the chip lead he has 86,000, Calin Ciolte has 79,000, Pontos Pantelis has 69,000 and Martin Svub has 67,000.

0.25am: Change of plan, eight down one to go

Word has just reached me (and presumably the players too) that level nine will be the last of the night, not level ten as was originally intended. Also due to a colour up of the 25 chips there was no time for chip counts to be done during the break.

So i’m off to get an eye on who the big stacks are, although with no visible ID cards it might prove a mite tricky.

I’ve also spotted Romanian pro Alain Medesan watching the action, he’ll be playing tomorrow no doubt.

0.15am: Eight down two to go

The remaining players are back in their seats for the last two levels of the night. The last two levels should be fun, players get tired, players go for broke or go home and the big stacks try to take advantage of this and get even bigger. Stay right here.
What tour is it?

On Friday, August 12, playing under his Titan Poker nickname “oleg12345”, Aleh Plauski from Belarus defeated 301 other starters to take down the Friday $ 60,000 Guaranteed for a first prize of $ 16,822. The next night, Aleh proved his tournament skills once again when he finished sixth in the $ 35,000 Guaranteed for a prize of $ 9,776.

“The deeper I am in tournament, the more aggressive I play,” Aleh says of his poker strategy.

Aleh has won a total of $ 1,806,295.46 in his online poker career and until recently he played at Full Tilt Poker. He is currently ranked in 6^th place on CardPlayer Magazine’s 2011 Online Player of the Year Leaderboard.

 

“I have been playing poker for 7 years,” Aleh told us. “I started with freerolls and a no deposit bonus.”

We asked Aleh if he recalled any memorable hands from the Friday night tournament.

“I called the flop and the turn and was going to call a river bet with ace high when I was heads-up with the winning hand.”

In the final hand of the tournament, Aleh was holding pocket sixes to his opponent’s pocket fives. The fold came 7 8 6, giving Aleh a set, but also giving his opponent an open-ended straight draw and hopes of staying alive in the tournament. The turn brought a second eight, and the river delivered a king, sealing Aleh’s victory.

We asked Aleh what he plans to do with his prize money. “Invest in other tournaments,” was his reply.

Do you have any advice to other players?

“Believe your instincts. Be patient, disciplined and keep going.”

 

I flew into Canada a few days ago and am staying with my sister’s family somewhere tucked away in the mountains. It’s absolutely gorgeous here and I’m feeling very spoiled by her cooking.

I flew into Calgary airport quite late and didn’t want to hit the road tired, so I decided to stay over in the airport hotel and take off the next morning.

It was around 11pm when I finally checked in and threw my bags in the hotel room before heading off in search of food.

The only place still open was the hotel sports bar. It was a nice, quiet little place and the staff were super friendly and attentive.

After a few minutes, half of the TV screens switched over to TSN (which is like ESPN in Canada).

This year’s WSOP Main Event coverage was on (what are the chances) and the bartender came over to say hi and ask me a few questions about poker. I was kind of shocked that they knew who I was but Canada LOVES poker!

They treated me like gold all evening and brought me a seriously tasty burger to kill my hunger. It was kind of a surreal moment for me to be sitting in a hotel bar and see my face on the TV screen.

Being back with my family is incredibly relaxing and it’s been good to take time to reflect on how much my life has changed in the past few years. What a ride it’s been!

Keep an eye open for me at the tables on PartyPoker as I’ll be sneaking away when I can to play a bit of poker. Hope to see you there!