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Two years ago, the 2010 WSOP Main Event was down to Jonathan Duhamel, Joseph Cheong and John Racener. The latter was pretty short-stacked, making it seem like Duhamel and Cheong would battle heads-up for the title. However, Cheong basically had a meltdown and gifted Racener with a second place finish, which gave way to a fantastic Entourage cameo.

Fast forward to today, and Cheong is once again in a position to take down a Main Event title – only this time it’s in the WSOPE. He’s sitting first in chips (1.38 million) with 24 players remaining, while France’s Paul Tedeschi is a little ways back with 1.07 million chips.

Jason Mercier and Phil Hellmuth are definitely worth mentioning here too because these stars are fifth and sixth heading into the second-to-last day. The Poker Brat has been hovering around the chip lead for most of the Main Event and ended with 741,000 chips. Mercier had a strong run to close out yesterday and has accumulated 824k chips thus far. Some other big-name players who are still alive include Liv Boeree (411k), Scott Seiver (251k), David Benyamine (217k) and Andy Frankenberger (186k).

Some of the notable players who didn’t fare as well yesterday – but still cashed – include Justin Bonomo (48th, 20,150), Daniel Negreanu (43rd, 20,150), Eugene Katchalov (40th, 21,250), JC Alvarado (33rd, 21,250) and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier (25th, 22,982).

Action picks up again today with a number of prominent pros eyeing the 1,058,403 top prize. If we were choosing favorites, both Cheong and Hellmuth (1989 WSOP ME winner) would have to be near the top based on their previous Main Event experience. Of course, there are plenty of other seasoned pros still remaining, so it’ll be an interesting last couple of days in the WSOP ME.

The Partouche Poker Tour (PPT), one of the leading poker tournament tours in Europe, has been canceled after its organizers failed to honor the €5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool of its Main Event in Cannes. The PPT Main Event only attracted 580 players at a €8,500 buy-in, leaving organizers with a €700,000 overlay.

“At no time did we say that €5 million was secured when it is guaranteed in writing,” said tour head Maxime Masquelier, according to iGamingFrance.

Just last year, Sam Trickett of Titan Poker’s Team Titan, won the 2011 Partouche Poker Tour Main Event tournament and took home the first prize of €1,000,000. At the conclusion of that tournament, the PPT website announced:

“See you next year for season 5 of the Partouche Poker Tour, this time with a guaranteed prize pool of 5 million Euros!”

The Partouche Poker Tour Main Event tournament action began last week and the controversy emerged when organizers announced that the official prizepool was €4,264,580.

Participating players immediately took to Twitter to state their certainty in the €5,000,000 guaranteed prize pool. According to media reports, Partouche Group Marketing Director Jean-Jacques Ichai also mentioned the €5,000,000 in an interview.

Partouche Group CEO Patrick Partouche issued a statement that they [the Partouche Group] will bear the brunt of the shortfall and make up the difference in the prizepool.

As per Bluff Magazine, Partouche “stated that the €5 million was not a guarantee of any kind in advertisements or communications made by the Partouche Group. He also pointed towards the tournament’s success over the last five years and their ability to attract foreign players to this event. Partouche did not accept any blame in the matter and bristled at any accusations of being a thief or a cheater.”

At the same time, Partouche stated that the tour was coming to an end.

Vanessa Selbst is currently the best female poker player in the world. She is ranked in 8th place on the Global Poker Index (GPI) (after having held the 5th place spot last week). She won a WSOP bracelet this year at Event 52: $ 2,500 10-Game Mix – Six-Handed for a prize of $ 244,259 (the second bracelet of her career). And she is one of 97 players remaining in Event 61: $ 10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event.

At the conclusion of Day 5 of the Main Event, only 97 players remain from a starting field of 6,598 entries. 669 players finish in the money and many big name professionals have already been eliminated from the action including Daniel Negreanu (160th place, $ 52,718 prize); John Juanda (237th place, $ 38,453); Maria Ho (322nd place, $ 32,871); Johnny Chan (353rd place, $ 32,871); Antonio Esfandiari (501st place, $ 24,808); Huck Seed (527th place, $ 21,707); Marvin Rettenmaier (648th place, $ 19,227); and Jason Mercier (659th place, $ 19,227).

The remaining players are led by Kyle Keranen with 6,935,000 chips. Vanessa Selbst is in 59th place with a stack of 1,350,000, but anything could happen when action resumes on Day 6 and players go all out (and all-in) to win the Main Event’s $ 8,527,982 first prize.

Vanessa Selbst won her first bracelet at the 2008 World Series of Poker, when she finished in first place in Event 19 – $ 1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha for a prize of $ 227,965.

Vanessa, from Brooklyn, New York, already has four cashes in this year’s series. According to the Hendon Mob poker database, she has a career total of $ 5,375,182 in winnings. Her best year was 2010, when she took first place in the Partouche Poker Tour Main Event for a prize of €1,300,000 ($ 1,823,430).

On Day 5 play, Vanessa had a stack of 3,000,000 chips going into the final break. But as she tweeted, “Missed every flop that level. Hero called an old dude and was wrong lol. Ended up with 1,650,000 just below avg heading to day 6.”

Her total dropped a little bit more by night’s end, however, she can still turn it all around on Day 6 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Every year thousands of fans head to the mecca of poker Las Vegas for that one in a million no make that one in a billion shot of winning the greatest prize there ever is in poker land, the almighty WSOP Main Event.

Last year we saw a young German named Pius Heinz take that all too elusive title, a dam fine bracelet, $ 8.7million in winnings and his larger than life size photo forever to be hung above the hopeful players as they crowd into the poker rooms at the Rio.

Who’ll win it this year in 2012? Will we see a known name take it down? And just what of this $ 1 million tournament benefiting the One Drop Foundation. So did we whet your appetite yet?

We sure hope so, we want you there representing the finest of the finest from Party Poker and here’s how you can guarantee your seat at the Main Event – and without spending a cent!

Party On Dudes

Win one of our $ 14,000 prize packages and you’ll receive:

• $ 10,000 WSOP main event buy-in
• $ 2,000 spending money
• Hotel accommodation in Las Vegas for 10 nights

The best part is that our Party Poker comprehensive range of WSOP qualifiers has been created to give you the best chance to get to this ultimate poker extravaganza, starting with our irresistible daily freerolls. Qualifiers run from 27th February until 17th June so that means plenty of opportunities to win your $ 14,000 package. Check out our full qualifying structure page and plan your route.

Somebody’s got to be world champion – so why not you? Qualify for free now.

Back for some more perfect poker talk,  and this time we’re catching up with Bryan Piccioli aka enterthewu19 who recently cashed for $ 34k in our $ 100K High Roller Tournament.

DW: Hey Bryan thanks a lot for taking some time to speak to us.

BP: No problem Dany… I’d love to answer some questions and be on the blog.

DW: So first things first how’d you get started in poker?

BP: Well my dad always played at least once a week when I was growing up, so I was always around the game. I first started playing seriously when I was 16 years old with a few friends from high school.

DW: What’s your ‘usual’ so to speak cash, tourney, what kind of stakes do you go in for?

BP: I play only tournaments, very very rarely will I dabble in cash games.  I’ll play pretty much any stakes tourney. For online, I’ll play something as small as a $ 5 or $ 10 turbo up to whatever freezeouts are running.  For live, I’ve played probably 10 to 12 $ 10k buyins in my life, and will grind as low as like a $ 200 buyin live. I would definitely consider myself mainly an online player, but I enjoy traveling and the live grind as well. I like switching it up between the two every few months.

 

Lights, Action, Poker!

DW: Tell us about your live poker escapades, seems like you’ve done well from them right?

BP: Yes, I’ve played in a bunch of WPT/EPT/WSOP events. I have one WPT cash at Foxwoods, two EPT cashes at PCA main event and EPT grand final in Monte Carlo both in 2010, and 3 small WSOP cashes. Unfortunately no final tables in any big live events yet.

Music Non Stop

DW: Okay so outside of poker what’s Bryan do for kicks?

BP: I am big into music and sports. I am almost always listening to music while I play (both live and online).

DW: I’m guessing this is a full time gig right? You don’t have a regular 9-5 office job you’re not telling us about right?

BP: No, I don’t have a day job.  I dropped out of college after 2 1/2 years to play poker professionally. I won satellites to two EPT’s within a few days so had to take the remainder of a semester off, then I just never went back. But even before then, I was always playing semi-professionally. I’ve been playing full-time since early 2010.

DW: Pro’s name a few and what you really think about them

BP: I think most of the “TV pros” are pretty overrated and not too difficult to play against. I’ve played with my fair share of them, and I would much rather prefer having one of them at my table than an experienced online high-stakes MTT player, with a few exceptions like Ivey, Antonius, etc.

Winning Big….

DW: My favorite question of course, so you win big, I mean really big. Go on what do you do?

BP: If I won a big live event, probably the first thing I would do would be to buy a nice house somewhere. Then I would definitely get some nice gifts for my parents and my sister.

Preparation?

DW: Nice, alright then do you play this tournament  regularly? How’d you prep for it?

BP: The $ 530 high roller on Party is part of my normal Sunday schedule, I play it almost every Sunday.  I am normally playing tons of tables, especially on Sunday, and sometimes will be on up to 20 or more tables at once, so I wasn’t really focusing too much on this tournament until it reached the money bubble. Once we got ITM I was on fewer tables and able to concentrate more the deeper the tournament got, and got lucky enough to come out with a win.

DW: Taking it all in your stride I see, alright then did you celebrate a decent payday like that?

BP: I didn’t really do anything to celebrate my victory, but something pretty cool about the tournament was that I got heads-up with one of my roommates, Chris aka PAGE_UP_V on PartyPoker. I had a big chip lead 3 handed then Chris knocked out the other guy in 3rd, so after that we just chopped according to our stacks. I think I got $ 34k and he got $ 32k. Chris, myself, and 2 other guys live together down here in Cabo, Mexico, and we all put in pretty high volume at tournaments, so I’d say I’m at the same table as one of my roommates at least 2-3 times a day. We get used to playing against each other and it’s fun to try and run some crazy bluffs on someone when you are sitting at the same table just a few feet away from them.

Welp that’s it. I hope I did ok, probably not my best effort considering I just got done playing like a 10 hour session and I’m pretty burnt out at the moment.

Next up on the Live Circuit!

DW: You did just fine, I’ll let you get some well earned rest I guess. So for those at home wanting to taste the live action thrill of poker remember the WPT Vienna is the next big stop on the international tour, with online satellites currently running on PartyPoker.

And as well as that the Premier League Poker will also be heading to Vienna, with $ 13,000 trip packages up for grabs at PartyPoker for you to join the likes of Tony G, Patrik Antonius, Vanessa Selbst, and Erik Seidel in one of the world’s biggest buy-in poker tournament!

Split, split, scoop. Split, split, scoop. Sounds like a popular children’s game, doesn’t it? And in fact it does involve a group of people sitting in a circle, trying not to be “It” – if you define “It” as “the person with no seat in the circle.”

The salient difference: split, split, and scoop were the mechanics of a Stud Hi/Lo poker tournament where 1st prize was more than $ 10,000 and where one player’s wife demanded that he win the tournament. Which, being a good husband, is exactly what he did.

2012 TCOOP Event 31, $ 22 Stud Hi-Lo was on the PokerStars menu on Wednesday. It fared slightly better than its $ 22 Stud counterpart did yesterday in attracting players. 3,119 signed up for Event 31, exactly 82 more than did for Event 26. That turnout meant that once again, the top prize in a TCOOP stud event would reach five figures. Finishing in 1stt place in Event 31 was worth $ 10,606.46. I’m not mathemagician, but that seems like an exceedingly healthy ROI for a $ 22 investment.

Exactly 400 of the 3,119 players in Event 31 would receive prize money. Among the vying 3,119 were precisely 10 members of Team PokerStars, Pro and Online. Team Pro Marcin “Goral” Horecki split and scooped his way to 309th place ($ 38.67); fellow Team Pro Nuno Coelho did slightly better by eking out a 277th-place finish for $ 39.92.

And then there was Team Pro Andre Akkari. With 40 players left in the tournament, Akkari was leading the charge. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to bring it all the way home to the final table. A few quick beats ushered Akkari out the door in 17th place. He earned $ 233.92 in prize money.

Fifteen minutes after Akkari’s elimination, the final table was set:

Seat 1: rl1965 (1581431 in chips)
Seat 2: BeltBuster (758144 in chips)
Seat 3: went24 (714208 in chips)
Seat 4: I travel OZ (2608180 in chips)
Seat 5: kr.GeNa (3526566 in chips)
Seat 6: rxacht (1901476 in chips)
Seat 7: barrakko (3815363 in chips)
Seat 8: Partorg (689632 in chips)

Not “It”

The 300k/600k level was just about over as the final table began. Average chip stacks of 1.9 million ensured that the eliminations would be quick and frequent. The first occurred on the first hand.

went24 started the hand with a pair of split 9s, [qh][9d] / [9s]. I travel OZ had been dealt buried kings. The full house, kings full of fives, that I travel OZ made by the river was overkill; went24 never improved from a pair of 9s for high and didn’t make a qualifying low. went24 hit the rail in 8th place.

As Stud Hi-Lo is a split-pot game, an all-in confrontation does not necessarily result in an elimination most of the time. In fact, over the next eight hands, a few different players were all in but got a portion of the pot back by the river. That changed when rl1965 was dealt three babies, [8s][7h] / [ac]. With about one-half of a big bet in rl1965′s stack, this was an obvious “go” hand. BeltBuster also had three babies, [2c][7s] / [3s]. The race was on and was won by BeltBuster, whose hand improved to a pair of 3s for high and 8-7-6-3-2 for low. rl1965 showed high-card ace and a worse low, 8-7-6-5-A. rl1965 exited in 7th place with $ 1,185.22.

Within another eight hands, rxacht became the unenviable player in the position of “incredibly short stack who has to move with anything”. For rxacht, “anything” was three clubs, [6c][jc] / [7c]. A new competitor stepped to the fore to try to notch the knockout, as barrakko got in there with three small cards, [as][5c] / [6s]. Two pair, aces and fives, won the hand for barrakko as rxacht could only improve to a pair of jacks and no low. rxacht’s 6th-place reward was $ 1,871.40.

A blur of bust-outs

The next three bust-outs staccato. Partorg (5thh place), BeltBuster (4thh place) and I travel OZ (3rdd place) were all eliminated during the 600k / 1.2MM level – in the space of five hands. Partorg was first on the chopping block, as buried kings never improved and failed to hold against barrakko, who drew into a board of [4c][as] / [6d][4h][4d][2h] / [3s], trip 4s for high and a 6-4 for low.

BeltBuster’s 4thh-place elimination by kr.GeNa was what most players would describe as “standard”. Take a look:

RSS readers: Click through to see replayI travel OZ tried to propose a deal with three players left, but before anyone else could agree I travel OZ was eliminated. I travel OZ moved all in on 4thh street holding [9c][3s] / [2h][3h], a pair of 3s. kr.GeNa called with [6d][3c] / [qc][6c], a pair of 6s. Nothing changed for either player by the river. I travel OZ busted in 3rd place.

Split, split, scoop

At the start of heads-up play, limits were up to 600k and 1.2 million. barrakko had seven big bets (8.3 million); Kr.GeNa had six (7.2 million). The last two players paused to the tournament to work out a deal. Chip-chop numbers were very close: $ 8,895.31 for barrakko, $ 8,686.75 for Kr.GeNa, and $ 500 for the champion.

At first it seemed as if barrakko had a change of heart on the deal. “Sorry,” he said. “My wife says I have to win this tournament.”

But after another minute or two, barrakko agreed to the modified payouts. kr.GeNa also agreed. The deal was in place.

From there it was seven hands to the winner. Twice kr.GeNa was all in; twice each player got half of the pot.

Split, split.

The third time, kr.GeNa was knocked out:

RSS readers: click through to see replaySplit, split, scoop.

Congratulations to barrakko on his TCOOP victory. I hope your wife is proud!

2012 TCOOP Event 31 $ 22 Stud Hi-Lo results (reflects two-way deal):

* 1st: barrakko ($ 9,395.31)
* 2nd: kr.GeNa ($ 8,686.75)
3rd: I travel OZ ($ 5,614.20)
4th: BeltBuster ($ 4,366.60)
5th: Partorg ($ 3,119.00)
6th: rxacht ($ 1,871.40)
7th: rl1965 ($ 1,185.22)
8th: went24 ($ 591.36)

If you’ve got a spouse to impress – or you just like cold, hard cash – there’s still plenty of time to get involved in the 2012 TCOOP. Find all the TCOOP information you could possibly want at the TCOOP home page.

Time and time again while watching the final few tables of the Sunday Majors you will see familiar names pop up. Tonight’s $ 500,000 Sunday Warm-Up was no exception as the $ 215 buy-in tournament started with 3,535 runners but two of them reaching the final table already tasted the big prizes previously and were looking for even more.

Four Team PokerStars pros would find themselves breaking the 540 player bubble as Humberto Brenes 405th place $ 325.22 Martin “AABenjaminAA” Hruby 340th place $ 367.64, Jude “j.thaddeus” Ainsworth 149th place $ 707.00 all cashed this evening.

But they trailed the lovely Liv Boeree who was trying to equal her victory in this tournament back in February but instead settled for earning $ 1,272.60 in 62nd place.

 

 

Down to 11 left Vingtcent, looking for yet another Sunday majors and Sunday Warm-up final table, would find a lucky jack with [Ac][Jc] to overcome Jagz7′s big slick [As][Kd] as a jack hit the door [Jh] [2c] [8s] [9h] [Td] for a massive 8.3 million chip pot with blinds at 50K/100K ante 10K. Jagz7 luck would not change soon hitting the door himself in 11th place ($ 4,242.00).

Two minutes later with hand-for-hand in play on the opposite table, Hustlaaaaaa found a bet he could not win. With the blinds moved up to 65K/130K ante 13K Hustlaaaaaa would open shove from UTG for 1.22 million as Mammola did the same from the button for a little more. Big slick [Ad][Kh] was more kind to Mammola than Jagz7 as Hustlaaaaaa’s [As][7d] would not catch up on the [5h] [4c] [Ac] [Jd] [9d] board sending Hustlaaaaaa to the cash games in tenth place ($ 4,242.00) and starting up our final table below:

Seat 1: Taskenspillr (1142404 in chips)

Seat 2: rocgold (3009713 in chips)

Seat 3: ANIMAL5050 (1656418 in chips)

Seat 4: Clutch Hero (4558089 in chips)

Seat 5: Vingtcent (9073474 in chips)

Seat 6: Mammola (3976536 in chips)

Seat 7: dynamoM (1708768 in chips)

Seat 8: Adrian900123 (7299737 in chips)

Seat 9: vincelis (2924861 in chips)

Twice we would see all-ins with Vingcent involved during the opening level of 65K/130K ante 13K and twice both players had big slick and ended up chopping the pot as all nine would move on to the 80K/160K ante 16K level.
Animal style

With the blinds at 80K/160K ante 16K ANIMAL5050 found a spot to open shove a small stack of 1.01 million from the button, but Clutch Hero in the small blind reshoved hoping to shutout the chip leader Vingtcent. That play succeeded as Vingtcent folded and Clutch Hero had the lead holding [Ac][6s] against ANIMAL5050′s [2h][Ad]. Having the higher kicker was not enough for Clutch Hero who scored trips on the turn and a flush by the river [Kc] [6c] [5c] [6h] [8c] to tame ANIMAL5050 in ninth place ($ 5,656.00). Vingtcent is not the only player with Sunday Warm-Up final table experience as ANIMAL5050 scored $ 92K last year in this very tournament.
Best hand comes in third

Just four hands later Mammola, Taskenspillr, and Vingtcent would all shove preflop. Who wins? Check out the lovely river card below:

Vingtcent was looking healthy to deliver a double knockout with the board reading [2h] [6s] [7c] [5s] and holding pocket kings [Kd][Kh] but the powerful kings would fall as the [4s] completed a straight for Taskenspillr and a flush [Js][As] for Mammola who covered Taskenspillr and scooped the 7.7 million chip pot, ending Taskenspillr’s night in eighth place ($ 8,837.50). Despite losing the big pot, Vingtcent still retained the chip lead.
No mo’ dynamo

Three hands later with the blinds still at 80K/160K ante 16K, another short stack dynamoM with just 1.2 million open shoved and found a caller in vincelis in the cutoff. Pocket kings cost Vingtcent a sizable pot, but [Kh][Kc] for vincelis was able to out run the [Ks][Tc] of dynamoM on the [2s] [6c] [2d] [7c] [9d] board for our third elimination in under five minutes. dynamoM would find $ 15,907.50 deposited in his PokerStars bankroll for seventh place.
Not the Tim Tebow of poker

While Tim Tebow continues to amaze American Football fans with late game heroics, Clutch Hero tried to come through in poker’s version of clutch time, the final table. As blinds moved up to 100K/200K ante 20K and precious seconds tick off the clock, Clutch Hero trying to take home that $ 110,999.00 first prize with a shove from the button to 4.06 million over a min-raise from Adrian900123. But, the blinds would have a say first and Mammola in the big blind re-shoved covering Clutch Hero’s bet as Adrian900123 took a spectator’s seat. Pocket queens [Qs][Qc] for Mammola and Clutch Hero would need some late game magic with [Tc][Ah]. The flopped ace looked tepid next to the queen [5h] [Qh] [As] [4h] [Jd] as the set of ladies sent Clutch Hero to the locker room in sixth place ($ 22,977.50).

A quick attempt at a five-way chop broke out but Vingtcent with great success in the Sunday Tournaments wanted a little more than the rest of the table was willing to give despite slipping to second place behind Mammola. After table could not bump Vingtcent up to a $ 75K share of the pot, play continued with 100K/200K ante 20K blinds.
Not bluffing here, or there, or anywhere, so beware

The hand that may propel Vingtcent to victory tonight started with his raise to 525,000 and blinds at 125K/250K ante 25K. Mammola bumped it to 1.45 million as Vingtcent shoved all-in for 9.27 million in a dance between the two chip leaders. Mammola took a few moment to make the call holding [Qs][Ah] as Vingtcent showed a better kicker [Ac][Ks]. The king would play on the [2s] [8h] [2d] [9s] [7s] board knocking Mammola down to 1.3 million as the 19 million chip pot slid to Vingtcent. Watch a replay below:

Mammola would battle back to over four million chips and as the blinds moved up to 150K/300K ante 30K, Mammola would give those hard earned chips to Vingtcent again. Shoving from the hijack seat with pocket sevens [7d][7s], Vingtcent patiently waited in the big blind with pocket aces [As][Ad]. The jackpot third seven never hit the [6h] [6d] [9c] [Qh] [Kc] board and Mammola finished in fifth place ($ 30,047.50).

An attempt at a chop was quickly put in and just as quickly taken out by Vingtcent but over the next 10 hands Vingtcent’s huge lead would vanish after doubling up Adrian900123 twice and vincelis.
Got Roc’d

Blinds holding at 150K/300K ante 30K and the massive chip leader seemingly in a tailspin after three straight double-ups left Vingtcent with fewer than four million chips, he finally pulled up and doubled up with pocket nines to Adrian900123′s pocket eights. Then, after a few more hands rocgold shoved 5.5 million from the small blind holding [9d][Ac] and again Vingtcent woke up with aces [Ah][As] in the big blind. A nine on the turn was the only threat [2s] [3c] [Js] [9c] [Kh] as Vingtcent collected the 11.7 million chip pot knocking out rocgold in fourth place ($ 40,652.50).
No six figure win tonight, but three very happy players

With the chip figures smoothed out, Adrian9000123 and vincelis gave up a small portion to Vingtcent and the three way deal below was complete (leaving $ 10,000.00 for the champ).

Vingtcent $ 84,498.06

Adrian900123 $ 80,000.21

vincelis $ 77,547.23
Three becomes a crowd

After our final three started to dance the night away through two different blind levels, they did not seem like it would ever end. But, finally after Adrian900123 took a sizable 20.8 million chip pot from vincelis when both held top pair, vincelis needed a little push to get those chips back. With the blinds at 250K/500K ante 50K the push was actually a good call. Holding just [Ks][2d] vincelis would call the bullying small blind shove by Adrian900123 holding [Qs][9h] but a queen on the flop [Qd] [8d] [2s] [Jd] [8c] would ship the 15.8 million chip pot to Adrian900123 eliminating vincelis in third ($ 77,547.23).
WCOOP and Sunday Warm-up Champ?

2011 WCOOP Event #31 champ Vingtcent would need a lot of luck and some cards to overcome the 5.6 million to 29.7 million chip deficit as this was his second chance to claim another major title. Four minutes into the match despite a double up, Adrian900123 would deny Vingtcent of the title.

Vingtcent said “this is my lucky hand, I think I have to call this” while facing a call for his stack with 6.6 million chips. Holding [Qc][Tc] Vingtcent made the call facing the ace [Ah][2c] of Adrian900123. No ace, no queen, no ten, no suckouts as both players missed the [5s] [9h] [3s] [5c] [6c] board completely shipping the extra $ 10K and the Sunday Warm-Up title to Adrian900123!
$ 500,000 guarantee Sunday Warm-up results (11-27-11):

(* denotes part of three-way deal)

1. Adrian900123 (Romania) *$ 90,000.21

2. Vingtcent (Netherlands) *$ 84,498.06

3. vincelis (Lithuania) *$ 77,547.23

4. rocgold (Romania) $ 40,652.50

5. Mammola (Canada) $ 30,047.50

6. Clutch Hero (Japan) $ 22,977.50

7. dynamoM (Russia) $ 15,907.50

8. Taskenspillr (Norway) $ 8,837.50

9. ANIMAL5050 (Costa Rica) $ 5,656.00

The Alderney Gambling Control Commission (AGCC) this morning suspended the license of Full Tilt Poker and ordered the site to suspend all operations.

According to a statement issued by the AGCC, its decision was prompted by “the indictments unsealed by US Attorney General’s Office in the Southern District of New York on 15th April 2011, during which grounds were found to indicate that these licensees and their business associates were operating contrary to Alderney legislation.”

A hearing has been set for July 26. The Full Tilt Poker software is now unavailable to players.

 

In April, visitors to the websites of PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker were surprised to find these domains unavailable when United States prosecutors announced the indictment of the founders and chief executives of these online poker rooms on charges of bank fraud and money laundering. The day became known in the industry as Black Friday.

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.

Since Black Friday, American players at Poker Stars have been able to withdraw their balances but players at Full Tilt Poker have been unable to retrieve their funds. Absolute Poker, meanwhile, is reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy.

Last week, the PartyPoker blog was lucky enough to visit the brand-new Playboy Club London.

It’s a casino, bar, restaurant, nightclub, and hangout all rolled into one Playboy branded experience. Walk through the front door off a quiet Mayfair street, and you ride a glowing red elevator up to the club.

The first thing to say is that Playboy Club London is not a lapdancing club. The bunnies serve drinks and deal games, but they don’t strip. (Also, rumour has it the bunnies are banned from having relationships with members, so guys leave your ‘Game’ routines at home.)

Up in the bar you can drink beer and eat Playmate themed sandwiches. (“The Bunny Monique – smoked salmon, wasabi cream cheese on rye bead – £8”.) In the casino you can play the usual table games, with games dealt by friendly bunny dealers.

The downstairs bar – Salvatore’s – is run by mixology maestro Salvatore Calabrese. Drinks range from £16 cocktails to a £2,000 cognac. (Don’t ask for it with Coke!)

The décor is upscale and understated. Raffles (that’s the name of Playboy’s rabbit mascot) is everywhere, but the joint is subtly and luxuriously branded – it’s not like a garish schoolgirl’s pencil case. Lenticular photographs of the iconic Sixties club appear to move as you pass them.

Playboy Club London’s strict members-only policy makes it unique in the UK. Most casinos claim to be ‘members only’, when in reality anyone can join for free. Not at Playboy Club though.

A private oak-panelled poker room

Here, management maintain that when they say ‘members only’, they mean it. During the day when it’s quiet, they’ll sometimes show you around and let you stay for a while. But if you want to make the place your base, you’ll need to spring for membership.

The fees: £1,200 a year (plus £1,000 joining fee) or £15,000 for life.

When you’re a member (sorry, ‘keyholder’) you get access to the club 24 hours a day. You can bring friends too, which is probably one of the key attractions because Playboy club is a killer place to bring people to. (Who’d turn down an invitation to meet at the Playboy Club?)

The management are still debating whether to offer poker. The Playboy Club London has a single poker table in a private oak-panelled poker room, hidden away from the casino. Running regular games is out of the question, but bosses will consider spreading private games on request. But if you can put together enough players at stakes high enough to make it worth their while.

Playboy London is marketing itself as a sort of home-from-home for upscale men. Smokers can kick-back on a covered roof garden, with confortable loungers and flat-panel TVs. With exotic cigars on hand, you’ll be tempted to get into bad habits.

Playboy Club London is an anomaly – a casino that erects a paywall to keep customers out. But it’s banking on the fact that the exclusivity will be more than enough to guarantee high rollers.

 

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!