Category: Poker

Online Poker Pro Randy “nanonoko” Lew Wins APPT Macau Main Event

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asia pacific poker tourRandy “nanonoko” Lew is one of the most profitable, and well-known online poker players in the game today.  Lew started out his online poker career like many other did, simply dabbling in cash games and figuring out the “how to” of online poker.  Lew now consistently achieves the Supernova Elite status on the massive online poker site PokerStars, and is also a member of the Team PokerStars Poker pros.  Lew was stuck in a tough spot after Black Friday though, as he could no longer play the game that was actually his full time job, and he ended up moving to Canada in order to continue playing.

This past week though, Lew decided to dabble a bit more in the live tournament circuit, and found himself at the Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) Macau’s Main Event.  The event drew in some big names from the poker world, including one of the biggest in Phil Ivey, who was sent home during Day 2 of the action.  While Lew has played over 5 million online poker hands since August of 2008, he was not nearly as used to playing on the live tournament circuit, so it was a different feel you could assume.

Fortunately, Lew knows the game of poker incredibly well, and he found himself heading into the final table of the event.  Lew was nearly sent home in 9th though, as he was all in with his Queens and was able to hit the third queen to give him a nice double up and send him to the final table against the pocket Aces of David Steicke.  He had his work cut out for him though, as he started the final table with the fewest chips out of any of the players at the table, and had some building to do in order to become a serious contender.

He did what he does best at the final table though, and found himself grinding it out and building up his stack over time.  When all was said and done it was him against Jimmy Pan for the heads up match, and he had a slight advantage to start the action.  A few hands later, Lew found himself at risk with pocket sixes, and was against two over cards in the A-9 that Pan was holding.  Lew hit a six to give himself a set, and grabbed the chip lead back.  He went on to hold off his opponent from any type of comeback, and took down the grand prize of $484,617.  Pan got a nice prize for his efforts as well, and he went home with $304,106.

Ivey Sent Home on Day 2 of APPT Macau; Seet Gets Hot

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We recently ran a story about the living legend of poker Phil Ivey finally getting back to the live poker tournament circuit at the APPT Macau event, and he ended the day with just over 51k in chips. Day 2 has come and gone, but unfortunately Ivey was not able to make it through to Day 3.  It wasn’t fully due to rust, as Ivey was said to still be looking at the top of his game, but he just wasn’t able to hit his cards at the right time it seemed. To start off Day 2, Ivey got his chip stack a little bit higher than the 51k, but was never able to take it to the next level and put himself in contention.

Ivey wasn’t able to pick much up and found himself running low on big blinds, and he three-bet himself all-in with the King of clubs and the 9 of hearts, but was called by the Ace of diamonds and Jack of clubs. Ivey quietly made his way from the tournament, and we are hoping that we’ll get to see the man who has won over $14 million in live poker tournament earnings sooner than later.

While Ivey’s run didn’t last, one player that stuck out at the end of the day was Nataniel Seet, who is a player from Singapore. Seet had a nice chip lead at the end of the day, and held 774,500, which was an impressive five times the size of the average stack at the event. Seet is mainly a cash game player, but also has pulled in some good results in his poker career to this point; which includes a win at an event in Manila in 2008, which featured a very large buy-in.

It looks like the remaining field will have some work to do, and that includes the player who is sitting in second right now, Danny Park. Park is a pro from Korea, and has pulled in a strong stack of 478,100. One other player that may stand out to poker fans and players out there is David Steicke, who is a high stakes player from Hong Kong, and finds himself in the top five at the end of the day.

While the most well-known player Ivey was sent home, you’ll find one player who is almost as well-known as Ivey remaining in the field. Johnny Chan is a ten time bracelet winner, and he is holding a solid stack of 244,400 chips. Chan is definitely a player to keep your eye on, and if he gets on a run the rest of the field could be in some trouble.

Site Claims To Have Stake in WSOP Main Event Champion Pius Heinz

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With the 2011 World Series of Poker now in the books, many people assumed that there wouldn’t be much on the news front until next year.  That would be incorrect though, as an interesting bit of news has come out about the new World Series of Poker Main Event champion, Pius Heinz.  Heinz beat out the field of over 6,800 players, and won an exciting heads up match against Martin Staszko to win the gold bracelet, and also won $8.7 million for his efforts.

The news that came after the winning effort from Heinz, was that he was staked into the event.  Being staked is something that commonly happens in the World Series of Poker, and the idea behind it is that people will sell a percentage of their entry into the tournament, and in return will give back a percentage of their winnings.  Heinz apparently went onto an online poker site and was looking for someone to buy a part of his action into a $1,500 event, and after he made it to the final table of the event; he went back for a stake of the $10,000 Main Event.  The site decided to buy a “large part” of his action, as one of the members of the site said.

Essentially what this would mean, is that whatever percentage that they bought of Heinzs’ action, he would now pay that percentage back to the site for buying him into the event (which most likely is a pretty pay day).  The site has also staked three other World Series of Poker bracelet winners this year as well, so all in all, they had a nice year in terms of staking.  The official numbers that were reported are 170 different players staked, and 2,915 total events that players were staked for.  Overall, it made up $1 million at least of staking, which they most likely made back pretty easily from their four total bracelet winners, but mainly Heinz!

Staking is just one of the many ways that players can get into World Series of Poker Events, and avoid having to pay the whole buy-in.  The 2012 World Series is only a few months away, so start preparing for the action!

Jason Mercier Still Rides Atop ESPN Poker Rankings

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Each month, the massive sports site ESPN, releases their poker rankings, and it is called “The Nuts”.  The list contains ten total players, and is more than just an overall ranking of best players in the world, but actually the ten players who are playing the best right NOW.  This combines poker tournaments, online games, cash games, and any live games as well.  Basically, it takes anything poker related into account when deciding what ten players should be on this list.  While everything is tracked, the ratings push a bit towards live poker action, but honestly it really takes everything you could imagine into consideration.

You can always expect a few well-known names in the poker rankings, but there are also some players who may not be as well-known out there.  For this month’s rankings, there were quite a few big tournaments to include in the action.  The European Poker Tour featured two events, the World Series of Poker Europe was in the month of October, and there was also the World Series of Poker Circuit events to include.

The group of people who decide on these rankings includes ten total members, and they are the likes of Andrew Feldman, Bernard Lee, and Andrew Feldman, who are all ESPN poker contributors.  It also features the popular magazine’s (“Bluff”) editor-in-chief Lance Bradley and editor Jessica Welman, Nahuel Ponce, who is the editor for the poker section of ESPNdeportes.com, and a few other popular poker writers and editors for sites.

Now on to the rankings, the story here is that well known players Jason Mercier and Erik Seidel remained in the top two spots for these rankings.  The number three and four players were the same as well, with Eugene Katchalov and Ben Lamb falling in those spots.  Mercier pulled in three cashes at the WSOPE, and Seidel pulled in two cashes.

Now comes the surprises.  Shawn Buchanan jumped to the fifth spot, and was unranked before.  His jump came from his four cashes at the World Series of Poker Europe, as well as a second place finish.  He’s playing at the top of his game right now, and could be a name to look out for in the future.  The other movements in the top ten featured Jake Cody jumping from number ten to number seven, Phil Hellmuth falling from fifth place to eighth place, and two players being added in the 9th and 10th spots.  These two players added were Chris Moorman, who finished 2nd at the WSOPE Main Event, and Sam Trickett, who had a final table to add to his stats from the WSOPE and the EPT London as well.

The players who fell out of the top ten this week were three well-known players in John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu, and Vanessa Selbst.

Pius Heinz is the 2011 WSOP Main Event Champion

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WSOPIt took quite a while for the field of 6,865 players to be eliminated down to one, but when all was said and done, it ended up being one of the most exciting events in history.  The November Nine kicked off on Sunday, and before the action started back on Tuesday, we were left with only three players who were playing to win the biggest tournament out there.  The three players who were left featured the 2011 Player of the Year Ben Lamb, Pius Heinz from Germany, and Martin Staszko from the Czech Republic.  When the action started, Heinz was the massive chip leader with 107.8 million chips, and had more than both of his opponents combined; as Lamb had 55.4 million, and Staszko had 42.7 million.

The action was exciting from the word go, as Staszko was all in against Lamb on the very first hand; which resulted in Staszko’s pocket sevens holding up against the K-J of Lamb.  This left Lamb nearly crippled with only 10 big blinds left, and he would push the rest in only three hands later.  He shoved Q-6 all in, and was snap called by the pocket Jack’s of Staszko.  That was that for our three handed play, and the heads up match would be between Staszko and Heinz.

Staszko was the chip leader entering play, but they two went back and forth more than one could possibly imagine.  The play went on for hours, and then came hand number 115 which started with Staszko as a 124.75 million to 81.15 million chip lead.  The two went back and forth with a few raises, before Heinz finally pushed all in with a flop of Tc-7c-Ks showing.  Staszko debated it for a minute or two, and finally made the call, turning over Qc-9c for a flush draw and straight draw as well.  Heinz turned over Ah-Qh, and to his surprise was actually the favorite to win the hand, as a Jack would give him a better straight than Staszko.  Heinz was able to dodge Staszko’s outs, and went on to take a huge 162.3 million to 43.6 million chip lead.

It was all over just eight hands later, as Staszko pushed his last 39.8 million in the middle, and was called by Heinz, who flipped over A-K off suit.  Staszko had only 10c-7c, and was behind his opponent.  The board helped neither, which gave Heinz the win with Ace high.

Heinz took home the gold bracelet, and the incredible $8.7 million grand prize, and will now be among the most well-known names in poker for years to come.  For his efforts, Staszko got an excellent consolation prize of $5.7 million.

2003 WSOP Main Event Final Table Deck of Cards Were Up for Sale

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WSOPMany people would say that back in 2003 when Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event, that it was the start of the surge in popularity that we have all seen today.  Moneymaker is an incredibly well-known player in the poker world, and one who is still talked about today after he won the Main Event; a tournament that he qualified for by winning a $40 satellite online.  If you were a fan of that Main Event and the final table, you’ll find this news a bit interesting.  The deck of cards that was used during the big win for Moneymaker were up on eBay for sale, but interestingly, no one bit on the auction.

The starting prize on the auction was a $7,500 bid, and the deal included all 52 cards (of course), and a Certificate of Authenticity as well.  This certificate is signed by both Moneymaker, and the tournament director Matt Savage.  There is also an additional small bonus, in terms of a tape of the broadcast from ESPN, which features the match-up between Moneymaker and his opponent Sam Farha.  As excellent as this would have been for a fan of Moneymaker, or a fan of poker in general; no one went after the huge starting asking price, and the auction ended on Monday with 0 bids.

It was not Moneymaker who placed these cards up for bid, and it was apparently a former employee of the casino.  The employee was said to have received permission to take the deck after the tournament was over.

The final hand of action ended with Farha holding the Jack of hearts, and the 10 of diamonds, and was up against a five of diamonds and a four of spades of Moneymaker.  The flop came down with the Jack of spades, five of spades, and four of clubs.  The two got it all in at that point, and Moneymaker was ahead with his two pair against the pair of Jacks that Farha was holding.  Moneymaker’s hand held, and he won the gold bracelet, as well as the $2.5 million grand prize.

While this piece of poker history didn’t sell, it could potentially down the road with a lower asking price potentially.  One well-known player who sold a piece of poker history, was when Peter Eastgate sold his Main Event gold bracelet back in 2008, and donated the $147k that it sold for to charity.

Greenstein and Johnson Inducted Into Poker Hall of Fame

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The Poker Hall of Fame is something that every poker player dreams of, but very few are able to accomplish.  The likes of Phil Hellmuth, Dan Harrington, Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Erik Seidel, and a few select other players have made it into the Hall.  In total, there are 40 players in the Hall of Fame, and now 42 with the addition of the two newest Hall of Famers.

When it comes to deciding how people make it into the Hall of Fame, there are more factors than just how much money they have won.  For example, Benny Binion is the founder of the WSOP, and Henry Orenstein holds the patent for being the creator of the hole card cam.  On the other side it though, players like Phil Hellmuth have won an incredible amount of WSOP gold bracelets, and an incredibly impressive amount of money.

As far as the two players who made the cut this year, it was the always popular Barry Greenstein, and the well-known Linda Johnson.  Greenstein has posted some incredible stats with his multi-million dollars in winnings, excellent high stake cash game results, and his charitable donations from tournament poker winnings.  Greenstein has earned the nickname “The Robinhood of Poker”, and has won at least six figures during the live poker tournament circuit over the past nine consecutive years.  Johnson on the other hand is now the second woman to be a part of the Poker Hall of Fame, and has played a huge role in poker over the years.  She has won a gold bracelet back in 1997, and is also a publisher of the popular Card Player Magazine.  She served on the Board of Directors for the massive World Poker Tour, and was also the founder of the Tournament Director’s Association.

As you can tell, both of these players have more than enough accomplishments to be considered popular names and faces in the poker world.  The ceremony for these two will be held during the final table of the World Series of Poker’s Main Event on November 8th in Las Vegas.  The two beat out some big names in poker like Huck Seed, Jen Harman, John Juanda, Scotty Nguyen, Annie Duke, Marcel Luske, Tom McEvoy, and Jack McClelland.

Was the ISPT Created to Compete With the EPL?

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The Epic Poker League has gained a good bit of attention in the past few months, both for good and bad reasons.  The prize pools have been huge, and the tournaments involve the biggest names in poker as well.  The bad reasons for all of the attention is the drama that has surrounded their first two events.  While many people find the idea of the EPL interesting and exciting, the tournament just isn’t for everyone.  Some people feel that the International Stadiums Poker Tour was created to put a fight against the Epic Poker League.  While both tournaments seem like very good ideas, they aim to hit different types of players completely.  The EPL is currently running, while the ISPT will kick off early in 2012.  We’re going to take a look at a few ways that these two tournaments are so different.

First off, the ISPT is one of those tournaments that was created for any poker player out there.  Take their estimations on how many players they expect, which is set at more than 20,000.  This is literally the complete opposite of what the EPL is looking for, as they only allow certain players to play, and really never feature events that have more than 300 total players.  This is one way that ISPT has gained poker players’ attention more than the EPL has.

While the EPL’s first event featured a $1 million prize to the winner, the ISPT is hoping that their first place prize can get in the upwards of $10 million.  This alone would draw quite a bit of attention, and is once again an opposite of the Epic Poker League.  You can bet that the creators of the ISPT watched the Epic Poker League and how everything was ran, and made sure to keep their horizons open as to the number of players they will allow, and how large the tournaments will be.  The ISPT is looking to complete change the way that poker is played, with their combination play between online poker (with pads in the stadiums that they play in), and then live table play on the actual field itself.

It is unknown if the ISPT was created to directly compete with the EPL, but it seems that they are attempting to come at the poker world in a completely different way than anyone has ever seen.

NBC Cuts National Heads-Up Poker Championship

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The National Heads-Up Poker Championship is one of the longest poker telecasts in history, but it will be no more.  NBC announced recently that they will not be bringing back the event for the 2012 session.  This season would have been the eighth consecutive season.  While it is tough for a lot of the players to deal with (especially ones who have had success at the events), it seems that the decision comes from the aftermath of Black Friday, and the current situation with Full Tilt Poker.

The main issue is that PokerStars and Full Tilt generated an impressive amount of revenue through live poker events; but recently it has been on a major decline which explains the loss of the National Heads-Up Poker Championship, as well as the decline in interest in two of the other televised events; Poker After Dark (backed by Full Tilt Poker), and PokerStars’ Big Game.

It has been reported that the event could potentially be back if online poker in the United States was the get legalized, but that seems to be far off in the future.  This event was essentially created by NBC, and featured some big named celebrities, who were typically matched up against some of the biggest and most popular names in poker.  It was a field of 64 players, and the show had done very well in the years that it was on the air.  It mainly included big named players such as Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke, Huck Seed, and even the always famous Chris Ferguson, who is currently in the news thanks to Full Tilt Poker.

Benny Spindler Wins EPT London Main Event

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The European Poker Tour London’s Main Event was a seven day grind for players, and it has finally wound down to a winner.  A total of 691 players bought into the event, which was played at the Hilton Metropole, and created a total prize pool of £3,351,350, and paid out first place an impressive £750,000.  The event was quite a grind, but one that finally came down to two of the more well-known players at the final table.

When all was said and done, the top six players were paid out six figure paydays, and Steve O’Dwyer was heads up against Benny Spindler.  Both players have had some big scores in their tournament history, but in the end Spindler was the one who prevailed as the EPT London champion.  O’Dwyer was sent home in second place, with a solid £465,000 payday for his strong run.  Spindler on the other hand took home the grand prize, and also one of his largest scores of his career.

Here’s a look at the final table results, as well as the payouts for the final eight players:

1st- Spindler, £750,000

2nd- O’Dwyer, £465,000

3rd- Andre Klebanov, £265,000

4th- Juan Manuel Pastor, £200,000

5th- Mattias Bergstrom, £155,000

6th- Kevin Iacofano, £120,000

7th- Martins Adeniya, £86,000

8th- Miroslav Benes, £64,000

Spindler’s largest career cash to this point was a $1.1 million third place finish at the 2009 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.  He also has a $469,000 cash at the £25,000 EPT High Rollever event last year; and has now totaled a win total of nearly $3 million in his live poker career.

Spindler entered heads up play with a massive chip lead of 10,000,000 chips to the second place player Klebanov, who had 3,775,000 chips.  O’Dwyer was actually sitting in fifth out of five at this point, but was able to make a comeback and outlast the other three players at the table.  In the end though, Spindlers’ chip lead held up and he took down the event.

Keep an eye out for Spindler’s name over the next few European Poker Tour events, as he is quickly and quietly becoming one of the more well-known names in the live poker circuit.