Tag: 2012

PCA Main Event Down to 24 Players

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2012 Pokerstars Caribbean AdventureThe 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has had some exciting poker to this point, and it started off with their $100k buy-in High Roller event.  Now, the PCA Main Event is down to only 24 players at the end of Day 4, and one player finds himself at the top of the leaderboard and sitting pretty heading into Day 5.  Faraz Jaka may not be incredibly well-known to the common poker fan, but his play has been stellar, as he has found himself almost always near the top of the leaderboard throughout this tournament, and heading into Day 5 he sits alone at the top.

Jaka has a total of 4.1 million chips, and continued to grow on his lead throughout the day.  Currently, his closest competitor is Alex Fitzgerald (2.70 million), but he is still over 1.4 million chips behind Jaka.  There are quite a few players who are still within striking distance of course, and one hand can change everything, but it’s hard not to like the way that Jaka is playing currently.  To round out the top five, you’ll find Phil D’Auteuil with 2.28 million, Anthony Gregg with 2.14 million, and Byron Kaverman with 2.13 million chips. Close behind is Sam Greenwood in 6th with 2.10 million chips, but after that the remainder of the field finds themselves below 2 million chips.

As far as other players who are remaining in the field, there is one female player remaining, as Xuan Liu is sitting with over one million chips, at 1,082,000.  Liu has been impressive in this past year, as she had some nice cashes at the World Series of Poker, and also had a third place finish at the European Poker Tour’s San Remo event.  Some of the other players that you may know by name are Daniel Shiff with 834k, Ruben Visser with 461k, and David Peters 424k, who all have a shot to be able to make a run when it matters most.

Something interesting to note about the event in terms of players who were sent home already, was that well-known golfer Sergio Garcia took his seat, and even made a run into Day 4!  He was eliminated though when his A-J couldn’t catch up to the pocket queens of his opponent.  Garcia did make it into the top 50 though, and took home a payout of $35k for his efforts.  Other well-known players who have been sent home are Galen Hall, Chris Klodnicki, and Arnaud Mattern.  Barry Greenstein also has been sent home, but he made it into the cash, as he finished in 25th place and took home $46k.

Action will continue at Noon local time on Thursday, and players will play down until we have a final table set.

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom Wins PCA High Roller Event

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2012 Pokerstars Caribbean AdventureThe PokerStars Caribbean Adventure High Roller event featured an incredible $100k buy-in, which explains why there were only 34 total players who registered for the event.  Regardless though, 34 players with a huge buy-in like that, makes up quite a nice prize pool in the end.  While there were 34 players in the event, you can bet that it included quite a few well-known players, and also players with some deep bankrolls as well, in order to afford this buy-in.  When all was said and done though, it was a player who not all poker fans know well, but many online poker players are well aware of, who ended up taking down the championship.

Viktor “Isildur1” Blom is a big time high stakes poker player on the popular poker site PokerStars.  He decided to take his poker talents to the live tournament scene over the weekend though, and headed to the Atlantis Resort in Bahamas to compete with big names like Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand “ElkY’ Grospellier, Jason Mercier, Jonathan Duhamel, Dan Shak, Erik Seidel, and many others as well.  When all was said and done, Blom outlasted the rest, and beat out Shak for the nice payday of $1,254,000 in the end.

When the final day of action kicked off, Blom found himself right in the middle of the remaining eight players.  The issue was, that only the top five were able to make it into the cash, so all remaining players had to be careful with those chip stacks.  Blom didn’t do much until they were into the money, as he saw the likes of Mike “Timex” McDonald, Humberto Brenes, and Scott Seiver, all sent home in 8th through 6th place.  It was then that he turned up his aggression and started winning big pots, and actually eliminated every player at the final table on his way to the championship.  The first to go was Negreanu in 5th, then Duhamel in 4th, Galen Hall in 3rd, and then he eliminated Shak in their heads up match in 2nd place.

This would be Blom’s first live tournament win, and it was an incredibly impressive one at that, as he played with the biggest names, and beat out the biggest names on his way to the victory.

Player at PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Sets Guinness Record

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A player at this year’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure set the new Guinness World Record for most hands of poker played in an 8-hour period of time. The player was Randy Lew, known online as nananoko, and over those 8 hours he played 23,493 hands. He played those hands on Poker Stars in a cordoned off table of his own at the casino hosting the PCA, surrounded by fellow PCA attendees.

In order for the record to count, according to Lew’s own self-imposed criteria, he had to have finished the 8 hours ahead, meaning he had to show a profit. Lucky for him he made it, but only by $7.65. Because he was playing on PokerStars, however, he also earned 22,784 FPPs for his effort. Those points can be used to enter online tournaments at the site or purchase gear at the PokerStars Store.

At one point, a few hands before the 8-hour clock was up, Lew closed down most of the tables he’d been playing–for most of the contest, he was multi-tabling at 40 tables at once–and focused on a single table, where he received pocket Aces. An observer shouted out for him not to play the hand as it was a three-way hand and he was so close to losing the small profit he had edged out. But he stayed in and luck was with him, all the way to Guinness Book of World Records.

Lew was in between days of play in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event, which he returned to the following day. As a point of comparison, whoever would go on to win the $2 million grand prize in that event wouldn’t have played more than 10% of the number of hands Lew played to claim his record.

PCA Main Event and High Roller Event To Feature Live Webcast

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2012 Pokerstars Caribbean AdventureThe PokerStars Caribbean Adventure has quickly become one of the most interesting and exciting poker tournaments offered, and they’ve done a little something to make their events even better overall.  Fans of the game of poker will get a great opportunity to be able to follow the action throughout the tournaments this upcoming year, with a live stream that will give players the chance to see hole-cards as well.  The stream will be on a 40-minute delay that players can see on PokerStars.tv.

Players who tune in will not only get to see all of the action and get to see the hole cards on the delay, but they will get analysis and live broadcast from the likes of Joe Stapleton, James Hartigan, and a poker player who a few people may know the name of, Daniel Negreanu.  It will feature the final tables of two events with huge buy-ins, the $10,300 Main Event, and one of the largest buy-in tournaments on the planet in the $25,500 buy-in High Roller event.

The PCA Main Event draws in a huge number of players in especially the past two years.  The event has had over 1,500 players each year, and the first place prize for last years winner, Galen Hall, was over $2.3 million, which probably comes in second to about one other tournament series; the World Series of Poker.  For this coming year, there are actually a total of 800 players registered already, and there’s a chance that this could be one of the largest events in their history.

As far as the High Roller event goes, it has been around since back in 2009 and last season featured 151 players.  Last years winner was Will Molson who won over $1 million for beating out those 150 other players.  While this event is obviously a huge buy-in, PokerStars has actually decided to go even bigger in 2012.  They are introducing a $100k Super High Roller tournament, that already has a total of 20 players registered including names like Negreanu himself, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Brian Rast, Dan Shak, David Sands, Jason Mercier, Jonathan Duhamel, and many other big names as well.

Action for the PCA will kick off on January 5th and runs through January 14th.

Randy Lew to Attempt to Break World Record at PCA

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2012 Pokerstars Caribbean AdventureMany people in both the online poker world and the live poker world know the popular name Randy “nanonoko” Lew.  He is an online juggernaut and has brought in some incredibly impressive results in recent years.  In a bit of interesting news, Lew will attempt to become a Guinness World Record holder, by breaking a poker record at the 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure tournament.  As far as the world record goes, no one, not even Lew knows exactly what world record that he will be looking to break.  The reason for this is that both PokerStars and Lew have decided to let the poker world make the decision for them.

The decision will be made on the popular online poker forum, Two Plus Two.  PokerStars VIP Manager “PokerStarsCaleb” posted that they were looking for a world record for Lew to break this upcoming January.  It can be a wide range of things, but the general idea behind the record has to be something simple and straight forward that even someone who doesn’t play poker could understand.  They also are hoping that it can have something to do with online poker in some way, which will be interesting as it is a live poker tournament.

While there have been many different ideas coming out for the world record, PokerStars and Lew are looking for something that stands out above the rest.  PokerStars has offered to give the person who comes up with the best suggestion a free entry into the $215 Sunday Million on their site this upcoming weekend.  When all of the world record options are up, both PokerStars and Lew will make the decision in the end.

Lew is incredibly popular in the game of poker, and has hit Supernova Elite status four years straight up until 2011.  His streak came to an end when Black Friday hit unfortunately, but he is back in action after he moved to Vancouver to continue playing on PokerStars.  Now, the action at PCA will kick off at the Atlantis Resort and Casino in the Bahamas on January 5th.  This event is a part of the always popular European Poker Tour, so keep your eye out for Lew in it!

Cake Poker’s Final Aussie Millions Qualifier December 18

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This Sunday, December 18, 2011, will be Cake Poker’s final Aussie Millions 2012 qualifier. This is the December Aussie Millions $16,000 Final for a $16K prize package that includes the $10,600 AUD main event buy-in, a ticket to the Aussie Millions 10th Anniversary VIP Player Party and some spending cash to help out with travel and accommodation expenses.

The event starts at 5 pm EST and has a $250 + $18 direct buy-in. Players can still win seats in this event through satellites if they hurry. There are still Aussie Millions $16K Super Satellites running for as little as $0.20, as well as $2.20 and $6.50 semi-qualifiers, $11 satellites and $40 semi-finals. Many of these events have rebuys and add-ons.

The next Aussie Millions takes place in Melbourne, Australia from January 12 to 30, 2012 and features an estimated $2 million AUD grand prize for the first place finisher. The estimated total prize pool for this upcoming event is $20 million AUD.

Also taking place now at Cake Poker is a similar satellite series to qualify players for the 2012 Super Poker Event of Europe, taking place at Citywest Hotel in Dublin, Ireland between February 25 and 26, 2012. Also happening in Dublin next year is the 2012 Irish Open, happening April 5 to 9. And as it happens, Cake Poker satellites for the Irish Open 2012 start on December 18, 2011; yes, the same date as the last chance to get in on a 2012 Aussie Millions Final Qualifier.

Introducing The Deep Stack Poker Tour

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There have been many new poker tours jumping into the mix since Black Friday sent the online poker world under, and many of them have aimed to hit different specific audiences.  This one will give all different types of players the chance to compete in a tournament which should be incredibly popular from the word go.  With the likes of the World Series of Poker, the World Poker Tour, and many other various poker tours taking in the online poker players who are looking for action, the Deep Stack Poker Tour is the newest of them all to be released.  The tournament will kick off in early 2012, and gives players the chance to compete in large poker tournaments with big named players, and outstanding prize pools guaranteed as well.

The action will start in February, and will have many stops all across North America.  The buy-in’s are fan and player friendly, and will also be televised so that poker fans can keep up with the action and the big names in the events as well.  It has yet to be released about which TV station that the tournaments will be aired on, but it has been said that the commentators for the action will be Tristan “Cre8ive” Wade, and Joe Stapleton.

The first tournament in February kicks off on the 15th and will run until the 19th.  It features a $1,500 buy-in and will take place in Niagara Falls, New York, at the Seneca Niagara Casino.  The guarantee for the event will start with at least $200k in the prize pool.  The poker pros who will be included at the event could be a major selling point to players and fans though, as they are already expecting many of the “Team DeepStack Pros” to be taking part.  This list includes players like Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Adam “Roothlus” Levi, Karina Jett, Randal Flowers, Justin Smith, and Jennifer “Jennicide” Leigh Matt Graham.

As far as the additional destinations for the tour go, there is nothing locked in yet, but there has been chatter about events being played in California, Nevada, Oregon, New York, Canada, and Quebec for starters.  We’ll keep you updated on the information as it is released, but this should definitely be a great option for players across North America.

888 Poker Spearheads Super 2012 Event Qualifier Action

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888 Poker was the first the online poker site to offer qualifiers into the upcoming 2012 Super Poker Event of Europe. The event, which takes place in Dublin, Ireland between February 25 and 26, expects to attract 4,000 players for the largest playing field ever in a live, land-based poker tournament event in Europe. It features a €1.2 million estimated prizepool based on a buy-in of €300 + €48.40. Players can get in on the action for much less, however, through satellites and qualifiers at sites like 888 Poker.

Nightly, 888 Poker is hosting satellites for only a $2 + $0.20 buy-in. This event includes a $2 rebuy opportunity for 1,500 chips, available to anyone who busts out before the break, followed by $2 add-ons of 4,500 chips from then on. These Step 1 satellites take place every night but Thursday night at 19:25 GMT and on Thursday nights at 18:25 GMT. These events offers 1 seat per $22 in the prize pool in the weekly Super Poker Event 2012 qualifier that takes place on Thursday nights at 19:10 GMT for a direct buy-in of $20 + $2. These seat-only qualifiers award entries worth €340 each into the Super 2012 tournament for every $480 in the prize pool. They do not, however, cover any travel or accommodation expenses.

Players interested in skipping the qualifiers and buying in to the Super 2012 tournament direct can do so through Moneybookers/SKRILL. Professional poker players already registered for the 2012 Super Poker Event of Europe include John O’Shea, Andy Black, Liam Flood, Nicholas Newport, Dara O’Kearney, Sam Holden and Jean-Paul Pasqualini.

Join Pokerstars Women Live at 2012 PCA

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In addition to the satellite series for the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure in 2012 that are open to all its players, Poker Stars is also hosting a special, separate satellite tournament series strictly for its female players.

Held as part of the larger 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure, the PokerStars Women Live Caribbean Adventure is a separate event from the main event running from January 12 – 14, 2012. Unlike the PCA main event, the PokerStars Women Live Caribbean Adventure is a ladies only event. Satellite qualifier tournaments are on now at Poker Stars for this event, offering up prize packages worth $3,250 to the most successful.

These prize packages include the main event buy-in, hotel accommodations and $1K in spending cash. The 2012 PCA and PokerStars Women Live Caribbean Adventure takes place on Paradise Island in the exotic Bahamas. Prize packages will be awarded at weekly satellite finals taking place every Saturday between now and December 31, 2011 for a direct buy-in of $215. Each weekly final starts at 2:30 pm ET and awards one PCA Womens Live package for each $3,250 in the pot. Instead of paying the $215 buy-in, ladies can win seats in one of the weekly finals via lower-cost qualifier tournaments. There are even freeroll qualifier tournaments that can ultimately land you a PokerStars Women Live Caribbean Adventure weekly final qualifier ticket for nothing.

The 2012 PokerStars Women Live Caribbean Adventure will the be the latest in the string of ladies-only special events held around the world. Previous such events have including European Poker Tour (EPT) main events taking place in London, Monte Carlo and Madrid.

Intertops Poker Sending Players to Super Poker Event of Europe 2012

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The biggest poker event in European history is estimated to be the upcoming Super Poker Event of Europe 2012, known for short as Super 2012. The event features a 4,000 player pool vying for a piece of a €1.2 million estimated prize pool. Several poker sites are now holding satellite tournaments awarding players free seats in this event, among them Intertops Poker.

The Intertops Poker Super 2012 satellite series runs from November 1, 2011 to February 12, 2012. During that time, Intertops will be hosting an array of daily satellite tournaments, all of which can be found under the Events tab, located inside the Tournaments section of the Intertops Poker lobby. Once monthly, on November 20 and December 11 of 2011 and January 15 and Feburary 12 of 2012, Intertops Poker will hold finals at each of which prize packages worth $1,500 into Super 2012 will be awarded. Each prize package inclues the €300 + €40 buy-in into the main event as well as cash to assist with travel expenses and hotel accommodations.

Super 2012 will be played in two distinct portions. The first will occur between February 25 and 26, 2012 in Dublin, Ireland at the Citywest International Conference and Events Center, which is situated inside the Citywest Hotel complex. When the playing field has been whittled down to the final 8 players, competition will pause, to be resumed on March 31, 2012 at a secure spot where the final 8 will be flown to finish out the tournament. The action will be streamed over the web for people at home to watch live.