Tag: poker

Three Poker Players Have $26k Confiscated by Customs in Bahamas

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usaIf you are flying from out of country back into the United States after a poker series, you should definitely take this story into account before making any final decisions about what to do with your winnings.

This story relates to three poker players who were playing in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in the Bahamas, and were headed back after the tournament series had ended.  They were going through customs in order to get back to the United States, and had their winnings carried on with them.  Now, between the three of them there was $26k, but the law states that players cannot travel with more than $10k in cash.  The three players thought that they were in the clear, as they split the $26k between the three of them, which meant that all of them were under $10k each.  The only problem with this though, is that the law actually says that the $10k limit is for entire families.

The three players who were involved are all related as well, and it included 18 year old Sean Ruane, 23 year old Michael Ruane (his brother), and their cousin, 18 year old Thomas Freeman Jr.  They headed through customs, and the youngest brother became nervous and started sweating, which led to the officials at customs looking more in-depth at the situation.  When all was said and done, the three were detained for falsely declaring the amount of money that they were carrying with them.

Fortunately for the three of them, the Deputy Chief Magistrate Carolita Bethell who handled the case, wasn’t incredibly hard on them.  She did make them sweat a bit before laying down their final sentence though.  In the end, while the three players’ defense attorney was asking for the judge to waive the custodial sentence, the players decided to plead guilty to the charged that was given to them.  What this meant was that the players were forced to give up the money that they attempted to bring back to the United States.  The reason for this was because of their clean records, and the fact that they did not “waste the courts time” since they pleaded guilty.

Who Will Be Bovada Poker’s King of the Felt?

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Of the many traditions carried over from the now-defunct Bodog Poker to the newly launched Bovada Poker is the monthly King of the Felt promotion.

In Bovada Poker’s King of the Felt promotion, as with the original of the Bodog Poker era, players who place in any Sit and Go tourneys at the site earn a chance for a $1,000 prize in a heads-up battle, as well as $2,500 per week in freeroll tourneys. Eligible players must place (that’s finish in 1st or 2nd) and receive payment from three Bovada Poker sit and go tourneys in a week’s time. That will earn you entry into a weekly drawing for the chance to play heads-up against the current king and win the $1,000 prize. Place in any more sit and gos than that and earn seats in the $2,500 worth of King of the Felt freeroll tourneys. The reigning King of the Felt will play heads-up matches against the contender who wins the raffle drawing each week until, ultimately, unseated, each time winning the $1,000 prize. If a Bovada Poker King of the Felt can win 10 of these heads-up matches in a row, then in addition to the $10,000 in cash that will have won him, he’ll also win a seat in the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event.

The more times you qualify for an entry in any given week’s contest, the more entries you earn. Each week’s King of the Felt drawing is held at Bovada Poker on the Monday following it.

Two Former World Champs Win Side Events at PCA

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2012 Pokerstars Caribbean AdventureCurrently in the Bahamas, the popular talks around town are about the current PokerStars Caribbean Adventure.  Whether it is the $100k entry High Roller event that drew in a first place prize of over $1 million, or the PCA Main Event which is nearly its way down to the final table, people are talking about this incredibly popular tournament series which has started 2012 off with a bang.  What many people aren’t talking about though is the fact that we have now seen two former World Series of Poker Main Event winners take down side events at the PCA this year as well!

The first big time player to take down a win was Jonathan Duhamel, who was in the news just a few weeks back for some non-related poker news, as his house was the target of a home invasion and a robbery.  Duhamel has recovered from everything though, and has pulled in some nice results at the 2012 PCA.  First off, Duhamel had a nice fourth place finish at the High Roller event, in which he took home a payday of $313,600.  Then came his win at the $5k No Limit Hold’em 8-max event this week, in which he had to beat out a star-studded final table that included Jason Mercier, Pius Heinz, gold bracelet winner Kevin Stammen, and two online poker pros in Owen Crowe and Laurence Houghton.  Duhamel beat out 157 other players, and won the first place prize of $249,830.

Cada’s win on the other hand came from the $2k No Limit Hold’em event, that drew in 348 players.  Cada won $175,550 for his strong run, and he beat out a player who many people feel is on the rise in Michael Telker in the end.  The final table of this event also included two well-known pros in Shannon Shorr who finished in 4th place, and a PokerStars pro in JC Alvarado who wound up in 6th.

Both Cada and Duhamel are two of the more liked poker pros in the game, and also two players who could be looking at having some impressive years in 2012.  Keep an eye out for them at some of the coming poker tournament series’ in the next few months, including the WSOP!

Poker Stars Runs Regional Poker Promotions All Year Long

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On top of the poker promotions that Poker Stars offers to all of its players, the site also hosts a massive amount of promotions that are available soley to players who live in specific regions of the world.

For players in CIS countries, PokerStars is hosting a We Are Poker promotion involving three weekly final tournaments with freeroll and $0.55 qualifiers and prizes of iPods, iPads and poker gear in honor of the site’s new TV ad campaign.

PokerStars is hosting satellites into the EPT Copenhagen main event strictly for players in Nordic countries. These run from January 20 to 29, 2012 with the actual prize packages (5 in all) to be awarded in a €215 Nordic EPT qualifier on Sunday, January 29.

Players in the Czech Republic and Slovakia are eligible for the Play With Martin Staszko promotion giving players the chance to win a seat at the Team PokerStars Pro’s private table and a share of a cash prize pool in the thousands.

PokerStars is hosting an Asia Poker League available only to players living in Asia. This consists of free and $0.10 qualifiers that lead to daily tournaments with points rewards. Those points are then calculated to determine the players among whom to divide the weekly $500 prize pool.

The site also runs an ANZ Tournament Leader Board tracking the progress of players living in Australia and New Zealand and awarding the top performers TLB points, cash and tournament entries.

Players living in Malaysia and Singapore can enter Causeway Freerolls with $100 prize pools.

John Dibella: Winner of 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event

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John Dibella was declared winner of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure 2012 main event. For his accomplishment, he claims a $1,775,000 grand prize, along with 2,400 points toward Card Player Magazine’s Player of the Year Award.

Dibella avoided the $10,000 buy-in into the 2012 PCA main event through a live satellite that cost $1,000 to enter. This made him one of three amateur players to make it to the final table. Considering there were only 8 players at the final table, that meant amateurs made up almost half the final table.

Runner-up in the event was Kyle Julius who claimed $1.5 million and 2,000 Player of the Year points for his accomplishment. Franz Jaka came in third place, for $775k and 1,600 POY points. Xuan Liu came in fourth place for $600k and 1,200 POY points. Mark Drover came in fifth place for $468k and 1,000 POY points. Anthony Gregg came in sixth place for $364k and 800 POY points. David Bernstein came in seventh place for $260k and 600 POY points. And Ruben Visser came in eighth place for $156,400 and 400 POY points.

Dibella claims this as his biggest cash win in live poker. His prior winnings include tenth place in a 2006 WSOP event ($1.5k NL Holdem) and he cashed for $16,000, previously his biggest win to date, as coincidence would have it, in the ’08 PCA main event.

Before taking down the 2012 Poker Stars Caribbean Adventure main event, John Dibella’s total poker career winnings was $42k.

888 Poker Starts 2012 WSOP Satellites

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With the start of 2012 comes the anticipation for the 2012 World Series of Poker. And 888 Poker is wasting no time in pooling players to send to the next WSOP Main Event.

Every other Sunday, 888 Poker holds a 2012 WSOP qualifier at 20:05 GMT. The buy-in is $500 + $25.

Players can avoid that direct buy-in and win their way into the qualifier through any number of lower cost satellites. Satellite buy-ins start at just $1 + $0.10 where one player for every $25 in the prize pool will advance to the next stage. There’s also a $5 + $0.50 stage 1 event that advances one in five players to the next stage.

Step 2 satellites cost $23 + $2 to buy-in directly and advance 1 in 5 players to step 3, which in turn costs $105 + $10 to buy-in directly and advances 1 in 5 players to the 2012 WSOP 888 Poker Qualifier.

At each 888 Poker World Series of Poker 2012 Qualifier, one prize package worth $15,000 will be awarded. That value includes the $10,000 buy-in for the 2012 WSOP Main Event, $2,000 cash to apply toward travel expenses, $500 more in cash to apply toward other expenses, 8 nights of accommodations during the event, access to a special 888 Poker player lounge, an invite to a special 888 Poker VIP party, and an 888 Poker live event merchandise kit.

The prize pool for the 2012 WSOP Main Event is projected to be around $180 million.

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.

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 Super High Roller Event Draws 32 Players

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2012 Pokerstars Caribbean AdventureThe 2012 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) has one of the biggest poker tournament buy-ins that is offered on the board today.  The Super High Roller event is a $100k entry tournament, that has a smaller field than the normal big time events, but it also draws in a nice prize pool, and some of the biggest names in the game as well.  This year, the event drew in 34 total players, which means that the top five players will be making money.  What’s interesting about this, is that making the final table isn’t enough in this tournament, as they’ll have to make an even deeper run to get a big payday.  The perks of this event are big for both sides, but the fans definitely get a ton of action with quite a few of their favorite players.

As far as the players who are involved in this years Super High Roller event, you’ll see names like Jonathan Duhamel, Jason Mercier, Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Erik Seidel, Viktor “Islidur1” Blom, and Eugene Katchalov.  As far as the top five players who cash, this is how the payouts will work:

  • First Place- $1.25 million
  • Second Place- $846k
  • Third Place- $470k
  • Fourth Place- $313k
  • Fifth Place- $250k

When Day 1 ended the top three players featured Ike Haxton in first, Viktor Blom in second, and Seidel in third.  Blom is one of the more interesting stories in this event, as he’s an online high stakes cash game player, who has made quite a bit of money in the past two years.  He doesn’t have very much live poker tournament experience, but he’s looking to bring in a big payday in one of his few tries.

Currently, the action is down to the final eight players though, with Galen Hall leading the way, and Blom and Negreanu still involved in the action.  One other name who is near the top of the leaderboard is Jonathan Duhamel, who is currently sitting in second place and has rebounded in a big way after the home invasion that three people had on his house in Canada.  He had his WSOP gold bracelet stolen, as well as a $5k Rolex, and over $100k in cash as well.

The final eight of this tournament should be fun to watch, and the winner will definitely have to earn their way to the big payday by beating out a stacked field.

BLUFF Names Eugene Katchalov 2011 Player of the Year

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The BLUFF Magazine Player of the Year Award, presented in cooperation with the Aria Resorts and Casino, one of the most prestigious annual awards in the poker world, and for last year, 2011, 32-year-old Ukrainian Eugene Katchalov has received that honor.

Named 2011 BLUFF Player of the Year, Eugue Katchalov earned a total of $2,572,726 in poker of the course of the year, bringing his career earnings in live poker to $7,001,893. These figures also bring Katchalov to number 36 on Poker’s All-Time Money List tracking the biggest all-time career earners in poker.

Katchalov’s 2011 started out with a heads-up victory over Daniel Negreanu for $1.5 million in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $100k Super High Roller event. Less than two weeks later he finished second at the PCA $10k High-Roller 6-Max event, for an additional $131,920.

Over the course of 2011, Katchalov has finished first place twice, including his first ever WSOP championship in the $1,500 7-Card Stud event. He also made 7 final tables and cashed in 13 events in 2011. Other highlights of the year for Katchalov include a third place finish in the EPT Barcelona Main Event, earning him another $453,812.

Katchalov’s cashes include three EPT main events (one being the season 7 grand final).

Coming in at a close second behind Katchalov for BLUFF’s 2011 Player of the Year was Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, who notched up $2,296,620 in winnings this year, including his first ever WSOP win.

Both Grospellier and Katchalov are Team Poker Stars Pro players.