Tag: poker

Epic Poker League Grants Lifetime Exemption to Doyle Brunson

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Epic Poker LeagueThe Epic Poker League has been surrounded by scandal at a few of its events to this point, but this news about the EPL is what many would consider good news.  While all players have to meet certain requirements to even earn entry into any EPL event, the news that came out today is that Doyle Brunson has earned a lifetime player card to any Epic Poker League event.  What this means is that Brunson can play in any EPL event, at any time that he feels, regardless of the entry requirements and whether or not he meets them.

It’s news that may not blow many people away, but it is definitely well deserved for one of the greatest players in the history of poker.  Brunson is known by almost any poker player or fan in the world, and his results speak for themselves.  This decision was made by Jeffrey Pollack, who is the Executive Chairman for the company who owns the EPL, Federated Sports & Gaming.  Pollack said that the decision was essentially made because of contributions that Brunson has made to the game in his career.

The membership cards that are given to players vary by their earnings and results throughout the years, and Brunson was currently holding a 2-year Category A card, and this means that his eligibility goes through the year 2013.  In order to get this card players have to have at least $2 million in lifetime poker tournament earnings, and a maximum of $1 million can come from a single poker tournament.

Now, it’s important to note that just because Brunson has received this lifetime exemption, it doesn’t mean that he will participate in any of the events.  Brunson has stuck with the cash game tables in the recent years, stating that poker tournaments are simply “getting too hard to come through”, and that he doesn’t plan to partake in many tournaments for the remainder of his life.  All EPL events feature $20k buy-in’s, which is definitely one of the largest buy-ins for a poker event out there today.

All in all, if anyone deserves this type of honor, it is definitely Doyle Brunson.

Intertops Poker Holding 26-Day Endurance Challenge

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Intertops Poker is now holding a 26-Day Endurance Challenge with up to $42 per person in individual cash prizes and tickets into $3,250 worth Freerolls up for grabs. It lasts from December 1 to 27 and here’s how it works: earn a set target number of Frequent Player Points each day for a target number of days and earn a prize along with a freeroll tournament entry.

The minimum requirement to earn a ticket into the $750 freeroll is earning 14 FPPs per day for 5 days of the promotion. Earn the same daily FPP count for 10 days at least and you’ll meet the minimum requirement to earn a ticket into the $1,000 freeroll. Do it for 15 days or more and get into the $1,500 freeroll.

Cash prizes start at $3 for 14 FPPs a day for 20 days and go up from there. You can earn a cash prize in as little as 5 days if you earn 224 FPPs on each of those days. That prize, incidentally, is $10. You can also earn $10 for earning 112 FPPs per day for 10 days.

A particularly nice and novel feature of this promotion is that you do not have to opt-in first in order for your FPP earnings to count toward earning prizes. That means that even if you’re finding out abou this promotion mid-month, all the FPPs you’ve earned before now in December 2011 will still apply. So as long as you’ve been playing at Intertops Poker in December 2011, you’re already entered and competing in the 26-Day Endurance Race.

James Dempsey Takes Down WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic

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In what is definitely the longest tournament name out there, James Dempsey prevailed over a field that was star studded at the World Poker Tour’s Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Classic.  The final table itself drew some well-known names, featuring players like Antonio Esfandiari, Vanessa Selbst, Andrew Lichtenberger, and 2012 November Niner Soi Nguyen.  Esfandiari was looking to become the first ever player to become a repeat champion of a WPT event, while Selbst was looking to become the first female winner of one.

To start the six handed action, Nguyen found himself atop the leaderboard with over a 1 million chip lead (4.995 million), with Dempsey in second place (3.86 million).  Lichtenberger was in third with 3.605 million chips, followed by Selbst with 2.25 million, Esfandiari with 1.255 million, and Vitor Coelho with 560k.

When all was said and done through the first four eliminations, there was Dempsey and Nguyen, the two players atop the leaderboard to start the day, matched up to decide the championship.  Esfandiari went out in 6th, and was followed by Coelho in 5th place, Lichtenberger in 4th place, and Selbst falling just short in 3rd place.  The heads up play started with each player almost even in chips, and set up quite an interesting match.

It started with Dempsey up a bit early on, but it wasn’t long before Nguyen took a big pot and control of the game.  After Nguyen kept raising and re-raising, Dempsey found himself at a huge disadvantage of over 10 million chips, 13.5 million to 3 million.  He was able to get up to about 6 million before a huge hand went down.  The action started with a raise by Nguyen pre-flop, and a three-bet by Dempsey.  The flop came down with the Queen of spades, 2 of spades, and 4 of clubs; prompting Dempsey to bet out 1 million chips.  Nguyen called this, and the turn came with a Ten of spades, leading to an all-in from Dempsey.  Nguyen debated for multiple minutes before finally calling and turning over As-5d for the nut flush draw and a straight draw.  Dempsey had Ad-Js for a worse flush draw, but a higher kicker, meaning that he could either hit one of his straight cards, or have a blank come on the river.  It was the King of hearts, giving Dempsey the straight with no flush for Nguyen, and everything had turned.

It wasn’t long after that before Dempsey sent the knockout punch to Nguyen, as he called his opponents’ all in with K-Q, and Nguyen turned over K-J.  Nguyen actually flopped a Jack to take the lead, but the river gave Dempsey a flush, the championship, and a $821,612 payday.  Nguyen got a nice pay out for his run as well, taking home $517,478.

$1 Million WSOP Event Has 22 Confirmed

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One of the most talked about events for the upcoming World Series of Poker is the $1 Million buy-in event, which will not only be a gold bracelet event, but it will give the winner a platinum bracelet when all is said and done.  The talks of this event have became more and more in-depth over the past few months, and the main thing surrounding the event is that it could potentially be the largest first place pay day for the winner of any poker tournament in history.  The event currently has 22 players confirmed for it, and is called the “Big One for One Drop”.

The name comes from the charitable organization called One Drop, who will receive one ninth of the players’ buy-in’s to go towards the charity ($111,111).  The remainder of the buy-in will go straight into the prize pool, and there is no rake taken from it either.  The idea was started thanks to Guy Laliberte, who is not only the Chairman of the organization, but is also the founder of Cirque du Soleil.  The organization was created to help solve the problem of a lack of access to clean water for close to a billion people.

Out of the 22 players who have confirmed, the first two to do so are well known poker pros Jonathan Duhamel and Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier.  Both made their announcement at this past years’ November Nine, and Duhamel stated that out of any of the winnings that he takes from the event, that he will donate an additional 5% to One Drop.  This number, 22, is exactly the number that was needed to be confirmed in order for the tournament to be an official bracelet event, and the tournament will work a bit differently than other events.  Instead of the top 10% making the cash, the top 20% of players will make money, and the field will cap at 48 total players.

As far as the players who will be joining Duhamel and Grospellier, you’ll find names like Daniel Negreanu, Patrik Antonius, Johnny Chan, Gus Hansen, Tom Dwan, Laliberte, Phil Ruffin, Bobby Baldwin, Tony G, Dan Shake, and Andy Beal.  There will also be qualifiers from satellites such as the Loto-Quebec satellite, the European satellite, and the Caesars satellite, as well as a seat awarded for the Montreal Group.

Game Show Network Cuts High Stakes Poker

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high stakes pokerThe Game Show Network offers many different types of shows, and one of the many includes different poker action.  GSN definitely took notice of the boom that occurred from both live and online poker over the recent years, and they run a show called “High Stakes Poker”.  This show has been running for six full years now, and drew quite a bit of attention especially with the always popular World Series of Poker picking up steam.  The news was brought on as the site reported that their lineup for the January season will not include this show after the 2nd.

Unfortunately, this is not the first show to be axed from TV, as we have also seen shows like PokerStars Big Game cancelled, as well as the NBC Heads-Up Poker Championship.  The main reason for this is the large amount of revenue that was brought in from advertising from the huge poker sites Full Tilt and PokerStars, which completely stopped after Black Friday occurred back in April.

While these other two shows were cut due to the loss of online poker in the United States, there had been rumors spreading about High Stakes Poker for the past few seasons, as the ratings took a bit of a hit when they made a change to the host.  The original host of the show was the well-known Gabe Kaplan, and he was replaced by Norm MacDonald.

But what does this all mean for the life of live poker cash games for the future?  Well, it’s not looking good, and it seems that the only poker that United States poker fans and players will be able to get for the near future will be live poker tournaments such as the World Poker Tour, and of course the always popular World Series of Poker each Summer when it is played.  The main issue was of course the revenue, but players were not able to wear the patches for the sites that they represented while playing the games either, as online poker in the United States is completely banned.  We’ll keep you updated if any new live poker action comes to light for the fans to keep their eyes out for in the offseason of the poker tournaments.

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.

Bet Online Poker Offers Tournament Bonus Guarantee

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Bet Online Poker is one of the only poker sites around that offers players a tournament bonus guarantee. It is literally a bonus that you can specifically use to enter Bet Online Poker’s guaranteed tournaments. To qualify, players must make a minimum deposit of $50. For every $50 deposited, Bet Online will give you 200 Promo Bucks. The maximum amount of Promo Bucks you can earn is 4,000. Deposits made through any method are eligible except for those made through Book-to-Book, which are not.

Promo Bucks are not instantly awarded. Once earned, players must request the Promo Bucks they have coming to them in order for BetOnline Poker to issue them. This is as easy as sending an email that says “Poker promobucks please.” To freeplay@betonline.com, including your username and the amount of your deposit. Promo Bucks will then be issued to your account within a 24-hour period affter receiving your request.

Promo Bucks can then be used to cover the buy-in costs to Bet Online Poker’s guaranteed tournaments. The site offers $150,000 worth of guaranteed tournaments each month. Promo Bucks are not exchangeable for cash.

This is in addition to Bet Online’s regular Lifetime Bonus that promises you a 25% match on each and every reload deposit you make into your BetOnline account as long as you’re a real money player there.

The Lifetime Bonus and the Tournament Bonus Guarantee are just two more of the bonuses at Bet Online that are unlike those offered at almost any other site.

Get a Piece of Cake Poker’s Holiday Action

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Cake Poker is running several special promotions in honor of the coming holidays, including a $50,000 Gold Card Tournament Wrap-Up Series, Merry Match & Win Game Boards, Turbo Tuesdays and December Gold Chip Tournaments.

For the December 2011 Gold Card promotion, Cake Poker has quadrupled the opportunities players have to win. Each week is represented by a different suit, with a different suited Gold Card final tournament each week and a different Match and Win Game board each week (more on that in a moment.) Prize pools for these finals range from $5K for the first week, Clubs, to $20K for the last week, Spades. Diamonds and Hearts are $10K and $15K, respectively. You can even use Gold Cards that you get from Cake Poker’s The Exchange to enter Daily Gold Card Satellites and win a seat in that week’s final.

Throughout December, Cake Poker will hold Turbo Tuesdays, an opportunity to earn even more Gold Cards than usual, even for a Turbo Gold Card promotion. Most Turbo Gold Card promotions past offer double the Gold Cards but Turbo Tuesdays offers three times the Gold Cards during the hours of 0:00 GMT to 23:59 PT. That’s December 6, 13, 20 and 27.

Also for December 2011, Cake Poker will be offering more Gold Chip Satellite Tournament than usual. Besides the Gold Chip Sit and Go tournaments normally offered, there will also be multi-table tourmaments with Gold Chip buy-ins. The top 5 players from each Gold Chip Satellite Tournament will advance to a weekly $15K Guaranteed main event or a $25K Guaranteed main event, both taking place every Sunday.

PokerStars Breaks Record for Online Poker Tournament

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PokerStars is not only the largest online poker site online, but is also the only one of the three online poker sites to overcome Black Friday and continue to bring in impressive results.  The online poker site also held the record for the largest online poker tournament in history, and just this month they decided to attempt to break their own world record once again.  The site placed a cap on the tournament, which featured a $1 buy-in and $250k in the guaranteed prize pool.  The numbers were so high that they brought in an incredible 200,000 players, which is even more amazing considering the fact that they were in the United States market when they originally broke the record.

As if the 200k players wasn’t impressive enough, take into consideration that this number was hit more than three hours before the tournament actually began.  Based on the old numbers, if PokerStars was still in the US market, there is a very realistic chance that this number could have hit 300k in total players, which would have been absurd.

The old record that PokerStars set was 149,196 players, and was set around two years ago, back on December 27, 2009.  It was seen that this number was actually passed in the pre-registration period, many days before the tournament even began.  It’s not much of a surprise that the players were eliminated incredibly fast from this tournament, as many players went for the “go all-in and either double up, or go home” method, since it was only a $1 tournament.  This meant that the players were in the cash only 2 and a half hours into the event.  This meant there was 12,150 players left, and the first payouts were $4.  The first place prize was set at $50k, but the players had a bit of work to do in order to outlast 12k more players.

While it was a nice feeling for everyone who made the money to get into it so quickly, they weren’t nearly as fortunate when it came down to finding an eventual winner.  It took five additional hours for a champion to be found, and a deal was actually made over three handed play as well.  The deal gave the first place winner $40,258.83, and he played by the name of sokoluk1991.  Second place went to Kaitz20, and this player took down $34k for their efforts.  Third place was a player who played under the name King-2-Z, and they took home $25,741.17.  Not a bad deal for just a $1 investment eh?

Bodog Releases New Tournaments and Cash Game Features

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Bodog has decided to give their players a few special treats in the holiday season, and they will start with a few different tournament options for multi-table tournament players, and also some cash game variations that should bring a smile to quite a few people’s faces.  Bodog Poker has always been one of the online poker sites that are very open to change, and creating an excellent all around atmosphere for players, and this will do just that.

For starters, they have decided to offer a few different tournament types such as Shootout events, where players will have to win their table in order to move on, Knockout tournaments in which players will receive a bounty for knocking out each player throughout the event, and Heads up tournament which will feature only heads up play.

Now let’s take a look at the ring game options that have changed.  The creation of “anonymous tables” should definitely draw some interest, as it allows players to not be tracked by their opponents, and they will also have no idea who they are up against.  It makes it so that the poker is purely based on your own skill.  Bodog has also made it so that you can play more tables at one time.  While players are only allowed to play four cash games or sit-n-go’s at a time, they have made it so that players can play more multi-table tournaments now.  In total, they will allow players to have up to 20 games tables going at once between the three types of games.  Last but not least is the addition of “rabbit hunting”, which is where players can see the next card that would have been dealt after they fold their hand.  This is something that is added to help players see if they made the right decision to fold.

One last addition that’s interesting, is the option for players to play Blackjack on the poker side of things.  It will be an in-client game so that players can keep themselves entertained between hands or on breaks from tournaments.  You will be able to fund the Blackjack game right from your online poker account as well.