Tag: poker

Party Poker Aussie Millions 2012 Satellites Begin

Last Updated on


Party Poker has now joined the handful of poker sites offering satellite tournaments into the 2012 Aussie Millions in Melbourne, Australia. Each Party Poker Aussie Millions 2012 prize package, which includes the $11,400 buy-in into the main event, is valued at $16,000.

The Party Poker satellite series for the 2012 Aussie Millions runs from November 21, 2011 to January 8, 2012. It features a weekly Aussie Millions Satellite with one seat in the main event guaranteed to be awarded at each Sunday running. In all, Party Poker will give away one seat in the Aussie Millions for every 25 players competing in these satellites, which start at 15:10 ET and have a $640 + $40 direct buy-in cost.

Of course, players can avoid that buy-in by playing in earlier stages of the satellite series, with daily events ranging in entry from freerolls to $68 + $6 satellite qualifiers. The Party Poker prize package into the 2012 Aussie Millions also includes 8 nights of hotel accommodations at the Crown Promenade, right next door to the Crown Casino where the event is taking place, and $2,500 to spend as you see fit.

Party Poker is also holding a separate satellite series just for players who already live in Australia. They run from December 18, 2011 to January 8, 2012. These Australian player satellites award $14,000 prize packages that are identical to the packages for non-Australian residents except that the cash stipend is smaller, $500 instead of $2,500. These satellite run separately from and independently of the regular Aussie Millions 2012 satellites.

Intertops Poker Hosting Knock Out Challenge Bounty Tourneys

Last Updated on


Throughout the month of November, 2011, Intertops Poker will be holding a series of bounty tourneys called Knock Out Challenges. During these events, rather prizes will be awarded not just for finishing in the money in the overall event but for knocking out your competitors as well. Unlike other bounties where only select, usually celebrity or pro players have bounties on their heads, in these Knock Out Challenges, every player has a bounty on their head, including you.

Part of the buy-in for an Intertops Poker Knock Out Challenge, $2 from each $5 + $0.50 buy-in to be exact, is applied toward the bounty on your head and your opponents as well. In addition to these bounties, all of which you get to keep, with no limit on how many you can rank up regardless of how you finish in the general competition, there’s also a $1,000 guaranteed cash prize pool at each of these events.

What’s more, besides just winning money for doing well in the overall competition and for knocking your fellow players out of the running, you’ll also win money for knocking out more competitors than anyone else. For each player you eliminate from the tourney, you get 1 point in addition to your bounty money. Intertops Poker keeps track of how many points each player earns in each tourney on a Headhunter leaderboard, with $1,000 up for grabs for the top 10 finishers on this leaderboard, the top finisher getting $300 and the 10th spot earning $20.

Intertops Poker Sending Players to Super Poker Event of Europe 2012

Last Updated on


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.

Sam Trickett Continues Hot Streak; Wins Partouche Poker Tour

Last Updated on

The Partouche Poker Tour took a two month break before the final table kicked off, and it worked out very similar to how the World Series of Poker Main Event did.  While this event didn’t draw in nearly as many entrants as the WSOP Main Event did, its 579 total entrants still created a first place prize of €1,000,000.  The event was played at the Palm Beach Casino in Cannes, France, and featured a buy in of €8,500.

The final table started with a well-known name in Sam Trickett holding the chip lead, and not much changed when all was said and done.  Trickett did have a bit of work to do when he got to heads up play against Salman Behbehani, but he was able to overcome a two to one chip deficit and won the grand prize in the end.  It wasn’t all bad for Behbehani though, who got a nice second place pay day of €600,000 for his excellent run.  As a matter of fact, each player who made it to the final table received a payday of over six figures.

While this was a very nice score for Trickett, it’s just one of many for a player who has been one of the hottest in the game this year.  He started off the action with a $1,525,000 score at the Aussie Millions, which featured a $100k buy-in.  He also had a second place finish soon after that in the $250k Super High Roller event, which paid him another million dollar score, of $1,400,000.  Trickett then went on to bring home a few other five figure cashes, including an 11th place finish at the EPL’s first event.  No one can put up an argument that Trickett is one of the hottest players in the game right now.

His strong run also pushed him into the top ten in the ESPN top ten poker rankings, which are called “The Nuts”.  He has won over $4.2 million just this year, which places him fifth for the year behind the final three players from the 2011 WSOP Main Event, and Erik Seidel, who was actually the player that beat him at the Aussie Millions Super High Roller Event.

Jason Mercier Still Rides Atop ESPN Poker Rankings

Last Updated on

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.

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

Last Updated on

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.

Party Poker WPT Ireland Satellites Begin

Last Updated on


Party Poker is one of the primary sponsors of the World Poker Tour and as such holds satellite series’ for most of its major tournaments. The latest addition to the Party Poker WPT satellite series is WPT Ireland.

Running from November 7 through December 18, 2011, the Party Poker WPT Ireland satellite series includes daily freerolls and cash satellite qualifiers for as little as $1. The series culminates in a weekly WPT Ireland Satellite where 1 seat at the WPT Ireland main event is guaranteed, with more prize package awards likely.

Each Party Poker WPT Ireland prize package is valued at $6,000 and includes the $3,600 buy-in into the main event as well as $1,400 in spending cash, hotel accommodations throughout the stay with breakfast and dinner included and Party Poker’s world famous hospitality. Party Poker will award one of these $6K prize packages to 1 in 20 competitors in its weekly WPT Ireland Satellite, taking place every Sunday at 2:20 pm ET, with a $320 direct buy-in.

You can avoid the direct buy-in by winning a seat through a $33 satellite qualifier. These take place twice every day but Sundays when it takes place once in the form of a Turbo tournament. You can also win seats in this event via a $4 speed sub qualifier or a $1 speed sub qualifier with a rebuy. Finally, you can avoid paying buy-ins into this series altogether by first winning one of Party Poker’s daily WPT Ireland freerolls. These give out seats in the $1 rebuy sub qualifier.

2011 World Series of Poker Main Event Down to the Final Three

Last Updated on

There is always an incredible amount of excitement surrounding the World Series of Poker Main Event, but it is never bigger than early November when the Final Table is set to kick off.  There were nine players who started the day on Sunday, and they played down to three.  Those three will now play until there is only one champion on Tuesday.  The action kicked off at 3:30pm EST, with a fifteen minute delay for the broadcast on ESPN.

The final nine players featured some names that were well-known, and a few that fans had to learn about.  The final nine players looked like this (in order of chip stack to start the day)- Martin Staszko, Eoghan O’Dea, Matt Giannetti, Phil Collins, Ben Lamb, Badih Bounahra, Pius Heinz, Anton Makiievskyi, and Sam Holden.  Each player who finished higher than 8th place was awarded a $1 million payday at least, but the real push was for the $8.7 million first place prize.

The first elimination took quite a while, as all of the players were a bit tight with their chips and wanted to feel out their opponents.  Eventually, it was Sam Holden (who started as the short stack), who ran his A-J into the A-K of Ben Lamb sending him home in 9th.  After that, the eliminations came steadily in around 30-45 minute increments, with Makiievskyi going home as his K-Q couldn’t hold off the pocket 9’s of Pius Heinz.  Heinz began running hot at this point, and was looking good in terms of his chip stack.  It wasn’t long after that elimination though Bounahra’s A-5 pre-flop shove was way behind the A-9 of Staszko.

We were then down to six players before O’Dea made a huge call against Ben Lamb, and had A-9, against the Q-8 of Lamb.  Unfortunately for O’Dea; it just didn’t hold, and Lamb hit an 8 on the river to leave O’Dea with just over 2 big blinds.  He was indeed the next player gone, as he shoved his final chips in to no avail.

Just before we got to the dinner break, we saw one more elimination in the well-known Phil Collins.  Collins pushed his A-7 suited against the 9’s of Heinz, and had both a straight and flush draw after the turn, but was not able to hit anything in the end.  Collins was the 5th place finisher, and we only had one more elimination before they called the day.

One last thing to note before the final elimination, was how much of a turn around that Heinz had.  After the dinner break, he actually won another big pot and had over 100 million chips at this point.  The final knockout came when Matt Giannetti pushed his last 12 million, and showed A-3, but was up against the pocket Kings of Lamb.  The flop gave Lamb quad Kings, and sent Giannetti to the rail.

The three players are set to roll on Tuesday, with Heinz leading the way with over 107 million, Lamb in second with 55 million, and Staszko still very much alive with 42 million.

Las Vegas Casinos and Bwin.Party To Join Forces?

Last Updated on

The big time news just keeps coming recently, and this time it is a potential combo punch between two of the biggest casino operations and the largest online gambling operation.  MGM Resorts International has decided to pair with Boyd Gaming Corporation AND Bwin.Party Digital Entertainment to make a three headed online poker operation in the United States if online poker becomes legalized in the US.  The exact aspects of the deal haven’t been finalized, but it looks like it would benefit the online poker giant Bwin.Party the most, with Boyd Gaming owning 10%, MGM owning 25%, and Bwin.Party owning all the rest of the operation.

Of course, the entire deal depends on what happens with online poker in the United States in the upcoming years.  This really helps out both sides of the deal overall though, because MGM and Boyd will benefit quite a bit from using the Bwin.Party software, and for Bwin; it will get them almost instant entry into the United States gambling market once/if it becomes legalized.  This is huge news for all three, and news that could expand business for them in the future.

Back in 2006, Bwin went along with another online poker company in PartyGaming when they decided to not allow United States based players to play on their site.  One thing that many people actually don’t know about Bwin.Party is that they are the owners of the World Poker Tour as well, so they have been around in the live poker world for a bit now.  This deal has a few issues that the sides will need to deal with, and of course the biggest one of all is figuring out if online poker will even be allowed in the US after Black Friday.

Assuming that online poker does end up legal in the US, this has the potential to be huge for not only the companies, but also for online poker players in general.  The three headed monster between Boyd, Bwin.Party, and MGM has the potential to be massive, and also give players many reasons to join whatever online poker site the three end up creating.

Exclusive Luvin Poker Freerolls

Last Updated on

Holdem Poker Chat is proud to announce weekly freerolls at Luvin Poker.  These events will be held every Wednesday at 9pm eastern time.  Only players who use our link to Luvin Poker will be eligible to play in these exclusive freerolls.

Luvin Poker is a great site that particularly caters to woman poker players.  Ladies should check them out this Monday November 07, 2011 for a special Ladies Only Freeroll with a $100 prize pool.  Luvin Poker also recently announced that all cash ring games in US dollars will have a $1 rake cap.

Ladies Only Freeroll:

site: Luvin Poker
date: Monday November 07, 2011
time: 9:00 pm et
name:Girls Night In- $100 Ladies Only Freeroll
buyin: Freeroll
prize: $100
password: None, gender specific

Weekly Exclusive Holdem Poker Chat Freerolls

site: Luvin Poker
date: Wednesdays for the rest of 2011
time: 9:00 pm et
name: $25 HPC Freeroll
buyin: Freeroll
prize: $25
password: None, only players who signed up through Holdem Poker Chat can register

Holdem Poker Chat looks forward to seeing you at the Luvin Poker tables