By Howard Swains Today the EPT debuted its season six structure -- rather like a sports team running out for the final game of the year wearing their all-new strip. After one-hour levels through days 1a and 1b, we went to 75 minutes and a whole new selection of...more
With only one level and 120 players left on day 1A of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Sydney Main Event, there's some serious all-in action popping up left, right and centre. Notables still in contention include PokerStars.net Team Australia player Eric Assadourian (69,700), Billy "The Croc" Argyros (86,500) and Jeff Lisandro...more
"It was a tough steak": that was the reply from Bruce Nguyen when we inquired to his whereabouts during the first 20 minutes of level seven on day 1A of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Sydney Main Event. But his extended absence over the dinner break did little to dent his...more
By Landon Blackhall We're fast approaching the dinner break here at Star City Casino in Sydney and as the tournament directors hand out complimentary dinner vouchers, some unfortunates who've been eliminated late in level six face the humiliation of having to actually pay for their dinner at the Michelin...more
Thursday afternoon, midway through day 1A in the PokerStars.net ANZPT - most of the field is grinding away and it's generally pretty quiet. Except for table 13. PokerStars.net Team Australia's sole representative today, Eric Assadourian, has been engaged in some energetic and entertaining banter with fellow Sydneysider and Aussie...more
By Landon Blackhall When a poker tournament is in its early stages, we tend write items to describe the ambience and atmosphere of the room, the general action on the tables; even the odd weird and wonderful hands we witness, as long as we're in the right place at...more
By Landon Blackhall As the players take the opportunity to stretch their legs during the first break of the day, we grabbed a quick chat with Karl Krautschneider. He'll always hold a special place in ANZPT history as the tour's inaugural champion after a three-day battle at SKYCITY Adelaide...more
In a room full of Aussies, the Scandinavian accent of Soren Eriksen stands out dramatically. One of the few internationals in today's PokerStars.net ANZPT field, Eriksen is originally from Denmark but now resides in New Zealand. Earlier this month, he won his adopted nation's national title when he took...more
Who better than Sydney's own Eric Assadourian to issue the order to shuffle up and deal in the PokerStars.net ANZPT Sydney Main Event here at Star City. The PokerStars.net Team Australia player, who won the 2007 APPT Macau High Roller event, heads an impressive list of players who've joined...more
Half a world away from the spring sunshine radiating down on the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, the Australasian poker spotlight returns to Sydney for the second event in the inaugural season of the PokerStars.net Australia New Zealand Poker Tour (ANZPT). We're at Star City Casino in Sydney,...more
By Stephen Bartley Yesterday it was Bertrand Grospellier, today it was the European Poker Tour itself setting the records. While yesterday "ElkY" played more than 60 tables at the same time online, the EPT nearly did the same in the real world - 54 tables, packed into the tournament...more
By Howard SwainsAs the seconds ticked down this afternoon to the start of the EPT Grand Final in Monte Carlo, the vast roof atop the Sporting Club conference centre cracked in the middle and gradually slid open, bathing the tournament arena in glorious sunlight and revealing a place that most...more
The EPT main event in San Remo has been a triumph from the start, and the final table - one of tension, high-wire hands and enough unpredictable aggression to keep everyone guessing - gave the Italian Riviera the send off it deserved. The principal reason was a 20-year-old student from...more
If you'd have blinked any time over the past couple of days on the Italian Riviera, you would have missed anything between 10 and 25 eliminations from the largest European Poker Tour event in its five-year history. More than a thousand started and now more than a thousand have departed....more
When players reconvened this afternoon tournament organisers were undecided about how many levels to play. Thomas Kremser ultimately opted for playing down to 32, regardless of how long that took. But it soon became apparent that "long" was the wrong word. In less than five hours 124 players became...more
At the start of the day, we made a prediction. We said that day two of EPT San Remo would be utter carnage, citing a few years of experience as evidence, coupled with numerous relative short stacks among the 400-plus remaining players, plus an innate tendency among the indigenous to...more
It's hard to say the story of day 1b in San Remo was any different to yesterday. Just when you thought a tournament field couldn't get in any bigger, a new crowd arrived equally charged, enthused and ready to disregard the hopes and dreams of another for the sake...more
by Change100 and Brad Willis For this Nitsche, God is not dead. Dominic Nitsche is 18 years old. He is still in high school. Heck, he may have some homework to finish after this. And after playing in his first ever live tournament, he's an LAPT champion. After he...more
We don't know what to say. This hardly ever happens to us. We don't know how to react when it happens this fast. It usually lasts a lot longer. We promise. Somehow we managed to dispatch 52 players in less than seven hours of playing time. Using the word "somehow"...more
Our colleagues working for the EPT website recently came by to ask what were the biggest news stories from day 1a at EPT San Remo. It was a fair question -- there were no huge world superstars at the top of the chip ladder, no Team PokerStars Pro thrashing their...more
This is a live blog of the LAPT Mar del Plata Grand Final, brought to you by bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. This post will updated on a regular basis. Click refresh for the latest information. Blinds 1,500-3,000/300 Last updated: 3:48pm 3:48pm--Mark Ioli seizes the chip lead With a K♥J♥7♣...more
This is a live blog of the LAPT Mar del Plata Grand Final, brought to you by bloggers Brad Willis and Change100. This post will updated on a regular basis. Click refresh for the latest information. Blinds 1,000-2,000/150 Last updated: 1:20pm 1:34pm-- Adios, Senor Rosenkrantz Costa Rican poker legend...more
Outside the Casino Central, it was a sparkling, sunny day. Cool ocean breezes announced the arrival of fall. Couples walked hand in hand down the Avenida Peralta Ramos, enjoying their Friday afternoon. Sea lions barked a few meters offshore. But inside the poker room, a man sat with an...more
We're getting close to the end and the evening is paralleling last night pretty well. There was post-supper craziness followed by a food come lull followed by a dramatic lock-down by the people looking to make Day 2. A few minutes ago, we saw two nearly identical hands with quite...more
It seemed like hours ago when Chris Moneymaker sidled up to Joe Hachem's table, joking that he needed to bust quickly because they needed three more players for a satellite out in the poker room. Oh wait... it was. Hachem was short-stacked then, but managed to survive for several...more
Alas, there is now but one Brenes remaining in the field. Short-stacked for some time now, Humberto Brenes moved all in for roughly 12,000 and the action was folded to David Schechter on the button, who went into a lengthy think. "I have a good hand, Humberto" he said....more
So, Team PokerStars Pro Maria "maridu" Mayrinck busted yesterday during Day 1A, but that doesn't mean she is forgotten. In fact, she's pretty easy to remember, what with her playing a side tournament right in front of us. Since she wasn't able to stick around for long yesterday, the PokerStars...more
Alexandre Gomes didn't exactly get the easiest table draw today. He started the day with Veronica Dabul and Leo Fernandez on his immediate left and though Dabul busted a few hours ago on the baddest of beats, Fernandez is still well in this thing with over 31,000 in chips....more
Greatness is not simply a matter of survival. Greatness comes from prospering while others merely struggle to stay afloat. While your countrymen tiptoe around expandiing sinkholes, you build high rises. It's not necessarily the Art of War, but we're only talking about poker, so it'll do. That is simply...more
If there's one thing we've learned about Leo Fernandez today, it's this. The man is a short-stack ninja. Crippled to only 1,100 in chips only moments after cards went in the air when his flopped two pair were outdrawn on the turn, Fernandez didn't allow that early beat to...more
Earlier today, we brought you the story of Zach Hall, the man with the umbrella on his head. Frankly, simply having an umbrella-headed kid in the house is reason enough to come to these things. Still, we like having a bit of an explanation for the sartorial decision. With...more
We can't pinpoint exactly what's happened, but the Central Casino's matrix just went loopy. In the past 15 minutes, the word "hot-blooded' as been uttered more than a couple times. After one and half days of play, this room is finally coming unglued. People are screaming, cursing, and trying to...more
Roberto Brenes is the smallest, youngest, and by far the quietest member of the Brenes clan. Though he picked up the family last-longer honors in his last LAPT appearance in Vina del Mar, Chile, he unfortunately will not be able to claim that title again here at the LAPT Grand...more
Dennis Phillips did not look like a happy man. Standing behind his chair with his head slightly bowed, the slice of felt in front of him now devoid of chips, Phillips showed all the signs of a man who had just been busted on some sort of horrible beat....more
We have just received the final numbers for the Latin American Poker Tour Grand Final in Argentina. The $5,200 buy-in drew 291 players for a total prize pool of $1,411,350. Those who make the money are guaranteed more than $14,000. First prize will pick up $387,030. The top 27...more
Presently it's clear and sunny over the beaches of Mar del Plata, but should clouds move in we know one man who has come prepared for a sudden downpour. Meet PokerStars online qualifier Zach Hall, a young American who traveled over 6,500 miles from his New Hampshire home to...more
It took a couple guys with a high-tech abacus, but the final number of entrants are in. Day 1A saw 140 players belly up for the eleven levels of play. Today, 151 will play the exact same amount of time. If you take the time to do the addition, you'll...more
It's that time again, folks where we chronicle the adventures of Costa Rica's royal family of poker. One is a boisterous, camera-loving shark aficionado. Another is a quiet WPT champion. And another yet is already traveling the LAPT at the tender age of eighteen. Behold, the return of BrenesWatch!...more
Cards went in the air moments ago here on Day 1B of the LAPT Grand Final and though there isn't quite the media circus that we witnessed 24 hours ago when Boris Becker sat down to play, the room is filled nearly to capacity with Latin American poker's best...more
It was awkward. We'll admit that from the outset. A couple nights ago, we saw a man dressed in all black standing on the periphery of the PokerStars welcome party. He wore a black fedora that seemed a little too familiar. Who was that man in the chapeau? We'd...more
If you go to the southern tip of Argentina, you can see the end of the world. If you go to Mar del Plata, you can see the end of the Latin Americann Poker Tour's second season. If you go to the end of this day, however, it's a long,...more
Vanessa Machado is used to being stared at. It comes with the territory in front of the camera and on the runway, where she's built a successful career. Cutting a striking figure at the table, the raven-haired Brazilian model/actress has been fighting on a short stack for some time now....more
Jorge Landazuri doesn't do things the easy way. Consider his journey to Argentina. The young man from Matlazan, Mexico did not pay a peso to enter this $5,200 event. Instead, he qualified on a PokerStars.net freeroll. Know what he got when he won that? Yep, an entry into another PokerStars.net...more
Normally, we'd call this rundown, but for reasons that will soon become very obvious, we've chosen another title. Here's a quick chop-chop massage version of what's happening in the room at this hour. Players are on break as we head into Level 9. Fifty-two out of the initial 140 players...more
In the course of covering Season 2 of the LAPT, we've run into Team PokerStars Pro Dennis Phillips in some odd places. A passport control line at Santiago airport. The business class lounge at Montevideo International. And most recently, a shuttle bus in Mar del Plata. Phillips is an...more
David Wagener is another PokerStars qualifier that finds himself a long way from home. A LONG way. Wagener hails from Germany, and by qualifying for events on PokerStars, has been able to travel the world. Last winter, he found himself in Sydney, Australia, where he first met Chris Moneymaker....more
Four days ago, Brandon Demes was home in Arizona, grinding his way through a capped field of 256 in the SCOOP $2,600 Heads-Up NLHE event. Demes ended up finishing third, good for a $51,200 infusion to his bankroll and today finds himself in Argentina-- 6,000 miles away from home,...more
It really didn't look good for Damian Salas. Though the man we call Jude Law has a third place finish on the LAPT, he didn't look good for a long day. We can only guess, he avoided the superpancho at dinner and got some run-good fuel (or, the local...more
It's dinner time. Actually, for Argentinians, we think this is more like lunch, but we're not going to parse eating traditions. As far as Tournament Director Mike Ward is concerned, this is the time at which we dine. Fewer than 80 people remain in Day 1A. Because of the...more
Travis Pettey is a long way from San Diego. After bubbling several satellites to the LAPT Grand Final, Pettey decided to bite the bullet and buy in... with the plethora of Frequent Player Points he had accumulated from playing some of the highest buy-in cash games on PokerStars. With...more
Twenty-two minutes remained on the clock before the break. Chris Moneymaker sat stone-faced his table, sandwiched in the nine-seat between the dealer and Boris Becker's significant other, Lilly Kerssenberg. Moneymaker wasn't even supposed to be here today. He was initially signed up for Day 1B. He was on our...more
"I ran so bad in SCOOP so I have to win this one, right?" said Maria "Maridu" Mayrinck as she clutched a cocktail at last night's welcome party. Wearing a printed kimono-style dress and metallic birdcage wedges, the always-fashionable Maridu had her "Team Pro" patch affixed to a vintage...more
"Jude Law is here!" It's a common cry on the Latin American Poker Tour. The man we call Jude is, in fact, Damian Salas (an almost-dead ringer for the actor) He came in third place in Chile and has been a familiar face on the LAPT for some time....more
Our photographer Joe Giron provides us with pictures that are worth more than 1,000 words. That much is clear. Unheralded though are the guys behind the video camera who provided us with thousands of pictures strung together into some great video worth...well, you do the math. Here's the video...more
Even champions can fault from time to time. Especially when your opponent turns out to be slow-playing a monster hand. Becker called a 300 chip raise from his opponent and the two saw a flop of 8♣6♦4♥. Facing a bet of 600 on the flop, Becker shuffled his chips for...more
Cards went in the air only moments ago and as the first hand was dealt, every camera in the room was fixated on one table. Still and video lenses created a nearly impenetrable ring around the slice of felt housing Boris Becker, the rail full of fans behind him all...more
This is how the end begins. It has been a long road, one that traveled from San Jose, Costa Rica to Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. It then turned farther south, to Vina del Mar, Chile and then cross-continent to Punta del Este, Uruguay. For many people, they were long, thankless hours...more
PokerStars are pleased to announce a special star-studded addition to its European Poker Tour grand final festival in the Ante Up For Africa charity tournament. The tournament will raise money for the current humanitarian relief efforts in crisis-torn Darfur on the eve of the season five finale in Monte Carlo....more
It's been a month of new faces to Team PokerStars Pro. First the not so unknown Johnny Lodden signed up to those of the red spade, then the likely lads of World Champion Peter Eastgate and his World Series rival Ivan Demidov. Well there are some more ready to hoist...more
Following news that Johnny Lodden had joined the ranks of Team PokerStars Pro two more of poker's most recognisable names have done the same, and if you caught any of the coverage of last November's World Series main event final table you might recognise the faces as well. With two...more