After one of the Team PokerStars Pros has a big win, we like to give them a chance to tell us what it was like. Even though he is the newest WPT millionaire, Brazilian Pro Alex Gomes took the time to sit down and tell us what it was like...more
Venice is a tourist magnet, packed with folks snaking their way through the city's winding streets or gliding gracefully along the waterways on a river taxi to see one of countless historical attractions. So when PokerStars revealed this would be the second stop of its Italian Poker Tour, everyone expected...more
by Brad Willis My, they grow up so fast. Just a few short years ago, the Asia Pacific Poker Tour was a smattering of events in the Far East, a short series of tournaments that looked to test the poker waters in that part of the world. Today, even we...more
It's been known as the City of Bridges, the City of Water, and even the City of Light. Now Venice, for a few days at least, can be called the City of Poker, as the PokerStars Italian Poker Tour begins the second leg of its debut season. The first...more
Alas, the sixth season of the European Poker tour will not start in Moscow after all. As the EPT bandwagon began preparations for summer in Russia the government policy on casinos changed effectively ruling out the season opener. But while some were rueing politics others, notably in the PokerStars...more
The concept of poker tourism will never be the same after the first PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown. It's safe to say that not a single visitor to this stunning alpine town, nestled deep in the Southern Alps of New Zealand's South Island, has failed to sample at least one of the...more
John Guthrie is the chip leader heading into the final day of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown Main Event after a dramatic end to day two at SKYCITY Casino. The local winery owner and property developer holds more than 20 per cent of the chips in play (more than 650,000 with...more
Thursday night presented a variety of opportunities for players tuning up ahead of day two in the PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown Main Event. Many players and qualifiers had enjoyed a day's skiing at nearby Coronet Peak before others boarded a taxi for the trip up the mountain later in the...more
ANZPT commish Danny McDonagh is known as one of the most innovative and dynamic tournament directors in the poker world, but we reckon he's almost outdone himself with tomorrow's schedule for day two of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown Main Event. Must be the alpine air! After four day one...more
All the numbers are in for the first PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown Main Event, with a total field of 134 players having been reduced to 91 after four day one flights. Those players are fighting for a share of NZD $303,750, with the winner taking home just over NZD $88,000...more
The chips may be bagged up for the evening in the PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown Main Event, but things are just heating up at SKYCITY Casino. Media and guests have started to arrive for this evening's celebrity event, with local luminaries including TV personality and SKYCITY Auckland poker ambassador Brooke...more
The final drops of rain fell on a wet and woolly Otago day just as players started to leave SKYCITY Casino for the evening after day 1B of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown Main Event. The day 1B field of 35 was whittled down to 28 after five one-hour levels,...more
After a very civilised five one-hour levels, day 1A has been completed in the PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown Main Event - the first major tournament to be played in this idyllic resort town, deep in New Zealand's South Island. A total of 27 players were registered for day 1A, with...more
The sun has started to slip behind Bob's Peak, the statuesque peak that overlooks Queenstown. Not only is 2400-foot Bob's Peak home to the Skyline Gondola (steepest) in the southern hemisphere, it is home to the heart-stopping Ledge Bungy. There are bigger bungy jumps in the region, but this...more
What a contrast - after covering the 2009 WSOP Main Event and single-day fields of almost 3000 players, following the 23 players in action on day 1A of the PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown Main Event is very refreshing. It's more like a home game atmosphere - introductions have been made,...more
What a way to start the day - a stroll along the shores of Lake Wakatipu, a steaming hot latte in the crisp but brilliant sunshine and a midday start for day 1A of the NZD $2500 buy-in PokerStars.net ANZPT Queenstown Main Event. Mornings don't come much better! A...more
By Brad Willis... The World Series of Poker can be discouraging. You can play all month long and barely have anything to show for it. Look at Team PokerStars Pro Alex Gomes. The best win he came away with in the 2009 Series was a $5,300 cash for an...more
From the moment the pilot says to keep an eye out for the glaciers as the Airbus picks it way through a series of 10,000-plus feet snow-capped peaks high over the South Island of New Zealand, you know Queenstown isn't going to be the typical stopover for a poker...more
It started with the sun high in the blue Nevada sky and was ended this evening by a man named Moon. The players, organisers and media expected to finish in the early hours of Thursday with daylight dawning in Las Vegas. Instead it was wrapped up by 11pm. But...more
By Howard Swains... We were 64 and we dreamed of being 27. And true to its billing as the city where dreams are made, Las Vegas brought us to our target in record-quick time, with nary a nip nor tuck nor surgeon's scalpel in sight. The field of the...more
One percent. By Brad Willis When the bombs finally fall, the sun melts the buildings, and the undead roam the plains, the population of the planet will be reduced to one percent of its current bursting-at-the-fault-lines population. It will be up to that one percent to repopulate Earth. Don't worry....more
The day was drawing to a close, we'd lost another 200 players, and the sun was setting on another fine day in the desert. Walking the room was hardly an evening stroll but once Jack Effel came on the mike to announce that this would again be the last...more
It must be nice to be ElkY. On day four of the Main Event of the World Series of Poker, the Frenchman -- Bertrand Grospellier, to the uninitiated -- arrived three minutes late to the Amazon Room, sat down in the big blind and found pocket threes. Already the...more
As of tomorrow what you see is what you get. After six days of play - the combination of four day ones and two day twos - the field unites. The tension will switch up a notch, opponents will eye each other more suspiciously and the careless will catch...more
"Where is ElkY from?" That was just one of the questions bouncing all over media row tonight as reporters began building out their dossiers on Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier. The scramble began just after 10:30pm when ElkY got paid off on a flopped set and became the first player in...more
After four days of disunion and propagation, with players spread through numerous locations nursing mere saplings of chip stacks, today was the day that the scattered woodland took on the shape of a forest. All the disparate day 2a factions came together in the Amazon Room sometime during the...more
There's a group of people who believe the ancient Mayans predicted the world would end on one particular day (December 21, 2012 to be precise). These believers are preparing for End Times as we speak. As that date is less than two years away, we have an idea. We...more
Walking through the hallway of the Rio as the last level of the day got underway, We've gotta get out of this place by the Animals belted out over the PA system, a poignant escort perhaps to those who had fallen in what has been a busy day 1c....more
Day 1b at the 2009 World Series Main Event started with some very familiar words. Sure, Doyle Brunson uttered "Shuffle up and deal," but barely had he done so than an even more regular refrain began to ring out: "All in and call on table X!" The eliminations started...more
Brad Willis reports at the start of the main event... As far as we know, it is not written in any poker bible that every tournament Day 1 must be a blistering marathon that leaves the players a blubbering mess at the end. That understood, never before at the...more
That's all, folks. There are no more preliminary events at the World Series of Poker. If a player hasn't cashed in one yet or still have a seat in one of the two events running today, he is going to have to make his nut in the Main Event....more
Brad Willis with the latest from the Amazon Room... Last night at this time we were reporting that Daniel Negreanu had just hit his seventh cash of the year. Now we can report he's posted his eighth. Negreanu has been multi-tabling the 2-7 game and $5,000 short-handed event all...more