November 2010 Archives

What we commonly know as shootouts--in the Wild West or even in the 'Hood--are invariably speedy affairs. The quickest on the draw is usually the winner; he who hesitates is lost. But although poker has provided and borrowed many idioms from common parlance, a shootout in the card-playing sense is...more

Some days a player just can't help but win. This was that day for Joe Tehan. If he took a coinflip, he won. If he got in behind against two players, he found the winning combination of cards. There was simply no stopping the man, and that's why he is...more

5.35pm: Level over That's the end of level 27, and here are the latest counts: Joe Tehan - 11,105,000 Van Nguyen - 955,000 Al Grimes - 1,270,000 Ray Henson - 1,565,000 Chris DeMaci - 6,600,000 As you can see, Joe Tehan is the big boss. 5.30pm: Grimes grinding it out...more

The jokes had been floating around the NAPT Los Angeles Main Event for days. Added to the schedule at the eleventh hour, the Bounty Shootout would be held at the Crystal Casino, a Los Angeles-area gaming establishment located 15 miles south of downtown in the city of Compton. Some folks...more

The final table of NAPT Los Angeles will begin at 2pm at the Crystal Casino, Compton. NAPT Los Angeles final table players Seat 1: Jake Toole, 21, State College, PA Jake Toole is a 21-year-old student from State College, Pennsylvania. A former tennis player at Penn State University, Toole...more

If ever a single hand can set a tone for an entire day of poker, we saw it here on day four of NAPT Los Angeles - and then watched in disbelief as the startling early promise was realized. The hand in question came within the first orbit of the...more

7:58pm: Fabiano Michael eliminated in 2nd place; Young-shin Im is the first female champion in APPT history! After an extensive heads-up battle, Fabiano Michael and Young-shin Im somehow got 4 million chips in the pot pre-flop. Michael started by opening the button to 150,000, a raise of 100,000. Im...more

7:14pm: Break Level 25 has ended. Young-shin Im and Fabiano Michael have been sent on a ten-minute break. 7:05pm: A rare showdown It really is slow going here in this heads-up battle. Young-shin Im seems to have gone into her shell after being quite aggressive once this table got...more

4:49pm: Break time again The last three players have reached the next scheduled break. When they come back we'll be posting updates in a new post. 4:35pm: Family feud While we don't expect to see anything that will challenge the integrity of the game with our couple Young-shin Im and...more

2:37pm: Break time The remaining five players are on a break. 2:34pm: Basilios Diakokomninos eliminated in 6th place American player and PokerStars Qualifier Basilios Diakokomninos open-shoved his last 113,000 into the middle preflop. Kim Gap Young was quick to call as the remaining players stepped aside. "I only saw...more

Day 3 of NAPT Los Angeles was not a great day to have "chip leader" attached to your name. If at any point a scribbling blogger counted down your stack and decided you now had more chips than anybody else, it seemed certain you would lose half if not...more

9:46pm: Demaci: "I run decent" There might have been someone across the street at Jamba Juice who didn't know, but everybody in this room knew Christopher Demaci and Mike Leah were about to get it all-in pre-flop for a big one. Only question was what they had. That was revealed...more

6.45pm: Level over That's the end of level 20. Join us in a sparkling new post for levels 21&22. 6:44pm: Karp almost belly-up With a button-raise behind him, Steven Karp moved all-in from the small blind. Bad timing for him, as Mark Ader woke up in the big blind with...more

3:58: Level 18 done With 48 players remaining, the tournament is on break. We'll be moving to a new live updates post which you can find on the homepage. 3.45pm: Porter done Rep Porter is out. He had a short stack and got it all in with small connectors, 6♠7♥,...more

Here's the seat draw for day three at the NAPT Los Angeles event at the Bicycle Casino, Los Angeles. The plan on day three is to play seven 75-minute levels - the same as day two. The plan on day four is to reduce the field to a final table...more

After three days of intense action on the poker felt of the Shangri La Mactan Resort and Spa in Cebu in the Philippines, our field of 236 have been reduced to the final nine in the PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event. It's a diverse mix of players with seven different...more

As the clouds rolled in and the thunderstorms arrived in Cebu, we thought all was safe inside the comforts of our humble poker tent at the Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa. The tournament floor today provided us with a few lulls in action but a couple enormous storms swept...more

7:05pm: Our final table is set! That's it from the Shangri-La Mactan Resort for today as we've reached the final table of nine in the PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event. Here's how they will line up for the final table tomorrow: Seat 1: Richard En - 198,000 Seat 2: Jukka...more

6:45pm: Ten-minute break 6:44pm: Rosen picks off another bluff A memo to all remaining players in the tournament: Mikael Rosen will own your soul. Rosen's been the player most capable of snapping off a bluff today and he's caught another bluffer. Rosen check-called a bet of 50,000 from Raymond Lapitan...more

Talk to an Angeleno for more than about five minutes and the chances are you'll be discussing traffic. Much like the weather to Brits or iPhones to anyone who owns an iPhone, traffic is a tedious consuming obsession to the denizens of Southern California. "The freeway was pretty clear this...more

11:16pm: Night night The clock has ticked down to zero and the chip are falling in the bags. We'll have a wrap up and chip counts in a bit. 10:53: Say hello to your new chip leader Amidst the carnage that followed the bubble, Jimmie Guinther has emerged as the...more

4:30pm: Ten-minute break 4:29pm: Valero doesn't make the break On the final hand before the players took their break, Roberto Vincent Valero was all in once again, this time with A♥K♦ up against the J♥9♣ of Kim Gab Yong. The board ran out 9♠2♦Q♦T♥8♥ to give Yong a straight and...more

2:15pm: Ten-minute break 2:10pm: En pays back Hinrichsen "Now I feel like I don't owe you anymore," Richard En told Andy Hinrichsen after their last battle. "We're even." Hinrichsen had moved all in pre-flop for 52,700 with A♠Q♥ and was called by En's 8♠8♥. It was an ace in the...more

Tournament poker can be a long and arduous adventure, with many tiring days spent slugging it out on the green felt in the hope of heading home with a profit. For some, the riches make it all very rewarding, but for others it's a ruthlessly painful battle that may be...more

3:45pm: Players on break Level 11 has come to a close. Players are off to break. We'll be closing out this update post and starting a new one on the homepage in a matter of minutes. 3.30pm: Middleton back at the top Tom Middleton is back in charge of this...more

3:45pm: Players on break Level 11 has come to a close. Players are off to break. We'll be closing out this update post and starting a new one on the homepage in a matter of minutes. 3.30pm: Middleton back at the top Tom Middleton is back in charge of this...more

This morning, the breakfast buffet at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, Los Angeles, served cantaloupe and pineapple in chunks, rather than the slices it had offered on the previous two days. It's a largely irrelevant observation, banal even, but it allows us to say that today's poker (much like that cantaloupe...more

Our field of 236 entrants has been reduced to just 35 players who will return on Day 3 of the PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event. Only 28 will reach the money as they then strive to reach a final table berth by the day's end. Here's how they will lineup...more

Pound for pound, Manny Pacquiao may be the greatest boxer of this generation. He is the pride of the Philippines, a boxer who began his career as a light flyweight and has captured world championships in eight different weight classes. Where some boxers try to slug it out, Pacquiao...more

8:22pm: Play concludes Day 2 is done. Korean Kim Gab Yong is the far-and-away chip leader with a count of 393,600. No other player has more than 250,000. Look for a complete recap of the Day 2 events -- and chip counts of all the survivors -- later tonight....more

7:07pm: Last break of the day The players are once again on a break. They'll play one more level tonight. 7:04pm: King Yoon Daren Yoon entered today with just 8,050 chips for one of the shortest stacks in the room. But he turned it around in remarkable style, riding...more

4:57pm: Break time Players are on their second break of the day. 4:43pm: Battle of the Ashes brewing We wandered over to check on the progress of our last remaining Team PokerStars Pro, Australian Tony Hachem, and caught him in the middle of a three-way hand. Hachem fired 2,600...more

There's a reason people live here. A reason that nearly ten million souls crowd the freeways, boulevards, and hillsides of Los Angeles County. Some come seeking stardom, others chasing a different sort of California dream. They breathe in the smog, fight the traffic, pay $7 for valet parking, brace themselves...more

11:12pm: Day 1B complete Day 1B is now over. We're nailing down the chip leaders right now and will have a full wrap-up in just a bit. 10:39pm: Negreanu has heart With a limp in front of him, Daniel Negreanu made it 3,700 to play. He got calls in both...more

2:44pm: Break time Players are on a ten-minute break. Enjoy the rain, guys and gals! 2:39pm: And now, a thunderstorm As we've mentioned a few times, the tournament is being held in a tent in a back corner of the Shangri-La Mactan property. We're also in what is essentially...more

Day 2 of the 2010 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event starts with a PokerStars qualifier in the chip lead, several Team Pros circling the top of the counts, and the focus of the entire Filipino nation on a 24-foot-by-24-foot patch of Dallas, Texas. Improbably, for the second year in...more

5:27: Break time Players are on a 15-minute break. We'll be closing out this post and moving on to a fresh one to start Level 5. You'll find that on the top of the home page in just a few minutes. 5:20pm: Too Little too late Markus Gonsalves opened...more

The people who have done this kind of tournament directing before have a mental barometer for how these tournaments work. Said barometers are now pointing toward "bigger," as in, bigger than yesterday, bigger than the last tournament, bigger than expected. Oh, there are good reasons for it. Today is Saturday,...more

The 2010 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event attracted a total number of 236 entrants. 37 players survived Day 1a while 89 made it safely through Day 1b, as the remaining 126 players will return tomorrow for Day 2 action. Here's how they will line up: Table 1 Seat: 1: Joe...more

For many of the 236 players who ventured to Cebu this week, their time here was about more than just a poker tournament. With the Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa offering so much off-the-felt action, the APPT Cebu is a truly the ultimate in poker-travel destinations. Win some flips and...more

7:20pm: Day 1b is in the books That brings an end to our day here at the PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event. It looked like the chip lead was going to be with Richard En but it was the late surge of local Filipino Ronaldo "Mike" Puno that took the...more

11.20pm: Done Day 1A of NAPT Los Angeles is over. Nicholas Gripo is the chip leader with 235,100, marginally ahead of Thomas Middleton, whose quads in the last few hands took a huge chunk out of Matt Woodward. 11:10pm: Middleton's quads decimate Woodward We only saw this one on the...more

It's a well-worn story that has the starry-eyed optimist make his or her way across the western United States to a city that can turn simple copywriters into the world's biggest stars. It is, too, a long-told tale that has those hopefuls doing little more than turning into the city's...more

5:10pm: Ten-minute break 5:08pm: Celina bids farewell On the final hand before the break, we lost one of our PokerStars Team Asia Pros in Celina Lin. Lin was battling with a short stack for most of the last level, but finally succumbed when her last chips went in on a...more

3:00pm: Ten-minute break 2:58pm: Van mucks perfect-perfect Joe Cabret has been eliminated when his last chips were in preflop with Q♦Q♠ against an opponent's K♣K♥, as Van Marcus claimed to have folded two black tens. The flop was a rather dramatic 5♣Q♥K♦ to give both players a set, but the...more

The morning after the night before. The feeling around the breakfast buffet this morning was definitely one of lethargy following an amazing beach party last night here at the Shangri-La Mactan Resort in Cebu. Hundreds of people filled the beach and enjoyed some of the best food around, free drinks...more

5.30pm: Level done That's the end of level four, and players are heading away for a 15 minute break. 5.15pm: Annette tackles the big stack It'll take more than a 140,000 chip stack to frighten Annette Obrestad, and she just demonstrated her willingness to tangle with the tournament chip...more

If ever there was a city designed to host a poker tournament, it is Los Angeles, California. Ever since movie moguls descended on this particular wandering sprawl sometime in the 1920s, more wannabes have landed here with a dream than perhaps any other city in the world. For a lucky...more

Andrew Hinrichsen has been around the poker tour for the last two years. In that time he's acquired a few 1st-place finishes, a few 2nd-place finishes, and a handful of other cashes. One thing that has eluded him, however, is that holy grail to professional poker players - the six-figure...more

6:41pm: The chip bags are out Day 1A of the 2010 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event is complete. Of the 75 players that started the day, it looks like 42 have made it through to Day 2. They're headed by Andrew Hinrichsen, who bagged up 124,900 in chips. He...more

4:31pm: Break time again We've reached the second break. Players will return in 10 minutes to play the last two levels of the day. 4:21pm: Grigg tames the wolf With a raise from Tom Grigg before him, Michael Wolf moved all in for his last 6,200 with A♣K♥. Grigg...more

2:20pm: Break time! Two levels are in the books. Players are on their first ten-minute break of the day. 2:05pm: Le Jossec flushes two Our early chip leader is Canadian Gabriel Le Jossec after a brutal and rather bizarre hand saw a double knockout to leave Le Jossec behind...more

It's a beautiful morning here in Cebu at the Shangri-La Mactan Resort and Spa, with brilliant blue skies, balmy 90F (32C) sunshine and lush green tropical surroundings everywhere the eye can see. The staff are hard at work preparing for Day 1A of the 2010 PokerStars.net Asia Pacific Poker...more

Poker in paradise. It's a simple statement but one which offers so much to the hundreds of poker players, staff, media and the odd WAG (wives and girlfriends), who have found their way to Cebu in the Philippines for the fourth stop on Season Four of the PokerStars.net Asia Pacific...more

"It's a dream come true right now," Jonathan Duhamel said. That dream? Winning the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event. There will be those who look at how the 23-year-old PokerStars.net player started the final table and make the logical jump that the Canadian's road to victory this...more

by RPS staff Friederich Dollenz, 47, won £104,484.00 in the late hours of Saturday at the final table of RPS Sharm-El-Sheikh. Dollenz beat a field of 212 players here in Sharm-El-Sheikh, where the Russian Poker Series generated a massive €380,434.00 prize pool. His heads-up opponent was from Ernst Hermans from...more

by RPS staff After three days of play, the Russian Poker Series event in Sharm-El-Sheikh Egypt is down to the final table. Thirty-six players started on Day 3 and played well into Friday morning before reaching the final nine players. Among the notable players finishing in the money: Alexander Nudin:...more

by Russian Poker Series staff After nine hours of play, the field of 124 players that started Day 2 has been reduced to 36. Those runners now move on to Day 3 where most will make the money in Sharm-El-Sheikh. Evgenij Agafonov from Russian Federation began the day with 64,725...more

The Russian Poker Series event in Sharm-El-Sheikh Egypt kicked off today with a field of 212 runners playing for a €380,434 prize pool. Among the those sitting down today were Team PokerStars Pros Ivan Demidov, Maxim Likov, Vadim Markushevskiy, Jose Ignacio Barbero, and Angel Guillen. Each one of them began...more