April 2012 Archives

Usually the discussion in media row during major championship final tables drifts towards comparisons with final tables that we've covered in the past. "This could be a short final table. Do you remember how fast Michael Kanaan won at ANZPT Sydney?" "I've never covered a long final table. Maybe this...more

The early stages of heads-up play definitely favored Nick Wong, the Hong Kong-based player who has made a name for himself in Asia-based high roller events. He was the one pushing the action, raising and check-raising Hoang Anh Do. Do seemed to be playing cautiously, despite starting with a 3-to-1...more

Well, that was tough going. Michael Kanaan was eliminated in 4th place at around 5pm local time. It's now just ticked past 8pm, but finally we have our final two combatants decided. It will be Nick Wong versus Hoang Anh Do for the APPT Cebu title after the gallant fight...more

You might have noticed that we haven't posted anything in the last few hours. After the elimination of Michael Kanaan in fourth place two and a half hours ago, the remaining three players have shown remarkable resiliency. First Alistair Duff seemed marked for death. He got all in against Nick...more

Penthouse to outhouse - a famous phrase that's probably overused but perfectly describes the last 90 minutes for Michael Kanaan. After winning a key flip with ace-queen against Amit Varma's jacks, Kanaan was in control with close to 2 million of the 4.92 million chips in play. Varma slipped into...more

It hasn't been a great day for our friends from India. They were flying high yesterday, but such is the nature of tournament poker, it's all come crashing down today with the recent elimination of overnight chip leader Amit Varma snuffing the torch in their quest for APPT glory. It...more

There are no friends at the poker table, it's been said, but from the media desk we can certainly sympathize with some players. Today our sympathy goes squarely to Sameer Rattonsey of India. Sameer started the day second in chips, behind fellow Indian Amit Varma. He seemed on the edge...more

We've thoroughly enjoyed watching Jacky Wang ply his trade here in Cebu this week. He's a likable character and extremely friendly both on and off the tables. He's always happy to have a chat and usually does it with a big smile on his face. He's also an entertaining player...more

Jae Kyung "Simba" Sim started Day 4 as one of the short stacks. He sat quietly, patiently, his chips dwindling rapidly, as he waited for Antoine Amourette to bust in 9th place. Simba's patience was rewarded after 15 hands, as we described to you earlier this afternoon. Yet still Simba...more

When we kicked off play at the APPT Cebu Main Event final table this afternoon, all eyes were on the short-stacked Antoine Amourette. He was coming into today with just 50,000 in chips, or a little over four big blinds, after a crippling blow late last night when his pocket...more

No parties last night. No lechon. No mangoes prepared in a thousand different ways or juiced into tasty alcoholic beverages. Nobody vomiting out the windows of taxicabs or cracking their heads open on stone fountains. Today is final table day at the 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event, and for...more

After three days of solid poker, the 246 players have been reduced to the official final table of nine. When they return they'll be fighting it out for the PHP5,927,000 first place prize, and of course, the APPT Cebu Main Event title. Here's a little more about our final table...more

Once upon a time, someone who was a far better poker player than I described no-limit hold'em as hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror. And while we won't say that the extended final table bubble at the 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event was boring, it certainly...more

The Indians are passionate people. They know what they love, and they love what they know. Just look at their passion towards another great game in cricket. It's a religion in India, and Sachin Tendulkar is their God. Well, we might be starting to see the dawning of a new...more

It takes a certain kind of personality to be a talker at the poker table. Most people, when placed in stressful situations where a single decision could be the different in hundreds of thousands of dollars, clam up tight as a snare drum. You put the withering gaze of Phil...more

We're down to 18 players as the players head on their first break of the day. Poring over my table draw (rife with scratches as each successive player busts), I noticed a surprising distribution of nationalities left in the event. Take a look: Australia - 5 Korea - 3 India...more

Over the years we've seen some entertaining, outlandish and just plain confusing characters at the poker tables. It's what makes the game so great. People from all backgrounds, all walks of life and incredibly diverse personalities coming together with a common interest in poker. When I think about the game's...more

Poker being what it is, the well-known professionals are not always the players with the big stacks in the late stages of a poker tournament. In fact, poker being what it is, they're not even often the big stacks. The rub is that unheralded players get some exposure and a...more

If you weren't looking (and I'm willing to bet that some of you weren't), it's been a lot of fun and games the last few days at the 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event. But late yesterday the elimination of Mikko Turtiainen popped the money bubble at the Casino Filipino...more

It was another day in paradise, but for 128 players it was business as usual as Day 2 of the APPT Cebu Main Event got underway at the Waterfront Hotel and Casino. The goal was to survive eight levels or reach the money. The prop bets in media row set...more

Come to any APPT event and it will be impossible for you to miss a tall, fit fellow in a suit and tie scurrying around the tournament floor. His accent gives him away as an Aussie, though from his last name - McDonagh - you might never guess that until...more

Team PokerStars Pro Asia is made up of four incredibly friendly faces and talented poker players: Bryan Huang, Vivian Im, Celina Lin and Raymond Wu. All four came to Cebu for this year's Main Event. Bryan didn't manage to make it out of Day 1 after losing with queens to...more

The first APPT event I ever covered was back in Season 2 at Macau. At the time I was working for PokerNews. That event was remarkable for any number of reasons, and you'd certainly have to include a bubble hand played by David Steicke among them. On the bubble, in...more

It's widely known and accepted that the casino industry is a well-refined, exact science. Everything from the layout, the furniture, the games, the lights and the music are all choreographed in a manner that ensures you have fun while the casinos make money. Every little detail is part of a...more

You made it to Day 2. Congratulations. If nothing else, it's a moral victory. You might have been worried that you were going to do something silly with ace-jack in Level 1 of Day 1, but you've proven that you can hang with the big dogs in the big...more

It's another glorious day here in Cebu. A picture postcard 31 degrees Celsius with stunning sunshine and blue skies. It's a wonderful day for the beach or pool, which I'm sure is what many of our eliminated players will be doing today. Suddenly the pain of being eliminated from...more

It's another glorious day here in Cebu. A picture postcard 31 degrees Celsius with stunning sunshine and blue skies. It's a wonderful day for the beach or pool, which I'm sure is what many of our eliminated players will be doing today. Suddenly the pain of being eliminated from...more

For the Day 1c players, six levels are in the books. For the staff and the bloggers, 18 levels are in the books. And after 18 levels, the only thing that's clear at the 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event is the weather. It's far too soon to be making...more

Few people think of casinos as palaces of culture. They can be glitzy and they can be glamorous but you're not going to flock to your closest gambling hall if you want to learn about local history or French impressionist painting - unless you happen to live in Cebu, Philippines...more

The poker culture in the Philippines has been lively and thriving since the first time the APPT set foot in the country, during the Season 1 event in Manila in 2007. Filipinos, like many people in other parts of the world, have taken to the game with passion and fervor,...more

We're into the third level of the day here on Day 1c of the APPT Cebu Main Event with 116 players registered in action this afternoon. We should have the official prize pool announcement for you shortly. It's the biggest field of the three opening flights and includes some highly...more

I was IMing with a friend this morning, telling her about what's been happening in Cebu the last few days. She said to me, "It sounds more like you are on vacation than on a work trip." And that was before I told her about the Battle of Mactan festival...more

It was another perfect night in Cebu. Warm without being too humid, a gentle touch of a breeze with not a cloud in the sky. During the daytime, it's certainly a treat to be outside in the glorious sun, but it's the evenings where Cebu really comes alive. So what...more

It's Day 1c at the 2012 PokerStars.net APPT Cebu Main Event. For the players who take their seats today, the experience will be fresh. For the staff and your erstwhile bloggers, we're already settling into our routines. But even we are having to adapt. A very late appearance at the...more

With bleary-eyed poker travellers starting to slowly filter into The Philippines we were expecting a larger turnout for today's second flight of the APPT Cebu Main Event. And that's what we got. After a slow start we found ourselves with an official field of 76 runners today, comprising mostly of...more

As I start this post, there are 54 players remaining in the Day 1b field from the starting 76. As I glanced out at their faces, a healthy mix of mainly Caucasians and Asians, I thought about how far the APPT has come since Seasons 1 and 2. In those...more

There are positives and there are negatives when the turnout for a Day 1 flight of a poker tournament is less than 100 people. Among the positives: it's very easy to determine exactly how many players in the field are female. I know we harp on this seemingly meaningless gender...more

If it seems that we at the PokerStarsBlog are fixated on food at times, well, it's because we are. Of course we enjoy the poker aspects of traveling the circuit with PokerStars. We love watching unheralded players make surprising runs, love studying the pros as they ply their trade in...more

It's a pretty loaded field here today with plenty of Asia's finest players in attendance with the big screen currently showing 76 entrants for Day 1b of the APPT Cebu Main Event. We have previous champions, online pros, sponsored players and even a couple of Team Poker Stars Pros here...more

Due to some unresolved internet issues, the Day 1b intro post for the 2012 APPT Cebu Main Event is going to be more inelegant - and shorter - than I would prefer. But as a Filipino IT person puzzled over the machines and internet connections of both Heath Chick and...more

When there are two Day 1 flights at an APPT Main Event, players tend to get lackadaisical about which one they're going to play. One things leads to another, and more wind up playing Day 1b than Day 1a. With three Day 1 flights here in Cebu, many of the...more

Look, I'll speak plainly. When I travel on behalf of PokerStars, I take pains to find the positive in the places I go. I'm being paid not only to give the readers a flavor of the room that you can't get out of hand updates, but also to demonstrate that...more

The dream, when you register for a big buy-in poker tournament like the APPT Cebu Main Event, is to take the thing down for a major score. Fly halfway around the world, play like a beast, and fly home a few hundred thousand dollars richer. That's the dream. The reality...more

With the Day 1a field now officially locked out at a rather disappointing 51 players, we are starting to wonder whether we'll need to play the full seven levels that were originally scheduled for today. I mean, let's be honest here. We love poker, and tournaments are great fun, but...more

I don't remember where I first met American Carter Gill. It had to be during Season 2 of the APPT, in 2008. At the time Carter was a brash, swaggering American kid who was (if you'll pardon the antiquity of the expression), "cruisin' for a bruisin'". To give the 2008...more

Today marks a very important date in the calendar for people from Australia and New Zealand. April 25th is known as ANZAC Day and marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during World War I. It's a day of national remembrance...more

If you read Heath Chick's post welcoming blog readers to our live coverage of the APPT Season 5 Cebu Main Event, you know that most people who have attended this event in 2010 or 2009 love Cebu. (And if you haven't read Heath's post, click the link.) Cebu boasts friendly...more

Ahhhh. Cebu. I've missed you. It's great to be back in the Philippines. If there's one tournament that I circle on the calendar for the year, it's definitely APPT Cebu. It's the "must not miss" event of the Asian poker year. Tropical weather, stunning beaches, fantastic scenery, great food and...more

Four days of hard-fought poker, seeing bad beats, bustouts, big pots, epic clashes and thousands of hands have finally been brought to a close with just one standing at the end. Here is the man who came to the Golden Sun Casino and conquered all his competitors along with...more

8.25pm END OF LEVEL 23: PLAYERS TAKING A 15 MINUTE BREAK 8.05pm: Filipovic fights back All that hard work Mecs used to pull himself level with Filipovic has been undone - the pendulum swinging back in favour of the Croatian. It looked like he might be on an ever-increasing...more

Dragan Galic heads field for Eureka Croatia final table showdown Dragan Galic is the toast of Croatian poker right now as he stormed through day 2, cutting a swathe through the challenging hordes of largely eastern european challengers to march imperiously into the chip lead coming into the home...more

11.50pm: END OF LEVEL 11: 20 MINUTE BREAK That's level 11 in the bag. With 13 players left, when they return the players will be playing down to a final table of 8 tonight, unless there is a paucity of bustouts which seems unlikely with only 5 players to...more

6.15pm: END OF LEVEL 13; 20 MINUTE BREAK That's the end of the first four levels of the day, just 28 players remaining of the 61 who started the day. We'll be back in 20 minutes - see you then. 6.02pm: Georgiev drives away the ladies Don't interpret that...more

Меньше месяца осталось до старта Гранд Финала второго сезона Российской покерной серии. До последнего момента ходили слухи о том, что турнир может быть перенесен. Мы поговорили с Артуром Восканяном, турнирным директором предстоящего фестиваля, и он заверил нас - Гранд Финалу в Киеве быть!     - Артур, в двух словах. Насколько...more

Galic heads chip count at end of Day 1b Another furious day of poker played out here in Zagreb , the 84 hopefuls who turned up to give it their all reduced to a mere 26 by the close of play. The chip lead was held by different players...more

12.00pm: END OF LEVEL 8; TWENTY MINUTE BREAK There is a short break as the remaining 36 players go to smoke, eat, chat and swap the stories they've accumulated during today's play. We'll be back shortly to chart the progress of the final level. 11.45pm Greenstein on poker and...more

6.35pm END OF LEVEL 4 - 15 MINUTE BREAK 6.18pm Dmitry Russian to get his chips in Dmitry Vornovitskiy, a Russian player, just raised it up to 525, only to see Andrija Vujic re-pop him to 2.1k with around 5k back. Vornovitskiy got a count, then pushed the rest...more

01.05am SCANNELL HEADS FIELD AFTER DAY 1A So that's it for today, it's been a hard fought game of poker here in Croatia. We've seen some incredible tussles, set over set action, the girls schooling many of the boys and 59 eliminations in total, almost 2/3 of the field...more

11.40pm: END OF LEVEL 8: 20 MINUTE BREAK The end of level 8 signals a chance for a quick snatch of breath for out players. This gives us the opportunity to remind you that full and final chip counts from the day will be posted sometime in the early...more

6.30pm: END OF LEVEL 4, 20 MINUTE BREAK 6.15pm: The Big Lebowskis Own up, who is sitting around in dressing gowns sipping white russians? Metaphorically speaking of course. It's nice to be playing well, but even nicer to be running well and a small group has formed a phalanx...more

There are just five days left until the start of the largest poker tour in eastern Europe. The second season kicks of in Zagreb, Croatia. More than 250 players from more than 30 countries are expected to show up for the main event on April 11. To get the second...more