In just two months, the Russian Poker Series Grand Final will decide the Player of the Season and the final champion of the season. Today, the Russian Poker Series announced it will hold its Grand Final in Kiev, Ukraine, May 11-20 at the famous Kreschatik Poker Club. The $3,000 buy-in...more

Ko te aroha ano he wai
 E pupu ake ana He awa e mapuna mai ana I roto i te whatu-manawa Ko tona matapuna he hononu A ina ia ka re re ano He tai timu He tai pari He tai ope He tai ora He tai nui Love is...more

Of all the poker tours in the world, there may be no circuit fueled more by national pride than the Latin American Poker Tour. Where else will you find players and fans packing bags with their country's flag on the off-chance they can drape it over their shoulders during a...more

4:47pm: Alex Komaromi wins Uruguay's first LAPT title Alex Komaromi came in for a raise to 150,000 and Claudio Piedrabuena made the call. Both players checked the flop of 4♠7♣K♦. On the J♣ turn, Piedrabuena checked, Komaromi bet 225,000, and Piedrabuena announced he was all-in for around 1.3 million. Komaromi...more

6:17pm: Oded dead in ninth as final table gets set Alex Komaromi opened to 65,000, a luxury afforded the chip leader at this stage. Oded Oscar Minond had been relatively quiet for the past hour or so, but finally woke up with an all-in for 445,000. Komaromi considered his options...more

Seems like ages ago that 422 players were seated all over the Mantra Resort and Casino, each with hopes of claiming an LAPT title and the cool $244,720 that went along with it. But it has only been three days, during which time all but eight from that starting field...more

4:13pm: Break time; a dozen remain The final 12 players have reached the second 15-minute break of the day. 4:04pm: Double double Another quiet stretch just now, then two double-ups in quick succession, one on each of the two remaining six-handed tables. One saw Nelson Neto open for 50,000...more

There is no accounting for a bubble day. Put the world's credit rating specialists, a couple of nuclear physicists, and the world's best poker tournament directors in a locked room, and they still couldn't predict how an LAPT bubble would turn out. Witness the wild and wooly world that...more

10:24pm: Break time Players have reached the last break of the night. 10:18pm: A killing for Kiles with KK Huge one just now between Cassio Kiles and Erik von Buxhoeveden. We came upon the hand on the turn, with the board showing 2♦3♦Q♦9♣ and van Buxhoeveden calling a hefty bet...more

4:18pm: Break time The 85 remaining players are now on a 15-minute break. 4:07pm: Eric von Buxhoeveden -- new chip leader We have a new chip leader in Erik von Buxhoeveden. The Austrian has steadily built his stack over the first four levels of play today, having now pushed past...more

After a cold, wet night, the sun came out to shine on the east coast city of Punta del Este this morning. And a whopping field of 422 came out as well to join the fun at this year's main event, a new record for the LAPT stop. That field...more

9:04pm: Bring out the bags We've reached the end of Level 8, which means the conclusion of play for Day 1. Something less than 200 players -- less than half the 422 who started -- are still around to count down their stacks and seal them up. Back in a...more

4:19pm: Your break Players are now on a 15-minute break. They'll be back to play the final four levels of the night in just a bit. 4:11pm: Nuts hold in three-way all-in It was a flop of A♣T♠J♥ with Jose Rodriguez all-in. He held K♥Q♥, up against a moderately scary...more

6:43pm: Kemal Ferri wins! The gradual chipping away of Raul Pino's stack that characterized the almost-half-hour of heads-up play had left the Panamanian with around 800,000, small change compared to Kemal Ferri's 6 million-ish stack. Finally, Pino pushed that stack all in from the button, and Ferri quickly called. Pino...more

3:10pm: Players take a 15-minutes break Smoke' em if you got 'em. 2:45pm: Chatting with Karlo Lopez The lovely Lynn Gilmartin spoke with PokerStars Team Online Karlo Lopez.... 2:33pm: Chip counts with six left Not too much to report from the last 20 minutes, other than to say the two...more

On Day 3 of the LAPT Lima, 24 players entered the Octagon and only eight survived. Okay, I took a bit of artistic liberty -- the Octagon was actually the swanky Atlantic City Casino -- but the fighting to the death metaphor still fits. With $207,400 on the line,...more

6:36pm: Mayu Roca eliminated in 9th; final table set Mayu Roca had not been able to do much more than tread water since the move to the nine-handed table, and was still sitting with just under 300,000 when he open-pushed all in from middle position. Samar Hodali, sitting to...more

2:20pm: Players take a 15-minute break Smoke 'em if you got 'em. We believe it might bring you luck to do so. 2:15pm: Slowing down We had eight bustouts in the first 90 minutes of play, but since then, the action stagnated. 16 players remain. 2:02pm: Lerner avoids going...more

Day 2 was moving day at the LAPT Lima. 116 players survived the cut on Day 2 out of the original 350 runners, but 68 of those unfortunate players would fail to make the money. The top 48 places paid out, but it wouldn't be until the fifth level...more

8:51pm: Schernthaner out in 25th; play concludes With a few minutes left in Level 18, we've had our final elimination of the night. Daniel Lerner had just doubled through the German, Michael Schernthaner, a few hands before after winning a race with A♥K♣ versus Schernthaner's Q♠Q♦. On that one...more

6:44pm: Players take a break The final 35 players are on a 15-minute break. The staff will also be removing the pink 500 denomination chips from play. 6:35pm: Down to 35 players; Recent eliminations Here are the most recent eliminations. Each earned $3,870: 39th - Andrey Lobzhanidze 38th -...more

The LAPT returned to Lima, Peru for the a second season in a row, and Peru has quickly become one of the most popular stops on the international circuit. It's easy to see why because everywhere you look, a waiter is thrusting a plate of ceviche at you face, along...more

12:11am: Bag 'em up! We're done! It looks as though approximately 120 players have made it through to tomorrow's Day 2, with Daniel Ospina sporting what looks to be the biggest stack in the room with 264,200. Stay tuned for more details, including a full recap of today's action....more

Double double. Repeat repeat. Double double. Repeat repeat. If I hadn't seen this with my own eyes, I would never have believed it. But after Vanessa Selbst successfully defended her NAPT Mohegan Sun title yesterday, her Team PokerStars Pro colleague Jason Mercier has just defended his High Roller Bounty...more

8:50pm: Double-double! Jason Mercier repeats as NAPT Mohegan Sun Bounty Shootout champion During the dinner break, several of us speculated as to the real, concrete, mathematical odds of not one, but TWO champions repeating here at Mohegan Sun. Whatever they were (help us, math people), Jason Mercier has defied...more

10:31pm: Selbst secures second NAPT title, Dan Shak eliminated in second place Pop the champagne corks, poker fans--Vanessa Selbst has done it. Back-to-back NAPT Mohegan Sun titles. On the second hand after we returned from the break, Dan Shak limped in on the button and Vanessa Selbst checked her option....more

Tyler Kenney couldn't play NAPT Mohegan Sun last year. At just 20 years old, he would've been kicked out the moment anyone looked at his drivers license. Now 21, he's woken up every morning, drank a Vitamin Water, and sat down to play poker with the singular focus of making...more

7:45pm: Corey Hochman busts in 9th, final table set Down to around 300,000, Corey Hochman open-shoved from middle position and after asking for a count, Vincent Rubianes re-shoved from the small blind. Steve O'Dwyer folded his big blind and the cards went on their backs. Hochman Q♥T♥ Rubianes A♦Q♦ It...more

If you made a spreadsheet of the NAPT Mohegan Sun players going to Day 3 and sorted it by first name, you would find two Aarons. Sort the page by chip count and look at the top two spots. Guess what? Yep. Both Aarons. If you're not familiar with...more

8:55pm: That's all, folks The board shows 74 players remaining, all of whom are bagging and tagging their chips (and putting in last-minute orders for Bobby Flay burgers). Aaron Overton is the far and away chip leader with nearly 600,000-- over 200,000 more than his closest competitor. We'll have a...more

If this new PokerStars promotion had been released last Friday, everyone would've thought it was an April Fools' Day gag. It's that crazy. This new promo is the ultimate fantasy for a sports fan. It's the type of thing you'd discuss over beers with your friends. It would sound a...more

As the story goes, Archimedes stepped into a bath and noticed that for every inch of his foot that went into the water, the water level rose. It was a math thing involving volume, displacement, and such. And so Archimedes was heard to exclaim, "Eureka!" That is apparently translated...more

9:38pm: Alex Manzano wins LAPT Sao Paulo in shocking final hand Alex Manzano came in for a raise to 270,000 pre-flop and Joao Neto made the call. On a 3♦2♠2♣ flop, Neto check-called a 275,000 bet. Neto then check- called a 615,000 bet on the 7♣ turn. The river was...more

There is big, and there is the Latin American Poker Tour event in Sao Paulo. There is huge and there is the record-breaking Day 1 of this Season 4 kick-off. There's every other event that's ever happened on the LAPT, and there's what happened today. For the first time in...more

Sao Paulo is a city of people--a lot of people. There is no more populated place in the Earth's southern hemisphere. There are more than eleven million people inside the city's border, not to mention the millions more in the greater metropolitan area. With nearly 19 million faces in...more

Season 1 was an experiment. Season 2 was a reprise. Season 3 was the year of Back-to-Back Barbero. Season 4 of Latin American Poker Tour? It's here. Moments ago, the LAPT announced five dates for its fourth season. Season 4 will see a return to Brazil, Chile, Peru, and Argentina....more

The Russian Poker Series has finished its first season with Russia's Dmitry Gromov winning $201,362 for first place in Kiev. On the last hand of the night, Shashkov raised preflop up to 250 000 chips, Gromov re-raised to 650,000. Shaskov quickly moved all-in and got the call. Dmitry Gromov: T♥T♠...more

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

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

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

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

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