Internet poker online
Think back to the first time you played online poker. Were you on the Moneymaker bandwagon in late 2003? Or riding the WPT wave in 2004? Maybe Joe Hachem inspired you to start playing in 2005 or “Isildur1’s” run convinced you to ante up three months
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03 9th, 2010
Created by Bay 101 owner Marco Trapani 14 years ago, tournament director Matt Savage says the concept was based on the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am celebrity challenge, which draws some of the best golfers in the world, a host of celebrities and thousands spectators to the Northern California Coast about an hour from San Jose every year.
Trapani’s original plan, 14 years ago, was to try and draw the world’s best rounders to a fan and player friendly $1k buy-in event in the Bay Area.
When it first started, the bounties were a bunch of Trapani’s friends, but it slowly grew and when the World Poker Tour came along seven years later, Savage says they bumped up the buy-in and had a perfect fit.
03 8th, 2010
“I’m so excited to win such a prestigious event and join the likes of Huck Seed, Chris Ferguson and Phil Hellmuth as Heads-Up Champion,” said Duke, who became the first-ever woman to win the NBC Heads-Up title.
“I came into this tournament really focused and it feels great to finally break through in this event.”
The road to victory at Caesars Palace was not an easy one for the sponsored pro. She beat 2008 runner-up Andy Bloch in the first round before getting past 2009 WSOP Main Event runner-up Darvin Moon in the round of 32.
Next up was 2007 champion Paul Wasicka who looked to have the best of Duke when she was all in with ace-ten against his pocket aces at one point. Miraculously, Duke went runner-runner to make a straight, take the lead and eventually move on.
“I would have loved all of my matches to be easy,” said Duke. “I’m sure (Producer) Mori (Eskandani) is happy though, because it’s going to give the show some serious drama.
“One thing’s for sure, I can never complain about bad beats again after hitting that runner-runner king-queen against Paul Wasicka.”
In the end, Duke beat eight-time WSOP bracelet winner Erik Seidel in the best-of-three final to bank the $500,000 first-place prize.
“Annie was my number one pick to win,” said Seidel. “She played very tough. She had no fear. She really played the way you’re supposed to play in this sort of structure.”
A mother of four, Duke took some time off from her career as a professional poker player to film The Celebrity Apprentice last season.
Now she says a little time away from the game did her a world of good.
“I know what my main priority is and that’s my family, so I’m never going to play as much poker as everyone else, but it’s really nice to come back with a bang,” she said. “I took the time off, I readjusted and now I’ve had some good results.”
Vanessa Rousso made runner-up at the Heads-Up Championship in 2009, the deepest finish by a woman in the event before this year.
Duke said it’s great to see so many female poker players rising to the top.
“I think it’s great that a woman came in second last year and a woman finished first year to really represent woman players,” she said. “There are some great female poker players out there.”
NBC’s coverage of the 64-person event will air Sunday’s at 12 p.m. ET beginning April 18 through May 23.
- With files from Matthew Showell
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03 8th, 2010
The 29-year-old from Idaho beat Finnish player Ilari Tahkokallio heads-up to take down the largest poker tournament in German history and its massive €1 million first prize.
A star in the online game that broke the PokerStars record for most Tournament Leader Board points in April 2008, accruing more than $100,000 in profits that month, MacPhee has previously played in 15 European Poker Tour events, satelliting in through PokerStars for 14 of them.
He was one of 243 players who won their seats online to EPT Berlin, but until now a big score had eluded him.
“Winning an EPT was a real goal of mine,” he said.” I have worked very hard for this. It feels awesome.”
A total of 945 players from 48 countries entered the €5,300 Main Event creating a total prize pool of €4,725,000.
EPT Berlin was interrupted on the event’s penultimate day when armed robbers stormed the registration desk outside the tournament area at the Grand Hyatt Hotel.
No one was seriously injured and the suspects fled after a security guard intervened. The tournament resumed after a few hours and a police investigation is continuing.
Next up for the EPT is EPT Snowfest set for March 21-26 in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria.
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03 5th, 2010
The two PokerStars pros have both been hot over the last 12 months with millions of dollars in combined tournament earnings.
Some of the other marquee first round matches include Phil Hellmuth vs. Howard Lederer, Peter Eastgate vs. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Brock Parker vs. Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey vs. Gavin Smith.
In total there will be 32 heads-up matches played in the first round.
NBC once again separated the players into four brackets – Hearts, Clubs, Spades and Diamonds – with the winner of each bracket booking a seat in the semifinals.
The tournament begins today at 1 p.m. PT.
Here is the complete line-up for the first round of the 2010 NBC National Heads-Up Championship:
Clubs:
Patrik Antonius vs. Chris Moneymaker
Leo Wolpert vs. Eric Baldwin
David Williams vs. Joe Cada
Erik Seidel vs. Huck Seed
Dan Ramirez vs. Erick Lindgren
Peter Eastgate vs. Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
Stephen Quinn vs. Ted Forrest
Dario Minieri vs. Jamie Gold
Spades:
Gavin Smith vs. Phil Ivey
Richard Edwards vs. Scotty Nguyen
Shawn Rice vs. Joe Hachem
Gabe Kaplan vs. Johnny Chan
Daniel Negreanu vs. Jason Mercier
Pieter de Korver vs. Mike Sexton
Phil Gordon vs. Tom Dwan
Phil Laak vs. John Juanda
Hearts:
Jesper Hougaard vs. Allen Cunningham
Eli Elezra vs. Greg Mueller
Annette Dworski vs. Craig Ferguson
Kara Scott vs. Dennis Phillips
Doyle Brunson vs. Brock Parker
JP Kelly vs. Don Cheadle
Howard Lederer vs. Phil Hellmuth
Annette Obrestad vs. Orel Hershiser
Diamonds:
Barry Greenstein vs. Vanessa Rousso
Sam Farha vs. Antonio Esfandiari
Jennifer Harman vs. Jennifer Tilly
Jerry Yang vs. Mike Matusow
Darvin Moon vs. Bill Huntress
Andy Bloch vs. Annie Duke
Andrew Wilson vs. Paul Wasicka
Gus Hansen vs. Greg Raymer
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03 4th, 2010
“It feels excellent,” Koroknai said through an interpreter. “I’m going to spend the money. All of it.”
Koroknai started with the lead and although he gave it up midway through the final six, by the time heads up rolled around, he was clearly in charge.
Short stack Michael Kamran was happy to be through to his first WPT Final table after making seventh at WPT Bay 101 last year.
However, the L.A. local’s time did not last long as he ran T♦ 7♦ into Koroknai’s ace-jack in the early going.
Despite flopping an open-ended straight draw and turning a pair, Kamran was done in by an ace on the river railing him sixth.
J.C. Moussa took fifth when he shoved ace-nine into Tri Huynh’s ace-queen and failed to improve and fourth belonged to George Kasabyan, who called Huynh’s shove with a pair of aces only to find Huynh with aces-up.
Three-handed play was a relatively tight affair until Raymond Dolan and Koroknai got in a major battle.
Both paired their ace on an A♣ Q♦ 2♦ flop and after the money went in, Koroknai’s jack kicker played over Dolan’s six to give the Hungarian a commanding chip lead.
That lead got even bigger when Koroknai busted Huynh in a classic race with ace-king beating jacks after a king on the flop.
Heads up started with Koroknai holding 13.4 million chips to Dolan’s 1.4 million and it was over fast.
On the first hand, Koroknai shoved with Q♥ 8♥ and Dolan called with Q♣ 4♥.
A four in the window made it look like Dolan would double, but Korknai picked up an open ender to go with a flush draw on the turn and when the K♥ fell on the river giving him the flush, the L.A. Poker Classic title and almost $1.8 million was his.
03 3rd, 2010
Not all the interesting news in the world of poker occurs at the tables or in the halls of government. Sometimes, it is simply people themselves that catch our attention. Case in point: the budding romance between Team member and fellow pro Erica Schoenberg.
Our friends over at PokerListings.com were the first to provide the evidence to the general poker public. At the L.A. Poker Classic, Lindgren was spotted “railing Erica as she played deep in the LAPC main event,” was the first to console her after she busted out, and most notably, they were seen kissing.
Schoenberg, a model turned poker pro, had previously formed half of one of poker’s power couples, as she was once engaged to recent Premier League IV champion and “High Stakes Poker” fixture . Their relationship was one of the central themes of the September 6th, 2009 episode of G4TV’s “2 Months, 2 Million,” a show in which four online poker pros - Dani Stern, Jay Rosenkrantz, Brian Roberts, and Emil Patel - lived together in Las Vegas and attempted to win $2 million playing poker in two months. Rosenkrantz, one of the founders of the poker coaching site DeucesCracked.com, had once played Benyamine online when, to his disappointment, Benyamine left for a higher stakes table. Upset about the apparent “hit and run,” Rosenkrantz berated Benyamine in the chat box, calling him a “fish.” Schoenberg then proceeded to stand by her man, calling Rosenkrantz “just a typical NL a**-clown” in her blog.
In the “2 Months, 2 Million” episode, Rosenkrantz saw Schoenberg at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Pool and reached out to mend fences. The two let bygones be bygones and Schoenberg set up a time for the two men to play heads-up online. Benyamine ended up winning $60,000 from Rosenkrantz.
The details behind the Schoenberg/Benyamine break-up are not known, but their relationship was rumored to have ended in October.
Schoenberg’s new companion is no step down at the poker tables. Lindgren has won two (WPT) titles and was named WPT Player of the Year in 2004. In 2008, he finally earned his first () bracelet, capping a fantastic WSOP in which he made three final tables, cashed five times, and was named 2008 Player of the Year. On the live tournament circuit, Lindgren ranks 22nd on the all-time money list.
Schoenberg, while perhaps best known for being one of the most attractive poker players in the industry, is no slouch on the felts, either. Even though she is relatively new to the game, she has three six-figure tournament cashes. The first was for a 16th place at the 2006 $25,000 WPT Championship ($117,165) followed by a victory in the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em event at the 2007 Mandalay Bay Poker Championship ($105,875). Her largest cash to date is $261,646, earned by placing third in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event at the 2007 WSOP.
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For the first time in three weeks, it was back to a standard Sunday on the virtual felt; however, that did not stop eight players from emerging with six-figure scores last night. The biggest prize, $255,429.56, went to “orionrg” for winning the…
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03 1st, 2010
A special PokerNews tournament series will begin running on RedKings Poker soon. This four tournament series will have a buy-in of $5.50 and you will need a password to enter.
The series will have $1,000 cash added to the prizepool and the…
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03 1st, 2010
Schwartz, Hellmuth, Negreanu and Tony G among the first week’s guests.
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