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03 10th, 2010
Faraz “The-Toilet” Jaka picked up the game in the dorms at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign while earning a degree in economics and business management.
He soon started playing live here at Bay 101 when he was at home and online while at school, quickly taking to the game, booking massive scores and winning packages to play in high-stakes events all over the world.
However, a year and a half of following the PokerStars European Poker Tour and his first half a dozen shots at WPT glory did not bear even a single cash.
Then suddenly, one year ago right here at home, things turned around in a big way.
He booked his first WPT cash at the 2009 Bay 101 Shooting Star before moving on to make third at the hotly contested 2009 World Series of Poker $5k Six-Max event.
Then, when Jaka finished second at the Bellagio Cup this past summer and third at December’s Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic, he took the lead in the World Poker Tour’s Player of the Year race and hasn’t given it up yet.
Add in a final table appearance at the inaugural PokerStars North American Poker Tour’s $25k High Roller Bounty Shootout and the San Jose native has cashed for almost $2 million in live tournaments over the past 12 months.
“It’s kind of ironic, considering I played so many of these tournaments and then all of the sudden I start doing really well, but it’s really just variance,” he said. “Obviously I’m constantly improving a little bit, but I don’t think there’s been anything drastic.”
Despite the rough start, having played thousands of tournaments earning over $1 million online before he ever stepped foot on the high-stakes live tournament stage, a 24-year-old Jaka says his confidence never wavered.
“I always thought I was good enough to be at the top of these things and win a few,” he said. “It’s always been just a matter of time.”
Now in the midst of the kind of successful run that would turn even the most seasoned pro green with envy, he’s still missing one thing: A major tournament victory.
“I’m definitely ready for a win,” he said. “It’s frustrating getting second and third so I’m definitely hungry.”
Yet he seems to understand opportunities like this won’t last forever.
“I’m obviously running amazing this year and it’s not going to keep going, I understand that,” he said.
In the end, Jaka’s just hoping to keep playing his best and let the chips fall where they may, especially here at home.
“This is my hometown,” he said. “So this tournament is a little more personal for me. I grew up playing here. It brings back so many memories and I still recognize so many of the dealers here from like four or five years ago.
“It would be really nice to do well here.”
Action at the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star continues through March 12. For comprehensive coverage, tune in to PokerListings’ and .
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03 9th, 2010
The PartyPoker.com Women’s World Open IV will take place in London, England March 23 and 24 featuring 24 of the best female poker players on the planet.
03 4th, 2010
As most companies in the online gaming world continue to roll out their 2009 fiscal reports, many have reflected last year’s softer economy in their revenues. On Wednesday, PartyGaming PLC was the latest to announce its 2009 fiscal reports and demonstrated that the company was affected by the fiscal roller coaster of 2009.
For the year that ended on December 31st, 2009, PartyGaming showed a slight decline in overall net revenues for the year. In 2009, PartyGaming was able to show a net revenue of $446.2 million, a 5.7% decline from $472.9 million in 2008. What was intriguing about the breakdown of revenues is that the online poker room was nearly eclipsed by the online casino operation.
What is considered the linchpin of PartyGaming, the highly popular online poker operation showed a significant decline in net profits for the year. In 2009, PartyPoker drew net revenues of $196.7 million, which is a 28.3% decline from $274 million in 2008. Other gaming options were able to make up for this drop, however.
The online casino arm of the company, PartyCasino saw net revenues of $196.2 million, a 12.1% increase over its 2008 net revenues of $175 million. Two other areas of the PartyGaming operation, PartyBingo and the online sports book, each outpaced 2008 earnings by bringing in $32.8 million (an astounding 555% increase over the $5.9 million earned in 2008) and $19 million (a slight increase of 5% over its $18 million in 2008), respectively.
Two actions by PartyGaming during 2009 had a noticeable effect on the bottom line of the company. In April 2009, PartyGaming resolved its dispute with the U.S. Department of Justice as to its online gaming activities in the United States prior to the enactment of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act () of 2006. In that settlement, PartyGaming agreed to pay $105 million over the next 3½ years in semi-annual payments. Over the remainder of 2009, PartyGaming held to the settlement and issued $15 million in payments to the U.S. government.
The second action that influenced the PartyGaming was their acquisition of two components that should have a tremendous influence on the company’s future. In July, PartyGaming was able to acquire Cashcade, a successful online bingo and casino operator, for a reported £95.9 million. This acquisition made an immediate impact on the 2009 fortunes of PartyGaming, as reflected by the year-end results of PartyBingo. The second acquisition, the purchase of the venerable for $12.3 million at the end of 2009, has not yet had a significant impact on PartyGaming’s bottom line, but the future of the long-running poker tournament series seems secure in the hands of PartyGaming.
Jim Ryan, PartyGaming’s Chief Executive Officer, stated during the announcement, “We delivered a solid performance during 2009, which demonstrated the resilience of our business model that continues to generate strong cash flow, even in the most challenging of circumstances.” As to the businesses that PartyGaming acquired in 2009 and the outlook for 2010, Ryan said, “With some acquisitions and major B2B (business-to-business) deals already under our belt, we plan to do more in 2010 and I believe we are on course to meet our objective of becoming the world’s most valuable online gaming company.” Reuters reports that PartyGaming is still looking for other companies to either acquire or merge with to continue to drive their impact in the online gaming market.
Following the announcement of PartyGaming’s 2009 performance, the company’s stock price rose nicely. Traded on the London Stock Exchange under the prefix “PRTY.L,” thee stock closed at 303 pence on Wednesday. At the open of trading today, PartyGaming’s stock started at 300.5 pence and rose to 310.1 pence by the close of trading on Thursday evening in London.
Ryan is extremely confident about the outlook for PartyGaming in 2010, stating, “While the macroeconomic environment remains uncertain, we remain focused on executing our stated strategy and are confident about the Group’s prospects.”
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03 3rd, 2010
“I’ve been very fortunate to start the year off hot,” Cole “CTS” South wrote on his CardRunners blog recently. “There has been a ton of action at very high stakes and I’ve had a lot of luck (hopefully some good play as well) on my side.
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The final two episodes of ESPN’s World Series of Poker-Europe Main Event coverage aired Sunday night, bringing poker fans all the drama from what was one of the most exciting final tables of the year. Multiple themes were at work on this final day…
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03 1st, 2010
30-year old Colin McTaggart from Ormskirk outlasted what was arguably one of the best GUKPT field ever assembled to take the first prize of £57,700, 125 player of the year ranking points plus a seat in the end of year Champion of Champions event. Nice work when you’re freerolling.
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Following its acquisition of an Italian online gaming asset, the European gaming giant was able to show a profit in both their fourth quarter gross revenues as well as for the Financial Year 2009.
In an announcement released today, bwin demonstrated its dominance in the European market in all areas of its product. While the financial numbers reported would have been excellent standing alone, bwin – who acquired the Italian gaming operation Gioco Digitale in September of 2009 – was able to reap further benefits from the addition of the Italian company. From the information released, the addition of Gioco Digitale, which gave bwin a seat of operations in the Italian gaming market, will continue to be a strong part of the company.
For the fourth quarter of 2009, bwin showed increases in every area of their company. Total gross gaming revenue was up 12.9% to €132.9 over the fourth quarter of 2008’s profits of €117.7 million. The best increases came in their online poker operations, where a 35.8% increase in gross revenues to €37.6 million (over 2008’s €27.7 million) led all areas of the company. The sports betting arm of the company (up 3.3% to €66.6 million) and the casinos (up 4.8% to €20.2 million) added in to make up for the fourth quarter increase.
For the financial year 2009 overall, bwin was able to show increases in most areas of the company despite the global economic issues throughout the year. Gross gaming revenues for the year were up 6.1% to €446.6 million, vastly outpacing 2008’s final revenues of €420.9 million. Online poker once again led the way for the company, earning 26.1% more in 2009 (€118.8 million) than bwin did in 2008 (€94.2 million). While casino gaming gross revenues were up for the year in total (up 5.4% to 73.7 million), the sports betting gross revenues was the only area that showed a downturn, falling 3.8% for 2009 and earning €226.3 million versus 2008’s €235.4 million.
All of the numbers reported here include the additional income of Gioco Digitale’s Italian citizens. Even if you take away the numbers generated by Gioco Digitale, bwin was still able to show a profit for the overall financial year of 2.8%. Where the addition of Gioco Digitale will most be felt perhaps is in the online poker room, where the company was able to push bwin’s fourth quarter online poker numbers out of the red.
Back in September, the announcement of bwin’s purchase of Gioco Digitale rocked the online gaming world. The purchase, rumored to be in the neighborhood of €100 million (roughly $140 million U. S. at the time), was initiated by bwin to establish a foothold in Italy, where the country requires that an online gaming organization has a dedicated site for Italians to play at and must abide by established Italian gaming laws. Gioco Digitale reportedly held over 20 percent of the Italian market and, with the added 7% that bwin captured, makes for a formidable operation on the Italian online poker market.
Estimates for the company in the future look very good, according to Yahoo! Finance UK. Through their analysts’ estimates, bwin looks to earn €553.02 million in 2011, which would be an approximate 20% increase over their 2009 numbers. At the close of trading on Friday on the Vienna Stock Exchange, bwin’s stock – traded as BWIN.VI – was trading slightly down from yesterday at €40, down €1.7 from Thursday’s action.
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02 25th, 2010
South warmed up with $5/$10 and $25/$50 Pot-Limit Omaha eventually finding Sahamies at the $300/$600 PLO tables.
After one hour and 275 hands South walked away from the match up $511,166. Surprisingly he made this profit despite losing four of the five largest pots. The top two biggest pots were collectively worth over $750k.
After taking on pro Tom “durrrr” Dwan at $200/$400 PLO, but only making $36k over the 646 hand session, South returned to $300/$600 to challenge Sahamies once more.
This second session lasted over three hours and Sahamies managed to grind back $121k of his loss. The Finnish poker pro ended the day down $409k, losing $389k of that total to South.
Meanwhile South continued his incredible run in 2010, finishing the day up $436,487. South has earned over $3.5 million playing online poker this year.
Dwan started his day by warming up at $50/$100 PLO before sitting for his heads-up session with South. After losing the $36k to South, Dwan went on to lose another $252k to Brian Townsend playing $100/$200 PLO heads-up.
After grinding back $50k at a PLO Cap game, Dwan sat for round two against Townsend, this time taking the CardRunners pro for $496,651. Dwan finished his day up over $263k. With the win, Dwan has nearly pulled himself even for the year, down just $50,000.
Below are three of yesterday’s largest pots. To see more hands replayed head to .
02 23rd, 2010
Dwan’s first session of the day was a brief 21-hand stint at $200/$400 Cap Pot-Limit Omaha where he won $19,682.
After a five hour break, he returned to the tables to play South heads up at $200/$400 PLO. The match lasted 224 hands with the largest pot coming in at $172,184.
But despite losing the seven largest pots of the session, Dwan managed to keep his losses to only $251k.
This single session would be the only cards South would play on the night. Adding the $251k to his totals for the year now brings South back up to over $3.1 million.
A surprise to most, Dwan has struggled to turn any profit for 2010, currently sitting down around $580k on the year.
His inability to turn a profit seems to have little to do with hand volume as Dwan sits just 300 hands shy of 60,000, making him the fourth most active high-stakes player on so far this year.
After his session with South went south, durrrr went on to play 503 hands of $200/$400 Cap-PLO against Gus Hansen, Brian Townsend and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, losing another $155k.
Fortunately, he managed to make $353,195 playing 7-Game, subsidizing the majority of his losses.
Gus Hansen continues to win at the tables posting a $182k win from 7-Game, and another $85k from Cap-PLO to add $268,205 to his roll.
Since his 30-day suspension last year, Brian Townsend has been on a heavy downswing losing another $224k at 7-Game last night to push his losses on the year over $1 million.
Below are the three largest pots between South and Dwan. To see more hands from the night, head to .
02 22nd, 2010
£500+£40 Main Event is the feature attraction at this year’s London Poker Masters festival.
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