Inside Straight -- News

The Poker Show Returns

Legendary online TV show, The Poker Show, has returned as a live online poker radio show with original presenters Jesse May and Padraig Parkinson. The UK’s first regular live radio show broadcasts every Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday night between 8 p.m. and 11 p.m. at BoylePoker.com.


Listeners are encouraged to join in by calling 0208 123 7820, adding ThePokerShow to Skype, or thepokershow@live.co.uk on MSN, or alternatively sending an email to chat@thepokershowlive.com.

The first couple of weeks generated plenty of online debate and a few controversies. Tom “Durrrr” Dwan and Luke “_FullFlush1_” Schwartz renewed their ongoing war of words, Phil Hellmuth gave listeners a world exclusive about his sensitivity training, and a host of big names took to the airwaves including Dan Harrington, John Duthie, Vicky Coren, Barny Boatman, Liam Flood, and Kara Scott.

Boylepoker pro, Padraig Parkinson, who co-hosted the original ground-breaking Poker Show from Las Vegas several years ago, was excited by bringing the show back. “I’m thrilled to see the show make a comeback as we always felt we had unfinished business. The line-ups for the show are amazing and we’re looking forward to mixing the old with the new, live with online, business with pleasure, and giving poker players the chance to interact with us live each night.”

Irish Poker Classic Update

The Macau Sporting Club, Cork, Ireland, has announced the addition of a charity poker tournament in aid of the Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children as part of its August 2009 Irish Poker Classic Festival. The €250 + €25 no-limit hold’em tournament will be held on Saturday, August 15.

The main event of the week-long festival, which attracts some of the biggest names in the European game, is due to take place from August 10 to 16. It is a €100,000 guaranteed , €1,000 + €100 buy in no-limit hold’em event which will run over three days from Thursday, August 13. The main event has a 15,000 chip starting stack with 75 minute blinds.

Online satellite qualification for the Irish Poker Classic main event will begin soon on Paddy Power Poker, Betfair, and Green Joker Poker
The club is also hosting a free Million Dollar Seat satellite for the World Series of Poker Europe live qualifier during the Irish Poker Classic Festival. Players who wish to play in this freeroll simply register for the Irish Poker Classic. The club will also be hosting the Irish regional final for this event, where the winner goes to London to play against 17 others for a $1 million top prize.

Last year Rob Taylor triumphed over a record field of 169 which included Annette Obrestad, Michael Greco, Ian Woodley, Roy Brindley, Marty Smyth, Jeff Duval, Sylvester Geoghegan, and Mick McCloskey, collecting €46,000. This year more than 200 players are expected to attend what has become one of the best boutique poker festivals in Europe.

German Wins Big in Argentina

The PokerStars.com Latin American Poker Tour Grand Final took place in Mar del Plata, Argentina in April and the $5,200 no-limit hold’em main event attracted 291 players, including Team PokerStars pro J.C. Alvarado, who is fresh off of his win in the $1,000 buy-in PokerStars Spring Championship of Online Poker main event. The turnout set a record for the largest prize pool at an LAPT event with more than $1.4 million up for grabs. The nine contestants at the final table took their seats on April 19 to play down to one champion who would walk away with $381,030.

On the second had at the final table, Jose Barbero was knocked out of the tournament in ninth place ($28,220) when his A-K fell to the pocket fives of Sergio Farias. Alfons Fenijn was the short stack at that point, and he went in eighth place ($35,280) when his Q-10 ran into the pocket jacks of Farias. The jacks held, and Farias scored his second elimination of the day. Rodolfo Awad got in on the action next when his pocket queens sent Derek Lerner home in seventh place ($49,400).

Then young German player Dominik Nitsche woke up with pocket aces at just the right time. Leo Fernandez held pocket tens and moved all in, and Farias found pocket kings and was all-in preflop as well. The aces held for Nitsche, and he eliminated Fernandez in sixth place ($63,520), and Farias in fifth place ($77,620). The double-knockout took things down to four final players.

Jason Skeans was stuck on a short-stack and was forced to move all in preflop with 6-2 offsuit a few hands later. Awad called him down with A-7, and the ace high was good enough to win the hand and send Skeans home in fourth place ($105,860). The battle for third place came down to a skirmish between pocket pairs. Awad held pocket fours against the pocket nines of Jorge Landazuri, and although Awad found a third four on the flop, Landazuri found a third nine on the river to win the hand and eliminate Awad in third place ($141,140).

The heads-up match began with Nitsche holding a 2-1 chip lead, and things were over quickly. The final hand was also the first hand between the final two players. Nitsche raised preflop to 80,000, and Landazuri made the call. The flop was dealt K 9 8, and Landazuri checked. Nitsche opened the action for 50,000, and Landazuri check-raised to 140,000. Nitsche made the call, and the turn fell 10. Landazuri bet 150,000, and Nitsche called before the river fell K.
Landazuri moved all in, and Nitsche followed. They turned up their hands, and Nitsche held K J. Landazuri turned up J 5, and he was eliminated in second place ($211,700). Nitsche won the LAPT Grand Final for season two, and he took home $381,030.

Israeli Wins European Master of Poker Prague

Israeli Reuven Dayan won the second €1,100 buy in European Masters of Poker which took place in Varna, Bulgaria during April. He topped the 311-strong field which was considerably up on the 248 players which played the first event in Tallinn, Estonia. He won €77,750 for his efforts.

The final table payouts were:

The event next rolls in to the Czech capital, Prague from June 25 to 28 and players can get there via any poker room on the Entraction network including Pinnaclesports.com and DevilfishPoker.com. Players can qualify for as little as €2 or 200 VIP-points.

Satellites run regularly on these sites with nine daily feeding in to the €100 buy-in Sunday Main Qualifier and five feeding daily into the €100 buy in Wednesday Main Qualifier. A total of at least six packages are guaranteed in the prize pool each Sunday while four packages are guaranteed each Wednesday. Players can also buy in directly through their Entraction account.

World’s Largest Team Poker Event

The world’s largest ever team poker event, the Team Championship of Poker (TCOP) is set to attract 150 teams and up to €350,000 in prize money to Dublin, Ireland from August 20 to 23, 2009.

The event will take place at Citywest hotel, famed for hosting the Irish Open, and will have €30,000 in added prize money.

Up to 150 sponsored teams are expected to take part, with six players in each team. The buy-in for the event is €2,900 of which €240 is the registration fee and €500 is the sponsorship fee which can be paid by the players or a sponsor. Of this sponsorship fee €250 goes to the prize pool and €250 to advertising and promotion for the sponsors.

The prize pool will see approximately €200,000 awarded in team prizes and €150,000 in individual prizes.

The full schedule of events is:
• Thursday Aug. 20: Free player party  and €200 charity event 
• Friday Aug. 21:  €2,900 Team Championship of Poker   
• Saturday Aug. 22: Team Championship of Poker – Day 2 + €400 (incl. €40 reg.) support event
• Sunday Aug. 23: Team Championship of Poker – final,  €400 support event – Day 2, plus €200 (incl. €20 reg.) support event

Visit TeamChampionshipofPoker.com for details.

World Poker Tour in Vegas and Venice

Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier from France, featured in this issue of Card Player, finished third in the 338 player, $25,000 buy in World Poker Tour Five Star World Poker Classic at Bellagio, Las Vegas in April collecting $776,245 for his efforts.

Scotty Nguyen was the first to be ousted from the six-handed final earning $285,985, with Shannon Shorr busting next for $408,550.

Christian “charder30” Harder and ElkY were eliminated in the same hand when Ran Azor came from behind with the worst hand of the trio, hitting a pair. Harder moved all in from the button for 1.9 million and Azor called from the small blind. Grospellier moved all in over the top from the big blind for 2,790,000 and Azor made the call.

Grospellier showed the best hand with A J, Harder had the next best hand with A 8, and Azor showed A 7.

The board came K 7 3 Q 2, however, and Azor’s pair of sevens eliminated both Harder and Grospellier. Harder finished in fourth place earning $571,965 because he had the shorter stack. Grospellier finished in third place.

Twenty-one-year-old Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko from Canada won the event and the $2.15 million first prize when he raised all-in with A-3 and was called by Azor and Q-10. Azor hit a queen on the flop, propelling him into the lead but Timoshenko hit running cards for a broadway straight and the victory.

In May, the World Poker Tour rolled into Venice, Italy for the first time, attracting 397 players, creating a total prize pool of €1,521,260 and offering a top prize of €397,960.

The payouts at the final table were:

Dario Minieri busted in seventh place for €48,680 and Surinder Sunar earned €31,940 for his eighth place finish at the event.

Stars in Their Eyes

The European tournament circuit came to a close for the season with PokerStars.com European Poker Tour San Remo and Monte Carlo, plus several high profile events ahead of the Grand Final.

San Remo in Italy attracted 1,178 players, each vying for a €1.5 million top prize.

The final table saw the following payouts:

The final hand between Constant Rijkenberg and Kalle Niemi saw a 10-5-3-5 board when all the money went into the pot.

Rijkenberg took down the event with pocket aces versus Niemi’s A-10. Niemi needed a 10 but it was a 4 that fell on the river, and he went out in second place for €862,000, while the 20-year-old Dutchman, Rijkenberg, took home the €1.5 million.

Ahead of the Grand Final, a few days later down the coast in Monte Carlo, Isabelle Mercier won the €4,000 buy-in PokerStars.com Ante Up For Africa charity poker tournament which raised €260,000 to help victims of the Darfur conflict in Sudan.

The final table featured former England footballer Teddy Sheringham, French rugby internationalist Sebastian Chabal, sports commentator Patrick Chene, as well as well-known poker stars Tony G, John Duthie, Luca Pagano, Daniel Negreanu, and Dario Minieri.

Almost $2 million has been raised for the charity to date.

Running concurrently to the Grand Final, the €25,000 buy in European High Roller Championship attracted a mixed field of main event bustouts, online whiz kids, legendary pros, and up-and-coming faces.

A  total of 79 players turned out for the star-studded event, including Daniel Negreanu, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, William Thorson, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Erik Seidel, Thomas Wahlroos, Michael McDonald, John Juanda, Nelly, Chris Ferguson, Barry Greenstein, Peter Eastgate, Dave”Devilfish” Ulliott, Phil Ivey, and Ivan Demidov.

Florian Langmann led the pack for a good chunk of the way but fell from his pedestal four short of the finish line. It was Team PokerStars pro Vanessa Rousso who rose to the top for the late stages, and she scooped the first prize of €720,000.

The final table payouts for the event were:

Finally, Pieter de Korver from the Netherlands won the PokerStars.com European Poker Tour Monte Carlo Grand Final, topping a field of 935 at the €10,000 buy in Monaco event.

The first six final table eliminations and payouts were:

The final hand played out between de Korver and Matt Woodward of the U.S..
On a 10 6 5 flop with more than one million in the pot, Woodward bet 700,000 and de Korver raised all-in. Woodward shook his head and, after a few moments, called. He flipped over 6 4. De Corver showed 9 6. The turn was the Q and the river the 7.

Woodward walked away with a second prize of €1.3 million, while the 26-year-old Dutch PokerStars pro collected the top prize of €2.3 million and the EPT Grand Final title.

Be sure to check out the features on these events in this issue of Card Player.