Poker News

Tournament Trail Q and A — Marcel Luske

Marcel Luske is a European poker legend. He has been posting tournament results since 1999, and he first made a splash at the World Series of Poker in 2002, where he made a final table in a $5,000 Omaha high-low event. He finished 10th in the 2004 WSOP main event to cement his star status […]

Benjamin Leblond Wins Canadian Heads-Up Champ.

The Canadian Open Poker Championship $5,000 heads-up no-limit hold’em main event attracted 93 players this past weekend to the Stampede Casino in Calgary, Alberta. The tournament featured a total prize pool worth $425,000 and a best two-out-of-three format to decide the winner of the event. Amateur Benjamin Leblond from Hull, Quebec, beat Jeff Madsen 2-1 […]

Online Poker — Hanamachi23 Wins Sunday Million

You can check out the final results for Sunday’s flagship events on Full Tilt, PokerStars, UltimateBet, and Cake below: PokerStars — Sunday Million Buy-In: $200+$15 Prize Pool: $1,514,400 Entrants: 7,572 Places Paid: 1,080 Final Table Results: 1. Hanamachi23 — $227,160 2. paulsl — $167,144 3. weeminer — $121,152 4. OllowainTim — $80,263 5. FiveStand — […]

Vitaly Lunkin Wins the Russian Poker Tour Moscow

The PokerStars Russian Poker Tour Moscow main event, which took place over the weekend, was won by Russian poker player Vitaly Lunkin. Lunkin first emerged on the poker scene when he won a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event at the 2008 World Series of Poker and took home $628,417 in prize money along with his first […]

Travis ‘TravestyFund’ Rice Wins Two-Day FTOPS Event

The Full Tilt Online Poker Series XII (FTOPS) has officially come to a close with the conclusion of the main event on Sunday. The $500 buy-in tournament attracted a field of 4,581 players, which meant an overlay on the $2.5 million prize pool. In fact, the main event was just the culmination of a series […]

Part 2 — Pollack Discusses 40th World Series of Poker

With just a little over a week remaining until the start of the 40th World Series of Poker, Jeffrey Pollack sits down with Card Player to talk about the upcoming Series and how it has changed over the years. Part 1 of the Pollack interview debuted Friday. Card Player: The WSOP is the richest sporting […]

Tony Bloom to Back Brighton Football Club

Poker player, professional gambler, and football betting expert, Tony Bloom will take over from Dick Knight as chairman of Brighton Football Club. Tony “The Lizard” Bloom has more than $1.3 million in lifetime poker winnings including his recent second place finish in the $100,000 no-limit hold’em challenge at the Aussie Millions 2009, which earned him […]

Win a Trip to Monte Carlo with Ivobank

Ivobank, the online bank dedicated to the online gaming community, is offering customers the chance of winning a luxury break to the famous Hotel Ambassador in Monte Carlo for five nights, with €1,000 spending money and helicopter transfers included. To win, players simply need to deposit at one of Ivobank’s partner sites listed at ivobankinfo.com/sites. […]

French Lottery to Offer Online Poker

Francaise des Jeux (FDJ), which operates the French national lottery, has signed a deal with San Francisco-based technology developer CyberArts to provide its online poker offering which will be established when French gambling is deregulated and legalised. CyberArts already provides the platform for Gioco Digitale in Italy which began operating last year when online poker […]

This Week in Poker — Poker Tournament News May 9-15

Check out CardPlayer.com every Friday for a weekly wrap-up of the news from the live poker tournament trail. Card Player Player of the Year Update 1: Poorya Nazari — 3,000 2: Jude Ainsworth — 2,840 3: Cornel Cimpan — 2,730 4: Anthony Gregg — 2,500 5: Yevgeniy Timoshenko — 2,448 6: Pieter de Korver — […]

Poker Pro Andrew Robl Visits The Scoop

From multi-tabling six-handed cash games online to competing in Bobby’s Room, Andrew Robl has experienced a lot in his relatively short poker career. This week, he joins Adam Schoenfeld and Diego Cordovez on The Scoop on Card Player TV (sponsored by Full Tilt). Robl highlights some of the major differences of live play vs. online […]

Ladbrokespoker Showing Weakness in 2009

Ladbrokes Plc, parent company of Ladbrokespoker.com, today issued its interim statement for the first four months of 2009, saying poker was displaying “weakness”. Despite active players up 14 percent during the period and sign-ups growing 10 percent, player yields were down according to the company though they did not report by how much. Overall net […]

Pollack — The Man Behind the World Series of Poker

There’s less than two weeks remaining until the start of the 40th World Series of Poker. Despite all of the preparation that needs to be done for the 50-day stretch that will witness tens of thousands of people crowding into the Rio, WSOP Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack appears calm and composed. The madness is about to […]

17 World Series Seats to be Given Away on SpadeClub

Throughout May and June, SpadeClub will be giving away a total of 17 World Series seats during the World Series 17 Seat Giveaway promotion. Exclusive members have already started playing in daily qualifiers, or saving up points, to gain entry into all of the exciting tournaments. Every week there will be at least one World […]

DevilfishPoker’s Final Table from Hell

After five weeks of Final Table from Hell qualification the final table played out on Wednesday night with David Ulliott taking his seat with the five lucky qualifiers to vie for the €1,000 top prize. His opponents had beaten over 100 players each to qualify for the single table tournament but unfortunately for Devilfish he […]

The Poker Show Gets Mouthy with Big Names

Next up on online poker radio show, The Poker Show, a gaggle of outspoken players speak to presenters Jesse May and Padraig Parkinson. Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, and Tony G are next on the list to have their say live on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday between 8 and 11 p.m. (BST). Mike […]

WSOP Circuit — New Orleans Main Event Begins Monday

The final Circuit championship in the 2008-09 World Series of Poker Circuit schedule will take place at Harrah’s New Orleans beginning on Monday, May 18. There will be a satellite day for the $5,000 no-limit hold’em Circuit championship event held on Sunday, May 17. The $550 mega-satellites will run at 2 p.m., 6 p.m., and […]

Another SpadeClub Member Wins a World Series Seat

SpadeClub member Jeff “DHopper4242” Miller beat out more than 4,272 SpadeClub members in the May 11 VIP $12,000 Reward event to take home a $12,000 World Series prize package. This includes a $10,000 World Series main-event seat and $2,000 to use toward travel expenses. Miller will be joining Feb. 11 VIP $12,000 Reward event winner […]

Cyndy Violette Hosts Charity Tournament on Full Tilt

Poker pro Cyndy Violette normally plays in some of the toughest mixed games on the planet. On Sunday, she will take a break from high-stakes to play poker for a good cause. Violette will host a charity tournament on Full Tilt Poker this weekend to raise money and awareness for three great causes. The buy-in […]

Online Poker — The $1K Roundup, Week of May 11

The $1K Roundup got a huge boost this week thanks to the Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) and event No. 12, which replaced the usual $1K Monday. The event drew in a field of 1,349 players, roughly four times the normal amount for the weekly high-stakes tournament. The only difference was that this event […]

Poker Pro Matusow Discusses ‘Check-Raising the Devil’

From a trailer park to the top of the world, Mike Matusow had come crashing down to earth. But like only he could, he pulled himself back up and returned to the spotlight. “Check-Raising the Devil,” Matusow’s new autobiography, doesn’t spare any details of the poker pro’s tumultuous journey. Written in collaboration with Amy Calistri […]

Bwin Poker Revenue Soars in First Quarter 2009

Bwin, the Austro-German betting giant, today announced its interim results for the first quarter of 2009. Gross poker turnover was up 37 percent to €31.1 million compared to €22.7 million in the same period of 2008. This trend is continued from full year 2008 when gross online poker revenue was up 14.2 percent to €94.2 […]

Canadian Open Heads-Up Poker Championship Begins Thursday

One of the most anticipated heads-up events of the year begins tomorrow at the Stampede Casino in Calgary, Alberta. The $5,000 heads-up tournament is the main event at the Canadian Open Poker Championship, and it is also a Canadian Poker Tour event. The tournament will feature a best two-out-of-three match play, and players will begin […]

Russian Poker Tour Begins Thursday

The second stop of the PokerStars Russian Poker Tour will take place in Moscow at the Hotel Renaissance through May 16. The $7,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event begins on Thursday, May 14 at 3 p.m. local time. This event is a sport poker series cup of Russia event, and it will take place over […]

Devilfish Takes Centre Stage at Oxford Union

Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, ambassador for DevilfishPoker.com and UK poker legend, is set to go where only the greatest of people and figures (such as Albert Einstein, Richard Nixon, Mother Teresa, the Dalai Lama, Diego Maradonna, W.B. Yeats, and Kermit the Frog) have gone before. This weekend Ulliott will perform a question and answer session with […]

iPoker Revenue Up 26 Percent

Playtech, the publicly-quoted parent company of the iPoker network, today announced strong first quarter revenues with poker generating €8.8 million between January and March 2009. This is an increase of 26 percent on the €7 million the company earned in the first quarter of 2007 and is up three percent on the €8.6 million generated […]

State of the Felt — Thomas Kremser

In State of the Felt, Card Player will periodically bring you insights and opinions from some of the most influential players, tournament and poker organization directors, and other people who influence the poker industry. This is a place where the broad trends and forces that continue to shape the game will have space to live […]

WSOP Director Says 2009 Payout Structure The Best Yet

A constant second derivative. The golden ratio. Newtonian optimization. If one didn’t know where he was, he might assume he had stumbled into a Mensa meeting. But those phrases are merely the excited words of a few diligent men explaining how they created what is probably the most equitable payout structure the World Series of […]

Boylepoker Launches WSOP Fantasy League

Boylepoker.com has today launched its World Series of Poker Fantasy League which sees poker lovers get a shot at predicting which five players will become proud owners of a WSOP bracelet this summer. To be in with a chance of winning a package to a European Poker Tour, Grosvenor UK Poker Tour or Boylepoker.com International […]

Winner’s Circle — Yevgeniy Timoshenko

The Winner’s Circle takes a look at the biggest wins from the tournament trail by the players who made it happen. This series will look at the big hands, toughest opponents, and paths to victory each player took in their most recent tournament win through their own eyes and words. If you ever wanted to […]