PokerStars Unveils Online Regional Championships

PokerStars will be hosting the brand new Regional Championships of Online Poker beginning this fall, giving players the chance to compete against others in their region for more than $7 million in cash.

Expect to see Kid Poker playing the Canadian RCOOP this fall.

RCOOP will be held in 13 different regions, each with its own 11-tournament series and while its usually English only on PokerStars, RCOOP players will be permitted to chat in their native tongues during the events.

Team PokerStars Pros are expected to compete regionally with local bragging rights and a ton of cash on the line.
Each region has a guaranteed prize pool and its own main event, with more than $7 million in total being awarded across all regions.

The 13 regions include Russia, Nordic countries, Baltic countries, USA, Canada, Germany, Asia-Pacific, UK & Ireland, Mediterranean countries, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, Iberian countries, and Benelux countries.

Russia will kick things off beginning Oct. 31 and while most of the regions will run events in November some are set for December and bleed into next year.

Article Source: Pokerlistings.com

Tilt Signs Blake

Full Tilt Poker signed US tennis star James Blake as a Friend of Full Tilt this week.

Since turning pro in 1999, Blake has consistently been ranked amongst tennis’ elite and has led the US Davis Cup team since being selected in 2001.

He was also named the world’s “sexiest athlete” in People Magazine’s 2002 Sexiest Man Alive Issue.

Blake is an avid poker player.

London Calling

PKR’s London Calling poker festival kicked off this week at the The Fox Poker Club in London’s West End.

The PKR sponsored 28-day tournament series runs through Nov. 7 with 57 tournaments, the majority of which range in buy-ins from £20 to £100.

The festival will conclude with a £300 buy-in main event.

Article Source: Pokerlistings.com

Another Winning Weekend for Hansen

Gus Hansen continues to grind his way closer and closer to getting even in 2010.

Hansen once again booked a few marathon sessions on Full Tilt Poker this weekend and by the time the dust had settled, he was up a total of $280k.

The Great Dane played Pot-Limit Omaha at varying stakes throughout the weekend and took on some extremely tough competition in harrington25, luckexpress10, DrugsOrMe and Ashton “ASHMAN103” Griffin.

He managed to rake several huge $80,000+ pots against DrugsOrMe and luckexpress10, which definitely did not hurt his cause.

Hansen is now down $1.1 million this year and for the first time since July has a shot at slipping below the $1 million loss mark.

Fellow Team Full Tilt pro Patrik Antonius also logged a successful weekend taking over $100k from IHateJuice in Limit Hold’em and around $80k from Dan “jungleman12” Cates in $300/$600 HA.

IHateJuice, harrington25, Erik “DIN_FRU” Sagstrom all lost considerable stacks of cash this weekend.

Finally the epic live cash games in Macau seem to finally be subsiding (check our blog later today for more information) so Phil Ivey and Tom Dwan may once again hit the virtual tables over the next couple weeks.

Here’s a look at a few big hands between Hansen and ASHMAN this weekend. For more information check our online stats section.

 

PokerStars Granted Estonian License

After being granted an activity license in Estonia this past August, PokerStars has now become one of the first online poker sites to also receive an operational license.

PokerStars.ee now complies fully with Estonian law.

“There are thousands of good poker players in Estonia and I am very glad that the license enables them to continue competing at the largest poker site with players all over the world,” said PokerStars Nordic & Baltic Director of Marketing Michael Holmberg.

Article Source: Pokerlistings.com

APT Macau Sees First Chinese Champ, Huge Cash Action

18-year old Zhang Dan Peng from Guangzhou, China won the 2010 Asian Poker Tour Macau main event this weekend, collecting HK$1.678 million in the process.

Playing in his first ever tournament, Dan Peng became the first-ever Chinese APT Macau champion.

Although APT Macau drew just 161 players, among them were names like Phil Ivey, Johnny Chan, and Tom “durrrr” Dwan.

Having picked up the game just six months ago, Dan Peng qualified for the event through a satellite.

“I’m incredibly happy and really, really lucky to have won in my first tournament, especially as so many great players were here,” Dan Peng said. “I honestly had no expectations before the final table and would have been happy with any result.”

“The Final Table was thrilling to watch and it was great to see a young, Chinese poker player do so well in his first tournament,” said APT Chief Executive Officer Jeff Mann. “The 2010 APT Macau was a great success, our players from all over the world enjoyed themselves and this tournament has really set the bar in the region for the caliber of players.”

The City of Dreams entertainment complex played host to the nine-day poker festival that also included several side events.

According to reports from tournament director Matt Savage, Ivey, Dwan, John Juanda and Chau Giang were involved with some Chinese businessmen in a high stakes cash game inside the complex’s Hard Rock Poker Room.

Savage called the cash games “some of the biggest in history” noting the HK$5,000-10,000 stakes played very big with about HK$40 million ($5M USD) on the table.

Jonathan Duhamel wins 2010 Main Event

Canadian pro takes down $8.9 million first prize

It’s all over. Four months after 7,319 runners stumped up $10,000 for poker’s biggest showpiece, Jonathan Duhamel has been crowned champ for $8,944,310 and become the first Canadian winner of the Main Event.

Millions of spectators around the world watched on as the November Nine returned to the Rio for a two day final table, but Duhamel was the only player to hold his nerve amidst all the drama, sending big names Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi and Joseph Cheong to the rail along the way.

Duhamel, a college-dropout turned online poker pro from Quebec, built a staggering 6-1 chip stack over second place finisher John Racener before heads-up play had begun, and was in no mood to let his lead slip when they returned to the Rio on Monday.

Barely an hour had passed when Duhamel pushed Racener all-in with AJ, raising his hands to the sky as his opponent’s K8 failed to connect on a nine-high board.

‘Thank you to everybody for being here, it’s a dream come true,’ Duhamel said as he was swamped by his army of supporters. ‘I don’t know what to think, I don’t know what to say.’

The final table payouts were as follows:

1. Jonathan Duhamel $8,944,310
2. John Racener $5,545,955
3. Joseph Cheong $4,130,049
4. Filippo Candio $3,092,545
5. Michael Mizrachi $2,332,992
6. John Dolan $1,772,959
7. Jason Senti $1,356,720
8. Matthew Jarvis $1,045,743
9. Soi Nguyen $811,823

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Amateurs Attack at WPT Amneville

With poker pros like Antoine Saout and Nicolas Levi eliminated on Day 2 of WPT Amneville the lesser-known players took control.

France’s Nesrin “Ness” Kourdourli finished as the chip leader with 957,000 chips. Close behind her was Tyler Cornel with 769,000 and rounding out third place was Ilan Boujenah with 743,000.

Although 224 players started Day 2 yesterday, by the time the final level had played out only 48 remained.

Former November Niner Antoine Saout nearly made it to Day 3 but busted in the later stages of the day when he shoved pocket queens into pocket aces.

All the remaining players have made it into the money and will have a shot at taking down the first place prize of €426,425 and entry into the WPT World Championship at Bellagio.

The action will resume at Seven Casino d’Amneville later today with Day 3 scheduled to play down to a final table.

The winner of WPT Amneville will be decided on Saturday.

Tweet of the day

PokerPlayer’s trawled the net to find you the best poker tweets of the day.

Annette Obrestad
Leaving Canada tomorrow morning. Going to Vegas to shoot some PAD episodes. Got addicted to Rockband while I was here. Sigh, a new addiction

Doyle Brunson
I’ve decided to go to Todd’s Halloween party as a grouchy old man. I looked in the mirror and thought “this is gonna be easy”

Daniel Negreanu
I’ve been pretty lucky this tourney which leads me to one obv conclusion: shaving is bad luck. Not ever shaving during play again.

Todd Brunson
I’m at Scotty nguyens bday party baby

Don’t forget, you can follow PokerPlayer udates on Twitter: @PokerPlayerUK

 

For more poker news, strategies and competitions, subscribe to Poker Player magazine.

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Poker Site Running Halloween Special

Online poker room UB.com is running a Halloween poker special. The poker site will have two ways for players to qualify for a special tournament. Online poker players can win a seat for free or pay under $5 for a chance at a tournament ticket worth more than $200. The goal for these players is to win a seat into the $200,000 guarantee $200+15 buy-in tournament on Sunday, Oct. 31 at 4 p.m. EST. At least40 players will be awarded a seat to UB’s Halloween Sunday tournament.

The $500 Freeroll Tournament Series with Carbon Poker

Little Risk, Big Reward – if you’ve always wanted to test your hand in a poker tournament but felt the sometimes high buy-ins many standard tournaments require is more than you want to spend, then freeroll tournaments sound like the perfect fit for you.
 
Without a doubt one of the best freeroll offers around is the exclusive $500 Freeroll Tournament Series from PokerWorks and Carbon Poker. For a “buy-in” of 50 VIP Points, the equivalent of about $5, you get a chance at a $500 prize pool!
 
This fantastic freeroll tournament series is exclusive to PokerWorks members; to take advantage of this amazing deal make sure you download Carbon Poker through PokerWorks' links and remember to enter the bonus code POKERWORKS.  Current Carbon Poker members are also welcome to play in this freeroll tournament series provided that they signed up through PokerWorks and have the VIP points needed to enter.

The $500 Freeroll Tournament is a biweekly tournament series rotating on Wednesdays at 14:45 EST.  The next $500 Freeroll will be taking place this Wednesday, October 27 and if you don’t have an account yet, be sure to set one up through PokerWorks today!  The next two $500 Freerolls after this will be happening on Wednesday Nov 10 at 14:45 EST and Wednesday Nov 24 at 14:45 EST. You can find these freerolls in the Carbon Poker lobby under the "Tournaments" and "Private" tabs.

The tournaments all pay out as per Carbon Poker’s standard payout structure.

On top of exclusive freerolls like this, Carbon Poker also offers an incredible 200% first deposit bonus of up to $1,000! This is by far one of the greatest first deposit bonuses in online poker.  They also host the biggest games in online poker such as Texas Holdem Omaha and Omaha Hi/Lo as well as other casino games like Blackjack and Roulette.  Carbon Poker is also available to US players and offers top notch customer support with most enquiries answered within 30 minutes, 24 hours a day and 7 days a week!

Carbon Poker regularly attracts over 2,000 players at peak hours and generally speaking the $500 Freeroll Tournament has attracted around 250-280 players per event.  This relatively small pool means a better chance of winning, and with the 27th just around the corner there’s every reason to become a Carbon Poker Player today!

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