Poker

Records are made to be broken, and PokerStars players do just that with astounding regularity. Eighteen months ago, PokerStars celebrated its tenth anniversary and the surrounding festivities included its fourth World Record tournament, where 200,000 players played for a $250,000 prize pool. But after Thursday's bombastic 100 Billionth Hand celebration (don't think about how big 100 billion is, it will either trigger an existential crisis or make your head explode) did you really think we weren't gonna take the opportunity to smash that record again? By game time, a capacity crowd of 225,000 players had gathered, officially breaking the record for the largest poker tournament ever played. Their $1 buyins contributed $225,000 to the $300,000 guaranteed prize pool, PokerStars kicking in a $75k overlay to sweeten the pot even further. 60,000 players earned a share of it with first place set to earn $25,000. After only an hour of play, the crowd thinned to 28,000 and another hour later only 2,595 remained. Hour three saw the field reduced to 190, and with five minutes left before the fourth break, the final table bubble hit and play went hand for hand. With the blinds up to 3M/6M with a 750k ante, chip leader Mr.SlavaPro opened for a min-raise to 12 million. With 3.75 milllion of his remaining 4.1 million already committed in the small blind, MattDooms called all-in and Ravic77 folded his big blind. MattDooms' [5h][Ts] was already drawing thin against Mr.SlavaPro's [Kd][Kc], but went completely dead on the [Kh][Ks][5c] flop. Mr.SlavaPro raked in the 19 million pot with quad kings and sent us to the final table, while MattDooms exited in eleventh place. Final table chip counts Blinds: 3,000,000/6,000,000, ante 750,000 Seat 1: johnnykara75 (17,560,748 in chips) Seat 2: SOY PATO355 (14,065,727 in chips) Seat 3: Evgeniy33377 (3,729,288 in chips) Seat 4: Mr.SlavaPro (87,268,525 in chips) Seat 5: KARI#9 (64,386,794 in chips) Seat 6: Ravic77 (17,422,024 in chips) Seat 7: jpstef06 (13,712,929 in chips) Seat 8: 1star09 (52,884,148 in chips) Seat 9: Tormenter85 (34,974,394 in chips) Seat 10: jmmetra (31,495,423 in chips) johnnykara75 doubles with aces, Evgeniy33377 eliminated in tenth It took 11 minutes and only 20 hands to distribute the $73,000 in remaining prize money. The jumps were huge and the stacks extremely shallow, the chip average only 6.25 big blinds as the final table began. On Hand #1, jmmetra picked up [9h][9c] and moved all-in for 30.7 million on the button, only to have johnnykara75 wake up with [Ac][Ah] in the small blind. Johnnykara75's aces held and he doubled to 47.1 million, leaving jmmetra on only 14.5 million (2.5 bb). However, jmmetra's situation wasn't quite as dire as Evgeniy33377's. On Hand #2, Evgeniy33377 was all-in for 1.97 million in the big blind while SOY PATO355 had 4 of his remaining 7.3 million committed in the small blind. Johnnykara75 limped in for 8 million on the button, SOY PATO355 called all-in and the cards went on their backs. SOY PATO355 [Qc][9h] Evgeniy33377 [3c][3h] johnnykara75 [Td][4h] SOY PATO355 snagged the lead on the [As][9s][6c] flop and held onto it, the turn and river falling the [Jc] and the [Ac] to send Evgeniy33377 to the rail in tenth place ($1,000). Ravic77 out in ninth, jmmetra exits eighth Evgeniy33377's elimination left jpstef06 as the table short stack. On Hand #3, jpstef06 moved all-in for 11 million from UTG+1 and KARI#9 called the 3 million balance from the big blind. Jpstef06's [As][Qh] held up aganist [6c][7h] and he doubled to 35 million, only to move all-in from UTG on the next deal. Ravic77 called all-in for 5.67 million more with [Qs][Js] in the big blind, but did not improve against jpstef06's [7s][7c]. For ninth place, Ravic77 took home $1,500. With only one more hand to go before he'd be committed in the 8 million big blind, jmmetra pulled the trigger with [Qc][Td] and moved all-in for 9.9 million from UTG+1. 1star09 called with

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Winning poker tournaments can often involve crazy coolers, huge suckouts and a fair share of lady luck. Then there are the days where you keep your head down as it all just seems to fall into place. That was the case for dunner1624 in the weekly Super Tuesday. dunner1624 picked spots carefully, survived the early carnage of the final table and then accelerated beautifully short-handed to secure the win in efficiently ruthless fashion. The $1,050 Super Tuesday brought out a healthy field of 478 entrants to create another juicy prize pool of $478,000.00. The top 54 place finishers would share in the spoils with first place slated to receive over $90,000.00. With many of the big name professionals currently tied up at the World Series of Poker we couldn't spot too many Team PokerStars Pros in the field but Caio Pessagno and Toni Judet were representing the red spade in today's field. Unfortunately they both fell short of the money. A min-cash was worth $2,390 but that also eluded Austrian donvito1st who was the unlucky bubble in 55th place. When SW GEORGIY lost a preflop race with pocket eights against the ace-king of CredeExperto, SW GEORGIY was out in 10th place as our Super Tuesday final table was set: Final Table Line up Seat 1: CredeExperto (853,395 in chips) Seat 2: Pinguizetti (199,989 in chips) Seat 3: Brad "BaZa88" Bower (102,236 in chips) Seat 4: Ruben "rubenrtv" Visser (177,837 in chips) Seat 5: quarltje (213,145 in chips) Seat 6: puto59 (240,230 in chips) Seat 7: NhFy (90,811 in chips) Seat 8: dunner1624 (191,375 in chips) Seat 9: kleopl (320,982 in chips) The final table was deceptively strong with several players possessing strong online resumes, and reigning EPT London champion Ruben "rubenrtv" Visser headlining the line up. A few of them, such as NhFy and BaZa88 had some work to do as the short stacks, while CredeExperto held such a commanding lead, he was sitting out in the early stages of the final table. BaZa88 was able to secure an early double with his [ad][qc] flopping two pair against the fast-talking quarltje's [ks][7d] in a button versus big blind battle, before dunner1624 was able to do likewise with pocket tens holding against NhFy's ace-king. It would be BaZa88 first to go when he three-bet jammed [as][4s] into CredeExperto's [ah][qh]. The flop of [Kh][7h][Kd] took away one of BaZa88's outs but did bring some chop possibilities if the board double-paired. It wasn't to be on the [2c] turn or [6c] river to leave BaZa88 to pick up $7,934.80 for 9th place. The players settled into a grove and it would be some time before quarltje would be next to fall. After opening from under the gun, quarltje called off what was left holding [jc][jh] after Pinguizetti shoved from the small blind with [as][kc]. The race was on but it wasn't until the river on the board of [3c][6c][3d][5s][Ah] that Pinguizetti took the lead to eliminate quarltje from the tournament in 8th place for $10,755 in prize money. Those chips didn't last long with Pinguizetti as next hand dunner1624 doubled up with pocket kings against Pinguizetti's ace-jack as the chips started to fly around the table. NhFy was able to secure one double up with pocket aces, but was brought unstuck in a battle of the blinds. NhFy raised from the small blind before dunner1624 moved all in from the big blind. NhFy called it off with [ac][3s] but it was another big pair for dunner1624 with [js][jc] which held on the board of [2s][Qd][Kd][6d][5h]. NhFy picked up $15, 535 for 7th place. Just a few short hands later and puto59 was joining the rail. puto59 three-bet shoved from the big blind with [6c][6h] with CredeExperto making the call holding [ah][kh]. The flop was a bare [2d][9s][7c] but the [Ac] turn and [Kd] river sealed the deal to send puto59 home with $20,315 for a 6th place finish. CredeExperto was well out in front, and that lead grew after a river raise was paid off by dunner1624 with CredeExperto tabling a full house on a coordinated board.

All eyes were on Noah Schwartz as he tried to win his first WSOP gold bracelet. Schwartz was the dominator on Day 2 and had five times as many chips as his closest competitor at one point. But the fickle card fairy set course in another direction...

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CAPTION HERE if you’re not willing to back me. In this week’s episode, er, I mean last week’s … Andrew embarks on the Las Vegas Strip low-stakes Summer circuit (Rio, Venetian, Caesars Palace, Bellagio, Aria, Wynn …) only to make a valiant 0-fer run, leaving us time to discuss a caravan of high-stakes cash games sprouting up around town — it’s open-face Chinese blossoming at the Rio, Doyle popping up at the Venetian, and Doyle doing his best Deadmau5 in the Ivey Room. Meanwhile Dave takes a look at the Carnevale of Poker and the fields it draws, and we all get a chuckle out of getting so drunk at the Carnival Court that you’re banned forever from the WSOP. (Surely no one will get that drunk at the premiere party for the online poker documentary Bet Raise Fold, right?) All that and some patch bonuses available for those willing to pimp for WSOP.com, Ultimate Poker, and/or those crazy kinds at QuadJacks. Vegas Grinders 1.18 Download audio file (VG1point18.mp3)

Earlier today Schneider came out on top in a rapid-fire four-handed finish to Event 29 $5,000 H.O.R.S.E.  It was Schneider’s second bracelet of the summer, fourth overall, with both coming in the multiple-game H.O.R.S.E format. The Arizona-native couldn’t have been happier to win another H.O.R.S.E. title. “If you’re just a No-Limit Hold’em player, you really don’t learn a lot of skills that are valuable in poker,” he said. “[Learning H.O.R.S.E.] makes you think really hard about how to play certain games and gives you an edge in all games.” Schneider took down a $258,000 first-place prize for winning his fourth WSOP bracelet. Back in 2007 Schneider put together a spectacular run that included three final tables and two WSOP bracelets. It was enough to earn Schneider WSOP Player of the Year. Considering Schneider now has five cashes at the 2013 WSOP and two bracelets, he’s certainly in the running for this year’s POY. Daniel Negreanu is currently in the lead with just 20 more points than Schneider. Mueller Nearly Misses Becoming 8th Canadian Winner of the Year Greg Mueller   The final four of Event 29 also featured Greg Mueller, Benjamin Scholl and Viatcheslav Ortynsiky but Schneider held a massive chip lead. The entire event was extended by one day when the final four were still battling it out until 2 a.m. yesterday. Mueller had a shot at becoming the astounding eighth Canadian to win a bracelet in this year’s series but instead busted in third place for $129,600. Schneder isn’t done either. He was already thinking about taking a run at third bracelet of the summer just minutes after winning his second. “I feel really good about it,” he said. “I really do. I don’t know what it is. It’s like there’s something in the water or something. I feel like I’m playing well and I’m sensing what’s going on with other players.” Here’s a look at the complete final-table payouts: 1st: Tom Schneider - $318,955 2nd: Benjamin Scholl - $197,228 3rd: Greg Mueller - $129,600 4th: Viatcheslav Ortynsiky - $94,664 5th: Chris Klodnicki - $70,093 6th: Adam Friedman - $52,613 7th: David Benyamine - $40,039 8th: Konstantin Puchkov - $30,876 Visit www.pokerlistings.com

Put on the gloves and come out swinging when you get a seat in the last bet-at-home Bounty Brawl Freeroll. Gear up to finish in a paying spot in the prize pool, but also for every player you knock out! You can win cash by busting out other...

Caesars Interactive Entertainment announced it was forming a social poker development studio to expand the free-to-play World Series of Poker game through its Playtika division. The Montreal-based subsidiary of Caesars Entertainment, which owns the World Series of Poker brand, will add a social gaming format of the tournament to its free-to-play slot machine, casino game and bingo franchises. Caesars acquired Playtika a few years ago to expand its social gaming platform. A Montreal-based team of 19 employees will form the core of Caesars Interactive’s studio. The plan is to expand and enhance the features and functionality of the current World Series of Poker game. Playtika is responsible for all of Caesars Interactive’s social and mobile games assets. Caesars Interactive acquired certain World Series of Poker game assets and intellectual property from Electronic Arts (EA). Under the agreement, EA transferred global rights and ownership of its World Series of Poker game for mobile devices and Facebook to Caesars Interactive, ending a previous licensing agreement. Financial terms of this transaction were not disclosed.

by Haley Hintze WPT, FOXSports Ink Pact The World Poker Tour&rsquo;s new three-year deal with FOXSports assures the venerable tour of running through at least Season XIV. The new deal runs into 2017 and kicks off with coverage of the WPT Legends of Poker at LA&rsquo;s Bicycle Casino in late August, with four more televised events on slate for the rest of the 2013 calendar year, the Borgata in Atlantic City, Paris&rsquo;s Aviation Club, WPT Montreal, and the Bellagio&rsquo;s annual Doyle Brunson Five Diamond Classic. Massachusetts Online Gambling Amendment Jettiso ned Over Unspecified Co nstit utionality Co ncerns Attempts to tack an online-gambling amendment onto a 2014 budget measure currently progressing through the state&rsquo;s legislature was yanked from debate over general concerns over constitutionality, though legislators declined to define exactly why. The amendment, had it gone through, would have granted online licenses (including poker) only to those entities which are expected to be added under the state&rsquo;s controversial land-based debut, including three full-service casinos and one slots-only venue. Technical Blunder Briefly Allows Real-Money Play on WSOP.com Poker Site read more